Is pre-sowing seed treatment with triacontanol effective in improving some physiological and biochemical attributes of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under salt stress?

In this study, seed-priming of two wheat cultivars S-24 and MH-97 was carried out with three triacontanol (TRIA) levels (0, 10 and 20 μM) for 12 h. Seeds pre-treated with TRIA were allowed to grow for 24 days in full strength Hoagland’s nutrient solution in a greenhouse, thereafter two salt treatments (0 and 150 mM NaCl) were applied and after 21 days of salt application, changes in growth attributes such as shoot and root dry weights, shoot and root lengths and total leaf area, leaf water relations such as water potential (Ψw), osmotic potential (Ψs), turgor potential (Ψp) and relative water contents (%), membrane permeability (%), total free amino acids, free proline, glycinebetaine and total phenolic contents were determined. Yield attributes such as 100-seed weight, total grain yield, number of grains and number of fertile tillers per plant were recorded at crop maturity. Salinity stress of 150 mM NaCl significantly caused reduction in all growth and yield attributes, leaf water relations except leaf turgor potential, while increased membrane permeability (%), leaf free proline, glycinebetaine and total free amino acids in both cultivars. Total phenolics and relative water contents (%) remained unaffected under salt stress. Pre-sowing seed treatment with TRIA did not mitigated the adverse effects of salt stress on wheat and thus could not prove to be effective to promote signifi cantly its growth, yield and other physiological and biochemical attributes (except leaf water potential of cultivar MH-97) under stress and non-stress conditions. Overall, performance of cultivar S-24 was better in growth, leaf water relations and free proline contents as compared to MH-97 under both non-saline and saline conditions

Statistical Analysis of Dispositional and Psychological Factors and their Association with Cardiovascular Diseases

This study aims to explore the effects of dispositional and psychological factors on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) such as personality type ‘A’ and type ‘B’, pessimism, optimism, anxiety, depression and stress in the cardiac patients. Overall 292 adult patients (132 males, and 160 females, 133 from private sector and 159 from public sector job holders) were approached in Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology Multan, Pakistan for survey and Pearson correlation also independent sample t-test was performed to test the objectives of the present study. The results indicate that all the variables are significantly correlated with each other as well as clearly signify the effect of gender and job sector on above-said variables.  The findings also reveal that the level of personality type “A”, pessimism, depression, anxiety and stress are higher in females and private job holders therefore more indispose to suffering with cardiovascular diseases, where as the level of personality type “B” and optimism are higher in male patients and public job sectors holders. Type ‘A’ personality is more prone to cardiovascular diseases (CVD), due to its patron of behavior. Moreover, type and nature of job and level of satisfaction also considered as vital as a type of personality in regarding cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Certainly, workplace and environment exert and impact either positive or negative upon the health of an individual

Statistical Analysis of Dispositional and Psychological Factors and their Association with Cardiovascular Diseases

This study aims to explore the effects of dispositional and psychological factors on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) such as personality type ‘A’ and type ‘B’, pessimism, optimism, anxiety, depression and stress in the cardiac patients. Overall 292 adult patients (132 males, and 160 females, 133 from private sector and 159 from public sector job holders) were approached in Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology Multan, Pakistan for survey and Pearson correlation also independent sample t-test was performed to test the objectives of the present study. The results indicate that all the variables are significantly correlated with each other as well as clearly signify the effect of gender and job sector on above-said variables.  The findings also reveal that the level of personality type “A”, pessimism, depression, anxiety and stress are higher in females and private job holders therefore more indispose to suffering with cardiovascular diseases, where as the level of personality type “B” and optimism are higher in male patients and public job sectors holders. Type ‘A’ personality is more prone to cardiovascular diseases (CVD), due to its patron of behavior. Moreover, type and nature of job and level of satisfaction also considered as vital as a type of personality in regarding cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Certainly, workplace and environment exert and impact either positive or negative upon the health of an individual

Workplace Internet Leisure and Employee Productivity: Mediating Role of Employee Engagement

There is an ongoing discussion on the role of workplace internet leisure (WIL) and whether it is a vice or virtue. Considering this, Current study is aimed to examine the effects of Workplace internet leisure on employee productivity with mediating role of employee engagement in the Army health care sector of Pakistan. The data was collected through self-administered questionnaires from Armed forces nursing officers of different Army hospitals and institutes through convenience sampling size of 300.SPSS model macro Version 3 (Hayes, 2018) was used to analyze the respondents’ feedback. For analysis of workplace internet leisure influence on employee engagement regression is calculated and results indicates that workplace internet leisure has positive and significance impact on employee engagement, while work place internet leisure has positive but insignificance impacts on employee productivity. Additionally, indirect analysis is calculated for mediation analysis, results indicate that employee engagement positively mediates association between workplace internet leisure and employees productivity. Keywords: Workplace internet leisure (WIL), Employee productivity (EP), Employee engagement (EE), Self-determination theory(SDT), Job demand-resource model (JDR

Post-covid 19 tourism: Will digital tourism replace mass tourism?

Recently, nations are struggling to mitigate the impact of the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak on their economy. Many countries have imposed traveling restrictions to reduce people’s movement in order to avoid infection transmission. Traveling restrictions have jeopardized the tourism industry around the globe. If the situation persists, it will become challenging for the nations to open tourism. For this reason, the digitalization of tourism is a viable solution for this situation. However, it is essential to map whether digital technologies can provide alternative solutions to the situation and whether digital tourism can replace conventional tourism? With that backdrop, this study has two objectives: (a) to find the future of digital tourism development beyond the COVID-19 pandemic situation, and (b) to find collaborative research work among nations to develop digital tourism after the current pandemic crisis. To achieve these objectives, we conducted a systematic literature review of past research on the development of digital tourism from 2016–2020. The study applies the PRISMA-2015 statement to select and synthesize 60 articles from Scopus and ‘Web of Science’ databases. Content analysis was performed to analyze the underlying clusters of research on digital tourism and, later, bibliometric analysis was conducted to examine collaborative research between different countries. The findings highlighted three major research clusters namely, virtual reality tourism, virtual tourism, and augmented reality. In addition, the research finding shows that virtual tourism is a practical and valuable option for mass tourism during the COVID-19 outbreak and can replace mass tourism after the pandemic. Although virtual tourism does not feel like a visit to a natural destination, it is still getting attention from tourists. Virtual spaces must develop more features and value additions to achieve tourist satisfaction in the future

Health economics and cost-effective decision making: addressing contemporary challenges and exploring solutions in Pakistan

Health economics plays a vital role in underpinning the healthcare costs and their significant impact on healthcare decisions, particularly in resource-scarce settings such as Pakistan. this article emphasizes the multifaceted cost considerations in healthcare, including both direct treatment costs and often-overlooked indirect expenses like travel, parking, special diets, and lost wages due to illness. The article emphasizes the role of economic evaluations in addressing Pakistan's healthcare challenges, examining cost-effective options and providing a roadmap for a healthier future. An evidences synthesis approach was applied to explore possible solutions to health challenges. In addition to this, expert opinions were taken into account to investigate how economic concept are relevant in decision making for healthcare. The published qualitative data were combined, organized according to research objective and reported in tabular form. Economic concepts and evaluations are found useful in relation to healthcare infrastructure of Pakistan. There are possible economic solutions available to cope with the hurdles of health system. This article advocates the policymakers to prioritize involving health economists in policy formulation and promoting low-cost or cost-effective health interventions, ensuring fair allocation of health budget

Discovery of novel 1,2,4-triazole tethered β-hydroxy sulfides as bacterial tyrosinase inhibitors: synthesis and biophysical evaluation through in vitro and in silico approaches

In this study, a series of 1,2,4-triazole-tethered β-hydroxy sulfide scaffolds 11a–h was synthesized in good to remarkable yields (69–90%) through the thiolysis of oxiranes by the thiols in aqueous basic catalytic conditions. The synthesized 1,2,4-triazole-tethered β-hydroxy sulfides were screened against bacterial tyrosinase enzyme, and Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial cultures i.e., (S. aureus) Staphylococcus aureus & (E. coli) Escherichia coli. Among the synthesized derivatives, the molecules 11a (IC50 = 7.67 ± 1.00 μM), 11c (IC50 = 4.52 ± 0.09 μM), 11d (IC50 = 6.60 ± 1.25 μM), and 11f (IC50 = 5.93 ± 0.50 μM) displayed the better tyrosinase inhibitory activity in comparison to reference drugs ascorbic acid (IC50 = 11.5 ± 1.00 μM) and kojic acid (IC50 = 30.34 ± 0.75 μM). The molecule benzofuran-triazol-propan-2-ol 11c proved to be the most potent bacterial tyrosinase inhibitory agent with a minimum IC50 of 4.52 ± 0.09 μM, as compared to other synthesized counterparts and both standards (kojic acid and ascorbic acid). The compound diphenyl-triazol-propan-2-ol 11a and benzofuran-triazole-propan-2-ol 11c showed comparable anti-bacterial chemotherapeutic efficacy with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC = 2.0 ± 2.25 mg mL−1 and 2.5 ± 0.00 mg mL−1, respectively) against S. aureus bacterial strain in comparison with standard antibiotic penicillin (MIC = 2.2 ± 1.15 mg mL−1). Furthermore, among the synthesized derivatives, only compound 11c demonstrated better anti-bacterial activity (MIC = 10 ± 0.40 mg mL−1) against E. coli, which was slightly less than the standard antibiotic i.e., penicillin (MIC = 2.4 ± 1.00 mg mL−1). The compound 11c demonstrated a better binding score (−7.08 kcal mol−1) than ascorbic acid (−5.59 kcal mol−1) and kojic acid (−5.78 kcal mol−1). Molecular docking studies also validate the in vitro anti-tyrosinase assay results; therefore, the molecule 11c can be the lead bacterial tyrosinase inhibitor as well as the antibacterial agent against both types of bacterial strains after suitable structural modifications

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Effects of antiplatelet therapy after stroke due to intracerebral haemorrhage (RESTART): a randomised, open-label trial

Background: Antiplatelet therapy reduces the risk of major vascular events for people with occlusive vascular disease, although it might increase the risk of intracranial haemorrhage. Patients surviving the commonest subtype of intracranial haemorrhage, intracerebral haemorrhage, are at risk of both haemorrhagic and occlusive vascular events, but whether antiplatelet therapy can be used safely is unclear. We aimed to estimate the relative and absolute effects of antiplatelet therapy on recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage and whether this risk might exceed any reduction of occlusive vascular events. Methods: The REstart or STop Antithrombotics Randomised Trial (RESTART) was a prospective, randomised, open-label, blinded endpoint, parallel-group trial at 122 hospitals in the UK. We recruited adults (≥18 years) who were taking antithrombotic (antiplatelet or anticoagulant) therapy for the prevention of occlusive vascular disease when they developed intracerebral haemorrhage, discontinued antithrombotic therapy, and survived for 24 h. Computerised randomisation incorporating minimisation allocated participants (1:1) to start or avoid antiplatelet therapy. We followed participants for the primary outcome (recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage) for up to 5 years. We analysed data from all randomised participants using Cox proportional hazards regression, adjusted for minimisation covariates. This trial is registered with ISRCTN (number ISRCTN71907627). Findings: Between May 22, 2013, and May 31, 2018, 537 participants were recruited a median of 76 days (IQR 29–146) after intracerebral haemorrhage onset: 268 were assigned to start and 269 (one withdrew) to avoid antiplatelet therapy. Participants were followed for a median of 2·0 years (IQR [1·0– 3·0]; completeness 99·3%). 12 (4%) of 268 participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy had recurrence of intracerebral haemorrhage compared with 23 (9%) of 268 participants allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy (adjusted hazard ratio 0·51 [95% CI 0·25–1·03]; p=0·060). 18 (7%) participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy experienced major haemorrhagic events compared with 25 (9%) participants allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy (0·71 [0·39–1·30]; p=0·27), and 39 [15%] participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy had major occlusive vascular events compared with 38 [14%] allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy (1·02 [0·65–1·60]; p=0·92). Interpretation: These results exclude all but a very modest increase in the risk of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage with antiplatelet therapy for patients on antithrombotic therapy for the prevention of occlusive vascular disease when they developed intracerebral haemorrhage. The risk of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage is probably too small to exceed the established benefits of antiplatelet therapy for secondary prevention

Effects of antiplatelet therapy after stroke due to intracerebral haemorrhage (RESTART): a randomised, open-label trial

Background: Antiplatelet therapy reduces the risk of major vascular events for people with occlusive vascular disease, although it might increase the risk of intracranial haemorrhage. Patients surviving the commonest subtype of intracranial haemorrhage, intracerebral haemorrhage, are at risk of both haemorrhagic and occlusive vascular events, but whether antiplatelet therapy can be used safely is unclear. We aimed to estimate the relative and absolute effects of antiplatelet therapy on recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage and whether this risk might exceed any reduction of occlusive vascular events. Methods: The REstart or STop Antithrombotics Randomised Trial (RESTART) was a prospective, randomised, open-label, blinded endpoint, parallel-group trial at 122 hospitals in the UK. We recruited adults (≥18 years) who were taking antithrombotic (antiplatelet or anticoagulant) therapy for the prevention of occlusive vascular disease when they developed intracerebral haemorrhage, discontinued antithrombotic therapy, and survived for 24 h. Computerised randomisation incorporating minimisation allocated participants (1:1) to start or avoid antiplatelet therapy. We followed participants for the primary outcome (recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage) for up to 5 years. We analysed data from all randomised participants using Cox proportional hazards regression, adjusted for minimisation covariates. This trial is registered with ISRCTN (number ISRCTN71907627). Findings: Between May 22, 2013, and May 31, 2018, 537 participants were recruited a median of 76 days (IQR 29–146) after intracerebral haemorrhage onset: 268 were assigned to start and 269 (one withdrew) to avoid antiplatelet therapy. Participants were followed for a median of 2·0 years (IQR [1·0– 3·0]; completeness 99·3%). 12 (4%) of 268 participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy had recurrence of intracerebral haemorrhage compared with 23 (9%) of 268 participants allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy (adjusted hazard ratio 0·51 [95% CI 0·25–1·03]; p=0·060). 18 (7%) participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy experienced major haemorrhagic events compared with 25 (9%) participants allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy (0·71 [0·39–1·30]; p=0·27), and 39 [15%] participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy had major occlusive vascular events compared with 38 [14%] allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy (1·02 [0·65–1·60]; p=0·92). Interpretation: These results exclude all but a very modest increase in the risk of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage with antiplatelet therapy for patients on antithrombotic therapy for the prevention of occlusive vascular disease when they developed intracerebral haemorrhage. The risk of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage is probably too small to exceed the established benefits of antiplatelet therapy for secondary prevention