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Today, different types of nanoparticles (NPs) are being synthesized and used for medical and agricultural applications. In this study, copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) were synthesized using the aqueous extract of mint (Mentha longifolia L.). For the characterization of CuNPs, UV-visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry were used. The UV-Visible absorption peak at 558 nm confirmed the formation of CuNPs. The XRD pattern confirmed the phase-centered crystalline nature of CuNPs. FTIR analysis showed the O-H, Cu-H and C-C bonds, indicating the active role of these functional groups as reducing agents of Cu ions to CuNPS. The synthesized NPs were found to have an almost spherical shape with an average size of 23 nm. When applied to wheat, a condition dependent effect of CuNPs was found. Variety 18-Elite Line 1, Elite Line 3, and 18-Elite Line 6 showed maximum germination and growth rate at 50 mg CuNPs/L, while variety 18-Elite Line 5 showed that increase at 25 mg CuNPs/L. Beyond these concentrations, the seed germination and growth of wheat declined. In conclusion, the application of CuNPs showed a beneficial effect in improving the growth of wheat at a certain concentration.

Background Retrospective data demonstrates that robotic-assisted thoracoscopic surgery provides many benefits, such as decreased postoperative pain, lower mortality, shorter length of stay, shorter chest tube duration, and reductions in the incidence of common postoperative pulmonary complications, when compared to video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Despite the potential benefits of robotic surgery, there are two major barriers against its widespread adoption in thoracic surgery: lack of high-quality prospective data, and the perceived higher cost of it. Therefore, in the face of these barriers, a prospective randomized controlled trial comparing robotic- to video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is needed. The RAVAL trial is a two-phase, international, multi-centered, blinded, parallel, randomized controlled trial that is comparing robotic- to video-assisted lobectomy for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer that has been enrolling patients since 2016. Methods The RAVAL trial will be conducted in two phases: Phase A will enroll 186 early-stage non-small cell lung cancer patients who are candidates for minimally invasive pulmonary lobectomy; while Phase B will continue to recruit until 592 patients are enrolled. After consent, participants will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either robotic- or video-assisted lobectomy, and blinded to the type of surgery they are allocated to. Health-related quality of life questionnaires will be administered at baseline, postoperative day 1, weeks 3, 7, 12, months 6, 12, 18, 24, and years 3, 4, 5. The primary objective of the RAVAL trial is to determine the difference in patient-reported health-related quality of life outcomes between the robotic- and video-assisted lobectomy groups at 12 weeks. Secondary objectives include determining the differences in cost-effectiveness, and in the 5-year survival data between the two arms. The results of the primary objective will be reported once Phase A has completed accrual and the 12-month follow-ups are completed. The results of the secondary objectives will be reported once Phase B has completed accrual and the 5-year follow-ups are completed. Discussion If successfully completed, the RAVAL Trial will have studied patient-reported outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and survival of robotic- versus video-assisted lobectomy in a prospective, randomized, blinded fashion in an international setting. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02617186. Registered 22-September-2015. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02617186

As resistance to traditional antibiotics has become a major issue, it is essential to explore natural sources for new antimicrobial agents. The marine environment offers a variety of natural bioactive compounds. In this study, we examined the antibacterial potential of Luidia clathrata, a tropical sea star species. The experiment was conducted against both gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Mycobacterium smegmatis) and gram-negative (Proteus mirabilis, Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae) bacteria using disk diffusion method. Specifically, we extracted the body wall and gonad using methanol, ethyl acetate, and hexane. Our findings show that the body wall extract using ethyl acetate (1.78μg/ml) was particularly effective against all tested pathogens, while the gonad extract (0.107μg/ml) showed activity against six out of ten selected pathogens. This is a crucial and new discovery that suggests L. clathrata may be a useful source for discovering antibiotics and more research is required to pinpoint and comprehend the active ingredients.

Studying the linkage between manufacturing industry and logistics industry is conducive to explore and improve the efficiency of the common development of them. In order to study the interaction of logistics industry on the development of manufacturing industry and the development of two-industry-linkage, it first calculates the high-quality development level of logistics industry and manufacturing industry, then uses the coupling coordination model to theoretically analyze and empirically test the coupling and coordinated development level of high-quality development of logistics industry and manufacturing industry from three aspects: coupling degree, coordination degree and coupling coordination degree, and based on the perspective of integration field theory, it takes the three basic synthetic fields of logistics integrator, logistics base-nuclear and logistics connection-key as the analysis dimension, PVAR model was introduced for in-depth analysis the impact of logistics industry on manufacturing industry and the level of the two-industry-linkage. It was found that the high-quality development of China’s logistics industry and manufacturing industry is close on the whole, and the development trend is consistent, the high-quality development of them is mainly caused by the change of scale, but there is no obvious change in technical efficiency, which also provides a way for the high-quality development of the two-industry-linkage in the future. The two-industry-linkage mostly belongs to the situation of low-level mutual restriction, which has not yet reached a high level of mutual promotion, resulting in the overall coupling coordination degree basically in a state of barely coordination. The development of logistics industry and manufacturing industry need to go through certain practice and running in, when there is an error matching between the two, the logistics industry will inhibit the two-industry-linkage. When the economy develops to a certain extent, the expansion of the logistics system scale to the level of the two-industry-linkage is not necessarily beneficial, blindly exceeding the demand for logistics investment will cause a waste of resources, which is not conducive to the high-quality development of the logistics industry and the coupling and coordinated development of the two industries. In the long run, the change of the logistics basic-nuclear capacity, the logistics integrator scale and logistics connection-key level will have a positive impact on the change of green total factor productivity in manufacturing industry.

Governments can use social media platforms such as Twitter to disseminate health information to the public, as evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic [Pershad (2018)]. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of Canadian government and public health officials’ use of Twitter as a dissemination platform during the pandemic and to explore the public’s engagement with and sentiment towards these messages. We examined the account data of 93 Canadian public health and government officials during the first wave of the pandemic in Canada (December 31, 2019 August 31, 2020). Our objectives were to: 1) determine the engagement rates of the public with Canadian federal and provincial/territorial governments and public health officials’ Twitter posts; 2) conduct a hashtag trend analysis to explore the Canadian public’s discourse related to the pandemic during this period; 3) provide insights on the public’s reaction to Canadian authorities’ tweets through sentiment analysis. To address these objectives, we extracted Twitter posts, replies, and associated metadata available during the study period in both English and French. Our results show that the public demonstrated increased engagement with federal officials’ Twitter accounts as compared to provincial/territorial accounts. For the hashtag trends analysis of the public discourse during the first wave of the pandemic, we observed a topic shift in the Canadian public discourse over time between the period prior to the first wave and the first wave of the pandemic. Additionally, we identified 11 sentiments expressed by the public when reacting to Canadian authorities’ tweets. This study illustrates the potential to leverage social media to understand public discourse during a pandemic. We suggest that routine analyses of such data by governments can provide governments and public health officials with real-time data on public sentiments during a public health emergency. These data can be used to better disseminate key messages to the public.

Background Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) are highly prevalent among children residing in resource-limited countries like Bangladesh. L-carnitine may play a role in improving the growth and ameliorating the EED among nutritionally vulnerable children. Objective To investigate the role of L-carnitine supplementation on the rate of weight gain, duration of hospital stays, and EED biomarkers among children with severe acute malnutrition. Methods This study is a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial aiming to enroll diarrheal children with SAM between 9–24 months of both sexes attending the nutritional rehabilitation unit (NRU) of Dhaka Hospital of icddr,b. It is an ongoing trial including two arms where one arm receives L-carnitine supplementation, and the other arms receive a placebo for 15 days in addition to the existing standard treatment of SAM. The primary outcome is the rate of weight gain, and the secondary outcomes include duration of hospital stay and EED biomarkers. Outcomes are assessed at baseline and 15 days of post-intervention. We hypothesize that the L- carnitine supplementation for 15 days in children with SAM will improve the rate of weight gain and biomarkers of EED. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov # NCT05083637. Date of registration: October 19, 2021.

Arsenic exposure alters redox balance, induces DNA damage, and deregulates many genes. OGG1 gene involved in base repair mechanism, for excision of 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG) from DNA formed as a result of accumulation of ROS in cell. HPRT gene encode transferase enzymes involved in purine recycling mechanism. The main focus of the study was to evaluate the expression variation in HPRT, OGG1 gene expression, and DNA damage of industrial workers. Blood samples of 300 occupational workers were collected from welding, brick kiln, furniture, pesticide, and paint industry (n = 60/industry) to evaluate the expression variation in HPRT, OGG1 gene expression, and DNA damage in blood cells by comet assay along with age and gender matched 300 control individuals. Blood arsenic content was higher (POGG1 and HPRT expression were (P25years of age as well as between workers with 10year exposure. Reduced expression (POGG1 and HPRT gene induce oxidative stress, showed a negative impact on the recycling of purines leading to DNA damage which increase the vulnerability of workers to carcinogenicity.

Background Endogenous erythropoietin (EPO) concentrations vary widely in preterm infants and may be associated with perinatal risk factors and neurological outcomes. Erythropoietin is elevated in fetal hypoxia but is also a potential neuroprotectant. Methods In a prospective study of 27 infants ≤ 30 weeks gestation, serum erythropoietin concentrations were measured during the first month of life, on day 1 and weeks 1, 2, and 4, and related to perinatal risk factors and outcomes including retinopathy of prematurity and cerebral injury evaluated near term-equivalent post menstrual age using magnetic resonance imaging with quantitative scoring. Results Lower birth weight was associated with higher EPO concentrations throughout the first 2 weeks of life (r = -0.6, p < 0.01). Higher day 1 and week 1 EPO concentrations were associated with lower Apgar score at 1 minute (r = - 0.5) and 5 minutes (r = -0.7), respectively (p < 0.01). Higher day 1 EPO concentrations and 2-week area under the curve were associated with increased risk (p = 0.01) and severity (r = 0.5, p < 0.02) of retinopathy of prematurity. Higher EPO concentrations at 2 weeks were associated with increased total brain injury score (r = 0.5, p < 0.05). Conclusion Elevated endogenous erythropoietin concentrations in the first two weeks of life are associated with lower birth weight and increased risk of adverse outcomes.

BackgroundWetlands are biologically diverse and highly productive ecosystems that support one-third of all threatened and endangered plants of the world. Wetland plants have been studied ethnobotanically much less than terrestrial plants, including in Pakistan, thus information about the uses of local wetland plants in traditional healthcare system is scare. Head Maralla is a non-recognized wetland with diversified flora that has been focused of the current study.MethodsThe ethnobotanical data were collected from four sites viz., River Tavi, Upstream Chenab, River Manawarwala Tavi, and Bhalolpur through questionnaire and interviews during field trips. Quantitative indices including informant consensus factor (ICF), cultural significant indext (CSI), relative frequency of citation (RFC), and use value (UV) were used to analyze the data.ResultsOn the whole, 119 plant species were identified belonging to 54 families, of which 87 species were dicot, 12 monocots, 11 aquatic, 5 ferns, and 4 species were bryophytes. Of these, 50% of the plant species were utilized for therapeutic purposes, followed by leaves which had more than 20% usage of total consumption. Herbs were the primary source of medicine (73 spp) followed by trees (22 spp), weeds (11 spp), shrubs (9 spp), foliose (2 spp) and thaloids (2 spp) in the area. Ficranged from 0.66 to 0.93 for constipation and respiratory disorders with an average Ficof 0.87 reflecting a high consensus among the informants about the use of plants to treat particular ailment. Major ailments viz., urination (14%), cough (8.40%), cold (6.70%), stomach (5.90%), asthma (5.90%), skin infection (5%), constipation (5%), and diarrhea (4%) etc., were treated with local plant recipes. The highest CSI value was found forA.vesica(7.55) widely used in respiratory disorders and in digestive problems. RFC ranged from 0.92 to 0.15 with the maximum value obtained forR.communis(0.95). The use values ranged from 0.03 to 0.90 with the maximum use value forR.communis(0.90). A positive correlation was found between CSI and RFC (r = 0.29), and CSI and UV (r = 0.29). The JI values ranged from 7.14 to 0.14 indicating strong affinity with Samahani valley, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. Unique speciesOsmunda regaliswas first time reported from Pakistan with novel uses for renal and blood purifier. Fifteen percent (15%) plants contribute as fodder species consumed by local community for livestock while almost 6.7% species were utilized for timber and fuel purposes.ConclusionThe ecosystem of Head Maralla provide a complex habitat for aqauatic, terrestrial, and agriculture wetland vegetation. It is suggested that conservation efforts should be made to conserve the ethnoecological knowledge of these areas and pharmacological studies should be conducted for noval drug synthesis in future.

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare, but aggressive entity of breast carcinoma with rapid dermal lymphatic invasion in young females. It is either poorly or misdiagnosed as mastitis because of the absence of a distinct lump. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) circulating in liquid biopsies are a novel class of minimally invasive diagnostic alternative to invasive tissue biopsies. They modulate cancer progression via shuttling their encapsulated cargo including microRNAs (miRNAs) into recipient cells to either trigger signaling or induce malignant transformation of targeted cells. Plasma sEVs < 200 nm were isolated using a modified cost-effective polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based precipitation method and compared to standard methods, namely ultracentrifugation and a commercial kit, where the successful isolation was verified by different approaches. We evaluated the expression levels of selected sEV-derived miR-181b-5p, miR-222-3p and let-7a-5p using quantitative real PCR (qPCR). Relative to non-IBC, our qPCR data showed that sEV-derived miR-181b-5p and miR-222-3p were significantly upregulated, whereas let-7a-5p was downregulated in IBC patients. Interestingly, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analysis revealed that diagnostic accuracy of let-7a-5p alone was the highest for IBC with an area under curve (AUC) value of 0.9188, and when combined with miR-222-3p the AUC was improved to 0.973. Further, 38 hub genes were identified using bioinformatics analysis. Together, circulating sEV-derived miR-181b-5p, miR-222-3p and let-7a-5p serve as promising non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers for IBC.

Cryptography is commonly used to secure communication and data transmission over insecure networks through the use of cryptosystems. A cryptosystem is a set of cryptographic algorithms offering security facilities for maintaining more cover-ups. A substitution-box (S-box) is the lone component in a cryptosystem that gives rise to a nonlinear mapping between inputs and outputs, thus providing confusion in data. An S-box that possesses high nonlinearity and low linear and differential probability is considered cryptographically secure. In this study, a new technique is presented to construct cryptographically strong 8×8 S-boxes by applying an adjacency matrix on the Galois fieldGF(28). The adjacency matrix is obtained corresponding to the coset diagram for the action of modular groupPSL(2,Z)on a projective linePL(F7) over a finite fieldF7. The strength of the proposed S-boxes is examined by common S-box tests, which validate their cryptographic strength. Moreover, we use the majority logic criterion to establish an image encryption application for the proposed S-boxes. The encryption results reveal the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed S-box design in image encryption applications.

Rationale & objectiveThe prognostic significance of dialysis-dependent end-stage kidney disease on postoperative mortality is unclear. This study aims to estimate the odds of postoperative mortality in patients receiving chronic dialysis undergoing elective surgery compared to patients with normal kidney function, and to examine the influence of comorbidities on the excess mortality risk.MethodsA systematic search of studies published up to January 2020 was conducted using MEDLINE, EMBASE and CENTRAL databases. Eligible studies reported postoperative 30-day or in-hospital mortality in chronic dialysis patients compared to patients with normal kidney function undergoing elective surgery. Two investigators independently reviewed all abstracts and performed risk of bias assessments using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Quality of evidence was summarised in accordance with GRADE methodology (grading of recommendations, assessment, development and evaluation). Relative mortality risk estimates were obtained using random effects meta-analysis. Heterogeneity was explored using meta-regression. (PROSPERO CRD42017076565).ResultsForty-nine studies involving 41, 822 chronic dialysis and 10, 476, 321 non-dialysis patients undergoing elective surgery were included. Patients on chronic dialysis had a greatly increased postoperative mortality odds compared to patients with normal kidney function. The excess risk ranged from OR 10.8 (95%CI 7.3-15.9) following orthopaedic surgery to OR 4.0 (95%CI 3.2-4.9) after vascular surgery. Adjustment for age and comorbidity attenuated the excess odds but remained higher for patients on chronic dialysis, irrespective of surgical discipline. Meta-regression analysis demonstrated an inverse linear relationship between excess mortality risk and study-level mean age (slope -0.06; P = 0.001) and diabetes prevalence (slope -0.02; p = 0.001).ConclusionsPatients on chronic dialysis have an increased odds for postoperative mortality following elective surgery across all surgical disciplines. This relationship is consistent among all studies, with the excess postoperative mortality attributable to end-stage kidney disease and chronic dialysis treatment may be lower among older patients with diabetes.

M-wallets are comparatively more advantageous and convenient than conventional payment systems as m-wallets allow users to avoid cash. The present research uses the diffusion of innovation theory as the base theory to propose a research model by incorporating constructs like convenience, perceived security, personal innovativeness, and perceived trust to investigate the determinants of consumers’ intention-to-use m-wallets. A twofold approach comprising of Structural Equation Modelling—Artificial Neural Network (SEM-ANN) was used: First, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to determine the significant determinants of intention-to-use. Second, the ANN approach was applied as robustness to corroborate the outcomes of PLS-SEM and to estimate the relative importance of the SEM-based significant determinants. Our findings confirmed that compatibility, ease of use, observability, convenience, relative advantage, personal innovativeness, perceived trust, and perceived security are the key elements that influence the intention-to-use m-wallets. Moreover, we ascertained that perceived security is the most influential predictor of intention-to-use. The outcomes of ANN have complemented the findings of PLS-SEM, but some differences were also exhibited in the order of influential factors. The study brings to fore significant insights and a set of suggestions for the companies carrying out the development, execution, and marketing of M-wallet services.

Plant species of the Poaceae family are not only used as fodder and forage but also contribute substantially to the treatment of various health disorders, particularly in livestock. Consequently, the present study was aimed to document the therapeutic uses of Poaceae practiced by the inhabitants of the Punjab Province for the treatment of various veterinary health disorders. Semi structured interviews, group discussion and field walks were conducted to collect the data. Quantitative indices including cultural significance index (CSI), relative frequency of citations (RFC), fidelity level (FL), relative popularity level (RPL), and Jaccard Index (JI) were used for the data analysis. Traditional uses of 149 species belonging to 60 genera and 16 tribes of 5 sub families of Poaceae were recorded. Whole plants and leaves were the most consistently used parts with 40.94 and 29.53%. The plants were mainly given orally as fodder (59 reports) without processing followed by decoction (35 reports). Most of the species were employed to treat infectious diseases (25.93%), and digestive disorders (14.10%). Triticum aestivum had the highest CSI, RFC and RPL levels at 8.00, 0.96, 1.00, respectively, followed by Oryza sativa and Poa annua. Likewise, T. aestivum and Saccharum spontaneum had 100% FL and ROP. Jaccard index ranged from 12.25 to 0.37. Twelve plant species namely Chrysopogon zizanioides (anti-inflammatory), Pennisetum lanatum (improve bull fertility), Cymbopogon citratus (glandular secretion), Sorghum saccharatum and Themeda triandra (malaria), Aristida funiculate (anticancer), Koeleria argentia (skin allergies), Tetrapogon villosus (antibacterial), Cynodon radiatus (eyes infection), Sporobolus nervosa (Jaundice), Enneapogon persicus (antifungal), and Panicum repens (dysfunctional cattle organs) were reported for the first time, with novel ethnoveterinary uses. The inhabitants of the study area had a strong association with their surrounding plant diversity and possessed significant knowledge on therapeutic uses of Poaceae to treat various health disorders in animals. Plant species with maximum cultural and medicinal values could be a potential source of novel drugs to cure health disorders in animals and human as well.

Background Multiple case definitions are used to identify hospitalized patients with community-acquired acute respiratory infections (ARI). We evaluated several commonly used hospitalized ARI case definitions to identify influenza cases. Methods The study included all patients from a population-based surveillance site in Damanhour, Egypt hospitalized for a broad set of criteria consistent with community acquired ARIs. Naso- and oropharyngeal (NP/OP) swabs were tested for influenza using RT-PCR. Sensitivity, specificity and PPV for influenza identification was compared between the 2014 WHO Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) definition (fever ≥38°C and cough with onset within 10 days), the 2011 WHO SARI definition (fever ≥38°C and cough with onset within 7 days), the 2006 PAHO SARI definition, the International Emerging Infections Program (IEIP) pneumonia case definition, and the International Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) case definitions for moderate and severe pneumonia. Results From June 2009-December 2012, 5768 NP/OP swabs were obtained from 6113 hospitalized ARI patients; 799 (13.9%) were influenza positive. The 2014 WHO SARI case definition captured the greatest number of ARI patients, influenza positive patients and ARI deaths compared to the other case definitions examined. Sensitivity for influenza detection was highest for the 2014 WHO SARI definition with 88.6%, compared to the 2011 WHO SARI (78.2%) the 2006 PAHO SARI (15.8%) the IEIP pneumonia (61.0%) and the IMCI moderate and severe pneumonia (33.8% and 38.9%) case definitions (IMCI applies to Conclusions Our results support use of the 2014 WHO SARI definition for identifying influenza positive hospitalized SARI cases as it captures the highest proportion of ARI deaths and influenza positive cases. Routine use of this case definition for hospital-based surveillance will provide a solid, globally comparable foundation on which to build needed response efforts for novel pandemic viruses.

BackgroundClinical outcomes of patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) secondary to membranous nephropathy (MN) have not been well described. This study aimed to evaluate patient and/or allograft outcomes of dialysis or kidney transplantation in patients with ESKD secondary to MN.Material and methodsAll adult patients with ESKD commencing renal replacement therapy in Australia and New Zealand from January 1998 to December 2010 were extracted retrospectively from ANZDATA registry on 31st December 2013. Outcomes of MN were compared to other causes of ESKD. In a secondary analysis, outcomes of MN were compared to all patients with ESKD due to other forms of glomerulonephritis.ResultsOf 32,788 included patients, 417 (1.3%) had MN. Compared to other causes of ESKD, MN experienced lower mortality on dialysis (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.79, 95% CI 0.68-0.92, p = 0.002) and following kidney transplantation (aHR 0.57, 95% CI 0.33-0.97, p = 0.04), had a higher risk of death-censored kidney allograft failure (aHR 1.55, 95% CI: 1.00-2.41, p = 0.05) but comparable risk of overall kidney allograft failure (aHR 1.35, 95% CI 0.91-2.01, p = 0.13). Similar results were obtained using competing-risk regression analyses. MN patients were significantly more likely to receive a kidney transplant (aHR 1.38, 95% CI 1.16-1.63, pConclusionMN was associated with superior survival on dialysis and following kidney transplantation compared to patients with other causes of ESKD, and comparable patient survival compared to patients with other forms of glomerulonephritis. However, patients with MN exhibited a higher rate of death-censored allograft loss as a result of primary kidney disease recurrence.