Honey is used since ancient time as a food and to cure many diseases. The present study investigated the chemical constituents, antioxidant and enzyme inhibition activities of natural Saudi Sidr (SH) ...and Talh (TH) honeys. Beside entire honey samples, ethyl acetate, ethanol and water extracts were prepared. The total polyphenolic content of SH, TH and their extracts was in the range of 2.86–7.21 and 3.80–17.33 mg gallic acid equivalents/g, respectively and the total flavonoids content was in the range of 0.05–1.17 and 0.18–2.38 mg rutin equivalents/g, respectively. Out of the 53 standards analyzed by HPLC, 27 compounds were detected with highest number of compounds identified in the ethyl acetate extract of TH (45 %, 24/53) and SH (26 %, 14/53), respectively. Quinic acid was dominant compound identified in all honey samples with the highest content determined in TH ethanol extract (4454 μg/g). The majority of tested samples possessed considerable anti‐radicals and reducing ions capacity with the ethyl acetate extract from TH exerted significantly (p<0.05) the highest activity. All honey samples did not show chelating iron metal property. Honey samples revealed variable enzyme inhibition activity with TH (entire and/or ethyl acetate extract) showed significantly (p<0.05) the highest acetylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase, tyrosinase and α‐amylase inhibition activity. In conclusion, ethyl acetate is the best solvent for extraction of bioactive molecules from the two honey types. Moreover, the dark‐colored TH contained the highest number of molecules and consequently exerted the best antioxidant and enzyme inhibition activities in most assays.
Microvascular decompression (MVD) is the only curative treatment modality for hemifacial spasm (HFS). Although generally considered to be safe, this surgical procedure is surrounded by many risks and ...possible complications. The authors present the spectrum of complications that they met in their case series, the possible causes, and the strategies recommended to minimize them.
The authors reviewed a prospectively maintained database for MVDs performed from 2005 until 2021 and extracted relevant data including patient demographics, offending vessel(s), operative technique, outcome, and different complications. Descriptive statistics with uni- and multivariable analyses for the factors that may influence the seventh, eighth, and lower cranial nerves were performed.
Data from 420 patients were obtained. Three hundred seventeen of 344 patients (92.2%) with a minimum follow-up of 12 months had a favorable outcome. The mean follow-up (standard deviation) was 51.3 ± 38.7 months. Immediate complications reached 18.8% (79/420). Complications persisted in only 7.14% of patients (30/420) including persistent hearing deficits (5.95%) and residual facial palsy (0.95%). Temporary complications included CSF leakage (3.10%), lower cranial nerve deficits (3.57%), meningitis (0.71%), and brainstem ischemia (0.24%). One patient died because of herpes encephalitis. Statistical analyses showed that the immediate postoperative disappearance of spasms and male gender are correlated with postoperative facial palsy, whereas combined vessel compressions involving the vertebral artery (VA) and anterior inferior cerebellar artery can predict postoperative hearing deterioration. VA compressions could predict postoperative lower cranial nerve deficits.
MVD is safe and effective for treating HFS with a low rate of permanent morbidity. Proper patient positioning, sharp arachnoid dissection, and endoscopic visualization under facial and auditory neurophysiological monitoring are the key points to minimize the rate of complications in MVD for HFS.
Purpose
Despite being rarely reported, ischemic insults resulting from compromising small brainstem perforators following microvascular decompression (MVD) remain a potential devastating ...complication. To avoid this complication, we have been using indocyanine green (ICG) angiography intraoperatively to check the flow within the small brainstem perforators. We aim to evaluate the safety and usefulness of ICG videoangiography in MVD.
Methods
We extracted retrospective data of patients who received ICG videoangiography from our prospectively maintained database for microvascular decompression. We noted relevant data including demographics, offending vessels, operative technique, outcome, and complications.
Results
Out of the 438 patients, 15 patients with a mean age (SD) of 53 ± 10.5 years underwent intraoperative ICG angiography. Male:female was 1:1.14. The mean disease duration prior to surgery was 7.7 ± 5.3 years. The mean follow-up (SD) was 50.7 ± 42.0 months. In 14 patients, the offending vessel was an artery, and in one patient, a vein. Intraoperative readjustment of the Teflon pledget or sling was required in 20% (3/15) of the cases. No patient had any sort of brainstem ischemia. Eighty percent of the patients (12/15) experienced complete resolution of the spasms. 86.7% (13/15) of the patients reported a satisfactory outcome with marked improvement of the spasms. Three patients experienced slight hearing affection after surgery, which improved in two patients later. There was no facial or lower cranial nerve affection.
Conclusion
Intraoperative ICG is a safe tool for evaluating the flow within the brain stem perforators and avoiding brainstem ischemia in MVD for hemifacial spasm.
This study describes the synthesis of delafossite, CuFeO2, as a primary photocatalytic material for hydrogen generation. A photoelectrode, CuFeO2/CuO/Cu, was prepared by combusting a Cu foil dipped ...in FeCl3 in ambient air. This photoelectrode showed excellent optical behavior for the hydrogen generation reaction from sewage water, producing 90 µmol/h of H2. The chemical structure was confirmed through XRD and XPS analyses, and the crystalline rhombohedral shape of CuFeO2 was confirmed using SEM and TEM analyses. With a bandgap of 1.35 ev, the prepared material displayed excellent optical properties. Electrochemical measurements for H2 gas generation were carried out using the CuFeO2/CuO/Cu photoelectrode, comparing the effect of light and dark and monochromatic wavelength light. The electrode exhibited significant enhancement in light compared to dark, with current density (Jph) values of −0.83 and −0.1 mA·cm−2, respectively. The monochromatic light also had a noticeable effect, with the Jph value increasing from −0.45 to −0.79 mA·cm−2 as the wavelength increased from 640 to 390 nm. This system is cheap and durable, making it a promising solution for hydrogen gas fuel generation in the industry.
The study evaluated CORDEX RCMs’ ability to project future rainfall and extreme events in the Mzingwane catchment using an ensemble average of three RCMs (RCA4, REMO2009 and CRCM5). Model validation ...employed the statistical mean and Pearson correlation, while trends in projected rainfall and number of rainy days were computed using the Mann-Kendall trend test and the magnitudes of trends were determined by Sen’s slope estimator. Temporal and spatial distribution of future extreme dryness and wetness was established by using the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI). The results show that RCMs adequately represented annual and inter-annual rainfall variability and the ensemble average outperformed individual models. Trend results for the projected rainfall suggest a significant decreasing trend in future rainfall (2016–2100) for all stations at
p
< 0.05. In addition, a general decreasing trend in the number of rainy days is projected for future climate, although the significance and magnitude varied with station location. Model results suggest an increased occurrence of future extreme events, particularly towards the end of the century. The findings are important for developing proactive sustainable strategies for future climate change adaption and mitigation.
•Ag-Fe MOF was successfully synthesized through the solvothermal method.•The FT-IR and X-ray results confirmed the successful preparation of the bimetallic metal-organic framework.•Rapid removal of ...Cd(II) and Cu(II) is occurred.•The obtained adsorption values (Cd, 265 mg/g) and (Cu, 213 mg/g)) are very high.•The prepared MOF was used in the synthesis of 3, 4-dihydropyrimidinone. The ratio (0.6:1) Ag-Fe MOF gives the best results due to a high synergistic effect between the two metals.
Removing heavy metals from aqueous solutions has drawn the attention of scientists due to their serious global health challenges to human society. Thus, it is very important to use an adsorbent with a high removal efficiency of heavy metals and has the advantage of low-cost. In the present work, metal-organic framework with tailored components is very important in attaining the required purpose and expanding the developing applications. Herein, bimetallic Ag-Fe metal-organic framework has been successfully synthesized through a solvothermal method and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy and surface area measurements. Due to the synergistic contribution between Ag and Fe, bimetallic Ag-Fe metal-organic frameworks nanocrystals exhibit enhanced decontamination performance toward the removal of heavy metal ions with ultra-fast adsorption kinetics and high adsorption values. Impressively, an extraordinary Cadmium (II) and Copper (II) adsorption values up to 265 and 213 mg/g, respectively are obtained in bimetallic (0.6:1) Ag-Fe metal-organic framework, which considers the superior adsorbent between the prepared metal-organic frameworks. The surface acidity, examined through the nonaqueous potentiometric titration of n-butylamine, was found to be increased by the formation of a bimetallic metal-organic framework as well as the catalytic activity. Among various Ag: Fe, the ratio (0.6:1) showed the highest acidity and catalytic activity towards the synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidinone. The metal-organic frameworks catalysts were found to maintain their adsorption capacity and catalytic activity even after four-time reusing.
Massive Internet of Things (mIoT) is a major use case of the fifth generation (5G) wireless systems. mIoT aims to support a large number of connection requests from IoT devices. However, the ...conventional Long Term Evolution (LTE) random access procedure hinders the support of mIoT due to the limited number of available preambles. In this paper, we propose to aggregate two Zadoff-Chu preamble sequences from two different roots to obtain a larger set of preambles by considering all possible combinations of preamble sequence pairs. Decoding the aggregate preambles is challenging because the receiver needs to decode two preamble sequences where each one is allocated half of the transmit power. We propose two receiver architectures for preamble decoding. The first one is a threshold-based receiver which only requires minor changes to the LTE preamble receiver architecture. The second proposed preamble decoder architecture exploits a deep neural network. Simulations show that the proposed aggregate preamble design results in a lower service time for backlogged IoT devices compared to existing collision avoidance techniques. Moreover, the proposed receiver architectures can decode the aggregate preambles with low probabilities of misdetection and false alarm (less than 11%), especially in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime.
The utilization of stereotactic body radiation therapy for the treatment of liver metastasis has been widely studied and has demonstrated favorable local control outcomes. However, several predictive ...factors play a crucial role in the efficacy of stereotactic body radiation therapy, such as the number and size (volume) of metastatic liver lesions, the primary tumor site (histology), molecular biomarkers (e.g., KRAS and TP53 mutation), the use of systemic therapy prior to SBRT, the radiation dose, and the use of advanced technology and organ motion management during SBRT. These prognostic factors need to be considered when clinical trials are designed to evaluate the efficacy of SBRT for liver metastases.
The ability to generate and detect electric fields has evolved in several groups of fishes as a means of communication, navigation and, occasionally, predation. The energetic burden required can ...account for up to 20% of electric fishes' daily energy expenditure. Despite this, molecular adaptations that enable electric fishes to meet the metabolic demands of bioelectrogenesis remain unknown. Here, we investigate the molecular evolution of the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complexes in the two most diverse clades of weakly electric fishes-South American Gymnotiformes and African Mormyroidea, using codon-based likelihood approaches. Our analyses reveal that although mitochondrial OXPHOS genes are generally subject to strong purifying selection, this constraint is significantly reduced in electric compared to non-electric fishes, particularly for complexes IV and V. Moreover, analyses of concatenated mitochondrial genes show strong evidence for positive selection in complex I genes on the two branches associated with the independent evolutionary origins of electrogenesis. These results suggest that adaptive evolution of proton translocation in the OXPHOS cellular machinery may be associated with the evolution of bioelectrogenesis. Overall, we find striking evidence for remarkably similar effects of electrogenesis on the molecular evolution of mitochondrial OXPHOS genes in two independently derived clades of electrogenic fishes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Linking the mitochondrial genotype to phenotype: a complex endeavour'.
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