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Background: An increased incidence of vertebral artery dissection has recently become a recognized cause of acute stroke for about 1/5 of strokes in young patients. Case Presentation: A male in his 30s presented to the emergency department with sudden onset of severe vertigo, vomiting, and dizziness while he was playing bowling. The symptoms started when he suddenly twisted his neck while throwing the ball towards pins. Initial diagnosis of central vertigo led to performing plain CT head and CT head angiogram, which demonstrated non-occlusive extradural left vertebral artery dissection. Following CT scans, an MRI head, and MRA head and neck were performed which confirmed the CT diagnosis and also showed left posterior inferior cerebellar artery territory infarcts with micro haemorrhages. The patient was started on dual antiplatelet medications which was continued for 6 months with a follow up MRI/MRA scan of head and neck. Conclusion: This appears to be a unique case where sudden twisting of the neck possibly resulted in vertebral artery dissection and cerebellar infarction. Hence, it is vital to be aware of sports related presentation resulting in sudden neck movements and tear in vertebral artery causing dissection. [SJEMed 2024; 5(2.000): 153-155]

This paper introduces a wearable pneumatic actuator, designed for providing multiple types of tactile feedback using a single end-effector. To this end, the actuator combines a 3D-printed framework consisting of five 0.5 DOF soft silicon air cells with a pneumatic system to deliver a range of tactile sensations through a single end-effector. The actuator is capable of producing diverse haptic feedback, including vibration, pressure, impact, and lateral force, controlled by an array of solenoid valves. The design’s focus on multimodality in a compact and lightweight form factor makes it highly suitable for wearable applications. It can produce a maximum static force of 8.3 N, vibrations with an acceleration of up to 3.15 g, and lateral forces of up to 3.3 N. The efficacy of the actuator is demonstrated through two distinct user studies: one focusing on perception, where users differentiated between lateral cues and vibration frequencies, and another within a first-person shooter gaming scenario, revealing enhanced user engagement and experience. The actuator’s adaptability to body sites and rich multimodal haptic feedback enables it to find applications in virtual reality, gaming, training simulations, and more.

Introduction At Sandwell General Hospital, there was no risk stratification tool or pathway for head injury (HI) patients presenting to the emergency department (ED). This resulted in significant delays in the assessment of HI patients, compromising patient safety and quality of care.Aims To employ quality improvement methodology to design an effective adult HI pathway that: ensured >90% of high-risk HI patients being assessed by ED clinicians within 15 min of arrival, reduce CT turnaround times, and aiming to keep the final decision making

Abstract The current study strives to provide a haptic attribute space where texture surfaces are located based on their haptic attributes. The main aim of the haptic attribute space is to come up with a standardized model for representing and identifying haptic textures analogous to the RGB model for colors. To this end, a four dimensional haptic attribute space is established by conducting a psychophysical experiment where human participants rate 100 real-life texture surfaces according to their haptic attributes. The four dimensions of the haptic attribute space are rough-smooth, flat-bumpy, sticky-slippery, and hard-soft. The generalization and scalability of the haptic attribute space is achieved by training a 1D-CNN model for predicting attributes of haptic textures. The 1D-CNN is trained using the attribute data from psychophysical experiments and image features collected from the images of real textures. The prediction power granted by the 1D-CNN renders scalability to the haptic attribute space. The prediction accuracy of the proposed 1D-CNN model is compared against other machine learning and deep learning algorithms. The results show that the proposed method outperforms the other models on MAE and RMSE metrics.

Dear Editor, In June, 2023 Farhan et al., published an interesting short report.1 The authors explored the top 20 most cited articles on prosthetic complications with dental implants. They used Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Overall I enjoyed the article and the authors reported some interesting findings. However I have some observations and a few suggestions. Normally in bibliometric analysis proper search terms and strategies are defined along with or without boolean operators. The authors can also propose a particular time frame. Similarly in material and method section, it is normally elaborated if they searched the defined terms in titles, abstracts or keywords? For example based on the methods in the manuscript, several of searched-out articles do not contain the proposed keywords e.g. prosthetic complications in their titles. I will also not comment if the search keywords were appropriate or comprehensive. In table 1, the authors presented the authors, names of universities, countries, article type or study design. I could not understand why the same details were presented in table 2 and 3? These are some of the points which were a bit confusing and the guidance of Farhan et al., will be truly appreciated. Once again thanks for reporting a very interesting study.

Tillage is one of the agricultural management practices that significantly impacts agroecosystems, crop production, and the environment. Conventional tillage (CT) practices alter the soil environment and induce organic constituents’ decomposition and the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Low organic matter, biological diversity, aggregate stability, high erosion and degradation of the soil environment, and sequestration strength are additional factors associated with CT, which negatively affect food security and environmental sustainability. As a result, CT is no more beneficial in the long run; consequently, zero tillage (ZT) could be a viable candidate for sustainable agriculture. The review to establish this systematically compared and summarized the effect of tillage systems (i.e. CT and ZT) by synthesizing and interpreting published data (>150 peer-reviewed articles) with >200 observations on soil ecosystem services and properties/agroecosystem, crop yield/food security, GHG emission, and carbon sequestration/environmental resilience. The review established that ZT improves soil structure, aggregate stability, biological diversity, organic matter and nutrients, water and water use efficiency, and reduces soil degradation, erosion, tillage machinery impacts, and GHG emissions. It allows timely seeding and better crop growth, increases yield and food security, improves carbon sequestration, strengthens soil storage potential, and helps to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on environmental resilience. Based on various latent direct and indirect benefits, resource-saving ability, and broad adoption scope of ZT, it is corroborated that ZT is a practical and potential approach for improved and sustainable agroecosystem, food security, and environmental resilience.

Abstract Background The burden of carbapenem resistance is not well studied in the Middle East. We aimed to describe the molecular epidemiology and outcome of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) infections from several Saudi Arabian Centers. Methods This is a multicenter prospective cohort study conducted over a 28-month period. Patients older than 14 years of age with a positive CRE Escherichia coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae culture and a clinically established infection were included in this study. Univariate and multivariable logistic models were constructed to assess the relationship between the outcome of 30-day all-cause mortality and possible continuous and categorical predictor variables. Results A total of 189 patients were included. The median patient age was 62.8 years and 54.0% were male. The most common CRE infections were nosocomial pneumonia (23.8%) and complicated urinary tract infection (23.8%) and 77 patients (40.7%) had CRE bacteremia. OXA-48 was the most prevalent gene (69.3%). While 100 patients (52.9%) had a clinical cure, 57 patients (30.2%) had died within 30 days and 23 patients (12.2%) relapsed. Univariate analysis to predict 30-day mortality revealed that the following variables are associated with mortality: older age, high Charlson comorbidity index, increased Pitt bacteremia score, nosocomial pneumonia, CRE bacteremia and diabetes mellitus. In multivariable analysis, CRE bacteremia remained as an independent predictor of 30 day all-cause mortality [AOR and 95% CI = 2.81(1.26–6.24), p = 0.01]. Conclusions These data highlight the molecular epidemiology and outcomes of CRE infection in Saudi Arabia and will inform future studies to address preventive and management interventions.

The objective of the study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. For this purpose Scopus database was used. As of 13th May 2021, one hundred and seventy-three (n=173) research documents are published about it. We used Vosviewer and Biblioshiny (Bibliometrix) in the present report. In all publications, 1160 authors have significantly contributed. The documents per author was 0.119, while authors per document was 8.41. Collaborative Index (CI) was found to be 9.47. By biblioshiny we also applied Lotka’s law to depict the author’s frequency. 1097 authors were involved in only one (n=1) publication. Based on the Scopus record, the highest documents are published by Dormitzer, P.R. (n=6). In universities and countries categories, Tel Aviv University (n=7) and USA (48) are the most productive. By Vosviewer the collaboration pattern among authors, institutes, and countries is graphically presented. For example, 28 authors, 17 departments and 7 countries directly contributed to one publication. The research documents (133) are published in 102 sources or journals. The highest documents are published in Vaccines (n=8), while the highest citations were recorded for the New England Journal of Medicine (n=838). We also applied co-words analysis to understand the main focus of these publications.

Introduction: The objective of the present report is to perform the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis of oncolytic virotherapy research publications. Methods: Scopus was employed as a major database. The total number of publications was found to be 4369, majorly comprising of research articles (n=2895) and reviews (1082). The ANOVA F-test and Welch F-tests were performed to determine the significance (P=0.05). Results: In all publications (3751), the total numbers of authors were 11418 and 10480 different organizations, departments or institutes. We specifically selected seven different viral strains and provided details about the co-authorship network. We also provided details about the top 10 most cited documents. Conclusion: This may provide a quantitative overview about the trends and publications in oncolytic virotherapy research.

The interaction of warming and soil texture on responsiveness of the key soil processes i.e. organic carbon (C) fractions, soil microbes, extracellular enzymes and CO2 emissions remains largely unknown. Global warming raises the relevant question of how different soil processes will respond in near future, and what will be the likely regulatory role of texture? To bridge this gap, this work applied the laboratory incubation method to investigate the effects of temperature changes (10–50 °C) on dynamics of labile, recalcitrant and stable C fractions, soil microbes, microbial biomass, activities of extracellular enzymes and CO2 emissions in sandy and clayey textured soils. The role of texture (sandy and clayey) in the mitigation of temperature effect was also investigated. The results revealed that the temperature sensitivity of C fractions and extracellular enzymes was in the order recalcitrant C fractions > stable C fractions > labile C fractions and oxidative enzymes > hydrolytic enzymes. While temperature sensitivity of soil microbes and biomass was in the order bacteria > actinomycetes > fungi ≈ microbial biomass C (MBC) > microbial biomass N (MBN) > microbial biomass N (MBP). Conversely, the temperature effect and sensitivity of all key soil processes including CO2 emissions were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in sandy than clayey textured soil. Results confirmed that under the scenario of global warming and climate change, soils which are sandy in nature are more susceptible to temperature increase and prone to become the CO2-C sources. It was revealed that clayey texture played an important role in mitigating and easing off the undue temperature influence, hence, the sensitivity of key soil processes.

Since 2009, Scopus database is regularly covering the Arabian Journal of Chemistry (AJC). Ten years of continuous and successful journey motivated us to celebrate its contribution through the 1st comprehensive bibliometric study. For simplicity we will divide the abstract in four (4) parts. In part 1, the publications and citations details are provided. From 2009 to 2019, the total number of publications (TP) were found to be 2134, majorly comprising of research articles (n = 2009/94.14%) and reviews (n = 119/5.57%). The relative per year growth rate (%) from 2009, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the doubling time was calculated. The details of impact per publication (IPP), SNIP, % self cit, citation per document, external cites per document, self-citations and total cites are also provided. In part 2, the lists of top ten (10) authors, institutions and countries are described with total number of publications (TP), h-index, total citations (TC), h-index without selfcitations (WSC) and total WSC. We also discussed and provided the list of top ten (10) most cited documents with TC, WSC and other Scopus metrics like Crossref citation indexes, Mendeley reader and field-weighted citation impact. In 3rd part, various other parameters were presented as visualization map, using VOSviewer. Precisely, the co-authorship, citations and co-citations patterns were described in detail. While, based on the co-words analysis of titles, abstract and authors keywords, we proposed the overall trend of publications in AJC. In part 4, we will specifically mention that in 2019, SCImago journal rank has declared AJC in Q1 (1st Quartile) state while Scopus has ranked it at 22nd (in 281 general chemical engineering journals) and 45th position (in 398 chemistry journals). From Web of Science (after 2009), we also retrieved the data about the journal AJC impact factor, 5 year impact factor, immediacy index and average journal impact factor percentile. The data confirms that AJC showed a continuous growth in the number of publications, citations, impact factor and ranking.

Water deficiency has become a major issue threatening the sustainability of arable crops globally. This study was conducted to assess the effects of deficit supplemental irrigation (DSI) at different growth phases on the performance of different maize hybrids under semi-arid climate. The irrigations were skipped either at vegetative or reproductive stage, while a sufficient supplemental irrigation was taken as control in three maize hybrids i.e., P-30Y87, S-6621 and P-30Y58. The DSI at both growth phases significantly hampered root length and proliferation, crop growth rate (CGR), leaf area index (LAI) and relative water contents (RWC). The DSI applied at both growth phases reduced the grain yield and yield related attributes, but DSI at reproductive stage was more lethal. Hybrid P-30Y87 performed better under different irrigation treatments due to better root system, crop allometry and other yield related traits compared to other hybrids while hybrid P-30Y58 recorded the lowest crop yield due to poor root system. The lateral roots had positive correlation with grains cob-1 and water use efficiency, while positive correlation among root length and grain weight and yield was observed under DSI at both growth phases. In conclusion, DSI at reproductive stage severely hampers the maize productivity; however maize productivity under deficit irrigation supply can potentially be improved to some extent by using maize hybrids with better root system. The moisture deficiency at reproductive stage proved more lethal for maize productivity, while maize hybrids with better root system potentially evaded the adverse effects of moisture deficits under semi-arid climate.

Abstract Hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 alpha (HNF-1α) is a transcription factor expressed predominantly in the liver among other organs. Structurally, it contains POU-homeodomain that binds to DNA and form proteins that help in maintaining cellular homeostasis, controlling metabolism, and differentiating cell lineages. Scientific research over the period of three decades has reported it as an important player in various liver malignancies such as hepatocellular cancers (HCCs), hepatocellular adenoma (HA), and a more specific HNF-1α-inactivated human hepatocellular adenoma (H-HCAs). Abundant clinical and rodent data have noted the downregulation of HNF-1α in parallel with liver malignancies. It is also interesting to notice that the co-occurrence of mutated HNF-1α expression and hepatic carcinomas transpires typically along with metabolic repercussion. Moreover, scientific data implies that HNF-1α exerts its effects on cell stemness and hence can indirectly impact liver malignancies and metabolic functioning. The effects of HNF-1α on cell stemness present a future opportunity to explore a possible and potential breakthrough. Although the mechanism through which inactivated HNF-1α leads to hepatic malignancies remain largely obscure, several key signal molecules or pathways, including TNF-α, SHP-1, CDH17, SIRT, and MIA-2, have been reported to take part in the regulations of HNF-1α. It can be concluded from the present scientific data that HNF-1α has a great potential to serve as a target for liver malignancies and cell stemness.

The objective of the present study was to elucidate the biochemical potencies of eighteen structurally related organoselenium and organosulfur compounds against Fe(II) induced thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) formation in rat’s brain homogenate. The efficacies of these compounds (only organosulfur) were further confirmed by radical scavenging and thiol peroxidase-like (TPx) activities. Our data revealed that electron-donating groups significantly improve, while an electron-withdrawing group decreases antioxidant activities. The effect of structural isomerisation proved that electron-donating groups attached to the benzyl moiety at ortho-, meta- or para-positions decreased antioxidant potential. The compound benzyl-p-tolyl selenide (C-6) showed the highest in vitro activity and was selected for the in vivo experiments. Treatment with C-6 at 0, 10, 25 or 50 mg/kg was not associated with mortality, body weight loss or oxidative stress as measured by TBARS production. Similarly it did not inhibit delta-aminolevulinate dehydratase (α-ALA-D) enzyme, in fact treatment with C-6 increased the non-protein thiol content. Exposure to the same compound did not affect plasma transaminase activities or levels of urea and creatinine, indicating negligible toxicity to hepatic and renal tissues. The present study gives useful information for the synthesis of organochalcogens with desired biological and pharmacological potential. Keywords: Organochalcogens, Structure activity relationship, Oxidative stress

Analytical methods for the drug substance and degradation products (DPs) are validated by performing forced degradation studies. Forced degradation studies of Velpatasvir (VEL) drug substance and Velpatasvir copovidone solid dispersion (VEL-CSD) were performed under the stressed alkaline, acidic, oxidative and thermal conditions according to ICH guidelines ICH Q1A (R2). VEL is labile to degrade in stressed alkaline, acidic, and oxidative conditions. It is also photolabile and degraded during photostability studies as described by ICH Q1B, and showed no degradation on exposure to extreme temperature when protected from light. A sensitive stability indicating HPLC-UV method was developed and validated for the separation of VEL and eight DPs. The DPs of VEL are separated using gradient elution of mobile phase containing 0.05% Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and methanol over symmetry analytical column C18 (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) with a flow rate of 0.8 mL min−1. Simultaneous detection of all DPs and VEL was performed on UV detector at 305 nm. The performance parameters like precision, specificity and linearity of the method were validated using reference standards as prescribed by ICHQ2 (R1). Limits of quantification and limits of detection were determined from calibration curve using the expression 10δ/slope and 3δ/slope respectively. The proposed method is stability-indicating and effectively applied to the analysis of process impurities and DPs in VEL drug substance and VEL-CSD.

Light management within apple ( Malus domestica Borkh.) canopies has been an invariable rationale of fruit tree architecture strategy during the development of training systems. This paper attempts to compare fruit quality characteristics of three apple cultivars Coe Red Fuji, Granny Smith and Spartan trained on three canopy architectural engineering (training) system, viz. Espalier, Vertical axis and Cordon were grafted on M 9 rootstock. The maximum fruit weight (210.11g) was observed in Granny Smith and maximum yield per tree (32.11 kg/cm2) and yield efficiency (0.69 kg/cm2) in Coe Red Fuji which may be due to higher crop density. Among training systems, maximum fruit weight (200.12 g), highest yield per tree (36.36 kg) and maximum yield efficiency (0.72 kg/cm2) was observed in espalier training system. The interaction study displayed maximum fruit weight in Granny Smith (210.55g), highest yield per tree in Coe Red Fuji (32.16 kg) and maximum yield efficiency in Spartan on Espalier system. Light interception demonstrated maximum photon flux density (237 µmolm-2 s-1) across the canopy of Spartan with minimum leaf area index (0.30) and among training systems maximum PPFD (221 µmolm-2s-1) was observed in Espalier system with minimum LAI (0.21). Fruit size, TSS and colour parameters of fruits in all varieties were significantly influenced by light intensity. Higher the light intensity, higher was the TSS and colour development in coloured varieties like Spartan and Coe Red Fuji. Therefore, espalier training system was found the best canopy management system allowing maximum PAR penetration and diffusion leading better fruit quality and productivity.

Obesity linked diabetes, popularly known as diabesity, has been viewed as a direct product of the modern lifestyle in both developed and developing countries, and its increased prevalence is seen as a major threat to public health globally. Ficus carica (FC) and Syzigium cumini (SC) are part of indigenous flora with traditional medicinal properties. Fresh seeds of SC fruit and fruit of FC were collected and macerated to obtain the final extract. Wistar rats were divided into seven groups fed either on a normal diet or high-fat diet (HFD) along with streptozocin (STZ) to induce diabesity. The crude extract of FC (FC.Cr.) and SC (SC.Cr.) were administered at 250 mg/kg/day and 500 mg/kg/day in induced diabesity state. Body weights, blood glucose level, complete blood count (CBC), cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) were recorded to analyze their effects on glucose and lipid metabolism. Further, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured to examine their effects on lipid peroxidation and ant oxidative enzyme. Results showed that both FC.Cr. and SC.Cr. have the potential to control obesity-linked type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by lowering the body weights, serum glucose, cholesterol, TG, LDL, and VLDL, while increasing the protective effects of HDL dose-dependently. The crude extract of both plants showed significant activity to raise SOD and curb MDA under diabetic states. It was concluded that both FC.Cr. and SC.Cr. exhibited remarkable therapeutics potential in HFD-STZ-induced diabetic rats. However, we found that the effects of SC.Cr. are relatively more pronounced as compared to FC.Cr. in almost all parameters.

Therapeutic efficacy of P277 against type 1 diabetes was extensively investigated and clinically evidenced. Clinical trials Phases I and II concluded promising results, while the data of P277 immunogenicity in Phase III trials represented weak responses that led to abolish medical use. But, a therapeutic performance of P277 cannot be forgotten. So, in order to exploit its therapeutic benefits and improve its immunogenicity, we developed a new analogue VP to optimize therapeutic efficacy and enhancing immunosuppressive modulations. However, new analogue was purified, and then used to immunize diabetic NOD mice to investigate antidiabetic effects through modulation of immunological status. So, DCs immune responses, relative TLRs, MyD88, and NF-Kβ1 mRNA expression on DCs and splenocytes under VP effect were tested. Circulating and intracellular cytokines were also evaluated at treated and non-treated mice. Splenic T lymphocytes proliferation (Th1 and Treg cells) were also determined. Results revealed that VP significantly down regulates DCs maturation through TLR2, TLR4, and MyD88 pathways. It also shifts DCs to a tolerogenic polarization through NF-Kβ1 pathway that mediates Th1 immunosuppression and enhances iTreg expanding in type1diabetes mice. Meanwhile, we noticed that VP significantly enhances iTreg CD25 + FoxP3+ proliferation. In conclusion, VP showed promising immune potential to modulate immune regulatory responses and shifts DCs to suppress autoreactive Th1 cells which ameliorated immunosuppressive potency in the type1 diabetic mice.

Abstract Background Alterations in gene expression in peripheral blood cells play a curtail role in the presence and extent of coronary artery disease (CAD), but its severity reflected by gene expression alterations in peripheral blood cells is still unknown in Xinjiang population in China. Methods Global gene expression profiling in peripheral blood was used to explore differentially expressed genes in coronary artery stenosis patients. RNA was extracted from peripheral blood of 9 controls without coronary stenosis and 21 cases with angiographically CAD. The extent of CAD severity was categorized angiographically as no CAD, mild CAD (20 to 50% luminal diameter stenosis [LDS]), moderate CAD (50 to 75% LDS) and severe CAD (≥75% LDS). Differentially expressed genes related with CAD severity from peripheral blood cells were screened by linear mixed effects analysis using the lme4 package in R. Then the differentially expressed genes that gradually up-regulated or down-regulated were enriched by Gene Ontology (GO) functional annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis. Results The most significantly enrichments were toll-like receptor signaling pathway, immune responses, translational processes, cellular growth, inflammation and metabolic processes. Combined with NCBI-GeneRIF and PubMed analysis, we focused on the 12 genes associated with toll-like receptor signaling pathway in the extent of coronary artery stenosis patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of 12 genes associated with toll-receptor signaling pathway in the 236 CAD patients from GEO database demonstrated that 12 genes expression could predict severe CAD with an area under the curve of 0.67, sensitivity of 77.65% and specificity of 51.52%. Conclusion These results suggest that 12 genes associated with toll-like receptor signaling pathway in peripheral-blood cells reflect the presence and extent of CAD severity in Xinjiang population in China.

A complete set of diverse haptic feedbacks is essential for a highly realistic and immersive virtual environment. In this sense, a multi-mode haptic interface that simultaneously generates multiple kinds of haptic signals is highly desirable. In this paper, we propose a new silicone-made pneumatically controlled fingertip actuator to render pressure and vibrotactile feedback concurrently to offer a realistic and effective haptic sensation. A new silicone-based stacked dual-layer air chamber was designed. The volume of the chambers is controlled by pneumatic valves with compressed air tanks. The top/upper air chamber renders vibration feedback, whereas the bottom/lower air chamber renders pressure feedback. The proposed silicone-made fingertip actuator is designed so that it can be easily worn at the fingertips. To demonstrate the potential of the system, a virtual environment for rendering three different types of haptic textures was implemented. Extensive performance evaluation and user studies were carried out to demonstrate the proposed actuator’s effectiveness compared to an actuator with single vibrotactile feedback.

Doxorubicin (DOX) is an important anticancer drug used widely in the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma. The suitability of DOX is enhanced by its high therapeutic index, but its potential to cause cardiotoxicity and nephrotoxicity remains a prime concern in anticancer therapeutics. This study is designed to determine the effect of Phoenix dactylifera extract (PDE) on DOX-induced cardiotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. Experimental rats were divided into four groups, receiving normal saline 4 ml/kg, DOX alone, and crude extract of PDE at doses of 1 g/kg and 1.5 g/kg in the presence of DOX, respectively, for 21 days. Cardiac enzymes and serum and urinary sodium and potassium levels were evaluated which were analyzed statistically by using one-way ANOVA. Subsequently, DOX initiated changes in the level of cardiac markers CK-MB, LDH, and troponin I, which were notably reversed by PDE. PDE was also effective against serum and urinary sodium and urinary potassium and protected against DOX-induced nephrotoxicity. Groups treated with different doses of PDE showed marked decrease in levels of cardiac and renal markers. The study concluded that the PDE extract possesses protective effects against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity and nephrotoxicity.

Most of the information a user obtains through a computer is visual and/or auditory. Providing synchronized haptic information in addition to visual and/or auditory information can significantly enhance user experience and perception of virtual objects. In this paper, we propose a pneumatically-controlled haptic mouse that can replace a conventional computer mouse and deliver multimodal haptic feedback using a single end-effector. The haptic mouse can deliver distinct haptic feedback, i.e., static pressure, high frequency vibrations, and impact response. It has a dual-layered silicone housing with two air chambers. The outer layer is stretchable, and when pumped with air, changes in size and delivers feedback directly to the hand. The inner layer is non-stretchable, and is used to hold the form of the haptic mouse. Various experiments were conducted to quantify the characteristics of haptic mouse. The haptic mouse can generate a static pressure of up to 0.6 Gs, vibrations up to 250 Hz, and provides a max actuation delay of 23 ms. Based on those characteristics, haptic geometry and texture rendering algorithms were developed. These algorithms were used to render virtual shapes and textures and were evaluated using a psychophysical experiment. The results show that participants were able to successfully identify the geometries and textures in most cases.

The objective of the current study was to design and optimize prednisolone acetate-loaded chitosan nanoparticles (NPs) through design experts for ophthalmic drug delivery. Chitosan NPs were prepared by ionic gelation using sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP). The effects of variables, such as chitosan concentration, chitosan to TPP mass ratio (ch:TPP), and prednisolone concentration on particle size, zeta potential (ZP), and polydispersity index (PDI), were studied using a three-factor three-level central composite design (CCD), and optimum experimental conditions were determined using the desirability function combined response surface methodology (RSM). Quadratic and reduced quadratic polynomial models were generated to predict and evaluate the independent variables with respect to the dependent variables. The composition of the optimal formulation was determined to be a chitosan concentration of 0.26%, chitosan to TPP mass ratio of 6:1, and drug concentration with respect to chitosan mass of 8.11%. The optimized formulation showed a percentage entrapment efficiency (% EE) of 78.32%, mean particle size of 193.5, PDI of 0.219, ZP of 10.3 mV, and 86.15% cumulative drug release. The morphology of the NPs was found to be nearly spherical in shape by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed successful loading of the drug in NPs, and FTIR confirmed polymer and drug compatibility.

In this paper, we report the synthesis and biological evaluation of picolylamide-based diselenides with the aim of developing a new series of diselenides with O···Se non-bonded interactions. The synthesis of diselenides was performed by a simple and efficient synthetic route. All the products were obtained in good yields and their structures were determined by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and HRMS. All these new compounds showed promising activities when tested in different antioxidant assays. These amides exhibited strong thiol peroxidase-like (TPx) activity. In fact one of the compounds showed 4.66 times higher potential than the classical standard i.e., diphenyl diselenide. The same compound significantly inhibited iron (Fe)-induced thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) production in rat’s brain homogenate. In addition, the X-ray structure of the most active compound showed non-bonded interaction between the selenium and the oxygen atom that are in close proximity and may be responsible for the increased antioxidant activity. The present study provides evidence about the possible biochemical influence of nonbonding interactions on organochalcogens potency.

Obesity has become a major problem in public health over the past few years. It is strongly associated with insulin resistance, the central pathological process in many metabolic disorders. Now it is generally acknowledged that adipose tissue plays a vital role in the obesity-induced insulin resistance as an active endocrine organ. Many “classic” adipokines such as TNF-α, IL-6, adiponectin, and leptin have been studied extensively but recently many novel metabolic regulators which belong to growth factor family, such as FGF21, VEGF, TGF-β superfamily, have gained much attention. While some of these growth factors have showed greater promise in palliating insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the role of others’ remains obscure or shrouded in mystery due to their pleiotropic nature. Plethora of research has been reported to trace their role in insulin-resistance in peripheral insulin-responsive tissues, like adipose tissue and skeletal muscle. In this review we attempted to analyze the role of various growth factors in insulin resistance as a result of mutual cross-talk between metabolic tissues.

Activated carbon was prepared under vacuum from Salvadora persica. Three different activated carbon samples were prepared for 30, 45 and 60 min duration at 400 °C. The surface area, pore volume and pore diameter of the activated carbon decrease with increase in the heating time. Activated carbon was used for sorption of copper, lead and nickel from aqueous solutions. The Langmuir sorption isotherm indicated maximum sorption capacities for the copper. The maximum sorption capacity was also found for the activated carbon which was heated for 30 min. The experimental data were applied to the Langmuir, the Freundlich and the Temkin sorption isotherms using both linear and non linear regression methods. The Langmuir model type 1 provided the lowest error values and fit better to experimental data compared with the other two models.

The present study was conducted to explore the role of different types of vermicomposts (VCs) prepared from different substrates to improve soil health (physical and chemical properties) and wheat plant growth under field conditions. Different combinations of vermicompost prepared from different substrates (cow dung, paper waste, and rice straw) and inorganic fertilizers were applied in soil using wheat as a test plant. The impact of three different VCs on physico-chemical characteristics and nutrient availability in soil was evaluated to examine their efficacy in combination with chemical fertilizers. Temporal trends in vermicomposting treatments at various stages showed significant improvement in physico-chemical attributes of the VCs substrates. All the plant physiological attributes showed significant response where N: P: K 100:50:50 kg ha−1 + 10 t ha−1 cow dung vermicompost was applied. In addition, post-harvest analysis of soil not only revealed that different combinations of the vermicomposting treatments improved the soil health by improving the physico-chemical attributes of the soil. Conclusively, application of cow dung vermicompost along with recommended NPK not only improved crop yield, soil health, reduced insect (aphid) infestation but also fortified grains with Zn and Fe.

Over the past 30 years, several reviews have examined scholarly contributions of individual researchers and institutions in the field of educational psychology (Fong et al., Educational Psychology Review 34:2379-2403, 2022; Greenbaum et al., Educational Psychology Review 28:215-223, 2016; Hsieh et al., Contemporary Educational Psychology 29:333-343, 2004; Jones et al., Contemporary Educational Psychology 35:11-16, 2010; Smith et al., Contemporary Educational Psychology 23:173-181, 1998; Smith et al., Contemporary Educational Psychology 28:422-430, 2003). However, no reviews have specifically examined scholarly impact as measured by citations since (Walberg, Current Contents 22:5-14, 1990) did so over 34 years ago. The present review focused on the period from 1988 to 2023, identifying the most cited articles and authors since Walberg's study that focused on the period from 1966-1988. Whereas most of the previous reviews have been limited in terms of brief time periods (e.g., six years) and a small set of journals (e.g., five), our scope included 12 educational psychology journals across 36 years. The most cited article (over 9000 times) by (Ryan and Deci, Contemporary Educational Psychology 25:54-67, 2000) had more than twice as many citations as the second most cited article by (Pintrich and Groot, Journal of Educational Psychology 82:33-40, 1990). Most of the top 30 most cited articles, including four of the top five, addressed the topic of motivation. With regard to highly cited authors, the top five were John Sweller, Richard E. Mayer, Fred Paas, Richard M. Ryan, and Reinhard Pekrun. Several of the 30 most cited authors have never appeared in previous lists of most productive authors. Finally, keyword and cluster analyses revealed most popular topics and collaborative networks among many of the most cited authors that may partly explain their productivity. Examining article and author impact is an important complement to productivity when considering scholarly contributions to the field of educational psychology.

Four sequential extraction procedures (Sposito, Tessier, Silveira and Bureau Communautaire de Reference (BCR)) were used to evaluate the distribution of some metals (Fe, Cu, Cd and Zn) in a contaminated soil around a mining area. The results showed that Fe and Zn were mainly recovered in the recalcitrant soil fractions, while Cd was primarily localized in the exchangeable fraction. Soil Cu was highly associated with organic matter fraction. The amorphous Fe fraction in Silveira could be recognized as part of the Fe-Mn oxide fraction in Tessier and BCR procedures, while the crystalline Fe oxide fraction was classified into the residual fraction in Sposito, BCR and Tessier schemes. Although the same reagent was used to extract target fraction, less carbonate-bound Cu, Cu and Zn were extracted in Tessier procedure as compared to Silveira method, while Tessier scheme yielded a higher proportion of Fe, Cu and Zn in the Fe-Mn oxide fraction than BCR method. Due to the lack of uniformity of experimental conditions and the differences in extraction reagents, the extraction efficiency of metal species varied with the sequential extraction schemes. Therefore, care should be taken when comparing the results obtained by different sequential extraction procedures.

Diphenyl diselenide has shown interesting biological activities in various free-radical-induced damage models and can be considered as a potential candidate drug against oxidative stress. Apart from its anti-oxidant activity, this compound can oxidize various thiols. However there are no detailed studies in the literature about the thiol oxidase-like activity of this compound against biologically significant mono and di-thiols with respect to various pH conditions. Keeping in mind the scarcity of data in this area of organochalcogen chemistry, we report for the first time the kinetics of thiol oxidation by diphenyl diselenide, which was carried out in a commonly used phosphate buffer, not only at physiological pH, but also at a number of acidic values. The relative reactivities of the different thiols with diphenyl diselenide were independent of the pKa of the thiol group, such that at pH 7.4, cysteine and dithiothreitol were the most reactive, while 2,3-dimercapto-1-propanesulfonic acid and glutathione were weakly reactive and extremely low reactivity was observed with dimercaptosuccinic acid. Rate of oxidation was dependent on the pH of the incubation medium. The results obtained will help us in the design of rational strategies for the safe pharmacological use of diphenyl diselenide.

The study was tempted to explore the scientific basis for the medicinal use of Adiantum capillus-veneris L. in diarrhea using the in vivo and in vitro assays. The crude extract of dried leaves of A. capillus-veneris exhibited antidiarrheal effect against castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice at 300 and 500 mg/kg, similar to the effect loperamide. It was also found safe up to administered dose of 7 g/kg in mice. In isolated rabbit jejunum, extract of A. capillus-veneris showed a concentration-dependent relaxation of spontaneous and low K+ (25 mM)-induced contractions and had weak inhibitory effect on high K+ (80 mM), similar to the activity pattern of cromakalim, an ATP-dependent K+ channel opener. Interestingly, its inhibitory effect on spontaneous contractions was potentiated in the presence of atropine. These data demonstrates that A. capillus-veneris possesses antidiarrheal and antispasmodic properties mediated possibly through ATP-dependent K+ channels activation, thus providing scientific basis to its folk use in abdominal colic and diarrhea.

Large quantities of data have been generated from multiple sources at exponential rates in the last few years. These data are generated at high velocity as real time and streaming data in variety of formats. These characteristics give rise to challenges in its modeling, computation, and processing. Hadoop MapReduce (MR) is a well known data-intensive distributed processing framework using the distributed file system (DFS) for Big Data. Current implementations of MR only support execution of a single algorithm in the entire Hadoop cluster. In this paper, we propose MapReducePack (MRPack), a variation of MR that supports execution of a set of related algorithms in a single MR job. We exploit the computational capability of a cluster by increasing the compute-intensiveness of MapReduce while maintaining its data-intensive approach. It uses the available computing resources by dynamically managing the task assignment and intermediate data. Intermediate data from multiple algorithms are managed using multi-key and skew mitigation strategies. The performance study of the proposed system shows that it is time, I/O, and memory efficient compared to the default MapReduce. The proposed approach reduces the execution time by 200% with an approximate 50% decrease in I/O cost. Complexity and qualitative results analysis shows significant performance improvement.

Aims and Background. Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease that cannot be treated adequately using the known monotherapies, especially when the disease progresses to an advanced stage. In this study, we explore the possibility of treating the disease with a novel combination approach of oleanolic acid (OA), a glycogen phosphorylase (GP) inhibitor, and metformin. Methods. Db/db mice were randomly divided into four groups: a db/db control group, db/db mice treated with OA (250 mg/kg), db/db mice treated with metformin (100 mg/kg), and db/db mice treated with a combination of OA and metformin. All mice were treated for four weeks. The effects of the treatments on glucose homeostasis were measured using an OGTT, an assessment of insulin sensitivity and signaling in the liver, and the hepatic glucose production. Results. Combination therapy with OA and metformin significantly reduced the blood glucose and insulin levels and improved the liver pathology compared with that for the monotherapy in the db/db diabetic mouse model. We also found that the combination therapy significantly increased the mRNA expression of glycogen synthesis and decreased the GP, PGC-1α, PEPCK1, and G-6-Pase levels. In addition, the combination therapy with OA and metformin significantly increased the phosphorylation of AKT, PI3K, AMPK, and ACC and decreased the protein expression levels of G-6-Pase, PEPCK1, and TORC compared with those for either monotherapy. The combination therapy also reduced the phosphorylation of mTOR and CREB. Conclusions. Our results suggest that the combination therapy with OA and metformin has synergistic effects on the symptoms of db/db diabetic mice by improving glucose and insulin homeostasis.

“The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind and the harmony of the soul creates the symphony of life”. B.K.S. Iyengar, a foremost Yoga teacher from India correlated the symphony of life with a balance of body, mind and soul in such a way that it answers most of the questions by people suffering from stressful lives. It must be understood that according to WHO constitution, health is defined as a complete well-being of mental, physical and social aspects of a person, not the absence of disability or disease. Not to forget that the aspect of soul is generally not considered in scientific world, this article steps forward initialising the understanding of soul as an integral part of human body in terms of philosophy as well as science. Considering the aspect of health sciences; a mind fully synchronised with the body and soul is a sign of having a greater intelligence than IQ and EQ as a mind convinced with current conditions of body and soul will be able to boost up the usage of intellect and wisdom in order to achieve greater and much effective results in terms of creativity, health and spiritual growth. One of the best ways adopted by greats of their time to achieve harmony is through meditation.

Organoselenium compounds have been pointed out as therapeutic agents. In contrast, the potential therapeutic aspects of tellurides have not yet been demonstrated. The present study evaluated the comparative toxicological effects of diphenyl diselenide (PhSe)2 and diphenyl ditelluride (PhTe)2 in mice after in vivo administration. Genotoxicity (as determined by comet assay) and mutagenicicity were used as end-points of toxicity. Subcutaneous administration of high doses of (PhSe)2 or (PhTe)2 (500 µmol/kg) caused distinct genotoxicity in mice. (PhSe)2 significantly decreased the DNA damage index after 48 and 96 h of its injection (p < 0.05). In contrast, (PhTe) caused a significant increase in DNA damage (p < 0.05) after 48 and 96 h of intoxication. (PhSe)2 did not cause mutagenicity but (PhTe)2 increased the micronuclei frequency, indicating its mutagenic potential. The present study demonstrated that acute in vivo exposure to ditelluride caused genotoxicity in mice, which may be associated with pro-oxidant effects of diphenyl ditelluride. In addition, the use of this compound and possibly other related tellurides must be carefully controlled.

Since the beginning of human time in this world, the only thing which is found constant is the change in human behavior throughout ages. The gradual change, or in more liberal senses, advancement in human form of both physiological and psychological is called evolution of human race. As humans evolved throughout millions of years uptil now, the behavior, ethics, lifestyle and thought processing have found being enhanced and a wide range of capabilities have been developed in human. In material sciences, there are two aspects of grasping the concept of evolution. One being the Darwinian Theory of Evolution in which he mentioned that all species biologically evolved throughout time from one single gene and from natural inheritance, the form changed gradually to different species and as he says, the purpose of “war of nature” is the production of higher animals.

Obesity is a major risk factor for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Adipose tissue is now considered to be an active endocrine organ that secretes various adipokines such as adiponectin, leptin, resistin, tumour necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-6. Recent studies have shown that these factors might provide a molecular link between increased adiposity and impaired insulin sensitivity. Since hepatic insulin resistance plays the key role in the whole body insulin resistance, clarification of the regulatory processes about hepatic insulin resistance by adipokines in rodents and human would seem essential in order to understand the mechanism of type 2 diabetes and for developing novel therapeutic strategies to treat it.

Data-driven haptic modeling is an emerging technique where contact dynamics are simulated and interpolated based on a generic input-output matching model identified by data sensed from interaction with target physical objects. In data-driven modeling, selecting representative samples from a large set of data in a way that they can efficiently and accurately describe the whole dataset has been a long standing problem. This paper presents a new algorithm for the sample selection where the variances of output are observed for selecting representative input-output samples in order to ensure the quality of output prediction. The main idea is that representative pairs of input-output are chosen so that the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean of the corresponding output group does not exceed an application-dependent threshold. This output- and standard deviation-based sample selection is very effective in applications where the variance or relative error of the output should be kept within a certain threshold. This threshold is used for partitioning the input space using Binary Space Partitioning-tree (BSP-tree) and k-means algorithms. We apply the new approach to data-driven haptic modeling scenario where the relative error of the output prediction result should be less than a perceptual threshold. For evaluation, the proposed algorithm is compared to two state-of-the-art sample selection algorithms for regression tasks. Four kinds of haptic related behavior–force datasets are tested. The results showed that the proposed algorithm outperformed the others in terms of output-approximation quality and computational complexity.

“Royal road to the unconscious” as considered by Dr. Sigmund Freud during his dream analysis in 1900 gives a good start to the philosophers when it comes to satisfy their theories in psychophysiological manner. During the early stages of human evolution, there have always been physical and materialistic needs that were to be fulfilled as a necessity of survival. Dreams on the contrary, laid rest in the hands of myth and mysticism and hence been defined in illogical manner which were taken for granted by most of the scholars of the times. Time passed, and the exploration of human psychology became extensively useful for medication and cure of gradually increasing diseases. The point of interest and consideration of scholars were merely diverted to the origination of dreams and the phenomenon of sleeping. It became feasible to study the psyche of behavior when the classification of conscious, sub-conscious, preconscious and unconsciousness were first made.