Attitude of undergraduate medical students towards euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: A cross-sectional study.

Euthanasia is categorically prohibited in Pakistan by Islamic law, but a clash of opinions among doctors and human rights advocates still prevails. As a result, medical students are becoming concerned about its practice and this problem needs to be addressed. A cross-sectional study was conducted at Faisalabad Medical University (FMU), Pakistan, from April 2023 to May 2023, using random sampling and statistical programme SPSS version 25, to assess the attitudes of medical students regarding euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Despite the conditions and scenarios presented to the students, most of them expressed opposition to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide because of their religious beliefs and optimistic approach to life. Most of them favoured palliative care and passive euthanasia. Some students showed compliance with euthanasia even though it is equivalent to murder in Islam. Such contrasting results can baffle a physician to make wise decisions. Hence, it must be covered in medical curriculum in depth in order to help the future physicians clearly understand its practice under all circumstances.

Anti-EMT properties of ergothioneine attenuate lipopolysaccharide-induced oxidative stress-mediated acute lung injury via modulating TGF-ß/smad/snail signaling pathway.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a heterogeneous pulmonary illness that is fast developing and has a high fatality rate. The current investigation set out to interpret the convergence of oxidative stress, inflammatory cytokines, TNF-α, snail, vimentin, e-cadherin, and NF-kB activation in ALI pathology. The outcome of assays of oxidative stress, ELISA, and western blot showed the declined of CAT, SOD, GPx, IL-1ß, TNF-α, and upregulation of TGF-ß, smad2/3, smad4, NF-kB, snail, and vimentin, concurrently with downregulation of e-cadherin expression in lung tissues as well as BALF in LPS-injected rats. The photomicrographs of the lungs marked severe congestion, infiltration of cytokines, and thickening of the alveolar walls. Pretreatments of ergothioneine after LPS-induced ALI, inhibited EMT-induction by blocking TGF-ß, smad2/3, smad4, snail, vimentin, NF-kB, and inflammatory cytokines, and increased the expression of E-cadherin and antioxidant levels in a dose-dependent manner. These events helped to restore lung histoarchitecture and reduce acute lung injury. The present findings suggest that ergothioneine at 100 mg/kg is as effective as febuxostat (reference drug). The study concluded that ergothioneine may be replaced with febuxostat as a treatment option for ALI owing to its side effects after clinical trials for pharmaceutical purposes.

Dynamic alterations in protein, sensory, chemical, and oxidative properties occurring in meat during thermal and non-thermal processing techniques: A comprehensive review.

Meat processing represents an inevitable part of meat and meat products preparation for human consumption. Both thermal and non-thermal processing techniques, both commercial and domestic, are able to induce chemical and muscle's proteins modification which can have implication on oxidative and sensory meat characteristics. Consumers' necessity for minimally processed foods has paved a successful way to unprecedented exploration into various novel non-thermal food processing techniques. Processing of meat can have serious implications on its nutritional profile and digestibility of meat proteins in the digestive system. A plethora of food processing techniques can potentially induce alterations in the protein structure, palatability, bioavailability and digestibility via various phenomena predominantly denaturation and Maillard reaction. Apart from these, sensory attributes such as color, crispness, hardness, and total acceptance get adversely affected during various thermal treatments in meat. A major incentive in the adoption of non-thermal food processing is its energy efficiency. Considering this, several non-thermal processing techniques have been developed for evading the effects of conventional thermal treatments on food materials with respect to Maillard reactions, color changes, and off-flavor development. Few significant non-thermal processing techniques, such as microwave heating, comminution, and enzyme addition can positively affect protein digestibility as well as enhance the value of the final product. Furthermore, ultrasound, irradiation, high-pressure processing, and pulsed electric fields are other pivotal non-thermal food processing technologies in meat and meat-related products. The present review examines how different thermal and non-thermal processing techniques, such as sous-vide, microwave, stewing, roasting, boiling, frying, grilling, and steam cooking, affect meat proteins, chemical composition, oxidation, and sensory profile.

Cereal processing waste, an environmental impact and value addition perspectives: A comprehensive treatise.

This review is to describe various methods used for the treatment of cereal processing wastes and their efficiency to reduce environmental issues. Physico-chemical and biological methods have great potential for the treatment of cereal industrial waste. These methods can be used alone or in combination with effective treatment. Physico-chemical treatments are mostly employed for the pretreatment of cereal processing wastes that helps in reduced sludge formation during biological treatments. Biological treatments are mostly used owing to their high efficiency in removing pollutants, and less expensive than physico-chemical treatments. However, these treatments consume more time as compared to physico-chemical treatments. These treatments also proved to be efficient for a high rate of cereal waste conversion into value-added products. Thus, cereal industrial waste can result in value-added products such as biohydrogen, bioethanol, butanol, biogas and biocoal as biofuels, industrial valued enzymes, biomass, biofertilizer, proteins, organic acids, polysaccharides and few others.