The treatment of osteoarticular infections in pediatric patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) is a challenging task for the practitioner. The aim of this study is to evaluate cefixime for the ...treatment of osteoarticular infections in pediatric SCD patients by retrospective design.
This study was done in the pediatric hospital of King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The data was obtained from medical records of patients aged 1–16 years admitted between January 2019 to December 2020, diagnosed with SCD and received cefixime for the treatment of OI. A descriptive study for pediatric patients admitted between January 2019 to December 2020 diagnosed with sickle cell disease and diagnosed with osteoarticular infection. All patients were treated with cefixime. Medians and interquartile ranges (IQRs) were used for the descriptive analysis.
A total of 260 patients were screened, and 51 cases osteomyelitis (OM), n = 43, and septic arthritis (SA), n = 8 met the inclusion criteria. The median age of OM patients was 7 years, with males making up 67.4% of the cohort. The median length of IV antibiotics and hospital stays were 10 days and 11 days, respectively. The median total duration of antibiotic use was 37 and 25 days for OM and SA, respectively. The treatment success rate was 88% in OM cases and 100% in SA patients. Readmission was noted in 39.5% of the OM patients, while only 25% of the SA patients were recorded for reinfection.
The study's findings revealed that Cefixime is a viable oral alternative for treating osteoarticular infection in pediatric SCD patients. Nonetheless, a prospective investigation is required to corroborate the findings of this study.
Objectives:To describe a novel animal model for ex-vivo liver perfusion.Methods:This study was carried out at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between ...September 2016 and January 2019. We assembled a perfusion circuit operated by a continuous pressure-driven arterial pump with continuous portal and arterial pressure and volume measurements. We used normothermic oxygenated perfusate. The livers used were retrieved from the sheep.Results:Ex-vivo continuous perfusion of the liver was achieved for up to 9 hours with stable pressure and volume in both hepatic artery and portal vein. In 4 experiments the arterial pressure was kept in a range of 48-52 mmHg with a mean of 51.75±4.31 resulting in arterial volume at steady state of 223.5±48.25 ml/minute (95% confidence level). At steady state the mean portal pressure was 16.25±1.45 mmHg with a mean volume of 854±313.75 ml/minute (95% confidence level). Bile production was observed during the perfusion period. Hemodynamic parameters were similar to the physiological parameters observed in normothermic perfusion model of the porcine liver.Conclusion:A normothermic oxygenated ex-vivo perfusion circuit was successfully constructed using the sheep liver. A sustainable functional circuit with physiological hemodynamic parameters was achieved. Further study on sheep model seems to be feasible.
Background Workplace violence in healthcare settings, particularly in emergency departments (EDs), is a critical issue affecting healthcare providers and the quality of patient care. This study's ...primary aim was to determine the prevalence and types of workplace violence experienced by healthcare workers in Saudi Arabian EDs, assess the physical and psychological consequences of such violence, and explore the factors contributing to its occurrence. Methods Employing a descriptive, cross-sectional research design, the study was conducted in two phases at three hospitals in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia. It targeted ED healthcare workers, including physicians, nurses, and support staff. Data were collected via a questionnaire disseminated through social media, addressing incidents of violence, their nature, and subsequent responses. Results The findings indicate a significant incidence of workplace violence in EDs, predominantly involving verbal abuse and physical aggression, mostly initiated by patients' companions. The majority of these incidents occurred prior to patient-physician interaction, with nurses frequently being the primary victims. Although incidents were more often formally reported than informally, a substantial number remained unreported. There was no significant correlation between the experienced violence and variables like working hours or hospital governance. Conclusion The research highlights the urgent need for effective policies and strategies to mitigate workplace violence in healthcare settings in Saudi Arabia. It emphasizes the necessity of implementing comprehensive violence prevention and intervention programs to ensure a safer working environment for healthcare professionals.
Universal filtered multi-carrier (UFMC) is a potential multi-carrier system for future cellular networks. UFMC provides low latency, frequency offset robustness, and reduced out-of-band (OOB) ...emission that results in better spectral efficiency. However, UFMC suffers from the problem of high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), which might impact the function of high power amplifiers causing a nonlinear distortion. We propose a comparative probabilistic PAPR reduction technique, called the decomposed selective mapping approach, to alleviate PAPR in UFMC systems. The concept of this proposal depends on decomposing the complex symbol into real and imaginary parts, and then converting each part to a number of different phase vectors prior to the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) operation. The IFFT copy, which introduces the lowest PAPR, is considered for transmission. Results obtained using theoretical analysis and simulations show that the proposed approach can significantly enhance the performance of the UFMC system in terms of PAPR reduction. Besides, it maintains the OOB emission with candidate bit error rate and error vector magnitude performances.
The study discusses the use of magnetic activated carbon modified with poly (amidoxime) (PAMC) as an efficient approach for the adsorption of chromium and thallium. Activated carbon was synthesized ...from waste rubber tires, subsequently enhanced with magnetic properties, and modified with poly (amidoxime) providing more functional groups and thus improve the sorption efficiency. The morphological and structural properties of the prepared materials were investigated using different characterization techniques including SEM-EDX, BET, and FTIR. The adsorption evaluation was carried out in accordance with a factorial design to determine the optimum condition for the removal process. Factorial design analysis ensures the use of limited resources while also obtaining the optimum efficiency of the adsorption process. A half factorial design method was adopted in this study. The conditions varied include; pH, the initial concentration of adsorbent, shaker speed, contact time and adsorbent dosage. The material showed high efficacy within a wide pH range (3–11) even with a small dosage of 1 g/L. Interestingly, the material showed good efficiency for the uptake of the test toxic metal ions at low and high concentrations of 1 and 20 ppm with acceptable statistical values. Shaker speed of 200 rpm was the optimum. More than 97% of the chromium was removed using each of 1 and 5 g/L of the adsorbent. Analysis of variance showed a high correlation for the removal process with p-values < 0.003 for the removal of thallium. To demonstrate how the material can be used in process engineering design and practice, regeneration of PAMC and the fate of the adsorbates were evaluated. Tests were also conducted using real wastewater. With easy separation and high efficiency of removal for both chromium and thallium from water and good regeneration without showing a significant loss in adsorption capacity even after several cycles, the material demonstrated its exciting potential as an adsorbent for water treatment.
The gold(III) complexes of the type (DACH)Au(en)Cl
3
, 1,2-Diaminocyclohexane ethylenediamine gold(III) chloride where 1,2-DACH =
cis
-,
trans
-1,2- and
S,S
-1,2diaminocyclohexane and ...en = ethylenediamine have been synthesized and characterized using various analytical and spectroscopic techniques including elemental analysis, UV–Vis and FTIR spectra; and solution as well as solid-state NMR measurements. The solid-state
13
C NMR shows that 1,2-diaminocyclohexane (1,2-DACH) and ethylenediamine (en) are strongly bound to the gold(III) center via N donor atoms. The stability of the mixed diamine ligand gold(III) was determined by
1
H and
13
C NMR spectra. Their electrochemical behavior was studied by cyclic voltammetry. The structural details and relative stabilities of the four possible isomers of the complexes were also reported at the B3LYP/LANL2DZ level of theory. The coordination sphere of these complexes around gold(III) center adopts distorted square planar geometry. The computational study also demonstrates that
trans
- conformations is slightly more stable than the
cis
-conformations. The antiproliferative effects and cytotoxic properties of the mixed diamine ligand gold(III) complexes were evaluated in vitro on human gastric SGC7901 and prostate PC3 cancer cells using MTT assay. The antiproliferative study of the gold(III) complexes on PC3 and SGC7901 cells indicate that complex
1
is the most effective antiproliferative agent among mixed ligand based gold(III) complexes
1
–
3
. The IC
50
data reveal that the in vitro cytotoxicity of complexes
1
and
3
against SGC7901 cancer cells are fairly better than that of cisplatin.
Carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere, which originates from fossil fuels consumption, has led to a serious environmental and energy crisis. Electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) into ...valuable chemicals such as carbon monoxide, ethanol, ethylene, and methane not only help lower the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere but is also beneficial for sustainable energy production. Therefore, numerous works are assigned to improving efficient electrocatalytic materials for the selective CO2RR. Metal–organic framework (MOF)‐derived catalytic materials mostly based on transition metals demonstrate permissible CO2RR owing to their specific composition, tunable surface nanostructure and texture, and affordable market prices. In this work, the best effort is put to describe the most basic concept of electrochemical CO2RR to provide a consensus. The effect of MOF structure and surface analysis are discussed. This is reason that MOFs as catalysts for electrochemical CO2RR offers several advantages over traditional catalysts, such as tunable surface structure, multifunctionality, selectivity control, and stability under CO2RR operation. And then, some of the most recent reported works on MOF‐based catalysts are summarized, to provide and inspire further investigations and ideas in this research field. However, despite these advantages, there are still research gaps that need to be addressed. Some of these gaps include being cost‐effective and economical process for preparing MOF‐based catalysts, long‐term stability for industrial usage, and scalability of the catalyst. Thereby, further studies are essential to fully exploit the potential of MOFs in advancing CO2RR technologies.
Different attack and defence techniques have been evolved over time as actions and reactions between black-hat and white-hat communities. Encryption, polymorphism, metamorphism and obfuscation are ...among the techniques used by the attackers to bypass security controls. On the other hand, pattern matching, algorithmic scanning, emulation and heuristic are used by the defence team. The Antivirus (AV) is a vital security control that is used against a variety of threats. The AV mainly scans data against its database of virus signatures. Basically, it claims a virus if a match is found. This paper seeks to find the minimal possible changes that can be made on the virus so that it will appear normal when scanned by the AV. Brute-force search through all possible changes can be a computationally expensive task. Alternatively, this paper tries to apply a Genetic Algorithm in solving such a problem. Our proposed algorithm is tested on seven different malware instances. The results show that in all the tested malware instances only a small change in each instance was good enough to bypass the AV.
Salmonella has been reported as a high-priority pathogen by the World Health Organization. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of 2 Salmonella enterica serovar Minnesota strains isolated from ...chicken meat in Saudi Arabia (named SA49317 and SA49319) belonging to sequence type (ST) 548, revealing mobile colistin resistance (mcr)-1.1 gene for colistin resistance.
Study Design:
Studies on the concept of Damage Control Surgery (DCS) in the management of firearm injuries to the oral and maxillofacial region are still scarce, hence the basis for the current ...study.
Objectives:
The objectives of the current study is to share our experience in the management of maxillofacial gunshot injuries with emphasis on DCS and early definitive surgery.
Methods:
This was a retrospective study of combatant Yemeni patients with maxillofacial injuries who were transferred across the border from Yemen to Najran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Demographics and etiology of injuries were stored. Paths of entry and exit of the projectiles were also noted. Also recorded were types of gunshot injury and treatment protocols adopted. Data was stored and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows Version 25 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp).
Results:
A total of 408 victims, all males, were seen during the study period with 173 (42.4%) males sustaining gunshot injuries to the maxillofacial region. Their ages ranged from 21 to 56 years with mean ± SD (27.5 ± 7.6) years. One hundred and twenty-one (70.0%) victims had extraoral bullet entry, while 53 (30.0%) victims had intraoral entry route. Ocular injuries, consisting of 25 (14.5%) cases of ruptured globe and 6 (3.5%) cases of corneal injuries, were the most commonly associated injuries. A total of 78 (45.1%) hemodynamically unstable victims had DCS as the adopted treatment protocol while early definitive surgery was carried out in 47(27.2%) hemodynamically stable victims. ORIF was the treatment modality used for the fractures in 132 (76.3%) of the victims.
Conclusions:
We observed that 42.4% of the war victims sustained gunshot injuries. DCS with ORIF was the main treatment protocol adopted in the management of the hemodynamically unstable patients.
PDF
