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Recently, significant focus has been placed on the development of suitable stability-indicating studies in pharmaceutical analysis. A comprehensive eco-friendly stability-indicating RP-HPLC method has been developed and validated for the determination of piracetam and vincamine in hard gelatin capsule dosage forms. Both components were subjected to various stresses, following the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines. Piracetam, vincamine, and their breakdown products were successfully separated using the isocratic elution technique, and both medicinal compounds' quantification was carried out on the Kromasil C18 column at room temperature. The mobile phase consists of 0.05 M potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer pH 3.5:ethanol absolute (60:40, by volume), at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. Detection was implemented at 220 nm, considering the concentration levels of 80–550 and 4.0–28 μg/ml for piracetam and vincamine, respectively. The total analysis time was

Orientation: The Income Tax Act has tax consequences for both the debtor and the creditor when a debt is waived as a result of a concession or compromise. This article focuses on the income tax implications for the debtor. Research purpose: Even though symmetry is achieved when calculating the tax implications for the debtor, it causes inconvenience and economic hardship. The research identified examples of where deferral relief has been granted in the Income Tax Act, and this is used as a motivation to extend similar relief for the distressed debtor. Motivation for the study: Companies were already trading under tough economic conditions before the advent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) The pandemic has compounded the situation and introduced new challenges; hence, debt waivers have become increasingly prevalent. Research approach/design and method: A qualitative research methodology was applied using the doctrinal approach in conducting the research. Main findings: Where a debt is waived in a company that is already in financial distress, this may lead to a recoupment and or capital gains that trigger immediate tax consequences for the company. Practical/managerial implications: The recoupment and/or capital gain, which is subject to tax, creates undue hardship, inconvenience on the already distressed debtor and further impacts the ability of South African Revenue Service (SARS) to collect the tax debt. Contribution/value-add: The authors seek to rectify the identified problem by suggesting that a legislative amendment be introduced to allow the distressed taxpayer relief through a deferral of inclusion in taxable income.

Mohamed A Hendaus,1–3 Ahmed H Alhammadi,1–3 Prem Chandra,4 Eshan Muneer,1 Mohamed S Khalifa1 1Department of Pediatrics, Section of Academic General Pediatrics, Hamad General Corporation, Doha, Qatar; 2Department of Pediatrics, Section of Academic General Pediatrics, Sidra Medicine, Doha, Qatar; 3Department of Clinical Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medicine, Doha, Qatar; 4Department of Statistics, Medical Research Center, Hamad General Corporation, Doha, Qatar Background: Bronchiolitis is considered as the most frequent lower respiratory tract infection in infants and young children. This disorder is marked by acute inflammation, edema, damage of epithelial cells lining small airways, and augmentation of mucus production. Objective: The goal of the study was to identify agents triggering bronchiolitis in the State of Qatar. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional retrospective study was performed at Hamad Medical Corporation, the only tertiary and academic medical center in the State of Qatar. The study included infants and young children aged 0–24 months who were admitted to our pediatric ward with diagnosis of acute bronchiolitis (2010–2012) Results: Eight hundred thirty-five infants and young children met the study inclusion criteria with mean age at diagnosis of 3.61±3.56 months. Respiratory virus real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed on 769 (92.0%) of the participants. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was positive in 352 (45.7%) children admitted with clinical bronchiolitis. In addition, no viruses were identified in 142 (18.4%) of those admitted, and respiratory viruses other RSV were found in 275 (35.7%) of the children. Our investigations and observations show that there has been a steady and periodic seasonal variation in the RSV rate over the study period. A seasonal trend for the RSV (detected by respiratory virus real-time polymerase chain reaction) rate was evident, showing annual peaks in the months of October, November, December, and January, with a significant test for seasonality (test statistics [T]=3.15, P=0.009). Conclusion: In countries with desert hot weather, bronchiolitis might affect children throughout the year. Our results suggest that the combination of date regarding uninterrupted RSV seasonality can provide guidance for health care planning and application of RSV prevention scheme, such as extending the palivizumab immunoglobulin series. Keywords: bronchiolitis, desert, syncytial, virus, Qatar

Purpose: The goal of the study is to provide guidelines for a simplified South African Value-Added Tax (VAT) Act. Motivation: The current VAT Act lacks logical structure and is therefore complex to teach, apply in practice and administer. The study on which this article reports investigated the structure of the VAT Act as an element of legal complexity. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research was conducted in two phases: a literature review, followed by semi-structured interviews. Main findings: Existing empirical studies confirm that the poor structure, layout and organisation of the VAT Act contribute to its complexity. In addition, research confirms that improvements to structure, layout and organisation enhance the readability of statutes. Interviewees agreed that the current incoherent structure of the VAT Act contributes to its complexity. The findings confirm that the complexity of the VAT Act raises compliance and administrative costs. Practical implications/Managerial impact: The literature review and interview findings contribute to the development of guidelines for a simplified South African VAT Act, which is the contribution of this study. The principles include adhering to a VAT vendor's lifecycle, grouping sections together, introducing headings and subheadings, using clear signposting, employing international benchmarks and seeking a solution that addresses local challenges most effectively. Novelty/Contribution: One recommendation that stands out is to completely rewrite the VAT Act. As a first step in this rewrite project, it is recommended that an index be developed using the guidelines. This is an initial step towards simplification of the South African VAT Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African Value-Added Tax (VAT) Act lacks a logical structure for fixed property transactions, making it difficult to teach, apply and administer. This study examines the organisational structure of the VAT Act as an element of legal complexity. The study establishes guidelines to simplify VAT implications for fixed property transactions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted following a literature review. Research shows that improving statute structure, layout and organisation improves readability. This study confirms that the fixed property provisions of the VAT Act complicate the law, increasing compliance and administrative costs. The literature review and interview findings support the development of the guidelines to simplify complex transactions in the VAT Act. The principles in the guidelines include section grouping, headings and subheadings and clear signposting, and in this article these are applied to practically illustrate the VAT implications for fixed property transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gum Arabic is the most important non-wood forest product of Sudan, and therefore use of a sustainable harvesting tool can significantly improve its gum quality. We conducted a study in North and West Kordofan of Sudan to assess the performance, use, and efficiency of the newly designed harvesting tool, and to understand the level of its adoption by the gum Arabic producers. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire, and by group discussion involving 44 trained gum producers by a purposive selection method. Besides, we conducted another field experiment to understand the pattern of gum falling (in and out) of the new harvesting tool during collection. Descriptive statistics were applied using SPSS and Microsoft Excel. The findings of the study showed that 72.7% of respondents were happy while using the new harvesting tool, and 95.5% stated that the tool was well performed. Further, 59.1% of respondents stated that the new harvesting tool is much better than old tools and as many as 61.4% of respondents indicated that the new tool can harvest all gums in a tree. Additionally, 63.6% of the respondents mentioned it was more efficient than the traditional tools. Likewise, 88.6% of respondents stated that the new harvesting tool improved safety. Further, the results indicated a significant correlation (p ≤ 0.01) between nodules fall in harvesting tool and picking time, as well as between picking time and number of branches. The overall results indicated that the new harvesting tool is innovative in terms of ensuring safety, and reducing collection time while improving gum quality. The research recommends the replacement of the traditional tools with this new harvesting tool for sustainable gum Arabic harvesting in Sudan.

Non-wood forest products (NWFPs) constitute a vital sources of household income for millions of people worldwide. This review paper focuses on NWFPs in Sudan aiming to elucidate their contribution across different region. It also examines key tree species that underpin rural and urban income, along with their applications. The study involves an analysis of published papers on NWFPs from 1994 to 2023. Findings indicate that NWFPs contribute over 50% to Sudanese household income, with variation tied to local species diversity. Intriguingly, NWFPs exhibit a higher significance for impoverished livelihoods. Notably, marketable fruits like Ziziphus spina-christi, Balanites aegyptiaca, Adansonia digitata, Tamarindus indica, and Grewia tenax feature prominently in rural income generation. Nonetheless, several species, pivotal to household income, are alarmingly classified as endangered by IUCN. While more than ten tree species cater to local subsistence, only a fraction enter international trade. To enhance household income, it is recommended that sustainable harvesting and value addition practices be taught to rural communities.

Background Unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIA) are increasingly being treated by endovascular coiling as opposed to open surgical clipping. Unfortunately, endovascular coiling imparts an approximate 25% recanalization rate, leading to additional procedures and increased rupture risk. While a new health technology innovation (HTI) that reduces this recanalization rate would benefit patients, few advancements have been made. We aim to determine whether cost-effectiveness has been a barrier to HTI. Methods A probabilistic Markov model was constructed from the healthcare payer perspective to compare standard endovascular treatment of UIA to standard treatment plus the addition of a HTI adjunct. Costs were measured in 2018 USD and health outcomes were measured in quality-adjusted life-years (QALY). In the base case, the HTI was a theoretical mesenchymal stem cell therapy which reduced the aneurysm recanalization rate by 50% and cost $10,000 per procedure. All other model inputs were derived from the published scientific literature. Results Based on the model results, we found that for a given HTI price (y) and relative risk reduction of aneurysm recanalization (x), the HTI was always cost-effective if the following equation was satisfied: y ≤ 20268 ∙ x, using a willingness-to-pay threshold of $50,000 per QALY. The uncertainty surrounding whether an aneurysm would recanalize was a significant driver within the model. When the uncertainty around the risk of aneurysm recanalization was eliminated, the 10-year projected additional benefit to the United States healthcare system was calculated to be $113,336,994. Conclusion Cost-effectiveness does not appear to be a barrier to innovation in reducing the recanalization rate of UIA treated by endovascular coil embolization. Our model can now be utilized by academia and industry to accentuate economically feasible HTI and by healthcare payers to calculate their maximum willingness-to-pay for a new technology. Our results also indicate that predicting a patient’s baseline risk of aneurysm recanalization is a critical area of future research.

This article addresses the input tracking control problem of a highly nonlinear flexible system namely a twin-rotor multi-input multi-output system in the vertical plane motion. The twin-rotor multi-input multi-output system can be considered as an aerodynamic experimental model, representing the control challenges of complex air vehicles. A hybrid control scheme comprising a fuzzy proportional–derivative-like control and a conventional integrator is developed by adding the outputs of both control actions. To satisfy the tracking characteristics of the manoeuvring system, an efficient combination of the control actions is developed using a smooth nonlinear activation function which continuously regulates contribution of the integral term in the controller output. The effect of the activation function greatly reduces overshoots when the system is exposed to abrupt changes during its manoeuvre. The control system performance is tested in simulations and experimentally in real-time situations. Robustness and stability of the controller are also investigated. The obtained results prove the efficiency of the proposed scheme in terms of time-domain performance specifications of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water security has been recently defined as the capacity of a population on ensuring that they continue to have access to safe and properly sanitised potable water. Today, water security issues encompass increasing concerns arising from population growth, drought, climate change, oscillations between "El Nino" and "La Nina" effects, urbanisation, increasing salinity (e.g. the Arabian Gulf region), upstream pollution (for rivers), over-allocation of water licences by government agencies and over-utilisation of groundwater from artesian basins. All these distresses combined have resulted in a rapid decline in water security for many parts of the world, triggering off impacts of suffering to regions, states and countries, while tensions tend to exist between "upstream" and "downstream" users of water within individual jurisdictions (as throughout history, there has been much conflict over the use of water from rivers (such as the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers)). In modern days, in many parts of the world, water security is mostly sought by implementing water desalination, pipelines between sources and users, water licences with different security levels and (sadly to say) war; while water allocation between competing users is increasingly determined by application of market-based pricing for either water licences or actual water. As water desalination is a crucial topic on the water security agenda worldwide, this paper shall examine interrelated issues concerning water management and water privatisation (global and in the Kingdom of Bahrain, with some focus on the preparedness of Kingdom of Bahrain for emergency situations), and shall briefly underline the countries and regions of the world that are suffering most from water stress (like North Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, China, Chile, South Africa and Australia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many risk factors have been proposed in the development of the cerebral aneurysms. Hemodynamics including blood velocity, volume flow rate (VFR), and intravascular pressure are thought to be prognostic indicators of aneurysm development. We hypothesize that treatment of cerebral aneurysm using a flow-diverting stent will bring these hemodynamic parameters closer to those observed on the contralateral side. In the current study, a patient with a giant cerebral aneurysm was studied pre- and postoperatively using phase contrast MRI (PC-MRI) to measure the hemodynamic changes resulting from the deployment of a flow-diverting stent. PC-MRI was used to calculate intravascular pressure, which was compared to more invasive endovascular catheter-derived measurements. After stent placement, the measured VFRs in vessels of the treated hemisphere approached those measured on the contralateral side, and flow symmetry changed from a laterality index of -0.153 to 0.116 in the middle cerebral artery. Pressure estimates derived from the PC-MRI velocity data had an average difference of 6.1% as compared to invasive catheter transducer measurements. PC-MRI can measure the hemodynamic parameters with the same accuracy as invasive methods pre- and postoperatively.

Introduction: Lower urinary tract dysfunction (LUTD) in cerebral palsy (CP) and other neuromuscular diseases can present with chronic retention that leads to hydronephrosis, recurrent urinary tract infections (UTI), and stone formation. Whenever the conservative treatment of LUTD fails for any reason, it is considered to be complicated LUTD, in which a surgical approach is warranted. Cutaneous vesicostomy (CV) is a simple, well-tolerated, and potentially reversible procedure that protects the upper tracts. We describe our experience using CV for this complex population., Materials and Methods: Children with CP and other neuromuscular diseases admitted to pediatric long-term care units for palliative care between 2015 and 2019 were included in the study. They present multi-system involvement, polypharmacy, and Gross Motor Function Classification System levels of 4 or 5. We retrospectively studied this population's indications and results of CV., Results: Of the 52 admitted patients, 18 presented LUTD with UTI ( n :18; 100%), stones ( n :5; 28%), progressive hydroureteronephrosis ( n :3; 17%), or stones ( n :2; 11%). Conservative initial management (catheterizations, prophylaxis antibiotics) was effective in half the cases. The remaining nine were defined as complicated LUTD and underwent CV. After a mean follow-up of 11.3 months, the follow-up showed improved hydronephrosis in all nine (100%) patients. Recurrent UTIs were no longer seen in eight of nine patients, although three patients required bladder irrigations; bladder stones did not recur after CV; the kidney stones needed further intervention. Revision of the CV was required in two (11%) cases at 12 and 24 months postoperatively due to stoma stenosis., Conclusion: CV is a relatively simple and effective procedure representing a pragmatic solution for managing complicated LUTD in complex long-term institutionalized pediatric palliative care patients with neuropathic bladders., 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 Vallasciani, Al Saeedi, Khalil, Mohamed, Muneer, Abdelmaguid and Pippi Salle.)

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of urinary tract infection in infants and children with bronchiolitis., Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study involving patients zero to 24 months of age who were hospitalized with acute bronchiolitis was conducted., Results: A total of 835 paediatric patients with acute bronchiolitis were admitted to the paediatric ward between January 2010 and December 2012. The mean (± SD) age at diagnosis was 3.47±2.99 months. There were 325 (39%) girls and 510 (61%) boys. For the purpose of data analysis, the patient population was divided into three groups: group 1 included children hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis; group 2 included children hospitalized with clinical bronchiolitis with no virus detected; and group 3 included children hospitalized with clinical bronchiolitis due to a respiratory virus other than RSV. Results revealed that urinary tract infection was present in 10% of patients, and was most common in group 3 (13.4%) followed by group 2 (9.7%), and was least common in group 1 (6%) (P=0.030)., Conclusions: The possibility of a urinary tract infection should be considered in a febrile child with a diagnosis of bronchiolitis, particularly if the trigger is a respiratory virus other than RSV.

Objective: To determine the risk of acquiring acute respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis in infants and children delivered by the mode of cesarean section (C-section)., Methods: A retrospective and descriptive study was conducted at Hamad Medical Corporation. Patients with ages 0 to 36 months hospitalized with acute bronchiolitis were included in the study., Results: The risk of RSV bronchiolitis was observed to be higher among C-section delivery compared to normal spontaneous vaginal delivery [odds ratio=1.10; 95% confidence interval (0.57, 1.80); P=0.965]; however, it was not statistically significant. Gestational age ≤35 weeks was significantly associated with increased risk of RSV bronchiolitis compared to gestational age >35 weeks [odds ratio=3.12; 95% confidence interval (1.53, 6.38); P=0.002]., Conclusions: Delivery by C-section does not appear to increase the risk of RSV bronchiolitis in infants compared with normal spontaneous vaginal delivery., (Copyright © 2014 Hainan Medical College. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)