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Fauziah Rabbani,1,2 Hyder Ali Khan,2 Suneel Piryani,2 Nousheen Akber Pradhan,2 Natasha Shaukat,2 Anam Shahil Feroz,2 Shagufta Perveen2 1Office of Research and Graduate Studies, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan; 2Department of Community Health Sciences, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Sindh, PakistanCorrespondence: Fauziah RabbaniOffice of Research and Graduate Studies, The Aga Khan University, Stadium Road, P.O Box 3500, Karachi, 74800, Sindh, PakistanEmail fauziah.rabbani@aku.eduPurpose: Diarrhea and pneumonia greatly contribute to high childhood mortality in Pakistan. Frontline community health workers or the Lady Health Workers (LHWs) provide care at the doorstep of over 60% of Pakistan’s rural residents. Difficult terrain, lack of supplies, and inadequate supervision put these LHWs at an added disadvantage in the timely diagnosis and delivery of known treatment options to community caregivers (CCGs). This study aims to assess whether a supportive supervision intervention through Lady Health Supervisors (LHSs) using enhanced mentorship and written feedback cards have the potential to improve case management of childhood diarrhea and pneumonia.Study Setting and Design: This perception-based qualitative inquiry nested within the Nigraan Plus trial included LHSs, LHWs, and CCGs as the participants. Twenty-two in-depth interviews (IDIs) and 16 focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted before a supportive supervision intervention in 2017, and 10 FGDs were conducted in 2019 once the intervention concluded. Data were analyzed using manual content analysis.Results: The perceived ability of LHWs and LHSs to describe the danger signs of diarrhea and pneumonia, classify dehydration and relate respiratory rate to the severity of pneumonia improved over time. Appropriate prescription of zinc in diarrhea and antibiotics in pneumonia was noted. Furthermore, CCGs’ trust in LHWs increased following the intervention, and they reported a growing inclination to contact LHWs as their first point of care. LHWs in the intervention arm were more satisfied with their job due to frequent supervisory visits and continuous feedback by LHSs.Conclusion: Despite geographic, social, and economic inequities, supportive supervision has the potential to improve knowledge, practice, and skills of frontline health workers related to CCM of childhood diarrhea and pneumonia in disadvantaged rural communities. Additionally, the trust of CCGs in the health workers’ ability to manage such cases is also enhanced.Keywords: community health workers, community caregivers, community case management, childhood diarrhea and pneumonia, supportive supervision, Pakistan

Meena Kishore Sakharkar,1 Karthic Rajamanickam,1 Ramesh Chandra,2 Haseeb A Khan,3 Abdullah S Alhomida,3 Jian Yang1 1College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada; 2Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, Delhi, India; 3Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Background: Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) is a major problem in cattle production which causes substantial economic loss. BRD has multifactorial aetiologies, is multi-microbial, and several of the causative pathogens are unknown. Consequently, primary management practices such as metaphylactic antimicrobial injections for BRD prevention are used to reduce the incidence of BRD in feedlot cattle. However, this poses a serious threat in the form of development of antimicrobial resistance and demands an urgent need to find novel interventions that could reduce the effects of BRD drastically and also delay/prevent bacterial resistance. Materials and methods: We have employed a subtractive genomics approach that helps delineate essential, host-specific, and druggable targets in pathogens responsible for BRD. We also proposed antimicrobials from FDA green and orange book that could be repositioned for BRD. Results: We have identified 107 putative targets that are essential, selective and druggable. We have also confirmed the susceptibility of two BRD pathogens to one of the proposed antimicrobials – oxytetracycline. Conclusion: This approach allows for repositioning drugs known for other infections to BRD, predicting novel druggable targets for BRD infection, and providing a new direction in developing more effective therapeutic treatments for BRD. Keywords: BRD, pathogenic bacteria, targets, drugs, prioritization, differential genome analyses, druggability

Introduction Being on a waiting list for elective (planned) cardiac surgery can be physically and psychologically challenging for patients. Research suggests that stress associated with waiting for surgery is dependent on different individual and contextual factors. However, most data on patients’ experiences of waiting for surgery and preferences for waiting list management derives from non-cardiac clinical populations. The aim of the current study is to explore patients’ experiences of being on a waiting list for elective cardiac surgery, and their views on how the waiting experience could be improved in the future. This work will inform the patient management strategy during the waiting period for surgery across the four major hospitals in London directly involved in this study, and potentially beyond by transferring learning to other services.Methods and analysis This is a mixed-methods study that will collect quantitative and qualitative data using a cross-sectional online survey. Patients who are on waiting lists for elective surgery across four major cardiac surgery departments in London hospitals, and are at least 18 years old, will be invited by their healthcare team via text message or letter to complete the survey. The target sample size of non-randomly selected participants will be 268. Bivariable and multivariable regression models will be used to assess associations between survey items measuring the impact of the cardiac condition on specific life domains (eg, daily activities, social and family relationships, hobbies, sexual life), anxiety and depression symptoms as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 and survey items evaluating experiences of health services. Data on experience and preferences for improvements to the waiting experience will be analysed with qualitative content analysis using an inductive approach.Ethics and dissemination This study was reviewed and granted ethical approval by the East of England—East Cambridge Research Ethics Committee. Findings from this study will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals, a research website and social media and with an online event engaging patients, members of the public, healthcare professionals and other relevant stakeholders.Trial registration numb NCT05996640

The emergence of smart and nanobiosensor (NB) technologies has transformed the monitoring and management of bacterial infections. These developments offer remarkable accuracy and precision for detecting infectious pathogens. Smart artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted and NB-based methods are used as powerful tools in biomedicine for bacterial detection, combatting multidrug resistance, and diagnosing infections. In this study, we delve into the advancements in these technologies, focusing on AI-based techniques for NBs in detecting bacterial infections from 2019 to 2024. We analyze the contributions of machine learning and deep learning techniques to enhance performance and reliability. The new approaches to improve the effectiveness and versatility of antibacterial treatments are critically analyzed. Our study includes the observations of carbon nanoparticles that selectively target bacteria using photothermal properties and the production of hybrid hydrogel composites with capabilities. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the crucial significance of NBs in propelling the progress of diagnostic methods, biosensing technologies, and treatments, thereby transforming the healthcare industry and the way diseases are managed. In addition, we explore pathogen-based infections, bacterial diagnosis, and treatment using engineered NBs enhanced with various modalities such as electrochemistry, acoustics, electromagnetism, and photothermal resonance. Our comprehensive review highlights the potential and throws light on future research directions for effective management and control of bacterial infections.

Generally, fractional partial integro-differential equations (FPIDEs) play a vital role in modeling various complex phenomena. Because of the several applications of FPIDEs in applied sciences, mathematicians have taken a keen interest in developing and utilizing the various techniques for its solutions. In this context, the exact and analytical solutions are not very easy to investigate the solution of FPIDEs. In this article, a novel analytical approach that is known as the Laplace adomian decomposition method is implemented to calculate the solutions of FPIDEs. We obtain the approximate solution of the nonlinear FPIDEs. The results are discussed using graphs and tables. The graphs and tables have shown the greater accuracy of the suggested method compared to the extended cubic-B splice method. The accuracy of the suggested method is higher at all fractional orders of the derivatives. A sufficient degree of accuracy is achieved with fewer calculations with a simple procedure. The presented method requires no parametrization or discretization and, therefore, can be extended for the solutions of other nonlinear FPIDEs and their systems.

Manufacturing significantly contributes to global warming due to its substantial carbon emissions. United Nations sustainable development goals support the reduction of carbon emissions in the manufacturing sector, which can be accomplished by making the manufacturing process sustainable with a minimal carbon footprint. This is also appropriate for novel manufacturing processes such as additive manufacturing. This study introduces the investigation of the additively manufactured specimen. Prior research delves into examining the impact on the energy consumption of solid specimens under distinct printing process parameters. Nonetheless, the influence of electrical energy consumption and total carbon footprint for the additively manufactured solid and lattice structure has yet to be investigated. The current study fills the research gap by assessing layer thickness and infill density on both specimens’ electrical energy consumption and total carbon footprint. The presented study offers insight into the impact of layer thickness and infill density for the solid and lattice structure specimens and their comparison of electrical energy consumption and total carbon footprints. The results demonstrated that a rise in an infill density directly correlates with increased energy consumption and carbon footprints. However, rising layer thickness resulted in a reduction in both power consumption and carbon footprints. Furthermore, it was observed that the triangular, octagonal, and hexagonal cellular structures manifest higher power consumption when the infill density is set at 50% and 80%, respectively. Moreover, when assessing a solid specimen at 100% infill density, the total carbon footprint exhibits increases of 12%, 21%, 23%, and 41% in comparison to triangular, octagonal, hexagonal, and square lattice structures, respectively.

In this article, the solutions of higher nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) with the Caputo operator are presented. The fractional PDEs are modern tools to model various phenomena more accurately. The residual power series method (RPSM) is used for the solution analysis of fractional partial differential equations (FPDEs), which has direct implementation for the solutions of fractional partial differential equations. In this work, the solutions to a few nonlinear FPDEs are handled by the proposed technique. The general and particular schemes of RPSM are constructed and implemented successfully. The fractional solutions of PDEs have provided many useful dynamics of the targeted problems. The RPSM results for both integer and fractional-order FPDEs are further explained and elaborated by using graphs and tables. It is observed that the higher accuracy of RPSM is achieved with fewer calculations. Graphs and tables for fractional-order solutions are presented, which confirm the convergence phenomena of fractional solutions toward integer order solutions of each problem. The suggested method can be extended to the solutions of other nonlinear fractional partial differential equations.

Usually, to find the analytical and numerical solution of the boundary value problems of fractional partial differential equations is not an easy task; however, the researchers devoted their sincere attempt to find the solutions of various equations by using either analytical or numerical procedures. In this article, a very accurate and prominent method is developed to find the analytical solution of hyperbolic-telegraph equations with initial and boundary conditions within the Caputo operator, which has very simple calculations. This method is called a new technique of Adomian decomposition method. The obtained results are described by plots to confirm the accuracy of the suggested technique. Plots are drawn for both fractional and integer order solutions to confirm the accuracy and validity of the proposed method. Solutions are obtained at different fractional orders to discuss the useful dynamics of the targeted problems. Moreover, the suggested technique has provided the highest accuracy with a small number of calculations. The suggested technique gives results in the form of a series of solutions with easily computable and convergent components. The method is simple and straightforward and therefore preferred for the solutions of other problems with both initial and boundary conditions.

Over the last few decades, steady growth in desalination literature has been observed. However, conducting a quantitative analysis of this literature is still a novelty. This study aimed at carrying out a quantitative analysis of desalination literature published during the last 30 years, using bibliometric and content analysis techniques, based on the Web of Science database. The bibliometric analysis revealed that desalination has received much attention after the year 2000, as 95.4% of literature has been published in two decades after 2000. The text mining analysis showed that the hot themes of desalination research are reverse osmosis optimization, graphene implications, interfacial polymerization, capacitive deionization, carbon nanotube implications, and antifouling techniques. Furthermore, it was observed that many desalination technologies have emerged recently that make it a challenge to choose the right desalination technology for industrialization. Therefore, this study also contributed to identifying the factors that are important for the industrialization of desalination technologies and, based on these identified factors, this study has compared different desalination technologies to unearth the energy-efficient and low production cost technology. Analytical hierarchy process was used for comparing existing desalination technologies based on eight different parameters and it demonstrated that reverse osmosis is the best available technology for desalination.

The risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome (Met-S) including hypertension, hyperglycemia, central obesity, and dyslipidemia are preventable, particularly at their early stage. There are limited data available on the association between Met-S and preventable risk factors in young adults. We randomly selected 2,010 Saudis aged 18–30 years, who applied to be recruited in military colleges. All the procedures followed the guidelines of International Diabetes Federation. The results showed that out of 2,010 subjects, 4088 were affected with Met-S. The commonest risk factors were high blood sugar (63.6%), high systolic and diastolic blood pressures (63.3 and 37.3%), and high body mass index (57.5%). The prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes were 55.2 and 8.4%, respectively. Obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and hypertriglyceridemia were significantly associated with Met-S. The frequency of smoking was significantly linked with the development of Met-S. The prevalence of Met-S was found to be significantly higher in individuals with sedentary lifestyle. In conclusion, the results of this study clearly indicate that military recruits, who represent healthy young adults, are also prone to Met-S. The findings of this study will help in designing preventive measures as well as public awareness programs for controlling the high prevalence of Met-S in young adults.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), products released by cells in multiple biological activities, are currently widely accepted as functional particles and intercellular communicators. From the orthodox perspective, EVs derived from apoptotic cells (apoEVs) are responsible for cell debris clearance, while recent studies have demonstrated that apoEVs participate in tissue regeneration. However, the underlying mechanisms and particular functions in tissue regeneration promotion of apoEVs remain ambiguous. Some molecules active during apoptosis also function in tissue regeneration triggered by apoptosis, such as caspases. ApoEVs are generated in the process of apoptosis, carrying cell contents to manifest biological effects and possess biomarkers to target phagocytes. The regenerative effect of apoEVs might be due to their abilities to facilitate cell proliferation and regulate inflammation. Such regenerative effect has been observed in various tissues, including skin, bone, cardiovascular system, and kidneys. Engineered apoEVs are produced to amplify the biological benefits of apoEVs, rendering them optional for drug delivery. Meanwhile, challenges exist in thorough mechanistic exploration and standardization of production. In this review, we discussed the link between apoptosis and regeneration, current comprehension of the origination and investigation strategies of apoEVs, and mechanisms in tissue regeneration of apoEVs and their applications. Challenges and prospects are also addressed here.

The effect of post-growth annealing treatment of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods on the electrical properties of their heterojunction diodes (HJDs) is investigated. ZnO nanorods are synthesized by the low-temperature aqueous solution growth technique and annealed at temperatures of 400 and 600°C. The as-grown and annealed nanorods are studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Electrical characterization of the ZnO/Si heterojunction diode is done by current–voltage (I–V) and capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements at room temperature. The barrier height (ϕ B), ideality factor (n), doping concentration and density of interface states (N SS) are extracted. All HJDs exhibited a nonlinear behavior with rectification factors of 23, 1,596 and 309 at ±5 V for the as-grown, 400 and 600°C-annealed nanorod HJDs, respectively. Barrier heights of 0.81 and 0.63 V are obtained for HJDs of 400 and 600°C-annealed nanorods, respectively. The energy distribution of the interface state density has been investigated and found to be in the range 0.70 × 1010 to 1.05 × 1012 eV/cm2 below the conduction band from E C = 0.03 to E C = 0.58 eV. The highest density of interface states is observed in HJDs of 600°C-annealed nanorods. Overall improved behavior is observed for the heterojunctions diodes of 400°C-annealed ZnO nanorods.

The integration of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and cloud computing brings several advantages. However, one of the main problems with the existing cloud solutions is the latency involved in accessing, storing, and processing data. This limits the use of cloud computing for various types of applications (for instance, patient health monitoring) that require real-time access and processing of data. To address the latency problem, we proposed a fog-assisted Link Aware and Energy E cient Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks (Fog-LAEEBA). The proposed solution is based on the already developed state-of-the-art protocol called LAEEBA. We implement, test, evaluate and compare the results of Fog-LAEEBA in terms of stability period, end-to-end delay, throughput, residual energy, and path-loss. For the stability period all nodes in the LAEEBA protocol die after 7445 rounds, while in our case the last node dies after 9000 rounds. For the same number of rounds, the end-to-end delay is 2 seconds for LAEEBA and 1.25 seconds for Fog-LAEEBA. In terms of throughput, our proposed solution increases the number of packets received by the sink node from 1.5 packets to 1.8 packets. The residual energy of the nodes in Fog-LAEEBA is also less than the LAEEBA protocol. Finally, our proposed solution improves the path loss by 24 percent.

In this article, exact solutions of some Laplace-type fractional boundary value problems (FBVPs) are investigated via natural decomposition method. The fractional derivatives are described within Caputo operator. The natural decomposition technique is applied for the first time to boundary value problems (BVPs) and found to be an excellent tool to solve the suggested problems. The graphical representation of the exact and derived results is presented to show the reliability of the suggested technique. The present study is mainly concerned with the approximate analytical solutions of some FBVPs. Moreover, the solution graphs have shown that the actual and approximate solutions are very closed to each other. The comparison of the proposed and variational iteration methods is done for integer-order problems. The comparison, support strong relationship between the results of the suggested techniques. The overall analysis and the results obtained have confirmed the effectiveness and the simple procedure of natural decomposition technique for obtaining the solution of BVPs.

In this article, a modified variational iteration method along with Laplace transformation is used for obtaining the solution of fractional-order nonlinear convection–diffusion equations (CDEs). The proposed technique is applied for the first time to solve fractional-order nonlinear CDEs and attain a series-form solution with the quick rate of convergence. Tabular and graphical representations are presented to confirm the reliability of the suggested technique. The solutions are calculated for fractional as well as for integer orders of the problems. The solution graphs of the solutions at various fractional derivatives are plotted. The accuracy is measured in terms of absolute error. The higher degree of accuracy is observed from the table and figures. It is further investigated that fractional solutions have the convergence behavior toward the solution at integer order. The applicability of the present technique is verified by illustrative examples. The simple and effective procedure of the current technique supports its implementation to solve other nonlinear fractional problems in different areas of applied science.

Abstract. Introduction:. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have emerged as important therapeutic targets for various diseases, such as cancer and neurological disorders. Although a majority of HDAC inhibitors use hydroxamic acids as zinc binding groups, hydroxamic acid zinc-binding groups suffer from poor bioavailability and nonspecific metal-binding properties, necessitating a new zinc-binding group. Salicylic acid and its derivatives, well-known for their therapeutic value, have also been reported to chelate zinc ions in a bidentate fashion. This drew our attention towards replacing hydroxamic acid with salicylamide as a zinc-binding group. Methods:. In this study, for the first time, compound 5 possessing a novel salicylamide zinc-binding group was synthesized and evaluated biologically for its ability to inhibit various HDAC isoforms and induce acetylation upon α-tubulin and histone H3 among MDA-MB-231 cells. Results:. Compound 5 exhibits selective inhibition against class I HDAC isoforms (HDAC1, 2, and 3) over class II and IV HDAC isoforms (HDAC4, 6, and 11). The exposure of MDA-MB-231 cells to compound 5 efficiently induced the acetylation of more histone H3 than α-tubulin, suggesting that compound 5 is a class I selective HDAC inhibitor. Moreover, the molecular docking study indicated that the salicylamide zinc-binding group of compound 5 coordinates the active zinc ion of class I HDAC2 in a bidentate fashion. Conclusion:. Overall, salicylamide represents a novel zinc-binding group for the development of class I selective HDAC inhibitors. Graphical abstract:.

Neutronic analysis of a conceptual heat pipe-cooled micronuclear reactor with 70 % enriched uranium nitride fuel is carried out by modeling the core and peripheral control drum movement to estimate the power distribution. The core configuration results in non-uniformities and hotspots. For the heat removal, empirical formulae have been used in the case of sodium, lithium, and potassium working fluids. The neutronic simulation was carried out by the OpenMC code. It has been found that the radial flux peaking as high as ~20 % can occur at various stages of the drum movement. The novelty of this research is the investigation of the effect of variable enrichment on the overall system multiplication, which can form the basis for optimal fuel distribution. It has been found that non-uniform fuel distribution can mitigate peaking factors, and thus reduce the hotspots. This analysis is useful for the design optimization of compact micro nuclear reactors for underwater, portable and space propulsion systems.

The enhanced luminescence of lanthanide complexes coordinated to antenna ligands has potential applications for developing devices like screens and lamps. Herein, three β-diketone antenna ligands were incorporated into Eu(III) and Tb(III) metals to synthesize five complexes. Their luminescence properties in solid state and the energy levels of the electronic states for the ligands and the metals were recorded and probed by UV–vis and fluorescence spectroscopies. Under UV light, a white-light emission powder was observed by mixing red-emission europium and green-emission terbium complexes, with blue-emission laundry powder. The powder composition was tuned by using spectroscopic analysis and CIE 1931 color diagram.

Digital Rocks Portal (DRP, https://www.digitalrocksportal.org) organizes and preserves imaged datasets and experimental measurements of porous materials in subsurface, and beyond, with the mission to connect them to simulation and analysis, as well as educate the research community. We have over 150 projects represented in more than 200 publications, and an active community that reuses the data, most recently in multiple machine learning applications for automating image analysis as well as the prediction of transport. Such automation is crucial for performing formation evaluation tasks in near-real time. We present benchmark datasets that have played a role in recent machine learning prediction successes in the field. We further discuss the vision for further research advances, educational materials, as well as growth and sustainability plan of this digital rock physics community resource. In particular, we are in the process of expanding into a broader repository of engineered porous materials, specifically those for energy storage and the portal will transition to Digital Porous Media (DPM) in near future.

In this paper we define and consider some familiar subsets of analytic functions associated with sine functions in the region of unit disk on the complex plane. For these classes our aim is to find the Hankel determinant of order three.

Use of transdermal patches can evade many issues associated with oral drug delivery, such as first-pass hepatic metabolism, enzymatic digestion attack, drug hydrolysis and degradation in acidic media, drug fluctuations, and gastrointestinal irritation. This article reviews various transdermal patches available in the market, types, structural components, polymer role, and the required assessment tools. Although transdermal patches have medical applications for smoking cessation, pain relief, osteoporosis, contraception, motion sickness, angina pectoris, and cardiac disorders, advances in formulation development are ongoing to make transdermal patches capable of delivering more challenging drugs. Transdermal patches can be tailored and developed according to the physicochemical properties of active and inactive components, and applicability for long-term use. Therefore, a number of chemical approaches and physical techniques for transdermal patch development are under investigation.

The oxidation tests of Ferritic Steel T22 exposed to supercritical water (SCW) at 540–620°C and 25 MPa was performed for up to 1000 h. The oxidation rate increased with increasing exposure temperature and time. Oxide films formed on T22 have a double-layered structure with an outer layer consisting of iron oxide and an inner layer consisting of spinel oxide. Numerous pores on the surface can be observed at the initial oxidation stage while they seemed to heal with increasing exposure time at 620°C. Cracks occurred along grain boundaries in the oxide scale when T22 exposed for 200 h at 620°C. The influence of time and temperature on the oxidation of Ferritic Steel T22 was discussed.

Seeking optimal material distribution in a nuclear system to maximize a response function of interest has been a subject of considerable interest in nuclear engineering. Examples are the optimal fuel distribution in a nuclear reactor core to achieve uniform burnup using minimum critical mass and the use of composite materials with an optimal mix of constituent elements in detection systems and radiation shielding. For such studies, variational methods have been found to be useful but, they have been used for standalone analyses often restricted to idealized models, while more elaborate design studies have required computationally expensive Monte Carlo simulations ill-suited to iterative schemes for optimization. Such an inherent disadvantage of Monte Carlo methods changed with the development of perturbation algorithms but, their efficiency is still dependent on the reference configuration for which a hit-and-trial approach is often used. In the first illustrative example, this paper explores the computational speedup for a bare cylindrical reactor core, achievable by using a variational result to enhance the computational efficiency of Monte Carlo design optimization simulation. In the second example, the effect of non-uniform material density in a fixed-source problem, applicable to optimal moderator and radiation shielding, is presented. While applications of this work are numerous, the objective of this paper is to present preliminary variational results as inputs to elaborate stochastic optimization by Monte Carlo simulation for large and realistic systems.