Search results for: Nouf Al Harthi

Authors: Nouf Al Harthi

Abstract:

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is one of the most common causes of hospital-related deaths in critically ill patients. Guidelines recommended VTE prophylaxis with standardized, fixed doses for most patients. The underweight population has limited data to guide the appropriate drug and dosing regimen. The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of VTE prophylaxis dose regimens for underweighted critically ill adult patients and the prevalence of associated VTE and bleeding. This study is a retrospective cohort study, conducted in King Abdulaziz Medical City, Saudi Arabia. It included all critical patients admitted to the intensive care units and were above 14 years old with weight less than 50 kg or BMI of 18.5 kg/m2 or less and were on heparin as VTE prophylaxis for more than 72 hours from January 2016 until January 2020. After screening 270 patients, only 40 patients were included in this study according to our inclusion and exclusion criteria. Only 6 patients (15%) received VTE prophylaxis as an adjusted dose of heparin 2500 U Q12, while the rest of the patients were taking standard dosing of heparin, 5000 U Q12 was given to 21 (52.50%) patients and 5000 U Q8 was given to 13 (32.50%) patients. None of the adjusted doses developed any complications such as VTE or bleeding. There was no significant difference compared with the standard dose group. This study focused on describing the pattern of heparin doses as VTE prophylaxis in underweight patients. We also compared the standard dosing and adjusted dosage of VTE prophylaxis on underweight patients and any complications. There was no significant difference in the complication’s outcome or benefits between the two groups.

Keywords: venous thromboembolism prophylaxis, heparin, underweight patients, adult, critical care units

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Authors: Nouf Nasser, Nada Alotaibi, Jazzal Kandiel

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This research study is about the use of artificial intelligence in PhotoRoom. When an individual selects a photo, PhotoRoom automagically removes or separates the background from other parts of the photo through the use of artificial intelligence. This will allow an individual to select their desired background and edit it as they wish. The methodology used was an observation, where various reviews and parts of the app were observed. The review section's findings showed that many people actually like the app, and some even rated it five stars. The conclusion was that PhotoRoom is one of the best photo editing apps due to its speed and accuracy in removing backgrounds.

Keywords: removing background, app, artificial intelligence, machine learning

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Authors: Nouf Alharbi

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The electrospray deposition technique became an important method that enables fragile, nonvolatile molecules to be deposited in situ in high vacuum environments. Furthermore, it is considered one of the ways to close the gap between basic surface science and molecular engineering, which represents a gradual change in the range of scientist research. Also, this paper talked about one of the most important techniques that have been developed and aimed for helping to further develop and characterize the electrospray by providing data collected using an image charge detection instrument. Image charge detection mass spectrometry (CDMS) is used to measure speed and charge distributions of the molecular ions. As well as, some data has been included using SIMION simulation to simulate the energies and masses of the molecular ions through the system in order to refine the mass-selection process.

Keywords: charge, deposition, electrospray, image, ions, molecules, SIMION

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Authors: Tanya Beran, Michelle Drefs, Ghazwan Altabbaa, Nouf Al Harbi, Noof Al Baz, Elizabeth Oddone Paolucci

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Although research shows that interprofessional practice has desirable effects on patient care, its implementation can present challenges to its team members. In particular, they may feel pressured to agree with or conform to other members who share information that is contrary to their own understanding. Obtaining evidence of this phenomenon is challenging, as team members may underreport their conformity behaviors due to reasons such as social desirability. In this paper, a series of studies are reviewed in which several approaches to assessing conformity in the health care professions are tested. Simulations, questionnaires, and behavior checklists were developed to measure conformity behaviors. Insights from these studies show that a significant proportion of people conform either in the presence or absence of others, express a variety of verbal and nonverbal behaviors when considering whether to conform to others, may shift between conforming and moments later not conforming (and vice versa), and may not accurately report whether they conformed. A new method of measuring conformity using the implicit bias test is also discussed. People at all levels in the healthcare system are encouraged to develop both formal and informal.

Keywords: conformity, decision-making, inter-professional teams, simulation

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Authors: Nouf A. Aldarmahi, Nesrin I. Tarbiah, Nuha A. Alkhattabi, Huda F. Alshaibi

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Nigella sativa which is known as dark cumin is a well-known example for a widely applicable herbal medicine. Nigella sativa can be effective in a variety of diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, bronchitis, gastrointestinal upset, and cancer. The anticancer effect of Nigella sativa appeared to be mediated by immune-modulatory effect through stimulating human natural killer (NK) cells. This is a type of lymphocytes which is part of the innate immunity, also known as the first line of defense in the body against pathogens. This study investigated the effect of thymoquinone as a major component of Nigella sativa on the molecular cytotoxic pathway of NK cell and the role of thymoquinone therapeutic effect on NK cells. NK cells were cultured with breast tumor cells in different ways and cultured media was collected and the concentration of perforin, granzyme B and interferon-α were measured by ELISA. The cytotoxic effect of NK cells on breast tumor cells was enhanced in the presence of thymoquinone, with increased activity of perforin in NK cells. This improved anticancer effect of thymoquinone on breast cancer cells.

Keywords: breast cancer, cancer cells, natural killer cells, thymoquinone

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Authors: Ali S. Al-Aufi, Ibrahim S. Al-Harthi, Yousuf S. AlHinai, Ali H.S. Al-Badi, Zahran S. Al-Salti

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Social media tools have currently been leading a major change in the flow and use of information for different life aspects within people and between people and their governments. They represent powerful channels for direct exchanges of information, ideas, and suggestions for purposes of civic participation. The current study aims at investigating Omani citizens’ perceptions, expectations, and motivations of their uses of social media tools to interact with the government for civic participation. A quantitative methodology was used to collect data through self-administered questionnaires from a random sample of university students and staff drawn from Sultan Qaboos University, considering them as well-informed and typically active users of social media. The literature was comprehensively reviewed to retrieve relevant empirical studies that particularly investigated the use of social media for civic engagement which provided a basis for the construct of the questionnaire; taken into consideration the delineated dimensions of perceptions, expectations, and motivations. The findings of the study offer practical and useful recommendations for governmental units in Oman and similar contexts in the region to inform better and efficient use of social media tools to interact with citizens in issues related to civic engagement; particularly to make best use of these tools for improving services and developing existing and newer initiatives, and hence, encouraging and strengthening citizens’ involvement for civic engagement.

Keywords: social media, social networking sites, web 2.0, civic engagement, civic participation, oman

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Authors: Nouf Alourfi

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This study examines the metabolism of amitriptyline (AMI) and verapamil (VER) using a KNIME-based method. KNIME improved workflow is an open-source data-analytics platform that integrates a number of open-source metabolomics tools such as CFMID and MetFrag to provide standard data visualisations, predict candidate metabolites, assess them against experimental data, and produce reports on identified metabolites. The use of this workflow is demonstrated by employing three types of liver microsomes (human, rat, and Guinea pig) to study the in vitro metabolism of the two drugs (AMI and VER). This workflow is used to create and treat UPLC-MS (Orbitrap) data. The formulas and structures of these drugs' metabolites can be assigned automatically. The key metabolic routes for amitriptyline are hydroxylation, N-dealkylation, N-oxidation, and conjugation, while N-demethylation, O-demethylation and N-dealkylation, and conjugation are the primary metabolic routes for verapamil. The identified metabolites are compatible to the published, clarifying the solidity of the workflow technique and the usage of computational tools like KNIME in supporting the integration and interoperability of emerging novel software packages in the metabolomics area.

Keywords: KNIME, CFMID, MetFrag, Data Analysis, Metabolomics

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Authors: Laila Seada, Nouf Al Gharbi, Shaimaa Dawa

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Although skin cancers are prevalent worldwide, it is uncommon in Ha’il region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, mostly non-melanoma sub-type. During a 4-year period from 2014 to 2017, out of a total of 120 cases of skin lesions, 29 non-melanoma cancers were retrieved from histopathology files obtained from King Khalid Hospital. As part of the study, all cases of skin cancer diagnosed during 2014 -2017 have been revised and the clinicopathological data recorded. The results show that Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) was the most common neoplasm (36%), followed by cutaneous lymphomas (mostly mycosis fungoides 25%), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (21%) and dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) (11%). Only one case of metastatic carcinoma was recorded. BCC nodular type was the most prevalent, with a mean age 57.6 years and mean size 2.73 cm. SCC was mostly grade 2, with mean size 1.9 cm and an older mean age of 72.3 cm. Increased size of lesion positively correlated with older age (p = 0.001). Non-melanoma skin cancer in Ha’il region is not frequently encountered. BCC is the most frequent followed by cutaneous T-cell lymphomas and SCC. The findings in this study were in accordance with other parts of, but much lower than other parts of the world.

Keywords: non melanoma skin cancer, Hail Region, histopathology, BCC

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Authors: Alaa A. Al-Harthi, Abdulrahman S. Bageis, Bingunath Ingirige

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Poor levels of performance and low productivity were highlighted by many previous studies as a major cause of failure in the Saudi construction industry. This paper provides recommendations to address key external indicators that led to poor levels of performance and low productivity in Engineering and Technical Departments (ETDs) within the Saudi governmental agencies. The ETDs are client’s representative on behalf of the Saudi Ministries. This paper represents a part of an investigation which contained external and internal challenges that led to occurrence of the research problem. The paper is focusing on the external challenges which contain 14 indicators. These 14 external indicators had been examined carefully through comprehensive review of the literature then have been tested through quantitative and qualitative methods. 400 questionnaires were distributed to dozens of different bodies. The actual response rate was 47% completed responses. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior practitioners from the Public Construction Sector. The finding showed that the 14 external indicators directly and/or indirectly influence the Public Construction Sector. It was noticed significantly that these indicators have prevented the ETDs from performing properly. It was also found that the 14 external indicators were constant with all kinds of Government Construction Projects in the Saudi context. Addressing the 14 external indicators requires to be planned over the long run which is responsible by relevant Saudi governmental authorities under the umbrella of the Saudi Council of Ministers. The study recommends that Project Management Office (PMO) should be considered in order to improve the performance of the ETDs.

Keywords: construction projects' performance, low engineering productivity, public construction sector

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Authors: Nouf M. Al-Ourfi, A. S. Bashammakh, M. S. El-Shahawi

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The redox behavior of dianabol steroid (DS) on Nafion Multiwalled Carbon nano -tubes (MWCNT) composite film modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) in various buffer solutions was studied using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse- adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry (DP-CSV) and successfully compared with the results at non modified bare GCE. The Nafion-MWCNT composite film modified GCE exhibited the best electrochemical response among the two electrodes for the electro reduction of DS that was inferred from the EIS, CV and DP-CSV. The modified sensor showed a sensitive, stable and linear response in the concentration range of 5 – 100 nM with a detection limit of 0.08 nM. The selectivity of the proposed sensor was assessed in the presence of high concentration of major interfering species. The analytical application of the sensor for the quantification of DS in pharmaceutical formulations and biological fluids (urine) was determined and the results demonstrated acceptable recovery and RSD of 5%. Statistical treatment of the results of the proposed method revealed no significant differences in the accuracy and precision. The relative standard deviations for five measurements of 50 and 300 ng mL−1 of DS were 3.9 % and 1.0 %, respectively.

Keywords: dianabol steroid, determination, modified GCE, urine

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Authors: Ghaleb Bin Huraib, Fahad Al Harthi, Misbahul Arfin, Abdulrahman Al-Asmari

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Atopic dermatitis (AD), also known as atopic eczema, is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by severe itching and recurrent relapsing eczema-like skin lesions, affecting up to 20% of children and 10% of adults in industrialized countries. AD is a complex multifactorial disease, and its exact etiology and pathogenesis have not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of gene polymorphisms of T helper cell subtype Th1 and Th2 cytokines, interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1on AD susceptibility in a Saudi cohort. One hundred four unrelated patients with AD and 195 healthy controls were genotyped for IFN-γ (874A/T), IL-6 (174G/C) and TGF-β1 (509C/T) polymorphisms using ARMS-PCR and PCR-RFLP technique. The frequency of genotypes AA and AT of IFN-γ (874A/T) differed significantly among patients and controls (P 0.001). The genotype AT was increased while genotype AA was decreased in AD patients as compared to controls. AD patients also had higher frequency of T containing genotypes (AT+TT) than controls (P = 0.001). The frequencies of allele T and A were statistically different in patients and controls (P = 0.04). The frequencies of genotype GG and allele G of IL-6 (174G/C) were significantly higher while genotype GC and allele C were lower in AD patients than controls. There was no significant difference in the frequencies of alleles and genotypes of TGF-β1 (509C/T) polymorphism between patient and control groups. These results showed that susceptibility to AD is influenced by presence or absence of genotypes of IFN-γ (874A/T) and IL-6 (174G/C) polymorphisms. It is concluded that T-allele and T-containing genotypes (AT+TT) of IFN-γ (874A/T) and G-allele and GG genotype ofIL-6 (174G/C) polymorphisms are susceptible to AD in Saudis.On the other hand, the TGF-β1 (509C/T) polymorphism may not be associated with AD risk in Saudi population however further studies with large sample size are required to confirm these findings.

Keywords: atopic dermatitis, interferon-γ, interleukin-6, transforming growth factor-β1, polymorphism

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Authors: Hanan M. Alghamdi, Kholud E. Alsalami, Manal I. Alshaikhi, Nouf M. Alsalami, Sara A. Awad, Ruqaya A. Alrabei

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Tourism in Saudi Arabia is one of the emerging sectors with rapid growth. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is characterized by its wonderful and historical areas, which constitute important cultural and tourist landmarks. These landmarks attract the attention of the government of Saudi Arabia; hence the improvement of the tourism sector becomes one of the important axes of Saudi Arabia's vision 2030. There is a need to enhance the tourist experience by facilitating the tourism process for visitors to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This project aims to design an application to serve domestic tourists and visitors from outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This application will contain an automated tourist generate plan service by sentiment analysis of comments in Google Map using Lexicon for method Rule-based approach. There are thirteen regions in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The regions supported in this application will be Makkah and Asir regions. According to the output of the sentiment analysis, the application will recommend restaurants and cafes, activities (parks, museums) and shopping (shopping centers) in the generated plan. After that, the system will show the user a drop-down list of “Mega-events in Saudi Arabia” containing a link to the site of events in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. and “important information for you” public decency regulations.

Keywords: tourist automated plan, sentiment analysis, comments in google map, tourism in Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Ghaleb Bin Huraib, Fahad Al Harthi, Mohammad Mustafa, Abdulrahman Al-Asmari

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Introduction: Vitiligo is an acquired pigmentary skin disorder with the regional disappearance of melanocytes. Vitiligo affects 0.1 to 2% of the global population, and the incidence varies substantially depending on ethnicity. Glutathione S-transferase (GST) is a multigene family of enzymes that detoxify oxidative stress products. The oxidative stress-related GSTM1/GSTT1 genes deletion may cause epidermal melanocytes destruction and the development of vitiligo. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the association of GST gene polymorphisms with vitiligo in the Saudi population, if any. Materials and Methods: The present study includes 129 vitiligo cases and 130 age-matched healthy controls. The proportion of male and female patients with vitiligo is almost equal. The multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method was used for polymorphic analysis. Results: Increased odds of generalized vitiligo was observed with the null genotypes of GSTT1- gene (OR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.07-3.42, p = 0.019). The possible genetic combinations of GSTM1/GSTT1 and their genotypic distribution showed the frequency of GSTM1+/GSTT1+ 62/130 (47.69%) and GSTM1-/GSTT1+ 52/130 (40.00%) were higher in controls than in cases 44/129 (34.11%), 43/129 (33.34%), respectively while GSTM1+/GSTT1- and GSTM1-/GSTT1- null genotypes were higher 22/129 (17.05%) and 20/129 (15.50%) in vitiligo patients as compared to controls 11/130 (8.46%), 5/130 (3.84%), respectively. The strength of association of different genetic combinations with cases have shown GSTM1+/GSTT1- (OR = 2.81, 95% CI = 1.24-6.40, p = 0.009) and GSTM1-/GSTT1- (OR = 5.63, 95% CI = 1.96 - 16.16, p = 0.0004) were significantly higher in vitiligo cases as compared to controls. We did not observe any significant association of age and gender of patients with GST gene polymorphisms. Conclusions: The GSTT1-, GSTM1+/GSTT1- and GSTM1-/GSTT1- null genotypes were significantly associated with vitiligo. These genetic polymorphisms may be the associative genetic risk factor for vitiligo among Saudis. It could be used as a genetic marker for screening vitiligo patients among Saudis. Further studies on GSTs gene polymorphism in larger sample sizes from different geographical areas and ethnicity are needed to strengthen the present findings.

Keywords: vitiligo, GSTM1, GSTT1, gene polymorphism, oxidative stress

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Authors: Nouf Alharbi, James O'shea

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For decades, renewable energy sources have received considerable global interest due to the increase in fossil fuel consumption. The abundant energy produced by sunlight makes dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) a promising alternative compared to conventional silicon and thin film solar cells due to their transparency and tunable colours, which make them suitable for applications such as windows and glass facades. The transfer of an excited electron onto the surface is an important procedure in the DSSC system, so different groups of dye molecules were studied on the rutile TiO2 (110) surface. Currently, the study of organic dyes has become an interest of researchers due to ruthenium being a rare and expensive metal, and metal-free organic dyes have many features, such as high molar extinction coefficients, low manufacturing costs, and ease of structural modification and synthesis. There are, of course, some groups that have developed organic dyes and exhibited lower light-harvesting efficiency ranging between 4% and 8%. Since most dye molecules are complicated or fragile to be deposited by thermal evaporation or sublimation in the ultra-high vacuum (UHV), all dyes (i.e, D5, SC4, and R6) in this study were deposited in situ using the electrospray deposition technique combined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) as an alternative method to obtain high-quality monolayers of titanium dioxide. These organic molecules adsorbed onto rutile TiO2 (110) are explored by XPS, which can be used to obtain element-specific information on the chemical structure and study bonding and interaction sites on the surface.

Keywords: dyes, deposition, electrospray, molecules, organic, rutile, sensitised, XPS

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Authors: Batoul Mohamed Abdullatif, Nouf Ali Asiri

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O. basilicum plant was subjected to deficit irrigation using four treatments viz. control, irrigated with 70% of soil water capacity (SWC), Treatment 1, irrigated with 50% SWC, Treatment 2, irrigated with 30% SWC and Treatment 3, irrigated with 10 % SWC. Photosynthesis pigments viz. chlorophyll a, b, and the carotenoids, proline accumulation, and oil quantity were investigated under these irrigation treatments. The results indicate that photosynthesis pigments and oil content of deficit irrigation treatments did not significantly reduced than that of the full irrigation control. Photosynthesis pigments were affected by the stage of growth and not by irrigation treatments. They were high during flowering stage and low during seed formation stage for all treatments. The lowest irrigation plants (10 % SWC) achieved, during flowering stage, 0.72 mg\g\fresh weight of chlorophyll a, compared to 0.43 mg\g\fresh weight in control plant, 0.40 mg\g\fresh weight of chlorophyll b, compared to 0.19 mg\g\fresh weight in control plants and 0.29 mg\g\fresh weight of carotenoids, compared to 0.21 mg\g\fresh weight in control plants. It has been shown that reduced irrigation rates tend to enhance O. basilicum to have high oil quantity reaching a value of 63.37 % in a very low irrigation rate (10 % SWC) compared to 45.38 of control in seeds. Proline was shown to be accumulated in roots to almost double the amount in shoot during flowering stage in treatment 3. This accumulation seems to have a pronounce effect on O. basilicum acclimation to deficit irrigation.

Keywords: deficit irrigation, photosynthesis pigments, proline accumulation, oil quantity, sweet basil flowering formation, seed formation

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Authors: Nouf Aljohani

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The research project described in this presentation focuses on designing and evaluating oral tasks related to students’ needs and levels to foster communication and negotiation of meaning for a group of female Saudi university students. The significance of the current research project lies in its contribution to determining the usefulness of synchronous technology-mediated interactive group discussion in improving different speaking strategies through using synchronous technology. Also, it discovers how to optimize learning outcomes, expand evaluation for online learning tasks and engaging students’ experience in evaluating synchronous interactive tools and tasks. The researcher used SpeakApps, a synchronous technology, that allows the students to practice oral interaction outside the classroom. Such a course of action was considered necessary due to low English proficiency among Saudi students. According to the author's knowledge, the main factor that causes poor speaking skills is that students do not have sufficient time to communicate outside English language classes. Further, speaking and listening course contents are not well designed to match the Saudi learning context. The methodology included designing speaking tasks to match the educational setting; a CALL framework for designing and evaluating tasks; participant involvement in evaluating these tasks in each online session; and an investigation of the factors that led to the successful implementation of Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) and using SpeakApps. The analysis and data were drawn from the technology acceptance model surveys, a group interview, teachers’ and students’ weekly reflections, and discourse analysis of students’ interactions.

Keywords: CALL evaluation, synchronous technology, speaking skill, task-based language teaching

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Authors: Hamida Hamed Said Al Harthi

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Background: Illegal drug use is a rising problem that affects Omani youth. This research aimed to study a group of young Omani men who were imprisoned more than once for illegal drug use, focusing on exploring their lifestyle experiences inside and outside the prison and whether these contributed to their early relapse and re-imprisonment. This is the first study of its kind from Oman conducted in a prison setting. Methods: 19 Omani males aged 18–35 years imprisoned in Oman Central Prison were recruited using purposive sampling. Focused ethnography was conducted over 8 months to explore the drug-related experiences outside the prison and during imprisonment. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews with the participants yielded detailed transcripts and field notes. These were thematically analyzed, and the results were compared with the existing literature. Results: The participants’ voices yielded new insights into the lives of young Omani men imprisoned for illegal drug use, including their sufferings and challenges in prison. These included: entry shock, timing and boredom, drug trafficking in prison, as well as physical and psychological health issues. Overall, imprisonment was reported to have negatively impacted the participants’ health, personality, self-concept, emotions, attitudes, behavior and life expectations. The participants reported how their efforts to reintegrate into the Omani community after release from prison were rebuffed due to stigmatization and rejection from society and family. They also experienced frequent unemployment, police surveillance, accommodation problems and a lack of rehabilitation facilities. The immensity of the accumulated psychophysiological trauma contributed to their early relapse and re-imprisonment. Conclusion: This thesis concludes that imprisonment is largely ineffective in controlling drug use in Oman. Urgent action is required across multiple sectors to improve the lives and prospects of users of illegal drugs within and outside the prison to minimize factors contributing to early relapse. Key Words: illegal drugs, drug users, Oman, addiction, Omani culture, prisoners, relapse, re-imprisonment, qualitative research, ethnography.

Keywords: illigal drugs, Prison, Omani culture lifestyle, post prison life

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Authors: Nayira A. Abd Elbaky, Amal J. Fatani, Hazar Yaqub, Nouf M. Al-Rasheed, Naglaa El-Orabi, Mai Osman

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The present work is aimed to evaluate the protective effect of N-acetyl cystiene (NAC), coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), and their combination against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced cardiotoxicity in rats. CCl4 treatment significantly elevated the levels of cardiac oxidative stress bio markers including nitric oxide (NO) and malondialdehyde (MDA). A concomitant decrease in the level of reduced glutathione and the activity of membrane bound enzyme, calcium-adenosine triphosphatase were observed in the hearts of rats exposed to CCl4 compared to respective values in normal group. Quantitative analysis of myocardial energy metabolism revealed a significant decrease in the glucose content coupled with depletion in the activities of myocardial glycolytic enzymes as hexokinase (HK), phosphofructokinase (PFK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) after CCl4 treatment. In addition, a significant elevation in myocardial hydroxyproline level was observed in CCl4 intoxicated rats indicating interstitial collagen accumulation. Pretreatment with either NAC, CoQ10 or their combination successively alleviated the alterations in myocardial oxidative stress and antioxidant markers, as well as effectively up-regulated the decrease in cardiac energetic biomarkers in CCl4 intoxicated rats. Moreover, these antioxidants markedly reduced myocardial hydroxyproline level versus that of CCl4-treated animals. In conclusion, the present results illustrated that the prophylactic use of the current antioxidant resulted in a remarkable cardioprotective effect against CCl4 induced myocardial damage, which suggest that they may candidates as prophylactic agents against different cardio-toxins.

Keywords: carbon tetrachloride, lipid peroxidation, antioxidant, energy metabolism, hydroxyproline

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Authors: Ruyuf Y. Alnafisah, Nouf S. Alammari, Amani S. Alqahtani

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Background: Beverage choice can have implications for the risk of non-communicable diseases. However, there is a lack of knowledge in assessing the nutritional content of these beverages. This study aims to describe the nutrient content of pre-packaged beverages available in the Saudi market. Design: Data were collected from the Saudi Branded Food Data-base (SBFD). Nutrient content was standardized in terms of units and reference volumes to ensure consistency in analysis. Results: A total of 1490 beverages were analyzed. The highest median levels of the majority of nutrients were found among dairy products; energy (68.4(43-188]kcal/100 ml in a milkshake); protein (8.2(0.5-8.2]g/100 ml in yogurt drinks); total fat (2.1(1.3-3.5]g/100 ml in milk); saturated fat (1.4(0-1.4]g/100 ml in yogurt drinks); cholesterol (30(0-30]mg/100 ml in yogurt drinks); sodium (65(65-65].4mg/100 ml in yogurt drinks); and total sugars (12.9(7.5-27]g/100 ml in milkshake). Carbohydrate level was the highest in nectar (13(11.8-14.2] g/100ml]; fruits drinks (12.9(11.9-13.9] g/100ml), and sparkling juices (12.9(8.8-14] g/100ml). The highest added sugar level was observed among regular soft drinks (12(10.8-14] g/100ml). The average rate of nutrient declaration was 60.95%. Carbo-hydrate had the highest declaration rate among nutrients (99.1%), and yogurt drinks had the highest declaration rate among beverage categories (92.7%). The median content of vitamins A and D in dairy products met the mandatory addition levels. Conclusion: This study provides valuable insights into the nutrient content of pre-packaged beverages in the Saudi market. It serves as a foundation for future research and monitoring. The findings of the study support the idea of taxing sugary beverages and raise concerns about the health effects of high sugar in fruit juices. Despite the inclusion of vitamins D and A in dairy products, the study highlights the need for alternative strategies to address these deficiencies.

Keywords: pre-packaged beverages, nutrients content, nutrients declaration, daily percentage value, mandatory addition of vitamins

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Authors: Hend Albassam, Nouf Alrumaih

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Nowadays we are in the age of technologies and communication and there is no doubt that technologies such as the Internet can offer many advantages for many business fields, and the health field is no execution. In fact, using the Internet provide us with a new path to improve the quality of health care throughout the world. The e-healthcare offers many advantages such as: efficiency by reducing the cost and avoiding duplicate diagnostics, empowerment of patients by enabling them to access their medical records, enhancing the quality of healthcare and enabling information exchange and communication between healthcare organizations. There are many problems that result from using papers as a way of communication, for example, paper-based prescriptions. Usually, the doctor writes a prescription and gives it to the patient who in turn carries it to the pharmacy. After that, the pharmacist takes the prescription to fill it and give it to the patient. Sometimes the pharmacist might find difficulty in reading the doctor’s handwriting; the patient could change and counterfeit the prescription. These existing problems and many others heighten the need to improve the quality of the healthcare. This project is set out to develop a distributed e-healthcare system that offers some features of e-health and addresses some of the above-mentioned problems. The developed system provides an electronic health record (EHR) and enables communication between separate health care organizations such as the clinic, pharmacy and laboratory. To develop this system, the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is adopted as a design approach, which helps to design several independent modules that communicate by using web services. The layering design pattern is used in designing each module as it provides reusability that allows the business logic layer to be reused by different higher layers such as the web service or the website in our system. The experimental analysis has shown that the project has successfully achieved its aims toward solving the problems related to the paper-based healthcare systems and it enables different health organization to communicate effectively. It implements four independent modules including healthcare provider, pharmacy, laboratory and medication information provider. Each module provides different functionalities and is used by a different type of user. These modules interoperate with each other using a set of web services.

Keywords: e-health, services oriented architecture (SOA), web services, interoperability

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Authors: Ainur Sharip, Jose E. Perez, Nouf Alsharif, Aldo I. M. Bandeas, Enzo D. Fabrizio, Timothy Ravasi, Jasmeen S. Merzaban, Jürgen Kosel

Abstract:

Bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are attractive candidates for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, due to their ability to differentiate into osteoblasts, chondrocytes or adipocytes. Differentiation is influenced by biochemical and biophysical stimuli provided by the microenvironment of the cell. Thus, altering the mechanical characteristics of a cell culture scaffold can directly influence a cell’s microenvironment and lead to stem cell differentiation. Mesenchymal stem cells were cultured on densely packed, vertically aligned magnetic iron nanowires (NWs) and the effect of NWs on the cell cytoskeleton rearrangement and differentiation were studied. An electrochemical deposition method was employed to fabricate NWs into nanoporous alumina templates, followed by a partial release to reveal the NW array. This created a cell growth substrate with free-standing NWs. The Fe NWs possessed a length of 2-3 µm, with each NW having a diameter of 33 nm on average. Mechanical stimuli generated by the physical movement of these iron NWs, in response to a magnetic field, can stimulate osteogenic differentiation. Induction of osteogenesis was estimated using an osteogenic marker, osteopontin, and a reduction of stem cell markers, CD73 and CD105. MSCs were grown on the NWs, and fluorescent microscopy was employed to monitor the expression of markers. A magnetic field with an intensity of 250 mT and a frequency of 0.1 Hz was applied for 12 hours/day over a period of one week and two weeks. The magnetically activated substrate enhanced the osteogenic differentiation of the MSCs compared to the culture conditions without magnetic field. Quantification of the osteopontin signal revealed approximately a seven-fold increase in the expression of this protein after two weeks of culture. Immunostaining staining against CD73 and CD105 revealed the expression of antibodies at the earlier time point (two days) and a considerable reduction after one-week exposure to a magnetic field. Overall, these results demonstrate the application of a magnetic NW substrate in stimulating the osteogenic differentiation of MSCs. This method significantly decreases the time needed to induce osteogenic differentiation compared to commercial biochemical methods, such as osteogenic differentiation kits, that usually require more than two weeks. Contact-free stimulation of MSC differentiation using a magnetic field has potential uses in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and bone formation therapies.

Keywords: cell substrate, magnetic nanowire, mesenchymal stem cell, stem cell differentiation

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Authors: Amel Fayed, Shaden AlSubaih, Nouf Al-Qahtani, Asmaa Gosty, Asma Aljuhaimi

Abstract:

Introduction: Sleep difficulties are vastly predominant among adults and affect different aspects of their life. Many literatures found out that females are more liable to suffer from sleeping problems. College students are typical example of people dealing with daily pressure and stress to fulfill the daily tasks and responsibilities. In addition to their ultimate goal of achieving excellent academic records which require their full concentration and effort. Consequently, many of them start complaining of sleep deprivations which can undesirably affect their academic achievements. This study was aiming to investigate how prevalent is sleeping disorders among different colleges in the university and its relation their academic achievements. Methods: A cross-sectional study of female university students at Princess Norah Bint Abdulrahman University using self-administered questionnaire was conducted. Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) was used to assess different grades of insomnia. Students were requested to answer the questions evaluating their sleeping habits over the last two weeks. Participants reported their latest Grade Point Average (GPA). According to ISI, insomnia severity is reported as ‘No clinically significant’, ‘Subthreshold ‘,’ Clinical moderate insomnia’ and ‘Clinical severe’. Results: In the current study, 228 students participated; 172(75.4%) from medical colleges and 56 (24.6%) from non-medical colleges. About 80% of them claimed to have never taken any medications to help them sleep while only three students confirmed their regular use of sleep-inducing medications. About 16% of the students drink milk or other hot drinks to help them fall asleep. None of the students was suspected of having obstructive sleep apnea or apparent psychiatric disorder. According to ISI, 182 (79.8%) students suffered from subthreshold insomnia, 37 (16.2%) had clinical insomnia (moderate severity) and 9 (3.9%) of students had sleeping problems of non-clinically significance level. However, none of students was found to have severe clinical insomnia. Clinical moderate insomnia was reported in 15.1% of medical students and 19.6% of non-medical students. Moreover, about 82% of medical students suffered from subthreshold insomnia compared to 73.2% of non-medical students. This difference was not statistically significant (P=0.24). About 63% of medical students and 48% of non-medical students believed that high percentage of their colleagues are suffering from insomnias (p-value 0.08) The association between GPA and insomnia revealed that; 19.5% of low GPA group compared to 9.3% of high GPA group had clinical moderate insomnia. This association was not statistically significant (p=0.15). The correlation between the GPA and the ISI score was negative but not conclusive (r=-0.08, p-value = 0.29). More than 92% of all students agreed that sleeping problems affect their academic achievement to varying degrees. Conclusion: our results suggest that insomnia is commonly prevalent among female university students and might affect the students’ achievement. This study provides preliminary data about the quality of sleep among medical and non-medical university students which may be used to promote the healthy sleeping habits among female students.

Keywords: academic achievement, females, insomnia, university student

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Authors: Nabeeha Hassan Abdel Jalil, Robert Barigye, Hamda Al Alawi, Afra Al Dhaheri, Fatma Graiban Al Muhairi, Maryam Al Khateri, Nouf Al Alalawi, Susan Olet, Khaja Mohteshamuddin, Ahmad Al Aiyan, Mohamed Elfatih Hamad

Abstract:

A serological survey was carried out to determine the seroprevalence of Brucella spp, Coxiella burnetii, Chlamydophila abortus, and Toxoplasma gondii in sheep and goat herds in the UAE. A total of 915 blood samples [n= 222, [sheep]; n= 215, [goats]) were collected from livestock farms in the Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al-Khaimah (RAK). An additional 478 samples (n= 244, [sheep]; n= 234, (goats]) were collected from the Al Ain livestock central market and tested by indirect ELISA for pathogen-specific antibodies with the Brucella antibodies being further corroborated by the Rose-Bengal agglutination test. Seropositivity for the four pathogens is variably documented in sheep and goats from the study area. Respectively, the overall livestock farm prevalence rates for Brucella spp, C. burnetii, C. abortus, and T. gondii were 2.7%, 27.9%, 8.1%, and 16.7% for sheep, and 0.0%, 31.6%, 9.3%, and 5.1% for goats. Additionally, the seroprevalence rates Brucella spp, C. burnetii, C. abortus, and T. gondii in samples from the livestock market were 7.4%, 21.7%, 16.4%, and 7.0% for sheep, and 0.9%, 32.5%, 19.2%, and 11.1% for goats respectively. Overall, sheep had 12.59 more chances than goats of testing seropositive for Brucella spp (OR, 12.59 [95% CI 2.96-53.6]) but less likely to be positive for C. burnetii-antibodies (OR, 0.73 [95% CI 0.54-0.97]). Notably, the differences in the seroprevalence rates of C. abortus and T. gondii in sheep and goats were not statistically significant (p > 0.0500). The present data indicate that all the four study pathogens are present in sheep and goat populations in the UAE where coxiellosis is apparently the most seroprevalent followed by chlamydophilosis, toxoplasmosis, and brucellosis. While sheep from the livestock market were more likely than those from farms to be Brucella-seropositive than those, the overall exposure risk of C. burnetii appears to be greater for goats than sheep. As more animals from the livestock market were more likely to be seropositive to Chlamydophila spp, it is possible that under the UAE animal production conditions, at least, coxiellosis and chlamydophilosis are more likely to increase the culling rate of domesticated small ruminants than toxoplasmosis and brucellosis. While anecdotal reports have previously insinuated that brucellosis may be a significant animal health risk in the UAE, the present data suggest C. burnetii, C. abortus and T. gondii to be more significant pathogens of sheep and goats in the country. Despite this possibility, the extent to which these pathogens may nationally be contributing to reproductive failure in sheep and goat herds is not known and needs to be investigated. Potentially, these agents may also carry a potentially zoonotic risk that needs to be investigated in risk groups like farm workers, and slaughter house personnel. An ongoing study is evaluating the seroprevalence of bovine coxiellosis in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the data thereof will further elucidate on the broader epidemiological dynamics of the disease in the national herd.

Keywords: Brucella spp, Chlamydophila abortus, goat, sheep, Toxoplasma gondii, UAE

Procedia PDF Downloads 149