| 1. |
- Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of knowledge and barriers of influenza vaccine uptake among university students in Saudi Arabia : a cross-sectional analysis
- 2022
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Ingår i: PeerJ. - : PeerJ. - 2167-8359. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background. Influenza vaccine hesitancy is a significant threat to global maneuvers for reducing the burden of seasonal and pandemic influenza. This study estimated the vaccine uptake, barriers, and willingness for influenza vaccines among university students in Saudi Arabia. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among health science (HS) and non-health science (NHS) university students. A 31-item questionnaire was used to ascertain the vaccination rate, barriers, and willingness for the flu vaccine. Results. This study included 790 students (mean age: 21.40 +/- 1.94 years), 246 (31.1%) from HS and 544 (68.9%) from NHS disciplines. About 70% did not take flu shots before the arrival of the winter. The mean knowledge score was 7.81 +/- 1.96, where 20.4%, 67.6%, and 12% of respondents had good, moderate, and poor knowledge regarding flu vaccines. The relative importance index (RII) analysis showed a lack of recommendation from physicians (51.5%, RI ranked: 1) was a top-ranked barrier to vaccine uptake, followed by negative perceptions and accessibility issues. Only 36.6% of the participants were willing to get vaccinated every year, 70% were willing to receive a vaccine on their doctor's recommendations, and 46% agreed to vaccinate if vaccines were freely available in the university. The knowledge, barriers, and willingness widely varied across students from two disciplines. Conclusions. Our analysis underscored low flu vaccine uptake among university students. In addition, the study participants' knowledge was unsatisfactory, and they were less inclined to receive the flu vaccine in the future. Lack of recommendation from the physicians, negative perceptions towards the flu vaccine, and difficult accessibility were found as significant barriers to the vaccine uptake. A multidimensional approach at educational institutes to cover the knowledge gap and address the barriers curtailing the vaccination rate among students is recommended.
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| 2. |
- Khan, Yusra Habib, et al.
(författare)
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Barriers and facilitators of childhood COVID-19 vaccination among parents : A systematic review
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Pediatrics. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2296-2360. ; 10
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundThe acceptance of vaccination against COVID-19 among parents of young children plays a significant role in controlling the current pandemic. A wide range of factors that influence vaccine hesitancy in adults has been reported worldwide, but less attention has been given to COVID-19 vaccination among children. Vaccine hesitancy is considered a major challenge in achieving herd immunity, and it is more challenging among parents as they remain deeply concerned about their child's health. In this context, a systematic review of the current literature is inevitable to assess vaccine hesitancy among parents of young children to ensure a successful ongoing vaccination program.MethodA systematic search of peer-reviewed English literature indexed in Google Scholar, PubMed, Embase, and Web of science was performed using developed keywords between 1 January 2020 and August 2022. This systematic review included only those studies that focused on parental concerns about COVID-19 vaccines in children up to 12 years without a diagnosis of COVID-19. Following PRISMA guidelines, a total of 108 studies were included. The quality appraisal of the study was performed by Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS).ResultsThe results of 108 studies depict that vaccine hesitancy rates differed globally with a considerably large number of factors associated with it. The highest vaccine hesitancy rates among parents were reported in a study from the USA (86.1%) and two studies from Saudi Arabia (> 85%) and Turkey (89.6%). Conversely, the lowest vaccine hesitancy rates ranging from 0.69 and 2% were found in two studies from South Africa and Switzerland, respectively. The largest study (n = 227,740) was conducted in Switzerland while the smallest sample size (n = 12) was represented by a study conducted in the USA. The most commonly reported barriers to childhood vaccination were mothers' lower education level (N = 46/108, 43%), followed by financial instability (N = 19/108, 18%), low confidence in new vaccines (N = 13/108, 12%), and unmonitored social media platforms (N = 5/108, 4.6%). These factors were significantly associated with vaccine refusal among parents. However, the potential facilitators for vaccine uptake among respondents who intended to have their children vaccinated include higher education level (N = 12/108, 11%), followed by information obtained through healthcare professionals (N = 9/108, 8.3%) and strong confidence in preventive measures taken by the government (N = 5/81, 4.6%).ConclusionThis review underscores that parents around the globe are hesitant to vaccinate their kids against COVID-19. The spectrum of factors associated with vaccine hesitancy and uptake varies across the globe. There is a dire need to address vaccine hesitancy concerns regarding the efficacy and safety of approved vaccines. Local context is inevitable to take into account while developing programs to reduce vaccine hesitancy. There is a dire need to devise strategies to address vaccine hesitancy among parents through the identification of attributing factors.
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| 3. |
- Din, Salah Ud, et al.
(författare)
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The Purification and Characterization of a Cutinase-like Enzyme with Activity on Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) from a Newly Isolated Bacterium Stenotrophomonas maltophilia PRS8 at a Mesophilic Temperature
- 2023
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Ingår i: Applied Sciences (Switzerland). - : MDPI AG. - 2076-3417. ; 13:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-degrading bacterium identified as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia PRS8 was isolated from the soil of a landfill. The degradation of the PET bottle flakes and the PET prepared as a powder were assessed using live cells, an extracellular medium, or a purified cutinase-like enzyme. These treated polymers were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The depolymerization products, identified using HPLC and LC-MS, were terephthalic acid (TPA), mono(2-hydroxyethyl)-TPA (MHET), and bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-TPA (BHET). Several physicochemical factors were optimized for a better cutinase-like enzyme production by using unique single-factor and multi-factor statistical models (the Plackett–Burman design and the central composite design software). The enzyme was purified for homogeneity through column chromatography using Sephadex G-100 resin. The molecular weight of the enzyme was approximately 58 kDa. The specific activity on para nitrophenyl butyrate was estimated at 450.58 U/mg, with a purification of 6.39 times and a yield of 48.64%. The enzyme was stable at various temperatures (30–40 °C) and pH levels (8.0–10.0). The enzyme activity was significantly improved by the surfactants (Triton X-100 and Tween-40), organic solvent (formaldehyde), and metals (NiCl2 and Na2SO4). The extracellular medium containing the cutinase-type enzyme showed a depolymerization yield of the PET powder comparable to that of Idonella skaiensis IsPETase and significantly higher than that of Humicola insolens thermostable HiCut (HiC) cutinase. This study suggests that S. maltophilia PRS8 is able to degrade PET at a mesophilic temperature and could be further explored for the sustainable management of plastic waste.
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| 4. |
- Irfan, Muhammad, et al.
(författare)
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Benchmark study of UV/Visible spectra of coumarin derivatives by computational approach
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Structure. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2860 .- 1872-8014. ; 1130, s. 603-616
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A benchmark study of UV/Visible spectra of Simple coumarins and Furanocoumarins derivatives was conducted by employing the Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Time Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) approaches. In this study the geometries of ground and excited states, excitation energy and absorption spectra were estimated by using the DFT functional CAM-B3LYP, WB97XD, HSEH1PBE, MPW1PW91 and TD-B3LYP with 6-31 + G (d,p) basis set. CAM-B3LYP functional was found to have close agreement with the experimental values of Furranocoumarin class of coumarins while MPW1PW91 gave close results for simple coumarins. This study provided an insight about the electronic characteristics of the selected compounds and provided an effective tool for developing and designing the better UV absorber compounds.
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| 5. |
- Irfan, Muhammad, et al.
(författare)
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Design of donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) type small molecule donor materials with efficient photovoltaic parameters
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal of Quantum Chemistry. - : WILEY. - 0020-7608 .- 1097-461X. ; 117:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Four Donor-Acceptor-Donor (D-A-D) type of donor molecules (M1-M4) with triphenylamine (TPA) as donor moiety, thiophene as bridge, and thiazolothiazole as acceptor unit were designed and its photovoltaic parameters were equated with reference molecule R. DFT functional CAM-B3LYP/6-31G (d,p) was found best for geometry optimization and TD-CAM-B3LYP/6-31G (d,p) was found suitable for excited state calculations. Among designed donor molecules, M4 manifests suitable lowest band gap of 4.73 eV, frontier molecular orbital energy levels as well as distinctive broad absorption of 455.3 nm due to the stronger electron withdrawing group. The electron-withdrawing substituents contribute to red shifts of absorption spectra and better stabilities for designed molecules. The theoretically determined reorganization energies of designed donor molecules suggested excellent charge mobility property. The lower (e) values in comparison with (h) illustrated that these four donor materials would be ideal for electron transfer and M4 would be best amongst the investigated molecules with lowest (e) of 0.0177. Furthermore, the calculated Voc of M4 is 2.04 V with respect to PC60BM (phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester). This study revealed that the designed donor materials are suitable and recommended for high performance organic solar cell devices.
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| 6. |
- Zara, Zeenat, et al.
(författare)
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Designing dibenzosilole and methyl carbazole based donor materials with favourable photovoltaic parameters for bulk heterojunction organic solar cells
- 2018
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Ingår i: Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. - : Elsevier. - 2210-271X .- 2210-2728. ; 1142, s. 45-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Five new Acceptor-Donor-Acceptor (A-D-A) type small donor molecules (M1-M5) namely; Dimethyl cyanoacetate terthiophene di(methylthiophene) dibenzosilole (DMCAO3TBS) (M1), Dimelononitrile terthiophene di(methylthiophene) dibenzosilole (DMCNTBS) (M2), Dimethyl rhodanine terthiophene di(methylthiophene) dibenzosilole (DMRTBS) (M3), Dimelanonitrile terthiophene di(methylthiophene) methyl carbazole (DMCNTCz) (M4) and Dimethyl rhodanine terthiophene di(methylthiophene) methyl carbazole (DMRTCz) (M5) were designed and theoretically explored their electronic, photophysical and geometrical properties via DFT best functional MPW1PW91/6-311G (d,p) with respect to reference molecules Dioctyl cyanoacetate terthiophene di(octylthiophene) dioctylfluorene (DCAO3TF) (Ra) and Dioctyl cyanoacetate terthiophene di(octylthiophene) octylcarbazole (DCAO3TCz) (Rb). Among the designed donor molecules (M1-M5), M2 and M4 represented lowest band gap value (2.480 eV and 2.47 eV) with distinctive broad absorption peak at 598 nm and 601 nm in chloroform. Theoretically estimated reorganization energies of these molecules recommended excellent property of charge mobility. The designed donor molecules (M1-M5), demonstrated lower λe value with reference to their λh, showing that these molecules could be ideal candidates for the transfer of electron while M2 and M4 were found to be best molecules having lowest λe (0.006 eV and 0.005 eV respectively). Additionally the Voc of M2 and M4 are 2.01 eV and 1.85 eV respectively with respect to PCBM.
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