Simulation of ion behavior in an open three-dimensional Paul trap using a power series method

Simulations of the dynamics of ions trapped in a Paul trap with terms in the potential up to the order 10 have been carried out. The power series method is used to solve numerically the equations of motion of the ions. The stability diagram has been studied and the buffer gas cooling has been implemented by a Monte Carlo method. The dipole excitation was also included. The method has been applied to an existing trap and it has shown good agreement with the experimental results and previous simulations using other methods

Isolation and Genetic Characterization of Rift Valley fever virus from Aedes vexans arabiensis, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

An outbreak of Rift Valley fever in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 2000 was the first recognized occurrence of the illness outside of Africa and Madagascar. An assessment of potential mosquito vectors in the region yielded an isolate from Aedes vexans arabiensis, most closely related to strains from Madagascar (1991) and Kenya (1997)

Access and utilisation of primary health care services comparing urban and rural areas of Riyadh Providence, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has seen an increase in chronic diseases. International evidence suggests that early intervention is the best approach to reduce the burden of chronic disease. However, the limited research available suggests that health care access remains unequal, with rural populations having the poorest access to and utilisation of primary health care centres and, consequently, the poorest health outcomes. This study aimed to examine the factors influencing the access to and utilisation of primary health care centres in urban and rural areas of Riyadh province of the KSA

Surfing the PHOME for Novel Anti-Platelet Agents: Empirical Evaluation of a Bioinformatic Drug Re-Purposing Algorithm

Background: The PHOME (PHarmacology + proteOME) is a drug re-purposing algorithm that exploits large publicly available datasets to identify novel drug/target interactions in platelets. The PHOME integrates pharmacological, proteomic, tissue expression and gene function data into interaction networks. Aims: (1) To use the PHOME to rank known compounds according to their ability to modulate platelet function. (2) To use in vitro platelet testing to evaluate the predictive effectiveness of the PHOME in identifying compounds with platelet modulatory actions. Methods: 1. Drug Selection using the PHOME: A platelet protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using the Gene Expression Atlas (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/gxa/home) and STRING (https://string-db.org/) databases, with drug/target annotations from STITCH (http://stitch.embl.de/). We scored drug effects in the Platelet-PPI-Network generating outputs for 553 well-known and/or clinically used compounds. Lower P values (Wilcoxon rank-sum test) predict effects on collagen binding (GO:0005518), platelet activation (GO:0030168) and platelet aggregation (GO:0070527). Ten compounds scored P=1 in each GO category and were selected for testing as controls. Ten compounds were selected randomly from 37 that scored P=0 in each category. 2. Drug Evaluation: These 20 drugs were assigned ID codes to remove operator bias. Human washed platelets were pre-incubated with the 20 drugs at 100 µM or 4 vehicle controls. Collagen (1 µg/ml)-induced aggregation and static adhesion to collagen, collagen-related peptide (CRP) and fibrinogen were measured. Results: 5/10 P=1 drugs substantially inhibited aggregation and 5/10 had no discernible effect. 6/10 P=0 drugs inhibited aggregation and 4/10 did not. 3/10 P=1 drugs reduced adhesion to collagen, 1/10 to CRP and 2/10 to fibrinogen. For the P=0 drugs, the equivalent results were 1/10, 0/10 and 1/10. Conclusion(s): These data suggest that the PHOME does not effectively predict drugs that modify platelet function, although 11 compounds displayed inhibitory actions. Scrutiny of database entries may suggest novel hypotheses about platelet function and enable algorithm optimisation