Evaluation of Amygdalin (B17) and Cucurbita pepo (Pumpkin seed) Activity Against Blastocystis from Diarrheic Patients in Baghdad, Iraq: in Vitro Study

تعد المتبرعمة الكيسية من الطفيليات الواسعة الانتشار في الجهاز الهظمي البشري والحيواني.يعتبر الميترونيدازول الدواء الاساسي لعلاج عدوى المتبرعمة الكيسية .ومع ذلك , كان هناك دليل متزايد على فشل العلاج والاثار الجانبية الخطرة وحدوث سلالات مقاومة للميترونيدازول.شاركت العديد من الدراسات في الفترة الاخيرة في البحث عن علاجات بديلة لعدوى المتبرعمة الكيسية , وخاصة دراسة العلاجات الطبية.تم توليد قدر كبير من الاهتمام حول دور أميغدالين B17 وبذور اليقطين في القضاء على الالتهابات الطفيلية. قٌدمت هذه الدراسة للتحقق في فعالية أثنين من المركبات الطبيعية في المختبر أمغدالين B17 وبذور اليقطين ضد المتبرعمة الكيسية المعزولة من مرضى يعانون من أعراض مرضية , في الحضانة المختبرية للطفيلي تم حساب  B17 (200, 400 ميكروغرام/لتر), بذور اليقطين (200, 400 ميكروغرام/لتر) و الميترونيدازول (100, 150 ميكروغرام/لتر) في فترات زمنية مختلفة (ساعة ،ساعتان،اربع وعشرون ساعة ،ثمان واربعون ساعة).تم تقيم التغيرات المورفولوجية بأستخدام المجهر الضوئي.كانت المتبرعمة الكيسية المعزولة من المرضى الذين يعانون من أعراض مرضية من النمط الجيني الاول وظهر التأثير النوعي للأمغدالين B17و بذور اليقطين عند p<0.05 في تثبيط نموالمتبرعمة الكيسية مختبرياً.أظهرت هذه النتائج الاثارالعلاجية المحتملة للأمغدالين B17 وبذوراليقطين ضد داء المتبرعمة الكيسية كبدائل طبيعية , أمنة وفعّالة.Blastocystis is a ubiquitous human and animal protozoa that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract. Metronidazole is considered the standard drug for the treatment of Blastocystis infection; however, there is growing evidence of treatment failure, hazardous side effects, and appearance of strains resistant to metronidazole. In the last era, many studies have been implicated in the quest for new treatments for Blastocystis infection, especially natural products. Attention has been focused on the effect of Amygdalin (B17) and pumpkin seed on eradicating parasitic infections. The current work was built up to explore the in vitro efficacy of two natural compounds, Amygdalin (B17) and pumpkin seeds against Blastocystis isolated from symptomatic patients. In vitro incubation of the parasite with B17 (200, 400µgmL¯¹), pumpkin seed (200, 400 µgmL¯¹) and metronidazole (100, 150µgmL¯¹) was counted at different periods (one, two, twenty-four and forty-eight hours) and morphological changes were evaluated using Light Microscope. Blastocystis detected from patients with symptoms was subtype 1. The B 17 and pumpkin seed demonstrated statistically significant (p<0.05) growth reduction of Blastocystis in culture. Such results showed the possible therapeutic effects of B 17 and pumpkin seed against blastocystosis as effective safe natural alternatives

Clinical applications of EEG power spectra aperiodic component analysis: A mini-review

Objective: The present mini-review summarizes recent clinical findings related to the analysis of the aperiodic component of EEG (electroencephalographic) power spectra, making them quickly accessible to medical specialists and health researchers, with the aim of boosting related research. Methods: Based on our experience about clinicians’ literature-searching, we queried the PubMed database with terms related to EEG power spectra aperiodic component analysis and selected clinical studies that referenced such terms in the title/abstract, and were published in the last five years. Results: A total of 11 journal articles, dealing with 9 different neurologic and psychiatric conditions published between 1st January 2016 – April 1st 2021, were surveyed. Conclusions: All the reviewed studies focused on exploring the pathophysiological significance of the aperiodic component and its correlation with disease presence, stage, and severity. Despite the heterogeneity of pathologies, it was possible to cluster most of them according to the mechanism underlying slope alterations, namely hypo-/hyper-excitability. It was also possible to identify some counterintuitive findings, probably related to compensation mechanisms of disease-specific neurophysiological alterations. Significance: All the findings seem to support the role of the aperiodic activity as index of excitation/inhibition balance, with promising clinical applications that might challenge the traditional approach to pathologies diagnosis/treatment/follow-up

Cognitive Impairment and Age-Related Vision Disorders: Their Possible Relationship and the Evaluation of the Use of Aspirin and Statins in a 65 Years-and-Over Sardinian Population

Neurological disorders (Alzheimer’s disease, vascular and mixed dementia) and visual loss (cataract, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy) are among the most common conditions that afflict people of at least 65 years of age. An increasing body of evidence is emerging, which demonstrates that memory and vision impairment are closely, significantly, and positively linked and that statins and aspirin may lessen the risk of developing age-related visual and neurological problems. However, clinical studies have produced contradictory results. Thus, the intent of the present study was to reliably establish whether a relationship exist between various types of dementia and age-related vision disorders, and to establish whether statins and aspirin may or may not have beneficial effects on these two types of disorders. We found that participants with dementia and/or vision problems were more likely to be depressed and displayed worse functional ability in basic and instrumental activities of daily living than controls. Mini mental state examination scores were significantly lower in patients with vision disorders compared to subjects without vision disorders. A closer association with macular degeneration was found in subjects with Alzheimer’s disease than in subjects without dementia or with vascular dementia, mixed dementia, or other types of age-related vision disorders. When we considered the associations between different types of dementia and vision disorders and the use of statins and aspirin, we found a significant positive association between Alzheimer’s disease and statins on their own or in combination with aspirin, indicating that these two drugs do not appear to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease or improve its clinical evolution and may, on the contrary, favor its development. No significant association in statin use alone, aspirin use alone, or the combination of these was found in subjects without vision disorders but with dementia, and, similarly, none in subjects with vision disorders but without dementia. Overall, these results confirm the general impression so far; namely, that macular degeneration may contribute to cognitive disorders (Alzheimer’s disease in particular). In addition, they also suggest that, while statin and aspirin use may undoubtedly have some protective effects, they do not appear to be magic pills against the development of cognitive impairment or vision disorders in the elderly

ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DISTANCE LEARNING MODE IN THE PREPARATION OF TEACHERS IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION, NIGERIA

Distance learning education has been considered as a viable tool which not only helps in solving the problem of shortage of teachers but also the high attrition rates that is often associated with study leave. It was believed that distance education has the capacity to prepare qualified teachers just as the face-to-face education mode. However, there seem to be gaps between the objectives establishing distance education and their realization. The obvious indicators to this fact are the unqualified teachers who cannot express themselves in the classroom. The study explored the factors affecting the effectiveness of distance learning mode in the preparation of teachers in Colleges of Education, Nigeria. The researcher constructed 30 questionnaire items from the literature relevant to the study.  The questionnaire yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.83. A total of 151 questionnaires were administered on 38 and 113 lecturers and students of College of Education, Minna and Mokwa study centers.  All the questionnaires were completed and retrieved. The study revealed that all the constructs constituted factors affecting the effectiveness of the distance learning mode of education in the preparation of teachers in Colleges of Education in Nigeria.  It was concluded that the nation will continue to be in dire need of adequate qualified teachers if the factors affecting the effectiveness of the program are not eliminated. It was recommended among others that institutions establishing distance learning programs should ensure that the needed facilities for the effective running of the program are properly put in place. Facilities such as; technologies that will create an interactive learning environment even at a distance

Inflationary Universe in Deformed Phase Space Scenario

We consider a noncommutative (NC) inflationary model with a homogeneous scalar field minimally coupled to gravity. The particular NC inflationary setting produces entirely new consequences. We first analyze the free field case and subsequently examine the situation where the scalar field is subjected to a polynomial and exponential potentials. We propose to use a canonical deformation between momenta, in a spatially flat FLRW universe, and while the Friedmann equation remains unaffected the Friedmann acceleration equation (and thus the Klein-Gordon equation) is modified by an extra term linear in the NC parameter. This concrete noncommutativity on the momenta allows interesting dynamics that other NC models seem not to allow. Let us be more precise. This extra term behaves as the sole explicit pressure that under the right circumstances implies a period of accelerated expansion of the universe. We find that in the absence of the scalar field potential, and in contrast with the commutative case, in which the scale factor always decelerates, we obtain an inflationary phase for small negative values of the NC parameter. Subsequently, the period of accelerated expansion is smoothly replaced by an appropriate deceleration phase providing an interesting model regarding the graceful exit problem in inflationary models. Moreover, in the case of the free scalar field, we show that not only the horizon problem is solved but also there is some resemblance between the evolution equation of the scale factor associated to our model and that for the $R^2$ (Starobinsky) inflationary model. Therefore, our herein NC model not only can be taken as an appropriate scenario to get a successful kinetic inflation, but also is a convenient setting to obtain inflationary universe possessing the graceful exit when scalar field potentials are present.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, Accepted to publish in Annals of Physic

Zahmah social force model for pedestrian movement

The Social Force Model is one of the well-known approaches that could successfully simulate pedestrian’s movement realistically. However, it is not suitable to simulate a complex pedestrian movement. Hence, this research proposed a novel model which improved the Social Force Model for simulating high density crowd such as Tawaf. Tawaf is an Islamic ritual, which requires agents to encircle the Kaabah. This ritual has been complex yet unique, due to its capacity, density, and various demographic backgrounds of the agents. A certain set of rules that must be followed by each agent, which introduces anomalies in the flow around the Kaabah. The agents also will be assigned with unique attributes such as; gender, walking speed and intention outlook to make the simulations more realistic. The findings of this research will contribute to the simulation activities of pedestrians in a highly dense population

Long Phase Coherence Time and Number Squeezing of two Bose-Einstein Condensates on an Atom Chip

We measured the relative phase of two Bose-Einstein condensates confined in an radio frequency induced double well potential on an atom chip. We observed phase coherence between the separated condensates for times up to 200 ms after splitting, a factor of 10 beyond the phase diffusion limit expected for a coherent state in our experimental conditions (20 ms). The enhanced coherence time is attributed to number squeezing of the initial state by a factor of 10. In addition, we demonstrated a rotationally sensitive (Sagnac) geometry for a guided atom interferometer by propagating the split condensates.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure