The rapid evolution of smart cities through IoT,cloud computing,and connected infrastructures has significantly enhanced sectors such as transportation,healthcare,energy,and public safety,but also increased exposure t...The rapid evolution of smart cities through IoT,cloud computing,and connected infrastructures has significantly enhanced sectors such as transportation,healthcare,energy,and public safety,but also increased exposure to sophisticated cyber threats.The diversity of devices,high data volumes,and real-time operational demands complicate security,requiring not just robust intrusion detection but also effective feature selection for relevance and scalability.Traditional Machine Learning(ML)based Intrusion Detection System(IDS)improves detection but often lacks interpretability,limiting stakeholder trust and timely responses.Moreover,centralized feature selection in conventional IDS compromises data privacy and fails to accommodate the decentralized nature of smart city infrastructures.To address these limitations,this research introduces an Interpretable Federated Learning(FL)based Cyber Intrusion Detection model tailored for smart city applications.The proposed system leverages privacy-preserving feature selection,where each client node independently identifies top-ranked features using ML models integrated with SHAP-based explainability.These local feature subsets are then aggregated at a central server to construct a global model without compromising sensitive data.Furthermore,the global model is enhanced with Explainable AI(XAI)techniques such as SHAP and LIME,offering both global interpretability and instance-level transparency for cyber threat decisions.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed global model achieves a high detection accuracy of 98.51%,with a significantly low miss rate of 1.49%,outperforming existing models while ensuring explainability,privacy,and scalability across smart city infrastructures.展开更多
The detection of nanoplastics(NPs)and their interactions with antibiotics is critical due to their potential environmental and health risks.Traditional detection methods are challenged by the small size and chemical s...The detection of nanoplastics(NPs)and their interactions with antibiotics is critical due to their potential environmental and health risks.Traditional detection methods are challenged by the small size and chemical similarity of NPs to microplastics.Current surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS)substrates for NP detection are limited by high cost,reliance on single enhancement modes,and insufficient sensitivity and selectivity,especially for NP-antibiotic complexes.In this study,the F/M-AAO substrate,which integrates 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-tetracyanoquinodimethane(F_(4)TCNQ)and molybdenum disulfide(MoS_(2))with anodic aluminum oxide(AAO)templates,is used to enhance the detection of NPs and NP-antibiotic complexes.The conical cavity structure of the substrate facilitates the enrichment and direct detection of NPs with diameters smaller than 450 nm.The three-dimensional(3D)F/M-AAO substrate achieved a limit of detection(LOD)of 1.73×10^(6)ng/L for 100-nm NPs and a minimum detection concentration of 10^(-10)M for ciprofloxacin adsorbed on NPs(NPs-CIP).It demonstrated remarkable sensitivity and selectivity in the detection of both individual NPs and NPantibiotic complexes.This work highlights the innovative application of the F/M-AAO substrate in the SERS detection of NPs and NP-antibiotic complexes,providing a low-cost and effective platform for monitoring emerging environmental contaminants.展开更多
Variations in the nutrients and water that plants require for metabolism,development,and the maintenance of cellular homeostasis are the main causes of abiotic stress in plants.It has,however,hardly ever been studied ...Variations in the nutrients and water that plants require for metabolism,development,and the maintenance of cellular homeostasis are the main causes of abiotic stress in plants.It has,however,hardly ever been studied how these transporter proteins,such as aquaporin which is responsible for food and water intake in cell plasma mem-branes,interact with one another.This review aims to explore the interactions between nutrient transporters and aquaporins during water and nutrient uptake.It also investigates how symbiotic relationships influence the plant genome’s responses to regulatory processes such as photoperiodism,senescence,and nitrogenfixation.These responses are observed in reaction to various abiotic stresses.For instance,plasma membrane transporters are upregulated during macronutrient insufficiency,tonoplast transporters are overexpressed,and aquaporins are downregulated in micronutrient deficiency.Additionally,tolerant plants often exhibit increased expression of nutrient transporters and aquaporins in response to drought,salt,and cold temperatures.To better comprehend plant stress tolerance to abiotic challenges including starvation,K famine,salt,and freezing temperatures,both classes of nutrient and water transporters should be considered at the same time.展开更多
Objective:To evaluate the antiniicrobial polenlial of different extracts of the endophytic fungus Phoma sp.and the tentative identification of their active constituents.Methods:The extract and compounds were screened ...Objective:To evaluate the antiniicrobial polenlial of different extracts of the endophytic fungus Phoma sp.and the tentative identification of their active constituents.Methods:The extract and compounds were screened for antimicrobial activity using the Agar Well Diffusion Method.Four compounds were purified using column chromatography and tlieir structures were assigned using～1H and～(13)C NMR spectra,DEPT,2D COSY,HMQC and HMBC experiments.Results:The ethyl acetate fraction of Phoma sp.showed good antifungal,antibacterial,and algicidal properties.One new dihydrofuran derivative,named phomafuranol(1),together with tliree known compounds,phomalacton(2),(3R)-5-hydroxymellein(3)and emodin(4)were isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction of Phoma sp.Preliminary studies indicated that phomalacton(2)displayed strong antibacterial,good antifungal and antialgal activities.Similarly(3R)-5-hydroxymellein(3)and emodin(4)showed good antifungal,antibacterial and algicidal properties.Conclusions:Antimicrobial activities of the ethyl acetate fraction of the endophytic fungus Phoma sp.and isolated compounds clearly demonstrate that Phoma sp.and its active compounds represent a great potential for the food,cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.展开更多
Load balancing is a technique for identifying overloaded and underloaded nodes and balancing the load between them.To maximize various performance parameters in cloud computing,researchers suggested various load balan...Load balancing is a technique for identifying overloaded and underloaded nodes and balancing the load between them.To maximize various performance parameters in cloud computing,researchers suggested various load balancing approaches.To store and access data and services provided by the different service providers through the network over different regions,cloud computing is one of the latest technology systems for both end-users and service providers.The volume of data is increasing due to the pandemic and a significant increase in usage of the internet has also been experienced.Users of the cloud are looking for services that are intelligent,and,can balance the traffic load by service providers,resulting in seamless and uninterrupted services.Different types of algorithms and techniques are available that can manage the load balancing in the cloud services.In this paper,a newly proposed method for load balancing in cloud computing at the database level is introduced.The database cloud services are frequently employed by companies of all sizes,for application development and business process.Load balancing for distributed applications can be used to maintain an efficient task scheduling process that also meets the user requirements and improves resource utilization.Load balancing is the process of distributing the load on various nodes to ensure that no single node is overloaded.To avoid the nodes from being overloaded,the load balancer divides an equal amount of computing time to all nodes.The results of two different scenarios showed the cross-region traffic management and significant growth in revenue of restaurants by using load balancer decisions on application traffic gateways.展开更多
Nitrogen availability can be enhanced with the application of nitrogen fixing bacteria and it may be helpful in increasing forage yield and improving quality of oat. Therefore, a field trial to evaluate the effect of ...Nitrogen availability can be enhanced with the application of nitrogen fixing bacteria and it may be helpful in increasing forage yield and improving quality of oat. Therefore, a field trial to evaluate the effect of seed inoculation with nitrogen fixing bacteria on forage yield and quality of oat was carried out at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad during Rabi season 2013-14. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with factorial arrangements using three replications. The experiment was comprised of two integrated approaches. The first approach was oat cultivars consisting of four treatments, V1 (AVON), V2 (S-2000), V3 (S-2011) and V4 (PD2LV65) and the second approach was seed inoculation consisting of three treatments, S0 (control), S1 (Azotobacter spp.), S2 (Azospirillum spp.). Fisher’s analysis of variance technique was used for statistically interpretation of data by using least significant difference (LSD) test at 5% level of probability. Nitrogen fixing bacteria significantly affect the germination count (m2), plant height (cm), number of tillers (m2), number of leaves per tiller, leaf area per tiller (cm2), green forage yield (t·ha-1) and dry matter yield (t ha-1). The maximum green forage yield (85.2 t·ha-1), dry matter yield (14.1 t ·ha-1) and crude protein (11.5%) were recorded where Azotobacter inoculation was applied. The interaction between cultivars and nitrogenous strains was significant for green forage yield (t·ha-1), dry matter yield (t·ha-1) and crude protein (%). Conclusion showed that cultivar Sargodha-2011 which was inoculated with Azotobacter spp. gave higher forage yield of good quality.展开更多
Nanocrystalline ZnO thin films have been fabricated by a multi-step solgel method using spin coating technique. Zinc acetate dihydrate, 2-methoxyethanol and monoethanolamine were used as a starting material, solvent a...Nanocrystalline ZnO thin films have been fabricated by a multi-step solgel method using spin coating technique. Zinc acetate dihydrate, 2-methoxyethanol and monoethanolamine were used as a starting material, solvent and stabilizer, respectively. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were employed to characterize structure and morphologies of the as-deposited samples. The results of XRD and SEM showed that the heat treatment conditions, final rotational (spinning) speed, fume exhaust and precise control of concentration of reactants (precursor and solvent used) strongly affect the crystallographic orientation and morphology of the resultant ZnO films. The XRD pattern showed that the ZnO films formed the preferred orientation along c-axis and the grain size is 16nm for the samples. Only one peak corresponding to the (002) plane at 2θ = 34.34 appears on the diffractograms. The as-deposited films had a transparency of greater than 80% in the visible-near IR region from 400 nm - 800 nm. The optical band gap energy and thickness were calculated to be 3.296 eV and 266 nm respectively.展开更多
The concept of neutrosophic statistics is applied to propose two monitoring schemes which are an improvement of the neutrosophic exponentially weighted moving average(NEWMA)chart.In this study,two control charts are d...The concept of neutrosophic statistics is applied to propose two monitoring schemes which are an improvement of the neutrosophic exponentially weighted moving average(NEWMA)chart.In this study,two control charts are designed under the uncertain environment or neutrosophic statistical interval system,when all observations are undermined,imprecise or fuzzy.These are termed neutrosophic double and triple exponentially weighted moving average(NDEWMA and NTEWMA)control charts.For the proficiency of the proposed chart,Monte Carlo simulations are used to calculate the run-length characteristics(such as average run length(ARL),standard deviation of the run length(SDRL),percentiles(P_(25),P_(50),P_(75)))of the proposed charts.The structures of the proposed control charts are more effective in detecting small shifts while these are comparable with the other existing charts in detecting moderate and large shifts.The simulation study and real-life implementations of the proposed charts show that the proposed NDEWMA and NTEWMA charts perform better in monitoring the process of road traffic crashes and electric engineering data as compared to the existing control charts.Therefore,the proposed charts will be helpful in minimizing the road accident and minimizing the defective products.Furthermore,the proposed charts are more acceptable and actual to apply in uncertain environment.展开更多
Cloud computing is an emerging domain that is capturing global users from all walks of life—the corporate sector,government sector,and social arena as well.Various cloud providers have offered multiple services and f...Cloud computing is an emerging domain that is capturing global users from all walks of life—the corporate sector,government sector,and social arena as well.Various cloud providers have offered multiple services and facilities to this audience and the number of providers is increasing very swiftly.This enormous pace is generating the requirement of a comprehensive ecosystem that shall provide a seamless and customized user environment not only to enhance the user experience but also to improve security,availability,accessibility,and latency.Emerging technology is providing robust solutions to many of our problems,the cloud platform is one of them.It is worth mentioning that these solutions are also amplifying the complexity and need of sustenance of these rapid solutions.As with cloud computing,new entrants as cloud service providers,resellers,tech-support,hardware manufacturers,and software developers appear on a daily basis.These actors playing their role in the growth and sustenance of the cloud ecosystem.Our objective is to use convergence for cloud services,software-defined networks,network function virtualization for infrastructure,cognition for pattern development,and knowledge repository.In order to gear up these processes,machine learning to induce intelligence to maintain ecosystem growth,to monitor performance,and to become able to make decisions for the sustenance of the ecosystem.Workloads may be programmed to“superficially”imitate most business applications and create large numbers using lightweight workload generators that merely stress the storage.In today’s current IT environment,when many enterprises use the cloud to service some of their application demands,a different performance testing technique that assesses more than the storage is necessary.Compute and storage are merged into a single building block with HCI(Hyper-converged infrastructure),resulting in a huge pool of compute and storage resources when clustered with other building blocks.The novelty of thiswork to design and test cloud storage using themeasurement of availability,downtime,and outage parameters.Results showed that the storage reliability in a hyper-converged system is above 92%.展开更多
Cloud systems are tools and software for cloud computing that are deployed on the Internet or a cloud computing network,and users can use them at any time.After assessing and choosing cloud providers,however,customers...Cloud systems are tools and software for cloud computing that are deployed on the Internet or a cloud computing network,and users can use them at any time.After assessing and choosing cloud providers,however,customers confront the variety and difficulty of quality of service(QoS).To increase customer retention and engagement success rates,it is critical to research and develops an accurate and objective evaluation model.Cloud is the emerging environment for distributed services at various layers.Due to the benefits of this environment,globally cloud is being taken as a standard environment for individuals as well as for the corporate sector as it reduces capital expenditure and provides secure,accessible,and manageable services to all stakeholders but Cloud computing has security challenges,including vulnerability for clients and association acknowledgment,that delay the rapid adoption of computing models.Allocation of resources in the Cloud is difficult because resources provide numerous measures of quality of service.In this paper,the proposed resource allocation approach is based on attribute QoS Scoring that takes into account parameters the reputation of the asset,task completion time,task completion ratio,and resource loading.This article is focused on the cloud service’s security,cloud reliability,and could performance.In this paper,the machine learning algorithm neuro-fuzzy has been used to address the cloud security issues to measure the parameter security and privacy,trust issues.The findings reveal that the ANFIS-dependent parameters are primarily designed to discern anomalies in cloud security and features output normally yields better results and guarantees data consistency and computational power.展开更多
The past two decades witnessed a broad-increase in web technology and on-line gaming.Enhancing the broadband confinements is viewed as one of the most significant variables that prompted new gaming technology.The imme...The past two decades witnessed a broad-increase in web technology and on-line gaming.Enhancing the broadband confinements is viewed as one of the most significant variables that prompted new gaming technology.The immense utilization of web applications and games additionally prompted growth in the handled devices and moving the limited gaming experience from user devices to online cloud servers.As internet capabilities are enhanced new ways of gaming are being used to improve the gaming experience.In cloud-based video gaming,game engines are hosted in cloud gaming data centers,and compressed gaming scenes are rendered to the players over the internet with updated controls.In such systems,the task of transferring games and video compression imposes huge computational complexity is required on cloud servers.The basic problems in cloud gaming in particular are high encoding time,latency,and low frame rates which require a new methodology for a better solution.To improve the bandwidth issue in cloud games,the compression of video sequences requires an alternative mechanism to improve gaming adaption without input delay.In this paper,the proposed improved methodology is used for automatic unnecessary scene detection,scene removing and bit rate reduction using an adaptive algorithm for object detection in a game scene.As a result,simulations showed without much impact on the players’quality experience,the selective object encoding method and object adaption technique decrease the network latency issue,reduce the game streaming bitrate at a remarkable scale on different games.The proposed algorithm was evaluated for three video game scenes.In this paper,achieved 14.6%decrease in encoding and 45.6%decrease in bit rate for the first video game scene.展开更多
The assessment of heterotic F1 combinations is a basic requisite for hybrid seed development. A set of 30 F1 hybrids along with their parental inbred lines were evaluated under both normal and water deficit conditions...The assessment of heterotic F1 combinations is a basic requisite for hybrid seed development. A set of 30 F1 hybrids along with their parental inbred lines were evaluated under both normal and water deficit conditions for various physiological and agronomic traits. Highly significant mean squares due to general combining ability, specific combining ability and reciprocal effect were observed for all traits under both water regimes. Components of variation exhibited greater estimates for GCA variance (б2g) than SCA variance (б2s) for majority of the traits under both normal and stress conditions depicting the predominant role of additive genetic component. Inbred lines NCIL-20-20, D-157 and OH-8 were found to be the best general combiner on the basis of performance regarding grain yield per plant under water deficit condition. The F1 combinations namely, NCIL-20-20 × D-109, NCIL-20-20 × OH-8 and D-157 × NCIL-20-20 were out-performers based on yield and yield attributes under water deficit conditions. On the basis of our results, we recommend these hybrids for further exploitation to assess their potential for commercial cultivation under water deficit condition.展开更多
Country level assessment of feed supply and demand for livestock in Pakistan was conducted for the year 2013. Availability of feed ingredients was calculated from the official crop production statistics using publishe...Country level assessment of feed supply and demand for livestock in Pakistan was conducted for the year 2013. Availability of feed ingredients was calculated from the official crop production statistics using published harvest index and extraction ratios, and their nutrient supply was estimated from local feed composition tables. Feed requirements of livestock species were calculated from the standard tables published by US National Research Council. The results showed that indigenous feed resources were short for livestock and poultry requirements. The supply and demand gap for dry biomass, crude protein （CP） and metabolizable energy （ME） were 19.4%, 37.2% and 38.0%, respectively. Crop residues were the predominant source comprising 58.8% of the total feed supply, while fodder and grazing shared 23.8% and 9.2%, respectively. Grains and by-products contributed 8.2% to the feed supply. In attempt to fill this gap, large quantities of oilseed meals were imported mainly for the poultry sector. Maize was the major feed grain used in poultry and ruminant rations, and they together consumed 79% of the country＇s total maize produce. Based on the anticipated rapid expansion in poultry, dairy and feedlot farming in Pakistan, the feed gap will further enlarge and this warrants future focus on efficient and intensive utilization of the local conventional and nonconventional feed resources. The data and information presented in this paper provided a sound basis for regular updating in future to attain sustainable growth of livestock sector in the country.展开更多
In this study,we harnessed the properties of desert plants to synthesize silver nanoparticles to explore potential antimicrobial solutions.Chrozophora plicata and Heliotropium curassavicum extracts were used as green ...In this study,we harnessed the properties of desert plants to synthesize silver nanoparticles to explore potential antimicrobial solutions.Chrozophora plicata and Heliotropium curassavicum extracts were used as green reducing agents to transform silver ions into nanoparticles.Our findings revealed novel properties of C.plicata,which have not been reported before.Surface plasmon resonance peak at 453.6 and 431 nm for C.plicata and H.curassavicum,respectively,via ultraviolet(UV)spectral analysis evidenced the successful fabrication of silver nanoparticles with particle sizes ranging from 4.3-8 and 3.1-6.97 nm respectively,which was validated by field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM).X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the crystal structure of these nanoparticles had a face-centered cubic geometry.Fourier transform infrared spectrometry of the plant extract showed strong signals corresponding to carbohydrates,proteins,and phenolics.Antibacterial assays of the silver nanoparticles from C.plicata displayed zones of inhibition at 5 and 4 mm against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli,respectively.Meanwhile,the silver nanoparticles from H.curassavicum exhibited zones of inhibition against both pathogens at 10 and 7 mm,respectively.The test samples were substantial inhibitors of S.aureus and E.coli biofilm formation since these displayed IC_(50) values in the range of 8.88-10.57 mg/mL,which is as potent as the reference ciprofloxacin.Consequently,the silver nanoparticles derived from these desert plants can be potential drug candidates for treating respiratory and digestive tract infections alone or in combination with existing antibiotics.展开更多
Caralluma edulis is a leafless succulent herb native to India and Pakistan,where it is used as emergency food and as potential herbal medicine.It was investigated for its bioactive chemicals and further medicinal prop...Caralluma edulis is a leafless succulent herb native to India and Pakistan,where it is used as emergency food and as potential herbal medicine.It was investigated for its bioactive chemicals and further medicinal properties.The objective of the current study was to accomplish the chemical and biological characterization of C.edulis.Chemical profiling was done through estimation of total bioactive contents and UHPLMS analysis.Biological screening was achieved through six different antioxidant and enzyme inhibition assays.Estimation of its phenolic and flavonoid contents revealed that ethyl acetate fraction(Ce-E)contains 14.15 mg GAE/g extract and 26.13 mg RE/g extract of phenolics and flavonoids,respectively,followed by the methanolic(Ce-M)and the water(Ce-W)soluble fractions.In free radical inhibitory assays,Ce-E fraction also exhibited highest activity(DPPH:19.72 mg TE/g extract,ABTS:48.66 mg TE/g extract)followed by Ce-M,whereas,in CUPRAC and FRAP assays,all the extracts,except water fraction,exhibited nearly equal potential in the range of 53.85–57.96 and 25.42–32.12 mg TE/g extract,respectively.In metal chelating antioxidant assay,only Ce-M and Ce-W fractions displayed considerable activities(25.88 and 23.55 mg EDTAE/g extract respectively),whereas,Ce-H exhibited the highest activity in phosphomolybdenum assay(1.03 mmolTE/g extract),against BChE(6.43 mg GALAE/g extract),α-glucosidase andα-amylase(6.98 and 0.47 mmol ACAE/g,respectively)and tyrosinase(64.46 mg KAE/g extract)enzymes.Ce-M and Ce-E also exhibited significant activity against tyrosinase(59.85 and 58.40 mg KAE/g extract,respectively).Crude methanolic extract(Ce-M)was analyzed to unveil its secondary metabolic picture;the UHPLCMS analysis discloses 105 compounds as phenolic acids,flavonoids,steroids and their glycosides,which makes the C.edulis extract a strong candidate for nutraceutical and functional food ingredient.Some of the metabolites were docked against all the tested enzymes to predict mode of actions and to substantiate the pharmaceutical nature of C.edulis.展开更多
Introduction Numerous meta-analyses done on adults suggest superiority of continuous mass closure technique,but any such study does not exist for the pediatric age group.The results in adults cannot be applied to pedi...Introduction Numerous meta-analyses done on adults suggest superiority of continuous mass closure technique,but any such study does not exist for the pediatric age group.The results in adults cannot be applied to pediatrics because of numerous physiologic and anatomic differences.Methods This is a single-blinded,randomized controlled trial,1:1 parallel groups,that compares the frequency of dehiscence between the interrupted and continuous mass closure techniques for transverse incisions in pediatric patients.The age range was from birth to 12 years.We sampled 350 patients undergoing emergency or elective exploratory laparotomies in our pediatric surgery unit.Blocked randomization was used and only the patients remained blinded during the intervention.One group was closed with interrupted mass closure(group A)and the other group with continuous mass closure technique(group B).We had to drop 50 patients for not meeting the inclusion criteria.results The wound dehiscence rate for group A was 1.34%(4 patients)and for group B was 3.0%(9 patients).Significance was calculated usingχ^(2)(p<0.156).The global wound dehiscence rate was 4.34%(13 patients).The maximum number of patients dehisced on the fifth postoperative day,while the range was 4-11 days.The only statistically significant confounding factor was wound classification(p<0.002).Discussion Statistically there is no significant difference between interrupted and continuous mass closures techniques in terms of wound dehiscence.The dirty wounds are at a maximum risk of developing wound dehiscence irrespective of the technique used.We need to strictly adhere to the basic principles of closure especially when dealing with dirty wounds.trial registration number TCTR20150318001.展开更多
文摘The rapid evolution of smart cities through IoT,cloud computing,and connected infrastructures has significantly enhanced sectors such as transportation,healthcare,energy,and public safety,but also increased exposure to sophisticated cyber threats.The diversity of devices,high data volumes,and real-time operational demands complicate security,requiring not just robust intrusion detection but also effective feature selection for relevance and scalability.Traditional Machine Learning(ML)based Intrusion Detection System(IDS)improves detection but often lacks interpretability,limiting stakeholder trust and timely responses.Moreover,centralized feature selection in conventional IDS compromises data privacy and fails to accommodate the decentralized nature of smart city infrastructures.To address these limitations,this research introduces an Interpretable Federated Learning(FL)based Cyber Intrusion Detection model tailored for smart city applications.The proposed system leverages privacy-preserving feature selection,where each client node independently identifies top-ranked features using ML models integrated with SHAP-based explainability.These local feature subsets are then aggregated at a central server to construct a global model without compromising sensitive data.Furthermore,the global model is enhanced with Explainable AI(XAI)techniques such as SHAP and LIME,offering both global interpretability and instance-level transparency for cyber threat decisions.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed global model achieves a high detection accuracy of 98.51%,with a significantly low miss rate of 1.49%,outperforming existing models while ensuring explainability,privacy,and scalability across smart city infrastructures.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.12074229).
文摘The detection of nanoplastics(NPs)and their interactions with antibiotics is critical due to their potential environmental and health risks.Traditional detection methods are challenged by the small size and chemical similarity of NPs to microplastics.Current surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS)substrates for NP detection are limited by high cost,reliance on single enhancement modes,and insufficient sensitivity and selectivity,especially for NP-antibiotic complexes.In this study,the F/M-AAO substrate,which integrates 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-tetracyanoquinodimethane(F_(4)TCNQ)and molybdenum disulfide(MoS_(2))with anodic aluminum oxide(AAO)templates,is used to enhance the detection of NPs and NP-antibiotic complexes.The conical cavity structure of the substrate facilitates the enrichment and direct detection of NPs with diameters smaller than 450 nm.The three-dimensional(3D)F/M-AAO substrate achieved a limit of detection(LOD)of 1.73×10^(6)ng/L for 100-nm NPs and a minimum detection concentration of 10^(-10)M for ciprofloxacin adsorbed on NPs(NPs-CIP).It demonstrated remarkable sensitivity and selectivity in the detection of both individual NPs and NPantibiotic complexes.This work highlights the innovative application of the F/M-AAO substrate in the SERS detection of NPs and NP-antibiotic complexes,providing a low-cost and effective platform for monitoring emerging environmental contaminants.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China(23KJA210003)the Open Project Program of Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety,the Ministry of Education of China,Yangzhou University(JILAR-KF202202).
文摘Variations in the nutrients and water that plants require for metabolism,development,and the maintenance of cellular homeostasis are the main causes of abiotic stress in plants.It has,however,hardly ever been studied how these transporter proteins,such as aquaporin which is responsible for food and water intake in cell plasma mem-branes,interact with one another.This review aims to explore the interactions between nutrient transporters and aquaporins during water and nutrient uptake.It also investigates how symbiotic relationships influence the plant genome’s responses to regulatory processes such as photoperiodism,senescence,and nitrogenfixation.These responses are observed in reaction to various abiotic stresses.For instance,plasma membrane transporters are upregulated during macronutrient insufficiency,tonoplast transporters are overexpressed,and aquaporins are downregulated in micronutrient deficiency.Additionally,tolerant plants often exhibit increased expression of nutrient transporters and aquaporins in response to drought,salt,and cold temperatures.To better comprehend plant stress tolerance to abiotic challenges including starvation,K famine,salt,and freezing temperatures,both classes of nutrient and water transporters should be considered at the same time.
基金supported by the BMBF(Bundesministerium fr Bildung und Forschung,project no.03F0360A)
文摘Objective:To evaluate the antiniicrobial polenlial of different extracts of the endophytic fungus Phoma sp.and the tentative identification of their active constituents.Methods:The extract and compounds were screened for antimicrobial activity using the Agar Well Diffusion Method.Four compounds were purified using column chromatography and tlieir structures were assigned using～1H and～(13)C NMR spectra,DEPT,2D COSY,HMQC and HMBC experiments.Results:The ethyl acetate fraction of Phoma sp.showed good antifungal,antibacterial,and algicidal properties.One new dihydrofuran derivative,named phomafuranol(1),together with tliree known compounds,phomalacton(2),(3R)-5-hydroxymellein(3)and emodin(4)were isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction of Phoma sp.Preliminary studies indicated that phomalacton(2)displayed strong antibacterial,good antifungal and antialgal activities.Similarly(3R)-5-hydroxymellein(3)and emodin(4)showed good antifungal,antibacterial and algicidal properties.Conclusions:Antimicrobial activities of the ethyl acetate fraction of the endophytic fungus Phoma sp.and isolated compounds clearly demonstrate that Phoma sp.and its active compounds represent a great potential for the food,cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.
文摘Load balancing is a technique for identifying overloaded and underloaded nodes and balancing the load between them.To maximize various performance parameters in cloud computing,researchers suggested various load balancing approaches.To store and access data and services provided by the different service providers through the network over different regions,cloud computing is one of the latest technology systems for both end-users and service providers.The volume of data is increasing due to the pandemic and a significant increase in usage of the internet has also been experienced.Users of the cloud are looking for services that are intelligent,and,can balance the traffic load by service providers,resulting in seamless and uninterrupted services.Different types of algorithms and techniques are available that can manage the load balancing in the cloud services.In this paper,a newly proposed method for load balancing in cloud computing at the database level is introduced.The database cloud services are frequently employed by companies of all sizes,for application development and business process.Load balancing for distributed applications can be used to maintain an efficient task scheduling process that also meets the user requirements and improves resource utilization.Load balancing is the process of distributing the load on various nodes to ensure that no single node is overloaded.To avoid the nodes from being overloaded,the load balancer divides an equal amount of computing time to all nodes.The results of two different scenarios showed the cross-region traffic management and significant growth in revenue of restaurants by using load balancer decisions on application traffic gateways.
文摘Nitrogen availability can be enhanced with the application of nitrogen fixing bacteria and it may be helpful in increasing forage yield and improving quality of oat. Therefore, a field trial to evaluate the effect of seed inoculation with nitrogen fixing bacteria on forage yield and quality of oat was carried out at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad during Rabi season 2013-14. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with factorial arrangements using three replications. The experiment was comprised of two integrated approaches. The first approach was oat cultivars consisting of four treatments, V1 (AVON), V2 (S-2000), V3 (S-2011) and V4 (PD2LV65) and the second approach was seed inoculation consisting of three treatments, S0 (control), S1 (Azotobacter spp.), S2 (Azospirillum spp.). Fisher’s analysis of variance technique was used for statistically interpretation of data by using least significant difference (LSD) test at 5% level of probability. Nitrogen fixing bacteria significantly affect the germination count (m2), plant height (cm), number of tillers (m2), number of leaves per tiller, leaf area per tiller (cm2), green forage yield (t·ha-1) and dry matter yield (t ha-1). The maximum green forage yield (85.2 t·ha-1), dry matter yield (14.1 t ·ha-1) and crude protein (11.5%) were recorded where Azotobacter inoculation was applied. The interaction between cultivars and nitrogenous strains was significant for green forage yield (t·ha-1), dry matter yield (t·ha-1) and crude protein (%). Conclusion showed that cultivar Sargodha-2011 which was inoculated with Azotobacter spp. gave higher forage yield of good quality.
文摘Nanocrystalline ZnO thin films have been fabricated by a multi-step solgel method using spin coating technique. Zinc acetate dihydrate, 2-methoxyethanol and monoethanolamine were used as a starting material, solvent and stabilizer, respectively. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were employed to characterize structure and morphologies of the as-deposited samples. The results of XRD and SEM showed that the heat treatment conditions, final rotational (spinning) speed, fume exhaust and precise control of concentration of reactants (precursor and solvent used) strongly affect the crystallographic orientation and morphology of the resultant ZnO films. The XRD pattern showed that the ZnO films formed the preferred orientation along c-axis and the grain size is 16nm for the samples. Only one peak corresponding to the (002) plane at 2θ = 34.34 appears on the diffractograms. The as-deposited films had a transparency of greater than 80% in the visible-near IR region from 400 nm - 800 nm. The optical band gap energy and thickness were calculated to be 3.296 eV and 266 nm respectively.
基金This work was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research(DSR),King Abdulaziz University,JeddahThe authors,therefore,gratefully acknowledge the DSR technical and financial support.
文摘The concept of neutrosophic statistics is applied to propose two monitoring schemes which are an improvement of the neutrosophic exponentially weighted moving average(NEWMA)chart.In this study,two control charts are designed under the uncertain environment or neutrosophic statistical interval system,when all observations are undermined,imprecise or fuzzy.These are termed neutrosophic double and triple exponentially weighted moving average(NDEWMA and NTEWMA)control charts.For the proficiency of the proposed chart,Monte Carlo simulations are used to calculate the run-length characteristics(such as average run length(ARL),standard deviation of the run length(SDRL),percentiles(P_(25),P_(50),P_(75)))of the proposed charts.The structures of the proposed control charts are more effective in detecting small shifts while these are comparable with the other existing charts in detecting moderate and large shifts.The simulation study and real-life implementations of the proposed charts show that the proposed NDEWMA and NTEWMA charts perform better in monitoring the process of road traffic crashes and electric engineering data as compared to the existing control charts.Therefore,the proposed charts will be helpful in minimizing the road accident and minimizing the defective products.Furthermore,the proposed charts are more acceptable and actual to apply in uncertain environment.
文摘Cloud computing is an emerging domain that is capturing global users from all walks of life—the corporate sector,government sector,and social arena as well.Various cloud providers have offered multiple services and facilities to this audience and the number of providers is increasing very swiftly.This enormous pace is generating the requirement of a comprehensive ecosystem that shall provide a seamless and customized user environment not only to enhance the user experience but also to improve security,availability,accessibility,and latency.Emerging technology is providing robust solutions to many of our problems,the cloud platform is one of them.It is worth mentioning that these solutions are also amplifying the complexity and need of sustenance of these rapid solutions.As with cloud computing,new entrants as cloud service providers,resellers,tech-support,hardware manufacturers,and software developers appear on a daily basis.These actors playing their role in the growth and sustenance of the cloud ecosystem.Our objective is to use convergence for cloud services,software-defined networks,network function virtualization for infrastructure,cognition for pattern development,and knowledge repository.In order to gear up these processes,machine learning to induce intelligence to maintain ecosystem growth,to monitor performance,and to become able to make decisions for the sustenance of the ecosystem.Workloads may be programmed to“superficially”imitate most business applications and create large numbers using lightweight workload generators that merely stress the storage.In today’s current IT environment,when many enterprises use the cloud to service some of their application demands,a different performance testing technique that assesses more than the storage is necessary.Compute and storage are merged into a single building block with HCI(Hyper-converged infrastructure),resulting in a huge pool of compute and storage resources when clustered with other building blocks.The novelty of thiswork to design and test cloud storage using themeasurement of availability,downtime,and outage parameters.Results showed that the storage reliability in a hyper-converged system is above 92%.
文摘Cloud systems are tools and software for cloud computing that are deployed on the Internet or a cloud computing network,and users can use them at any time.After assessing and choosing cloud providers,however,customers confront the variety and difficulty of quality of service(QoS).To increase customer retention and engagement success rates,it is critical to research and develops an accurate and objective evaluation model.Cloud is the emerging environment for distributed services at various layers.Due to the benefits of this environment,globally cloud is being taken as a standard environment for individuals as well as for the corporate sector as it reduces capital expenditure and provides secure,accessible,and manageable services to all stakeholders but Cloud computing has security challenges,including vulnerability for clients and association acknowledgment,that delay the rapid adoption of computing models.Allocation of resources in the Cloud is difficult because resources provide numerous measures of quality of service.In this paper,the proposed resource allocation approach is based on attribute QoS Scoring that takes into account parameters the reputation of the asset,task completion time,task completion ratio,and resource loading.This article is focused on the cloud service’s security,cloud reliability,and could performance.In this paper,the machine learning algorithm neuro-fuzzy has been used to address the cloud security issues to measure the parameter security and privacy,trust issues.The findings reveal that the ANFIS-dependent parameters are primarily designed to discern anomalies in cloud security and features output normally yields better results and guarantees data consistency and computational power.
文摘The past two decades witnessed a broad-increase in web technology and on-line gaming.Enhancing the broadband confinements is viewed as one of the most significant variables that prompted new gaming technology.The immense utilization of web applications and games additionally prompted growth in the handled devices and moving the limited gaming experience from user devices to online cloud servers.As internet capabilities are enhanced new ways of gaming are being used to improve the gaming experience.In cloud-based video gaming,game engines are hosted in cloud gaming data centers,and compressed gaming scenes are rendered to the players over the internet with updated controls.In such systems,the task of transferring games and video compression imposes huge computational complexity is required on cloud servers.The basic problems in cloud gaming in particular are high encoding time,latency,and low frame rates which require a new methodology for a better solution.To improve the bandwidth issue in cloud games,the compression of video sequences requires an alternative mechanism to improve gaming adaption without input delay.In this paper,the proposed improved methodology is used for automatic unnecessary scene detection,scene removing and bit rate reduction using an adaptive algorithm for object detection in a game scene.As a result,simulations showed without much impact on the players’quality experience,the selective object encoding method and object adaption technique decrease the network latency issue,reduce the game streaming bitrate at a remarkable scale on different games.The proposed algorithm was evaluated for three video game scenes.In this paper,achieved 14.6%decrease in encoding and 45.6%decrease in bit rate for the first video game scene.
文摘The assessment of heterotic F1 combinations is a basic requisite for hybrid seed development. A set of 30 F1 hybrids along with their parental inbred lines were evaluated under both normal and water deficit conditions for various physiological and agronomic traits. Highly significant mean squares due to general combining ability, specific combining ability and reciprocal effect were observed for all traits under both water regimes. Components of variation exhibited greater estimates for GCA variance (б2g) than SCA variance (б2s) for majority of the traits under both normal and stress conditions depicting the predominant role of additive genetic component. Inbred lines NCIL-20-20, D-157 and OH-8 were found to be the best general combiner on the basis of performance regarding grain yield per plant under water deficit condition. The F1 combinations namely, NCIL-20-20 × D-109, NCIL-20-20 × OH-8 and D-157 × NCIL-20-20 were out-performers based on yield and yield attributes under water deficit conditions. On the basis of our results, we recommend these hybrids for further exploitation to assess their potential for commercial cultivation under water deficit condition.
文摘Country level assessment of feed supply and demand for livestock in Pakistan was conducted for the year 2013. Availability of feed ingredients was calculated from the official crop production statistics using published harvest index and extraction ratios, and their nutrient supply was estimated from local feed composition tables. Feed requirements of livestock species were calculated from the standard tables published by US National Research Council. The results showed that indigenous feed resources were short for livestock and poultry requirements. The supply and demand gap for dry biomass, crude protein （CP） and metabolizable energy （ME） were 19.4%, 37.2% and 38.0%, respectively. Crop residues were the predominant source comprising 58.8% of the total feed supply, while fodder and grazing shared 23.8% and 9.2%, respectively. Grains and by-products contributed 8.2% to the feed supply. In attempt to fill this gap, large quantities of oilseed meals were imported mainly for the poultry sector. Maize was the major feed grain used in poultry and ruminant rations, and they together consumed 79% of the country＇s total maize produce. Based on the anticipated rapid expansion in poultry, dairy and feedlot farming in Pakistan, the feed gap will further enlarge and this warrants future focus on efficient and intensive utilization of the local conventional and nonconventional feed resources. The data and information presented in this paper provided a sound basis for regular updating in future to attain sustainable growth of livestock sector in the country.
文摘In this study,we harnessed the properties of desert plants to synthesize silver nanoparticles to explore potential antimicrobial solutions.Chrozophora plicata and Heliotropium curassavicum extracts were used as green reducing agents to transform silver ions into nanoparticles.Our findings revealed novel properties of C.plicata,which have not been reported before.Surface plasmon resonance peak at 453.6 and 431 nm for C.plicata and H.curassavicum,respectively,via ultraviolet(UV)spectral analysis evidenced the successful fabrication of silver nanoparticles with particle sizes ranging from 4.3-8 and 3.1-6.97 nm respectively,which was validated by field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM).X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the crystal structure of these nanoparticles had a face-centered cubic geometry.Fourier transform infrared spectrometry of the plant extract showed strong signals corresponding to carbohydrates,proteins,and phenolics.Antibacterial assays of the silver nanoparticles from C.plicata displayed zones of inhibition at 5 and 4 mm against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli,respectively.Meanwhile,the silver nanoparticles from H.curassavicum exhibited zones of inhibition against both pathogens at 10 and 7 mm,respectively.The test samples were substantial inhibitors of S.aureus and E.coli biofilm formation since these displayed IC_(50) values in the range of 8.88-10.57 mg/mL,which is as potent as the reference ciprofloxacin.Consequently,the silver nanoparticles derived from these desert plants can be potential drug candidates for treating respiratory and digestive tract infections alone or in combination with existing antibiotics.
基金King Khalid University of Saudi Arabia extend their appreciation to Deanship of Scientific Research for financial support through project RGP.1/318/43support from Poison Control and Medical Forensic Chemistry Centre,Ministry of Health,Asir Region,Saudi Arabia.
文摘Caralluma edulis is a leafless succulent herb native to India and Pakistan,where it is used as emergency food and as potential herbal medicine.It was investigated for its bioactive chemicals and further medicinal properties.The objective of the current study was to accomplish the chemical and biological characterization of C.edulis.Chemical profiling was done through estimation of total bioactive contents and UHPLMS analysis.Biological screening was achieved through six different antioxidant and enzyme inhibition assays.Estimation of its phenolic and flavonoid contents revealed that ethyl acetate fraction(Ce-E)contains 14.15 mg GAE/g extract and 26.13 mg RE/g extract of phenolics and flavonoids,respectively,followed by the methanolic(Ce-M)and the water(Ce-W)soluble fractions.In free radical inhibitory assays,Ce-E fraction also exhibited highest activity(DPPH:19.72 mg TE/g extract,ABTS:48.66 mg TE/g extract)followed by Ce-M,whereas,in CUPRAC and FRAP assays,all the extracts,except water fraction,exhibited nearly equal potential in the range of 53.85–57.96 and 25.42–32.12 mg TE/g extract,respectively.In metal chelating antioxidant assay,only Ce-M and Ce-W fractions displayed considerable activities(25.88 and 23.55 mg EDTAE/g extract respectively),whereas,Ce-H exhibited the highest activity in phosphomolybdenum assay(1.03 mmolTE/g extract),against BChE(6.43 mg GALAE/g extract),α-glucosidase andα-amylase(6.98 and 0.47 mmol ACAE/g,respectively)and tyrosinase(64.46 mg KAE/g extract)enzymes.Ce-M and Ce-E also exhibited significant activity against tyrosinase(59.85 and 58.40 mg KAE/g extract,respectively).Crude methanolic extract(Ce-M)was analyzed to unveil its secondary metabolic picture;the UHPLCMS analysis discloses 105 compounds as phenolic acids,flavonoids,steroids and their glycosides,which makes the C.edulis extract a strong candidate for nutraceutical and functional food ingredient.Some of the metabolites were docked against all the tested enzymes to predict mode of actions and to substantiate the pharmaceutical nature of C.edulis.
文摘Introduction Numerous meta-analyses done on adults suggest superiority of continuous mass closure technique,but any such study does not exist for the pediatric age group.The results in adults cannot be applied to pediatrics because of numerous physiologic and anatomic differences.Methods This is a single-blinded,randomized controlled trial,1:1 parallel groups,that compares the frequency of dehiscence between the interrupted and continuous mass closure techniques for transverse incisions in pediatric patients.The age range was from birth to 12 years.We sampled 350 patients undergoing emergency or elective exploratory laparotomies in our pediatric surgery unit.Blocked randomization was used and only the patients remained blinded during the intervention.One group was closed with interrupted mass closure(group A)and the other group with continuous mass closure technique(group B).We had to drop 50 patients for not meeting the inclusion criteria.results The wound dehiscence rate for group A was 1.34%(4 patients)and for group B was 3.0%(9 patients).Significance was calculated usingχ^(2)(p<0.156).The global wound dehiscence rate was 4.34%(13 patients).The maximum number of patients dehisced on the fifth postoperative day,while the range was 4-11 days.The only statistically significant confounding factor was wound classification(p<0.002).Discussion Statistically there is no significant difference between interrupted and continuous mass closures techniques in terms of wound dehiscence.The dirty wounds are at a maximum risk of developing wound dehiscence irrespective of the technique used.We need to strictly adhere to the basic principles of closure especially when dealing with dirty wounds.trial registration number TCTR20150318001.
