Effectiveness of various treatment strategies in COVID-19 patients having Solid Organ Transplant: A Systematic Review

Introduction: This narrative review provides an evidence-based summary of the various interventions in the management of Post Solid organ transplant patients who reported positive for COVID-19.  Materials and Methods: For this systematic review, observational and experimental studies; conducted on Post- Organ transplant patients, either symptomatic or asymptomatic, who tested positive for COVID-19 were included. Only solid organ transplant patient studies were considered standard for this review type. The English version, both published and unpublished articles, from Dec 2019 to Aug 2020, were evaluated using Pubmed, Google Scholar, Science direct, Medrixv search engines. The articles with incomplete details about a transplant or covid management were excluded. Results: We selected 43 articles out of which 9 were retrospective studies, 2 were cohort studies, one was an experimental study, and 31 were case studies. According to the literature review, effective management therapy includes the withdrawal of immunosuppressive drugs, increase/ constant steroid dose, and regimen containing HCQ, interleukin inhibitor, and one antiviral drug especially remdesivir proved to be the most effective among all. In others, administration of IV immunoglobulins/convalescent plasma therapy proved effective in various trials but related data is currently limited. While Lop/Rit, Interferons alpha, and oseltamivir trials are also given; these therapies didn’t prove to be much effective individually. Conclusion: More trials are required to find the effectiveness of Convalescent plasma therapy. It can be proved as an effective treatment in critical patients. IV immunoglobulins effectiveness should also be tested in critical patients and for this more experimental trials are needed

An endophytic fungus Aspergillus violaceofuscus can be used as heat stress adaptive tool for Glycine max L. and Helianthus annuus L.

High temperature is one of the leading threats to the plants that severely affects crop quality as well as quantity. Endophytic fungi might be a new tool to safeguard crops against the perilous effects of global warming. In this context, we isolated a thermal stress mitigating endophytic fungus from the fern Dryopteris filix L. The phylogenetic study and 18S rRNA sequence similarity confirmed the potential strain as Aspergillus violaceofuscus. The culture filtrate of A. violaceofuscus exhibited higher concentration of secondary metabolites that enhanced the total chlorophyll content, plant height and biomass of sunflower and soybean seedlings under heat stress. Conversely, the A. violaceofuscus associated plants achieved low levels of reactive oxygen species, abscisic acid, catalase, ascorbic acid oxidase, proline and an overall improved the nutritional value. The current study suggests that A. violaceofuscus can be used as heat stress adaptive tool in crops to achieve sustainable agriculture

THE PERCEPTION AND EXPERIENCE OF NURSING STUDENTS REGARDING THE USE OF ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES

Abstract Active learning is a way of teaching rather than a particular, specialized technique. It necessitates active student participation in carefully planned teacher-structured classroom activities. Objective: This study aims to explore nursing students' perceptions and experiences regarding using active learning strategies. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the private nursing institute in Karachi, Pakistan, from May to August 2023. Moreover, this study used a convenient sampling technique. The eighty-seven student participants are included in this study. Results: The survey results reveal that a substantial proportion of nursing students strongly agree with the effectiveness and benefits of active learning strategies. Specifically, 40.2% strongly agree that active learning enhances their understanding of complex nursing concepts, while 47.1% and 43.7% strongly agree that active learning activities are more engaging than traditional lectures. Furthermore, 55.2% strongly agree that active learning helps them retain and apply knowledge effectively, and 51.7% strongly agree that it encourages teamwork and collaboration among nursing students. Notably, 83.9% of students prefer active learning over traditional lecture-based teaching. Additionally, 35.6% strongly believe that nursing education can enhance the implementation of active learning strategies through learning objectives. Conclusion: The survey overwhelmingly supports active learning strategies among nursing students. Most strongly agree that active learning enhances understanding, engagement, and knowledge retention, favoring it over traditional lectures, mainly through case studies. Many also believe that integrating clear learning objectives can enhance its effectiveness. These findings underscore the widespread acknowledgment of active learning's positive impact on nursing education, emphasizing its role in improving comprehension and student engagement

Microsatellite marker based genetic diversity among four varieties of Pakistani Aseel chicken

Indian Aseel chicken (Gallus gallus) is traditionally used as a favorite game bird all over the world. Bird fighting communities of Pakistan are the major source of its conservation and there are at least four distinctively recognized varieties of Aseel chicken based upon selective breeding, geographical location and color patterns. A pioneering study on genetic diversity of these varieties namely Lakha (n=17), Mushki (n=19), Mianwali (n=19) and Peshawari (n=13) was undertaken using FAO recommended 10 microsatellite loci. A total of 91 alleles were observed in 4 varieties of Aseel chicken with an average of 9.1 alleles per locus. Number of alleles varied between 4 to 8 in Lakha, 4 to 9 in Mushki, 3 to 10 in Mianwali and 3 to 7 in Pashawari. Mean polymorphic information content values were 0.67, 0.69, 0.71 and 0.65 in individual varieties, respectively. Mean observed and expected heterozygosity index values of 0.3941 and 0.7376 were recorded in Lakha, 0.4105 and 0.7468 for Mushki, 0.4105 and 0.7718 Mianwali and 0.3692 and 0.7191 for Peshawari. Mean Fixation index (Fst) value was calculated as 0.1264. Highest Nei's standard genetic distance (Ds) value of 1.0735 was observed between Mushki and Peshawari, whereas its value was minimum (0.3533) between Lakha and Mushki. This report describes genetic diversity of Aseel chicken in Pakistan and provides foundation data to initiate extensive and more comprehensive studies on indigenous chicken genetic resource conservation and its future utilization in commercial breeding programs. (C) 2011 PVJ. All rights reserve

An Efficient Channel Access Scheme for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are getting more popularity due to the potential Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) technology. It provides many efficient network services such as safety warnings (collision warning), entertainment (video and voice), maps based guidance, and emergency information. VANETs most commonly use Road Side Units (RSUs) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) referred to as Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) mode for data accessing. IEEE 802.11p standard which was originally designed for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) is modified to address such type of communication. However, IEEE 802.11p uses Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) for communication between wireless nodes. Therefore, it does not perform well for high mobility networks such as VANETs. Moreover, in RSU mode timely provision of data/services under high density of vehicles is challenging. In this paper, we propose a RSU-based efficient channel access scheme for VANETs under high traffic and mobility. In the proposed scheme, the contention window is dynamically varied according to the times (deadlines) the vehicles are going to leave the RSU range. The vehicles with shorter time deadlines are served first and vice versa. Simulation is performed by using the Network Simulator (NS-3) v. 3.6. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme performs better in terms of throughput, backoff rate, RSU response time, and fairness

Staphylococcus arlettae mediated defense mechanisms and metabolite modulation against arsenic stress in Helianthus annuus

IntroductionArsenate, a metalloid, acting as an analog to phosphate, has a tendency to accumulate more readily in plant species, leading to adverse effects.MethodsIn the current study, sunflower seedlings were exposed to 25, 50 and 100 ppm of the arsenic.ResultsLikewise, a notable reduction (p<0.05) was observed in the relative growth rate (RGR) by 4-folds and net assimilation rate (NAR) by 75% of Helianthus annuus when subjected to arsenic (As) stress. Nevertheless, the presence of Staphylococcus arlettae, a plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium with As tolerance, yielded an escalation in the growth of H. annuus within As-contaminated media. S. arlettae facilitated the conversion of As into a form accessible to plants, thereby, increasing its uptake and subsequent accumulation in plant tissues. S. arlettae encouraged the enzymatic antioxidant systems (Superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and catalase (CAT)) and non-enzymatic antioxidants (flavonoids, phenolics, and glutathione) in H. annuus seedlings following substantial As accumulation. The strain also induced the host plant to produce osmolytes like proline and sugars, mitigating water loss and maintaining cellular osmotic balance under As-induced stress. S. arlettae rectified imbalances in lignin content, reduced high malonaldehyde (MDA) levels, and minimized electrolyte leakage, thus counteracting the toxic impacts of the metal.ConclusionThe strain exhibited the capability to concurrently encourage plant growth and remediate Ascontaminated growth media through 2-folds rate of biotransformation and bio-mobilization

Enhancement of solubility and dissolution rate of ebastine fast-disintegrating tablets by solid dispersion method

Purpose: To investigate the efficiency of different solubilizing agents in improving solubility as well as dissolution rate of ebastine (a BCS class II drug) by incorporating prepared solid dispersion into fast disintegrating tablets.Method: The solubility of ebastine was determined in distilled water, lipids and solubilizing agents. Subsequently, the binary solid dispersions were prepared by kneading method using varying weight ratios of ebastine and solubilizing agents. The solid dispersions were then incorporated into fast disintegrating tablets (SD-FDT). Central composite rotatable design (CCD) was used to determine the impact of super disintegrating agents on disintegration time and friability of tablets. The solubility and dissolution rate of developed SD-FDT were compared with a marketed brand. The solid dispersion particles were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), powder x-ray diffraction (P-XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).Results: The saturated solubility of pure ebastine in water was 0.002 ± 0.041 mg/ml while the aqueous solubility of EBT/poloxamer solid dispersion SET3 (P) was 0.018 ± 2.510 mg/ml; on the other hand, EBT/soluplus solid dispersion SET1(S) has an aqueous solubility of 0.242 ± 1.390 mg/ml. Within 30 min, drug release was 14.00 ± 1.77, 78.00 ± 2.31 and 98.70 ± 2.54 % from pure EBT, SET3 (P) and SET1(S), respectively.Conclusion: The solubility and dissolution rate of ebastine has been successfully enhanced by incorporating its solid dispersion in fast-disintegrating tablets (SD-FDT). Keywords: Ebastine, Solid dispersion, Poloxamer 188, Soluplus, Solubility, Dissolutio

Impact of 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10) on nasopharyngeal carriage in children 2 years of age: Data from a four-year time series cross-sectional study from Pakistan

The dataset described in this paper was collected for a time-series cross-sectional study exploring the impact of 10-valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV10) on nasopharyngeal (NP) carriage in children under 2 years of age from a rural population in Sindh, Pakistan. The study was carried out in two union councils of Matiari - Khyber and Shah Alam Shah Jee Wasi (Latitude 25.680298 / Longitude 68.502711). Data was collected on socio-demographics, clinical characteristics and vaccination status using android phone-based application. NP samples were collected using standard World Health Organisation (WHO) techniques, culture and serotyping was done using sequential Multiplex PCR described by Centre for Disease Control, USA. We looked at the carriage rate of vaccine type (VT) and non-vaccine type (NVT) serotypes over time in vaccinated and unvaccinated children. We additionally looked at the predictors for pneumococcal carriage. The uploaded dataset, available on Mendeley data repository (Nisar, Muhammad Imran (2021), Impact of PCV10 on nasopharyngeal carriage in children in Pakistan , Mendeley Data, V1, doi:10.17632/t79h6g97gr.1), has 3140 observations in CSV format. Additional files uploaded include a data dictionary and the set of questionnaires. The dataset and accompanying files can be used by other interested researchers to replicate our analysis, carry similar analysis under varying set of assumptions or perform additional exploratory or metanalysis