Potential of amino acids-modified biochar in mitigating the soil Cu and Ni stresses - Targeting the tomato growth, physiology and fruit quality.

Trace heavy metals (HMs) such as copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) are toxic to plants, especially tomato at high levels. In this study, biochar (BC) was treated with amino acids (AA) to enhance amino functional groups, which effectively alleviated the adverse effects of heavy metals (HMs) on tomato growth. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of glycine and alanine modified BC (GBC/ABC) on various tomato growth parameters, its physiology, fruit yield and Cu/Ni uptake under Cu and Ni stresses. In a pot experiment, there was 21 treatments with three replications having two rates of simple BC and glycine/alanine enriched BC (0.5% and 1% (w/w). Cu and Ni stresses were added at 150 mg kg-1 respectively. Plants were harvested after 120 days of sowing and subjected to various analysis. Under Cu and Ni stresses, tomato roots accumulated more Cu and Ni than shoots and fruits, while GBC and ABC application significantly enhanced the root and shoot dry weight irrelevant to the stress conditions. Both rates of GBC decreased the malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide levels in plants. The addition of 0.5% GBC with Cu enhanced the tomato fruit dry weight by 1.3 folds in comparison to the control treatment; while tomato fruit juice content also increased (50%) in the presence of 0.5% GBC with Ni as compared to control. In summary, these results demonstrated that lower rate of GBC∼0.5% proved to be the best in mitigating the Cu and Ni stress on tomato plant growth by enhancing the fruit production.

Classification of clinically actionable genetic mutations in cancer patients.

Personalized medicine in cancer treatment aims to treat each individual's cancer tumor uniquely based on the genetic sequence of the cancer patient and is a much more effective approach compared to traditional methods which involve treating each type of cancer in the same, generic manner. However, personalized treatment requires the classification of cancer-related genes once profiled, which is a highly labor-intensive and time-consuming task for pathologists making the adoption of personalized medicine a slow progress worldwide. In this paper, we propose an intelligent multi-class classifier system that uses a combination of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques and Machine Learning algorithms to automatically classify clinically actionable genetic mutations using evidence from text-based medical literature. The training data set for the classifier was obtained from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Random Forest algorithm was applied with TF-IDF for feature extraction and truncated SVD for dimensionality reduction. The results show that the proposed model outperforms the previous research in terms of accuracy and precision scores, giving an accuracy score of approximately 82%. The system has the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment and lead to significant improvements in cancer therapy.

A DNA barcode survey of insect biodiversity in Pakistan.

Although Pakistan has rich biodiversity, many groups are poorly known, particularly insects. To address this gap, we employed DNA barcoding to survey its insect diversity. Specimens obtained through diverse collecting methods at 1,858 sites across Pakistan from 2010-2019 were examined for sequence variation in the 658 bp barcode region of the cytochrome c oxidase 1 (COI) gene. Sequences from nearly 49,000 specimens were assigned to 6,590 Barcode Index Numbers (BINs), a proxy for species, and most (88%) also possessed a representative image on the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD). By coupling morphological inspections with barcode matches on BOLD, every BIN was assigned to an order (19) and most (99.8%) were placed to a family (362). However, just 40% of the BINs were assigned to a genus (1,375) and 21% to a species (1,364). Five orders (Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera) accounted for 92% of the specimens and BINs. More than half of the BINs (59%) are so far only known from Pakistan, but others have also been reported from Bangladesh (13%), India (12%), and China (8%). Representing the first DNA barcode survey of the insect fauna in any South Asian country, this study provides the foundation for a complete inventory of the insect fauna in Pakistan while also contributing to the global DNA barcode reference library.

Evaluating Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior of Dentists on HIV/AIDS in West Java, Indonesia, in the COVID-19 Era.

PURPOSE: HIV/AIDS is still a serious public health problem in Indonesia. It has been concerned that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has a serious impact on people living with HIV (PLWH). Therefore, dentists remain to have a significant role to play in the overall healthcare delivery to PLWH and reducing new HIV infections. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of dentists in West Java about HIV/AIDS in the COVID-19 era. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing online questionnaires using a Google form to dentists in West Java. We used the purposive sampling technique to recruit the participants. The questionnaire consists of characteristics of respondents, 13 questions about knowledge, 9 questions about attitudes, and 6 questions about behaviors, which has previously been tested for validity and reliability. Data were analyzed using the Spearman correlation test and the Chi-square test. Results. The Questionnaire was sent to 435 dentists in the West Java region, Indonesia, with the assistance of the Indonesian Dental Association West Java region, to participate in this study. We received completed questionnaires from 209 (48%) respondents. The results of this study showed that 44% of dentists have good knowledge, 53% have a positive attitude, and 53% have positive behavior. No significant relationship was found between knowledge and attitudes (p=0.202) and behavior (p=0.087), but there was a significant relationship between attitudes and behavior (p=0.0001). CONCLUSION: About half of the dentists in West Java have good knowledge, positive attitudes, and behavior towards HIV/AIDS, but the others lack knowledge, negative attitudes, and behavior. Continuing HIV/AIDS education and training programs for dentists are still needed to keep improving their knowledge and awareness to support disease prevention and control in this COVID-19 era.

Frequency of low back pain in young adults and its relationship with different mattresses.

OBJECTIVE: To find out the frequency of low back pain in young adults and its relationship with the mattresses being used. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2019 to February 2020 in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan, and comprised young adults aged 18-35 years who were using the same kind of mattress for more than 3 months. Data was collected using a self-structured questionnaire along with the Modified Oswestry Scale and the Numeric Pain Rating Scale. Data was analysed using SPSS 24. RESULTS: Of the 366 subjects, 266(72.7%) were women and 100(27.3%) were men. The overall mean age was 22.06±3.74 years. Of the total, 208(56.4%) participants were feeling low back pain, and, of them, pain was most prevalent in 30(14.4%) who were using firm mattress, and by 128(61.5%) who were using foam mattress. The pain was more frequent in those not having changed their mattresses for more than three years 105(50.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Low back pain was found to be a frequent occurrence in young adults and it was more prevalent in those using firm or foam mattresses for more than three years.

A systematic metadata harvesting workflow for analysing scientific networks.

One of the disciplines behind the science of science is the study of scientific networks. This work focuses on scientific networks as a social network having different nodes and connections. Nodes can be represented by authors, articles or journals while connections by citation, co-citation or co-authorship. One of the challenges in creating scientific networks is the lack of publicly available comprehensive data set. It limits the variety of analyses on the same set of nodes of different scientific networks. To supplement such analyses we have worked on publicly available citation metadata from Crossref and OpenCitatons. Using this data a workflow is developed to create scientific networks. Analysis of these networks gives insights into academic research and scholarship. Different techniques of social network analysis have been applied in the literature to study these networks. It includes centrality analysis, community detection, and clustering coefficient. We have used metadata of Scientometrics journal, as a case study, to present our workflow. We did a sample run of the proposed workflow to identify prominent authors using centrality analysis. This work is not a bibliometric study of any field rather it presents replicable Python scripts to perform network analysis. With an increase in the popularity of open access and open metadata, we hypothesise that this workflow shall provide an avenue for understanding scientific scholarship in multiple dimensions.

Dose-Dependent Internalization and Externalization Integrity Study of Newly Synthesized 99mTc-Thymoquinone Radiopharmaceutical as Cancer Theranostic Agent.

Thymoquinone (TQ) is a bioactive phytochemical isolated from Nigella sativa and has been investigated for biochemical and biological activities in both in vitro and in vivo models. It is best known for its anticancer activities. Thymoquinone accomplishes anticancer activities through targeting multiple cancer markers including PPAR-γ, PTEN, P53, P73, STAT3, and generation of reactive oxygen species at the cancer cell surface. The radiolabeling of TQ with γ- and ß-emitter radionuclide could be used as cancer diagnostic or therapeutic radiopharmaceutical, respectively. In this study, we are reporting the radiolabeling of TQ with technetium-99m (99mTc), stability in saline and blood serum, internalization and externalization of 99mTc-TQ using rhabdomyosarcoma cancer cells line. The quality control study revealed more than 95% labeling yield and stable in blood serum up to 4 hours. In vitro internalization rate was recorded 27.08% ± 0.95% at 1 hour post 2 hours internalization period and comparatively slow externalization. The results of this study are quite encourging and could be investigated for further key preclinical parameters to enter phase I clinical trials.

Datura suaveolens and Verbena tenuisecta mediated silver nanoparticles, their photodynamic cytotoxic and antimicrobial evaluation.

Biogenic production of nanoparticles is eco-friendly, less expensive method with various medical and biological applications. Nanotechnology along with photodynamic therapy is gaining tremendous importance with enhanced efficacy. The present work was aimed to evaluate methanolic extracts and nanoparticles of two selected plants (Datura suavolens and Verbina tenuisecta) for cytotoxic photodynamic, antioxidant and antimicrobial study. Both extract and silver (5 mM) nanoparticles of Datura plant showed significant activities against bacterial strains. Maximum ZOI of 27.3 ± 1.6 mm was observed with nanoparticles of Datura branches with minimum inhibitory (MIC) value of 32 µg/ml. In case of antifungal and antioxidant assay samples were moderately active. Silver nanoparticles and extracts were effective against rhabdomyosarcoma cell line with lowest IC50 value of 42.5 ± 0.6 µg/ml and percent viability of 25.6 ± 1.3 of Verbena tenuisecta. However, nanoparticles of Datura leaves and branches were more potent with IC50 value of 2.4 ± 0.9 µg/ml and 7.8 ± 1.1 µg/ml respectively. The result of photodynamic study showed that efficacy of photosensitizer was enhanced and percent viability reduced when nanoparticles used as an adjunct. The color change and UV spectra (415‒425 nm) indicated the production of nanoparticles. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra showed presence of different functional groups e.g., hydroxyl, carbonyl and amino. Nanoparticles are sphenoid in morphology and size ranges between 20-150 nm. Current study showed these silver nanoparticles can be used as cytotoxic agent in photodynamic therapy and can play a critical role to establish medicinal potential of selected plants.

Linkage analysis of hearing impairment in families of Bannu Distric.

OBJECTIVE: To link congenital hearing loss with known loci to establish a platform for future research. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted from February 2016 to March 2017 in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, and comprised families with Pashtun ethnicity having at least 2 individuals suffering from congenital hearing loss. Deoxyribonucleic acid from whole blood samples was extracted by salting-out method. Amplification was done through touchdown polymerase chain reaction to see any possible linkage to already reported deafness loci. Linkage analysis was carried out using microsatellite markers for each locus. Genotyping of the samples was done and haplotypes were accordingly generated to either include or exclude the linked / unlinked regions. RESULTS: Of the 4 families, family PKDF 1620 showed linkage with DFNB12/CDH23 (D10S1432, D10S606, and D10S1694) and family PKDF 1625 had linkage with DFNB3/MYO15A (D17S2196, D17S2207 and D17S2206). Families PKDF1623 and PKDF1624 showed no linkage with any of the prevalent reported loci in Pakistan . CONCLUSIONS: Linkage to DFNB12 and MYO 15 showed heterogeneity of congenital deafness.

The effectiveness of script training to restore lost communication in a patient with Broca's aphasia.

Aphasia is considered as an acquired neurological disorder of communication, which is characterised by the symptoms on all levels of language dysfunction. The current study was planned to explore the outcomes of script training in a patient with Broca's aphasia through quantitative approach using a single-subject-multiple-baseline research design across behaviours. The probes were obtained during the baseline, treatment, maintenance and generalisation phases for tracking the spoken use of scripted content. All the probes were transcribed verbatim and no value of Cohen's Kappa Coefficient (K) was below 0.61, indicating robust inter-rater reliability. The subject learned all six scripts successively and over 80% of mastery level on all dependent variables was achieved. The largest effect size, above 10.1, was reported for the percent of intelligible scripted words (PISW). Script training was found to be an effective therapy for rejuvenating lost communication of patients with severe Broca's aphasia.

A new species of Stenodynerus (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae) from Pakistan.

A new species of Eumeninae, Stenodynerus punjabensis Qasim, Carpenter et Rafi, is described from Pakistan. A key to the Stenodynerus species of Pakistan is also included.

The vespid fauna of Pakistan.

This study provides the first annotated check list of the Vespidae of Pakistan. It is based on the National Insect Museum collection and various studies in Pakistan. Among 105 identified taxa, 77 species and 28 subspecies are recorded in the four subfamilies Eumeninae, Masarinae, Polistinae and Vespinae. Three new records for the fauna of Pakistan are added, namely Anterhynchium mellyi, Antepipona ovalis and Eumenes coronatus coronatus. Among the total, 12 species/subspecies are endemic to Pakistan, namely Ancistrocerus pakistanus, Antepipona luteipes, Antodynerus flavescens karachiensis, Celonites nursei, Cyrtolabulus karachiensis, Eustenancistrocerus (Parastenancistrocerus) baluchistanensis, Katamenes dimidiatus watsoni, Knemodynerus lahorensis, Leptochilus (Neoleptochilus) hina, Leptochilus (Neoleptochilus) mirificus, Leptochilus (Neoleptochilus) umerolatus and Tachyancistrocerus pakistanus. Antepipona varentzowi (Morawitz, 1896) and Polistes rothneyi quatei van der Vecht, 1968 were incorrectly reported from Pakistan.

Donor-transmitted melanoma after limbal stem cell transplantation.

Limbal Stem Cells are a unique cell line located at the corneal limbus. They are responsible for regenerating and restoring corneal epithelial layers. Limbal stem cell transplantation is a promising technique that has been used to treat several hereditary and acquired corneal diseases. Cornea tissue lack vascularity. Hence, there were no special restrictions on collecting ocular tissues from donors with a diagnosis of metastatic melanoma. We are reporting a case of a patient who developed an ocular melanoma after she had limbal stem cell transplantation from a donor with history of melanoma. After this case, Eye Bank Association of America updated the donor criteria to exclude donors with any history of melanoma.

Mapping global biodiversity connections with DNA barcodes: Lepidoptera of Pakistan.

Sequences from the DNA barcode region of the mitochondrial COI gene are an effective tool for specimen identification and for the discovery of new species. The Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (www.boldsystems.org) currently hosts 4.5 million records from animals which have been assigned to more than 490,000 different Barcode Index Numbers (BINs), which serve as a proxy for species. Because a fourth of these BINs derive from Lepidoptera, BOLD has a strong capability to both identify specimens in this order and to support studies of faunal overlap. DNA barcode sequences were obtained from 4503 moths from 329 sites across Pakistan, specimens that represented 981 BINs from 52 families. Among 379 species with a Linnaean name assignment, all were represented by a single BIN excepting five species that showed a BIN split. Less than half (44%) of the 981 BINs had counterparts in other countries; the remaining BINs were unique to Pakistan. Another 218 BINs of Lepidoptera from Pakistan were coupled with the 981 from this study before being compared with all 116,768 BINs for this order. As expected, faunal overlap was highest with India (21%), Sri Lanka (21%), United Arab Emirates (20%) and with other Asian nations (2.1%), but it was very low with other continents including Africa (0.6%), Europe (1.3%), Australia (0.6%), Oceania (1.0%), North America (0.1%), and South America (0.1%). This study indicates the way in which DNA barcoding facilitates measures of faunal overlap even when taxa have not been assigned to a Linnean species.

Faunistic studies of the tribe Brachinini (Carabidae: Coleoptera) from northern Pakistan.

A faunistic study of the tribe Brachinini from northern Pakistan was carried out including extensive fieldwork collections and specimens housed in the Insect Repository, Pakistan Museum of Natural History, Islamabad and the National Insect Museum, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad. Ten species belonging to three genera were identified from the study area, including four new records for Pakistan, Brachinus (Brachinus) ejaculans Fischer Von Waldheim, 1828, Brachinus (Neobrachinus) pallidipes Reitter, 1919, Pheropsophus (Stenaptinus) consularis (Schmidt-Goebel, 1846) and Pheropsophus (Stenaptinus) lineifrons Chaudoir, 1850. A key for these species is provided. A new combination is proposed for Brachinus (Brachynolomus) pallidipes Reitter, 1919, namely Brachinus (Neobrachinus) pallidipes Reitter, 1919, comb. nov.

Analysis of Consequences of Birth Asphyxia in Infants: A Regional Study in Southern Punjab, Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the biochemical consequences and platelet counts of birth asphyxia in neonates. STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Department of Child Health, Nishter Medical College and Hospital, Multan, from September to November 2015. METHODOLOGY: The data of 50 (50%) asphyxiated neonates and 50 (50%) non-asphyxiated neonates, with age range less than 1 month, was collected from Children Ward of Nishtar Hospital, Multan, Pakistan. Data on platelet count in blood, kidney function tests (creatinine, urea), liver function tests (bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST)) and cardiac enzyme test (lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)) were analysed by paired sample t-test by SPSS software. Sociodemographic data of those neonate's mothers was also collected. RESULTS: In asphyxiated neonates LDH, ALT, AST, creatinine, bilirubin, urea levels were higher than healthy infants, while the platelet count was smaller in asphyxiated neonates than healthy infants. CONCLUSION: There was a higher rate of alteration in platelet count, levels of LDH, AST, ALT, urea creatinine and bilirubin in asphyxiated infants. These alterations may be correlated with damage of vital organ of asphyxiated neonates.

Evaluation of Potential Drug-Drug Interactions with Antidepressants in Two Tertiary Care Hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Limited resources of healthcare system and high use of antidepressants have raised some serious concerns regarding proper surveillance system of prescribed medicines. Not much literature is available from Pakistan regarding the potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) associated with antidepressants. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the frequency of pDDIs associated with antidepressants, their severity, significance and their association with patient characteristics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective, observational study was conducted in two major hospitals of Karachi for the period of three months. Patient profiles, medication charts, and physician notes were thoroughly reviewed to gather all the relevant information. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were set prior to data collection. The collected data was then analysed using Micromedex Drug-REAX System. Descriptive and binomial logistic regression analysis was used to express results. RESULTS: Of 245 prescriptions reviewed, 141 prescriptions had at least one pDDI (57.5%). A total of 181 pDDIs were identified in prescription containing antidepressant. The ratio of pDDI per prescriptions was 0.78. 42.5% interactions were moderate in severity, 30% of interactions were rapid in onset, and 43% were considered as significant interactions. Polypharmacy (OR=3.41, p< 0.001) and presence of chronic problems (OR=2.14, p=0.002) were significantly associated with the occurrence of pDDIs. Citalopram and diclofenac (11.6%) was commonly prescribed interacting pair in this study. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study recorded high frequency of antidepressants associated pDDIs. Our results confirm the significant association of polypharmacy with the occurrence of pDDIs with antidepressants. Future studies are warranted to establish these results by including hospitals in different parts of the country.

Effects of varying local temperature on the optical properties of cells in-vitro.

Increase in local temperature during light exposure of biological tissues plays an important role in determining the fate of most therapeutic modalities. Variations in the optical properties (absorption coefficient, scattering coefficient, anisotropy factor, optical depth etc.) of two cancer cell lines "Rhobdomyosarcoma and Cervical carcinoma" due to gradual increase in temperature were determine quantitatively with a double integrating sphere system. It was observed that all three coefficients showed decreasing tendency as the temperature increases for both the cell lines except for scattering coefficient of HeLa which remain constant within error limit. Anisotropy factor for both cell lines increased indicating temperature dependent subcellular density variations. Temperature dependent optical properties information may lead to precise dosimetry and could help clinicians for predicting the therapeutic modality outcome.