A simple, sensitive, low-cost, quick and reliable square-wave anodic stripping voltammetric method is described for the determination of the antidiabetic drug Linagliptin (LNG) in pure form, tablets, ...and spiked human urine and plasma samples. Using a pencil graphite electrode (PGE), cyclic voltammetry (CV) was applied to study the electrochemical behavior of LNG. In a Teorell–Stenhagen buffer (pH 5.5) containing 0.1 M NaClO4 as a supporting electrolyte, the LNG yields an irreversible well-defined oxidation peak at about 1.2 V vs. Ag/AgCl electrode. The various affecting factors, such as the pH, buffer type, supporting electrolyte, accumulation potential, scan rate and accumulation time, were tested and optimized. Also, square-wave adsorptive anodic stripping voltammetric (SWAdASV) studies show that the peak current various linearly over the LNG concentration range of 0.24 – 5.20 μg mL−1 (R2 = 0.9994). The detection and quantification limits were calculated to be 0.10 and 0.33 μg mL−1, respectively. The proposed procedure exhibits a good precision, selectivity, and stability and was applied successfully to determine the LNG in pharmaceutical formulations (tablets) and biological fluids (spiked human urine and plasma samples).
Obesity and chronic diet‐related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and celiac are increasing worldwide. The increasing prevalence of these diseases has ...led nutritionists and food scientists to pay more attention to the relationship between diet and different disease risks. Among different foods, rice has received increasing attention because it is a major component of billions of peoples’ diets throughout the world. Rice is commonly consumed after polishing or whitening and the polished grain is known a high glycemic food because of its high starch content. In addition, the removal of the outer bran layer during rice milling results in a loss of nutrients, dietary fiber, and bioactive components. Therefore, many studies were performed to investigate the potential health benefits for the consumption of whole brown rice (BR) grain in comparison to the milled or white rice (WR). The objective of this work was to review the recent advances in research performed for purposes of evaluation of nutritional value and potential health benefits of the whole BR grain. Studies carried out for purposes of developing BR‐based food products are reviewed. BR safety and preservation treatments are also explored. In addition, economic and environmental benefits for the consumption of whole BR instead of the polished or WR are presented. Furthermore, challenges facing the commercialization of BR and future perspectives to promote its utilization as food are discussed.
Utilizing fossil fuel for powering desalination plants is associated with release of greenhouse gases emissions to the atmosphere. Alternately, renewable energy sources are clean and environmentally ...friendly. This paper develops a multi-objective model based on mixed-integer programming approach to size a grid-connected Photovoltaic-wind system. The model objectives consider the economical aspect by minimizing the total life cycle cost, and the non-economical aspects by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and the grid contribution share. The hybrid system covers the energy demand of a Reverse Osmosis desalination plant that is used to supply fresh water to a residential area in Saudi Arabia. The model generates a set of Pareto-optima solutions from which decision-makers can choose according to their preferences. Three plans are selected from the Pareto-optima solutions to show the exchangeability between the renewable energy system and the grid. For instance, with 100 photovoltaic modules and 94 wind turbines, the system can supply 18% of the plant's energy requirements while emitting the least amount of carbon dioxide (90,899 kgCO2-eq/yr). Furthermore, the energy cost is 0.0557 $/kWh, which is less than the cost of kWh purchased from the grid. The main findings and managerial insights are analyzed from economic and environmental perspectives.
•A hybrid solar-wind-grid system to power a reverse osmosis plant is proposed.•Multi-objective mixed-integer optimization model is formulated to size the system.•Pareto-optima solution is generated under different perspectives.•Using renewable energy in reverse osmosis is economical and environmentally viable.•Greenhouse gase emissions can be cut by 71% compared to current practice.
Outbreaks of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) raise questions about the prevalence and evolution of the MERS coronavirus (CoV) in its animal reservoir. Our surveillance in Saudi Arabia in 2014 ...and 2015 showed that viruses of the MERS-CoV species and a human CoV 229E–related lineage co-circulated at high prevalence, with frequent co-infections in the upper respiratory tract of dromedary camels. Including a betacoronavirus 1 species, we found that dromedary camels share three CoV species with humans. Several MERS-CoV lineages were present in camels, including a recombinant lineage that has been dominant since December 2014 and that subsequently led to the human outbreaks in 2015. Camels therefore serve as an important reservoir for the maintenance and diversification of the MERS-CoVs and are the source of human infections with this virus.
Magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgO-NPs) were synthesized using the fungal strain Aspergillus terreus S1 to overcome the disadvantages of chemical and physical methods. The factors affecting the ...biosynthesis process were optimized as follows: concentration of Mg(NO3)2·6H2O precursor (3 mM), contact time (36 min), pH (8), and incubation temperature (35 °C). The characterization of biosynthesized MgO-NPs was accomplished using UV-vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy—energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Data confirmed the successful formation of crystallographic, spherical, well-dispersed MgO-NPs with a size range of 8.0–38.0 nm at a maximum surface plasmon resonance of 280 nm. The biological activities of biosynthesized MgO-NPs including antimicrobial activity, biotreatment of tanning effluent, and chromium ion removal were investigated. The highest growth inhibition of pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans was achieved at 200 μg mL–1 of MgO-NPs. The biosynthesized MgO-NPs exhibited high efficacy to decolorize the tanning effluent (96.8 ± 1.7% after 150 min at 1.0 µg mL–1) and greatly decrease chemical parameters including total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and conductivity with percentages of 98.04, 98.3, 89.1, 97.2, and 97.7%, respectively. Further, the biosynthesized MgO-NPs showed a strong potential to remove chromium ions from the tanning effluent, from 835.3 mg L–1 to 21.0 mg L–1, with a removal percentage of 97.5%.
Symbiotic plant-fungi interaction is a promising approach to alleviate salt stress in plants. Moreover, endophytic fungi are well known to promote the growth of various crop plants. Herein, seven ...fungal endophytes were screened for salt tolerance; the results revealed that Aspergillus ochraceus showed a great potentiality in terms of salt tolerance, up to 200 g L−1. The indole acetic acid (IAA) production antioxidant capacity and antifungal activity of A. ochraceus were evaluated, in vitro, under two levels of seawater stress, 15 and 30% (v/v; seawater/distilled water). The results illustrated that A. ochraceus could produce about 146 and 176 µg mL−1 IAA in 15 and 30% seawater, respectively. The yield of IAA by A. ochraceus at 30% seawater was significantly higher at all tryptophan concentrations, as compared with that at 15% seawater. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of ethyl acetate extract of A. ochraceus (1000 µg mL−1) at 15 and 30% seawater was 95.83 ± 1.25 and 98.33 ± 0.57%, respectively. Crude extracts of A. ochraceus obtained at 15 and 30% seawater exhibited significant antifungal activity against F. oxysporum, compared to distilled water. The irrigation of barley plants with seawater (15 and 30%) caused notable declines in most morphological indices, pigments, sugars, proteins, and yield characteristics, while increasing the contents of proline, malondialdehyde, and hydrogen peroxide and the activities of antioxidant enzymes. On the other hand, the application of A. ochraceus mitigated the harmful effects of seawater on the growth and physiology of barley plants. Therefore, this study suggests that the endophytic fungus A. ochraceus MT089958 could be applied as a strategy for mitigating the stress imposed by seawater irrigation in barley plants and, therefore, improving crop growth and productivity.
This systematic review aimed to compare survivorship and plate-related results of Puddu and TomoFix plates in opening-wedge high tibial osteotomy (OWHTO).
PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and CENTRAL ...databases were searched from January 2000 until September 2021 for clinical studies involving patients with medial compartment knee disease and varus deformity undergoing OWHTO using the Puddu or TomoFix plating systems. We extracted survival data, plate-related complications, and functional and radiological outcomes. The risk of bias assessment had been carried out using Cochrane Collaboration’s quality assessment tool for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and Methodological Index for Non-Randomised Studies (MINORS).
Twenty-eight studies were included. The total number of knees was 2568 in 2372 patients. The Puddu plate was used in 677 knees, while the TomoFix plate was used in 1891. The follow-up ranged from 5.8 to 147.6 months. Both plating systems were able to delay conversion to arthroplasty at different follow-up intervals. However, osteotomies fixed by the TomoFix plate achieved higher survival rates, especially at mid-term and long-term follow-ups. In addition, fewer complications were reported with the TomoFix plating system. Although both implants achieved satisfactory functional outcomes, high scores could not be maintained throughout long-term intervals. Regarding radiological results, TomoFix plate was able to achieve and maintain larger degrees of varus deformity, while preserving the posterior tibial slope.
This systematic review demonstrated the superiority of the TomoFix over the Puddu system as a safer and more effective fixation device in OWHTO. Nevertheless, these results should be interpreted with caution due to the lack of comparative evidence through high-quality RCTs.
The city of Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) has experienced two catastrophic flash flood events in 2009 and 2011. These flood events had catastrophic effect on human lives and livelihoods around the wadi ...Muraikh, wadi Qus, wadi Methweb, and wadi Ghulail in which 113 people were dead and with 10,000 houses and 17,000 vehicles were damaged. Thus, a comprehensive flood management is required. The flood management requires information on different aspects such as the hydrological, geotechnical, environmental, social, and economic aspects of flooding. Flood susceptibility mapping for any area helps the decision makers to understand the flood trends and can aid in appropriate planning and flood prevention. In this study, two models were used for the generation of flood susceptibility maps for the Jeddah region. The first model includes bivariate probability analysis (frequency ratio), and the second model uses the multivariate analysis. For the multivariate model, the acquired weights of the FR model were entered into the logistic regression model to evaluate the correlation between flood occurrence and each related factor. This integration will overcome some of the weakness of the logistic regression, and the performance the LR will be enhanced. A flood inventory map was prepared with a total of 127 flood locations. These flood locations were extracted from different sources including field investigation and high-resolution satellite image (IKONOS 1 m). These flood locations were randomly split into two groups, one dataset representing 70 % was used for training the models, and the remaining 30 % was used for models validation. Various independent flood-related factors such as slope, elevation, curvature, geology, landuse, soil drain, and distance from streams were included. The impact of each independent flood-related factors on flooding was evaluated by analyzing each independent factor with the historical flood inventory data. The training and validation datasets were used to evaluate the flood susceptibility maps using the success and the prediction rate methods. The results of the accuracy assessment showed a success rate of 90.4 and 91.6 % and a prediction rate of 89.6 and 91.3 % for FR and ensemble FR and LR models, respectively. In addition, a comparison has been made between real flood events in 2009 and the resultant susceptibility maps. Hence, it is concluded that the FR and ensemble Fr and LR models can provide an acceptable accuracy in the prediction of flood susceptibility in the Saudi Arabia. Our findings indicated that these flood susceptibility maps can assist planners, decision makers, and other agencies to deal with the flood management and planning in the area.
5-Fluorouracil is a member of cytotoxic drugs with poor selectivity to cancer cells. Currently, systemic administration of this anti-cancer drug (oral or injection) exposes normal tissues to the ...drug-induced toxicity. Nowadays, attention has been greatly directed towards
in situ
gel-forming systems that can be injected into the affected tissues in its sol form with a minimally invasive technique. More specifically, chitosan hydrogel systems were in focus due to their antibacterial effect as well as their biodegradable, biocompatible, and mucoadhesive properties. In the present work, 5-fluorouracil was loaded on various thermosensitive chitosan hydrogel systems cross linked with different linking agents like β-glycerophosphate, pluronic F127, and hydroxyapatite. Also, methotrexate was added to 5-fluorouracil in order to gain its previously reported synergistic effects. Firstly, a compatibility study was performed using UV-spectrophotometric, infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques to exclude the possibility of any physical or chemical interactions between the selected drugs and excipients. The prepared hydrogel systems were characterized for their physicochemical properties including organoleptic, pH, syringeability and injectability, viscosity, and gelation temperature (
T
gel
) by various analysis techniques. Moreover
,
the
in vitro
release behavior of 5-fluorouracil and methotrexate was determined with a modified analytical method. The results indicated that chitosan hydrogel system cross-linked with a combination of β- glycerophosphate, and 10 % pluronicF127 (F4) showed the most suitable physicochemical properties and release profile. Accordingly, this formula can be considered as a missionary system for localized sustained delivery of cytotoxic drugs.
Smart edible coating films can be used in food packaging. For this application, they must have good physical and mechanical properties. Herein, chitosan-beeswax based film is used to preserve Le ...Conte pears postharvest. The chitosan-beeswax films were characterized using XRD, FT-IR, and SEM analysis. Moreover, all films showed good self-healing aptitudes ranging from 86.7 to 96.3. The film treated with pollen grains showed an enhanced water contact angle compared with the chitosan film. The chitosan-beeswax/pollen grain film exhibited a two-fold lower WVTR value compared to the chitosan film, and showed the tendency to increase the stiffness of the film. The elongation% at break was reduced from 35.81 to 14.09. Fruit quality parameters were determined in cold storage for 105 days during shelf life after a simulated marketing period of 7 days. All coated fruits successfully showed decrease in weight loss, decay and rate of softening. Therefore, chitosan-beeswax/pollen grains can be considered safe and effective coating for the fruit preservation.
Smart edible coating films can be used in food packaging.
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