Recent Developments In Chemistry Of 1,3,4-Thiadiazoles

The methods of preparation, structure and biological activities of 1,3,4-thiadiazoles are reported

Synthesis of Spirooxoindole Derivatives

This review summarizes the methods for preparing spirocyclic oxoindole derivatives in the past years until 2012 which are divided into several groups according to ring size of the fused spiroindoles

Synthesis of novel pyrimidine and fused pyrimidine derivatives

4-Amino-2-(benzylthio)-6-(4-methoxyphenyl)pyrimidine-5-carbonitrile (1) was prepared by treatment of s-benzylthiuronium chloride with 2-(4-methoxybenzylidene)malononitrile in ethanolic sodium hydroxide with hydrazine hydrate to afford the hydrazino derivative 2, which was allowed to react with different electrophilic reagents to give the pyrimidine derivatives 3-12. The proclivity of (E)-2-cyano-3-(4-nitrophenyl)acrylamide (13) towards carbon and nitrogen nucleophiles was also investigated. IR, 1H NMR and mass spectra for all the synthesized compounds were discussed. All derived compounds were investigated for anti avian influenza (H5N1) virus activity and compared with zanamivir as control drug. All the synthesized compounds didn’t possess any antiviral activity

Synthesis of novel quinazolinone and fused quinazolinones

A number of novel quinazolinone derivatives have been synthesized using the readily obtainable 2-[(1Z,3E)-1-benzamido-4-phenyl-1,3-butadien-1-yl]-3,1-benzoxazin-4(H)one (1) via the reaction with different nitrogen nucleophiles such as azines, Schiff’s base, primary aromatic amines, diamines, hydrazine hydrate and hydroxylamine

Application Extent of the Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) Main Components in the Jordanian Industrial Public Firms

This study aims to measure the application extent of a four main components of the Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) in the Jordanian public industrial firms which are Sales & Marketing, Management & Production, Accounting & Finance, and Human Resources, and to classify the application extent in these firms to low, medium and high. The study was applied on a sample of 82 firms. The results indicated that there is a medium application extent for the four components of Sales & Marketing, Management & Production, Accounting & Finance, and Human Resources, and the level of application was close for these four components Keywords: Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP), Application extent, Industrial firms, Jordan

Synthesis and reactions of (Z)-2-imino-5-(3,4,5-trimethoxy benzylidene)thiazolidin-4(H)one

5-Arylmethylene-2-imino-4-oxo-2-thiazolidine 3 was obtained as the sole product from the reaction of α-cyano-3,4,5-trimethoxy cinnamonitrile and/or ethyl-α-cyano-3,4,5-trimethoxy cinnamate (1a,b) with 2-imino-4-oxo-2-thiazolidine 2. The reaction of 3 with benzyl amine gave the imidazolidin-4(H)one derivative 4 while with hydrazine hydrate afforded the dimeric product 5. Also, reaction of thiazolidinone derivative 3 with piperidine gave thiazol-4(5H)one derivative 6 which on treatment with Grignard reagent and active methylene compounds afforded thiazolidin-4-one derivatives 7-9, respectively. Compound 6 was converted to the potassium salt 10 which treated with acetic acid, ethyl chloroacetate and furoyl chloride to give the compounds 11-13, respectively. The structures of all new compounds were evidenced by microanalytical data and spectral data

Novel isoquinoline derivatives from isochromen-1,3-dione

A number of novel isoquinoline derivatives have been synthesized using the readily obtainable (E)-4-(3,4-dimethoxybenzylidene)-4H-isochromene-1,3-dione, 2, via the reaction with different nitrogen nucleophiles such as cyanoethanoic hydrazide, cyclohexylamine, 2-aminothiophenol and p-toluenesulfonohydrazide. Furthermore, the reactivity of 2 towards thiophenol, and ethylcyanoacetate has been investigated

Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate level and knee osteoarthritis in older adults: preliminary data for the possible link

ABSTRACT Background: Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is believed to be protective against articular cartilage injury and it is widely used as one of the natural remedies for inflammatory and degenerative arthritis. Yet, information about the association between DHEA level and knee OA is lacking. Objectives: To explore the link between serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAs) levels and knee OA among elderly patients. Methods: A case control study was conducted on 80 elderly subjects (40 males, 40 females) aged 60 years and older attending the outpatient clinics in Ain Shams University Hospital. Participants underwent a standard clinical examination of the knee, assessment of physical difficulty and pain severity using WOMAC OA index. Weight-bearing anteroposterior radiographs of the knees in the semi-flexed position were performed. Serum levels of DHEAs were examined. Results: The serum level of DHEAs in males with knee OA was 0.29 ± 0.17 μg/mL compared to those without knee OA 0.59 ± 0.51 μg/mL (p=0.006), small but significant difference existed between the serum level of DHEAs in females with knee OA 0.25 ± 0.11 μg/mL compared to those without knee OA 0.39 ± 0.26 μg/mL (p=0.044*). Additionally, the serum DHEAs level negatively correlated with the severity of knee OA in both sexes. Conclusions: There was a sex difference in serum DHEAs level and occurrence of knee OA. Lower levels of DHEAs were reported in elderly with knee OA and the serum DHEAs level negatively correlated with the severity of knee OA

Cardiovascular Disease Diagnosis from DXA Scan and Retinal Images Using Deep Learning

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death worldwide. People affected by CVDs may go undiagnosed until the occurrence of a serious heart failure event such as stroke, heart attack, and myocardial infraction. In Qatar, there is a lack of studies focusing on CVD diagnosis based on non-invasive methods such as retinal image or dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). In this study, we aimed at diagnosing CVD using a novel approach integrating information from retinal images and DXA data. We considered an adult Qatari cohort of 500 participants from Qatar Biobank (QBB) with an equal number of participants from the CVD and the control groups. We designed a case-control study with a novel multi-modal (combining data from multiple modalities—DXA and retinal images)—to propose a deep learning (DL)-based technique to distinguish the CVD group from the control group. Uni-modal models based on retinal images and DXA data achieved 75.6% and 77.4% accuracy, respectively. The multi-modal model showed an improved accuracy of 78.3% in classifying CVD group and the control group. We used gradient class activation map (GradCAM) to highlight the areas of interest in the retinal images that influenced the decisions of the proposed DL model most. It was observed that the model focused mostly on the centre of the retinal images where signs of CVD such as hemorrhages were present. This indicates that our model can identify and make use of certain prognosis markers for hypertension and ischemic heart disease. From DXA data, we found higher values for bone mineral density, fat content, muscle mass and bone area across majority of the body parts in CVD group compared to the control group indicating better bone health in the Qatari CVD cohort. This seminal method based on DXA scans and retinal images demonstrate major potentials for the early detection of CVD in a fast and relatively non-invasive manner

Obesity in Qatar: A Case-Control Study on the Identification of Associated Risk Factors

Obesity is an emerging public health problem in the Western world as well as in the Gulf region. Qatar, a tiny wealthy county, is among the top-ranked obese countries with a high obesity rate among its population. Compared to Qatar’s severity of this health crisis, only a limited number of studies focused on the systematic identification of potential risk factors using multimodal datasets. This study aims to develop machine learning (ML) models to distinguish healthy from obese individuals and reveal potential risk factors associated with obesity in Qatar. We designed a case-control study focused on 500 Qatari subjects, comprising 250 obese and 250 healthy individuals- the later forming the control group. We obtained the most extensive collection of clinical measurements for the Qatari population from the Qatar Biobank (QBB) repertoire, including (i) Physio-clinical Biomarkers, (ii) Spirometry, (iii) VICORDER, (iv) DXA scan composition, and (v) DXA scan densitometry readings. We developed several machine learning (ML) models to distinguish healthy from obese individuals and applied multiple feature selection techniques to identify potential risk factors associated with obesity. The proposed ML model achieved over 90% accuracy, thereby outperforming the existing state of the art models. The outcome from the ablation study on multimodal clinical datasets revealed physio-clinical measurements as the most influential risk factors in distinguishing healthy versus obese subjects. Furthermore, multiple feature ranking techniques confirmed known obesity risk factors (c-peptide, insulin, albumin, uric acid) and identified potential risk factors linked to obesity-related comorbidities such as diabetes (e.g., HbA1c, glucose), liver function (e.g., alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyl transferase), lipid profile (e.g., triglyceride, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol), etc. Most of the DXA measurements (e.g., bone area, bone mineral composition, bone mineral density, etc.) were significantly (p-value < 0.05) higher in the obese group. Overall, the net effect of hypothesized protective factors of obesity on bone mass seems to have surpassed the hypothesized harmful factors. All the identified factors warrant further investigation in a clinical setup to understand their role in obesity