Inter - Relationship of Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, Some Socio-Economic Variables and Osteoporosis in Sample of Egyptian Women

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a global health problem, and its prevalence is rapidly increasing worldwide. AIM: The aim was to assess the awareness concerning some nutritional and socio-economic variables causes the disease in a sample of Egyptian women. METHODS: This study was done among 116 female volunteers. They were divided into two groups, pre and post-menopausal, with a mean age of 42.05 ± 8.25 & 51.13 ± 5.82 years and mean body mass index (BMI) of 30.83 ± 8.18 & 34.24 ± 8.80 kg/m2. A standardised questionnaire, socioeconomic and food frequency chart were used to assess osteoporosis and food intake awareness. Bone mineral density was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Statistical analyses were done using simple percentage and Chi-square test. RESULTS: Data revealed that a low percentage of pre and post-menopausal women were aware of osteoporosis and fracture (16.67% & 12.96% and 30.65% & 19.35%). They had incomplete knowledge about the sources and the beneficial effects of consumption of calcium and vitamin D rich diet. Non-osteoporotic women showed more awareness. Odds ratio predict occupations and educations levels as risk factors for osteoporosis. CONCLUSION: Awareness about osteoporosis and consumption healthy diet were low among Egyptian women, so it is important to implement special osteoporosis prevention program

Reliability of Contrast CT and Positron Emission Tomography in Post-Surgical Colorectal Cancer and Its Association with Obesity

BACKGROUND: Post-surgical recurrence of cancer colon occurs in one-third of patients within the first two years, so early detection is important. The assessment of the therapeutic response is important to change protocol strategy. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography PET/CT, a valuable tool gives both metabolic and anatomic information for whole-body regions. Obesity is an important risk factor for colorectal cancer. AIM: To evaluate post-surgical and therapeutic colorectal cancer by PET/CT and study obesity association to its prognosis. METHODS: This was a prospective study involved 93 patients with, post-surgical colorectal cancer examined by PET/CT, then follow up after 4-6 months. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference between PET/CT and contrast CT. The sensitivity& the specificity were (96.4%-100% & 92.3%-98.2%) for PET/CT and (84.2%-90.2% & 76.5%-85.4%) for contrast CT respectively. Post-therapeutic follow up showed; progressive course (24.5%), stationary course (26.4%), partial regression (28.3%) and complete regression course (20.8%). Obesity is a risk factor for progression with highly statistically significant to treatment response. Obese patients had a progressive or stationary course of the disease. Also, there was a highly statistically significant association between total abdominal fat & visceral abdominal fat areas with good response of treatment. CONCLUSION: PET/CT is the most appropriate imaging technique to detect any recurrence or metastases in post-surgical colorectal cancer with high sensitivity and specificity comparing to CT. Obesity is a predictor risk factor for prognosis of the disease, as generally and abdominally (total & visceral fat) had an association with therapeutic response

Optical polarization properties of (11–22) semi-polar InGaN LEDs with a wide spectral range

Electroluminescence polarization measurements have been performed on a series of semi-polar InGaN light emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on semi-polar (11–22) templates with a high crystal quality. The emission wavelengths of these LEDs cover a wide spectral region from 443 to 555 nm. A systematic study has been carried out in order to investigate the influence of both indium content and injection current on polarization properties, where a clear polarization switching at approximately 470 nm has been observed. The shortest wavelength LED (443 nm) exhibits a positive 0.15 polarization degree, while the longest wavelength LED (555 nm) shows a negative −0.33 polarization degree. All the longer wavelength LEDs with an emission wavelength above 470 nm exhibit negative polarization degrees, and they further demonstrate that the dependence of polarization degree on injection current enhances with increasing emission wavelength. Moreover, the absolute value of the polarization degree decreases with increasing injection current. In contrast, the polarization degree of the 443 nm blue LED remains constant with changing injection current. This discrepancy can be attributed to a significant difference in the density of states (DOS) of the valence subbands

Utjecaj progesterona na toksičnost benzena u štakora

Benzene is a frequently used industrial solvent. Its toxic manifestations could be modified by sex hormones, but mechanisms of their action are poorly understood. We have examined the influence of progesterone on lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde), reduced glutathione (GSH), and cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) in the liver and kidneys of female rats. Progesterone applied to benzene-treated rats inhibited the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), but in ovariectomised benzene-treated rats it significantly increased GSH in the liver. No improvement in CYP2E1 activity was observed in progesterone treated rats. Our results evidence that progesterone changes benzene toxicity (generation of ROS, oxidative stress). However, the probable antioxidative effect of progesterone needs to be confirmed by further studies.Benzen se u industriji često rabi kao otapalo. Zna se da na njegovu toksičnost mogu utjecati spolni hormoni, ali su mehanizmi njihova djelovanja još uvijek slabo poznati. Ispitali smo utjecaj progesterona na peroksidaciju lipida (malondialdehida), pad razina glutationa te aktivnost citokroma P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) u jetri i bubrezima štakorica. Primjena progesterona u štakorica koje su prethodno primile benzen inhibirala je stvaranje reaktivnih molekula kisika (engl. reactive oxygen species, krat. ROS), ali je u štakorica s ovariektomijom koje su također primile benzen doveo do značajnoga rasta glutationa u jetri. U štakorica koje su primile progesteron nije zamijećena poboljšana aktivnost izoeznima CYP2E1. Naši rezultati potvrđuju da progesteron utječe na toksičnost benzena (stvaranje ROS-a i oksidativni stres). Međutim, tek u budućim istraživanjima valja potvrditi djeluje li progesteron antioksidativno

WHS Guidelines for the Treatment of Pressure Ulcers: 2023 Update

The major populations at risk for developing pressure ulcers are older adults who have multiple risk factors that increase their vulnerability, people who are critically ill and those with spinal cord injury/disease. The reported prevalence of pressure ulcers in the United States is 2.5 million. However, this estimate is derived from acute care facilities and does not include people who are living at home or in nursing facilities. Despite the implementation of hospital and facility-based preventive measures, the incidence of pressure ulcers has not decreased in decades. In addition to the burden of pain, infection and death, it is estimated that hospital-acquired pressure ulcers cost the health system $26.8 billion annually with over 50% of the cost attributed to treating Stage 3 and 4 pressure injuries. Thus, it is critical to examine the literature and develop guidelines that will improve the outcomes of this complex and costly condition. This guideline update is a compendium of the best available evidence for the treatment of Pressure Ulcers published since the last update in 2015 and includes a new section based on changing demographics entitled ‘Palliative wound care for seriously ill patients with pressure ulcers’. The overall goal of the Wound Healing Society Guideline project is to present clear, concise and commercial free guidelines that clinicians can use to guide care, that researchers can use to develop studies that will improve treatment and that both clinicians and researchers can use to understand the gaps in our knowledge base

Phosphor-Free Apple-White LEDs with Embedded Indium-Rich Nanostructures Grown on Strain Relaxed Nano-epitaxy GaN

Phosphor-free apple-white light emitting diodes have been fabricated using a dual stacked InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells comprising of a lower set of long wavelength emitting indium-rich nanostructures incorporated in multiple quantum wells with an upper set of cyan-green emitting multiple quantum wells. The light-emitting diodes were grown on nano-epitaxially lateral overgrown GaN template formed by regrowth of GaN over SiO2 film patterned with an anodic aluminum oxide mask with holes of 125 nm diameter and a period of 250 nm. The growth of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells on these stress relaxed low defect density templates improves the internal quantum efficiency by 15% for the cyan-green multiple quantum wells. Higher emission intensity with redshift in the PL peak emission wavelength is obtained for the indium-rich nanostructures incorporated in multiple quantum wells. The quantum wells grown on the nano-epitaxially lateral overgrown GaN has a weaker piezoelectric field and hence shows a minimal peak shift with application of higher injection current. An enhancement of external quantum efficiency is achieved for the apple-white light emitting diodes grown on the nano-epitaxially lateral overgrown GaN template based on the light -output power measurement. The improvement in light extraction efficiency, ηextraction, was found to be 34% for the cyan-green emission peak and 15% from the broad long wavelength emission with optimized lattice period

Monolithically integrated white light LEDs on (11-22) semi-polar GaN templates

Carrier transport issues in a (11–22) semi-polar GaN based white light emitting diode (consisting of yellow and blue emissions) have been investigated by detailed simulations, demonstrating that the growth order of yellow and blue InGaN quantum wells plays a critically important role in achieving white emission. The growth order needs to be yellow InGaN quantum wells first and then a blue InGaN quantum well after the growth of n-type GaN. The fundamental reason is due to the poor hole concentration distribution across the whole InGaN quantum well region. In order to effectively capture holes in both the yellow InGaN quantum wells and the blue InGaN quantum well, a thin GaN spacer has been introduced prior to the blue InGaN quantum well. The detailed simulations of the band diagram and the hole concentration distribution across the yellow and the blue quantum wells have been conducted, showing that the thin GaN spacer can effectively balance the hole concentration between the yellow and the blue InGaN quantum wells, eventually determining their relative intensity between the yellow and the blue emissions. Based on this simulation, we have demonstrated a monolithically multi-colour LED grown on our high quality semi-polar (11–22) GaN templates