THE EFFECT OF THE EXOGENOUS GIBBERELLIC ACID ON TWO SALT STRESSED BARLEY CULTIVARS

An alternative strategy to ameliorate salt stress could be to use exogenous application of plant growth regulators. The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of exogenous application of GA3 on germination, some growth parameters, protein banding pattern, nucleic acids content and some minerals of salt stressed two cultivars of barley. The grains of both cultivars Giza 126 and 123 were individually pre emergence treated with different concentrations of NaCl or mixture of NaCl and GA3 for 7 days. The results of germination percentage revealed that cv. Giza 123 had higher response to the interaction between salinity and GA3 than cv. Giza 126. The morphological characters revealed inhibition in all plant growth parameters by salinity stress and this inhibition was significantly alleviated after treatment with GA3. The protein electrophoresis of seedlings of cv. Giza 123 induced formation of unique newly protein bands including certain units may acting as protein receptors for gibberellins (M.W. 71.41 kDa). In addition, the DNA and RNA content of cv. Giza 123 showed its priority to the interaction between salinity and GA3. Regarding to minerals the data showed that cv. Giza 123 had the ability to discard salts and prevent the accumulation of them in its tissues especially Na+, k+ and Ca+2 elements. cv. Giza 123 seedlings could overcome the inimical effects of salt stress whereas cv. Giza 126 seedlings appeared to have an attenuated potential to do so resulting in an efficient tolerance of cv. Giza 123 seedlings

The impact of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis on BIRADS categorization of mammographic non-mass findings

Introduction: Mammography is the most used breast screening tool and was proven to reduce breast-cancer-associated mortality. The estimated sensitivity of mammography varies between 77% and 95%; however, sensitivity could be 26% lower in dense breasts than in entirely fatty breasts. The ability to represent the complex 3D breast architecture and early changes in anatomical structures in a 2D view is the biggest challenge for mammography. In Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT), tomographic images are reconstructed from multiple projections acquired from different angles. This technique allows the generation of 3D data, reduction of tissue overlap and allows better evaluation of masses, architectural distortion, and asymmetries compared with conventional two-dimensional mammographic images.Objective: To evaluate the impact of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis on BIRADS categorization of mammographic non-mass findings.Methods: Prospective cohort for 180 women with mammographic non-mass findings who presented to Alexandria University Radio diagnosis Department either for screening or diagnostic purposes between July 2019 and August 2020 with mean age 51.44 ± 10.67 . Digital breast tomosynthesis and ultrasound was done for all patients. Lesions were evaluated on DM; DBT alone then combined DBT & DM. Comparison of results according to changes in BIRADS, diagnostic performance using histopathology as gold standard.Results: 208 non-mass findings were detected by conventional mammography (104 asymmetry, 35 architectural distortion, 69 micro calcifications), Tomosynthesis reduced the BIRADS 3 count by 32%, upgraded the count of BIRADS 4 lesions by 11.4% while upgraded the BIRADS 2 by 18.9% with consequent improvement of sensitivity and specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy to 96%, 95%, 94%,97%, and 95.6%.Conclusion: Combined FFDM and DBT improved the diagnostic performance in evaluation of non-mass findings and proper BIRADS categorization

BINGE EATING DISORDERS; UPDATED AND EMERGING APPROACHES

Objective: Binge eating disorders (BED) recently become a global health care issue for clinicians with detrimental effects on all organ systems. A multidisciplinary strategy including pharmacotherapy is required for its management. Methods: This review is intended to comparatively evaluate the relative efficacy of different pharmacological agents in BED treatment with new therapeutic approaches, focusing on the clinical evidence and on Phase III randomized controlled trials. Results: Data suggest that certain treatments have advantages over placebos to reduce binge eating features; however, the small duration of such research with the lack of adequately sized trials was the major limitation in interpreting these findings. Furthermore, these medications are mostly not greatly efficient for BED associated with obesity except for topiramate, which markedly improves the features of binge episodes with weight loss. Till now, lisdexamfetamine is still the only drug with regulatory permission for BED therapy; however, its weight loss efficacy has not been established. Conclusion: Drugs alone or in combination approaches may be useful pharmacotherapies to yield promising outcomes acutely and over longer-term follow-up in the treatment of BED

Machine Learning Techniques for Credit Card Fraud Detection

The term “fraud”, it always concerned about credit card fraud in our minds. And after the significant increase in the transactions of credit card, the fraud of credit card increased extremely in last years. So the fraud detection should include surveillance of the spending attitude for the person/customer to the determination, avoidance, and detection of unwanted behavior. Because the credit card is the most payment predominant way for the online and regular purchasing, the credit card fraud raises highly. The Fraud detection is not only concerned with capturing of the fraudulent practices, but also, discover it as fast as they can, because the fraud costs millions of dollar business loss and it is rising over time, and that affects greatly the worldwide economy. . In this paper we introduce 14 different techniques of how data mining techniques can be successfully combined to obtain a high fraud coverage with a high or low false rate, the Advantage and The Disadvantages of every technique, and The Data Sets used in the researches by researcher

Prevalence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PDd) CareStart qualitative rapid diagnostic test performance, and genetic variants in two malaria-endemic areas in Sudan

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PDd) is the most common enzymopathy globally, and deficient individuals may experience severe hemolysis following treatment with 8-aminoquinolines. With increasing evidence of Plasmodium vivax infections throughout sub-Saharan Africa, there is a pressing need for population-level data at on the prevalence of G6PDd. Such evidence-based data will guide the expansion of primaquine and potentially tafenoquine for radical cure of P. vivax infections. This study aimed to quantify G6PDd prevalence in two geographically distinct areas in Sudan, and evaluating the performance of a qualitative CareStart rapid diagnostic test as a point-of-care test. Blood samples were analyzed from 491 unrelated healthy persons in two malaria-endemic sites in eastern and central Sudan. A pre-structured questionnaire was used which included demographic data, risk factors and treatment history. G6PD levels were measured using spectrophotometry (SPINREACT) and first-generation qualitative CareStart rapid tests. G6PD variants (202 G\u3eA; 376 A\u3eG) were determined by PCR/RFLP, with a subset confirmed by Sanger sequencing. The prevalence of G6PDd by spectrophotometry was 5.5% (27/491; at 30% of adjusted male median, AMM); 27.3% (134/491; at 70% of AMM); and 13.1% (64/490) by qualitative CareStart rapid diagnostic test. The first-generation CareStart rapid diagnostic test had an overall sensitivity of 81.5% (95%CI: 61.9 to 93.7) and negative predictive value of 98.8% (97.3 to 99.6). All persons genotyped across both study sites were wild type for the G6PD G202 variant. For G6PD A376G all participants in New Halfa had wild type AA (100%), while in Khartoum the AA polymorphism was found in 90.7%; AG in 2.5%; and GG in 6.8%. Phenotypic G6PD B was detected in 100% of tested participants in New Halfa while in Khartoum, the phenotypes observed were B (96.2%), A (2.8%), and AB (1%). The African A- phenotype was not detected in this study population. Overall, G6PDd prevalence in Sudan is low-to-moderate but highly heterogeneous. Point-of-care testing with the qualitative CareStart rapid diagnostic test demonstrated moderate performance with moderate sensitivity and specificity but high negative predicative value. The two sites harbored primarily the African B phenotype. A country-wide survey is recommended to understand GP6PD deficiencies more comprehensively in Sudan

Molecular diagnosis in recessive pediatric neurogenetic disease can help reduce disease recurrence in families.

BackgroundThe causes for thousands of individually rare recessive diseases have been discovered since the adoption of next generation sequencing (NGS). Following the molecular diagnosis in older children in a family, parents could use this information to opt for fetal genotyping in subsequent pregnancies, which could inform decisions about elective termination of pregnancy. The use of NGS diagnostic sequencing in families has not been demonstrated to yield benefit in subsequent pregnancies to reduce recurrence. Here we evaluated whether genetic diagnosis in older children in families supports reduction in recurrence of recessive neurogenetic disease.MethodsRetrospective study involving families with a child with a recessive pediatric brain disease (rPBD) that underwent NGS-based molecular diagnosis. Prenatal molecular testing was offered to couples in which a molecular diagnosis was made, to help couples seeking to prevent recurrence. With this information, families made decisions about elective termination. Pregnancies that were carried to term were assessed for the health of child and mother, and compared with historic recurrence risk of recessive disease.ResultsBetween 2010 and 2016, 1172 families presented with a child a likely rPBD, 526 families received a molecular diagnosis, 91 families returned to the clinic with 101 subsequent pregnancies, and 84 opted for fetal genotyping. Sixty tested negative for recurrence for the biallelic mutation in the fetus, and all, except for one spontaneous abortion, carried to term, and were unaffected at follow-up. Of 24 that genotyped positive for the biallelic mutation, 16 were electively terminated, and 8 were carried to term and showed features of disease similar to that of the older affected sibling(s). Among the 101 pregnancies, disease recurrence in living offspring deviated from the expected 25% to the observed 12% ([95% CI 0·04 to 0·20], p = 0·011).ConclusionsMolecular diagnosis in an older child, coupled with prenatal fetal genotyping in subsequent pregnancies and genetic counselling, allows families to make informed decisions to reduce recessive neurogenetic disease recurrence

Review of the utilization of HEEPF – competitive projects for educational enhancement in the Egyptian medical sector

In Egypt, the medical sector has been facing the same problems that challenged the system of higher education in the past decades, mainly an increasing student enrollment, limited resources, and old governance and bylaws. These constraints and the escalating paucity of resources have had a major negative influence on quality of education. Consequently, thoughts of educational reform came forward in the form of competitive projects, which have attracted several institutes from the health sector to improve their educational performance. The aim of this paper is to review the share of the medical sector in the higher education enhancement project fund (HEEPF), its outcomes, sustainability, and to provide recommendations for keeping the momentum of reform pursuit in the future. The methodology included obtaining statistics pertaining to the medical sector in Egypt as regards colleges, students, and staff. We also reviewed the self-studies of the medical sector colleges, HEEPF projects reports, performance appraisal reports, and World Bank reports on HEEPF achievements in order to retrieve the required data. Results showed that medical sector had a large share of the HEEPF (28.5% of projects) as compared to its size (8% of student population). The projects covered 10 areas; the frequency distribution of which ranged between 4.4% (creation of new programs) to 97.8% (human resource development). In conclusion, educational enhancement in the medical sector in Egypt could be apparently achieved through the HEEPF competitive projects. A study of the long-term impact of these projects on the quality of education is recommende

Seaweed Extracts Enhance Salam Turfgrass Performance during Prolonged Irrigation Intervals and Saline Shock

The negative effects of the ongoing climate change include unusual prolonged droughts and increased salinity pressures on the agricultural lands. Consequently, crops are facing unprecedented environmental pressure, and this calls for more research toward controlling such major stresses. The current study investigates the effects of seaweed extract sprays of Ascophyllum nodosum (5 and 7 mL·L−1; 6 day intervals) on Paspalum vaginatum Salam' during prolonged irrigation intervals (2 and 6 day) and saline growing conditions (1 and 49.7 dS·m−1) for 6 weeks in containers under greenhouse conditions. Control plants showed reduced turf quality, photochemical efficiency, root length and dry weight, total non-structural carbohydrates, and K and Ca compositions. Seaweed extracts increased turf quality, leaf photochemical efficiency, root length and dry weight, total non-structural carbohydrates, K, Ca, and proline in treated plants during prolonged irrigation intervals as well as saline shock conditions. There were also increases in the antioxidant defensive mechanisms such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities and non-enzymatic antioxidants as well as reduced lipid peroxidation. The application of SWE at 7 mL·L−1 showed higher performance in treated plants during prolonged irrigation intervals as well as saline conditions. Our findings imply that several mechanisms including drought tolerance, osmotic adjustment and antioxidant defense system may interact to enhance the performance of plants in the face of environmental stress following SWE treatments

Patient-level performance evaluation of a smartphone-based malaria diagnostic application

Background Microscopic examination is commonly used for malaria diagnosis in the field. However, the lack of well-trained microscopists in malaria-endemic areas impacted the most by the disease is a severe problem. Besides, the examination process is time-consuming and prone to human error. Automated diagnostic systems based on machine learning offer great potential to overcome these problems. This study aims to evaluate Malaria Screener, a smartphone-based application for malaria diagnosis. Methods A total of 190 patients were recruited at two sites in rural areas near Khartoum, Sudan. The Malaria Screener mobile application was deployed to screen Giemsa-stained blood smears. Both expert microscopy and nested PCR were performed to use as reference standards. First, Malaria Screener was evaluated using the two reference standards. Then, during post-study experiments, the evaluation was repeated for a newly developed algorithm, PlasmodiumVF-Net. Results Malaria Screener reached 74.1% (95% CI 63.5–83.0) accuracy in detecting Plasmodium falciparum malaria using expert microscopy as the reference after a threshold calibration. It reached 71.8% (95% CI 61.0–81.0) accuracy when compared with PCR. The achieved accuracies meet the WHO Level 3 requirement for parasite detection. The processing time for each smear varies from 5 to 15 min, depending on the concentration of white blood cells (WBCs). In the post-study experiment, Malaria Screener reached 91.8% (95% CI 83.8–96.6) accuracy when patient-level results were calculated with a different method. This accuracy meets the WHO Level 1 requirement for parasite detection. In addition, PlasmodiumVF-Net, a newly developed algorithm, reached 83.1% (95% CI 77.0–88.1) accuracy when compared with expert microscopy and 81.0% (95% CI 74.6–86.3) accuracy when compared with PCR, reaching the WHO Level 2 requirement for detecting both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria, without using the testing sites data for training or calibration. Results reported for both Malaria Screener and PlasmodiumVF-Net used thick smears for diagnosis. In this paper, both systems were not assessed in species identification and parasite counting, which are still under development. Conclusion Malaria Screener showed the potential to be deployed in resource-limited areas to facilitate routine malaria screening. It is the first smartphone-based system for malaria diagnosis evaluated on the patient-level in a natural field environment. Thus, the results in the field reported here can serve as a reference for future studies