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Abstract The anticancer, antimicrobial, and insecticidal activities of sarcotrocheliol (1) and cholesterol (2) obtained from the soft coral Sarcophyton trocheliophorum (S. trocheliophorum) were intensively studied. According to this study, both compounds 1 and 2 showed potential cytotoxicity towards the human colorectal carcinomaHCT-116 (IC50 10.4, 11.8 µg/mL) and human liver carcinoma HepG2 cell lines (IC50 8.8, 12.0 µg/mL), respectively. Compounds 1 and 2 were evaluated as potential inhibitors of caspase-3, a member of the cysteine protease family, which is considered a key enzyme in inducing cell apoptosis. Results showed that compounds 1 and 2 have induced apoptosis via up-regulation of caspase-3. Sarcotrocheliol (1) displayed antimicrobial activity against P. aeruginosa (15 mm), B. subtilis (15 mm), M. luteus (14 mm) and C. albicans (15 mm), with a MIC of 1.5 µg/mL against the reported test microorganisms. On the other hand, cholesterol (2) showed less activity towards P. aeruginosa (10 mm), B. subtilis (14 mm), S. aureus (12 mm) and C. albicans (10 mm) with MICs of 3.0, 1.5, 1.5 and 3.0 µg/mL against the tested microorganisms, respectively. Larvicidal activity revealed that compounds 1 and 2 induced remarkable toxicity against the third instar larvae of the mosquito, Culex pipiens even at concentration of 2 ppm. Adulticidal activity data showed that tested compounds are distinctly potent toxicants against the housefly, Musca domestica adult females. Overall, compound 2induced much more insecticidal activity than 1, and M. domestica adult females were more sensitive to tested compounds than C. pipiens larvae. Computationally, Density Functional Theory (DFT) analyses revealed that compound 2 had a higher dipole moment and lower band gap energy when compared to compound 1. So, compounds 2 is chemically more reactive and less stable than compound 1. According to the molecular docking study against PDB IDs: 3KJF, 5UHF and 1ACJ, compounds 1 and 2 demonstrated their activity mode as anticancer, antimicrobial, and insecticidal agents. The compounds exerted many interactions and showed high binding to the proteins, recognizing their potential as drug candidates with broad bioactivities.

Abstract A wind turbine system (WTS) is a highly coupled and nonlinear system where the output power depends upon highly uncertain wind speed. Therefore, the quality of produced power becomes a challenging problem for researchers. Direct Vector Control (DVC) is a powerful and widely utilized power control strategy to deal with winds that vary rapidly and randomly. As a result, this article employed the newly developed Social Spider Optimization (SSO) technique to optimize the design parameters of Fractional-Order Fuzzy Proportional-Integral with Derivative (FOFPID) regulator to maintain the output power of the studied DFIG-based WTS at the rated value under dynamic wind conditions. The suggested FOFPID controller integrates the capabilities of the Fuzzy intelligent regulator and the Fractional-Order controller, enhancing DFIG current control while allowing independent control of active and reactive power. The approach is incorporated within the DVC strategy of the DFIG’s rotor-side converter (RSC), replacing the conventional Proportional-Integral (PI) regulator in the internal current loops. Extensive performance evaluations are conducted under various operating conditions, including active power reference changes, parameter uncertainties, and rapid wind speed variations. Comparative analyses with SSO-optimized PID and Fuzzy regulators show that the FOFPID regulator performs better in terms of maximum overshoot, extreme undershoot, settling time, Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), and Weighted Total Harmonic Distortion (WTHD). The suggested FOFPID regulator also displays stronger robustness against parameters mismatch and weather change than other regulator architectures.

Testicular seminomas are the most common type of testicular tumor; atypical presentations can make diagnosis more challenging, leading to delayed treatment. Here, we present a 40-year-old previously healthy male who presented to the emergency department with severe right-sided scrotal swelling and pain. He had a diagnosed but untreated inguinal hernia. Physical examination revealed a large irreducible right inguinoscrotal swelling and tenderness. Doppler ultrasound reported herniated content in the right inguinal area, extending to the scrotum. Upon surgical exploration, a large right testicular tumor was discovered, surrounded by hematoma. A radical orchiectomy was performed, and the tumor was identified as a stage pT2 testicular seminoma. This case illustrates the diagnostic challenges posed by atypical presentations of testicular seminomas. A high index of suspicion and thorough clinical and radiological assessments are crucial for accurate diagnosis and management. In conclusion, large testicular seminomas presenting with acute pain mimicking strangulated hernias are rare. Comprehensive clinical and radiological evaluations are essential to avoid misdiagnosis and ensure appropriate surgical planning and patient management.

Abstract The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of serum level of Interleukin 6(IL-6) and Interleukin 17 (IL-17) in liver transplantation outcome for living recipients, Analyze the relation between the gene polymorphism and the occurrence of rejection after liver transplantation and Study the relation between the gene polymorphism and the occurrence of different infectious complications. The study was conducted in March 2023 and included 60 healthy volunteers from the National Liver Institute (NLI) blood bank at Menoufia University and 120 live donation liver recipient patients at NLI. During one month of liver transplantation, the cytokine levels (IL-17, IL-6 proteins, IL-6 G-174C, and IL-17 A rs2275913 gene polymorphism) and CD4 levels for 60 patients of 120 live donation liver recipient patients whom early reject transplanted tissue and the same parameters were measured after 6 months follow up for non-reject group. The main finding of this study was that the post-transplant rejection group and the post-transplant non-rejection and control groups differed significantly in the genotype frequency (CC, CG, and GG) or alleles of IL-6 G-174C (p = 0.011). On the other hand IL-17A rs2275913 gene polymorphism and its alleles (p = 0.71) showed no statistically significant difference. We also observed that serum IL-17 levels, with 100% specificity and 100% sensitivity threshold, will be more sensitive and specific than serum IL-6 and CD4 count in differentiating post-transplant rejection from non-rejection patients. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between the genotypes and serum levels of interleukins and the type and degree of rejection. Proinflammatory cytokines might be useful indicators for distinguishing and early identifying unfavorable outcomes after transplantation, allowing for prompt and effective treatment intervention. To evaluate these findings, prospective clinical trials are required.

Computed tomography (CT) multi-detector array has been heavily utilized over the past decade. While transforming an individual’s diagnosis, the risk of developing pathogenesis as a result remains a concern. The main aim of this institutional cumulative effective dose (CED) review is to highlight the number of adult individuals with a record of CED ≥ 100 mSv over a time span of 5 years. Further, we aim to roughly estimate both incidence and mortality life-attributable risks (LARs) for the shortlisted individuals. CT studies performed over one year, in one dedicated trauma and emergency facility, were retrospectively retrieved and analyzed. Individuals with historical radiological CED ≥ 100 mSv were short-listed. LARs were defined and established based on organ, age and gender. Out of the 4406 CT studies reviewed, 22 individuals were found with CED ≥ 100 mSv. CED varied amongst the short-listed individuals, with the highest CED registered being 223.0 mSv, for a 57-year-old male, cumulated over an average study interval of 46.3 days. The highest median mortality risk was for females, 214 per 100,000 registered for the age group 51–60 years. While certain clinical indications and diseases require close follow-up using radiological examinations, the benefit-to-risk ratio should be carefully considered, particularly when CT is requested.

Abstract Background The final decision to fast or not fast for routine lipid profile examination in a standard, healthy population is unclear. Whereas the United States and European protocols state that fasting for regular lipid analysis is unnecessary, the North American and Chinese guidelines still recommend fasting before routine lipid testing. Aim This study aimed to unravel the contradiction between the different protocols of lipid profile testing worldwide and clarify the effect of diet on lipid profile testing only in a regular, healthy population. Methods A literature search was conducted through May 2024. The analyses included studies performed from the date 2000 until now because the contradiction of guidelines for lipid profile testing appeared for the first time in this period. A planned internal validity evaluation was performed using the National Institute of Health (NIH) quality measurement tools for observational cohort, case‒control, controlled interventional, and cross-sectional studies. The data were synthesized according to RevMan 5.3. Results Eight studies with a total of 244,665 participants were included. The standardized mean difference in cholesterol in six studies showed significant differences in overall effect among fasting and nonfasting states (P

Dates are essential fruits loaded with vital nutrients that keep bones healthy and prevent bone-related disorders. Approximately 8.46 million tons of different types of dates are cultivated and produced annually around the globe. There are more than 400 types of dates that are time-consuming and expensive to produce. Classifying them using conventional methods is labor-intensive, and this is one of the biggest problems for the date industry. Dataset fruit classification plays a vital role in the food industry. Dates can be classified from a luxury class to a less quality class. Accordingly, the food industry needs an automotive date fruit classifier that can work in food factories. This study proposes a pioneering method to classify date fruit that relies on extracting features from the texture of dates using Scattering Wavelet Transformation (SWT). The SWT yields in numeric coefficients were found to be immune to the deformation of invariants. This feature set trains an ensemble classifier that combines a voting mechanism to eliminate overfitting. The ensemble classifier consists of a random forest, a support vector machine classifier, and a logistic regression hyper-learner. Our novel approach was tested on two benchmarked datasets. The first data set scored F1 between 0.95 and 1.0 at the same time. The second dataset registered F1 between 0.96 and 1.0 in each of the 20 date classes. Some dates are close to each other in texture, resulting in high false positives or recall, causing a lower F1 score accuracy degree. The novelty of this approach comes from the featured representative of each date class, relying on the texture of the fruit as a discriminative feature, not on the fruit shape or color, which may not be robust enough as distinguishable features, especially in date classes that are close to each other in shape. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2024-05-02-010 Full Text: PDF

Abstract Statins are used to reduce liver cholesterol levels but also carry a dose‐related risk of skeletal muscle toxicity. Concentrations of statins in plasma are often used to assess efficacy and safety, but because statins are substrates of membrane transporters that are present in diverse tissues, local differences in intracellular tissue concentrations cannot be ruled out. Thus, plasma concentration may not be an adequate indicator of efficacy and toxicity. To bridge this gap, we used physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling to predict intracellular concentrations of statins. Quantitative data on transporter clearance were scaled from in vitro to in vivo conditions by integrating targeted proteomics and transporter kinetics data. The developed PBPK models, informed by proteomics, suggested that organic anion–transporting polypeptide 2B1 (OATP2B1) and multidrug resistance–associated protein 1 (MRP1) play a pivotal role in the distribution of statins in muscle. Using these PBPK models, we were able to predict the impact of alterations in transporter function due to genotype or drug–drug interactions on statin systemic concentrations and exposure in liver and muscle. These results underscore the potential of proteomics‐guided PBPK modeling to scale transporter clearance from in vitro data to real‐world implications. It is important to evaluate the role of drug transporters when predicting tissue exposure associated with on‐ and off‐target effects.

A complex system of neural pathways, collectively known as the microbiota–gut–brain (MGB) axis, interconnects the gut microbiota, the gastrointestinal system, and the brain along with its periphery. Previous studies have demonstrated that modulation of the MGB axis can influence stress-related behaviors such as anxiety. This connection becomes apparent in scenarios like agonistic behavior in laying hens, which is characterized by aggressive head and feather pecks, that can ultimately result in cannibalism and death. The objective was to examine the effects of a dietary synbiotic on agonistic behavior, plasma and brain monoamines, stress parameters, and cecal microbiota counts via modulation of the MGB axis. A total of 396 W36 Hy-Line laying hens were provided at random with a control (CON: basal diet) or treatment (SYN: basal diet supplemented with synbiotic) diet from 50 to 60 weeks old (nine pens/treatment, 22 birds/pen). Blood samples and video recordings (three consecutive days/week) were taken at 50 and 60 weeks. At 60 weeks, three hens/pen were euthanized for brain and cecal microbiota collection. Threatening, fighting, head, body, and feather pecking all occurred less frequently at 60 weeks in the SYN group (p < 0.05). Plasma corticosterone, adrenocorticotropic hormone, dopamine, and serotonin were significantly lower while tryptophan and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid were significantly higher in birds from the SYN group (p < 0.05). Significant differences in serotonin, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, dopamine, homovanillic acid, and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid were observed in the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala of the brain. Serotonin and dopamine turnover rates were significantly different in all three regions of the brain (p < 0.05). Cecal counts of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium were significantly higher in the SYN group (p < 0.05). Synbiotic supplementation resulted in many significant differences, indicating activation of the serotonergic systems and modulation of both the MGB axis and HPA axis with positive effects on welfare and stress.

Introduction The use of e-cigarettes (ECs) has reached unprecedented levels, due to a variety of reasons, including the misconception regarding their safety. Thus, there have been efforts to characterize the effects of EC exposure, including in the context of thirdhand EC (THEC) on a host of disorders, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods To address this issue, we sought to characterize the effects of THEC on platelet function and thrombus formation, using a novel mouse exposure protocol that resembles real life scenarios. To assess these effects, a host of related in vivo (i.e. tail bleeding time, and ferric chloride injury induced thrombosis model) assays and in vitro platelet specific (e.g. aggregation, and dense granule secretion) investigative assays were conducted. Results Our in vivo characterization demonstrated that THEC exposed mice exhibited a prothrombotic phenotype reflected by their shortened tail bleeding (THEC: 37 ± 15 seconds, versus clean air: 183 ± 56 s) and occlusion times (THEC: 188 ± 39 s, versus clean air: 519 ± 70 s), relative to those exposed to clean air. Importantly, we found no difference in the platelet counts between the THEC and clean air mice. As for the underlying mechanism, separate experiments revealed significantly enhanced platelet aggregation, dense and alpha granule secretion, as well as integrin/GPIIb-IIIa activation and phosphatidylserine exposure in response to thrombin and ADP agonist stimulation. Conclusions Taken together, these results provide evidence that THEC does have the capacity to increase the risk of thrombotic disease, which should increase awareness regarding its underappreciated negative health effects.

Quantum computers (QCs) aim to disrupt the status-quo of computing – replacing traditional systems and platforms that are driven by digital circuits and modular software – with hardware and software that operate on the principle of quantum mechanics. QCs that rely on quantum mechanics can exploit quantum circuits (i.e., quantum bits for manipulating quantum gates) to achieve ‘quantum computational supremacy’ over traditional, i.e., digital computing systems. Currently, the issues that impede mass-scale adoption of quantum systems are rooted in the fact that building, maintaining, and/or programming QCs is a complex and radically distinct engineering paradigm when compared to the challenges of classical computing and software engineering. Quantum service orientation is seen as a solution that synergises the research on service computing and quantum software engineering (QSE) to allow developers and users to build and utilise quantum software services based on pay-per-shot utility computing model. The pay-per-shot model represents a single execution of instruction on quantum processing unit and it allows vendors (e.g., Amazon Braket) to offer their QC platforms, simulators, and software services to end-users. This research contributes by (i) developing a reference architecture for enabling Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS), (ii) implementing microservices with the quantum-classic split pattern as an architectural use-case, and (iii) evaluating the architecture based on practitioners’ feedback. The proposed reference architecture follows a layered software pattern to support the three phases of service lifecycle namely development, deployment, and split of quantum software services. In the QSE context, the research focuses on unifying architectural methods and service-orientation patterns to promote reuse knowledge and best practices to tackle emerging and futuristic challenges of architecting QCaaS.

Purpose: To evaluate the association of sickle-cell disease (SCD) and sickle-cell trait (SCT) disease with diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Design: Population-based, retrospective cohort study utilizing data from the TriNetX Research Network, including 119 million patients across 80 health care organizations worldwide. Participants: Diabetes mellitus patients (type 1 [T1DM] or 2 [T2DM]), with or without SCD and SCT, were included. Three cohorts were analyzed, including (1) DM patients without SCD, SCT, or sickle-cell/hemoglobin-C; (2) DM with SCD; and (3) DM with SCT. Methods: All patients with DM were categorized into 3 cohorts based on the presence of SCD and SCT. Each cohort underwent 1:1 propensity score matching for demographics, blood glucose levels, hemoglobin A1C, and other relevant comorbidities. Main Outcome Measures: Risk of DR in DM patients with and without SCD or SCT. Results: There was no significant difference in the risk of any T1DR between those with and without SCD. However, for those with SCT, there was a notable twofold increased risk for T1-proliferative DR (PDR) (relative risk [RR]: 2.03; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.33–3.01). In contrast, there was an elevated risk for any T2DR in patients with SCD (RR: 1.50; 95% CI: 1.19–1.88), particularly due to higher PDR risks in T2DM patients (RR: 1.83; 95% CI: 1.29–2.60). The risk of mild to moderate T2DM non-PDR was also found to be higher in patients with SCT. Conclusions: The risk of any DR was increased in T2DM patients with SCD or SCT, with increased risks for PDR in patients with SCT and T1DM. This indicates there may be a potential role of sickle-cell disorders in diabetic eye disease progression. Financial Disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.

Approximately 71 million people worldwide are supposed to have chronic hepatitis C virus (CHCV). New direct-acting antiviral (DAA) medications have been used, which helped successfully in complete treatment of CHCV and achieved a sustained virological response (SVR). However, some patients may acquire HCV resistance to DAAs, which may result in treatments failure. The aim of the present study was to compare among the patients that were experiencing virologic relapse (VR) and SVR in relation to the patterns of NS5A and NS5B genes resistance associated substitutions (RASs) in the chronic HCV infected Egyptian patients, who received Sofosbuvir (SOF) and Daclatasvir (DCV) combination therapy. All patients that were infected by chronic HCV had completed treatment with SOF and DCV combination therapy and were followed up after the end of this treatment. A total of 10 out of 100 serum specimens were collected from the enrolled patients and analyzed, where two and eight specimens were representatives for VR and SVR, respectively. These samples had undergone reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction amplification (RT-PCR) of NS5A and NS5B genes, partially sequenced by the Sanger method, and then analyzed phylogenetically to determine their genetic subtypes and RASs. Finally, SVR was gained in all but two patients who were experiencing VR that carried natural NS5A-RASs at positions L31M and Y93H. They were considered as significant for DCV resistance as well as natural NS5B-RASs (T282S), which represented the main polymorphism for SOF resistance. In this study, a number of mutational combinations in the analyzed NS5A and NS5B genes were identified, which may increase the risk of treatments failure in the patients administered regimens including multiple DAA, compared to the baseline sequences of those patients that were experiencing SVR.

Abstract More focus has recently been placed on enhancing the strength, elastic modulus, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), wear and corrosion resistance, and other qualities of aluminum (Al) alloys by varying the quantity of ceramics added for a range of industrial uses. In this regard, Al-4.2-Cu-1.6Mg matrix nanocomposites reinforced with nano-ZrO2 particles have been created using the powder metallurgy approach. The microstructure and particle size distributions of the produced powders were analyzed using a diffraction particle size analyzer, XRD, TEM, and SEM. To achieve good sinterability, the powders were compacted and sintered in argon. The sintered nanocomposites' mechanical, elastic, and physicochemical characteristics were measured. Additionally, the behavior of corrosion, wear, and thermal expansion were examined. The results showed a decrease in the particle sizes of the Al-Cu-Mg alloy by adding ZrO2 nanoparticles up to 45.8 nm for the composite containing 16 wt.% ZrO2. By increasing the sintering temperature to 570 °C, the densification of nanocomposites was enhanced. Also, the coefficient of thermal expansion and wear rate remarkably decreased by about 28 and 37.5% by adding 16 wt.% ZrO2. Moreover, microhardness yield, strength, and Young’s modulus were enhanced to 161, 145, and 64%, respectively, after adding 16 wt.% ZrO2. In addition, increasing the exposure time was responsible for decreasing the corrosion rate for the same sample.

Abstract Background Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) causes severe economic losses in the poultry industry worldwide. Hence, this study aimed to discover a novel bioactive antiviral agent for controlling NDV. Streptomyces misakiensis was isolated from Egyptian soil and its secondary metabolites were identified using infrared spectroscopy (IR), gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The inhibitory activity of bioactive metabolite against NDV were examined. Three experimental groups of 10-day-old specific pathogen-free embryonated chicken eggs (SPF-ECEs), including the bioactive metabolite control group, NDV control positive group, and α-sitosterol and NDV mixture-treated group were inoculated. Results α-sitosterol (Ethyl-6-methylheptan-2-yl]-10,13-dimethyl-dodecahydro-1H-cyclopenta[a]phenanthren-3-ol), a secondary metabolite of S. misakiensis, completely inhibited hemagglutination (HA) activity of the NDV strain. The HA activity of the NDV strain was 8 log2 and 9 log2 for 0.5 and 0.75% RBCs, respectively. The NDV HA activity for the two concentrations of RBCs was significantly (P

This study introduces an innovative approach to address the growing challenge of detecting and distinguishing ChatGPT-generated content within scientific articles, particularly in the context of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Leveraging state-of-the-art large language models, including Robustly Optimized BERT Pretraining (RoBERTa), Text-to-Text Transfer Transformer (T5), and Generative Pre-trained Transformers (EleutherAI GPT-Neo-125M), our methodology focuses on the incorporation of the LMS concept into the research framework. To construct a comprehensive dataset representative of the diverse landscape of scientific abstracts, samples of the dataset are gathered from articles produced by human authors and those generated by ChatGPT within the LMS framework. The models (RoBERTa, T5, and EleutherAI GPT-Neo-125M) were subsequently trained on this unique dataset, showcasing their adaptability to the distinct characteristics of both human-generated and AI-generated content within the LMS context. The efficacy of our approach was rigorously evaluated using a range of metrics, resulting in an outstanding accuracy exceeding 99%. This achievement underscores the robustness of our methodology in successfully discerning content generated by ChatGPT within the LMS and that authored by human contributors, thereby advancing the field of content differentiation in scientific discourse.

In this paper, a second order hyperbolic traffic model is proposed to assess the impact of potholes on traffic evolution. The driver presumption to potholes considers the safe time headway, change in velocity and the changes in potholes width. Further, the traffic alignment is based on the driver reaction to potholes, distance headway and size of potholes. The changes in traffic evolution travel at or below traffic velocity. This rate of changes is impacted by the potholes size, driver reaction, distance headway, time headway and the changes in velocity distributions. Furthermore, the direction of travel during congestion is rearwards, while is in forward direction during smooth flow. The model proposed in this paper can be employed for traffic density below and beyond the critical density. The Gabriel et al. model considers a constant for driver presumptions and is more a fitting parameter, rather than a traffic parameter. This is an inappropriate methodology to employ driver presumptions in second order traffic systems. The Gabriel et al. traffic system is based on the uniform constant velocity for different road conditions, which characterizes traffic evolution unrealistically. The proposed and Gabriel et al. traffic models are assessed over a 4000 m road for changes in the width of a pothole. Both the Gabriel et al. and proposed traffic models are numerically implemented with the conservative scheme in Matlab. The discretization stability of both the models is enforced with the Courant, Friedrich and Levy (CFL) condition. With smaller width of the pothole, the changes in upstream traffic are minor, and the density evolution in forward direction is smoother. While, with larger width of the pothole, the density evolution is slower, resulting congestion in the upstream, and exists for longer period. Moreover, Segment Travel Time (STT) is assessed subject to various sizes of a pothole, and it is observed that the STT significantly increases with the increase in pothole size. Conversely, the Gabriel et al. model characterizes traffic inadequately subject to various sizes of the pothole. The density behavior with this model is almost uniform, thus limiting its performance. The simulation results showed that the traffic evolution with the proposed model is more appropriate than with the Gabriel et al. model.

The study area was classified into three categories (vegetation cover, water, and others)using four satellite images of the Landsat 8 satellite captured during March for the period 2019-2022 into. The results showed that there is a change in the climatic conditions (temperature and rainfall) for the years of the study. The average temperature increased from 12.29°C to 25.967°C from the year 2019 to 2022. The annual amount of precipitation was decreased from 469.43 mm for the year 2019 to 105.49 mm for the year 2022.this negatively changed affected the water and agricultural resources, as the amount of water storage for Lake Hamrin and Lake Al-Wand together reached to 2,314,584,000 m3 and 40,404,000 m3 for the years 2019 and 2022, respectively. This led to decrease in the vegetation area from 1587.29 km2 to 356.17 for the year 2019 km2 and 2022, respectively.

Introduction It is well documented that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the US and worldwide, with smoking being the most preventable cause. Additionally, most smokers die from thrombotic-based diseases, in which platelets play a major role. To this end, because of the proven harm of smoking, several novel tobacco products such as electronic(e)-waterpipe have been gaining popularity among different sectors of the population, partly due to their “false” safety claims. While many investigators have focused on the negative health effects of traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes on the cardiovascular system, virtually little or nothing is known about e-waterpipes, which we investigated herein. Methods and Materials To investigate their occlusive CVD effects, we employed a whole-body mouse exposure model of e-waterpipe vape/smoke and exposed C57BL/6J male mice (starting at 7 weeks of age) for 1 month, with the controls exposed to clean air. Exposures took place seven times a week, according to the well-known Beirut protocol, which has been employed in many studies, as it mimics real-life waterpipe exposure scenarios; specifically, 171 puffs of 530 ml volume of the e-liquid at 2.6 s puff duration and 17 s puff interval. Results The e-waterpipe exposed mice had shortened bleeding and occlusion times, when compared to the clean air controls, indicating a prothrombotic phenotype. As for the mechanism underlying this phenotype, we found that e-waterpipe exposed platelets exhibited enhanced agonist-triggered aggregation and dense granule secretion. Also, flow cytometry analysis of surface markers of platelet activation showed that both P-selectin and integrin GPIIb-IIIa activation were enhanced in the e-waterpipe exposed platelets, relative to the controls. Finally, platelet spreading and Akt phosphorylation were also more pronounced in the exposed mice. Conclusion We document that e-waterpipe exposure does exert untoward effects in the context of thrombosis-based CVD, in part, via promoting platelet hyperreactivity.

Pd(II) with the Schiff base ligand 2-Hydroxy-3-Methoxy Benzaldehyde-Thiosemicarbazone (HMBATSC) (L2) and 2-aminobenzothiazole (2-ABZ) (L1) was synthesized. The Schiff base ligand and the Palladium(II) complex were characterized by C.H.N.S, FT-IR, conductance studies, magnetic susceptibility, XRD, and TGA. From the elemental analysis and spectral data, the complex was proposed to have the formula [Pd(HMBATSC)(2-ABZ)H2O]. The interaction between the Pd(II) complex and DNA was examined through various methods, including UV–Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence techniques, and DNA viscosity titrations. The findings provided strong evidence that the interaction between the Pd(II) complex and DNA occurs through the intercalation mode. The analysis yielded the following values: a Stern–Volmer quenching constant (ksv) of 1.67 × 104 M−1, a quenching rate constant (kq) of 8.35 × 1011 M−1 s−1, a binding constant (kb) of 5.20 × 105 M−1, and a number of binding the sites (n) of 1.392. DFT studies suggest that the azole derivative may act as an electron donor through pyridine nitrogen, while the Schiff base ligand may act as an electron donor via oxygen and sulfur atoms. TDDFT calculations indicate that the intramolecular charge transfer from the Schiff base to Pd(II) is responsible for the complex’s fluorescence quenching. The powder X-ray diffraction data revealed that the complex is arranged in a monoclinic system. The resulting Pd(II) complex was investigated for its antimicrobial activity and demonstrated antibacterial efficiency. Interestingly, it showed potent activity against E. coli and E. niger that was found to be more powerful than that recorded for Neomycin.

Conclusion: Endogenous fungal endophthalmitis is most commonly seen in immunocompromised patients, and oral corticosteroid therapy for such patients should be used with caution as it can worsen an infection. In cases of fusarial endophthalmitis, visual prognosis is poor.