Search

The figure of the mad scientist pervades H. G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau. In the novel, the boundaries of human knowledge are frequently presented. Undeniably, what once seemed like a gothic scene is now an inevitable scientific certainty. For example, animal cloning is not a mere literary tale anymore. A scientist uses science for shaping our lives to a better form while a mad scientist uses science to threaten our lives. The mad scientist is still a scientist but with unusual and vast ambitions. They are irresponsible physicians who follow their unethical inquisitiveness. In The Island of Dr. Moreau, Wells attempts to illustrate the danger of misusing science, man’s manipulation on nature which is animal in this case, and the expected consequences of exploiting knowledge for the immoral procedure of vivisection. Charles Darwin’s theory of Evolution highly contributed to people’s mental instability and uncertainty during the Victorian era. It has caused a kind of pessimism as people become doubtful of what once used to be fixed and firm. Since Darwin’s theory pervades The Island of Dr. Moreau, the same unsteadiness and fluidity of character is reflected in the novel. The same disappointment is reproduced. As a writer of science fiction, H. G. Wells aims at presenting an imaginary society and depicts a fictional island where it could be real anytime soon.

Introduction: Hepatocyte nuclear factors HNF4α and HNF1α, key transcription factors that regulate drug metabolism enzymes expression, were linked to inflammation. Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is a multi-role animal lectin which is involved in inflammation. This study aims to evaluate the impact of galectin-3 inhibition, by using modified citrus pectin (MCP), on HNF4α and HNF1α gene expression levels after acetaminophen (APAP) induced acute liver injury in Wistar rats. Materials and Methods: Sixty-four male Wistar rats were divided into four groups as follows; control, MCP, APAP and MCP plus APAP administered groups. The groups received APAP were divided into three subgroups each; in which rats were sacrificed after 24, 48 and 72 hours (h) from APAP administration. Expression levels of HNF4α and HNF1α, beside levels of Gal-3, tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF-α), Cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1), reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione reductase (GR) and peroxidase (GPx) activities, liver function parameters were evaluated, along with histopathological study of the liver. Results: APAP high dose induced inhibition of liver HNF4α and HNF1α gene expression, CYP2E1 and GSH levels, GR and GPx activities, and increased hepatic Gal-3, TNF-α and serum liver function parameters levels, besides inducing hepatic necrosis. The toxic effects were stronger after 24 h then declined gradually after 48 h and 72 h. Inhibiting Gal-3 functionality after APAP high dose administration reduced TNF-α level and retrieved liver levels of HNF4α and HNF1α expression, CYP2E1, GSH, GR and GPx closer to normal control levels. Conclusion: Inhibiting Gal-3 functionality affects HNF4α and HNF1α gene expression levels and reduced inflammation after APAP high dose administration.

Fast-dissolving films are one of the interested delivery systems for oral solid dosage forms to overcome swallowing difficulty for geriatric and pediatric patients. Zafirlukast (ZLK) is one of the most commonly used oral medication for treatment of asthmatic patients particularly mild to moderate cases. Oral fast dissolving films of ZLK were prepared using two different filming forming polymers, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (SCMC). Different concentrations of the 2 polymers were used to prepare 10 formulas. Other excipients were also added at various ratios to produce 10 different formulations. These were maltodextrin, crosspivodone, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and banana powder. In vitro characterization of the formulations showed that HPMC-based formulations had significantly shorter disintegrating times (p < 0.05) and improved dissolution rates. Addition of crosspovidone, PVP, and maltodextrin as disintegrants to the film forming polymers did not significantly enhance the disintegration of the films. However, banana powder significantly elongated the film disintegration. Compatibility studies using FTIR did not show an interaction between ZLK and excipients in all formulations.

Grip strength is a simple tool used to rapidly assess muscle strength. It can provide diagnostic information and be used to assess clinical outcomes. The purpose of this study was to find out an equation that could predict hand-grip strength in relation to age, weight, height, mid upper arm circumference, hand length and hand span in Egyptian healthy mid-adolescents. Two hundred and forty volunteer healthy adolescents of both sexes participated in this cross sectional study. Their Body Mass Indices (BMI) followed normal values. EuroQol 5-Dimension Questionnaire for youth (EQ-5D-Y) was applied to determine participant’s health status. A JAMAR plus hand held dynamometer was used for measuring handgrip strength. Independent t-test, Pearson correlation co-efficient and Linear regression equation were used (p

Centrally-acting drugs have been increasingly used for gastrointestinal diseases, such as opioids used for diarrhea and phenothiazine as antiemetic agents. Recent reports focused on the identification of the efficacy of these drugs in peptic ulcer protection; by tackling the oxidative stress associated with the inflammatory reaction of ulceration. The present study aimed to identify the differences between fluoxetine versus fluvoxamine in terms of antioxidant activity. To do so, an animal model of stress-induced ulcer was utilized by exposing rats to high doses of indomethacin and these rats were sub-classified into four groups (control, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, and misoprostol) for comparison. Blood samples were collected from the studied groups and analyzed by measuring plasma levels of total antioxidant and malondialdehyde (MDA). The results confirmed that fluvoxamine possesses an antioxidant activity that is comparable to misoprostol and significantly higher than that of fluoxetine effects; the latter showed a non-significant effect in ordinary doses. In conclusion, these findings might provide a clue for future directions for the discovery of new antiulcer agents through structural modification of the newly introduced antidepressant agents in clinical use.

Nowadays, individuals express experiences and opinions through online reviews. These has an influence on online marketing and obtaining real knowledge about products and services. However, some of the online reviews can be unreal. They may have been written to promote low-quality products/services or sabotage a product/service reputation to mislead potential customers. Such misleading reviews are known as spam reviews and require crucial attention. Prior spam detection research focused on English reviews, with less attention to other languages. The detection of spam reviews in Arabic online sources is a relatively new topic despite the relatively huge amount of data generated. Therefore, this paper contributes to such topic by presenting four different Arabic spam reviews detection methods, while putting more focus towards the construction and evaluation of an ensemble approach. The proposed ensemble method is based on integrating a rule-based classifier with machine learning techniques, while utilizing content-based features that depend on N-gram features and Negation handling. The four proposed methods are evaluated on two datasets of different sizes. The results indicate the efficiency of the ensemble approach where it achieves a classification accuracy of 95.25% and 99.98% for the two experimented datasets and outperforming existing related work by far of 25%.

This paper has explained the contamination of natural radionuclides in various water testers using gamma ray measurement which is very significant as part of health scrutiny programs to progress the ecological knowledge. Natural radioactivity was determined in five groups of water samples (rain, mine, tap, drinking and mineral) from different places at Johor, Malaysia by means of gamma-ray spectrometry tool. The annual cumulative effective doses were estimated 6.05 mSv /yr for rain, 9.49 mSv/ yr for mine, 6.39 mSv /yr for tap, 5.67 mSv /yr for drinking, and 6.01 mSv/yr for mineral water. Among the five samples, mine water gave the highest value in annual effective dose measurement. The measured data are compared with the reported value. The activity concentrations of five water samples provided that bottled drinking water was the lowest than other water samples. This research is useful to provide some information to the public about the amount of radionuclide content uranium, thorium and potassium that present in water.

Understanding the different skeletal relationships in orofacial clefts by using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) may eventually lead to developing better diagnosis and treatment protocols for facial deformities.The objective of this study was to investigate the different skeletal relationships in the cleft palate with or without cleft lip (CP ± L), using CBCT scans. This is a retrospective study conducted at the Orthodontics and Oral Radiology department, CMH-Lahore medical college and Institute of dentistry. In the current study, 4,152 CBCT scans (dcm format) were collected from a radiology center in Lahore, Pakistan between February 2015 and February 2018. All CBCT scans were imported to the Romexis Viewer, version 4.4.0 (Planmeca, Finland). Data sorting was performed to identify age, sex, cleft phenotype, unilateral cleft quadrant, sagittal skeletal relationship, and facial soft tissue involvement.Statistics were generated, using the Chi-square test. A P value0.05 was considered statistically significant.We identified 73 cases of CP ± L in the sample. The male-to-female ratio was 1.21:1. Bilateral cleft lip and palate (BCLP) mostly affected males (60%), whereas unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) mainly affected females (57.6%), with a left-side female predominance. The different cleft phenotypes do not show any statistically significant difference regarding skeletal relationships and sex (P0.05).Skeletal class III relationships were found to be predominant in both sexes, followed by class II, and class I skeletal relationships. Henceforth, such CP ± L patients should be pre-emptively screened in early life to avoid such skeletal complications.

Background Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose is a common cause of hepatotoxicity. Antioxidants like N-acetyl cysteine are recommended as a therapeutic option; nevertheless, it has limitations. The search for efficient alternatives is ongoing. Probiotics are live microorganisms that maintain a healthy gut microecology. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) is one of the widely used probiotics. Our study aimed to assess the protective and therapeutic effects of probiotic LGG on APAP-induced hepatotoxicity and evaluate the molecular pathways behind this effect. Methods Wistar Albino male rats were randomly distributed into the following experimental groups: group 1, non-treated rats (vehicle); group 2, rats received oral gavage of suspension of probiotic LGG (5 × 1010 CFU GG/0.5 ml in PBS) daily for 2 weeks (probiotic control); group 3, rats received APAP dose of 2 g/kg body weight (positive control); group 4, rats received oral gavage of suspension of probiotic LGG for 2 weeks followed by a single dose of APAP injection (prophylactic); and group 5, rats received a single dose of APAP and then 24 h later treated with oral gavage of probiotic LGG daily for 2 weeks (treatment). Results Our study revealed that administration of probiotic LGG (either as prophylactic or treatment) exhibited a remarkable reduction in APAP-induced liver injury as resembled by the decrease in liver enzymes (ALT and AST) and the histopathological features of liver sections. Moreover, the significant reduction in the oxidative marker malondialdehyde, along with the enhancement in glutathione reductase, and the significant reduction in inflammatory markers (nitric oxide and tumor necrosis factor-α) were all indicators of the efficiency of LGG in ameliorating the alterations accompanied with APAP-induced hepatotoxicity. Our findings also demonstrate that LGG administration boosted the expression of Nrf2 and PGC-1 while decreasing the expression of protein kinase C (PKC). As a result, the nuclear abundance of Nrf2 is increased, and the expression of various antioxidants is eventually upregulated. Conclusion Our study shows that probiotic LGG supplementation exerts a prophylactic and therapeutic effect against APAP-induced hepatotoxicity through modulating the expression of PKC and the Nrf2/PGC-1α signaling pathway and eventually suppressing oxidative damage from APAP overdose.

Background:Lipid accumulation product (LAP) is one of the indices that can demonstrate cardiovascularrisk factors according to international studies. Aim: To evaluate relationship between LAP, visceral obesity and different cardio vascular risk factors among sample of obese Egyptian Women. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional observational study included 350 obese Egyptian women; aged 25- 55 years. They were subjected to blood pressure and anthropometric assessment (weight, height and waist circumference), abdominal ultrasound (visceral fat) and laboratory tests (fasting blood sugar and lipid profile).Results: The majority of the participated women had wide WC (88.9%) and increased visceral fat (80.6%). Hyperglycemia was present among (47.4%), hypertension among 42.6%, high triglycerides among 26.6% and low HDL among 44.3%. The odds of obtaining LAP >80.74 cm.mmol/L (4th quartile) is 2.7 times higher in individuals with hypertension(BP > 130/85),and 6.79 times higher in individuals with visceral fat ≥ 5 cm. Depending on the visceral fat as a standard for classification of visceral obesity (>5 cm for women), revealed that the AUCs of LAP was 0.752 (95% CI 0.697–0.806) in women. The cutoff point of LAP;for prediction of visceral obesity among Egyptian women, was 61.69; using ROC analysis; with sensitivity 68% and specificity 75% and PPV/NPV 1.05 and accuracy 71.5% .Conclusion: LAP index had significant correlations with visceral obesity and hypertension. The cutoff point of LAP 61.69 can be used to predict visceral obesity among Egyptian women.

In this report, the radiological survey of radioactivity measurements in soil and onion and their mobility is carried out which is very important in the environment and several scientific fields. The measurements about the concentrations of activity in soil, leaves and bulbs for onion in the location of Johor and Perak, Malaysia have been carried out using neutron activation analysis (NAA) of TRIGA MARK II research reactor facilities at Nuclear Agency, Bangi, Malaysia. The transfer factors (TFs) of 238U, 232Th and 40K from 6 different natural background soils are studied from soil to onion under natural field conditions. The TFs for onion leaves and bulb are in the range of (6.01-79.2) x 10-3, (1.21-61.4) x 10-3, (1.012-4.265) x 10-1 and 0.028-0.334, 0.017-0.293 and (0.908 -3.685) x10-1for 238U, 232Th, and 40K respectively. There exists a linearity correlation between the dose rate as well as activity concentration of the soils. The observed transfer factor of onion bulbs was usually higher than in leaves.

A Hamiltonian operator in assessing the energy levels and wavefunctions of quantum dots (QDs) was proposed. The finite element method was used to solve the numerical Schrödinger equation for envelope function in the effective mass approximation. Within this model, we have investigated QDs with different geometries (cone, lens and dome-shaped dot). While it is easy to attain stability for conical QDs, it is difficult with lens QDs. Strain and mole-fraction effects are also studied. Our results coincide with the experimental one.

RF-magnetron sputtering has been carried out at room temperature to deposit vanadium-doped zinc oxide (VZO) nanostructured thin films onto flexible PEN substrates. The sputtering targets of compacted VZO nanopowder have been prepared using a rapid and inexpensive Sol-Gel synthesis followed by a supercritical drying process. Structural and morphological study of VZO particles in the targets has been carried out via X-ray diffraction and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The nanostructured thin films have been characterized to analyze the structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties as a function of vanadium content from 0 to 4 at.%. Structural characterization of VZO thin films revealed that the deposited thin films have been grown preferentially along (002) and exhibit the hexagonal wurtzite structure. The cross-sectional and microstructural analysis performed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) confirms the columnar growth of nanostructures. The deposited thin films exhibit transparent behavior with transmission >70% in the visible region. It has been observed that nanostructured thin films with vanadium content of 2% have demonstrated the lowest resistivity (6.71 × 10−4 Ω cm) with Hall mobility of 10.62 cm2 V−1 s−1. The deposited vanadium doped nanostructured thin films would have potential applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Background: Coronaviruses (COV) are a large family of viruses that cause infections ranging from the common cold to more serious diseases. Mild to severe respiratory illnesses have been linked to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has been classified as a pandemic disease by the World Health Organization. It has been demonstrated that the severity of COVID-19 is highly positively linked with hypocalcemia. Furthermore, calcium imbalances among other electrolytes are linked to the prognosis of COVID-19. Objectives: This study demonstrates a connection between serum calcium levels and COVID-19 as biomedical indicators of COVID-19 infections in Sulaymaniyah city, Iraq. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Baxshin Hospital for about two months from February 2022 to April 2022. The work was conducted with a total of 40 patients including 22 males and 18 females. The patients’ ages ranged from 22 to 80 years old. By analyzing a sample from a nasopharyngeal swab and performing real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), all of the patients tested positive as having COVID-19 infection. Serum calcium was determined from the blood samples of the patients in order to evaluate their serum calcium levels. The statistical package for social science (SPSS) was utilized to examine the obtained data. Results: The study revealed a level of calcium between 6.10 and 9.86 mg/dL in male and female patients. The majority of the female patients (61%) displayed low levels of serum calcium, and 33% of the males had a low level of calcium. It can be seen that the highest rate of male patients (66.6%) exhibited a normal level of serum calcium, while 33.3% showed decreased serum calcium. Based on gender and age groups, a statistically significant difference in calcium levels was observed. Conclusions: This study discovered that infection with COVID-19 has some significant laboratory abnormalities, including hypocalcemia, showing that serum calcium might be employed as a prognostic marker in the clinic.

A two-step process was used to prepare a nickel-polyaniline nanocomposite (Ni (NPs)-PANI). The first step consisted of the electrodeposition of polyaniline (PANI) in the form of thin films on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates from a solution of aniline, lithium perchlorate, and sulfuric acid at a pH of 0.5. In the next step, the obtained Ni (NPs) were deposed in this polyaniline films. The structural, morphological, and electrocatalytic properties of the prepared nanocomposites were then investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed the cubic structure of the nanocomposites, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) indicated the existence of nickel and polyaniline in the prepared nanocomposites. Morphological analysis carried out through SEM revealed that the nanocomposites exhibit uniform dispersion of nickel nanoparticles into the polyaniline matrix. Amperometry and cyclic voltammetry were employed to investigate the electrocatalytic glucose oxidation behavior of the nanocomposite electrode in the alkaline medium. The prepared nickel-polyaniline nanocomposite electrode exhibited high sensitivity (278.8 µA mM−1 cm−2) in a range from 0.02 to 1 mM at a sufficiently fast response time of 3 s and a low glucose detection limit of 1 µM (S/N = 3). A cost-effective and straightforward synthesis procedure to prepare Ni (NPs)-PANI nanocomposite would make this material an efficient glucose sensor with appropriate stability, higher reproducibility, and excellent sensitivity.