Publications by authors named "Riaz U"

Unlabelled: Metformin, a widely used antidiabetic drug, has become a growing concern due to its persistence in the environment. It is one of the most frequently detected pharmaceuticals in wastewater and surface water because it is excreted largely unchanged by patients and is not fully removed in conventional wastewater treatment plants. The present study focuses on the synthesis and characterization of BaFeO/poly(1-naphthylamine) (PNA) nanohybrids and their application as microwave-active catalysts for the degradation of metformin.

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The rapid development in agriculture and industrial sectors has raised some serious global issues like heavy metals pollution of water resources. Cadmium (Cd) is amongst the major water pollutants worldwide. In this study, two novel sorbents were prepared by using post-consumer textile waste (PCTW).

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Ciprofloxacin (CIP) is a widely used antibiotic, and its presence in water bodies poses a risk due to its resistance to conventional wastewater treatment processes. The accumulation of such pharmaceuticals can disrupt aquatic ecosystems, harm aquatic life, and contribute to ecological imbalances. Therefore, the degradation of CIP is of immense environmental significance.

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π-conjugated polymers are arguably one of the most exciting classes of materials and have attracted substantial attention due to their unique optical and electronic properties. The introduction of transition metals into conjugated polymers tunes the optoelectronic properties of these metallopolymers, which may improve their performance in device applications. Graphene and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) derivatives are interesting materials with a unique structure and outstanding properties.

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This paper reports the development of a highly crosslinked hyper-branched polyglycerol (HPG) polymer bound to elastin-like proteins (ELPs) to create a membrane that undergoes a distinct closed-to-open permeation transition at 32 °C. The crosslinked HPG forms a robust, mesoporous structure (150-300 nm pores), suitable for selective filtration. The membranes were characterized by FTIR, UV-visible spectroscopy, SEM, and AFM, revealing their structural and morphological properties.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzes depressive symptoms among people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Pakistan using data from the National Stigma Index Study 2.0, screening participants with the Urdu version of the PHQ-9.
  • Results showed that 60.11% of participants exhibited depressive symptoms, with varying severities, and identified key predictors like socioeconomic concerns, gender, substance use, employment status, and stigma in healthcare environments.
  • The findings highlight a critical need for socioeconomic support, stigma reduction in healthcare, and effective screening programs to address the mental health needs of the PLHIV community in Pakistan.
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  • The study focuses on using polypyrrole (PPy) nanohybrids combined with ZnFeO nanoparticles to degrade cetirizine hydrochloride (CTZ-HCl) through photocatalysis under visible light.
  • Characterization techniques including UV-visible spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction were utilized, revealing that increasing PPy content reduced the band gap, enhancing photocatalytic activity.
  • The 5% PPy/ZnFe catalyst achieved a 98% degradation of CTZ-HCl within 60 minutes and demonstrated good recyclability, effective for up to four cycles, with hydroxyl radicals confirmed as key players in the degradation process.
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The present work reports the synthesis of indigo-dye-incorporated polyaniline (Indigo-PANI), poly(1-naphthylamine) (Indigo-PNA), poly(o-phenylenediamine) (Indigo-POPD), polypyrrole (Indigo-PPy), and polythiophene (Indigo-PTh) via an ultrasound-assisted method. The synthesized oligomers were characterized using FTIR, UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fluorescence studies, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The experimental data were theoretically compared to analyze the vibrational and electronic spectra via time-dependent density-functional theory (TD-DFT) by applying the Becke, three-parameter, and Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP) method with a 6-311G (d,p) basis set.

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This study was designed to explore the potential of infrared thermography (IRT) as an alternate approach for early pregnancy diagnosis in buffaloes. The surface temperature (ST) of different regions (eyes, muzzle, flanks, and vulva) was determined in 27 buffaloes using IRT from the day of artificial insemination (AI; Day 0), and measurement was repeated every fourth day until Day 24 post-AI. From all regions, the ST in each thermograph was recorded at three temperature values (maximum, average, minimum).

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Chimeric antigen receptors are synthetically produced receptors engineered to engage with target cells with high specificity. These cells are created by inserting an artificial T-cell receptor into an immunoglobulin's antigen-binding region, allowing the cells to combine and target specific antigens. The use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has been a remarkable achievement in the field of immunotherapy, particularly in the treatment of ophthalmic tumors like retinoblastoma and uveal melanoma.

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  • Giant cell tumour is a type of growth that mostly happens in long bones, but it's very rare in the head and neck.
  • A 31-year-old man went to the hospital because of a swelling in his neck and a hoarse voice.
  • Doctors found out he had a Giant Cell Tumour in his larynx, and it's not common since only 45 cases have been reported around the world.
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The decline in female fecundity is linked to advancing chronological age. The ovarian reserve diminishes in quantity and quality as women age, impacting reproductive efficiency and the aging process in the rest of the body. NAD is an essential coenzyme in cellular energy production, metabolism, cell signaling, and survival.

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Improving patient care and advancing scientific discovery requires responsible sharing of research data, healthcare records, biosamples, and biomedical resources that must also respect applicable use conditions. Defining a standard to structure and manage these use conditions is a complex and challenging task. This is exemplified by a near unlimited range of asset types, a high variability of applicable conditions, and differing applications at the individual or collective level.

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Myriad policy, ethical and legal considerations underpin the sharing of biological resources, implying the need for standardised and yet flexible ways to digitally represent diverse 'use conditions'. We report a core lexicon of terms that are atomic, non-directional 'concepts of use', called Common Conditions of use Elements. This work engaged biobanks and registries relevant to the European Joint Programme for Rare Diseases and aimed to produce a lexicon that would have generalised utility.

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The present work highlights the synthesis and characterization of conducting polymer (CP)-based composite hydrogels with gelatin (GL-B) for their application as drug delivery vehicles. The spectral, morphological, and rheological properties of the synthesized hydrogels were explored, and morphological studies confirmed formation of an intense interpenetrating network. Rheological measurements showed variation in the flow behavior with the type of conducting polymer.

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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.

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This study encompasses a quick, efficient, repeatable and reproducible analytical method for simultaneous determination of Bromoxynil (3, 5-Dibromo-4-hydroxybenzonitrile) and MCPA (2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid) using RP-HPLC with UV-Detector. Bromoxynil + MCPA is one of the most selective post emergent herbicide formulations for the control of important broad leaf weeds infesting small grains (wheat, barley, oats, rye), conservation reserve program areas and grass grown for seed. Optimum weed control is achieved when Bromoxynil + MCPA is applied to actively growing weed seedlings.

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In this paper, we have design, synthesized and fully characterized a new -fluorescein substituted one-walled calix[4]pyrrole (C4P7), obtained from simple and easily available starting materials such as fluorescein, 4-hydroxyacetophenone and pyrrole. The anion sensing studies reveal that the C4P7 system displays selective and sensitive naked-eye sensing towards fluoride, phosphate, and acetate anions with the limit of detection of 4.27 mg L, 6.

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The contamination of farm soils with heavy metals (HMs) has raised significant concerns due to the increased bioavailability and accumulation of HMs in agricultural food crops. To address this issue, a survey experiment was conducted in the suburbs of Multan and Faisalabad to investigate the spatial distribution, bioaccumulation, translocation, and health risks of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in agricultural crops. The results show a considerable concentration of Cd and Pb in soils irrigated with wastewater, even though these levels were below the permissible limits in water and soil matrices.

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The present work reports, for the first time, synthesis of dye incorporated -phenylenediamine (OBB) with a view to obtain a conjugated oligomer with enhanced functionality. The structure was confirmed by IR studies, while the electronic transitions were confirmed by UV visible studies. The dye modified oligomer showed one order higher fluorescence intensity than the pristine Bismarck Brown (BB) dye.

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The present study is the first of its kind being reported for an indigenous sheep breed of Pakistan with objectives to (a) assess the diagnostic efficacy of a human-based "serum hemolysis reference palette" for sheep serum, (b) deduce normal reference intervals (RIs) for hemoglobin (Hb) and bilirubin, and (c) devise a novel serum color chart for on-field estimation of Hb and bilirubin through color matching of sheep serum. Apparently, healthy Sipli sheep (n = 130) were bled twice attaining whole blood and serum samples (n = 260). The study animals were grouped on the basis of gender, that is, males (n = 51) and females (n = 79) and age, that is, G1 (up till 1 year) (n = 41), G2 (from 1 to 2 years) (n = 46), and G3 (from 2 to 3 years) (n = 43).

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Textile-based photocatalysts are the new materials that can be utilized as an effective sustainable solution for biochemical hazards. Hence, we aimed to develop a sustainable, cost-effective, and facile approach for the fabrication of photocatalytic fabric using graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) and ferric-based multifunctional nanocomposite. Bulk g-CN was prepared from urea by heating it at 500 °C for 2 h.

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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.

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Tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl) is widely implemented as a wide-ranging antibacterial drug in medical care and animal husbandry, in spite of having negative effects on the environment and human health. Photocatalytic treatment is one of the popular techniques used to treat TC-HCl in wastewater. In this study, we have used CuFeO and CuFeO/polyaniline (PANI) nanohybrids as photocatalysts for the degradation of TC-HCl.

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Composite hydrogels of Na-Alginate (Na-ALG) and Gelatin (GEL) with conducting polymers (CPs) were synthesised using poly(o-phenylenediamine) (POPD), polyaniline (PANI), poly(1-naphthylamine (PNA) and poly(vinylenedine fluoride) (PVDF). The synthesised hydrogels were characterized using FTIR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) rheology, swelling ability and in-vitro drug release characteristics. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether these hydrogels could be used to deliver antibiotics for extended drug release.

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