Exposome Factors: Exploratory Study Approach and the Role of Persuasive Technology to Raise Awareness About the Exposome Concept

Exposome is a new concept that emerged at the beginning of the 21st century to complement genome research. The exposome encompasses the entirety of a person’s environmental exposures from birth to death. This study focused on environmental rather than genetic factors that are related to chronic diseases. It had two phases. Phase 1 involved building a regression model aimed at investigating the influence of various indicators on cancer cases in Los Angeles County. The investigation of the potential correlation between the cancer cases based on census tract data and the exposome factors follows an exploratory approach. Multiple regression stepwise analysis (using SPSS) are reported and discussed. Phase 2 aimed to design, build, and evaluate a mobile-based and text message awareness campaign artifact based on the results of the regression model built in Phase 1. I utilized the Geller proenvironmental model to govern the design requirements of the proposed artifacts to educate people on the exposome factors resulting from the regression model that correlated with cancer cases in Los Angeles County. Novel persuasive technology techniques were utilized within the system artifact. This technology uses direct and indirect persuasion routes for delivering interventions. First, the mobile application indirectly persuades users through providing educational videos and an e-fotonovela. Second, text messages directly persuade users by providing supportive tips. A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare the effect of three methods of persuasion on presenting information to increase awareness. A significant effect was present at the p \u3c .05 level for the three conditions [ F (2)= 6.056, p = 0.007]. A post hoc Tukey test indicated that Group A and Group B differed significantly at p \u3c .05; and Group A and Group C differed significantly at p \u3c .05; Group C was not significantly different from Group B. This study contributed to the body of knowledge through providing a solution that aims to raise the awareness level about the concept of exposome

SUL ODI Conformance Checklist 2022

Nurtured by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), the Open Discovery Initiative (ODI) aims at defining standards and/or best practices for the new generation of library discovery services that are based on indexed search. These discovery services are primarily based upon indexes derived from journals, ebooks and other electronic information of a scholarly nature. The content comes from a range of information providers and products—commercial, open access, institutional, etc

Effects of depression, stress and other factors on cradling bias in Saudi males and females

Several studies have reported a strong bias in both human and non-human species for cradling their infants to the left side of the body. Most studies suggest that the main reason this phenomenon is the predominance of the right hemisphere of the brain for the processing of emotions and its transference, through brain laterality, to the left side of the body. Many other variables, including handedness, footedness, stress and depression have also been found to have some effect on cradling side. However, no study has been published for an Arab population. Given the strong religious and cultural belief of most Arabs that only the right hand should be used for most daily tasks, this study investigated the affect on cradling side of this habit, in addition to the factors named above. 369 Saudi citizens took part in this study. 234 lived in Saudi Arabia and 135 had lived in the UK for five or more years. 267 were women and 102 were men. Each answered a questionnaire which asked about their ‘preferred’ cradling side and then the 102 men were videotaped spontaneously cradling a real infant and an infant-like doll. Unfortunately, only the male sample could be videotaped due to restrictions on filming females in Saudi Arabia. The results confirmed those of previous studies by showing a very strong bias to leftside cradling. No difference was found between males and females in cradling a doll, or between the Saudi-based sample and the UK-based sample but the bias was significantly reduced in men. Apart from the influence of gender, the factors that reduced the cradling bias for a real infant were found to be lack of experience of parenthood, depression, stress and greater age of the infant. In cradling a doll, the most influential variables were handedness, footedness and depression. Further work is required on Arab samples, especially in examining spontaneous cradling by women and its relation to depression and stress. A mother’s mental state is known to affect the health of the infant and cradling side could be a useful filter for neonatal women who might require psychiatric treatment. Further research could also shed light on gender differences in the processing of emotion

A Saudi Infant with Vici Syndrome: Case Report and Literature Review

INTRODUCTION: Vici syndrome, a rare autosomal recessive disorder, was first described in 1988 by Vici et al. Only 78 cases have been reported to date. The syndrome is characterised by agenesis of the corpus callosum, hypopigmentation, cardiomyopathy, progressive failure to thrive, dysmorphic features, immunodeficiency and cataracts. Mutations in the gene epg5 have been identified as the cause of Vici syndrome.CASE DESCRIPTION: The parents are a consanguineous Saudi couple with two other children diagnosed with Gaucher disease. The patient was born at term and in the first 5 months had many hospital admissions for a recurrent chest infection. Physical examination, investigations and imaging studies revealed that the patient had agenesis of the corpus callosum, cataracts, psychomotor delay, immunodeficiency and hypopigmentation. The initial echocardiogram was normal. At 7 months, genetic testing confirmed the diagnosis of Vici syndrome with a c.3693G>Ap (Gln1231Gln) mutation in the gene EPG5. The patient developed a chest infection and was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit. An echocardiogram was repeated and showed significant left ventricular dilation with a Z-score of 3.1, moderate mitral and tricuspid regurgitation, and depressed ventricular function with a fractional shortening of 17% and ejection fraction 37%. The patient’s condition deteriorated, and he died aged 8 months.CONCLUSION: The symptoms of extensive system involvement in Vici syndrome have been present in the majority of reported cases and should prompt careful evaluation of this syndrome when such symptoms are present in an infant. In confirmed cases, close monitoring of the immune status and cardiac function, the two main causes of death among Vici syndrome patients, is vital to prevent rapid deterioration and improve life expectancy

Electronic waste collection incentivization scheme based on the blockchain

The approaches of motivating people for the collection of electronic waste (e-waste) are often insufficient due to inadequate methods of given incentives. Prior research studies have been carried out to tackle the issue of e-waste management in a broad sense. The findings of those studies indicated diverse strategies, each of which is relevant solely to a restricted range of electronic e-waste reprocessing circumstances. The current study has presented a proposed technique for incentivizing tasks and activities associated with the collection of e-waste through the adoption of the vector space technique. The method this research undertakes lies with utilizing blockchain smart contract technology. The reason for selecting this approach lies with the mapping of tasks, the nature of activities, and their magnitude, in order to derived an incentive. While the vector space model defines the set of tasks with their corresponding incentives, blockchain smart contract maps them together and establishes them in a record. Experimental scenarios for the calculation of incentives are presented; the findings reveal that among many scenarios of allocating incentives for e-waste collection, the best case is by utilizing a weighting scale scheme where each task and activity is mapped to its associated incentive rather than providing fixed incentive values. Ethereum was used as a digital token for each unit of incentive. This concept has contributed in encouraging personal accountability in the management of e-waste collection in order to cultivate sustainable behaviors for a long-term solution

Web Application Security Tools Analysis

Strong security in web applications is critical to the success of your online presence. Security importance has grown massively, especially among web applications. Dealing with web application or website security issues requires deep insight and planning, not only because of the many tools that are available but also because of the industry immaturity. Thus, finding the proper tools requires deep understanding and several steps, including analyzing the development environment, business needs, and the web applications’ complexity. In this paper, we demonstrate the architecture of web applications then list and evaluate the widespread security vulnerabilities. Those vulnerabilities are: Fingerprinting, Insufficient Transport Layer Protection, Information Leakage, Cross-Site Scripting, SQL Injection, and HTTP Splitting. In addition, this paper analyzes the tools that are used to scan for these widespread vulnerabilities in web applications. Finally, it evaluates tools due to security vulnerabilities and gives recommendations to the web applications’ users and administrators aiming to educate them

Signaling pathways regulated by Brassicaceae extract inhibit the formation of advanced glycated end products in rat brain

Background: The goal of this study was identification signaling molecules mediated the formation of AGEs in brain of rats injected with CdCl2 and the role of camel whey proteins and Brassicaceae extract on formation of AGEs in brain.Methods: Ninety male rats were randomly grouped into five groups; Normal control (GpI) and the other rats (groups II-V) were received a single dose of cadmium chloride i.p (5 μg/kg/b.w) for induction of neurodegeneration. Rats in groups III-V were treated daily with whey protein (1g/kg b.w) or Brassicaceae extract (1mg/kg b.w) or combined respectively for 12 weeks.Results: It was found that whey protein combined with Brassicaceae extract prevented the formation of AGEs and enhance the antioxidant activity compared with untreated group (p <0.001). Serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) and interleukine (IL-6) levels were significantly decreased (p<0.01) in rats treated with whey protein and Brassicaceae extract formation compared with untreated. The combined treatment showed a better impact than individual ones (p<0.001). The level of cAMP but not cGMP were lowered in combined treatment than individual (p<0.01).Conclusion: it can be postulated that Whey protein + Brassicaceae extract formation could have potential benefits in the prevention of the onset and progression of neuropathy in patients.Keywords: Whey protein- Brassicaceae extract -neurodegeneration -rat