Effect of Methotrexate on the Liver Enzymes and Lipid Profile in Adult Female Albino Mice

Methotrexate (MTX) was used for treatment of malignancies and now is widely used in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. In this research the evaluation of the effects of MTX on some liver enzymes and lipid profile was studied. Twenty four adult female mice divided into three groups (8 mice each). The first two groups were treated with MTX while the third group was used as a control. MTX was intraperitoneally given at 50 µg/ml and 75 µg/ml to the first and second groups respectively for 35 days ,whereas the control group was intraperitoneally injected with normal saline. The results showed a significant (

Response of Sweet Pepper Capsicum Annulus L. (Qurtuba Cultivar) To Spraying With Two Types of Potassium Fertilizer Cultivated In Plastic House

نفذت تجربة حقلية في البيت البلاستيكي غير المدفأ في الكلية التقنية المسيب للموسم الخريفي 2016 لدراسة مدى استجابة نبات الفلفل الحلو Capsicum annuum L. صنف قرطبة للرش الورقي بنوعين من الاسمدة البوتاسية الورقية التجارية في تربة رملية مزيجة لدراسة تأثير اربعة مستويات من سماد البوتاسيوم والعناصر الصغرى (صفر، 4، 6، 8 مل.لتر-1) واربعة مستويات من سماد البوتاسيوم والكبريت KTS (صفر، 2، 4، 6 مل.لتر-1) وتداخلهما على بعض مؤشرات النمو الخضري والزهري والحاصل ونوعيته، صممت التجربة وفق تصميم القطاعات تامة التعشية RCBD  وقورنت المتوسطات باختبار اقل فرق معنوي LSD وبمستوى معنوية 5%. اشارت النتائج الى تفوق معاملة الرش بسماد البوتاسيوم والعناصر الصغرى بمستوى (8 مل.لتر-1) معنويا في زيادة متوسطات طول النبات وعدد الافرع المثمرة والمساحة الورقية للنبات والوزن الجاف للمجموع الخضري وعدد الازهار في النبات ونسبة العقد ومحتوى الاوراق من الكلوروفيل والنتروجين والفسفور والبوتاسيوم وعدد الثمار ووزن الثمرة والحاصل المبكر والكلي ومحتوى فيتامين C ونسبة المواد الصلبة الذائبة الكلية وبنسب زيادة بلغت 19.47، 29.54، 16.68، 30.01، 11.26، 24.09، 38.16، 24.36، 16.67، 34.00، 21.87، 20.27، 50.46، 45.96، 39.33، و70.85% بالتتابع قياسا بمعاملة المقارنة، وهو نفس سلوك معاملة الرش بسماد البوتاسيوم والكبريت اذ تفوقت المعاملة (4  مل.لتر-1) في جميع الصفات اعلاه اذ بلغت نسب الزيادة 31.72، 53.53، 49.88، 15.82، 14.84، 24.54، 19.79، 36.73، 21.05، 47.55، 24.53، 19.07، 49.43، 48.01، 30.29 و36.56% بالتتابع قياسا بمعاملة المقارنة. اما معاملات التداخل فقد اظهرت تفوق معاملة الرش بخليط من (8 مل. لتر-1 + 4 مل. لتر-1) واعطائها اعلى القيم لجميع الصفات اعلاه وبلغت 109.5 سم، 6.4 فرع، 25.3 دسم2، 132.7 غم، 62.7 زهرة، 43.9%، 65.11 spad، 2.22%، 0.75%، 2.55%، 34.6 ثمرة، 108.3 غم، 0.790 كغم. نبات-1، 3.747 كغم. نبات-1، 69.2 ملغم.100مل-1، و10.4% بالتتابع.Field experiment was conducted in the non-heated plastic house at Al-Mussaib Technical College in the autumn season 2016 to study the Response of sweet pepper Capsicum annuum L. (Qurtuba cultivar) to foliar spraying with two types of foliar commercial Potassium fertilizers in loamy sand soil. To study the effect of four levels of potassium fertilizer and micronutrients (0, 4, 6, 8 ml.L-1), four levels of potassium fertilizer and Sulfur KTS (0, 2, 4, 6 ml.L-1) and their interaction on some vegetative and flowering growth indicators, yield and its components. The experiment was designed according to the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and the averages were compared with the least significant difference (LSD), with a significant level of 5%. The result indicated to the excelling of the spraying treatment with potassium and micronutrient (8 ml.L-1) by giving it a significant level in increasing the averages of plant height, number of branches, leaf area, dry weight for total  vegetative, number of flowers in plant, percentage of fruit set, the leaves content of (chlorophyll, nitrogen, Phosphorus and potassium), early and total yield, the content of vitamin C, and percentage of Total Soluble Solids, with an increasing percentage of (19.47, 29.54, 16.68, 30.01, 11.26, 24.09, 38.16, 24.36, 16.67, 34.00, 21.87, 20.27, 50.46, 45.96, 39.33, 70.85%), respectively, compared to control treatment.  Which is the same behavior as spraying treatment with potassium fertilizer and sulfur, where treatment (4 ml.L-1) was excelled in all the above traits, where the percentages of increasing were (31.72, 53.53, 49.88, 15.82, 14.84, 24.54, 19.79, 36.73, 21.05, 47.55, 24.53, 19.07, 49.43, 48.01, 30.29, 36.56%), respectively, compared to the control treatment. As for interaction treatments, it has showed excelling the spraying treatment with a mixture of (8 ml. L-1 + 4 ml. L-1) by giving it the highest values for all the above traits amounted of (109.5 cm, 6.4 branches, 25.3 dm2, 132.7 g, 62.7 flower, 43.9% 2.22%, 0.75%, 2.55%, 34.6 fruits, 108.3 g, 0.790 kg. plant-1, 3.747 kg. plant-1, 69.2 mg.100 ml-1, 10.4%), respectively

Polymorphic Microsatellite markers with Egg Production Traits in local Chickens: Review

 Egg production traits are quantitative trait in nature that control by regions of the genome are termed microsatellites that considered to be association with this trait. This review was aimed to provide information related to polymorphism egg production trait of local chickens and association with microsatellites markers

Experiences with a universal mindfulness and wellbeing programme at a UK medical school

Evaluation of a universal, mental wellbeing and mindfulness programme in a UK graduate entry medical school Design: Mixed methods: measurement of mental wellbeing and mindfulness in 2 cohorts at 3 time points over 15mths; descriptive, regression and repeated measures analysis with post hoc pairwise comparisons; qualitative interviews with purposive sample of 13 students after 1yr analysed thematically; spontaneous anonymous feedback on the course. Findings: The course was a surprise to students, and reactions mixed. Respect for its contents grew over the first year. Most students had actively implemented a wellbeing strategy by the end of the course and an estimated quarter were practicing some mindful activity. In the context of an overall decline in wellbeing and limited engagement with mindfulness practice, increases in mindfulness were protective against this decline in both cohorts (p<001). A small minority of students thought the course was a waste of time. Their attitudes influenced engagement by their peers. The mindfulness and wellbeing practices of the facilitators were evident to students and influenced perceived effects. Research Limitations: The uncontrolled nature of this observational study and low response rates to the survey limit conclusions. Further research in other medical education settings is needed. Practice Implications: Results are encouraging, suggesting modest benefit in terms of changing attitudes and practices and a modest protective effect on the wellbeing of students who engaged. Originality/value: This is the first study of a universal wellbeing and mindfulness programme in a UK medical school. Universal programmes are rare and evaluation studies are scarce

Traditional methods for managing illness in newborns and infants in an Arab society

Aim: This study explored self‐management practices in relation to traditional methods for managing illness in newborns and infants and the implications of these practices on infant health. Background: Self‐medication with folk remedies is believed to have short‐ and long‐term impacts on well‐being. Little is known about how mothers in Arab societies used their traditional beliefs and practices in self‐managing their newborns’ and infants’ health. Methods: Data were collected from five focus groups using open‐ended questions with 37 mothers. Participants were selected using snowball sampling and were recruited from four different cities in Jordan between June 2016 and August 2016. Ethical approval: All identifying information regarding the study participants has been omitted, and this study was approved by the Academic Research Committee at the University of Jordan. Findings: Mothers were more willing to try herbal remedies, traditional massage and certain foods to self‐manage their infants’ health. Folk remedies were not restricted to traditions handed down through generations, but included a representation of newly emerged trends towards ‘safety’ or ‘nature’. Conclusions: While the use of folk remedies have been handed down generations as customs, today, virtual support groups and social media provide modern resources for folk remedies’ promotion in care and self‐management. Implications for nursing and health policy: Nursing and health policymakers can use our findings for planning and developing strategies and health policies that increase public awareness about adverse health effects associated with herbal remedies. Such strategies are likely to be facilitated through partnerships between nursing and midwifery education institutions, antenatal clinics and social media in the region

Improvement Viscosity Index of Lubricating Engine Oil Using Low Molecular Weight Compounds

the effect of polarity of solvent on the viscosity and viscosity index of lubricating engine oil has been studied using ethanol as an example of polar solvent and toluene as an example of non-polar solvent at different solvent ratios and ambient temperature and additionally other experiments have been done at five different temperatures including 100 oC. So that, the activation energy of viscous flow (Ea) was calculated, and for this purpose Arrhenius viscosity-temperature dependence has been applied and the results were 42.128, 29.256 and 35.417KJ/mole for lubricating engine oil mixed with ethanol, toluene and no additives in turn. It additionally shows that adding polar solvent to lubrication engine oil viscosity increases this may be due to the fact of strong inter molecular forces that found in polar molecules such as hydrogen bonding in ethanol makes the solution forces stronger as a result higher viscosity. However, adding non-polar solvent decreases viscosity because of small size of toluene and both paraffinic lubricating oil and toluene have same London dispersion inter molecular forces. Last not least, the result shows that engine oil mixed with non-polar molecule gives more temperature stability than that of polar molecule giving viscosity index (VI) 366 and 580 respectively

Automated characterisation of ultrasound images of ovarian tumours: the diagnostic accuracy of a support vector machine and image processing with a local binary pattern operator

Introduction: Preoperative characterisation of ovarian masses into benign or malignant is of paramount importance to optimise patient management. Objectives: In this study, we developed and validated a computerised model to characterise ovarian masses as benign or malignant. Materials and methods: Transvaginal 2D B mode static ultrasound images of 187 ovarian masses with known histological diagnosis were included. Images were first pre-processed and enhanced, and Local Binary Pattern Histograms were then extracted from 2 × 2 blocks of each image. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) was trained using stratified cross validation with randomised sampling. The process was repeated 15 times and in each round 100 images were randomly selected. Results: The SVM classified the original non-treated static images as benign or malignant masses with an average accuracy of 0.62 (95% CI: 0.59-0.65). This performance significantly improved to an average accuracy of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.75-0.79) when images were pre-processed, enhanced and treated with a Local Binary Pattern operator (mean difference 0.15: 95% 0.11-0.19, p < 0.0001, two-tailed t test). Conclusion: We have shown that an SVM can classify static 2D B mode ultrasound images of ovarian masses into benign and malignant categories. The accuracy improves if texture related LBP features extracted from the images are considered

Hot extrusion followed by a hot ecap consolidation combined technique in the production of Boron Carbide (B4C) reinforced with aluminium chips (AA6061) composite

A new and promising MMC approach to the reduction of pollution, greenhouse effects, and emissions is to develop a technology related to materials composite forming. Hot extrusion followed by hot ECAP is a combination of solid-state recycling method (direct recycling) that consists of chip preparations, cold compaction, and hot extrusion, followed by the ECAP process. The developed process is used to consolidate the chips for direct chip recycling purposes without the remelting phase. In this study, finished or semi-finished products from B4C-reinforced particles and AA6061 aluminium chips were produced. The samples made by hot extrusion were compared with samples obtained from hot extrusion followed by the hot ECAP process in terms of mechanical properties. Additional plastic deformation by hot ECAP after hot extrusion significantly increased the mechanical properties of the MMC compared with the samples obtained from the hot extrusion only. The density and microstructure of the samples were also determined