Multi National Survey of the Advice Given to Muslim Kidney Graft Recipients by Muslim Nephrologists about Lifestyle and Religious Rituals with Potential Medical Risk

Muslim renal transplant recipients often ask their physicians if performing certain lifestyles or religious obligations may be harmful to their health. Permissibility as advised by an expert Muslim physician is considered as being religiously accepted. A cross-sectional, survey-based study was conducted enquiring what nephrologists would advise their transplant recipients to do, about some lifestyles and religious duties. Fifty-eight nephrologists responded to the survey. Of these, 77% routinely follow-up post-transplant patients; 34% were from Saudi Arabia, 18% from the USA, and 20% from Pakistan. Fifty-four percent of the respondents would let patients with stable graft function fast during Ramadan, while 20% would not recommend fasting at any time following transplantation. This response did not change much if the patient was diabetic although in these patients, not recommending fasting at any time increased to 32%. For kidney donors, fasting would be allowed by 58% of the respondents once the kidney function stabilizes. About 50% would let their patients perform Omrah or obligatory Hajj any time after 12 months following transplantation, and only about 3% would not recommend that at any time after transplantation. For nonobligatory Hajj, 37% and 22%, respectively, would allow. Sixty-one percent would delay the pregnancy in nullipara with stable renal function, and none of the nephrologists would deny the opportunity to pregnancy at any time. In multiparous transplant recipients, the respective frequencies would be 45% and 20%. To our knowledge, this the first study exploring the consensus among Muslim nephrologists regarding the advice they would give on performance of potentially risky lifestyles and religious rituals by Muslim posttransplant patients

Spectrophotometric determination of tizanidine and orphenadrine via ion pair complex formation using eosin Y

A simple, sensitive and rapid spectrophotometric method was developed and validated for the determination of two skeletal muscle relaxants namely, tizanidine hydrochloride (I) and orphenadrine citrate (II) in pharmaceutical formulations. The proposed method is based on the formation of a binary complex between the studied drugs and eosin Y in aqueous buffered medium (pH 3.5). Under the optimum conditions, the binary complex showed absorption maxima at 545 nm for tizanidine and 542 nm for orphenadrine. The calibration plots were rectilinear over concentration range of 0.5-8 μg/mL and 1-12 μg/mL with limits of detection of 0.1 μg/mL and 0.3 μg/mL for tizanidine and orphenadrine respectively. The different experimental parameters affecting the development and stability of the complex were studied and optimized. The method was successfully applied for determination of the studied drugs in their dosage forms; and to the content uniformity test of tizanidine in tablets

Effect of network roadway aggregation levels on modeling traffic-induced emissions inventories

Traffic-induced emissions pose a serious threat to air quality in heavily congested urban centers. While air quality can be characterized through field measurements and continuous monitoring, forecasting future conditions depends largely on estimating vehicle-emission factors coupled with mathematical modeling. Traffic and environmental planners have relied on overall average network speed in conjunction with speed-based emission factor models to estimate traffic emissions. This paper investigates the effect of three levels of roadway network aggregation, macro-scale (overall network basis), meso-scale (roadway functional class basis) and micro-scale (link-by-link basis) on emission inventories. A traffic model and an emission factor model were integrated to determine total emissions in the future Beirut Central District area for these three modeling approache

Emission standards development for an inspection/maintenance program

This paper presents the results of vehicle exhaust measurements that were used to establish emission standards for an inspection/maintenance (I/M) program. For this purpose, a total number of 100 private autos distributed across model years ranging between 1972 and 2002 were tested under idling conditions. The monitored indicators included air to fuel ratio (%), CO (%), CO2 (%), HC (parts per million, ppm), NOx (ppm), and O2 (%). Private autos with model years greater than 1994 were found to be compliant with international standards and are relatively well maintained. Emissions from older models increased significantly with a lack of engine maintenance. The paper concludes with criteria for proposing I/M emission standards based on exhaust measurements taking country-specific socioeconomic characteristics into consideration

A stated-preference approach towards assessing a vehicle inspection and maintenance program

A stated-preference approach is used to analyzing responses towards the implementation of a vehicle inspection and maintenance program in Lebanon. A questionnaire-based survey was administered to 160 owners of private autos using a scenario-based approach to look at the choice between centralized and decentralized inspection stations as well as between car repair and payment of an emission fee. Binary-logit models are used to define inspection set-up and repair/fee payment choices. The centralized system with car repair were found to be the more popular option

Emission standards development for an I/M program

This paper presents the results of vehicle exhaust measurements that were used to establish emission standards for an I/M program. For this purpose, a total number of 100 private autos distributed across model years ranging between 1972 and 2002 were tested under idling conditions. The monitored indicators included air to fuel ratio (%), CO (%), CO2 (%), HC (ppm), NOx (ppm) and O2 (%). Private autos with model years greater than 1994 were found to be compliant with international standards and are relatively well maintained. Emissions from older models increased significantly with lack of engine maintenance. The paper concludes with criteria for proposing I/M emission standards based on exhaust measurements taking country-specific socio-economic characteristics into consideration