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The present work was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the orlistat drug on some hormones and biochemical parameters in male rats received a high fat diet (HFD). Twenty-four rats were divided into four groups: 1st group administered normal diet, 2nd group administered HFD, the 3rd group administered HFD plus 9.5 mg/kg b.w./day orlistat, and the 4th group administered HFD diet plus 19 mg/kg b.w./day orlistat. The experimental period was for four weeks. At the end of the experiment, blood samples were obtained for biochemical and hormonal assays. The administration of HFD for four weeks increased significantly the weight gain, serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TAG), low density lipoprotein (LDL-c), glucose, insulin, triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), leptin, with the significant decrease in high density lipoprotein (HDL-c), ghrelin, thyrotropin (TSH) and testosterone hormones in the serum as compared with the control group. The treatment with orlistat neutralized the levels of the measured parameters as compared with HFD fed rats and the results were correlated with the dose of orlistat. In conclusion, an improvement was observed in the biochemical and hormonal results by the treatment with orlistat drug.

This research aims to shed light on the effectiveness of public relations department activities in hospitals to improve the condition of mentally ill patients by reaching proposals on the roles that public relations management should play within hospitals and thus improving patients 'condition psychologically. The research sample consisted of (100) individuals, (80) individual patients, at a rate of (80.0%), and they are detainees in the internal departments and frequenting the outpatient clinics of the hospital, which is the highest percentage, while the number of workers was (20) individuals at a rate of (20.0%) of Hospital workers The research belongs to the descriptive research where the method of social survey in the sample was used based on the questionnaire as a basic tool for data collection. The questionnaire forms were applied by (100) questionnaires to find out opinions about the effectiveness of the activities of the public relations department in the hospital in improving the condition of patients psychologically, and the study reached many results. Among the most important of them are the many psychological effects that patients suffer, as some patients feel psychosomatics (physical/ psychiatric diseases). The research recommended the interest of the hospital administration in providing an integrated therapeutic team of doctors, public relations specialists and psychologists to provide support and social support to patients through the effectiveness of relationship activities, which are to reduce the psychological effects.

The wind turbines are classified according to their control strategy to fixed speed and variable speed turbines. The most common control strategies are stall, pitch and active stall. Each control strategy is coupled to either squirrel cage induction generator, doubly fed induction generator or direct drive synchronous generator. Zafarana wind farm which has already reached a capacity of 425 MW is the largest installed wind farm in the Middle East and Africa. Both fixed and variable speed wind turbines are used in Zafarana wind farm. This paper introduces steady state models of different types of Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs) used in Zafarana wind farm in terms of calculated performance coefficient, active power, and reactive power. The derived models are verified using actual data measured from the site as a very good approximation. So, they are used for further analysis. A complete power flow analysis of the Egyptian grid portion that contains Zafarana wind farm (Canal Zone that is represented by 34 bus system) is performed. Also the impact of interconnecting Zafarana wind farm on the Canal Zone voltage stability is evaluated by obtaining the expected voltage stability margin at each wind speed and accumulating for all expected wind speed values on the site.

Wind energy conversion has emerged as a viable alternative to meet the increased demand for energy resources in recent years. Wind (arms interconnected to power system bring new challenges to power system op eration. It is imperative to study the impact of variable speed wind turbine coupled to doubly fed induction generator DFIG on utility grid op eration. A mathematical model has been developed to evaluate the steady state performance of the variable speed wind energy conversion system with DFIG. In addition a steady state converter (rectifier-inverter) model as a function of siring angles of the rectifier and inverter is developed and used directly to calculate the influence of DFIG on power system operation through power flow solution. These units are modeled as P-Y bus(es) to manage the reactive power generation inside the wind farmi. The paper presents and validates a model of DFIG suitable for operation in steady state mode and not only able to support voltage by feeding reactive power but also to fulfill grid requirement. The p roposed algorithm is imp lemented and applied to the IEEE 26-bus system and the number of the equivalent wind turbines generating units WTGU at each generating bus is demonstrated and injected as P-V bus(es). The impact of WTGUs on active and reactive power of own generating bus(es) and slack bus at different wind speeds is also investigated.

Heavy metals are any metallic element that has a proportionally high density and is poisonous at low concentrations. Also, heavy metals are non-biodegradable in natural environments and categorized in two groups as toxic metals (i.e. Pb, Cd and As etc.) and essential metals (i.e. Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, Ni and Cr etc.). The releasing sources of heavy metals are divided to the natural and anthropogenic sources. Increase of urbanization and industrialization lead to increase the metal contamination of food. The toxic metals can be translocated to different food through different sources such as irrigation water, agricultural soils, agricultural practices, air pollution, animal feed and packaging materials. The toxic metals are non-biodegradable, non-thermo degradable and extremely persistent in the environment; thus readily accumulate to the different food. The metal contamination of different food such as agricultural crops, meat, fish, milk and egg threatens both food safety and security. Contamination of agricultural soils, irrigation water, plants and animals with toxic metals cause their incorporation into the food chain and cause a great threat to human health. Most metals have toxic effects on human health and accumulate in the different organs such as skeleton, liver, spleen, and kidney. Metals have negative effects on plant and animal production. So, application of different remediation techniques became necessity to reduce the toxic heavy metals pathway to the food chain and human body. Metal nanoparticles used in benefits application, but may be have some risks.

Graphical abstract, Highlights • Levels of lead and cadmium in agriculture soil were affected by its levels in irrigation water. • Levels of lead and cadmium in maize grians irrigated with low-quality water were higher than that irrigated with freshwter (about 19-30 folds). • Levels of Pb and Cd concentrations in maize grains irrigated with low-quality water were above the permissible limits as 0.2 and 0.1 mg kg-1, respectively according to WHO/FAO. • The determined HRI values for both maize grains irrigated with low-quality water and freshwater were, Maize is the third important cereal crop after wheat and rice, especially in Egyptian villages. It is used in baking as a substitution component in wheat products and a main component in snacks for children. The target of this study was to estimate the risk assessment of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in maize grains cultivated in the agricultural soil irrigated by the contaminated water in comparison with that irrigated by freshwater. Lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) levels in irrigation water, soils and maize grains collected from different sites in Egypt were determined using ICP-OES. The studied samples were collected from 5 agricultural sites irrigated with freshwater (Nile River water and groundwater) as well as 4 agricultural sites irrigated with low-quality water (contaminated by sewage and industrial wastewater). Results exhibited that the levels of Pb and Cd in soil and maize grains were significantly affected by their levels in irrigation water; where, the levels of Pb and Cd in soil and maize grains irrigated by low-quality water possessed the multiple concentrations in comparison with those irrigated by freshwater. Specific water sources such as Kafr-Dokhmais and Al-Nasiria sites, Kafr El-Sheikh governorate had the highest levels of metals in the samples of irrigation water, soil and maize grains (p

Background: To measure the quality of life (QoL) of Egyptian females with breast cancer (BC) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Cairo University (CU) and its relations with the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Methods: A total of 200 female BC patients were recruited from the medical oncology outpatient clinic during a period from December 2015 to March 2018. The instrument of this study consisted of two parts: the first for Socio-demographic and clinicopathological characteristics, and the second was the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast for patients with Lymphedema (FACT-B+4) questionnaire. Results: The majority of the study participants were married, housewives, and without a family history of cancer (70.0%, 93.0%, and 63.0%, respectively). Most of them presented with breast mass, had IDC, grade II and disease stage III at diagnosis (89.0%, 84.5%, 85.6% and 56.8%, respectively) and had undergone modified radical mastectomy, received adjuvant chemotherapy, radiation, and hormonal therapy (62.0%, 83.8%, 73.5% and 60.5%, respectively). The median FACT-B score was 81 (range 35-133). The medians of subscales were: physical well-being 13 (range 0-28), social well-being 20 (range 0-28), emotional well-being 15 (range 2-24), and functional well-being 16 (range 2-28). The median score for breast subscale was 19 (range 2-32). Many factors affected the QoL scores, including age, marital status, occupation, smoking, residence, comorbidities, symptoms, grade, chemotherapy, radiation, and recurrence. Conclusion: QoL of Egyptian females with BC was influenced by several factors like age, marital status, occupation, smoking, residence, comorbidities, symptoms, grade, chemotherapy, radiation, and recurrence.

This work was performed to investigate the effect of the dietary addition of lemon, Citrus limon (L.) Burm. peels on the growth performance, antioxidant activity, immune status, and disease resistance against Aeromonas hydrophila in two common freshwater fish species (Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus and African catfish, Clarias gariepinus). The fishes were randomly distributed at 10 fish per 60 L aquariums, and fed on three different diets (a control basal diet and two supplemented diets with 1% and 2% dried C. limon peels powder) for 45 days. The growth performance was insignificantly decreased in Nile tilapia fed on 2% followed by 1% C. limon peels supplemented diets and in African catfish fed on 2% C. limon peels when compared with the control fishes. Serum glucose was decreased with increasing levels of C. limon peels (2% followed by 1%) in Nile tilapia diets, whereas no significant effects were observed in African catfish. The cortisol levels remained unchanged in both fish species. However, significant elevation (p

The present work investigates the dynamic effect of wheel rotation on the aerodynamic characteristics of slick type (ST) wheel of Formula One racing cars using a computational approach. The ST wheel model was compared to experimental results as a validation case. The pressure coefficient over the ST wheel circumference at its middle plane (xy) has been considered as an experimental case from literature and the computed results showed a reasonable agreement. Furthermore, a quantitative evaluation of the numerically-determined wheel drag, local separation and stagnation angles has been also compared to those extracted experimentally from literature. The validation work served by assessing the suitability of using Moving Reference Frame (MRF) method to simulate the effect of wheel rotation, as well as defining the most reliable conditions of testing such as the optimal meshing criteria, the computational domain size, and the adopted turbulence model. According to wheel studies, all computational work was performed at a Reynolds number of 6.8×105 based on the wheel diameter. The wheels aerodynamic drag, lift, and moment coefficients were computed for each wheel model. Further parametric study on the tread design of the tread type (TT) wheel was performed by varying the tread depth, h. Besides, general schematic pictures of the flow behavior around the TT wheel are presented.

Cryptosporidiosis is considered to be one of the most devasting gastrointestinal diseases in calves. The aim of this study was to investigate Cryptosporidium parvum infection (C. parvum) in buffalo-calves with both copro-microscopic examination and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using two C. parvum prepared antigens with regards to their cytokines profile; interferon- γ (IFN-γ), interleukin (IL)-12 and IL-14 to achieve a proper diagnosis. All collected buffalo- calves' fecal samples were examined by modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining technique. ELISA was performed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the two C. parvum prepared antigens; crude whole oocyst (CWO) and crude sonicated oocyst (CSO) in detection of anti-C. parvum IgG in buffalo-calves' sera. As well, concentrations of INF-γ, IL-12 and IL-14 in the buffalo-calves' serum samples were estimated. The results revealed that the overall parasitological incidence of cryptosporidiosis was 40%. However, the serological diagnosis by ELISA assay showed 53.75% and 27.5% when using CWO and CSO antigen, respectively. Also, the diagnostic efficacy parameters of both antigens; CWO and CSO showed a significant high specificity (83.3%) achieved by CSO antigen and a high sensitivity (71.8%) by CWO antigen. The levels of INF-γ, IL-12 and IL-14 were significantly increased in positive Cryptosporidium infected group by both coprological and serological assays followed by the group which was positive for cryptosporidiosis by copro-microscopic examination only. The present study concluded that a combination of coprological and serological examination with reference to the cytokines profile is needed for proper diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis in buffalo-calves.

The migration of the transportation from conventional combustion engine vehicles to friendly-environment electric vehicles needs charging stations along the roads and in the houses. These battery charging stations are power electronic devices that cause harmonic distortions in the distribution networks. This paper proposes a novel switched filter compensator (SFC) device that is connected at the AC side of the battery charger to solve the power quality problems and prevent the propagation of harmonic distortions in the distribution network. SFC is two capacitors connected in parallel and connected in series with arm-filter. The operation of SFC is based on the intermittent switching between two capacitors to conFigure a complete arm filter. The design of the SFC aims to mitigate the highest value harmonic orders and compensate the required reactive power to enhance the charger power factor. The on-board battery charger and the proposed SFC are built using Matlab Simulink environment. The voltage and current waveforms at the AC and DC sides of the charger are monitored, analyzed and compared with and without the connection of SFC. The results ensure that the battery charger with SFC has the capability of mitigating the harmonic distortion and improving the system power factor and has no influence on the charging current, voltage and charging time of the battery charger.

Background: To evaluate the response of the modern bladder-preservation treatment modality; trimodal therapy (TMT) in muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). Aiming at bladder preservation in MIBC, TMT was to offer a quality-of-life advantage and avoid potential morbidity and mortality of radical cystectomy (RC) without compromising oncologic outcomes.Aim of Study: To investigate the TMT as a treatment option for muscle-invasive bladder cancer confirmed by cancer specific and overall survival rates in two different institutes.Material and Methods: The study included 64 consecutive patients between 2008 and 2013, and was conducted in National Institute of Urology and Nephrology, Cairo, Egypt, Al-Azhar University, Girls Div., Urology Dept., Cairo, Egypt and National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. Forty nine patients were males and 15 were females. Mean age was 61±9 years (range, 34-82 years). Sixty nine percent of patients (44) were below 65 years old while 31% (20) were above 65. Sixty six percent (42 patients) were fit for surgery but refused RC as first line of treatment and 34% (22 patients) were unfit for surgery. Results: One third of patients (20) failed TMT and under went RC. Five years overall survival (OS) was 57% and disease specific survival (DSS) was 61%. There was no significant difference observed in OS or DSS between different age, sex or surgical fitness patients groups. Tumor stage showed significant statistical difference between T2 and T3 (p

Distributed generations (DGs) have been utilized in some electric power networks. Power loss reductions, voltage improvement, increasing reliability, postponement of system upgrading and environmental friendliness are some advantages of DG-unit applications. This paper presents a new optimization approach that employs a flower pollination algorithm (FPA) to determine the optimal DG-unit’s size and location in order to minimize the total system real power loss and improve the system buses voltage. The FPA is a new metaheuristic optimization technique and it is inspired by the reproduction strategy of the flow pollination process of flowering plants. To reveal the validity of the FPA algorithm, IEEE 33-bus, 69-bus and 136-bus radial distribution test systems are examined with different test cases of the objective function using the MATLAB. Furthermore, the results obtained by the proposed FPA algorithm are compared with other metaheuristic optimization techniques such as backtracking search optimization algorithm, artificial bee colony, and selection algorithm. The outcomes verify that the FPA algorithm is efficient, robust, and capable of handling mixed integer nonlinear optimization problems.

The therapy of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) stays a challenging issue. During the last decade, there has been an interest in the expansion of anti-diabetic drugs especially those of natural sources. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the anti-hyperglycemic and the anti-hyperlipidemic effects as well as the anti-oxidant activities of navel orange hydroethanolic extract and its constituting flavonoids naringin and naringenin on nicotineamide (NA)/streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 2 diabetic rats. To induce T2DM, 16h-fasted rats were intraperitoneally injected with STZ at dose of 50mg/kg body weight (b. w.), 15min after the intraperitoneal administration of NA (120mg/kg b. w.). The NA/STZ-induced type 2 diabetic rats were orally treated with navel orange peel hydroethanolic extract, naringin and narengenin at dose level of 100mg/kg b. w./day for 4 weeks. The treatments with navel orange peel hydroethanolic extract, naringin and narengenin potentially alleviated the lowered serum insulin and C-peptide levels, the depleted liver glycogen content, the elevated liver glucose-6-phosphatase and glycogen phosphorylase activities, the deteriorated serum lipid profile, and the suppressed liver antioxidant defense system of NA/STZ-induced type 2 diabetic rats. The treatments also enhanced the mRNA expression of insulin receptor β-subunit, GLUT4 and adiponectin in adipose tissue of STZ/NA-induced type 2 diabetic rats. In conclusion, the navel orange peel hydroethanolic extract, naringin and naringenin have potent anti-diabetic effects in NA/STZ-induced type 2 diabetic rats via their insulinotropic effects and insulin improving action which in turn may be mediated through enhancing insulin receptor, GLUT4 and adiponectin expression in adipose tissue.

A DC nano-grid is typically intended as a reliable scheme capable of delivering power to the local loads from distributed renewable energy resources. The conventional nano-grid uses two-separate conversion stages for feeding both ac and dc loads. But, the modified design for the dc nano-grid uses only a single-stage converter. It is based on a single-input power-electronic multi-output converter that interfaces the source with the average load requirements. It deals with a switched boost inverter (SBI) that can fed from a solar photovoltaic (PV) renewable energy source. SBI is a single-stage power converter capable of simultaneously supplying both dc and a higher or lower ac loads from a single dc input voltage source. The converter operation is also contributed by a simple model reference adaptive closed loop control technique, to fed the high output ratings steadily, especially in the critical range for its duty ratio. In addition, this paper presents a full model design for multiple interconnected nanogrids through a dc-link within a multilevel direct current (dc) scheme called an open energy distributed system (OEDS). Each nanogrid involves a switched boost inverter (SBI) providing its closed-loop control method for its dc-link voltage. Moreover, this paper involves a controller method to attain the optimum power flow with high reliability for the suggested interconnected nanogrids. The proposed systems are modelled and simulated with the help of MATLAB/Simulink software package to assess the robustness of the proposed OEDS with multiple 5-Kw interconnected nanogrids fed from photovoltaic (PV) renewable energy resources.

School feeding program (SFP) increases access to education and to better health. This study aims to evaluate the effects of SFP on physical growth, cognitive development, psychosocial behavior, and learning achievement of school children. A quasi-experimental study was conducted. The intervention group included 903 pupils in the fifth grade receiving the school meal, while the control group included 886 pupils, matched for age and sex, without meal. The meal consisted of a pie made of flour fortified with vitamins A, B6, B12, C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, calcium, iron, zinc, and phosphorus. Socioeconomic position, nutritional status, and dietary behavior were evaluated. Neuropsychological tests were done. Psychosocial behavior was rated and educational achievement was recorded. Post hoc and independent sample t tests were used to detect the association of the studied parameters with the intake of school snack. Children who took the meal had better scores on visual memory, auditory vigilance tests (9.71 ± 2.80 vs. 7.45 ± 3.25; 25.02 ± 3.36 vs. 10.82 ± 8.92, respectively, P

BACKGROUND: Cell therapies offer a promising potential in promoting bone regeneration. Stem cell therapy presents attractive care modality in treating degenerative conditions or tissue injuries. The rationale behind this is both the expansion potential of stem cells into a large cell population size and its differentiation abilities into a wide variety of tissue types, when given the proper stimuli. A progenitor stem cell is a promising source of cell therapy in regenerative medicine and bone tissue engineering. AIM: This study aimed to compare the osteogenic differentiation and regenerative potentials of human mesenchymal stem cells derived from human bone marrow (hBM-MSCs) or amniotic fluid (hAF-MSCs), both in vitro and in vivo studies. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Human MSCs, used in this study, were successfully isolated from two human sources; the bone marrow (BM) and amniotic fluid (AF) collected at the gestational ages of second or third trimesters. RESULTS: The stem cells derived from amniotic fluid seemed to be the most promising type of progenitor cells for clinical applications. In a pre-clinical experiment, attempting to explore the therapeutic application of MSCs in bone regeneration, Rat lumbar spines defects were surgically created and treated with undifferentiated and osteogenically differentiated MSCs, derived from BM and second trimester AF. Cells were loaded on gel-foam scaffolds, inserted and fixed in the area of the surgical defect. X-Ray radiography follows up, and histopathological analysis was done three-four months post- operation. The transplantation of AF-MSCs or BM-MSCs into induced bony defects showed promising results. The AF-MSCs are offering a better healing effect increasing the likelihood of achieving successful spinal fusion. Some bone changes were observed in rats transplanted with osteoblasts differentiated cells but not in rats transplanted with undifferentiated MSCs. Longer observational periods are required to evaluate a true bone formation. The findings of this study suggested that the different sources; hBM-MSCs or hAF-MSCs exhibited remarkably different signature regarding the cell morphology, proliferation capacity and osteogenic differentiation potential CONCLUSIONS: AF-MSCs have a better performance in vivo bone healing than that of BM-MSCs. Hence, AF derived MSCs is highly recommended as an alternative source to BM-MSCs in bone regeneration and spine fusion surgeries. Moreover, the usage of gel-foam as a scaffold proved as an efficient cell carrier that showed bio-compatibility with cells, bio-degradability and osteoinductivity in vivo.

Background: Identifying simple and reliable prognostic indicators in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is important to optimize its management. The mean platelet volume/platelet count (MPV/PC) ratio may be of prognostic value in some clinical conditions including NSCLC.Aim: To investigate the relationship between MPV/PC ratio and some important prognostic factors in Egyptian NSCLC patients.Methods: Retrospective study that included 69 patients with stage III/IV NSCLC in the period from January 2010 to December 2012. The complete blood picture done before starting treatment was the one considered for the calculation of MPV/PC. The relation between MPV/PC ratio and patients and disease characteristics was studied.Results: More advanced stage was associated with lower average MPV/PC ratio. The average MPV/PC ratio was 0.45963 (95%CI: 0.38829- 0.53098) in patients with stage IIIA, 0.33873 (95%CI: 0.2854-0.39208) in stage IIIB and 0.32752 (95%CI: 0.28642- 0.36862) in stage IV (p=0.015).Similarly, higher Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score was associated with lower MPV/PC ratio. The average MPV/PC ratio was 0.40949 (95%CI: 0.34959 – 0.46939) in patients with ECOG 1, 0.36369 (95%CI: 0.31009- 0.41724) in ECOG 2 and 0.28378 (95%CI: 0.24898 -0.31857) in ECOG 3 (p=0.004). Older patients had a significantly lower MPV/PC ratio (p=0.043).Conclusion: Low MPV/PC is associated with poor prognostic factors in NSCLC such as advanced stage and poor performance status. Future clinical studies to evaluate the prognostic value of MPV/PC ration in NSCLC are warranted.

This paper presents the results of an experimental program aimed at using expanded polystyrene (EPS) wastes in developing lightweight mortar and masonry solid brick units of adequate mechanical and thermal characteristics for use in building and construction applications. Five dosages of EPS were used to partially substitute the sand in the mix, namely; 0, 10, 15, 20 and 26 kg/m3. The results showed that the density, compressive strength, tensile strength, static modulus of elasticity, and coefficient of thermal conductivity decrease with the increase of the EPS dosage in the mix. The results showed also that the proposed EPS solid bricks possess adequate strength for non-loadbearing applications have superior thermal properties.

Background: Emotional distress is common among cancer patients (25-30 %), as a result of the serious diagnosis and suffering from aggressive treatment. This may negatively affect their participation in treatment, quality of life, and satisfaction with care. To best of our knowledge, it has not been studied before in Egypt, this study aims to implement the distress thermometer in Egyptian cancer patients as a screening tool for the distress and its associated factors. Methods: The Arabic version of DT that has been recently validated was used in this study to screen patients. Egyptian Patients diagnosed with different types of hematological malignancies and solid cancers who were following at three Oncology Centers (South Egypt Cancer Institute, Assiut University Hospital, and Mansura University Oncology department) were recruited. All Patients were asked to rate their distress in the past week on an 11-point visual analog scale ranging from 0 (no distress) to 10 (extreme distress), then, they were asked to fill in the Problem List (PL), to check whether or not they had any of the problems listed during the previous 7 days. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify the significant problems correlated with the patient distress at a cut-off score of 4. Results: A total of 550 patients agreed to participate. The mean age was 51.3 (18–85) years. Different types of solid and hematological malignancies were included; the most common three types were breast cancer (32.7 %), gastrointestinal cancer (23%), and hematological malignancies (15.5 %). The patients’ average DT score was 3.7. The most frequent problems were fatigue (49%), worry (47%), fear (44 %), and pain (42%). The univariate analysis showed a significant correlation between the DT at Cut – off the value of 4 and transportation, dealing with children, depression, fears, sadness, sleep, loss of usual activity, and fatigue. Multivariate analysis confirmed the transportation, depression, fears, sadness, sleep and fatigue as independent factors for such distress. Conclusion: Egyptian cancer patients are suffering from significant distress at a cut value of 4. We recommend the involvement of the psycho-oncology service for all cancer patients at the time of diagnosis.

Background Still, there is no clinically reliable marker to detect micrometastasis or breast cancer relapse. This study aimed to evaluate the role of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) as a biomarker in patients with nonmetastatic breast cancer. Patients and methods CTC quantification was carried out using flow cytometry for 50 patients with breast cancer postoperatively: before starting, after three cycles, and at the end of adjuvant chemotherapy. The relationship between CTCs and other tumor characteristics and outcomes were studied. Results The median follow-up duration was 35 months. Before starting adjuvant chemotherapy, CTCs were positive (cutoff point ≥5/7.5 ml) in 36% of the patients and decreased to 20% after finishing chemotherapy (P = 0.04). CTCs were detected in 88.9% (n = 16 of 18) of node-positive patients and in 11.1% of node-negative patients (n = 2 of 18, P = 0.04). No significant association was found with tumor size, grading, or hormone receptor status. Distant metastasis was detected in 20% (n = 10 of 50) of patients and was significantly associated with CTCs more than or equal to 5 in 80% of them (n = 8 of 10) (P = 0.01). The presence of more than or equal to 5 CTCs at baseline was associated with a reduction in both the disease-free survival and overall survival (P Conclusions The current work suggested that the presence of more than or equal to 5 CTCs/7.5 ml at baseline would predict early disease recurrence and reduce the overall survival in patients with nonmetastatic breast cancer receiving adjuvant chemotherapy.

Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest of the 21 most common cancers, largely because it is often identified at a late stage, we aimed to determine the control rates, and PFS for patients who received docetaxel-oxaliplatin regimen as a 2nd line therapy. Twenty-five patients with advanced cancer pancreas progressed or failed on 1st line treatments and justified the inclusion criteria were eligible to receive Docetaxel 75 mg/m2 over 1h iv infusion on day 1, Oxaliplatin 80 mg/m2 over 2 h iv infusion on day 2, the cycle was repeated every 3 weeks for 6-8 cycles unless disease progression or severe toxicity appeared. No patients achieved complete response (CR), and the control rate (control rate = partial response (PR = 6/25, 24%) + stable disease (SD = 9/25, 36%) was 60% while disease progression (DP) was demonstrated in (10/25) 40% of patients, the median PFS was 7 ± 0.777 ms (95% confidence interval: 5.467-8.524 ms), grade 3 neutropenia, fatigue, diarrhea, and vomiting were developed in 12%, 8%, 12% and 8% of patients respectively. Docetaxel-oxaliplatin regimen was an active regimen in advanced cancer pancreas based on our encouraging results without occurrence of grade four toxicities.

Immunostimulants have been found to be attractive and promising agents for disease management in aquaculture. The current study aimed to assess the impacts of feeding with Spirulina platensis (SP) and Salvia officinalis (SO) for 28 days on the immune status of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). A total of 180 Nile tilapia (30.6 ± 0.12 g) were divided into 3 groups (triplicates of 20 fish/group). Control group was fed on a basal diet only, while the other two groups were supplemented with SP (10 gm/kg diet) and SO (7.5 gm/kg diet) respectively. Both of SP and SO showed in vitro antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeureginosa. The immune response of Nile tilapia supplemented with SP and SO revealed significant increases in lysozyme, nitric oxide activities and IgM titer with enhancement of IL-1β and TNF-α genes expression before and after infection with P. aeureginosa. Fish challenged with P. aeureginosa showed signs of infection with high mortality rate and low relative percentage survival which elevated to be 83% in SP group and 75% in SO group. It could be concluded that dietary supplementation with SP and SO improved immune response and protected Nile tilapia against infection. Moreover, SP showed better results than SO before and after infection.

A significant concern of physicians treating patients with pleural effusion is to rule out a malignant etiology, which, in the majority of series, is the first cause of pleural exudates. Determination of tumor markers in serum and pleural fluid has been proposed as a nonaggressive means of establishing a diagnosis of pleural malignancy. Cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) is not a specific tumor marker and it is synthesized by normal and malignant cells of different origins. Recently, it has been shown that various diseases are associated with increased CA-125 levels, especially in the presence of serosal fluid. The aim of this study was to determine the level of serum and pleural fluid CA-125 to evaluate its value as a marker for differentiation between different types of pleural effusion. The study was carried out on 30 patients with pleural effusion of different etiologies. They were further subdivided into two groups: exudates and transudates; the levels of both serum and pleural fluid CA-125 were evaluated. In terms of pleural CA-125, there was a statistically significant increase in the exudative subgroup compared with transudative subgroup. Furthermore, it was found that malignant effusion was observed more frequently compared with benign effusion and tuberculosis was observed more frequently in comparison with other infections. The highest level of pleural fluid CA-125 was found in malignancy, followed by tuberculosis, and so pleural fluid CA-125 can be used as a marker for the diagnosis of pleural effusion. Egypt J Broncho 2015 9:283–286

A focused MeV proton beam at the Lund Ion Beam Analysis Facility has been used to induce radiation damage in transmission semiconductor detectors. The damage alters the response of detectors and degrades their charge transport properties. In this work, the radiation tolerance of ultra-thin silicon PIN detectors was studied as a function of proton fluences and detector thickness using a scanning proton microprobe. The investigated detectors had thicknesses ranging between 6.5 and 22 mu m, and different selected regions of each detector were irradiated with fluence up to 2 x 10(15) protons/cm(2). The results show that the charge collection efficiency (CCE) decreases as a function of the proton fluence. Compared with non-irradiated regions, the CCE was above 94% at the lowest fluence of 2 x 10(12) protons/cm(2) for all the detectors studied. Degradation of the devices caused spectral peak shifting toward lower energies. The highest possible fluence of 2.55 MeV protons that could be used, causing only minor radiation damage, was 2 x 10(13) cm(-2) for the thinnest detectors (6.5 and 10 mu m) and 2 x 10(12) cm(-2) for the thickest detectors (15 and 22 mu m). (Less)

Background Neurocutaneous syndromes (NCS) are a broad term for a group of neurologic disorders that involve the nervous system and the skin. The most common examples are neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1) and type 2 (NF-2), tuberous sclerosis (TS), Sturge–Weber syndrome (SWS), ataxia telangiectasia (AT), and Von Hippel Lindau disease (VHL). These disorders are characterized clinically by neurological manifestations such as convulsions, mental retardation and learning disabilities in addition to cutaneous manifestations, and lastly tubers (benign growths found in different organs of the body). Aim of the study This study aimed to identify clinical, imaging, and neurophysiological profiles of neurocutaneous disorders. Children presented to the Pediatric neurology and Dermatology clinics, Sohag University Hospital who fulfilled the criteria for diagnosis of specific neurocutaneous syndromes were eligible for this study. Patients and methods All studied patients were subjected to thorough clinical history, full clinical examination, developmental assessment, and dermatological examination. Computed tomography of the brain (CT) and electroencephalography (EEG), ophthalmic, and phoniatric evaluation were also done for all children. Echocardiography was done for only twenty children. Results During the period of the study we diagnosed 27 cases with neurocutaneous disorders, tuberous sclerosis represented the majority of cases as it was detected in 12 cases (44.45%). The main complaint was convulsions in 19 cases (70.37%), whereas skin pigmentation was detected in 18 cases (66.66%). Developmental assessment showed that global developmental delay was found in 20 cases (74%). CT of the brain showed that 15 cases (55.55%) had intracranial calcifications and abnormal EEG findings were detected in 23 cases (85.2%). 85% of the studied children had various degrees of mental retardation. Echocardiography showed that three cases (15%) had ventricular wall tumor mostly rhabdomyoma. Conclusion Neurocutaneous disorders had multiple clinical presentations and required a team work approach including various specialties in their evaluation and management.

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is a common vestibular disorder. The canalith repositioning procedure (CRP) is known to be an effective therapy for the treatment of BPPV. However, because of its various movements of the head and body, it is impossible to perform in BPPV patients with orthopedic impairments or in the elderly. The rolling-over maneuver (ROM) involves easy movements, with only a small load. This therapy is suitable for most BPPV patients, especially for those without an indication for CRP. Hence, we propose that ROM is as effective as CRP for the treatment of BPPV. In this study, we compared among the ROM, Epley, and Brandt-Daroff maneuvers in the management of patients with posterior semicircular canal-type BPPV. The study included 60 patients with BPPV who were randomized and divided into the following three groups: (i) those treated by Epley maneuver as CRP; (ii) those treated by ROM; and (iii) those treated by the Brandt-Daroff maneuver. The findings of this study demonstrated that the success rate was the best in patients who were treated with Epley maneuver (90%), then in patients treated with ROM (85%) followed by those treated with the Brandt-Daroff maneuver (80%). The recurrence rate after management was high in patients treated with the Brandt-Daroff maneuver (31.25%), with no statistically significant difference. We recommend either Epley maneuver in the office or ROM at home, according to the general condition of the patient.

Concrete filled tubes (CFTs) composite columns have many economical and esthetic advantages, but the behavior of their connections is complicated. Through this study, it is aimed to investigate the performance and behavior of different connection configurations between concrete filled steel tube columns and bracing diagonals through an experimental program. The study included 12 connection subassemblies consisting of a fixed length steel tube and gusset plate connected to the tube end with different details tested under half cyclic loading. A notable effect was observed on the behavior of the connections due to its detailing changes with respect to capacity, failure mode, ductility, and stress distribution.

Workers in printed circuit boards (PrCBs) industry have a long history of occupational exposures to toxicsubstances, however little is known about the long -term health consequences of such exposure. Aims: To determine the prevalence of some health problems among manufacturers of printed circuit boards and to formulate recommendations for occupational safety and

Aims: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is a heterogeneous group of hematological malignancies. Several angiogenic factors are important in NHL. The objective of this study was to determine plasma levels of various proangiogenic [vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), platelet derived growth factor (PDGF), tumor necrosis factor (TNFα), transforming growth factor (TGF-β), interleukin (IL-6), IL-8] and antiangiogenic [IL-4, IL-12, interferon gamma (IFN-)] factors in NHL patients and implication of CHOP (cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin, oncovin, prednisone) therapy on these mediators. Study Design: This study was conducted on 100NHL patients recruited from the Oncology Hospital, Menofia University, Egypt. Fifty patients had different doses of CHOP chemotherapy and 50 patients were without treatment. Another 119 healthy blood donors were served as healthy controls. Methodology: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the concentrations of these mediators in plasma of NHL patients and normal controls. Results: Several proangiogenic (VEGF, PDGF, IL-8, and TNF-α) (P

Uninterruptable power supply (UPS) applications require شa well regulated sinusoidal output voltage with low total harmonic distortion (THD). These requirements are achieved by model predictive control (MPC) of UPS inverter with LC filter on the output. The controller uses the model of the system to predict the future behavior of the controlled variables for all possible voltage vectors, and uses the information to obtain optimal action by choosing the voltage vector which minimizes a cost function. A Matlab/Simulink model is used to obtain simulation results to show that the performance of the proposed control system can achieve a sinusoidal load voltage with low THD.

The double sided silicon strip detector (DSSSD) is a segmented silicon detector commonly used in the fields of high energy physics and nuclear physics. This type of detector is used for analysis of reactions produced by charged particles. This makes it well suited for a number of analytical methods commonly used in ion beam analysis (IBA), such as Rutherford Backscattering (RBS) and elastic recoil detection (ERDA). One such detector was installed and tested at Lund Ion Beam Analysis Facility (LIBAF) recently. This is a modification to the existing setup used to measure hydrogen concentrations and depth profiles. When completed it will be used primarily for geological applications. Exact knowledge of the hydrogen content is important in a number of fields, but high enough accuracy can be difficult to achieve with most methods. In IBA normally some variant of ERDA, such as the proton-proton (p-p) coincidence method is used. We describe how the p-p coincidence technique was optimized to get the most out of our experimental setup. Previously this type of spectroscopy has been performed with two detector channels. In the present setup we expand that number from 2 to 96 channels, 64 on the front and 32 on the back of the detector. The intersecting strips give 2048 distinct detector elements or 1024 possible coincidences as dictated by the reaction kinematics. This increase in complexity requires a more detailed data analysis but it rewards us with higher sensitivity and a better background suppression. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.