During the COVID-19 outbreak, educational institutions were closed, and students worldwide were confined to their homes. In an educational environment, students depend on collaborative learning (CL) ...to improve their learning performance. This study aimed to increase the understanding of social media adoption among students during the COVID-19 pandemic for the purpose of CL. Social media provides a learning platform that enables students to easily communicate with their peers and subject specialists, and is conducive to students' CL. This study addresses the key concept of CL during the COVID-19 pandemic by assessing social media use among students in higher education. The relationship between social media use and students' performance is crucial to understanding the role of social media during a pandemic. This study is based on constructivism theory and the technology acceptance model. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the conceptual model using SmartPLS. The research findings indicate that social media plays an important role during the pandemic because it provides opportunities for students to enhance CL under the aforementioned situations. This study makes noteworthy theoretical and practical contributions.
The development of functional imaging is a promising strategy for diagnosis and treatment of infectious and cancerous diseases. In this study, epirubicin was developed as a 99mTc‐labeled ...radiopharmaceutical for the imaging of multi‐drug‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections. The labeling was carried out using sodium pertechnetate (Na99mTcO4; ~370 MBq). The other parameters such as amount of ligand, reducing agent (SnCl2.2H2O), and pH were optimized. The highest labeling yield ≥96.98% was achieved when 0.3 mg epirubicin, 13 μg SnCl2.2H2O, and ~370 MBq Na99mTcO4 were incubated at pH 7 for 15 min in the presence of ascorbic acid at room temperature. Radiochemical purity, stability, charge, and glomerular filtration rate were studied to evaluate the biological compatibility for in vivo administration. Biodistribution investigations showed radiotracer uptake (13.89 ± 1.56% ID/gm organ) by liver and 7.79 ± 0.38% ID/gm organ by kidneys at 30 min post‐injection which promisingly wash out at 24 hr post‐injection. Scintigraphy study showed selective uptake in S. aureus‐infected tissues in contrast to turpentine oil‐induced inflamed tissues. Target‐to‐non‐target ratio (6.7 ± 0.05) was calculated at 1 hr post‐injection using SPECT gamma camera. The results of this study reveal that the 99mTc‐epirubicin can be a choice of imaging and monitoring the treatment process of multi‐drug resistant S. aureus bacterial infections.
Epirubicin is a cell‐permeable antineoplastic antitumor drug of the anthracycline family, and it is considered a target‐specific anticancer drug and also target infection causing bacteria. The protocol of radiolabeling of epirubicin with 99mTc was developed to target the multi‐drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MDRSA) infection, induced in rat model. The results showed promising uptake in S. aureus infection, and it can be investigated clinically for MDRSA bacterial infection imaging.
This research work presents a simple, sensitive, selective, economic, and widely applicable and interferences-free spectrofluorimetric method estimating moxifloxacin in the pure form, commercial ...formulations and biological samples. The method is based on the reaction of moxifloxacin with Ce(IV) in an acidic medium to generate fluorescent active species Ce(III). The excitation and emission of the fluorescent species are 250 and 362 nm, respectively. Different variables that might influence the oxidation of moxifloxacin, including the Ce(IV) concentration and volume, the effect of temperature and the heating time, the type of acids and its concentration were analyzed and boosted. The linearity was observed in the concentration range of 0.2 – 5.0 μg mL−1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.9991. The limit of detection and the limit of quantification were calculated and observed to be 0.016 and 0.056 μg mL−1 respectively. The effects of the common excipients and some co-administrated drugs usually used in the determination of moxifloxacin were investigated, and no interferences were noted. The planned method has been successfully practical for the analysis of moxifloxacin in its pure form, in pharmaceutical products and in biological samples. The obtained percent recoveries ranged from 95.50 to 101.37% for pharmaceutical products and from 95.15 to 103.18% for human blood plasma and urine.
•Method was validated for simultaneous analysis of Cr, Mo and Se in infant formulas.•LOD/LOQ, precision, accuracy and recovery tests were applied for quality assurance.•Heating block and microwave ...were giving satisfactory results for sample preparation.•ICP-MS was more sensitive and effective technique for Cr, Mo and Se than ICP-OES.•Contents of Cr, Mo and Se were as CODEX nutrient standard values for infant formulas.
This study aimed to validate the analytical method for simultaneous determination of chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo), and selenium (Se) in infant formulas available in South Korea. Various digestion methods of dry-ashing, wet-digestion and microwave were evaluated for samples preparation and both inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) were compared for analysis. The analytical techniques were validated by detection limits, precision, accuracy and recovery experiments. Results showed that wet-digestion and microwave methods were giving satisfactory results for sample preparation, while ICP-MS was found more sensitive and effective technique than ICP-OES. The recovery (%) of Se, Mo and Cr by ICP-OES were 40.9, 109.4 and 0, compared to 99.1, 98.7 and 98.4, respectively by ICP-MS. The contents of Cr, Mo and Se in infant formulas by ICP-MS were found in good nutritional values in accordance to nutrient standards for infant formulas CODEX values.
This research study is mainly focused to evaluate the anti-parasitic, insecticidal, cytotoxic and anti-alzheimer potential of various leaf extracts of Ajuga bracteosa Wallich ex Bentham. 04 different ...extracts were prepared using solvent of different polarity to determine the best candidate for potent bioactivity i.e. n-hexane (NH), Ethyl acetate (EA), Ethanol (EL) and Chloroform (CH). Concentrations of each extracts were made specified for all activities. All extracts were exploited for broad range of biomedical applications including leishmaniasis, in vitro anti-Alzheimer, insecticidal and cytotoxic studies. Our results showed that A. bracteosa n-hexane extract was highly active against Leishmania Tropica with significant inhibition of 58 ± 1.61 for promastigote and 63 ± 2.29 for amastigote at 1000 μg/mL. Furthermore, promising anti-alzheimer activity acetylcholinesterase (AChE) 46 ± 0.83 and butrylcholineterase (BChE) 49 ± 1.17 was noted for n-hexane. The insecticidal potential of these extracts were test against five different insects (Rhyzopertha dominica, Trogoderma granarium, Tribolium castaneum, Sitophilus oryze, and Callosobruchus analis). The higest mortality rate of insecticidal activity was recorded by n-hexane followed by Ethyl acetate whereas ethanol extract was found to be less effective against all the test species. Significant cytotoxic potential of each plant sample against Artemia salina thus aware us for further detailed research to find out novel drugs. Based on our results we believe that Ajuga bracteosa could be used to develop as a potential botanical insecticide against different insect and pests, such as aphids as well as an excellent source for the compound isolation as anti-tumor agent.
Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a common complication of diabetes mellitus that causes lesions on the retina that affect vision. Late detection of DR can lead to irreversible blindness. The manual ...diagnosis process of DR retina fundus images by ophthalmologists is time consuming and costly. While, Classical Transfer learning models are extensively used for computer aided detection of DR; however, their maintenance costs limits detection performance rate. Therefore, Quantum Transfer learning is a better option to address this problem in an optimized manner. The significance of Hybrid quantum transfer learning approach includes that it performs heuristically. Thus, our proposed methodology aims to detect DR using a hybrid quantum transfer learning approach. To build our model we extract the APTOS 2019 Blindness Detection dataset from Kaggle and used inception-V3 pre-trained classical neural network for feature extraction and Variational Quantum classifier for stratification and trained our model on Penny Lane default device, IBM Qiskit BasicAer device and Google Cirq Simulator device. Both models are built based on PyTorch machine learning library. We bring about a contrast performance rate between classical and quantum models. Our proposed model achieves an accuracy of 93%–96% on the quantum hybrid model and 85% accuracy rate on the classical model. So, quantum computing can harness quantum machine learning to do work with power and efficiency that is not possible for classical computers.
Evidence from imaging, clinical studies, and pathology suggests that Parkinson’s disease is preceded by a prodromal stage that predates clinical diagnosis by several years but there is no established ...method for detecting this stage. Olfactory impairment, which is common in Parkinson’s disease and often predates clinical diagnosis, may be a useful biomarker for early Parkinson’s. Evidence is emerging that diffusion imaging parameters might be altered in olfactory tract and substantia nigra in the early stages of clinical Parkinson’s disease, possibly reflecting pathological changes. However, no study has examined olfaction and diffusion imaging in olfactory tract and substantia nigra in the same group of patients. The present study compared newly diagnosed Parkinson’s disease patients with a matched control group using both olfactory testing and diffusion tensor imaging of the substantia nigra and anterior olfactory structures. Fourteen patients with stage 1–2 Hoehn & Yahr Parkinson’s disease were matched to a control group by age and sex. All subjects then completed the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test, as well as a series of MRI scans designed to examine diffusion characteristics of the olfactory tract and the substantia nigra. Olfactory testing revealed significant impairment in the patient group. Diffusion tensor imaging revealed significant group differences in both the substantia nigra and anterior olfactory region, with fractional anisotropy of the olfactory region clearly distinguishing the Parkinson’s subjects from controls. This study suggests that there may be value in combining behavioral (olfaction) and MRI testing to identify early Parkinson’s disease. Since loss of olfaction often precedes the motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease, the important question raised is “will the combination of olfactory testing and MRI (DTI) testing identify pre-motor Parkinson’s disease?”
Due to wastewater irrigation, heavy metal (HM) exposure of agricultural soils is a major limiting factor for crop productivity. Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) may lower the risk of HM ...toxicity and increase crop yield. In this context, we evaluated two HM-resistant PGPB strains, i.e.,
strain WWN1 and
strain JWM6 isolated from wastewater-irrigated agricultural soils, for their efficacy to mitigate HM (Cd, Ni, and Pb) stress in a pot experiment. Increasing concentrations (0, 50, 100, and 200 ppm) of each HM were used to challenge wheat plants. Heavy metal stress negatively affected wheat growth, biomass, and physiology. The plants under elevated HM concentration accumulated significantly higher amounts of heavy metals (HMs) in shoots and roots, resulting in increased oxidative stress, which was evident from increased malondialdehyde (MDA) content in roots and shoots. Moreover, alterations in antioxidants like superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and catalase (CAT) were observed in plants under HM stress. The severity of damage was more pronounced with rising HM concentration. However, inoculating wheat with
strain WWN1 and
strain JWM6 (10
CFU ml
) improved plant shoot length (11-42%), root length (19-125%), fresh weight (41-143%), dry weight (65-179%), and chlorophyll a (14%-24%) and chlorophyll b content (2-24%) under HM stress.
strain WWN1 and
strain JWM6 either alone or in co-inoculation enhanced the antioxidant enzyme activity, which may lower oxidative stress in plants. However, seeds treated with the bacterial consortium showed an overall better outcome in altering oxidative stress and decreasing HM accumulation in wheat shoot and root tissues. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated the changes induced by HMs in functional groups on the biomass surface that display effective removal of HMs from aqueous medium using PGPB. Thus, the studied bacterial strains may have adequate fertilization and remediation potential for wheat cultivated in wastewater-irrigated soils. However, molecular investigation of mechanisms adopted by these bacteria to alleviate HM stress in wheat is required to be conducted.
Over the last three decades, special economic zones (SEZs) have given new impetus to the ever-growing export-oriented industrialization in developing countries. Where various economies have benefited ...from SEZs, many zones have ended up becoming enclaves with trifling advantage. The SEZs in Pakistan have experienced the same fate and have failed to contribute to exports, employment, and creating linkages with the domestic economy. Recently under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), SEZs are proposed to be set up in Pakistan, with a hope to fuel the stuttering economy. However, it is pertinent first to understand the local context and device policies considering stakeholders’ perspectives. This study aims to identify the factors for the successful implementation of SEZs derived from the regional context of Pakistan. In-depth interviews are conducted from the most relevant stakeholders, who have been involved in the development of SEZs. The results pointed towards the removal of political influence over zones and government taking the lead role in deciding the types of industry to be invited in these zones. Each zone should have a clear vision of development based on its locational advantage. The zone promotions should be based on competitiveness rather than fiscal incentives. Joint ventures and PPP should be encouraged inside the zones for sustainable operations.
Shades caused by neighboring tall plants in intercropping systems and weak sunlight are constraints in yield optimization.Shade influences many aspects of plant growth and development,leading to weak ...stems and susceptibility to lodging.The plant cell wall is composed of certain proteins that allow the walls to stretch out,a process called cell wall loosening.Shade affects anatomical,morphological,and physiological traits of plants,thus reducing the physical strength of the stem in crops by changing the loosening of cell walls.Flexibility of cells facilitates further modifications such as wall loosening.In addition,shade stress causes increased internode length,and reduced xylem synthesis and photosynthesis.In shaded plants,lignin deposition in vascular bundles and sclerenchyma cells of stems is decreased.Lignin is a light sensitive phenolic compound and shading decreases the transcript abundance of several phenolic compound (flavone and lignin) related genes.Shading significantly influences the metabolic activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL),peroxidase (POD),4-coumarate:CoA ligase (4CL),and cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) involved in lignin biosynthesis.Furthermore,suppression of lignin biosynthesis activities by abiotic stresses causes abnormal phenotypes such as collapsed xylem,bent stems,and growth retardation.In this review,the underlying mechanisms illustrate that under shading conditions reduced lignin content results in slender,weak,and unstable stems.The objective of this review is to elaborate lignin biosynthesis and its variability under stressful environmental conditions,especially in shade stress environments.The effects of shade on stem lignin metabolism are discussed on the morphogenetic,physiological,and proteomic levels.
PDF
