Effectiveness of Aromatherapy in Early Palliative Care for Oncology Patients: Blind Controlled Study

Background: Palliative care is the active holistic treatment of people of all ages who have serious health-related suffering as a result of severe illness, and especially of those who are close to the end of life. Palliative care is provided to cancer patients who experience serious suffering that cannot be relieved without professional intervention and that compromises physical, social, spiritual, and emotional functioning. A straightforward, low-risk, and affordable palliative care approach may be provided through aromatherapy, a type of complementary and alternative medicine. The study objective is to assess the comparative effectiveness of massage, aromatherapy massage, and massage combined with aromatherapy inhalation on cancer patients receiving palliative care. Methods: A total of 100 participants who were divided into four groups at random. The first group, designated as the control group, received standard hospital nursing care, the second group received massage only (using the odorless almond carrier oil), the third group received massage with lavender oil, and the fourth group received combined (inhalation and massage) aromatherapy. The Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL), given two weeks after aromatherapy, was used to examine participants’ perspectives of care. Results: On the RSCL, combined aromatherapy performed best. In terms of reported physical symptoms, psychological symptoms, and activities, there were statistically significant differences between the scores of the control group and each of the experimental groups. Nonetheless, the total quality of life score showed no significant difference between the control group and the massage only group (t = 0.529, p = 0.60). Conclusions: When paired with aromatherapy inhalation, massage has a positive effect on physical, psychological symptoms, activities, and overall quality of life for cancer patients receiving early palliative care. Nurses and other healthcare providers are recommended to support programs that provide message therapy to reduce reported bodily symptoms, psychological problems, and limited activities among cancer patients.Funding Statement This study was supported via funding from Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University project number (PSAU/2023/R/1444)

Simulation of Biophysicochemical Characteristics of the Soils Using Geoelectrical Measurements near the Sewage Station, Assiut City, Egypt

Numerous farmers regularly irrigate their farms with inadequately treated sewage water pumped from the sewage system in the Arab El-Madabegh district of Assiut City, Egypt. According to previous studies, long-term irrigation with partially treated sewage water resulted in significant changes in the physicochemical properties of soil. The principal goals of this study are (1) to infer empirical equations between geoelectrical resistivity measurements and certain biophysicochemical parameters of some soil samples, and (2) to use these empirical equations to calculate the biophysicochemical parameters of the unknown samples for the same location. For this purpose, 27 soil samples at different depth levels (0 to 25, 25 to 60, and 60 to 90 cm) were collected from eleven locations at the sewage station. Physical properties including water content and particle size distribution, chemical properties including soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and the heavy metals concentrations, biological properties including total coliform counts, and geoelectrical resistivity measurements were estimated and analyzed for these samples. Electrical resistivity measurements and biophysicochemical properties were cross-correlated using the exponential trend line to fit the cross-correlated data, and the empirical relationships were obtained. These empirical relationships in conjunction with the measured electrical resistivity measurements were used to calculate the biophysicochemical values of the other three random soil samples. The biophysicochemical values of the former three samples were measured by the same normal procedures as 27 samples. Then, the calculated values were correlated with the measured ones. Good correlations between the estimated and the measured values for biophysicochemical features were obtained. Therefore, this method can be employed to calculate the biophysicochemical parameters for any unknown samples that have the same geological conditions for estimating and monitoring soil contamination

Influence of sulfur on cadmium (Cd) stress tolerance in Triticum aestivum L.

A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of sulfur on cadmium (Cd) stress tolerance in Triticum aestivum L. (cv. Samma). The treatments were given as follows: 0 mM S + 0 mM Cd (control), 1 mM S + 0 mM Cd (S1), 5 mM S + 0 mM Cd (S2), 10 mM S + 0 mM Cd (S3), 0 mM S + 1 mM Cd (Cd), 1 mM S + 1 mM Cd (S1+Cd), 5 mM S + 1 mM Cd (S2+Cd),) and 10 mM S + 1 mM Cd (S3+Cd). Plants fed with Cd showed reduced plant growth characteristics and increased malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation. However, S-exposed plants clearly exhibited enhanced antioxidant enzymes activity (catalase, peroxidase and  superoxide dismutase), chlorophyll a and b content and total soluble carbohydrates (TSC) accumulation, and decreased MDA content in wheat plants. The results indicate that application of S mitigated the adverse  effects of Cd stress by enhancing TSC, photosynthetic pigments and antioxidant enzymes.Key words: Antioxidant, cadmium stress, carbohydrates, photosynthetic pigments, Triticum aestivum