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Obesity is distinguished by unwanted and surplus accumulation of lipids in body principally in adipocytes. Inactive lifestyle and dietary irregularities are considered as premiers among a variety of obesogenic risk factors. Obesity is associated with variations in the concentration of trophic and tropic hormones from pituitary gland affecting different body parts and other endocrine glands including adrenal gland. Current study was design to explore the anti-obesity potential of cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) against high sugar and high fat induced hyper-activity of pituitary-adrenal (PA) axis and obesity. Twenty-five healthy Wistar albino female rats were selected as model animal. Body weight, oral glucose tolerance test, serum cortisol, hematology and histopathological analysis were performed. The high sugar and high fat induced increase in body eight was decline by cinnamon administration. Hematological analysis revealed a significant decreased concentration of RBCs and hemoglobin and increased WBCs and platelet count following sub-acute exposure of high sugar and high fat changes were attenuated by cinnamon. High sugar and fat associated elevated serum cortisol was normalized after cinnamon exposure. Moreover, cinnamon protected the histopathological alterations following high sugar and fat administration, showed protective effects of Cinnamon against obesity associated dysregulation of PA axis and metabolic impairment.

Atherosclerosis is a metabolic disorder characterized by chronic inflammation associated with progressive thickening and hardening of the large to medium-sized arteries due to plaque formation. The study aims to evaluate the antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and hypolipidemic efficacy of Opuntia ficus-indica (OFI) fruit extract against the high-fat-diet associated atherosclerotic rat model. In-vitro qualitative and quantitative phytochemical screening of OFI fruit extract revealed the significant presence of total phenolic content and total flavonoid contents. In-vitro antioxidant activity of fruit extract was determined through 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and FRAP assays that have shown their protective efficacy against the overproduction of reactive oxygen species. Results revealed that the level of total oxidant stress was significantly (P

The worldwide outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has challenged the priorities of healthcare system in terms of different clinical management and infection transmission, particularly those related to hepatic-disease comorbidities. Epidemiological data evidenced that COVID-19 patients with altered liver function because of hepatitis infection and cholestasis have an adverse prognosis and experience worse health outcomes. COVID-19-associated liver injury is correlated with various liver diseases following a severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection that can progress during the treatment of COVID-19 patients with or without pre-existing liver disease. SARS-CoV-2 can induce liver injury in a number of ways including direct cytopathic effect of the virus on cholangiocytes/hepatocytes, immune-mediated damage, hypoxia, and sepsis. Indeed, immediate cytopathogenic effects of SARS-CoV-2 via its potential target, the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 receptor, which is highly expressed in hepatocytes and cholangiocytes, renders the liver as an extra-respiratory organ with increased susceptibility to pathological outcomes. But, underlying COVID-19-linked liver disease pathogenesis with abnormal liver function tests (LFTs) is incompletely understood. Hence, we collated COVID-19-associated liver injuries with increased LFTs at the nexus of pre-existing liver diseases and COVID-19, and defining a plausible pathophysiological triad of COVID-19, hepatocellular damage, and liver disease. This review summarizes recent findings of the exacerbating role of COVID-19 in pre-existing liver disease and vice versa as well as international guidelines of clinical care, management, and treatment recommendations for COVID-19 patients with liver disease.

Using first-principles calculations, we predicted different structures of lithium (Li) atoms with solid electrolytes (e.g., ethylene carbonate (EC)) and their coordination number (n = 3) for the first time. Additionally, we explored the unique properties of the EC absorption of the Li atom using both the equilibrium EC solvent and complex cluster of Li+. Vibrational spectral analysis confirmed that only one type of Li coordinates with EC molecules. The coordination number of EC molecules increases with decreasing minimization or optimization energy and the charge of Li ions. Due to electron affinity and ion charges, only the optimized energy investigation supports the coordination of the EC solvent, which can be calculated by Li+Bn n = 1–3, where B is the organic solvent (ethylene).

Nigella sativa and Piper nigrum are implicated in the treatment of various disorders, especially in the management of metabolic, infectious and hepatorenal ailments. However, data on the mechanism behind therapeutic potential of N. sativa and P. nigrum in liver diseases is scarce. The present study investigated the hepatoprotective potential of 70% methanolic extract of N. sativa (NSE) and P. nigrum (PNE) at varying dose levels (100 to 400 mg/kg body weight) against concanavalin A (conA)-induced liver injury. Qualitative phytochemical analysis of plant extracts was performed. Acute hepatic injury was induced by administering intraperitoneally 12mg/kg conA in Balb/c mice. The extent of hepatic injury was measured by analysing serum biochemical parameters, liver antioxidant stress assay and histopathology. Data were analysed statistically. NSE and PNE showed dosedependent hepatoprotective efficacy by lowering the conA-dependent rise in liver transaminase level. Treatment with NSE (400 mg/Kg) and PNE (400 mg/Kg) ameliorated conA-induced alterations in serum oxidative stress markers, biochemical parameters, liver function markers and histopathology. NSE indicated greater effectiveness to ameliorate the acute hepatic injury in comparison with PNE at the same dose. Collectively, pretreatment with NSE and PNE attenuated the liver injury induced by conA, might be through alleviating the antioxidant capacity of experimental mice

Burns are caused by various external factors, such as radiation, chemicals, electricity, hot surfaces or liquids, which can seriously damage the integrity of the skin. Due to the lack of blood vessel formation, immunosuppression, and sensitivity to various infections, third-degree burns can damage the entire skin layer and delay the healing process. Therefore, this study was planned to evaluate the therapeutic effects of nano ZnO, nano CUR alone and in the composite form in third-degree burns. Topical 1% w/w skin ointments of nano ZnO, Curcuma longa (C. longa) nanoparticles (nano-CUR) and a composite of ZnO and C. longa nanoparticles (nano ZnO/CUR composite) were formulated for the treatment of burn wounds after characterization. A total of 25 rabbits from the animal house were grouped in 4 treatment (nano ZnO, nano CUR, nano ZnO/CUR and positive control) groups with 5 rabbits in each, while 5th group as a negative control group. These rabbits of four treatment groups were branded with the red-hot iron bar having a diameter of 10 mm for 15 seconds to create two burn wounds on each rabbit after induction of anesthesia. Healing time and wound contraction rate were conducted at 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th day after wound infliction while histopathological examination was conducted at 28th day after woud infliction. The statistical evaluation showed that nano ZnO/CUR composite group took less time to heal wound (avg, 24.25D ± 0.5) as compared to other groups of nano ZnO (26.25D ± 0.5), nano CUR (28D ± 0.82) and positive control (36.25D ± 0.5) with a similar pattern as observed for contraction rate of the wound. Histopathological analysis showed higher collagen deposition, vascularization, angiogenesis and fibrosis by nano ZnO/CUR composite treated group as compared to other groups. The study concluded that the application of nano ZnO/CUR composite ointment will heal third-degree burn wounds rapidly as compared to solus alone application.

Scope creep is considered as one of the crucial reasons for the failure of traditional software development projects. The ability to manage and control the change elements on a project, particularly the project scope, is a key to project success. The notion of agile process was introduced to tackle the scope change-related challenges such as scope creep. By adopting an agile-footed process, the development organizations can react to the consistent market changes and client requests. However, continuous change accommodation may negatively impact on the success of the targeted project since the project manager mainly focuses on controlling scope change rather than analyzing its impact on the cost and quality. The agile-process advocates have accepted that this situation could happen even following agile methodology, which prompts on compromising the quality, postponed the plans, increases the cost, plan to modify, and diminished the consumer loyalty. Additionally, the scope-related challenge significantly increases, especially when managing scope creep in Global Software Development (GSD) context. Thus, there is a need to focus on scope creep factors in the context of AGSD. Motivated by this, current work aims at identifying the factors causing scope creep in the context of AGSD. To achieve the targeted objectives, we reported the current state-of-the-art related to existing scope creep models in AGSD context. We performed a systematic literature review and an empirical study to address the formulated research questions. The current study also identifies the additional challenges of scope creep from the industrial perspective. Based on the obtained results, the current work proposes a conceptual model for scope creep to assist the agile practitioners to effectively handle the scope creep, which ultimately increases the project success and forecasts change control effect on a software project. Moreover, the proposed conceptual model’s effectiveness is validated through expert judgment and a case study. The obtained promising results ensure the additional aspects of AGSD; hence, the project manager could overcome the project’s overall risk by implementing the proposed model.

High fat high sugar (HFHS) diet results in various disorders including oxidative stress. In present study, prebiotics supplementation was given to rats following HFHS diet feeding. The results showed that prebiotics significantly lowered the HFHS-diet associated elevated levels of cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipids, alkaline phosphatase, blood urea, creatinine, uric acid and total proteins. Prebiotics significantly restored the HFHS-diet induced decrease in total anti-oxidant capacity. The levels of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, bilirubin, total oxidation status, malondialdehyde, paraoxonase and arylesterase were not significantly different in HFHS-Prebiotics group as compared to control group. Histological analyses of liver, intestine and kidney tissues in HFHS-group showed cytoplasmic vacuolation, mucosal damage, hepatic triad abnormalities, eccentric nuclei, focal necrosis, tubular congestion and neutrophil infiltration which were significantly improved in HFHS+Prebiotics group suggesting ameliorative potential of prebiotics. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that prebiotics possess therapeutic potential in ameliorating HFHS-diet associated alterations in metabolic profile, oxidative stress markers and histological architecture in intestine, liver and kidney tissues

Lung is the prime organ for respiration, facing health issues when exposed to environment. Acute lung injury due to direct and indirect stimuli provokes an inflammatory response resulting in alveolar epithelial barrier dysfunction, increase membrane permeability and ultimately pulmonary edema. Approximately eight million deaths were reported each year with direct or indirect exposure to smoke. Current study was designed to elucidate the therapeutic efficacy of Chenopodium quinoa seeds extract against cigarette smoke-induced pathophysiological alterations in the lung parenchyma. Results revealed that serum oxidative marker (TOS) were significantly (P Chenopodium quinoa seeds extract against cigarette smoke-induced pathophysiological alterations in the lung parenchyma due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant efficacy to restore lung homeostasis.

In this work, first-principles computational study on the structural, electronic and optical properties of Tl4GeS3, Tl4GeSe3 and Tl4GeTe3 ternary compounds are presented. The computations are performed with pseudopotential plane wave method based on density functional theory with the generalized gradient approximation of Perdew–Burke and Enzerhof (PBE-GGA). The calculated structural, electronic and optical parameters are consistent with the available experimental results. The computed electronic band structures confirm the semiconducting nature for these compounds with direct band gaps of 0.17 eV, 0.085 eV and 0.015 eV for Tl4GeS3, Tl4GeSe3 and Tl4GeTe3, respectively. Furthermore, the electron charge density distribution indicated that the nature of bonds between Ge and S/Se/Te are covalent nature, whereas Ge and S/Se/Te anions formed ionic bonds. The optical parameters revealed that Tl4GeS3, Tl4GeSe3 and Tl4GeTe3 are highly dielectric materials and has the potential to be beneficial in the optoelectronic device applications. Keywords: Band gap, Density of states, Optical properties, Density functional theory

Liver cancer or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is leading cause of cancer-related mortalities globally. The therapeutic approaches for chronic liver diseases-associated liver cancers aimed at modulating immune check-points and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) signaling pathway during multistep process of hepatocarcinogenesis that played a dispensable role in immunopathogenesis and outcomes of disease. Herein, the review highlights PPARγ-induced effects in balancing inflammatory (tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10, transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), and interplay of PPARγ, hepatic stellate cells and fibrogenic niche in cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic crosstalk of hepatocarcinogenesis. PPARγ-mediated effects in pre-malignant microenvironment promote growth arrest, cell senescence and cell clearance in liver cancer pathophysiology. Furthermore, PPARγ-immune cell axis of liver microenvironment exhibits an immunomodulation strategy of resident immune cells of the liver (macrophages, natural killer cells, and dendritic cells) in concomitance with current clinical guidelines of the European Association for Study of Liver Diseases (EASL) for several liver diseases. Thus, mechanistic insights of PPARγ-associated high value targets and canonical signaling suggest PPARγ as a possible therapeutic target in reprogramming of hepatocarcinogenesis to decrease burden of liver cancers, worldwide.

The current research work was designed to investigate the protective effects of white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) against 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induced breast cancer. Breast cancer was induced in rats by the administration of a single dose of 50 mg/kg DMBA via gavage. The rats were divided into four groups: G1 (negative control group), G2 (positive control group), G3 (rats receiving mushroom extract), and G4 (rats administered with doxorubicin). The mushroom extract significantly (p

Islamic Banking is one of the fastest growing banking systems in the modern world. It has also achieved significant growth in the Pakistani banking sector in the recent decades. Diminishing Musharakah (DM) is an Islamic mode of finance which not only provides home financing facilities to the customers but also provides other long term financing transaction such as machinery and equipment financing in Islamic banks. In September 2020, DM has the largest share in the Islamic banking financing in Pakistan at 34.5 percent. Considering the widespread acceptance of DM, this paper discusses the shariah structure of DM and its use as a home finance product, specifically its variants, in Islamic Banking Institutions. This paper also clarifies the issues which create confusions in the minds of the common public about Islamic banking products, emphasizing the importance of this product for Islamic Banking Institutions

Adiponectin, a soluble adipocytokine, plays an important role in the functioning of adipose tissue and in the regulation of inflammation, particularly hepatic inflammation. The adiponectin subsequently imparts a crucial role in metabolic and hepato-inflammatory diseases. The most recent evidences indicate that lipotoxicity-induced inflammation in the liver is associated with obesity-derived alterations and remolding in adipose tissue that culminates in most prevalent liver pathology named as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). A comprehensive crosstalk of adiponectin and its cognate receptors, specifically adiponectin receptor-2 in the liver mediates ameliorative effects in obesity-induced NAFLD by interaction with hepatic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs). Recent studies highlight the implication of molecular mediators mainly involved in the pathogenesis of obesity and obesity-driven NAFLD, however, the plausible mechanisms remain elusive. The present review aimed at collating the data regarding mechanistic approaches of adiponectin and adiponectin-activated PPARs as well as PPAR-induced adiponectin levels in attenuation of hepatic lipoinflammation. Understanding the rapidly occurring adiponectin-mediated pathophysiological outcomes might be of importance in the development of new therapies that can potentially resolve obesity and obesity-associated NAFLD.

The extensive use of antibiotics has led to drug-resistant bacteria, which is a major public health issue worldwide. Silver nano-particles have been recognized as efficient broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent. It uses mushroom glucans as reducing and capping agent to reduce its toxicity. In the present work, we performed the characterization of glucans and glucan–AgNPs. The crude glucans were extracted by hot water then fractionated and purified by anion exchange chromatography (DEAE-cellulose 52); the elution of glucans was monitored by phenol sulfuric acid assay. The major fractions were further purified with gel filtration chromatography (Sephadex-G200) then lyophilized. Green synthesis of silver nano-particles was performed by glucans from selected Pleurotus spps. Extracted glucans and synthesized glucan–AgNPs were confirmed by UV–Vis spectra at 190–250 nm and 380–420 nm, respectively. Size of glucan–AgNPs (100.1 nm) was determined by dynamic light scattering. The glucans were characterized by FT-IR, SEM and XRD while glucan–AgNPs were characterized by FT-IR, SEM–EDS, TEM and XRD. Based on FT-IR spectra, the functional groups associated with the glucans and glucan–AgNPs were determined. SEM analysis revealed that the structure of glucan was spongy with asymmetrical particle size while SEM–EDS/TEM analysis revealed the glucan–AgNPs were spherical with size range of 15–45 nm for Pleurotus ostreatus. XRD spectra of glucan showed diffraction peaks at 2θ = 5.9°, 10.1° and 19.6°. By SEM–EDS/TEM analysis, the silver nano-particles against Braggs reflection planes of (111), (200), (220) and (311) in X-ray diffraction, showed diffraction at 2θ = 38.2°, 44.5°, 64.7° and 77.5° in pattern.

Phoenix dactylifera (Ajwa khajur) is pharmacologically important plant because of its hepatoprotective, nephroprotective, gastroprotective, antihyperlipidemic and anticancerous properties. In present study, hepatoprotective effect of Phoenix dactylifera was observed in adult albino rabbits. Isoniazid (INH) is a first line antitubercular agent but it has hepatotoxicity causing potential due to the generation of reactive oxygen species on its prolong use. Thirty adult albino rabbits of either sex were used in this study. Hepatoprotective potential of date palm was screened by using its two doses i.e. 150mg/kg/day and 300mg/kg/day up to 14 days. Results have shown that experimental animals treatment with date palm significantly prevented elevation of liver function enzymes (AST, ALT and ALP). Alteration in oxidative status parameters (TAC, TOS, MDA and catalase) significantly prevented as compared to isoniazid induced hepatotoxic animals. Also, complete blood count evaluation showed increase in blood cells number. All above findings were also confirmed by histopathological studies. Liver tissue samples showed normal hepatocytes architecture in date palm treated groups. Therefore, from the results we can conclude that Phoenix dactylifera fruit possesses hepatoprotective activity and have a mild hematopoietic effect.

International audience; High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) applies 35 intra modes to every block of a frame and selects the mode that gives the best prediction. This brute-force nature of HEVC makes it complex and unfit for real-time applications. Therefore, a fast intra-mode estimation algorithm is presented here based on the classic World War II (WW2) technique known as the ‘German Tanks Problem’ (GTP). This not only is the first article to use GTP for early estimation of intra mode, but also expedites the estimation process of GTP. Secondly, the various elements of the intra process are efficiently mapped to the elements of GTP estimation. Finally, the two variations of GPT are modeled and are also minimum-variance estimates. These experimental results indicate that proposed GTP-based fast estimation reduced the compression time of HEVC from 23.88% to 31.44%.

Stone accumulation in kidney is a typical disease/ sickness in most countries all around the world. Its frequency rate is continually expanding. It has been observed that, the classification of renal stones prompts an imperative decrease of the re-occurrence. The classification of stones based on particular texture, surface highlights and lab examinations are a standout amongst the most utilized strategies. In this paper we use dataset of explicitly intended for top captured pictures of 454 expelled kidney stones which extracted through urinary or surgical procedure for classification purpose. In this paper different techniques have been learned and applied the specialist’s defined framework to arrange them into defined classes then perform classification process. In this paper we use feature fusion technique to collect as much as possible features. We select VGG16, InceptionV3 and ALEX features for fusion using serial feature fusion method. We choose C-SVM and F-KNN classifier to get improved accuracy of same dataset and predict better correctness’s with the possibilities of expansion of the dataset measure. In initial testing classification accuracy recorded at 83.43%, FNR 19.25%, Precision Rate 88.48% and Sensitivity of 86.51% on CSVM, later on the best testing classification accuracy recorded at 99.5%, FNR 0.1%, Precision Rate 99.90% and Sensitivity of 99.96% on F-KNN.

Human gait analysis is a novel topic in the field of computer vision with many famous applications like prediction of osteoarthritis and patient surveillance. In this application, the abnormal behavior like problems in walking style is detected of suspected patients. The suspected behavior means assessments in terms of knee joints and any other symptoms that directly affected patients’ walking style. Human gait analysis carries substantial importance in the medical domain, but the variability in patients’ clothes, viewing angle, and carrying conditions, may severely affect the performance of a system. Several deep learning techniques, specifically focusing on efficient feature selection, have been recently proposed for this purpose, unfortunately, their accuracy is rather constrained. To address this disparity, we propose an aggregation of robust deep learning features in Kernel Extreme Learning Machine. The proposed framework consists of a series of steps. First, two pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network models are retrained on public gait datasets using transfer learning, and features are extracted from the fully connected layers. Second, the most discriminant features are selected using a novel probabilistic approach named Euclidean Norm and Geometric Mean Maximization along with Conditional Entropy. Third, the aggregation of the robust features is performed using Canonical Correlation Analysis, and the aggregated features are subjected to various classifiers for final recognition. The evaluation of the proposed scheme is performed on a publicly available gait image dataset CASIA B. We demonstrate that the proposed feature aggregation methodology, once used with the Kernel Extreme Learning Machine, achieves accuracy beyond 96%, and outperforms the existing works and several other widely adopted classifiers.

Extensive research has been carried out on multilevel inverters (MLIs) during recent years, as they are used in many applications. The main problem in MLI is high number of Total Harmonic Distortions (THD's) in output at low voltage levels and switching losses because of the use of large number of switches to produce high quality output. This paper presents the design of 63-level Reduce Switch Asymmetrical Cascaded H-Bridge Multi Level Inverter (RS-ASCHBMLI) that can produce high quality output with less THD, without utilizing high number of switches. Inverter design uses asymmetric (unequal) voltage sources as an input. Switching control unit utilizes voltage Reference technique to control level generating circuitry. Level creating circuitry produces only positive levels of voltage across H-Bridge terminals. H-Bridge is used to generate polarities. THD obtain through this technique is 1.02 % by using only nine semiconductor switches.

Human Activities Recognition (HAR) is an important research topic and its applications are spread in all the fields of computer vision and machine learning including video surveillance, robotics, and name a few more. In this paper, a new traditional feature fusion and selection-based method is proposed for automated HAR. The proposed methodology consists of three core steps- optical flow-based motion region extraction and later ROI detection, shape and gray level difference matrix (GLDM) features are combined in one matrix based on seniority value indexes, and finally, Reyni entropy-controlled Euclidean classifier based best features selection. The final selected features are put to Cubic SVM for final recognition. The validation of the proposed technique is conducted on three datasets- KTH, YouTube, and Weizmann and achieved an accuracy of 99.30%, 99.80%, and 99.60%, respectively. Overall, Cubic SVM outperforms among existing techniques.

The IL-33/ST2 axis is known to be involved in liver pathologies and IL-33 is over-expressed in mouse hepatitis models. We aimed to investigate the proposed protective effect of IL-33 in murine fulminant hepatitis induced by a Toll like receptor 3 (TLR3) viral mimetic, Poly I:C or by Concanavalin-A (ConA). The Balb/C mice were administered intravenously with ConA (15 mg/kg) or Poly I:C (30 μg/mouse) to induce acute hepatitis along with vehicle control. The recombinant mouse IL-33 (rIL-33) was injected (0.2 μg/mouse) to mice 2 h prior to ConA or Poly I:C injection to check its hepato-protective effects. The gross lesions, level of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), histopathology (H&E staining) and levels of IFNγ and TNFα were measured by ELISA. The gross pathological liver injury induced by Poly I:C or ConA was reduced by rIL-33 administration in mice. The levels of AST and ALT were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher in mice challenged with Poly I:C or ConA in comparison to control mice. The rIL-33 pre-treated mice in both Poly I:C and ConA challenge groups showed significantly (P ≤ 0.05) lower levels of AST and ALT, and decreased liver injury (parenchymal and per-vascular necrotic areas) in histological liver sections. The soluble levels of TNFα and IFNγ were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) raised in Poly I:C or ConA challenged mice than control mice. The levels of TNFα and IFNγ were significantly reduced (P ≤ 0.05) in rIL-33 pre-treated mice. In conclusion, the exogenous IL-33 administration mitigated liver injury and inflammation (decreased levels of IFNγ and TNFα) in Poly I:C and ConA-induced acute hepatitis in mice.