Effect of Multimodal Integrative Interventions on Pain-Related Outcomes among Critically Ill Patients

Context: Pain, a persistent problem in critically ill patients, adversely affects outcomes. Despite recommendations, no evidence-based non-pharmacological approaches for pain treatment in critically ill patients have been found. Aim: To evaluate the effect of multimodal integrative interventions on pain-related outcomes among critically ill patients. Methods: A quasi-experimental design (pre / post-test) was utilized to fulfill the aim of this study. A convenience sample of sixty adult critically ill patients was recruited from the intensive care unit at Benha University Hospital affiliated to Benha University at Qualyubia Governorate, Egypt. Three tools were used to conduct this study as follows: Critically ill patients' assessment record; The Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool (CCPOT); The Groningen Sleep Quality Scale. Results: The results show decreased frequency of pain occurrence in the post intervention periods (75%) immediately post to 50% after 48 hours of intervention compared with pre-intervention (100%). The results show a highly statistically significant differences at p ≤0.001 between pre and post of intervention periods regarding the intensity of the pain mean score among studied patients. It also shows statistically significant differences with p-value ≤0.05 regarding all items of sleep quality immediately after and after 48 hours of intervention compared to pre-intervention, except related to having a deep sleep last night, and feel like a slept poorly last night with a p-value ≥0.05. There was a highly positive statistically significant correlation at p-value ≤ 0.001 between pain intensity and other secondary outcomes, including quality of sleep, blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate. Conclusion: Multimodal integrative interventions effectively decrease pain and improve pain-related outcomes among critically ill patients. Appropriate pain assessment must be partnered with an adequate, multimodal, evidence-based management strategy that incorporates both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic modalities of pain control

Effect of Cd Additive on the Hardness and Tensile Properties of Al-Mg-Si Alloy

The aim of this paper is to study the effect of adding Cd element to aluminum alloy series (6000) on the mechanical properties (hardness & ultimate tensile strength ) which have been studied  .A permanent  mold casting method was used for preparing the specimens of alloys by adding Cd at (0.1,0.3,0.5)% wt . to (Al-Mg-Si ) alloy. Heat treatment homogenous alloy ingots were carried out at (550ºC) for (24 hours) .These heat treatments for all specimens were conducted after cutting the ingots to the required dimensions ,solution heat treatment at (500ºC) for (1 hour) and then quenching in the water at room temperature. Then natural aging was carried out at room temperature for (90 days) ,whilst with in this period the hardness of alloys were measured at subsequent equal interval . The artificial aging for the prepared alloys was carried out, at (160and 180) ºC for an interval ranging between (5 mins. & 35 hours) .The Vickers  hardness and ultimate tensile strength were measured .The hardness and ultimate tensile strength of Cd alloys have relative improvements  by natural aging. Keywords: Cd element, (Al-Mg-Si ) alloy, homogenous, artificial& natural aging

Generating and Validating DSA Private Keys from Online Face Images for Digital Signatures

Signing digital documents is attracting more attention in recent years, according to the rapidly growing number of digital documents being exchanged online. The digital signature proves the authenticity of the document and the sender’s approval on the contents of the document. However, storing the private keys of users for digital signing imposes threats toward gaining unauthorized access, which can result in producing false signatures. Thus, in this paper, a novel approach is proposed to extract the private component of the key used to produce the digital signature from online face image. Hence, this private component is never stored in any database, so that, false signatures cannot be produced and the sender’s approval cannot be denied. The proposed method uses a convolutional neural network that is trained using a semi-supervised approach, so that, the values used for the training are extracted based on the predictions of the neural network. To avoid the need for training a complex neural network, the proposed neural network makes use of existing pretrained neural networks, that already have the knowledge about the distinctive features in the faces. The use of the MTCNN for face detection and Facenet for face recognition, in addition to the proposed neural network, to achieved the best performance. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using the Colored FERET Faces Database Version 2 and has achieved robustness rate of 13.48% and uniqueness of 100%

Nerium oleander L. as a Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals in Diyala Governorate – Iraq

The study samples were collected during the months of April and May 2022, samples were collected from different regions in Diyala Governorate – Iraq. The study aimed to assess the role of oleander plant in the phytoremediation  of heavy metals (lead , cadmium , arsenic and selenium)  within Diyala Governorate by estimating their concentration in the leaves of the plant and the soil on which it grows as well as calculating the bioaccumulation factor (BAF). Al-Muqdadiyah Industrial area was one of the most polluted areas with lead,  the highest concentration of lead appeared in the leaves of the oleander plant grown in this area, as well as the soil on which it grows (2.452 and 0.904 ) ppm respectively. The highest concentration of cadmium was recorded for oleander leaves in the old city of Baqubah (2.208ppm), while the highest concentration appeared in the soil on which it grows in the Al-Muqdadiyah Industrial area (0.363ppm). The Al-Muqdadiya industrial area also recorded the highest concentration of arsenic in the leaves of the oleander plant ( 0.559 ppm) ,but the highest concentration in the soil on which it grows was in the central city of Al-Muqdadiyah (0.218ppm) , followed by the industrial city off Al-Muqdadiyah.( 0.132ppm) . The highest concentration of selenium appeared in the industrial city of Al-Muqdadiya in both the leaves of the oleander plant and the soil on which it grows (0.441 and 0.104) ppm. The value of the bioaccumulation factor (BAF) shows the efficiency of the oleander plant in the phytoremediation of cadmium, followed by lead, arsenic and selenium in varying proportions. Keywords : Phytoremediation , Neium oleander , Heavy metals DOI: 10.7176/JEES/12-9-04 Publication date:September 30th 202

Monitoring Heavy and Trace Metals in Selected Children\u27s Food

High or low levels of essential and trace elements in foods typically eaten by child re n (potato chips, karate [a crispy puffed corn paste], biscuits and cakes) may cause significant health problems. In this study, the amounts of 13 elements (Ca, Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb and Zn) were estimated in samples collected from supermarkets in Aswan City, Upper Egypt. Food samples included, 28 kinds of potato chips, 44 kind of karate, 15 kind of biscuits and 13 kind of cakes. One hundred samples were analyzed. The results showed that potato chips have the highest level of Cu, K, Mg, Na, and Pb, but they have low level of Ca. On the other hand, karates have the highest Na concentrations. Also, biscuits and cakes have high Pb levels. It is strongly recommended that the food industry in Egypt pay more attention in supplying and in technological management of snack food products to avoid the exposure of children to dangerously high or low levels of elements

Attitude of Syrian students toward GAD patients: An online cross-sectional study

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a prevalent condition and a significant cause of mental disability and poor quality of life. People with GAD have chronic worrying, restlessness, and discrimination from the general public; Little is known about the stigmatizing attitudes toward people with GAD among Syrian students. The questionnaires contained demographic data about age, gender, social status, personal stigma toward GAD scale, perceived stigma toward GAD scale, social distance with those with GAD, the participants' usual source of their knowledge about GAD, helpful interventions, and supporting information. A total of 1,370 replies were collected, but only 1,358 were used for analysis as 12 participants declined to complete the survey. About 44.1% of participants agreed that people with GAD could snap out of the problem, most of them being females (32.4% of the total population). Compared to medical students, more non-medical students (7.1% of the total population) believed that anxiety is a sign of personal weakness. This study demonstrated that Syrian college students showed a high level of stigmatizing and socially distancing attitudes toward people with GAD, particularly female and non-medical students