No Truth Without Beauty

In this comprehensive open access book, written for readers from any or no religious background, Leena El-Ali does something remarkable. Never before has anyone taken on every last claim relating to Islam and women and countered it not just with Qur’anic evidence to the contrary, but with easy-to-use tools available to all. How can a woman’s testimony be worth half of a man’s? How can men divorce their wives unilaterally by uttering three words? And what’s with the obsession with virgins in Paradise? Find the chapter on any of the seventeen topics in this book, and you will quickly learn a) where the myth came from and b) how to bust it. The methodology pursued is simple. First, the Qur’an is given priority over all other literary or “scriptural” sources. Second, the meaning of its verses in the original Arabic is highlighted, in contrast to English translations and/or widespread misunderstanding or misinterpretation

No Truth Without Beauty

In this comprehensive open access book, written for readers from any or no religious background, Leena El-Ali does something remarkable. Never before has anyone taken on every last claim relating to Islam and women and countered it not just with Qur’anic evidence to the contrary, but with easy-to-use tools available to all. How can a woman’s testimony be worth half of a man’s? How can men divorce their wives unilaterally by uttering three words? And what’s with the obsession with virgins in Paradise? Find the chapter on any of the seventeen topics in this book, and you will quickly learn a) where the myth came from and b) how to bust it. The methodology pursued is simple. First, the Qur’an is given priority over all other literary or “scriptural” sources. Second, the meaning of its verses in the original Arabic is highlighted, in contrast to English translations and/or widespread misunderstanding or misinterpretation

Preparation and characterization of thermally stabilized Ceria and Ceria containing materials

Ceria, CeO2, is one of the most important catalytic materials that can play multiple roles owing to its ability to release and uptake oxygen under catalytic reaction conditions with the preservation of it fluorite structure. Textural and thermal stability is a critical issue in determining the promoting and metal supporting functions of CeO2 in its catalytic applications in the three way catalysis. Therefore, significant efforts have been made by industry on finding ways to improve the thermal stability of ceria both by modification of the synthesis of CeO2 and by looking at possible stabilizers. In the first part of this work, thermally stable ceria aggregates were obtained via a two-step sol gel process of cerium isopropoxide dispersed in isopropanol by ultrasonic radiation. The first step involved a hydrolysis reaction. In the second step, the resultant dispersions were mixed under stirring with neutral or basic water isopropanol solutions. The ceria powders obtained via neutral and basic media were shown to be composed of aggregates of fine particles. However, it was found that the type of media affected both particle texture and morphology. Specific surface areas of 33.1 and 44.2 m2g-1 respectively, were obtained for the neutral and basic materials, which calcined at 650 °C for 3 hours. Moreover, the oxidative nature of ceria was found to help in the removal of the organic impurities while the hydroxylated surface of ceria facilitated the formation of thermally stable agglomerates. In the second part of this work, ceria supported on silica, ceria/silica, materials of 10 and 20% (w/w) were prepared by calcinations, at 650 °C for 3 h, of the xerogels obtained by the mixing of the corresponding amount of a ceria precursor with freshly prepared sols of spherical silica particles (Stober particles) in their mother liquors. Two different ceria precursors were examined in this investigation. The first was a gel produced by prehydrolysis of cerium (IV)-tetra isopropoxide in isopropanol media, and the second was an aqueous solution of ceric (IV) ammonium nitrate. Different textural and morphological characteristics that developed by calcination, were investigated by TGA, FTIR, XRD, SEM and analyses of N2 adsorption isotherms. The results indicated better ceria dispersion and formation of mesoporous textural composites materials produced by the second precursor, ceric (IV) ammonium nitrate, than the first precursor, prehydrolysed cerium (IV)-tetra isopropoxide. The results show that properties of composite materials are largely related to the preparation method and the precursor type. Moreover, mixing media affect both nucleation and the growth of ceria particles and their protection against sintering upon calcinations at the test temperature

Preparation and characterization of electrically conducting polypyrrole Sn(IV) phosphate cation-exchanger and its application as Mn(II) ion selective membrane electrode

AbstractPolypyrrole Sn(IV) phosphate, an organic–inorganic composite cation-exchanger was synthesized via sol-gel mixing of an organic polymer, polypyrrole, into the matrices of the inorganic precipitate of Sn(IV) phosphate. The physico-chemical properties of the material were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS), CHN elemental analysis (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, ICP-MS), UV–VIS spectrophotometry, FTIR (Fourier Transform Infra-Red), SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), TGA–DTA (Thermogravimetric Analysis–Differential Thermal Analysis), and XRD (X-ray diffraction). Ion-exchange behavior was observed to characterize the material. On the basis of distribution studies, the material was found to be highly selective for toxic heavy metal ion Mn2+. Due to its selective nature, the material was used as an electroactive component for the construction of an ion-selective membrane electrode. The proposed electrode shows fairly good discrimination of mercury ion over several other inorganic ions. The analytical utility of this electrode was established by employing it as an indicator electrode in electrometric titrations for Mn(II) in water

Supraspinal fatigue after normoxic and hypoxic exercise in humans.

Inadequate cerebral O₂ availability has been proposed to be an important contributing factor to the development of central fatigue during strenuous exercise. Here we tested the hypothesis that supraspinal processes of fatigue would be increased after locomotor exercise in acute hypoxia compared to normoxia, and that such change would be related to reductions in cerebral O₂ delivery and tissue oxygenation. Nine endurance-trained cyclists completed three constant-load cycling exercise trials at ∼80% of maximal work rate: (1) to the limit of tolerance in acute hypoxia; (2) for the same duration but in normoxia (control); and (3) to the limit of tolerance in normoxia. Throughout each trial, prefrontal cortex tissue oxygenation and middle cerebral artery blood velocity (MCAV) were assessed using near-infrared spectroscopy and trans-cranial Doppler sonography, respectively. Cerebral O₂ delivery was calculated as the product of arterial O₂ content and MCAV. Before and immediately after each trial, twitch responses to supramaximal femoral nerve stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation were obtained to assess neuromuscular and cortical function, respectively. Exercise time was reduced by 54%in hypoxia compared to normoxia (3.6 ± 1.3 vs. 8.1 ± 2.9 min; P0.05). Cortical voluntary activation was also decreased after exercise in all trials, but the decline in hypoxia (Δ18%) was greater than in the normoxic trials (Δ5-9%)(P <0.05). The reductions in cortical voluntary activation were paralleled by reductions in cerebral O₂ delivery. The results suggest that curtailment of exercise performance in acute severe hypoxia is due, in part, to failure of drive from the motor cortex, possibly as a consequence of diminished O₂ availability in the brain

Hemodynamic responses to heat stress in the resting and exercising human leg: insight into the effect of temperature on skeletal muscle blood flow

This study was funded by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute. This article is available from the specified link - Copyright @ 2011 American Physiological SocietyHeat stress increases limb blood flow and cardiac output ((Q) over dot) in humans, presumably in sole response to an augmented thermoregulatory demand of the skin circulation. Here we tested the hypothesis that local hyperthermia also increases skeletal muscle blood flow at rest and during exercise. Hemodynamics, blood and tissue oxygenation, and muscle, skin, and core temperatures were measured at rest and during exercise in 11 males across four conditions of progressive whole body heat stress and at rest during isolated leg heat stress. During whole body heat stress, leg blood flow (LBF), (Q) over dot, and leg (LVC) and systemic vascular conductance increased gradually with elevations in muscle temperature both at rest and during exercise (r(2) = 0.86-0.99; P < 0.05). Enhanced LBF and LVC were accompanied by reductions in leg arteriovenous oxygen (a-vO(2)) difference and increases in deep femoral venous O-2 content and quadriceps tissue oxygenation, reflecting elevations in muscle and skin perfusion. The increase in LVC occurred despite an augmented plasma norepinephrine (P < 0.05) and was associated with elevations in muscle temperature (r(2) = 0.85; P = 0.001) and arterial plasma ATP (r(2) = 0.87; P < 0.001). Isolated leg heat stress accounted for one-half of the increase in LBF with severe whole body heat stress. Our findings suggest that local hyperthermia also induces vasodilatation of the skeletal muscle microvasculature, thereby contributing to heat stress and exercise hyperemia. The increased limb muscle vasodilatation in these conditions of elevated muscle sympathetic vasoconstrictor activity is closely related to the rise in arterial plasma ATP and local tissue temperature.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fun

Human immunodeficiency virus infection and chemotherapy treatment in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lentivirus which that may progress to immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and predispose for opportunistic infections and malignancies. According to recent reports,  1.5 million people died of AIDS in 2013 worldwide which is a 35% decrease since 2005. The number of deaths has decreased in part due to antiretroviral treatment (ART) wide spread use. In Bahrain, in 2011, a multidisciplinary team was established for HIV management involving major stakeholders: public health, infectious diseases, pharmacists, nursing and virologists. A retrospective descriptive study is done about HIV positive patient in Bahrain, their current treatment regimens and other blood parameters were collected, aiming to have a general idea about their health status in a way to help in their medical care. The data was collected retrospectively from the 2014 registry about all patients who are diagnosed to have HIV. Their ART regimen, CD 4 count and viral load were gathered and entered in Excel sheet.. A total of 208 patients were diagnosed to have HIV up to 2014. However, only 108 of them have their full data. In addition, a review of the frequency of admission of these patients over a 10 year period was done too. On reviewing the medical records of the patients admitted over the last ten years from 2004 till 2014, it was found that the total admission of HIV positive patients were 107. Hepatitis C was the most common co infection among those patients with a percentage of 24%. It was found that with better ART treatment and better structure of HIV team and program, we are getting more patients to be controlled. There is a clear increase in the number of patients with improving CD4 count. Based on the results of our study, the HIV multi-disciplinary management team is an essential part for the best management of these patients

Enhanced Raman techniques for infection diagnostics

In this paper we describe our recent work in multi-excitation surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (MX-SERS), and its application for robust strain-level bacteria identification. The development of MX-SERS follows directly from our previous work in rapid bacterial identification using multiexcitation Raman spectroscopy (MX-Raman), which enabled highly accurate (up to 99.75%) strainlevel distinction of bacteria, including antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria and from within complex media. In this work we use the strong wavelength dependence of both the Raman scattering crosssection and the surface plasmon to demonstrate a novel capability in bacteria identification. Compared to MX-Raman, MX-SERS has up to 8x faster data acquisition speed as well as up to 4000x lower laser power incident on the sample. Furthermore, we fabricate SERS-active substrates with a simple and low-cost fabrication method that can be adapted to fit a chosen wavelength regime. This combination of strain-level sensitivity and high-speed detection, combined with a low-cost SERS substrate, has strong potential applications in clinical diagnostics, and could be integrated within a real-world pathogen detection workflow. This presents new capabilities in label-free bacterial detection including novel culture-free investigation capabilities, and an improved methodology for sample handling with minimal preparation and processing.publishedVersio

Fraser Syndrome – A Dilemma To Parents

In this case report the patient belongs to rural Sindh, with poor prenatal care. She came with her third pregnancy to Ziauddin Hospital referred from interior of Sindh, with the history of previous two premature deliveries due to oligohydramnios. Fraser syndrome is a rare congenital condition that includes multi-organ abnormalities and usually has a poor prognosis. The most obvious deformities noted are cryptophthalmos, syndactyly, laryngeal stenosis, and bilateral renal agenesis, displacement of umbilicus, undescended testes and clitoromegaly. The transmission of the syndrome is autosomal recessive and is caused by a mutation in the FRAS1, FREM2 or GRIP1 genes. The pathology, however, is unclear, but the mutations are known to alter programmed cell death, causing defects in the metabolism of retinoid. The details of the case are the patient was of a 20-year-old female presented in her 3rd pregnancy at 34 weeks of gestational amenorrhea which was complicated with severe oligohydramnios. She delivered an underweight baby via cesarean section who had a poor cry and bradycardia at the time of birth. His structural defects included bilateral syndactly, laryngeal stenosis and undescended testes. The patient also had a history of two cesarean sections. Her first child was born with limb defects and anophthalmia and died immediately after birth. Her second child was terminated due to severely reduced amniotic fluid. Patients with a previous history should have genetic counseling beforehand and prenatal ultrasound based diagnosis. Key Words: Fraser Syndrome, Cryptophthalmos, Syndactyl