Serum Levels of Selenium, Zinc, Copper and Magnesium in Asthmatic Patients: a Case Control Study.

Background: Free radicals have harmful effects on cells and tissues and are thought to be responsible for the pathogenesis of many diseases including bronchial asthma. Selenium (Se), Zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and magnesium (Mg) are trace elements required for the antioxidant enzymes and hence the optimal functions of the immune system. Changes in the levels of these elements may lead to a reduction in antioxidant activities in asthma. Objective: This study was conducted to determine serum levels of the trace elements Se, Zn, Cu, and Mg in asthmatic patients in order to evaluate the associations of these nutrients with asthma in adults Subjects and Methods: Serum Se, Zn, Cu, and Mg concentrations were measured in 100 asthmatic adult patients and 170 healthy control subjects matched for age and sex. The patients were recruited from asthma casualties, referred clinics and wards of Elshaab and Omdurman Teaching Hospital, Khartoum Sudan. Socio- demographic data and clinical history of all subjects were collected in questionnaires. Results: Serum Se and Cu levels were found to be significantly decreased in asthmatic patients compared to controls. Mean serum Se and Cu for patients were 65.8 5.5Ig/l (mean SD) and 0.711 0.37g/l respectively while that for controls were 78.2 7.5 Ig/l and 0.939 0.322g/l respectively (P value was < 0.001). On the other hand the mean serum Zn level was significantly higher in patients compared to controls (1.2 0.51g/l and 0.94 0.254g/l respectively) (P value wa

Intrafamilial person-to-person spread of bacillary dysentery due to shigelza dysenteriae in Southwestern Saudi Arabia

Objective: To identify the factors that influence transmission of bacillary dysentry (BD) within families during a propagated outbreak of bacillary dysentery. Design: A retrospective cohort study. Setting: Eighteen neighbouring villages in rural Gizan, southwestern Saudi Arabia. Subjects: Two hundred and thirty three cases of BD were identified among seventy nine families. Results: Secondary cases of BD occurred in 57 of 79 families with a primary case of BD. The secondary attack rate per cent (AR%) within families ranged between 7.7% and 80%. Age of primary cases did not correlate with degree of secondary AR% in exposed families (p&gt;0.04; p&gt;0.05); however, within households, the age of the first secondary cases (median = two years) was usually less than the age of the primary case (median = six years). Children under five years of age constituted 43% of secondary cases. The median interval between successive cases within a house ranged from three and seven days. Two hundred and twenty cases (94.4%) gave history of close contact within another case of BD. Cases of BD were exposed to close relatives with BD (79.1%), neighbours (11.4%), and friends (9.5%). Risk factors influencing the spread of BD within families included two rooms or fewer per house (OR = 4.3, 9.5% CI 1.3-14.3), family size of five or more (p = 0.012, two-tailed Fisher's exact test), and presence of more than two persons per room (OR=11.2, 95% CI 3.1-42.4). Conclusion: Person-to-person secondary transmission can amplify the spread of bacillary dysentery within households and neighbouring villages. Crowding was a risk factor that amplified transmission of BD within families.East African Medical Journal, May 1999, 255-25

Occult Hepatitis B Virus in Gezira State Sudan

Background: Occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) is simply defined as serologically undetectable hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg-ve), despite the presence of circulating HBV DNA.Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of occult HBV among Screened HBsAg subjects in Gezira State, Sudan.Materials and Methods: A total of 176 subjects including cancer patients, hospital based controls and health care workers were screened for HBsAg by ELISA, and their DNA was extracted by using polymerase chain reaction.Results: 49/176 (27.8%) were positive for occult HBV as follows: cancer patients had 31/81 (38.2%) cases, while 18.9% were reported among hospital based controls. 11.2%, 2.2% were positive for both HBsAg and DNA respectively. Ten out of the 50 (20%) healthcare workers, who were negative for HBsAg, were found to be positive for HBV DNA, while one out of the 19, who were positive for HBsAg, was found to be positive for HBV DNA. Occult HBV among this study groups showed an approximately equal distribution among males and females 18.2% and 20.5 %, respectively.Conclusion: This study concluded that the prevalence of OBI among healthcare workers, hospital based controls and cancer patients, is remarkably increasing compared with the prevalence of the disease. More molecular epidemiological studies are needed to delineate a link between OBI and cancer. Proper HBV screening should be carried out to avoid occult hepatitis B infection transmission.Keywords: Hepatitis B virus, Gezira State, cancer, healthcare workers, Suda

Nonspecific colitis a forgotten entity in Central Sudan

Background: Nonspecific colitis is an inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) that runs a clinically benign course. Histopathologically it is characterized by superficial mucosal erosions with lymphocytic infiltration in the lamina propria with no granuloma. Aim of this study: is to describe the clinical presentation of Non-Specific Colitis (NSC), and to evaluate its response to 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) in Sudanese patients.Setting and Design: This study is a prospective cohort. A total of 26 patients presenting with bloody, mucoid diarrhoea, lower abdominal pain or colonic mass were included in the study.Methods and Materials: A total of 26 patients presenting with bloody mucoid diarrhoea, lower abdominal pain with or without colonic mass were included in the study. All patients underwent colonoscopy. Statistical analysis: A descriptive statistical analysis was done using SPSS.Results: 19 (%) of patients were males and 7 were females with male to female ratio of 3:1. The majority of patients 16 (61.6%) had bloody diarrhea while 18 (69.2%) opened their bowel 4-6 times a day. The majority 10 (38.8%) had rectum and sigmoid involvement. All patients showed a good response to 5-ASA.Conclusions: This study showed that NSC has clinical features that are very much similar to mild UC with a rather good clinical response to oral 5-ASA.Keywords: Nonspecific colitis, indeterminate colitis, 5-aminosaclyic acid

Determination of Gossypol in Hamid and Bt (Seeni 1) Cottonseed Oil using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

This study was conducted to determine the gossypol content in Bt cottonseed (Seeni-1) oil by using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy with an Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) element. The wavelengths used were selected by spiking refined, bleached deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) to gossypol concentrations of 0-5% and noting the regions of maximal absorbance. Absorbance values of the wavelength regions 3700-2400 &amp; 1900-750 cm−1 and a partial least squares (PLS) method were used to derive calibration models for Hamid cottonseed oil, Seeni-1 cottonseed oil, and gossypol-spiked RBDPO. The coefficients of determination (R2) for the calibration models were computed for the FTIR spectroscopy results against those found by using the wet chemical method AOCS method Ba 8–78. The R2 was 0.8916, 0.9581, and 0.9374 for Hamid cottonseed oil, Seeni-1 cottonseed oil, and gossypol-spiked RBDPO, respectively. The standard error (SE) of the calibration was 0.053, 0.078, and 0.062, respectively. The calibration models were validated using the cross-validation technique within the same set of oil samples. The results of FTIR spectroscopy as a useful technique determining gossypol content in crude cottonseed oil showed that there is a significant difference (p &lt;0.05) in the amount of gossypol content in Hamid and Bt Seeni-1 cottonseed oils

Knowledge, Awareness and Use of Neurodynamic Mobilization in Athletes Training Among Palestinian Physiotherapists

Background: The use of Neurodynamic mobilizations to improve those qualities had not been enough studies; the aim of this research is to investigate the knowledge, use, and awareness of Palestinian physiotherapists about the Neurodyanimc mobilization (NDM) effect on the above-mentioned variables. Results: 58 physiotherapists responded with the average age of participants was 30.24 (± 8.14 years), the average years of experience were 5.58 (± 6.59 years). 60.3% of the participants attended courses in ND, 58.6% attended courses in NDM, postgraduate sport rehabilitation courses were reported by 60.3%. 58.6% reported the application of NDMs after warm-up exercise. 32.7% expressed knowledge in NDM with 39.7% 32.7% reported the knowledge of ND tests. 63.5% of the participants believe that ND is effective in the management of sport injures. Participants believed in positive the effect of the NDM on improving speed (48.3%) <, endurance (60.3%), balance (57%) and athlete performance 72.4%. ND assessment (r 5.31, p =0.00). Males had more knowledge than females in both ND tests and in NDM (p <0.05). Males had twice the chance to attend post-graduate courses. Methods: An online data collection sheet was developed by the researchers and was distributed online, special invitations were sent to physiotherapists on local websites of the Union, and social media. Conclusion: There was gender variation favorable for males in terms of the chances to attend postgraduate courses, more than half of the participants supported the positive effect of ND on athlete’s performance

Optimum Resource Allocation in 6G Optical Wireless Communication Systems

Optical wireless communication (OWC) systems are a promising communication technology that can provide high data rates into the tens of Tb/s and can support multiple users at the same time. This paper investigates the optimum allocation of resources in wavelength division multiple access (WDMA) OWC systems to support multiple users. A mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed to optimise the resource allocation. Two types of receivers are examined, an angle diversity receiver (ADR) and an imaging receiver (ImR). The ImR can support high data rates up to 14 Gbps for each user with a higher signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). The ImR receiver provides a better result compared to the ADR in term of channel bandwidth, SINR and data rate. Given the highly directional nature of light, the space dimension can be exploited to enable the co-existence of multiple, spatially separated, links and thus aggregate data rates into the Tb/s. We have considered a visible light communication (VLC) setting with four wavelengths per access point (red, green, yellow and blue). In the infrared spectrum, commercial sources exist that can support up to 100 wavelengths, significantly increasing the system aggregate capacity. Other orthogonal domains can be exploited to lead to higher capacities in these future systems in 6G and beyond

Optimum resource allocation in optical wireless systems with energy-efficient fog and cloud architectures

Optical wireless communication (OWC) is a promising technology that can provide high data rates while supporting multiple users. The optical wireless (OW) physical layer has been researched extensively, however, less work was devoted to multiple access and how the OW front end is connected to the network. In this paper, an OWC system which employs a wavelength division multiple access (WDMA) scheme is studied, for the purpose of supporting multiple users. In addition, a cloud/fog architecture is proposed for the first time for OWC to provide processing capabilities. The cloud/fog-integrated architecture uses visible indoor light to create high data rate connections with potential mobile nodes. These OW nodes are further clustered and used as fog mini servers to provide processing services through the OW channel for other users. Additional fog-processing units are located in the room, the building, the campus and at the metro level. Further processing capabilities are provided by remote cloud sites. Two mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) models were proposed to numerically study networking and processing in OW systems. The first MILP model was developed and used to optimize resource allocation in the indoor OWC systems, in particular, the allocation of access points (APs) and wavelengths to users, while the second MILP model was developed to optimize the placement of processing tasks in the different fog and cloud nodes available. The optimization of tasks placement in the cloud/fog-integrated architecture was analysed using the MILP models. Multiple scenarios were considered where the mobile node locations were varied in the room and the amount of processing and data rate requested by each OW node was varied. The results help to identify the optimum colour and AP to use for communication for a given mobile node location and OWC system configuration, the optimum location to place processing and the impact of the network architecture

DNA vaccination with a gene encoding Toxoplasma gondii GRA6 induces partial protection against toxoplasmosis in BALB/c mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Infection with the protozoan <it>Toxoplasma gondii </it>causes serious public health problems and is of great economic importance worldwide. Protection from acute toxoplasmosis is known to be mediated by CD8+ T cells, but the <it>T. gondii </it>antigens and host genes required for eliciting protective immunity have been poorly defined. The <it>T. gondii </it>dense granule protein 6 (GRA6), recently proved to be highly immunogenic and produces fully immune protection in <it>T. gondii </it>infected BALB/c mice with an H-2L^dgene. The CD8+ T cell response of H-2L^dmice infected by the <it>T. gondii </it>strain seemed to target entirely to a single GRA6 peptide HF10-H-2L^dcomplex.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To determine whether a GRA6-based DNA vaccine can elicit protective immune responses to <it>T. gondii </it>in BALB/c mice, we constructed a eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.1-HisGRA6 and tested its immunogenicity in a mouse model. BALB/c mice were vaccinated intramuscularly with three doses of GRA6 DNA and then challenged with a lethal dose of <it>T. gondii </it>RH strain tachyzoites. All immunized mice developed high levels of serum anti-GRA6 IgG antibodies, and <it>in vitro </it>splenocyte proliferation was strongly enhanced in mice adjuvanted with levamisole (LMS). Immunization with pcDNA3.1-HisGRA6 with LMS resulted in 53.3% survival of challenged BALB/c mice as compared to 40% survival of BALB/c without LMS. Additionally, immunized Kunming mice without an allele of H-2L^dfailed to survive.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our result supports the concept that the acquired immune response is MHC restricted. This study has a major implication for vaccine designs using a single antigen in a population with diverse MHC class I alleles.</p

A Spotlight on the Egyptian Honeybee (Apis mellifera lamarckii)

Egypt has an ongoing long history with beekeeping, which started with the ancient Egyptians making various reliefs and inscriptions of beekeeping on their tombs and temples. The Egyptian honeybee (Apis mellifera lamarckii) is an authentic Egyptian honeybee subspecies utilized in apiculture. A. m. lamarckii is a distinct honeybee subspecies that has a particular body color, size, and high levels of hygienic behavior. Additionally, it has distinctive characteristics; including the presenceof the half-queens, an excessive number of swarm cells, high adaptability to climatic conditions, good resistance to specific bee diseases, including the Varro disorder, and continuous breeding during the whole year despite low productivity, using very little propolis, and tending to abscond readily. This review discusses the history of beekeeping in Egypt and its current situation in addition to its morphology, genetic analysis, and distinctive characters, and the defensive behaviors of native A. m.lamarckii subspecies.publishersversionPeer reviewe