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  1. Fulltext Sequencing and Annotated of Goat's Milk using Bioinformatics Tool: ClustalX
    Muhammad Najmi Mohammad Fauzi, Aisyah Aqilah Abu Bakar, Liyana Amalina Adnan, Tg Ainul Farha Tg Abdul Rahman, A’wani Aziz Nurdalila
    Malaysian Journal of Science, Health & Technology, 2021;7(1):28-33.
    MyJurnal
    Bioinformatics tool is a software program made to extract meaningful information from the mass of molecular biology or biological databases and carry out sequence or structural analysis. The method of determining the order of nucleotides within a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule is known as DNA sequencing. This analysis is meant to be run to the commercialized or factorymade goat's milk (pasteurised) from various states in Malaysia to identify the milk's authenticity, either it is pure or mixed with other foreign substances from other animals. The main objective is to compare DNA sequences of commercialized and raw goat's milk (handmilking and non-pasteurised). To achieve this, we used ClustalX to align and compare the obtained DNA from both milk samples. The sequences will be aligned using ClustalX software. ClustalX is a provider of an automated system for performing multiple alignments of sequences and profiles and evaluating the outcomes. The usage of ClustalX is helpful as it is cost-effective, user-friendly, and showing a high accuracy of the analysis.

  2. Fulltext Development of a composite pavement performance index to monitor the pavement condition in UPNM
    Muhammad Nur Arsyad Azman, Ng, Choy Peng, Faridah Hanim Khairuddin, Neza Ismail, Wan Mohamed Syafuan Wan Sabri
    ZULFAQAR International Journal of Defence Science, Engineering & Technology, 2020;3(1):23-31.
    MyJurnal
    Road surface condition of a pavement is one of the most important features as it affect driving comfort and safety. A good road surface condition could reduce the risk of traffic accidents and injuries. Pavement Condition Index (PCI) is one of the important tools to measure the pavement performance. By conducting pavement evaluation, civil engineers could prioritize the maintenance and rehabilitation which usually incurred a huge cost. In University Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM), there was no proper maintenance and rehabilitation scheduled for the roads as no performance evaluation tool available to measure the pavement condition. Thus, the objective of this study was to develop a Composite Pavement Performance Index (CPPI) to monitor the pavement condition and to rank the roads in UPNM. To develop the CPPI, road defects data were collected from 6 internal roads in UPNM. From the data collected, 4 major distresses were identified: longitudinal cracking, crocodile cracking, potholes and ravelling were found more likely to affect the pavement’s condition in UPNM. By measuring the growth of the distresses over a period of 6 months, modelling was conducted using simple linear regression. The growth of the distresses were compared, and odds ratios were computed to calculate the weightage of each distress for the determination of the CPPI value. The CPPI value developed could be used to rank the roads in UPNM. This study demonstrated that the road connecting to the library building in UPNM experienced the worst pavement deterioration with a PCI of 24 or a CPPI value of 1.1915. The level of severity was classified as “SERIOUS” in accordance to ASTM D6433. This road was recommended for reconstruction to increase the comfort and safety for road users
  3. Fulltext Acute Infectious Gastroenteritis: The Causative Agents, Omics-Based Detection of Antigens and Novel Biomarkers
    Hasan H, Nasirudeen NA, Ruzlan MAF, Mohd Jamil MA, Ismail NAS, Wahab AA, et al.
    Children (Basel), 2021 Dec 02;8(12).
    PMID: 34943308 DOI: 10.3390/children8121112
    Acute infectious gastroenteritis (AGE) is among the leading causes of mortality in children less than 5 years of age worldwide. There are many causative agents that lead to this infection, with rotavirus being the commonest pathogen in the past decade. However, this trend is now being progressively replaced by another agent, which is the norovirus. Apart from the viruses, bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli and parasites such as Entamoeba histolytica also contribute to AGE. These agents can be recognised by their respective biological markers, which are mainly the specific antigens or genes to determine the causative pathogen. In conjunction to that, omics technologies are currently providing crucial insights into the diagnosis of acute infectious gastroenteritis at the molecular level. Recent advancement in omics technologies could be an important tool to further elucidate the potential causative agents for AGE. This review will explore the current available biomarkers and antigens available for the diagnosis and management of the different causative agents of AGE. Despite the high-priced multi-omics approaches, the idea for utilization of these technologies is to allow more robust discovery of novel antigens and biomarkers related to management AGE, which eventually can be developed using easier and cheaper detection methods for future clinical setting. Thus, prediction of prognosis, virulence and drug susceptibility for active infections can be obtained. Case management, risk prediction for hospital-acquired infections, outbreak detection, and antimicrobial accountability are aimed for further improvement by integrating these capabilities into a new clinical workflow.
  4. Fulltext High stability resistive switching mechanism of a screen-printed electrode based on BOBZBT2 organic pentamer for creatinine detection
    Khushaini MAA, Azeman NH, Ismail AG, Teh CH, Salleh MM, Bakar AAA, et al.
    Sci Rep, 2021 Dec 07;11(1):23519.
    PMID: 34876656 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-03046-9
    The resistive switching (RS) mechanism is resulted from the formation and dissolution of a conductive filament due to the electrochemical redox-reactions and can be identified with a pinched hysteresis loop on the I-V characteristic curve. In this work, the RS behaviour was demonstrated using a screen-printed electrode (SPE) and was utilized for creatinine sensing application. The working electrode (WE) of the SPE has been modified with a novel small organic molecule, 1,4-bis[2-(5-thiophene-2-yl)-1-benzothiopene]-2,5-dioctyloxybenzene (BOBzBT2). Its stability at room temperature and the presence of thiophene monomers were exploited to facilitate the cation transport and thus, affecting the high resistive state (HRS) and low resistive state (LRS) of the electrochemical cell. The sensor works based on the interference imposed by the interaction between the creatinine molecule and the radical cation of BOBzBT2 to the conductive filament during the Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) measurement. Different concentrations of BOBzBT2 dilution were evaluated using various concentrations of non-clinical creatinine samples to identify the optimised setup of the sensor. Enhanced sensitivity of the sensor was observed at a high concentration of BOBzBT2 over creatinine concentration between 0.4 and 1.6 mg dL-1-corresponding to the normal range of a healthy individual.
  5. Fulltext An IoMT-Enabled Smart Healthcare Model to Monitor Elderly People Using Machine Learning Technique
    Khan MF, Ghazal TM, Said RA, Fatima A, Abbas S, Khan MA, et al.
    Comput Intell Neurosci, 2021;2021:2487759.
    PMID: 34868288 DOI: 10.1155/2021/2487759
    The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) enables digital devices to gather, infer, and broadcast health data via the cloud platform. The phenomenal growth of the IoMT is fueled by many factors, including the widespread and growing availability of wearables and the ever-decreasing cost of sensor-based technology. The cost of related healthcare will rise as the global population of elderly people grows in parallel with an overall life expectancy that demands affordable healthcare services, solutions, and developments. IoMT may bring revolution in the medical sciences in terms of the quality of healthcare of elderly people while entangled with machine learning (ML) algorithms. The effectiveness of the smart healthcare (SHC) model to monitor elderly people was observed by performing tests on IoMT datasets. For evaluation, the precision, recall, fscore, accuracy, and ROC values are computed. The authors also compare the results of the SHC model with different conventional popular ML techniques, e.g., support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), and decision tree (DT), to analyze the effectiveness of the result.
  6. Fulltext Conservation tillage improves productivity of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under reduced irrigation on sandy loam soil
    Sher A, Arfat MY, Ul-Allah S, Sattar A, Ijaz M, Manaf A, et al.
    PLoS One, 2021;16(12):e0260673.
    PMID: 34932582 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260673
    Sunflower production is significantly lower in arid and semi-arid regions due to various crop management problem. Conservation of tillage provides the most excellent opportunity to reduce degradation of soil reserves and increase soil productivity. The main objective of this study was to investigate the combined effects of conservation tillage and drought stress on growth and productivity of different sunflower hybrids. Experimental treatments included two sunflower hybrids ('NK-Senji' and 'S-278'), two drought stress treatments (i.e., well-watered and drought stress at flowering and grain filling stages) and three tillage practices (i.e., conservation, minimum and deep tillage). The results indicated that morphological and physiological parameters, and yield-related traits were significantly (P≤0.05) affected by all individual factors; however, their interactive effects were non-significant. Among sunflower hybrids, 'NK-Senji' performed better for morphological, physiological, and yield-related traits than 'S-278'. Similarly, conservation tillage observed better traits compared to the rest of the tillage practices included in the study. Nonetheless, conservation tillage improved growth and yield-related traits of hybrid 'NK-Senji' under drought stress. Hence, it is concluded that conservation tillage can improve the productivity of sunflower under low moisture availability. Therefore, conservation tillage could be suggested in the areas of lower water ability to improve sunflower production. Nonetheless, sunflower hybrids or varieties need thorough testing for their adaptability to conservation tillage and low moisture availability before making recommendations.
  7. Fulltext Linking Corporate Social Responsibility to Workplace Deviant Behaviors: Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction
    Memon KR, Zada M, Ghani B, Ullah R, Azim MT, Mubarik MS, et al.
    Front Psychol, 2021;12:803481.
    PMID: 35035376 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.803481
    The purpose of this article is to present a mechanism through which the deviant work behaviors of employees can be dealt-with positively through corporate good deeds in the form of fulfilling social responsibilities. Based on the spirit of social identity theory and social exchange theory, the study explores the relationships of various deviant behaviors with corporate social responsibility (CSR) through the mediation mechanism of job satisfaction. Data were collected from 385 employees of 40 large manufacturing organizations involved in CSR activities operating in Pakistan. A self-report survey was conducted using a close-ended questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using SEM through Mplus 7. The results reveal that both internal and external CSR contribute to the reduced level of turnover intention, counterproductive work behaviors, and prohibitive voice behaviors. Job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship for internal CSR while partially mediates for external CSR. The study encourages the practitioners to avail approaches that convey the feelings of care, concern, and safety, representing internal CSR practices through diverse HR interventions, organizational support, and justice. They should also keep up the socially responsible behaviors aiming toward the larger community.
  8. Fulltext microRNA-221 and tamoxifen resistance in luminal-subtype breast cancer patients: A case-control study
    Amiruddin A, Massi MN, Islam AA, Patellongi I, Pratama MY, Sutandyo N, et al.
    Ann Med Surg (Lond), 2022 Jan;73:103092.
    PMID: 35079352 DOI: 10.1016/j.amsu.2021.103092
    Background: Around 70% of breast cancers (BCs) are estrogen receptor-α (ERα)-positive. Adjuvant endocrine therapy is used to reduce estrogen levels and inhibit signal transduction through the ER. The anti-estrogen drugs that are most commonly used in endocrine therapy belong to the selective ER modulator (SERM) class and include tamoxifen. Although it has been used for three decades in cases of early-stage and ERα-positive BC, resistance to tamoxifen is a common problem. microRNAs (miRNAs) have a potential role in demonstrating BC resistance to tamoxifen therapy. Hence, there is a need to investigate the expression of miRNA-221 (miR-221) in luminal-subtype BC patients receiving tamoxifen therapy.

    Methods: This case-control study investigated luminal-subtype BC patients who had undergone endocrine therapy for at least 1 year. The case group comprised patients with local or metastatic recurrence, and the control group comprised patients without local or metastatic recurrence.

    Results: There was a significant difference in miR-221 expression (p = 0.005) between the case and control groups. There were no significant differences between the groups that were positive and negative for the progesterone receptor (PR) (p = 0.25), had high and low marker of proliferation Ki-67 levels (p = 0.60), were positive and negative for lymphovascular invasion (p = 0.14), and had stage 2 and stage 3 cancer (p = 0.25).

    Conclusion: miR-221 expression was higher in tamoxifen-resistant BC cases. miR-221 is a potential biomarker of tamoxifen resistance.

  9. Fulltext Cellulosic fiber nanocomposite application review with zinc oxide antimicrobial agent nanoparticle: an opt for COVID-19 purpose
    Azizan A, Samsudin AA, Shamshul Baharin MB, Dzulkiflee MH, Rosli NR, Abu Bakar NF, et al.
    Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2023 Feb;30(7):16779-16796.
    PMID: 35084685 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-18515-5
    Cellulosic fiber (CF) in nanoform is emergingly finding its way for COVID-19 solution for instance via nanocomposite/nanoparticle from various abundant biopolymeric waste materials, which may not be widely commercialized when the pandemic strikes recently. The possibility is wide open but needs proper collection of knowledge and research data. Thus, this article firstly reviews CF produced from various lignocellulosic or biomass feedstocks' pretreatment methods in various nanoforms or nanocomposites, also serving together with metal oxide (MeO) antimicrobial agents having certain analytical reporting. CF-MeO hybrid product can be a great option for COVID-19 antimicrobial resistant environment to be proposed considering the long-established CF and MeO laboratory investigations. Secondly, a preliminary pH investigation of 7 to 12 on zinc oxide synthesis discussing on Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) functional groups and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images are also presented, justifying the knowledge requirement for future stable nanocomposite formulation. In addition to that, recent precursors suitable for zinc oxide nanoparticle synthesis with emergingly prediction to serve as COVID-19 purposes via different products, aligning with CFs or nanocellulose for industrial applications are also reviewed.
  10. Robust biometric system using session invariant multimodal EEG and keystroke dynamics by the ensemble of self-ONNs
    Rahman A, Chowdhury MEH, Khandakar A, Tahir AM, Ibtehaz N, Hossain MS, et al.
    Comput Biol Med, 2022 Mar;142:105238.
    PMID: 35077938 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.105238
    Harnessing the inherent anti-spoofing quality from electroencephalogram (EEG) signals has become a potential field of research in recent years. Although several studies have been conducted, still there are some vital challenges present in the deployment of EEG-based biometrics, which is stable and capable of handling the real-world scenario. One of the key challenges is the large signal variability of EEG when recorded on different days or sessions which impedes the performance of biometric systems significantly. To address this issue, a session invariant multimodal Self-organized Operational Neural Network (Self-ONN) based ensemble model combining EEG and keystroke dynamics is proposed in this paper. Our model is tested successfully on a large number of sessions (10 recording days) with many challenging noisy and variable environments for the identification and authentication tasks. In most of the previous studies, training and testing were performed either over a single recording session (same day) only or without ensuring appropriate splitting of the data on multiple recording days. Unlike those studies, in our work, we have rigorously split the data so that train and test sets do not share the data of the same recording day. The proposed multimodal Self-ONN based ensemble model has achieved identification accuracy of 98% in rigorous validation cases and outperformed the equivalent ensemble of deep CNN models. A novel Self-ONN Siamese network has also been proposed to measure the similarity of templates during the authentication task instead of the commonly used simple distance measure techniques. The multimodal Siamese network reduces the Equal Error Rate (EER) to 1.56% in rigorous authentication. The obtained results indicate that the proposed multimodal Self-ONN model can automatically extract session invariant unique non-linear features to identify and authenticate users with high accuracy.
  11. Fulltext Synthesis, crystal structure, DFT studies and evaluation of the antioxidant activity of 3,4-dimethoxybenzenamine schiff bases
    Aziz AN, Taha M, Ismail NH, Anouar el H, Yousuf S, Jamil W, et al.
    Molecules, 2014 Jun 19;19(6):8414-33.
    PMID: 24950444 DOI: 10.3390/molecules19068414
    Schiff bases of 3,4-dimethoxybenzenamine 1-25 were synthesized and evaluated for their antioxidant activity. All the synthesized compounds were characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. In addition, the characterizations of compounds 13, 15 and 16 were supported by crystal X-ray determinations and their geometrical parameters were compared with theoretical DFT calculations at the B3LYP level of theory. Furthermore, the X-ray crystal data of two non-crystalline compounds 8 and 18 were theoretically calculated and compared with the practical values of compounds 13, 15, 16 and found a good agreement. The compounds showed good DPPH scavenging activity ranging from 10.12 to 84.34 μM where compounds 1-4 and 6 showed stronger activity than the standard n-propyl gallate. For the superoxide anion radical assay, compounds 1-3 showed better activity than the standard.
  12. Fulltext Phenoxyacetohydrazide Schiff bases: β-glucuronidase inhibitors
    Jamil W, Perveen S, Shah SA, Taha M, Ismail NH, Perveen S, et al.
    Molecules, 2014 Jun 25;19(7):8788-802.
    PMID: 24968334 DOI: 10.3390/molecules19078788
    Phenoxyacetohydrazide Schiff base analogs 1-28 have been synthesized and their in vitro β-glucouoronidase inhibition potential studied. Compounds 1 (IC50=9.20±0.32 µM), 5 (IC50=9.47±0.16 µM), 7 (IC50=14.7±0.19 µM), 8 (IC50=15.4±1.56 µM), 11 (IC50=19.6±0.62 µM), 12 (IC50=30.7±1.49 µM), 15 (IC50=12.0±0.16 µM), 21 (IC50=13.7±0.40 µM) and 22 (IC50=22.0±0.14 µM) showed promising β-glucuronidase inhibition activity, better than the standard (D-saccharic acid-1,4-lactone, IC50=48.4±1.25 µM).
  13. Fulltext Analytical calculation of sensing parameters on carbon nanotube based gas sensors
    Akbari E, Buntat Z, Ahmad MH, Enzevaee A, Yousof R, Iqbal SM, et al.
    Sensors (Basel), 2014;14(3):5502-15.
    PMID: 24658617 DOI: 10.3390/s140305502
    Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are generally nano-scale tubes comprising a network of carbon atoms in a cylindrical setting that compared with silicon counterparts present outstanding characteristics such as high mechanical strength, high sensing capability and large surface-to-volume ratio. These characteristics, in addition to the fact that CNTs experience changes in their electrical conductance when exposed to different gases, make them appropriate candidates for use in sensing/measuring applications such as gas detection devices. In this research, a model for a Field Effect Transistor (FET)-based structure has been developed as a platform for a gas detection sensor in which the CNT conductance change resulting from the chemical reaction between NH3 and CNT has been employed to model the sensing mechanism with proposed sensing parameters. The research implements the same FET-based structure as in the work of Peng et al. on nanotube-based NH3 gas detection. With respect to this conductance change, the I-V characteristic of the CNT is investigated. Finally, a comparative study shows satisfactory agreement between the proposed model and the experimental data from the mentioned research.
  14. Perovskite-structured PbTiO3 thin films grown from a single-source precursor
    Mansoor MA, Ismail A, Yahya R, Arifin Z, Tiekink ER, Weng NS, et al.
    Inorg Chem, 2013 May 20;52(10):5624-6.
    PMID: 23627942 DOI: 10.1021/ic302772b
    Perovskite-structured lead titanate thin films have been grown on FTO-coated glass substrates from a single-source heterometallic molecular complex, [PbTi(μ2-O2CCF3)4(THF)3(μ3-O)]2 (1), which was isolated in quantitative yield from the reaction of tetraacetatolead(IV), tetrabutoxytitanium(IV), and trifluoroacetic acid from a tetrahydrofuran solution. Complex 1 has been characterized by physicochemical methods such as melting point, microanalysis, FTIR, (1)H and (19)F NMR, thermal analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Thin films of lead titanate having spherical particles of various sizes have been grown from 1 by aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition at 550 °C. The thin films have been characterized by powder XRD, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. An optical band gap of 3.69 eV has been estimated by UV-visible spectrophotometry.
  15. Fulltext Maximizing diesel removal from contaminated sand using Scirpus mucronatus and assessment of rhizobacteria addition effect
    Purwanti IF, Abdullah SRS, Hamzah A, Idris M, Basri H, Latif MT, et al.
    Heliyon, 2023 Nov;9(11):e21737.
    PMID: 38027659 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21737
    Phytoremediation is one of the green technologies that is friendly to nature, utilizes fewer chemicals, and exhibits good performance. In this study, phytoremediation was used to treat diesel-contaminated sand using a local aquatic plant species, Scirpus mucronatus, by analyzing the amount of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs). Optimization of diesel removal was performed according to Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using Box-Behnken Design (BBD) under pilot-scale conditions. The quadratic model showed the best fit to describe the obtained data. Actual vs. predicted values from BBD showed a total of 9.1 % error for the concentration of TPH in sand and 0 % error for the concentration of TPH in plants. Maximum TPH removal of 42.3 ± 2.1 % was obtained under optimized conditions at a diesel initial concentration of 50 mg/kg, an aeration rate of 0.48 L/min, and a retention time of 72 days. The addition of two species of rhizobacteria (Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis) at optimum conditions increased the TPH removal to 51.9 ± 2.6 %. The obtained model and optimum condition can be adopted to treat diesel-contaminated sand within the same TPH range (50-3000 mg/kg) in sand.
  16. Fulltext Assessment of prevalence, knowledge and health-related practices of dysmenorrhea among Malaysian women in Kuala Lumpur: a cross-sectional survey
    Mohamad Bakro R, Farrukh MJ, Rajagopal MS, Kristina SA, Ramatillah DL, Ming LC, et al.
    Ann Med, 2023;55(2):2281655.
    PMID: 38010360 DOI: 10.1080/07853890.2023.2281655
    BACKGROUND: Menstruation is a natural phenomenon considered an important indicator of women's health, reflecting their endocrine function. Women in low middle income countries face substantial menstrual hygiene management challenges. Data on the knowledge of dysmenorrhea and health-related practices among Malaysian women are scarce. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of dysmenorrhea among Malaysian women in Kuala Lumpur and its association with socio-demographic factors, knowledge level, and general practices.

    METHOD: A cross-sectional study was carried out among Malaysian women in Kuala Lumpur. A total of 362 unmarried women, nulliparous and aged between 18 and 25 years old, were included in this study. Participants were conveniently recruited through online platforms as well as face to face using a self-administered questionnaire with five sections consisting of demographics, menstrual characteristics, Working ability, Location, Intensity, Days of pain, Dysmenorrhea (WaLIDD) score for diagnosing and assessing the severity of dysmenorrhea as well as an evaluation of respondents' general knowledge and practices towards dysmenorrhea. The collected data were analysed using the SPSS tool, a descriptive statistic was used to report demographic characteristics. Inferential statistics was used to report the differentiation, association, and correlations of the variables.

    RESULTS: The prevalence of primary dysmenorrhea was 73.2%. It was found that the majority of the respondents had poor knowledge (60%) and poor practices (61.88%) of dysmenorrhea. The most common preventive practices among the respondents were using dietary supplements, and herbs, taking a rest and exercising. The findings also indicated that dysmenorrhea among the respondents was significantly associated with family history of dysmenorrhea (p = 0.002), monthly income (p = 0.001), and knowledge level (p = 0.001).

    CONCLUSION: Dysmenorrhea has a high prevalence among women in Malaysia in Kula Lumpur driven by low knowledge and lack of evidence-based practices among these women. Thus, it is critical for Government and healthcare authorities to promote education related to women health among Malaysian women.

  17. Fulltext Intolerance of uncertainty across stress, anxiety, and depression among university students in Pakistan: A descriptive cross-sectional study
    Kim YJ, Aslam MS, Deng R, Leghari QA, Naseem S, Ul Hassan MM, et al.
    Heliyon, 2023 Jun;9(6):e16636.
    PMID: 37274650 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16636
    BACKGROUND: The mental health issues due to COVID-19, such as intolerance of uncertainty (IOU), anxiety, stress, and depression, have attracted extensive attention from researchers. The challenges for Pakistani university students could be worse than developed countries due to the lack of online courses/programs and online mental health support provided by academic institutions. Therefore, the current study aims to assess the intolerance of uncertainty, depression, anxiety, and stress of Pakistani university students after the second wave of COVID-19 and the relationship among these constructs.

    METHODS: A convenience cross-sectional sampling method was used to collect data from university students in Pakistan between January 2021 and April 2022 via a structured online questionnaire. The Descriptive analysis focused on frequencies, percentages, mean, and standard deviation (SD) were calculated on IOU-12 and DASS-21. Covariance for the research model and confirmatory factor analyses fit indices for the IOU-12 and DASS-21 were analyzed by AMOS statistical packages.

    RESULTS: As expected, anxiety, depression, and stress persist among Pakistani university students. On average, they report mild to moderate mental health problems regarding anxiety, depression, stress, and intolerance of uncertainty. Our results indicate a strong positive relationship among the three emotional distress components - anxiety, depression, and stress. However, our results suggest no significant relationship between IOU and the three subcomponents of emotional distress (anxiety, depression, and stress).

    LIMITATIONS: First, the cross-sectional survey design means we cannot conclude on the causal relations. Second, the self-report questionnaire embeds subjectivity issues. Last, the generalizability of the sample to the whole student population in Pakistan is limited, considering the sampling method.

    CONCLUSION: This study expanded the current knowledge in the psychological health domain (intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety, depression, and stress) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In practice, higher education institutions should further mitigate university students' mental health issues. For researchers, our findings inspire future studies to delve into the relationship between IOU and mental health issues due to COVID-19 since our findings display contrary evidence for various reasons.

  18. Fulltext Synthesis and Molecular Docking Studies of Novel Biheterocyclic Propanamides as Antidiabetic Agents Having Mild Cytotoxicity
    Abbasi MA, Rubab K, Aziz-Ur-Rehman, Siddiqui SZ, Hassan M, Raza H, et al.
    ACS Omega, 2023 Jun 27;8(25):22899-22911.
    PMID: 37396264 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c01882
    The aim of this work was to bring forth some new hybrid molecules having pharmacologically potent indole and 1,3,4-oxadiazole heterocyclic moieties unified with a propanamide entity. The synthetic methodology was initiated by esterification of 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)acetic acid (1) in a catalytic amount of sulfuric acid and ethanol in excess, to form ethyl 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)acetate (2), which was converted to 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)acetohydrazide (3) and further transformed to 5-(1H-indole-3-yl-methyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thiol (4). 3-Bromopropanoyl chloride (5) was reacted with various amines (6a-s) in aqueous alkaline medium to generate a series of electrophiles, 3-bromo-N-(substituted)propanamides (7a-s), and these were further reacted with nucleophile 4 in DMF and NaH base to yield the targeted N-(substituted)-3-{(5-(1H-indol-3-ylmethyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)sulfanyl}propanamides (8a-s). The chemical structures of these biheterocyclic propanamides were confirmed by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and EI-MS spectral techniques. These compounds were evaluated for their enzyme inhibitory potentials against the α-glucosidase enzyme, where the compound 8l showed promising enzyme inhibitory potential with an IC50 value less than that of the standard acarbose. Molecular docking results of these molecules were coherent with the results of their enzyme inhibitory potentials. Cytotoxicity was assessed by the percentage of hemolytic activity method, and these compounds generally exhibited very low values as compared to the reference standard, Triton-X. Hence, some of these biheterocyclic propanamides might be considered as salient therapeutic agents in further stages of antidiabetic drug development.
  19. Fulltext Editorial: Childhood vaccination and COVID-19
    Mallhi TH, Salman M, Khan YH, Khan FU, Butt MH, Ung COL, et al.
    Front Pediatr, 2023;11:1298691.
    PMID: 38078334 DOI: 10.3389/fped.2023.1298691
  20. Investigation of structural, electronic and optical properties of two-dimensional MoS2-doped-V2O5 composites for photocatalytic application: a density functional theory study
    Jameel MH, Sufi Bin Roslan M, Bin Mayzan MZH, Agam MAB, Zaki ZI, Fallatah AM
    R Soc Open Sci, 2023 Jul;10(7):230503.
    PMID: 37476508 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230503
    In the present research, the structural, electronic and optical properties of transition metal dichalcogenide-doped transition metal oxides MoS2-doped-V2O5 with various doping concentrations (x = 1-3%) of MoS2 atoms are studied by using first principles calculation. The generalized gradient approximation Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof simulation approach is used to investigate the energy bandgap (Eg) of orthorhombic structures. We examined the energy bandgap (Eg) decrement from 2.76 to 1.30 eV with various doping (x = 1-3%) of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) atoms. The bandgap nature shows that the material is a well-known direct bandgap semiconductor. MoS2 doping (x = 1-3%) atoms in pentoxide (V2O5) creates the extra gamma active states which contribute to the formation of conduction and valance bands. MoS2-doped-V2O5 composite is a proficient photocatalyst, has a large surface area for absorption of light, decreases the electron-hole pairs recombination rate and increases the charge transport. A comprehensive study of optical conductivity reveals that strong peaks of MoS2-doped-V2O5 increase in ultraviolet spectrum region with small shifts at larger energy bands through increment doping x = 1-3% atoms of MoS2. A significant decrement was found in the reflectivity due to the decrement in the bandgap with doping. The optical properties significantly increased by the decrement of bandgap (Eg). Two-dimensional MoS2-doped-V2O5 composite has high energy absorption, optical conductivity and refractive index, and is an appropriate material for photocatalytic applications.
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