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The geographical nature of Lebanon allows beekeepers to produce distinctive honey, which is amongst the most expensive in the world, and representing serious competition for foreign honey producers. The increased demand of consumers and the economic crisis are exacerbating fraudulent honey production, particularly sugar addition, which affect negatively its health benefits. In this study, infrared spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics was used to test honey authenticity, as a promising alternative quick, and cost‐efficient method. Six authentic Lebanese honey and 18 samples intentionally doped with 10%, 30%, and 50% of glucose, fructose, sucrose, and high syrup fructose corn syrup (HFCS), were analyzed by near and mid‐infrared (MIR) spectroscopy. Spectral data were processed using Principal Component Analysis. The results allowed for the classification of the samples in function of the adulterant sugars and made it able to define bands that are attributes of these sugars as well as a detection limit which fluctuates around 10%. It was also highlighted the advantage of the MIR over the near‐infrared, especially for fructose and HFCS adulteration. Novelty impact statement: Infrared spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics was proven to be a promising tool for testing honey authenticity as it is perceived to be a quick, reliable, non‐polluting, and cost‐efficient method. The application of the Principal Components Analysis (PCA) on Mid and Near‐Infrared data can detect the adulteration of honey with respect to four adulterant sugars: glucose, fructose, sucrose, and high syrup fructose corn syrup. The results of PCA allowed for the classification of the samples in the function of the adulterant sugars and made it able to define bands that are attributes of these sugars with a detection limit of around 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundIn this large-scale cluster-randomized controlled trial (cRCT) we sought to assess the effectiveness of facemasks against viral respiratory infections.Methods and resultsOver three consecutive Hajj seasons (2013, 2014, 2015) pilgrims' tents in Makkah were allocated to 'facemask' or 'no facemask' group. Fifty facemasks were offered to participants in intervention tents, to be worn over four days, and none were offered to participants in control tents. All participants recorded facemask use and respiratory symptoms in health diaries. Nasal swabs were collected from the symptomatic for virus detection by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Clinical symptoms and laboratory results were analyzed by 'intention- to-treat' and 'per-protocol'. A total of 7687 adult participants from 318 tents were randomized: 3864 from 149 tents to the intervention group, and 3823 from 169 tents to the control group. Participants were aged 18 to 95 (median 34, mean 37) years, with a male to female ratio of 1:1.2. Overall, respiratory viruses were detected in 277 of 650 (43%) nasal/pharyngeal swabs collected from symptomatic pilgrims. Common viruses were rhinovirus (35.1%), influenza (4.5%) and parainfluenza (1.7%). In the intervention arm, respectively 954 (24.7%) and 1842 (47.7%) participants used facemasks daily and intermittently, while in the control arm, respectively 546 (14.3%) and 1334 (34.9%) used facemasks daily and intermittently. By intention-to-treat analysis, facemask use did not seem to be effective against laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections (odds ratio [OR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.9 to 2.1, p = 0.18) nor against clinical respiratory infection (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.9 to 1.4, p = 0.40). Similarly, in a per-protocol analysis, facemask use did not seem to be effective against laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections (OR 1.2, 95% CI 0.9-1.7, p = 0.26) nor against clinical respiratory infection (OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0-1.8, p = 0.06).ConclusionThis trial was unable to provide conclusive evidence on facemask efficacy against viral respiratory infections most likely due to poor adherence to protocol.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health issue. Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are common illnesses during Hajj, for which antibiotics are often inappropriately prescribed. Hajj healthcare workers’ (HCW) knowledge, attitudes and perceptions (KAP) about AMR and antibiotic use for URTIs are not known. We conducted a survey among HCWs during Hajj to explore their KAP regarding antibiotic use for URTIs in pilgrims. Electronic or paper-based surveys were distributed to HCWs during the Hajj in 2016 and 2017. A total of 85 respondents aged 25 to 63 (median 40) years completed the surveys. Most participants were male (78.8%) and were physicians by profession (95.3%). Around 85% and 19% of respondents claimed to have heard about AMR and antimicrobial stewardship programs, respectively, among whom most had obtained their knowledge during their qualification. Implementation of URTI treatment guidelines was very low. In conclusion, HCWs at Hajj have significant knowledge gaps regarding AMR, often do not use standard clinical criteria to diagnose URTIs and display a tendency to prescribe antibiotics for URTIs.

Urtica dioica L. (UD), also known as the stinging nettle, has long been used in traditional medicine for its wide range of health benefits. The current study focuses on the effect of nettle tea on the growth and proliferation of one of the most aggressive ovarian adenocarcinoma cell line, SKOV-3 cells. To examine this, cytotoxicity, cell cycle analysis, and ROS assays were performed, along with Annexin V/PI dual staining, cell death ELISA, Western blot analysis, and motility assays. The results showed that a UD aqueous extract (UDAE) can inhibit the growth and proliferation of SKOV-3 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner by promoting cellular fragmentation. This was accompanied by an increase in two apoptotic hallmarks, the flipping of phosphatidylserine to the outer membrane leaflet and DNA fragmentation as revealed by cell death ELISA. This aqueous extract showed a pro-oxidant activity while also activating the extrinsic caspase-dependent apoptotic pathway with no alteration in autophagy markers. Furthermore, the extract showed promising inhibitory effect on the migratory capacities of aggressive ovarian cancer cells, in vitro.

While conventional medicine has advanced in recent years, there are still concerns about its potential adverse reactions. The ethnopharmacological knowledge established over many centuries and the existence of a variety of metabolites have made medicinal plants, such as the stinging nettle plant, an invaluable resource for treating a wide range of health conditions, considering its minimal adverse effects on human health. The aim of this review is to highlight the therapeutic benefits and biological activities of the edible Urtica dioica (UD) plant with an emphasis on its selective chemo-preventive properties against various types of cancer, whereby we decipher the mechanism of action of UD on various cancers including prostate, breast, leukemia, and colon in addition to evaluating its antidiabetic, microbial, and inflammatory properties. We further highlight the systemic protective effects of UD on the liver, reproductive, excretory, cardiovascular, nervous, and digestive systems. We present a critical assessment of the results obtained from in vitro and in vivo studies as well as clinical trials to highlight the gaps that require further exploration for future prospective studies.

Work-life balance has gained increasing popularity among scholars and practitioners since the beginning of the century. Despite significant attempts to consolidate this burgeoning field, the scholarly knowledge on work-life balance research remains fragmented and detached due to extant number of publications in the area and the mostly subjective approaches used to encapsulate the literature. As such, the current study presents an objective overview of work-life balance research between 2000 and 2020. Using bibliometric techniques, the authors examined 1190 articles indexed in Scopus database to identify the conceptual structure and current dynamics in the field. During the critical period between the reconceptualization of word-life balance and the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, the findings reveal that the field was growing exponentially as a multidisciplinary research area. Most of the scholarly work originated in the US, UK, and Australia with a "locally-centralized-globally-discrete" collaboration pattern among scholars. The most relevant and developed research themes included, in addition to work-life balance, topics related to gender and family life. Furthermore, new emerging research directions had evolved beyond the traditional constructs including job security, flexible working hours, individual productivity, and work-life conflicts. The study contributes to the current knowledge on work-life balance by providing critical insights into the evolution of the field and offers potential avenues for scholars who are interested in this critical research domain and the changes it has experienced post pandemic., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental illness characterized by impaired social interaction and restricted repetitive behaviors or interests. The rising prevalence of ASD diagnosis has triggered a surge in research into investigating the underlying neuropathological processes and finding new therapeutic approaches. ASD is characterized by neuroinflammation and dysregulation of neuro-immune cross-talk, which suggests that stem cell treatment might be a potential therapeutic approach. The beneficial and restorative effects of stem cells are mainly due to their paracrine activity, in which stem cells generate and release extracellular vesicles such as exosomes and distinct secreted non-vesicle soluble proteins, including, growth factors, chemokines, cytokines, and immunomodulatory molecules referred to as the Secretome. In this paper, we reviewed the existing research exploring the therapeutic potential of stem cell secretome focusing on their role in addressing ASD pathology. Furthermore, we proposed a comprehensive mechanism of action for stem cell secretions, encompassing the broader secretome as well as the specific contribution of exosomes, in alleviating ASD neuropathology. Across the reviewed studies, exosomes and secreted soluble factors of the transplanted stem cell demonstrate a potential efficacy in ameliorating autistic-like behaviors. The proposed mechanism of action involves the modulation of signaling pathways implicated in neuroinflammation, angiogenesis, cellular apoptosis, and immunomodulation., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The objective of this study is to document the rate of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency among children with low-energy fractures and compare it to fracture-free control group. We included all children under 15 years presenting to the emergency department with low-energy fractures; controls were children without history of fractures from the outpatient department. Conventional X-ray and laboratory blood tests were performed. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as serum level ≤20 ng/ml, and the mean values were compared through two-sample t -tests. The influence of vitamin D on the fractures was defined using Chi-square test, significance with P -value < 0.05. The relationships between variables and odds of fracture occurrence were examined using logistic regression models. The final sample included 37 cases (30 males, 7 females, 7.4 ± 3.7 years) and 70 control individuals (42 males, 28 females, 7.8 ± 4.6 years) without significant differences regarding age, sex, and month of inclusion. Children with fractures had lower levels of vitamin D (21.87 ± 8.40 ng/ml vs. 25.89 ± 7.62 ng/ml) ( P = 0.01). Vitamin D played a protective role against low-energy fractures (OR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.01-1.14; P = 0.02), boys showed three times greater fracture risk than girls (OR, 3.00; 95% CI, 1.12-8.07; P = 0.03). Finally, vitamin D deficiency correlated with almost five times increased risk of pediatric low-energy fractures (OR, 4.63; 95% CI, 1.92-11.18; P = 0.001). This is the first MENA study establishing a relation between vitamin D deficiency and low-energy fractures among children and adolescents. The findings show the protective role of vitamin D on the pediatric bone and may help physicians preventing morbidity on children and costs on their families and the socioeconomic health system., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Neurodegenerative diseases are progressive disorders characterized by synaptic loss and neuronal death. Optogenetics combines optical and genetic methods to control the activity of specific cell types. The efficacy of this approach in neurodegenerative diseases has been investigated in many reviews, however, none of them tackled it systematically. Our study aimed to review systematically the findings of optogenetics and its potential applications in animal models of chronic neurodegenerative diseases and compare it with deep brain stimulation and designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs techniques. The search strategy was performed based on the PRISMA guidelines and the risk of bias was assessed following the Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation tool. A total of 247 articles were found, of which 53 were suitable for the qualitative analysis. Our data revealed that optogenetic manipulation of distinct neurons in the brain is efficient in rescuing memory impairment, alleviating neuroinflammation, and reducing plaque pathology in Alzheimer's disease. Similarly, this technique shows an advanced understanding of the contribution of various neurons involved in the basal ganglia pathways with Parkinson's disease motor symptoms and pathology. However, the optogenetic application using animal models of Huntington's disease, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was limited. Optogenetics is a promising technique that enhanced our knowledge in the research of neurodegenerative diseases and addressed potential therapeutic solutions for managing these diseases' symptoms and delaying their progression. Nevertheless, advanced investigations should be considered to improve optogenetic tools' efficacy and safety to pave the way for their translatability to the clinic., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

With the alarming rise of drug resistant pathogens, the quest for new bioactive compounds from natural habitats has increased. Actinobacteria are Gram-positive bacteria, considered prominent natural antibiotic synthesizers. This study aimed at isolating Actinobacteria from agricultural soil samples of Tamnine El Tahta and Haddatha, with an emphasis on the physicochemical soil characteristics. It also aimed at screening and identifying the antibacterial-producing Actinobacteria, with a determination of the chemical composition of the extract. Forty-six Actinobacteria were isolated from six soil samples. Actinobacteria load exhibited a positive correlation with moisture content, and a negative correlation with pH, salinity, and organic matter content. Primary screening for antibacterial activity was performed against various Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria by cross-streak method. Fourteen Actinobacteria isolates were potent against the test microorganisms, and the most effective isolate (T25) was selected for identification, and extract preparation. The antibacterial activity of the extract was tested using secondary screening, in addition to minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC), and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) determination. T25 isolate exhibited a 92% similarity with Micrococcus luteus/lylae. MIC recorded was 12.5 mg/ml and the MBC was higher than 100 mg/ml against all test microorganisms. Total phenol content was estimated to be 18.5 ± 0.0015 mg GAE/g dry weight using Folin-Ciocalteu method, and total flavonoid content recorded 2.3 ± 0.02 mg RE/g dry weight using aluminum nitrate colorimetric method. This study revealed that the physicochemical parameters in soils impact the distribution of Actinobacteria. Moreover, it focuses on Micrococcus luteus/lylae strain, considered a promising antibacterial resource for further potential clinical investigations., (© 2024. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Sociedade Brasileira de Microbiologia.)

Training neural networks by using conventional supervised backpropagation algorithms is a challenging task. This is due to significant limitations, such as the risk for local minimum stagnation in the loss landscape of neural networks. That may prevent the network from finding the global minimum of its loss function and therefore slow its convergence speed. Another challenge is the vanishing and exploding gradients that may happen when the gradients of the loss function of the model become either infinitesimally small or unmanageably large during the training. That also hinders the convergence of the neural models. On the other hand, the traditional gradient-based algorithms necessitate the pre-selection of learning parameters such as the learning rates, activation function, batch size, stopping criteria, and others. Recent research has shown the potential of evolutionary optimization algorithms to address most of those challenges in optimizing the overall performance of neural networks. In this research, we introduce and validate an evolutionary optimization framework to train multilayer perceptrons, which are simple feedforward neural networks. The suggested framework uses the recently proposed evolutionary cooperative optimization algorithm, namely, the dynamic group-based cooperative optimizer. The ability of this optimizer to solve a wide range of real optimization problems motivated our research group to benchmark its performance in training multilayer perceptron models. We validated the proposed optimization framework on a set of five datasets for engineering applications, and we compared its performance against the conventional backpropagation algorithm and other commonly used evolutionary optimization algorithms. The simulations showed the competitive performance of the proposed framework for most examined datasets in terms of overall performance and convergence. For three benchmarking datasets, the proposed framework provided increases of 2.7%, 4.83%, and 5.13% over the performance of the second best-performing optimizers, respectively.

This paper explains the contradictory findings on the relationship between stress and work engagement by including appraisals as a driving mechanism through which job stressors influence engagement. In doing so, it explores whether stressors categorised as either challenging or hindering can be appraised simultaneously as both. Second, it investigates whether stress mindset explains not only how stressors are appraised, but also how appraisals influence engagement. Over five workdays, 487 Canadian and American full-time employees indicated their stress mindset and appraised numerous challenging and hindering stressors, after which they self-reported their engagement at work. Results showed that employees rarely appraised stress as uniquely challenging or hindering. Moreover, when employees harbored positive views about stress, stressors overall were evaluated as less hindering and hindrance stressors were particularly more challenging. Stress mindset appears to be critical in modulating the genesis of stress appraisals. In turn, appraisals explained the stressor-engagement relationship, with challenge and hindrance stressors boosting and hampering engagement, respectively. Finally, positive stress mindset buffered the negative effect of hindrance appraisals on engagement. Our findings clarify misconceptions about how workplace stressors impact engagement and offer novel evidence that stress mindset is a key factor in stress at work., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Al Hajj et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The world population is expanding, and with it, so is the need for proteins for the food and feed sectors. Conventional livestock production is correlated with negative environmental repercussions such as global warming, land degradation, and biodiversity loss. The nutritional content of edible insects is comparable to that of conventional meat, and insect farming offers various environmental advantages over livestock production, making it a favorable sustainable protein resource. However, to be placed on the market, insects should be processed, and their microbial load should be within the accepted range of the European Commission regulation (EU) 2021/882. The purpose of this research is to investigate the use of instant controlled pressure drop (DIC) technology for the microbial inactivation of yellow mealworm larvae. This innovative decontamination treatment was compared to blanching in hot water, the conventional processing method. We also investigated the impacts on enzymatic browning. Results showed that the application of rapid (20 s) DIC treatment at 0.3 MPa allowed reducing the total aerobic count and the total yeast and mold count of larvae below the thresholds authorized by the commission regulation. Pressure, temperature, and number of cycle factors were found to have significant effects on the decontamination, while the treatment time had no effect for most treatments. In regard to blanching, we were able to get the authorized load at 90 °C for 360 s. Decimal reduction times for DIC and blanching treatments were found to be 3.8 s and 67.8 s for total aerobic count, and 3 s and 57 s for total yeast and mold count, respectively. Furthermore, DIC-treated larvae showed a significant increase in juice color brightness, which could be traced back to the oxidative enzymatic inactivation of larvae, whereas there was a slight difference between blanched and untreated larvae juice colors., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected tropical disease, classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the most unrestrained diseases. The Syrian war and the significant displacement of refugees aggravated the spread of this ailment into several neighboring countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). In Syria, Leishmania tropica is identified as one of the most aggressive and endemic identified species, causing localized or generalized lesions, often chronic or relapsing. Pentavalent antimonial drugs are currently used as first line treatment against CL. Nonetheless, these drugs exhibit several limitations, including the repetitive painful injections, high cost, poor availability, and mainly systemic toxicity. Besides, the emergence of acquired parasitic resistance hinders their potency, stressing the need for new therapies to combat CL. Natural products (NPs) epitomize a valuable source in drug discovery. NPs are secondary metabolites (SMs) produced by plants, sponges, or a wide variety of organisms, including environmental microorganisms. The EMR is characterized by its immense biodiversity, yet it remains a relatively untapped area in drug discovery. NPs of the region were explored over the last 2 decades, but their discoveries lack biogeographical diversity and are limited to the Red Sea. Here, we isolated previously uncultured environmental soil-dwelling Streptomyces sp. HAS1, from Hasbaya region in southeast Lebanon. When fermented in one of our production media named INA, HAS1 produced a crude extract with significant potency against a clinical Leishmania tropica isolate. Using bio-guided fractionation, the bioactive compound was purified and the structure was elucidated by NMR and LC-HRMS . Our findings establish NPs as strong candidates for treating Leishmania tropica and further dwells on the importance of these natural sources to combat microbial infections., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Awada, Hamie, El Hajj, Derbaj, Najm, Makhoul, Ali, Abou Fayad and El Hajj.)