Effect of pre-eclampsia on glomerular filtration rate in Sudanese women

Background: Creatinine clearance is safest method to measure glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in pregnancy. The objectives was to study a case-control study conducted in Omdurman Maternity Hospital aimed to assess GFR, using creatinine clearance and magnitude of changes of serum creatinine in pre-eclampsia.Methods: Pre-eclamptic were 70, normal pregnant 96 and non-pregnant 63. Investigations were done at St Hellier's hospital London. Serum and urine creatinine were measured using Jaffé reaction and spectrophotometer. 24-hour urine output was measured and creatinine clearance calculated to find GFR. GFR was calculated in ml/min/mm2 using John Hopkins’ method.Results: The mean serum creatinine in pre-eclamptic (68.6µmol/L) was less than non-pregnant (75.5µmol/L) (P=0.001) but was higher than normal pregnant (62.4µmol/L) (P=0.003). Mean GFR pre-eclamptic (68.6ml/min.1.73m2) was less than non-pregnant (87.0ml/min/1.73m2) (P=0.0001) and normal pregnant (89.0ml/min/1.73ml/min/1.73m2) (P =0.0001).Conclusions: GFR decreased at term in normal pregnancy and even more in pre-eclampsia. Serum creatinine levels increased and did not correlate with GFR changes in pre-eclampsia

Impact of Rehabilitative Ultrasonography Imaging on Core Muscle Function in Patients with Visceral Adiposity: Randomized Controlled Trail

Background: Overweight is an excessive fat accumulation that may impair health. Visceral adiposity is one of the common causes of decreased endurance and strength of core stabilizing muscles, lumbar spine dysfunction and respiratory impairment. Consequently, this study aimed to determine the impact of rehabilitative ultrasonography imaging (RUSI) guided core muscle exercise, cavitation lipolysis and their combination on visceral fat thickness, waist circumference (WC), transverse abdominis (TrA) activation ratio, and diaphragmatic excursion in patients with visceral adiposity. Methods: forty-five patients diagnosed as overweight with localized abdominal visceral fat deposits, recruited from clinical nutrition unit, Elminya University Hospital. Patients age ranged from 25 to 45 years, body mass index (BMI) was 25-29.9 kg/m2, WC was more than 102 cm for men and 88 cm for women and patients hadnt received lipolytic medications. They were divided randomly into three equal groups, Group (A) received RUSI guided core muscle exercise, group (B) received cavitation lipolysis and group (C) received RUSI core muscle exercise and cavitation lipolysis. Evaluation was done by ultrasonography imaging and tape measurement at the beginning and after 5 weeks. Result: There was a significant improvement in transverse abdominis activation ratio and diaphragmatic excursion in the three groups (p\u3c0.05) as well as decrease in visceral fat thickness and WC in group B & C (p \u3c 0.05), whereas, there is non-significant difference in group A (p\u3e 0.05). Conclusion: Combination of RUSI guided core muscle exercise and cavitation lipolysis are effective approach in decreasing visceral fat thickness and WC, as well as improving transverse abdominis activation ratio and diaphragmatic excursion in patients with visceral adiposity

Correlations of complete blood count, liver enzyme and serum uric Acid in Sudanese pre-eclamptic cases

Background: Pre-eclampsia is a serious disorder of pregnancy with unknown ethological factors that may occur at any stage of second or third trimester of pregnancy. The objectives of the present study were to assess changes in complete blood counts including platelets, liver enzymes and serum uric acid in pre-eclamptic cases compared to second-half normal pregnant and non-pregnant Sudanese women and their correlations to other biomarkers.Methods: This was a cross-sectional, case-control study performed from December 2008 to December 2010; in Omdurman Maternity Hospital, in concomitance with other studies in pre-eclampsia. The sample size included three groups, 72 up pre-eclamptic cases in their recent pregnancies, 96 normal pregnant in their second half of pregnancy and 63 non- pregnant (control) women; a total of 231 subjects. Questionnaire Interviews and clinical examination were done for all participants. Laboratory investigations were done including complete blood picture, liver enzymes and uric acid.  Results: The mean Hb concentration of the pre-eclamptic (11.3g/dl±1.7) was statistically significantly lower than that of the non-pregnant (12.1g/dl±0.2) (P=0.01) but not from that of the normal pregnant (11.4g/dl±0.1) (P=0.882) .There was no statistical significant difference in the mean WBC count between the pre-eclamptic (7.4x103/mm3±0.3) and non-pregnant (7.3x103/mm3±0.3) (P=0.797) and between the pre-eclamptic and normal pregnant (7.7x103/mm3±0.2) (P=0.270). There was a considerable statistical significant decrease in the mean platelets count of the pre-eclamptic (236.4/mm3±8.3) compared to the non-pregnant group (322.0/mm3±10.4) (P=0.0001) s well as to the normal pregnant (275.0/mm3±8.9) (P = 0.003). In the pre-eclamptic cases, serum ALT correlated significantly with TWCC (r=0.26, P=0.03) and serum AST (r=0.65, P=0.000). In the pre-eclamptic cases, serum AST correlated significantly with Hb (r=0.26, P=0.03), serum ALT and serum uric acid (r=0.36, P=0.01).Conclusions: There was a considerable statistical significant decrease in mean platelets count of the pre-eclamptic compared to the non-pregnant group and to the normal pregnant may be explained by hemodilution; whereas further decrease was due to pre-eclampsia. ALT and AST are strong prognostic indicators of pre-eclampsia

Buildings' energy consumption prediction models based on buildings’ characteristics: Research trends, taxonomy, and performance measures

Building's energy consumption prediction is essential to achieve energy efficiency and sustain-ability. Building's energy consumption is highly dependent on buildings' characteristics such as shape, orientation, roof type among others. This paper offers a systematic literature review of studies that proposed building's characteristics based energy consumption prediction models. In particular, the paper reviews the types of buildings, their characteristics, the type of energy predicted, the dataset, the artificial intelligence (AI) methods used for energy consumption prediction, and the implemented research evaluation performance measures. The review findings show that a small number of studies consider buildings' characteristics as predictors for energy consumption. Most of the studies use historical energy consumption data, i.e., time-series data, to predict future buildings' energy consumption. The present study contributes a new taxonomy of the most common AI methods used for energy consumption predictions based on buildings' characteristics. The study also provides a comparative analysis of the different AI methods in terms of their contributions regarding the prediction of energy consumption. The review identifies research gaps in the existing studies, which is used to highlight future research directions

Global Postural Exercise Program Versus Muscle Energy Technique on Management of Temporomandibular Joint Disorders

Objective: To compare between the effects of global postural exercise program against muscle energy technique on maximum pressure pain threshold, maximal mouth opening range of motion as well as quality of life on patients with temporomandibular joint disorders. Methods: 63 patients having temporomandibular disorders were randomized into three groups; Group (A) were given global postural exercise program in addition to conventional therapy (in the form of LASER and hot packs), Group (B) were given muscle energy technique as well as traditional therapy and the Group (C) control were given traditional therapy only. All patients were examined by the pressure algometer, paquimeter and Arabic version of Oral health impact profile 14 questionnaire as well as the duration of treatment were 6 weeks. Results: there were no significant statistical differences revealed  pretreatment for all variables, Mmaximal mouth opening range of motion, quality of life scale, as well as pain) as in mouth opening (P=0.130), OHIP-14 (P=0.642), right temporalis muscles (P=0.384), left temporalis muscles (P=0.930), right masseter muscles (P=0.790), left masseter muscles (P=0.064), right trapezius muscle (P=0.403), and left trapezius muscle (P=0.058) among groups where (P>0.05). While after-treatment and follow up , there were significant statistical differences were P value was (P<0.05), in mouth opening (P=0.0001 and P=0.0001, respectively), OHIP-14 (P=0.0001 and P=0.0001, respectively), right temporalis muscles (P=0.035 and P=0.020, respectively), left temporalis muscles (P=0.0001 and P=0.0001, respectively), right masseter muscles (P=0.001 and P=0.0001, respectively), left masseter muscles (P=0.004 and P=0.035, respectively), right trapezius muscle (P=0.0001 and P=0.0001, respectively), and left trapezius muscle (P=0.031 and P=0.001, respectively) between groups. Conclusion: Both Muscle energy technique and global postural exercise program improved mouth opening, pressure pain threshold, as well as quality of life in temporomandibular joint disorders patients, with the superiority of muscle energy technique over global postural exercise program

Tuning Deep Neural Networks for Predicting Energy Consumption in Arid Climate Based on Buildings Characteristics

The dramatic growth in the number of buildings worldwide has led to an increase interest in predicting energy consumption, especially for the case of residential buildings. As the heating and cooling system highly affect the operation cost of buildings; it is worth investigating the development of models to predict the heating and cooling loads of buildings. In contrast to the majority of the existing related studies, which are based on historical energy consumption data, this study considers building characteristics, such as area and floor height, to develop prediction models of heating and cooling loads. In particular, this study proposes deep neural networks models based on several hyper-parameters: the number of hidden layers, the number of neurons in each layer, and the learning algorithm. The tuned models are constructed using a dataset generated with the Integrated Environmental Solutions Virtual Environment (IESVE) simulation software for the city of Buraydah city, the capital of the Qassim region in Saudi Arabia. The Qassim region was selected because of its harsh arid climate of extremely cold winters and hot summers, which means that lot of energy is used up for cooling and heating of residential buildings. Through model tuning, optimal parameters of deep learning models are determined using the following performance measures: Mean Square Error (MSE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Regression (R) values, and coefficient of determination (R2 ). The results obtained with the five-layer deep neural network model, with 20 neurons in each layer and the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm, outperformed the results of the other models with a lower number of layers. This model achieved MSE of 0.0075, RMSE 0.087, R and R2 both as high as 0.99 in predicting the heating load and MSE of 0.245, RMSE of 0.495, R and R2 both as high as 0.99 in predicting the cooling load. As the developed prediction models were based on buildings characteristics, the outcomes of the research may be relevant to architects at the pre-design stage of heating and cooling energy-efficient buildings.Qassim University, represented by the Deanship of Scientific Research, (coc-2019-2-2-I-5422

Shear Performance of GFRP Reinforced Concrete Beams with Seawater and Chopped Fiber

This paper reports an experimental study on the behavior and shear strength of concrete beams reinforced with longitudinal GFRP bars mixed with sea water. In order to evaluate how much concrete contributes to shear resistance, seven beams were tested in bending. Similar in size and concrete strength, the beams were longitudinally reinforced with glass fiber-reinforced polymer bars; however, they did not even have shear reinforcement. The beams, which measured 3,100 mm in length, 400 mm in depth, and 200 mm in width, were conducted and tested up to failure. The test variables were longitudinal reinforcement ratios (1.0, 1.4, and 2.0%), chopped fiber content (0, 0.5, 2, and 3 kg/m3), and mixing water type (freshwater and seawater). The test findings showed that increasing the reinforcement ratio increased the neutral-axis depth and allowed the formation of more closely spaced fractures while decreasing the loss of flexural stiffness after cracking. By increasing the area of concrete in compression, this in turn enhances the contribution of aggregate interlock as well as the contribution of uncracked concrete. Furthermore, increasing the reinforcement ratio improves the dowel action, which reduces the tensile stresses that are created in the concrete around it. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-04-05 Full Text: PD

Role of magnetic resonance imaging in loco-regional evaluation of cancer rectum, pre and post neoadjuvant therapy

The high rate of local recurrence is considered the major concern and challenge regarding the surgical treatment of cancer rectum. The target of use of pre-operative neoadjuvant therapy is reducing tumour size and improving its resectability in order to reduce local recurrence risk and improve survival rates.Plans for management and treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer showed clear changes after use of neoadjuvant therapy. This in turn necessitates accurate evaluation of the tumour parameters before and after use of combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy (CRT).Aim of study is to assess the initial stage of cancer rectum then its response to neoadjuvant therapy using MRI, prior to operative interference. This is followed by post-operative histo-pathological data correlation.Methods: This study was conducted on 50 patients. All patients were examined by high-resolution T2- weighted images. Turbo-spin-echo sequences taken in sagittal plane, axial plane perpendicular to tumor axis and coronal plane parallel to tumor axis or anal canal. All are according to tumor height. Diffusion weighted images (DWI) performed in all cases.Results: Following neoadjuvant therapy, down-staging was detected in this study in more than 90% of patients regarding the T2 signal and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value of the tumour, also status of depth of involvement of meso-rectal fascia (MRF), circumferential resection margin (CRM), extramural vascular invasion (EMVI) and nodal involvement.Conclusion: Pre-operative MRI in cancer rectum is irreplaceable to assess initial staging and postneoadjuvant therapy response thus improving surgical results.Keywords:  MRI, CRT, DWI, ADC, MRF, CRM, EMV

Bioactive Metabolites from Propolis Inhibit Superoxide Anion Radical, Acetylcholinesterase and Phosphodiesterase (PDE4)

Cycloartane-triterpenes (cycloartenol, 3α-cycloartenol-26-oic acid and 3β-cycloartenol-26-oic acid) together with α-amyrin acetate and flavonoids (pinostrobin, tectochrysin and chrysin) were isolated from Egyptian propolis for the first time. Their antioxidant activity was evaluated with DPPH and superoxide anion radical (O2.-). All compounds possessed both (O2.-) scavenging as well as XOD inhibitory activity in the range of 50 – 75 %. With DPPH, only the flavonoids showed scavenging activity (48 – 83 %). Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and phosphodiesterase type 4 (PDE4) inhibitors are currently considered as intracellular targets for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). 3β-cycloartenol-26-oic acid moderately inhibited AChE and PDE4 activities in vitro with IC50 values of 0.8±0.2 and 1.9±0.4 μM, respectively, while 3-cycloartenol-26-oic acid inhibited AChE activity with an IC50 value of 2.1±0.1 μM. The flavonoids pinostrobin and chrysin reduced PDE4 activity by 43 and 40 %, respectively (10 μM) as well as moderately inhibited the growth of the HepG2 cell line, whereas chrysin reduced proliferation of NIH-3T3 cells at 50 μM. Therefore, our results with 3β- and 3-cycloartenol-26-oic acids can contribute to further research on alternative drugs for the treatment of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as asthma and COPD

Cutting-edge development in dendritic polymeric materials for biomedical and energy applications

Dendritic polymers (dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers) are becoming increasingly popular due to their vast range of uses. Due to their distinctive and novel qualities, they have demonstrated a strong interest. Since its discovery, dendritic polymers have become a potential material for many research applications, ranging from biomedical and tissue engineering to catalytic and energy applications. Since then, dendritic polymers' unique features have become a promising platform for a variety of uses. Dendritic polymers have made great progress in overcoming basic and technological problems related to their biomedical and energy applications. This review summarizes the strategies of synthesizing dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers. Further, the review highlights the applications of dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers in many study fields such as drug delivery, gene delivery, tissue engineering, catalysis, and energy storage. This review concludes with future avenues to be explored for the applications of dendritic polymers