Physical evaluation of a new pulp capping material developed from portland cement

Background: This study examined the effects of addition of 10% and 25% by weight calcium hydroxide on the physicochemical properties of Portland cement associated with 20% bismuth oxide in order to develop a new pulp capping material. Material and Methods: The solubility, pH value, setting time, compressive strength, and push out bond strength of modified Portland were evaluated and compared to those of mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) and Portland cement containing 20% bismuth oxide. Results: The statistical analysis was performed with ANOVA and Duncan’s post-hoc test. The results show that the strength properties and push out bond strength of Portland cement were adversely affected by addition of calcium hydroxide especially with a ratio of 25 wt%, however, the setting time and pH were not affected. MTA showed a statistically significant lower setting time than other cements (P≤0.001). Portland cement with bismuth oxide and Port Cal I showed a statistically significant higher Push out Bond strength than MTA and Port Cal II (P=0.001). Conclusions: Taking the setting time, push out bond strength and pH value into account, addition of 10 wt% calcium hydroxide to Portland cement associated with 20% bismuth oxide produces a new pulp capping material with acceptable physical and adhesive properties. Further studies are recommended to test this cement biologically as a new pulp capping material

Preoperative evaluation of patients with ovarian masses using the risk of malignancy index 4 model

Objective: To evaluate the performance of the RMI 4 in discriminating benign from malignant ovarian masses. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Assiut Women Health Hospital- Egypt. Materials and methods: This was an observational cross-sectional study involving 91 patients at Women\u27s Health Hospital, Assiut University, Egypt during the period between January, 2016 and January, 2017. Women with ovarian masses planned for surgical management were recruited from the outpatient gynecology clinic of the hospital. Risk of malignancy index (RMI 4) was calculated for all study participants. Biopsies obtained from the ovarian masses after surgical intervention were sent to the pathology lab for histopathological examination. The histopathologic diagnosis of the ovarian masses is considered the gold standard for diagnosis. Results: The mean age of patients in the benign group was 34.83±16.28 years versus 43.43±15.91 in the malignant group. There were 12 postmenopausal patients (15.6%) in the benign group versus 4 postmenopausal patients (28.6%) in the malignant group (p=0.0001). An ultrasound score of 4 was recorded in 85.7% of patients in the malignant group versus only 6.5% in the benign group (p=0.0001). Additionally, tumor size ≥ 7 cm was observed in 85.7% of patients in the malignant group versus 55.8% in the benign group (p=0.0001). The mean value of CA-125 was significantly higher in malignant group than the benign group (142.09±41.50 versus 54.51±32.86 ml, respectively) with p=0.01. RMI 4 had a sensitivity of 75%, specificity of 97.3%, PPV of 85.7%, NPV of 94.8 % and an overall accuracy of 93.4%. Conclusions: RMI 4 is a simple and reliable tool in the primary evaluation of patients with ovarian masses. It can further be used to discriminate benign from malignant ovarian masses with high sensitivity and accuracy

Developing prevention model of acute lung injury: Validity of lung injury prediction score and risk panel

AbstractBackgroundAcute lung injury (ALI) is an example of a critical care syndrome with few therapeutic modalities once the syndrome is fully established, and little has been done on the prevention of ALI.Aim of the workThe aim of this work was to early identify the onset of acute lung injury (ALI) on admission and to prospectively evaluate the lung injury prediction score (LIPS).Patients and methodsThe study was carried out on 100 patients who aged >18years, patients who had one or more of the acute lung injury (ALI) predisposing conditions on admission or within 6h after were subjected to lung injury prediction score (LIPS).ResultsAcute lung injury developed in 15 patients, 11 patients (73.3%) had LIPS >3, while 4 patients (26.7%) had LIPS ⩽3 and only 4.70% of those who didn’t develop ALI had LIPS >3, with a statistically significant relationship between patients above and below LIPS value of 3 (P=0.000), LIPS cutoff value of ⩾3.5 on admission had a 73% sensitivity and 95% specificity with an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.883 (95% CI 0.782 to 0.984). Sepsis and pneumonia were the most frequent risk factors (60%).ConclusionsLung injury predictive score (LIPS) could early predict patients at risk to develop ALI on admission, Hyperbilirubinemia, high blood urea level and abnormal chest X-ray on admission were not included in the original LIPS but had significant association with development of ALI

Using Media to Enhance Arabic Speaking Skills among Malay Learners

This paper describes a study to investigate strategies to enhance Arabic speaking skills using media conducted on good and poor Malay speakers of Arabic. It highlights the similarities and the differences in terms of the types of media used by both groups of speakers, the activities commonly performed while using the media and the frequency of using the media. Finally the paper suggests some strategies for teachers, schools and universities to use media as a means to develop Arabic speaking skills. Keywords: speaking skill learning strategies; language learning strategies and second language acquisition; media and language learning; using media in learning Arabic

The role of nutrition related genes and nutrigenetics in understanding the pathogenesis of cancer

AbstractNutrition has a predominant and recognizable role in health management. Nutrigenetics is the science that identifies and characterizes gene variants associated with differential response to nutrients and relating this variation to variable disease states especially cancer. This arises from the epidemiological fact that cancer accounts for a high proportion of total morbidity and mortality in adults throughout the world. There is much evidence to support that genetic factors play a key role in the development of cancer; these genetic factors such as DNA instability and gene alterations are affected by nutrition. Nutrition may also lead to aberrant DNA methylation, which in turn contributes to carcinogenesis. The aim of this work is to clarify the basic knowledge about the vital role of nutrition-related genes in various disease states, especially cancer, and to identify nutrigenetics as a new concept that could highlight the relation between nutrition and gene expression. This may help to understand the mechanism and pathogenesis of cancer. The cause of cancer is a complex interplay mechanism of genetic and environmental factors. Dietary nutrient intake is an essential environmental factor and there is a marked variation in cancer development with the same dietary intake between individuals. This could be explained by the variation in their genetic polymorphisms, which leads to emergence of the concept of nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics

Challenges in Learning to Speak Arabic

This paper describes a study to investigate the challenges and obstacles to speaking Arabic faced by good and poor Malay speakers of Arabic. The study used individual and focus group interviews with 14 participants to elicit data. The findings revealed 2 types of obstacles, namely, internal and external obstacles. Internal obstacles refer to the limitations that come from the learners’ own selves, knowledge and skills; while external obstacles refer to the constraints that originate from the outside, such as the lack of a supportive environment and sufficient opportunity to speak Arabic. Both good and poor Malay speakers of Arabic felt hampered more by the internal problems than by the external problems. However, it was noted that the good speakers faced more language-related problems than other internal issues, while the poor speakers   revealed more internal shortcomings such as lack of confidence and self-esteem. Keywords: Arabic language, language learning strategy, problems in learning speaking skills, speaking skills