Biology subjects

Hameed, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Hameed, A..

8 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Assessing the socio-economic value of sea turtles to the Maldives' tourism industry in 2022 (post-pandemic)

The non-consumptive use of sea turtles has become a rapidly growing sector of the global tourism industry and is increasingly recognised as an important source of economic benefit for coastal communities. In the Maldives, however, the socio-economic value of sea turtles remains poorly quantified. Building on a preliminary survey conducted in 2019, this study provides a comprehensive assessment of the socio-economic value of sea turtles to the tourism industry, post-pandemic, while identifying sea turtle viewing hotspots with high tourism pressure that may require stricter regulation. Questionnaires collected information on operations related to sea turtle excursions in 2022, including the estimated direct spend on sea turtle excursions and the perceived value of sea turtles to tourists and operators. Results include responses from 117 tour operators across 20 atolls in the Maldives, with 68% from resort operators, 27% from local island operators, and 5% from liveaboards. Maldivian nationals made up 55% of respondents and 78.8% of the people working, directly or indirectly, on sea turtle excursions in 2022. The direct revenue generated by sea turtle tourism in the Maldives is estimated at US$10.9-14.4 million in 2022, with individual turtles at high-use sites generating up to US$29,709 per year. These findings underscore the significant economic and social importance of sea turtles to the tourism industry in the Maldives, matching that of manta rays and sharks, and highlights the need for improved conservation efforts to safeguard local sea turtle populations and their associated benefits for Maldivian communities.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2026

Lipolysis of host triacylglyceride-rich lipoproteins creates a toxic microenvironment for Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus secretes lipases that hydrolyze glycerol esters to mitigate host detection and scavenge fatty acids for membrane synthesis, but exposure to host-derived polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) can be toxic. Here, we show that host hyperlipidemia protects against S. aureus osteomyelitis by engaging this vulnerability. Using a mouse model of severe hyperlipidemia, we show that PUFA-enriched plasma triacylglycerides are associated with reduced bacterial burden and bone destruction from injury-associated osteomyelitis. In vitro, human triacylglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRL) exhibit potent bactericidal activity against post-exponential S. aureus that requires lipase activity of glycerol ester hydrolase (geh). Pre-exponential exposure to TRL suppressed agr quorum-sensing, blunting geh expression and toxicity; however, bactericidal activity of TRL could be restored by exogenous lipoprotein lipase. Together, these findings reveal TRL as active antimicrobial particles whose toxicity is unmasked by lipolysis and suggest that modulation of host lipid metabolism may provide new therapeutic opportunities for chronic S. aureus infection.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2024

Phytochemical Analysis and Cytotoxic Effects of Phyllanthus polygonoides Leaf Extracts on Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Combined In-Vitro and In-Silico Approach

The authors have withdrawn their manuscript owing to the Paper was mistakenly uploaded by the students and the paper was having a lots of mistake and fake data. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as reference for the project. If you have any questions, please contact the corresponding author.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2024

Establishment of an Inhalation Administration Noninvasive Murine Model for Rapidly Testing Drug Activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The efficacy of many compounds against Mycobacterium tuberculosis is often limited when administered via conventional oral or injection routes due to suboptimal pharmacokinetic characteristics. Inhalation delivery methods have been investigated to achieve high local therapeutic doses in the lungs. However, previous models, typically employing wild-type M. tuberculosis strains, were intricate, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and with poor repeatability. In this study, we developed an autoluminescence-based inhalation administration model to evaluate drug activity by quantifying relative light units (RLUs) emitted from live mice infected with autoluminescent M. tuberculosis. This novel approach has several improvements: it eliminates the need for anesthesia in mice during administration and simplifies the instrument manipulation; it is cost-effective by utilizing mice instead of larger animals; it shortens time from several months to 16 or 17 days for obtaining result; it is non-invasive by measuring the live RLUs of mice; up to six mice can be administrated daily and simultaneously, even 2-3 times/day; results are relatively objective and repeatable minimizing human factors. Proof-of-concept experiments demonstrated that inhalable rifampicin, isoniazid, and ethambutol showed anti-M. tuberculosis activity at concentrations as low as 0.5, 0.5, and 0.625 mg/mL, respectively, as evidenced by comparing the live RLUs of mice. Furthermore, consistency between RLUs and colony-forming units of the lungs reaffirms the reliability of RLUs as an indicator of drug efficacy, highlighting the potential of this approach for accurately assessing anti-M. tuberculosis activity in vivo. This autoluminescence-based and non-invasive inhalation model offers a substantial reduction in the time, effort, and cost required for evaluating the efficacy of screening new drugs and repurposing old drugs in vivo via inhalation administration.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2022

Perception and Readiness Towards Inter-Professional Education Among Different Health Care Disciplines at Khyber Medical University Peshawar

Interprofessional learning (IPL) is an approach that teaches students diverse disciplines to communicate with each other about their professional knowledge in order to acquire a more complex one understanding of the current situation. According to WHO definition of IPE "its a process between two or more professionals learn about from, and with one another to permit effective association and enhance health outcome. The aim of this study was to measure perception and readiness towards IPE among different health care disciplines. A cross-sectional study was done with two hundred and eighteen post graduate Nursing, public health, physiotherapy, and basic medical sciences students from September,2020 to January,2021 at Khyber Medical University Peshawar Pakistan. Convenient sampling technique was used to collect data. The Readiness for Inter-Professional Learning Scale (RIPLS) and Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) were used to measure the readiness and perception of students regarding inter-professional leaning. The data were analyzed using software Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) (Version 23). The RIPLS was completed by a total of 218 participants (response rate 100%, 61 Nursing students 28%, 51 physiotherapy students 23.4%, 53 public health students 24.3%, and 53 basic medical sciences students 24.3%). As shown in Table 1.1, the majority of respondents were male (51.4%) followed by female (48.6%). Most of the respondents were aged with a mean score of 27.92 {+/-} 3.195. Moreover, majority of respondents have experience less than 5years (75.2%) and (22.8%) has experience above than 5years. Value of perception and readiness in Shapiro-Wilk is .000 which shows that the data variable is not normally distributed. correlation of students towards interprofessional learning by applying Spearman rho test. Students perception has strong positive correlation with their readiness, p value (.000). Also students readiness has strong positive correlation with their perception towards interprofessional learning. This study was to explore the readiness and perception of students towards interprofessional education in different health care students. IPL is beneficial for students to know other professionals to work together for teamwork and collaboration and it also increase communication between different health care professional and patients.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2021

Fetal Electrocardiogram Extraction from the Mother's Abdominal Signal Using the Ensemble Kalman Filter

Fetal electrocardiogram (fECG) assessment is essential throughout pregnancy to monitor the wellbeing and development of the fetus, and to possibly diagnose potential congenital heart defects. Due to the high noise incorporated in the abdominal ECG (aECG) signals, the extraction of fECG has been challenging. And it is even a lot more difficult for fECG extraction if only one channel of aECG is provided, i.e. in a compact patch device. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm based on the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) for non-invasive fECG extraction from a single-channel aECG signal. To assess the performance of the proposed algorithm, we used our own clinical data, obtained from a pilot study with 10 subjects each of 20 min recording, and data from the PhysioNet 2013 Challenge bank with labeled QRS complex annotations. The proposed methodology shows the average positive predictive value (PPV) of 97.59%, sensitivity (SE) of 96.91%, and F1-score of 97.25% from the PhysioNet 2013 Challenge bank. Our results also indicate that the proposed algorithm is reliable and effective, and it outperforms the recently proposed Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) based algorithm.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2020

Biochemical profile and bioactive potential of wild folk medicinal plants of Zygophyllaceae from Balochistan, Pakistan.

Recent focus is on analysis of biological activities of extracts from plant species. Zygophyllaceae is exceedingly important angiosperm family with many taxa being used in folk medicines widely dispersed in arid and semi-arid zones of Balochistan, Pakistan. Only a small proportion of them have been scientifically analyzed and many species are nearly facing extinction. Therefore present investigation explores the biochemical and bioactive potential of fourteen folk medicinal plants usually used for treatments of different ailments. Fresh aerial parts of nine taxa and two fruit samples were collected from plants growing in arid and semi-arid zones of Balochistan and analyzed for enzymatic, non-enzymatic and other biochemical activities. Higher phytochemical activities were detected in the aerial parts. Superoxide dismutase was detected maximum in Fagonia indica, (184.7{+/-}5.17 units/g), ascorbate peroxidase in Tribulus longipetalus subsp. longipetalus (947.5{+/-}12.5 Units/g), catalase and peroxidase was higher in Peganum harmala (555.0{+/-}5.0 and 2597.8{+/-}0.4 units/g respectively). Maximum esterase and alpha amylase activity was found in Zygophyllum fabago (14.3{+/-}0.44 and 140{+/-}18.8 mg/g respectively). Flavonoid content was high in T. longipetalus subsp. longipetalus (666.1{+/-}49 g/ml). The highest total phenolic content and tannin was revealed in F. olivieri (72125{+/-}425 and 37050{+/-}1900 M/g. respectively). Highest value of ascorbic acid was depicted in F. bruguieri var. rechingeri (448{+/-}1.5 g/g). Total soluble Proteins and reducing sugars were detected higher in P. harmala (372.3{+/-}54 and 5.9{+/-}0.1 mg/g respectively). Maximum total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was depicted in Z. simplex (16.9{+/-}0.01 M/g). Pigment analysis exhibited the high value of lycopene and total carotenoids in T. terrestris (7.44{+/-}0.2 and 35.5{+/-}0.0 mg/g respectively). Chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll content was found maximum in T. longipetalus subsp. pterophorus (549.1{+/-}9.9, 154.3{+/-}10 and 703.4{+/-}20.2 ug/g respectively). All taxa exhibited anti-inflammatory activity as well as anti-diabetic inhibitory potential. Seed extracts of Zygophyllum eurypterum (96%) exhibited highest inhibitory potential, along with twelve other taxa of Zygophyllaceae indicated (96-76%) activity when compared with the standard drug diclofenac sodium (79%). Seeds of T. longipetalus subsp. longipetalus (85%) exhibited the highest anti-diabetic activity; other eleven taxa also exhibited inhibitory activity of -amylase ranging from (85-69%) compared with Metformin (67%) standard drug. Phytochemical screening revealed that selected taxa proved to be the potential source of natural antioxidants and could further be explored for in-vivo studies and utilized in pharmaceutical industries as potent therapeutic agents validating their ethno-pharmacological uses.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Agronomic, physiological and molecular characterization of rice mutants revealed key role of ROS and catalase in high temperature stress tolerance

Plants adapt to harsh environments particularly high temperature stress by regulating their physiological and biochemical processes, which are key tolerance mechanisms. Thus, identification of heat-tolerant rice genotypes and reliable selection indices are crucial for rice improvement programs. Here, we evaluated the response of a rice mutant population for high-temperature stress at the seedling and reproductive stages based on agronomic, physiological and molecular traits. The estimate of variance components revealed significant differences (P<0.001) among genotypes, treatments and their interaction for almost all traits. Principal component analysis showed significant diversity among the genotypes and traits under high-temperature stress. The mutant HTT-121 was identified as the most heat tolerant mutant with higher grain yield, panicle fertility, cell membrane thermo-stability (CMTS) and antioxidant enzyme levels under heat stress conditions. Various seedling-based morpho-physiological traits (leaf fresh weight, relative water contents, malondialdehyde, CMTS) and biochemical traits (superoxide dismutase, catalase and hydrogen peroxide) explained variations in grain yield that could be used as selection indices for heat tolerance in rice at early growth stages. Notably, heat sensitive mutants showed a significant accumulation of ROS level, reduced activities of catalase and upregulation of OsSRFP1 expression under heat stress, suggesting their key role in regulating heat tolerance in rice. The heat-tolerant mutants identified in this study could be used in breeding programs and the development of mapping populations to unravel the underlying genetic architecture for heat-stress adaptability.\n\nSummary text for table of contentsHeat stress probably due to changing climate scenario has become a serious threat for global rice production. On the other side, efforts to develop high yielding cultivars have led to the reduced genetic variability to withstand harsh environmental conditions. This study aimed to identify novel heat tolerant mutants developed through gamma irradiation which will provide a unique genetic resource for breeding programs. Further, we have identified reliable selection indices for screening heat-tolerant rice germplasm at early growth stages.

physiology↗