Modulation of miR-205 expression using a phyto-nano hybrid as a potential therapeutic agent against breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the fifth major cause of fatalities associated with cancer worldwide and in Pakistan, 34 066 female breast cancer cases were recorded in 2018. This study was designed to understand extracts of () and to evaluate the epigenetic modulation of microRNA expression for breast cancer therapy using a selected phyto-nanohybrid treatment. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of potential phytochemicals and antioxidant scavenging activity in the extracts with a DPPH (2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydroxyl) assay giving an IC value of 20.

Pseudomegasporoporia margallensis sp. nov. and Microporellus subadustus (Polyporaceae, Basidiomycota) newly described and recorded from Pakistan.

In this study, we describe Pseudomegasporoporia margallensis as a novel species and report Microporellus subadustus as a new record from Pakistan based on morphology and phylogeny. Both genera are firstly reported in the country. Pseudomegasporoporia margallensis sp.

A Convenient Synthesis of Short α-/β-Mixed Peptides as Potential α-Amylase Inhibitors.

Over the last decades, the increased incidence of metabolic disorders, such as type two diabetes and obesity, has motivated researchers to investigate new enzyme inhibitors. Inhibition of the α-amylase enzyme is one therapeutic approach in lowering glucose levels in the blood to manage diabetes mellitus. The objective of this study was to synthesize short α-/β-mixed peptides in the solution phase.

Curcumin-loaded soluplus® based ternary solid dispersions with enhanced solubility, dissolution and antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory activities.

Amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) has emerged to be an outstanding strategy among multiple options available for improving solubility and consequently biological activity. Interestingly several binary SD systems continue to exhibit insufficient solubility over time. Therefore, the goal of current research was to design ternary amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) of hydrophobic model drug curcumin (CUR) to enhance the solubility and dissolution rate in turn, presenting enhanced anti-bacterial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity.

EEG functional connectivity as a Riemannian mediator: An application to malnutrition and cognition.

Mediation analysis assesses whether an exposure directly produces changes in cognitive behavior or is influenced by intermediate "mediators". Electroencephalographic (EEG) spectral measurements have been previously used as effective mediators representing diverse aspects of brain function. However, it has been necessary to collapse EEG measures onto a single scalar using standard mediation methods.

CiftiStorm pipeline: facilitating reproducible EEG/MEG source connectomics.

We present CiftiStorm, an electrophysiological source imaging (ESI) pipeline incorporating recently developed methods to improve forward and inverse solutions. The CiftiStorm pipeline produces Human Connectome Project (HCP) and megconnectome-compliant outputs from dataset inputs with varying degrees of spatial resolution. The input data can range from low-sensor-density electroencephalogram (EEG) or magnetoencephalogram (MEG) recordings without structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) to high-density EEG/MEG recordings with an HCP multimodal sMRI compliant protocol.

The determinants of COVID-induced brain dysfunctions after SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized patients.

The severity of the pandemic and its consequences on health and social care systems were quite diverse and devastating. COVID-19 was associated with an increased risk of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders after SARS-CoV-2 infection. We did a cross-sectional study of 3 months post-COVID consequences of 178 Cuban subjects.

Effect of hydrophilic polymers on the solubility and dissolution enhancement of rivaroxaban/beta-cyclodextrin inclusion complexes.

BCS class II drugs exhibit low aqueous solubility and high permeability. Such drugs often have an incomplete or erratic absorption profile. This study aimed to predict the effects of β-cyclodextrin (βCD) and different hydrophilic polymers (poloxamer 188 (PXM-188), polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and soluplus (SOLO)) on the saturated solubility and dissolution profile of hydrophobic model drug rivaroxaban (RIV).

Spectral quantitative and semi-quantitative EEG provide complementary information on the life-long effects of early childhood malnutrition on cognitive decline.

Objective: This study compares the complementary information from semi-quantitative EEG (sqEEG) and spectral quantitative EEG (spectral-qEEG) to detect the life-long effects of early childhood malnutrition on the brain.

Methods: Resting-state EEGs ( = 202) from the Barbados Nutrition Study (BNS) were used to examine the effects of protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) on childhood and middle adulthood outcomes. sqEEG analysis was performed on Grand Total EEG (GTE) protocol, and a single latent variable, the semi-quantitative Neurophysiological State (sqNPS) was extracted.

Laccaria murina and L. pumila from Pakistan, a study based on SEM and nrITS molecular marker.

Two species of the genus Laccaria, are described as new reports for Pakistan. Laccaria murina has been collected from a Himalayan moist temperate forest in Khanspur, KP, while L. pumila was found in the moist temperate forests of Kumrat Valley in Dir Upper, KP, and at higher altitudes of the Deosai plains of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.

Automatic quality control of the numerical accuracy of EEG lead fields.

Precise individualized EEG source localization is predicated on having accurate subject-specific Lead Fields (LFs) obtained from their Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI). LF calculation is a complex process involving several error-prone steps that start with obtaining a realistic head model from the MRI and finalizing with computationally expensive solvers such as the Boundary Element Method (BEM) or Finite Element Method (FEM). Current Big-Data applications require the calculation of batches of hundreds or thousands of LFs.

Enhancing children's awareness of sexual abuse in Pakistan with video literacy interventional cartoons.

In presence of violent extremism, children in Pakistan are at high risk for child sexual abuse (CSA), especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective approaches for preventing CSA include enhancing resilience resources in violence-affected societies. Previous research suggests that video-based curricula effectively enhances learning in primary schoolchildren.

Efficacy of an anti-bullying video literacy program in Pakistani primary school children.

With a scarcity of research looking at violent and extremist tendencies in primary school children in Pakistan, this study aimed to look at the effects of emotional resilience education through the means of cartoon-based learning. Children have a limited attention span and research on video/cartoon-based literacy projects has indicated greater efficacy with more retention and engagement. The cartoon based on the theme of anti-bullying was used in a 6-week intervention program in an experimental design setup with 120 experimental and 40 control group students recruited from the Islamabad/Rawalpindi area (ages 9-11).

The Effect of Neuroepo on Cognition in Parkinson's Disease Patients Is Mediated by Electroencephalogram Source Activity.

We report on the quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) and cognitive effects of Neuroepo in Parkinson's disease (PD) from a double-blind safety trial (https://clinicaltrials.gov/, number NCT04110678). Neuroepo is a new erythropoietin (EPO) formulation with a low sialic acid content with satisfactory results in animal models and tolerance in healthy participants and PD patients.

Causal effects of cingulate morphology on executive functions in healthy young adults.

In this study, we want to explore evidence for the causal relationship between the anatomical descriptors of the cingulate cortex (surface area, mean curvature-corrected thickness, and volume) and the performance of cognitive tasks such as Card Sort, Flanker, List Sort used as instruments to measure the executive functions of flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory. We have performed this analysis in a cross-sectional sample of 899 healthy young subjects of the Human Connectome Project. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study using causal inference to explain the relationship between cingulate morphology and the performance of executive tasks in healthy subjects.

A review and revisit of nanoparticles for antimicrobial drug delivery.

Antimicrobials are widely used to treat bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. Therefore, research and development of newer types of antimicrobials are important. Antimicrobial resistance has emerged as a major challenge to the healthcare system, although various alternative antimicrobials have been proposed.

Harmonized-Multinational qEEG norms (HarMNqEEG).

This paper extends frequency domain quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) methods pursuing higher sensitivity to detect Brain Developmental Disorders. Prior qEEG work lacked integration of cross-spectral information omitting important functional connectivity descriptors. Lack of geographical diversity precluded accounting for site-specific variance, increasing qEEG nuisance variance.

Early protein energy malnutrition impacts life-long developmental trajectories of the sources of EEG rhythmic activity.

Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM) has lifelong consequences on brain development and cognitive function. We studied the lifelong developmental trajectories of resting-state EEG source activity in 66 individuals with histories of Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM) limited to the first year of life and in 83 matched classmate controls (CON) who are all participants of the 49 years longitudinal Barbados Nutrition Study (BNS). qEEGt source z-spectra measured deviation from normative values of EEG rhythmic activity sources at 5-11 years of age and 40 years later at 45-51 years of age.

Compatibility and synergistic interactions of fungi, Metarhizium anisopliae, and insecticide combinations against the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae).

Aphids are major pests affecting cereals, vegetables, fruit, forestry and horticultural produce. A multimodal approach may be an effective route to controlling this prolific pest. We assessed the individual and combined effect of eight insecticides and the entomopathogenic fungi, Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschin.

Pheochromocytoma: An Incidental Finding in an Asymptomatic Older Adult With Renal Oncocytoma.

A high index of suspicion for pheochromocytoma is necessary during the workup of secondary hypertension as untreated pheochromocytoma may lead to significant morbidity and mortality, especially in patients who require any surgical treatment.

Stepwise Covariance-Free Common Principal Components (CF-CPC) With an Application to Neuroscience.

Finding the common principal component (CPC) for ultra-high dimensional data is a multivariate technique used to discover the latent structure of covariance matrices of shared variables measured in two or more conditions. Common eigenvectors are assumed for the covariance matrix of all conditions, only the eigenvalues being specific to each condition. Stepwise CPC computes a limited number of these CPCs, as the name indicates, sequentially and is, therefore, less time-consuming.

National radiology on-call survey: a cross-sectional survey investigating diagnostic radiology on-call provision by trainees out of hours.

Aims: To investigate how diagnostic radiology on-call work is conducted by trainees out of hours, and to explore how this on-call experience may be improved from a trainee perspective.

Materials And Methods: A nationwide online questionnaire was distributed to each radiology training scheme. A trainee on the diagnostic on-call rota completed the questionnaire on behalf of the scheme.

Glimepiride-Loaded Nanoemulgel; Development, In Vitro Characterization, Ex Vivo Permeation and In Vivo Antidiabetic Evaluation.

Glimepiride (GMP), an oral hypoglycemic agent is extensively employed in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Transdermal delivery of GMP has been widely investigated as a promising alternative to an oral approach but the delivery of GMP is hindered owing to its low solubility and permeation. The present study was designed to formulate topical nanoemulgel GMP system and previously reported solubility enhanced glimepiride (GMP/βCD/GEL-44/16) in combination with anti-diabetic oil to enhance the hypoglycemic effect.

The Cheshire & Merseyside Collaborative trainee-led on-call service: a review of safety and efficiency.

Aim: To assess safety and efficiency of the Cheshire & Merseyside Collaborative, the largest trainee led on-call service in the UK, based on discrepancy rates and time taken to issue reports.

Materials & Methods: All studies reported by the collaborative in a 4-week period were evaluated for discrepancy and the time taken to issue a report. These figures were compared against the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) guidelines and a recent national audit of discrepancy rates.

Berberis lycium Royle. extracts attenuate inflammation and modulates hyperglycemia in alloxan induced diabetic rats.

Berberis lycium Royle (Berberidaceae) is traditionally used for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Present study was conducted to determine the antioxidant, antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory effects of aqueous and methanolic whole plant extracts. Total phenolic contents were determined by Folin-ciocalteu method whereas antioxidant activity was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) method.