Non-Enzymatic Glucose Sensors Composed of Polyaniline Nanofibers with High Electrochemical Performance.

The measurement of glucose concentration is a fundamental daily care for diabetes patients, and therefore, its detection with accuracy is of prime importance in the field of health care. In this study, the fabrication of an electrochemical sensor for glucose sensing was successfully designed. The electrode material was fabricated using polyaniline and systematically characterized using scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and UV-visible spectroscopy. The polyaniline nanofiber-modified electrode showed excellent detection ability for glucose with a linear range of 10 µM to 1 mM and a detection limit of 10.6 µM. The stability of the same electrode was tested for 7 days. The electrode shows high sensitivity for glucose detection in the presence of interferences. The polyaniline-modified electrode does not affect the presence of interferences and has a low detection limit. It is also cost-effective and does not require complex sample preparation steps. This makes it a potential tool for glucose detection in pharmacy and medical diagnostics.

Silver Diamine Fluoride as a Medicament for the Indirect Pulp Therapy in Primary Teeth: A Review of the Literature.

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) has been demonstrated to be effective in arresting caries lesions and, recently, clinical trials have assessed the effectiveness of SDF as a medicament for indirect pulp therapy (IPT) in primary teeth. This review aims to summarize the literature related to the use of SDF and find out if SDF can be used as an effective material for IPT. A literature search was undertaken on electronic databases including PubMed, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, which elicited 50 studies employing different materials in the IPT of primary molars; however, of them, only four clinical trials used SDF as indirect pulp capping (IPC) material. SDF has the potential to be a useful material for IPT in primary teeth. It is a handy choice for pediatric dentists due to its minimum invasiveness, ease of application, and ability to stop the progression of caries. However, more studies are needed to determine whether SDF can be used routinely for IPT and whether it can even replace the currently available materials, as well as to fully realize its potential and establish criteria for its ideal application in IPT procedures.

SNCA and TPPP transcripts increase in oligodendroglial cytoplasmic inclusions in multiple system atrophy.

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is characterized by glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCIs) containing aggregated α-synuclein (α-syn) in oligodendrocytes. The origin of α-syn accumulation in GCIs is unclear, in particular whether abnormal α-syn aggregates result from the abnormal elevation of endogenous α-syn expression in MSA or ingested from the neuronal source. Tubulin polymerization promoting protein (TPPP) has been reported to play a crucial role in developing GCI pathology. Here, the total cell body, nucleus, and cytoplasmic area density of SNCA and TPPP transcripts in neurons and oligodendrocytes with and without various α-syn pathologies in the pontine base in autopsy cases of MSA (n = 4) and controls (n = 2) were evaluated using RNAscope with immunofluorescence. Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing data for TPPP was evaluated using control frontal cortex (n = 3). SNCA and TPPP transcripts were present in the nucleus and cytoplasm of oligodendrocytes in both controls and diseased, with higher area density in GCIs and glial nuclear inclusions in MSA. Area densities of SNCA and TPPP transcripts were lower in neurons showing cytoplasmic inclusions in MSA. Indeed, TPPP transcripts were unexpectedly found in neurons, while the anti-TPPP antibody failed to detect immunoreactivity. Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing revealed significant TPPP transcript expression predominantly in oligodendrocytes, but also in excitatory and inhibitory neurons. This study addressed the unclear origin of accumulated α-syn in GCIs, proposing that the elevation of SNCA transcripts may supply templates for misfolded α-syn. In addition, the parallel behavior of TPPP and SNCA transcripts in GCI development highlights their potential synergistic contribution to inclusion formation. In conclusion, this study advances our understanding of MSA pathogenesis, offers insights into the dynamics of SNCA and TPPP transcripts in inclusion formation, and proposes regulating their transcripts for future molecular therapy to MSA.

Comparison of the post-operative outcomes between different surgical techniques for inferior turbinate reduction surgery: A cross sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: To compare and measure post-operative outcomes among various surgical techniques for reducing inferior turbinate hypertrophy (ITH), and to identify the factors associated with the clinical outcomes of turbinoplasty in patients with this condition. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out from January 2021 to December 2022 at the Otorhinolaryngology Department of King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A total of 301 adult patients with ITH were included and were divided into different groups. Postoperative follow-up assessments were completed after one week, one month, and 6 months to evaluate outcomes and complications associated with each surgical technique; descriptive analysis, cross-tabulation, and exact logistic regression were utilized as data analysis methods. RESULTS: Most patients in both groups experienced partial or complete improvement after surgery, with 92% showing positive outcomes. Common clinical signs included deviated nasal septum deviation and external nasal deformity, while nasal obstruction was most frequently reported as the primary symptom. Post-surgery bleeding occurred in 3.7% of cases; no adhesions were noted. Microdebrider, medial flap, out-fracture, and submucosal diathermy techniques all demonstrated significantly higher improvement rates than others. CONCLUSION: The identified techniques with higher improvement rates offer evidence-based guidance for selecting optimal surgical approaches, while the study's limitations warrant further prospective research to validate these findings. Ultimately, it contributes valuable knowledge to the field of otorhinolaryngology, aiming to enhance patient outcomes and improve the management of ITH worldwide.

Evaluating the impact of urbanization on the urban heat islands through integrated radius and non-linear regression approach.

Urban heat islands (UHIs) are a significant environmental problem, exacerbating the urban climate and affecting human health in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia. The need to understand the spatio-temporal dynamics of UHI in the context of urban expansion is crucial for sustainable urban planning. The aim of this study was to quantify the changes in land use and land cover (LULC) and urbanization, assess the expansion process of UHI, and analyze its connectivity in order to develop strategies to mitigate UHI in an urban context over a 30-year period from 1990 to 2020. Using remote sensing data, LULC changes were analyzed with a random forest model. LULC change rate (LCCR), land cover intensity (LCI), and landscape expansion index (LEI) were calculated to quantify urbanization. The land surface temperature for the study period was calculated using the mono-window algorithm. The UHI effect was analyzed using an integrated radius and non-linear regression approach, fitting SUHI data to polynomial curves and identifying turning points based on the regression derivative for UHI intensity belts to quantify the expansion and intensification of UHI. Landscape metrics such as the aggregation index (AI), landscape shape index (LSI), and four other matrices were calculated to assess UHI morphology and connectivity of the UHI. In addition, the LEI was adopted to measure the extent of UHI growth patterns. From 1990 to 2020, the study area experienced significant urbanization, with the built-up area increasing from 69.40 to 338.74 km2, an increase of 1.923 to 9.385% of the total area. This expansion included growth in peripheral areas of 129.33 km2, peripheral expansion of 85.40 km2, and infilling of 3.80 km2. At the same time, the UHI effect intensified with an increase in mean LST from 40.55 to 46.73 °C. The spatial extent of the UHI increased, as shown by the increase in areas with an LST above 50 °C from 36.58 km2 in 1990 to 133.52 km2 in 2020. The connectivity of the UHI also increased, as shown by the increase in the AI from 38.91 to 41.30 and the LSI from 56.72 to 93.64, reflecting a more irregular and fragmented urban landscape. In parallel to these urban changes, the area classified as UHI increased significantly, with the peripheral areas expanding from 23.99 km2 in the period 1990-2000 to 80.86 km2 in the period 2000-2020. Peripheral areas also grew significantly from 36.42 to 96.27 km2, contributing to an overall more pronounced and interconnected UHI effect by 2020. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of urban expansion and its thermal impacts. It highlights the need for integrated urban planning that includes strategies to mitigate the UHI effect, such as improving green infrastructure, optimizing land use, and improving urban design to counteract the negative effects of urbanization.

Cytotoxic Effect of YH239-EE and Its Enantiomer on MCF7 Cell Line.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to discover the cytotoxic effect of YH239-EE and YH239 alone and their enantiomer potency in cytotoxic effect on the MCF7 cell line. METHODS: We used the cytotoxic study on MDM2 cell lines by detecting the percentage of apoptosis and necrosis by annexin v methods. RESULT: This result shows that YH239-EE causes more apoptosis and necrosis 40% in comparison to YH239 without ethyl ester, about 4.92 %,  and The (+) enantiomer of YH239-EE demonstrated a markedly higher induction of apoptosis and necrosis (84.48%) in MCF7 cells compared to the (-) enantiomer (48.71%). CONCLUSION: The ethyl ester group in YH239-EE might play a crucial role in enhancing the compound's ability to induce cell death, and The high efficacy of the (+) enantiomer of YH239-EE in inducing cell death in MCF7 cells suggests it may be a more promising therapeutic candidate for breast cancer treatment, specifically for subtypes represented by MCF7 cells.

Beyond clinical trials: real-world impact of immunotherapy on NSCLC in Jordan.

Background: This study aims to evaluate real-world (rw) outcomes of immunotherapy (IO) for advanced stage NSCLC at King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) in Jordan. Methods: Advanced stage NSCLC patients who received IO at KHCC between 2017 and 2022 were included. The data were retrospectively collected. PFS and OS were estimated for patients with ECOG performance status (ECOG PS) 0-1. Cox regression analyzed predictors of OS in first-line (1L) IO, regardless of performance status. Results: The total number of patients included was 244. Out of those, 160 (65%), 67 (28%), and 17 (7%) patients received IO as 1L, second-line (2L), or third-line or beyond (3L or beyond), respectively. The median age for all patients was 59 years. Male were 88%, and 77% were smokers. The median follow-up time was 12.5 months. The median PFS and OS for 1L IO were 7 [95% CI 5.8 - 10.3] and 11.8 [95% CI 8.8 - 14.4], months, respectively. In the first 3 months after starting 1L IO, 34/160 (21%) patients had died. For those who survived beyond 3 months after starting 1L IO, the median PFS and OS were 11.3 [95% CI 8.3 - 16.5] and 15.4 [95% CI 13.2 - 21] months, respectively. In the Cox regression model of 1L IO patients with any performance status, ECOG PS 2 was predictive of worse OS compared to ECOG PS 0-1 (p= 0.005). Conclusion: This real-world study of advanced-stage NSCLC patients treated with immunotherapy at KHCC reveals outcomes that fall short of those anticipated from clinical trials. The inclusion of Middle Eastern patients in lung cancer trials is essential to ensure adequate representation of various ethnicities in clinical research.

Antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of selenium nanoparticles-antibiotic conjugates against anti-multidrug-resistant bacteria.

The crucial demand to overcome the issue of multidrug resistance is required to refine the performance of antibiotics. Such a process can be achieved by fastening them to compatible nanoparticles to obtain effective pharmaceuticals at a low concentration. Thus, selenium nanoparticles (Se NPs) are considered biocompatible agents that are applied to prevent infections resulting from bacterial resistance to multi-antibiotics. The current evaluated the effectiveness of Se NPs and their conjugates with antibiotics such as amikacin (AK), levofloxacin (LEV), and piperacillin (PIP) against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa). In addition, the study determined the antibacterial and antibiofilm properties of Se NPs and their conjugates with LEV against urinary tract pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis), P. aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The result of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) for eight isolates of P. aeruginosa revealed that the conjugation of Se NPs with AK, LEV, and PIP resulted in a reduction in the concentration of antibiotic-conjugated Se NPs. The concentration was found to be about 10-20 times lower than that of bare antibiotics. The MIC of the Se NPs with LEV (i.e., Se NPs:LEV) for S. aureus, E. faecalis, P. aeruginosa, and E. coli was found to be 1.4:0.5, 0.7:0.25, 22:8, and 11:4 µg/mL, respectively. The results of the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) demonstrated that Se NPs:LEV conjugate have inhibited 50 % of the mature biofilms of S. aureus, E. faecalis, P. aeruginosa, and E. coli at a concentration of 27.5 ± 10.5, 18.8 ± 3.1, 40.6 ± 10.7, and 21.6 ± 3.3 µg/mL, respectively compared to the control. It has been suggested that the antibiotic-conjugated Se NPs have great potential for biomedical applications. The conjugation of Se NPs with AK, LEV, and PIP increases the antibacterial potency against resistant pathogens at a low concentration.

Abreast insights of harnessing microalgal lipids for producing biodiesel: A review of improving and advancing the technical aspects of cultivation.

In the pursuit of alternatives for conventional diesel, sourced from non-renewable fossil fuel, biodiesel has gained attentions for its intrinsic benefits. However, the commercial production process for biodiesel is still not sufficiently competitive. This review analyses microalgal lipid, one of the important sources of biodiesel, and its cultivation techniques with recent developments in the technical aspects. In fact, the microalgal lipids are the third generation feedstock, used for biodiesel production after its benefits outweigh that of edible vegetable oils (first generation) and non-edible oils (second generation). The critical factors influencing microalgal growth and its lipid production and accumulation are also discussed. Following that is the internal enhancement for cellular lipid production through genetic engineering. Moreover, the microalgae cultivation data modelling was also rationalized, with a specific focus on growth kinetic models that allow for the prediction and optimization of lipid production. Finally, the machine learning and environmental impact analysis are as well presented as important aspects to consider in fulfilling the prime objective of commercial sustainability to produce microalgal biodiesel.

Neuroimaging and Brain-Based Markers Identifying Neurobiological Markers Associated With Criminal Behaviour, Personality Disorders, and Mental Health: A Narrative Review.

We begin the review by pointing to the common stigma associated with mental health issues, which often derives from a lack of understanding or incomplete knowledge. Neurobiological research provides us with a new lens to help challenge and dispel common assumptions and misunderstandings and gives an understanding of sexual behaviours that influence society. As such, it generates substantial evidence for the structural and functional asymmetry of the brains of individuals with mental disorders. However, this type of representation poses many challenges to traditional thinking and constantly provokes change in perspective and empathy towards those individuals. In the review, we go deeper into the effects of neurobiological findings on understanding criminal behaviours and personality disorders, looking further beyond behavioural health. These problems, which were once mainly discussed as moral ones or viewed from the perspective of character flaws, are analysed today through neurological considerations pointing to their complexity. When the root of bipolar disorder is revealed to be neurological, society will react with more information and understanding, hence reducing the stigmatisation and discrimination meted out to people with these problems. At a macro level, findings from neurobiology affect society in ways that go beyond individuals; social attitudes, laws, and policies about the services rendered are influenced. Operating as a catalyst within the community, neurobiological research helps to initiate social change through the creation of an informed, understanding public forum. Thus, it creates broader value for those dealing with behavioural and mental health challenges. The first and most important question of this narrative review is focused on identifying identifiable neurobiological markers that are closely related to criminal conduct, personality disorders, and mental health disorders. Through this review, we aim to present detailed insights into the neurological foundations that anchor these phenomena via a narrative analysis of contemporary literature. The potential implications are finding problems early to apply specific treatment and learning an advanced strategy for social attitudes. This will promote a more humanistic approach based on adequate information on the behavioural and mental health issues involved.

Locating-dominating number of certain infinite families of convex polytopes with applications.

A convex hull of finitely many points in the Euclidean space Rd is known as a convex polytope. Graphically, they are planar graphs i.e. embeddable on R2. Minimum dominating sets possess diverse applications in computer science and engineering. Locating-dominating sets are a natural extension of dominating sets. Studying minimizing locating-dominating sets of convex polytopes reveal interesting distance-dominating related topological properties of these geometrical planar graphs. In this paper, exact value of the locating-dominating number is shown for one infinite family of convex polytopes. Moreover, tight upper bounds on γl-d are shown for two more infinite families. Tightness in the upper bounds is shown by employing an updated integer linear programming (ILP) model for the locating-dominating number γl-d of a fixed graph. Results are explained with help of some examples. The second part of the paper solves an open problem in Khan (2023) [28] which asks to find a domination-related parameter which delivers a correlation coefficient of ρ>0.9967 with the total π-electronic energy of lower benzenoid hydrocarbons. We show that the locating-dominating number γl-d delivers such a strong prediction potential. The paper is concluded with putting forward some open problems in this area.

Neural Models for Generating Natural Language Summaries from Temporal Personal Health Data.

With an increased interest in the production of personal health technologies designed to track user data (e.g., nutrient  intake, step counts), there is now more opportunity than ever to surface meaningful behavioral insights to everyday users in the form of natural language. This knowledge can increase their behavioral awareness and allow them to take action to meet their health goals. It can also bridge the gap between the vast collection of personal health data and the summary generation required to describe an individual's behavioral tendencies. Previous work has focused on rule-based time-series data summarization methods designed to generate natural language summaries of interesting patterns found within temporal personal health data. We examine recurrent, convolutional, and Transformer-based encoder-decoder models to automatically generate natural language summaries from numeric temporal personal health data. We showcase the effectiveness of our models on real user health data logged in MyFitnessPal (Weber and Achananuparp 2016) and show that we can automatically generate high-quality natural language summaries. Our work serves as a first step towards the ambitious goal of automatically generating novel and meaningful temporal summaries from personal health data.

Investigating the spatial and temporal variation of vape retailer provision in New Zealand: A cross-sectional and nationwide study.

Smoking rates have decreased in Aotearoa New Zealand in recent years however, vaping has shown a dramatic upward trend especially among young people; up to 10% of young New Zealanders are now regular vapers. Importantly, the long-term health consequences for their future life are largely unknown. The accessibility of vape retailers is important, particularly in relation to the youths' daily activities and places such as schools where they spend a considerable amount of time and socialise. Despite this, we know little about the spatial patterning of vape retailers and even less of their socio-spatial patterning around schools. This ecological study utilised data from the New Zealand Specialist Vape Retailers register on nationwide vape retailer locations and combined them with whole-population sociodemographic characteristics and primary and secondary school data. We identified the prevalence of vape retailers and their spatial distribution by area-level deprivation, ethnicity and urban-rural classification by using descriptive statistics and (spatial) statistical modelling on the area-, school- and individual students-level (using disaggregated data on students). We found that almost 97% of all vape retailers are located within 1,600m (∼20-min walk) and 29% within 400m (∼5-min walk) of schools. Our research also identified increasing inequities by deprivation and ethnicity both for the overall population and particularly for students in the most deprived areas who experience a disproportionate presence and increase of new vape store retailers that disadvantage schools and students in these areas. This difference was particularly prominent for Pasifika populations in major urban environments.

Spatiotemporal assessment of the nexus between urban sprawl and land surface temperature as microclimatic effect: implications for urban planning.

Rapid urbanisation has led to significant environmental and climatic changes worldwide, especially in urban heat islands where increased land surface temperature (LST) poses a major challenge to sustainable urban living. In the city of Abha in southwestern Saudi Arabia, a region experiencing rapid urban growth, the impact of such expansion on LST and the resulting microclimatic changes are still poorly understood. This study aims to explore the dynamics of urban sprawl and its direct impact on LST to provide important insights for urban planning and climate change mitigation strategies. Using the random forest (RF) algorithm optimised for land use and land cover (LULC) mapping, LULC models were derived that had an overall accuracy of 87.70%, 86.27% and 93.53% for 1990, 2000 and 2020, respectively. The mono-window algorithm facilitated the derivation of LST, while Markovian transition matrices and spatial linear regression models assessed LULC dynamics and LST trends. Notably, built-up areas grew from 69.40 km2 in 1990 to 338.74 km2 in 2020, while LST in urban areas showed a pronounced warming trend, with temperatures increasing from an average of 43.71 °C in 1990 to 50.46 °C in 2020. Six landscape fragmentation indices were then calculated for urban areas over three decades. The results show that the Largest Patch Index (LPI) increases from 22.78 in 1990 to 65.24 in 2020, and the number of patches (NP) escalates from 2,531 in 1990 to an impressive 10,710 in 2020. Further regression analyses highlighted the morphological changes in the cities and attributed almost 97% of the LST variability to these urban patch dynamics. In addition, water bodies showed a cooling trend with a temperature decrease from 33.76 °C in 2000 to 29.69 °C in 2020, suggesting an anthropogenic influence. The conclusion emphasises the urgent need for sustainable urban planning to counteract the warming trends associated with urban sprawl and promote climate resilience.

The Effect of Bariatric Surgery on Menstrual Abnormalities in Saudi Women: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Adults in Saudi Arabia are more likely to be obese, which has negative effects on reproductive health, especially for women. While bariatric surgery (BS) provides a sustainable approach, little is known about how it affects menstrual health and requires a study among the Saudi demographic. METHODS: The current investigation is a cross-sectional study conducted in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected using an online questionnaire to assess the impact of BS on menstrual abnormalities in women. Data were cleaned in Excel and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, IBM Corp., Version 24.0, Armonk, NY). RESULTS: This study included 516 Saudi women who underwent various BS procedures, with 37.2% aged 18-30 years and 97.9% residing in Saudi Arabia. Approximately 85.9% underwent sleeve gastrectomy (SG), experiencing a mean weight loss of 54.2 kg. Co-morbidities included polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) (12.4%), hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism (11%), uterine fibroids (4.7%), and hormonal imbalances (2.5%). Post-surgery, 18% encountered BS complications from BS, while 8.3% used antidepressants. Moderate sports participation ranged from 12.2% (five or more days) to 36.2% (one to three days). In particular, no significant associations were found between complications and various parameters, except a marginal association with educational level (p=0.071). The number of menstruations per year did not change statistically significantly, remaining constant at 10.6±4.8 before surgery and 10.6±4.9 after surgery (p = 0.859). However, there was a mild decrease in the amount and duration of menstruation, reported by 23.3% and 27.3% of the participants preoperatively and post-operatively, respectively. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates the impact of BS on menstrual abnormalities in Saudi women. Despite a significant weight reduction, we found mild improvement in the amount and duration of menstruation with no substantial effect observed on the menstrual cycle frequency. Psychological support after surgery is crucial, considering the increased use of antidepressants.

Primary Thromboprophylaxis for the Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism in Cancer Patients with Central Venous Catheters: A Literature Review.

Cancer is a known risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE). The wider adoption of immunotherapy and anti-angiogenic drugs in recent years have increased this risk further. Central venous catheters (CVCs) are widely used access devices utilized to deliver infusion therapy, mostly in ambulatory settings. The endothelial injury associated with the use of these catheters adds to the risk of VTE to already high-risk patients. The introduction of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), with its proven efficacy and safety in multiple clinical indications, have renewed the attention to VTE prophylaxis in cancer patients with CVC. Several clinical trials and meta-analyses had shown that both apixaban and rivaroxaban are effective in lowering the risk of VTE, without increasing the risk of bleeding. Several risk assessment models (RAM) have utilized patient-related, tumor-related, and treatment-related factors, in addition to widely available biomarkers, like Hemoglobin (Hb) level, white blood cell (WBC) and platelets counts to stratify patients into two or three VTE risk levels. In this manuscript, we review the published clinical trials and meta-analyses that attempted to study the efficacy and safety of anticoagulants, mostly the DOACs, in cancer patients with CVCs. We will also propose a practical risk-directed approach to enhance VTE prophylaxis rate.

Quality and applicability of cadaveric donor eyes for molecular biology research: An Indian experience.

PURPOSE: Human ocular tissue banking plays an important part in the advancement of translational research for identifying the molecular processes involved in disease etiology and pathogenesis. Timely obtaining a good-quality ocular tissue from a cadaveric donor is exceedingly difficult, especially in remote areas, with a variable transportation time (within 12-24 h), raising concerns about RNA quality and its subsequent applications. Therefore, we assessed the utility of retinal tissues from cadaver donor and enucleated eyes based on the RNA quality and gene expression by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Prospective study. METHODS: Retina tissues were separated from the donor/enucleated eyes received in the eye bank within 24 h of death (n = 15) and within an hour from OR (n = 3), respectively, and stored immediately at -80 degree. RNA was isolated using trizol, and the quantity and quality were assessed using Qubit and agarose gel electrophoresis, respectively. QPCR was performed for measuring the expression of different retinal-specific genes. The cellular viability of the retina was assessed by establishing explant primary cell cultures. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data were calculated as an average of normalised Ct values ± standard error of the mean. RESULTS: RNA obtained from cadaveric tissues despite being partially degraded showed a uniform strong gene expression of several retinal-specific genes such as PAX6, RHO, TUBB3, CRX , and ALDH1L1 . The primary cultures established from cadaveric tissues showed viable cells. CONCLUSION: The cadaver donor tissues collected within 24 hours of death can be effectively utilized for gene expression profiling.

Awareness and Risk Assessment of Breast Cancer Among Women in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background Breast cancer is the most common female cancer worldwide including in Saudi Arabia. As a result, many cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, leading to a poor outcome. Understanding risk perception is a significant component of awareness of breast cancer risks. It can be helpful to reduce the mortality of breast cancer via increasing awareness of the risk factors. Objective Our study was designed to assess the level of awareness among women in Saudi Arabia regarding breast cancer, including knowledge about risk factors, symptoms, and the importance of early detection. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted, and participants were randomly selected. The target population in this study is all women in Saudi Arabia. Data was collected via an online questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, IBM Corp., Version 21.0, Armonk, NY). Results About 713 women were enrolled in this study. Most of them (69%) were within the age group of 35-45 years old. Age at menarche was found to be 12-13 years old in 313 (43.9%) of the participants and age at first live birth was found to be 20-24 in about 360 (50.5%). The number of population with first-degree relatives that have a history of breast cancer is one relative in 126 (17.7%) of the participants and about 36 (5%) had breast biopsy. About 76 (10.7%) of the participants were considered as having a high risk of breast cancer according to the estimated five-year breast cancer-risk assessment (had a five-year breast cancer risk >1.66%). The mean knowledge score of the participants about breast cancer was found to be 4.62 ± 1.86 out of 8. About 509 (71.4%) of the participants were considered to be having a good level of knowledge about breast cancer. Long-term hormone contraceptive use and older age can increase the chance of developing breast cancer as agreed on by 363 (50.9%) and 287 (40.3%) of the participants respectively. A total of 677 (95%) of the participants mentioned that early detection is important to survive breast cancer. And 639 (89.6%) of the participants think that breast cancer is treatable and about 288 (40.4%) think that the suitable age to start mammography is above 30 years old. Conclusion There is a good general knowledge and awareness about breast cancer among study participants. There were few knowledge gaps regarding the effect of obesity, hormonal contraceptives and older age on the association with breast cancer. About 10% of the participants were found to be having high five-year breast cancer risk.

Antioxidant Genes Variants and Their Association with Sperm DNA Fragmentation.

Semen possesses a variety of antioxidant defense mechanisms which protect sperm DNA from the damaging effects of oxidative stress. Correlation between antioxidant genes variants and sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) level is not sufficiently studied. Therefore, we investigated the association between several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): CYP1A1 (rs1048943A > G), CYP4F2 (rs2108622G > A), NRF2 (rs6721961C > A), PON1 (rs662A > G), NOS3 (rs1799983G > T), GSTM1 (null), CAT (rs1001179C > T), SOD2 (rs4880A > G), GSTP1 (rs1695A > G), PON2 (rs7493G > C), EPHX2 (rs1042064T > C), and AHR (rs2066853G > A) and elevated SDF. The study employed a case-control design where, the allele and genotype frequencies of the selected SNPs were compared between 75 semen samples with abnormal SDF (the cases) and 75 samples with normal SDF (the controls). DNA was extracted from the semen samples and allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) was used for genotyping the SNPs. Relevant data were collected from the patients' records et al.-Basma Fertility Center. Suitable statistical tests and multifactorial dimensionality reduction (MDR) test were used to anticipate SNP-SNP interactions. Comparison of semen parameters revealed significant differences between cases and controls in terms of liquefaction time, sperm total motility, and normal form. Genotype frequencies of NOS3 G > T (GT), SOD2 A > G (AA and AG), EPHX2 T > C (CC and CT), and AHR G > A (GA and GG) were significantly different between cases and controls. Allele frequencies of SOD2 (G-allele), and EPHX2 (T-allele) also significantly varied between cases and controls. MDR analysis revealed that the NOS3, SOD2, and EPHX2 SNPs combination has the highest impact on SDF. The study findings suggest that genetic variations in genes involved antioxidant defenses contribute to abnormal SDF.