Medicines are often consumed concurrently with food; sometimes to improve its absorption and efficacy. However, certain foods may modify the function of drug metabolizing enzymes or transport mechanisms that are crucial determinants of systemic drug availability. Extensive work has been reported on certain juices like grapefruit that affects the bioavailability of more than 60 medications. However, relatively less work has been reported on certain other commonly used fruit juices, especially in Pakistan, such as mango, strawberry, apple, banana, pomegranate and grape etc. Present review has taken an account of the current work done in this area.

A two-step palladium-catalyzed procedure based on Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling, followed by a double Buchwald-Hartwig reaction, allows for the synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant benzo[4,5]furo[3,2]indoles in moderate to very good yield. The synthesized compounds have been analyzed with regard to their inhibitory activity (IC) of nucleotide pyrophosphatases -NPP1 and -NPP3. The activity lies in the nanomolar range. The results were rationalized based on docking studies.

In vitro and screen house experiments were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of thirteen phytochemicals from Artemisia elegantissimia and A. incisa on root knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) cv. Rio Grande. A positive control (Carbofuran) and negative control (H2O) were also used for comparison. Effectiveness of phytochemicals against juveniles (J2s) mortality and egg hatch inhibition were evaluated after 24, 48 and 72 hours of incubation at three concentrations viz; 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mg/mL in vitro conditions. Amongst thirteen phytochemicals, Isoscopletin (Coumarin), Carbofuran and Apigenin (Flavonoid) showed the highest mortality and egg hatch inhibition of M. incognita at all intervals. Inhibition of eggs and J2s mortality were the greatest (90.0%) and (96.0%) at 0.3 mg/mL concentration. Application of phytochemicals caused reduction in number of galls, galling index, and egg masses on tomato plant and enhanced plant growth parameters under screen house conditions. Gall numbers (1.50), galling index (1.00), number of juveniles (4.83) and egg masses (4.00) were greatly reduced and plant growth parameters such as; plant height (28.48 cm), fresh (72.13 g) and dry shoot weights (35.99 g), and root fresh (6.58 g) and dry weights (1.43 g) were increased significantly by using Isoscopletin. In structure activity relationship, juveniles of M. incognita, exhibited variations in their shape and postures upon death when exposed to different concentrations of phytochemicals of Artemisia spp. The present study suggests that Artemisia based phytochemicals possess strong nematicidal effects and can be used effectively in an integrated disease management program against root knot nematodes.

This case brings attention to development of rehabilitation protocols for patients with decompression sickness (DCS). A lack of data regarding DCS renders the need of conducting multicenter studies to document the epidemiology and outcomes of spinal cord DCS in Saudi Arabia.

Musculoskeletal problems are commonly reported after stroke resulting in abnormal gait biomechanics, pain, and limitation in performing activities of daily living. Anterior circulate ligament is the most frequently injured knee ligament accounting for approximately 50% of all ligament injuries; however, post stroke anterior cruciate ligament injury is rarely reported. We present a case of a 58-year-old female admitted for inpatient stoke rehabilitation after a left middle cerebral artery stroke. After gaining considerable functional recovery, she was planned to be discharged in two weeks' time when she tripped resulting in a torn anterior cruciate ligament on the hemiperetic side. This resulted in increase in the length of stay and loss of functional gains. We discuss the possible mechanisms and the management plan. Patients with stroke should be monitored for musculoskeletal complications and preventive strategies should be devised to protect from possible ligamentous injuries of the knees.

From 2013, Australia has experienced a sustained increase in the proportion of deceased donor kidneys that are retrieved but not utilized for transplantation. We aimed to determine whether this could be explained by changes in donor characteristics over time.

Maize is an important crop for fodder, food and feed industry. The present study explores the plant-microbe interactions as alternative eco-friendly sustainable strategies to enhance the crop yield.

The preferred management of patients with unresectable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC) is concurrent chemo-radiotherapy (CRT). Acute CRT-related toxicities are well defined, however, less is known about late toxicities. The aim of the study was to examine the outcomes and late toxicities in Stage III NSCLC treated with CRT.

Thermoelectric materials transform a thermal gradient into electricity. The efficiency of this process relies on three material-dependent parameters: the Seebeck coefficient, the electrical resistivity and the thermal conductivity, summarized in the thermoelectric figure of merit. A large figure of merit is beneficial for potential applications such as thermoelectric generators. Here we report the thermal and electronic properties of thin-film Heusler alloys based on FeVWAl prepared by magnetron sputtering. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the thin films are metastable states, and measurements of the power factor-the ratio of the Seebeck coefficient squared divided by the electrical resistivity-suggest a high intrinsic figure of merit for these thin films. This may arise from a large differential density of states at the Fermi level and a Weyl-like electron dispersion close to the Fermi level, which indicates a high mobility of charge carriers owing to linear crossing in the electronic bands.

Presently, most deaths are caused by heart disease. To overcome this situation, heartbeat sound analysis is a convenient way to diagnose heart disease. Heartbeat sound classification is still a challenging problem in heart sound segmentation and feature extraction. Dataset-B applied in this study that contains three categories Normal, Murmur and Extra-systole heartbeat sound. In the purposed framework, we remove the noise from the heartbeat sound signal by applying the band filter, After that we fixed the size of the sampling rate of each sound signal. Then we applied down-sampling techniques to get more discriminant features and reduce the dimension of the frame rate. However, it does not affect the results and also decreases the computational power and time. Then we applied a purposed model Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) that is based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Dropout, Dense and Softmax layer. As a result, the purposed method is more competitive compared to other methods.

Coxiellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by the obligate intracellular bacterium affecting the productive and reproductive capabilities of animals. This study was conducted to gain insight into the seroprevalence of coxiellosis in small ruminants in seven farms of the Punjab, Pakistan. Potential risk factors were assessed. In total, 1000 serum samples (500 from sheep and 500 from goats) and 163 ticks were collected from the ruminants. All these 163 ticks were merged into 55 pools (29 pools for ticks from sheep and 26 pools for ticks from goat). Serum samples were investigated using an indirect ELISA and PCR. DNA was detected in 29 pooled seropositive samples and 11 pooled ticks by real-time qPCR. Serological analysis revealed a prevalence of 15.6% and 15.0% in sheep and goats, respectively. A significant association was found between seropositivity and different variables like district, lactational status, reproductive status, body condition and reproductive disorders. Univariate analysis showed that detection of DNA in tick pools was significantly associated with the presence of ticks on sheep and goats. However, a non-significant association was found for the prevalence of DNA in serum pools. Hence, infection is prevalent in small ruminants and ticks maintained at livestock farms in Punjab, Pakistan.

As an active quantum system, the correlated spontaneous emission laser has many valuable applications in quantum information processing. Here, we report on temporal evolution of the quantum correlations such as quantum discord, entanglement, steering, and Bell non-locality for the field retrieved in the form of two-mode Gaussian state using a system of correlated spontaneous emission laser. We consider the initial modes of the cavity field as two independent arbitrary single-mode Gaussian states inside the cavity. The density matrix for the resulting cavity field is evaluated both analytically and numerically with respect to the time evolution of the laser system. The influences of the non-classicality and purity of the initial cavity modes, the Rabi frequency of the classical coupling field, and the cavity damping rates are studied thoroughly. We show explicitly that the boundaries for the four kinds of the temporal quantum correlations of the cavity field retrieved satisfy a strict hierarchy.

Three districts viz. Lower Dir, Swat and Shangla in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, were surveyed for the collection of Pteropus vampyrus (the Indian flying fox) in Malakand division, the north western region of Pakistan from February to November 2018. A total of 35 specimens were captured. Out of the examined specimens 22 were found to be infected with ectoparasites. Three types of ectoparasites were observed including flies 20% (n=7/35), mites 28.5% (n=10/35) and bugs 14.2% (n=5/35). Male bats were more infected 57.1% (n=20/35) as compared to females 42.8% (n=15/35), however, no significant difference (p>0.05) was noted. Flies were recovered from wings membrane and head region, mites were found on wings, ears and around eyes while bugs were found attached on body surface and neck region. Body weight, circumference and wing span of male bats were greater as compared to female bats and were considered a key factor in clear cut identification of male and female Pteropus vampyrus (the Indian flyingfox). It was concluded that Pteropus vampyrus from north western part of Pakistan were parasitized by a varied parasite fauna with high infestation rates. We assume that in male bats the number of parasites is generally higher than in females. Our results revealed new insights into parasite fauna of Pteropus vampyrus.

Data on environmental contamination of the parasites of zoonotic importance is scarce in Pakistan. Soil contamination with feces of dogs hide infective stages of the parasite represents a health-risk to humans. This study was aimed to assess the eggs of gastrointestinal parasites of stray dogs and household dogs in lower Dir district, Pakistan with special consideration to those that can be spread to humans. One hundred and fifty two stool specimens from (stray dogs=90 and household dogs=62) were collected. The helminth eggs were processed by direct smear method and centrifugation techniques and identified by microscopic examination. Of the total examined dogs 26.8% (n=41 /152) were found to be infected with one or more intestinal parasites. The intestinal helminths detected were Dipylidium caninum (n =18, 11.8%), followed by Toxocara canis (n =16, 10.5%), Taenia spp., (n=10, 6.57%) Ancylostoma caninum (n=6, 3.94), Toxascaris spp., Capillaria spp., and Trichuris vulpis (n=2, 1.31% each) in order of their prevalence. Pattern of infection revealed that 27 (65.8%) dogs have single, 13(31.7%) double and 1(2.43%) triple infection. The stray dogs were highly infected 34.4% (n=31) than house hold dogs 16.1% (n=10). The prevalence of infection with intestinal parasites was significantly different among these two groups (p = 0.0097). This study highlight a severe environmental contamination by frequent parasitic stages infectious to humans. There is a higher risk of zoonotic transmission from dogs which indicate an immediate need for the controlling of these parasites and educating the public to take wise action relating to the parasites and pets.

Childhood obesity is a serious public health concern worldwide. Community-based obesity prevention interventions offer promise due to their focus on the broader social, cultural and environmental contexts rather than individual behaviour change and their potential for sustainability and scalability. This paper aims to determine the effectiveness of a South Australian community-based, multi-setting, multi-strategy intervention, OPAL (Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle), in increasing healthy weight prevalence in 9 to 11-year-olds.

The development of eco-benign experimental procedures for the synthesis of nanomaterials is a fundamental developing branch of green nanotechnology. In this paper, green synthetic route was followed to synthesize novel Au@FeOnanocomposite using Citrus sinensis fruit extract as a reducing and stabilizing agent. The as synthesized Au@FeOnanocomposite was successfully characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FT1R) spectrophotometry and Zeta potential. UV-vis spectroscopy showed two SPR peaks for FeO and coated Au at 290 and 520 nm respectively. XRD confirmed the crystallinity of Au@FeO Au@FeO nanocomposite showed better antioxidant activity to effectively scavenge DPPH. The Au@FeO has been also tested for antibacterial activity which showed an effective antibacterial activity against multi drug resistant E.coli and Bacillus subtilis. Furthermore, Au@FeO also demonstrated better photo catalytic activity for methylene blue (MB) degradation. We proposed that the existence of organic acids (citric acids) also played a significant role in the stabilization of Au@FeO, and plant (Citrus sinensis Var Kozan yerly) containing such component may be more effective for the green synthesis of Au@FeO nanocomposite. The findings of this study prove the overwhelming therapeutic and photocatalytic potential of bio-inspired Au@FeOnanocomposite which can be a novel candidate for the effective remediation of microbes and toxic organic pollutants.

A group of Gemini quaternary ammonium surfactants with the formula C HCONH(CH)N(CH)(CH)N(CH)(CH) NHCOC H · 2Y ( = 11, 13 and 15, Y = HCOO, CHCOO and CHCHOHCOO) have been synthesized by a counterion conversion process and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and mass spectroscopy. Their adsorption and self-aggregation properties are investigated by surface tension, conductivity, dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements. The results show that these surfactants reduce the surface tension of water to a minimum value of 26.51 mN m at a concentration of 5.72 × 10 mmol l. Furthermore, the increased alkyl chain length of the carboxylic counterions leads to the increased critical micelle concentration, the decreased degree of counterion binding () and the decreased self-assembly tendency, but the minimum area per surfactant molecule () adsorbed at the air-aqueous solution are similar. TEM images reveal that these surfactants self-assemble spontaneously into aggregates with vesicle or bilayer structures. It is also found that they have superior antibacterial activity at a concentration of 0.1 g l. The high surface activity and high antibacterial activity of the Gemini quaternary ammonium salt surfactants containing different carboxylic counterions bring more possibilities for the application in the field of biomedicine.

We report a single step solution based strategy to obtain 2D janus like free standing ultrathin nanosheets build from two structurally unrelated species i.e. polyoxomolybdate (POM) and CoO. A controlled 2D-to-1D morphological transition was achieved by judiciously adjusting the solvent choices. These POM-CoO heterostructures can behave as an ideal catalyst for the epoxidation of styrene. Benefiting from their amphiphilic nature, these 2D POM-CoO nanosheets have also been used as surfactant to emulsify immiscible solvents. We anticipate that structurally diverse polyoxometalates will offer promise as design elements for variety of structurally and compositionally tunable van der Waals integrated heteromaterials having broad range applications.

The objectives were to investigate whether restraint stress (which is known as a mixture of psychologic and physical stress) exerts negative effects on the stomach and spleen, and whether the phenolic compound resveratrol (RES) exerts any protective roles. Fifty adult male mice were divided into five groups, with 10 mice per group as follows: control (C), restraint stress (RS), RS with vehicle (RS + V), RS with 2 mg/kg of resveratrol (RS + 2 mg RES), and RS with 20 mg/kg of resveratrol (RS + 20 mg RES). Mice were restrained in conical centrifuge tubes for 4 h daily to establish the RS model. RS + 2 mg RES, RS + 20 mg RES, and RS + V groups were given an oral dose of resveratrol or vehicle for 15 consecutive days, while the control group was not exposed to restraint stress. Herein, we showed that restraint stress decreased body weight and food and water consumption in stressed groups RS and RS + V compared to controls, while the groups treated with resveratrol showed improvements. Moreover, restraint stress caused acute damage to the morphology of gastric cells and reduced the quantitative distribution of parietal cells along with their decreased size and diameter, pointing to gastritis or ulcer. Furthermore, the antibody against the apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) was highly attached in the RS groups. Splenic size, weight, and length were also greatly augmented in the stressed groups compared to the controls, while these phenomena were not observed in the RS + 2 mg RES group. Our findings proved significant ameliorating effects of resveratrol against restraint stress in adult male mice.