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Introduction: Human Papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted agent, causing cervical cancer. In Saudi Arabia, cervical cancer is ranked as the ninth most common carcinoma in women. HPV vaccine is an effective prevention method against HPV high-risk types such as HPV 18 and 16. Research on HPV vaccine knowledge and awareness is limited due to the lack of extensive data reportage on HPV and cervical cancer cases among Saudi women., Aim: This study was aimed to determine the knowledge and awareness of human papillomavirus vaccination among Saudi nursing female students., Methods: This study was cross-sectional and included ( n  = 114) participants. The study used an online survey, which included demographical variables and the HPV knowledge scale. The data were collected from October 10, 2023, until January 3, 2024. Descriptive data, Mann-Whitney Z-tests and nonparametric tests were used to analyze the study's findings., Results: The study participants' mean age was 20.8 years (SD 1.6). Most students (72%) did not receive the HPV vaccine. The overall mean HPV knowledge was 10.0 (SD 7.08). The HPV knowledge subscales showed poor levels of knowledge of HPV infection, screening, and vaccines: 5.15 (SD 3.87), 1.39 (SD 1.34), and 2.06 (SD 1.87), respectively., Discussion: In conclusion, Saudi Arabia having a predominantly youthful population, it is crucial to implement educational programs that improve the understanding and awareness of HPV infection among nursing students and other health professionals. There is a necessity to establish impactful awareness campaigns and integrate interventional research to inform health professionals and the public about the disease and dispel misunderstandings and cultural beliefs about HPV and HPV vaccines to prevent cervical cancers among young females., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2024 Alanazi, Kayal, Alanzi, Al Hodian and Bin Rusayes.)

Aim: To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on sleep patterns and quality among nursing students in our college., Design: A cross-sectional study was carried out., Methods: A total of 302 nursing students aged 18-25 years, representing both genders and various academic levels, participated in this study. A pre-validated, self-administered questionnaire was used to assess sleep quality during COVID-19 and it was distributed through various social media platforms for data collection., Results: Female students comprised the majority (92.1%) of participants. Of 332 nursing students, 302 completed the questionnaire, yielding a 91% response rate. Statistically significant differences were observed before and during the COVID-19 lockdown regarding the need to sleep after waking, feeling refreshed upon waking, satisfaction with individual sleep patterns and experiencing restless and troubled sleep (p = 0.001). Additionally, approximately one-third of nursing students (32.9%) reported poor sleep quality during the COVID-19 pandemic, with minimal impact on the total sleep hours among the studied cohorts., Public Contribution: The COVID-19 pandemic has statistically significant impacted nursing students' sleep quality and levels. Acknowledging these challenges and planning for providing supporting measurements is essential to ensuring that nursing students can maintain their physical and mental health, which is critical for their ability to provide quality healthcare., (© 2024 The Author(s). Nursing Open published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objectives: To evaluated the home healthcare efficacy in managing tracheostomy patients at King Abdulaziz Medical City under the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs. Home healthcare is care provided to patients in the convenience of their homes to ensure high-quality care based on healthcare providers' supervision., Methods: This retrospective cohort study utilizing a non-probability consecutive sampling technique, including all available tracheal patients with no exclusion criteria, was carried out in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between January 2019 and June 2022. The collected data included patient demographic variables and respiratory settings (ventilation type, daily ventilation need, tracheostomy duration, and ventilator settings). The outcomes included mortality rate and therapeutic outcomes of tracheal management., Results: Of the 183 patients in the study, the most common type of respiratory-related infection was pneumonia (53%). Unlike respiratory-related causes, The mortality rate of patients admitted to the intensive care unit that was unrelated to respiratory causes was statistically significant (57%) ( p =0.003). The mortality rate of patients who used aerosol tracheal collars (34%) was markedly higher than mechanically ventilated patients (57%) ( p =0.004). The mortality rate following discharge from HHC was 40%, and was higher among patients aged >70 years (47%) ( p =0.04)., Conclusion: Pneumonia was associated with the majority of ventilator-related infections and resulted in hospital readmissions. Ensuring proper practices and caregiver education is crucial to decrease the incidence of ventilator-related infections., (Copyright: © Saudi Medical Journal.)

Cellulose nanofibers, a sustainable and promising material with widespread applications, exhibit appreciable strength and excellent mechanical and physicochemical properties. The preparation of cellulosic nanofibers from food or agricultural residue is not sustainable. Therefore, this study was designed to use three halophytic plants (Cressa cretica, Phragmites karka, and Suaeda fruticosa) to extract cellulose for the subsequent conversion to cellulosic nanofibers composites. The other extracted biomass components including lignin, hemicellulose, and pectin were also utilized to obtain industrially valuable enzymes. The maximum pectinase (31.56 IU mL -1 ), xylanase (35.21 IU mL -1 ), and laccase (15.89 IU mL -1 ) were produced after the fermentation of extracted pectin, hemicellulose, and lignin from S. fruticosa, P. karka, and C. cretica, respectively. Cellulose was methylated (with a degree of substitution of 2.4) and subsequently converted into a composite using polyvinyl alcohol. Scanning electron microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the successful synthesis of the composites. The composites made up of cellulose from C. cretica and S. fruticosa had a high tensile strength (21.5 and 15.2 MPa) and low biodegradability (47.58% and 44.56%, respectively) after dumping for 3 months in soil, as compared with the composite from P. karka (98.79% biodegradability and 4.9 MPa tensile strength). Moreover, all the composites exhibited antibacterial activity against gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) and gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus). Hence, this study emphasizes the possibility for various industrial applications of biomass from halophytic plants., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Global production of sugarcane bagasse (SB) by sugar industries exceeds more than 100 tons per annum. SB is rich in lignin and polysaccharide and hence can serve as a low-cost energy and carbon source for the growth of industrially important microorganism. However, various other applications of SB have also been investigated. In this study, SB was used as an adsorbent to remove an azo dye, malachite green. Subsequently, the dye-adsorbed SB was fermented by Trametes pubescens MB 89 for the production of laccase enzyme. The fungal pretreated SB was further utilized as a substrate for the simultaneous production of multiple plant cell wall degrading enzymes including, cellulase, xylanase, pectinase, and amylase by thermophilic bacterial strains. Results showed that 0.1% SB removed 97.04% malachite green at 30°C after 30 min from a solution containing 66 ppm of the dye. Fermentation of the dye-adsorbed SB by T. pubescens MB 89 yielded 667.203 IU mL -1 laccase. Moreover, Brevibacillus borstelensis UE10 produced 38.41 and 18.6 IU mL -1 β-glucosidase and pectinase, respectively, by using fungal-pretreated SB. Cultivation of B. borstelensis UE27 in the medium containing the same substrate yielded 32.14 IU mL -1 of endoglucanase and 27.23 IU mL -1 of β-glucosidase. Likewise, Neobacillus sedimentimangrovi UE25 could produce a mix of β-glucosidase (37.24 IU mL -1 ), xylanase (18.65 IU mL -1 ) and endoglucanase (26.65 IU mL -1 ). Hence, this study led to the development of a method through which dye-containing textile effluent can be treated by SB along with the production of industrially important enzymes., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The electrochemical degradation of alizarin red dye was studied using bismuth oxyhalide attached to bismuth vanadate nanocomposite synthesized via a simple solvothermal method. The electrochemical degradation of alizarin red dye was treated at current densities of 3 and 5 mA cm -1 for 30 min under different supporting electrolyte mediums (NaCl and KCl). Also, the electrochemical degradation of BiOBr/BiVO 4 electrode shows higher degradation percentages of 97 and 99 for NaCl and KCl electrolyte solutions, which are higher degradation percentages than pure BiVO 4 electrode (88 and 91 for NaCl and KCl). Also, the BiOBr/BiVO 4 electrode shows 100% COD reduction during the 30th min of alizarin red dye using both NaCl and KCl electrolyte solutions. This may indicate that the prepared BiOBr/BiVO 4 electrode shows an efficient electrode material for the degradation of textile dyes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, magnetite particles were successfully embedded in sodium carboxymethyl cellulose as beads using FeCl 3 as the cross-linker in two step-method and it was used as a Fenton-like catalyst to degrade sulfamethoxazole in aqueous solution. The surface morphology and functional groups influence of the Na-CMC magnetic beads was studied using FTIR and SEM analysis. The nature of synthesized iron oxide particles was confirmed as magnetite using XRD diffraction. The structural arrangement of Fe 3+ and iron oxide particles with CMC polymer was discussed. The influential factors for SMX degradation efficiency were investigated including the pH of the reaction medium (4.0), catalyst dosage (0.2 g L -1 ) and initial SMX concentration (30 mg L -1 ). The results showed that under optimal conditions 81.89% SMX degraded in 40 min using H 2 O 2 . The reduction in COD was estimated to be 81.2%. SMX degradation was initiated neither by the cleaving of C-S nor C-N followed by some chemical reactions. Complete mineralization of SMX was not achieved which could be due to an insufficient amount of Fe particles in CMC matrix that are responsible for the generation of *OH radicals. It was explored that degradation followed first order kinetics. Fabricated beads were successfully applied in a floating bed column in which the beads were allowed to float in sewage water spiked with SMX for 40 min. A total reduction of 79% of COD was achieved in treating sewage water. The beads could be used 2-3 times with significant reduction in catalytic activity. It was found that the degradation efficiency was attributed to a stable structure, textural property, active sites and *OH radicals., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A co-precipitation technique has been used to prepare Bismuth tungstate nanoparticles (Bi 2 WO 6 ) for electrochemical capacitors and electrochemical sensing of Ascorbic acid (AA). Using a scanning rate of 10 mV s -1 , the electrode was performed as the pseudocapacitance behavior and the specific capacitance to be up to 677 Fg -1 at 1 A/g. Bi 2 WO 6 versus Glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was also used to study the behavior of the Bi 2 WO 6 modified electrodes in detecting ascorbic acid. This electrochemical sensor shows excellent electrocatalytic performance when ascorbic acid is present, as determined by differential pulse voltammetry. In solution, ascorbic acid diffuses to an electrode surface and controls its surface properties. Based on the results from the investigation, the sensor showed a detection sensitivity of 0.26 mM/mA, and a limit of detection (LOD) of 77.85 mM. It is clear from these results that Bi 2 WO 6 may find application as an electrode material for supercapacitors and glucose sensors., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Self-medication is defined as the selection of medicines by individuals to treat self-diagnosed ophthalmic symptoms without consultation of healthcare professionals. Topical steroids can produce severe eye-threatening complications, including the elevation of intraocular pressure (IOP) with possible development of glaucoma and infrequent optic nerve damage. In recent times, many over-the-counter (OTC) ophthalmic preparations are possible without a prescription. There are a lot of concerns about the safety of long-term use of nonprescription ophthalmic drugs, which may lead to a variety of serious ocular complications., Objective: To determine the prevalence of self-medication ocular topical steroid practices and associated factors among adult ophthalmic patients attending ophthalmology clinics at King Saud Medical City (KSMC) in Riyadh., Methods: A cross-sectional study targeted adults aged 18 or older who had used topical steroids eye drops. The data were collected through interviews, and an online questionnaire was distributed among patients who attended ophthalmology clinics between December 2022 and February 2023., Result: From a total of 308 responses, 92 (29.8%) were using ocular topical, 58 (18.8%) with a prescription, five (1.6%) without a prescription, and 29 (9.4%) with and without a prescription, while 216 (70.1%) did not use it. The frequency of using ocular topical steroids without a prescription among participants was 11 (12%) once and 33 (35%) many times. Additionally, 26 (28.3%) were having complications, mostly eye infections (11, 12.4%), glaucoma (8, 9%), and cataracts (6, 6.7%). The reasons for practicing self-medication of steroid eye drops among participants were 14 (15.2%) repeated symptoms, 11 (15.2%) had heard advice from friends, and 11 (15.2%) think they had enough knowledge., Conclusion: The study reported the use of self-medication with steroids in ophthalmology clinics at KSMC, even though detecting a high level of perception and acceptable practices among participants. This practice is mainly due to participants having repeated symptoms and thinking they have enough knowledge. Educating the patients would help in reducing the incidence of self-medication steroid eye drops and its associated complications., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Alamer et al.)

A two-dimensional nanoflake (Fe/Cu-TPA) was prepared through a simple ultrasonic-centrifuge method. Fe/Cu-TPA has prominent performance on the removal of Pb 2+ with low consistences. More than 99% lead (II) (Pb 2+ ) was removed. The adsorption equipoise was established within 60 min for 50 mg L -1 Pb 2+ . Fe/Cu-TPA shows excellent regenerability with 19.04% decline of Pb 2+ adsorption competence in 5 cycles. There are two models for Fe/Cu-TPA adsorption of Pb 2+ , pseudo-second-order dynamic model and Langmuir isotherm model, with a utmost adsorption competence of 213.56 mg g -1 . This work offers a new candidate material for the industrial-grade Pb 2+ adsorbents with promising application prospect., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: Psychological distress is associated with worsening symptoms during the active treatment period and lower quality of life in women with early-stage breast cancer. Many studies have indicated risk for heightened psychological distress across the breast cancer trajectory., Purpose: The aim of this review is to examine the literature for instruments used to measure psychological distress among women with breast cancer during chemotherapy., Methods: This study used the Arksey and O'Malley framework of scoping reviews. Two databases, PubMed & CINAHL, were searched for peer-reviewed original articles that were published within the last ten years, included participants with a diagnosis of breast cancer stages I to III, and receiving chemotherapy, English text articles, and studies that report psychological distress measures., Findings: The initial screening yielded 529 relevant studies. After applying the exclusion criteria, a total of 17 studies concerning the assessment of psychological distress during chemotherapy were retained for the analysis of variables and measures of psychological distress. The instruments used to measure psychological distress varied, with a total of 21 measures. The most frequently utilized measure was the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (n = 5), followed by the Impact of Event Scale (n = 2), the Distress Thermometer (n = 2), and the Perceived Stress Scale (n = 2)., Conclusion: This review identified the gaps related to inconsistencies in the operationalization and instruments used to measure psychological distress among breast cancer survivors during chemotherapy. Standardization of measures assessing psychological distress, along with conceptual clarity, is essential for measuring distress in research and clinical practice., (© 2023 The Authors. Cancer Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

This study focuses on using Casuarina equisetifolia biomass for pilot-scale glucose oxidase production from Aspergillus niger and its application in the removal of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) from municipal wastewater through the bio-Fenton oxidation. The cost of glucose oxidase was 0.005 $/U, including the optimum production parameters, 10% biomass, 7% sucrose, 1% peptone, and 3% CaCO 3 at 96 h with an enzyme activity of 670 U/mL. Optimized conditions for H 2 O 2 were 1 M glucose, 100 U/mL glucose oxidase, and 120 mins of incubation, resulting in 544.3 mg/L H 2 O 2 . Thus, H 2 O 2 produced under these conditions lead to bio-Fenton oxidation resulting in the removal of 36-92% of nine TrOCs in municipal wastewater at pH 7.0 in 360 mins. Therefore, this work establishes the cost-effective glucose oxidase-producing H 2 O 2 as an attractive bioremediating agent to enhance the removal of TrOCs in wastewater at neutral pH., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Agro-industrial wastes and by-products are the natural and abundant resources of biomaterials to obtain various value-added items such as biopolymer films, bio-composites and enzymes. This study presents a way to fractionate and to convert an agro-industrial residue, sugarcane bagasse (SB), into useful materials with potential applications. Initially cellulose was extracted from SB which was then converted into methylcellulose. The synthesized methylcellulose was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and FTIR. Biopolymer film was prepared by using methylcellulose, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), glutaraldehyde, starch and glycerol. The biopolymer was characterized to exhibit 16.30 MPa tensile strength, 0.05 g/m 2  h of water vapor transmission rate, 366 % of water absorption to its original weight after 115 min of immersion, 59.08 % water solubility, 99.05 % moisture retention capability and 6.01 % of moisture absorption after 144 h. Furthermore, in vitro studies on absorption and dissolution of model drug by biopolymer showed 2.04 and 104.59 % of swelling ratio and equilibrium water content, respectively. Biocompatibility of the biopolymer was checked by using gelatin media and it was observed that swelling ratio was higher in initial 20 min of contact. The extracted hemicellulose and pectin from SB were fermented by a thermophilic bacterial strain, Neobacillus sedimentimangrovi UE25 that yielded 12.52 and 6.4 IU mL -1 of xylanase and pectinase, respectively. These industrially important enzymes further augmented the utility of SB in this study. Therefore, this study emphasizes the possibility for industrial application of SB to form various products., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Rozina Rashid reports financial support was provided by Higher Education Commission Pakistan. The financial support from Taif University Researchers Supporting Project is also declared., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Mechanically-robust nanocomposite membranes have been developed via crosslinking chemistry and electrospinning technique based on the rational selection of dispersed phase materials with high Young's modulus (i.e., graphene and multiwalled carbon nanotubes) and Cassie-Baxter design and used for oil and water separation. Proper selection of dispersed phase materials can enhance the stiffness of nanocomposite fiber membranes while their length has to be larger than their critical length. Chemical modification of the dispersed phase materials with fluorochemcials and their induced roughness were critical to achieve superhydrophobocity. Surface analytic tools including goniometer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were applied to characterize the superhydrophobic nanocomposite membranes. An AFM-based nanoindentation technique was used to measure quantitativly the stiffness of the nanocomposite membranes for local region and whole composites, compared with the results by a tensile test technique. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques were used to confirm composition and formation of nanocomposite membranes. These membranes demonstrated excellent oil/water separation. This work has potential application in the field of water purification and remediation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the leading causes of infection worldwide. Clove oil's ability to inhibit the growth of MRSA was studied through in vitro and in vivo studies. The phytochemical components of clove oil were determined through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The antibacterial effects of clove oil and its interaction with imipenem were determined by studying MIC , MBC, and FIC indices in vitro. The in vivo wound-healing effect of the clove oil and infection control were determined using excision wound model rats. The GC-MS analysis of clove oil revealed the presence of 16 volatile compounds. Clove oil showed a good antibacterial effect in vitro but no interaction was observed with imipenem. Clove bud oil alone or in combination with imipenem healed wounds faster and reduced the microbial load in wounds. The findings of this study confirmed the antibacterial activity of clove oil in vitro and in vivo and demonstrated its interaction with imipenem.

Instantaneously determining the type and amount of oil product passing through pipelines is one of the most critical operations in the oil, polymer and petrochemical industries. In this research, a detection system is proposed in order to monitor oil pipelines. The system uses a dual-energy gamma source of americium-241 and barium-133, a test pipe, and a NaI detector. This structure is implemented in the Monte Carlo N Particle (MCNP) code. It should be noted that the results of this simulation have been validated with a laboratory structure. In the test pipe, four oil products-ethylene glycol, crude oil, gasoil, and gasoline-were simulated two by two at various volume percentages. After receiving the signal from the detector, the feature extraction operation was started in order to provide suitable inputs for training the neural network. Four time characteristics-variance, fourth order moment, skewness, and kurtosis-were extracted from the received signal and used as the inputs of four Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural networks. The implemented neural networks were able to predict the volume ratio of each product with great accuracy. High accuracy, low cost in implementing the proposed system, and lower computational cost than previous detection methods are among the advantages of this research that increases its applicability in the oil industry. It is worth mentioning that although the presented system in this study is for monitoring of petroleum fluids, it can be easily used for other types of fluids such as polymeric fluids.

Objective: This study investigated the knowledge, attitude, and practice toward COVID-19 among residents/citizens of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Kuwait., Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional online survey on 3,920 citizens/residents from three Gulf-countries (KSA, UAE, and Kuwait) was conducted between June 15 and August 25, 2020. The survey instrument consisted of demographic characteristics, 13 items on knowledge, 4 items on attitudes, and 7 items on practice towards prevention and control of COVID-19. The Survey link was constructed to be available in Arabic and English. Descriptive statistics of frequency distribution and percentages were calculated, and non-parametric tests were applied to compare the mean knowledge, attitude, and practice scores among different countries., Results: This study included participants from KSA (2,938, 74.9%), UAE (403, 10.3%), and Kuwait (579, 14.8%). The study subjects from KSA, UAE, and Kuwait showed significant differences in the mean knowledge (10.13, 10.52, and 9.19, p<0.001), attitude (2.84, 3.12, and 5.98, p<0.001), and practice (6.11, 5.98 and 5.38, p<0.001) scores towards COVID-19. In addition, Kuwaiti citizens and residents showed significantly lower knowledge, attitude, and practice scores toward COVID-19 than UAE and KSA participants. Participants from Kuwait showed significantly lower knowledge, attitude, and practice scores than the UAE and KSA. However, in general (38.2%), the study participants were optimistic about controlling Coronavirus. Nearly 48.6% started to take an immune-boosting diet to protect themselves from the Coronavirus., Conclusions: Study participants from KSA, UAE, and Kuwait demonstrated adequate knowledge, positive attitude, and acceptable practices towards COVID-19 control. Electronic and social media should be effectively utilized to spread awareness of COVID-19 among the public.

Recently, environmental and ecological concerns have become a major issue owing to the shortage of resources, high cost, and so forth. In my research, I present an innovative, environmentally friendly, and economical way to prepare nanocellulose from grass wastes with a sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) solution of different concentrations (1−6% mol) at different times 10−80 min, washed with distilled water, and treated with ultrasonic waves. The optimum yield of the isolated cellulose was 95%, 90%, and 87% NaClO at 25 °C for 20 min and with NaOH and H2SO4 at 25 °C with 5% M, respectively. The obtained samples were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effect of test temperature and reaction times on the crystallinity index (IC) of GNFC with different treated mediums was carried out and investigated. The IC was analyzed using the diffraction pattern and computed according to the Segal empirical method (method A), and the sum of the area under the crystalline adjusted peaks (method B) and their values proved that the effect of temperature is prominent. In both methods, GNFC/H2SO4 had the highest value followed by GNFC/NaOH, GNFC/NaClO and real sample nano fiber cellulose (RSNFC). The infrared spectral features showed no distinct changes of the four cellulose specimens at different conditions. The particle size distribution data proved that low acid concentration hydrolysis was not sufficient to obtain nano-sized cellulose particles. The Zeta potential was higher in accordance with (GNFC/H2SO4 > GNFC/NaOH > GNFC/NaClO), indicating the acid higher effect.

This paper proposes a barrier function adaptive non-singular terminal sliding mode controller for a six-degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) quad-rotor in the existence of matched disturbances. For this reason, a linear sliding surface according to the tracking error dynamics is proposed for the convergence of tracking errors to origin. Afterward, a novel non-singular terminal sliding surface is suggested to guarantee the finite-time reachability of the linear sliding surface to origin. Moreover, for the rejection of the matched disturbances that enter into the quad-rotor system, an adaptive control law based on barrier function is recommended to approximate the matched disturbances at any moment. The barrier function-based control technique has two valuable properties. First, this function forces the error dynamics to converge on a region near the origin in a finite time. Secondly, it can remove the increase in the adaptive gain because of the matched disturbances. Lastly, simulation results are given to demonstrate the validation of this technique.

Spinel cobalt ferrite/hexagonal strontium hexaferrite (2CoFe 2 O 4 /SrFe 12-2x Sm x La x O 19 ; x = 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5) nanocomposites were fabricated using the tartaric acid precursor pathway, and the effects of La 3+ -Sm 3+ double substitution on the formation, structure, and magnetic properties of CoFe 2 O 4 /SrFe 12-2x Sm x La x O 19 nanocomposite at different annealing temperatures were assayed through X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometry. A pure 2CoFe 2 O 4 /SrFe 12 O 19 nanocomposite was obtained from the tartrate precursor complex annealed at 1100 °C for 2 h. The substitution of Fe 3+ ion by Sm 3 - + La 3+ ions promoted the formation of pure 2CoFe 2 O 4 /SrFe 12 O 19 nanocomposite at 1100 °C. The positions and intensities of the strongest peaks of hexagonal ferrite changed after Sm 3+ -La 3+ substitution at ≤1100 °C. In addition, samples with an Sm 3+ -La 3+ ratio of ≥1.0 annealed at 1200 °C for 2 h showed diffraction peaks for lanthanum cobalt oxide (La 3 Co 3 O 8 ; dominant phase) and samarium ferrite (SmFeO 3 ). The crystallite size range at all constituent phases was in the nanocrystalline range, from 39.4 nm to 122.4 nm. The average crystallite size of SrFe 12 O 19 phase increased with the number of Sm 3+ -La 3+ substitutions, whereas that of CoFe 2 O 4 phase decreased with an x of up to 0.5. La-Sm co-doped ion substitution increased the saturation magnetization ( Ms ) value and the subrogated ratio to 0.2, and the Ms value decreased with the increasing number of double substitutions. A high saturation magnetization value ( Ms = 69.6 emu/g) was obtained using a La 3+ -Sm 3+ co-doped ratio of 0.2 at 1200 for 2 h, and a high coercive force value ( Hc = 1192.0 Oe) was acquired using the same ratio at 1000 °C.

In this paper, a common and widely used micro-heat sink (H/S) was redesigned and simulated using computational fluid dynamics methods. This H/S has a large number of microchannels in which the walls are wavy (wavy microchannel heat sink: WMCHS). To improve cooling, two (Al2O3 and CuO) water-based nanofluids (NFs) were used as cooling fluids, and their performance was compared. For this purpose, studies were carried out at three Reynolds numbers (Re) of 500, 1000, and 1500 when the volume percent ( φ ) of the nanoparticles (NPs) was increased to 2%. The mixture two-phase (T-P) model was utilized to simulate the NFs. Results showed that using the designed WMCHS compared to the common H/S reduces the average and maximum temperatures (T-Max) up to 2 °C. Moreover, using the Al2O3 NF is more suitable in terms of WMCHS temperature uniformity as well as its thermal resistance compared to the CuO NF. Increasing the φ is desirable in terms of temperature, but it enhances the pumping power (PP). Besides, the Figure of Merit (FOM) was investigated, and it was found that the value is greater at a higher volume percentage.

Background & Objectives: Cigarette smoke is associated with several diseased states including defects in reproductive behavior. Salvadora persica ( S. persica ) known as the toothbrush plant is reported to possess several pharmacological properties including antidepressants and anxiolytics. The present research was done to determine the libido-protective effect of S. persica in chronic cigarette smoke-exposed rats., Materials and Methods: The decoction of freshly dried roots of S. persica (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg, oral) was administered to the chronic-cigarette smoke-exposed adult rats. The parameters related to libido were recorded using a close-camera circuit (CCTV). Serum corticosterone and testosterone levels were estimated. Further, the phytochemical constituents were identified in the decoction. The data obtained were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and significance was considered at p < 0.05., Results: The observation from the study revealed that cigarette smoke exposure reduces the sexual activity parameters significantly (p < 0.01), besides elevated the serum corticosterone and suppressed the testosterone levels in rats. Administration of S. persica at 200 mg/kg improved significantly (p < 0.05) the parameters related to libido. The decoction also reversed the changes in the levels of tested hormones in serum., Interpretation and Conclusion: The findings indicate that a 200 mg/kg S. persica decoction can protect libido in chronic cigarette smoke-exposed rats. The activity may be due to the presence of several phytoconstituents such as alkaloid, flavonoids and phytosterols that might produce vasodilatory effect in sex organs and enhance the synthesis of endogenous testosterone to improve libido characteristics weakened by chronic cigarette smoke exposure., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

Background: Periodontal disease is a common pathological oral ailment which affects the supporting structures of the teeth. Dental plaque is one of the major causes for gingivitis and periodontitis. If left untreated, this will lead to tooth loss. Studies have shown that oral prophylaxis will reduce gingival and periodontal inflammation by removing the plaque in all the surfaces. The objective was to assess knowledge and practice of interdental aids among people of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia., Methodology: A descriptive study was conducted among people using questionnaire., Results: 96% of the subjects brushed their teeth with brush and paste. 59% of the study subjects had knowledge regarding interdental aids, whereas only 15% of them practiced it. 72% of the people mentioned that dentists gave information regarding interdental aids., Conclusions: Among the study subjects, even though there were deficits in few areas, overall knowledge about interdental aids was good and it increased with increasing level of education., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2021 Journal of Pharmacy and Bioallied Sciences.)

Al Amar gold ore is rich in sulfides of base metals and is commercially applied for the production of copper concentrate via floatation and gold bullion by cyanidation of tailing. The current process flowsheet suffers from low gold recovery (∼60%) and loss of metals in the hazardous stockpiled residue. This work addresses these drawbacks by a newly experimental redesign of the process circuit. The innovative flowsheet comprises a sequence of operations, including acid leaching of the roasted ore, gold recovery from the leach residue, and preparation of a valuable zinc-copper-lead ferrite from the filtrate by coprecipitation followed by heat treatment. The ore is roasted at 650 °C and then leached in 20% HCl, where most of Zn, Cu, Pb, and Fe contents are dissolved, while pristine gold remains in the residue. Most of the gold (∼93%) can be recovered by cyanidation of the acid leach residue. Stoichiometric ratios of dissolved Zn, Cu, Pb, and Fe in the acid leach solution can be kept at 0.6:0.3:0.1:2.0, respectively, only by adding a small amount of ferric chloride. These metals are coprecipitated at varying pH values from 8 to 10, and the produced powders are annealed at temperatures from 600 to 1100 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) charts reveal sharp peaks of the targeted Zn 0.6 Cu 0.3 Pb 0.1 Fe 2 O 4 phase at 600 °C, while a highly crystalline single phase is obtained at 1100 °C, independently of precipitation pH. The crystalline size of the produced powders increases with annealing temperatures (from 18-27 nm at 600 °C to 85-105 nm at 1100 °C). The finest size is found at pH 12. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigation shows uniform cubic microstructures of samples annealed at 1100 °C. The produced ferrite powders exhibit soft magnetic characteristics. Saturation magnetization, M s , substantially increases with pH. Coercivity, H c, increases with increasing annealing temperatures, from 600 to 800 °C, and decreases above 800 °C. Preliminary cost-benefit analysis revealed that the profit margin of the proposed process flowsheet is promising. The wastewater is almost free of heavy metals. Our advances in high gold recovery and preparation of valuable magnetic nanocrystalline ferrite provide exciting opportunities to enhance and maximize Al Amar ore production for practical applications., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2020 American Chemical Society.)