Physico-Chemical Quality Of Drinking Water At Mushait, Aseer, South-Western Saudi Arabia

The physico-chemical quality study of different drinking water sources used in Khamis Mushait, southwestern, Saudi Arabia (SA) has been studied to evaluate their suitability for potable purposes. A total of 62 drinking water samples were collected randomly from bottled, desalinated and groundwater located around the study area. The parameters determined in this study were Turbidity; Conductivity; Total solids; pH; Chlorides; Hardness; Sulphate; Ammonia; Nitrite; Nitrate; Iron; Manganese; Copper and Zinc. Most examined parameters were higher in groundwater, followed by desalinated water except for Manganese and Zinc levels. Manganese level was highest in desalinated, followed by bottled water, while Zinc was higher in groundwater than bottled and desalinated water. Most examined groundwater samples had the highest physico-chemical levels as compared with guideline of international and Saudi standards, followed by desalinated and lastly bottled water. Desalinated water showed the higher Manganese value more than the recommended level followed by bottled water, while all the examined water samples had Zinc content lower than the guideline values of international and Saudi standards. Strict hygienic measures should be applied to improve quality of drinking water and to avoid deleterious effect on human health. This could be achieved by working towards a proper monitoring program of drinking water supply and sources Keywords: physico-chemical quality, Drinking Water Quality, Khamis Mushait, Saudi Arabia African Journal of Clinical and Experimental Microbiology Vol. 10 (2) 2009: pp. 117-12

Molecular and biological characterization of Trichogramma turkestanica

Parasitoids of Trichogramma (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) parasitize the eggs of many species of Lepidoptera and have been used for the biological control of numerous pest species. We collected this parasitoid from Taif governorate, KSA in summer of 2009. It is difficult to differentiate between Trichogramma species because of their small size and lack of differences in morphological characters. Therefore, different molecular markers were employed to characterize this species, including direct amplification of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) of ribosomal DNA and by restriction fragment length polymorphism followed by sequencing. The results show that ITS2 region is 491 bp and indicated that this is a new stain of Trichogramma. We named this strain TaifKSA. From the tested restriction enzymes, only EcoRI and PstI cut the PCR product of ITS2 region. We compared the biological characteristics of the strain under investigation with other commercial strain (SQG) of the same species and no significant differences between them have been shown.Key words: Trichogramma turkestanica, TaifKSA, molecular identification, internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2), restriction enzymes, biological characteristics

Occurrence and sources of aliphatic hydrocarbons in surface soils from Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia

AbstractSoil particles contain a variety of anthropogenic and natural organic components derived from many sources such as industrial and traffic fossil fuel emissions and terrestrial biota. The organic contents of soil and sand from the Arabian region have not fully characterized. Thus, samples of fine soil particles (sieved to <125μM) were collected from the Riyadh area in November 2006 (late summer) and February 2007 (late winter). The samples were extracted with a mixture of dichloromethane/hexane and analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GCMS) in order to characterize the chemical composition and sources of aliphatic hydrocarbons. The results showed that both anthropogenic and natural biogenic inputs were the major sources of the aliphatic hydrocarbons in these extracts. Vehicular emission products and discarded plastics were the major anthropogenic sources in the fine particles of the soils and ranged from 64% to 96% in November 2006 and from 70% to 92% in February 2007. Their tracers were n-alkanes, hopanes, sterane, plasticizers and UCM. Vegetation was also a major natural source of hydrocarbon compounds in samples ranging from ∼0% to18% in November 2006 and from 1% to 13% in February 2007 and included n-alkanes and triterpenoids

Awareness of hypertension guidelines among family physicians in primary health care

Background: Only 14% of patients on treatment achieve the recommended blood pressure target. Guidelines aim to assist clinicians in the management of patients with hypertension.Objectives: The primary purpose of the study was to survey family physicians(FPs) in Kuwait about their awareness, and to understand better their reasons for not implementing specific guidance within the WHO/ISH guidelines.Methods: This study is a cross-sectional survey that was carried out in the five health regions of Kuwait. All PHC physicians who were currently working as FPs were asked to participate in the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire of clinically oriented questions formulated on the basis of the 1999 World Health Organization/International Society of Hypertension (WHO/ISH), as standard reference.Results: The study revealed that 49.1% and 42.1% of FPs were very familiar or somewhat familiar with the guidelines respectively, 92.1% were in agreement, and 79.8% indicated that they always or usually follow these guidelines when treating patients. Regarding the correct choice of the guideline statements, only 8.8% of the FPs choose correctly less than ten of the 20 statements, 64% choose 10 to less than 15, and only 27.2% choose &gt; 15 statements. When asked about perceived patient barriers to blood pressure control, 84.0% of the respondents ranked overcrowded clinics as important or most important barrier to blood pressure control while, 87.4% considered lack of patient knowledge as important or most important barrier. Non availability of the drugs in the clinic was considered by 88.4% of the physicians, and poor adherence to antihypertensive drugs by 90.1%.Conclusion: There is a need to establish nationwide educational and quality monitoring programs to facilitate the correct implementation of hypertension guidelines in PHC clinical practices in Kuwait.Keywords:  Family physicians; Awareness; Hypertension; Guideline

Biosynthesis, Characterization, Optimization of Silver Nanoparticles from Marine S. griseoflavus and Their Role in Improving Antibiotic Susceptibility of Multidrug Resistance Pathogenic Fungi

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using marine microorganisms has gained profound interest because of their potential to synthesize nanoparticles of various size, shape and morphology. In the present investigate, 25 silver resistant bacterial isolates were isolated from different sites of red sea cost at  Jeddah city, , bacterial strain BM3 was selected on the basis of its ability to produce stable extracellular silver nanoparticles ( AgNPs). Biochemical and Molecular characterization of this isolate indicated that BM3 strain is belonged to Streptomyces  and identified as S. griseoflavus. The biosynthesis of AgNPs was monitored by UV–Visible spectrum that showed surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak at 420 nm. Further characterization of synthesized AgNPs was carried out using the XRD, TEM and FTIR spectroscopy. TEM and XRD analysis revealed that the AgNPs synthesized by MB was spherical in shape with a size range of 5-45. nm FTIR confirmed the presence of proteins as the stabilizing agent surrounding the nanoparticles.Optimization of silver nanoparticles synthesis has been studied and the results demonstrated that the biosynthesis of AgNPs by bacterial supernatant increased with the  increasing of  the temperature, pH  and Ag+ ions concentration. The synthesized AgNPs and their combination with different commercial antibiotic were tested against C. albicans and C.krusei.All tested antibiotics showed synergistic inhibition against growth of the pathogenic bacteria. The biocide actions of AgNPs studied using SEM. The results showed damage in membrane and some pits that have been created cause inter cellular components leakage and finally cell death .UV-Vis absorption spectra of AgNPs alone, each antibiotic alone, and AgNPs-antibiotic combinations were studied . The results clearly point out that the synergistic effect of AgNPs-antibiotic combination against pathogenic is mediated by complexes that are produced from the interaction between AgNPs and the antibiotics, instead of individual or additive action of AgNPs or antibiotic .In other words, the pathogenic cells are killed more effectively by “AgNPs-antibiotic complexes” .However, the nature of the interaction between the AgNPs and the antibiotics needs further investigation

Theoretical and experimental studies on anticancer drug mitoxantrone

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Mitoxantrone (MX) is an important antineoplastic drug used for treatment of different types of cancer with lower side effects. The purpose of this study is to shade more light on the mechanism of interaction between MX and biological molecules. This study would result in drug design and development. Molecular structure was computed at the B3LYP/6-31 + G(d) level. All possible intramolecular hydrogen bonding interactions were considered and calculated at the same level. Five conformers of MX were located and computed to lie in the energy range 0.000–48.495 kcal/mol. Molecular reactivity of MX towards biological systems was explored using condensed molecular descriptors, Fukui functions of electrophilic, nucleophilic and free radical attack. Molecular docking studies for the inhibition of CDK2 and DNA binding were carried out to explore the anticancer potency of MX. The role of charge transfer binding in the interaction of MX with biological molecules was investigated via studying the ability of MX to act as a charge transfer acceptor with known donors using NMR spectroscopy. Charge transfer complex formation was confirmed by proton chemical shift and stability constants were measured from the NMR chemical shift data. Stability constants of MX with donors, phenylene diamine, hexamethyl benzene and pyrene are 4.178, 2.527 and 1.240 M-1 respectively

Awareness of hypertension guidelines among family physicians in primary health care

AbstractBackgroundOnly 14% of patients on treatment achieve the recommended blood pressure target. Guidelines aim to assist clinicians in the management of patients with hypertension.ObjectivesThe primary purpose of the study was to survey family physicians(FPs) in Kuwait about their awareness, and to understand better their reasons for not implementing specific guidance within the WHO/ISH guidelines.MethodsThis study is a cross-sectional survey that was carried out in the five health regions of Kuwait. All PHC physicians who were currently working as FPs were asked to participate in the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire of clinically oriented questions formulated on the basis of the 1999 World Health Organization/International Society of Hypertension (WHO/ISH), as standard reference.ResultsThe study revealed that 49.1% and 42.1% of FPs were very familiar or somewhat familiar with the guidelines respectively, 92.1% were in agreement, and 79.8% indicated that they always or usually follow these guidelines when treating patients. Regarding the correct choice of the guideline statements, only 8.8% of the FPs choose correctly less than ten of the 20 statements, 64% choose 10 to less than 15, and only 27.2% choose ⩾15 statements. When asked about perceived patient barriers to blood pressure control, 84.0% of the respondents ranked overcrowded clinics as important or most important barrier to blood pressure control while, 87.4% considered lack of patient knowledge as important or most important barrier. Non availability of the drugs in the clinic was considered by 88.4% of the physicians, and poor adherence to antihypertensive drugs by 90.1%.ConclusionThere is a need to establish nationwide educational and quality monitoring programs to facilitate the correct implementation of hypertension guidelines in PHC clinical practices in Kuwait

Risk assessment of power system transient instability incorporating renewable energy sources

Transient stability affected by renewable energy sources integration due to reductions of system inertia and uncertainties associated with the expected generation. The ability to manage relation between the available big data and transient stability assessment (TSA) enables fast and accurate monitoring of TSA to prepare the required actions for secure operation. This work aims to build a predictive model using Gaussian process regression for online TSA utilizing selected features. The critical fault clearing time (CCT) is used as TSA index. The selected features map the system dynamics to reduce the burden of data collection and the computation time. The required data were collected offline from power flow calculations at different operating conditions. Therefore, CCT was calculated using electromagnetic transientsimulation at each operating point by applying self-clearance three phase short circuit at prespecified locations. The features selection was implemented using the neighborhood component analysis, the Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance algorithm, and K-means clustering algorithm. The vulnerability of selected features tends to result great variation on the best features from the three methods. Hybrid collection of the best common features was used to enhance the TSA by refining the final selected features. The proposed model was investigated over 66-bus system

The prevalence and the clinical characteristics of metabolic syndrome patients admitted to the cardiac care unit

AbstractObjectivesMetabolic syndrome (MetS) is a group of multiple cardiovascular risk factors, including dysglycemia, central obesity, high cholesterol, and hypertension. Cardiovascular disease is one of the most common complications of MetS. Recent studies showed that prevalence of MetS among patients admitted with acute coronary syndrome was as high as 46%.DesignWe conducted a cross-sectional study of 203 patients at the two main hospitals in Ta’if, Saudi Arabia. Patients older than 18years who were admitted to the Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) between the months of August 2013 and June 2014 were asked to participate. MetS diagnosis was made based on the International Diabetes Federation definition.ResultsA total of 203 patients participated, with 59.1% male and 40.9% were female. The mean age was 60.9 years with a mean body mass index of 28.97kg/m2 and a mean waist circumference of 95.45cm. The prevalence of MetS was 47.8%, primarily among obese female patients who reported sedentary lifestyles. Additionally, MetS patients were more likely to be admitted with heart failure (p<0.05) and more likely to have moderate-to-severe left-ventricular hypertrophy (LVH; p<0.05) relative to non-MetS patients.ConclusionOf the patients admitted to the CCU, 47.8% had MetS, with those patients likely to be female and obese. Furthermore, MetS patients were more likely to be admitted with heart failure and suffer from moderate-to-severe LVH

Application of potassium humate and salicylic acid to mitigate salinity stress of common bean

In the current study, we investigated the effect of potassium humate (Kh) and salicylic acid (SA) in mitigating the salinity stress of common bean plants. Common bean seedlings were treated with 0.2 g/L SA as a foliar application and 0.3 g/L Kh as a soil application individually or in combination. After 7 days of germination, plants were treated with 50 mM NaCl and normal water as a control. Our results indicate that salt treatment reduced the plant growth (fresh and dry shoots and roots), leaf pigments (total chlorophyll and carotenoids), ascorbic acid (AA), glutathione (GSH), and potassium (K) contents. On the contrary, proline content; sodium (Na); hydrogen peroxide (H2O2); superoxide anion (O2•−); and antioxidant enzymes, including catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POX), and superoxide dismutase (SOD), were increased by saline stress. However, applying either individual Kh and SA or their combination stimulated seedling growth under salinity stress by increasing growth parameters, leaf pigment contents, AA, GSH, proline content, K content, and antioxidant enzymes compared with the control. Additionally, Na content, H2O2, and O2•− were reduced by all applications. The application of the Kh (0.3 g/L) + SA (0.2 g/L) combination was more effective than using the individual compounds. In conclusion, applications of Kh + SA can mitigate salt stress and improve the seedling growth of common bean