Human Usage Research Articles

Monitoring of water resources and vegetation in the Helmand Basin using satellite image time-series and border hydro-political challenges

Abstract Helmand is the most important river in Afghanistan and an indispensable water resource for southeastern Iran. Recent water depletions in the river, however, have caused environmental issues in the region with further repercussions on long-term hydro-political debates between the countries of Iran and Afghanistan. The primary reasons underlying depletions in the river's water levels remain, however, unclear, and are the main objective of this study.Therefore, this study proposes a hydro-political analysis of the Helmand Basin by analyzing precipitation through Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) data, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) land data for groundwater analysis, and Landsat 5 and 8 Images from 1991 to 2020 to classify vegetation and waterbodies using a Support Vector Machine classifier and identify the prime cause of downstream water depletions. Despite severe droughts, the preliminary findings indicated increases in rainfall, groundwater sources, water bodies, and vegetation in the river upstream, which conveys the inconsequential share of droughts to the overall water shortage as opposed to human interventions and water usage which have also shown to increase in the river upstream. Further findings suggest that the severe downstream water depletions are primarily on account of upstream water consumptions that have triggered environmental degradations and are a threat to human habitations.

Melanin interference toxicity or transgenerational toxicity of organic UV filter ethylhexyl salicylate on zebrafish

With the improvement of human health awareness, the production and usage of sunscreens have increased dramatically, and their active ingredients, organic ultraviolet (UV) filters (OUVFs), have the potential to induce melanin abnormalities in aquatic organisms due to their UV-absorbing properties as they enter the aquatic environment directly with the washing of skin during water activities. In this paper, the melanin interference toxicity or transgenerational toxicity effects of typical OUVFs ethylhexyl salicylate (EHS) on zebrafish (Danio rerio) were investigated based on transcriptomic sequencing technology. Results showed that EHS induced significant enrichment of the melanin-related pathway cAMP signaling pathway in parental skin tissue through UV absorption, with sensitive genes identified as melanocortin 1 receptor, protein kinase A catalytic subunit beta a, calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II delta 2, adenylate cyclase 1 and G protein subunit alpha I a. qRT-PCR verification results showed that EHS may inhibit the expression of the melanin master regulator microphthalmia-associated transcription factor a (mitfa) and its induced signaling cascade mitf-tyrosinase (tyr)-dopachrome tautomerase (dct)-tyrosinase related protein 1 (tyrp1) by inducing abnormal expression of the above sensitive genes, thereby reducing melanogenesis. After reproduction, the melanin interference effect of EHS on the parents can be carried over to offsprings through maternal inheritance of abnormally expressed mitfa and parental transfer of pollutants, as evidenced by significant enrichment of melanogenesis pathway, abnormal expression of sensitive genes mitfa, tyr, dct and tyrp1b and significant decreases in melanin content and spinal melanin area. These findings revealed the specific melanin interference toxicity of OUVFs with UV-absorbing properties, facilitating a comprehensive ecological risk assessment of OUVFs and providing scientific support for the management of new pollutants.

Nanomaterials for Photocatalytic Degradations of Analgesic, Mucolytic and Anti-Biotic/Viral/Inflammatory Drugs Widely Used in Controlling SARS-CoV-2

The COVID-19 pandemic has been transformed into one of the main worldwide challenges, in recent years. For controlling symptoms that are caused by this disease (e.g., chills or fever, shortness of breath and/or difficulty in breathing, cough, sore throat, fatigue, headache, muscle aches, the new loss of tastes and/or smells, congestion or runny nose, nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea), lots of medicines including analgesics, mucolytics, and anti-biotic/viral/inflammatory drugs have been frequently prescribed. As these medicines finally contaminate terrestrial and aquatic habitats by entering surface waterways through pharmaceutical production and excreting trace amounts of waste after human usage, they have negative impacts on wildlife’s health and ecosystem. Residual drugs in water have the potential to harm aquatic creatures and disrupt their food chain as well as the breeding cycle. Therefore, proper degradation of these broadly used medicines is highly crucial. In this work, the use of nanomaterials applicable in photocatalytic degradations of analgesics (e.g., acetaminophen, aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen), mucolytics (e.g., ambroxol), antibiotics (e.g., azithromycin and quinolones including hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine phosphate), anti-inflammatory glucocorticoids (e.g., dexamethasone and cortisone acetate), antihistamines (e.g., diphenhydramine), H2 blockers (e.g., famotidine), anthelmintics (e.g., praziquantel), and finally antivirals (e.g., ivermectin, acyclovir, lopinavir/ritonavir, favipiravir, nitazoxanide, and remdesivir) which widely used in controlling/treating the coronavirus have been reviewed and discussed.

Waste heat recovery research - a systematic bibliometric analysis (1991 to 2020).

Human usage of non-renewable energy resources has caused many environmental issues, which include air pollution, global warming, and climate irregularities. To counter these issues, researchers have been seeking after alternative renewable energy sources and ways to manage energy more efficiently. This is where energy recovery technologies such as waste heat recovery (WHR) come into play. WHR is a form of waste to energy conversion. Waste heat can be captured and converted into usable energy instead of dumping it into the environment. In the more recent years, the WHR research field has gained great attention in the scientific community as well as in some energy-intensive industries. This article presents a bibliometric overview of the academic research on WHR over the span of 30 years from 1991 to 2020. A total of 5682 documents from Web of Science (WoS) have been retrieved and analyzed using various bibliometric methods, including performance analysis and network analysis. The analyses were performed on different actors in the field, i.e., funding agencies, journals, authors, organizations, and countries. In addition, several network mappings were done based on co-citation, co-authorship, and co-occurrences of keywords analyses. The research identified the most productive and influential actors in the field, established and emergent research topics, as well as the interrelations and collaboration patterns between different actors. The findings can be a robust roadmap for further research in this field.

A Research Article on Formulation and Evaluation of Herbal Shampoo

The goal of this research is to create a herbal shampoo that promotes hair growth and strength without harming or destroying it. The herbs reetha, amla, neem, fenugreek, hibiscus, and shikakai were chosen using a traditional system. Shampoo is used to clean the hair while also conditioning, smoothing, and maintaining hair health, keeping it free of dandruff, filth, grease, and lice. Above all, it is meant to provide safety benefits. Antimicrobial agents can be classed as either bactericidal (killing bacteria) or bacteriostatic (slowing the growth of germs). Antibacterial agents are crucial in the fight against infectious diseases. As a result, we discovered good qualities for herbal shampoo in our study, and we will continue to optimise the benefits of herbal shampoo for human usage as a cosmetic product.

Northern plains late precontact and historic period winter sand dune usage by bison and human populations

In past examinations of bison and human seasonal migration on the Northern Plains, ecology has played a central role. The definition of ecological regions, however, has only recognized the presence of either parkland or grassland regions. While some works do recognize the small role of “anomalous” landscapes within the grassland such as sand dunes, no detailed examination of these areas has yet to be conducted. This study approaches the role that dune environments played on the Northern Plains to present a holistic interpretation of environmental, historical, and archaeological data sources, and questions their classification as being anomalous. This research concludes that the present and continued use of broad-based ecological classifications to answer questions on bison and human landscape usage do not adequately or accurately interpret the body of historical and archaeological data currently on hand.

Including Human Behaviors into IA Training Assessment: A Better Way Forward!

Few can argue against the reality that humans are the weakest link in cybersecurity, and Social Engineers work very hard to take advantage of this human weakness. Many cybersecurity practitioners believe the only way to solve this problem is through a technical solution; however, this solution is elusive because humans are still in control and can circumvent these technical measures. In cybersecurity, the human is the critical component of the human firewall, and it is going to take a multi-disciplinary approach to solve the human problem. The human firewall is the first line of defense for cybersecurity. Historically, the primary solution to the human problem has been the Information Awareness training program, designed to teach the end-user about the risks and assess their risk. The biggest problem with the information awareness training program is that it does not modify behavior. Cybersecurity practitioners need to understand better the human firewall and how it can be strengthened. It is necessary to understand how the human makes security-minded decisions, how these decisions affect the cybersecurity decision-making process, and if there is a way to assess a person's susceptibility level more precisely when working to strengthen the human firewall. Humans are multifaceted, complex beings influenced by both internal and external factors. The most significant internal factor that affects a person's decision-making process is behavior, while Social Media is one of the most significant external factors that impact a person's decision-making capacity. This study presents a new method of assessing a person's susceptibility to cybercrime by including behavioral and social media usage factors into a Dynamic/Adaptable information awareness training assessment tool. This study shows that including human behaviors and social media usage behaviors into an Information Awareness (IA) training assessment tool produces a more precise measure of a person's accurate susceptibility level.

Antimicrobial Resistance in New Zealand-A One Health Perspective.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an increasing global threat that affects human, animal and, often less acknowledged, environmental health. This complex issue requires a multisectoral One Health approach to address the interconnectedness of humans, animals and the natural environment. The prevalence of AMR in these reservoirs varies widely among countries and thus often requires a country-specific approach. In New Zealand (NZ), AMR and antimicrobial usage in humans are relatively well-monitored and -understood, with high human use of antimicrobials and the frequency of resistant pathogens increasing in hospitals and the community. In contrast, on average, NZ is a low user of antimicrobials in animal husbandry systems with low rates of AMR in food-producing animals. AMR in New Zealand’s environment is little understood, and the role of the natural environment in AMR transmission is unclear. Here, we aimed to provide a summary of the current knowledge on AMR in NZ, addressing all three components of the One Health triad with a particular focus on environmental AMR. We aimed to identify knowledge gaps to help develop research strategies, especially towards mitigating AMR in the environment, the often-neglected part of the One Health triad.

Modeling human memory phenomena in a hybrid event memory system

Human event memory stores an individual’s personal experiences and produces their recollections with varying degrees of accuracy. To model this capacity, we recently developed a hybrid event memory system that combines aspects of the two main theories proposed in the philosophical literature. We aim to model a complete range of human event memory phenomena – successful remembering, misremembering, and confabulation – using this framework. In this paper, we review our hybrid event memory system and present empirical results from a remembering experiment we conducted using this system. The results show that our system successfully models the full range of human event memory usage and errors.

The Influence of Human Capital and Energy Consumption in Covid-19 Pandemic

The point of the study is to analyze, through cointegration techniques, the influence of human capital and power usage on growth in the economy in Indonesia. In a 21-year data analysis from 2000 to 2020, "autoregressive vectors" were used to represent the causal link between variables. The World Bank contributed the data for this research. In this study, we look at evaluating education, health, energy consumption, and GDP in Indonesia. Education has a noticeable influence on power consumption and health, indicating that education can increase awareness of energy consumption and health. energy usage itself is a substantial contributor to economic expansion in Indonesia. The higher the quality of public education, the more aware people are of the importance of health and wiser in consuming energy in encouraging economic growth in Indonesia.

Sewerage surveillance tracking characteristics of human antibiotic emission in sewage

Antibiotics discharging are causing the concerns of public health and sustainable production. Further policies on antibiotic production and antibiotic sales are difficult to make when lacking of sewage surveillance. In this study, the dynamic occurrence of 24 typical antibiotics in urban sewerage was investigated throughout a whole year. It was found that 17 of 42 samples had a total antibiotic concentration of more than 1000 ng/L. Sulfonamides, lincosamides, macrolides and tetracyclines were the four most common antibiotic categories in sewerage system, with the average concentration of 1246 ng/L, 2418 ng/L, 1734 ng/L and 1140 ng/L, respectively. The concentration of β-lactams was relatively low in the raw sewage (with the median value of 11 ng/L) and exhibited a tendency of attenuation in sewerage due to its degradability. The total concentration of antibiotics in sewage in different quarters were positively correlated with the dosage of antibiotics prescribed by local hospitals (R = 0.88, p < 0.01). The antibiotics profiles were also determined by the local regional discharge, specific seasons and weather features. Antibiotics consumption significantly affects the level of antibiotic residues in sewage, indicating that sewage surveillance can provide rough information on antibiotic usage. These findings can lead to new ways to understand the actual antibiotic usage in humans, and guide the antibiotic production and usage based on sewage surveillance.

In Vitro Assessment of Bio-Functional Properties from Lactiplantibacillus plantarum Strains.

In recent years, alongside the conventional screening procedures for the evaluation of probiotics for human usage, the pharmaceutical and food industries have encouraged scientific research towards the selection of new probiotic bacterial strains with particular functional features. Therefore, this study intended to explore novel functional properties of five Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strains isolated from bee bread. Specifically, antioxidant, antimicrobial and β-glucosidase activities, exopolysaccharides (EPS) production and the ability to synthesize γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) were evaluated. The results demonstrated that the investigated L. plantarum strains were effective in inhibiting the growth of some human opportunistic pathogens in vitro (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus). Moreover, the evaluation of antioxidant and β-glucosidase activity and of EPS and GABA production, revealed a different behavior among the strains, testifying how these properties are strongly strain-dependent. This suggests that a careful selection within a given species is important in order to identify appropriate strains for specific biotechnological applications. The results highlighted that the five strains of L. plantarum are promising candidates for application as dietary supplements in the human diet and as microbial cultures in specific food productions.

Analysis of evolutionary and genetic patterns in structural genes of primate lentiviruses.

BackgroundPrimate lentiviruses (HIV1, HIV2, and Simian immunodeficiency virus [SIV]) cause immune deficiency, encephalitis, and infectious anemia in mammals such as cattle, cat, goat, sheep, horse, and puma.ObjectiveThis study was designed and conducted with the main purpose of confirming the overall codon usage pattern of primate lentiviruses and exploring the evolutionary and genetic characteristics commonly or specifically expressed in HIV1, HIV2, and SIV.MethodsThe gag, pol, and env gene sequences of HIV1, HIV2, and SIV were analyzed to determine their evolutionary relationships, nucleotide compositions, codon usage patterns, neutrality, selection pressure (influence of mutational pressure and natural selection), and viral adaptation to human codon usage.ResultsA strong ‘A’ bias was confirmed in all three structural genes, consistent with previous findings regarding HIV. Notably, the ENC-GC3s plot and neutral evolution analysis showed that all primate lentiviruses were more affected by selection pressure than by mutation caused by the GC composition of the gene, consistent with prior reports regarding HIV1. The overall codon usage bias of pol was highest among the structural genes, while the codon usage bias of env was lowest. The virus groups showing high codon bias in all three genes were HIV1 and SIVcolobus. The codon adaptation index (CAI) and similarity D(A, B) values indicated that although there was a high degree of similarity to human codon usage in all three structural genes of HIV, this similarity was not caused by translation pressure. In addition, compared with HIV1, the codon usage of HIV2 is more similar to the human codon usage, but the overall codon usage bias is lower.ConclusionThe origin viruses of HIV (SIVcpz_gor and SIVsmm) exhibit greater similarity to human codon usage in the gag gene, confirming their robust adaptability to human codon usage. Therefore, HIV1 and HIV2 may have evolved to avoid human codon usage by selection pressure in the gag gene after interspecies transmission from SIV hosts to humans. By overcoming safety and stability issues, information from codon usage analysis will be useful for attenuated HIV1 vaccine development. A recoded HIV1 variant can be used as a vaccine vector or in immunotherapy to induce specific innate immune responses. Further research regarding HIV1 dinucleotide usage and codon pair usage will facilitate new approaches to the treatment of AIDS.

Unraveling the Nature of Antibiotics: Is It a Cure or a New Hurdle to the Patient Treatment?

Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing problem worldwide that has been exacerbated by antibiotic misuse worldwide. Growing antibiotic resistance can be attributed to as well as leads to severe infections, complications, prolonged hospital admissions, and higher mortality. One of the most important goals of administering antimicrobials is to avoid establishing antibiotic resistance during therapy. This can be done by drastically lowering worldwide antimicrobial usage, both in present and future. While current management methods to legislate antimicrobials and educate the healthcare community on the challenges are beneficial, they do not solve the problem of attaining an overall reduction in antimicrobial usage in humans. Application of rapid microbiological diagnostics for identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing, use of inflammation markers to guide initiation and duration of therapies, reduction of standard antibiotic course durations, individualization of antibiotic treatments, and dosing considering pharmacokinetics are all possible strategies to optimize antibiotic use in everyday clinical practice and reduce the risk of inducing bacterial resistance. Furthermore, to remove any impediments to proper prescribing, strategies to improve antibiotic prescribing and antibiotic stewardship programs should enable clinical reasoning and enhance the prescribing environment. In addition, the well-established association between antimicrobial usage and resistance should motivate efforts to develop antimicrobial treatment regimens that facilitate the evolution of resistance. This review discusses the role of antibiotics, their current application in human medicine, and how the resistance has evolved to the existing antibiotics based on the existing literature.

Health Benefits, Pharmacological Effects, Molecular Mechanisms, and Therapeutic Potential of α-Bisabolol.

α-Bisabolol is one of the important monocyclic sesquiterpenes, derived naturally from essential oils of many edible and ornamental plants. It was first obtained from Matricaria chamomilla, commonly known as chamomile or German chamomile. The available literature indicates that this plant along with other α-Bisabolol containing plants is popularly used in traditional medicine for potential health benefits and general wellbeing. Nutritional studies are indicative of the health benefits of α-Bisabolol. Numerous experimental studies demonstrated pharmacological properties of α-Bisabolol including anticancer, antinociceptive, neuroprotective, cardioprotective, and antimicrobial. This review aims to collectively present different pharmacological activities based on both in vitro and in vivo studies. In the present review using synoptic tables and figures, we comprehensively present that α-Bisabolol possesses therapeutic and protective activities, therefore, it can be used for potential health benefits based on pharmacological effects, underlying molecular mechanism, and favorable pharmaceutical properties. Based on the studies mostly performed on cell lines or animal models, it is evident that α-Bisabolol may be a promising nutraceutical and phytomedicine to target aberrant biological mechanisms which result in altered physiological processes and various ailments. Given the polypharmacological effects and pleiotropic properties, along with favorable pharmacokinetics, and dietary availability and safety, α-Bisabolol can be used as a dietary agent, nutraceutical or phytopharmaceutical agent or as an adjuvant with currently available modern medicines. The regulatory approval of this molecule for use as food additives, and in cosmetics and fragrance industry is also supportive of its human usage. Moreover, further studies are necessary to address pharmaceutical, pharmacological, and toxicological aspects before clinical or nutritional usage in humans. The biological actions and health benefits open opportunities for pharmaceutical development with pharmacological basis of its use in future therapeutics.

Large-scale analysis of SARS-CoV-2 synonymous mutations reveals the adaptation to the human codon usage during the virus evolution.

Many large national and transnational studies have been dedicated to the analysis of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome, most of which focused on missense and nonsense mutations. However, approximately 30 per cent of the SARS-CoV-2 variants are synonymous, therefore changing the target codon without affecting the corresponding protein sequence.By performing a large-scale analysis of sequencing data generated from almost 400,000 SARS-CoV-2 samples, we show that silent mutations increasing the similarity of viral codons to the human ones tend to fixate in the viral genome overtime. This indicates that SARS-CoV-2 codon usage is adapting to the human host, likely improving its effectiveness in using the human aminoacyl-tRNA set through the accumulation of deceitfully neutral silent mutations.One-Sentence Summary. Synonymous SARS-CoV-2 mutations related to the activity of different mutational processes may positively impact viral evolution by increasing its adaptation to the human codon usage.

Inappropriate use of ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic: primum non nocere!

Inappropriate use of ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic: primum non nocere!

AN OBJECTIVE FUZZY CLASSIFIER ALGORITHM APPROACH FOR WATER QUALITY RECOGNITION

Water is the energy of life. Its usage and want, far out stretch any earth material (minerals, rocks, soil and water). In most cases the quantity of water obtains from its different sources are not quality enough for human usage due to the presence of contaminants. Several research works has been proposed on water quality recognition but none on the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This research paper adopts and proposes a fuzzy classifier algorithm approach for water quality recognition utilizing the decision variables pertaining to water, thereby enhancing or extending the traditional (conventional) method. The simulation of the algorithm was handled utilizing Matric Laboratory (MatLab). The result obtained based on the fuzzy scale was subdivided into three (might be pure water?, ?pure water? and ?not pure water?). The proposed expert system eliminates uncertainties and imprecision associated with the recognition of water quality

Epistemes of human rights in Kashmir: Paradoxes of universality and particularity

Human rights violations through militarized control have been the cornerstone of Indian statecraft in Indian-administered Kashmir. This article offers a close reading of the April 2017 episode of using a civilian Kashmiri Muslim man as a human shield by the Indian Army in Indian-administered Kashmir. Whereas the existing scholarship on the relationship between militarization, human rights violations, and Hindutva politics have employed political or feminist analytical frameworks, this article focuses on rereading the episode of human shield usage to analyze how “universality” of human rights in India is being redefined. It reflects on how the ruling right-wing government in India appropriates the language of violations and afflictions to embolden its strategies to alter the grammar of human rights in India. Drawing on a discourse analysis of the human shield event, the article deliberates on how anthropology of Hindutva and right-wing extremism research could pay greater attention to the conversation between Hindutva theology of rights and neoliberal ethics when approaching questions of recurrent human rights violations in Kashmir.

A comparative risk ranking of antibiotic pollution from human and veterinary antibiotic usage – An Irish case study

Antibiotic use in the healthcare and agriculture sectors has resulted in levels being found in environmental compartments including surface waters. This can create a selective pressure toward antibiotic resistance development, representing a potential risk to human health. Examining the Irish scenario, this screening paper develops a novel risk ranking model to comparatively assess, on a national scale, the predicted amount of antibiotics entering water bodies as a result of their use in healthcare and agricultural sectors, and the subsequent risk of antibiotic resistance development. Probabilistic modelling approaches, based on data sourced from published literature on antibiotics, are used to account for inherent uncertainty and variability in the input factors; usage, metabolism, degradation and wastewater removal rates, estimating the mass of six antibiotic classes released daily from both sectors. These mass estimates are used to generate predicted concentrations and risk quotient values for each drug class, utilising estimated minimum inhibitory concentration values sourced from the literature. Modelled results predict higher risk quotient (RQ) values in the healthcare compared to agriculture sector, with macrolides and penicillins ranking highest in terms of RQ value. A lower RQ is also predicted from human-use tetracyclines, trimethoprim, and quinolones. Avenues for runoff reduction for each antibiotic class, in particular the higher-risk classes, in both usage sectors are discussed. For validation, predicted levels are compared to observed levels of antibiotic residues in Ireland. Key knowledge gaps to assist prediction and modelling of antibiotic pollution in future studies are also discussed. This research paper establishes a protocol and model structure, applicable to other regions, to compare the contributions of healthcare and agriculture to antibiotic pollution, and identifies highest-ranked antibiotic classes in terms of potential resistance development for prioritisation in the Irish situation.