Trichoderma asperellum L. Coupled the Effects of Biochar to Enhance the Growth and Physiology of Contrasting Maize Cultivars under Copper and Nickel Stresses.

Crop cultivation in heavy metal (HM)-polluted soils is a routine practice in developing countries that causes multiple human health consequences. Hence, two independent studies have been performed to investigate the efficiency of rice husk biochar (BC) and three fungal species, Trichoderma harzianum (F1), Trichoderma asperellum (F2) and Trichoderma viride (F3), to improve the growth and physiology of Zea mays L. plants grown on soil contaminated with Cu and Ni. Initially, a biosorption trial was conducted to test the HM removal efficiency of species F1, F2 and F3. Among them, F2 sp. showed the maximum Cu and Ni removal efficiency. Then, a pot study was conducted with two cultivars (spring corn and footer corn) having eleven treatments with three replicates. The results demonstrated a significant genotypic variation among both cultivars under applied HM stress. The maximum decreases in leaf Chl a. (53%), Chl b. (84%) and protein (63%) were reported in footer corn with applied Cu stress. The combined application of biochar and F2 increased leaf CAT (96%) in spring corn relative to Cu stress. Altogether, it was found that BC + F2 treatment showed the maximum efficiency in combatting Cu and Ni stress in spring corn.

Assessing medical students' perception of cross-cultural competence at a private University in Karachi.

BACKGROUND: Cross-cultural competence is widely regarded to play an important role in being able to deliver appropriate and effective health care to patients with different backgrounds, race, gender orientation and cultural beliefs. This study aims to assess how medical students feel about their comfort, knowledge, and skill level in handling a diverse patient population using a validated questionnaire. METHODS: This study was carried out over a period of three weeks from July 5th to July 26th of 2021, in the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. All medical students who fulfilled the eligibility criteria and gave informed consent were included in the study. A modified version of the Harvard cross-cultural care survey was used to assess the medical students' comfort, knowledge and skill level in a variety of circumstances related to patients with different backgrounds and cultures. Descriptive statistical analysis of the questionnaire items was carried out. We reported frequencies and percentages for gender and year of study. For the questionnaire items, we reported mean, assuming that our Likert scale had equivariant intervals. Furthermore, multivariate analysis between demographics and themes was carried out. A p-value of < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. RESULTS: It was found that students of year 5 considered themselves more knowledgeable, comfortable and skilled in dealing with patients of different backgrounds, religions and beliefs compared to students of year 1 and had a higher average score in all of these categories which was statistically significant. Additionally, students who believed it is extremely important to practice medicine with a diverse patient population also had the highest averages in perceived knowledge, comfort and skills in dealing with patients of different sociocultural backgrounds compared to students who believed it wasn't important at all. CONCLUSION: This is a first of its kind study in a private medical university in Pakistan and highlights the students' self-assessment of their competence when caring for patients from different backgrounds. This study can be used as a reference study in the region to carry out further studies and to assess and improve the gaps in medical training being provided.

Low Risk of Serological Cross-Reactivity between the Dengue Virus and SARS-CoV-2-IgG Antibodies Using Advanced Detection Assays.

Several studies have reported serological cross-reactivity of the immune responses between SARS-CoV-2 and DENV. Most of the available studies are based on the point-of-care rapid testing kits. However, some rapid test kits have low specificity and can generate false positives. Hence, we aimed to investigate the potential serological cross-reactivity between SARS-CoV-2 and DENV-IgG antibodies using advanced assays including chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test. A total of 90 DENV-IgG-ELISA-positive and 90 DENV-IgG-ELISA-negative prepandemic sera were tested for anti-SARS-CoV-2-IgG using the automated CL-900i CLIA assay. Furthermore, a total of 91 SARS-CoV-2-IgG-CLIA-positive and 91 SARS-CoV-2-IgG-CLIA-negative postpandemic sera were tested for anti-DENV-IgG using the NovaLisa ELISA kit. The DENV-IgG-positive sera resulted in five positives and 85 negatives for SARS-CoV-2-IgG. Similarly, the DENV-IgG-negative sera also resulted in 5 positives and 85 negatives for SARS-CoV-2-IgG. No statistically significant difference in specificity between the DENV-IgG-positive and DENV-IgG-negative sera was found (p value = 1.00). The SARS-CoV-2-IgG-positive sera displayed 43 positives, 47 negatives, and 1 equivocal for DENV-IgG, whereas the SARS-CoV-2-IgG-negative sera resulted in 50 positives, 40 negatives, and 1 equivocal for DENV-IgG. No statistically significant difference in the proportion that is DENV-IgG positive between the SARS-CoV-2-IgG-positive and SARS-CoV-2-IgG-negative sera (p value = 0.58). In conclusion, there is a low risk of serological cross-reactivity between the DENV and SARS-CoV-2-IgG antibodies when using advanced detection assays.