Hemocompatible and biocompatible hybrid nanocarriers for enhanced oral bioavailability of paclitaxel: in vivo evaluation.

Oral administration of BCS class IV anticancer agents has always remained challenging and frequently results in poor oral bioavailability. The goal of the current study was to develop hybrid nanoparticles (HNPs) employing cholesterol and poloxamer-407 to boost paclitaxel's (PTX) oral bioavailability. A series of HNPs with different cholesterol and poloxamer-407 ratios were developed utilizing a single-step nanoprecipitation technique. The PTX loaded HNPs were characterized systematically via particle size, zeta potential, polydispersity index, surface morphology, in vitro drug release, FTIR, DSC, XRD, acute oral toxicity analysis, hemolysis evaluation, accelerated stability studies, and in vivo pharmacokinetic analysis. The HNPs were found within the range of 106.6±55.60 - 244.5±88.24 nm diameter with the polydispersity index ranging from 0.20±0.03 - 0.51±0.11. SEM confirmed circular, nonporous, and smooth surfaces of HNPs. PTX loaded HNPs exhibited controlled release profile. The compatibility between the components of formulation, thermal stability, and amorphous nature of HNPs were confirmed by FTIR, DSC, and XRD, respectively. Acute oral toxicity analysis revealed that developed system have no deleterious effects on the animals' cellular structures. HNPs demonstrated notable cytotoxic effects and were hemocompatible at relatively higher concentrations. In vivo pharmacokinetic profile (AUC0-∞, AUMC0-∞, t1/2, and MRT0-∞) of the PTX loaded HNPs was improved as compared to pure PTX. It is concluded from our findings that the developed HNPs are hemocompatible, biocompatible and have significantly enhanced the oral bioavailability of PTX.

The use of Multispectral Radio-Meter (MSR5) data for wheat crop genotypes identification using machine learning models.

Satellite remote sensing is widely being used by the researchers and geospatial scientists due to its free data access for land observation and agricultural activities monitoring. The world is suffering from food shortages due to the dramatic increase in population and climate change. Various crop genotypes can survive in harsh climatic conditions and give more production with less disease infection. Remote sensing can play an essential role in crop genotype identification using computer vision. In many studies, different objects, crops, and land cover classification is done successfully, while crop genotypes classification is still a gray area. Despite the importance of genotype identification for production planning, a significant method has yet to be developed to detect the genotypes varieties of crop yield using multispectral radiometer data. In this study, three genotypes of wheat crop (Aas-'2011', 'Miraj-'08', and 'Punjnad-1) fields are prepared for the investigation of multispectral radio meter band properties. Temporal data (every 15 days from the height of 10 feet covering 5 feet in the circle in one scan) is collected using an efficient multispectral Radio Meter (MSR5 five bands). Two hundred yield samples of each wheat genotype are acquired and manually labeled accordingly for the training of supervised machine learning models. To find the strength of features (five bands), Principle Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), and Nonlinear Discernment Analysis (NDA) are performed besides the machine learning models of the Extra Tree Classifier (ETC), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree (DT), Logistic Regression (LR), k Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with detailed of configuration settings. ANN and random forest algorithm have achieved approximately maximum accuracy of 97% and 96% on the test dataset. It is recommended that digital policymakers from the agriculture department can use ANN and RF to identify the different genotypes at farmer's fields and research centers. These findings can be used for precision identification and management of the crop specific genotypes for optimized resource use efficiency.

The Global Dilemma of Soil Legacy Phosphorus and Its Improvement Strategies under Recent Changes in Agro-Ecosystem Sustainability.

Phosphorus (P) is one of the six key elements in plant nutrition and effectively plays a vital role in all major metabolic activities. It is an essential nutrient for plants linked to human food production. Although abundantly present in both organic and inorganic forms in soil, more than 40% of cultivated soils are commonly deficient in P concentration. Then, the P inadequacy is a challenge to a sustainable farming system to improve the food production for an increasing population. It is expected that the whole world population will rise to 9 billion by 2050 and, therefore, it is necessary at the same time for agricultural strategies broadly to expand food production up to 80% to 90% by handling the global dilemma which has affected the environment by climatic changes. Furthermore, the phosphate rock annually produced about 5 million metric tons of phosphate fertilizers per year. About 9.5 Mt of phosphorus enters human food through crops and animals such as milk, egg, meat, and fish and is then utilized, and 3.5 Mt P is physically consumed by the human population. Various new techniques and current agricultural practices are said to be improving P-deficient environments, which might help meet the food requirements of an increasing population. However, 4.4% and 3.4% of the dry biomass of wheat and chickpea, respectively, were increased under intercropping practices, which was higher than that in the monocropping system. A wide range of studies showed that green manure crops, especially legumes, improve the soil-available P content of the soil. It is noted that inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi could decrease the recommended phosphate fertilizer rate nearly 80%. Agricultural management techniques to improve soil legacy P use by crops include maintaining soil pH by liming, crop rotation, intercropping, planting cover crops, and the consumption of modern fertilizers, in addition to the use of more efficient crop varieties and inoculation with P-solubilizing microorganisms. Therefore, exploring the residual phosphorus in the soil is imperative to reduce the demand for industrial fertilizers while promoting long-term sustainability on a global scale.

Psychological flexibility, cognitive emotion regulation and mental health outcomes among patients with asthma in Pakistan.

Background/Objective: Adults with asthma who experience difficulties in emotion regulation are prone to developing psychopathological symptoms that may affect their self-management activities and symptom control. The current research investigated the role of psychological flexibility and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in relation to mental health outcomes (psychological distress and quality of life) among patients with asthma in Pakistan. Method: A sample of 200 adults, diagnosed with asthma (32% men, 68% women; Mage = 42.32, SDage = 16.99), completed the acceptance and action questionnaire (AAQ-II) cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (CERQ), depression, anxiety, stress scale-21 (DASS-21), asthma-related quality of life questionnaire (AQLQ) and a self-structured demographic sheet. Results: Results of Pearson product moment correlation showed that most of the adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (positive refocusing, refocus on planning, and positive reappraisal) were positively correlated with psychological flexibility and quality of life, whereas negatively correlated with psychological distress. All the maladaptive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation had a significant inverse relationship with psychological flexibility and quality of life, while positively correlated with psychological distress. Results of serial mediation analysis through PROCESS MACRO showed that catastrophising and anxiety fully mediated the relationship between psychological flexibility and asthma-related quality of life. Conclusion: Evidence-based interventions should focus on developing psychological flexibility and identifying maladaptive patterns of cognitive emotion regulation strategies for improved mental health and quality of life outcomes for adults with asthma.

Personality, Religiosity and Satisfaction with Life in Young Muslim and Christian Women in Pakistan.

This study investigated the relationship between personality traits, religiosity and satisfaction with life in young Muslim and Christian women. The current research involved a convenience sample (N = 200; Mage = 21.26) that was drawn from Kinnaird College for Women University Lahore, and Youhanabad Town Lahore, Pakistan. The Big Five Inventory, Centrality of Religiosity Scale, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale were administered. Results of correlation analysis demonstrated a significant positive relationship between 'conscientiousness' and 'religious ideology' among Muslim women, whereas 'openness' and 'agreeableness' were strongly associated with all the dimensions of religiosity in Christian women. Findings of hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that extraversion and agreeableness significantly predicted life satisfaction among Muslim and Christian participants respectively. Religiosity did not contribute to life satisfaction among both groups. Results of independent sample t-test showed that Christian women reported significantly higher degrees of extraversion and life satisfaction as compared to Muslim women who in contrast reported significantly higher level of agreeableness, neuroticism, and public religious practice. The findings are discussed in the context of gender, religion, culture and mental health.

Post-vaccination (COVID-19) impacts in healthcare personnel.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought attention back to its spread in medical staff. A survey-based study was conducted to combine general information related to COVID-19 exposures, acceptances, vaccines received, and side effects. The majority (62.3%) of healthcare professionals had acquired COVID-19 infection from hospital environment (51.5%) mainly who treated (64%) COVID-19 patients. 54% healthcare respondents expressed 'high acceptance' towards COVID-19 vaccines. 88% received COVID-19 vaccination. The majority of healthcare personnel received SinoPharm (65%). 82.3% did not acquire COVID-19 post-vaccination. 38% mild side effects were observed from vaccination. Following were the general side-effects: myalgia (18.2%), the feeling of sickness (16%), fever (15.6%), dizziness (7.8%), joint pain (7.4%), chills (4.8%), and flu (4.8%). Following were the common neurological side-effects reported: headache (18.2%), fatigue (16.5%), muscle pain (16%), numbness/tingling (3%), and migraine (2.6%). Nausea and diarrhoea were reported in only 3.5% of respondents. Bad taste was reported in only 3% of respondents. The 1.7% reported rash and itching. The majority of the healthcare professionals did not report significant side effects related to neurological, gastroenterological, skin and oral categories. To assess the vaccines' potential for substantial and long-term or chronic effects, more study with a larger sample size and a longer follow-up time is required.

Molecular detection of hupB gene of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in young patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) on Chemotherapy.

Cancer chemotherapy can lead to the mycobacterial infections. Tuberculosis has been reported a serious complication in leukemia patients who undergo chemotherapy. The study was focused to find mutations in hupB gene of M. tuberculosis in 50 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients through semi multi complex PCR. A column based DNA isolation method was adopted for DNA isolation. The gene for histone-like protein (hupB [Rv2986c]) of M tuberculosis was amplified to detect two closely related mycobacterial species. Primers M and S (histone like protein HupB) were utilized to generate amplicons of 318 bp and 291 bp for M. tuberculosis and M. bovis, respectively. Out of fifty ALL patients, 21 (42%) were females and 29 (58%) were males. The prevalence of ALL was found higher in males as compared to females. The prevalence of ALL was higher in patients of age group 5-10 years. The results of the amplification showed that, the 318 bp fragment specific for M. tuberculosis was observed in seven samples (14%), while 291 bp fragment specific for M. bovis was not observed in any sample. Children with ALL were found at higher risk for tuberculosis. A risk evaluation of tuberculosis infection must be conducted before managing chemotherapy.