University of Jordan

About: University of Jordan is a education organization based out in Amman, Jordan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 7796 authors who have published 13764 publications receiving 213526 citations.

Clustering analysis using a novel locality-informed grey wolf-inspired clustering approach

Abstract: Grey wolf optimizer (GWO) is known as one of the recent popular metaheuristic algorithms inspired from the social collaboration and team hunting activities of grey wolves in nature This algorithm benefits from stochastic operators, but it is still prone to stagnation in local optima and premature convergence when solving problems with a large number of variables (eg, clustering problems) To alleviate this shortcoming, the GWO algorithm is hybridized with the well-known tabu search (TS) To investigate the performance of the proposed hybrid GWO and TS (GWOTS), it is compared with well-regarded metaheuristics on various clustering datasets The comprehensive experiments and analysis verify that the proposed GWOTS shows an improved performance compared to GWO and can be utilized for clustering applications

Enhanced uptake of nanoparticle drug carriers via a thermoresponsive shell enhances cytotoxicity in a cancer cell line

Abstract: Polymer particles consisting of a biodegradable poly[lactide-co-glycolide] (PLGA) core and a thermoresponsive shell have been formulated to encapsulate the dye rhodamine 6G and the potent cytotoxic drug paclitaxel. Cellular uptake of these particles is significantly enhanced above the thermal transition temperature (TTT) of the polymer shells in the human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7 as determined by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. Paclitaxel-loaded particles display reduced and enhanced cytotoxicity below and above the TTT respectively compared to unencapsulated drug. The data suggests a potential route to enhanced anti-cancer efficacy through temperature-mediated cell targeting.

Meta-analysis of the role of entomopathogenic and unspecialized fungal endophytes as plant bodyguards.

Abstract: Herbaceous plants harbour species-rich communities of asymptomatic endophytic fungi. Although some of these endophytes are entomopathogenic, many are not, and remarkably little is known about how the presence of these fungi in plant tissues affects phytophagous insects. Here we show through a meta-analysis that both entomopathogenic and nonentomopathogenic endophytes have a negative effect on insect herbivores. Growth and performance of polyphagous and sucking insects are reduced by nonentomopathogenic endophytes, but monophages are unaffected, likely because the latter are better adapted to secondary metabolites produced or induced by the fungi. Furthermore, studies using excised leaves report weaker effects than those with intact plants, likely caused by chemical changes being masked by leaf excision. Most surprisingly, endophyte infection of seeds produces the greatest effect on insect herbivores in subsequent mature plants, even though the usual mode of fungal transmission is infection of leaves by airborne spores. We conclude that these ubiquitous hidden fungi may be important bodyguards of plants. However, in order to fully understand their roles in plant protection, we must be aware that minor differences in experimental design can lead to contradictory results.