Microwave-assisted green synthesis and antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles derived from a supercritical carbon dioxide extract of the fresh aerial parts of Phyllanthus niruri L

Purpose: To synthesize and evaluate the antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) derived from a supercritical carbon dioxide extract of the fresh aerial parts of Phyllanthus niruri. Methods: The synthesis of AgNPs of a P. niruri extract was carried out in a microwave oven. The extraction was carried out using a supercritical fluid extractor. The AgNPs were characterized by the Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectral analysis, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) zetasizer analysis, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The antimicrobial assays of AgNPs were carried out against different bacterial and fungal strains. Results: Results of various analytical techniques confirmed the synthesis of AgNPs of a P. niruri extract. The UV–vis spectroscopy showed an intense silver surface plasmon resonance band at 415 NM. The AgNPs had a mean size of 110 nm in the Zetasizer analysis. TEM images illustrated spherical AgNPs having a mean particle size of 110 nm. The X-ray diffractograms showed peaks at 38.17°, 44.28°, and 64.52°. The average crystallite size of Ag-NPs was found to be 110 nm. FT-IR spectra confirmed the stability of the AgNPs. The AgNPs demonstrated good antimicrobial effects against several tested pathogenic microbes. Conclusion: An efficiently synthesized AgNPs of P. niruri (SC-CO2) extract has been prepared by a simple, eco-friendly, cost-effective, rapid green chemistry methodology. The AgNPs of P. niruri extract possesses significant antimicrobial properties against the tested bacterial and fungal strains. Keywords: Nanoparticles, Phyllanthus niruri, Supercritical fluid extraction, Microwave, Antimicrobial activit

Towards Malaysian sign language database

Sign language is the verbal language for the people who have hearing impairment. Those people who have those kinds of problems are widely known as the deaf people. Basically the word of deaf is referred into two; the Deaf (with capital D) is the hearing impairment person who understands sign language and the deaf (with small d) is the person who does not have capability in understanding the sign language. In this article, the "deaf' (with small d) will be used to cover the entire people with hearing impairment and disabilit

Metabolomics Unraveling the Biochemical Insight of High Altitude Diseases and Sepsis A Narrative Review

High altitude diseases and sepsis may seem distinct at first glance, but there are underlying physiological similarities that lie in their responses to hypoxia, tissue dysfunction, inflammation, and multi-organ failure conditions. Understanding these commonalities can help medical professionals draw parallels between them and apply relevant knowledge to improve patient care and treatment.In this direction,a literature review of metabolomics-based studies has been done for high-altitude diseases and sepsis, and the panel of common disease-related metabolic markers and associated pathways areunraveled. Themetabolic pathways found dysregulated in both conditions are amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, energy metabolism, inflammatory response-related metabolism, bile acid metabolism, and purine and pyrimidine metabolism

Ramadan 2020 and Beyond in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Scientific Evidence For Action

Background: Ramadan is a sacred month in Islam, which involves 29–30 days of dawn-till-dusk dry-fasting. Millions of Muslims observed Ramadan fasting (RF) this year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain ethnic groups worldwide, including Muslims, have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, raising fears that fasting could bring additional health risks. This directly impacted on the current challenges faced by health professionals. The COVID-19 virus is expected to become seasonal. Therefore, the evidence presented in this review is valid beyond Ramadan as intermittent fasting is practiced more widely, irrespective of religion, throughout the year as a therapeutic and prophylactic means for several conditions.  Methods: A wide range of literature databases were searched for the effects of RF and intermittent fasting on human health and then linked to COVID-19 impact to generate the evidence. Results: This review presents a body of evidence proving RF is safe and beneficial for healthy people who adopt a balanced diet, drink plenty of fluids, and engage in regular physical activity. Fasting reduces levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and IL-6), which are associated with severe COVID-19.  Furthermore, increased handwashing and hygiene during Ramadan may reduce infection risks. For some, social isolation, physical inactivity, reduced access to food and stress – linked to the pandemic – may minimize the benefits that is achieved during a “normal” Ramadan. Conclusions: RF during the COVID-19 pandemic is not a cause of concern for healthy people. However, people who are ill are exempt from fasting and should seek medical advice if they wish to fast. RF during the COVID-19 pandemic is a unique experience and future research will reveal its impact on human health. Key words: COVID-19; Ramadan; fasting; health; mental; exercise; isolation; lockdown; diabetes; biomarkers          &nbsp

Skin Lesion Segmentation for Melanoma Using Dilated DenseUNet

Melanoma, a highly malignant form of skin cancer, affects individuals of all genders and is associated with high mortality rates, especially in advanced stages. The use of tele-dermatology has emerged as a proficient diagnostic approach for skin lesions and is particularly beneficial in rural areas with limited access to dermatologists. However, accurately, and efficiently segmenting melanoma remains a challenging task due to the significant diversity observed in the morphology, pigmentation, and dimensions of cutaneous nevi. To address this challenge, we propose a novel approach called DenseUNet-169 with a dilated convolution encoder-decoder for automatic segmentation of RGB dermascopic images. By incorporating dilated convolution, our model improves the receptive field of the kernels without increasing the number of parameters. Additionally, we used a method called Copy and Concatenation Attention Block (CCAB) for robust feature computation. To evaluate the performance of our proposed framework, we utilized the International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) 2017 dataset. The experimental results demonstrate the reliability and effectiveness of our suggested approach compared to existing methodologies. Our framework achieved a high level of accuracy (98.38%), precision (96.07%), recall (94.32%), dice score (95.07%), and Jaccard score (90.45%), outperforming current techniques

Skin Lesion Segmentation for Melanoma Using Dilated DenseUNet

Melanoma, a highly malignant form of skin cancer, affects individuals of all genders and is associated with high mortality rates, especially in advanced stages. The use of tele-dermatology has emerged as a proficient diagnostic approach for skin lesions and is particularly beneficial in rural areas with limited access to dermatologists. However, accurately, and efficiently segmenting melanoma remains a challenging task due to the significant diversity observed in the morphology, pigmentation, and dimensions of cutaneous nevi. To address this challenge, we propose a novel approach called DenseUNet-169 with a dilated convolution encoder-decoder for automatic segmentation of RGB dermascopic images. By incorporating dilated convolution, our model improves the receptive field of the kernels without increasing the number of parameters. Additionally, we used a method called Copy and Concatenation Attention Block (CCAB) for robust feature computation. To evaluate the performance of our proposed framework, we utilized the International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) 2017 dataset. The experimental results demonstrate the reliability and effectiveness of our suggested approach compared to existing methodologies. Our framework achieved a high level of accuracy (98.38%), precision (96.07%), recall (94.32%), dice score (95.07%), and Jaccard score (90.45%), outperforming current techniques

Hypoxic conditions promote a proliferative, poorly differentiated phenotype in COPD lung tissue progenitor cells in vitro

Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the UHNM theatre staff, Dr. Sana Iftikhar and Dr. Daniel Gey van Pittius for their assistance in acquiring participant lung tissue. Funding Information: This work was supported by funding from the North Staffordshire Medical Institute 50th Anniversary Award and The Royal Society-Newton Mobility Grant. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the UHNM theatre staff, Dr. Sana Iftikhar and Dr. Daniel Gey van Pittius for their assistance in acquiring participant lung tissue.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A survey on video segmentation for real-time applications

Video object segmentation is to extract moving and static objects from consecutive video frames. It is a prerequisite for visual content retrieval (e.g., MPEG-7 related schemes), objectbased compression and coding (e.g., MPEG-4 codecs), object recognition, object tracking, security video surveillance, traffic monitoring for law enforcement, and many other application

TARGETING JATROPHA DERIVED PHYTOCHEMICALS TO INHIBIT THE XANTHINE OXIDASE & CYCLOOXYGENASE-2: IN SILICO ANALYSIS TOWARDS GOUT TREATMENT

Objective: Gouty arthritis is a well known disease with an abrupt attack causing extreme pain in and around the joints. Accumulated urate crystals, being the reason of the disease cause a lot of inflammation leading to swelling in the joints. These diseases are being treated using NSAIDs, Colchicine as well as few of the Glucocorticoids but these have some unnatural effects primarily, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular side effects. Nowadays, Jatropha curcas, a medicinal plant has been studied for anti – inflammatory properties therefore the phytochemical constituents of this plant can be an effective drug against this Gout disease.Methods: Herein for docking, Lamarckian Genetic algorithm was applied using Autodock4.2 (version 1.5.6). Xanthine Oxidase and Cyclooxygenase-2 proteins from Homo sapiens were modeled using the Swiss model and screened against the phytochemicals from Jatropha species.Results: The results demonstrated that Jatrophone (KNApSAcK_ID: C00003446), 6β-hydroxy-4-stigmasten-3-one (KNApSAcK_ID: C00029573) and Palmarumycin CP1 (KNApSAcK_ID: C00035859) had a good affinity for both, Xanthine oxidase and COX-2. Further, the interaction profile of the phytochemicals with both the protein was analyzed using LigPlot+.Conclusion: The interaction pattern phytochemicals with the Xanthine Oxidase and Cyclooxygensae-2 may provide hints for the design of novel derivatives with higher potency and specificity