Determination of caffeine in roasted and irradiated coffee beans with gamma rays by high performance liquid chromatography

The present study was carried out to investigate a simple, quick and organic solvent saving procedure for the high performance liquid chromatography determination of caffeine in two different coffee beans (Indonesian and Brazilian) which roasted at two different temperatures (150 & 220 ºC) and irradiated at 3, 6, and 9 kGy doses by gamma rays. A linear calibration curve was generated with caffeine concentration ranging from 0.005 to 0.25 mg/g with correlation coefficient (R2= 0.9995, n=4) and relative standard deviation ? 2.1 %. The developed procedure provided a 7.3 x 10-9 mg/g and 2.2 x 10-8 mg/g limit of detection and limit of quantification, respectively. The developed method was repeatable and could be applied to determine trace amounts of caffeine in popular irradiated coffee beans with three different irradiation doses. Moreover, irradiation treatments at doses up to 9 kGy showed no significant effect on the caffeine content. Keywords: Caffeine determination; High performance liquid chromatography;  Coffee bean; Roasting; Gamma rays; Statistical analysi

Advertising Idea between social meaning and receiver behavior

The identity and value of the product is determine by the process of linking the product with values and social meanings through the means of advertising. In the late 20th century a theory was developed in advertising, based on the theory of meaning as a rule, and this view of the declaration came to say that advertising is not only a conveyor of information but a source of building or Establish the personality and identity of the recipient and society, and thus can expand the entrance of meaning as the basis of individual world life into social contexts. Research problem: 1-        To what extent does the theory of social meaning contribute to the advertising idea? 2-        How does the ideological content of an advertisement contribute to the behavior? Research importance: 1-        Design the ads and create an advertising idea through the theory of meaning as a rule. 2-        Drawing a positive mental image of the advertiser through social meanings in the design of the advertisement. Research goals: 1-        Study the role of the theory of meaning in the design of advertising and its role in the creation of the idea of ​​advertising. 2-        Study the role of the ideological content of the Declaration in drawing a mental image of the declared. Research hypotheses: 1-        The study of social meaning may contribute to the creation of a successful advertising idea. 2-        The meaning of the Declaration may contribute to the drawing of a positive mental image of the recipient from the author. Research Methodology: The researcher will take the approach of description and analysis, through the theoretical framework and analysis of some models to confirm the hypotheses of the researc

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

New SPE Sorbent for the Rapid and Sensitive Quantification of Aluminium in Food, Soil Extracts and Water Samples

ABSTRACT An on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) technique, linked to spectrophotometry, has been developed to overcome the problem of high matrix concentration, which is thought to interfere with the determination of low levels of aluminum in environmental samples. Aurintricarboxylic acid (ATCA) modified resin was prepared and used as a SPE absorbent, which can quantitatively adsorb Al(III) at pH 4.5-6.5 with an adsorption capacity of 10.8 mg g -1 resin. The main advantages of this novel method are: (1) a much higher sensitivity has been obtained by SPE technology; and (2) a large amount of Na, K, Ag, Hg, Ca, and Mg, can be removed and the interference of Fe(III) and F -can be efficiently eliminated by eluting with 0.30 mol L -1 NaOH. It is a highly selective and sensitive method for simple and quick determination of Al in food samples (rice, tea and potato), soil, waste water, river waters, spring water and ground water samples

Advertising design between visual rhetoric and visual knowledge

The purpose of the advertisement is to attract attention, convey the message, and convince the public. After the recipient has ignored the amount of ads, he sees daily and with the spread of the phenomenon of exchange of images and videos through social networking sites, including some of the ads had to rely mainly on the visual language that the idea was to be develop as soon as possible. It was necessary to invent and design an advertisement that uses the aesthetic dialect to attract attention and thus the cognitive approach to message transfer and persuasion. Today humanity is subject to an unprecedented amount of information exchange and technological development that eliminates space and time and close between the physical and imaginary. This makes ad design one of the most important issues for large companies to organize complex data and organize traffic. Relying on visual language and visual content to spread among the community and their interaction with the product.   Research problem: 1-        To what extent does the study of visual rhetoric and visual knowledge contribute to the design of the advertising idea? 2-        How does the visual rhetoric in the advertisement contribute to attracting the attention of the recipient and showing the advantages of the product? 3-        How does visual knowledge contribute to communicating the message and persuading the recipient?   Research importance: 1-        Design a clear and simple declaration and create an advertising message based on the visual language. 2-        Draw a visual image of the product and increase the attention of the recipient of the advertisement. 3-        The use of visual language as a source of advertising ideas and a means of persuasion.   Research goals: Studying the importance of the visual language and its ability to show the advantages of the product effectively and effectively through an innovative advertising idea that takes into account the aesthetic and aesthetic input of the design and the coding of meaning.   Research hypotheses: 1-        Visual rhetoric and visual knowledge in the advertisement may contribute to attract the attention of the recipient and show the advantages of the product. 2-        The visual rhetoric used by the designer and the visual knowledge of the recipient may contribute to the creation of a successful advertising idea. 3-        Visual rhetoric and visual knowledge in the advertisement may contribute to conveying the message and persuading the recipient.   Research Methodology: The researcher will take the descriptive approach and analysis, through the theoretical framework and analysis of some models to confirm the hypotheses of the researc

تطوير استراتيجيات الدفاع الجوي باستخدام تقنيات التنقيب عن البيانات

يناقش هذا البحث تطوير استراتيجيات الدفاع الجوي من خلال تجميع المعلومات الخاصة بعمل المنظومات المرتبطة بالقيادة, وذلك عن طريق تصميم نظام دعم قرار يقوم بالمعالجة الآنية للمعلومات التي يتم استقبالها من قبل مركز القيادة وذلك لمساعدة القائد في اتخاذ القرار الصحيح المحتاج للدقة والسرعة, وللعمليات الحسابية المعقدة. تم الاعتماد على مركز راداري كمصدر لمعلومات الأهداف الجوية (طيران حربي- صواريخ), وتمت الدراسة من أجل ثلاثة أنواع مختلفة من منظومات الدفاع الجوي. يقوم النظام بعرض النتائج على شاشة القائد, و التي تتضمن القرار الخاص بتحديد المنظومة الصاروخية المناسبة للتعامل مع الهدف الجوي, وجميع المعلومات الخاصة بالعمل القتالي, كما يتم تخزينها في قاعدة بيانات. بعد عملية تجميع البيانات قمنا بتصميم نموذج لاكتشاف المعرفة باستخدام التنقيب عن البيانات, وذلك بتطبيق خوارزمية العنقدة k-means على مجموعة البيانات التي تم بناؤها, وتم إجراء عدة تجارب مع قيم مختلفة لـ k, وذلك بهدف الوصول إلى أقل  خطأ تربيعيٍّ وعدد كافٍ من العناقيد, بحيث تمكّنا من الحصول على معلومات مفيدة. إنَّ نتائج تجارب العنقدة أظهرت نسبة فعالية المنظومات المشمولة بالدراسة, هذه النتائج تساعد القادة في اتخاذ إجراءات تزيد من فعالية المنظومات, وتطور استراتيجية عمل الدفاع الجوي

Effects of Irrigation Systems on Sugar Beet Yield

The combined data from two growing seasons in a field experiment study by using two irrigation systems (surface and subsurface drip) in terms of additional water for sugar beet plants under saline conditions are used to estimate root and sugar yield, water use efficiency and root penetration power at the time of harvest. Water salinity levels of 6000 and 8000 ppm were applied to irrigate sugar beet from the time of planting on October 3 to the time of harvest on April 22 with three additions of water (limited 1750, moderate 2500 and optimum 3250 m3/fed). The results are summarized as follows: The heaviest root and highest sugar yield as well as highest water use efficiency were recorded when using subsurface irrigation system, 6000 ppm water salinity level, and moderate or optimum irrigation water (2500 or 3250 m3/fed). Oppositely, the highest penetration power values were obtained using drip irrigation systems with low water quantity (1750 m3/fed) and high-water salinity level (8000 ppm)

Bioavailability of Directly-Compressed Indomethacin, Indomethacin Sodium and Indomethacin Meglumine Tablets

The prepared film-coated directly-compressed indo-methacin, indomethacin sodium and indomethacin meglumine tablets, plain indomethacin in hard gelatin capsule and the commercial product “Indocid” capsules, were subjected to bioavailability testing in six healthy volunteers. Each treatment was given as single oral dose of 50 mg. The excreted drug was estimated in urine at 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 24 hours post-drug administration. The cumulative amount excreted, percent dose excreted, Qmax' tmax' Kel' t½el and relative bioavailability, to plain drug, were determined. The obtained results revealed that directly-compressed film-coated indomethacin meglumine tablets had the best relative bioavailability than the other treatments. DOI: 10.3109/0363904940905018

Implementation of medication reconciliation at admission and discharge in Ministry of Defense Health Services hospitals: a multicentre study

There is potential for many medication errors to occur due to the complex medication use process. The medication reconciliation process can significantly lower the incidence of medication errors that may arise from an incomplete or inaccurate medication history as well as reductions in length of hospital stay, patients’ readmissions and lower healthcare costs.The quality improvement collaborative project was conducted as a pilot study in two hospitals, then implemented on a broader scale in 18 hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The goal of the project was to reduce the percentage of patients with at least one outstanding unintentional discrepancy at admission by 50%, over 16-month period (July 2020–November 2021). Our interventions were based on the High 5’s project medication reconciliation WHO, and Medications at Transitions and Clinical Handoffs toolkit for medication reconciliation by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Improvement teams used the Institute of Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI’s) Model for improvement as a tool for testing and implementing changes. Collaboration and learning between hospitals were facilitated by conducting learning sessions using the IHI’s Collaborative Model for Achieving Breakthrough Improvement. The improvement teams underwent three cycles.By the end of the project significant improvements were observed. The percentage of patients with at least one outstanding unintentional discrepancy at admission showed a 20% reduction (27% before, 7% after; p value <0.05) (Relative Risk (RR) 0.74) with a mean reduction in the number of discrepancies per patient by 0.74. The percentage of patients with at least one outstanding unintentional discrepancy at discharge showed 12% reduction (17% before, 5% after; p value <0.05) (RR 0.71) with a mean reduction in the number of discrepancies per patient by 0.34.Compliance to medication reconciliation documentation within 24 hours of admission and discharge showed significant improvement by an average of 17% and 24%, respectively. Additionally, the implementation of medication reconciliation had a negative correlation with the percentage of patients with at least one outstanding unintentional discrepancy at admission and discharge