A new trend toward increasing financial inclusion via digital finance has emerged, inspired by the success of this strategy in emerging nations. Since the advent of digital banking, digital financial inclusion has become more important. Finding out what is driving digital financial inclusion is, hence, crucial.

Inflammation is a natural response of the body to injury or harmful substances. However, excessive inflammation can lead to various health problems. Natural products obtained from plants and fruits are being studied for their possible anti-inflammatory properties. The present study aimed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of the aqueous fruit extract of Averrhoa carambola (star fruit) using the bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein denaturation method. The extract was tested at concentrations of 50, 100, 150, and 200 µg/mL, and ibuprofen was used as the standard drug for comparison. The absorbance was measured using a spectrophotometer at 660 nm. The results showed that the extract inhibited protein denaturation by 55.17%, 68.96%, 75.86%, and 86.20% at the respective concentrations. The anti-inflammatory activity increased with an increase in the concentration of the extract. The results were comparable to those obtained with ibuprofen. This study suggests that the aqueous fruit extract of Averrhoa carambola has potential anti-inflammatory activity. However, further studies are required to confirm its effectiveness and safety.

This study examined the climate-smart agricultural practices adopted by internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. A survey design involving questionnaire administration and field observation was used to obtain information from 393 IDPs drawn from four camps: Mbayungu, International Market, Abagana and Ichwa. Data were collected using KoboCollect and analysed with frequencies and percentages. The findings show that crop diversification and adjustment of planting dates were the most frequently practised crop-management approaches. Improved or early-maturing crop varieties, cover cropping, mulching and backyard gardening were also reported. However, adoption of agroforestry, irrigation, rainwater harvesting and integrated crop–livestock farming was limited. Most respondents depended on rain-fed agriculture (98.5%), while 62.8% reported no agroforestry practice and 47.6% reported no livestock-management practice. Seasonal weather forecasts (49.1%) and radio/television (30.8%) were the main sources of climate information used to guide farming. The findings indicate that IDPs relied mainly on practices that could be incorporated into existing small-scale farming activities, while practices requiring secure land, finance, equipment and longer-term investment were less common. The study concludes that climate-smart agriculture among IDPs is characterised by uneven adoption, with greater use of crop diversification and planting-date adjustment than capital-and land-intensive practices. Improving secure access to farmland, agricultural inputs, practical training, extension services and climate information would strengthen adoption.

बोकारो जिला झारखण्ड के उन विशिष्ट जिलों में से है जहाँ प्राकृतिक संसाधनों, खनन, भारी उद्योग, नगरीकरण और सामाजिक विविधता ने मिलकर एक विशिष्ट सामाजिक-आर्थिक संरचना का निर्माण किया है। विशेष रूप से बोकारो स्टील प्लांट की स्थापना ने जिले के आर्थिक, जनसांख्यिकीय, सांस्कृतिक और सामाजिक जीवन में व्यापक परिवर्तन उत्पन्न किए। एक अपेक्षाकृत ग्रामीण एवं कृषि-प्रधान क्षेत्र से बोकारो का विकास एक महत्वपूर्ण औद्योगिक एवं शहरी केंद्र के रूप में हुआ। इस परिवर्तन के साथ देश के विभिन्न भागों से श्रमिकों, तकनीकी विशेषज्ञों, अधिकारियों और व्यापारिक समुदायों का आगमन हुआ, जिसके परिणामस्वरूप जिले में बहुभाषी, बहुधार्मिक और बहुसांस्कृतिक सामाजिक संरचना विकसित हुई। यह शोध-लेख बोकारो जिले के सामाजिक-आर्थिक एवं सांस्कृतिक परिप्रेक्ष्य का विश्लेषण करते हुए विशेष रूप से औद्योगीकरण और महिलाओं की सामाजिक स्थिति के अंतर्संबंध पर केंद्रित है। अध्ययन में जनसंख्या संरचना, ग्रामीण-शहरी विभाजन, जातीय एवं जनजातीय संरचना, धर्म, परिवार एवं विवाह, शिक्षा, महिला साक्षरता, स्वास्थ्य एवं पोषण, रोजगार तथा स्वयं सहायता समूहों की भूमिका का विश्लेषण किया गया है। अध्ययन के लिए मुख्यतः Census of India 2011, District Census Handbook, बोकारो जिला प्रशासन, Steel Authority of India Limited तथा National Family Health Survey जैसे द्वितीयक स्रोतों का उपयोग किया गया है। अध्ययन से स्पष्ट होता है कि बोकारो का औद्योगीकरण महिलाओं के लिए शिक्षा, स्वास्थ्य, संस्थागत संपर्क, वित्तीय समावेशन, सेवा क्षेत्र और सामुदायिक सहभागिता के नए अवसरों का आधार बना है। तथापि औपचारिक औद्योगिक रोजगार में महिलाओं की भागीदारी अभी भी सीमित है और महिला सशक्तीकरण पर वर्ग, जाति/जनजाति, ग्रामीण-शहरी निवास, शिक्षा तथा परिवार संरचना का प्रभाव बना हुआ है। अतः औद्योगिक विकास को स्वतः महिला सशक्तीकरण का पर्याय नहीं माना जा सकता। वास्तविक महिला सशक्तीकरण के लिए शिक्षा, कौशल, सुरक्षित रोजगार, स्वास्थ्य, सामाजिक सुरक्षा, वित्तीय स्वतंत्रता तथा निर्णय-निर्माण में भागीदारी आवश्यक है।

Aspergillus fumigatus is a thermotolerant saprotroph and the leading cause of invasive aspergillosis, yet the glycobiological traits that permit environmental persistence and translate into human infectivity remain unresolved. This study tested three hypotheses: (H1) temperature, humidity and nutrient availability alter cell-wall glycoprotein expression; (H2) glycoprotein mechanisms (cell-wall remodelling, adhesion/biofilm formation and immune evasion) underpin environmental persistence; and (H3) environmental and clinical isolates carry distinct glycoprotein profiles that correlate with virulence. A two-year stratified survey will sample soil, compost, air, water and plant debris at agricultural, urban and hospital-surrounding sites (n=240); isolates will be identified by morphology and ITS sequencing. Cell-wall glycoprotein extracts will be profiled by SDS-PAGE, lectin blotting, HPAEC-PAD and MALDI-TOF MS; candidate proteins will be expressed recombinantly in Escherichia coli or Pichia pastoris and purified by affinity chromatography. Candidate mechanisms will be tested through heat, oxidative and nutrient-deprivation stress assays, adhesion and biofilm quantification, and macrophage-interaction assays. Environmental and clinical isolates (n=60 each) will be compared by glycan profiling, CLSI M38 broth microdilution and Galleria mellonella survival. To demonstrate the analytical chain, an illustrative, simulated dataset of 120 isolates was generated under a fixed seed, validated for uniqueness and completeness, analysed by Mann-Whitney U, Spearman correlation and ordinary least squares, and accompanied by four publication-style figures and a SHA-256 artefact manifest; glycan scores were not significantly different by origin (all two-sided P=0.47-0.62), while galactosaminogalactan (rho=0.43), stress adaptation (rho=0.34) and mannose epitopes (rho=0.34) were most strongly associated with the Galleria score. The proposed work will establish a reproducible pipeline for linking environmental glycobiology to human infection risk and may identify glycoprotein targets for surveillance and therapy.

Genome editing has emerged as an important biotechnology for accelerating genetic improvement in livestock and addressing major challenges facing animal agriculture, including increasing demand for animal protein, disease pressures, climate change, and the need for sustainable production. In this review, major genome-editing technologies used in livestock, with particular emphasis on zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and the CRISPR/Cas9 system were examined. Their structures, mechanisms of action, and dependence on cellular DNA repair pathways, particularly non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) and homology-directed repair (HDR), are discussed. The review further highlights some applications of genome editing in livestock improvement, including the development of disease-resistant animals, enhanced growth and meat production, improved tolerance to heat and cold stress, modification of milk composition, and animal welfare. Recent advances in CRISPR-based technologies, particularly base editing (BE) and prime editing (PE), have expanded the precision and versatility of genome modification by enabling targeted genetic changes without dependence on double-strand DNA breaks. Despite these advances, challenges such as off-target effects, unintended genomic alterations, delivery efficiency, high costs, regulatory requirements, and public acceptance continue to limit widespread application. The integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning with genome editing offers further opportunities for improving target selection, predicting editing outcomes, and optimizing the efficiency of gene editing. Overall, genome editing represents a promising complementary approach to conventional livestock breeding, with considerable potential to improve productivity, disease resistance, climate resilience, and product quality when applied safely and responsibly.

The study's purpose would be to propose that an entire and applicable laws be enacted on the theme, which will definitively lay out the parameters for defining the legal protections, obligations, and obligations of all decision makers, such as patients and healthcare professionals, in order to preserve and apply the medical profession's hopes, trust, and confidence. Based on the study's premise, the research technique includes qualitative, descriptive, analytical, empirical, and applied methodologies. This research has shown certain grey regions in legislation and implementation systems, which are needed for opulent law implementation. In Pakistan, the law of torts is used for civil remedies in medical malpractice cases, however courts are hesitant to punish doctors under the Pakistan Penal Code. Medical practitioners can also be prosecuted on criminal charges. The medical profession is a noble one that needs extreme care and attention.

Cost overruns and schedule delays remain persistent and well-documented problems in Nigerian construction projects, with underlying causes ranging from late material delivery and payment delays to poor contract management and adverse weather. Building Information Modelling (BIM) provides a structured digital repository of design, cost, and schedule data, while artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) offer predictive techniques capable of forecasting delay and cost-overrun risk from historical project data. This paper reviews the empirical and conceptual literature on AI-based delay and cost-overrun prediction and on BIM adoption within the Nigerian construction industry, to propose an integrated AI–BIM framework. Drawing on eight sources published between 1994 and 2026, the review finds consistent evidence that late material delivery, poor decision-making, adverse weather, payment delay, and project complexity are the predictor variables most strongly associated with delay and cost overrun in the Nigerian context, and that machine-learning models, including ensemble and neural-network approaches, can predict delay risk from such variables with reported accuracy of approximately 85 percent in the best-performing comparable Nigerian study reviewed here, with ensemble methods shown to further improve on single-algorithm performance. At the same time, the review finds that BIM adoption in Nigeria remains constrained by awareness, cost, and organisational barriers, meaning the structured data an AI-BIM framework would depend on is not yet consistently available in practice. The paper proposes a four-layer conceptual framework linking BIM and project data, feature engineering, AI/ML prediction models, and a decision-support and early-warning layer, and concludes that while the predictive and data-modelling components are each individually well evidenced in Nigeria, an empirically validated integrated AI–BIM framework has not yet been reported, and sets out directions for its future development.

Helicteres isora L., commonly known as Indian screw tree and referred to as Āvartanī in some Ayurvedic materia medica, is a shrub or small tree of the family Malvaceae (historically Sterculiaceae). Its most distinctive diagnostic feature is the spirally twisted fruit, which supports macroscopic recognition of the crude drug. This review expands an earlier narrative overview by bringing together botanical identification, classical Ayurvedic interpretation, pharmacognostic characters, microscopic diagnostic features, phytochemical findings and preclinical pharmacological evidence. Literature describing fruit microscopy reports three principal fruit-wall regions—epicarp, mesocarp and endocarp—and powdered fruit characters including stellate trichomes, prismatic crystals and endosperm cells. Leaf literature describes stellate hairs and stomatal features, while root and bark studies provide additional diagnostic and chemical information. Traditional uses include bowel-related complaints and other conditions documented in regional medical practice; experimental studies report antioxidant, antidiarrhoeal, hypoglycaemic and other activities. However, evidence varies by plant part, extract, model and study quality, and should not be presented as proof of clinical efficacy. Ayurvedic descriptions of rasa, guṇa, vīrya and vipāka are not entirely uniform across secondary sources, so textual claims require confirmation against the specific edition of the primary nighaṇṭu. This review therefore separates classical interpretation from pharmacological hypotheses and identifies authentication, standardisation, safety and clinical research as priorities.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and metabolic disorders have emerged as the leading global health burden, with gastrointestinal and metabolic dysfunctions serving as their core pathological foundation. In Ayurvedic medicine, Jatharagnimandya (functional hypoactivity or impairment of the master digestive fire) is identified as the prime systemic root of all endogenous disease manifestations (Rogāḥ Sarve’pi Mande’gnau). While classical treatises outline comprehensive codes of daily behavior (Vihara), structured dietary etiquette (Ahara Vidhi), and liquid ingestion regulations (Ambupana Vidhi), contemporary society is characterized by pervasive behavioral and chronobiological discordance.
This review compiles, synthesizes, and critically analyzes the fundamental and applied aspects of lifestyle described across Ayurvedic classical texts (Brihattrayi and Laghutrayi) and evaluates their pathophysiological role in Agnimandya. Classical literature demonstrates that lifestyle deviations—such as night vigils (Ratrau Jagarana), daytime sleep (Divaswapna), physical inactivity (Avyayama), suppression of physiological urges (Vega Dharana), irregular dining (Vishamashana), overeating (Adhyashana), distracted eating (Atanmana Bhojana), and excess fluid intake (Atyambupana)—directly derange the regulatory Ahara Parinamakara Bhavas and vitiate the Tridosha. This induces gastrointestinal hypomotility, blunted enzymatic secretion, and the formation of Ama (toxic unassimilated metabolites) that obstruct bodily channels (Srotas). Systematic correction of these habits (Nidana Parivarjana) forms the fundamental prerequisite for regaining metabolic equilibrium (Samagni). Realignment of daily habits with classical Ayurvedic paradigms offers an essential, sustainable approach to resolving Agnimandya.

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs), primarily driven by hypertension and diabetes, present a major healthcare burden in Sub-Saharan Africa. Conventional survival models often suffer from over complexity, over-fitting, and variable selection issues when applied to high-dimensional clinical datasets. This study evaluated variable selection consistency, parameter estimation accuracy, and predictive performance across nonparametric, semi-parametric, and parametric survival frameworks to develop a parsimonious risk-prediction model for cardiovascular patients. A retrospective cohort design was used to analyze secondary data from 1,247 CVD patients admitted to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBU-TH), Bauchi. Non-parametric survival was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier estimation and log-rank tests. Comparative evaluations were conducted across Cox Proportional Hazards (CPH) and Accelerated Failure Time (AFT) models regularized using convex (L1 LASSO, Elastic Net) and non-convex (Minimax Concave Penalty [MCP]) penalties. Model performance was assessed using 10-fold cross validation, Harrell’s Concordance Index (C-index), Integrated Brier Score (IBS), and time dependent ROC-AUC trajectories. During follow-up, 653 death events were recorded, yielding a median survival time of 883 days (95% CI: 821–943 days). Overall survival probabilities were 0.830, 0.587, and 0.392 at 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively. Significant survival differences were observed by hypertension status (p = 0.03) and sex (p = 0.00011). MCP Cox achieved the best overall discriminative performance (C-index = 0.812, IBS = 0.128, 20 retained features), while MCP AFT produced the most parsimonious model with 13 primary risk drivers (C-index = 0.798, IBS = 0.133). Age, diabetes, prior CVD events, hypertension, active smoking, and elevated blood pressure increased mortality risk, whereas female sex, non-smoking status, and higher HDL were protective. The study concludes that non-convex MCP regularization provides an effective approach for reducing model complexity while maintaining predictive performance.