POTENTIAL GENOTOXICITY AND HISTOPATHOLOGICAL ALTERATION EVALUATION OF HEPTEX®

Objective: The present study was performed in order to evaluate potential genotoxicity and the histopathological alteration of a traditional herbal prescription Heptex that used in the treatment of liver disease.Methods: The genotoxicity were evaluated using the in vivo chromosome aberration and micronucleus assays in bone marrow cells of male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. In addition, in vitro chromosome aberration assay in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and bacterial reverse mutations assay in Salmonella typhimurium strains and Escherichia coli (WP2-uvrA/) with and without metabolic activation system (S9 mix) were performed. Histopathological study was conducted in liver, ovary and testis tissue of Sprague-Dawley rats.Results: The genotoxicity assessment showed that Heptex did not significantly increase the number of chromosomal aberrations and frequencies of micro nucleated polychromatic erythrocytes in bone marrow cells of both male and female rats. In addition, there were no increases in the number of revertant colonies at any concentrations of Heptex used in the study. Heptex did not produce any structural aberration in CHO cells in the presence or absence of S9 mix. In addition, there were no histopathological changes induced by Heptex in rat liver, ovary and testis.Conclusion: Based on abovementioned findings, we can conclude that Heptex is generally non-toxic and does not exhibit genotoxicity or histopathological alteration.Â

تصميم ركبة صناعية فعالة متكيفة مع الأراضي غير المستوية

تحاكي الركب الصناعية التجارية المتوافرة حالياً عمل الركبة البشرية من خلال أداء حركة دورانية واحدة (امتداد/انثناء)، كما وتركز الدراسات البحثية في هذا المجال على نفس الأمر، يهدف هذا البحث إلى الوصول لتصميم مفصل ركبة صناعي يقوم بحركتي دوران، ذلك بالإضافة لاقترابه قدر الإمكان من المواصفات الحركية والتحريكية للركبة الطبيعية السليمة. المفصل في هذا البحث هو من نوع U-Joint يؤمن حركتي دوران، يُتحكم بالحركة الدورانية الأولى (الامتداد/انثناء) عن طريق مشغل متسلسل مرنSeries Elastic Actuator SEA، ويُتحكم بالحركة الدورانية الثانية (الإبعاد/ اقتراب) عن طريق الميكانزم المسمى بنابض الغاز. تم التصميم على أساس المواصفات لشخص متوسط الطول والوزن، وتمت دراسة التصميم ستاتيكياً وديناميكياً باستخدام طريقة العناصر المنتهية للتأكد من قدرته على القيام بالوظيفة المطلوبة عند تعرضه للأحمال الممكنة

CONDA-PM -- A Systematic Review and Framework for Concept Drift Analysis in Process Mining

Business processes evolve over time to adapt to changing business environments. This requires continuous monitoring of business processes to gain insights into whether they conform to the intended design or deviate from it. The situation when a business process changes while being analysed is denoted as Concept Drift. Its analysis is concerned with studying how a business process changes, in terms of detecting and localising changes and studying the effects of the latter. Concept drift analysis is crucial to enable early detection and management of changes, that is, whether to promote a change to become part of an improved process, or to reject the change and make decisions to mitigate its effects. Despite its importance, there exists no comprehensive framework for analysing concept drift types, affected process perspectives, and granularity levels of a business process. This article proposes the CONcept Drift Analysis in Process Mining (CONDA-PM) framework describing phases and requirements of a concept drift analysis approach. CONDA-PM was derived from a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of current approaches analysing concept drift. We apply the CONDA-PM framework on current approaches to concept drift analysis and evaluate their maturity. Applying CONDA-PM framework highlights areas where research is needed to complement existing efforts.Comment: 45 pages, 11 tables, 13 figure

HYPOLIPIDEMIC AND ANTI-FATTY LIVER EFFECTS EXERTED BY STANDARDIZED PUNICA GRANATUM L. PEEL EXTRACT IN HEPG2 CELL-LINE AND HIGH-FAT DIET-INDUCED MICE

Objective: Pomegranate, (Punica granatum L., Lythraceae) peel has concentrated amounts of lipid-lowering elements that demonstrated, in various hoary and recent studies, their effects against obesity and hyperlipidemia, which involves elevated rates of lipid and lipoprotein levels in blood and increases risks of cardiovascular diseases.We aim to study expression modulation of genes involved in lipid metabolism by the impact of standardized pomegranate peel extract (PPE) in a comprehensive research on human liver cells and experimental mice.Methods: Using reverse-transcription real-time PCR, an in vitro study harnessing HepG2 cell line was conducted to determine the hyperlipidemia-related gene expression profiles and cytotoxic effects upon treatment with PPE. In another complementary in vivo study, male C57BL/6J mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) or an HFD supplemented with PPE for 14 d to define the expression of lipid metabolism related genes that control obesity. Fatty liver proportions were also estimated after treatment.Results: Higher mRNA expression of LDL receptor (LDL-R) and down-regulation of sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBF-2), (SRBEP-1c), Fatty acid synthase (FAS) and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGCR) upon PPE treatment in HepG2 cell line were significantly recorded. In vivo study indicated significant weight reduction of body and liver, besides amelioration of fatty liver state detected by histological analysis. Moreover, the reverse-transcription real-time PCR assay demonstrated suppression (FAS) expression and up regulation of hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) in mice isolated liver and white adipose tissues.Conclusion: Our study manages to affirm the hypolipidemic and anti-fatty liver influence of Punica granatum L. peel extract, reflected by molecular evaluation above and beyond other physiological assays.Keywords: Pomegranate, Peel extract, Hyperlipidemia, LDLR, SREBP, FAS, HMGCR, HS

Desire under conflict: the potential for queer in Hoda Barakat’s The Stone of Laughter

This article examines Hoda Barakat’s original rendition of gender and sexual otherness in The Stone of Laughter (1990), the first Arabic novel with a queer protagonist, Khalil. The analysis sheds light on pre-modern Arabic literature’s celebratory depiction of homoerotic desire vis-à-vis the dearth and negative connotations of the theme in modern Arabic fiction. The article explores Barakat’s implementation of surrealism in her portrayal of Khalil’s sexuality and the reality of his choices within the context of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90). Khalil’s queer identity, which marks his dissidence, becomes a form of resistance that challenges the status quo of his hetero-patriarchal society and the unresolved sociopolitical issues that led to the War

Root and canal morphology of third molar teeth

Restorative and prosthetic considerations usually necessitates endodontic treatment of third molars in order to retain them as a functional component of the dental arch. However, the anatomy of third molars has been described as unpredictable. To date, there has been little published work on root and canal morphology of third molars, with an adequate sample size. The aim of this study was to investigate root and canal morphology of third molars. Maxillary and mandibular third molars were gathered from dental surgeries within north Jordan. Following access cavity preparation, pulp tissue was removed and root canals stained. Teeth were subject to examination after rendering them clear by immersion in methyl salicylate, and the following features evaluated: (1) number of roots; (2) number and type of root canals; (3) number and position of lateral canals; and (4) presence of inter-canal communications. Out of the examined 592 maxillary third molars, 69.9% had three roots, 10.81% had one, 9.79% had two, 9.12% had four, and 0.34% had five roots. Most had three (52.36%) and four canals (28.2%) with less frequency of two (11.48%), one (5.91%) and five canals (2.03%). Of the 639 mandibular third molars, 89.76% had two roots, 7.35% had three, 2.5% had one, and 0.47% had four roots. Most had three (55.71%) and two canals (29.42%) with less frequency of four (13.61%), one (1.09%) and five canals (0.15%). The majority of maxillary third molars had 3 roots, while the majority of mandibular third molars had two. Overall, nearly half of the maxillary and mandibular third molars had three canals. New canal configurations, not previously described in the literature nor included in Vertucci's classifications, were identified in both maxillary and mandibular third molars. 2023, The Author(s).The authors wish to thank Jordan University of Science & Technology for supporting this project.Scopu

Depression Among Medical Students When Compared to Other Students at West Bank Universities

Background: Depression has been an inconspicuous yet crucial concern in our society, particularly among medical students, who are the future health care providers. Therefore, our research investigated the following question: “What influence do socio-demographic and academic factors have on depression levels among medical students compared to other students, at West Bank Universities?” Objectives: This research aimed to assess the previous influence, identify and compare the prevalence of depression among medical and non-medical students. More importantly, to investigate whether medical students have the propensity for depression, or it is just a false perception of depression symptoms? Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 714 medical and non-medical students (comparative group), from Al-Quds and Al-Najah Universities. Data was collected using a questionnaire that includes: the investigation of research questions and related factors, and the computations of depression using Beck Depression Inventory. The data were analyzed using SPSS (VER:20). Results: About one-third of our sample’s medical students suffered from some form of depression; in particular, moderate depression appeared to be relatively high (18.7% and 25.5% in medical and control, respectively). At all depression levels, there appeared to be a significant difference, with a lower prevalence of depression in medical students compared to the control group, except that medical students suffered from a higher rate of mild mood disturbances (25.1%) than non-medical students (14.6%). Furthermore, there was a significant relationship (α ≤0.05) between higher prevalence of depression and female gender, lower GPA, low economic status, and lack of psychological support. Other variables, such as accommodation and year of study, showed insignificant relationships with depression. Conclusion: Based on these results, we conclude that the prevalence of depression appears to be high regardless of university or specialty, reflecting the high depression rates in Palestinian society. Higher prevalence of depression among non-medical students can be attributed to medical students’ adaptation to stress from high school, as both universities accept high scores. The researchers recommend medical students to practice their hobbies and participate in extracurricular activities as both factors showed a significant decrease in depression. Finally, the perception of higher depression among medical students seems to be false, according to our results

The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

AIM: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery. METHODS: This was an international prospective cohort study of consecutive colorectal cancer patients with a decision for curative surgery (January-April 2020). Surgical delay was defined as an operation taking place more than 4 weeks after treatment decision, in a patient who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy. A subgroup analysis explored the effects of delay in elective patients only. The impact of longer delays was explored in a sensitivity analysis. The primary outcome was complete resection, defined as curative resection with an R0 margin. RESULTS: Overall, 5453 patients from 304 hospitals in 47 countries were included, of whom 6.6% (358/5453) did not receive their planned operation. Of the 4304 operated patients without neoadjuvant therapy, 40.5% (1744/4304) were delayed beyond 4 weeks. Delayed patients were more likely to be older, men, more comorbid, have higher body mass index and have rectal cancer and early stage disease. Delayed patients had higher unadjusted rates of complete resection (93.7% vs. 91.9%, P = 0.032) and lower rates of emergency surgery (4.5% vs. 22.5%, P < 0.001). After adjustment, delay was not associated with a lower rate of complete resection (OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.90-1.55, P = 0.224), which was consistent in elective patients only (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.69-1.27, P = 0.672). Longer delays were not associated with poorer outcomes. CONCLUSION: One in 15 colorectal cancer patients did not receive their planned operation during the first wave of COVID-19. Surgical delay did not appear to compromise resectability, raising the hypothesis that any reduction in long-term survival attributable to delays is likely to be due to micro-metastatic disease

Psoas Abscess Secondary to Urinary Tract Fungal Infection

Psoas abscess is a rare condition where infection spreads from a nearby or distant septic focus to the psoas sheath. The causative bacterial organisms at distal sites reach the psoas via lymphatic or hematogenous spread, whereas infection from nearby sites that include the urinary system reaches the psoas directly. There are few reports that account for bacterial infection after endourological procedures as the cause of direct spread of infection to the psoas muscle.2 We report a case of psoas abscess caused by fungal infection that spread from an injured left ureter to the psoas sheath