University of Okara

The functional diversity of the mammalian intestinal microbiome far exceeds that of the host organism, and microbial genes contribute substantially to the well-being of the host. However, beneficial gut organisms can also be pathogenic when present in the gut or other locations in the body. Among dominant beneficial bacteria are several species of Bacteroides, which metabolize polysaccharides and oligosaccharides, providing nutrition and vitamins to the host and other intestinal microbial residents. These topics and the specific organismal and molecular interactions that are known to be responsible for the beneficial and detrimental effects of Bacteroides species in humans comprise the focus of this review. The complexity of these interactions will be revealed.

Water, a necessary component of cell protoplasm, plays an essential role in supporting life on Earth; nevertheless, extreme changes in climatic conditions limit water availability, causing numerous issues, such as the current water-scarce regimes in many regions of the biome. This review aims to collect data from various published studies in the literature to understand and critically analyze plants' morphological, growth, yield, and physio-biochemical responses to drought stress and their potential to modulate and nullify the damaging effects of drought stress via activating natural physiological and biochemical mechanisms. In addition, the review described current breakthroughs in understanding how plant hormones influence drought stress responses and phytohormonal interaction through signaling under water stress regimes. The information for this review was systematically gathered from different global search engines and the scientific literature databases Science Direct, including Google Scholar, Web of Science, related studies, published books, and articles. Drought stress is a significant obstacle to meeting food demand for the world's constantly growing population. Plants cope with stress regimes through changes to cellular osmotic potential, water potential, and activation of natural defense systems in the form of antioxidant enzymes and accumulation of osmolytes including proteins, proline, glycine betaine, phenolic compounds, and soluble sugars. Phytohormones modulate developmental processes and signaling networks, which aid in acclimating plants to biotic and abiotic challenges and, consequently, their survival. Significant progress has been made for jasmonates, salicylic acid, and ethylene in identifying important components and understanding their roles in plant responses to abiotic stress. Other plant hormones, such as abscisic acid, auxin, gibberellic acid, brassinosteroids, and peptide hormones, have been linked to plant defense signaling pathways in various ways.

Over the years, the vaste expansion of plastic manufacturing has dramatically increased the environmental impact of microplastics [MPs] and nanoplastics [NPs], making them a threat to marine and terrestrial biota because they contain endocrine disrupting chemicals [EDCs] and other harmful compounds. MPs and NPs have deleteriouse impacts on mammalian endocrine components such as hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, testes, and ovaries. MPs and NPs absorb and act as a transport medium for harmful chemicals such as bisphenols, phthalates, polybrominated diphenyl ether, polychlorinated biphenyl ether, organotin, perfluorinated compounds, dioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, organic contaminants, and heavy metals, which are commonly used as additives in plastic production. As the EDCs are not covalently bonded to plastics, they can easily leach into milk, water, and other liquids affecting the endocrine system of mammals upon exposure. The toxicity induced by MPs and NPs is size-dependent, as smaller particles have better absorption capacity and larger surface area, releasing more EDC and toxic chemicals. Various EDCs contained or carried by MPs and NPs share structural similarities with specific hormone receptors; hence they interfere with normal hormone receptors, altering the hormonal action of the endocrine glands. This review demonstrates size-dependent MPs' bioaccumulation, distribution, and translocation with potential hazards to the endocrine gland. We reviewed that MPs and NPs disrupt hypothalamic-pituitary axes, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid/adrenal/testicular/ovarian axis leading to oxidative stress, reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, cytotoxicity, developmental abnormalities, decreased sperm quality, and immunotoxicity. The direct consequences of MPs and NPs on the thyroid, testis, and ovaries are documented. Still, studies need to be carried out to identify the direct effects of MPs and NPs on the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands.

Soil microorganisms might be assessed for their capabilities of plant growth promotion in order to identify heat tolerant strategies for crop production. The planned study was conducted to determine the potential of heat tolerant plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in mitigating heat stress effects in tomato. Bacillus cereus was evaluated for plant growth promoting activities and assessed for 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC-deaminase) (0.76–C0.9 μM/mg protein/h), and exopolysaccharide (0.66–C0.91 mg/mL) under normal and heat stressed conditions. Plant growth regulators were evaluated through High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Bacterial inoculation effects on important physiological and biochemical parameters were evaluated under normal and heat stressed conditions in growth chamber. The morphological-physiological traits significantly revealed drastic effects on both of un-inoculated tomato varieties under heat stress conditions. Bacterial augmentation significantly promoted shoot, root length, leaf surface area, fresh and dry weight. Heat stress enhanced extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) production and cleavage of ACC into a-ketobutyrate and ammonia due to ACC-deaminase producing bacteria that significantly reduced the adverse effects of heat on tomato growth. In conclusion, the applied plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) bacterial strain proved as potential candidate for improving tomato crop growing under heat stressed conditions. However, it is highly suggested to validate the current results by conducting field trials.

This study aimed to investigate the direct influence of entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity on the entrepreneurial intention with the indirect role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. This study applied the structural equation model technique using AMOS software to verify the hypothesis relationships. This study collected self-administered survey data from 365 university students of Jiangsu and Zhejiang province of China. The findings indicated that entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity have a positive and significant influence on entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, results revealed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy partially mediates in the relationship between entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial mindset, and creativity on entrepreneurial intention. Further implications and limitations are also discussed in this article.

As a clean, efficient, and renewable energy source, hydrogen has always been recognized as a favourable replacement of fossil fuel. A primary challenge is an efficient generation of hydrogen to fulfil the requirements of hydrogen on a commercial scale. The electrocatalytic process of HER (hydrogen evolution reaction), as primary phase in water electrolytic process for H 2 production, has undergone comprehensive observation from recent decades. Electrolytic water splitting presents a promised route to attain efficient hydrogen generation concerning energy conversion and storage, with electrolysis or catalysis playing a pivotal role. The advancement of catalyst or electrocatalysts that are effective, enduring and economical is necessary prerequisite for realizing the intended electrolytic hydrogen generation from water splitting for applicable considerations, embodying the primary emphasis of this article. In this extensive review, we initially summarize the basics of the Hydrogen evolution reaction and examine the latest cutting-edge progress in economical and highly efficiency catalysts utilizing both non-noble and noble metals. Moreover, the recent breakthroughs over the preceding years in electrolytic HER employing more affordable and widely available nanoparticles with a specific center of attention on economical and non-platinum electrocatalysts rooted in metal free (MF) and transition metal composite catalysts are deliberated here.

The need for high-performance and environmental friendly energy storage systems has prompted researchers to develop novel and improved electrode materials that can meet the rapidly expanding worldwide market in various applications of energy consumption. In this context, 2D graphene is one of the most promising candidates, attributed to a theoretical specific surface area of 2600 m2/g, high electrical charges mobility of ⁓230,000 cm2/Vs, high thermal conductivity value of 3000 W/mK along with high strength that has made it highly desirable for next-generation energy storage applications, particularly for supercapacitors. This extensive study offers a concise summary of recent developments by using graphene as a supercapacitor electrode in the forms of foams (3D), thin sheets (2D), Nano-fibers (1D), and Nano-dots (0D). This article provides a brief perspective on the discovery and advancement of graphene, followed by a study of the theoretical and experimental approaches employed for the production of superior-quality graphene. Additionally, the article focuses on the fabrication of electrodes while preserving their fundamental characteristics. An illustration of its potential applications is demonstrated by highlighting its efficacy as an anode in supercapacitors. The article concludes by identifying the main challenges encountered and the potential prospects for the subject matter.

Potato leaf disease detection in an early stage is challenging because of variations in crop species, crop diseases symptoms and environmental factors. These factors make it difficult to detect potato leaf diseases in the early stage. Various machine learning techniques have been developed to detect potato leaf diseases. However, the existing methods cannot detect crop species and crop diseases in general because these models are trained and tested on images of plant leaves of a specific region. In this research, a multi-level deep learning model for potato leaf disease recognition has developed. At the first level, it extracts the potato leaves from the potato plant image using the YOLOv5 image segmentation technique. At the second level, a novel deep learning technique has been developed using a convolutional neural network to detect the early blight and late blight potato diseases from potato leaf images. The proposed potato leaf disease detection model was trained and tested on a potato leaf disease dataset. The potato leaf disease dataset contains 4062 images collected from the Central Punjab region of Pakistan. The proposed deep learning technique achieved 99.75% accuracy on the potato leaf disease dataset. The performance of the proposed techniques was also evaluated on the PlantVillage dataset. The proposed technique is also compared with the state-of-the-art models and achieved significantly concerning the accuracy and computational cost.

Mechanisms that regulate the growth of eyelashes have remained obscure. We ascertained two families from Pakistan who presented with familial trichomegaly, or extreme eyelash growth. Using a combination of whole exome sequencing and homozygosity mapping, we identified distinct pathogenic mutations within fibroblast growth factor 5 (FGF5) that underlie the disorder. Subsequent sequencing of this gene in several additional trichomegaly families identified an additional mutation in FGF5. We further demonstrated that hair fibers from forearms of these patients were significantly longer than hairs from control individuals, with an increased proportion in the growth phase, anagen. Using hair follicle organ cultures, we show that FGF5 induces regression of the human hair follicle. We have identified FGF5 as a crucial regulator of hair growth in humans for the first time, to our knowledge, and uncovered a therapeutic target to selectively regulate eyelash growth.

Mental disorders represent critical public health challenges as they are\nleading contributors to the global burden of disease and intensely influence\nsocial and financial welfare of individuals. The present comprehensive review\nconcentrate on the two mental disorders: Major depressive Disorder (MDD) and\nBipolar Disorder (BD) with noteworthy publications during the last ten years.\nThere is a big need nowadays for phenotypic characterization of psychiatric\ndisorders with biomarkers. Electroencephalography (EEG) signals could offer a\nrich signature for MDD and BD and then they could improve understanding of\npathophysiological mechanisms underling these mental disorders. In this review,\nwe focus on the literature works adopting neural networks fed by EEG signals.\nAmong those studies using EEG and neural networks, we have discussed a variety\nof EEG based protocols, biomarkers and public datasets for depression and\nbipolar disorder detection. We conclude with a discussion and valuable\nrecommendations that will help to improve the reliability of developed models\nand for more accurate and more deterministic computational intelligence based\nsystems in psychiatry. This review will prove to be a structured and valuable\ninitial point for the researchers working on depression and bipolar disorders\nrecognition by using EEG signals.\n

Materials with nonlinear optical properties have significant applications in nuclear science, biophysics, medicine, chemical dynamics, solid physics & materials science. We show how π bridges, donors & acceptors can be reconfigured to improve optical properties.

Both qualitative and quantitative paradigms try to find the same result; the truth. Qualitative studies are tools used in understanding and describing the world of human experience. Since we maintain our humanity throughout the research process, it is largely impossible to escape the subjective experience, even for the most experienced of researchers. Reliability and Validity are the issue that has been described in great deal by advocates of quantitative researchers. The validity and the norms of rigor that are applied to quantitative research are not entirely applicable to qualitative research. Validity in qualitative research means the extent to which the data is plausible, credible and trustworthy; and thus can be defended when challenged. Reliability and validity remain appropriate concepts for attaining rigor in qualitative research. Qualitative researchers have to salvage responsibility for reliability and validity by implementing verification strategies integral and self-correcting during the conduct of inquiry itself. This ensures the attainment of rigor using strategies inherent within each qualitative design, and moves the responsibility for incorporating and maintaining reliability and validity from external reviewers’ judgments to the investigators themselves. There have different opinions on validity with some suggesting that the concepts of validity is incompatible with qualitative research and should be abandoned while others argue efforts should be made to ensure validity so as to lend credibility to the results. This paper is an attempt to clarify the meaning and use of reliability and validity in the qualitative research paradigm.

Today’s world needs highly efficient systems that can fulfill the growing demand for energy. One of the promising solutions is the fuel cell. Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is considered by many developed countries as an alternative solution of energy in near future. A lot of efforts have been made during last decade to make it commercial by reducing its cost and increasing its durability. Different materials, designs and fabrication technologies have been developed and tested to make it more cost effective and stable. This article is focused on the advancements made in the field of high temperature SOFC. High temperature SOFC does not need any precious catalyst for its operation, unlike in other types of fuel cell. Different conventional and innovative materials have been discussed along with properties and effects on the performance of SOFC’s components (electrolyte anode, cathode, interconnect and sealing materials). Advancements made in the field of cell and stack design are also explored along with hurdles coming in their fabrication and performance. This article also gives an overview of methods required for the fabrication of different components of SOFC. The flexibility of SOFC in terms fuel has also been discussed. Performance of the SOFC with varying combination of electrolyte, anode, cathode and fuel is also described in this article.

Owing to the dominant functions of mitochondria in multiple cellular metabolisms and distinct types of regulated cell death, maintaining a functional mitochondrial network is fundamental for the cellular homeostasis and body fitness in response to physiological adaptations and stressed conditions. The process of mitophagy, in which the dysfunctional or superfluous mitochondria are selectively engulfed by autophagosome and subsequently degraded in lysosome, has been well formulated as one of the major mechanisms for mitochondrial quality control. To date, the PINK1-PRKN-dependent and receptors (including proteins and lipids)-dependent pathways have been characterized to determine the mitophagy in mammalian cells. The mitophagy is highly responsive to the dynamics of endogenous metabolites, including iron-, calcium-, glycolysis-TCA-, NAD(+)-, amino acids-, fatty acids-, and cAMP-associated metabolites. Herein, we summarize the recent advances toward the molecular details of mitophagy regulation in mammalian cells. We also highlight the key regulations of mammalian mitophagy by endogenous metabolites, shed new light on the bidirectional interplay between mitophagy and cellular metabolisms, with attempting to provide a perspective insight into the nutritional intervention of metabolic disorders with mitophagy deficit. Abbreviations: acetyl-CoA: acetyl-coenzyme A; ACO1: aconitase 1; ADCYs: adenylate cyclases; AMPK: AMP-activated protein kinase; ATM: ATM serine/threonine kinase; BCL2L1: BCL2 like 1; BCL2L13: BCL2 like 13; BNIP3: BCL2 interacting protein 3; BNIP3L: BCL2 interacting protein 3 like; Ca(2+): calcium ion; CALCOCO2: calcium binding and coiled-coil domain 2; CANX: calnexin; CO: carbon monoxide; CYCS: cytochrome c, somatic; DFP: deferiprone; DNM1L: dynamin 1 like; ER: endoplasmic reticulum; FKBP8: FKBP prolyl isomerase 8; FOXO3: forkhead box O3; FTMT: ferritin mitochondrial; FUNDC1: FUN14 domain containing 1; GABA: γ-aminobutyric acid; GSH: glutathione; HIF1A: hypoxia inducible factor 1 subunit alpha; IMMT: inner membrane mitochondrial protein; IRP1: iron regulatory protein 1; ISC: iron-sulfur cluster; ITPR2: inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate type 2 receptor; KMO: kynurenine 3-monooxygenase; LIR: LC3 interacting region; MAM: mitochondria-associated membrane; MAP1LC3: microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3; MFNs: mitofusins; mitophagy: mitochondrial autophagy; mPTP: mitochondrial permeability transition pore; MTOR: mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase; NAD(+): nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide; NAM: nicotinamide; NMN: nicotinamide mononucleotide; NO: nitric oxide; NPA: Niemann-Pick type A; NR: nicotinamide riboside; NR4A1: nuclear receptor subfamily 4 group A member 1; NRF1: nuclear respiratory factor 1; OPA1: OPA1 mitochondrial dynamin like GTPase; OPTN: optineurin; PARL: presenilin associated rhomboid like; PARPs: poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases; PC: phosphatidylcholine; PHB2: prohibitin 2; PINK1: PTEN induced kinase 1; PPARG: peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma; PPARGC1A: PPARG coactivator 1 alpha; PRKA: protein kinase AMP-activated; PRKDC: protein kinase, DNA-activated, catalytic subunit; PRKN: parkin RBR E3 ubiquitin protein ligase; RHOT: ras homolog family member T; ROS: reactive oxygen species; SIRTs: sirtuins; STK11: serine/threonine kinase 11; TCA: tricarboxylic acid; TP53: tumor protein p53; ULK1: unc-51 like autophagy activating kinase 1; VDAC1: voltage dependent anion channel 1

In today's global economy, organizational effectiveness and innovation have become top priorities, putting pressure on all businesses worldwide. Therefore, this study aims to explore the impact of organizational culture on effectiveness through organizational innovation. We analyzed organizational resistance as a boundary condition on the relation of organizational innovation and effectiveness to seek whether organizational resistance enhances the positive effect of organizational innovation on effectiveness and on the indirect effect of organizational culture on the effectiveness of organization via organizational effectiveness. Organizational resistance is important because it occurs when employees understand how they fit into the new way of doing things, such that organizational innovation has a positive impact on organizational effectiveness. The data were collected in two waves from 280 manager-employee dyads operating in Pakistan's banking industry. The outcomes indicated that organizational culture positively influences organizational effectiveness; therefore, this relationship is mediated by organizational innovation. The positive influence of organizational innovation on organizational effectiveness is greater among individuals who embraced improvements rapidly than among those who did not. Additionally, organizational resistance reinforces the relationship between organizational culture and effectiveness through organizational innovation, such that the relationship is greater for those who embrace compliant advancement. Thus, the theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

Environmental issues such as global warming, air pollution and ozone depletion have become global challenges. However, environmental awareness, environmental concern, environmental attitude and environmental behavior of individuals, as well as their academic background knowledge, are potential factors that may help in coping with these challenges. Here, we evaluated environmentalawareness, concern, attitude and behavior of university students across the five academic disciplines including arts & humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, biological sciences and environmental sciences. Further, we investigated how environmental-awareness, concern, and attitude influence the environmental behavior of individuals. Data was collected from 824 students of two public and two private sector universities through a self-administered questionnaire. The level of environmental awareness, environmental concern and environmental behavior of university students were found significantly high, whereas, level of environmental attitude was significantly low. Levels of environmental awareness, environmental concern and environmental behavior for all the five disciplines were found adequately high, but the level of environmental attitude was high for only two groups, i.e. physical sciences and biological sciences, and, low for three other groups. The group of biological sciences was ranked at top in all the four cases of awareness, concern, attitude and behavior. Moreover, the effects of environmental awareness and environmental concern on environmental behavior were found significantly positive, whereas the effect of environmental attitude was significantly negative.

Abstract Three dimensional (3D) acceptor‐donor‐acceptor (A−D‐A) type small molecules ( M1 , M2 , M3 and M4) are theoretically investigated for optoelectronic properties. The designed molecules contain spirobifluorene as core unit linked with end capped acceptors through four four thieno‐[3,2‐b]Thiophene (TT) units. The end capped acceptors are (3‐methyl‐2‐thioxothiazolidin‐4‐one) ( M1 ), 2‐(2‐ethylidene‐5,6‐difluoro‐3‐oxo‐2,3‐dihydroinden‐1‐ylidene)malononitrile ( M2 ), 2‐(3‐ethyl‐4‐oxothiazolidin‐2‐ylidine)malononitrile ( M3 ) and 2‐(2‐ethylidene‐5,6‐dicyano‐3‐oxo‐2,3‐dihydroinden‐1‐ylidene)malononitrile ( M4 ). The photovoltaic parameters of the designed molecules are compared with the recently reported reference compound R . Among all designed molecules, M4 is a low energy gap material (2.28 eV), broad absorption which is attributed to excellent communication between strong electron withdrawing end capped acceptors through extended conjugation. All newly designed molecules have lower binding energy as compared to reference molecule R which results in higher exciton dissociation in excited state. The reorganization energy calculations indicate good charge transfer ability of the designed molecules. M4 shows the lowest λ e (0.0022) value with respect to the reference molecule R (0.034) which signifies its enhanced electronic transport behavior. The calculated open circuit voltages (V oc ) ranges from 1.97 to 2.36 eV, 2.11 to 2.49 eV and 1.9 eV to 2.28 eV with respect to three different well known donor materials PTB7‐Th, PBDB−T and P3HT, respectively.

-Cu-BN geometries as compared to copper-decorated BN geometries. Therefore, these nanocages may be considered as potential candidates for application in phosgene sensors.

Patients with breast cancer are prone to serious health-related complications with higher mortality. The primary reason might be a misinterpretation of radiologists in recognizing suspicious lesions due to technical issues in imaging qualities and heterogeneous breast densities which increases the false-(positive and negative) ratio. Early intervention is significant in establishing an up-to-date prognosis process which can successfully mitigate complications of disease with higher recovery. The manual screening of breast abnormalities through traditional machine learning schemes misinterpret the inconsistent feature-extraction process which poses a problem, i.e., patients being called-back for biopsies to eliminates the suspicions. However, several deep learning-based methods have been developed for reliable breast cancer prognosis and classification but very few of them provided a comprehensive overview of lesions segmentation. This research focusses on providing benefits and risks of breast multi-imaging modalities, segmentation schemes, feature extraction, classification of breast abnormalities through state-of-the-art deep learning approaches. This research also explores various well-known databases using ”Breast Cancer” keyword to present a comprehensive survey on existing diagnostic schemes to open-up new research challenges for radiologists and researchers to intervene as early as possible to develop an efficient and reliable breast cancer prognosis system using prominent deep learning schemes.

Hydrogels are three-dimensional polymer networks that are hydrophilic and capable of retaining a large amount of water. Hydrogels also can act as vehicles for the controlled delivery of active compounds. Bio-polymers are polymers that are derived from natural sources. Hydrogels prepared from biopolymers are considered non-toxic, biocompatible, biodegradable, and cost-effective. Therefore, bio-polymeric hydrogels are being extensively synthesized and used all over the world. Hydrogels based on biopolymers finds important applications in the agricultural field where they are used as soil conditioning agents as they can increase the water retention ability of soil and can act as a carrier of nutrients and other agrochemicals. Hydrogels are also used for the controlled delivery of fertilizer to plants. In this review, bio-polymeric hydrogels based on starch, chitosan, guar gum, gelatin, lignin, and alginate polymer have been discussed in terms of their synthesis method, swelling behavior, and possible agricultural application. The urgency to address water scarcity and the need for sustainable water management in agriculture necessitate the exploration and implementation of innovative solutions. By understanding the synthesis techniques and factors influencing the swelling behavior of these hydrogels, we can unlock their full potential in fostering sustainable agriculture and mitigating the challenges posed by an ever-changing environment.