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Khaista Rahman,1,* Shahid Ullah Khan,2,* Shah Fahad,2,3 Ming Xian Chang,4,5 Aqleem Abbas,6 Wasim Ullah Khan,7 Lutfur Rahman,8 Zaheer Ul Haq,9 Ghulam Nabi,4,5 Dilfaraz Khan10 1College of Animal Sciences/State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China; 2College of Plant Sciences and Technology/National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China; 3Department of Agriculture, The University of Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Anbar, Pakistan; 4State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, Hubei, China; 5University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijingshan District, Beijing, China; 6Provincial Key Lab of Plant Pathology of Hubei Province, Huazhong Agricultural University, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430070, China; 7School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China; 8Molecular Systematics & Applied Ethno Botany Lab (MoSEL), Department of Biotechnology, Quaid I Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; 9School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao tong University, Shanghai, China; 10Institute of Chemical Sciences, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Malaria, the exterminator of ~1.5 to 2.7 million human lives yearly, is a notorious disease known throughout the world. The eradication of this disease is difficult and a challenge to scientists. Vector elimination and effective chemotherapy for the patients are key tactics to be used in the fight against malaria. However, drug resistance and environmental and social concerns are the main hurdles in this fight against malaria. Overcoming these limitations is the major challenge for the 21st-century malarial researchers. Adapting the principles of nano-biotechnology to both vector control and patient therapy is the only solution to the problem. Several compounds such as lipids, proteins, nucleic acid and metallic nanoparticles (NPs) have been successfully used for the control of this lethal malaria disease. Other useful natural reagents such as microbes and their products, carbohydrates, vitamins, plant extracts and biodegradable polymers, are also used to control this disease. Among these particles, the plant-based particles such as leaf, root, stem, latex, and seed give the best antagonistic response against malaria. In the present review, we describe certain efforts related to the control, prevention and treatment of malaria. We hope that this review will open new doors for malarial research. Keywords: malaria, vectors, chemotherapy, drug resistance, nano-biotechnology

Shahid Ullah Khan,1,2 Tawfik A Saleh,3 Abdul Wahab,4 Muhammad Hafeez Ullah Khan,1,2 Dilfaraz Khan,5 Wasim Ullah Khan,6 Abdur Rahim,7 Sajid Kamal,8 Farman Ullah Khan,9 Shah Fahad1,10 1College of Plant Sciences and Technology, 2National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Chemistry, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; 4Department of Pharmacy, Kohat University of Science and Technology, Kohat, 5Institute of Chemical Sciences, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan; 6School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 7Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials (IRCBM), COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore, Pakistan; 8School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, People’s Republic of China; 9Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology, Bannu, 10Department of Agriculture, University of Swabi, Swabi, Pakistan Abstract: Silver nanotechnology has received tremendous attention in recent years, owing to its wide range of applications in various fields and its intrinsic therapeutic properties. In this review, an attempt is made to critically evaluate the chemical, physical, and biological synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as well as their efficacy in the field of theranostics including microbiology and parasitology. Moreover, an outlook is also provided regarding the performance of AgNPs against different biological systems such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites (leishmanial and malarial parasites) in curing certain fatal human diseases, with a special focus on cancer. The mechanism of action of AgNPs in different biological systems still remains enigmatic. Here, due to limited available literature, we only focused on AgNPs mechanism in biological systems including human (wound healing and apoptosis), bacteria, and viruses which may open new windows for future research to ensure the versatile application of AgNPs in cosmetics, electronics, and medical fields. Keywords: synthesis of AgNPs, theranostics, antimicrobial properties, biomedical applications of AgNPs

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Impacts of hydrogen annealing on crystallographic characterization, electronic structure, and optical, photocatalytic, and magnetic properties of polycrystalline Zn1−xCoxO (x = 0.01–0.06) samples have been considered. Structural analyses based on powder X-ray diffraction, Rietveld refinement, and Raman spectroscopy prove all materials having the P63mc wurtzite-type structure. The Co-doping and hydrogenation changed the concentration of Zn– and O–related defects whose energy levels occupy the band gap. This also enhanced photocatalytic performance of hydrogenated samples with x > 0.02. X-ray and UV–Vis absorption analyses indicate the substitution of Co2+ for Zn2+ in the wurtzite-type ZnO lattice, leading to irregularly changed the unit-cell parameters. While all the as-prepared samples are paramagnetic, the hydrogenated ones exhibit weak ferromagnetism. Ferromagnetic (FM) ordering increases when x increases, particularly for x ≥ 0.02. According to the results achieved from studying crystalline and electronic structures, we believe that oxygen-vacancies-mediated interactions between Co2+ ions and H–Co–H exchange dimers enhanced FM ordering in hydrogenated Zn1−xCoxO. Computational investigations have also indicated that the magnetization value of H–Zn1−xCoxO is influenced by the positioning of the H dopant, meaning that the couplings between Co and H play an essential role in establishing FM order in H–Zn1−xCoxO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various diseases harm the maize crop, but stalk rot has significantly reduced crop yield. The susceptible stalk requires identification by pathologists to apply the precise dose of fungicide to the crop. Farmers in developing nations faced challenges for their timely hiring. Furthermore, differences in pathologists' professional competencies result in inaccurate diagnoses. In this paper, the convolutional neural network (CNN) utilization helped classify the severity levels of stalk rot as elaborated in Hooker's scale. The field experiment commenced at the Maize and Millet Research Institute Yousafwala, Sahiwal, using a smartphone to get images of resistant and susceptible lines fed to the proposed model for evaluation into six severity scales. The model's overall accuracy was 83.58%. Recording of the recall ratio of highly susceptible, susceptible, moderately susceptible, highly resistant, resistant, and moderately resistant had scores of 1.000, 0.766, 0.966, 0.800, 0.733, and 1.000, respectively, with an average of 0.877. Precision for highly resistant was 1.000, resistant was 0.785, moderately resistant was 0.789, moderately susceptible was 0.805, susceptible was 0.958, and highly susceptible was 1.000, with an average of 0.889. Highly significant (P < 0.01) results from the chi-square test exhibited significant differences between traditional and deep learning approaches. The results of the proposed model showed less confusion than the visual-based method. The proposed approach is a vital source of detection of resistant lines against stalk rot disease by developing country farmers. The suggested model eliminates the need for pathologists, making it a valuable tool for identifying stalk rot resistant lines. It aids farmers in finding resistant lines for breeding projects and estimating the fungicide dose against stalk rot. It also helps minimize the production cost and environmental pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pressure-driven phase transformation in polycrystalline BaTi 1 − x FexO3 (x = 1 %), synthesized by a solid-state reaction method, was investigated using synchrotron X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. All measurements were performed at room temperature within a large pressure range up to 36.5 GPa. The results clearly demonstrate a phase transformation from the ferroelectric tetragonal structure of P4mm symmetry to the paraelectric cubic structure of Pm-3m symmetry in the studied sample at the pressure of about 18 GPa. This phase transformation pressure is much higher than those previously reported for BaTiO3-based systems, indicating the stabilization of the ferroelectric phase by doping 1% Fe into BaTiO3. Feature modes of the tetragonal phase still persist while some new modes appear in the Raman spectra at pressures above 18 GPa. This is probably due to accumulated stress and/or local microscopic disorders in the sample, which are associated with the displacement of the Ti atoms along unit-cell diagonals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]