Constructing domain ontology for Alzheimer disease using deep learning based approach

Facts can be exchanged in multiple fields with the help of disease-specific ontologies. A range of diverse values can be produced by mining ontological approaches for demonstrating disease mechanisms. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an incurable neurological brain illness. An early diagnosis of AD can be helpful for better treatment and the prevention of brain tissue destruction. Researchers have used machine learning techniques to predict the early detection of AD. However, Alzheimer’s disorders are still underexplored in the knowledge domain. In the biomedical field, the illustration of terminologies and notions is essential. Multiple methods are adopted to represent these notions, but ontologies are the most frequent and accurate. Ontology construction is a complex and time-consuming process. The designed ontology relies on Disease Ontology (DO), which is considered the benchmark in medical practice. Ontology reasoning mechanisms can be adopted for AD identification. In this paper, a deep convolutional neural network-based approach is proposed to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, using an AD dataset acquired from Kaggle. Machine learning-based approaches (logistic regression, gradient boosting, XGB, SGD, MLP, SVM, KNN, random forest) are also used for a fair comparison. The simulation results are generated using three strategies (default parameters, 10-cross validation, and grid search), and MLP provides superior results on a default parameter strategy with an accuracy of 92.12%. Furthermore, the deep learning-based approach convolutional neural network (CNN) achieved an accuracy of 94.61%. The experimental results indicate that the construction of ontology, with the help of deep learning knowledge, can produce better results where the robustness and scalability can be enhanced. In comparisons to other methods, the CNN results are excellent and encouraging

Environmental impacts, water footprint and cumulative energy demand of match industry in Pakistan.

A comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted for the matchsticks industry in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan to quantify environmental footprint, water footprint, cumulative energy use, and to identify improvement opportunities in the matchsticks manufacturing process. One carton of matchsticks was used as reference unit for this study. Foreground data was collected from the matchsticks industry through questionnaire surveys, personal meetings, and field measurements. The collected data was transformed into potential environmental impacts through the Centre for Environment Studies (CML) 2000 v.2.05 method present by default in the SimaPro v.9.1 software. Water footprint was calculated using methodology developed by Hoekstra et al., 2012 (water scarcity index) V1.02 and cumulative energy demand by SimaPro v.9.1 software. The results showed that transport of primary material (wood logs), sawn wood for matchsticks, red phosphorous, acrylic varnish, and kerosene fuel oil contributed to the overall environmental impacts. Transport of primary materials and sawn timber for matchsticks contributed significantly to abiotic depletion, global warming, eutrophication potential, ozone depletion, corrosion, human toxicity, and aquatic ecotoxicity effects. The total water footprint for manufacturing one carton of matchsticks was 0.265332 m3, whereas the total cumulative energy demand was 715.860 Mega Joules (MJ), mainly sourced from non-renewable fossil fuels (708.979 MJ). Scenario analysis was also conducted for 20% and 30% reduction in the primary material distance covered by trucks and revealed that reducing direct material transport distances could diminish environmental impacts and energy consumption. Therefore, environmental footprint could be minimized through diverting matchsticks industries freight from indigenous routes to high mobility highways and by promoting industrial forestry close to industrial zones in Pakistan. Many industries did not have emissions control systems, exceeding the permissible limit for emissions established by the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) of Pakistan. Thus, installation of emissions control system could also diminish emissions from match industry in Pakistan

Naturally Isolated Sesquiterpene Lactone and Hydroxyanthraquinone Induce Apoptosis in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Line

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide, especially in Asian countries. The emergence of its drug resistance and its side effects demands alternatives, to improve prognosis. Since the majority of cancer drugs are derived from natural sources, it provides a window to look for more biocompatible alternatives. In this study, two natural compounds, costunolide (CE) and aloe emodin (AE), were isolated from the stem of Lycium shawii. The compounds were examined for their anticancer and apoptotic potentials against OSCC (CAL 27) cells, using an in vitro analysis, such as a MTT assay, scratch assay, gene, and protein expressions. Both compounds, CE and AE, were found to be cytotoxic against the cancer cells with an IC50 value of 32 and 38 µM, respectively. Moreover, the compounds were found to be non-toxic against normal NIH-3T3 cells and comparable with the standard drug i.e., 5-fluorouracil (IC50 = 97.76 µM). These compounds were active against normal cells at higher concentrations. Nuclear staining displayed the presence of apoptosis-associated morphological changes, i.e., karyopyknosis and karyorrhexis in the treated cancer cells. Flow cytometry results further confirmed that these compounds induce apoptosis rather than necrosis, as the majority of the cells were found in the late apoptotic phase. Gene and protein expression analyses showed an increased expression of apoptotic genes, i.e., BAK, caspase 3, 6, and 9. Moreover, the compounds significantly downregulated the expression of the anti-apoptotic (BCL-2 L1), metastatic (MMP-2), and pro-inflammatory (COX-2) genes. Both compounds have shown promising anticancer, apoptotic, and anti-migratory activities against the OSCC cell line (i.e., CAL-27). However, further in vivo studies are required to explore these compounds as anticancer agents

Polyacrylamide exotemplate-assisted synthesis of hierarchically porous nanostructured TiO2 macrobeads for efficient photodegradation of organic dyes and microbes

Nano/microscale TiO(2) materials and their composites have reached the pinnacle of their photocatalytic performances to destroy persistent organic pollutants and waterborne microorganisms, but their practical applications are limited by the drawbacks associated with their stability, leaching, processing and separation. To overcome these shortcomings, we have prepared hierarchically porous nanostructured TiO(2) macrobeads via an exotemplating or nanocasting strategy by infiltrating the TiO(2) sol into the emulsion-templated porous polyacrylamide scaffold followed by its gelation, drying and calcination. The nanoscale TiO(2) building units tailor the shape of the porous polymeric network after calcination thereby retaining the macroscale morphology of polymer beads after template removal. A novel combination of the hierarchical macroporosity, orderly crystalline anatase nature, nanoscale feature and good surface area revealed by the relevant characterization tools makes these TiO(2) scaffolds particularly effective for superior degradation of methylene blue with the enhanced rate constant and efficient disinfection of E. coli and S. aureus under UV light. The macrosize and mechanical stability of these purely TiO(2) beaded architectures have several potential advantages over conventional TiO(2) nanocomposites and slurry systems to address the inherent bottlenecks of secondary contamination, difficult operation and energy-intensive post-recovery processes that are indeed deemed to be the barriers to develop practically useful water treatment technologies

Effect of microwave sintering on the crystal domain and electrical properties of TiO2 nanoparticles

We report the effect of microwaves sintering on the crystal domain and electrical properties of TiO2 nanoparticles. Commercially available TiO2 nanoparticles of 25 nm size were coated on ITO (indium tin oxide) substrates, which were then sintered at 450 C employing microwave and conventional sintering approaches. The structural properties of the sintered coatings were examined using atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), whereas the charge transfer properties were investigated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Structural analysis reveals that the microwave sintering of TiO2-coated substrates results in the formation of more ordered crystal structure as compared to the conventionally sintered samples. Nyquist plots demonstrate the improved charge transfer characteristics of TiO2 nanoparticles in microwave-sintered layers. Also, the application of the microwave-sintered TiO2-coated ITO substrates as photoanode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) confirms superior electrical properties compared to conventionally sintered samples.Scopu

Biotransformation of perfumery terpenoids, (−)-ambrox® by a fungal culture <it>Macrophomina phaseolina</it> and a plant cell suspension culture of <it>Peganum harmala</it>

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Biotransformation offers chemo enzymatic system to modify the compounds into their novel analogues which are difficult to synthesize by chemical methods. This paper describes the biotransformational studies of ambrox, one of the most important components of natural Ambergris (wale sperm) with fungal and plant cell culture.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Biotransformation of (−)-ambrox (<b>1</b>) with a fungal cell culture of <it>Macrophomina phaseolina</it> and a plant cell suspension cultures of <it>Peganum harmala</it> yielded oxygenated products, 3<it>β</it>-hydroxyambrox (<b>2</b>), 6<it>β</it>-hydroxyambrox (<b>3</b>), 1<it>α</it>-hydroxy-3oxoambrox (<b>4</b>), 1<it>α</it>,3<it>β</it>-dihydroxyambrox (<b>5</b>), 13,14,15,16-tetranorlabdane-3-oxo-8,12-diol (<b>6</b>), 3-oxoambrox (<b>7</b>), 2<it>α</it>-hydroxyambrox (<b>8</b>), 3<it>β</it>-hydroxysclareolide (<b>9</b>), and 2<it>α</it>,3<it>β</it>-dihydroxyambrox (<b>10</b>). Metabolite <b>4</b> was found to be new compound. These metabolites were structurally characterized on the basis of spectroscopic studies.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Nine oxygenated metabolites of (−)-ambrox (<b>1</b>) were obtained from <it>Macrophomina phaseolina</it> and <it>Peganum harmala.</it> Enzymatic system of screened organisms introduced hydroxyl and keto functionalities at various positions of compound <b>1</b> in a stereo- and regio-controlled manner.</p