Production of leather fat liquoring agents from local sources as alternative for imported liquors

Local animal bone fat extracted from animal bone by-product was chemically treated with chlorosulfonic acid [15% chlorosulfonic acid based on weight of fat] to produce local leather fat liquoring agent. Different conditions include stirring time, reaction temperature, and presences of different solvents were investigated to obtain the optimum conditions of fat liquor preparation. The prepared fat liquor was found to possess a great emulsion stability and effective resistance towards different factors as pH and metallic ions. The prepared fat liquor was applied as fat liquoring agent for chrome tanned leather. The improvement of the quality of the fat liquored leather was manifested through the enhancement of chemical and physical parameters such as free and bounded fatty matter, tensile strength, and elongation at break, and through better visual properties and good general appearance of leather. The prepared fat liquor was used as an alternative for the imported fat liquors showing great performance and saving hard currency

Fertility and semen quality of ticket collectors exposed to traffic exhaust in greater Cairo

Objective: To study the effect of exposure to vehicle emissions on male fertility

Patients and Methods: 102 patients were enrolled in the study. They were divided into three groups; group I [n = 13] were mainly from rural areas minimally exposed to environmental urban vehicle emissions, group II [n = 20] composed of indoor workers who are incidentally exposed to risk and group III [n = 69] were occupationally exposed to environmental air pollution. A full questionnaire including socioeconomic data, histories of exposure to pollution, reproductive histories were taken. Cases with overt or questioned infertility were excluded. Two groups of investigations were done; the first included biomarkers of vehicle emission pollution, namely, carboxyhemoglobin in the peripheral blood, sulphur and sulphur dioxide in urine and lead in blood and semen. The second group of investigations was targeted towards the fertility indices including reproductive hormones and semen characteristics

Results: The level of blood carboxyhemoglobin and semen lead were remarkably higher in the exposed group compared to other groups. There were statistically significant decrease in fertility indices [serum testosterone, semen count, motility and sperm morphology] in the highly exposed group III. Blood lead was negatively correlated with serum testosterone [r = - 0.498, p<0.001] and also negatively correlated with semen count and motility [r = - 0.617, p<0.001; r = - 0.537, p<0.001, respectively]. Abnormal sperm morphology was positively correlated with both blood and semen lead [I = 0.347, p<0.001; r=0.296, p<0.05, respectively]. Carboxyhemoglobin level showed a significant negative correlation with both sperm count and motility [r = 0.219, p<0.05; r= 0.308, p<0.05, respectively]. Sulphur dioxide level in urine showed insignificant correlation with reproductive hormones and seminal indices [p>0.05]

Conclusion: The exposed group [group III] showed deterioration and decline in some essential fertility indices and the deterioration is correlated to biomarkers of vehicle induced air pollution

Prevalence of HCV/HIV co-infection among haemophilia patients in Baghdad

To estimate the seroprevalence of HCV infection among HIV-infected haemophiliacs and to demonstrate the most prevalent HCV genotype, 47 HIV-infected haemophilia patients were screened for anti-HCV antibodies. By performing polymerase chain reaction and DNA enzyme immunoassay, HCV-RNA was detected with subsequent genotyping. Seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibodies was 66.0%. Of 31 HCV/HIV co-infected patients, 21 [67.7%] had no history of blood transfusion. We detected 4 HCV genotypes: 1a, 1b, 4 and 4 mixed with 3a, HCV-1b being the most frequent. Contaminated factor VIII [clotting factor] could be responsible for disease acquisition

Prevalence of trachoma in rural school children in Halaba, Egypt [pilot study]

This paper illusterates the prevalence of the clinical and laboratory aspects of trachoma in rural school children in Halaba village In El Qalyubia Governorate. Intectuous trachoma was found in 35.5% in six year olds, in [9-16%] in seven to nine year olds, and in [4.6%] in eleven year olds. FA staining technique was found to be more sensitive than the Giemsa staining, [30%] were positive by FA while [5%] were positive by the Giemsa. There were [5%] positive isolates