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Abstract Background Anti-virulence therapy is a promising strategy to treat multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a potent opportunistic pathogen because of an array of virulence factors that are regulated by quorum sensing systems. Methods The virulence features of four multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa strains were investigated upon exposure to the sub-lethal dose of gamma rays (1 kGy), and sub-inhibitory concentrations of bioactive metabolites recovered from local halophilic strains in comparison to control. Then, the gene expression of AHL-mediated quorum sensing systems (las/rhl) was quantitatively determined in treated and untreated groups by real-time PCR. Results The bioactive metabolites recovered from halophilic strains previously isolated from saline ecosystems were identified as Halomonas cupida (Halo-Rt1), H. elongate (Halo-Rt2), Vigibacillus natechei (Halo-Rt3), Sediminibacillus terrae (Halo-Rt4) and H. almeriensis (Halo-Rt5). Results revealed that both gamma irradiation and bioactive metabolites significantly reduced the virulence factors of the tested MDR strains. The bioactive metabolites showed a maximum efficiency for inhibiting biofilm formation and rhamnolipids production whereas the gamma irradiation succeeded in decreasing other virulence factors to lower levels in comparison to control. Quantitative-PCR results showed that AHL-mediated quorum sensing systems (las/rhl) in P. aeruginosa strains were downregulated either by halo-bacterial metabolites or gamma irradiation in all treatments except the upregulation of both lasI internal gene and rhlR intact gene in P. aeruginosa NCR-RT3 and both rhlI internal gene and rhlR intact gene in P. aeruginosa U3 by nearly two folds or more upon exposure to gamma irradiation. The most potent result was observed in the expression of lasI internal gene that was downregulated by more than ninety folds in P. aeruginosa NCR-RT2 after treatment with metabolites of S. terrae (Halo-Rt4). Analyzing metabolites recovered from H. cupida (Halo-Rt1) and H. elongate (Halo-Rt2) using LC–ESI–MS/MS revealed many chemical compounds that have quorum quenching properties including glabrol, 5,8-dimethoxyquinoline-2-carbaldehyde, linoleoyl ethanolamide, agelasine, penigequinolones derivatives, berberine, tetracosanoic acid, and liquidambaric lactone in the former halophile and phloretin, lycoctonine, fucoxanthin, and crassicauline A in the latter one. Conclusion QS inhibitors can significantly reduce the pathogenicity of MDR P. aeruginosa strains; and thus can be an effective and successful strategy for treating antibiotic resistant traits.

Abstract Background Coronaviruses are large, encapsulated RNA viruses that can infect both humans and animals and cause minor respiratory illnesses. In December 2019, numerous cases of pneumonia of unknown origin were reported in Wuhan, China. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the cause of these cases, was discovered on January 6, 2020. The new coronavirus was declared an epidemic by the WHO on March, 2020. Several studies on COVID-19 have found that auditory complaints and hearing impairment can be detected using various tests. Objectives Pure tone audiometry (PTA) and transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) were used to assess hearing in recovered SARS-CoV-2 patients. Also, to compare the presence of patient's auditory complaints with the test findings. Methods A case- control study was conducted, with each case and control group consisting of 58 people who were age and sex matched and ranged in age from 18 to 50 years. PTA, Extended PTA and, TEOAEs were used to evaluate hearing in both groups. Results PTA revealed a statistically significant difference in right ear thresholds at 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 4 kHz, and 8 kHz and left ear thresholds at 250 Hz, 4 kHz, 8 kHz, and 12.5 kHz between patients and controls. Additionally, a statistically significant difference in TEOAEs' overall reproducibility and amplitude between patients and controls was discovered. Affection for PTA and TEOAEs were related to the patient's complaints of hearing loss and tinnitus, respectively. Conclusions Whether a patient is symptomatic or not, COVID-19 may have a negative impact on their hearing.

Ashraf Omar,1 Ahmed Kaseb,2 Tamer Elbaz,1 Mohamed El-Kassas,3 Amr El Fouly,3 Abdel Fatah Hanno,4 Ahmed El Dorry,5 Ahmed Hosni,6 Amr Helmy,7 Amr S Saad,8 Ashwaq Alolayan,9 Basem Elsayed Eysa,10 Emad Hamada,11 Hamdy Azim,11 Hany Khattab,12 Hesham Elghazaly,8 Hesham Tawfik,13 Hisham Ayoub,14 Hussein Khaled,11 Ibtessam Saadeldin,11 Imam Waked,15 Eman MF Barakat,16 Mahmoud El Meteini,17 Mohamed Hamed Shaaban,6 Mohamed EzzElarab,10 Mohamed Fathy,17 Mohamed Shaker,5 Mohamed Sobhi,5 Mohamed Kamal Shaker,16 Mohamed ElGharib,5 Mohammed Abdullah,11 Mohesn Mokhtar,11 Mostafa Elshazli,18 Omar Mohamed Khaleil Heikal,14 Osama Hetta,5 Reda Mahmoud ElWakil,16 Sameh Abdel Wahab,5 Samir Shehata Eid,19 Yousri Rostom20 On behalf of the Egyptian Liver Cancer Committee Study Group1Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; 2Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA; 3Department of Endemic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt; 4Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt; 5Department of Interventional Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt; 6Department of Interventional Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; 7Department of Surgery, National Liver Institute Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt; 8Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt; 9Department of Oncology, National Guard Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 10Department of Gastroenterology, National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt; 11Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; 12Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; 13Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta Egypt; 14Department of Gastroenterology, Military Medical Academy, Cairo, Egypt; 15Department of Gastroenterology, Menoufia Liver Institute, Menoufia, Egypt; 16Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt; 17Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt; 18Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; 19Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 20Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, EgyptCorrespondence: Ashraf Omar, Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, Email abdelazizashraf@hotmail.comAbstract: Globally, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fourth most common cause of death from cancer. The prevalence of this pathology, which has been on the rise in the last 30 years, has been predicted to continue increasing. HCC is the most common cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality in Egypt and is also the most common cancer in males. Chronic liver diseases, including chronic hepatitis C, which is a primary health concern in Egypt, are considered major risk factors for HCC. However, HCC surveillance is recommended for patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and liver cirrhosis; those above 40 with HBV but without cirrhosis; individuals with hepatitis D co-infection or a family history of HCC; and Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients exhibiting significant fibrosis or cirrhosis. Several international guidelines aid physicians in the management of HCC. However, the availability and cost of diagnostic modalities and treatment options vary from one country to another. Therefore, the current guidelines aim to standardize the management of HCC in Egypt. The recommendations presented in this report represent the current management strategy at HCC treatment centers in Egypt. Recommendations were developed by an expert panel consisting of hepatologists, oncologists, gastroenterologists, surgeons, pathologists, and radiologists working under the umbrella of the Egyptian Society of Liver Cancer. The recommendations, which are based on the currently available local diagnostic aids and treatments in the country, include recommendations for future prospects.Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma, clinical recommendations, Egyptian society of liver cancer, hepatitis c virus, Egypt, guidelines

Abstract Background The majority of obstructive sleep apnea cases involve the oropharynx. The hypercollapsibility of the upper airway walls (UAWs) was the cause of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), which most often manifested itself at the retropalatal and/or retrolingual level. Modular and adaptable barbed snore surgery (BSS) is a novel treatment for retropalatal OSA (based on the anatomy and findings of drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE). Objectives To compare between the outcomes of uvulopalatopharyngoplasty and the barbed reposition palatopharyngoplasty technique, and to establish if there is indeed a significant variance in post-operative results among both types of surgeries. Patients and methods This was a prospective randomized clinical trial conducted on Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, and it was carried out on 50 patients (28 males and 22 females) suffering from OSAS. They were randomly distributed into two groups: group A and group B. Results There was a substantial distinction among the two groups regarding to post-operative data, comparison between values of all domains of Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index (SAQLI) and bleeding and nasal regurgitation after surgery. There was no substantial distinction among the two groups in terms of age, sex, body mass index (BMI), smoking, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. Conclusion Barbed reposition pharyngoplasty is superior to traditional uvulopalatopharyngoplasty in terms of results of Apnea Hypopnea Index (AHI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and in Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index (SAQLI) in addition to producing less post-operative complications as well as being easy to learn.

Abstract Background The production of biopolymers from waste resources is a growing trend, especially in high-population countries like Egypt. Beta-glucan (β-glucan) belongs to natural polysaccharides that are derived from plant and microbial origins. In this study, following increasing demands for β-glucan owing to its bioactive properties, a statistical model to enhance microbial β-glucan production was evaluated for its usefulness to the food and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, a trial to convert β-glucan polymer to nanostructure form was done to increase its bioactivity. Results Ingredients of low-cost media based on agro-industrial wastes were described using Plackett–Burman and central composite design of response surface methodology for optimizing yeast β-glucan. Minerals and vitamin concentrations significantly influenced β-glucan yield for Kluyveromyces lactis and nitrogen and phosphate sources for Meyerozyma guilliermondii. The maximum predicted yields of β-glucan recovered from K. lactis and M. guilliermondii after optimizing the medium ingredients were 407 and 1188 mg/100 ml; respectively. For the first time, yeast β-glucan nanoparticles (βGN) were synthesized from the β-glucan polymer using N-dimethylformamide as a stabilizer and characterized using UV–vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The average size of βGN was about 300 nm as determined by DLS. The quantitative variation of functional groups between β-glucan polymer and βGN was evaluated by FT-IR for explaining the difference in their biological activity against Normal Homo sapiens-Hela contaminant and Hepatic cancer cell lines. Conclusions Enriching the low-cost media based on agro-industrial wastes with nutritional ingredients improves the yield of yeast β-glucan. The present study succeeds to form β-glucan nanoparticles by a simple method.

An investigation was consummated under shade condition at the nursery of Orman Botanical Garden, Giza, Egypt during 2020 and 2021 seasons to study the effect of pre-sowing treatments; i.e. seeds without any treatment (as control), soaking in tap water for 24 h at ambient temperature and soaking in hot water (70-80 °C) for 24 h, seed orientation treatments; horizontal with the micropyle oriented laterally and vertical with the micropyle positioned either upwards or downwards and their interactions on germination characters and seedling growth traits of African mahogany timber tree (Khaya senegalensis (Desr.) A. Juss) seeds. The results indicated that seeds soaked in hot water for 24 h failed to germinate in both seasons, while those soaked in tap water at room temperature for 24 h gave the highest percent of germination, the least No. days to either maximum or 50% germination as well as the best means of germination rate index, vigour index, seed viability and plumule length compared to control in the two seasons. Horizontal sowing method recorded the maximal germination percent, quickest germination, strongest vigour index and seed viability as well as the longest plumule length and followed by vertical one, in which the micropyle oriented upwards. So, the best results at all were obtained from combining soaking the seeds in tap water treatment and positioned them horizontally. A similar trend to that of germination characteristics was also occurred regarding seedling growth parameters. Accordingly, it can be proposed to soak Khaya senegalensis seeds in ordinary water pre-sowing for 24 h at ambient temperature and embedding them horizontally at 2 cm depth with the micropyle positioned laterally to obtain better germination and the best growth traits of the seedlings

The integration of renewable distributed generation (RDG) into distribution networks is promising and increasing nowadays. However, high penetration levels of distributed generation (DG) are often limited as they may have an adverse effect on the operation of distribution networks. One of the operation challenges is the interaction between DG and voltage-control equipment, e. g., an under-load tap changer (ULTC), which is basically designed to compensate for voltage changes caused by slow load variations. The integration of variable DGs leads to rapid voltage fluctuations, which can negatively affect the tap operation of ULTC. This paper investigates the impact of high penetration levels of RDG on the tap operation of ULTC in distribution networks through simulations. Various mitigation techniques that can alleviate this impact are also examined. Among these techniques, constant power-factor mode is regarded as the best trade-off between the simplicity and effectiveness of minimizing the number of tap operations. Simulations are performed on a Canadian benchmark rural distribution feeder using OpenDSS software.

Internet of things (IoT) is one of the leading technologies that have been used in many fields, such as environmental monitoring, healthcare, and smart cities. The core of IoT technologies is sensors; sensors in IoT form an autonomous network that is able to route messages from one place to another to the base station or the sink. Recently, due to the rapid technological development of sensors, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become an important part of IoT. However, in applications such as smart cities, WSNs with one sink might not be suitable due to the limited communication range of sensors and the wide area to be covered. Therefore, multi-sink WSN solutions seem to be suitable for such applications. The multi-sink WSNs are gaining popularity because they increase network throughput, network lifetime, and energy usage. At the same time, multi-hop routing is essential for the WSNS to collect data from sensor nodes and route it to the sink node for decision-making. Many routing algorithms developed for multi-sink WSNs focus on being energy efficient to extend the network lifetime, but the delay was not the main concern. However, these algorithms are unable to deal with such applications in which the data packets have to reach sink nodes within predefined real-time information. On the other hand, in the most existing routing schemes, the effects of the external environmental factors such as temperature and humidity and the reliability of real-time data delivery have largely been ignored. These issues can dramatically influence the network performance. Therefore, this paper designs a routing algorithm that satisfies three critical conditions: energy-efficient, real-time, environment-aware, and reliable routing. Therefore, the routing decisions are made according to different parameters. Such parameters include environmental impact metrics, energy balance metrics to balance the energy consumption among sensor nodes and sink nodes, desired deadline time (required delivery time), and wireless link quality. The problem is formed in integer linear programming (ILP) for optimal solution. The problem formulation is designed to fully understand the problem with its major constraints by the sensor networks research community. In addition, the optimal solution for small-scale problems could be used to measure the quality of any given heuristic that might be used to solve the same problem. Then, the paper proposes swarm intelligence to solve the optimization problem for large-scale multi-sink WSNs as a heuristic algorithm. The proposed algorithm is evaluated and analyzed compared with two recent algorithms, which are the most related to our proposal, SMRP and EERP protocols using an extensive set of experiments. The obtained results prove the superiority of the proposed algorithm over the compared algorithms in terms of packet delivery ratio, deadline miss ratio, average end-to-end delay, network lifetime, and energy imbalance factor under different aspects. In particular, the proposed algorithm requires more computational energy compared to comparison algorithms.

With the advances in sensing technologies, sensor networks became the core of several different networks, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and drone networks. This led to the use of sensor networks in many critical applications including military, health care, and commercial applications. In addition, sensors might be mobile or stationary. Stationary sensors, once deployed, will not move; however, mobile nodes can move from one place to another. In most current applications, mobile sensors are used to collect data from stationary sensors. This raises many energy consumption challenges, including sensor networks’ energy consumption, urgent messages transfer for real-time analysis, and path planning. Moreover, sensors in sensor networks are usually exposed to environmental parameters and left unattended. These issues, up to our knowledge, are not deeply covered in the current research. This paper develops a complete framework to solve these challenges. It introduces novel path planning techniques considering areas’ priority, environmental parameters, and urgent messages. Consequently, a novel energy-efficient and reliable clustering algorithm is proposed considering the residual energy of the sensor nodes, the quality of wireless links, and the distance parameter representing the average intra-cluster distance. Moreover, it proposes a real-time, energy-efficient, reliable and environment-aware routing, taking into account the environmental data, link quality, delay, hop count, nodes’ residual energy, and load balancing. Furthermore, for the benefit of the sensor networks research community, all proposed algorithms are formed in integer linear programming (ILP) for optimal solutions. All proposed techniques are evaluated and compared to six recent algorithms. The results showed that the proposed framework outperforms the recent algorithms.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been around for over a decade and have been used in many important applications. Energy and reliability are two of the major problems with these kinds of applications. Reliable data delivery is an important issue in WSNs because it is a key part of how well data are sent. At the same time, energy consumption in battery-based sensors is another challenge. Therefore, efficient clustering and routing are techniques that can be used to save sensors energy and guarantee reliable message delivery. With this in mind, this paper develops an energy-efficient and reliable clustering protocol (ERCP) for WSNs. First, an efficient clustering technique is proposed for sensor nodes’ energy savings considering different clustering parameters, including the link quality metric, the energy, the distance to neighbors, the distance to the sink node, and the cluster load metric. The proposed routing protocol works based on the concept of a reliable inter-cluster routing technique that saves energy. The routing decisions are made based on different parameters, such as the energy balance metric, the distance to the sink node, and the wireless link quality. Many experiments and analyses are examined to determine how well the ERCP performs. The experiment results showed that the ECRP protocol performs much better than some of the recent algorithms in both homogeneous and heterogeneous networks.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) can be part of a tremendous number of applications. Many WSN applications require real-time communication where the sensed data have to be delivered to the sink node within a predetermined deadline decided by the application. In WSNs, the sensor nodes' constrained resources (e.g. memory and power) and the lossy wireless links, give rise to significant difficulties in supporting real-time applications. In addition, many WSN routing algorithms strongly emphasize energy efficiency, while delay is not the primary concern. Thus, WSNs desperately need new routing protocols that are reliable, energy-efficient, and appropriate for real-time applications. The proposed algorithm is a real-time routing algorithm appropriate for delay-sensitive applications in WSNs. It has the ability to deliver data on time while also enabling communications that are reliable and energy-efficient. It achieves this by deciding which candidate neighbors are eligible to participate in the routing process and can deliver the packet before its deadline. In order to lessen the delay of the chosen paths, it also computes the relaying speed for each eligible candidate. Moreover, it takes into account link quality, hop count, and available buffer size of the selected relays, which leads to end-to-end delay reduction while also minimizing energy consumption. Finally, it considers the node's energy consumption rate when selecting the next forwarder to extend the network lifetime. Through simulation experiments, the proposed algorithm has shown improved performance in terms of packet delivery ratio, network lifetime packets miss ratio, average end-to-end delay, and energy imbalance factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]