Templating Nanostructured Aromatic Based Materials as Possible Anode Electrodes for Na-ion Batteries: A Computational DFT Approach

Due to their widespread availability and lower costs Na-ion batteries have grabbed attention as a promising substitute for lithium-ion batteries. In this paper, we delve into a computational investigation of the potential use of 2,4-Chloronitrotoluene and pyrazine as electrode materials for SIBs. We utilized Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations to examine their properties and suitability for energy storage applications. Adsorption energies, highest occupied molecular orbital, lowest unoccupied molecular orbital, HLG energies, total energies, and bond lengths were computed using computational theories for aromatic compounds. This computation is based here on the DFT and computational engineering modelling approach. The results indicate that both 2,4-chloronitrotoluene and pyrazine exhibit favorable adsorption energies for Na-ion adsorption, indicating their potential as electrode materials. Furthermore, the investigation delved into the electronic properties of the materials. Notably, the analysis showed that the EHOMO, ELUMO, and EHLG are facilitative to the efficient transfer of electrons during the operation of the battery. Moreover, the computed bond lengths indicate that stable Na-ion adsorption can appear on both materials, further solidifying their potential for integration into the framework of Na-ion batteries. In essence, this study yields valuable insights into the electrochemical aspects of 2,4- chloronitrotoluene and pyrazine, highlighting their promising candidacy as electrode materials for SIBs

Physical activity, sedentary behaviors and dietary habits among Saudi adolescents relative to age, gender and region

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Few lifestyle factors have been simultaneously studied and reported for Saudi adolescents. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to report on the prevalence of physical activity, sedentary behaviors and dietary habits among Saudi adolescents and to examine the interrelationships among these factors using representative samples drawn from three major cities in Saudi Arabia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This school-based cross-sectional study was conducted during the years 2009-2010 in three cities: Al-Khobar, Jeddah and Riyadh. The participants were 2908 secondary-school males (1401) and females (1507) aged 14-19 years, randomly selected using a multistage stratified sampling technique. Measurements included weight, height, sedentary behaviors (TV viewing, playing video games and computer use), physical activity using a validated questionnaire and dietary habits.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A very high proportion (84% for males and 91.2% for females) of Saudi adolescents spent more than 2 hours on screen time daily and almost half of the males and three-quarters of the females did not meet daily physical activity guidelines. The majority of adolescents did not have a daily intake of breakfast, fruit, vegetables and milk. Females were significantly (<it>p </it>< 0.05) more sedentary, much less physically active, especially with vigorous physical activity, and there were fewer days per week when they consumed breakfast, fruit, milk and diary products, sugar-sweetened drinks, fast foods and energy drinks than did males. However, the females' intake of French fries and potato chips, cakes and donuts, and candy and chocolate was significantly (<it>p </it>< 0.05) higher than the males'. Screen time was significantly (<it>p </it>< 0.05) correlated inversely with the intake of breakfast, vegetables and fruit. Physical activity had a significant (<it>p </it>< 0.05) positive relationship with fruit and vegetable intake but not with sedentary behaviors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The high prevalence of sedentary behaviors, physical inactivity and unhealthy dietary habits among Saudi adolescents is a major public health concern. There is an urgent need for national policy promoting active living and healthy eating and reducing sedentary behaviors among children and adolescents in Saudi Arabia.</p

Joint Associations of Activity Energy Expenditure and Sedentary Behaviors with Adolescent's Obesity and Dietary Habits

PURPOSE: Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors are thought to be independent entities and differently associate with adverse health outcomes. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the joint associations of physical activity and sedentary behaviors with obesity indices and dietary habits among adolescents from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. METHODS: Data were from the Arab Teens Lifestyle Study (ATLS), a school based, cross-sectional lifestyle study. The present analysis included 6279 adolescents (49.4% males) aged 14-20 years, randomly selected from eight major cities in the GCC countries, using a multistage stratified cluster sampling technique. Anthropometric and self-reported lifestyle data were obtained from participants. Adolescents were classified into four categories: high active & low sedentary (HA-LS), high active & high sedentary (HA- HS), low active & low sedentary (LA-LS) and low active & high sedentary (LA-HS), based on cut off scores of total activity energy expenditure and daily screen time above and below 1680 METs-min/week and above or below 3 hours/day, respectively. RESULTS: Results of MANCOVA tests controlling for age revealed that compared with those with LA-HS, adolescents with HA-LS had signifi cantly (<0.001) lower mean (SD) values for BMI (22.6 (5.5) vs 23.7 (6.2)), waist to height ratio (0.45 (.07) vs 0.48 (.08)), and less frequent intakes of sugar-sweetened drinks (3.7 (2.5) vs 4.5 (2.3)), fast foods (2.2 (1.9) vs 2.9 (1.9)), French fries/potato chips (2.1 (2.0) vs 2.9 (2.1)), cakes/donuts (2.4 (2.1) vs 2.7 (2.1)) and sweets (2.5 (2.1)) vs 3.8 (2.3) but more frequent intakes of breakfast (3.9 (2.7) vs 3.3 (2.6)), vegetables (4.4 (2.3) vs 3.5 (2.4)), fruits (4.2 (2.3) vs 2.8 (2.2)) and milk (4.3 (2.5) vs 3.6 (2.5)). CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with combined high activity energy expenditure and low sedentary behaviors tend to have lower risk of obesity and have more favorable (healthy) dietary habits. These findings carry important implications for adolescent’s health promotion and obesity prevention.American College of Sports Medicin

Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity, and Abdominal Obesity among Urban Saudi Adolescents: Gender and Regional Variations

The nutrition transition with associated lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases has rapidly reached many developing countries, including Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of overweight, obesity, and abdominal obesity among Saudi adolescents. This school-based multicentre cross-sectional study was conducted during 2009-2010 in three major cities in Saudi Arabia: Al-Khobar, Jeddah, and Riyadh. Participants included 2,908 students of secondary schools (1,401 males and 1,507 females) aged 14 to 19 years, randomly selected using a multistage stratified cluster-sampling technique. Weight, height, and waist-circumference were measured; prevalence of overweight and obesity was determined using age- and sex-specific BMI cutoff reference standards of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF). Abdominal obesity was determined using waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) cutoffs (above 0.5). The prevalence of overweight was 19.5% in males and 20.8% in females while that of obesity was 24.1% in males and 14% in females. The prevalence of abdominal obesity in males and females was 35.9% and 30.3% respectively. Higher prevalence of obesity was observed among adolescents in private schools. Across all ages, overweight and obesity ranged from 39.9% to 45.6% in males and from 30.4% to 38.7% in females. ANCOVA, controlling for age, showed significant interaction effects (city by gender). It is concluded that the proportions of overweight, obesity, and abdominal obesity, observed among Saudi adolescents were remarkably high. Such high prevalence of overweight and obesity is a major public-health concern

Susceptible exposed infectious recovered-machine learning for COVID-19 prediction in Saudi Arabia

Susceptible exposed infectious recovered (SEIR) is among the epidemiological models used in forecasting the spread of disease in large populations. SEIR is a fitting model for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread prediction. Somehow, in its original form, SEIR could not measure the impact of lockdowns. So, in the SEIR equations system utilized in this study, a variable was included to evaluate the impact of varying levels of social distance on the transmission of COVID-19. Additionally, we applied artificial intelligence utilizing the deep neural network machine learning (ML) technique. On the initial spread data for Saudi Arabia that were available up to June 25th, 2021, this improved SEIR model was used. The study shows possible infection to around 3.1 million persons without lockdown in Saudi Arabia at the peak of spread, which lasts for about 3 months beginning from the lockdown date (March 21st). On the other hand, the Kingdom's current partial lockdown policy was estimated to cut the estimated number of infections to 0.5 million over nine months. The data shows that stricter lockdowns may successfully flatten the COVID-19 graph curve in Saudi Arabia. We successfully predicted the COVID-19 epidemic's peaks and sizes using our modified deep neural network (DNN) and SEIR model

Medicines in Pharmacy Students’ Residence and Self-medication Practices

This study was aimed at identifying the types of medicines in pharmacy students’ residence and to determine if a relationship exists between keeping medicines in students’ accommodation and self-medication practices. A cross-sectional survey of a random sample of 240 undergraduate pharmacy students of the University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria, was carried out. Participating students were given a self-administered questionnaire, and only 188 students returned their filled questionnaire. The data collected were entered and analyzed using SPSS 16, and the χ2-test was used to determine associations between the variables. The results revealed that 66.0% of respondents had medicines in their room. A total of 318 medicines items (2.56 items per student's room) of which 37.1% were leftover medicines were present in respondents’ rooms. Analgesics (34.3%) and antibiotics (25.2%) were the common classes of medicines present in respondents’ rooms. Respondents reported getting these medicines on prescription (25.8%) and self-medication (56.5%) or both (17.7%). Self-medication practice was common among respondents (53.2%); however, no significant relationship (P>0.05) existed between having medicine in students’ room and self-medication practices. Common reasons given by respondents for having medicines in their rooms were that they were leftover medicines and that they were keeping them for emergency use or for use in an event of a similar illness. Most respondents (72.2%) reported disposing of their unused medicines in a trash can/dust bin. This study demonstrated that the prevalence of medicine storage in students’ room and self-medication practice is high. Analgesics and antibiotics were the most common types of medicines present in students’ residence

Physical activity and medicine use: evidence from a population-based study

BACKGROUND: Few studies have investigated the association between physical activity practice and medicine use; data from these studies are inconsistent. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between level of physical activity and medicine use in adults aged 20 years or more. METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study was carried out in the first semester of 2002 in the urban area of Pelotas; a medium-sized Southern Brazilian city. Physical activity was assessed with the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. A physical activity score was created as the weekly time spent in moderate-intensity activities plus twice the weekly time spent in vigorous-intensity activities. Medicine use in the 15 days prior to the interview was also assessed. Adjusted analyses taking into account the sampling design was carried out using Poisson regression. Wald tests for heterogeneity and linear trend were used to calculate significance. RESULTS: Out of the 3,182 individuals interviewed, 41% were not sufficiently active according to current physical activity guidelines. Only 34% of the subjects did not use medicines in the previous 15 days, and 18% used three or more drugs in the same period. Level of physical activity was inversely associated with the number of medicines used both in the crude and in the adjusted analyses. CONCLUSION: There are well-documented benefits of physical activity for several chronic diseases in the literature. Data from the present study suggest that medicine use is also positively affected by physical activity behavior

Intestinal parasitic infections among expatriate workers in various occupations in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT Intestinal parasitic infections are prevalent throughout many countries. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasite carriers among 21,347 expatriate workers, including food handlers and housemaids attending the public health center laboratory in Sharjah, UAE. Stool sample collection was performed throughout the period between January and December 2013. All samples were examined microscopically. Demographic data were also obtained and analyzed. Intestinal parasites were found in 3.3% (708/21,347) of the studied samples (single and multiple infections). Among positive samples, six hundred and eighty-three samples (96.5%) were positive for a single parasite: Giardia lamblia (257; 36.3%) and Entamoeba histolytica/Entamoeba dispar (220; 31.1%), respectively, whereas mono-infections with helminths accounted for 206 (29.1%) of the samples. Infection rates with single worms were: Ascaris lumbricoides (84; 11.9%), Hookworm (34; 4.8%), Trichuris trichiura (33; 4.7%), Taenia spp. (27; 3.81%), Strongyloides stercoralis (13; 1.8%), Hymenolepis nana (13; 1.8%), and Enterobius vermicularis (2; 0.28%), respectively. Infections were significantly associated with gender (x2 = 14.18; p = 0.002) with males as the most commonly infected with both groups of intestinal parasites (protozoa and helminths). A strong statistical association was noted correlating the parasite occurrence with certain nationalities (x2= 49.5, p <0.001). Furthermore, the study has also found a strong statistical correlation between parasite occurrence and occupation (x2= 15.60; p = 0.029). Multiple infections were not common (3.5% of the positive samples), although one individual (0.14%) had four helminth species, concurrently. These findings emphasized that food handlers with different pathogenic parasitic organisms may pose a significant health risk to the public