Improving Coping Abilities among Caregivers of Patients with Cerebrovascular Stroke

Cerebrovascular stroke is a condition that affects both patients and family members who provide care and support. Because stroke is an unexpected traumatic event that suddenly forces family members into a care giving role, and experience an overwhelming sense of burden, the present study was conducted to assess the perceived stress and stressors facing caregivers of patients with cerebrovascular stroke, their burden, patterns of caring themselves ,their coping abilities  and designing and implementing nursing intervention program for improving caregivers' coping abilities toward their stressors and burden. The study was carried out at the Outpatient Clinic of Neuropsychiaty in Ain Shams University Hospitals. The sample included 50 caregivers of patients with cerebrovascular stroke. Tools used for data collection were 1) Questionnaire dealing with socio-demographic characteristics, general health condition of caregivers, physical, economical, psychological and social stressors facing them and their awareness toward patterns of caring themselves. 2) Perceived Stress Scale to measure the caregivers' perception of stress 3) Burden Interview Questionnaire which indicates how often the caregivers feel toward caring their patients 4) Assessment dependence level questionnaire to assess ADL and IADL of patient. 5) Coping Inventory to assess caregivers' coping abilities. The main results showed that the nursing intervention program was effective in improving caregivers' coping abilities toward their perceived stress and burden. This study recommended that, caregivers-focused intervention programs should be provided for family caregivers emphasizing on, assertive training to deal with burden of care giving based on caregivers' actual needs' assessment and awareness programs are needed about self care and stress management techniques for improving their coping abilities with their stressors and burden of care giving. Keywords: Caregivers, Cerebrovascular Stroke, Coping abilities, Nursing interventio

The Effect of Mental Health Promotion Program on Psychosocial Adjustment Patterns of Secondary School Students

Mental health is a state of wellbeing in which a person can use his or her own abilities and cope with the normal stresses of life. This study aimed to assess the effect of mental health promotion program for secondary school students on their psychosocial adjustment patterns. This study design was a quasi-experimental, conducted at El Mostakbal Integrated Experimental Language School. The study involved 60 secondary school students, divided into two groups each group consisted of 30 secondary school students. Tools of the study involved, 1) An interview questionnaire to assess socio-demographic characteristics, student's knowledge regarding mental health, students` perception about healthy living and their  psychosocial  adjustment patterns in their daily life, 2) Tennessee of Adolescents' Scale to measure the level of student's self-concept, 3) Self-Consciousness Scale to measure the level of student's self awareness and 4) Anger Scale to measure anger state and anger trait among students. These tools were used before and after implementation of the program. The main results showed that, the Implementation of  mental health promotion program for secondary school students had a positive effect on promoting students` mental health concepts  and  psychosocial adjustment pattern. There were  improvements, with highly statistically significant differences between before and after application of mental health  promotion program for secondary school students regarding to their knowledge and perception about mental health and healthy living , level of their self–concept, self awareness, and anger state and trait, their psychosocial adjustment pattern in their daily life. This study recommended that there is a need for developing and implementing  continuous mental health promotion programs for secondary school students to acquire psychosocial skills, empower their personality and promote their psychosocial adjustment abilities and positive behaviors that enable them to deal effectively with the demands, challenges, and stress of everyday life. Also, there is a need for increasing school students' awareness especially at adolescent's stages about aspects of healthy lifestyle through mass media Keywords: Mental health, promotion program, secondary school and psychosocial adjustmen

Assessment of serum magnesium level in patients with bronchial asthma

AbstractBackgroundAsthma is one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide and has been increasing in prevalence over the last few decades. Magnesium ion has an inhibitory action on smooth muscle contraction, histamine release from mast cells and acetylcholine release from cholinergic nerve terminals. Magnesium has been shown to relax bronchial smooth muscles and influence the function of respiratory muscles. Hypomagnesemia have been associated with diminished respiratory muscle power.AimTo assess the serum Mg levels in bronchial asthma patients during stable and exacerbating clinical conditions.Subjects and methods60 Subjects were enrolled, 40 patients diagnosed as bronchial asthma and 20 healthy individuals as a control group. The asthmatic patients were divided into group (I) chronic stable bronchial asthma and group (II) acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma.ResultsSerum Mg levels were significantly lower in asthmatic patients compared with healthy controls and significantly lower in asthmatic patients during exacerbation compared with stable asthmatics. There was a positive correlation between serum Mg levels and each of FEV1/FVC ratio and FEV1.ConclusionHypomagnesemia was found in patients with chronic stable asthma and also in those with acute asthma exacerbation compared to control. Serum mg levels were significantly lower in asthmatic patients during exacerbations compared with stable asthmatics

Distributed Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks with Adaptive Detection Threshold

This paper proposes a cooperative sensing algorithm based on distributedfusion strategy and maintained probability of false alarm for cognitive radio. It furtherintroduces a reporting strategy that discusses how cooperative sensing in distributedmanner can select among possible candidates in order to reduce bandwidthrequirement. We adopted a dynamic distributed architecture for cooperative sensingbased on the link quality and found condition on the channel quality for cooperation tobe beneficial. Using probability of detection, and BER metrics we evaluated theperformance improvement of distributed cooperation over direct cooperation and noncooperativesensing. We used analytical formulation with possible candidate selectioncriteria to investigate and maximize the cooperation gain. By employing suchdistribution and selection technique, the reporting error due to the fading channel isreduced. Results show that the method effectively improve performance of sensing, itincrease the probability of detection up to 0.9 at <0.1 probability of false alarm.Sensitivity requirement is reduced with network scale and the number of nodesparticipate in decision fusion is reduced about 42% at probability of false alarm 0.1.ROC curve has obvious improvement compared with existing methods

The effect of Bombyx mori larvae extract in reducing the toxicity of methotrexate in pregnant female albino rats

Methotrexate (MTX) is an anticancer agent which is used alone or in combination with other anticancer agents in the treatment of breast cancer, epidermoid cancers of the head and neck, cutaneous T cell lymphoma, and lung cancer. Bombyx mori larvae have a huge value as health food especially for cardiac and diabetic patients, bronchial asthma, primary trigeminal neuralgia, vocal nodules and polyps and in the treatment of facial palsy and pain. In the present study meeting occurred under the normal conditions and about 40 pregnant female rats were used. Herein the pregnant females will be divided into five groups;  group 1 will be used as negative control received distilled water, group 2 will used as positive control and recived buffer of Bombyx mori larvae extract,  group 3 was treated with MTX at the 12th day of gestation (at organogenesis phase), group 4 was treated with Bombyx mori larvae  extract at 7th , 9th , 11th ,13th  and 15th days of gestation (during the oraganogensis  period), & group 5 was injected by MTX the 12th day of  gestation as well as bombyx mori larvae extract at 7th ,9th ,11th ,13th  &15th days of gestation. Animals of all groups will be sacrificed at 20th day, the end of gestation periods. Then livers of all pregnant rats were removed for examination. The obtained results showed decrease in maternal body weight gain plus increase in the abortion rate and uterine weight in the MTX-treated group. In addition, MTX induced an elevation in the examined liver oxidative stress biomarkers plus myeloperoxidase activity and decrease in reduced glutathione content and catalase activity; in mothers. Histopathological studies of liver tissues showed congestion of central vein of mothers in MTX group showing ballooning degeneration of hepatocytes, perivascular inflammatory cells infiltration and strong deposition of collagen fibers. Noteworthy, Bombyx mori larvae induced marked improvement in injuries associated with MTX administration. Keywords: Methotrexate, Bombyx mori larvae, Pregnant female rats, Hepatotoxicity

Cisplatin-Induced Reproductive Toxicity and Oxidative Stress: Ameliorative Effect of Kinetin

Cisplatin is a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent; however, its potential side effects, including gonadotoxicity and infertility, are a critical problem. Oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cisplatin-induced testicular dysfunction. We investigated whether kinetin use at different concentrations could alleviate gonadal injury associated with cisplatin treatment, with an exploration of the involvement of its antioxidant capacity. Kinetin was administered in different doses of 0.25, 0.5, and 1 mg/kg, alone or along with cisplatin for 10 days. Cisplatin toxicity was induced via a single IP dose of 7 mg/kg on day four. In a dose-dependent manner, concomitant administration of kinetin with cisplatin significantly restored testicular oxidative stress parameters, corrected the distorted sperm quality parameters and histopathological changes, enhanced levels of serum testosterone and testicular StAR protein expression, as well as reduced the up-regulation of testicular TNF-α, IL-1β, Il-6, and caspase-3, caused by cisplatin. It is worth noting that the testicular protective effect of the highest kinetin dose was comparable/more potent and significantly higher than the effects of vitamin C and the lowest kinetin dose, respectively. Overall, these data indicate that kinetin may offer a promising approach for alleviating cisplatin-induced reproductive toxicity and organ damage, via ameliorating oxidative stress and reducing inflammation and apoptosis

Comparative Pharmacokinetic Study of Two Lyophilized Orally Disintegrating Tablets Formulations of Vinpocetine in Human Volunteers

Vinpocetine is a poorly water soluble drug, commonly used in treatment of various cerebral insufficiency conditions. The aim of this work was to formulate vinpocetine in the form of orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs) and enhance its solubility and dissolution rate. This objective was addressed using lyophilization technique of either solid dispersion using polyethylene glycol 4000 (PEG 4000) or inclusion complex with 2-hydroxypropyl β-cyclodextrin (2HP-β-CD). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy were used to characterize the solid state of the prepared solid complex. Tablets were prepared by direct compression using 23 factorial design to evaluate the effect of formulation variables (Ac-di-sol concentration 5 or 10%, the ratio of soluble polymer 1:1 or 1:3 and binder type 6% w/w Avicel PH102 or 6% w/w carboxymethyl cellulose) on release characteristics. Results showed that lyophilized ODTs disintegrated within few seconds and had significantly faster dissolution rate (70-100 % in 5 minutes) compared to the commercial oral tablet (Cavinton®). This was achieved at high content of PEG 4000 or 2 HP-β-CD in presence of 10 % w/w Ac-Di-Sol and 6 % w/w Avicel PH102. The extent of per oral absorption of vinpocetine was determined in healthy human volunteers using randomized crossover design. The relative bioavailability of selected solid dispersion and inclusion complex formulations were found to be 171.98 % and 196.06 % respectively. The study indicated that complexation of vinpocetine with 2-HP-βCD or dispersion in PEG 4000 followed by lyophilization are two successful strategies for enhancing the bioavailability of the drug from ODTs

Pilot-Scale Investigation of Forward/Reverse Osmosis Hybrid System for Seawater Desalination Using Impaired Water from Steel Industry

This paper was focused on the investigation of a forward osmosis- (FO-) reverse osmosis (RO) hybrid process to cotreat seawater and impaired water from steel industry. By using this hybrid process, seawater can be diluted before desalination, hence reducing the energy cost of desalination, and simultaneously contaminants present in the impaired water are prevented from migrating into the product water through the FO and RO membranes. The main objective of this work was to investigate on pilot-scale system the performance of the combined FO pretreatment and RO desalination hybrid system and specifically its effects on membrane fouling and overall solute rejection. Firstly, optimization of the pilot-scale FO process to obtain the most suitable and stable operating conditions for practical application was investigated. Secondly, pilot-scale RO process performance as a posttreatment to FO process was evaluated in terms of water flux and rejection. The results indicated that the salinity of seawater reduced from 35000 to 13000 mg/L after 3 hrs using FO system, while after 6 hrs it approached 10000 mg/L. Finally, FO/RO system was tested on continuous operation for 15 hrs and it was demonstrated that no pollutant was detected neither in draw solution nor in RO permeate after the end of operating time

Prevalence rate and risk factors for preeclampsia and eclampsia among pregnant women attending Qena University Hospital During COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Preeclampsia and eclampsia are vital causes of maternal morbidity and mortality around the world. In Egypt, it complicates about 6%-8% of all pregnancies and can reach up to 15% in referral centers like university hospitals. Objectives: To identify the prevalence of preeclampsia and eclampsia among pregnant women attending Qena University Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, to identify possible risk factors associated with preeclampsia. Patients and methods: The prevalence and risk factors for preeclampsia and eclampsia were estimated in this cross-sectional study of 300 pregnant women after 20 weeks of gestation. There were two groups: preeclamptic women and non-preeclamptic women. A structured questionnaire was used. Results: The study revealed that the percentage of preeclampsia and eclampsia was 19% and 1%, respectively. The significant risk factors predisposing to preeclampsia were obesity, improper antenatal care, previous COVID-19 exposure, prior preeclampsia, cats' handling, pregestational diabetes mellitus, multifetal pregnancy, family history of hypertension, and advanced maternal age. By logistic regression analysis, BMI was the most contributing factor associated with preeclampsia (p- value <0.0001). Conclusion: Preeclampsia became increasingly common during the COVID-19 pandemic, with preeclampsia and eclampsia prevalence rates of 19% and 1%, respectively. The most contributing factors to preeclampsia were obesity, which is a preventable risk factor, infrequent antenatal visits, and COVID-19 exposure.Proper antenatal care is an important part of prevention and early detection of preeclampsia, especially for women with previous COVID-19 exposure

Emergence of novel methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains in a tertiary care facility in Tiyadh, Saudi Arabia

Purpose: There is a need for continuous surveillance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to identify emergence of new strains. We hypothesize that MRSA strains are evolving with ongoing acquisition of SCCmec elements. This study was carried out to evaluate the evolution of MRSA at a tertiary care facility in Saudi Arabia. Methods: MRSA isolates associated with invasive clinical infection, which were identified in 2017 at the microbiology laboratory, King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were studied. The molecular characterization of isolates was carried out using StaphyType DNA microarray (Alere Technologies GmbH/Abbott, Jena, Germany). Results: The 125 MRSA isolates studied belonged to 18 clonal complexes (CC) which were distributed into 32 strain assignments. The predominant CC were CC5 (n=30), CC6 (n=17), CC80 (n=13), CC22 (n=12), CC361 (n=12). The findings demonstrated the first identification of CC152, CC361 and CC1153 MRSA as well as ST5-MRSA-[I+fus], “Geraldine Clone”, CC6-MRSA-IV (PVL+) and CC88-MRSA-V (PVL+), WA MRSA-117 in Saudi Arabia. Four novel variants were identified: CC5-MRSA-[VI+fus+tirS], CC22-MRSA-[V/VT+fus](PVL+), CC152-MRSA-[V+fus](PVL+) and CC361-MRSA-[VT+fus]. Fifty-four isolates (n/N=54/125; 43.2%) including the novel strains carried the Q6GD50 SCCfusC gene while the Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes were present in 30.4% (n/N=38/125). Conclusion: The findings demonstrate an expanding MRSA repertoire in our setting including emergence of previously unreported clonal complexes and novel strains. The high carriage of fusC gene suggests a role for fusidic acid misuse in driving the evolution of the MRSA genome and underscores the need for increased monitoring of antibiotic use.Purpose: There is a need for continuous surveillance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to identify emergence of new strains. We hypothesize that MRSA strains are evolving with ongoing acquisition of SCCmec elements. This study was carried out to evaluate the evolution of MRSA at a tertiary care facility in Saudi Arabia. Methods: MRSA isolates associated with invasive clinical infection, which were identified in 2017 at the microbiology laboratory, King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were studied. The molecular characterization of isolates was carried out using StaphyType DNA microarray (Alere Technologies GmbH/Abbott, Jena, Germany). Results: The 125 MRSA isolates studied belonged to 18 clonal complexes (CC) which were distributed into 32 strain assignments. The predominant CC were CC5 (n=30), CC6 (n=17), CC80 (n=13), CC22 (n=12), CC361 (n=12). The findings demonstrated the first identification of CC152, CC361 and CC1153 MRSA as well as ST5-MRSA-[I+fus], “Geraldine Clone”, CC6-MRSA-IV (PVL+) and CC88-MRSA-V (PVL+), WA MRSA-117 in Saudi Arabia. Four novel variants were identified: CC5-MRSA-[VI+fus+tirS], CC22-MRSA-[V/VT+fus](PVL+), CC152-MRSA-[V+fus](PVL+) and CC361-MRSA-[VT+fus]. Fifty-four isolates (n/N=54/125; 43.2%) including the novel strains carried the Q6GD50 SCCfusC gene while the Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes were present in 30.4% (n/N=38/125). Conclusion: The findings demonstrate an expanding MRSA repertoire in our setting including emergence of previously unreported clonal complexes and novel strains. The high carriage of fusC gene suggests a role for fusidic acid misuse in driving the evolution of the MRSA genome and underscores the need for increased monitoring of antibiotic use