King Abdul Aziz University Hospital

Obesity and its associated complications like type 2 diabetes (T2D) are reaching epidemic stages. Increased food intake and lack of exercise are two main contributing factors. Recent work has been highlighting an increasingly more important role of gut microbiota in metabolic disorders. It's well known that gut microbiota plays a major role in the development of food absorption and low grade inflammation, two key processes in obesity and diabetes. This review summarizes key discoveries during the past decade that established the role of gut microbiota in the development of obesity and diabetes. It will look at the role of key metabolites mainly the short chain fatty acids (SCFA) that are produced by gut microbiota and how they impact key metabolic pathways such as insulin signalling, incretin production as well as inflammation. It will further look at the possible ways to harness the beneficial aspects of the gut microbiota to combat these metabolic disorders and reduce their impact.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an increasing world health problem. Traditional risk factors fail to account for all deaths from CVD. It is mainly the environmental, dietary and lifestyle behavioral factors that are the control keys in the progress of this disease. The potential association between chronic heavy metal exposure, like arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, and CVD has been less well defined. The mechanism through which heavy metals act to increase cardiovascular risk factors may act still remains unknown, although impaired antioxidants metabolism and oxidative stress may play a role. However, the exact mechanism of CVD induced by heavy metals deserves further investigation either through animal experiments or through molecular and cellular studies. Furthermore, large-scale prospective studies with follow up on general populations using appropriate biomarkers and cardiovascular endpoints might be recommended to identify the factors that predispose to heavy metals toxicity in CVD. In this review, we will give a brief summary of heavy metals homeostasis, followed by a description of the available evidence for their link with CVD and the proposed mechanisms of action by which their toxic effects might be explained. Finally, suspected interactions between genetic, nutritional and environmental factors are discussed.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has swept the world, unlike any other pandemic in the last 50 years. Our understanding of the disease has evolved rapidly since the outbreak; disease prognosis is influenced mainly by multi-organ involvement. Acute respiratory distress syndrome, heart failure, renal failure, liver damage, shock and multi-organ failure are strongly associated with morbidity and mortality. The COVID-19 disease pathology is plausibly linked to the hyperinflammatory response of the body characterized by pathological cytokine levels. The term 'cytokine storm syndrome' is perhaps one of the critical hallmarks of COVID-19 disease severity. In this review, we highlight prominent cytokine families and their potential role in COVID-19, the type I and II interferons, tumour necrosis factor and members of the Interleukin family. We address various changes in cellular components of the immune response corroborating with changes in cytokine levels while discussing cytokine sources and biological functions. Finally, we discuss in brief potential therapies attempting to modulate the cytokine storm.

A simple solution: In the simple approach to silica films with perpendicular mesochannels presented herein, the substrate is immersed into a Stöber solution in which the silica precursors are hydrolyzed, cross-linked by an ammonia catalyst, and assembled with a surfactant on the substrate to form hexagonal mesostructures perpendicular to the substrate surface. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technologies are being heavily exploited and used in may domains, especially for e-healthcare. In healthcare, IoT devices have the ability to provide real-time sensory data from patients to be processed and analyzed. Collected IoT data are subjected to centralized computation, processing, and storage. Such centralization can be problematic, as it can be a single point of failure, mistrust, data manipulation and tampering, and privacy evasion. Blockchain can solve such serious problems by providing decentralized computation and storage for IoT data. Therefore, the integration IoT and blockchain technologies can become a reasonable choice for the design of a decentralized IoT-based e-healthcare systems. In this article, first, we give a brief background on blockchain. Second, popular consensus algorithms used in blockchain are discussed in the context of e-health. Third, blockchain platforms are reviewed for their appropriateness in IoT-based e-healthcare. Finally, few use cases are methodologically given to show how key features of the IoT and blockchain can be leveraged to support healthcare services and ecosystems. We also propose a data-flow architecture that combines the IoT with blockchain, called IoBHealth, that can be used for storing, accessing, and managing of e-healthcare data.

Significance This is a systematic in vivo study of gold nanorods (AuNRs)-assisted plasmonic photothermal therapy (AuNRs-PPTT) for cancer. We have optimized the properties of our AuNRs and the conditions of PPTT to achieve maximal induction of tumor apoptosis. To examine the molecular mechanisms of action of AuNRs-PPTT, we used quantitative proteomics to study protein expression levels in mouse tumor tissues and found the apoptosis pathway to be significantly perturbed. We report a long-term toxicity study (up to 15 months in the mouse model) that showed no toxicity of the AuNRs. Together, these data suggest that our AuNRs-PPTT has potential as an approach to cancer therapy.

Diet is likely to be an important determinant of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. In this article, we will review the evidence linking the consumption of fruit and vegetables and CVD risk. The initial evidence that fruit and vegetable consumption has a protective effect against CVD came from observational studies. However, uncertainty remains about the magnitude of the benefit of fruit and vegetable intake on the occurrence of CVD and whether the optimal intake is five portions or greater. Results from randomized controlled trials do not show conclusively that fruit and vegetable intake protects against CVD, in part because the dietary interventions have been of limited intensity to enable optimal analysis of their putative effects. The protective mechanisms of fruit and vegetables may not only include some of the known bioactive nutrient effects dependent on their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and electrolyte properties, but also include their functional properties, such as low glycemic load and energy density. Taken together, the totality of the evidence accumulated so far does appear to support the notion that increased intake of fruits and vegetables may reduce cardiovascular risk. It is clear that fruit and vegetables should be eaten as part of a balanced diet, as a source of vitamins, fiber, minerals, and phytochemicals. The evidence now suggests that a complicated set of several nutrients may interact with genetic factors to influence CVD risk. Therefore, it may be more important to focus on whole foods and dietary patterns rather than individual nutrients to successfully impact on CVD risk reduction. A clearer understanding of the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and cardiovascular risk would provide health professionals with significant information in terms of public health and clinical practice.

In delivering health care, an effective teamwork can immediately and positively affect patient safety and outcome. The need for effective teams is increasing due to increasing co-morbidities and increasing complexity of specialization of care. Time has gone when a doctor or a dentist or any other health practitioner in whatsoever health organization would be able to solely deliver a quality care that satisfies his or her patients. The evolution in health care and a global demand for quality patient care necessitate a parallel health care professional development with a great focus on patient centred teamwork approach. This can only be achieved by placing the patient in the centre of care and through sharing a wide based culture of values and principles. This will help forming and developing an effective team able to deliver exceptional care to the patients. Aiming towards this goal, motivation of team members should be backed by strategies and practical skills in order to achieve goals and overcome challenges. This article highlights values and principles of working as a team and principles and provides team players with a practical approach to deliver quality patient care.

Gravimetric method was used to study the temperature effects on mild steel corrosion in 2.0M of HCl and H2SO4 in the absence and presence of aqueous extract for fenugreek leaves (AEFL). In 2.0 M HCl, the results revealed that the inhibition efficiency of AEFL increases with increasing concentration, but an increase or decrease in the inhibitor efficiency depending on its concentration is detected with increasing temperature. On the other hand, in 2.0 M H2SO4, the inhibition efficiency of AEFL was found to increase with increasing both the inhibitor concentration and solution temperature. However, the AEFL inhibited mild steel corrosion in HCl more than in H2SO4 at all inhibitor concentrations and solution temperatures. The inhibition action of AEFL was performed via adsorption of the extract species on mild steel surface. The adsorption was spontaneous and followed Langmuir adsorption isotherm in HCl, while followed Temkin adsorption isotherm in H2SO4 at all studied temperatures. Thermodynamic data for both inhibitor adsorption and mild steel corrosion led to suggest the occurrence of (a) comprehensive adsorption (physical and chemical adsorption) for the inhibitor species on mild steel from HCl solution and (b) chemical adsorption for the inhibitor species on mild steel from H2SO4 solution. The inhibition mechanism for the adsorption of AEFL species on mild steel surface from both acids was discussed with the light of some AEFL constituents.

BACKGROUND: Disturbance in the metabolism of tryptophan and tryptophan-derived compounds (e.g., melatonin) may have a role in the pathogenesis of delirium. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of low dose exogenous melatonin in decreasing delirium. DESIGN: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study. SETTING: An Internal Medicine service in a tertiary care centre in London, Ontario, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: 145 individuals aged 65 years or over admitted through the emergency department to a medical unit in a tertiary care hospital. INTERVENTION: Patients were randomized to receive either 0.5 mg of melatonin or placebo every night for 14 days or until discharge. MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was the occurrence of delirium as determined by Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) criteria. RESULTS: Of a total of 145 individuals (mean age (standard deviation): 84.5 (6.1) years) 72 were randomly assigned to the melatonin group and 73 to the placebo group. Melatonin was associated with a lower risk of delirium (12.0% vs. 31.0%, p = 0.014), with an odds ratio (OR), adjusted for dementia and co-morbidities of 0.19 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.06-0.62). Results were not different when patients with prevalent delirium were excluded. LIMITATION: An intention to treat analysis was not possible due to loss to follow-up. CONCLUSION: Exogenous low dose melatonin administered nightly to elderly patients admitted to acute care may represent a potential protective agent against delirium.

The general strategy of this study was based on evaluation of the possibility of applying advanced photo-oxidation technique (Fenton oxidation process) for removal of the residuals organic pollutants present in cosmetic wastewater. The different parameters that affect the chemical oxidation process for dyes in their aqueous solutions were studied by using Fenton’s reaction. These parameters are pH, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) dose, ferrous sulfate (FeSO4·7H2O) dose, Initial dye concentration, and time. The optimum conditions were found to be: pH 3, the dose of 1 ml/l H2O2 and 0.75 g/l for Fe(II) and Fe(III) and reaction time 40 min. Finally, chemical oxygen demands (COD), before and after oxidation process was measured to ensure the entire destruction of organic dyes during their removal from wastewater. The experimental results show that Fenton’s oxidation process successfully achieved very good removal efficiency over 95%.

A 2-year experiment was conducted to ascertain the effects of exogenously applied plant growth regulators (PGR) on rice growth and yield attributes under high day (HDT) and high night temperature (HNT). Two rice cultivars (IR-64 and Huanghuazhan) were subjected to temperature treatments in controlled growth chambers and four different combinations of ascorbic acid (Vc), alpha-tocopherol (Ve), brassinosteroids (Br), methyl jasmonates (MeJA), and triazoles (Tr) were applied. High temperature severely affected rice morphology, and also reduced leaf area, above-, and below-ground biomass, photosynthesis, and water use efficiency, while increased the leaf water potential of both rice cultivars. Grain yield and its related attributes except number of panicles, were reduced under high temperature. The HDT posed more negative effects on rice physiological attributes, while HNT was more detrimental for grain formation and yield. The Huanghuazhan performed better than IR-64 under high temperature stress with better growth and higher grain yield. Exogenous application of PGRs was helpful in alleviating the adverse effects of high temperature. Among PGR combinations, the Vc+Ve+MejA+Br was the most effective treatment for both cultivars under high temperature stress. The highest grain production by Vc+Ve+MejA+Br treated plants was due to enhanced photosynthesis, spikelet fertility and grain filling, which compensated the adversities of high temperature stress. Taken together, these results will be of worth for further understanding the adaptation and survival mechanisms of rice to high temperature and will assist in developing heat-resistant rice germplasm in future.

Agriculture is a vital area for the sustenance of mankind engulfing manufacturing, security, traceability, and sustainable resource management. With the resources receding expeditiously, it is of utmost significance to innovate techniques that help in the subsistence of agriculture. The growth of Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain technology as two rapidly emerging fields can ameliorate the state of food chain today. This paper provides a rigorous literature review to inspect the state-of-the-art development of the schemes that provide information security using blockchain technology. After identifying the core requirements in smart agriculture, a generalized blockchain-based security architecture has been proposed. A detailed cost analysis has been conducted on the studied schemes. A meticulous comparative analysis uncovered the drawbacks in existing research. Furthermore, detailed analysis of the literature has also revealed the security goals towards which the research has been directed and helped to identify new avenues for future research using artificial intelligence.

While Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) can potentially improve driver safety and traffic mangement efficiency (e.g. through timely sharing of traffic status among vehicles), security and privacy are two ongoing issues that need to be addressed. Hence, security solutions such as conditional privacy-preserving authentication (CPPA) protocols have been proposed. However, CPPA protocols are generally far from being ready for deployment in VANETs, for example due key/certificate management limitations in PKI-based protocols or intractable private key updating in ID-based protocols. Although serveral blockchain-based CPPA (BCPPA) protocols have been proposed to mitigiate these challenges, there still exist some intractabilities such as revoking private key, or frequent interactions, or requiring an idea hardware. Thus, in this paper, we are motivated to propose a novel BCPPA protocol without these existing issues. Specifically, we present a PKI-based solution (using a typical digital signature protocol, such as ECDSA) based on Ethereum (a public blockchain), which is designed to facilitate secure communication in VANETs. In other words, we combine the blockchain technology and a key derivation algorithm to realize an effective certificate management. This reduces the need for participating vehicles to store a large number of private keys. To reduce the verification time cost, our BCPPA suppotrs replacing ECDSA with modified ECDSA for batch verification or directly adopting other PKI-based signatures with batch verification. In addition to introducing the concrete design, we also present the security requirements that our BCPPA protocol can satisfy. We then implement BCPPA in the Ethereum test network (i.e. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Rinkeby</i> ) and provide simulations using VanetMobiSim and NS-2 to show its feasibility (i.e. milliseconds).

ABSTRACT Chitosan (CHN), a deacetylated derivative of chitin, was shown to be efficient in promoting plant defense reactions. CHN oligomers of different molecular weight (MW) and degree of acetylation (DA) triggered an accumulation of phytoalexins, trans- and cis-resveratrol and their derivatives epsilon-viniferin and piceid, in grapevine leaves. Highest phytoalexin production was achieved within 48 h of incubation with CHN at 200 mug/ml with an MW of 1,500 and a DA of 20% (CHN1.5/20), while oligomers with greater MW were less efficient, indicating that a specific MW threshold could be required for phytoalexin response. Treatment of grapevine leaves by highly active CHN1.5/20 also led to marked induction of chitinase and beta-1,3-glucanase activities. CHN1.5/20 applied together with copper sulfate (CuSO(4)) strongly induced phytoalexin accumulation. CuSO(4) alone, especially at low concentrations also elicited a substantial production of phytoalexins in grapevine leaves. Evidence is also provided that CHN1.5/20 significantly reduced the infection of grapevine leaves by Botrytis cinerea and Plasmopara viticola, and in combination with CuSO(4) conferred protection against both pathogens.

OBJECTIVE: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major public health problem worldwide. To our knowledge, there is no national data available from community based studies on prevalence of CAD in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Therefore, we designed this study with the objective to determine the prevalence of CAD among Saudis of both sexes, between the ages of 30-70-years in rural as well as urban communities. Further, to determine the prevalence and clinical pattern of the major modifiable risk factors for CAD among the same population. This work is part of a major national study on CAD in Saudis Study (CADISS). METHODS: This is a community based study conducted by examining subjects in the age group of 30-70-years of selected households during 5-year period between 1995 and 2000 in KSA. Data were obtained from history using a validated questionnaire, and electrocardiography. The data were analyzed to provide prevalence of CAD and risk assessment model. RESULTS: Nine hundred and forty-four subjects, out of 17232 were diagnosed to have CAD. Thus, the overall prevalence of CAD obtained from this study is 5.5% in KSA. The prevalence in males and females were 6.6% and 4.4% (P<0.0001). Urban Saudis have a higher prevalence of 6.2% compared to rural Saudis of 4% (P<0.0001). The following variables are found to be statistically significant risk factors in KSA: age, male gender, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, current smoking, fasting blood glucose, fasting cholesterol and triglycerides. CONCLUSION: The overall prevalence of CAD in KSA is 5.5%. A national prevention program at community level as well as high risk groups should be implemented sooner to prevent the expected epidemic of CAD that we are seeing, beginning. Measures are needed to change lifestyle and to address the management of the metabolic syndrome, to reduce modifiable risk factors for CAD. A longitudinal study is needed to demonstrate the importance of reducing modifiable risk factors for CAD in KSA.

Ein einfacher Weg zu Siliciumoxidfilmen mit senkrechten Mesokanälen: Das Substrat wird in eine Stöber-Lösung getaucht, in der die Siliciumoxidvorstufen hydrolysiert, mit Ammoniak als Katalysator vernetzt und mithilfe eines Tensids auf dem Substrat zu hexagonalen Mesostrukturen zusammengefügt werden, die senkrecht zur Substratoberfläche angeordnet sind. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

Salinity impedes soil and crop productivity in over 900 million ha of arable lands worldwide due to the excessive accumulation of salt (NaCl). To utilize saline soils in agriculture, halophytes (salt-tolerant plants) are commonly cultivated. However, most food crops are glycophytes (salt-sensitive). Thus, to enhance the productivity of saline soils, gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) as well as bio-organic (combined use of organic materials, such as compost and straw with the inoculation of beneficial microbes) amendments have been continuously recognized to improve the biological, physical and chemical properties of saline soils. CaSO4·2H2O regulates the exchange of sodium (Na+) for calcium (Ca2+) on the clay surfaces, thereby increasing the Ca2+/Na+ ratio in the soil solution. Intracellularly, Ca2+ also promotes a higher K+/Na+ ratio. Simultaneously, gypsum furnishes crops with sulfur (S) for enhanced growth and yield through the increased production of phytohormones, amino acids, glutathione and osmoprotectants, which are vital elicitors in plants’ responses to salinity stress. Likewise, bio-organic amendments improve the organic matter and carbon content, nutrient cycling, porosity, water holding capacity, soil enzyme activities and biodiversity in saline soils. Overall, the integrated application of gypsum and bio-organic amendments in cultivating glycophytes and halophytes is a highly promising strategy in enhancing the productivity of saline soils.

In plants, UGTs (UDP-glycosyltransferases) glycosylate various phytohormones and metabolites in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Little is known about stress-responsive glycosyltransferases in plants. Therefore, it is important to understand the genomic and transcriptomic portfolio of plants with regard to biotic and abiotic stresses. Here, we identified 140, 154, and 251 putative UGTs in Brassica rapa, Brassica oleracea, and Brassica napus, respectively, and clustered them into 14 major phylogenetic groups (A-N). Fourteen major KEGG pathways and 24 biological processes were associated with the UGTs, highlighting them as unique modulators against environmental stimuli. Putative UGTs from B. rapa and B. oleracea showed a negative selection pressure and biased gene fractionation pattern during their evolution. Polyploidization increased the intron proportion and number of UGT-containing introns among Brassica. The putative UGTs were preferentially expressed in developing tissues and at the senescence stage. Differential expression of up- and down-regulated UGTs in response to phytohormone treatments, pathogen responsiveness and abiotic stresses, inferred from microarray and RNA-Seq data in Arabidopsis and Brassica broaden the glycosylation impact at the molecular level. This study identifies unique candidate UGTs for the manipulation of biotic and abiotic stress pathways in Brassica and Arabidopsis.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is now the leading cause of death globally and is a growing health concern. Dietary factors are important in the pathogenesis of CVD and may to a large degree determine CVD risk, but have been less extensively investigated. Functional foods are those that are thought to have physiological benefits and/or reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond their basic nutritional functions. The food industry has started to market products labelled as "functional foods." Although many review articles have focused on individual dietary variables as determinants of CVD that can be modified to reduce the risk of CVD, the aim of this current paper was to examine the impact of functional foods in relation to the development and progression of CVD. Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated the association between certain dietary patterns and cardiovascular health. Research into the cardio-protective potential of their dietary components might support the development of functional foods and nutraceuticals. This paper will also compare the effect of individual bioactive dietary compounds with the effect of some dietary patterns in terms of their cardiovascular protection.