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The presence of Ag(I) and Pb(II) ions in wastewater poses a significant threat to human health in contemporary times. This study aims to explore the development of a novel and economical adsorbent by grafting MnO 2 particles onto low-rank coal, providing an innovative solution for the remediation of water contaminated with silver and lead. The synthesized nanocomposites, referred to as MnO 2 -Coal, underwent thorough characterization using FTIR, XRD, BET, and SEM to highlight the feasibility of in-situ surface modification of coal with MnO 2 nanoparticles. The adsorption of Ag(I) and Pb(II) from their respective aqueous solution onto MnO 2 -Coal was systematically investigated, with optimization of key parameters such as pH, temperature, initial concentration, contact time, ionic strength, and competing ions. Remarkably adsorption equilibrium was achieved within a 10 min, resulting in impressive removal rates of 80-90 % for both Ag(I) and Pb(II) at pH 6. The experimental data were evaluated using Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherm models. The Langmuir isotherm model proved to be more accurate in representing the adsorption of Ag(I) and Pb(II) ions onto MnO 2 -Coal, exhibiting high regression coefficients (R 2 = 0.99) and maximum adsorption capacities of 93.57 and 61.98 mg/g, along with partition coefficients of 4.53 and 71.92 L/g for Ag(I) and Pb(II), respectively, at 293 K. Kinetic assessments employing PFO, PSO, Elovich, and IPD models indicated that the PFO and PSO models were most suitable for adsorption mechanism of Pb(II) and Ag(I) on MnO 2 -Coal composites, respectively. Moreover, thermodynamic evaluation revealed the spontaneous and endothermic adsorption process for Ag(I), while exothermic behavior for adsorption of Pb(II). Importantly, this approach not only demonstrates cost-effectiveness but also environmental friendliness in treating heavy metal-contamination in water. The research suggests the potential of MnO 2 -Coal composites as efficient and sustainable adsorbents for water purification applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The present study evaluated the presence of Salmonella enterica in Pakistani backyard poultry. A total 48 chickens from 4 backyard poultry breeds with the clinical presentation of S. enterica infection were randomly selected from villages in the Punjab Province. Cloacal swabs from live poultry and liver samples from the dead birds were collected for bacterial culture and biochemical identification. Liver and spleen samples from dead birds were evaluated for gross and histopathological changes. Bacterial isolates were subjected to PCR and sequencing of ratA gene. Biochemical identification revealed 5/48 (10.42%) chickens positive for S. enterica. Gross pathology included enlarged, discoloured and congested liver and congested spleen. Histopathology demonstrated congestion of sinusoidal capillaries, cellular swelling and cellular/ballooning degeneration, congestion of central hepatic vein, granular hepatocytic cytoplasm and the presence of variable-sized vacuoles in hepatocytes. The PCR yielded a S. enterica specific amplicon (1047 bp). All liver samples that were positive for S. enterica by biochemical tests, were also positive by PCR. The ratA gene sequencing revealed a close resemblance with S. enteritidis isolates from humans. The present study highlights zoonotic risk from backyard poultry and suggests that PCR can be used as an alternate method for rapid detection of Salmonella serovars.

Citrus disease Huanglongbing (HLB) causes sparse (thinner) canopies due to reduced leaf and shoot biomass. Herein, we present results demonstrating the possible mechanisms behind compromised leaf growth of HLB-affected 'Valencia' sweet orange trees by comparing morphological, transcriptome, and phytohormone profiles at different leaf development phases (1. buds at the start of the experiment; 2. buds on day 5; . 3. leaf emergence; 4. leaf expansion; and 5. leaf maturation) to healthy trees. Over a period of 3 months (in greenhouse conditions), HLB-affected trees had ≈40% reduction in growth traits such as tree height, number of shoots per tree, shoot length, internode length, and leaf size compared to healthy trees. In addition, buds from HLB-affected trees lagged by ≈1 week in sprouting as well as leaf growth. Throughout the leaf development, high accumulation of defense hormones, salicylic acid (SA) and abscisic acid (ABA), and low levels of growth-promoting hormone (auxin) were found in HLB-affected trees compared to healthy trees. Concomitantly, HLB-affected trees had upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) encoding SA, ABA, and ethylene-related proteins in comparison to healthy trees. The total number of cells per leaf was lower in HLB-affected trees compared to healthy trees, which suggests that reduced cell division may coincide with low levels of growth-promoting hormones leading to small leaf size. Both bud dieback and leaf drop were higher in HLB-affected trees than in healthy trees, with concomitant upregulated DEGs encoding senescence-related proteins in HLB-affected trees that possibly resulted in accelerated aging and cell death. Taken together, it can be concluded that HLB-affected trees had a higher tradeoff of resources on defense over growth, leading to sparse canopies and a high tree mortality rate with HLB progression., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Neupane, Shahzad, Bernardini, Levy and Vashisth.)

Flexible capacitive energy storage applications require polymer nanocomposites with high dielectric properties, which can be accomplished by addition of inorganic nanofillers to the polymer matrix. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE), known for its good dielectric characteristics and wide use in electrical insulation have been investigated for the desired applications. However, the improvement of its breakdown strength still continues with the use of various nanomaterials employed as nanofillers. In this study, a waste-derived material known as biomass fly ash (BFA) as a nanofiller to improve the dielectric properties of LDPE has been explored. BFA exhibits versatility in its composition with various metal oxides, making it an attractive choice as a nanofiller. The BFA-LDPE sheets were prepared using a conventional solvent mixing and subsequent hot-pressing process, incorporating BFA loadings ranging from 1 % to 4 wt%. The effects of different BFA loadings were carefully examined, and the synthesized nanocomposites were extensively characterized using various characterization methods, such as XRD, SEM, FTIR, TGA and dielectric constant measurements, to investigate the crystallographic properties, morphology, chemical composition, and thermal stability. Among all the nanocomposites, 4 wt%BFA-LDPE exhibited the highest dielectric constant, with a value of 11.58, compared to simple LDPE that had a dielectric constant of 8.33. This improvement is ascribed to the synergistic effects of different inorganic metal oxides (SiO 2 , MgO, and Fe 2 O 3 ) present in BFA. The results showed a significant enhancement in dielectric properties, indicating that the waste-derived BFA can be purposefully applied as an effective nanofiller in the LDPE-based composites with even less than 4% loading for electrical insulating applications in future studies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Introduction Lower limb fractures frequently require immobilization with backslabs to promote healing. This study investigates a novel approach involving the incorporation of a single ridge to enhance backslab strength while maintaining cost-effectiveness. Objective The aim of this study was to assess the mechanical performance of ridged backslabs in comparison to traditional non-ridged backslabs, specifically focusing on their load-bearing capacity and cost-effectiveness when used in lower limb fractures. Methods This experimental study, conducted between January 2023 and June 2023, compares three groups of backslabs with varying layers (eight, ten, and twelve) that were fabricated, each consisting of four ridged and four non-ridged specimens. These backslabs, constructed from six-inch plaster of Paris rolls, were 190 cm in length. A three-point bending test was conducted on both groups using a Hounsfield H100KS Universal Testing Machine (Tinius Olsen Ltd., Redhill, UK), with a crosshead speed of 5 mm/min and a span distance of 190 mm between supports. Results Significant differences in mean maximum force endured were observed between the ten-layered and twelve-layered flat and ridged backslabs (p-values: 0.003 and 0.004, respectively). Ten-layered ridged backslabs exhibited a 56 N higher load-bearing capacity, while twelve-layered ridged backslabs withstood 73.9 N more force than their flat counterparts, underscoring the superior strength of ridged lower limb backslabs. Conclusion Ridged backslabs outperformed non-ridged backslabs in terms of strength when subjected to external forces. These findings support the potential adoption of ridged backslabs as a lightweight, cost-effective, and robust alternative for immobilization in lower limb fractures., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Khel et al.)

Toxic fission products, such as cesium ( 137 Cs) and iodine ( 129 I) are of great concern because of their long half-lives and high solubility in water. The simultaneous removal of Cs and I using a single adsorbent is an area of increasing interest. In this study, MXene/silver nanowire (AgNW) composite was synthesized through physical mixing and employed for simultaneous removal of iodide (I - ) and cesium (Cs + ) ions from contaminated water. The MXene/AgNW composite demonstrated excellent adsorption capacities of 84.70 and 26.22 mg/g for I - and Cs + , respectively. The experimental data supported the hypothesis of multilayer adsorption of Cs + owing to the inter-lamellar structures and the presence of heterogeneous adsorption sites in MXene. The interaction between I - and the AgNW involved chemisorption followed by monolayer adsorption. MXene/AgNW composite material exhibited promising results in the presence of competitive ions under extreme pH conditions. Thus, synthesized composite materials holds promising potential as an adsorbent for the remediation of radioactive liquid waste., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Metal sulfides and 2D materials are the propitious candidates for numerous electrochemical applications, due to their superior conductivity and ample active sites. Herein, CuS nanoparticles were fabricated on 2D greener HF-free Cl-terminated MXene (Ti 3 C 2 Cl 2 ) sheets by the hydrothermal process as a proficient electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and overall water splitting. CuS/Ti 3 C 2 Cl 2 showed an overpotential of 163 mV and a Tafel slope of 77 mV dec -1 at 10 mA cm -2 for the HER. In the case of the OER, CuS/Ti 3 C 2 Cl 2 exhibited an overpotential of 334 mV at 50 mA cm -2 and a Tafel slope of 42 mV dec -1 . Moreover, the assembled CuS/Ti 3 C 2 Cl 2 ||CuS/Ti 3 C 2 Cl 2 electrolyzer delivered current density of 20 mA cm -2 at 1.87 V for overall water splitting. The CuS/Ti 3 C 2 Cl 2 electrocatalyst showed excellent stability to retain 96% of its initial value for about 48 hours at 100 mA cm -2 current density. The synthesis of CuS/Ti 3 C 2 Cl 2 enriches the applications of MXene/metal sulfides in efficient bifunctional electrocatalysis for alkaline water splitting., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

The goal of this research is to investigate the effects of Ohmic heating, heat generation, and viscous dissipative flow on magneto (MHD) boundary-layer heat transmission flowing of Jeffrey nanofluid across a stretchable surface using the Koo-Kleinstreuer-Li (KKL) model. Engine oil serves as the primary fluid and is suspended with copper oxide nanomolecules. The governing equations that regulate the flowing and heat transmission fields are partial-differential equations (PDEs) that are then converted to a model of non-linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) via similarity transformation. The resultant ODEs are numerically resolved using a Keller box technique via MATLAB software that is suggested. Diagrams and tables are used to express the effects of various normal liquids, nanomolecule sizes, magneto parameters, Prandtl, Deborah, and Eckert numbers on the velocity field and temperature field. The outcomes display that the copper oxide-engine oil nanofluid has a lower velocity, drag force, and Nusselt number than the plain liquid, although the introduction of nanoparticles raises the heat. The heat transference rate is reduced by Eckert number, size of nanomolecules, and magneto parameter rising. Whilst, Deborah number is shown to enhance both the drag-force factor and the heat transfer rate. Furthermore, the discoveries reported are advantageous to upgrading incandescent lighting bulbs, heating, and cooling equipment, filament-generating light, energy generation, multiple heating devices, and other similar devices., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

This work elaborates on the decoration of metal oxides (ZnO and Fe 3 O 4 ) between MXene sheets for use as the supporting geometry of PCBM electron transport layers (ETLs) in perovskite solar cells and X-ray detectors. The metal oxide supports for carrying the plentiful charge carriers and the hydrophobic nature of MXenes provide an easy charge transfer path through their flakes and a smooth surface for the ETL. The developed interface engineering based on the MXene/ZnO and MXene/Fe 3 O 4 hybrid ETL results in improved power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 13.31% and 13.79%, respectively. The observed PCE is improved to 25.80% and 30.34% by blending the MXene/ZnO and MXene/Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles with the PCBM layer, respectively. Various factors, such as surface modification, swift interfacial interaction, roughness decrement, and charge transport improvement, are strongly influenced to improve the device performance. Moreover, X-ray detectors with the MXene/Fe 3 O 4 -modulated PCBM ETL achieve a CCD-DCD, sensitivity, mobility, and trap density of 15.46 μA cm -2 , 4.63 mA per Gy per cm 2 , 5.21 × 10 -4 cm 2 V -1 s -1 , and 1.47 × 10 15 cm 2 V -1 s -1 , respectively. Metal oxide-decorated MXene sheets incorporating the PCBM ETL are a significant route for improving the photoactive species generation, long-term stability, and high mobility of perovskite-based devices.

Devastating citrus disease Huanglongbing (HLB) is without existing cures. Herein, we present results demonstrating the possible mechanisms (hypoxia stress) behind HLB-triggered shoot dieback by comparing the transcriptomes, hormone profiles, and key enzyme activities in buds of severely and mildly symptomatic 'Hamlin' sweet orange ( Citrus sinensis ). Within six months (October - May) in field conditions, severe trees had 23% bud dieback, greater than mild trees (11%), with a concomitant reduction in canopy density. In February, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with responses to osmotic stress, low oxygen levels, and cell death were upregulated, with those for photosynthesis and cell cycle downregulated in severe versus mild trees. For severe trees, not only were the key markers for hypoxia, including anaerobic fermentation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and lipid oxidation, transcriptionally upregulated, but also alcohol dehydrogenase activity was significantly greater compared to mild trees, indicating a link between bud dieback and hypoxia. Tricarboxylic acid cycle revival, given the upregulation of glutamate dehydrogenase and alanine aminotransferase DEGs, suggests that ROS may also be generated during hypoxia-reoxygenation. Greater (hormonal) ratios of abscisic acid to cytokinins and jasmonates and upregulated DEGs encoding NADPH oxidases in severe versus mild trees indicate additional ROS production under limited oxygen availability due to stomata closure. Altogether, our results provided evidence that as HLB progresses, excessive ROS produced in response to hypoxia and during hypoxia-reoxygenation likely intensify the oxidative stress in buds leading to cell death, contributing to marked bud and shoot dieback and decline of the severely symptomatic sweet orange trees., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Shahzad, Tang and Vashisth.)

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has also triggered a tsunami of news, instructions, and precautionary measures related to the disease on social media platforms. Despite the considerable support on social media, a large number of fake propaganda and conspiracies are also circulated. People also reacted to COVID-19 vaccination on social media and expressed their opinions, perceptions, and conceptions. The present research work aims to explore the opinion dynamics of the general public about COVID-19 vaccination to help the administration authorities to devise policies to increase vaccination acceptance. For this purpose, a framework is proposed to perform sentiment analysis of COVID-19 vaccination-related tweets. The influence of term frequency-inverse document frequency, bag of words (BoW), Word2Vec, and combination of TF-IDF and BoW are explored with classifiers including random forest, gradient boosting machine, extra tree classifier (ETC), logistic regression, Naïve Bayes, stochastic gradient descent, multilayer perceptron, convolutional neural network (CNN), bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT), long short-term memory (LSTM), and recurrent neural network (RNN). Results reveal that ETC outperforms using BoW with a 92% of accuracy and is the most suitable approach for sentiment analysis of COVID-19-related tweets. Opinion dynamics show that sentiments in favor of vaccination have increased over time., Competing Interests: Imran Ashraf is an Academic Editor for PeerJ., (© 2023 Ahmed et al.)

Yogurt is defined as a coagulated milk product obtained from the fermentation of lactose into lactic acid. Drinking yogurt (laban) was prepared from buffalo milk, cow milk, and a 50:50 blend (cow + buffalo milks) by adding 0.5% carboxymethyl cellulose to each of the 3 milk treatments. Samples were then refrigerated for 7, 14, and 21 d before determination of physical, microbial, and sensory parameters. Yogurt prepared from buffalo milk had higher fat and protein contents, and better taste, aroma, and overall consumer acceptability compared with laban prepared from cow milk or mixed milk. During storage, protein and total solids contents remained unchanged, whereas milk fat, color, appearance, taste, smell, texture, and overall acceptability of laban decreased in the different treatment groups. The acidity of laban increased with storage time. Bacteria, including coliforms, were not found in any treatment group during storage. In conclusion, overall acceptability of laban prepared from buffalo milk was higher than that made from cow milk or mixed milk, but increased storage time reduced the quality of laban prepared from cow, buffalo, or mixed milk., (The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. and Fass Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

In view of ever-increasing environmental pollution, there is an immediate requirement to promote cheap, multiplexed, sensitive and fast biosensing systems to monitor these pollutants or contaminants. Aptamers have shown numerous advantages in being used as molecular recognition elements in various biosensing devices. Graphene and graphene-based materials/nanohybrids combined with several detection methods exhibit great potential owing to their exceptional optical, electronic and physicochemical properties which can be employed extensively to monitor environmental contaminants. For environmental monitoring applications, aptamers have been successfully combined with graphene-based nanohybrids to produce a wide range of innovative methodologies. Aptamers are immobilized at the surface of graphene based nanohybrids via covalent and non-covalent strategies. This review highlights the design, working principle, recent developmental advances and applications of graphene based nanohybrid aptasensors (GNH-Apts) (since January 2014 to September 2021) with a special emphasis on two major signal-transduction methods, i.e., optical and electrochemical for the monitoring of pesticides, heavy metals, bacteria, antibiotics, and organic compounds from different environmental samples (e.g., water, soil and related). Lastly, the challenges confronted by scientists and the possible future outlook have also been addressed. It is expected that high-performance graphene-based nanohybrid aptasensors would find broad applications in the field of environmental monitoring.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to drastic measures being implemented for the management of surgical patients across all health services worldwide, including the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It is suspected that the virus has had a detrimental effect on perioperative morbidity and mortality. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these outcomes in emergency general surgical patients., Methods: Emergency general surgical admissions were included in this retrospective cohort study in one of the COVID-19 hotspots in the South East of England. The primary outcome was the 30-day mortality rate. Secondary outcomes included the length of stay in hospital, complication rate and severity grade and admission rates to the ITU., Results: Of 123 patients, COVID-19 was detected in 12.2%. Testing was not carried out in 26%. When comparing COVID-positive to COVID-negative patients, the mean age was 71.8 + 8.8 vs. 50.7 + 5.7, respectively, and female patients accounted for 40.0 vs. 52.6%. The 30-day mortality rate was 26.7 vs. 3.9 (OR 6.49, p  = 0.02), respectively. The length of stay in hospital was 20.5 + 22.2 vs. 7.7 + 9.8 ( p  < 0.01), the rate of complications was 80.0 vs. 23.7 (OR 12.9, p  < 0.01), and the rate of admission to the ITU was 33.3 vs. 7.9% (OR 5.83, p  = 0.01)., Conclusion: This study demonstrates the detrimental effect of COVID-19 on emergency general surgery, with significantly worsened surgical outcomes.

The flow of a fluid across a revolving disc has several technical and industrial uses. Examples of rotating disc flows include centrifugal pumps, viscometers, rotors, fans, turbines, and spinning discs. An important technology with implications for numerous treatments utilized in numerous sectors is the use of hybrid nanofluids (HNFs) to accelerate current advancements. Through investigation of ternary nanoparticle impacts on heat transfer (HT) and liquid movement, the thermal properties of tri-HNFs were to be ascertained in this study. Hall current, thermal radiation, and heat dissipation have all been studied in relation to the use of flow-describing equations. The ternary HNFs under research are composed of the nanomolecules aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ), copper oxide (CuO), silver (Ag), and water (H 2 O). For a number of significant physical characteristics, the physical situation is represented utilizing the boundary layer investigation, which produces partial differential equations (PDEs). The rheology of the movement is extended and computed in a revolving setting under the assumption that the movement is caused by a rotatingfloppy. Before the solution was found using the finite difference method, complicated generated PDEs were transformed into corresponding ODEs (Keller Box method). A rise in the implicated influencing factors has numerous notable physical impacts that have been seen and recorded. The Keller Box method (KBM) approach is also delivered for simulating the determination of nonlinear system problems faced in developing liquid and supplementary algebraic dynamics domains. The rate of entropy formation rises as the magnetic field parameter and radiation parameter increase. Entropy production rate decreases as the Brinkman number and Hall current parameter become more enriched. The thermal efficiency of ternary HNFs compared to conventional HNFs losses to a low of 4.8% and peaks to 5.2%., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Solar radiation, which is emitted by the sun, is required to properly operate photovoltaic cells and solar water pumps (SWP). A parabolic trough surface collector (PTSC) installation model was created to investigate the efficacy of SWP. The thermal transfer performance in SWP is evaluated thru the presence of warmth radiation and heat cause besides viscid dissipation. This evaluation is performed by measuring the thermal transmission proportion of the selected warmth transmission liquid in the PTSC, known as a hybrid nano-fluid. Entropy analysis of Oldroyd-B hybrid nano-fluid via modified Buongiorno's model was also tested. The functions of regulating parameters are quantitatively observed by using the Keller-box approach in MATLAB coding. Short terms define various parameters for tables in velocity, shear pressure and temperature, gravity, and Nusselt numbers. In the condition of thermal radiation and thermal conductivity at room temperature, the competence of SWP is proven to be enhanced. Unlike basic nano-fluids, hybrid nano-fluids are an excellent source of heat transfer. Additionally, with at least 22.56% and 35.01% magnitude, the thermal efficiency of AA7075-Ti-6Al-4 V/EO is higher than AA7075-EO., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The purpose of this research was to estimate the thermal characteristics of tri-HNFs by investigating the impacts of ternary nanoparticles on heat transfer (HT) and fluid flow. The employment of flow-describing equations in the presence of thermal radiation, heat dissipation, and Hall current has been examined. Aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ), copper oxide (CuO), silver (Ag), and water (H 2 O) nanomolecules make up the ternary HNFs under study. The physical situation was modelled using boundary layer analysis, which generates partial differential equations for a variety of essential physical factors (PDEs). Assuming that a spinning disk is what causes the flow; the rheology of the flow is enlarged and calculated in a rotating frame. Before determining the solution, the produced PDEs were transformed into matching ODEs using the second order convergent technique (SOCT) also known as Keller Box method. Due to an increase in the implicated influencing elements, several significant physical effects have been observed and documented. For resembling the resolution of nonlinear system issues come across in rolling fluid and other computational physics fields., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Despite their high analytical performance, conventional analytical biosensor devices are usually difficult to handle, time-consuming, bulky and expensive. As a result, their applications remain restricted to resource-limited environments. In particular, the transportation of conventional analytical equipment is challenging for the proper in-situ point of need (PON)/point of care (POC) detection of biomolecules. In this context, smartphones, the most widely utilized cutting-edge mobile gadgets, continue to be a favored option because of their ease of portability and revolutionary sensing capabilities. On the other hand, aptamers are molecular recognition units consisting of nucleic acids with highly sensitive and selective recognition capabilities towards their respective targets. The coupling of smartphones with aptamers have led the development of advanced, user-friendly, portable, and cost-effective in-situ PON/POC biosensors for the detection of biomolecules. Such sensors are well-suited for a variety of applications, including food safety, environmental monitoring, and disease diagnostics. Herein, for the first time, achievements made between 2017 and 2022 in the concept and design of the smartphone-enabled aptasensors for biosensing applications are reviewed. The review covers different fabrication strategies and the discussion of several operating systems, underlying programs, and related software. At the end, the important merits, challenges, and future prospects of smart phone-driven aptasensors are presented. This report intends to assist scientists and engineers in comprehending the fabrication of smartphone-based aptasensors and their underlying sensing principles, as well as stimulating the future developments in the direction of affordable, portable, simple, and readily available sensing devices., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In order to understand the characteristics of bio-convection and moving microorganisms in flows of magnetized Walters-B nano-liquid, we developed a model employing Riga plate with stretchy sheet. The Buongiorno phenomenon is likewise employed to describe nano-liquid motion in the Walters-B fluid. Expending correspondence transformations, the partial differential equation (PDE) control system has been transformed into an ordinary differential equation (ODE) control system. The COMSOL program is used to generate mathematical answers for non-linear equations by employing the Galerkin finite element strategy (G-FEM). Utilizing logical and graphical metrics, temperature, velocity, and microbe analysis are all studied. Various estimates of well-known physical features are taken into account while calculating nanoparticle concentrations. It is demonstrated that this model's computations directly relate the temperature field to the current Biot number and parameter of the Walters-B fluid. The temperature field is increased to increase the approximations of the current Biot number and parameter of the Walters-B fluid., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

In this study, a flower-like porous δ-MnO 2 nanostructure was synthesized by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal process for adsorptive removal of strontium (Sr(II)) and cesium (Cs(I)) from wastewater. The prepared δ-MnO 2 nanosorbent exhibited superior affinity for Sr(II) over Cs(I) in the single-solute system, with partition coefficient (PC) values of 10.2 and 2.3 L/g, respectively, at pH 6.0. In the two-solute system, the flower-like δ-MnO 2 also adsorbed Sr(II) (PC = 3.81 L/g) more selectively than Cs(I) (PC 1.15 L/g). Further, their adsorption capacities decreased by 12 and 16%, respectively, relative to the single-solute system. In contrast, adsorption of the ions onto δ-MnO 2 was affected less sensitively in dual than in single system when changes occurred in environmental variables such as pH (2-8) and ionic strength (1-100 mM). Adsorption kinetics, thermodynamics, and isotherm studies demonstrated the pivotal role of the monolayer surface active sites of endothermic δ-MnO 2 (e.g., a complexation interaction with Mn-OH). Furthermore, the δ-MnO 2 nanosorbent exhibited good regenerability, retaining more than 80% of its adsorption capacity when tested over four reuse cycles. The overall results of this study are expected to help establish strategies to effectively remove metal contaminants from wastewater using a green and low-cost hierarchical nanosorbent., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a honeycomb-like porous-structured nickel-iron-cobalt layered double hydroxide/Ti 3 C 2 T x (NiFeCo-LDH@MXene) composite was successfully fabricated on a three-dimensional nickel foam using a simple hydrothermal approach. Owing to their distinguishable characteristics, the fabricated honeycomb porous-structured NiFeCo-LDH@MXene composites exhibited outstanding bifunctional electrocatalytic activity for pair hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions in alkaline medium. The developed NiFeCo-LDH@MXene electrocatalyst required low overpotentials of 130 and 34 mV to attain a current density of 10 mA cm -2 for OER and HER, respectively. Furthermore, an assembled NiFeCo-LDH@MXene‖NiFeCo-LDH@MXene device exhibited a cell voltage of 1.41 V for overall water splitting with a robust firmness for over 24 h to reach 10 mA cm -2 current density, signifying outstanding performance for water splitting reactions. These results demonstrated the promising potential of the designed 3D porous NiFeCo-LDH@MXene sheets as outstanding candidates to replace future green energy conversion devices.

The Internet of Things (IoT) revitalizes the world with tremendous capabilities and potential to be utilized in vehicular networks. The Smart Transport Infrastructure (STI) era depends mainly on the IoT. Advanced machine learning (ML) techniques are being used to strengthen the STI smartness further. However, some decisions are very challenging due to the vast number of STI components and big data generated from STIs. Computation cost, communication overheads, and privacy issues are significant concerns for wide-scale ML adoption within STI. These issues can be addressed using Federated Learning (FL) and blockchain. FL can be used to address the issues of privacy preservation and handling big data generated in STI management and control. Blockchain is a distributed ledger that can store data while providing trust and integrity assurance. Blockchain can be a solution to data integrity and can add more security to the STI. This survey initially explores the vehicular network and STI in detail and sheds light on the blockchain and FL with real-world implementations. Then, FL and blockchain applications in the Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) environment from security and privacy perspectives are discussed in detail. In the end, the paper focuses on the current research challenges and future research directions related to integrating FL and blockchain for vehicular networks.

Background: The growing food-feed-fuel competition, declining availability of traditional feeds, higher prices, and the urgent need to provide long-term sustainability for animal production have all triggered global research into the optimum extraction of energy and nutrients from lignin-rich plant biomass. Recent studies have shown that the Pleurotus species of white rot fungus can selectively degrade lignin in lignin-rich plant biomass; however, its effectiveness in selectively degrading lignin depends on the type of substrate and species of fungus. This study was therefore designed to treat wheat straw, rice straw, and corn cob, with Pleurotus eryngii, P. ostreatus, and P. florida for 30 days under solid-state fermentation, to identify a promising fungus-substrate combination for the selective degradation of lignin and optimal improvement in the nutritional value and digestibility of each substrate., Results: The type of fungus strongly influenced (P < 0.01) selectivity in lignin degradation, and the level of improvement in crude protein (CP), in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), and in vitro gas production (IVGP), in wheat straw, rice straw, and corn cob. Fungus-substrate interaction data revealed that P. ostreatus caused maximum (P < 0.05) degradation of lignin, and greater (P < 0.05) improvement in CP, IVDMD, and IVGP in wheat straw and rice straw. The lowest (P < 0.05) degradation of lignin and improvement in CP, IVDMD, and IVGP was caused by P. eryngii in corn cob. Among the fungi, the maximum (P < 0.05) degradation of lignin, and greater (P < 0.05) improvement in CP, IVDMD, and IVGP were caused by P. florida as compared with those of P. ostreatus and P. eryngii., Conclusion: The results highlight significant influence of fungus-substrate combination for selective lignin degradability and the consequent improvement in the nutritional value of the substrates. Maximum selective lignin degradability and improvement in nutritional value and digestibility was caused by P. ostreatus in wheat straw and in rice straw, and by P. florida in corn cob. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.)

The magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) viscous Jeffrey heat transport flow past a permeable extending sheet is analyzed. The Alumina ([Formula: see text]) is chosen as nanoparticles immersed in sodium alginate ([Formula: see text]) as the based fluid. The effect of heat generation, Ohmic heating and viscous dissipation are also being investigated adopting Tiwari and Das model. The adequate similarity transformation is used to convert the governing equations to non-linear of higher-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The numerical solution of the transformed ODEs is accomplished using a finite-difference technique. The results are described in graphs according to selected parameters' values provided. The flow velocity reductions when the porosity parameter is augmented. The thermal distribution is affected by the presence of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. Deborah number and the volume fraction of nanoparticles affect the skin friction coefficient in opposite ways. A higher volume percentage of nanoparticles and a higher Deborah number are both shown to boost the rate of heat transfer. These findings suggest that the concentration of nanoparticles can be used to manipulate heat transport and nanofluid motions., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

MXene, a novel class of 2-dimensional transition metal carbides has evolved as a promising material for various applications owing to its outstanding characteristics such as hydrophilicity, high electrical conductivity, surface area, and attractive topological structure. MXenes can form dispersion in common solvents and constitute composite with other nanomaterials, which can be utilized as effective transducers for molecular sensing. MXene-modified support materials, thus provide an intriguing platform for immobilization of target molecules onto their surface. The literature reveals that it has been increasingly utilized in the sensing of diverse types of analytes including glucose, pharmaceuticals, metals and dyes, cancer markers, pesticides, neurotransmitters, small valuable molecules, and so on. In this review, we summarize the recent updates in the MXene modified materials for sensing. For the convenience of our audience, we have distributed the analytes into categories and discussed them comprehensively. Not only we present the synthesis approach, electrochemical properties and surface chemistry of MXenes but also discussed briefly the current challenges and an outlook for future research in the related area.

A novel hybrid nanofluid was explored in order to find an efficient heat-transmitting fluid to replace standard fluids and revolutionary nanofluids. By using tangent hyperbolic hybrid combination nanoliquid with non-Newtonian ethylene glycol (EG) as a basis fluid and a copper (Cu) and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) mixture, this work aims to investigate the viscoelastic elements of the thermal transferring process. Flow and thermal facts, such as a slippery extended surface with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), suction/injection, form factor, Joule heating, and thermal radiation effects, including changing thermal conductivity, were also integrated. The Keller-Box method was used to perform collective numerical computations of parametric analysis using governing equivalences. In the form of graphs and tables, the results of TiO 2 -Cu/EG hybrid nanofluid were compared to those of standard Cu/EG nanofluid in important critical physical circumstances. The entropy generation study was used to examine energy balance and usefulness for important physically impacting parameters. Detailed scrutiny on entropy development get assisted with Weissenberg number, magnetic parameter, fractional volumes, injection parameter, thermal radiation, variable thermal conductivity, Biot number, shape variation parameter, Reynolds and Brinkman number. Whereas the entropy gets resisted for slip and suction parameter. In this case, spotted entropy buildup with important parametric ranges could aid future optimization., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Prandtl-Eyring hybrid nanofluid (P-EHNF) heat transfer and entropy generation were studied in this article. A slippery heated surface is used to test the flow and thermal transport properties of P-EHNF nanofluid. This investigation will also examine the effects of nano solid tubes morphologies, porosity materials, Cattaneo-Christov heat flow, and radiative flux. Predominant flow equations are written as partial differential equations (PDE). To find the solution, the PDEs were transformed into ordinary differential equations (ODEs), then the Keller box numerical approach was used to solve the ODEs. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) using Engine Oil (EO) as a base fluid are studied in this work. The flow, temperature, drag force, Nusselt amount, and entropy measurement visually show significant findings for various variables. Notably, the comparison of P-EHNF's (MWCNT-SWCNT/EO) heat transfer rate with conventional nanofluid (SWCNT-EO) results in ever more significant upsurges. Spherical-shaped nano solid particles have the highest heat transport, whereas lamina-shaped nano solid particles exhibit the lowest heat transport. The model's entropy increases as the size of the nanoparticles get larger. A similar effect is seen when the radiative flow and the Prandtl-Eyring variable-II are improved., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Solar thermal collectors distribute, capture, and transform the solar energy into a solar thermal concentration device. The present paper provides a mathematical model for analyzing the flow characteristics and transport of heat to solar collectors (SCs) from non-Newtonian nanofluids. The non-Newtonian power-law scheme is considered for the nanofluid through partial slip constraints at the boundary of a porous flat surface. The nanofluid is assumed to differ in viscosity and thermal conductivity linearly with temperature changes and the magnetic field is appliqued to the stream in the transverse direction. The method of similarity conversion is used to convert the governing structure of partial differential formulas into the system of ordinary differential ones. Using the Keller box procedure, the outcoming ordinary differential formulas along with partial slip constraints are numerically resolved. A discussion on the flowing and heat transport characteristics of nanofluid influenced by power law index, Joule heating parameter, MHD parameter and slip parameters are included from a physical point of view. Comparison of temperature profiles showed a marked temperature increase in the boundary layer due to Joule heating. The thickness of the motion boundary-layer is minimized and the transport of heat through boundary-layer is improved with the partial slip velocity and magnetic parameters rising. Finally, With an increase in the Eckert number, the distribution of temperature within boundary layer is increased., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Survey of literature unveils that nanofluids are more efficient for heat transport in comparison to the traditional fluids. However, the enlightenment of developed techniques for the augmentation of heat transport in nanomaterials has considerable gaps and, consequently, an extensive investigation for aforementioned models is vital. The ongoing investigation aims to study the 2-D, incompressible Jeffrey nanofluid heat transference flow due to a stretchable surface. Furthermore, the effect of dispersion of graphene nanoparticles in base liquid ethylene glycol (EG) on the performance of flow and heat transport using the Tawari-Das model in the existence of Ohmic heating (electroconductive heating) and viscous heat dissipation is contemplated. The boundary-layer PDEs are reconstituted as ODEs employing appropriate similarity transformation. Keller-Box Method (KBM) is utilized to determine the numerical findings of the problem. Graphene conducts heat greater in rate than all of the other materials and it is a good conductor of electrical energy. Graphene/EG nanofluid is employed to look out the parametric aspects of heat transport flow, drag coefficient, and heat transference rate phenomena with the aid of graphs and tables. The numerical outcomes indicate that concentration and magnetic field abate the shear stresses for the nanofluid. An increase of Graphene nanoparticle volume fraction parameter can boost the heat transport rate. The effect of Prandtl Number is to slow down the rate of heat transport as well as decelerate the temperature. Additionally, the rate of heat transportation augments on a surface under Deborah's number. Results indicate that the temperature of the graphene-EG nanofluid is greater than the convectional fluid hence graphene-EG nanofluid gets more important in the cooling process, biosensors and drug delivery than conventional fluids., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the Urdu version of Quality of Life Questionnaire for Physiological Pregnancy., Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from August 1 to October 31, 2020, at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department of Sandeman Provincial Hospital, Quetta, Pakistan. The Quality of Life Questionnaire for Physiological Pregnancy was translated into Urdu by using a forward-backward procedure. The test-retest reliability was assessed through Cronbach's alpha reliability analysis. The validity of the translated questionnaire was constructed by using exploratory factor analysis through principal axis factoring extraction and Oblique rotation with Kaiser Normalisation. The constructs were retained based on extracted communalities. Data was analysed using SPSS v 21., Results: The Urdu version of the questionnaire exhibited acceptable test-retest alpha values of 0.780 and 0.812 at two-time points, with an overall value of 0.790. All items showed good stability with intraclass correlation coefficient values of >0.80. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure for factor analysis was 0.812. Barlett's Test of Sphericity was significant (p<0.05). Three factors explaining the variance were extracted and the loading values for all nine constructs were acceptable (>0.40). All items of the translated version were retained, proving the validity of the Urdu version of the questionnaire., Conclusions: The translated version of Quality of Life Questionnaire for Physiological Pregnancy was found to be a valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of quality of life for pregnant women in regions where Urdu is the prime language of communication.

Objectives: This study is aimed to synthesis and evaluate PEGylated Eu enabled spherical alumina submicron particles (s-Al 2 O 3 :Eu) for potential theranostic applications., Methods: This study is bisected into two parts, a) synthesis of PEGylated Eu enabled spherical alumina submicron particles (s-Al 2 O 3 :Eu), and b) characterization of the synthesized particles to determine their efficacy for potential theranostic applications.The synthesis of the particles involved the following steps. In the first step, s-Al 2 O 3 :Eu is synthesized using solvothermal synthesis. In the next step, the particles undergo post synthesis water-ethanol treatment and calcination. The surface of the synthesized s-Al 2 O 3 :Eu particles is then coated by PEG to increase its biocompatibility.Once the particles are prepared, they are characterized using different techniques. The microstructure, composition and structure of the particles is characterized using SEM, EDX and XRD techniques. The detection of the functional groups is done using FTIR analysis. The photoluminescence emission spectrum of s-Al 2 O 3 :Eu is studied using Photoluminescence spectroscopy. And, finally, the biocompatibility is studied using MTT assay on RD cell lines., Results: The microstructure analysis, from the micrographs obtained from SEM, shows that the spherical alumina particles have a submicron size with narrow size distribution. The compositional analysis, as per EDX, confirms the presence of Oxygen, Aluminum and Europium in the particles. While, XRD analysis of s-Al 2 O 3 :Eu confirms the formation of alpha alumina phase after calcination at 700 °C. Emission peaks, obtained by Photoluminescence emission spectroscopy, show that the optimum emission intensities correspond to the transition from 5 D 0 to 7 F j orbital of Eu +3 . FTIR analysis confirms the successful coating of PEG. Finally, a cell viability of more than 86% is observed when the biocompatibility of the particles is studied, using MTT assay on RD cell lines., Conclusions: s-Al 2 O 3 :Eu with narrow distribution are successfully synthesized. Structural and functional characterizations support the suitability of s-Al 2 O 3 :Eu as potential theranostic agent., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

The present article presents a novel idea regarding the implementation of Tiwari and Das model on Reiner-Philippoff fluid (RPF) model by considering blood as a base fluid. The Cattaneo-Christov model and thermal radiative flow have been employed to study heat transfer analysis. Tiwari and Das model consider nanoparticles volume fraction for heat transfer enhancement instead of the Buongiorno model which heavily relies on thermophoresis and Brownian diffusion effects for heat transfer analysis. Maxwell velocity and Temperature slip boundary conditions have been employed at the surface of the sheet. By utilizing the suitable transformations, the modeled PDEs (partial-differential equations) are renewed in ODEs (ordinary-differential equations) and treated these equations numerically with the aid of bvp4c technique in MATLAB software. To check the reliability of the proposed scheme a comparison with available literature has been made. Other than Buongiorno nanofluid model no attempt has been made in literature to study the impact of nanoparticles on Reiner-Philippoff fluid model past a stretchable surface. This article fills this gap available in the existing literature by considering novel ideas like the implementation of carbon nanotubes, CCHF, and thermal radiation effects on Reiner-Philippoff fluid past a slippery expandable sheet. Momentum, as well as temperature slip boundary conditions, are never studied and considered before for the case of Reiner-Philippoff fluid past a slippery expandable sheet. In the light of physical effects used in this model, it is observed that heat transfer rate escalates as a result of magnification in thermal radiation parameter which is 18.5% and skin friction coefficient diminishes by the virtue of amplification in the velocity slip parameter and maximum decrement is 67.9%., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Nowadays, with the advantages of nanotechnology and solar radiation, the research of Solar Water Pump (SWP) production has become a trend. In this article, Prandtl-Eyring hybrid nanofluid (P-EHNF) is chosen as a working fluid in the SWP model for the production of SWP in a parabolic trough surface collector (PTSC) is investigated for the case of numerous viscous dissipation, heat radiations, heat source, and the entropy generation analysis. By using a well-established numerical scheme the group of equations in terms of energy and momentum have been handled that is called the Keller-box method. The velocity, temperature, and shear stress are briefly explained and displayed in tables and figures. Nusselt number and surface drag coefficient are also being taken into reflection for illustrating the numerical results. The first finding is the improvement in SWP production is generated by amplification in thermal radiation and thermal conductivity variables. A single nanofluid and hybrid nanofluid is very crucial to provide us the efficient heat energy sources. Further, the thermal efficiency of MoS 2 -Cu/EO than Cu-EO is between 3.3 and 4.4% The second finding is the addition of entropy is due to the increasing level of radiative flow, nanoparticles size, and Prandtl-Eyring variable., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

It is extremely prudent and highly challenging to design a greener bifunctional electrocatalyst that shows effective electrocatalytic activity and high stability toward electrochemical water splitting. As several hundred tons of catalysts are annually deactivated by deposition of carbon, herein, we came up with a strategy to reutilize spent methane reforming catalysts that were deactivated by the formation of graphitic carbon (GC) and carbon nanofibers (CNF). An electrocatalyst was successfully synthesized by in situ deposition of noble metal-free MoS 2 over spent catalysts via a hydrothermal method that showed exceptional performance regarding the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). At 25 mA cm -2 , phenomenal OER overpotentials (η 25 ) of 128 and 154 mV and modest HER overpotentials of 186 and 207 mV were achieved for MoS 2 @CNF and MoS 2 @GC, respectively. Moreover, OER Tafel slopes of 41 and 71 mV dec -1 and HER Tafel slopes of 99 and 107 mV dec -1 were obtained for MoS 2 @CNF and MoS 2 @GC, respectively. Furthermore, the synthesized catalysts exhibited good long-term durability for about 18 h at 100 μA cm -2 with unnoticeable changes in the linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) curve of the HER after 1000 cycles. The carbon on the spent catalyst increased the conductivity, while MoS 2 enhanced the electrocatalytic activity; hence, the synergistic effect of both materials resulted in enhanced electrocatalysts for overall water splitting. This work of synthesizing enhanced nanostructured electrocatalysts with minimal usage of inexpensive MoS 2 gives a rationale for engineering potent greener electrocatalysts., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Objective: To determine the impact of pharmacist-led interventions on satisfaction, disease state knowledge and perception of self-management of diabetes patients., Methods: The interventional, quasi-experimental study was conducted in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, from December 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019, and comprised data data from a community pharmacy of patients who had diagnosed type 2 diabetes for at least one year. Both non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventional tools were used as part of a care package administered by pharmacists. The modified version of the Diabetes Disease State Management Questionnaire was used to assess patient satisfaction, disease state knowledge and perception of self-management. Data was analysed using SPSS 20., Results: Of the 100 patients initially enrolled, 80(80%) completed the follow-up. The mean age of the sample was 49.33±8.31 years. Of the total, 63(78.8%) patients had diabetes for <10 years. A significant improvement was seen in patient satisfaction (p=0.04), disease state knowledge (p=0.009) and self-management of diabetes (p=0.02) scores after the intervention., Conclusions: Interventions by pharmacists in a community pharmacy resulted in significant improvement in patient satisfaction, disease state knowledge and perception of self-management among type 2 diabetes patients.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and determinants of prediabetes among adolescents., Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted at a public-sector medical university in Quetta, Pakistan, from December 2019 to February 2020, and comprised students aged 16-19 years. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather socio-demographic data. Fasting blood sample was taken to measure the fasting plasma glucose level, lipid profile and glycated haemoglobin levels. Height, weight, neck circumference and waist circumference were also measured. Data was analysed using SPSS 21., Results: Of the 351 subjects, 158(45%) were males and 193(55%) were females. The overall mean age was 18.81±0.41 years. Of the total, 81(23.1%) participants were found to have prediabetes. Neck circumference was identified as the strongest predictor for prediabetes, followed by high level of triglycerides, high systolic blood pressure, low levels of high-density lipoproteins, high levels of low-density lipoproteins, high diastolic blood pressure, waist circumference and body mass index (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in the prevalence of prediabetes among male and female students (p>0.05)., Conclusions: There was no significant difference in the prevalence of prediabetes among male and female medical students. Neck circumference, Waist circumference, Body mass index, systolic blood pressure, Diastolic blood pressure, Triglyceride and High density Lipoprotein were strong predictors of prediabetes in adolescent population.

Introduction: Ethics plays an elementary role in current medical practice. Recent advancement in medical technology and its implications have raised many ethical issues and dilemmas in clinical practice, requiring dire needs for incorporation of bioethics into medical curriculum., Aim: The objective of this study is to assess the base line knowledge and perception of medical students regarding bioethical issues in clinical practice based on exposure to formal bioethics teaching in their medical curriculum., Setting and Design: This cross sectional study was conducted among medical students of a private and government medical college who were currently enrolled into third to fifth year MBBS., Methods and Material: A pretested questionnaire was used to collect data. A structured questionnaire consisting of 27 questions was used for this study. An Ethics Review Committee approval was taken., Analysis: Data analysis was done under SPSS version 17 and frequencies were calculated., Results: A total of 285 medical students, 145 from private and 140 from government medical college participated in this study. Private college medical students (57%) had slightly better knowledge of bioethics as compared to the government students 43%., Conclusion: The study clearly signifies the need of teaching bioethics in the both the medical colleges. Our findings provide strong evidence for major educational initiatives related to bioethics education in medical curriculum., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2021 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.)

Since their discovery in 2011, 2D transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides, known as MXenes, have attracted considerable global research interest owing to their outstanding electrical conductivity coupled with light weight, flexibility, transparency, surface chemistry tunability, and easy solution processability. Here, the promising abilities of 2D MXenes, from both experimental and theoretical perspectives, for designing conductive materials for a range of applications, including electromagnetic interference shielding, flexible optoelectronics, sensors, and thermal heaters, are presented., (© 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Lightweight, ultrathin, and flexible electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials are needed to protect electronic circuits and portable telecommunication devices and to eliminate cross-talk between devices and device components. Here, we show that a two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbonitride, Ti 3 CNT x MXene, with a moderate electrical conductivity, provides a higher shielding effectiveness compared with more conductive Ti 3 C 2 T x or metal foils of the same thickness. This exceptional shielding performance of Ti 3 CNT x was achieved by thermal annealing and is attributed to an anomalously high absorption of electromagnetic waves in its layered, metamaterial-like structure. These results provide guidance for designing advanced EMI shielding materials but also highlight the need for exploring fundamental mechanisms behind interaction of electromagnetic waves with 2D materials., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

Cancer is the one of the fatal and dreaded disease responsible for huge number of morbidity and mortality across the globe. It is expected that the global burden will increase to 21.7 million fresh cancer cases as compared to present estimate of 18.1 million cancer cases in addition to nearly 9.6 million cancer deaths worldwide. In response to cancerous or certain benign conditions; specific type of tumor or cancer markers (biomarkers) are produced at much higher levels which are secreted into the urine, blood, stool, tumor or other tissues. Therefore, the efficient and early detection of cancer biomarkers is necessary which can offer a reliable way for cancer patient screening and diagnosis. This process not only helps in the evaluation of pathogenic processes but also the prognosis of different cancers and pharmacological responses to therapeutic interventions are secured. Over the past several years, electrochemical detection methods have proved to be the most attractive methods among many, due to the advantages, such as simple instrumentation, portability, low cost and high sensitivity. Furthermore, the modifications of these electrochemical immunosensors by utilizing various types of nanomaterials enable these systems to detect trace amount of target tumor markers. Hence, herein, we intend to review the selective works on electrochemical detection of various biomarkers using wide range of nanomaterials with a particular focus on graphene., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Industrial utilization of nuclear resources greatly depends on the effective treatment of nuclear waste. The efficient removal of radioactive nuclides from liquid effluents by using different adsorbents has thus become crucial. Herein, for the first time, two-dimensional transition metal carbides (MXenes) are investigated as scavengers of cesium (Cs + ) from contaminated water. Due to the combined advantages of the layered structure and the presence of heterogeneous sites (hydroxyl, oxygen and fluorine groups), the adsorbent reached the steady state within 1 min with the maximum Cs + adsorption capacity of 25.4 mg g -1 at room temperature. The kinetics studies of the Cs + scavenging process demonstrated that the adsorption of Cs + followed the pseudo-second-order model whereas the adsorption equilibrium data obeyed the Freundlich model. Thermodynamic studies revealed that the adsorption process was endothermic. The adsorbent showed an excellent Cs + removal efficiency in neutral to slightly alkaline solutions. Moreover, it can retain Cs + even in the presence of a high concentration of competing cations (Li + , Na + , K + , Mg 2+ and Sr 2+ ). The Cs + loaded adsorbent was regenerated with a 0.2 M HCl solution and reused at least five times for over 91% removal of contaminants.

The germination, seedling vigor, crop establishment and yield of agronomically important crops is negatively affected by soil salinity. The current study aimed to investigate the ability of exogenous fertigation by sodium nitroprusside (SNP) to induce salt tolerance in four high yielding wheat cultivars (Sahar-06, Punjab-11, Millat-11 and Galaxy-13) that differ in their response to salt stress in terms of biomass production, oxidative defense mechanisms and grain yield. Three levels of SNP (0, 0.1 and 0.2 mM) were used for seed soaking. During soaking the seeds were kept in the dark. After soaking for 12 h the seeds were air-dried for 5 h before sowing. Salinity caused a significant reduction in biomass and grain yield, while it increased proline (Pro), ascorbic acid (AsA), hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents. Cultivar Sahar-06 and Galaxy-13 were found more tolerant to salinity based on shoot length root fresh and dry wights, 100 grain weight, decreased MDA and H 2 O 2 accumulation, phenolic and ascorbic acid (AsA) contents, accumulation of proline, activities of SOD, POD and CAT as compared to the other cultivars. Seed priming with SNP was effective in reducing the adverse effects of salt stress induced oxidative stress on plant biomass and grain yield in all the studied wheat cultivars, but maximum amelioration of salt stress tolerance by SNP treatment was found in cv. Sahar-06. The increased salt tolerance in wheat plants by SNP seed priming might be due to the role of NO in improving seed vigor and germination and early establishment of seedlings with better growth. 0.1 mM SNP was found the most effective in improving salt tolerance, as compared to other SNP concentations. Exogenous SNP fertigation increased the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) and the contents of AsA, Pro and total phenolics content (TPC) in the salt stressed wheat plants. Our data indicate that SNP-priming induced salt tolerance by up-regulating the antioxidative defense mechanisms resulting in better biomass production and grain yield., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.)

Lightweight dual-functional materials with high EMI shielding performance and thermal conductivity are of great importance in modern cutting-edge applications, such as mobile electronics, automotive, aerospace, and military. Unfortunately, a clear material solution has not emerged yet. Herein, we demonstrate a simple and effective way to fabricate lightweight metal-based polymer composites with dual-functional ability of excellent EMI shielding effectiveness and thermal conductivity using expandable polymer bead-templated Cu hollow beads. The low-density Cu hollow beads (ρ ∼ 0.44 g cm -3 ) were fabricated through electroless plating of Cu on the expanded polymer beads with ultralow density (ρ ∼ 0.02 g cm -3 ). The resulting composites that formed a continuous 3D Cu network with a very small Cu content (∼9.8 vol%) exhibited excellent EMI shielding (110.7 dB at 7 GHz) and thermal conductivity (7.0 W m -1 K -1 ) with isotropic features. Moreover, the densities of the composites are tunable from 1.28 to 0.59 g cm -3 in accordance with the purpose of their applications. To the best of our knowledge, the resulting composites are the best lightweight dual-functional materials with exceptionally high EMI SE and thermal conductivity performance among synthetic polymer composites.

Doping with heteroatoms is a well-established method to tune the electronic properties and surface chemistry of graphene. Herein, we demonstrate the synthesis of a fluorine-doped reduced graphene oxide (FrGO) at low temperatures that offers multiple opportunities in applied fields. The as-synthesized FrGO product shows a better electrical conductivity of 750 S m -1 than that of undoped rGO with an electrical conductivity of 195 S m -1 . To demonstrate the multifunctional applications of the as-synthesized FrGO, it was examined for electromagnetic interference shielding and electrochemical sensing of histamine as an important food biomarker. A laminate of FrGO delivered an EMI shielding effectiveness value of 22 dB in Ku band as compared with 11.2 dB for an rGO laminate with similar thickness. On the other hand, an FrGO modified sensor offered an excellent sensitivity (∼7 nM), wide detection range, and good selectivity in the presence of similar biomarkers. This performance originates from the better catalytic ability of FrGO as compared with rGO, where fluorine atoms play the role of catalytic active sites owing to their high electronegativity. The fluorination reaction also helps to improve the reduction degree of the chemically synthesized graphene, consequently enhancing the electrical conductivity, which is a prime requirement for increasing the electromagnetic and electrochemical properties of graphene.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in medical students., Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Bolan Medical College, Quetta, Pakistan, from August 2015 to January 2016, and comprised healthy first-year medical students. Demographic data was assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. Height, weight and waist circumference were measured along with fasting blood sugar, high-density lipoprotein and triglycerides by using automated biochemistry analyser. SPSS 20 was used for data analysis., Results: Of the 225 participants, 127(56.4%) were females. The overall mean age was 18.80±0.426 years. Frequency of metabolic syndrome was 32(14.2%). Increased waist circumference, fasting blood sugar and triglycerides were associated with an increased likelihood of exhibiting metabolic syndrome (p<0,05 each). Male gender and high-density lipoprotein were found to be protective against metabolic syndrome (p<0.05 each).., Conclusions: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome is increasing in our adolescent population which demands screening from childhood and early adolescence..

Materials with good flexibility and high conductivity that can provide electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding with minimal thickness are highly desirable, especially if they can be easily processed into films. Two-dimensional metal carbides and nitrides, known as MXenes, combine metallic conductivity and hydrophilic surfaces. Here, we demonstrate the potential of several MXenes and their polymer composites for EMI shielding. A 45-micrometer-thick Ti3C2Tx film exhibited EMI shielding effectiveness of 92 decibels (>50 decibels for a 2.5-micrometer film), which is the highest among synthetic materials of comparable thickness produced to date. This performance originates from the excellent electrical conductivity of Ti3C2Tx films (4600 Siemens per centimeter) and multiple internal reflections from Ti3C2Tx flakes in free-standing films. The mechanical flexibility and easy coating capability offered by MXenes and their composites enable them to shield surfaces of any shape while providing high EMI shielding efficiency., (Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)

Electrically conductive thin carbon materials have attracted remarkable interest as a shielding material to mitigate the electromagnetic interference (EMI) produced by many telecommunication devices. Herein, we developed a sulfur-doped reduced graphene oxide (SrGO) with high electrical conductivity through using a novel biomass, mushroom-based sulfur compound (lenthionine) via a two-step thermal treatment. The resultant SrGO product exhibited excellent electrical conductivity of 311 S cm(-1), which is 52% larger than 205 S cm(-1) for undoped rGO. SrGO also exhibited an excellent EMI shielding effectiveness of 38.6 dB, which is 61% larger than 24.4 dB measured for undoped rGO. Analytical examinations indicate that a sulfur content of 1.95 atom % acts as n-type dopant, increasing electrical conductivity and, therefore, EMI shielding of doped graphene.