A cause of circulatory collapse that should be considered following trauma

Management of poly-trauma patients presenting to the emergency room is usually a challenging and formidable task. Two of the common problems seen in those patients are shock and neurological dysfunction. A huge differential for post-traumatic circulatory collapse exist and timely identification of the etiology is of utmost importance to avoid complications. In this report we are describing 2 cases presenting with circulatory collapse following trauma. The first case was a 29 year old female who presented after a motor vehicle accident fully conscious with severe hypotension and bradycardia. The second case presented with severe hemodynamic instability after falling at home. Physical examination of both patients revealed weakness in all 4 limbs and CT cervical spine revealed complete anterior sublaxation of C5 over C6 cervical vertebrae in the first case and partial sublaxation of C5 over C6 cervical vertebrae in the second case confirming that spinal cord injury is the likely cause for these hemodynamic alterations. A high index of suspicion for spinal cord injuries is therefore mandatory when managing a trauma patient presenting with quadriparesis and hemodynamic instability that is otherwise unexplained especially when the ensuing hypotension is associated with bradycardia instead of reflex tachycardia. Awareness of this cause of circulatory collapse is particularly important in the unconscious patient where eliciting sensory and motor deficits looking for spinal cord injury is not always feasible. Both patients were transferred to the intensive care unit and were maintained on epinephrine till becoming hemodynamically stable. The report aims to sensitize readers to this cause of post-traumatic circulatory collapse

Self-Medication in University Students from the City of Mansoura, Egypt

Background. Self-medication is a common practice in developed and developing countries. Objectives. To explore the prevalence of self-medication practices among university students, probable reasons, symptoms requiring self-medication, and sources of advice. Methods. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in Mansoura University, Egypt, and included 1st and last year students of both medical and nonmedical faculties. Results. Prevalence of self-medication was 62.9%. Younger age, female, medical, and ever-married students and those having home pharmacy tended to self-medicate more than their peers with significant difference between them. Being medical student, being from urban area, having good current health condition, being careless about health, and having drugs stored at home pharmacy were independently associated with the likelihood of self-medicating. Conclusion. Prevalence of self-medication among university students is high which constitutes a health problem that needs intervention

Saudi community care awareness food facts, nutrients, immune system and COVID-19 prevention in Taif City among different age categories

In December 2019, a new coronavirus was discovered in China, sparking a serious pandemic of human acute respiratory syndrome which spread worldwide at a fast rate. Public health knowledge and awareness is required on food facts, nutrients and immune system for coronavirus prevention. The study designed to investigate COVID-19 impact on dietary intake, knowledge, habits, activities and lifestyle among the people in Taif City. Data collection was conducted from the 4th to the 29th of June 2020. A total of 312 respondents, aged from ≤ 12 to ≥ 65 years were involved in the survey. About 81% of the respondents were with high education level (bachelor's degree or higher). Results show that the most frequent diseases in descending order of magnitude were obesity, dental problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, low immunity and colon problems. Data collected showed an increase in food intake frequency during the epidemic except for (4.44, 41.82,12.86, and 30.51 %), like fish, bread, pasta and fast food, respectively. Two hundred and eight (208) of the respondents preferred to use olive oil in their diet due to its several benefits. The majority of the respondents preferred star anise (124) followed by sagebrush (44) as herbal drinks in descending order, respectively. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the study population reported to eat more herbs such as garlic (169), ginger (152) and curcuma (103) to enhance the immune system. Multivitamin (66) and vitamin D intake were reported as the highest, while vitamin B Group and ascorbic acid recorded similar intakes values. Mineral supplement intake in descending order were reported as calcium (57), iron (37) zinc (29) and selenium (5). Around 119 of the respondents had no knowledge on the exact source of COVID-19, while 113 reported as an infection from a bat to humans. The respondents recognized the symptoms as fever (270) and shortness of breath (249). Observing social distance and hand washing were chosen by most respondents (301) as a way of preventing the infection. Two cases of smokers quit the smoking habit; a minor increase rate of training activity was reported; almost all of the respondents embraced the consumption of functional foods, oils, herbs, roots, colored fruits and vegetables and special supplements during COVID-19. Knowledge on COVID-19 had significant positive impact on the respondents’ healthy eating habits, physical exercise, water intake and reduced smoking. Findings recommended intensifying efforts in sensitizing the public to a better understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening the immune system

Wave propagation over a beach within a nonlinear theory

Wave propagation over a beach is considered within a nonlinear theory in shallow water. Lagrangian coordinates are used to describe the problem. The solution is expanded in double series involving a small parameter and local oscillations. Two cases are treated: The beach with appreciable inclination on the horizontal (cliff) and the beach of small inclination. We show that finite solutions are obtained, in contrast to the linear theory which involves a logarithmic singularity at the shoreline. For the cliff, it is shown that local oscillations do not appear in the first two orders of approximation, and the incident wave is totally reflected without loss of energy at this order of approximation. The case of an incident wave on the beach is considered. The deformation of this wave is investigated and explicit formulae are obtained for the reflected wave and for the local oscillations, to shed light on the energy transfer due to interaction with the beach

Food consumption and lifestyle habits among university students in Saudi Arabia

Food consumption and lifestyle habits can have a positive or negative direct impact on an individual’s health. University students tend to have poor eating habits that are influenced mainly by sensory perceptions. This survey was done to evaluate the status of food consumption and lifestyle habits among Taif university students (males and females). A total of 600 students aged from 18 to 24 years participated in the survey and responded to questions on socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, eating habits, food consumption frequency, attitude, health and food awareness knowledge. The randomly selected students were from various levels in university representing wide categories and living conditions in Taif Region, Saudi Arabia. The examined students efficiently completed the survey with the help of the university staff. Weight and height were evaluated by a portable standing electronic scale and a portable stadiometer (Seca 879, Germany) to calculate the Body mass index (BMI) classes. Female students recorded 28% of underweight cases, which was higher than the male students (11%) with none significant at p>0.05. The rate of overweight in male students was 30% compared with the female students’ 26%. The study reported 49% and 64% for normal waist circumference for male and female students, respectively. A higher frequency of moderate physical exercise was reported among male students at 60% compared to that among female students (57%). The number of students who did physical exercise regularly was reported to be higher in females (15%) than males (8%). A percentage of 15% and 7% of the male and female students, respectively were smokers. Male students recorded higher sleeping hours than females. Male students reported high media consumption frequency of more than 3 hours a day 67%, followed by 21% between 3-6 hours a day for female students. About 46% and 55% of male and female students, respectively, reported fast-food consumption at least once a week and about 30% of males and 24% females took only 1 to 2 fast food meals in a month. The major meals skipped were breakfast, followed by lunch and dinner; however, this was not significant p>0.05. Meal skipping was high among female students (72%). It was noted that high percentage of male students (72%) reported low consumption levels of vegetables and fruits. The main reason for fast-food consumption was convenience (31%) for males, while females recorded 32% for choices. Female students had a higher score than males in nutrition knowledge. There is a need for awareness creation concerning better food choices, lifestyle habits and weight management that might create a helpful impact on the university student health

Digital Twins Approaches and Methods Review

© 2023 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. This is the accepted manuscript version of a conference paper which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1109/ITC-Egypt58155.2023.10206196This paper investigates the recent advances in Digital Twin technologies. The aim is to compare the approaches, available open source and proprietary technologies and methods, their features, and their integration capabilities. The motivation is to enable better design decisions based on the available literature and case studies. Various tools for 3D reconstruction and visualisation, IoT and sensor integration, Physical simulations and other complete platforms provide complete solutions. A conclusion of current challenges and future work identified that the lack of standardisation and interoperability makes the lifetime of a digital twin short, with a high cost and time to build and rebuild if required

Aspergilli and their aflatoxins contamination of poultry and animal feedstuff samples in western region of Saudi Arabia

Aspergillus and their aflatoxins contaminations were studied in sixty poultry and animal feedstuff samples collected from the western region (Jeddah, Makkah and Taif cities) from Saudi Arabia. Fourteen species of Aspergillus were isolated and identified in the present investigation using Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) at 27ºC. The identification of isolated Aspergillus was confirmed by using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region sequencing for representative species (194 species) of the collected Aspergillus sp. were sequenced and the obtained sequence results were deposited in Gene Bank under accession numbers. The sequence results indicated to the full correspondence between the molecular identification of the isolated fungi and the morphological identification. Moisture content was considered indicator for the number of Aspergillus isolated, therefore, Aspergillus and their aflatoxins were isolated in high counts from Jeddah and Taif according to the moisture content. Therefore, A. flavus was the most common species (59.78%), followed by A. niger (21.59%). The co-occurrence of Aspergillus species ranged from one species to 6 species per sample. The frequencies of occurrence for most afltoxigenic species isolated from studied samples ranged from 2 to 56%. Aspergillus flavus contaminated the majority of investigated feedstuff samples and the co-occurrence of more than one aflatoxigenic species was reported in many samples