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Recent scientific interest has surged in the application of bioresources within nanotechnology, primarily because of their eco-friendly nature, wide availability, and cost-effectiveness. Jute is globally recognized as the second most prevalent source of natural cellulose fibers, and it produces a significant quantity of jute sticks as a byproduct. Nanocellulose (NC), which includes cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), exhibits exceptional properties such as high strength, toughness, crystallinity, thermal stability, and stiffness. These attributes enable its versatile use across various sectors. The extensive surface areas and abundant hydroxyl groups of nanocellulose allow for diverse surface modifications, facilitating the design of advanced functional materials. This comprehensive review provides an overview of recent advancements in the synthesis, characterization, and potential applications of nanocellulose derived from jute. As a versatile natural fiber, jute holds immense potential across various research domains, including nanocellulose synthesis, scaffold fabrication, nanocarbon material preparation, life sciences, electronics and energy storage devices, drug delivery systems, nanomaterial synthesis, food packaging and paper industries. Additionally, its use extends to polymeric nanocomposites, sensors, and coatings. This study summarizes the extensive utilization of jute, emphasizing its versatility and potential across diverse research fields., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Authors have no declaration of interest in publishing this review article., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The Zagreb indices (ZIs) are important graph invariants that are used extensively in many different fields in mathematics and chemistry, such as network theory, spectral graph theory, fuzzy graph theory (FGT) and molecular chemistry, etc. The hyper-ZI is introduced especially for fuzzy graphs (FGs) in this study. The study computes this index's bounds for a variety of FG types, including paths, cycles, stars, complete FGs and partial fuzzy subgraphs. It is shown that isomorphic FGs produce the same values for this index. Moreover, interesting connections are established between the hyper-ZI and the second ZI for FGs. Moreover, bounds on this index are found for the following operations: direct product, Cartesian product, composition, join, union, strong product and semi-strong product of two FGs. In the end, the effectiveness of this index is compared with three other topological indices: hyper-ZI for crisp graphs, first ZI for FGs and F-index for FGs, in an analysis of the crime "Murder" in India. While the hyper-ZI for FGs, first ZI for FGs and F-index for FGs yield similar outcomes, the hyper-ZI for FGs demonstrates superior realism in detecting crimes in India compared to its crisp graph counterpart., 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 Author(s).)

Protein-based ultrafine fibrous scaffolds can mimic the native extracellular matrices (ECMs) with regard to the morphology and chemical composition but suffer from poor mechanical and wet stability. As a result, cells cannot get a true three-dimensional (3D) environment as they find in native ECMs. In this study, an epoxide, ethylene glycol diglycidylether (EGDE), with high reactivity to active hydrogen is introduced to gelatin solution, serving as an effective cross-linker. The gelatin/EGDE 3D-ultrafine (∼500 nm in diameter) fibrous composite scaffolds are made by an ultralow-concentration phase separation technique (ULCPS). The effects of the polymer content and modification conditions on the morphology and wet stability of the constructs are investigated. It is revealed that ultrafine fibers with 3D random orientation could be formed at low concentrations (0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 wt %, respectively). The wet stability of the constructs could be effectively improved by introducing EGDE into the gelatin system. The shrinkage is reduced to merely 2.14% after the modification at 120 °C for 2 h and could be maintained for up to 3 days. In order to improve the compression properties, the same technique is utilized with the presence of a poly(lactic acid) (PLA) spacer fabric to produce a bicomponent scaffold. The mechanical property and cell viability of the bicomponent scaffolds are investigated, and it is found that cells could enter deep inside and orient themselves randomly at the central area of the bicomponent scaffold. The modification and design approach presented in this study has the potential to provide various protein-based ultrafine fibrous biomaterials for a variety of biomedical applications.

Cellular energy metabolism analysis is complex, expensive, and indirect. We present a protocol to analyze relative contribution of metabolic pathways to ATP production by directly measuring ATP levels. We describe steps for cell counting and seeding in 96-well plate, treating with metformin, and systematic inhibition with metabolic inhibitors. We then detail procedures for a viability and ATP assay and calculating energy metabolism dependency. This high-throughput and accessible protocol works with any cell line and allows for flexible perturbation studies., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Despite epidemiological indications, utility of metformin in liver cancer remains debated and the understanding of the mechanism underlying its anti-cancer effects remains incomplete. Particularly, whether it operates via similar mechanism under glucose-sufficient and glucose- deficient environments or whether these effects are reversible remains unexplored. This metabolomic dataset was collected from liver cancer (HepG2) cells treated with metformin or placebo over a period of 3 h to 48 h as well as from cells recovering after metformin withdrawal. Cells were exposed to placebo or 2.5 mM metformin with or without glucose (5 mM) supplementation. The cells were harvested at 3, 6, 12, 24, and 48 h post-treatment. Cells were also harvested after 24 h of treatment under one of these conditions followed by reversal of glucose and/or metformin exposure status for 48 h. Metabolites from six biological replicates of each experimental group were extracted using chilled monophasic metabolite extraction solvent (Water: Acetonitrile: Isopropanol= 2:3:3) containing homovanillic acid as an internal standard. Samples were derivatized using MOX reagent followed by MSTFA. Untargeted metabolomic profiling of derivatized samples were performed using an Agilent 7890B gas chromatograph coupled to a 5977B single quadrupole mass spectrometer. Analytes were injected through a splitless liner and separated on a HP-5MS ultra-inert column using ultrapure helium as the carrier gas. Peak alignment, annotation, and integration were done using Agilent MassHunter Quantitative analysis software. Multivariate analysis was performed using MetaboAnalyst 5.0. These experiments were performed to unravel the longitudinal evolution of cellular metabolome in response to metformin treatment, its glucose dependence, as well as to examine the reversibility of these changes. The dataset can help to identify glucose-independent pathways involved in anti-cancer effect of metformin. The dataset can be used to design experiments to develop novel therapeutic combinations synergistically acting with metformin to cripple the metabolic fitness of cancer cells. It can also help to develop experiments to test the effect of metformin withdrawal in liver cancer., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Introduction: Despite the ability of cancer cells to survive glucose deprivation, most studies on anti-cancer effect of metformin explored its impact on glucose metabolism. No study ever examined whether its anti-cancer effect is reversible. Existing evidences warrant understanding of glucose-independent non-cytotoxic anti-proliferative effect of metformin to rationalize its role in liver cancer., Objectives: Characterization of glucose-independent anti-proliferative metabolic effects of metformin as well as analysis of their reversibility in liver cancer cells., Methodology: The dose-dependent effects of metformin on HepG2 cells were examined in presence and absence of glucose. The longitudinal evolution of metabolome was analyzed along with gene and protein expression as well as their correlations with and reversibility of cellular phenotype and metabolic signatures., Results: Metformin concentrations up to 2.5 mM were found to be anti-proliferative irrespective of presence of glucose without significant increase in cytotoxicity. Apart from mitochondrial impairment, derangement of fatty acid desaturation, one-carbon, glutathione, and polyamine metabolism were associated with metformin treatment irrespective of glucose supplementation. Depletion of pantothenic acid, downregulation of essential amino acid uptake and metabolism alongside purine salvage were identified as novel glucose-independent effects of metformin. These were significantly correlated with cMyc expression and reduction in proliferation. Rescue experiments established reversibility upon metformin withdrawal and tight association between proliferation, metabotype, and cMyc expression., Conclusions: The derangement of multiple glucose-independent metabolic pathways, which are often upregulated in therapy-resistant cancer, and concomitant cMyc downregulation coordinately contribute to the anti-proliferative effect of metformin in liver cancer cells. These are reversible and may influence its therapeutic utility., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The use of face masks has become an integral part of public life in the post-pandemic era. However, the understanding of the effect of wearing masks on physiology remains incomplete and is required for informing public health policies. For the first time, we report the effects of wearing FFP2 masks on the metabolic composition of saliva, a proximal matrix to breath, along with cardiopulmonary parameters. Un-induced saliva was collected from young (31.2 ± 6.3 years) healthy volunteers ( n = 10) before and after wearing FFP2 (N95) masks for 30 minutes and analyzed using GCMS. The results showed that such short-term mask use did not cause any significant change in heart rate, pulse rate or SpO 2 . Three independent data normalization approaches were used to analyze the changes in metabolomic signature. The individuality of the overall salivary metabotype was found to be unaffected by mask use. However, a trend of an increase in the salivary abundance of L-fucose, 5-aminovaleric acid, putrescine and phloretic acid was indicated irrespective of the method of data normalization. Quantitative analysis confirmed increases in concentrations of these metabolites in saliva of paired samples amid high inter-individual variability. The results showed that while there was no significant change in measured physiological parameters and individual salivary metabotypes, mask use was associated with correlated changes in these metabolites plausibly originating from altered microbial metabolic activity. These results might also explain the change in odour perception reported to be associated with mask use. Potential implications of these changes on mucosal health and immunity warrants further investigation to evolve more prudent mask use policies.

From the mid-nineteenth century, the railway network has been the most important mode of conveying people and goods in India. 22.15 million passengers used this network and 3.32 million metric tons of goods were also shipped daily from 2019 to 2020. The national rail network comprised 126,366 km of track over a route of 67,368 km and 7,325 stations. It is the fourth-largest national railway network globally after the United States, Russia and China. But with the passage, they pose a threat to the general public while travelling, being the instances of crimes rising fourfold in rails. The ongoing railway crime has become a cause of concern for the common passenger now. In this article, F-index for fuzzy graphs is used to analyze the railway crimes in India and compared with three other topological indices. F-index for fuzzy graphs and the first Zagreb index for fuzzy graphs provide similar results whereas F-index for fuzzy graphs provides better realistic results than F-index for crisp graphs and first Zagreb index for crisp graphs to detect the crime in Indian railway. Also, this index is studied for several operations such as Cartesian product, composition, union and join of two fuzzy graphs. Some interesting relations of F-index are established during fuzzy graph transformations. Using those transformation, it is shown that n -vertex star has maximum F-index among the n -vertex trees. Also, maximal n -vertex unicyclic fuzzy graph having r cycle is determined with respect to F-index., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestPotential conflict of interest was reported by the authors., (© The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Korean Society for Informatics and Computational Applied Mathematics 2022.)

Arsenic (As) is a ubiquitous carcinogenic metalloid that enters into human food chain, through rice consumption. To unravel the conundrum of oxidative vs. reductive stress, the differential root-system architecture (RSA) was studied under As (a ROS producer) and thiourea (TU; a ROS scavenger) alone treatments, which indicated 0.80- and 0.74-fold reduction in the number of lateral roots (NLR), respectively compared with those of control. In case of As+TU treatment, NLR was increased by 4.35-fold compared with those of As-stress, which coincided with partial restoration of redox-status and auxin transport towards the root-tip. The expression levels of 16 ROS related genes, including RBOHC, UPB-1 C, SHR1, PUCHI, were quantified which provided the molecular fingerprint, in accordance with endogenous ROS signature. LC-MS based untargeted and targeted metabolomics data revealed that As-induced oxidative stress was metabolically more challenging than TU alone-induced reductive stress. Cis/trans-ferruloyl putrescine and γ-glutamyl leucine were identified as novel As-responsive metabolites whose levels were decreased and increased, respectively under As+TU than As-treated roots. In addition, the overall amino acid accumulation was increased in As+TU than As-treated roots, indicating the improved nutritional availability. Thus, the study revealed dynamic interplay between "ROS-metabolites-RSA", to the broader context of TU-mediated amelioration of As-stress in rice., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) constitute emerging pollutants of significant public health concern. Antibiotics applied in aquaculture may stimulate the proliferation and dissemination of ARGs. This study investigated the prevalence and diversity of ARGs in Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (formerly Pangasius) and Oreochromis niloticus (formerly Tilapia) commercial aquaculture ponds from four economically important divisions (i.e. regions) of Bangladesh using a high-throughput qPCR ARG SmartChip and further aimed to explore effects of aquaculture pond management and water quality on the observed ARG prevalence patterns. A total of 160 ARGs and 10 mobile genetic elements (MGEs) were detected across all samples (n = 33), of which 76 ARGs and MGEs were shared between all regions. Multidrug resistance genes were the most frequently encountered ARGs, followed by ARGs conferring resistance to β-lactams, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, and macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B (MLSB). Research ponds managed by the Bangladesh Agricultural University had the lowest abundance and diversity of ARGs, suggesting that proper management such as regular water quality monitoring, fortnightly water exchange and use of probiotics instead of antibiotics may mitigate the dissemination of antibiotic resistance from aquaculture ponds. The Adonis test (R 2  = 0.35, p < 0.001) and distance decay relationships revealed that the ARGs composition displayed a significant biogeographical pattern (i.e., separation based on geographic origin). However, this effect could possibly be due to feed type as different feed types were used in different regions. In conclusion, our results indicate that there is a vast potential for improving aquaculture pond management practices in Bangladesh to mitigate the environmental dissemination of ARGs and their subsequent transmission to humans., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest 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., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This work was to determine the impact of pore size and thickness of sorbents besides the influence of oil properties on the performance of sorbents used as an interceptor barrier for oils in Static and dynamic water experiments. polypropylene needle punch sorbents were used. SEM test showed the porous structure of sorbents. Oil sorption test investigated that with sorbents had same thickness N1 absorbed oil 8.89 g/g of soybean oil and 7.15 g/g of motor oil. Meanwhile, sorbents with the same pore size, N6 absorbed oil 6.11 g/g of soybean oil and 5.13 g/g of motor oil. All sorbents showed a retention rate of over 75% after 24 h of dripping. Dynamic oil spreading revealed that smaller pore size and higher thickness exhibited higher height wicking. The static performance experiment showed motor oil and soybean oil started to leak at 38 and 32 min for N1, then prolonged with reducing pore size with intercepting efficiency around 70% after 600 min for motor oil and 540 min for soybean oil. In comparison, The motor oil and soybean oil started to leak at 49 and 40 min for N4 and then prolonged with increased thickness with intercepting efficiency around 70% after 480 min for motor oil and 360 min for soybean oil. Under the dynamic experiment, oils spilled quicker with initial leakage of sorbents N3 and N6 at rate flow 55.65 ml/s for motor oil and soybean oil were (41 min, 36 min) and (50 min, 41 min) while intercepting efficiency was (99%, 98.40%) and (99.33%, 98.40%).

Compositing is an interesting strategy that has always been employed to introduce or enhance desired functionalities in material systems. In this paper, sponges containing polypropylene, lignin, and octavinyl-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (OV-POSS) were successfully prepared via an easy and elegant strategy called thermally induced phase separation (TIPS). To fully explore the behaviour of different components of prepared sponges, properties were characterized by a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared measurement (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, wettability properties toward an organic liquid and oil were investigated. The FTIR analysis confirmed the chemical modification of the components. TGA and DSC measurements revealed thermal stability was much better with an increase in OV-POSS content. OV-POSS modified sponges exhibited ultra-hydrophobicity and high oleophilicity with water contact angles of more than 125°. The SEM revealed that POSS molecules acted as a support for reduced surface roughness. Moreover, OV-POSS-based blend sponges showed higher sorption capacities compared with other blend sponges without OV-POSS. The new blend sponges demonstrated a potential for use as sorbent engineering materials in water remediation.

Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) is a disease that mainly affects human fingertips during cold weather. It is difficult to treat this disease using medicine, apart from keeping the body in a warm environment. In this research, conductive knitted fabrics were fabricated to help relax the vessels of the patient's fingertips by providing proper heat, and also serving as a sensor to detect finger motion after relaxation of the blood vessels of patients. Four different structures, termed plain, purl, interlock, and rib were produced using conductive silver/PE (polyethylene) yarn and wool yarn, with a computerized flat knitting machine. The effect of knitted structure on the electro-thermal behavior, sensitivity, and stability of resistance change (∆R/R) under different tensile forces was investigated. By comprehensive comparison, the purl structure was identified as the preferred structure for the heating glove for RP patients, owing to superior electro-thermal behavior. Additionally, the purl structure had a greater capacity to detect different motions with stable resistance change. This potential electro-thermal glove could be used for functional, as well as aesthetic (fashion) purposes, and could be worn at any time and occasion with complete comfort.

With increasing industrial development, frequent oil spillages in water; therefore, it is imperative and challenging to develop absorbents materials that are eco-efficiency, cost-effective, and pollution prevention. In this study, sorbents obtained from Lignin incorporated with Polypropylene in different levels loading 0, 10, 20 % wt using thermally induced phase separation Technique (TIPS). The Polypropylene/Lignin blend monoliths were fabricated and compared in terms of morphological, thermal, and wetting characterizations. The successfully blending of different lignin concentrations with preserved the chemical structure of the polymer was confirmed by FTIR analysis. Thermogravimetric tests displayed that the existence of Lignin has changed the onset temperature (Tonset) of the blending sorbents, decreasing as the loading of Lignin is increased. The contact angle measurement showed a decrease in the hydrophobicity of sorbents with increasing lignin loading, Polypropylene/Lignin blend monoliths showed better absorption toward oils (soybean - engine) as compared to Polypropylene itself. PP10L showed an improvement in the oil sorption capacity around 2 times compared to the Polypropylene. These excellent features make Polypropylene/Lignin blend monoliths more competitive promising candidates than commercial absorbent., (© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Due to their role in cellular structure, energetics, and signaling, characterization of changes in cellular and extracellular lipid composition is of key importance to understand cancer biology. In addition, several mass spectrometry-based profiling as well as imaging studies have indicated that lipid molecules may be useful to augment existing biochemical and histopathological methods for diagnosis, staging, and prognosis of cancer. Therefore, analysis of lipidomic changes associated with cancer cells and tumor tissues can be useful for both fundamental and translational studies. Here, we provide a high-throughput single-extraction-based method that can be used for simultaneous lipidomic and metabolomic analysis of cancer cells or healthy or tumor tissue samples. In this chapter, a modified Bligh-Dyer method is described for extraction of lipids followed by analysis of fatty acid composition by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or untargeted lipidomics using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESIMS) coupled with reverse-phase (RP) ultraperformance liquid chromatography (UPLC) followed by multivariate data analysis to identify features of interest.

Abdominal pain, one of the major symptoms of chronic pancreatitis, is believed to be caused by obstruction of the pancreatic duct system by stones or strictures. This results in increased intraductal pressure and parenchymal ischemia. Surgical decompression of the duct and ductal drainage can achieve best pain relieve and slow the progression of the disease. We want to share our experience of surgical drainage of pancreatic duct in chronic pancreatitis in our hospital. We studied 20 cases operated in our hospital between January 2010 and October 2015. Patients were selected with pre-operative ultrasonography. Dilatation of the main pancreatic duct by at least 7 mm proximal to the obstruction were recruited for operation. We did Roux-Y lateral pancreato-jejunostomy (LPJ) for patients with obstruction of the pancreatic duct due to stricture or intraductal stones or both. We did additional distal pancreatectomy in case of stone in the tail area.We did one Frey's operation for stone and fibro-calcification of the head. We evaluated their symptoms, their duration, post-operative hospital stay and complications following surgery. We studied their pain control, recurrence and mortality during this period. We followed these patients for more than 5 years. We found 16 out of 20 patients got complete remission of the abdominal pain with no progression of their disease. Ultrasonic evidence of chronic pancreatitis have improved or resolved. Ductal diameter has decreased. They did not develop diabetes or malabsorbtion. One had a recurrence of stone in the head within a year. Three died during this follow-up period. One died three months after LPJ due to massive gangrene of the small intestine distal to LPJ and jejuno-jejunostomy and subsequent short bowel syndrome. Other two developed carcinoma of the pancreas within one year and six months after LPJ respectively. Rate of pain free survival is about 75% and recurrence is 5%. Mortality during this follow up period is 15%. In this small series, we found that surgery if done early, can have good remission of abdominal pain and can slow the progression of chronic pancreatitis in majority of patient. Patient with chronic calcific pancreatitis and diabetes are likely to have unfavorable outcome even after decompressive surgery.

Painless scrotal masses must be investigated with ultrasound imaging and tumour marker assay before being treated with radical inguinal orchidectomy. For unknown reasons, the incidence of this cancer increased in Caucasian population. The incidence of testicular germ cell tumour has doubled in past 40 years. An annual increase of 3-6% is reported in Caucasian population. But the mortality rate has been stable or decreasing due to improvement in treatment. In the past, metastatic testicular cancer was usually fatal, but recent advances in treatment, including high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell rescue, have considerably improved the prognosis. Indeed, testicular cancer is a bright spot in the oncological landscape and is now considered the model for the treatment of solid tumors. We looked into the epidemiology, presentation, classification, work up, staging, various treatment modalities and prognosis of testicular tumour in this article.

We report a case of 42 year old man who presented with one month history of weight loss, gradual abdominal distension and constipation. X-ray of the abdomen showed features of small gut obstruction. A tight stricture at the ileoceacal junction was found to be the cause of obstruction on laparotomy. Distal ileum was found to be severely inflammed with enlarged regional lymph nodes. Right hemicolectomy with resection of distal ileum was done. Histology revealed non caseating granuloma of Chroh's disease. Crohn's disease is relatively rare in Bangladesh. Recent data suggests rising incidence of Crohn's disease (CD) in the Indian sub-continent.

Screening is defined as identification of individuals within an asymptomatic population who have specified disease at a time when intervention may result in improvement of prognosis of the disease. Identification of the disease at the earlier phases of progression improves prognosis. All kinds of cancer screening may not have same benefit. Screening for breast cancer has been found to be beneficial. Randomized controlled trials and meta-analysis have shown that screening by mammography reduces breast cancer by 25% and can significantly reduce mortality from breast cancer. This article reviews methodology and bias, modalities, benefits, problems, results and current guidelines of breast cancer screening.

Deliberate single foreign body ingestion is a scenario that many gastroenterologists commonly see in psychiatric units and prisons. However, multiple foreign body ingestions, especially located in the duodenum, provide the endoscopist with unique challenges for management and treatment. Although most foreign objects pass spontaneously, one should have a low threshold of intervention for multiple objects, especially those that are wide, sharp and at risk of perforation. Diagnosis is typically made when there is a history of ingestion coupled with corresponding radiographic verification. The symptoms tend to be non-specific although some patients are able to delineate where the discomfort level is, correlating with the site of impaction. Most foreign bodies pass spontaneously; however when multiple sharp objects are ingested, the gastroenterologist should perform endoscopic procedures to minimize the risks of bowel perforation. We describe here a successful case of multiple ingested foreign bodies retrieved across the C-loop of the duodenum and the pharynges-esophageal curve via endoscopy and review the literature of multiple foreign body ingestion.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is increasingly being recognized as a health problem in the United States. It is estimated that the lifetime risk for CHF is 1 in 5. The clinical anesthesiologist can expect to see several cases involving patients suffering from CHF. Because of the danger associated with surgery in a patient with CHF, a thorough knowledge of the disorder and the potential effects on the delivery of anesthetics must be considered. In addition, knowledge of the disease process and its manifestations is required for smooth guidance of the patient through the perioperative period. The understanding of current pharmacotherapies, surgical procedures and their implications related to interactions with anesthetics are all discussed.