A molecular phylogeny of selected species of genus Prunus L. (Rosaceae) from Pakistan using the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) spacer DNA

Prunus is found in all four provinces of Pakistan, that is, Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Baluchistan including Azad Kashmir region. Studies on the family Rosaceae is scanty in the Flora of Pakistan and there is a lot of taxonomic work yet to be done, for the proper classification and placement of different genera under different sub-families. In the present study, the genus Prunus was studied in detail to find out the phylogenetic relationship among the 23 species of Prunus, selected from different regions of Pakistan and GenBank using maximum parsimony analysis of sequence polymorphism in nuclear ITS-9 and ITS-6 spacer DNA. The results for the internal transcribed spacer (ITS)- 9 and ITS- 6 primers confirm the work done by early phylogenetists with additions of new species from Pakistan including Prunus bokhariensis, Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb. (Syn. Prunus amygdalus) and Prunus cornuta (Wall. ex. Royle) Steudel. These are indigenous to Pakistan. In the ITS strict consensus results for example, the clade consisting of Laurocerasus, Padus and Cerasus subgenera are sister to the rest of the clades in the phylogenetic tree.Key words: Phylogeny, Prunus, Pakistan, molecular phylogeny, nuclear primers

Fano 3-folds in P2xP2 format, Tom and Jerry

We study Q-factorial terminal Fano 3-folds whose equations are modelled on those of the Segre embedding of P^2xP^2. These lie in codimension 4 in their total anticanonical embedding and have Picard rank 2. They fit into the current state of classification in three different ways. Some families arise as unprojections of degenerations of complete intersections, where the generic unprojection is a known prime Fano 3-fold in codimension 3; these are new, and an analysis of their Gorenstein projections reveals yet other new families. Others represent the "second Tom" unprojection families already known in codimension 4, and we show that every such family contains one of our models. Yet others have no easy Gorenstein projection analysis at all, so prove the existence of Fano components on their Hilbert scheme

A molecular phylogeny of selected species of Genus Prunus L. (Rosaceae) from Pakistan using the TRN-L & TRN-F spacer DNA

The genus Prunus L. is an important plant for fruit production and it includes plums, apricots, cherries, almonds and peaches that are sources of food for the local people. The family Rosaceae is not yet published in Flora of Pakistan and there is a lot of taxonomic work that is yet to be done for the proper classification and placement of different genera under different sub-families. Prunus is found in almost all the four provinces of Pakistan including Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (former NWFP), Sindh and Baluchistan which includes Azad Kashmir region. In the present study, the genus Prunus was studied in detail to find out the phylogenetic relationship among the 12 species of Prunus selected from different regions of Pakistan and GenBank using the maximum parsimony analysis of sequence polymorphism in chloroplast TRN-L and TRN-F spacer DNA. The results for the TRN-L and TRN-F primers confirm the work done by early phylogenetists including Potter and Bortiri with additions to new species from Pakistan including Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb. (Syn. Prunus amygdalus) and Prunus cornuta (Wall. ex. Royle) Steudel. which are indigenous to Pakistan.Key Words: Prunus, chloroplast, TRN-L, TRN-F, Pakistan

Get Your Foes Fooled: Proximal Gradient Split Learning for Defense Against Model Inversion Attacks on IoMT Data

The past decade has seen a rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically the deep learning networks, in Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) ecosystem. However, it has been shown recently that the deep learning networks can be exploited by adversarial attacks that not only make IoMT vulnerable to the data theft but also to the manipulation of medical diagnosis. The existing studies consider adding noise to the raw IoMT data or model parameters which not only reduces the overall performance concerning medical inferences but also is ineffective to the likes of deep leakage from gradients method. In this work, we propose proximal gradient split learning (PSGL) method for defense against the model inversion attacks. The proposed method intentionally attacks the IoMT data when undergoing the deep neural network training process at client side. We propose the use of proximal gradient method to recover gradient maps and a decision-level fusion strategy to improve the recognition performance. Extensive analysis show that the PGSL not only provides effective defense mechanism against the model inversion attacks but also helps in improving the recognition performance on publicly available datasets. We report 14.0 % , 17.9 % , and 36.9 % gains in accuracy over reconstructed and adversarial attacked images, respectively

SARS-CoV-2-specific immunoglobulin Y antibodies are protective in infected mice

Safe, passive immunization methods are required against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants. Immunization of chickens with antigen is known to induce specific IgY antibodies concentrated in the egg yolk and has a good safety profile, high yield of IgY per egg, can be topically applied, not requiring parenteral delivery. Our data provide the first evidence of the prophylactic efficacy of Immunoglobulin Y antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in mice. Lohmann hens were injected with recombinant SARS-CoV-2 RBD protein; IgY-Abs were extracted from the eggs and characterized using SDS-PAGE. Antiviral activity was evaluated using plaque reduction neutralization tests. In additional experiments, IgY-RBD efficacy was examined in mice sensitized to SARS-CoV-2 infection by transduction with Ad5-hACE2 (mild disease) or by using mouse-adapted virus (severe disease). In both cases, prophylactic intranasal administration of IgY-Abs reduced SARS-CoV-2 replication, and reduced morbidity, inflammatory cell infiltration, hemorrhage, and edema in the lungs and increased survival compared to control groups that received non-specific IgY-Abs. These results indicate that further evaluation of IgY-RBD antibodies in humans is warranted

Hyperhomocysteinemia and Low Folate and Vitamin B12 Are Associated with Vascular Dysfunction and Impaired Nitric Oxide Sensitivity in Morbidly Obese Patients.

There is a high prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia that has been linked to high cardiovascular risk in obese individuals and could be attributed to poor nutritional status of folate and vitamin B12. We sought to examine the association between blood homocysteine (Hcy) folate, and vitamin B12 levels and vascular dysfunction in morbidly obese adults using novel ex vivo flow-induced dilation (FID) measurements of isolated adipose tissue arterioles. Brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) was also measured. Subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue biopsies were obtained from morbidly obese individuals and non-obese controls. Resistance arterioles were isolated in which FID, acetylcholine-induced dilation (AChID), and nitric oxide (NO) production were measured in the absence or presence of the NO synthase inhibitor, L-NAME, Hcy, or the superoxide dismutase mimetic, TEMPOL. Our results demonstrated that plasma Hcy concentrations were significantly higher, while folate, vitamin B12, and NO were significantly lower in obese subjects compared to controls. Hcy concentrations correlated positively with BMI, fat %, and insulin levels but not with folate or vitamin B12. Brachial and arteriolar vasodilation were lower in obese subjects, positively correlated with folate and vitamin B12, and inversely correlated with Hcy. Arteriolar NO measurements and sensitivity to L-NAME were lower in obese subjects compared to controls. Finally, Hcy incubation reduced arteriolar FID and NO sensitivity, an effect that was abolished by TEMPOL. In conclusion, these data suggest that high concentrations of plasma Hcy and low concentrations of folate and vitamin B12 could be independent predictors of vascular dysfunction in morbidly obese individuals

Hepatitis B virus infection among different sex and age groups in Pakistani Punjab

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious health problem in the developing countries including Pakistan. Various risk factors are responsible for the spread of this infectious disease. Prevalence of HBV infection in apparently suspected individual of Punjab province of Pakistan was analyzed during January 2008 to December 2010. Current study was aimed to investigate the epidemiology and risk factors of HBV infection.</p> <p>Methodology</p> <p>Four thousand eight hundred and ninety patients suffering from chronic liver disease were screened for the presence of HBV DNA using qualitative Real Time PCR methodology to confirm their status of infection. A predesigned standard questionnaire was filled for all the patients that included information about the possible risk factors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 4890 ELISA positive patients were screened for Hepatitis B virus infection. Of these 3143 were positive for HBV, includes 68.15% males and 31.85% females. Male were observed to be more frequently infected as compared to the female with a positivity ratio of 2.14: 1. The rate of infection increases with the passage of time in the course of three years. Highest frequency of infection was found in the age of 21-30 was 34.93% followed by 23.83% in 31-40. Only (13.39%) were belonging to the age group 11-20 year. The rate of infection declines with increasing age as shown by age groups 41-50 (16.13%) and 51-60 (7.09%). While children aged 0-10 and very old >60 age groups were very less frequently 1.49% and 1.65% infected respectively. Important risk factors contributing to HBV spread include barber risk (23.60%), blood transfusion (4.04%), History of injection 26.19%, Reuse of syringes 26.60%, dental risk (11.20%) and surgical procedure (4.26%). Among the entire respondents trend sharing personal items was very common. History of injection, barber risk, surgery and dental procedure and reuse of syringes appear as major risk factors for the transmission.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Male were more frequently exposed to the risk factors as compared to female. Similarly the younger age group had high rate of infection as compared to the children's and the older age groups. Reuse of syringes', barber risk and History of injection were main risk identified during the present study. To lower HBV transmission rate Government should take aggressive steps towards massive awareness and vaccination programs to decrease the burden of HBV from the Punjab province of Pakistan.</p

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an educational intervention for practice teams to deliver problem focused therapy for insomnia: rationale and design of a pilot cluster randomised trial

Background: Sleep problems are common, affecting over a third of adults in the United Kingdom and leading to reduced productivity and impaired health-related quality of life. Many of those whose lives are affected seek medical help from primary care. Drug treatment is ineffective long term. Psychological methods for managing sleep problems, including cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBTi) have been shown to be effective and cost effective but have not been widely implemented or evaluated in a general practice setting where they are most likely to be needed and most appropriately delivered. This paper outlines the protocol for a pilot study designed to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an educational intervention for general practitioners, primary care nurses and other members of the primary care team to deliver problem focused therapy to adult patients presenting with sleep problems due to lifestyle causes, pain or mild to moderate depression or anxiety. Methods and design: This will be a pilot cluster randomised controlled trial of a complex intervention. General practices will be randomised to an educational intervention for problem focused therapy which includes a consultation approach comprising careful assessment (using assessment of secondary causes, sleep diaries and severity) and use of modified CBTi for insomnia in the consultation compared with usual care (general advice on sleep hygiene and pharmacotherapy with hypnotic drugs). Clinicians randomised to the intervention will receive an educational intervention (2 × 2 hours) to implement a complex intervention of problem focused therapy. Clinicians randomised to the control group will receive reinforcement of usual care with sleep hygiene advice. Outcomes will be assessed via self-completion questionnaires and telephone interviews of patients and staff as well as clinical records for interventions and prescribing. Discussion: Previous studies in adults have shown that psychological treatments for insomnia administered by specialist nurses to groups of patients can be effective within a primary care setting. This will be a pilot study to determine whether an educational intervention aimed at primary care teams to deliver problem focused therapy for insomnia can improve sleep management and outcomes for individual adult patients presenting to general practice. The study will also test procedures and collect information in preparation for a larger definitive cluster-randomised trial. The study is funded by The Health Foundation