Schwannoma of the Appendix Mimicking a Metastatic Breast Cancer: A case report

Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) represents 5-10% of newly diagnosed breast cancer cases, referred to as de novo stage IV MBC. Distinguishing a distant lesion in breast cancer patients can be challenging. Therefore, obtaining a histopathological confirmation of a metastasis is advisable, as a suspicious metastatic lesion may turn out to be benign or exhibit different immunohistochemistry compared to the primary site. In this case, we describe a woman undergoing staging scans for newly diagnosed breast cancer, where radiological findings suggested appendix metastasis. However, subsequent laparoscopic appendicectomy revealed an appendicular schwannoma, confirmed through immunohistochemistry. The patient then received curative-intent breast cancer treatment. With the increasing use of advanced staging scans in breast cancer, clinicians should thoroughly investigate and confirm metastatic disease, especially in uncommon metastatic sites, before initiating treatment. Keywords: Schwannoma, metastasis, breast cancer, appendix

Effect of Cultural Intelligence (CI) on Patient Care Services in Private Hospitals at Muscat Governorate

The increasing need for medical care has led to demand for private medical institutions which offer more personalized care. Most of the patients have grown to prefer private medical attention as compared to public medical care due to the better services offered. Nurses interact with patients on a daily basis who are from different cultural backgrounds which makes it essential for them to understand various cultures to be able to interact and effectively serve all the patients visiting the hospital. Private hospitals in Oman receive patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. In this research, an attempt was made to find out the level of Cultural intelligence in various dimensions and to examine the effect of nurses’ cultural intelligence (CI) on patient care services in private hospitals at Muscat governorate. Hence, nurses from Muscat governorate private hospitals were the study's respondents. The data was analysed using the Quartile method, Chi-square, and multiple regression analysis. This research found that the nurses have high level of cultural intelligence in cognitive and meta-cognitive dimensions. On the other hand, majority of the respondents had low level of behavioural dimension of cultural intelligence. And there is no significant relationship between demographic details and the level of cultural intelligence. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated a significant relation between nurse’s cultural intelligence in various dimensions and patient care services.</jats:p

Genomic Study of TCF7L2 Gene Mutation on Insulin Secretion for Type 2 DM Patients: A Review

Aim: This paper aims to establish whether a correlation between TCF7L2 gene mutation on insulin secretion for Type 2 DM Patients.&#x0D; Background: Diabetes type 2 is the most common metabolic disorder worldwide. Beta cell dysfunction reduces insulin secretion and increases the glucose level in the blood and insulin resistance that raises the glucose production in the liver and decreases the glucose uptake to muscle, liver, and adipose tissue causing hyperglycemia (T2DM). TCF7L2 (transcription factor 7–like 2) works as a nuclear Receptor for CTNNB1(B catenin) that mediated the WNT signaling pathway (a group of signal transduction pathways made of proteins that pass signals from outside a cell through cell surface receptors to the inside of the cell) and any variation will cause the development of T2DM.&#x0D; Methods: GenBank in NCBI database was used to extract the DNA sequence and mRNA sequence of the TCF7L2 gene (an accession number of the gene, number of amino acids, exons, and length of nucleotides). FASTA format was also useful to retrieve the nucleotide sequence and get the function of the protein. BLAST was used to compare the protein product of the TCF7L2gene between humans and gorillas, and pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus).&#x0D; Results: The accession number is NC_000010.11, the number of amino acids in the protein product is 602, the number of exons found is 20 and the gene is in chromosome 10. Finally, many organisms have the same gene as dogs, cows, mice, rats, zebrafish, and frogs.&#x0D; Conclusion: There is a strong association between TCF7L2 (transcription factor 7–like 2) alleles (rs7903146) T alleles and T2DM. It was found that there is a high frequency of diabetic type two patients having TCF7L2 (transcription factor 7–like 2) alleles (rs7903146) with a high frequency of the T allele.</jats:p

Carbon Dioxide Capture by Alkaline Water with a Semi-Batch Column and Ultra-Fine Microbubble Generator

Increased emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial activities are the main cause of the growing problem of global warming and climate change, highlighting the needs for efficient CO2 capture and storage (CCS) techniques. The present work aims to investigate the possibility of CO2 sequestration using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in a semi-batch column with an integrated gas lift tower and an ultra-micro bubbles generator, a novel setup designed to enhance mass transfer rates and capture efficiency. Unlike the previously reported setups, our system achieves a 50% faster capture rate with improved mass transfer, enhanced gas-liquid interaction and higher removal efficiency due to finer bubble dispersion, as confirmed by experimental findings. Preliminary tests to ascertain the effectiveness of CO2 removal were carried out across various CO2 gas flow rates (3, 5, 7 L/min), NaOH volumes (2, 3, 4 L) and concentrations (0.1, 0.2, 0.3 M). The results indicated that both gas flow rate and NaOH concentration have profound impacts on the CO2 capture rate. Increasing either of these parameters, or using low concentrations of NaOH, leads to a rapid drop in pH due to a faster rate of neutralization and the formation of carbonic acid (H2CO3), a weak acidic solution. For instance, with 0.1 M NaOH and 2 L volume, the pH decreased from 13.07 to 7.02 within 1.5 min at gas flow rate of 7 L/min, while with 0.3 M NaOH, pH reduced to 7.3 after 6 min. Higher volumes and concentrations of NaOH caused a decrease in the capture rate of CO2 due to reversed reaction with formed sodium carbonate. For instance, with 0.3 M NaOH and 4 L volume, the pH reduced from 13.58 to 8 after 5 min at 7 L/min gas flow rate. Scaling up to a 100 L semi-batch column with an ultra-fine micro bubble generator, as a new approach, reduced the time taken by half in the capture of CO2. Additionally, the study also investigated the comparison of tap versus deionized water in CO2 capture reaction. The results demonstrated that dissolved minerals in tap water, particularly Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions, affected precipitate formation and capture efficiency differently than deionized water, offering practical insights for CCS in varied water sources