Articles

The fiber characteristics and basic density of Acacia melanoxylon were investigated for its potential as a raw material for pulp and paper production. Six trees from the even-aged stand and similar diameter class were selected randomly from the Chencha district of Ethiopia. Wood disks were systematically cross-cut from a log along tree height levels, at the bottom (10%), middle (50%) and top (90%) of the merchantable height and blocks of wood (2 cm x 2 cm x 2 cm)were taken from pith to periphery at near pith (10%), middle (50%) and near bark (90%) of disk radius. Fiber maceration and basic density were determined, by 50% nitric acid solution and water displacement method respectively. All the data were analyzed using a two-way analysis of variance at α = 0.05. The fiber characteristics of the selected trees; the fiber length, fiber diameter, lumen diameter and cell wall thickness were measured while the-slenderness ratio, Runkel ratio, flexibility coefficient and wall coverage ratio of the fibers were derived from the measured fiber dimensions. The result showed that- the overall mean were, 1.04 mm, 21.60 µm, 15.36 µm, 3.75 µm, 0.48, 48.05%, 71.10%, 0.34 and 0.56 g/ml, for fiber length, fiber width, lumen diameter, cell wall thickness, Runkle ratio, slenderness ratio, flexibility ratio, wall coverage ratio and basic density, respectively. Generally, Acacia melanoxylon wood is suitable for pulp-and-paper-production, to due-to-its adequate-fiber dimension, derived fiber value and basic density. Therefore, attention should be given to tree growers, government and non-governmental organizations on the plantation expansion of Acacia melanoxylon.

Hepatic Actinomycosis (HA) is a very rare abdominal actinomycosis that can be confused with hepatic involvement due to a tumor. Liver involvement can occur from an abdominal focus or by blood dissemination from another focus. This disease is much more common in men between 50 - 70 years and in a situation of immunosuppression. Symptoms are nonspecific and diagnosis includes histopathology, cultures, and imaging test. Treatment includes prolonged antibiotic therapy with antibiotics such as penicillin and drainage of abscesses.We present a case of a 54-year-old man patient with a record of three years of chronic pancreatitis of probably alcoholic origin, who developed hepatic actinomycosis, requiring drainage of liver abscesses and directed antibiotic treatment.

Increased levels of bilirubin in blood serum may result from numerous physical conditions including hepatitis, cirrhosis, enzyme deficiency, drug reactions, autoimmune disorders and physiological trauma. No presumptive test for high bilirubin levels in blood serum stains currently exists, which could prove useful in the assessment of crime scenes involving victims with one of the above disorders. Here, the use of ultraviolet 365 (UV 365) is described as a simple, nondestructive method for the detection of blood serum containing elevated levels of bilirubin.

Introduction: Oral habit is common in childhood and it is proven to cause multiple adverse effects on oral and general health, while oral habits in the adult population are under looked. The prevalence of oral habits varied among different societies. The extent of these effects varies depending on a wide range of variables including the actual habit, the duration, and the intensity of the oral habit. Objectives: The primary objective is to determine the prevalence of oral habits in adults in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the secondary objective is awareness of different types of oral habits and their adverse effects.Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study using questionnaire through google form which will address the prevalence of 5 Oral habits in the adult population, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia such as nail biting, chewing on pens/pencils/Miswak, using the teeth as a tool, chewing ice, and teeth clenching/grinding and bruxism. Also, it will address the awareness of these 5 oral habits and their adverse effects on oral health and prevention modalities. Results: There were 220 participants. The majority were Saudi (52.7%), females (83.2%) with bachelor’s degrees (63.6%) and around fifty percent with age below 30 years old. The most prevalent pattern was using teeth as a tool (46.8%), followed by chewing ice (43.6%) and nail-biting (39.1%). All five habits were mainly started in childhood; however, a respectable percentage of beginning is still reported during adulthood, particularly for clenching/grinding/ bruxism and chewing ice, with a ratio of 36.4% and 25%, respectively. Most participants who reported clenching/grinding/ bruxism and nail-biting were related to stress (75.3%, 48.8%, respectively). The majority reported that oral habits could harm teeth (82.3%) and could be preventable (78.6%).Discussion: Most of the studies concentrate on oral habits in children while few studies had concentrated on oral habits in adults. Oral habit is not uncommon in adults, they have either to continue childhood bad habits or practice new oral habit. The adverse effect varies widely on oral and general health. Although the adult population is aware of these side effects few only seek medical advice.Conclusion: In Saudi Arabia, oral habit is not uncommon in adults. So the recommendation for the prevention of oral habits is to embed it in all public services, at strategic and operational levels.

In general, nanotechnology can be understood as a technology of design, fabrication and applications of nanostructures and nanomaterials, as well as a fundamental understanding of the physical properties and phenomena of nanomaterials and nanostructures. In recent years the development of industries like textile, leather, paint, food, plastics, and cosmetics is enlarged and these industries are connected with the discarding of a vast number of organic pollutants which are harmful to microbes, aquatic systems, and human health by influencing the different parameters. So the fabrication of those nanomaterials (coupled or doped) to form heterojunctions provides an effective way to better harvest solar energy and facilitate charge separation and transfer, thus enhancing the photocatalytic activity and stability. We expect this review to provide a guideline for readers to gain a clear picture of the fabrication and application of different types of heterostructured photocatalysts. In this review, starting from the photocatalytic reaction mechanism and the preparation of the photocatalyst, we review the classification of current photocatalysts, preparation methods, a factor that affects photocatalytic reaction, characterization of photocatalysts, and the methods for improving photocatalytic performance. This review also aims to provide basic and comprehensive information on the industrialization of photocatalysis technology.

Peritonitis is a common and serious complication of Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) and its prevention and treatment are very important to reduce patient morbility and mortality. PD-related peritonitis can be caused by many germs; in most cases Gram-Positive Cocci (GPC) are responsible. In our report instead, we present the first case, to our knowledge, of peritonitis due to Chryseobacteriumgleum in a peritoneal dialysis patient.Our aim is to make known this type of opportunistic pathogen that can survive in a hospital environment so as to prevent C.gleum-related peritonitis. The rapid identification of this pathogen in the laboratory is very important for guiding therapy and preventing further complications.

Objectives: The sural nerve is the most tested sensory nerve in the lower extremities in the electrodiagnostic assessment of peripheral neuropathies. This study presents the reference values of the sural nerve conduction study (NCS) from a significant sample of the Algerian population. Methods: This is a prospective study of right sural NCS in healthy subjects based on the later recommendations of AANEM-NDTF. The nature of the distribution of each electrophysiological parameter was therefore determined. The lower and upper limits were calculated by using the 5th and 95th percentiles respectively and a logarithmic transformation was performed for Sensory Nerve Action Potential (SNAP) amplitude distribution. Results: 115 subjects aged between 20 and 60 years were selected, including 58 women and 57 men. Unlike Sensory Nerve Conduction Velocity (SNCV), the distribution of SNAP amplitude is not Gaussian. The lower limit of SNAP amplitude was 7.70 µV when using the 5th percentile and 6.80 µV by using the Standard Deviation (SD) method after log transformation. Similarly, the lower limit of SNCV was 43 m/s. The SNAP amplitude was greater in women and decreased with age, height and BMI. Conclusion: The values found in this study are comparable to those published in the literature. It may be more appropriate to determine the reference values using percentiles as recently recommended by several authors.

Recent studies on boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) have focused on investigating the appropriate neutron sources based on accelerators for neutron production, such as 7Li(p,n)7 Be. The therapeutic abilities of BNCT have been studied for the possible treatment of lung cancer using thermal and epithermal neutron beams. For neutron transport, the Monte Carlo N-particle transport code was used, and doses in the organs of different Oak Ridge National Laboratory phantoms were evaluated. The right lung was meshed with voxels to obtain depth-dose distributions using 1 eV, 10 eV, 100 eV, 1 keV, 5 keV, 8 keV and 10 keV energy sources. These results suggest that BNCT with an epithermal neutron beam can be used to treat lung cancer. By evaluating the biological dose rate and dose-depth distribution curves in healthy tissues and tumors by simulating a lung phantom, the quantities in the phantom were also evaluated. Our calculations show that with increasing boron concentration applied to the tumor, the dose is increased and the 100 eV energy source has the greatest effect on the tumor dose.

One of the most severe threats to world health is the Candida species. Many non-Candida species are the major cause of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). During the development of VVC, the host environment and Candida vaginal colonization are assumed to be out of balance, and this might be owing to physiological or non-physiological changes. Host-related and behavioral risks have been connected to VVC. Novel antifungal medications with particular molecular targets may be developed with the use of molecular tools in epidemiological research and the study of resistant Candida species. Using the Vitek-2 Antifungal Susceptibility System, this review will explain the many approaches used to identify and characterize Candida species isolated from vulvovaginal candidiasis patients.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still ongoing. Previously, several studies have been conducted to investigate laboratory markers as a tool for severity assessment during COVID-19 infections. Biological markers such as Platelet count, D-dimer and IL-6, Lymphocytopenia and others have been used for assessment of severity in COVID-19 disease patients (infected by SARS-CoV-2 Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and other variants). We observed a significant drop in lymphocyte count among suspected SARS-CoV-2 clinical patients with symptoms of fever, running nose, breathing discomfort, cough, and others during Omicron and Centaurus variants spread in Pakistan. A multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted from Jan 2021 to Aug 2022, on 118,561 subjects to evaluate hematological abnormalities among suspected patients. Of note, significantly decreased lymphocyte levels (lymphocytopenia) were observed among 43.05% of infected patients. Also, the levels of NA (39.03%), HGB (28.27%), MCV (22.62%), PLT (8.17%), and ALB (4.30%) were also reduced among infected patients. This suggests that lymphopenia can be used as an alternative, cost-effective, early diagnostic biomarker for clinical COVID-19 patients, even before the diagnosis via real-time PCR. In resource-limited countries, the current study is critical for policy-making strategic organizations for prioritizing lymphocytopenia-based screening (as an alternative, cost-effective diagnostic test) in clinical COVID-19 patients, before real-time PCR-based diagnosis.