The value of computed tomography-urography in predicting the postoperative outcome of antenatally diagnosed pelviureteric junction obstruction

Background The natural course of pelviureteric junction (PUJ) obstruction is  variable. Of those who require surgical intervention, there is no definite reliable  preoperative predictor of the likely postoperative outcome. We evaluated the value of preoperative computed tomography (CT)-urography in predicting the  postoperative outcome.Patients and methods Ten newborns with antenatally diagnosed PUJ obstruction  were evaluated after delivery with an abdominal ultrasound, and those with a renal pelvis measuring more than 3 cm in diameter were subjected to preoperative CT-urography. The kidney size, renal pelvis size, and renal parenchyma thickness were measured and documented. All underwent open surgical Anderson-Hynes dismembered pyeloplasty. The outcome was correlated to the preoperative renal parenchymal thickness as measured by means of preoperative CT-urography.Results Ten newborns (seven male and three female) with PUJ obstruction were  operated on. Their ages at surgery ranged from 8 days to 4 months (mean= 1.75 months). Eight had PUJ obstruction on the right side and two had PUJ obstruction on the left side. The mean renal pelvis size on the affected side was 4.9 cm (3.6–6.3 cm). The mean renal parenchymal thickness was 0.57cm (0.25–1.3 cm). Four patients had a renal parenchymal thickness less than 0.5 cm, and these patients showed poor results on followup isotope scan compared with those who had a renalparenchymal thickness of more than 0.5 cm [mean= 14.9% (12–19.6%)] compared with a mean of 44.2% (33–54%).Conclusion This is a preliminary report and the number of patients in our study is small to make definite conclusions, and further studies in this regard are important. We believe that renal parenchymal thickness as measured by means of preoperative CT-urography is an important predictor of the final outcome in patients with  antenatally diagnosed hydronephrosis. Those who had a renal parenchymal thickness of 0.5 cm or less showed poor results on followup isotope scan compared with those who had a renal parenchymal thickness of more than 0.5 cm.Keywords: outcome, pelviureteric junction obstruction, pyeloplast

Synergistic anticancer effect of combination treatment of vitamin D and pitavastatin on the HCC1937 breast cancer cells

Vitamin D (Vit D) has anticancer properties including activating cell senescence inhibiting cancer cell proliferation, inducing apoptotic cell death, and decreasing cancer cell migration. On the other hand, statins showed favorable anticancer activities including anti-survival, anti-proliferation, and anti-migration effects. The current study aimed to investigate the synergistic anticancer effect of Vit D and statins against HCC1937 triple-negative breast cancer cells. The antiproliferative effect was tested by MTT assay after 48 hours of the treatments. Trypan blue test and clonogenic assay were used to test the anti-survival activities of the treatments. The ability of the treatments to inhibit the migration ability was tested by scratch assay. Levels of the cell cycle and apoptotic markers were determined by western blotting. Results of the study revealed that all the tested compounds including Vit D, atorvastatin (Ator), simvastatin (Simv), and pitavastatin (Pita) inhibited HCC1937 breast cancer cell growth with different IC50 values ranging from 4.49-12.95 µM. Combined application of Pita and Vit D showed potent synergistic antiproliferative activities against HCC1937 breast cancer cells. The combined therapy of (1µM Vit D and 2 µM Pita) inhibited HCC1937 cell proliferation by cell cycle arrest and apoptosis as evidenced by increasing p21, p53, and cleaved PARP. Finally, the combined treatment decreased the p-STAT3 level in HCC1937 breast cancer cells. The results of the study can be concluded that the combined treatment of Pita and Vit D has a synergistic anticancer effect against HCC1937 breast cancer cells

Effects of humidity on sand and dust storm attenuation predictions based on 14 GHz measurement

Several models were proposed to predict the attenuation of microwave signals due to sand and dust storms. Those models were developed based on theoretical assumptions like Rayleigh approximation, Mie equations or numerical methods. This paper presents a comparison between attenuation predicted by three different theoretical models with measured attenuation at 14 GHz. Dielectric constant of dust particles is one of the important parameter in prediction models. This constant is estimated from measured dust samples and is utilized for predictions. All models are found largely underestimating the measurement. Humidity is also monitored and has been observed higher during dust storm. Hence dielectric constants are re-estimated with relative humidity conditions using available conversion model. The prediction has a great impact of humidity and predicted attenuations are found much higher in humid than dry dust condition. However, all models underestimate the measurement even considering 100% of relative humidity. Hence it is recommended to investigate the models by considering humidity and other environmental factors that change during dust storm

Feature Selection by Multiobjective Optimization: Application to Spam Detection System by Neural Networks and Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm

Networks are strained by spam, which also overloads email servers and blocks mailboxes with unwanted messages and files. Setting the protective level for spam filtering might become even more crucial for email users when malicious steps are taken since they must deal with an increase in the number of valid communications being marked as spam. By finding patterns in email communications, spam detection systems (SDS) have been developed to keep track of spammers and filter email activity. SDS has also enhanced the tool for detecting spam by reducing the rate of false positives and increasing the accuracy of detection. The difficulty with spam classifiers is the abundance of features. The importance of feature selection (FS) comes from its role in directing the feature selection algorithm’s search for ways to improve the SDS’s classification performance and accuracy. As a means of enhancing the performance of the SDS, we use a wrapper technique in this study that is based on the multi-objective grasshopper optimization algorithm (MOGOA) for feature extraction and the recently revised EGOA algorithm for multilayer perceptron (MLP) training. The suggested system’s performance was verified using the SpamBase, SpamAssassin, and UK-2011 datasets. Our research showed that our novel approach outperformed a variety of established practices in the literature by as much as 97.5%, 98.3%, and 96.4% respectively.©2022 the Authors. Published by IEEE. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

EPIDEMIOLOGY OF MALARIA IN THE STATE OF QATAR, 2008-2015

Background and Objectives Imported malaria poses a serious public health problem in Qatar because its population is “naïve” to such infection; where local transmission might lead to serious life-threatening infection and might even trigger epidemics. Methods This study is a retrospective review of the imported malaria cases in Qatar reported by the malaria surveillance program at the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), during the period between January 2008 and December 2015. All cases were imported and underwent parasitological confirmation through microscopy. Results A total of 4092 malaria cases were reported during 2008-2015 in Qatar. The demographic features of the imported cases show that the majority of cases were males (93%), non-Qatari(99.6%), and aged 15 to 44 years(82.1%). Moreover, P. vivax was found to be the main etiologic agent accounting for more than three-quarters (78.7%) of the imported cases. In addition, almost a third (33.1%) of the cases were reported during the months of July, August, and September. Conclusions Imported malaria in Qatar has witnessed an increase during the past 7 years, despite a long period of constant reduction; where the people most affected were adult male migrants from endemic countries. Many challenges need to be overcome to prevent the reintroduction of malaria into the country

A diabetes risk score for Qatar utilizing a novel mathematical modeling approach to identify individuals at high risk for diabetes

We developed a diabetes risk score using a novel analytical approach and tested its diagnostic performance to detect individuals at high risk of diabetes, by applying it to the Qatari population. A representative random sample of 5,000 Qataris selected at different time points was simulated using a diabetes mathematical model. Logistic regression was used to derive the score using age, sex, obesity, smoking, and physical inactivity as predictive variables. Performance diagnostics, validity, and potential yields of a diabetes testing program were evaluated. In 2020, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.79 and sensitivity and specificity were 79.0% and 66.8%, respectively. Positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) were 36.1% and 93.0%, with 42.0% of Qataris being at high diabetes risk. In 2030, projected AUC was 0.78 and sensitivity and specificity were 77.5% and 65.8%. PPV and NPV were 36.8% and 92.0%, with 43.0% of Qataris being at high diabetes risk. In 2050, AUC was 0.76 and sensitivity and specificity were 74.4% and 64.5%. PPV and NPV were 40.4% and 88.7%, with 45.0% of Qataris being at high diabetes risk. This model-based score demonstrated comparable performance to a data-derived score. The derived self-complete risk score provides an effective tool for initial diabetes screening, and for targeted lifestyle counselling and prevention programs.Peer reviewe

Identification of potential transcription factors that enhance human iPSC generation

Although many factors have been identified and used to enhance the iPSC reprogramming process, its efficiency remains quite low. In addition, reprogramming efficacy has been evidenced to be affected by disease mutations that are present in patient samples. In this study, using RNA-seq platform we have identified and validated the differential gene expression of five transcription factors (TFs) (GBX2, NANOGP8, SP8, PEG3, and ZIC1) that were associated with a remarkable increase in the number of iPSC colonies generated from a patient with Parkinson's disease. We have applied different bioinformatics tools (Gene ontology, protein–protein interaction, and signaling pathways analyses) to investigate the possible roles of these TFs in pluripotency and developmental process. Interestingly, GBX2, NANOGP8, SP8, PEG3, and ZIC1 were found to play a role in maintaining pluripotency, regulating self-renewal stages, and interacting with other factors that are involved in pluripotency regulation including OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, and KLF4. Therefore, the TFs identified in this study could be used as additional transcription factors that enhance reprogramming efficiency to boost iPSC generation technology.This study was supported by QBRI internal grant (QB16) and the Qatar University Student grant (QUST-2-CMED-2019-1)

Sexually transmitted diseases knowledge assessment and associated factors among university students in the United Arab Emirates: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundSexually transmitted diseases and infections (STDIs) remain a serious public health menace with over 350 million cases each year. Poor knowledge of STDIs has been identified as one of the bottlenecks in their control and prevention. Hence, assessment of knowledge, both general and domain-specific, is key to the prevention and control of these diseases. This study assessed the knowledge of STDIs and identified factors associated with STDI knowledge among university students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study among 778 UAE University students across all colleges. An online data collection tool was used to collect data regarding the participants' demographics and their level of knowledge of STDIs across different domains including general STDI pathogens knowledge (8 items), signs and symptoms (9 items), mode of transmission (5 items), and prevention (5 items). Knowledge was presented both as absolute and percentage scores. Differences in STDI knowledge were statistically assessed using Mann-Whitney U and Chi-squared tests. Logistic regression models were further used to identify factors associated with STDI knowledge.ResultsA total of 778 students participated in the study with a median age of 21 years (IQR = 19, 23). The overall median STDI knowledge score of the participants was 7 (out of 27), with some differences within STDI domains–signs & symptoms (1 out of 9), modes of transmission (2 out of 5), general STDI pathogens (2 out of 8), and prevention (1 out of 5). Higher STDI knowledge was significantly associated with being non-Emirati (OR = 1.85, 95% CI = 1.24–2.75), being married (OR = 2.89, 95% CI = 1.50–5.56), residing in emirates other than Abu Dhabi (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.16–2.25), and being a student of health sciences (OR = 4.45, 95% CI = 3.07–6.45).ConclusionIn general, STDI knowledge was low among the students. Having good knowledge of STDIs is essential for their prevention and control. Therefore, there is a need for informed interventions to address the knowledge gap among students, youths, and the general population at large

Active stereo platform: online epipolar geometry update

This paper presents a novel method to update a variable epipolar geometry platform directly from the motor encoder based on mapping the motor encoder angle to the image space angle, avoiding the use of feature detection algorithms. First, an offline calibration is performed to establish a relationship between the image space and the hardware space. Second, a transformation matrix is generated using the results from this mapping. The transformation matrix uses the updated epipolar geometry of the platform to rectify the images for further processing. The system has an overall error in the projection of ± 5 pixels, which drops to ± 1.24 pixels when the verge angle increases beyond 10°. The platform used in this project has 3° of freedom to control the verge angle and the size of the baseline