A Case of Gastric and Duodenal Strongyloidiasis

Strongyloides stercoralis is a nematode parasite which causes a protracted asymptomatic intestinal infection. It is considered a life threatening condition in immunocompromised patients when hyperinfection is associated with disseminated disease. The diagnosis by routine stool examination is very limited since the larval output in stools is very low. We present the case of a 52 year-old Omani man from Salalah, in the southern region of Oman, with a 15-year history of type 2 diabetes mellitus and recently discovered to have hairy cell leukaemia, who complained of nausea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite and loss of weight. An oesophagogastroduodoscopic biopsy was obtained and histopathologic examination revealed gastrointestinal strongyloidiasis.

Evaluation of Inhibitory Activity of Cordia Myxa Fruit Extract on Microorganisms that Causes Spoilage of Food and Its Role in the Treatment of Certain Disease States

The study of chemical content and aqueous and alcoholic extracts of Aplomb's  fruit and then detect the chemical components effective it aggregates and also, studying the effectiveness of inhibitory to extracts toward isolates bacterial different: E.coli, Pseudomonas flurscence, Salmonella, Shegilla and Staphylococcus aureus, where the results showed that the fruit Alpmbr containing 63.9% carbohydrate, 8.6% protein, 6.7% ash and 9.9% fat, so that the fruit Alpmbr high content of carbohydrates and fat shows that fat contains a high percentage of saturated fats, such as fatty acid, lauric acid ratio was 48.3% and Myristic acid was 15.8%, as well as that it contains a significant proportion of unsaturated fatty acid such as oleic by 12.4%, which is an important and basic nutrition and health for human. The fruit Alpmbr of mineral content was high proportion of potassium 29 ppm and sodium element was 13 ppm. It was found that either metallic zinc and calcium were accepted by Iraqi Standard. Heavy metals such as Cadmium, chromium and copper were not diagnose which is toxic elements, so it may be considered the fruit of Alpmbr is a safe fruits to-use and useful for health. To test the activity of the functional chemical components, it was found that high content of alkaloids, Saponin, Comarines, and Gums, and a reasonable rates of resins and Steroid, multiple phenols, flavonoids and Glycosides, tannins and oily nitrogeneous materials oily with low content. The pH of the aqueous extracts is 7.0 and alcoholic extract was 6.5 that means the fruits is neutral acidity. As for the inhibition  activity toward the bacterial isolates were higher effective inhibitory concentration 200mg / ml of aqueous extracts a diameter of 26mm against Pseudomonas flurscence and 25 mm for the both of Salmonella and E.coli. While, it decrease significantly to 19mm towards both Shegilla and Staphylococcus aureus. But with alcoholic extract concentration 200mg / ml has decreased significantly to 25 mm diameter towards Staphylococcus aureus and 20mm in E.coli and Shegilla.  Also the same significant decreases towards the Salmonella 19mm and 16mm towards the bacteria Pseudomonas flurscence. The sensitivity of the bacterial isolates for the  antibiotics inhibition diameters was 20 mm, of Erthromycin against Salmonella.  And the diameter of Oxacillin was 17 mm against Staphylococcus aureus, but Optimdex T was a very highly effective against all bacterial isolates. Keywords: Cordia myxa-Chemicals content-Minerals-Bacterial inhibition activet

Interactions between large molecules pose a puzzle for reference quantum mechanical methods

Quantum-mechanical methods are used for understanding molecular interactions throughout the natural sciences. Quantum diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) and coupled cluster with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations [CCSD(T)] are state-of-the-art trusted wavefunction methods that have been shown to yield accurate interaction energies for small organic molecules. These methods provide valuable reference information for widely-used semi-empirical and machine learning potentials, especially where experimental information is scarce. However, agreement for systems beyond small molecules is a crucial remaining milestone for cementing the benchmark accuracy of these methods. We show that CCSD(T) and DMC interaction energies are not consistent for a set of polarizable supramolecules. Whilst there is agreement for some of the complexes, in a few key systems disagreements of up to 8 kcal mol−1 remain. These findings thus indicate that more caution is required when aiming at reproducible non-covalent interactions between extended molecules

Middle Miocene Evaporites from Northern Iraq: Petrography, Geochemistry, and Cap Rock Efficiency

Evaporites (gypsum and anhydrite) of the middle Miocene age (Fat’ha Formation) form one of the main sulfate cap rocks in the Middle East oilfields. Detailed petrographic and diagenetic investigations accompanied with geochemical analysis of these evaporite rocks in Mosul and Kirkuk areas of northern Iraq have revealed that nodular gypsum is the dominant type, whereas laminated, structureless, and secondary (selenite and satin spar) also are present. Nodular gypsum was deposited in a very shallow, arid, and semi-restricted lagoonal environment which has undergone influx and reflux processes, while laminated gypsum may represent pulses of freshwater into the lagoonal basin of Fat’ha Formation. Low strontium values of the secondary and laminated gypsum may attribute to their secondary origin by hydration processes from the original anhydrite. Based on petrographic, diagenetic, and petrophysical (porosity and permeability) properties, it appears that the efficiency of the Fat’ha sulfates as petroleum cap rocks increases with increasing nodular growth and compaction degree. The occasional presence of bitumen inclusions with both nodular gypsum and host materials relates to early leakage of the hydrocarbons which were being halt due to the growing and packing of nodules and host materials

Evaluation of Surface hardness of Denture Base Acrylic Resin Modified with Different Techniques

Aims: Evaluation of the surface hardness of heat-treated acrylic resin after modifying it with three different techniques. Materials and Methods: Heat cured acrylic resin was modified by: (a) The copolymerization of acrylic resin with 5% and 10% of acrylic acid (AA), (b) The addition of 5% and 10% thermally activated zinc oxide (ZnO) and (c) The chemical bonding or engagement of Zinc ions into the polymer chain by an organic link, zinc diacrylate (ZDA) in 5% and 10%, to get a copolymer. The acrylic specimens have dimensions of (30, 15 and 3) ± 0.2 mm. Surface hardness was determined using a Durometer (Shore D) hardness tester. Results: There was general increase of the surface hardness of the experimental (modified) groups. A statical significant increase in the hardness of both acrylic groups modified by 10% ZnO and 10% ZDA compared to the control group and the remaining modified samples. Conclusion: Two techniques had significantly improved the hardness of heat cured acrylic resin; either by adding 10% by weight of thermally activated ZnO or by copolymerizing it with 10% by weight of ZDA to get poly (methyl methacrylate -co-zinc acrylate) copolymer

Noncovalent Interactions by QMC: Speedup by One-Particle Basis-Set Size Reduction

While it is empirically accepted that the fixed-node diffusion Monte-Carlo (FN-DMC) depends only weakly on the size of the one-particle basis sets used to expand its guiding functions, limits of this observation are not settled yet. Our recent work indicates that under the FN error cancellation conditions, augmented triple zeta basis sets are sufficient to achieve a benchmark level of 0.1 kcal/mol in a number of small noncovalent complexes. Here we report on a possibility of truncation of the one-particle basis sets used in FN-DMC guiding functions that has no visible effect on the accuracy of the production FN-DMC energy differences. The proposed scheme leads to no significant increase in the local energy variance, indicating that the total CPU cost of large-scale benchmark noncovalent interaction energy FN-DMC calculations may be reduced.Comment: ACS book chapter, accepte

Alcohol consumers’ attention to warning labels and brand information on alcohol packaging: Findings from cross-sectional and experimental studies

Background Alcohol warning labels have a limited effect on drinking behavior, potentially because people devote minimal attention to them. We report findings from two studies in which we measured the extent to which alcohol consumers attend to warning labels on alcohol packaging, and aimed to identify if increased attention to warning labels is associated with motivation to change drinking behavior. Methods Study 1 (N = 60) was an exploratory cross-sectional study in which we used eye-tracking to measure visual attention to brand and health information on alcohol and soda containers. In study 2 (N = 120) we manipulated motivation to reduce drinking using an alcohol brief intervention (vs control intervention) and measured heavy drinkers’ attention to branding and warning labels with the same eye-tracking paradigm as in study 1. Then, in a separate task we experimentally manipulated attention by drawing a brightly colored border around health (or brand) information before measuring participants’ self-reported drinking intentions for the subsequent week. Results Study 1 showed that participants paid minimal attention to warning labels (7% of viewing time). Participants who were motivated to reduce drinking paid less attention to alcohol branding and alcohol warning labels. Results from study 2 showed that the alcohol brief intervention decreased attention to branding compared to the control condition, but it did not affect attention to warning labels. Furthermore, the experimental manipulation of attention to health or brand information did not influence drinking intentions for the subsequent week. Conclusions Alcohol consumers allocate minimal attention to warning labels on alcohol packaging and even if their attention is directed to these warning labels, this has no impact on their drinking intentions. The lack of attention to warning labels, even among people who actively want to cut down, suggests that there is room for improvement in the content of health warnings on alcohol packaging

Surface and Temporal Biosignatures

Recent discoveries of potentially habitable exoplanets have ignited the prospect of spectroscopic investigations of exoplanet surfaces and atmospheres for signs of life. This chapter provides an overview of potential surface and temporal exoplanet biosignatures, reviewing Earth analogues and proposed applications based on observations and models. The vegetation red-edge (VRE) remains the most well-studied surface biosignature. Extensions of the VRE, spectral "edges" produced in part by photosynthetic or nonphotosynthetic pigments, may likewise present potential evidence of life. Polarization signatures have the capacity to discriminate between biotic and abiotic "edge" features in the face of false positives from band-gap generating material. Temporal biosignatures -- modulations in measurable quantities such as gas abundances (e.g., CO2), surface features, or emission of light (e.g., fluorescence, bioluminescence) that can be directly linked to the actions of a biosphere -- are in general less well studied than surface or gaseous biosignatures. However, remote observations of Earth's biosphere nonetheless provide proofs of concept for these techniques and are reviewed here. Surface and temporal biosignatures provide complementary information to gaseous biosignatures, and while likely more challenging to observe, would contribute information inaccessible from study of the time-averaged atmospheric composition alone.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, review to appear in Handbook of Exoplanets. Fixed figure conversion error

Protein kinase C α and ε phosphorylation of troponin and myosin binding protein C reduce Ca2+ sensitivity in human myocardium

Previous studies indicated that the increase in protein kinase C (PKC)-mediated myofilament protein phosphorylation observed in failing myocardium might be detrimental for contractile function. This study was designed to reveal and compare the effects of PKCα- and PKCε-mediated phosphorylation on myofilament function in human myocardium. Isometric force was measured at different [Ca2+] in single permeabilized cardiomyocytes from failing human left ventricular tissue. Activated PKCα and PKCε equally reduced Ca2+ sensitivity in failing cardiomyocytes (ΔpCa50 = 0.08 ± 0.01). Both PKC isoforms increased phosphorylation of troponin I- (cTnI) and myosin binding protein C (cMyBP-C) in failing cardiomyocytes. Subsequent incubation of failing cardiomyocytes with the catalytic subunit of protein kinase A (PKA) resulted in a further reduction in Ca2+ sensitivity, indicating that the effects of both PKC isoforms were not caused by cross-phosphorylation of PKA sites. Both isozymes showed no effects on maximal force and only PKCα resulted in a modest significant reduction in passive force. Effects of PKCα were only minor in donor cardiomyocytes, presumably because of already saturated cTnI and cMyBP-C phosphorylation levels. Donor tissue could therefore be used as a tool to reveal the functional effects of troponin T (cTnT) phosphorylation by PKCα. Massive dephosphorylation of cTnT with alkaline phosphatase increased Ca2+ sensitivity. Subsequently, PKCα treatment of donor cardiomyocytes reduced Ca2+ sensitivity (ΔpCa50 = 0.08 ± 0.02) and solely increased phosphorylation of cTnT, but did not affect maximal and passive force. PKCα- and PKCε-mediated phosphorylation of cMyBP-C and cTnI as well as cTnT decrease myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity and may thereby reduce contractility and enhance relaxation of human myocardium