Frequency and mutational spectrum of PIK3CA gene mutations in breast cancer patients: Largest and first report from Lebanon.

The PIK3CA pathway is one of the most frequently altered pathways in human cancers, especially in breast cancer with approximately 40% of HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer cases exhibiting mutations in the PIK3CA gene. While the mutations can occur across the entire gene, the most common are observed in exon 9 corresponding to the helical domain, and in exon 20 encompassing the kinase domain. This study constitutes the first attempt at determining the frequency and mutational spectrum in Lebanese breast cancer patients.

Extension of the Trotterized Unitary Coupled Cluster to Triple Excitations.

The Trotterized Unitary Coupled Cluster Single and Double (UCCSD) ansatz has recently attracted interest due to its use in Variation Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) molecular simulations on quantum computers. However, when the size of molecules increases, UCCSD becomes less interesting as it cannot achieve sufficient accuracy. Including higher-order excitations is therefore mandatory to recover the UCC's missing correlation effects.

Minocycline Hydrochloride Controlled-release Microsphere Preparation Process Optimization Based on the Robust Design Method.

Objectives: The objective of the present study is to establish a robust preparation method that could steadily produce minocycline hydrochloride (MCH) microspheres regardless of used polymer types.

Materials And Methods: Taguchi's Robust Experimental Design methodology was employed to optimize the process parameters for MCH-loaded poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) microspheres. In the experimental design, seven controllable factors, i.

Difficulties in achieving a sustainable blood supply: report from the first national seminar on blood donation in Lebanon.

Background: Lebanon has a decentralized/fragmented transfusion system. The current blood supply does not meet the World Health Organization target of achieving 100% voluntary non-remunerated blood donation (VNRD). There are currently 3 types of donors/donations in Lebanon: replacement/family donations (70-75%), VNRD (20-25%), and compensated donations (5-10%).

Composite nanofibers incorporating alpha lipoic acid and atorvastatin provide neuroprotection after peripheral nerve injury in rats.

Despite the new treatment strategies within the last 30 years, peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is still a worldwide clinical problem. The incidence rate of PNIs is 1 in 1000 individuals per year. In this study, we designed a composite nanoplatform for dual therapy in peripheral nerve injury and investigated the in-vivo efficacy in rat sciatic nerve crush injury model.

Management of patients with high-risk and advanced prostate cancer in the Middle East: resource-stratified consensus recommendations.

Purpose: Prostate cancer care in the Middle East is highly variable and access to specialist multidisciplinary management is limited. Academic tertiary referral centers offer cutting-edge diagnosis and treatment; however, in many parts of the region, patients are managed by non-specialists with limited resources. Due to many factors including lack of awareness and lack of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, a high percentage of men present with locally advanced and metastatic prostate cancer at diagnosis.

A single layer spin-orbit torque nano-oscillator.

Spin torque and spin Hall effect nano-oscillators generate high intensity spin wave auto-oscillations on the nanoscale enabling novel microwave applications in spintronics, magnonics, and neuromorphic computing. For their operation, these devices require externally generated spin currents either from an additional ferromagnetic layer or a material with a high spin Hall angle. Here we demonstrate highly coherent field and current tunable microwave signals from nano-constrictions in single 15-20 nm thick permalloy layers with oxide interfaces.

Simultaneous wavelength and orbital angular momentum demultiplexing using tunable MEMS-based Fabry-Perot filter.

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate simultaneous wavelength and orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexing/demultiplexing of 10 Gbit/s data streams using a new on-chip micro-component-tunable MEMS-based Fabry-Perot filter integrated with a spiral phase plate. In the experiment, two wavelengths, each of them carrying two channels with zero and nonzero OAMs, form four independent information channels. In case of spacing between wavelength channels of 0.

Nanofibers: New Insights for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering.

Nanofibers became one of the major research areas for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications in the last decade. Depending on the simplicity of the preparation method and high drug loading capacity, nanofibers provide many advantages for therapeutic perspectives. In addition, combined systems such as embedding nanoparticles into the nanofiber structures provide a second option for delivery of dual active ingredients in the same formulation.

Far-field, linewidth and thermal characteristics of a high-speed 1550-nm MEMS tunable VCSEL.

We report an electrically pumped 1550 nm MEMS tunable VCSEL with a continuous tuning of 101 nm at 22 °C. The top MEMS-DBR with built-in stress gradient within the dielectric layers is deposited in a low-temperature PECVD chamber on an InP-based half-VCSEL, structured by surface-micromachining and electrothermally actuated for continuous wavelength tuning. With 2.

Widely tunable telecom MEMS-VCSEL for terahertz photomixing.

We report frequency-tunable terahertz (THz) generation with a photomixer driven by an ultra-broadband tunable micro-electro-mechanical system vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (MEMS-VCSEL) and a fixed-wavelength VCSEL, as well as a tunable MEMS-VCSEL mixed with a distributed feedback (DFB) diode. A total frequency span of 3.4 THz is covered in direct detection mode and 3.

A nationwide non-interventional epidemiological data registry on myelodysplastic syndromes in Lebanon.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of clonal hematopoietic disorders characterized by peripheral blood cytopenias, blood cells dysplasia, and increased risk for progression to acute leukemia.Physicians should be vigilant in diagnosing MDS and should be aware of the contemporary therapies that are always in progress. Most of the data on MDS epidemiology and management comes from developed countries.

Frequent deletions at 12q14.3 chromosomal locus in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Cytogenetic abnormalities at the 12q12-q14 chromosomal locus are rarely detected in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). To examine submicroscopic deletions at this locus, we analyzed 78 adult precursor B- and T-cell ALL cases [27 with Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-negative B-cell ALL, 20 with Ph-negative B-cell ALL with expression of one or two myeloid markers, 18 with Ph-positive B-cell ALL, and 13 with T-cell ALL] using a panel of 13 microsatellite (MST) markers that span the 12q12-q14.3 region.