FISH ACUTE TOXICITY TESTING OF LITSEA GARCIAE METHANOLIC EXTRACT IN ADULT ZEBRAFISH

Litsea garciae bark (LG) is currently used in Sarawak by locals to treat various diseases traditionally. However, there is no preliminary study conducted to evaluate the respective plant's acute toxicity up to the present time. The recent study's main objective was to determine the LG bark methanolic extract's acute toxicity in adult zebrafish.The research was approved by IIUM Animal Care and Use Committee (I-ACUC) from IIUM, IIUM/IACUC-2019(21). The raw LG bark underwent a successive maceration technique and freeze-dried. The methanolic extract was administered in a static system by immersion based on OECD Test Guideline No 203. The acute toxicity test implemented 96 hours of observation for any mortality or visible abnormalities related to the zebrafish's appearance and behaviors. As the results, the test group (limit 100mg/L) and the control group recorded zero mortality and no significant abnormalities. Hence, LC50 was not determined. In agreement, the present findings revealed the significance of relatively safe and less toxic methanolic extract of LG bark for further biomedical applications

Construction of an Arabic computerized battery for cognitive rehabilitation of children with specific learning disabilities

Wafaa MA Farghaly,1 Mohamed A Ahmed,1 Hamdy N El-Tallawy,1 Taha AH Elmestikawy,2 Reda Badry,1 Mohammed Sh Farghaly,3 Montaser S Omar,3 Amr Sayed Ramadan Hussein,4 Mohammed Salamah,5 Adel T Mohammed1 1Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 2Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 3Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 4Department of Hearing Disability, Faculty of Sciences of Special Needs, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt; 5Department of Phoniatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt Purpose: The aim of this study was to design an Arabic computerized battery of cognitive skills for training children with specific learning disabilities (SLD).Subjects and methods: Nineteen students from fourth grade primary schools in Assiut, Egypt, who were previously diagnosed with SLD, agreed to participate in the rehabilitation program. The study passed through four stages: first stage, detailed analysis of the cognitive profile of students with SLD (n=19), using a previously constructed diagnostic cognitive skill battery, to identify deficits in their cognitive skills; second stage, construction of an Arabic computerized battery for cognitive training of students with SLD; third stage, implementation of the constructed training program for the students, each tailored according to his/her previously diagnosed cognitive skill deficit/deficits; and fourth stage, post-training re-evaluation of academic achievement and cognitive skills’ performance.Results: Students with SLD have a wide range of cognitive skill deficits, which are more frequent in auditory cognitive skills (68.4%) than in visual cognitive skills (64.1%), particularly in phonological awareness and auditory sequential memory (78.9%). Following implementation of the training program, there was a statistically significant increase (P<0.001) in the mean scores of total auditory and visual cognitive skills, as well as in academic achievement (P<0.001) of the study group.Conclusion: Remediation-oriented diagnosis of cognitive skills, when tailored according to previously diagnosed cognitive deficits, leads to the improvement in learning abilities and academic achievement of students with SLD. Keywords: cognitive skills, learning disabilities, cognitive rehabilitation, computerized training, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphi