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Background: Bovine colostrum (BC) with liposomal delivery system (LDS) is a promising supplement to premature infant formula in absence of mother own milk. We propose that BC with LDS can target multiple etiological factors that threaten the developing retina, making premature infant less liable for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of BC with LDS in the prevention of ROP. Methods: This was a single center, randomized, controlled trial. Two hundred and eleven preterm infants of gestational age ≤ 32weeks were admitted to the NICU of Alexandria University Children Hospital, Egypt, and randomly allocated into either non-BC group (n = 105) or BC group (n = 106). Patients in BC group received 3.5 ml /kg/day of BC for 14 days. All patients were monitored for development of ROP, anemia, late onset sepsis (LOS), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), in addition to growth assessment. Multivariate binary logistic regression analysis was performed to determine factors predicting ROP development. Results: Compared with the non-BC group, BC group was associated with a significantly lower incidence of ROP (5/100 vs. 16/100, respectively) with a p-value of 0.033. The administration of BC significantly decreased serum C- reactive protein (CRP) level and increased weight on day-14 of the study in comparison with the CRP level and birthweight at the beginning of study, with Cohen's D= -0.184, D = -2.246, respectively. Patients with suspected sepsis were significantly less in BC than non-BC group, p = 0.004. Patients with BC had significantly higher hemoglobin level on day-14 than non-BC-group, with median (IQR) 12.2 (11.0–13.9) and 11.7 (10.5–12.9), respectively. BC intake is one of factors that decreased development of ROP in univariate analysis. Nevertheless, weight gain and birth weight were the most significant factors affecting ROP development in multivariate-regression model. Conclusion: BC may reduce the incidence of ROP in preterm neonates aged ≤ 32 weeks. This might be due to keeping better Hb level and growth rate, as well as anti-inflammatory properties through its ability to decrease CRP level. Trial registration: This work was registered on 06/13/2022 in clinicaltrial.gov with ID no.: NCT05438680 and URL:https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05438680?term=NCT05438680&draw=2&rank=1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to investigate a pottery vessel from eastern EIN-Shams, Egypt, lying in sandy soil from citizen lands, returning to the New Kingdom-Egypt. This pottery vessel was covered with white material from inside and outside. In terms of origin, this vessel is made of buff-colored clay; it has big pores, many cracks, and large missing areas filled with that material, with an uneven surface texture, that strongly bonds with the body pores, and shrinks away from the edges in some areas, in this way obscuring the original surface. In this respect, several physicochemical investigations in terms of chemical composition, physical properties, and nature of this white material were performed, to analyze the influence of it on the ancient pottery vessel. The analytical methods used in this research were USB digital microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX), and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The results of the USB digital microscopy showed the presence of gypsum crystals, large, flaked pottery surfaces, and quartz. SEM-EDX revealed the presence of organic fibers, chloride salts in a significant percentage, iron, and aluminum oxides. XRD investigation emphasizes the presence of gypsum and sodium chloride salts. DTA results revealed that the firing temperatures of the pottery vessel range between around 750-800°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Inflammatory markers like interleukin-6 (IL-6) are linked to the worse outcome in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases. Other markers such as C-reactive protein are not as reliable as IL-6 in predicting respiratory failure. Aim To assess the function of IL-6 as a predictor of COVID-19 severity. Patients and methods A total of 50 severe and critical patients with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 were included. All enrolled patients followed the case definition for confirmed cases of Egyptian national protocol for COVID-19 issued by MOHP. Clinical assessment, imaging, and laboratory data were recorded at admission. Pulmonary function was evaluated by SpO2/FiO2 ratio. Outcomes included hospital stay, prognosis of the disease, complications, death rate, and discharge, which were recorded during the follow-up. Results The elevated IL-6 group showed a significantly higher critical rate (87.1%) than the normal IL-6 group (26.3%) (P<0.0001), and the improvement rate was higher in the normal IL-6 group (73.7%). Moreover, the death rate was significantly greater in the elevated IL-6 group (38.7%) than the normal IL-6 group (10.5%) (P=0.033). The cutoff value of IL-6 levels in prediction of severity and mortality of COVID-19 was assessed. Our receiver operating characteristic results revealed that IL-6 cutoff value is higher than 50.27 for severity and the cutoff value is greater than 120.83 for mortality. The sensitivity values of IL-6 for severity and mortality were 93.3 and 90.5%, respectively, and the specificity values were 90.0 and 86.7%, respectively. Conclusion Elevated levels of serum IL-6 in COVID-19-infected patients were related with a variety of adverse outcomes, including severe illness, mechanical ventilation, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. When it came to accurately predicting the severity and mortality of COVID-19, the optimum IL-6 cutoff levels were 50.27 and 120.83 pg/ml, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eleven wheat cultivars were obtained for this study, and three treatments were carried out: salinity treatment in a greenhouse, drought treatment in hydroponics and drought with salinity treatment in hydroponics. In the case of salinity treatment in a greenhouse, the cultivars Sids1 and Giza168 showed a high tolerance to salinity. In the drought treatment in hydroponics using PEG6000 in water irrigation, Sids1 and Giza168 showed a high tolerance to drought. In the drought with salinity treatment in hydroponics using PEG6000 with NaCl 8000 ppm in water irrigation, the cultivars Sahel1 and Misr2 showed medium tolerance to salinity and drought. Also, phenotypic parameters of the cultivars were measured. The tallest cultivar was Misr 1 99.67 cm, while Sids1 showed the highest thousand grain weight at 46.81 g. Based on these results, we selected five cultivars of wheat: Sahel1, Gemmeiza10, Misr1, Sakha93 and Giza168 to complete this study and were done carried out a complete diallele hybridization and reverse hybridization between group one: Sahel1 and Gemmeiza10, group two: Misr1 and Sakha93 and group three: Giza168 and Gemmeiza10. The transcripts levels of salinity (Na+/H+ antiporter) and drought (DREB2) genes in the three groups of wheat hybrid were determined using qRT-PCR; DREB2 gene transcripts significantly in group one by 0.79-fold were compared to group three mRNA levels of DREB2 gene that was 0.24-fold. The change in mRNA levels of DREB2 gene of group two was by 0.2-fold, while the mRNA transcript levels of salinity (Na+/H+ antiporter) gene raised no significantly in the groups. In group one in this group the fold change was 0.0037-fold, while mRNA levels of Na+/H+ antiporter gene was 0.0041-fold, in group two. In group three was found the fold change 0.0024-fold. The (DREB2 & Na+/H+ antiporter) genes in hybrid wheat were identified by amplification followed by sequencing. Our results suggest that the best Egyptian wheat cultivars can be grown under difficult environmental conditions in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The G-ROP model was proposed to improve the retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening efficiency. It is based on gestational age, birth weight and postnatal weight gain. The current study aimed to validate the G-ROP model's ability to predict ROP in cohorts of premature infants from Egypt and the United Kingdom (UK). We retrospectively reviewed the records of preterm infants born between 1st of January and 30th of June 2018 with a known outcome for ROP screening and regular weight measurements until day 39 after birth. We applied the G-ROP model to the study group and calculated the sensitivity of the model for detecting Early Treatment of ROP (ETROP) study type 1 ROP and for any ROP and calculated the reduction of the number of infants requiring ROP screening by the model application. We applied the G-ROP model on 605 infants (504 from Egypt and 101 from the UK). The model successfully predicted all type 1 ROP cases (100% sensitivity) in both cohorts (95% confidence interval [CI], 91.1–100% in the Egyptian cohort and 65.5–100% in the UK cohort). The model reduced the number of infants requiring screening by 14.1% in the Egyptian cohort and 21.8% in the UK cohort. The G-ROP model was successfully validated for detecting type 1 ROP and in both cohorts from Egypt and the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of the dietary supplementation with different levels of ascorbic acid on growth performance, nutrients digestibility, and carcass traits of growing rabbits under summer and winter conditions in Egypt. Factorial design experiment (2×4) was carried out including two seasons (winter and summer) and four levels of ascorbic acid 0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 g /kg diet. Results indicated that growth performance, daily feed intake, nutrients digestibility, nutritive values, hemoglobin, hematocrit, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Red blood cell counts, dressing (%) and organs (liver, kidney and heart) weight were significantly decreased at summer season compared with winter season. In contrast, ascorbic acid supplementation caused a significant increase in growth performance indices, organic matter (OM) digestibility, some blood parameters i.e., aspirate amino transferase (ALT, AST, urea, total protein and albumin) of growing rabbits. However, ascorbic acid supplementation showed insignificant effects in dressing percentage and relative weights of liver, kidney, heart, lung and spleen. On the other hand, the economical evaluation in this study showed that using of 0.5 or 1g ascorbic acid/kg diet in winter season and 0.5 g ascorbic acid/kg in summer season in the growing rabbit diets was more economical than the other treatment groups. Conclusively, the results revealed that fortification of rabbit diets with ascorbic acid especially level of 0.5 g/kg diet, economically, could enhance the growth performance of growing rabbit during mild and hot climate in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]