Does folic acid reduce congenital anomalies and adverse pregnancy outcomes in women received long-term low dose methotrexate?

Background: Methotrexate (MTX) which is folic acid antagonist is used to treat many diseases, including rheumatic, inflammatory, autoimmune disorders or malignancies; it is also used for the medical treatment of ectopic pregnancy and termination of pregnancy. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of folic acid in preventing congenital anomalies (CAs) in the fetus of pregnant that take long-term low dose methotrexate.Methods: The study included 1569 with history of low dose methotrexate therapy <25 mg/week that stopped one month before pregnancy, they were divided into 3 groups; Group 1 comprised 272 pregnant women, Group 2 comprised 367 pregnant women both groups take folic acid 4-5 weeks preconception and for the first 12-13 weeks gestation, the dose in the 1st group was 0.4 mg/day while in 2nd Group 4 mg/day, Group 3 comprised of 930 pregnant disease-matched with no folic acid. Group 4 comprised of 1015 pregnant no underlying autoimmune and no folic acid intake.Results: The overall rate of CAs and cardiovascular CAs were higher in fetuses of Group 3 (OR: 1.7; 95% CI: 1.1-2.7) and (OR: 2.7; 95% CI: 1.4-5.2) respectively compared to the overall rate of CAs and cardiovascular CAs in other groups. Other adverse outcomes as abortion, preterm delivery, preeclampsia, placenta abruption, PROM, low birth weight, admission to NICU, IUGR and IUFD were higher in Group 3 and 4 than in Group 1 and 2. There were no significant differences in umbilical arterial PH. The Apgar scores <7 at 1, 5 min and gestational age at delivery were higher in Group 1 and 2 than Group 3 and 4.Conclusions: There was a certain reduction in methotrexate teratogenic effect on the fetuses with folic acid intake during pregnancy, these pregnancies might benefit from taking of folic acid in high doses before conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy and improvement in fetal and maternal outcomes but the explanation of this effect requires further study

Innovative industrial Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin film solar cell with high characterization using nanoparticles structure

This paper presents new design of ZnO/CdS/CIGS/Mo nanocomposites thin film solar cell based on individual and multiple nanocomposites absorber layer. A theoretical analysis is presented for enhancing the efficiency and characterization of individual and multiple nanocomposites CdS/Cu (In, Ga) Se2 thin film solar cell. Moreover, this paper is achieving high efficiency with a thinner CIGS layer for reducing the direct materials usage and there by the materials costs by adding various metallic nanoparticles in CIGS absorber layer

Detection of Aflatoxins and Ochratoxins in Broiler and their feed in Khartoum State

This study was conducted in Khartoum state to investigate the occurrence of aflatoxin and ochratoxin in broiler feed stuff (finished ration, groundnut seed and sorghum or maize) and detected their residues in target organs (liver for aflatoxin and kidney for ochratoxin). Thirty- six samples of feed stuff, 90 livers samples and 90 kidneys samples were randomly collected from 9 farms. The feed stuff was extracted and the mycotoxins weredetected using HPLC techniques and ELISA test.Aflatoxin was detected in all feed stuff sample examined (36). The meanconcentration of which in total fresh prepared finished ration samples (9) was 38ppb when detected by HPLC and 35 ppb using ELISA test. In contrast the mean concentration in stored finished ration samples (9) the mean concentration was 71ppb when using HPLC and 55ppb when ELISA was used. In ground nut seedsamples (9) a mean concentration was 38ppb when detected by HPLC and a mean of 93.13ppb when ELISA was used. In sorghum the mean concentration was 14 ppb and 0.37ppb when detected by HPLC and ELISA respectively. In maize the mean concentration was 92ppb and 37ppb when detected by HPLC and ELISA respectively. The mean concentration of ochratoxin in total fresh prepared finished ration samples (9) was 0.78ppb when detected by HPLCand 0.71 ppb using ELISA test. In stored finished ration samples (9) the mean concentration was 0.24ppb when using HPLC and 0.77ppb when ELISA was used. In ground nut seed samples (9), the mean concentration was 0.48ppbwhen detected by HPLC 1.3ppb when ELISA was used. In sorghum the mean concentration was 3ppb and 1.5ppb when detected by HPLC and ELISA, respectively. In maize the mean concentration was 2.5ppb and 2.12ppb when detected by HPLC and ELISA respectively. The toxin in liver and kidney were extracted and detected by ELISA test. Sixty –four livers out of ninety examined were positive for aflatoxins residues, with a mean concentration between 0.14ppb and 1.73ppb . xii Eighty – six kidneys out of ninety kidney samples examined were positive for ochratoxin residues with a mean concentration between o.49ppb and 3.03ppb. The macroscopic change revealed wideareas of congestion, paleness, and necrosis and grease ness in affected livers. The affected kidney showed area of congestion, haemorrhage, paleness, enlargement and necrosis

A Comparative Study of Children's Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding COVID-19 at Secondary Schools

Background: Novel coronavirus-2019 is a highly infectious disease that caused a global pandemic around the world. The aim of this study was to compare the knowledge, attitude, and practice of secondary school children toward COVID-19 in Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Design: A comparative cross-sectional research was utilized in the present study among secondary school children and conducted from January to April 2021. Settings: The research was conducted on secondary school children at Menoufia Governorate, Egypt, and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Sample: All available students of secondary school children (200) were included in the study. A structured online self-reported questionnaire sheet was used to assess children’s knowledge, attitude, and practice about COVID-19. Results: It was shown that the mean ± SD of age for Egyptian children were 15±.96 and the majority of them (63%) were female, while the mean ± SD for Saudi Arabian children were 16±1.5 and the entire sample was female (100%). Conclusion: The majority of Egyptian and Saudi children had correct knowledge and a positive attitude however; there was incompetent practice toward the prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, there were statistically significant differences among both groups concerning COVID-19. Recommendation: Awareness educational programs should be implemented on a regular basis to foster a positive attitude and good practice toward preventive measures of COVID-19. Keywords:Children, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, and COVID-19. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/95-01 Publication date: November 30th 202

Improvement Optical and Electrical Characteristics of Thin Film Solar Cells Using Nanotechnology Techniques

This work presents a theoretical study for the distribution of nanocomposite structure of plasmonic thin-film solar cells through the absorber layers. It can be reduced the material consumption and the cost of solar cell. Adding nanometallic fillers in the absorber layer has been improved optical, electrical characteristics and efficiency of traditional thin film solar cells (ITO /CdS/PbS/Al and SnO2/CdS/CdTe/Cu) models that using sub micro absorber layer.  Also, this paper explains analysis of J-V, P-V and external quantum efficiency characteristics for nanocomposites thin film solar cell performance. Also, this paper presents the effect of increasing the concentration of nanofillers on the absorption, energy band gap and electron-hole generation rate of absorber layers and the effect of volume fraction on the energy conversion efficiency, fill factor, space charge region of the nanocomposites solar cells.

Corrected qt interval in normal egyptian neonates: Comparison to corrected qt interval of other ethnic groups

Long QT syndromes (LQTs) is a familial cardiovascular disorder characterized by abnormal cardiac repolarization and sudden death from ventricular fibrillation Possible acquisition of standardized neonatal screening method to identify children with (LQTs) has led to interest in establishing normal values for neonatal QT intervals.Aim of the workto compare corrected QT interval in normal Egyptian neonates to published values of other ethnic groups.Subjects and methodsThis cross sectional study was conducted on neonates following up in Children’s Hospital Ain Shams University, with post natal ages ranging from 8 to 28days (mean 13.91±3.97days). They were subjected to: history taking, clinical examination, Echocardiography and 12 lead ECG assessment of corrected QT interval using Bazetts formula Results: Cut off point of LQTc was >0.44s, while that of short QTc was< 0.29s significant increase in mean QTc values and LQTc %was found in upper Egypt than Delta (p 0.026, 0.01). Eighty five percent of neonates had normal QTc (0.300–0.450s), 9% had LQTc (>0.45s) and 6% had short QTc (<0.300s) significant increase in short QTc was found in PT than FT while significant increase in LQTc was found in FT (P=0.020, 0.019).ConclusionCut off point was >0.44s for LQTc and < 0.29s for short QTc in studied Egyptian neonates A higher percentage of patients with LQTc was found in Upper Egypt than Delta, and in FT than PT. Higher percentage of SQTc was found in PT than FT. Further studies are needed to confirm our results

Correlation of polycystic ovary syndrome and recurrent miscarriage

Background: Numerous studies have investigated the association between polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and recurrent miscarriage (RM). Increased rates of PCOS have been reported for women with RM. However, the actual prevalence is controversially discussed by the scientific community and remains unclear, since a wide range of rates from 8–82% can be found in the literature. Objective: To assess the relation between polycystic ovary syndrome and recurrent miscarriage and to evaluate the prevalence of polycystic ovarian syndrome within the recurrent miscarriage population. Patients and method: It is a cross sectional conducted at the infertility clinic in the outpatient department of University Hospital from March 2019 to March 2020. Patient sample was 47 participant. Hormonal profile FSH, LH, TSH, TSH, assessment of glycemic status and insulin resistance and ultrasonography for diagnosis of polycystic ovaries were done to every patients. Result: There was high statistically significant relation between the PCO and total number of follicles, number of follicles ≥ 18 mm and endometrial thickness. There was high statistically significant relation between the PCO and testosterone hormones and statistically significant relation between the PCO and FSH and LH. There was no statistically significant relation between the PCO and insulin resistance. Conclusion: In this study we concluded that the prevalence of PCOS seems slightly increased in women with recurrent miscarriage, PCOS on the other hand showed a rather high prevalence compared to the general population

CLUSTERING SURGEMES USING PROTOTYPES FROM ROBOTIC KINEMATIC INFORMATION

Training a surgeon to be skilled and competent to perform a given surgical procedure is essential in providing a high quality of care and reducing the risk of complications. However, existing training techniques limit us from conducting in-depth analyses of surgical motions to evaluate these skills accurately. We develop a method to identify the gestures by applying unsupervised methods to cluster the surgical activities learned directly from raw kinematic data. We design an unsupervised method to determine the surgical motions in a Suturing procedure based on predefined surgical gestures. The first step is to find the prototypes by clustering the surgemes of the expert surgeon from all the same expert trials. Then, we map the other surgeons surgemes to the nearest representative of the prototypes and report the clustering accuracy by employing the rand index technique. We utilize four techniques in our proposed unsupervised approach for gesture clustering based on Hierarchical and FCM algorithms. In addition, we highlight the advantages of representing time series data before clustering in terms of computation time saving and system complexity reduction, respectively

Effectiveness of tranexamic acid in preventing postpartum

Background: Caesarean section delivery is associated with severe maternal morbidity, including obstetric haemorrhage, hysterectomy, anaemia, blood transfusion, and infection. Among these operative morbidities associated with CS, obstetric haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide.Objective: The aim of this work was to achieve the minimal blood loss during elective cesarean section (CS) in order to decrease patients' morbidity by using tranexamic acid (TXA) injection before operation time.Patients and Methods: The current study was randomized-controlled clinical trial that was conducted at Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Zagazig University Hospitals through the period from April 2021 to September 2022.Results: The mean of blood loss during CS in tranexamic acid intervention group was 484.87 cc and mean of blood loss during CS in control group was 705 cc. The difference was highly statistically significant p=0.0001. Per cent of blood loss was 37% more among control group.Conclusions. Tranexamic acid is a good option to reduce the amount of blood loss during CS on high risk pregnancy