UTILIZATION OF CORN GERM AND SUNFLOWER SEEDS AS A NEW SOURCES OF LECITHINS AND THEIR MODIFIED FORMS IN MANUFACTURE OF CARAMEL

Fractionation and acylation by ethyl alcohol and acetic anhydride were carried out to produce a modified corn germ and sunflower lecithins from their crude leci-thins. Emulsification activity and emulsion stability indices (EAI & ESI) were de-termined at different pH values (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10) for commercial and studied leci-thins. EAI was significantly improved in modified lecithins in comparison to crude lecithins with increasing rate of 52.9 and 58.6 % for corn germ and sunflower etha-nol soluble fraction lecithins and 15.6 and 20.5 % for acylated corn germ and sun-flower lecithins, respectively. The changes in ESI after times of 20, 40 and 60 min. showed a higher stability of emulsions prepared using modified lecithins which were closed to that prepared using commercial soy lecithin. Caramel was prepared using commercial soy, corn germ, sunflower lecithins and their modified forms. Hardness of tested samples was determined in the start of storage time while, acid value, per-oxide value, fatty acid pattern and sensory attributes were determined during storage period at room temperature for six months. Data revealed insignificant difference in caramels hardness. Samples contained crude sunflower; acylated corn germ and sun-flower lecithins were more sensitive to oxidation while, those prepared using com-mercial soy, crude corn germ, ethanol soluble fraction of corn germ and sunflower lecithins showed higher oxidative stability with significant differences (P0.05) to control one that contained commercial soy lecithin. The quality and quantity of lecithin that used in prepared of caramel samples played a major role in their characteristics. The modified corn germ and sunflower lecithin forms were preferred than the raw lecithins owing to their higher emulsifying activity and lesser quantity used. The ethanol soluble lecithins fraction, especially of corn germ can be competitive to the commercial soy lecithin in all emulsified food products

QUALITY EVALUATION OF BEEF STEAKS WITH EDIBLE COATING DURING DEEP - FRYING

Quality of fried beef steaks coated with sodium alginate, carrageenan and car-boxy methyl cellulose (CMC) at concentrations 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9% as well as oils used for frying were evaluated after several frying times (1, 3, 5 and 7 times). Weight loss, shrinkage, moisture loss and final lipid content of control sample were sharply increased after the first time of frying compared to other treatments. The lower reduction in weight loss was achieved in fried beef steaks coated with CMC at concentration of 0.9%. Samples coated with 0.9% carrageenan caused a considerable decrease especially in shrinkage and moisture loss followed by samples coated with CMC and then those coated by sodium alginate at different concentrations. The same treatment (0.9% CMC) showed the lower value of final lipid content. There were significant (p<0.01) decremental patterns in all of sensory attributes (appear-ance, flavor, color, juiciness, mouth feel, texture and overall acceptability) of fried beef steaks during subsequent frying times for all treatments. Less rates of these de-terioration were appeared in CMC samples with different concentrations followed by samples coated with 0.3% and 0.6% of sodium alginate. Progressive rise in acid value of frying oils was especially found in control sample during different frying times, on the other hand the low rate of increase was appeared in sample coated with 0.3% and 0.6% sodium alginate. The higher values of K232 appeared in control sam-ple followed by 0.9% CMC but lower value recorded by oil used for frying beef steaks coated with 0.3% and 0.6% of sodium alginate after 5 times of frying. The same behavior was appeared in K270 determination except there was decrement pat-tern in this criteria by increasing frying times especially from 5 to 7 times of frying in control and coated samples with 0.3% and 0.6% of carrageenan. The highest val-ue of refractive index of fried oil was in control sample followed by coated sample with 0.9% sodium alginate after 7 times of frying. However, the lower value was in coated sample with 0.6% carrageenan under the same conditions. It is cleared to know that, the viscosity of oil which used for frying control sample was lower than that of other treatments during various frying times. Data revealed that the color in-dex (oil deterioration) increase as the concentration of different edible coatings of beef steaks and number of frying increased

Pattern of Congenital Dislocation of the Hip in Arar City, Northern Saudi Arabia

Background: Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is one of the most widely discussed abnormalities in neonates. The etiology of DDH is unknown. There are many insights, however, from epidemiologic/demographic information. Aim of the study: To determine the incidence, risk factors and treatment modalities of congenital dislocation of the hip (CDH) in Arar city, Northern Saudi Arabia. Methods: This is prospective study involve 955(19100hips) infants referred to Arar central hospital. During the period from 1 January 2014, to 31 December 2016, each infant was evaluated by history taking, clinical and sonographic examination for hip abnormality. Results: The incidence of (CDH) was 3.1% (73.3% were females), 70.0% of the affected had positive family history and in 46.7% there was consanguinity between parents. In 80.0% there was regular follow up during pregnancy. 16.7% had history of oligohydramnios. Breech presentation was found in 26.7% and 15.0% delivered by caesarian section. First born children constituted 25.0%. The left hip joint was more affected( 41.6%) , the right hip joint affected in  28.3% and bilateral CDH were involved in 13.3%. In the studied cases, 40.0% of the infants were treated surgically, 30% conservatively, 16% by both and 14% were referred to higher centers. Conclusion and recommendations: CDH in Arar, Central hospital and by inference in Northern region of Saudi Arabia was found to be 3.1%. Awareness programs, routine neonatal hip joint examination at birth and up to one year of age as well as ultrasound examination of pelvis in high-risk babies are strongly recommended

BREASTFEEDING PRACTICE AND MOTHERS AWARENESS AND PRACTICE OF ABSOLUTE BREASTFEEDING IN ARAR, SAUDI ARABIA

Background: Human milk meets all the nutritional requirements of infants for the first 6 months of life, and it is associated with a lower incidence of diarrhea than partial or artificial feeding. The infant should be exclusively breastfed for at least 4 months of life and if possible for 6 months, as recommended by WHO and UNICEF. Objectives: The main objective of this study was to determine the breastfeeding status for children under 24 months in Arar city, and to determine breastfeeding practice in relation to some socidemographic and nutrition related variables. Participants and methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Arar city, mothers were selected from the attendees of the female side of 6 randomly selected primary health care centers in the city. They interviewed and filled a questionnaire which included the needed questions. Results: Among the 400 studied children,17.2% got breastfeeding, 41.0% had both breast and artificial feeding while 41.8% depended on artificial feeding only. Absolute breastfeeding in the first 6 months of life was found in 34.7% of infants and in the first 4 months of life was found in 13.8%. Sources of health education of the mothers about absolute breastfeeding period were doctors in 12.1%, health education team of the hospitals in 24.1%, relatives and friends in 11.8%, the media in 3.8% while no health education about absolute breastfeeding period was reported by 48.2% of the studied mothers. The reported causes of artificial feeding was difficulty of breastfeeding during working hours in 41.8%, missing of support in 25.7%, preference of formula milk in 11%, thinking that breastfeeding leads to breast enlargement and redundancy in 8.6% and thinking that breastfeeding leads to obesity of the mothers in 4.5%. No significant relationship between type of child feeding and child age, sex, mother education, mother's working status, father's work or mother age group [P >0.05]. Conclusion: 17.2% got breastfeeding, 41.0% had both breast and artificial feeding while 41.8% depended on artificial feeding only. Absolute breastfeeding in the first 6 months of life was found in 34.7% of infants and in the first 4 months of life was found in 13.8%. With deficiency of exclusive breastfeeding among infants of Arar, Saudi Arabia. Programs promoting exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months of age must be conducted to increase mothers’ awareness of the exclusive breastfeeding duration is recommended. Keywords: Breastfeeding; Exclusive breastfeeding; Breastfeeding Practice; Arar, Saudi Arabia

Melasma and Associated Factors in Arar City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

Melasma is a common dermatological disorder characterized by irregular brownish patches with unclear etiology and a variety of factors may be associated with its occurrence. Melasma patients suffer significant emotional and psychological problems making assessment of their quality of life is increasingly necessary. Aim of the study: This study was conducted to identify the frequency and factors associated with occurrence of Melasma in in Arar, KSA and its effect on some determinant of quality of life in the affected patients. Subjects and methods: A population based cross sectional study was conducted from January 2016 to January 2017. It included 470 individuals attended five randomly selected primary healthcare centers in Arar city in the Northern Province of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and were selected by systemic random sampling. Data were collected by means of personal interview with the sampled population using a predesigned questionnaire. Results: Findings revealed that18.7 % of the studied population suffered from Melasma. Age and positive family history were significantly associated with the development of Melasma among the studied patients while gender, skin color, sun exposure and cosmetic use had no significant effect. Most of the studied determinants of quality of life were not affected by suffering from Melasma while lack of self-confidence was significantly associated with the presence of Melasma. Conclusion: less than on fifth (18.7%) of the studied patients suffered from Melasma. Age and positive family history are the most common associations. Melasma had a significant impact on self-confidence of the affected patients.Keywords: Melasma, risk factor, quality of life

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10&nbsp;years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37&nbsp;years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL AND SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS OF VEGAN CAKE

The objectives of this research were to investigate physical, chemical and sensory quality attributes and their relation of newly formulated vegan cake. Tiger nut milk (TNM) and alginate-lecithin gel (ALG) were used as the replacement of buffalo, s milk and whole egg at the levels of 50 and 100 %, respectively, in addition to, 50 % mixture (50 % TNM and 50 % ALG) and 100 % mixture (100 % TNM and 100 % ALG) . The results revealed that the lactose content of buffalo, s milk was 5.56%, while, TNM was free lactose. TNM is a good source of many elements as buffalo, s milk such as K, P, Ca, Na and Mg. Whole egg had significantly higher foam capacity than the alginate-lecithin gel . In contrast, alginate-lecithin gel exhibited higher foam stability than whole egg. The foam volume of alginate-lecithin gel characterized with stability during 60 min under testing as compared with whole egg that collapsed after 20 min. Concerning emulsifying activity index (EAI), both ALG and whole egg not showed significant difference (p>0.05). Emulsifying stability index (ESI) of alginate-lecithin gel was stable during 60 min under testing as compared with the whole egg that was stable till 40 min. The presence of replacement increased the batter viscosity at ambient temperature over the control value from 19.65 to 21.71-44.54 poise. Among different replacement, 100 % mixtures showed the highest batter viscosity of 44.54 p followed by 100% ALG (38.72 p), 50% ALG (34.29 p) and 50% mixtures (31.03 p). Control batter had a specific gravity of 0.892 g/cc, whereas batter replacing with 50% ALG, 100% ALG, 50% mixtures and 100 % mixtures had a batter specific gravity of 0.992, 1.009, 1.013 and 1.047 g/cc, respectively. The protein and fat contents of control samples were higher (10.42% and 26.63 %, respectively) than vegan cake samples replaced with TNM and ALG. The total carbohydrate content increased with increasing the replacement levels of TNM and ALG in vegan cake. High staling values (high freshness) of vegan cake samples reached 336.59 % and 334.08 % with vegan cake containing 100 % mixtures and 100 % ALG, respectively, in comparison to the staling of control (299.19 %) at zero time. The lower reduction in staling value was achieved in vegan cake prepared 100 % mixtures and 100 % ALG, since the staling value reduced by 10.29 % and 12.41 %, respectively, in comparison to 15.68 % for control sample after 21 days of storage at room temperature. High stability in specific volume during storage was achieved in the presence of 100 % ALG and 100 % mixture since, the specific volume was reduced by only 7.88 % and 8.83 %, respectively, in comparison to 25.99 % for control sample. The presence of ALG and mixtures decreased the hardness value from 79.46 to 36.28 and 66.11 Newton, indicating improvement in the texture of cake. Cakes containing ALG and mixtures showed lower decrement in moisture content and lower increment in hardness during storage at room temperature. Cake samples prepared with different levels of ALG and mixtures were better quality and showed significantly superior sensory properties scores than cake samples prepared with different levels of TNM which coincided with control sample at zero time. Vegan cake samples stored gave higher values and were be desirable till the end of storage period. Therefore, vegan cake could be successfully made from tiger nut milk and alginate-lecithin gel as the fully replacement of buffalos, milk and whole egg, respectively. In addition to, increase freshness, specific volume and storage at room temperature for 21 days

Pattern of chronic urticaria and value of autologous serum skin test in Sohag Province, Upper Egypt

Background: Chronic urticaria (CU) is a debilitating disorder with variable clinical course. It is characterized by hives occurring for at least 6 weeks, and is classified as spontaneous or inducible. Objective: The aim of this study was to detect the pattern of CU, to study association between results of autologous serum skin test (ASST) and urticaria severity score (USS), and to detect serum levels of anti IgE receptors antibodies. Methods: This study included all patients attending the Dermatology Outpatient Clinic, Sohag University Hospital, who were diagnosed as CU from April 2015 to March 2016. ASST and serum level of anti IgE receptor antibodies was assessed using ELISA. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16, using descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: A total of 108 patients with CU were included in the study. Females with mean age 33±12.4 years were more affected. A total of 58.3% complained of CSU, 6.5% physical urticaria and 35.2% mixed type of CU. According to USS, mild score represented 20.4%, moderate 46.3% and severe in 33.3%. ASST showed positive in 38% of patients. There was a statistically significant relation between ASST and USS and duration of CU. This indicates that more severe symptoms and prolonged duration of CU are observed in positive ASST (autoreactive type). In all, 91% of the anti IgE receptor antibodies positive patients had positive ASST. Conclusion: In conclusion, chronic urticaria is not an uncommon disease in our locality which represented 1.13% of our patients. Urticaria severity score and duration of urticaria was higher in positive ASST patients and hence the autoreactive type

Clinical and subclinical neuropsychiatric abnormalities in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic, inflammatory disease with probable autoimmune aetiology. RA has many secondary complications and a variety of neuropsychological consequences. Aim The aim of this study was to estimate the frequencies of neuropsychiatric disorders in RA patients and their relationship with the duration and activity of disease. Patients and methods Seventy-four consecutive female RA patients were recruited and compared with 25 age-matched and education status-matched female healthy volunteers. All eligible participants underwent clinical, laboratory and electrophysiological examinations (motor and sensory nerve conduction study, F-wave of four limbs, P300 event-related potential and electroencephalography). The Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 3rd ed., Revised (DSM-III-R) Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) for diagnosis of psychiatric illness and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 3rd ed. (WAIS-III) with assessment of total scale, verbal and performance intelligence quotients (IQ) were administered to all participants. Results Fourteen (18.9%) patients had evidence of symptomatic peripheral neuropathy and radiculopathy, whereas 60.8% had psychiatric disorders. Depression was the most prevalent psychiatric disorder (45%), followed by anxiety (27%) and comorbid anxiety with depression (21.6%). Low IQ scores were recorded in 54% of patients. P300 latency was significantly prolonged (P = 0.0001), and seven (9.5%) RA patients recorded abnormal P300 latency (>mean ± 2 SD) compared with control values. Abnormal electroencephalography findings were observed in 48.6%. Visual analogue scale pain score was significantly higher among patients with psychiatric disorders versus patients without psychiatric disorders (P = 0.0001). Significant negative correlation was recorded between Disease Activity Score and total IQ score (P = 0.01), whereas no significant association was seen between Disease Activity Score and the presence of neuropathy or psychiatric disorders. Conclusion Cognitive impairment, depression, anxiety and peripheral neuropathy are common in RA patients. Early diagnosis and management of neuropsychiatric disorders in RA patients may greatly improve the patients′ health-related quality of life