Green synthesis of nanoparticles is becoming a method of choice for biological research due to its environmentally benign outcomes, stability and ease of synthesis. In this study, silver ...nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized using stem (S-AgNPs), root (R-AgNPs) and mixture of stem and root (RS-AgNPs) of Delphinium uncinatum. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by standardized techniques and evaluated for their antioxidant, enzyme inhibition, cytotoxic and antimicrobial potentials. The AgNPs exhibited efficient antioxidant activities and considerable enzyme inhibition potential against alpha amylase, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) enzymes. S-AgNPs showed strong cytotoxicity against human hepato-cellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) and high enzyme inhibitory effect (IC50 values 27.5μg/ml for AChE and 22.60 μg/ml for BChE) compared to R-AgNPs and RS-AgNPs. RS-AgNPs showed significant inhibition of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Aspergillus flavus and exhibited higher biocompatibility (<2% hemolysis) in human red blood cells hemolytic assays. The present study showed that biologically synthesized AgNPs using the extract of various parts of D. uncinatum have strong antioxidant and cytotoxic potentials.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The prevalence of overweight and obesity has been increasing globally and has become a significant public health concern in Australia in the two past decades. This study explores the most recent ...national prevalence and trends of adult overweight and obesity in Australia. It will also investigate geographic remoteness as a potential risk factor for an individual being overweight or obese in adulthood. A retrospective longitudinal study that utilised 14 successive waves (wave 6 through 19) of a nationally representative linked individual-level survey. Data was obtained from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. The data on 199,675 observations from 26,713 individuals aged ≥ 15 years over the period 2006 to 2019 was analysed. Random-effects logit model was employed to estimate the association between geographic remoteness and the risk of excessive weight gain. The results reveal that the prevalence of overweight, obesity and combined overweight and obesity among Australian adults in 2019 were 34%, 26% and 60%, respectively. The analysis shows that the prevalence of overweight and obesity varies by geographic remoteness. Adults from regional city urban (OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.16-2.03) and rural areas (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.18-1.47) were more likely to be obese compared with their counterparts from major city urban areas. The results also show that adults living in major city urban areas, regional city urban areas, and regional city rural areas in Australia were 1.53 (OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.16-2.03), 1.32 (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.18-1.47), and 1.18 (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.08-1.29) times more likely to be overweight compared with their counterparts from major city urban areas in Australia. Substantial geographic variation in the prevalence of overweight and obesity exists among Australian adults and appears to be increasing. Public health measures should focus on contextual obesogenic factors and behavioural characteristics to curb the rising prevalence of adult obesity.
Poly‐ether‐ether‐ketones (PEEK) exhibit a distinctive combination of thermo‐oxidative stability, chemical and solvent resistance, toughness, stiffness, and other mechanical properties, flame ...resistance at elevated temperatures. The promising applications in different fields evolved on several modifications, incorporating functional fillers, nanoparticles, fibers, etc. The incorporation of carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes, and graphene improves remarkably the mechanical, electrical and structural performance, precisely thermal stability, mechanical properties, thermal and electrical conductivity. The inorganic nanoparticles such as WS2, SiO2, or Al2O3 improve the matrix's tribological properties; particularly wear resistance and the coefficient of friction. Poly‐ether‐ether‐ketones is a biocompatible polymer that has gained a lot of attention as a replacement of metallic implants and other orthopedic, spinal, trauma, and dentistry applications. It has recently been used in cranioplasty to provide better protection. Bioactive surface modification of carbon–PEEK composites has only been documented in a few researches. PEEK is preferred because of its similar biocompatibility, elasticity to the bone, and radiolucency; however, due to its inert properties, it fails to integrate with the bone. Titanium (Ti) and Ti‐alloys are widely used in many intraosseous implants due to their biocompatibility and ability to osseointegrate. This review article provides a comprehensive overview of the research on PEEK‐based composites, mainly mechanical, tribological and bioactive performance. PEEK and PEEK‐based composites are also explored in terms of additive manufacturing. The impact of the preparation conditions, processing parameters, type of reinforcement, and the functional filler's concentration level on the structure and properties of the resultant materials are discussed. Finally, the current and potential applications and the future prospective recommendations are proposed in the last section.
The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected the world with its devastating effects, including Sindh, Pakistan. A massive vaccination campaign against COVID-19 is considered one of the effective ways to ...curtail the spread of the disease. However, the acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine is based on the general population's knowledge, attitude, perception and willingness for vaccination. Therefore, a survey among the public in Sindh, Pakistan, was done to evaluate their knowledge, attitude, perception and willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccination. The online survey was conducted among the residents of Sindh, Pakistan, in July 2021 through a survey tool designed using Google Forms and sent to the population through various social media. Of 926 study participants, 59.0% were male, and 68.6% were aged between 18 and 31 years. Higher percentages of responses were recorded from the Hyderabad division (37.5%), and 60.0% of respondents were graduates, with 34.8% of them in the private sector. The results showed that 36.4% of respondents had good knowledge, and 30.3% had a positive attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination. Almost 77% of respondents perceived that everyone should get vaccinated in the country and those health care workers on priority. A majority (80.8%) of respondents were willing to accept COVID-19 vaccination. Despite having insufficient knowledge and a low percentage of positive attitude public in Sindh are willing to be vaccinated. Based on this finding, more effort has to be done to promote vaccination among the public, especially among the less educated population.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Environmental concerns have become one of the top inevitable issues the world has been facing nowadays. Human-induced carbon emissions are the main reasons behind these environmental issues and to ...reduce them and mitigate their consequences, policymakers globally explore their drivers and determinants continuously. Although several socio-economic factors have been explored that affect the level of emissions, relatively less attention has been paid to geopolitical risk (GPR). Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed a significant rise in GPR with economic and environmental impacts. However, the existing body of literature on the GPR-environment nexus documents the contrasting conclusion, which might cause inconvenience while proposing environmental protection policies. Therefore, the present study reinvestigates the impact of GPR on carbon emissions at the global level. The findings document that, in the short run, a 1% rise in GPR impedes emissions by 3.50% globally. On the contrary, a 13.24% rise in emissions is fostered by a 1% increase in GPR in the long run. Also as was expected, we report that energy consumption leads to higher global emissions in both the short and long run. Next, this study also validates the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis at the global level. Based on these aforementioned outcomes, we propose several policy recommendations to curb global carbon emissions via GPR accomplish, thus, a few sustainable development goals.
•A multi-objective closed-loop supply chain model is formulated with carbon pricing.•The parameters involved in the problem is considered to be fuzzy rough numbers.•Real life case problem of a ...leather industry is discussed.•Analysis is carried out to have understanding of different carbon pricing scenarios.
The sustainable development goals give very keen importance to the reduction of total carbon emission through industries round the globe. Industries are thus focussing on the reduction of their total carbon emission in accordance with the government and other environmental organizations' policies. In this paper, we focus on developing a multi-objective Closed-Loop Supply Chain model to optimize the distribution plan that minimizes the transportation and other operational costs and carbon footprint. Also, we use the concept of carbon tax in the mathematical model, which can help the decision-maker to decide optimal internal carbon price for the firm. Keeping in mind the uncertainty that inherently exists in data, we consider the parameters as fuzzy rough numbers, and to deal with such numbers we use the concept of two fold uncertainty. To exhibit the effectiveness of the model, we discuss a case study of a small-scale leather industry based in India. The results show that the carbon price of INR 2500 is best for the firm to reduce the carbon emission up to required level. The present study will be of much use for the industries to control carbon emissions by internally adopting the optimal carbon tax. In the numerical application, we have done a sensitivity analysis to check the impact of different carbon taxing scenarios on the carbon emission and total supply chain optimization cost.
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•Dissolution of kraft and organosolv lignin in industrial solvents was investigated.•Dowanol™ PM and Butyl Carbitol™ demonstrate a high solvating power to dissolve lignin.•Lignin ...dissolutions were deposited on iron-phosphated steel by spray coating.•Coating anticorrosive characteristics were evaluated by 1 days immersion in 5% NaCl.•Kraft lignin/Dowanol™ PM coatings were found to have strong anticorrosive behavior.
In the present study, six organic solvents that are commonly used in the paint industry (1-butanol, 1-methoxy-2-propanol, 2-propanol, butyl acetate, propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate, and diethylene glycol monobutyl ether) were tested for their ability to dissolve two distinct lignins: an industrial kraft lignin (KL) and a pilot-scale organosolv lignin (OL). Among the solvents investigated, 1-methoxy-2 propanol (Dowanol™ PM, DPM) and diethylene glycol monobutyl ether (Butyl Carbitol™, BC) demonstrated high degrees of solubility (> 98 wt. % at 25 °C) that were comparable to the commonly used lignin solvent, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Lignin coatings were prepared by spray-coating the new lignin-solvent solutions on iron-phosphated steel, prior to investigation of their subsequent morphological and electrochemical performance characteristics. It was found that KL/DPM coatings demonstrate suitable short-term (1 h, 5% NaCl) anticorrosive characteristics with an increased charge transfer resistance (Rct) compared to the bare steel (1.5 × 105 Ω. cm2cf. 1.9 × 103 Ω. cm2). However, a prolonged (24 h) immersion resulted in a decrease in Rct values (1.1 × 104 Ω. cm2), which may indicate that the lignin coating alone is unable to provide long-term protection under these aggressive conditions.
To determine the age, gender and sites of vestibular schwannoma cases using contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging.
The retrospective descriptive study was conducted at the Department of ...Cyberknife Robotic Radiosurgery, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, and comprised data of patients with vestibular schwannomas from January 2016 to September 2018. Some of them were histologically proven and rest were radiologically proven. Cases were reviewed on contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20 (SPSS) was applied.
Of the 500 cases of vestibular schwannomas identified with 515 tumours, 300(60%) were males and 200(40%) were female. The overall mean age was 42.7±14.4 years (range: 17-85 years). Out of 515 tumours, the commonest site was the right cerebellopontine angle in 340(66%) cases. There were 15(3%) cases of radiologically-proven neurofibromatosis type 2. Overall, 490(98%) patients had main clinical complaint of progressive unilateral hearing loss, 5(1%) had vertigo and 5(1%) had facial palsy.
Vestibular schwannomas were found to be more common among adults, with male preponderance and right cerebellopontine angle being the common site.
Background Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) in the pediatric population has significant burden in developing countries. Infection-related complications during the induction chemotherapy phase pose a major ...challenge and contribute to high mortality rates due to a severely immunocompromised state. However, there is scarce data on the etiologies and optimal management strategies for infection-related mortality in pediatric BL patients, especially in developing countries like Pakistan. Methods This is a cross-sectional study that included a total of 116 pediatric patients with intermediate-risk BL. All patients were treated based on the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) 2020 guidelines. Data on patient demographics, presenting symptoms, diagnosis, infectious etiologies, and outcomes were collected. Infection-related complications and mortality were monitored during the induction chemotherapy period. The results of relevant culture reports were tabulated and data were analyzed. Results Among the 116 included patients, 61.1% were males with a mean age of 4.83 ± 2.12 years. Abdominal BL was the most common anatomical location. During the induction period, 66 patients (56.9%) had culture-proven infections, resulting in 33 deaths (28.4%). Fever was the predominant presenting symptom in all patients, followed by vomiting (57.6%), loose stools (42.4%), and cough (18.2%). Neutropenic colitis, sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis were among the diagnosed infections. Hospital-acquired bacterial infections, including multi-drug resistant gram-negative and gram-positive organisms, were the main cause of mortality, with fungal infections and cytomegalovirus viremia also identified in a few patients. Conclusions This study highlights the urgent need for improved management strategies in pediatric BL patients in Pakistan to reduce infection-related complications and mortality rates, emphasizing the importance of context-specific approaches for infection prevention and management.
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