Characterization of silver nanoparticles prepared by wet chemical method and their antibacterial and cytotoxicity activities

Purpose: To investigate the efficiency of silver nanoparticles synthesized by wet chemical method, and evaluate their antibacterial and anti-cancer activities.Methods: Wet chemical method was used to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from silver nitrate, trisodium citrate dehydrate (C6H5O7Na3.2H2O) and sodium borohydride (NaBH4) as reducing agent. The AgNPs and the reaction process were characterized by UV–visible spectrometry, zetasizer, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The antibacterial and cytotoxic effects of the synthesized nanoparticles were investigated by agar diffusion method and MTT assay respectively.Results: The silver nanoparticles formed were spherical in shape with mean size of 10.3 nm. The results showed good antibacterial properties, killing both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and its aqueous suspension displayed cytotoxic activity against colon adenocarcinoma (HCT-116) cell line.Conclusion: The findings indicate that silver nanoparticles synthesized by wet chemical method demonstrate good cytotoxic activity in colon adenocarcinoma (HCT-116) cell lines and strong antibacterial activity against various strains of bacteria.Keywords: Wet chemical, Silver nanoparticles, Characterization, Diffusion method, Antibacterial, Cytotoxic activit

The Saudi Critical Care Society practice guidelines on the management of COVID-19 in the ICU: Therapy section

BACKGROUND: The rapid increase in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases during the subsequent waves in Saudi Arabia and other countries prompted the Saudi Critical Care Society (SCCS) to put together a panel of experts to issue evidence-based recommendations for the management of COVID-19 in the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: The SCCS COVID-19 panel included 51 experts with expertise in critical care, respirology, infectious disease, epidemiology, emergency medicine, clinical pharmacy, nursing, respiratory therapy, methodology, and health policy. All members completed an electronic conflict of interest disclosure form. The panel addressed 9 questions that are related to the therapy of COVID-19 in the ICU. We identified relevant systematic reviews and clinical trials, then used the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach as well as the evidence-to-decision framework (EtD) to assess the quality of evidence and generate recommendations. RESULTS: The SCCS COVID-19 panel issued 12 recommendations on pharmacotherapeutic interventions (immunomodulators, antiviral agents, and anticoagulants) for severe and critical COVID-19, of which 3 were strong recommendations and 9 were weak recommendations. CONCLUSION: The SCCS COVID-19 panel used the GRADE approach to formulate recommendations on therapy for COVID-19 in the ICU. The EtD framework allows adaptation of these recommendations in different contexts. The SCCS guideline committee will update recommendations as new evidence becomes available

Effect of nocturnal hypoxemia on glycemic control among diabetic Saudi patients presenting with obstructive sleep apnea

BackgroundObstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a prevalent disease that is associated with an increased incidence of type II diabetes mellitus (DM) if left untreated. We aimed to determine the association between glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and both nocturnal hypoxemia and apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) among a Saudi patients with OSA.MethodsA cross-sectional study that enrolled 103 adult patients diagnosed with DM and confirmed to have OSA by full night attended polysomnography between 2018 and 2021. Those who presented with acute illness, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)/restrictive lung diseases causing sleep-related hypoxemia, or no available HbA1c level within 6 months before polysomnography were excluded from the study. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses between HbA1c levels and parameters of interest were tested.ResultsSixty-seven (65%) of the studied population had uncontrolled DM (HbA1c ≥7%). In univariate regression analysis, there was a significant positive association between HbA1c, and sleep time spent with an oxygen saturation below 90% (T90), female gender, and body mass index (BMI) (p<0.05) but not AHI, or associated comorbidities (p>0.05). In the multivariate analysis, HbA1c was positively associated with increasing T90 (p<0.05), and ODI (p<0.05), but not with AHI (p>0.05).ConclusionNocturnal hypoxemia could be an important factor affecting glycemic control in patients with OSA suffering from DM irrespective of the severity of both diseases

Improved capacity Arabic text watermarking methods based on open word space

Digital watermarking is used to protect text copyright and to detect unauthorized use. In this paper, two invisible blind watermarking methods for Arabic text are proposed. Since the pseudo-space is very small space used to force the connected characters to be isolated, it is added to the word space to hide binary bit “0” or “1”. In the first proposed method, the pseudo-space is inserted before and after normal word space based on dotting feature in Arabic text. The second proposed method inserts the pseudo-space and other three small or zero width spaces to increase the capacity, where the presence of them indicates bit “1” and the absence indicates bit “0”. The comparative results obtained by testing the proposed methods with some of existing watermarking methods using variable size text samples with different watermark lengths. The experiments show that the proposed methods have the highest capacity and higher imperceptibility than other watermarking techniques from the literature. The robustness of the proposed methods is tested under most of possible text attacks. They are robust against electronic text attacks such as: copying and pasting, text formatting and text tampering for tampering ratio up to 84%. Keywords: Arabic text watermarking, Capacity, Robustness, Imperceptibilit

Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior of Parents Regarding Early Childhood Caries Prevention of Preschool Children in Western Region of Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

The knowledge and beliefs of parents have an impact on their children’s general and oral health. The objective of this study is to assess knowledge, attitude, and behavior of parents and identify possible associated factors of early childhood caries (ECC) in the western region of Saudi Arabia. Parents aged 18 and older were invited to complete a self-administered, validated questionnaire. Questions covered demographics, knowledge, attitude, and behavior regarding ECC etiology and prevention. Of the 644 parents who completed the questionnaire, 51.4% were not aware of the early signs of tooth decay, such as white lines. Pain and trauma were reported as the major reasons for a child to visit a dentist (42.4%). Only 37% of parents were aware of the importance of fissure sealant, and only 23% knew how it is applied. Compared with mothers, fathers were significantly less aware of hidden sugar and the relation between the frequency of consuming breast milk or bottled milk and caries development (p = 0.001). Similarly, fathers were more likely to believe that children could achieve effective teeth cleaning without parental assistance (p = 0.001). Preventive guidance should be provided by oral healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia to improve parents’ knowledge of ECC prevention

Prevalence and Associations of Type 2 Diabetes Risk and Sociodemographic Factors in Saudi Arabia: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disease with ever-increasing prevalence worldwide. In our study, we evaluated the prevalence of the risk of developing T2DM in Saudi Arabia and investigated associations between that risk and various sociodemographic characteristics. To those ends, a web-based cross-sectional survey of Saudi nationals without diabetes, all enrolled using snowball sampling, was conducted from January 2021 to January 2022. The risk of developing T2DM was evaluated using a validated risk assessment questionnaire (ARABRISK), and associations of high ARABRISK scores and sociodemographic variables were explored in multivariable logistic regression modeling. Of the 4559 participants, 88.1% were 18 to 39 years old, and 67.2% held a college or university degree. High ARABRISK scores were observed in 7.5% of the sample. Residing in a midsize city versus a large city was associated with a lower ARABRISK risk score (p = 0.007), as were having private instead of governmental insurance (p = 0.005), and being unemployed versus employed (p < 0.001). By contrast, being married (p < 0.001), divorced or widowed (p < 0.001), and/or retired (p < 0.001) were each associated with a higher ARABRISK score. A large representative study is needed to calculate the risk of T2DM among Saudi nationals

Echocardiographic Changes in Saudi Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background and Objectives: Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among the diabetic population. Given the high prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in Saudi Arabia and the high prevalence of heart failure in the diabetic population, this study assesses the echocardiographic changes in Saudi patients with type 2 DM (T2DM) compared with healthy controls. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective case–control study, 80 patients with diabetes (45 males, age: 58.78 ± 10.2 years) were compared with 80 controls (45 males, age: 58.6 ± 10 years) who underwent an echocardiographic study in the King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Results: There were no significant differences between the patients with diabetes and controls in terms of aortic root diameter, left atrium diameter, posterior wall, interventricular wall thickness, left ventricular diameters and ejection fraction. However, diastolic dysfunction was statistically significantly higher in the diabetic group than in the control group (p Conclusions: This is the first case–control study in Saudi Arabia that assesses echocardiographic parameters in T2DM patients. DM is an independent risk factor for diastolic dysfunction regardless of its association with hypertension and dyslipidemia

Side-by-side boxplots for the SPEED scores for the subjects with a high BMI before (SPEED1) and after (SPEED2) wearing a surgical face mask.

Side-by-side boxplots for the SPEED scores for the subjects with a high BMI before (SPEED1) and after (SPEED2) wearing a surgical face mask.</p