Publications by authors named "Zia Zafar"

Article Synopsis
  • The ampulla of Vater is a critical site in the duodenal wall where pancreatic and biliary ducts meet, often linked to tumors known as ampullary adenocarcinomas.
  • A study analyzed 188 cases to compare intra-ampullary and periampullary carcinomas in terms of pathology and survival, revealing that most tumors were found in males around 55 years old, with a predilection for the pancreatobiliary subtype.
  • Results indicated that intra-ampullary carcinomas had worse outcomes, showing more extensive invasion and lower median survival rates (46 months) compared to periampullary carcinomas (53.5 months).
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Melatonin is a naturally occurring biologically active amine produced by plants, animals and microbes. This review explores the biosynthesis of melatonin in plants, with a particular focus on its diverse roles in Arabidopsis thaliana , a model species. Melatonin affects abiotic and biotic stress resistance in A.

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  • * In CRC, miRNAs can function as oncogenes or tumor suppressors, impacting critical cellular functions such as cell growth and death, and their dysregulation can lead to abnormal gene expression and cancer progression.
  • * MiRNAs present opportunities for early CRC detection and targeted therapies, but challenges in delivery systems and ensuring long-term safety remain to be resolved for effective treatment implementation.
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Introduction Phyllodes tumor (PT) is an uncommon fibroepithelial neoplasm of the breast. It is a biphasic tumor with stromal and epithelial components, with a tendency to recur. Because of its wide range of disease manifestations, it has been subclassified into three categories, i.

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Nanotechnology is rapidly emerging and innovative interdisciplinary field of science. The application of nanomaterials in agricultural biotechnology has been exponentially increased over the years that could be attributed to their uniqueness, versatility, and flexibility. The overuse of nanomaterials makes it crucial to determine their fate and distribution in the in vitro (in cell and tissue cultures) and in vivo (in living species) biological environments by investigating the nano-biointerface.

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  • Esophageal cancer is a significant global health issue, with this study focusing on the effectiveness of new markers like APRI and AAR to predict patient survival.
  • The study analyzed retrospective data from 951 esophageal cancer patients, revealing key associations between these markers and factors such as tumor type, dysphagia, and imaging characteristics.
  • Results indicated that higher levels of APRI and AAR, particularly in adenocarcinoma cases, were linked to poorer survival outcomes, with APRI showing a stronger correlation with survival than AAR.
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Objective: The objective of the study was to compare the effectiveness of neural mobilization technique with conservative treatment on pain intensity, cervical range of motion, and disability.

Methods: It was a randomized clinical trial; data was collected from Mayo Hospital, Lahore. Eighty-eight patients fulfilling the sample selection criteria were randomly assigned into group 1 (neural mobilization) and group 2 (conventional treatment).

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  • Honey, although a type of free sugar, is often considered healthy and may influence cardiometabolic risk factors related to obesity and type 2 diabetes.
  • The systematic review and meta-analysis analyzed 18 controlled trials to evaluate honey's effects on various health markers, including fasting glucose and cholesterol levels.
  • Results indicated that honey consumption led to improvements in fasting glucose, cholesterol levels, and other markers, with certain types of honey showing particularly beneficial effects, though the certainty of evidence was mostly low.
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Acute pancreatitis is a disease with a wide spectrum of severity, complications, and outcome with severe life-threatening complications develop in patients leading to high mortality in severe acute pancreatitis. The rationale of this study is to diagnose the severity of acute pancreatitis using a single test ratio, i.e.

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Disruption of quorum sensing pathway of pathogenic microbes is considered as novel approach to fight against infectious diseases. The current study was planned to evaluate the antibiofilm and quorum sensing inhibitory potential of . Antibacterial and antibiofilm potential of extracts was determined through agar well diffusion and crystal violet assay against sinusitis isolates, that is, , while quorum sensing inhibition efficacy of extracts was determined through violacein inhibition assay using as bacterial model The methanolic extract of presented the highest antimicrobial activity against and antibiofilm activity against (77.

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Purpose: Cervical radiculopathy is disorder of cervical spinal nerve root affecting large number of population. Previously many studies are conducted to design suitable protocol for management of this disorder, but they lack in quality. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of neural mobilization and cervical isometrics on health-related quality of life and deep flexors endurance in cervical radiculopathy.

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The strategy of test, trace and isolate has been promoted and seen as a crucial tool in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. As simple as the slogan sounds, effectively implementing it turns into a complex endeavor with multiple moving parts and the need for multisector collaboration. In this study, we apply a systems thinking lens to analyse the design and implementation of the contact tracing strategy for COVID-19 in the district of Islamabad, Pakistan.

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There is a dearth of knowledge regarding transmission of () and () species through water and water-related sources in Pakistan. To this end, we conducted a study to evaluate the prevalence of these parasites in different water bodies, soil, and mixed raw vegetables in Pakistan. Researchers collected 200 samples from each reservoir including municipal water, sewage water, canal water, raw vegetables, soil of public parks, and soil of grazing areas.

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Many investigators have focused on the development of biocompatible polyurethanes by chemical reaction of functional groups contained in a spacer and introduced in the PU backbone or by a grafting method on graft polymerization of functional groups. In this study, alginate-based polyurethane (PU) composites were synthesized via step-growth polymerization by the reaction of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI). The polymer chains were further extended with blends of 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BDO) and alginate (ALG) with different mole ratios.

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Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a human eye disease that affects people who are suffering from diabetes. It causes damage to their eyes, including vision loss. It is treatable; however, it takes a long time to diagnose and may require many eye exams.

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The empirical link between women's employment status and their experience of different types of intimate partner violence (IPV) is not very apparent. Using Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data from 19 developing countries in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East, we found that working women were significantly more likely to experience IPV than their stay-at-home counterparts. Given the great diversity in women's employment with respect to economic returns and working conditions, we disaggregated women's employment into three categories vis-à-vis agriculture jobs (AJ), blue-collar jobs (BJ), and white-collar jobs (WJ).

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The synthesis methodology, particle size and shape, dose optimization, and toxicity studies of nano-fertilizers are vital prior to their field application. This study investigates the comparative response of chemically synthesized and biologically synthesized iron oxide nanorods (NRs) using along with bulk FeCl on summer maize (). It is found that FeCl salt and chemically synthesized iron oxides NRs caused growth retardation and impaired plant physiological and anti-oxidative activities at a concentration higher than 25 mg/L due to toxicity by over accumulation.

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Black mustard () was grown in pots amended with 41 nm ZnO (200-600 mg/kg soil) and 47 nm CuO (12.5-50 mg/kg soil) nanoparticles (NPs) to analyze growth response and yield characteristics. seed germination was not affected by CuO NPs, but significant toxicity was observed by ZnO NP treatment.

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Starch/chitosan modified polyurethanes (PUs) were synthesized by step growth polymerization reaction between -NCO terminated prepolymer and chain extenders (1,4-Butanediol/starch/chitosan). Isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) was reacted with hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) to synthesize prepolymer and was further reacted with different moles ratio of starch/chitosan to produced five samples of polyurethane (PU). These samples were characterized by Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) and Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H NMR) spectroscopy.

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Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one of the most significant analytical techniques that has been developed in the past few decades. A broad range of biological and nonbiological applications ranging from an individual cell to organs and tissues has been investigated through NMR. Various aspects of this technique are still under research, and many functions of the NMR are still pending a better understanding and acknowledgment.

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This research work has been done to investigate the influence of the geometry of aliphatic diisocyanate (hexamethylene diisocyanate, HDI), cycloaliphatic diisocyanate (isophorone diisocyanate, IPDI) and aromatic diisocyanate (2,4-toluene diisocyanate, TDI) on the tensile strength and hardness of chitosan based polyurethane biomaterials. For this purpose, chitosan (CS) and polycaprolactone diol (PCL) based polyurethanes have been synthesized with above mentioned diisocyanates following statistical design (mixture design). Simplex mixture design was used for analysis and totally 10 experiments were generated by the software.

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Although the occurrence of stroke in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is decreasing, it remains an important concern. Therefore, it is important to identify and adopt strategies that can decrease the incidence of stroke in these patients. One of the strategies that have demonstrated the potential to decrease the rate of post-CABG stroke is an assessment of aorta for atherosclerosis before surgery and changing the surgical plan accordingly to minimize the stroke risk.

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Suspended Solids Concentration (SSC) in water is related to its quality and transparency. Satellite remote sensing has proven to be an efficient means of monitoring water quality in large deltas because in situ sampling methods are costly, laborious, time consuming, and spatially constrained. In this study, the potential of Landsat's Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensor was explored to develop a model for remote sensing-based quantification of SSC within the large, turbid Indus Delta Region (IDR, south of Pakistan).

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Saccharification potential of xylanase enzyme cloned from Bacillus licheniformis into E. coli BL21 (DE3) was evaluated against plant biomass for the production of bioethanol. The expression of cloned gene was studied and conditions were optimized for its large scale production.

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Recently, iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted much consideration due to their unique properties, such as superparamagnetism, surface-to-volume ratio, greater surface area, and easy separation methodology. Various physical, chemical, and biological methods have been adopted to synthesize magnetic NPs with suitable surface chemistry. This review summarizes the methods for the preparation of iron oxide NPs, size and morphology control, and magnetic properties with recent bioengineering, commercial, and industrial applications.

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