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A novel polysaccharide (SMSP2) was extracted and purified fromSenegalia macrostachyaseeds. SMSP2 promoted RAW264.7 macrophage activation leading to pro- and anti-inflammatory mediator release. SMSP2-induced macrophage activation occursviaactivation of the MAPK signaling pathway.

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome is a disorder but with unclear etiology that its diagnosis depends on exclusion of other etiologies with ovulatory disorders and androgen excess as congenital adrenal hyperplasia, 21-hydroxylase deficient non classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (NCAH), adrenal or ovarian androgen-secreting tumors, disorders of adrenocortical dysfunction as Cushing’s disease, and abuse of androgenic or anabolic drugs. Polycystic ovary syndrome affects approximately 6-15% of women in reproductive age and constitutes 50% of the causes of infertility in women. Aim of the Work: To compare the efficacy of letrozole on ovulation induction to that of clomiphene citrate in women suffering polycystic ovary syndrome and the effect on the follicular maturation, endometrial thickness and pregnancy rate. This study was carried in the outpatient infertility clinic of Ain-Shams Maternity Hospital during the period from November 2020 till April 2021. Patients and Methods: This study included 80 infertile women diagnosed as having polycystic ovary syndrome. Women were randomized into two groups. Letrozole group (1) included 40 women who were given the aromatase inhibitor (Letrozole) orally in a 5mg dose daily from day 3 to day 7 of the menstrual cycle. While Clomiphene citrate group (2) included 40 women who were given the clomiphene citrate orally in 100mg dose daily from day 3 to day 7 of the menstrual cycle. All women were counseled and informed consent was obtained before recruitment. Results: In this study, ovulation rate was significantly more frequent in the Letrozole group (82.5%, 33 women reached ovulation successfully) than in Clomiphene citrate group (60%, 24 women reached ovulation successfully) within P value=0.024. Clomiphene citrate at a dose of 100mg showed more efficacies in the number of follicle ≥18mm than Letrozole at a dose of 5mg. In Letrozole group, the number of follicles (≥18mm in diameter) ranged from 1 to 2 with a Mean±SD= 1.4±0.65 and in Clomiphene citrate group, the number of follicles (≥18mm in diameter) ranged from 1 to 3 with a Mean±SD= 1.9± 0.41 (P value=0.0001). Conclusion: Letrozole can be considered as a first line treatment of anovulation in polycystic ovary syndrome. But, moreover studies including larger number of cases will further confirm the efficacy of letrozole versus clomiphene citrate in induction of ovulation, reaching to the optimum doses for aromatases inhibitors, more observation on endometrial thickness, incidence of pregnancy outcomes, incidence of abortion and incidence of congenital fetal malformations.

استهدف البحث الحالي التعرف إلى رؤية محمد أركون لمنظومة القيم الإسلامية باعتباره أحد أهم رموز التيار الحداثي المعاصر، وذلك عبر نظرية القيم القرآنية التي قدمها ضمن مشروعه الفكري الضخم "نقد العقل الإسلامي". ومحاولة إجراء مقاربة نقدية لنظم التربية على القيم في المجتمعات الإسلامية في ضوئها. وقد اتبع البحث المنهج الوصفي التحليلي والمنهج النقدي. وتوصل إلى أن نظرية القيم القرآنية تهدف إلى محاولة إبراز إمكانية إجراء استعادة نقدية للمحورية الأخلاقية القرآنية في ضوء المناهج الحديثة لعلوم الإنسان والمجتمع؛ عبر تفكيك الاعتقاد بأنه لا يُمكن نقد القيم ذات المرجعية القرآنية باعتبارها مرجعية لا تُناقش، ولا تُمس مُستخدمًا المنهج الجنيالوجي، والذي كشف من خلاله أن هذه القيم تشكلت وفقًا لقوالب ثقافية، ونظم فكرية محكومة بالفضاء العقلي القروسطي. كما أنها جاءت لتلبية أغراض سياسية- ايديولوجية، وأن الأصل في استنباط القيم القرآنية أربعة معايير هي أسماء الله الحسنى، الشهادة، الأمة، والقانون الديني. وأن كل معيار من المعايير الأربعة يُمكن أن ينتج عنه قيم متباينة بتباين أسس، ومرتكزات وأهداف عملية الاستنباط. وقد انتهى البحث إلى وضع تصور يُمكن من خلاله تطوير عملية التربية على القيم في ضوء ما كشفت عنه النظرية.

Sesame butter (tahini) is a common appetizer and food additive in the Mediterranean basin. Pathogenic strains and mycotoxin content are the most hazardous issues in the final product. This investigation aimed to enhance the quality and safety properties of tahini products against microbial hazards and mycotoxins. Local samples of tahini were evaluated for natural contamination, including mycotoxin level determinations. Agaricus blazei was utilized as a bioactive source and evaluated for the bioactive content of laccase, B-glucan, antioxidant activity, and phenolic content, as well as antimicrobial and antioxidant potency. Two fortification ratios (0.5% and 1.0%) were chosen to apply Agaricus in tahini sesame as a model. Chemical composition, color attributes, sensory properties, emulsion, and oxidative stability were evaluated for the fortified samples versus the control. The results reflected increments of protein (22.91 ± 0.64% to 29.34 ± 0.96%), fiber content (3.09 ± 0.05% to 6.27 ± 0.06%), emulsion stability (84.9 ± 1.24% to 95.41 ± 0.56%), oxidative stability, and bioactive group content. The fortification process is reflected by the absence of Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli bacteria from contaminated samples after 30 days of storage. The water activity for 1.0% fortification (0.154 ± 0.001) was recorded as lower than the control sample (0.192 ± 0.002). Moreover, the degradation of aflatoxins and zearalenone content was recorded during storage. The degradation ratio reached 68% and 97.2% for 0.5% and 1.0% fortifications, respectively, while zearalenone degradation recorded a decline of 26.7% and 33.7%, respectively, for the same fortification ratios. These results recommended 1.0% lyophilized mushroom fortification as a quality and ameliorative safety treatment for tahini products.

Background: Preterm birth (PTB) remains a major cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Compared with term deliveries, early PTB (< 34 weeks' gestation) carries a 7-fold increased risk of neonatal death. Objective: To compare the Fetal Zone Depth (FZD) of fetal adrenal gland in term and preterm labor cases Patients and Methods: Thirty-three preterm pregnant women at 29-36 weeks of gestation with single pregnancy and clinical diagnosis of preterm labor and control group of 33 pregnant women at 37-40 weeks with term pregnancy were included in this study. FZD and Total Gland Depth (TGD) of fetal adrenal gland were ultrasonographically measured and FZD/TGD ratios were calculated and compared between the two groups. Results: No difference was found between the two groups in respect of age and number of pregnancies (P > 0.05). Yet, preterm birth history rupture of membrane, cervical dilatation and mode of delivery were higher in preterm group (P

BACKGROUND Governance is a system that ensures and promotes accountability and responsibility toward stakeholders. The present study aims to compare the governance structures and practices in for-profit and non-for profit hospitals in Alexandria, Egypt. METHODS The study is a descriptive cross sectional study in which Chief Executive officers (CEOs) in all hospitals in Alexandria Governorate were interviewed. A predesigned questionnaire was used in the interview that is composed of four section. The first section explored characteristics of study hospitals. The second section assessed the composition and the characteristics of boards. The third section assessed the functions of the board and the fourth section assessed boards' training and evaluation. RESULTS A centralized board existed in the Health Insurance, Ministry of Health and Population and University hospitals. As for private hospitals, board existed in only 72 hospitals (82.75 %). Almost all boards have CEO duality. Board members were as few as two members in some boards and up to twenty members in others. Some hospital boards did not have an orientation manual or program. CONCLUSION A proportion of study hospitals does not have a governing board. For the hospitals with governing boards, there were wide variation in governance structures and practices.

Background: Insecticides such as lambda-cyhalothrin(LCT), dibenzalacetone (DBA) and heptanone HD are teratogenic substances. Skeleton is one of the organs sensitive to teratogens during the period of organogenesis. Material and methods:This study was conducted on fifty adult female albino mice, divided randomly into four groups: Group I (control group, n= 5 received corn oil orally in adose of 10 mg /kg body weight), group II (LCT group, n=10 received LCT (nano 8%)10, 20 mg /kg body weight for each subgroup), group III (DBA group, n=20, received DBA (main) 10, 20 mg /kg body weight and DBA (nano 8%)) 10,20mg /kg body weight for each subgroup) and group IV (HD group, n=15, received HD (main) 10 mg /kg body weight and HD (nano 8%)) 10,50mg /kg body weight for each subgroup),The calculated treatment dissolved in 1 ml of corn oil by orogastric tube was given to the pregnant mice during the first week of pregnancy (1st, 3rd and 5th day).The delivered live and dead pups were examined externally, then double stained and prepared for skeletal examination by dissecting microscope. Results: All experimental groups showed various anomalies that can be categorized as the following: 1) presence of dead pups and resorption sites 2) macroscopic anomalies in the form of anencephaly, extended forelimb, cranioshisis, macroglossia, lowset ears, lage eye bulge, half body, amelia, internal rotation of forelimb and encephalocele. 3) skeletal anomalies by double staining of fetal skeleton showed incomplete ossification of nasal and interparietal bones, open arch of atlas, incomplete ossification of vertebrae, supernumerary ribs, wavy ribs, incomplete ossification of ribs and sternebrae, incomplete ossification of sternum, incomplete ossification of 5th metacarpal and terminal phalangal bones and incomplete ossification of tarsal , and phalangal bones. Conclusion: Lambda-cyhalothrin, dibenzalacetone and derivatives of heptanone result in numbers of congenital gross and skeletal abnormalities that indicate their teratogenic effect. KEY WORDS: Lambada, Congenital, Skeletal, Dibenzalacetone, Heptanone, Teratogenic.

(Benzimidazol-2-yl)-7-hydroxycoumarin and N-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-7-hydroxycoumarin-3-carboxamide have been synthesized by the condensation of ethyl 7-hydroxycoumarin-3-carboxylate in acetic acid. Acetylation with acetic anhydride and halogenation with bromine in acetic acid’s presence of the previous compounds has yielded the corresponding acetoxy and dibromo derivatives. The synthesized molecules that contain coumarin ring have been evaluated for their activities against breast cancer and they have shown good in vitro antiproliferative activities against a human breast cancer line (MCF-7). The results have shown that 3-(benzimidazol-2-yl)-7-acetoxycoumarin had a significant cytotoxic effect compared to the standard DOX (doxorubicin) drug.

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is considered as the most common type of gastrointestinal cancers. Chemotherapy became limited due to the adverse side effects. Therefore, the most effective Croton tiglium extract was selected to be incorporated by silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) then evaluated against colon cancer induced by azoxymethane (AOM) in rats. Methods Different hematological and biochemical measurements were quantified in addition to markers of oxidative stress. Specific tumor and inflammatory markers were assayed. Colonic tissues were examined histopathologically in addition to immunohistochemistry (IHC). Native proteins and isoenzymes patterns were electrophoretically assayed beside expression of Tumor Protein P53 (TP53) and Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) genes in colonic tissues. Results It was found that AOM caused significant (P≤0.05) elevation in the hematological and biochemical measurements. C. tiglium nano-extract restored these measurements to normalcy. Tumor and inflammatory markers elevated significantly (P≤0.05) in sera of AOM induced colon cancer group in addition to increasing peroxidation products with decline in antioxidant enzymes activities in colon tissues. Nano-extract restored these measurements to normalcy in post-treated group. Histopathological study revealed that nano-extract minimized severity of inflammatory reactions in all nano-extract treated groups and prevented anti-Keratin 20 antibody expression in post-treated group. The lowest similarity index (SI%) values were noticed with electrophoretic protein (SI=71.43%), lipid (SI=0.00%) and calcium (SI=75.00%) moieties of protein patterns, catalase (SI=85.71%), peroxidase (SI=85.71%), α-esterase (SI=50.00%) and β-esterase (SI=50.00%) isoenzymes in colon cancer group. Furthermore, AOM altered the relative quantities of total native bands. The nano-extract prevented the alterations that occurred qualitatively in nano-extract post-treated group and quantitatively in all nano-extract treated groups. Levels of TP53 and APC gene expression increased in AOM injected group and nano-extract restored their levels to normalcy in the post-treated group. Conclusion C. tiglium nano-extract exhibited ameliorative effect against the biochemical and molecular alterations induced by AOM in nano-extract post-treated group.

In the early 20th century, Pickering and Ramsden revealed that solid particles could be utilized as emulsion stabilizers. Later, it was shown that particles can be used to aid in stablilization of foam as well. Differentiated from the emulsions/foams constructed by using surfactant agents, particle-stabilization offers significant advantages, such as better interfacial stability, non-toxicity, and less sensitive to environmental influences. Therefore, particle-stabilized foam and emulsion systems have the potential to gain more applications in the food, drug delivery, and cosmetic field. The internal mechanism and principle of particle stabilization interface have been clarified by introducing the classic mechanism of Pickering stabilization. By summarizing the additional/different effects of the protein, the relationship between the adaptive behavior of the protein in the interface and the protein structure has been explained. Furthermore, the functions of protein besides interface stabilization are introduced, such as encapsulation, taste masking and the catalytic properties of Pickering particles. Finally, deep thinking was triggered based on the existing research foundation, a new concept of "edible capillary foam" was proposed, and a new outlook was made. It is anticipated that the perception acquired from the current intense activity in this field will help researchers to reform existing materials and invent additional formulations, facilitating the exploration of additional engineering applications.

Background Stuttering is a multifactorial and complex disorder that results from the influence of many factors, which include genetic predisposition, motor speech skills, linguistic skills and cognitive, emotional and environmental factors. A wide range of possible risk factors has been proposed in the literature, including age; gender; type and manner of onset; duration of the disfluency; type of disfluency; associated communicative and qualitative factors; physical and emotional stress; family history of stuttering; personal, familial and social reaction; and family attitudes. Objectives The aim of this work is to study the different risk factors of stuttering in children in order to understand more about its nature, etiology and to help to decrease its incidence if possible. Patients and Methods For this purpose; 96 patients complained from stuttering were evaluated. All data were collected after completing the assessment of patients and their parents. They were 60 (62.5%) male patients and 36 (37.5%) female patients, they showed a statistically significant difference. The age of the patients ranged from 4 to 18 years with mean ± SD of 7.75 ± 4.78 years. The age of onset of the studied patients ranged from 3 to 12 years with mean ± SD of 4.25 ± 2.31 years. Most of the patients were resident in rural areas; 64 patients (66.67%), while the urban resident was 32 patients (33.33%), they were statistically significant. Results The present study showed the etiology of stuttering in the studied patients. The most prominent cause was the developmental stuttering (86.45%) followed by neurological stuttering (13.55%). The dysfluency distribution of the studied patients. The most prominent was the Syllables and words repetition 65 (67.7%) of patients followed by IPDs 22 (22.9%) of the patients, 6 (6.25%) of the patients had prolongation and 3 (3.125%) of the patients had tonic blocks. Our study observed that family history of stuttering was found in 54 (56.25%) of patients, consanguinity was found in 30 (31.25%) of the patients, first degree relatives was found in 15 (15.625%) of the patients and second-degree relatives was present in 6 (6.25%) of the patients. Conclusion The data of the present study concluded that the presence of stuttering or defects in speech quality and communication. Risk factors include multifactorial dynamic pathways that include: positive family history, being male (as boys are more likely than girls to keep stuttering), the onset (as children who start to stutter before age 3½ are more likely to outgrow it than children who start to stutter at an older age), the amount of time that it's lasted.

Encapsulated lambda – cyhalothrin nanoparticles loaded in polyethylene glycol were prepared by melt dispersion method in concentration 4% and 8% of their tested conventional lambda.Larvicidal activity of encapsulated lambda nanoparticles was investigated in comparison with its conventional form against susceptible larvae of Culex pipeins after 24, 48 and 72 hrs. exposure periods. The conventional lambda showed LC50 values equal 7 ×10-8, 1.8 ×10-8and 1 ×10-9M, during the exposure time, respectively. The reduced tested concentrations of nanoparticles (4% and 8%) were highly toxic against mosquito larvae with LC50 values equal 4.6×10-8, 2.9 ×10-9and 7.8 ×10-10M (for 4%) and 1.8 ×10-8,5.3×10-9 and 1.2×10-9M (for 8%) after 24, 48 and 72 hrs. of exposure periods, respectively. The toxic effects of the low concentrations from lambda nanoparticles against Culex pipens may be due to the diffusion released of cyhalothrin with amounts equal 1.84 ×10-9, 1.16×10-10 and 3.12×10-11 (in case of 4%) and 1.44×10-9, 4.24×10-10 and 9.6×10-11 M (for 8%) after 24,48 and 72 hrs., respectively. These results proposed that the encapsulated lambda-cyhalothrin nanoparticles can serve as an effective larvicide against Culex pipeins larvae at lawer concentrations avoiding the different problems of conventional form.

Chronic diseases and viral infections have threatened human life over the ages and constitute the main reason for increasing death globally. The rising burden of these diseases extends to negatively affecting the economy and trading globally, as well as daily life, which requires inexpensive, novel, and safe therapeutics. Therefore, scientists have paid close attention to probiotics as safe remedies to combat these morbidities owing to their health benefits and biotherapeutic effects. Probiotics have been broadly adopted as functional foods, nutraceuticals, and food supplements to improve human health and prevent some morbidity. Intriguingly, recent research indicates that probiotics are a promising solution for treating and prophylactic against certain dangerous diseases. Probiotics could also be associated with their essential role in animating the immune system to fight COVID-19 infection. This comprehensive review concentrates on the newest literature on probiotics and their metabolism in treating life-threatening diseases, including immune disorders, pathogens, inflammatory and allergic diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal dysfunctions, and COVID-19 infection. The recent information in this report will particularly furnish a platform for emerging novel probiotics-based therapeutics as cheap and safe, encouraging researchers and stakeholders to develop innovative treatments based on probiotics to prevent and treat chronic and viral diseases.

The traditional model of cost behavior has been criticized for its symmetric cost behavior assumption. A new model has been proposed assuming that costs respond differently to upward and downward activity changes. The main objectives of this paper are to investigate the existence, degree, and nature of asymmetric cost behavior (ACB) phenomenon and examine how the organization life cycle (OLC) affects this phenomenon in the context of Egypt. The current study achieves these objectives by employing multiple regression to explore the behavior of cost of goods sold (COGS), selling, general and administrative cost (SGA), and total cost (TC) for 1577 firm-year observations (99 manufacturing firms) during the period from 2000 to 2019. The results demonstrate that all three cost proxies (COGS, SGA, and TC) are sticky with the highest degree of stickiness to TC. In addition, OLC is a conditional factor that affects how costs behave in response to change in activity level. Consistent with theoretical propositions, both COGS and TC exhibit anti-stickiness behavior for firms in the introduction stage and stickiness behavior for firms in the growth, mature, and shakeout/decline stages. However, SGA is only sticky for firms in the mature stage. However, the hypotheses related to asymmetric behavior of SGA were rejected for firms in the introduction, growth, and shakeout/decline stages.