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Crop rotations have always a vital role in balancing of inter crops nutritional management, inhibiting of soil degradation, reduction of biotic and a biotic stress and in adapting to climate change. Potohar region is divided into three distinct rainfall zones i.e. high rainfall (>750 mm of annual rainfall), medium (500 to 750 mm) and low rainfall (<500 mm). Wheat is main rabi season crop of this region, while during kharif season groundnut, maize and sorghum are mostly planted in some areas, however maximum area is kept fallow and farmers plough it up for a number of times to conserve rain water for the planting of wheat crop. During two different crop seasons (2014-15 and 2016-17), adaptation plots of Mungbean-Wheat cropping system in comparison with Fallow-Wheat cropping system were planted on five different farmer's fields, in the medium and high rainfall zones of this region. During both years yields of both Mungbean and wheat crop varied from field to field, especially due to rainfalls timings and their quantities, soil conditions, cropping systems and crop management etc. During cropping seasons 2014-15 and 2016-17, wheat crop grain yields were recorded 3.80 t/ha and 2.92 t/ha respectively in Mungbean - Wheat cropping system as compared with Fallow-Wheat cropping system having yields of 3.15 t/ha and 2.85 t/ha respectively. Overall results show that Mungbean-Wheat cropping system is not only economically better but is also soil health and environment friendly. It can also be helpful in the promotion of climate smart agriculture in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systemic inflammation is a hallmark of severe coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Anti-inflammatory therapy is considered crucial to modulate the hyperinflammatory response (cytokine storm) in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. There is currently no specific, conclusively proven, cost-efficient, and worldwide available anti-inflammatory therapy available to treat COVID-19 patients with cytokine storm. The present study aimed to investigate the treatment benefit of oral colchicine for hospitalized COVID-19 patients with suspected cytokine storm. Colchicine is an approved drug and possesses multiple anti-inflammatory mechanisms. This was a pilot, open-label randomized controlled clinical trial comparing standard of care (SOC) plus oral colchicine (colchicine arm) vs. SOC alone (control arm) in non-ICU hospitalized COVID-19 patients with suspected cytokine storm. Colchicine treatment was initiated within first 48 hours of admission delivered at 1.5 mg loading dose, followed by 0.5 mg b.i.d. for next 6 days and 0.5 mg q.d. for the second week. A total of 96 patients were randomly allocated to the colchicine (n=48) and control groups (n=48). Both colchicine and control group patients experienced similar clinical outcomes by day 14 of hospitalization. Treatment outcome by day 14 in colchicine vs control arm: recovered and discharged alive: 36 (75.0%) vs. 37 (77.1%), remain admitted after 14-days: 4 (8.3%) vs. 5 (10.4%), ICU transferred: 4 (8.3%) vs. 3 (6.3%), and mortality: 4 (8.3%) vs. 3 (6.3%). The speed of improvement of COVID-19 acute symptoms including shortness of breath, fever, cough, the need of supplementary oxygen, and oxygen saturation level, was almost identical in the two groups. Length of hospitalization was on average 1.5 day shorter in the colchicine group. There was no evidence for a difference between the two groups in the follow-up serum levels of inflammatory biomarkers including Creactive protein (CRP), D-dimer, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), ferritin, interleukin-6 (IL-6), high-sensitivity troponin T (hs-TnT) and N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide (NT pro-BNP). According to the results of our study, oral colchicine does not appear to show clinical benefits in non-ICU hospitalized COVID-19 patients with suspected cytokine storm. It is possible that the anti-inflammatory pathways of colchicine are not crucially involved in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

20 honey samples from district, Balochistan (Pakistan) were studied for their physiochemical, biochemical and antioxidant potential. During the study, pH, ash content, moisture, total fat, sugar content, reducing and non-reducing sugars, vitamin C, Vitamin A, flavonoids, polyphenols and % DPPH scavenging activity were monitored. The pH of the samples was between4.0 - 5.0, having mean±SD values of 4.5 ± 0.1. The moisture and ash content had an average value of 17.4 ± 0.7 g/100g and 0.142 ± 0.0 g/100g respectively. The fat content had range of values from minimum to maximum 0.12 - 0.49 g/100g with mean±SD of 0.297 ± 0.11. Total sugar content varied between 66.2 - 71.8 g/100g with mean and S.D 68.88 ± 1.7. The sucrose content ranged between 0.60 - 4.28 g/100g with mean±SD 1.93 ± 0.8 while average value of fructose and glucose values were 36.84g/100g ± 0.9 and 30.41g/100g ± 3.00 respectively. All the tested samples showed very low content of Vitamin A while Vitamin C and flavonoids showed the average values of 112.45 ± 9.8 mg/kg and 43.0 ± 2.0 mg CE/kg respectively and polyphenols showed the average value of 748.76 ± 31.6 mg GAE/kg with 6057.5 - 887.2 mg GAE/kg min to max values. The % DPPH scavenging at 40mg/ml showed the values 61.8 - 75.7 min to max with the average of 70.3 ± 0.9. All the tested samples lie within the limits of international standard but Sample P4 showed the best results among all the 20 honey samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first reported study conducted for partial characterization of venom from three scorpion species (Odontobuthus odonturus, Androctonus finitimus and Androctonus bicolor), collected from different regions of Balochistan, Pakistan. The venom was extracted and analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and results revealed the presence of different peptides ranged from 6 kDa to 121 kDa. Peptide bands of 68 kDa, 13 kDa and 6 kDa were found common in all the three venom samples, while peptide bands of 121 kDa, 44 kDa and 23 kDa were shared between Androctonus finitimus and Androctonus bicolor, similarly 29 kDa of band was common in Androctonus finitimus and Odontobuthus odonturus. Furthermore, each scorpion species had a minimum of one unique peptide band. The similar electrophoretic characteristics of some peptide components suggested inter-genus and inter-species relationships among different species. Conversely each sample of examined species also represents a distinctive profile that differentiates one species from another thus providing a simple tool for taxonomical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Keywords: Aloe Vera; Wound Healing; Inflammation; Mycitracin; Lesion EN Aloe Vera Wound Healing Inflammation Mycitracin Lesion INTRODUCTION Epithelial wounds cause distress and inconvenience, if not treated well in time. Therefore, in the topical study, we observed the effect of Aloe Vera on dermal wound healing and found out that Aloe Vera enhances the scar healing and also other processes both rationally as well as experimentally. Aloe Vera, Wound Healing, Inflammation, Mycitracin, Lesion. [Extracted from the article]

In the present study, goat flock surveillance algorithm using video analytics was determined. The surveillance video camera was mounted over a quadcopter camera, which captured the videos of flocks. A video analytics algorithm using Haar features and the Ada Boost classifier was performed. The technique for tracking of flocks is based on the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi feature (KLT) tracker. The algorithm presented here allows goat flock surveillance without human guidance and was helpful in real-time monitoring and management of goat flocks. The proposed algorithm made monitoring of goat flocks economical and could be applied to any kind of animal flock in different environments. The qualitative and quantitative analysis carried out for successful goat detection demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed algorithm as compared to the state-of-the-art goat flock surveillance and detection algorithms. The proposed algorithm successfully tracked the goat with accuracy of 93%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Aortic conduit and reservoir functions can be directly measured by four-dimensional flow (4D flow) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR)., Methods: Twenty healthy controls (10 young and 10 age-gender-matched old controls) and 20 patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) were recruited. All had 4D flow CMR. Flow was quantified at the ascending and descending aorta levels. In addition, at the ascending aorta level, we quantified systolic flow displacement (FDs) and systolic flow reversal ratio (sFRR). The aortic conduit function was defined as the relative drop in systolic flow from the ascending to the descending aorta (∆Fs). Aortic reservoir function was defined as descending aortic diastolic stroke volume (DAo SV d )., Results: Both ∆Fs (R=0.51, p=0.001) and DAo SV d (R=-0.68, p=0.001) were significantly associated with ageing. Native T1 (R=0.51, p=0.001) and extracellular volume (R=0.51, p=0.001) showed maximum association with ∆Fs. ∆Fs significantly increased in HFpEF versus age-gender-matched controls (41±8% vs 52±12%, p=0.02). In multiple regression, only ∆Fs and DAo SV d were independent predictors of the estimated glomerular filtration rate (model R=0.77, p=0.0001). FDs was significantly associated with ∆Fs (R=0.4, p=0.01) and DAo SV d (R=-0.48, p=0.002), whereas sFRR was mainly associated with DAo SV d (R=-0.46, p=0.003)., Conclusion: Both aortic conduit and reservoir function decline with age and this decline in aortic function is also independently associated with renal functional decline. Ascending aortic turbulent flow signatures are associated with loss of aortic conduit and reservoir functions. Finally, in HFpEF, aortic conduit and reservoir function demonstrate progressive decline., Trials Registration Number: NCT05114785., Competing Interests: Competing interests: PG is a clinical advisor for Neosoft, Pie Medical Imaging and Medis Medical Imaging. PG consults for Anteris and Edward Life Sciences. All other authors have no competing interests to declare., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in the four-chamber plane offers comprehensive insight into the volumetrics of the heart. We aimed to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) model of time-resolved segmentation using the four-chamber cine., Methods: A fully automated deep learning algorithm was trained using retrospective multicentre and multivendor data of 814 subjects. Validation, reproducibility, and mortality prediction were evaluated on an independent cohort of 101 subjects., Results: The mean age of the validation cohort was 54 years, and 66 (65%) were males. Left and right heart parameters demonstrated strong correlations between automated and manual analysis, with a ρ of 0.91-0.98 and 0.89-0.98, respectively, with minimal bias. All AI four-chamber volumetrics in repeatability analysis demonstrated high correlation (ρ = 0.99-1.00) and no bias. Automated four-chamber analysis underestimated both left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) volumes compared to ground-truth short-axis cine analysis. Two correction factors for LV and RV four-chamber analysis were proposed based on systematic bias. After applying the correction factors, a strong correlation and minimal bias for LV volumetrics were observed. During a mean follow-up period of 6.75 years, 16 patients died. On stepwise multivariable analysis, left atrial ejection fraction demonstrated an independent association with death in both manual (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.96, p = 0.003) and AI analyses (HR = 0.96, p < 0.001)., Conclusion: Fully automated four-chamber CMR is feasible, reproducible, and has the same real-world prognostic value as manual analysis. LV volumes by four-chamber segmentation were comparable to short-axis volumetric assessment., Trials Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05114785., Relevance Statement: Integrating fully automated AI in CMR promises to revolutionise clinical cardiac assessment, offering efficient, accurate, and prognostically valuable insights for improved patient care and outcomes., Key Points: • Four-chamber cine sequences remain one of the most informative acquisitions in CMR examination. • This deep learning-based, time-resolved, fully automated four-chamber volumetric, functional, and deformation analysis solution. • LV and RV were underestimated by four-chamber analysis compared to ground truth short-axis segmentation. • Correction bias for both LV and RV volumes by four-chamber segmentation, minimises the systematic bias., (© 2024. The Author(s).)