This study investigates whether 17β-estradiol (E2), a natural estrogen and one of the endocrine-disrupting chemicals responsible for water pollution, can be oxidatively decomposed under simulated solar light using a composite of tin oxide nanoparticles and graphene-like carbon nitride (g-CN) as a photocatalyst. The composite photocatalyst was prepared by heating a mixture of urea and tin acetate. FT-IR measurements revealed that g-CN possesses structural units similar to g-CN, a well-studied graphite-like carbon nitride.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSingle-gene mutations are important causes of congenital heart defects in children. Mutations in the gene have been recently described in the literature as a cause of septal defects and cardiomyopathy. However, the spectrum of cardiac disease associated with gene mutations is variable, ranging from asymptomatic septal defects to cardiomyopathy and sudden death.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMoyamoya disease (MMD) is a chronic cerebro-vasculopathy that is extremely rare in the pediatric population. The main characteristic feature is the progressive stenosis in the internal carotid artery with or without the involvement of its main branches in the circle of Willis leading to ischemic stroke. Patients have clinical manifestations related to cerebral ischemia in the carotid branch territories, such as sensory impairment, hemiparesis, and aphasia/dysarthria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: High-income countries offer social assistance (welfare) programs to help alleviate poverty for people with little or no income. These programs have become increasingly conditional and stringent in recent decades based on the premise that transitioning people from government support to paid work will improve their circumstances. However, many people end up with low-paying and precarious jobs that may cause more poverty because they lose benefits such as housing subsidies and health and dental insurance, while incurring job-related expenses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParticipant movement is a major source of artifacts in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) experiments. Mitigating the impact of motion artifacts (MAs) is crucial to estimate brain activity robustly. Here, we suggest and evaluate a novel application of the nonlinear Hammerstein-Wiener model to estimate and mitigate MAs in fNIRS signals from direct-movement recordings through IMU sensors mounted on the participant's head (head-IMU) and the fNIRS probe (probe-IMU).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProstate cancer brain metastases are rare but increasingly recognized with prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET/CT. Distinguishing tumor response from postradiation changes are challenging on MRI. PSMA PET/CT may clarify equivocal brain lesions after radiotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground and objective Kawasaki disease is a childhood vasculitis, the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children worldwide. Data is lacking in the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East region. We aimed to review the clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, the response to intravenous immunoglobulin, and the short-term and long-term echocardiographic findings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) syndrome has a near-100% lifetime risk of colorectal cancer. Early surveillance and prophylactic surgery have been advocated to reduce this risk. However, the surveillance practices among FAP individuals in Saudi Arabia are unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is a steady increase in colorectal cancer (CRC) incidences worldwide; at diagnosis, about 20 percent of cases show metastases. The transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) signaling pathway is one of the critical pathways that influence the expression of cadherins allowing the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is involved in the progression of the normal colorectal epithelium to adenoma and metastatic carcinoma. The current study aimed to investigate the impact of a novel coordination complex of platinum (salicylaldiminato) PT(II) complex with dimethyl propylene linkage (PT-complex) on TGF-β and EMT markers involved in the invasion and migration of the human HT-29 and SW620 CRC cell lines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A considerable number of patients with colon cancer present with a colonic obstruction. The use of self-expanding metallic stents (SEMS) as a bridge to surgery (BTS) in potential curative patients with left-sided colonic cancer obstruction remains debatable. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the 5-year oncological outcomes of using a SEMS as a BTS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedical students' career choices determine the prospects of the future medical workforce, thus influencing the delivery of medical care. This study aims to identify and provide information about factors affecting the selection of future specialties among medical students. A cross-sectional study was conducted on students in both preclerkship and clerkship phases at a single institution in the United Arab Emirates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Frailty, social isolation, loneliness, and poverty may render older adults vulnerable to social or health stressors. It is imperative to identify effective interventions to address them especially in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.
Objective: To identify effective community-based interventions to address frailty, social isolation, loneliness, and poverty among community-dwelling older adults.
Background: In this study, we aimed to identify the oncological outcomes in colon cancer patients who underwent elective versus emergency curative resection.
Methods: All patients who underwent curative resection for colon cancer between July 2015 and December 2019 were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. Patients were divided into two groups based on the presentation into elective and emergency groups.
This article is mainly focused on the viscous flow of cu-water/Methanol suspended nanofluids towards a three-dimensional stretching sheet reformed by magnetohydrodynamic phenomenon. The viscous effect is considered as temperature dependent with water treated as a base fluid. Similarity conversions are employed to set forth the non-linear equations of this physical problem.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZinc oxide nanoparticles (NPs) are synthesized by the sol-gel method for optoelectronics, photonic, and medical applications. The as-synthesized NPs are irradiated with lasers with wavelengths of 1064 nm and 532 nm in an attempt to improve the particles' structural and functional properties. The NPs are characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy techniques, atomic force microscopy, and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus disease (SPND) is an acquired chronic disease with no precise etiopathogenesis. The morbidity associated with the disease necessitates the implementation of new techniques, such as sinus laser therapy (SiLaT), to improve disease management. However, surgical techniques as of now are preferred as the mainstay mode of treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCheckpoint programmed death-1 (PD-1) has been identified as an immunosuppressive molecule implicated in the immune evasion of transformed cells. It is highly expressed in tumor cells in order to evade host immunosurveillance. In this study, we aimed to assess the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of and the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) in the Saudi population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe incidence of connective tissue diseases such as systemic lupus erythematous (SLE), in adult patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), appears to be increasing. The exact causes underlying this increased risk are still unknown, but a link with B regulatory (Breg) cells is possible as these cells suppress inflammatory responses, and maintain tolerance. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of circulating Breg cells were performed in a cohort of SCD patients with SLE, and their levels were correlated with key soluble mediators promoting autoreactive B cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrob Agents Chemother
October 2022
Multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) is defined by the resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative organism, to the first-line antibiotics rifampicin and isoniazid. Mitigating or reversing resistance to these drugs offers a means of preserving and extending their use in TB treatment. R-loops are RNA/DNA hybrids that are formed in the genome during transcription, and they can be lethal to the cell if not resolved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigated the synthesis mechanism of Prussian blue (PB) crystals supported on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), by performing quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements to probe the change in the electrode mass during the reaction, and using photoirradiation at designated stages of the process. We found that in contrast to existing hypotheses, light irradiation played no role in the synthesis process of Prussian blue on SWCNTs. On the other hand, the number of electrons transferred per one mole of the obtained product, and the number of electrons transferrable from SWCNTs, calculated from the density of states (DOS) of the SWCNTs in the sample, both favor the hypothesis of the reaction being triggered by direct electron transfer from SWCNTs to Fe, which occurs because of the energy difference between the Fermi level of SWCNTs and redox potential of Fe ions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHemangiopericytomas account for less than 1% of all intracranial tumors. In 2016, World Health Organization (WHO) unified the two terms into a single medical condition known as solitary fibrous tumor/hemangiopericytoma (SFT/HPC). Our patient is an 80-year-old woman with a past medical history of sick sinus syndrome status post pacemaker placement.
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