Retraction notice to "Seasonal correlation of aerosols with soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and vegetation over Pakistan using remote sensing" [Heliyon (2023) e20635].

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.

The mediating role of stakeholders on green banking practices and bank's performance: The case of a developing nation.

The banking sector serves as a nudge between increased financial investments and reduced environmental impacts in the modern era of sustainability thus, integrating the social, environmental, and economic dimensions. This paper aims to explore the practices and ongoing activities on account of sustainable banking which is being practised in the Pakistani Banking Sector. A mixed methods approach using a survey with a sample size of (n = 250) and in-depth interviews of (n = 25) provides significant evidence for the research.

Seasonal correlation of aerosols with soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and vegetation over Pakistan using remote sensing.

Aerosols have a severe impact on the Earth's climate, human health, and ecosystem. To understand the impacts of aerosols on climate, human health, and the ecosystem we must need to understand the variability of aerosols and their optical properties. Therefore, we used Aqua-MODIS retrieved aerosol optical depth (AOD) (550 nm) and Angstrom exponent (AE) (440/870) data to analyze the Spatio-temporal seasonal variability of aerosols and their relationship with different meteorological parameters over Pakistan from 2002 to 2021.

Global ecological niche conservatism and evolution in species.

Background And Aims: Climate is an important parameter in delimiting coarse-grained aspects of fundamental ecological niches of species; evolution of these niches has been considered a key component in biological diversification. We assessed phylogenetic niche conservatism and evolution in 24 species of the family Oleaceae in relation to temperature and precipitation variables. We studied niches of 17 species and 7 species from other genera of Oleaceae globally.

Spatial distribution and computational modeling for mapping of tuberculosis in Pakistan.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) like many other infectious diseases has a strong relationship with climatic parameters.

Methods: The present study has been carried out on the newly diagnosed sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB cases reported to National TB Control Program across Pakistan from 2007 to 2020. In this study, spatial and temporal distribution of the disease was observed through detailed district wise mapping and clustered regions were also identified.

Predictors of sleep paralysis and relationship of sleep paralysis with sleep quality in university students of Islamabad.

Objective: To determine the frequency of sleep paralysis among university students, and to determine the association between sleep paralysis and sleep quality along with different predictive factors leading to sleep paralysis.

Methods: The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan, from June to October, 2019, and comprised adult students of either gender who had experienced at least one episode of sleep paralysis in the past. Demographic variables were obtained using Google Form, while experiences of sleep paralysis were assessed using the Waterloo Unusual Sleep Experience Questionnaire, and sleep quality was assessed with the Sleep Condition Indicator.

Development & application of Conceptual Framework Model (CFM) for environmental risk assessment of contaminated lands.

Dumping sites are the most common types of contaminated lands as they pollute the environment. Environmental management of contaminated sites cannot be delivered effectively and efficiently without robust holistic & integrated risk assessment. Previous studies reveal the absence of a risk assessment model that holistically integrates all essential factors progressively and categorically.

Depression and dementia from hyponatremia in brain cancer patients exposed to frozen food chemicals.

Frozen food chemicals contain neurotoxins which disturb electrolyte levels. Altered electrolyte levels can induce mental illnesses. This study was focused on finding the prevalence of depression, dementia, intake of antidepressants and electrolytic alterations in brain cancer (BC) patients and in control group (CG) who were taking frozen and canned food.

Impacts of intake of bakery food chemicals, degraded water and psychiatric drugs on liver & renal functions of brain tumor patients.

A chemically preserved food has raised mental health issues. Abnormalities in liver and kidney functions have been reported from mentally imbalanced individuals. This study was focused on finding anxiety issues and biochemistry alterations in brain tumor patients and in controls.

SHORT COMMUNICATION-Pattern of anti-tuberculosis drugs susceptibility in new and previously treated tuberculosis patients and environmental risk factors investigation.

Resistance pattern both in newly and previously treated-TB patients and risk factors associated in spread of tuberculosis are investigated in the current study. A total 244 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates were used for drug-susceptibility test against four drugs. Environmental risk factors were assessed by using self-designed history proforma.

Optimization of process variables for increased production of lovastatin in Aspergillus terreus PU-PCSIR1 and its characterization.

During intrinsic cholesterol formation 3-hydroxy-3-methylgutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR) converts HMGCoA to mevalonate, in biosynthetic cascade of cholesterol. Statins, competitive inhibitors of HMGCR, now-a-days commonly used to lower the blood-cholesterol level in the hyper-cholesterolemic patients. Lovastatin, one of the most potent natural statins, was produced from wild-type indigenous isolate Aspergillus terreus PU-PCSIR-1, through solid state fermentation (SSF).

Molecular detection of mutations in isolates of multidrug resistant tuberculosis and tuberculosis suspects by multiplex allele specific PCR.

For lowering prevalence of drug resistance it is necessary to diagnose TB in tuberculosis sputum suspect patients instead of TB-cultured samples which required a long time of culturing. Comparison of the results of drug resistant bacterial genes in both tuberculosis suspect sputum and multi-drug resistant DNA isolates detected by MAS-PCR. In the current study, the genetic mutations linked with INH, RIF as well as EMB drugs were detected by MAS-PCR simultaneously in MDR as well as TB suspect sputum isolates.

Impacts of climate change on L. based on ecological niche modeling.

Recent changes in climate are transforming the situation of life on Earth, including impacting the conservation status of many plant and animal species. This study aims to evaluate potential impacts of climate change on a medicinal plant that is known to be heat-tolerant, L. We used ecological niche modeling to estimate current and future potential distributions for the species, considering two emissions scenarios and five climate models for two time periods (2050 and 2070).

Characterization of five-year observation data of fine particulate matter in the metropolitan area of Lahore.

This study aims to assess the long-term trend of fine particles (PM; ≤2.5 μm) at two urban sites of Lahore during 2007-2011. These sites represent two distinct areas: commercial (Townhall) and residential cum industrial (Township).

Sequence analysis of the rifampicin resistance determining region (RRDR) of rpoB gene in multidrug resistance confirmed and newly diagnosed tuberculosis patients of Punjab, Pakistan.

Molecular screening of new patients suspected for TB could help in the effective control of TB in Pakistan as it is a high TB burden country. It will be informative to understand the prevalence of multi drug resistance for a better drug regimen management in this geographical area. The Rifampicin resistance determining region (RRDR) sequencing was used to identify mutations associated with drug resistance in DNA extracts from 130 known multidrug resistant (MDR) cultured strains and compared with mutations observed in DNA extracts directly from 86 sputum samples from consecutive newly diagnosed cases in Lahore, Pakistan.

Field evaluation of a blood based test for active tuberculosis in endemic settings.

Over 9 million new active tuberculosis (TB) cases emerge each year from an enormous pool of 2 billion individuals latently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb.) worldwide.

Studying bio-thermal effects at and around MSW dumps using Satellite Remote Sensing and GIS.

Estimating negative impacts of MSW dumps on its surrounding environment is the key requirement for any remedial measures. This study has been undertaken to map bio-thermal effects of MSW dumping at and around dumping facilities (non-engineered) using satellite imagery for Faisalabad, Pakistan. Thirty images of Landsat 8 have been selected after validation for the accuracy of their observational details from April 2013 to October 2015.

Mutations of the human interferon alpha-2b (hIFNα-2b) gene in cancer patients receiving radiotherapy.

This research aimed to find out the impact of ionizing radiations on the hIFNα-2b gene of radiotherapy treated cancer patients. The gene hIFNα-2b synthesizes a protein which is an important anticancerous and antiviral protein. The cancer patients (breast, lung, thyroid, oral and prostate) who were undergoing a radiotherapy treatment were selected.

Mutations of the human interferon alpha-2b (hIFNα-2b) gene in low-dose natural terrestrial ionizing radiation exposed dwellers.

Natural terrestrial ionizing radiations emerge from uranium deposits and can impact human tissues by affecting DNA bases which constitute genes. Human interferon alpha-2b (hIFNα-2b) gene synthesizes a protein which exhibits anticancerous, immunomodulatory, anti-proliferative and antiviral properties. This research aimed to find out hIFNα-2b gene mutations for those residents who were chronically exposed to low-dose natural terrestrial ionizing radiations.

Mutations of the human interferon alpha-2b (hIFN-α2b) gene in occupationally protracted low dose radiation exposed personnel.

Ionizing radiations impact human tissues by affecting the DNA bases which constitute genes. Human interferon alpha 2b gene synthesizes a protein which is an important anticancerous, immunomodulatory, anti-proliferative and antiviral protein. This study was aimed to identify interferon alpha-2b mutations as a consequence of the use of occupational chronic low dose radiation by hospital radiation exposed workers.

Characterization of hospital waste in Lahore, Pakistan.

Background: It is a common practice in developing countries that medical/infectious waste openly dumped with municipal solid waste. This paper presented a generation and characterization study of hospital waste. Determination of the waste composition is a basic step for selecting the most efficient treatment method of hospital waste.

Synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic activity of Al₂O₃-TiO₂ based composites.

The synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic performance of non-traditional Al₂O₃-TiO₂-based photocatalysts is reported. Al₂O₃-TiO₂ support was loaded with various fractions of CuO and ZrO₂. A sound agreement was observed between the bandgaps of synthesized powders measured by UV-Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) in the solid phase and UV-Visible spectroscopy in the aqueous medium.