Gastric Polyp: A rare cause of Chronic Volvulus in an Adult

Gastric volvulus is a rare but potentially life-threatening cause of upper gastrointestinal obstruction. It presents clinically with epigastric pain radiating to the back and or left thoracic area or left abdominal quadrant and retching. This is a case of a 60 years old woman, who had a six-years history of an episodic epigastric pain related to meals. The pain was equally brought about by recumbence and relieved by decumbency. Three months prior to admission, her pain got worse and it was associated with vomiting. Abdominal ultrasound showed a gastric outlet soft tissue mass. Barium meal revealed a huge filling defect at the pyloric antrum. Oesophagogastrodudenoscopy showed a twisted gastric mucosa, brought about by a huge pedunculated gastric polyp. She was labelled to have a gastric volvulus and showed a good response to the conservative management. Surgical opinion was sought with the possibility of polypectomy and gastropexy. Surgery was postponed because she went into a hypertensive cardiac failure. We concluded that by twisting and de-twisting, gastric polyp may cause gastric volvulus that runs a chronic course. Therefore it has to be included in the differential diagnosis of chronic abdominal pain.Key words: Gastric Volvulus, Gastric Polyp, Abdominal Pain, Sudan

Diversity of selective and non-selective fishing gear and their impact on the White Nile River, Khartoum State, Sudan

This survey was conducted in Al-Kalakla Fishery (KF) and Jabel Awlia Dam Fishery (JADF) in the White Nile River, Khartoum state to identify the selective and non-selective fishing gear. The results showed the selective fishing gear represented by gill-nets and seine nets (beach nets) in both fisheries with clear variation in use. In KF, fixed nets were dominant (56%) in fishing and followed by drift net (33%), while cast nets were absent in this fishery. In JADF, fixed nets were dominant (63%) in use and followed by cast nets (14%). The average net length was 150 m with width 1.5 m. Non-selective fishing gear was luring gear represented by long-lines (Sareema and Jago). Average length of long-lines was 200 m with 200 hooks in both KF and JADF. Results showed selective tendency of particular mesh sizes of gill-nets in both KF and JADF towards some fish species as: Nile Perch (Lates niloticus L. 1758), Bayad (Bagrus bayad, Forskal, 1775), Kabarous (Bagrus docmak, Forskal, 1775), and large sizes of Dabis (Labeo niloticus, Forskal, 1775) were caught by fixed nets. Bulti (Tilapias), small sizes of Dabis (Labeo niloticus) and Gargur (Synodontis schall, Bloch and Schneider, 1801) were caught mostly by drift nets around breeding grounds and cast nets. Kas (Hydrocynus forskalii, Cuvier 1819), Kawara (Alestes dentex L. 1758) and Shilba (Schilbe intermedius, Ruppel, 1832) were caught by seine nets.Keywords: Fishing gear, gill nets, seine nets, cast nets, long-lines

Trichobezoar: Case Report and Literature Review

A bezoar is an agglomeration of food or foreign material in the intestinal tract usually noticed in ruminants. It can be classified as trichobezoar (hair) or phytobezoar (plant material). Stomach is the commonest site for bezoar formation, which may result in obstruction, gastric wall ulceration andmalnutrition. They present with abdominal pain, small bowel obstruction or malnutrition. Trichobezoars are associated with trichotillomania. This is a case report of trichobezoar in a Sudanese girl who presented with abdominal pain. This to our knowledge is the first case to be reported from Sudan.Key words: Bezoar, Trichobezoar, Trichotillomania, Sudan

IMPROVED HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY/MASS SPECTROSCOPY (HPLC/MS) METHOD FOR DETECTION OF ANTHRAQUINONES AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL DETERMINATION IN ALOE SINKATANA

Objectives:  Medicinal plants, either as an extract, pure compound or as a derivative, offer limitless opportunities for the discovery of new drugs. Sudan is a very rich source of medicinal plants which are used in the treatment of a wide range of diseases. Aloe sinkatana, has great potential to be developed as drug by pharmaceutical industries. The present study is undertaken to investigate the antioxidant potential of Aloe sinkatana by DPPH radical scavenging activity. In addition, the study also performed to explore the possibility of using HPLC-MS technique for the determination and analysis of Aloe sinkatana. Methods:  The extracts of Aloe sinkatana were analyzed for antioxidant activity by using DPPH free radical scavenging activity. The results indicated that the extracts showed a high effective free radical scavenging in the DPPH assay, also these extracts exhibited a noticeable antioxidant effect at low concentrations. Results:  During in vitro evaluation the antioxidant potential of methanolic extract was the highest, followed by aqueous extract  in DPPH radical scavenging activity. So the methanolic extract of the plant, exhibited a great antioxidant effect at 50 μg/ml which may be attributed to high phenolic content. Therefore, methanolic extract to be a more active radical scavenger than aqueous extract. The HPLC-MS analysis had shown the methanolic extract of Aloe sinkatana to be rich in the major anthraquinones and their glucosides, which revealed 9 compounds, and also UV spectroscopy detected the presence of two flavonoids. Conclusion:  The results indicated that the extracts of Aloe sinkatana  is a potential source of natural antioxidants or nutraceuticals with potential application to reduce oxidative stress with consequent health benefits. Due to stronger antioxidant potential and phytochemical composition, Aloe sinkatana could be proved as a valuable prospect in pharmaceutical formulations by taking part in the antioxidant defense system against generation of free radicals.                              Peer Review History: Received 26 March 2020; Revised 15 April; Accepted 4 May, Available online 15 May 2020 Academic Editor: Dr. Ali Abdullah Al-yahawi, Al-Razi university, Department of Pharmacy, Yemen, [email protected] UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency. Received file:                Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 4.5/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.0/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Prof Cyprian Ogbonna ONYEJI, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, [email protected] Dr. Gehan Fawzy Abdel Raoof Kandeel, Pharmacognosy Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, 12622,  Giza, Egypt, [email protected]  Dr. Nyunaï Nyemb, Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation of Cameroon, [email protected]  Similar Articles: ANTIHYPERGLYCEMIC AND ANTI-OXIDANT POTENTIAL OF ETHANOL EXTRACT OF VITEX THYRSIFLORA LEAVES ON DIABETIC RAT

Community Aliveness: Discovering Interaction Decay Patterns in Online Social Communities

Online Social Communities (OSCs) provide a medium for connecting people, sharing news, eliciting information, and finding jobs, among others. The dynamics of the interaction among the members of OSCs is not always growth dynamics. Instead, a $\textit{decay}$ or $\textit{inactivity}$ dynamics often happens, which makes an OSC obsolete. Understanding the behavior and the characteristics of the members of an inactive community help to sustain the growth dynamics of these communities and, possibly, prevents them from being out of service. In this work, we provide two prediction models for predicting the interaction decay of community members, namely: a Simple Threshold Model (STM) and a supervised machine learning classification framework. We conducted evaluation experiments for our prediction models supported by a $\textit{ground truth}$ of decayed communities extracted from the StackExchange platform. The results of the experiments revealed that it is possible, with satisfactory prediction performance in terms of the F1-score and the accuracy, to predict the decay of the activity of the members of these communities using network-based attributes and network-exogenous attributes of the members. The upper bound of the prediction performance of the methods we used is $0.91$ and $0.83$ for the F1-score and the accuracy, respectively. These results indicate that network-based attributes are correlated with the activity of the members and that we can find decay patterns in terms of these attributes. The results also showed that the structure of the decayed communities can be used to support the alive communities by discovering inactive members.Comment: pre-print for the 4th European Network Intelligence Conference - 11-12 September 2017 Duisburg, German

Relationship between serum level of ionized calcium, magnesium, phosphate, vitamin d and parathyroid hormone with stages of CKD.

Chronic kidney disease is defined as either damage or a decreased Glomerular Filtration Rate of less than 60ml/min/1.73m for 3 or more months. There is destruction of renal mass with irreversible sclerosis and loss of nephron leading to a progressive decline in GFR.Secondary hyperparathyroidism hyperphosphataemia, hypocalcaemia and vitamin-D deficiency are common complications of CKD. Objective: To determine relationship between serum level of ionised calcium, magnesium, phosphate, vitamin-D and parathyroid hormone with stages of CKD. Method: This study was conducted at ABUTH Zaria. 125 consecutive adult patients in various stages of CKD who presented were enrolled and 125 apparently healthy matched for sex and age controls were also recruited. Results: 9% of patients were in stage-1, 16% in stage-2, 22% in stage-3, 12% in stage-4 and 41% in stage-5. Serum ionised calcium, vitamin-D and eCrCl showed a progressive decline as the stage of CKD advances, while serum phosphate, creatinine and iPTH showed a progressive increase as the stage of CKD advances. Changes in serum magnesium showed a slight change with advancing stages of CKD. The difference in mean serum levels of calcium, phosphorus, vitamin-D, parathyroid hormone, creatinine and eCrCl with different stages of CKD were statistically significant. eCrCl correlated negatively with phosphate and iPTH while serum creatinine correlated negatively with calcium and positively with phosphate and iPTH. Conclusion: Majority of CKD patients were in late stage. Correlation of analytes with stages was more in late stages and biochemical derangements occurred in late, rather than early stages of CKD

Getting into hot water:sick guppies frequent warmer thermal conditions

Ectotherms depend on the environmental temperature for thermoregulation and exploit thermal regimes that optimise physiological functioning. They may also frequent warmer conditions to up-regulate their immune response against parasite infection and/or impede parasite development. This adaptive response, known as ‘behavioural fever’, has been documented in various taxa including insects, reptiles and fish, but only in response to endoparasite infections. Here, a choice chamber experiment was used to investigate the thermal preferences of a tropical freshwater fish, the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata), when infected with a common helminth ectoparasite Gyrodactylus turnbulli, in female-only and mixed-sex shoals. The temperature tolerance of G. turnbulli was also investigated by monitoring parasite population trajectories on guppies maintained at a continuous 18, 24 or 32 °C. Regardless of shoal composition, infected fish frequented the 32 °C choice chamber more often than when uninfected, significantly increasing their mean temperature preference. Parasites maintained continuously at 32 °C decreased to extinction within 3 days, whereas mean parasite abundance increased on hosts incubated at 18 and 24 °C. We show for the first time that gyrodactylid-infected fish have a preference for warmer waters and speculate that sick fish exploit the upper thermal tolerances of their parasites to self medicate

Blood Transfusion Requirement and not Preoperative Anaemia is associated with Perioperative Complications following Intracorporeal Robotic Assisted Radical Cystectomy

OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of preoperative anaemia and the impact of preoperative anaemia and blood transfusion requirement on 30- and 90-day complications in a cohort of patients undergoing robotic assisted radical cystectomy with intracorporeal urinary diversion (iRARC). PATIENTS & METHODS: IRARC was performed on 166 patients between June 2011-March 2016. Prospective data was collected for patient demographics, clinical and pathological characteristics, perioperative variables, transfusion requirements and hospital length of stay. Thirty- and 90-day complications were classified according to the modified Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Clavian-Dindo system. RESULTS: Preoperative anaemia was common (43.4%) and greatest in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (48.6%) (p<0.001). Patients with preoperative anaemia were significantly more likely to have an Ileal conduit (p=0.033), higher cystectomy stage (≥pT3) (p=0.028) and a lower lymph node yield (p=0.031). Preoperative anaemia was not associated with increased perioperative morbidity but was associated with the need for blood transfusion (p=0.001). Blood transfusion was required in 20.4% of patients with intraoperative and postoperative blood transfusion rate was 10.2% and 13.9% respectively. The 30-day all complication rate and 30-day major complication rate was 55.4% and 15.7% respectively while 90-day all complication rate and 90-day major complication rate were 65.7% and 19.3% respectively. Intraoperative blood transfusion was not associated with increased complications but postoperative blood transfusion requirement was independently associated with perioperative morbidity: all 30 day complications (p=0.003), all 90-day complications (p=0.009) and 90-day major complications (p=0.004). CONCLUSION: The presence of preoperative anaemia in patients undergoing iRARC is not associated with increased surgical risk although preoperative anaemic patients were significantly more likely to require blood transfusion. Blood transfusion requirement and specifically postoperative blood transfusion is independently associated with perioperative morbidity and is an important factor for the optimisation of postoperative outcomes

Natural Convection Effect on Solidification Enhancement in a Multi-Tube Latent Heat Storage System: Effect of Tubes’ Arrangement

Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. The solidification process in a multi-tube latent heat energy system is affected by the natural convection and the arrangement of heat exchanger tubes, which changes the buoyancy effect as well. In the current work, the effect of the arrangement of the tubes in a multi-tube heat exchanger was examined during the solidification process with the focus on the natural convection effects inside the phase change material (PCM). The behavior of the system was numerically analyzed using liquid fraction and energy released, as well as temperature, velocity and streamline profiles for different studied cases. The arrangement of the tubes, considering seven pipes in the symmetrical condition, are assumed at different positions in the system, including uniform distribution of the tubes as well as non-uniform distribution, i.e., tubes concentrated at the bottom, middle and the top of the PCM shell. The model was first validated compared with previous experimental work from the literature. The results show that the heat rate removal from the PCM after 16 h was 52.89 W (max) and 14.85 W (min) for the cases of uniform tube distribution and tubes concentrated at the bottom, respectively, for the proposed dimensions of the heat exchanger. The heat rate removal of the system with uniform tube distribution increases when the distance between the tubes and top of the shell reduces, and increased equal to 68.75 W due to natural convection effect. The heat release rate also reduces by increasing the temperature the tubes. The heat removal rate increases by 7.5%, and 23.7% when the temperature increases from 10 °C to 15 °C and 20 °C, respectively. This paper reveals that specific consideration to the arrangement of the tubes should be made to enhance the heat recovery process attending natural convection effects in phase change heat storage systems

Investigation of heat transfer enhancement in a triple tube latent heat storage system using circular fins with inline and staggered arrangements

Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Inherent fluctuations in the availability of energy from renewables, particularly solar, remain a substantial impediment to their widespread deployment worldwide. Employing phasechange materials (PCMs) as media, saving energy for later consumption, offers a promising solution for overcoming the problem. However, the heat conductivities of most PCMs are limited, which severely limits the energy storage potential of these materials. This study suggests employing circular fins with staggered distribution to achieve improved thermal response rates of PCM in a vertical triple-tube heat exchanger involving two opposite flow streams of the heat-transfer fluid (HTF). Since heat diffusion is not the same at various portions of the PCM unit, different fin configurations, fin dimensions and HTF flow boundary conditions were explored using computational studies of melting in the PCM triple-tube system. Staggered configuration of fin distribution resulted in significant increases in the rates of PCM melting. The results indicate that the melting rate and heat charging rate could be increased by 37.2 and 59.1%, respectively, in the case of staggered distribution. Furthermore, the use of lengthy fins with smaller thickness in the vertical direction of the storage unit resulted in a better positive role of natural convection; thus, faster melting rates were achieved. With fin dimensions of 0.666 mm × 15 mm, the melting rate was found to be increased by 23.6%, when compared to the base case of 2 mm × 5 mm. Finally, it was confirmed that the values of the Reynolds number and inlet temperatures of the HTF had a significant impact on melting time savings when circular fins of staggered distribution were included