Study on Some Heavy Metals of Poultry Meat and Its Products in New Valley Governorate, Egypt

The food chain creates potential health hazards with regards to the transmission of toxic elements to animal tissues, and subsequently to humans. Poultry meat and egg products contain a wide range of trace elements; some of these are of important nutritional value, such as iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and manganese (Mn), while others have toxic effects, such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) of poultry meat and its products. Therefore, this study was conducted in the laboratories of the Food Sci. and Techno. Depart. Fac. Agric. of New Valley University Egypt. The objective of this study is to study the trace element types in poultry meat (breast & thigh) and egg, to ensure the safety of this products offered in the market from any Pollutants. The results indicated that there were significant differences in heavy elements of poultry meat and egg such as Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn, Pb, Cd, As and Hg. The studied heavy elements of poultry meat and egg were under detectable levels in poultry meat and egg, suggesting that there is no threat from toxic heavy metals set by Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality Control. More governmental efforts are needed to control the environmental pollution and improve the environment quality of New Valley Governorate Egypt

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Results of the COVID-19 mental health international for the general population (COMET-G) study.

INTRODUCTION: There are few published empirical data on the effects of COVID-19 on mental health, and until now, there is no large international study. MATERIAL AND METHODS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, an online questionnaire gathered data from 55,589 participants from 40 countries (64.85% females aged 35.80 ± 13.61; 34.05% males aged 34.90±13.29 and 1.10% other aged 31.64±13.15). Distress and probable depression were identified with the use of a previously developed cut-off and algorithm respectively. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics were calculated. Chi-square tests, multiple forward stepwise linear regression analyses and Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tested relations among variables. RESULTS: Probable depression was detected in 17.80% and distress in 16.71%. A significant percentage reported a deterioration in mental state, family dynamics and everyday lifestyle. Persons with a history of mental disorders had higher rates of current depression (31.82% vs. 13.07%). At least half of participants were accepting (at least to a moderate degree) a non-bizarre conspiracy. The highest Relative Risk (RR) to develop depression was associated with history of Bipolar disorder and self-harm/attempts (RR = 5.88). Suicidality was not increased in persons without a history of any mental disorder. Based on these results a model was developed. CONCLUSIONS: The final model revealed multiple vulnerabilities and an interplay leading from simple anxiety to probable depression and suicidality through distress. This could be of practical utility since many of these factors are modifiable. Future research and interventions should specifically focus on them

Pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus in a single nephrology unit

Clinical manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are widely variable, and its course is unpredictable. SLE that begins in childhood has been considered more severe than SLE with onset during adulthood. Our aim was to determine the presentation and the outcome of SLE of 26 children (20 females and 6 males, with a female to male ratio of 3.8:1) with SLE in our center, their ages ranging from 5 - 18 years and followed from 2005 till October 2011. They were diagnosed according to the American Rheumatism Association′s revised criteria. Complete blood count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C3, urine analysis, 24-h urinary protein, antinuclear antibodies, anti-ds DNA and renal biopsy were obtained for the patients. We found that the most extra-renal manifestation of SLE was fever (57.7%), while lupus nephritis (LN) was the most commonly affected organ (50%). Hemolytic anemia was the most common hematological abnormality (80.8%), while immunological characteristics were positive in all the patients. Remission in patients without LN was more than 5.3-times the remission in LN patients. The outcome of the patients without LN was better than the patients with LN

Performance investigation of vapor compression cycle with a variable speed compressor and refrigerant injection / Ahmed J. Hamad...[et al.]

The performance of vapor compression refrigeration system with controllable speed compressor and vapor and liquid refrigerant injection techniques is experimentally investigated. For this purpose, a 5-tons (17.6 kW) split air conditioner unit charged with R-22 refrigerant was modified and equipped with, frequency inverter, secondary capillary tube, and liquid pressure amplification pump (LPA). Vapor refrigerant was injected into the accumulator with three injection mass ratios 2, 3, and 4%. LPA pump was used to inject liquid refrigerant from the condenser outlet to the discharge line with injection mass ratios 0.5%, 1.5%, and 2%. The compressor speed was controlled by frequency inverter, where the range of the frequency used was from 35 to 60 Hz with 5 Hz step. The results showed that the coefficient of performance (COP) of the modified system using vapor injection technique was improved by 11.26% compared to the conventional system, and the suction temperature reduced from 10.3 to -0.1°C with 3% vapor injection ratio. The best enhancement in COP was 9.9% for the 0.5% liquid injection ratio. Reduction of the compressor speed leads to improve the COP by 18% and reduces the compressor power by 36.4% at frequency 35Hz. Using the vapor injection with variable speed compressor improved the COP of the modified system by 75% at 35 Hz and 2% injection mass ratio

Applicability of American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) competencies to clinical pharmacy practice in Egypt

Background: The American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) prepared clinical pharmacist competencies that have specific recommendations. Recently, many efforts to advance clinical pharmacy services in Egypt exist. The literature revealed that no country has assessed the extent of applicability of ACCP competencies in its current pharmacy practice setting. Egyptian pharmacists can provide feedback about applicability of such competencies in clinical pharmacy settings in Egypt. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the extent to which ACCP competencies were implemented by Egyptian clinical pharmacists and therefore evaluate development of clinical pharmacy practice in Egypt. The study also investigated factors affecting the applicability of such competencies in the current clinical pharmacy practice setting in Egypt. Methods: Four hundred and ninety-five randomly selected clinical pharmacists from several hospitals were invited to participate in a cross sectional survey using a self-administered validated questionnaire composed of 31 questions classified into six domains. This questionnaire was designed to determine the pharmacists’ perception about applicability of ACCP competencies to clinical pharmacy practice in Egypt. Results: The response rate was 64% as 317 out of 495 pharmacists completed the questionnaire. These pharmacists were categorized according to age; gender; qualifications; years of previous work experience, years since BSc. and type of hospitals they are currently working at. Analysis of data revealed the professionalism domain to have the highest percentage of acceptance among pharmacists, while the system-based care & population health domain had the lowest percentage of acceptance. Results also showed that qualifications of participants did not affect their response in three domains; “Direct Patient Care”, “Systems-based Care & Population Health” and “Continuing Professional Development” (p=0.082, 0.081, 0.060), respectively. Nevertheless, qualifications of participants did affect their response in the other three domains; “Pharmacotherapy Knowledge”, “Communication” and “Professionalism” (p<0.05). The age of pharmacists, gender, years of previous work experience, and graduation year did not affect their responses in all six domains. The type of hospital they are currently working at, though, affected their responses where, there was a highly statistically significant increase of the mean score of all domains among participants working at the NGOs/private hospitals compared to governmental hospitals (p<0.001). Conclusions: Egyptian pharmacists generally apply high percentage of ACCP competencies but the provided clinical pharmacy services need to be improved through applying the standards of best practice

Comparative Evaluation of Anthelmintic Activity of Edible and Ornamental Pomegranate Ethanolic Extracts against Schistosoma mansoni

Due to the development of praziquantel (PZQ) schistosomes resistant strains, the discovery of new antischistosomal agents is of high priority in research. This work reported the in vitro and in vivo effects of the edible and ornamental pomegranate extracts against Schistosoma mansoni. Leaves and stem bark ethanolic extracts of both dried pomegranates were prepared at 100, 300, and 500 μg/mL for in vitro and 600 and 800 mg/kg for in vivo. Adult worms Schistosoma mansoni in RPMI-1640 medium for in vitro and S. mansoni infected mice for in vivo tests were obtained from Theodor Bilharz Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt. In vitro activity was manifested by significant coupled worms separation, reduction of motor activity, lethality, and ultrastructural tegumental alterations in adult worms. In vivo activity was manifested revealed by significant reduction of hepatic granulomas number and diameter, decreased number of bilharzial eggs in liver tissues, lowered liver inflammatory infiltration, decreased hepatic fibrosis, and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression. Ethanolic stem bark extract of edible pomegranate exhibited highest antischistosomal activities both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, pomegranate showed a good potential to be used as a promising new candidate for the development of new schistosomicidal agents

A newly isolated strain of Halomonas sp. (HA1) exerts anticancer potential via induction of apoptosis and G(2)/M arrest in hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell line

Marine bacterial strains are of great interest for their ability to produce secondary metabolites with anticancer potentials. Isolation, identification, characterization and anticancer activities of isolated bacteria from El-Hamra Lake, Wadi El-Natrun (Egypt) were the objectives of this study. The isolated bacteria were identified as a moderately halophilic alkaliphilic strain. Ethyl acetate extraction was performed and identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (LC-MS-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis (NMR). Cytotoxicity of the extract was assessed on the HepG2 cell line and normal human peripheral lymphocytes (HPBL) in vitro. Halomonas sp. HA1 extract analyses revealed anticancer potential. Many compounds have been identified including cyclo-(Leu-Leu), cyclo-(Pro-Phe), C17-sphinganine, hexanedioic acid, bis (2-ethylhexyl) ester, surfactin C14 and C15. The extract exhibited an IC50 of 68 +/- 1.8 mu g/mL and caused marked morphological changes in treated HepG2 cells. For mechanistic anticancer evaluation, 20 and 40 mu g/mL of bacterial extract were examined. The up-regulation of apoptosis-related genes' expression, P53, CASP-3, and BAX/BCL-2 at mRNA and protein levels proved the involvement of P53-dependant mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. The anti-proliferative properties were confirmed by significant G(2)/M cell cycle arrest and PCNA down-regulation in the treated cells. Low cytotoxicity was observed in HPBL compared to HepG2 cells. In conclusion, results suggest that the apoptotic and anti-proliferative effects of Halomonas sp. HA1 extract on HepG2 cells can provide it as a candidate for future pharmaceutical industries

Modulatory Impacts of Multi-Strain Probiotics on Rabbits&rsquo; Growth, Nutrient Transporters, Tight Junctions and Immune System to Fight against Listeria monocytogenes Infection

Multi-strain probiotics (MSP) are considered innovative antibiotics&rsquo; substitutes supporting superior gut health and immunity of farmed rabbits. The promising roles of MSP on performance, intestinal immunity, integrity and transporters, and resistance against Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) were evaluated. In the feeding trial, 220 rabbits were fed a control diet or diet supplemented with three MSP graded levels. At 60 days of age, rabbits were experimentally infected with L. monocytogenes and the positive control, enrofloxacin, prophylactic MSP (MSPP), and prophylactic and therapeutic MSP (MSPTT) groups were included. During the growing period, MSP at the level of 1 &times; 108 CFU/kg diet (MSPIII) promoted the rabbits&rsquo; growth, upregulated the nutrient transporters and tight-junction-related genes, and modified cytokines expression. Supplementing MSPTT for L. monocytogenes experimentally-infected rabbits restored the impaired growth and intestinal barriers, reduced clinical signs of severity and mortalities, and attenuated the excessive inflammatory reactions. Notably, enrofloxacin decreased L. monocytogenes and beneficial microbial loads; unlike MSPTT, which decreased pathogenic bacterial loads and sustained the beneficial ones. Histopathological changes were greatly reduced in MSPTT, confirming its promising role in restricting L. monocytogenes translocation to different organs. Therefore, our results suggest the use of MSPTT as an alternative to antibiotics, thereby conferring protection for rabbits against L. monocytogenes infection