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This study involves the investigation of the double perovskite A2NbTbO6 (A = Ca, Sr, and Ba) using the PBE-GGA approximation under the quantum-based DFT (density functional theory) within the WIEN2k code. The materials A2NbTbO6 (A = Ca, Sr, and Ba) are cubic crystals with space group Fm3m-225 and non-magnetic behavior. The structural, electrical, optical, and thermoelectric characteristics of the given materials have been investigated. Band gap and density of state calculations are used to explain the electronic properties of the materials under study with the PBE-GGA approximation. The results made it abundantly evident that the materials are pure semiconductors with direct band gaps. Complex dielectric function, refractive index ƞ(ω), extinction coefficient K(ω), optical conductivity σ(ω), absorption coefficient α(ω), reflectivity R(ω), and loss parameter L(ω) are analyzed to explain the optical behavior of the materials. Charge carrier concentration (n), electrical conductivity (σ/t), Seebeck coefficient (S), power factor (PF), thermal conductivity (K/t), specific heat capacity (Cv), and magnetic susceptibility (χ) are investigated to find the material's thermal properties which show the ability of materials in green energy (eco-friendly) production devices and good candidates for optoelectronics especially for solar cell. The BoltzTraP code, which is part of the WIEN2k code, is used to calculate these properties. The cubic compounds Ca2NbTbO6, Sr2NbTbO6, and Ba2NbTbO6 have band gaps of 1.93 eV, 1.89 eV, and 1.87 eV, respectively and are direct band gap materials are confirmed from the band gap structures. By these calculations, all the characteristics are examined to produce new materials for sustainable devices and renewable energy applications like solar cells, and optoelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benzocaine is known for its antibacterial, anticancer, antitumor, and antifungal properties. Herein, a series of three new Schiff bases is synthesized by reacting benzocaine with salicylaldehyde (E4AS), 2,3-dihydroxybenzaldehyde (E4ADH), and 5-chlorosalicylaldehyde (E4ACl). These benzocaine-based Schiff bases were characterized by a variety of spectroscopic methods, including FTIR, NMR, (1H and 13C), and elemental analysis (CHN). Additionally, the single crystal X-ray diffraction method was used to reveal the molecular structures of the derivatives. Solid-state X-ray crystal structures of E4AS and E4ACl adopted enol tautomeric form, whereas keto-tautomeric form was found in E4ADH. The supramolecular assembly of the compounds was probed by Hirshfeld surface analysis. The void analysis was executed to predict the mechanical response of the compounds. Additionally, UV–Vis spectroscopy and molecular docking practices were used to look into the DNA binding abilities of the benzocaine-based Schiff bases. The geometries of the molecules were fully optimized and studied for their electronic structural properties of respective compounds. The frontier molecular orbitals and molecular electrostatic potentials were studied to predict the properties of molecules. The study provides molecular-level intuitions into the synthesis and prospective uses of these Schiff bases in the arena of general and medicinal chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of micromachining technology has ushered in a new era of applications for microchannel heatsinks, particularly in the domain of electronics cooling. This research endeavours to conduct a comprehensive analysis to assess the impact of circular ribs in conjunction with a fan-shaped cavity on the operational efficiency of rectangular microchannel heatsinks. Specifically, seven distinct structural configurations have been meticulously examined, each featuring ribs strategically positioned at various locations: ribs positioned at the front and back (RFB), ribs at the left and right (RLR), ribs at the back and left (RBL), ribs at the front, left, and right (RFLR), ribs at the back, left, and right (RBLR), ribs at the front, back, and left (RFBL), and ribs at the front, back, left, and right (RFBLR), for a range of Reynolds numbers spanning from 100 to 500. The findings are then compared with those obtained from a microchannel with a fan-shaped cavity only (MHFC) and a plain rectangular microchannel heatsink. The optimal diameter for the embedded ribs was determined by comparing the thermal performance of microchannel heatsinks with ribs of varying diameters: 35 µm, 50 µm, 65 µm, and 80 µm. Results indicate that the 50 µm rib diameter achieves the highest thermal performance. A key finding is that ribs act as flow disruptors, causing the flow to split into two streams towards the cavity's arcuate region and thinning the boundary layer. RFBLR showed the highest heat transfer, followed by RFLR, while RFB and RLR had the lowest heat transfer among microchannels with cavities and ribs. RFBLR also had the highest pressure drop, highlighting a trade-off between heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop. Optimizing rib placement is crucial for maximizing heat transfer efficiency at lower pressure drops. Initially, RBLR had the highest performance factor at lower Reynolds numbers, later overtaken by RLR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-communicable diseases have increased globally, forcing consumers to consider their diets. One of the greatest diets to minimize NCDs is dairy products, but researchers have paid little attention to consumer buying intentions, especially in underdeveloped countries like Pakistan. As a result, researchers in Pakistan looked into how distinct utilitarian and hedonic attributes of dairy products influenced customer intentions. A cognitive-affective attitude approach based on the SOR model was used to construct a comprehensive conceptual model to better comprehend customers' intentions about dairy products. Students at the university were given a self-administered questionnaire. In order to evaluate the hypotheses, a sample of 411 customers was analyzed using PLS-SEM. Results revealed that utilitarian and hedonic attributes positively influence consumers' cognitive and affective attitudes, which ultimately leads to consumer purchasing intention to buy dairy products in Pakistan. This research depicts some unique insights for dairy product producers, marketers, and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to changes in global trends, men's grooming behavior in relation to their appearance is deemed one of the drivers in the rising popularity of men's cosmetic products. Unlike previous studies, this study focused on men and aimed to examine the determinants of consumers' intentions toward buying green cosmetic products by using the belief decomposition approach (BDA) of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Purposive sampling was employed and 322 valid responses were collected. A PLS-SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. The results demonstrate that attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN), and perceived behavior control (PBC) positively influence consumers' intentions. Similarly, nutritional content, health consciousness, and environmental consciousness are positively associated with ATT, but animal welfare has an insignificant association with ATT. In addition, mass media and family influence are positively associated with SN. Moreover, self-efficacy positively influences PBC, but facilitating conditions have an insignificant association with PBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study involves the synthesis of two azomethine compounds, (E)‐2‐((6‐nitrobenzo[d][1,3]dioxol‐5‐yl)methylene)amino)phenol (2AP6NO) and (E)‐2‐((4‐ethylbenzylidene)amino)phenol (2AP4ETH), as well as their theoretical investigations. The synthesized azomethine compounds were then characterized by combustion analysis (CHN), FT‐IR, NMR (1H and 13C), and single crystal X‐ray diffraction (SC‐XRD) analysis. The SC‐XRD study confirmed the enol tautomeric form of 2AP6NO as well as 2AP4ETH. The strong and comparatively weak intermolecular interactions were elaborated by Hirshfeld surface analysis. For both compounds, intermolecular interaction energies between the pair of molecules, energy framework, and void analysis were calculated to visualize the three‐dimensional topology of the crystal packing. Additionally, quantum chemical computations were also utilized to study the optical and nonlinear optical (NLO) response. The molecular geometries were optimized at the M06‐2X/6‐311G* method and equated to their respective experimental counterparts. The third‐order NLO polarizabilities were also calculated at the same level of theory. The calculated average third‐order NLO polarizabilities were 62.55×10−36 esu and 55.08×10−36 esu, respectively, predicting the modest behavior of the above compounds when displaying NLO properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the acceptance of the coronavirus vaccine and the attitude of people residing in the southern part of Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: This web-based cross-sectional research was conducted among the citizens of the southern part of Karachi from Oct to Dec 2021. The survey for the study was adopted and modified from the formerly conducted study by El-Elimat et al, comprising individuals aged more than 18 years of age. Acceptance and predictors of vaccine acceptance were assessed using the Chi-square test and Binary logistic regression. Results: The acceptance rate for the coronavirus vaccine was quite high (87%). Males demonstrated a higher acceptance rate. The older aged individuals (>35 years old) also showed higher acceptance when likened to younger participants (OR = 1.84, 95 CI% = 2.893-1.171, p < .008). Individuals not infected with COVID-19 showed less acceptance towards vaccinations (OR = 0.431, 95 CI% = 0.233- 0.799, p < .008). Similarly, respondents believing the COVID-19 vaccine to be a conspiracy were less likely to show acceptance towards the vaccination process (OR= 0.893, 95 CI% = 0.575- 1.387, p= 0. 614). Conclusion: Differences in the acceptance rate between males of older age as compared to younger population and females have demonstrated higher acceptance towards vaccination. Sinopharm followed by Sinovac was the most frequently used to provide immunization to the Pakistani population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schiff base 4-(((3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)imino)methyl)phenol (TPP) was successfully synthesized and characterized by FT-IR, NMR and SC-XRD. Crystal analysis pointed up the presence of two crystallographically independent molecules in an asymmetric unit that are linked with each other through O–H···N and comparatively weak C–H···O bonding to form an infinite one-dimensional chain of ...ABAB...sequence. In addition to H-bonding, crystal packing is further stabilized by weak C–F···Cg and π–π stacking interactions. Hirshfeld surface analysis revealed that the most significant contribution to packing is from H–F/F–H interatomic contact with percentage contributions of 27.8% and 27.4% for molecules A and B, respectively. Quantum mechanical approach was used for comparison analysis between experimental and calculated parameters. Photometric behavior of TPP was studied in a wide pH range. Furthermore, redox mechanism was also suggested for TPP based on detailed electrochemical characterization. This effort just provides preliminary data to explore some structural and computational aspects of TPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, flying ad hoc networks have attracted the attention of many researchers in industry and universities due to easy deployment, proper operational costs, and diverse applications. Designing an efficient routing protocol is challenging due to unique characteristics of these networks such as very fast motion of nodes, frequent changes of topology, and low density. Routing protocols determine how to provide communications between drones in a wireless ad hoc network. Today, reinforcement learning (RL) provides powerful solutions to solve the existing problems in the routing protocols, and designs autonomous, adaptive, and self-learning routing protocols. The main purpose of these routing protocols is to ensure a stable routing solution with low delay and minimum energy consumption. In this paper, the reinforcement learning-based routing methods in FANET are surveyed and studied. Initially, reinforcement learning, the Markov decision process (MDP), and reinforcement learning algorithms are briefly described. Then, flying ad hoc networks, various types of drones, and their applications, are introduced. Furthermore, the routing process and its challenges are briefly explained in FANET. Then, a classification of reinforcement learning-based routing protocols is suggested for the flying ad hoc networks. This classification categorizes routing protocols based on the learning algorithm, the routing algorithm, and the data dissemination process. Finally, we present the existing opportunities and challenges in this field to provide a detailed and accurate view for researchers to be aware of the future research directions in order to improve the existing reinforcement learning-based routing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flowering plant Indigofera heterantha generally known as Indigo of Himalayan, was extracted with n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol by using Soxhlet apparatus. The extracts were studied for their antioxidants and enzyme inhibition activities. Against DPPH free radical-scavenging activity methanol extract was found moderately active (IC 50 : 158.41 ± 1.1.66 µg/mL). The ethyl acetate and n-hexane extracts exhibited the best ABTS radical scavenging activity (IC 50 : 31.32 ± 2.50 and 52.0 ± 0.89 µg/mL respectively). Against the metal chelating activity, n-hexane extract was active IC 50 : 52.36 ± 0.95 µg/mL. The n-hexane and ethyl acetate extracts demonstrated the best β –carotene antioxidant activity (IC 50 : 22.32 ± 0.84 and 60.66 ± 0.35 μg/mL respectively). Against acetylcholinesterase (AChE), ethyl acetate and methanol extracts were moderate active (IC 50 : 133.58 ± 0.870, and 137.97 ± 0.97 µg/mL respectively). The ethyl acetate extract showed Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) inhibitory activity with IC 50 value of 121.9 ± 1.13 µg/mL. Against tyrosinase activity, ethyl acetate and n-hexane extracts activity with an IC 50 value of 79.25 ± 0.15 and 131.48 ± 0.88 µg/mL respectively. The phenolic contents of the methanolic extract of I. heterantha were also determined by using LC-MS/MS. The major constituents were Quinic acid (57,333.04 μg/g), malic acid (1135.16 μg/g), gallic acid (201.13 μg/g), isoquercitrin (113.63 μg/g), Rutin (92.97 μg/g), and Salicylic acid (40.45 μg/g). Keeping in view the overall biological activities of I. heterantha, it might be used in food industries and pharmaceuticals as a potential functional food ingredient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Synthesis of hydrazone-based schiff base • Structural confirmation through various spectroscopic techniques • Exploration of electronic properties and optical nonlinearity via TDF • Study of electronic properties at M06/6–311G (d,p) functional A new thiosemicarbazide-based Schiff base (TSDHB) was synthesized from thiosemicarbazide and 2,3-dihydroxybenzaldehyde. The prepared thiosemicarbazone was characterized by elemental (CHN), FT-IR, 1H and 13C NMR techniques. Furthermore, the molecular structure was probed using the single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) technique, which confirmed the enol tautomeric form with two independent molecules in asymmetric unit. The dissimilarity between the molecular units was determined by molecular overlay plots. The various intermolecular interactions and solid-state assembly stabilization were explored by Hirshfeld surface analysis. Void analysis was executed to examine the mechanical stability of crystalline units. The bioactivity of thiosemicarbazone was probed with the help of its binding capacity with salmon sperm DNA (SS-DNA) by means of the absorption interaction method. Accompanied by biological activity, optoelectronic properties such as nonlinear optical properties of yielded crystal were also explored through the DFT approach at M06/6–311 G (d,p). For this, various kinds of investigations such as frontier molecular orbital (FMO), UV–Vis, global reactivity parameters (GRPs), transition density matrix (TDM), density of states (DOS), natural population analysis (NPA), and natural bond orbital analysis (NBO) were executed at M06 functional. A good agreement was examined between XRD and DFT findings of molecular geometric parameters. Notably, in comparison with urea, TSDHB demonstrated enhanced nonlinear optical properties (linear polarizability=4.766 × 10−23 esu and third-order hyperpolarizability=5.939 × 10−35 esu). These findings position TSDHB as a promising candidate for DNA binding as well as for photonic materials due to its unique molecular characteristics and enhanced nonlinear optical behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tigecycline has been considered the last treatment option for various difficult-to-treat diseases caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens. The recent emergence of resistance in bacteria has become a severe worldwide public health concern. In this study, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) combined with chemometrics was used for the rapid discrimination of tigecycline-sensitive E. coli (TSEC) and tigecycline-resistant E. coli (TREC) strains. For this purpose, the SERS spectra of TSEC and TREC strains were acquired with and without tigecycline exposure and their mean spectra were compared to separate the spectral features associated with the development of resistance. To analyze the SERS spectra, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchal cluster analysis (HCA) were employed for the clustering of TSEC and TREC strains with and without tigecycline exposure based on their biochemical differences. Additionally, partial least squares – discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) successfully distinguished exposed and unexposed strains with 99% sensitivity, 99.8% specificity, and 100% accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pipelines are the safest tools for transporting oil and gas. However, the environmental effects and sabotage of hostile people cause corrosion and decay of pipelines, which bring financial and environmental damages. Today, new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can provide solutions to monitor and timely detect corrosion of oil pipelines. Coverage is a fundamental challenge in pipeline monitoring systems to timely detect and resolve oil leakage and pipeline corrosion. To ensure appropriate coverage on pipeline monitoring systems, one solution is to design a scheduling mechanism for nodes to reduce energy consumption. In this paper, we propose a reinforcement learning-based area coverage technique called CoWSN to intelligently monitor oil and gas pipelines. In CoWSN, the sensing range of each sensor node is converted to a digital matrix to estimate the overlap of this node with other neighboring nodes. Then, a Q-learning-based scheduling mechanism is designed to determine the activity time of sensor nodes based on their overlapping, energy, and distance to the base station. Finally, CoWSN can predict the death time of sensor nodes and replace them at the right time. This work does not allow to be disrupted the data transmission process between sensor nodes and BS. CoWSN is simulated using NS2. Then, our scheme is compared with three area coverage schemes, including the scheme of Rahmani et al., CCM-RL, and CCA according to several parameters, including the average number of active sensor nodes, coverage rate, energy consumption, and network lifetime. The simulation results show that CoWSN has a better performance than other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ligand, (E)-4-((2-methoxyphenyl)amino)-4-oxobut-2-enoic acid, and its tri-butylstannyl (E)-4-((2-methoxyphenyl)amino)-4-oxobut-2-enoate, trimethylstannyl (E)-4-((2-methoxyphenyl)amino)-4-oxobut-2-enoate and triethylstannyl (E)-4-((2-methoxyphenyl)amino)-4-oxobut-2-enoate complexes were obtained and characterized by different techniques. The spectroscopic data revealed the presence of the OH in the FTIR and NMR spectra of the (E)-4-((2-methoxyphenyl)amino)-4-oxobut-2-enoic acid and the absence of this peak in the spectra of the complexes confirm their successful formation. The geometry confirmation was done using single-crystal X-ray diffraction and found a 5-coordinated distorted trigonal bipyramidal comprising of the O1 of the carboxylate moiety, O3 of the amide moiety occupying the axial position while the three equatorial positions were occupied by the carbon atoms of the three butyl groups. The result of the DNA interaction of the representative compounds explored an intercalative binding mode as confirmed by UV-Visible spectroscopy and viscometry. The in silico study performed by SwissADME webserver suggested that reported compounds obey the rules of drug-likeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two mono-nuclear axially distorted octahedral copper(II) complexes have been prepared and characterized via FT-IR, UV–Visible, elctrochemical, electron spin resonance and powder and single crystal XRD techniques. The complexes consist of a phenanthroline and two carboxylate ligands each bonded in bidentate fashion. Carboxylates are ortho-nitro-2-phenyl acetate (L1) and para-chloro-2-phenyl acetate (L2). Structural study showed that both complexes possess Jahn–Teller distorted octahedral geometry. The bulk purity was assessed from the matching experimental and simulated powder XRD spectra. The results of spectroscopic techniques are consistent with each other. ESR data revealed single electron occupancy of dx2 − y2 orbital with 2B1g as ground state typical of tetragonally distorted octahedral geometry. Electrochemical solution study showed diffusion controlled electron transfer processes with diffusion co-efficient values of 10.323 × 10–8 cm2s–1 and 0.972 × 10–8 cm2s–1 for 1 and 2. Complexes exhibited excellent DNA-binding activity studied via UV–Visible spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, florescence spectroscopy and viscometry yielding Kb values of 1.871 × 104 M–1 (1) and 1.577 × 104 M–1 (2), 0.38 × 104 M–1 (1) and 6.39 × 104 M–1 (2) and 2.1 × 106 M–1 (1) and 2.0 × 06 M–1 (2), respectively, for the first three techniques. Complexes possess good antifungal activity against three fungal strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrolytes play a significant role in improving the stability and specific capacity of supercapacitors; however, they have gained less attention compared to the designing of electrode materials. This study presents the supercapacitor application of novel Prussian blue analog (PBA)-based fabricated electrodes in different electrolytes. PBA was derived by the ligand substitution of sodium pentacyanonitrosyl ferrate(III) dihydrate followed by precipitation with cobalt salt to yield cobalt pentacyano(methylaniline)ferrate(II) (CoPCF). The fabricated electrode exhibited specific capacity of 390, 233, 175, and 83 mA h g−1 in 3 M KOH, 1 M NaOH, 1 M LiOH, and 1 M KNO3 at 1 A g−1 with capacity retention of 88.80%, 89.95%, 92.42%, and 90.80%, respectively, after 1000 continuous charge–discharge cycles. Furthermore, a solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) device was fabricated using a PVA/KOH polymer gel electrolyte that exhibited a specific capacity of 56 mA h g−1 with a specific energy density of 71 W h kg−1 and a specific power density of 2560 W kg−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1, with excellent capacity retention of 93% over 2000 continuous (dis)charge cycles. These results demonstrated that the introduction of organic ligands in the framework of PBAs along with the selection of the right electrolyte is an effective strategy in the development of high-capacity and stable supercapacitor electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare, especially for people with diabetes, allows for constant health monitoring. This means that doctors can watch over patients' health more closely, making sure they catch any issues early on. With this technology, healthcare workers can be more accurate and effective when keeping an eye on how patients are doing. This not only helps in keeping track of patients' health in real-time but also makes the whole process more reliable and efficient.By implementing appropriate routing techniques, the transmission of diabetic patients' data to medical centers will facilitate real-time and timely responses from healthcare professionals. The grasshopper optimization algorithm is employed in the proposed approach to cluster network nodes, resulting in the formation of a network tree that facilitates the establishment of connections between the cluster head and the base station. After identifying the cluster head and establishing the clusters, the second stage of routing is implemented by employing the Harris Hawks optimization algorithm. This algorithm ensures that the data pertaining to diabetic patients is transmitted to the treatment centers and hospitals with minimal delay. For node routing, the optimal next step is selected based on the parameters such as the residual energy of the node, the ratio of delivered data packages, and the number of the neighbors of the node. To continue, first, the MATLAB software is utilized to simulate the proposed method, and then, it is compared with other similar methods. This comparison is conducted based on various parameters, including delay, energy consumption, network throughput, and network lifespan. Compared to other methods, the proposed method demonstrates a significant 33% improvement in the average point-to-point delay parameter in the subsequent iterations or rounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals and organizations rely on social media to share files and knowledge. On the other hand, criminals find social media applications a rich place to attack through techniques like phishing, fraud, and blackmail. While the rate of blackmail is growing, there is a lack of literature on the subject. This study aims to examine the impact of information security regulation factors such as information security awareness, policies, and culture towards avoiding online blackmail threats. The study proposes a model constructed from technology threat avoidance theory (TTAT), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), and organizational control (OC). A quantitative approach based on an online survey was conducted to collect data from 547 employees and students from different industrial backgrounds. The results show that information security culture and information security awareness have an impact on users' motivation to avoid online blackmail threats through attitude and subjective norms. Furthermore, perceiving a mandated policy significantly impacts avoidance behavior. In addition, apathy and anticipated regret play a significant role in avoidance motivation. These results provide evidence on the importance of social factors on impacting avoidance motivation using the TTAT model. Further, the study encourages organizations to focus more on specifying policies and building an information security culture in order to ensure users avoid these threats through compliance and motivation. • Examined the Effect of regulatory factors on avoiding Online Blackmail Threats on Social Media. • We developed a model based on technology threat avoidance theory and organizational control model. • Culture and awareness have an impact on users' motivation through SN and Attitude. • Apathy and anticipated regret play a significant role in avoidance motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are growing rapidly and provide a lot of comfort to human life. Due to the use of WSNs in various areas, like health care and battlefield, security is an important concern in the data transfer procedure to prevent data manipulation. Trust management is an affective scheme to solve these problems by building trust relationships between sensor nodes. In this paper, a cluster-based trusted routing technique using fire hawk optimizer called CTRF is presented to improve network security by considering the limited energy of nodes in WSNs. It includes a weighted trust mechanism (WTM) designed based on interactive behavior between sensor nodes. The main feature of this trust mechanism is to consider the exponential coefficients for the trust parameters, namely weighted reception rate, weighted redundancy rate, and energy state so that the trust level of sensor nodes is exponentially reduced or increased based on their hostile or friendly behaviors. Moreover, the proposed approach creates a fire hawk optimizer-based clustering mechanism to select cluster heads from a candidate set, which includes sensor nodes whose remaining energy and trust levels are greater than the average remaining energy and the average trust level of all network nodes, respectively. In this clustering method, a new cost function is proposed based on four objectives, including cluster head location, cluster head energy, distance from the cluster head to the base station, and cluster size. Finally, CTRF decides on inter-cluster routing paths through a trusted routing algorithm and uses these routes to transmit data from cluster heads to the base station. In the route construction process, CTRF regards various parameters such as energy of the route, quality of the route, reliability of the route, and number of hops. CTRF runs on the network simulator version 2 (NS2), and its performance is compared with other secure routing approaches with regard to energy, throughput, packet loss rate, latency, detection ratio, and accuracy. This evaluation proves the superior and successful performance of CTRF compared to other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Two new Schiff bases are synthesized which adopt enol and keto tautomeric forms. • The dihedral angles indicate the planar nature of molecules of both Schiff bases. • Both compounds have the potential for optical applications. • The molecular structure of both compounds is stabilized by hydrogen bonding. • Smaller void volumes indicate that the molecules are closely packed. The current work focuses on the synthesis of the two new Schiff base ligands derived from o -aminophenol named 2-[(E)-(3-chlorophenyl)methylidene]amino-phenol (2AP3Cl) and 4-Chloro-2-(E)-[(2-hydroxyphenyl)iminio]methyl-phenolate (2AP5Cl). The synthesized Schiff bases were characterized by different Spectro analytical techniques like CHN, FT-IR, and NMR (1H and 13C) analysis. Moreover, a single crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) study was carried out for both compounds, which inferred that 2AP3Cl and 2AP5Cl adopted enol and keto tautomeric forms, respectively. The supramolecular assembly with respect to strong and comparatively weak non-covalent interactions was explored by Hirshfeld surface analysis. The interaction energy between molecular pairs, energy frameworks, and void analysis was performed to further investigate the crystal packing environment. Both compounds were screened for their DNA binding abilities. Moreover, quantum chemical methods were applied to study the electronic structure, linear and nonlinear optical (NLO) polarizabilities of the synthesized Schiff bases. The 2AP3Cl and 2AP5Cl molecules exhibited good NLO hyperpolarizability of 9.62 × 104 and 7.90 × 104 au., respectively. The calculation of molecular electrostatic potentials, 3-D visualization of frontier molecular orbitals, and their orbital gaps were also studied. Overall, reasonably good third-order NLO response properties were calculated, which show a decent potential of synthesized compounds for their potential for NLO applications. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To compare the parental perceptions of the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQOL) of autistic and non-autistic children after full mouth rehabilitation under general anesthesia (GA). Methods and Materials: The study included 114 autistic children and 116 children without autism. Two years after receiving therapy under GA, participating parents completed a condensed version of the Perceptions Questionnaire (P-CPQ) and Family Impact Scale (FIS). Demographic data was collected. Oral symptoms, social health, psychology, functional limitation, and family affect ratings. Mean, standard deviation and statistical differences between groups were analyzed using SPSS. Results: Children with autism received higher overall P-CPQ scores than children without autism, according to the frequency distribution of the P-CPQ for parental perception when children with and without autism were compared. In all four domains, when scores were compared according to the domain, there was no statistically significant difference in the scores. According to the FIS frequency distribution, children with autism had higher total FIS scores than children without the condition. The change was not statistically significant, though. Only parental emotions showed a statistically significant difference when scores were examined by domain. Conclusion: Children with autism and children without autism score the same on the P-CPQ, indicating that the impact of comprehensive rehabilitation under GA is positive for both types of children. Parent emotions may not change immediately following the complete rehabilitation under GA which may be required to handle separately to boost the confidence of the patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are growing rapidly and provide a lot of comfort to human life. Due to the use of WSNs in various areas, like health care and battlefield, security is an important concern in the data transfer procedure to prevent data manipulation. Trust management is an affective scheme to solve these problems by building trust relationships between sensor nodes. In this paper, a cluster-based trusted routing technique using fire hawk optimizer called CTRF is presented to improve network security by considering the limited energy of nodes in WSNs. It includes a weighted trust mechanism (WTM) designed based on interactive behavior between sensor nodes. The main feature of this trust mechanism is to consider the exponential coefficients for the trust parameters, namely weighted reception rate, weighted redundancy rate, and energy state so that the trust level of sensor nodes is exponentially reduced or increased based on their hostile or friendly behaviors. Moreover, the proposed approach creates a fire hawk optimizer-based clustering mechanism to select cluster heads from a candidate set, which includes sensor nodes whose remaining energy and trust levels are greater than the average remaining energy and the average trust level of all network nodes, respectively. In this clustering method, a new cost function is proposed based on four objectives, including cluster head location, cluster head energy, distance from the cluster head to the base station, and cluster size. Finally, CTRF decides on inter-cluster routing paths through a trusted routing algorithm and uses these routes to transmit data from cluster heads to the base station. In the route construction process, CTRF regards various parameters such as energy of the route, quality of the route, reliability of the route, and number of hops. CTRF runs on the network simulator version 2 (NS2), and its performance is compared with other secure routing approaches with regard to energy, throughput, packet loss rate, latency, detection ratio, and accuracy. This evaluation proves the superior and successful performance of CTRF compared to other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a universal network to supervise the physical world through sensors installed on different devices. The network can improve many areas, including healthcare because IoT technology has the potential to reduce pressure caused by aging and chronic diseases on healthcare systems. For this reason, researchers attempt to solve the challenges of this technology in healthcare. In this paper, a fuzzy logic-based secure hierarchical routing scheme using the firefly algorithm (FSRF) is presented for IoT-based healthcare systems. FSRF comprises three main frameworks: fuzzy trust framework, firefly algorithm-based clustering framework, and inter-cluster routing framework. A fuzzy logic-based trust framework is responsible for evaluating the trust of IoT devices on the network. This framework identifies and prevents routing attacks like black hole, flooding, wormhole, sinkhole, and selective forwarding. Moreover, FSRF supports a clustering framework based on the firefly algorithm. It presents a fitness function that evaluates the chance of IoT devices to be cluster head nodes. The design of this function is based on trust level, residual energy, hop count, communication radius, and centrality. Also, FSRF involves an on-demand routing framework to decide on reliable and energy-efficient paths that can send the data to the destination faster. Finally, FSRF is compared to the energy-efficient multi-level secure routing protocol (EEMSR) and the enhanced balanced energy-efficient network-integrated super heterogeneous (E-BEENISH) routing method based on network lifetime, energy stored in IoT devices, and packet delivery rate (PDR). These results prove that FSRF improves network longevity by 10.34% and 56.35% and the energy stored in the nodes by 10.79% and 28.51% compared to EEMSR and E-BEENISH, respectively. However, FSRF is weaker than EEMSR in terms of security. Furthermore, PDR in this method has dropped slightly (almost 1.4%) compared to that in EEMSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three diorganotin(IV) complexes of general formula R 2 Sn[(O)C 10 H 6 CHN 2 CH(O)] have been synthesized by the interaction of dimethyltin(IV) dichloride, diphenyltin(IV) dichloride, di- tert -butyltin(IV) chloride and novel ligand N′-(2-hydroxynaphthalen-1-yl)methylene)formohydrazide in toluene. Spectroscopic and single crystal X-ray studies confirm coordination of dibasic tridentate ligand to the diorganotin(IV) moieties via ONO donor sites and formation of pentacoordinated tin center. Furthermore, antibacterial screening, cytotoxicity assessment and docking study for the synthesized compounds have also been carried out. [Display omitted] Three organotin(IV) complexes [Me 2 SnL(1), Ph 2 SnL(2), tert -Bu 2 SnL(3)] have been synthesized by the reaction of a novel ligand N'-(2-hydroxynaphthalen-1-yl)methylene)formohydrazide (H 2 L) with dialkyltin(IV) dichlorides [R 2 SnCl 2 (R = Me, Ph, tert -Bu) in presence of Et 3 N. The ligand and complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, FT-IR, 1H, 13C and 119Sn NMR spectroscopic techniques. The spectroscopic data suggests coordination of ligand to the diorganotin(IV) moieties via oxygen nitrogen donor sites and five coordinated tin centers. The molecular structures of ligand (H 2 L) and complexes (1, 3) were also confirmed by single crystal X-ray analysis. The solid state structure of ligand showed it to be in the amido form whereas the single crystal X-ray analysis of complexes revealed the dibasic tridentate nature of ligand and monometallic nature of complexes. In both the complexes (1, 3) the Sn atom is in a distorted five-coordinate square pyramidal geometry with trigonality index(τ) 0.33 and 0.41, respectively. Packing diagrams reveal the important role of H ... H, C H ... π and O ... H interactions in generating the supramolecular assembly. The antibacterial potential of all the compounds was investigated against two gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Stephlococcus aureus) and four gram-negative bacterial strains (Escherichia coli, Shigella flexenari, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi), using imipenem as the standard drug. Complex 2 exhibited highest activity against Bacillus subtilis and highest cytotoxicity against brine shrimp nauplii with LD 50 1.01 μg/mL. Molecular Docking investigations revealed the best target protein, the positive impact of diphenyltin(IV) moiety on the compound-protein binding and the important role of hydrogen bonding, pi-pi and hydrophobic forces in such type of interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The purpose of this study is to test and validate a modified stimulus organism response (SOR) theory with a bi-dimensional attitude toward fake news sharing. This study examines the effect of various gratifications, i.e., hedonic, social, and utilitarian, with bi-dimensional attitudes and intentions toward sharing fake news. The moderating effect of social networking sites (SNS) dependency is also investigated to examine the attitude-intention gap. Data were collected from a sample of 327 social media users and further analyzed using PLS-SEM. The modified SOR theory described significant variance in fake news sharing intentions. Findings reveal that cognitive attitude is a strong predictor of sharing fake intentions than affective attitude. All gratifications factors except hedonic gratification have significant positive association with attitude which in turn influence the users’ toward fake news sharing. Moreover, the findings also proved the moderating effect of SNS dependency. This study explains remarkable insights for researchers, practitioners, social media users, and social media platform providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Cancer is a deadly disease that needs to be diagnose at early stage to increase patient survival rate. Multi-organ (such as breast, brain, lung, and skin) cancer detection, segmentation and classification manually using medical imaging is time consuming and required high expertise. In this study, we summarize existing deep learning segmentation and classification methods for multi-organ cancer diagnosis and provide future challenges with possible solutions. This review may benefit researchers to design new robust approaches that could be useful for the medical specialists as a second view. Thus far, the most common cause of death in the world is cancer. It consists of abnormally expanding areas that are threatening to human survival. Hence, the timely detection of cancer is important to expanding the survival rate of patients. In this survey, we analyze the state-of-the-art approaches for multi-organ cancer detection, segmentation, and classification. This article promptly reviews the present-day works in the breast, brain, lung, and skin cancer domain. Afterwards, we analytically compared the existing approaches to provide insight into the ongoing trends and future challenges. This review also provides an objective description of widely employed imaging techniques, imaging modality, gold standard database, and related literature on each cancer in 2016–2021. The main goal is to systematically examine the cancer diagnosis systems for multi-organs of the human body as mentioned. Our critical survey analysis reveals that greater than 70% of deep learning researchers attain promising results with CNN-based approaches for the early diagnosis of multi-organ cancer. This survey includes the extensive discussion part along with current research challenges, possible solutions, and prospects. This research will endow novice researchers with valuable information to deepen their knowledge and also provide the room to develop new robust computer-aid diagnosis systems, which assist health professionals in bridging the gap between rapid diagnosis and treatment planning for cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authentication protocols are often used in smart grids to deliver the necessary level of security. A huge number of clients in such a system, however, provides the attacker with the ability to clone them, for example. Device fingerprints, or Physically Unclonable Functions (PUF), have been investigated as an authentication feature to thwart such attacks. In order to accomplish the necessary security in smart grid neighborhood area network communications and to prevent unwanted physical access to smart meters, a former study designed a lightweight authentication system in this way. The suggested protocol uses PUFs to reduce physical attacks. As a consequence, the server/meter impersonation attack is one of the many assaults that this protocol is thought to be secure against. On the other hand, it is generally acknowledged that no security solution should be trusted unless its security has been verified by independent researchers. As a result, this paper assesses the security of this protocol against a typical adversary who has access to or influences over the messages carried over the public channel. This study demonstrates that the attacker is simply capable of impersonating the server for the meter and vice versa. In addition, the suggested attacks desynchronize them, making the adversary the only one capable of interacting with the meter in the role of the legal server rather than the latter. Each of the proposed attacks is extremely effective, and their success probability is almost 1. Finally, a modification is suggested that successfully fixes the protocol's security weaknesses. The security proof of the improved protocol has been done through the Scyther tool. The computational cost comparison shows that the overhead of the proposed protocol compared to the former scheme is 4.85%, while it withstands various attacks, including traceability, desynchronization, impersonation, man-in-the-middle, and secret disclosure attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is a critical part of many Internet of Things (IoT) systems, including Medical IoT (MIoT) for instance. On the other hand, the IoT devices' numerous limitations (such as memory space, computing capability, and battery capacity) make it difficult to implement cost- and energy-efficient security solutions. As a result, several researchers attempted to address this problem, and several RFID-based security mechanisms for the MIoT and other constrained environments were proposed. In this vein, Wang et al. and Shariq et al. recently proposed CRUSAP and ESRAS ultra-lightweight authentication schemes. They demonstrated, both formally and informally, that their schemes meet the required security properties for RFID systems. In their proposed protocols, they have used a very lightweight operation called C r o (·) and R a n k (·) , respectively. However, in this paper, we show that those functions are not secure enough to provide the desired security. We show that C r o (·) is linear and reversible, and it is easy to obtain the secret values used in its calculation. Then, by exploiting the vulnerability of the C r o (·) function, we demonstrated that CRUSAP is vulnerable to secret disclosure attacks. The proposed attack has a success probability of "1" and is as simple as a CRUSAP protocol run. Other security attacks are obviously possible by obtaining the secret values of the tag and reader. In addition, we present a de-synchronization attack on the CRUSAP protocol. Furthermore, we provide a thorough examination of ESRAS and its R a n k (·) function. We first present a de-synchronization attack that works for any desired R a n k (·) function, including Shariq et al.'s proposed R a n k (·) function. We also show that R a n k (·) does not provide the desired confusion and diffusion that is claimed by the designers. Finally, we conduct a secret disclosure attack against ESRAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coverage is a fundamental issue in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). It plays a important role in network efficiency and performance. When sensor nodes are randomly scattered in the network environment, an ON/OFF scheduling mechanism can be designed for these nodes to ensure network coverage and increase the network lifetime. In this paper, we propose an appropriate and optimal area coverage method. The proposed area coverage scheme includes four phases: (1) Calculating the overlap between the sensing ranges of sensor nodes in the network. In this phase, we present a novel, distributed, and efficient method based on the digital matrix so that each sensor node can estimate the overlap between its sensing range and other neighboring nodes. (2) Designing a fuzzy scheduling mechanism. In this phase, an ON/OFF scheduling mechanism is designed using fuzzy logic. In this fuzzy system, if a sensor node has a high energy level, a low distance to the base station, and a low overlap between its sensing range and other neighboring nodes, then this node will be in the ON state for more time. (3) Predicting the node replacement time. In this phase, we seek to provide a suitable method to estimate the death time of sensor nodes and prevent possible holes in the network, and thus the data transmission process is not disturbed. (4) Reconstructing and covering the holes created in the network. In this phase, the goal is to find the best replacement strategy of mobile nodes to maximize the coverage rate and minimize the number of mobile sensor nodes used for covering the hole. For this purpose, we apply the shuffled frog-leaping algorithm (SFLA) and propose an appropriate multi-objective fitness function. To evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme, we simulate it using NS2 simulator and compare our scheme with three methods, including CCM-RL, CCA, and PCLA. The simulation results show that our proposed scheme outperformed the other methods in terms of the average number of active sensor nodes, coverage rate, energy consumption, and network lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dentin adhesives (DAs) play a critical role in the clinical success of dental resin composite (DRC) restorations. A strong bond between the adhesive and dentin improves the longevity of the restoration, but it is strongly dependent on the various properties of DAs. The current review was aimed at summarizing the information present in the literature regarding the improvement of the properties of DAs noticed after the addition of bioactive inorganic fillers. From our search, we were able to find evidence of multiple bioactive inorganic fillers (bioactive glass, hydroxyapatite, amorphous calcium phosphate, graphene oxide, calcium chloride, zinc chloride, silica, and niobium pentoxide) in the literature that have been used to improve the different properties of DAs. These improvements can be seen in the form of improved hardness, higher modulus of elasticity, enhanced bond, flexural, and ultimate tensile strength, improved fracture toughness, reduced nanoleakage, remineralization of the adhesive–dentin interface, improved resin tag formation, greater radiopacity, antibacterial effect, and improved DC (observed for some fillers). Most of the studies dealing with the subject area are in vitro. Future in situ and in vivo studies are recommended to positively attest to the results of laboratory findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a panel session on "Data, Platforms, and Policies," participants examined the state of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Arab states and discussed the responsible use of AI in data-driven systems in government, health care, education, and industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salivary biomarkers are indicators of many biological and pathological conditions and provide further information regarding the early detection of diseases. This bibliometric analysis aims to identify and evaluate the scientific literature addressing salivary biomarkers from a dental perspective, to identify the most prolific organizations, authors, journals, countries, and keywords used within this research domain. An electronic search was performed using Elsevier's Scopus database. From a total of 587 retrieved papers (published between 1997 and 2021), 399 were selected. For the data analysis and its visualization, the title of the articles, year of publication, countries, authors, journals, articles, and keywords were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer (a bibliometric software program). An increase in the number of publications was identified from 1997 to 2021. The United States (U.S.) published the most papers (84) and received the highest citations (3778), followed by India and Brazil. The Journal of Periodontology published the highest number of articles (39) that received the highest citations. The University of Kentucky from the U.S. published most of the papers related to salivary biomarkers that received the highest citations. Timo Sorsa published the most papers (14 papers), while Craig Miller was the highest cited author (754 citations). Concerning the highly cited papers, a paper by Micheal et al., published in 2010, received the highest citations (487 citations). "Saliva", followed by "human", were the most common keywords used by the authors in the papers related to salivary biomarkers. The findings of this analysis revealed an increase in salivary biomarker-related publications that positively influenced the number of citations each paper received. The U.S. produced the most publications that received the highest citations, and the University of Kentucky, U.S., was the most prominent. The articles were mostly published in the Journal of Periodontology and received the highest number of citations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking cognizance of the medicinal significance and diverse functions of synthetic Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts (MBHA), the title ligand was synthesized and purified through column chromatography. Cr+3, Mn+2, Co+3, Ni+2, Cu+2 complexes of the ligand were synthesized under basic conditions, subjected to characterization through spectral analyses and verified with the IR spectrum that was generated computationally by the DFT B3LYP method, with 6-311++ G (d,p) basis set and Hartree Fock (HF) B3LYP method in conjunction with 3-21G(d,p) basis set. Powder XRD helped to testify crystals of the complexes. Moreover, the antibacterial, and antioxidant characteristics of MBHA and its complexes were also established. All of them were found to be active antioxidants. The antibacterial activities, examined against S. aureus, E. coli, B. pumilis and S. typhi have revealed that its Cobalt complex has an excellent potential to act against all of them. Hence, these compounds maybe having potentialities for the discovery of new, cheaper and efficient drugs against various infectious diseases. The study also uncovers the first example of utilization of MBHA towards metal complex formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical screening on ethyl acetate fraction (Fr. C) obtained from the roots of Berberis brevissima Jafri. resulted in three compounds. Their structures were elucidated as β-Sitosterol-3-O-β-ᴅ-glucopyranoside (1), Berberine (2), and Pakistanine (3) using spectroscopic analysis, including mass, 1D, and 2D NMR data techniques. The antibacterial assays of the obtained six oil sub-fractions (H-1 to H-6) were accomplished against S. epidermis, E. coli, and S. aureus bacterial strains and the results ranged from 10-18 mm zone of inhibition. The GC-MS analysis of the six oil sub-fractions (H-1 to H-6) confirmed the existence of linoleic acid, palmitic acid, and oleic acid in the highest amount. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eight new amide‐based carboxylate derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for anti‐inflammatory potentials using in‐vitro, in‐vivo and in silico studies. In cyclooxygenase‐2 assay, maximum percent antagonist potential was exhibited by sodium 4‐((4‐fluorophenyl) amino)‐4‐oxobutanoate (93.91 %), bis ((4‐((4‐methoxy‐2‐nitrophenyl)amino)‐4‐oxobutanoyl)oxy) zinc (93.04 %), and bis ((4‐((4‐bromo‐2‐fluorophenyl) amino)‐4‐oxobutanoyl)oxy)zincio (2‐bromopyridine) (92.64 %) with IC50 values of 1.65, 2.08, and 0.288 μM/ml respectively. Celecoxib demonstrated 98.60 % effect with an IC50 value of 0.041 μM/ml. In LOX assay, 4‐((4‐methoxy‐2‐nitrophenyl)amino)‐4‐oxobutanoic acid (97.03 %), bis ((4‐((4‐methoxy‐2‐nitrophenyl)amino)‐4‐oxobutanoyl)oxy)zinc (95.45 %), and (92.53 %) demonstrated maximum percent effect with IC50 values 3.48, 0.45, and 0.83 μM/ml respectively. The standard 5‐lipoxygenase inhibitor (montelukast) resulted from a 98.39 % inhibitory effect with an IC50 value of 0.194 μM/ml. In in‐vivo analysis, the potent tested compounds (5, 10, and, 20 mg/kg) significantly (p<0.001) reversed the induced edema by carrageenan. The standard drug aspirin displayed significant results (74–83 %). The standard drugs in these phlogestic agents displayed excellent results like cetirizine (67.9 %), celecoxib (81.61 %), icatibant (82.22 %) and nemesulide (87.17 %) at 5th h. The compounds displayed the inhibitory potential against targeted proteins. 4‐((4‐methoxy‐2‐nitrophenyl)amino)‐4‐oxobutanoic acid, 4‐((4‐fluorophenyl)amino)‐4‐oxobutanoic acid and sodium 4‐((4‐bromo‐2‐fluorophenyl)amino)‐4‐oxobutanoate shown excellent behavior by giving negative binding energies close of standard drugs montelukast (5F1A: −7.9 kcal/mol) and diclofenac (3O8Y: −8.5 Kcal/mol). The tested compounds were proven significant anti‐inflammatory potentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two copper(II) paddlewheel carboxylate complexes 1 and 2 of the general formula ACuL4CuA, where A is DMSO (1) and meta-bromopyridine (2) and L is meta-chlorophenyl acetate, have been synthesised, isolated quantitatively, crystallised and characterised using FTIR, UV-Visible spectroscopy, electrochemistry and XRD. FTIR spectra contained all the required peaks with the most prominent peaks those of carboxylate moiety indicating the bridging bidentate carboxylate binding mode. Electrochemistry yielded results typical of complexes containing Cu2+ centres. The structures were completely solved by XRD technique assigning square pyramidal geometry to each copper ion of the dinuclear complexes. The square base is formed by four oxygen atoms of the carboxylate moiety while the apical position is occupied by the fifth oxygen (of the DMSO molecule in 1) or nitrogen of the meta-bromopyridine in complex 2. The DNA-binding potency of the complexes was explored by viscometry, cyclic voltammetry, UV-Visible spectrophotometry and spectrofluorimetry. All these techniques provided coincident results and showed that the complexes bonded with DNA via an intercalative-binding mode. Additionally, these complexes were found to scavenge the free radical DPPH effectively. The complexes add interesting and valuable addition to the existing treasury on the copper paddlewheel complexes and their biological relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the association between pseudoexfoliation and glaucoma. Study Design: Cross-sectional analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: Eye Outpatient department of Combined Military Hospital, Multan from Jan to Dec 2019. Methodology: A total of 170 patients reporting to the eye outpatient department were examined for the presence of Pseudoexfoliation and glaucoma based on raised intraocular pressure >21mm Hg, increased cup disc ratio and visual field defects. Therefore, a total of 340 eyes were examined. Results: Out of a total of 252 eyes with pseudoexfoliation, 40 (15.9%) had glaucoma. This frequency of glaucoma was significantly higher in eyes with pseudoexfoliation 87 (98.9%), in comparison to eyes without pseudoexfoliation 1 (1.1%); p<0.01). Conclusion: Pseudoexfoliation was found to be strongly associated with glaucoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper(II) complexes with a general formula [Cu2(3,4-F2C6H3CH2COO)4(L)2], where L = 2-methylpyridine (1) and 3-methylpyridine (2), are reported here. The FTIR spectra of the complexes confirmed the bridging bidentate coordination mode of the carboxylate ligand. The low (475 and 449 cm−1) and strong (727 & 725 cm−1) intensity bands in the FTIR spectra, due to Cu-N stretches and pyridyl ring vibrations, confirmed coordination of the 2-/3-methyl pyridine co-ligands in complexes 1 and 2, respectively. A binuclear paddlewheel structural arrangement with a square pyramidal geometry was confirmed for copper atoms in the complexes via single-crystal X-ray analysis. The DPPH, •OH radical, and α-amylase enzyme inhibition assays showed higher activities for the complexes than for the free ligand acid. The binding constant (Kb = 1.32 × 105 for 1 and 5.33 × 105 for 2) calculated via UV-VIS absorption measurements and docking scores (−6.59 for 1 and −7.43 for 2) calculated via molecular docking showed higher SS-DNA binding potential for 2 compared to 1. Viscosity measurement also reflected higher DNA binding ability for 2 than 1. Both complexes 1 and 2 (docking scores of −7.43 and −6.95, respectively) were found to be more active inhibitors than the free ligand acid (docking score of −5.5159) against the target α-amylase protein. This in silico study has shown that the herein reported compounds follow the rules of drug-likeness and exhibit good potential for bioavailability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six heteroleptic Cu(II) carboxylates (1–6) were prepared by reacting 2-chlorophenyl acetic acid (L1), 3-chlorophenyl acetic acid (L2), and substituted pyridine (2-cyanopyridine and 2-chlorocyanopyridine). The solid-state behavior of the complexes was described via vibrational spectroscopy (FT-IR), which revealed that the carboxylate moieties adopted different coordination modes around the Cu(II) center. A paddlewheel dinuclear structure with distorted square pyramidal geometry was elucidated from the crystal data for complexes 2 and 5 with substituted pyridine moieties at the axial positions. The presence of irreversible metal-centered oxidation reduction peaks confirms the electroactive nature of the complexes. A relatively higher binding affinity was observed for the interaction of SS-DNA with complexes 2–6 compared to L1 and L2. The findings of the DNA interaction study indicate an intercalative mode of interaction. The maximum inhibition against acetylcholinesterase enzyme was caused for complex 2 (IC50 = 2 µg/mL) compared to the standard drug Glutamine (IC50 = 2.10 µg/mL) while the maximum inhibition was found for butyrylcholinesterase enzyme by complex 4 (IC50 = 3 µg/mL) compared to the standard drug Glutamine (IC50 = 3.40 µg/mL). The findings of the enzymatic activity suggest that the under study compounds have potential for curing of Alzheimer's disease. Similarly, complexes 2 and 4 possess the maximum inhibition as revealed from the free radical scavenging activity performed against DPPH and H2O2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The current study was conducted to determine whether people will keep practicing physical distancing behavior as part of their daily lives after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: A structured questionnaire was prepared online using "Question Pro" software for surveys, and the study was conducted electronically. The questionnaire for the study had two components, the first was related to the participant's demographics, and the other was about physical distancing questions. There were 16 questions in total. Results: Women were more fearful/careful and would want to limit socializing than men. The religious aspect is one primary reason people will be willing to avoid physical distancing. Physical distancing was more acceptable to people with higher education levels. This physical distancing trend might affect the public transportation and tourism industry. Conclusion: This study showed that the female gender and population with higher education are willing to follow better adherence to SOPs of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Denture base fracture is one of the most annoying problems for both prosthodontists and patients. Denture repair is considered to be an appropriate solution rather than fabricating a new denture. Digital denture fabrication is widely spreading nowadays. However, the repair strength of CAD-CAM milled and 3D-printed resins is lacking. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of surface treatment on the shear bond strength (SBS) of conventionally and digitally fabricated denture base resins. One l heat-polymerized (Major base20), two milled (IvoCad, AvaDent), and three 3D-printed (ASIGA, NextDent, FormLabs) denture base resins were used to fabricate 10 × 10 × 3.3 acrylic specimens (N = 180, 30/resin, n = 10). Specimens were divided into three groups according to surface treatment; no treatment (control), monomer application (MMA), or sandblasting (SB) surface treatments were performed. Repair resin was bonded to the resin surface followed by thermocycling (5000 cycles). SBS was tested using a universal testing machine where a load was applied at the resin interface (0.5 mm/min). Data were collected and analyzed using ANOVA and a post hoc Tukey test (α = 0.05). SEM was used for failure type and topography of fractured surfaces analysis. The heat-polymerized and CAD-CAM milled groups showed close SBS values without significance (p > 0.05), while the 3D-printed resin groups showed a significant decrease in SBS (p < 0.0001). SBS increased significantly with monomer application (p < 0.0001) except for the ASIGA and NextDent groups, which showed no significant difference compared to the control groups (p > 0.05). All materials with SB surface treatment showed a significant increase in SBS when compared with the controls and MMA application (p < 0.0001). Adhesive failure type was observed in the control groups, which dramatically changed to cohesive or mixed in groups with surface treatment. The SBS of 3D-printed resin was decreased when compared with the conventional and CAD-CAM milled resin. Regardless of the material type, SB and MMA applications increased the SBS of the repaired resin and SB showed high performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the synthesis, characterization, geometrical optimization, and biological studies of new MBH-based organometallic compounds of medicinal significance. The ligand (MNHA) was prepared via the Morita–Baylis–Hillman (MBH) synthetic route, from aromatic aldehyde containing multiple functional groups. Metal complexes were prepared in an alkaline medium and under other suitable reaction conditions. Spectral and elemental analyses were used to identify the structural and molecular formulas of each compound. Optimized geometry was determined through density functional theory (DFT) B3LYP and 6-311++ G (d,p) basis set for the MBH adduct, whereas structures of novel complexes were optimized with the semi-empirical PM6 method. Powder XRD analysis furnished the crystal class of complexes, with Co3+, Cr3+, and Mn2+ being cubic, while Ni2+ was hexagonal, and Cu2+ was orthorhombic. Moreover, the ligand, along with Ni2+ and Co3+ complexes, showed profound antibacterial action against S. aureus, E. coli, B. pumilis, and S. typhi. Additionally, all of the complexes were shown to persist in the positive antioxidant potential of the ligand. Contrarily, not a single metal complex conserved the antifungal potentials of the ligand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a cost-effective, efficient, and stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst is of great importance for sustainable energy conversion and storage. In this study, we report a facile one-step fabrication of cationic surfactant-assisted Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) Mx[Fe(CN)5CH3C6H4NH2]∙yC19H34NBr abbreviated as SF[Fe-Tol-M] (where SF = N-tridecyl-3-methylpyridinium bromide and M = Mn, Co and Ni) as efficient heterogeneous OER electrocatalysts. The electrocatalysts have been characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In the presence of cationic surfactant (SF), PBAs-based electrodes showed enhanced redox current, high surface area and robust stability compared to the recently reported PBAs. SF[Fe-Tol-Co] hybrid catalyst shows superior electrochemical OER activity with a much lower over-potential (610 mV) to attain the current density of 10 mA cm−2 with the Tafel slope value of 103 mV·dec−1 than that for SF[Fe-Tol-Ni] and SF[Fe-Tol-Mn]. Moreover, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) unveiled that SF[Fe-Tol-Co] exhibits smaller charge transfer resistance, which results in a faster kinetics towards OER. Furthermore, SF[Fe-Tol-Co] offered excellent stability for continues oxygen production over extended reaction time. This work provides a surface assisted facile electrode fabrication approach for developing binder-free OER electrocatalysts for efficient water oxidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthesis, characterization and structural relevance of four new copper carboxylate complexes (1–4) has been presented here. The complexes have been synthesized by direct treatment of the substituted phenyl acetate and pyridine ligands in aqueous medium. The complexes were stable indefinitely with excellent yields and were characterized using spectroscopic and single crystal XRD techniques. FTIR spectroscopy revealed the bridging bidentate coordination mode for the carboxylate moiety in accordance to the actual structure revealed by XRD. Moreover, UV-Visible spectroscopic and cyclic voltammetric studies helped in their characterization and yielded signals which were typical of the copper(II) complexes. Successfully solved single crystal XRD data showed binuclear paddlewheel structures for all the complexes with both copper ions linked through four OCO bridges of ortho-methoxy phenyl acetate (1–3) and ortho-methyl-meta-nitrophenyl acetate (4). The geometry around each copper was distorted square pyramidal where the apical positions are occupied by meta-bromopyridine (1), meta-methylpyridine (2) and DMSO (3 and 4) molecules. The complexes exhibited excellent DNA-binding activity majorly via intercalation as revealed by four experimental techniques. This preliminary study showed that the synthesized complexes add to the existing treasury on the paddlewheel complexes.Air stable newly synthesized and purified crystalline complexes with their preliminary structural relevance.The Index Abstract: Synthesis, characterization and structural relevance of four new copper carboxylate complexes (1–4) has been presented here. The complexes have been synthesized by direct treatment of the substituted phenyl acetate and pyridine ligands in aqueous medium. The complexes were stable indefinitely with excellent yields and were characterized using spectroscopic and single crystal XRD techniques. FTIR spectroscopy revealed the bridging bidentate coordination mode for the carboxylate moiety in accordance to the actual structure revealed by XRD. Moreover, UV-Visible spectroscopic and cyclic voltammetric studies helped in their characterization and yielded signals which were typical of the copper(II) complexes. Successfully solved single crystal XRD data showed binuclear paddlewheel structures for all the complexes with both copper ions linked through four OCO bridges of ortho-methoxy phenyl acetate (1–3) and ortho-methyl-meta-nitrophenyl acetate (4). The geometry around each copper was distorted square pyramidal where the apical positions are occupied by meta-bromopyridine (1), meta-methylpyridine (2) and DMSO (3 and 4) molecules. The complexes exhibited excellent DNA-binding activity majorly via intercalation as revealed by four experimental techniques. This preliminary study showed that the synthesized complexes add to the existing treasury on the paddlewheel complexes.Air stable newly synthesized and purified crystalline complexes with their preliminary structural relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six new Schiff based diorganotin(IV) complexes have been synthesized and structurally characterized through multitude analytical techniques. The compound-DNA interaction study has been performed through UV–Visible spectroscopy that revealed high binding potential through a spontaneous process. The complexes have further been investigated for in vitro antimicrobial and anticancer studies. [Display omitted] • Synthesis of six diorganotin(IV) complexes based on two new Schiff base ligands derived by the condensation reaction of aldehydes with acid hydrazides. • Spectroscopic characterization and structural elucidation of all complexes were performed. • Compound-DNA interaction study was performed through UV–Visible spectroscopy. • The compounds were investigated for in vitro antimicrobial studies. • The compounds were evaluated for their anticancer activities. Herein, two Schiff base ligands Ń-(4-diethylamino-2-hydroxybenzylidene) isonicotinohydrazide (L1) and Ń-(2,3-dihydroxybenzylidene) isonicotinohydrazide (L2) and their six di-organotin(IV) complexes (R = C 4 H 9 (1 , 4), C 6 H 5 (2 , 5) and CH 3 (3 , 6)) were synthesized. The solid state and solution chemistry of the ligands and their organotin(IV) complexes was explored through single crystal XRD, FTIR and NMR (1H, 13C and 119Sn) spectroscopy. The single crystal XRD analysis was carried out for complexes 1 , 2 and 5 , reveals the presence square pyramidal, trigonal bipyramidal and pentagonal bipyramidal geometries, respectively. All structures showed distorted geometries because of the constraint offered by five and six membered chelate rings. The results obtained from the interaction study of ligands and complexes with SS-DNA were indicative of high binding potential through a spontaneous process. The results of in vitro antimicrobial studies validated the well-known theory of chelation and overtone concept. Anticancer activities conducted for the ligands and complexes revealed evident anti-proliferative activity of 1 , 2 , 4 and 5 complexes. Complex 2 being the most active one, exhibited pro-apoptotic, cytotoxic effect after PI and DAPI stains. Moreover, after H2DCF-DA staining the treated cancerous cells, an induced oxidative stress was detected. Complexes 2 and 4 also revealed the activation of mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis in treated cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glioma is the most aggressive and dangerous primary brain tumor with a survival time of less than 14 months. Segmentation of tumors is a necessary task in the image processing of the gliomas and is important for its timely diagnosis and starting a treatment. Using 3D U-net architecture to perform semantic segmentation on brain tumor dataset is at the core of deep learning. In this paper, we present a unique cloud-based 3D U-Net method to perform brain tumor segmentation using BRATS dataset. The system was effectively trained by using Adam optimization solver by utilizing multiple hyper parameters. We got an average dice score of 95% which makes our method the first cloud-based method to achieve maximum accuracy. The dice score is calculated by using Sørensen-Dice similarity coefficient. We also performed an extensive literature review of the brain tumor segmentation methods implemented in the last five years to get a state-of-the-art picture of well-known methodologies with a higher dice score. In comparison to the already implemented architectures, our method ranks on top in terms of accuracy in using a cloud-based 3D U-Net framework for glioma segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An easy and simple approach is developed to fabricate nano‐composite packaging films from starch molecules reinforced with cellulose nanofibers derived from unripe from banana peel. Addition of 10g (w/w, dry starch basis) of cellulose nanofibers into the starch matrix results in improved mechanical and thermal stability of the nano‐composite films. The results show that addition of cellulose nanofibers into the starch matrix result in significant reduction in water solubility and water vapour permeability of the packaging films. The mechanical properties (elongation at break and tensile strength) of the films are improved significantly with incorporation of nano‐particles. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy displays similar spectra for all tested samples due to the similar chemical nature of starch and cellulose. Similarly, differential scanning calorimetry analysis shows improved thermal stability of packaging films with the addition of nanofibers derived from banana peel cellulose. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy results show smooth surfaces and even distribution of particles and spaces in the matrix films as compared to the control. These results indicate the possible use of these packaging films in the food packaging industry thanks to their biocompatible, biodegradable, and non‐toxic characteristics and features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of things and medical things (IoT) and (IoMT) technologies have been deployed to simplify humanity's life, which the complexity of communications between their layers was increased by rising joining the applications to IoT and IoMT-based infrastructures. The issue is challenging for decision-making and the quality of service where some researchers addressed the reward-based methods to tackle the problems by employing reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms and deep neural networks (DNNs). Nevertheless, satisfying its availability remains a challenge for the quality of service due to the lack of imposing a penalty to the defective devices after detecting faults. This paper proposes a quasi-mapping method to transfer the roles of sensors and services onto a neural network's nodes to satisfy IoT-based applications' availability using a penalty-backwarding approach into the NN's weights and prunes weak neurons and synaptic weights (SWs). We reward the sensors and fog services, and the connection weights between them when are covered the defective nodes' output. Additionally, this work provides a decision-making approach to dedicate the suitable service to the requester using employing a threshold value in the NN's output layer according to the application. By providing an intelligent algorithm, the study decides to provide a service based on its availability and updating initial information, including faulty devices and new joined components. The observations and results prove decision-making accuracy for different IoT-based applications by approximately 95.8–97% without imposing the cost. The study reduces energy consumption and delay by approximately 64.71% and 47.4% compared without using neural networks besides creating service availability. This idea affects deploying IoT infrastructures to decision-making about providing appropriate services in critical situations because of removing defective devices and joining new components by imposing penalties and rewards by the designer, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, targeting efficient authentication and key agreement in an IoT environment, we propose an Elliptic Curve Cryptography-(ECC) based lightweight authentication protocol called BCmECC which relies on a public blockchain to validate the users' public key to provide desired security. We evaluate the security of the proposed protocol heuristically and validate it formally, which demonstratse the high level of the security. For the formal verification we used the widely accepted formal methods, i.e., BAN logic and the Scyther tool. In this paper we also analyse the security of recently proposed blockchain-based authentication protocols and show that this protocol does not provide the desired security against known session-specific temporary information attacks in which the adversary has access to the session's ephemeral values and aims to retrieve the shared session key. In addition, the protocol lacks forward secrecy, in which an adversary with access to the server's long-term secret key can retrieve the previous session keys, assuming that the adversary has already eavesdropped the transferred messages over a public channel in the target session. The proposed attacks are very efficient and their success probability is '1', while the time complexity of each attack could be negligible. Besides, we show that BCmECC is secure against such attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In deploying the Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)-based applications and infrastructures, the researchers faced many sensors and their output's values, which have transferred between service requesters and servers. Some case studies addressed the different methods and technologies, including machine learning algorithms, deep learning accelerators, Processing-In-Memory (PIM), and neuromorphic computing (NC) approaches to support the data processing complexity and communication between IoMT nodes. With inspiring human brain structure, some researchers tackled the challenges of rising IoT- and IoMT-based applications and neural structures' simulation. A defective device has destructive effects on the performance and cost of the applications, and their detection is challenging for a communication infrastructure with many devices. We inspired astrocyte cells to map the flow (AFM) of the Internet of Medical Things onto mesh network processing elements (PEs), and detect the defective devices based on a phagocytosis model. This study focuses on an astrocyte's cholesterol distribution into neurons and presents an algorithm that utilizes its pattern to distribute IoMT's dataflow and detect the defective devices. We researched Alzheimer's symptoms to understand astrocyte and phagocytosis functions against the disease and employ the vaccination COVID-19 dataset to define a set of task graphs. The study improves total runtime and energy by approximately 60.85% and 52.38% after implementing AFM, compared with before astrocyte-flow mapping, which helps IoMT's infrastructure developers to provide healthcare services to the requesters with minimal cost and high accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]