Inhibitory effect of polyphenols from sumac, pomegranate and Indian almond on urease producing bacteria and jack bean urease activity.

Urinary tract infection caused by Klebsiella, Proteus and Streptococcus is a urease dependent process, hence treatment of these infections by antibacterial compounds lies in inhibition of their virulence factors. The crude methanolic extracts derived from sumac fruit, pomegranate peel and Indian almond leaves were separated into anthocyanin and non-anthocyanin fractions using solid phase cartridges. The inhibitory effect of these fractions was determined on the growth of urease producing species and jack bean urease activity. Known compounds in the fractions were also docked with ureases of different biological origins viz. K. pneumoniae (PDB ID: 8HCN), K. aerogenes (PDB ID: 2KAU), Helicobacter pylori (PDB ID:8HC1)and Canavalia ensiformis (jack bean) (PDB ID: 3LA4) to determine their binding affinities and interaction with the enzyme. All the fractions showed significant inhibition growth for P. mirabilis, S. epidermidis and K.pneumoniae. Among the samples, sumac showed greatest inhibition against all (MIC 6-25 mg.mL-1) while among the fractions, anthocyanin was found to be most active (MIC 6-12 mg/mL). Likewise, all fractions inhibited urease with lowest ICs50 shown by sumac fractions (21-116 µg.mL-1). Out of 39 compounds docked, 27 showed interaction with movable flaps and/or active site of ureases which explains their mode of inhibition.

In-vitro evaluation of virulence markers and antifungal resistance of clinical Candida albicans strains isolated from Karachi, Pakistan.

Candidiasis is a significant fungal infection with high mortality and morbidity rates worldwide. Candida albicans is the most dominant species responsible for causing different manifestations of candidiasis. Certain virulence traits as well as its resistance to antifungal drugs contribute to the pathogenesis of this yeast. This study was designed to determine the production of some virulence factors, such as biofilm formation and extracellular hydrolytic enzymes (esterase, coagulase, gelatinase, and catalase) by this fungus, as well as its antifungal resistance profile. A total of 304 clinical C. albicans isolates obtained from different clinical specimens were identified by a conventional diagnostic protocol. The antifungal susceptibility of C. albicans strains was determined by disk diffusion technique against commercially available antifungal disks, such as nystatin 50 µg, amphotericin B 100 unit, fluconazole 25 µg, itraconazole 10 µg, ketoconazole 10 µg, and voriconazole 1 µg. The assessment of biofilm formation was determined by the tube staining assay and spectrophotometry. Gelatinase, coagulase, catalase, and esterase enzyme production was also detected using standard techniques. A total of 66.1% (201/304) and 28.9% (88/304) of C. albicans strains were susceptible-dose dependent (SDD) to nystatin and itraconazole, respectively. Among the antifungal drugs, C. albicans strains showed high resistance to ketoconazole 24.7% (75/304); however, no statistically significant relationship between the clinical origin of C. albicans isolates and antifungal drug resistance pattern was detected. For virulence factors, the majority of the C. albicans strains actively produced biofilm and all hydrolytic enzymes. Biofilm formation was demonstrated by 88% (267/304) of the strains with a quantitative mean value 0.1762 (SD ± 0.08293). However, 100% (304/304) of isolates produced catalase enzyme, 69% (211/304) produced coagulase, 66% (197/304) produced gelatinase, and 52% (157/304) produced esterase enzyme. A significant relationship between the source of specimens and biofilm formation by C. albicans was observed; nevertheless, there was no significant relationship between different sources of C. albicans strains and the production of different enzymatic virulence factors. The study found that C. albicans strains have excellent potential to produce virulence markers and resistance to antifungals, which necessitates surveillance of these opportunistic pathogens to minimize the chances of severe invasive infections.

Do economic development and tourism heterogeneously influence ecological sustainability? Implications for sustainable development.

While economic development-driven anthropogenic emissions pose challenges to ecological sustainability, the international travel and tourism sector has appeared as a hot contestant to bring sustainability to the ecological systems across varying development levels. This work investigates the diversified effects of the international travel and tourism sector and economic development on ecological deterioration, in the presence of urban agglomeration and energy use efficiency, across the development levels of China's 30 provincial units from 2002 to 2019. It contributes in two ways. (i) The stochastic estimation of environmental impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) is modified to integrate the variables like international travel and tourism sector, urban agglomeration, and energy use efficiency. (ii) We measured an international travel and tourism sector index (ITTI) and made use of a continuously updated bias correction strategy (CUBCS) and a continuously updated fully modified strategy (CUFMS) for the long-term estimations. Besides, we used the bootstrapping-based causality technique for determining causality directions. The core results are as follows: Firstly, ITTI and economic development produced an inverse U-type association with ecological deterioration for the aggregate panels. Secondly, provinces exhibited a diverse range of links in that ITTI mitigated (boosted) the ecological deterioration in eleven (fourteen) provinces presenting diversified shapes of linkages. Economic development established the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory with ecological deterioration in merely four provinces; however, the non-EKC theory is verified in twenty-four divisions. Thirdly, in China's east zone (high development scale), the ITTI revealed the ecological deterioration reduction (promotion) impact in eight (two) provinces. China's central zone (moderate development scale) exhibited ecological deterioration promotion in half of the provinces, and the other half showed a reduction impact. In China's west zone (low development scale), it promoted ecological deterioration in eight provinces. Economic development promoted (reduced) ecological deterioration in a single (nine) province(s). In China's central zone, it boosted (mitigated) the ecological deterioration in five (three) provinces. In China's west zone, it promoted (reduced) ecological deterioration in eight (two) provinces. Fourthly, urban agglomeration and energy use efficiency deteriorated and improved the environmental quality in aggregated panels, respectively; however, a diverse range of effects are observed for provinces. Finally, a unilateral bootstrap causality, from ITTI (economic development) to ecological deterioration, is revealed in twenty-four (fifteen) provinces. A bilateral causality is established in a single (thirteen) province(s). Based on empirical findings, policies are suggested.

Is environmental sustainability transmissible? Transportation-based environmental taxation spillovers for sustainable development.

Environmental sustainability investigation has been a hotly debated topic of the modern literature; however, past studies have primarily overlooked its transmissibility or spillover outreach across economies. Herein, we investigate the novel aspect of whether transportation-based environmental taxation spatially induces spillover impacts across Italy, Germany, and France over the 1994-2020 period by employing a simultaneous spatial equation with multi-country dynamic stochastic general equilibrium modeling (DSGEM) framework. Transportation-based environmental taxation of the domestic economy negatively impacts its own investment and consumption, while it impacts the economy of neighboring economies positively. Change in output and investment in the domestic economy can be well explained by the environmental volatility of the domestic economy, whereas the environmental volatility of neighboring economies does not contribute much to explain the change in investment and output of the domestic economy. Volatility in pollution discharge occurs more by environmental volatility in the neighboring economy than in the domestic economy, and validating that environmental sustainability is transmissible across regions and economies. It urgently calls for environmental protection policies integrated and coordinated across the countries and regions to spread and capitalize on environmentally and economically favorable and sustainable effects globally. Achieving the spatially transmitted positive environmental and economic outcomes would help strengthen the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with a particular focus on Climate Action (SDG13), Sustainable Production and Consumption (SDG12), and Affordable and Sustainable Energy for All (SDG7).

Technology innovations impact on carbon emission in Chinese cities: exploring the mediating role of economic growth and industrial structure transformation.

China seems ambitious to achieve a "carbon emissions peak" before 2030 and "carbon neutrality" before 2060. To deal with this emissions mitigation plan, technology innovations are regarded as a crucial factor. However, considering its rebound effect (CO2 emissions driving effect) through economic growth, technology innovations might not prove a promising contributor to CO2 reduction. Therefore, there is a need to investigate further the nexus between technology innovations and CO2 emissions for conclusive debate. Based on the data of 215 cities in China, this paper uses mediating effects model to investigate the direct and indirect impacts (through economic growth and industrial structure transformation) of technology innovations on CO2 emissions from a microeconomic perspective. The main results suggest that technology innovations generally increase CO2 emissions in China both directly and indirectly. The impact of technology innovations and economic growth on CO2 emissions indicated the EKC characteristics. Furthermore, the contributions of technology innovations to CO2 emissions are distinguished in different regions. Thus, there is an urgent need for China to promote innovations in "clean technology" and to transform industrial structure to the tertiary industry to achieve the targets of carbon neutrality and emissions peaking.

Towards sustainable environment: why green energy technology diffusion is sluggish in South Africa?

Energy security, job development, and minimal environmental damage are just a few of the reasons why green energy technologies have gained popularity. Still, developing these technologies in underdeveloped countries is sluggish due to several bottlenecks. To find and prioritize the bottlenecks to development of green energy technologies (GETs), this study has used the case of South Africa. In this study, technical, financial, social, regulatory, geographical, and institutional bottlenecks are six headings under which 22 bottlenecks are further subdivided. For prioritizing these bottlenecks, a Multi-Objective Optimization based on Ratio Analysis (MOORA) strategy combined with an Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) method was used. The top three bottlenecks impacting the GETs' development involved social, institutional, and regulatory, whereas in sub-headings, corrupt political systems, knowledge of the public, and fixed investments were revealed to be the most significant hurdles. In addition to that, a framework is also developed for assessing how each bottleneck hinders the development of green energy technologies. The results of this study recommend that formulation of policy using the bottom-up approach is important. Notably, politicians at the highest levels should work together to bolster government agencies so that they can monitor and carry out the policies designed to advance GETs. Building the institutional capacity of government offices is crucial for eliminating corruption in political offices and progressing GETs in South Africa.

Surface Remeshing: A Systematic Literature Review of Methods and Research Directions.

Triangle meshes are used in many important shape-related applications including geometric modeling, animation production, system simulation, and visualization. However, these meshes are typically generated in raw form with several defects and poor-quality elements, obstructing them from practical application. Over the past decades, different surface remeshing techniques have been presented to improve these poor-quality meshes prior to the downstream utilization. A typical surface remeshing algorithm converts an input mesh into a higher quality mesh with consideration of given quality requirements as well as an acceptable approximation to the input mesh. In recent years, surface remeshing has gained significant attention from researchers and engineers, and several remeshing algorithms have been proposed. However, there has been no survey article on remeshing methods in general with a defined search strategy and article selection mechanism covering the recent approaches in surface remeshing domain with a good connection to classical approaches. In this article, we present a survey on surface remeshing techniques, classifying all collected articles in different categories and analyzing specific methods with their advantages, disadvantages, and possible future improvements. Following the systematic literature review methodology, we define step-by-step guidelines throughout the review process, including search strategy, literature inclusion/exclusion criteria, article quality assessment, and data extraction. With the aim of literature collection and classification based on data extraction, we summarized collected articles, considering the key remeshing objectives, the way the mesh quality is defined and improved, and the way their techniques are compared with other previous methods. Remeshing objectives are described by angle range control, feature preservation, error control, valence optimization, and remeshing compatibility. The metrics used in the literature for the evaluation of surface remeshing algorithms are discussed. Meshing techniques are compared with other related methods via a comprehensive table with indices of the method name, the remeshing challenge met and solved, the category the method belongs to, and the year of publication. We expect this survey to be a practical reference for surface remeshing in terms of literature classification, method analysis, and future prospects.

Intention-Based Critical Factors Affecting Willingness to Adopt Novel Coronavirus Prevention in Pakistan: Implications for Future Pandemics.

Since human beings have a long tradition of coexistence with pandemics, which may profoundly impact them, adopting preventive measures is crucial for humankind's survival. This study explores the intention-based critical factors affecting the willingness of individuals to adopt pandemic prevention. To this end, a representative sample of 931 Pakistanis filled in an online questionnaire. However, only 828 questionnaires were found to be complete and valid for path modeling analysis. The core findings are as follows: Firstly, peer groups' beliefs, self-efficacy, perceived risk, pandemic knowledge, ease of pandemic prevention adoption, and risk-averse behavior are revealed as driving forces of the individuals' willingness to adopt pandemic prevention. Contrastingly, a lack of trust in political will and mythical attitude towards pandemics are uncovered as inhibitors. Nevertheless, moral values depict a neutral role. Secondly, the peer groups' beliefs are highest ranked, followed by the lack of trust in political will and a mythical attitude towards pandemic prevention. Finally, moral values are determined as the lowest-ranked critical factor. Based on these results, the government should promote awareness campaigns on lethality and fatality of the pandemic at both centralized and decentralized levels to win people's trust at the grass-roots level and overcome the mythical attitude of individuals at all societal levels. Besides, access to personal protective gears should be made feasible since an easier pandemic prevention adoption would increase the individuals' willingness to adopt such preventative measures.

Factors influencing renewable energy generation development: a way to environmental sustainability.

Since renewable energy has the paramount importance of achieving environmental sustainability, developing countries like Pakistan have been facing numerous renewable energy generation (REG) development challenges. Thus, the REG development in any country can be attributed to its crucial drivers as well as crucial barriers. This work aims to identify crucial influence factors of REG development by conducting multi-facet content analysis as well as partial least square-based structural equation modeling analysis on data collected through a questionnaire survey. It has been conducted based on academicians from four Pakistani universities as well as professionals from Islamabad Electric Supply Company. The key outcomes are as follows: First, through multi-facet content analysis, ten crucial influence factors are identified. Among those factors, lack of good governance, renewable energy adaptation, and governmental energy policies are revealed to be the crucial barriers to REG development, whereas endowed resources, power production approach, renewable energy demand, investment environment for renewable energy projects, economic returns of renewable energy projects, environmental effects, and public acceptance are found to be the crucial drivers of REG development. Based on relative significance, the lack of good governance is unveiled to be the most significant factor, while environmental effects is found to be the least significant one. Moreover, among the drivers of REG development, public acceptance is found to be the prime contributor. At the same time, among crucial barriers, lack of good governance has shown the largest contribution to REG development.

Do inward foreign direct investment and economic development improve local environmental quality: aggregation bias puzzle.

Since preceding several decades, the carbon emissions based standard Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) has been tested and supported by a plethora of studies in countries around the globe. The current study estimated the inward foreign direct investment (IFDI)-augmented EKCs for China's 27 provincial divisions employing the advanced econometric methodologies involving cross-sectional dependence, slope heterogeneity, and second generation-based estimation procedures. The study has further contributed through a modification to "Stochastic Influence by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology" (STIRPAT) in terms of including IFDI to the standard model. Accordingly, this work estimated the standard EKC (involving economic development-carbon emissions linkage) as well as IFDI-carbon emissions linkage within the STIRPAT framework, by employing a panel vector error-correction-based estimation procedure. The findings revealed that (1) the conventional EKC estimates for national and regional samples (i.e., aggregate samples) presented linkages differing from the EKC links for the provincial divisions. It suggested that the EKC at the aggregated levels is likely the consequence of aggregation bias problem. (2) The links between IFDI (in power and non-power sector) and carbon emissions provided inverse U shape for the aggregate samples, while the provincial divisions presented heterogeneous results. This is perhaps because of the aggregation bias. Hence, the aggregation bias puzzle is unriddled. (3) Also, heterogeneous patterns are found in terms of turning points, degree of impact, and nature of the association of income and IFDI with carbon emissions. The meaningful policies can be extracted for the large countries encompassing varied economic development levels, such as China, if the EKC is evaluated at the disaggregate scales.