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AbstractHantavirus is a member of the order Bunyaviralesand an emerging global pathogen. Hantavirus infections have affected millions of people globally based on available epidemiological data and research studies. Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) are the two main human diseases associated with hantavirus infections. Hence, efforts are required to develop a potent vaccine against the pathogen. The only vaccine that is in use for hantavirus is an inactivated virus vaccine, “Hantavax”, but it failed to produce neutralizing antibodies. Vaccine development is of much importance in dealing with the surge of hantavirus globally. In this study, hantavirus five proteins (N protein, G1 and G2, L protein, and non-structural proteins) were used in NetCTL 1.2 program to predict T-cell epitopes. To predict major histocompatibility complex (MHC) binding alleles, an immune epitope database (IEDB) was used. All predicted epitopes were then investigated for different immunoinformatics analyses such as antigenicity and toxicity analyses. The good water-soluble, non-toxic, probable antigenic, and DRB*0101 binder was selected. A multi-epitopes-based vaccine designing was then done where linkers were used to connect the shortlisted epitopes. In addition, an adjuvant molecule was supplementary to the multi-epitopes peptide to improve the vaccine’s immunogenic potential. The final vaccine construct’s three-dimensional structure was modeled by ab initiomethod. The vaccine molecule was then evaluated for its binding potential with TLR-3 immune receptor, which is key for its recognition and processing by the host immune system. Docking studies were performed using HADDOCK software. The best-docked complex was selected and visualized for intermolecular binding and interactions using UCSF Chimera 1.16 software. The findings revealed that the designed vaccine might be a potential vaccine against hantavirus and can be used in experimental animal model testings.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

AbstractMoraxella lacunatais an emerging gram-negative bacterium that is responsible for multiple nosocomial infections. The bacterium is evolving resistance to several antibiotics, and currently, no effective licensed vaccines are available, which warrants the search for new therapeutics. A multi-epitope-based vaccine has been designed for M. lacunata. The complete proteome of M. lacunatacontains 10,110 core proteins. Subcellular localization analysis revealed the presence of five proteins in the extracellular matrix, while 19 proteins were predicted to be located in the outer membrane, and 21 proteins were predicted to be located in the periplasmic region. Only two proteins, the type VI secretion system tube protein (Hcp) and the transporter substrate-binding domain-containing protein, were selected for epitope prediction as they fulfilled all the criteria for being potential vaccine candidates. Shortlisted epitopes from the selected proteins were fused together using “GPGPG” linkers to overcome the limitations of single-epitope vaccines. Next, the cholera toxin-B adjuvant was attached to the peptide epitope using an EAAAK linker. Docking analysis was performed to examine the interaction between the vaccine and immune cell receptors, revealing robust intermolecular interactions and a stable binding conformation. Molecular dynamics simulation findings revealed no drastic changes in the binding conformation of complexes during the simulation period. The net binding free energy of vaccine-receptor complexes was estimated using the molecular mechanics energies combined with the Poisson–Boltzmann and surface area continuum solvation (MM-PBSA) method. The reported values were −586.38 kcal/mol, −283.74 kcal/mol, and −296.88 kcal/mol for the TLR-4-vaccine complex, MHC-I-vaccine complex, and MHC-II-vaccine complex, respectively. Furthermore, the molecular mechanics energies combined with the generalized Born and surface area continuum solvation (MM-GBSA) analysis predicted binding free energies of −596.69 kcal/mol, −287.39 kcal/mol, and −298.28 kcal/mol for the TLR-4-vaccine complex, MHC-I-vaccine complex, and MHC-II-vaccine complex, respectively. The theoretical vaccine design proposed in the study could potentially serve as a powerful therapeutic against targeted pathogens, subject to validation through experimental studies.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

The primary objective of this research is to examine how the Russia–Ukraine war impacted the global economy. To achieve this goal, we propose operational laws, a score and accuracy function, and a divergence measure for complex dual hesitant fuzzy sets. Furthermore, we investigate the challenges associated with multi-criteria decision-making (MCR) using aggregation operators and the TODIM method with complex dual hesitant fuzzy (CDHF) information. Drawing inspiration from arithmetic aggregation operations, we introduce several aggregation operators for complex dual hesitant fuzzy information, including the complex dual hesitant fuzzy weighted average (CDHFWA) operator, complex dual hesitant fuzzy ordered weighted average (CDHFOWA) operator, and complex dual hesitant fuzzy hybrid average (CDHFHA) operator. We thoroughly analyze the unique characteristics of these proposed operators and use them in conjunction with the TODIM method to develop practical approaches for solving complex dual hesitant fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making problems. To validate our approach and demonstrate its applicability, we provide a practical example of how the Russia–Ukraine war affected the global economy. Our study confirms the effectiveness of our approach and highlights how it can be used to solve real-world problems.

AbstractIn 2022, the ongoing multi-country outbreak of monkeypox virus—now occurring outside Africa, too is a global health concern. Monkeypox is a zoonotic virus, which causes disease mainly in animals, and then it is transferred to humans. Recently, in the monkeypox epidemic, a large number of human cases emerged while the global health community worked to tackle the outbreak and save lives. Herein, a multi-epitope-based vaccine is designed against monkeypox virus using two surface-associated proteins: MPXVgp002 accession number > YP_010377003.1 and MPXVgp008 accession number > YP_010377007.1 proteins. These proteins were utilized for B- and T-cell epitopes prediction. The epitopes were further screened, and the screen filtered KCKDNEYRSR, RSCNTTHNR, and RTRRETGAS with the antigenicity scores of 0.5279, 0.5604, and 0.7628, respectively. Overall, the epitopes can induce immunity in 99.74% population of the world. Further, GPGPG linkers were used for joining the epitopes and EAAAK linker was used for adjuvant attachment. It has a three-dimensional structure modelled for retaining the structural stability. Three pairs of amino acid residues that were able to make disulfide bonds were chosen: Gly1-Ser82, Cys7-Tyr10, and Phe51-Ile55. Molecular docking of vaccine was done with toll-like receptors, viz., 2, 3, 4, and 8 immune cell receptors. The docking results revealed that the vaccine as potential molecule due to its better binding affinity with toll-like receptors 2, 3, 4 and 8. Top complex in docking in with each receptor was selected based on lowest energy scores— −888.7 kcal/mol (TLR-2), −976.3 kcal/mol (TLR-3), −801.9 kcal/mol (TLR-4), and −955.4 kcal/mol (TLR-4)—were subjected to simulation. The docked complexes were evaluated in 500 ns of MD simulation. Throughout the simulation time, no significant deviation occurred. This confirmed that the vaccine as potential vaccine candidate to interact with immune cell receptors. This interaction is important for the immune system activation. In conclusion, the proposed vaccine construct against monkeypox could induce an effective immune response and speed up the vaccine development process. However, the study is completely based on the computational approach, hence, the experimental validation is required.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

ABSTRACTIn decision support systems, linguistic fuzzy information played an important role and the linguistic fuzzy aggregation operators (AOs) worked in group decision support systems. Recently, we proposed the linguistic picture fuzzy (LPF) sets, which is the extension of the linguistic intuitionist fuzzy sets, to reflect the ambiguity and vagueness of knowledge in decision-making (DM) problem. The goal of this research work is to define a new family of LPF AOs through the use of Dombi operations and Heronian mean (HM) operator. In addition to fusing individual attribute values, the evolved operators are good ability to handle the common association between the attributes, making them more appropriate to effectively solve difficult multi-attribute DM (MADM) problems. Therefore, we developed an approach for MADM problem based on LPF Dombi HM operators and solved an emergency programme selection problem. The comparison section provides the effectiveness, reliability and practicality.

Spherical fuzzy set (SFS) is also one of the fundamental concepts for address more uncertainties in decision problems than the existing structures of fuzzy sets, and thus its implementation was more substantial. The well-known sine trigonometric function maintains the periodicity and symmetry of the origin in nature and thus satisfies the expectations of the experts over the multi parameters. Taking this feature and the significance of the SFSs into the consideration, the main objective of the article is to describe some reliable sine trigonometric laws for SFSs. Associated with these laws, we develop new average and geometric aggregation operators to aggregate the Spherical fuzzy numbers. Then, we presented a group decision-making strategy to address the multi-attribute group decision-making problem using the developed aggregation operators. To verify the value of the defined operators, a MAGDM strategy is provided along with an application for the selection of an authentic COVID-19 laboratory. Moreover, a comparative study is also performed to present the effectiveness of the developed approach.

The information aggregation operator plays a key rule in the group decision making problems. The aim of this paper is to investigate the information aggregation operators method under the picture fuzzy environment with the help of Einstein norms operations. The picture fuzzy set is an extended version of the intuitionistic fuzzy set, which not only considers the degree of acceptance or rejection but also takes into the account of neutral degree during the analysis. Under these environments, some basic aggregation operators namely picture fuzzy Einstein weighted and Einstein ordered weighted operators are proposed in this paper. Some properties of these aggregation operators are discussed in detail. Further, a group decision making problem is illustrated and validated through a numerical example. A comparative analysis of the proposed and existing studies is performed to show the validity of the proposed operators.

Recently, new emerging research challenge, aircraft ad-hoc networks, has attracted considerable attention from the research community. Due to unique properties of aircraft ad-hoc networks, new routing protocols including geographical routing protocol for heterogeneous aircraft ad-hoc networks (GRHAA) and aeronautical routing protocol (AeroRP) have been proposed and analysed through simulation. However, since these protocols were compared with typical routing protocols for ad-hoc networks with simulation scenarios that were configured with unrealistic parameters for aircraft ad-hoc networks (AANETs), more reliable and credible simulation studies are essentially needed. Based on this demand, in this paper, we conduct simulation-based performance evaluation for two mentioned protocols with new relevant parameters. Based on simulation results, we can identify that two routing protocols are suitable for AANETs. Furthermore, GRHAA shows better performance than AeroRP in the aspects of packet delivery ratio and similar delay by the help of hierarchical architecture as well as more accurate position prediction scheme in heterogeneous environments.

“Universal service” is the policy that all Pakistani Nationals, especially those located in rural areas, should have the opportunity to use same affordable telephony and related services as provided to the urban population in a sustainable manner keeping in view the as available resources. The policy rests on the maxim that all Pakistani, both residing in urban and rural areas, should benefit economically and socially from being able to communicate with others locally and globally. The USF Policy is focused on the geographical areas giving special priority to rural, remote, and small towns and urban areas, which are either un-served or under-served. While planning, USF identifies such areas through mapping existing coverage plots of different operators, demographic data, teledensity, and distance to existing facilities and Socio- economic, and development factors using GIS and Remote Sensing Technologies as Tools of Geography. These tools help to facilitate bidders for extension of their services into the remote areas of the country in conjunction with USF Co targets. Total of 26 unserved lots have been identified throughout the country and divided into different phases. USF Company has contracted 9 lots with the different bidders most of these lots are nearing completion, whereas as four lots are lunched for bidding and planning on the rest is underway. Most of the north eastern Punjab, southwestern Sind, and central Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are heavily served areas, whereas Gilgit-Baltistan (a newly declared province) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir have also been included in the USF targets. Beside, the company is also enhancing the telecommunication infrastructure through expansion of Broadband and Optical Fiber Network throughout the country. Furthermore USF Co is keenly taking up the matters leading to social development through various projects e.g. Project for Disabled persons, Telemedicine, Hepatitis Management Information System etc.

Catharanthus roseus cell suspension cultures were employed for the biotransformation of (-)-caryophyllene oxide (1), and four metabolites, 15-hydroxycaryophyllene oxide (2), 4β ,5α- dihydroxycaryophyll-8(13)-ene (3), 2β -hydroxycaryophyllene oxide (4), and 2-hydroxy-4,5- epoxycaryophyllan-13-ol (5) were obtained. Metabolites 4 and 5 were found to be new compounds, and their structures were deduced by different spectroscopic techniques.

Picture fuzzy sets (PFSs) are one of the fundamental concepts for addressing uncertainties in decision problems, and they can address more uncertainties compared to the existing structures of fuzzy sets; thus, their implementation was more substantial. The well-known sine trigonometric function maintains the periodicity and symmetry of the origin in nature and thus satisfies the expectations of the decision-maker over the multiple parameters. Taking this feature and the significances of the PFSs into consideration, the main objective of the article is to describe some reliable sine trigonometric laws STLs for PFSs. Associated with these laws, we develop new average and geometric aggregation operators to aggregate the picture fuzzy numbers. Also, we characterized the desirable properties of the proposed operators. Then, we presented a group decision-making strategy to address the multiple attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problem using the developed aggregation operators and demonstrated this with a practical example. To show the superiority and the validity of the proposed aggregation operations, we compared them with the existing methods and concluded from the comparison and sensitivity analysis that our proposed technique is more effective and reliable.

Acute surgical abdomen is still forming a diagnostic dilemma in children. Omental torsion was an overlooked differential diagnosis in the era of open appendectomy, but nowadays with the propagation of laparoscopic surgery in pediatric age group there are more reports published describing the omental torsion.

Biotransformation of (−)-ambrox (1) with cell suspension cultures of Actinidia deliciosa (Kiwifruit) yielded the regio- and stereospecific oxygenated products 3-oxoambrox (2), 3β-hydroxyambrox (3), 1α-hydroxyambrox (4), 3β,6β-dihydroxyambrox (5), 1α,6β-dihydroxyambrox (6), and 1α,3β-dihydroxyambrox (7). Metabolites 6 and 7 were found to be new compounds. These metabolites were structurally characterized on the basis of spectroscopic studies. The structure of compound 6 was unambiguously deduced by single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. Metabolites 2−7 were evaluated for in vitro inhibitory activity against the thymidine phosphorylase enzyme.