Publications by authors named "Turki A"

Background/objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the urgent need for rapid, efficient testing methods at large-scale events to control virus spread. This study leverages queueing theory to explore how different floor plan configurations affect the efficiency of Rapid Antigen Diagnostic Test (RADT) centers at mass gatherings, aiming to enhance throughput and minimize wait times.

Methods: Employing the model (Markovian Arrival Process/phase-type service distribution with c servers), this study compared the operational efficiency of RADT centers using U-shaped and straight-line floor plans.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The treatment landscape for lymphoma and multiple myeloma, which disproportionally affect older adults, has been transformed by the advent of T cell-mediated immunotherapies, including immune checkpoint inhibition, T cell-engaging bispecific antibodies, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, during the last decade. These treatment modalities re-enable the patient's own immune system to combat malignant cells and offer the potential for sustained remissions and cure for various diseases.Age profoundly affects the physiological function of the immune system.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Acquired resistance to cisplatin, a common treatment for ovarian cancer, presents significant challenges in therapy effectiveness, leading researchers to identify a new phenomenon in cancer cell behavior.
  • This study introduces the concept of epithelial-mesenchymal-ectodermal transition (EMET), which describes how ovarian cancer cells undergo a transformation that includes characteristics of neuronal differentiation and stemness, indicating a shift in their cellular identity.
  • The researchers also found that a small population of these cancer cells, which exhibit both neuronal-like features and multidrug resistance, likely originate from neural cells, suggesting that ovarian cancer may arise from a neuroepithelial lineage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Since 2017, combining targeted therapies with traditional chemotherapy has led to better outcomes for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients.
  • A study of 5,359 AML patients over 20 years used data from the HARMONY Alliance to analyze treatment outcomes during four 5-year periods from 1997 to 2016.
  • Results show significant improvements in 5-year survival rates and reduced 60-day mortality (from 13.0% to 4.7%), even across different genetic risk groups, indicating that the advancements in treatment have positively affected patient outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Tamarix tetragyna, a plant found in the Mediterranean and some Arab regions, has several medicinal properties, which this study aims to investigate through its leaf and stem extracts.
  • - The study analyzed the phytochemical composition using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and tested the extracts' cytotoxicity against cancer cell lines (MCF-7, HepG-2, HCT-116, and A-549) using the MTT assay and apoptosis methods.
  • - Results showed that the plant extracts exhibited significant cytotoxic activity, especially against A-549 cells, with specific bioactive compounds identified that could lead to further research for potential anticancer therapies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Phenylketonuria (PKU) is caused by phenylalanine hydroxylase deficiency. Treatment is primarily a low-Phe diet combined with l-amino acid-based products (l-AA). Protein requirements in adults with PKU have not been directly determined.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: With the advent of reperfusion therapies, management of patients presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has witnessed significant changes during the last decades.

Aim: We sought to analyze temporal trends in reperfusion modalities and their prognostic impact over a 20-year period in patients presenting with STEMI the Monastir region (Tunisia).

Methods: Patients from Monastir region presenting for STEMI were included in a 20-year (1998-2017) single center registry.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Balanced rearrangements involving the KMT2A gene (KMT2Ar) are recurrent genetic abnormalities in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but there is lack of consensus regarding the prognostic impact of different fusion partners. Moreover, prognostic implications of gene mutations co-occurring with KMT2Ar are not established. From the HARMONY AML database 205 KMT2Ar adult patients were selected, 185 of whom had mutational information by a panel-based next-generation sequencing analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Batch and transport experiments were used to investigate the remediation of loamy sand soil contaminated with Cr(VI) using zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nZVI) stabilized by carboxymethylcellulose (CMC-nZVI). The effect of pH, ionic strength (IS), and flow rate on the removal efficiency of Cr(VI) were investigated under equilibrium (uniform transport) and non-equilibrium (two-site sorption) transport using the Hydrus-1D model. The overall removal efficiency ranged from 70 to over 90% based on the chemical characteristics of the CMC-nZVI suspension and the transport conditions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Artificial Intelligence (AI) allows computers to self-develop decision-making algorithms through huge data analysis. In medical investigations, using computers to automatically diagnose diseases is a promising area of research that could change healthcare strategies worldwide. However, it can be challenging to reproduce or/and compare various approaches due to the often-limited datasets comprising medical images.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Individuals with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (msTBI) face barriers to exercise, including lack of motivation, time, and fatigue.
  • The study evaluated a 12-week exercise program for adults aged 45-80 with msTBI, comparing aerobic exercise training (AET) to stretching and toning (SAT) in terms of health-related symptoms and quality of life.
  • Results showed that AET significantly improved cognitive health and sleep quality, along with positive effects on overall quality of life and depressive symptoms compared to the SAT group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Infantile hemangioma is a common benign vascular tumor in children, but it is very unusual to be found intracranially. Our literature review identified 44 reported cases. Presentation can vary from asymptomatic to a life-threatening presentation that necessitates urgent surgical removal.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Onco-hematological studies use statistical mixture models, like Hierarchical Dirichlet Mixture Models (HDMM), to improve the classification of blood cancers through a focus on molecular biology and personalized medicine.
  • The research proposes two methods to characterize HDMM components—computing multinomial parameters or using Multivariate Fisher's Non-Central Hypergeometric (MFNCH) distributions—and demonstrates the effectiveness of the MFNCH approach in patient assignment to these components.
  • Results from both simulated and real Acute Myeloid Leukemia data show that the MFNCH-based method can outperform or match the traditional multinomial-based method while maintaining a balance between complexity and clinical relevance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD) is a major cause of death for patients following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Effective management of moderate to severe aGvHD remains challenging despite recent advances in HSCT, emphasizing the importance of prophylaxis and risk factor identification.

Methods: In this study, we analyzed data from 1479 adults who underwent HSCT between 2005 and 2017 to investigate the effects of aGvHD prophylaxis and time-dependent risk factors on the development of grades II-IV aGvHD within 100 days post-HSCT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The consumption of soft and energy drinks poses a significant risk for non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. Studies in Saudi Arabia have reported elevated consumption of soft/energy drinks, but nation-wide data is not available. Therefore, this study aims to explore the prevalence of soft and energy drinks consumption and its associated factors among a representative sample of Saudi adults.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Hormonal contraceptives are a widely used contraceptive method for the prevention of pregnancy in women. It is associated with change in lipid profile which results in congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease, angina, deep vein thrombosis and stroke which are the major cause of premature death. We aim to investigate the effects of hormonal contraceptive use on lipid profile among women attending family planning unit in Goba Town Public Health Facilities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Despite advances in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) remains its leading complication, yet with heterogeneous outcomes. Here, we analyzed aGVHD phenotypes and clinical classifications in depth in large, multicenter cohorts involving 3019 patients and addressed prevailing gaps by developing data-driven models. We compared, tested and verified these along with all conventional classifications in independent cohorts and found that data-driven grading outperformed conventional grading in Akaike information criterion and concordance index metrics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study systematically examines pediatric adnexal torsion, proposing a diagnostic approach using machine learning techniques to distinguish it from acute appendicitis. Our retrospective analysis involved 41 female pediatric patients divided into two groups: 21 with adnexal torsion (group 1) and 20 with acute appendicitis (group 2). In group 1, the average age was 10 ± 2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Platelet demand management (PDM) is a resource-consuming task for physicians and transfusion managers of large hospitals. Inpatient numbers and institutional standards play significant roles in PDM. However, reliance on these factors alone commonly results in platelet shortages.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The present crisis at hand revolves around the need to enhance plant resilience to various environmental stresses, including abiotic and biotic stresses, to ensure sustainable agriculture and mitigate the impact of climate change on crop production. One such promising approach is the utilization of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) to mediate plant resilience to these stresses. Plants are constantly exposed to various stress factors, such as drought, salinity, pathogens, and nutrient deficiencies, which can significantly reduce crop yield and quality.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Diabetic nephropathy is a highly destructive microvascular complication of diabetes. Genetic predisposition is involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy, with multiple allelic polymorphisms associated with the development and progression of the disease, thereby increasing the overall risk. To date, no study is available that shows the association of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) gene polymorphisms with diabetic nephropathy risk.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nowadays, despite all the conducted research and the provided efforts in advancing the healthcare sector, there is a strong need to rapidly and efficiently diagnose various diseases. The complexity of some disease mechanisms on one side and the dramatic life-saving potential on the other side raise big challenges for the development of tools for the early detection and diagnosis of diseases. Deep learning (DL), an area of artificial intelligence (AI), can be an informative medical tomography method that can aid in the early diagnosis of gallbladder (GB) disease based on ultrasound images (UI).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in the rhizosphere affect plant growth, health, and productivity, as well as soil-nutrient contents. They are considered a green and eco-friendly technology that will reduce chemical-fertilizer usage, thereby reducing production costs and protecting the environment. Out of 58 bacterial strains isolated in Qassim, Saudi Arabia, four strains were identified by the 16S rRNA as the strain P6-4, strain P12, strain P22-2, and strain P24.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF