The aim of this investigation was to explores the dental specialties and availability of rubber dam facilities among private dental clinics in Al-Kharj city, Saudi Arabia. This was completed by in-person investigation of all private dental clinics in Al-Kharj city, recording the number of dental professionals, their specialties, status of their authorization, and the availability of rubber dam facilities within each clinic. One hundred and six dentists were distributed between 100 clinics in 28 centers. General dental practitioners (GDPs) were the most of them (84%). Only 10 out of the total of 14 orthodontists were authorized to practice orthodontic treatment. Rubber dam was available in only five centers. Lack of various dental specialties in Al-Kharj city was noted. The GDPs should not practice dental procedures which are not included in their job description and duty. Low rubber dam availability indicating the underuse of them which would affect the quality of dental treatment.

Reports from Saudi Arabia have showed a relationship between patients with oral cancer and a history of smokeless tobacco usage. Thus the aim of this study was to assess the levels of awareness of smokeless tobacco users towards the health effects of smokeless tobacco usage and find out, which are common smokeless products used in Northern and Western Saudi Arabia. This is a descriptive cross sectional study conducted in Northern and Western Saudi Arabia. The study included 420 smokeless tobacco users’ volunteers living in three cities: Tabuk and Hail cities in Northern Saudi Arabia and Makkah in the Western Saudi Arabia. Out of 420 respondents, only 198 (47.2%) heard something about the health consequences of smokeless tobacco use and the remaining 222(52.8%) were completely ignored the health effects resulting from smokeless tobacco use. With regard to the smokeless tobacco type, the most common was Toombak followed by Shamma, Afdhal and Nashoog representing 127(3.2%), 65(15.5%), 64(15.2%), 44(10.4%) and 33(7.8%) in this order. Different forms of smokeless tobacco are prevalent in Saudi Arabia. Since most of the users were non-Saudi workers, work places may serve as an effective platform to deliver targeted strategies aimed at smokeless tobacco cessation.

Fluoroquinolone antibacterial agents are broad spectrum molecules and may be co-prescribed with antimalarial drugs in co-presenting infections. This study aimed at assessing the intestinal permeability of piperaquine (PQ) from dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) co-formulated antimalarial co-prescribed with ciprofloxacin (CP), using ex vivoabsorption model. Excised intestinal segments (duodenum and ileum) of length 4 cm from New Zealand white albino male rabbits (n=2) loaded with DP suspension equivalent to PQ (100 mg/mL) and CP suspension (100 mg/mL) based on body weights of animals. Similarly, DP alone was loaded to serve as controls C1 and C2, respectively. The organ bath contained Tyrode solution (TS) 100 mL. Sampling (5mL) was taken at 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 6 h post immersion of tissue. PQ analysis was performed using high pressure chromatographic system with C8 ZorbactEclipse XDB (150 x 4.6 mm, 4.6 µm) column with UV detection at 220 nm and flow rate of 0.7 mL/min. Mobile phase contained acetonitrile: 10 mM ammonium acetate (70: 30 %v/v) and flow rate of 1.0 mL/min at ambient temperature. Area under the curve (AUC) ± SEM at 2 h and 6 h (AUC00-2 and AUC0-6) for tests and their respective control in duodenum were (0.2940±0.1055 versus 0.6198±0.0083 µg.mLh-1, P=0.009) and (1.9270±0.1287 versus 3.3975±0.3638 µg.mLh-1, P=0.006) and ileum (1.5300±0.1242 versus 1.5408±0.4275 µg.mLh-1, P=0.645) and (3.9500±0.0205 versus 5.6603±0.1073 µg.mLh-1, P=0.045), respectively. CP revealed lower permeability indices for PQ in duodenal but not in ileal intestinal barrier. Spacing out of drug regimen may be required for optimum PQ permeation

The aim of this research is to assess the soils and water quality along Sokoto-Rima Floodplain; the correlation analysis was used to find out the degree of relationship between pollutants in soils and water. Seven sample points was selected systematically from the map at 6.13km interval, and in each sample point, three samples were taken each of soils and water from the river at hundred meters interval. A total of 21 samples of each soils and water were taken. The samples were taken to the laboratory for analysis. The results from the analysis show that: Positive correlations exist between soils and river in P and PO4, Mg, Ca, and Fe. R2 (coefficient of determination) values are .124, .013, .053, and .445 respectively. While, negative correlations exist between soils and river in pH, N and NO3, K, and OC and CO3. R2 values are .015, .224, .075, and .027 respectively. The correlation is statistically significant between N and NO3 at 0.05 and also, it is significant in Fe at 0.01 levels.

Head nurses are the important part of administration. The responsibilities of head nurses are to manage the nurses properly and provide the best quality of care to the patients. The provision of the supportive leadership can retain the employees in the long run and better health care services can be ensured. The purpose of the current study is to illuminate the effect of leadership styles of head nurses on staff nurses’ turnover. The study is of explanatory and quantitative study design. The cross-sectional survey technique was used. The 21 items questionnaire was used and distributed to 153 nurses of the Ittefaq hospital Lahore, Pakistan to assess the impact of head nurse’s leadership styles on staff nurse’s turnover intentions. The results show that 35.5% variation in the dependent variable is explained by the independent variables. However, the current study results indicate that transactional leadership style has significant positive relationship with turnover intentions and transformational leadership style has significant negative relationship with nurses’ turnover intention. Therefore, head nurses of the private hospitals should use the transformational leadership style to overcome the issue of nurses’ turnover

This article explores the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of sacrifice and religious ritual using instrument made of animal and human body parts among the Memba tribe of Menchuka Valley. The Memba is a name given to a collection of group of Buddhist people who migrated from various parts of Bhutan, present Tawang district and Tibet (China) respectively and settled in Menchuka Circle of West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, India during the early 17th Century A.D. The paper tries to present the ritual tradition of Memba tribe of Menchuka who follow Tibetan form of Buddhism and belong to Nying-ma-pa sect. It is interesting to know that Memba are still following and preserving most of the age-old ritualistic tradition of their ancestor. They followed extensive tantric ritual and comes under third vessel Vajrayana form of Buddhism introduced by Guru Padmasambhava in Eight century A.D. in Tibet. The article tries to provide brief information regarding the types of sacrificial ritual and use of animal and human body parts that are still prevalent among the Memba tribe. The paper also traces the belief and myth associate with it. In order to do so, varieties of sources in the form of secondary, primary, field study and folk narration are briefly examined to provide glimpse of their ritualistic practice.

There are numerous kinds of centipedes present across the world. All species hold venom in their glands. However, a bite of each kind has its reactions. According to researchers, it has not been that bites of centipede killed people or pets. The symptoms of centipede stings vary depending on the degree of allergic reaction and the size of the centipede. Classically, bite victims have severe pain, swelling and redness at the site of the bite, with symptoms usually lasting less than 48 hours. Symptoms for those more sensitive to the venom’s effects may also include a headache, chest pain, heart tremors, nausea and vomiting. We are going to report and discuss a case of centipede bite or first dose of intravenous hydrocortisone complicated with a rare presentation of dystonic reaction

Parthenium hysterophorus L. is an invasive alien species of natural and agroecosystems. It causes biodiversity loss in the former and yield loss in the later. Successful eradication of P. hysterophorus is still a distant dream. We argue that the possibilities to exploit this species for material production and services should be explored. Present study evaluates this species for phytoremediation of chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni). P. hysterophorus plants were exposed to four concentrations of chromium (CN10, CN15, CN30 and CN40) and nickel (NN10, NN20, NN40 and NN50). The low concentrations of Cr (CN10) and Ni (NN10 and NN20) enhanced all the growth parameters studied. Shoot accumulation of Ni exceeded the root accumulation (TF<1) while TF>1 was noted for Cr. P. hysterophorus accumulates both heavy metals as evident from high biological concentration factor (BCF) and biological accumulation coefficient (BAC). Hence P. hysterophorus can act as phytoremediator of Ni and Cr.

Background: Pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PXF) is a well-known clinical condition associated with cataract and the more serious blinding secondary open angle glaucoma that lead silently if unilateral or asymmetrical to irreversible loss of vision as the condition will not diagnosed and treated early, so our objective is to estimate the size of the problem so we can plan to overcome the serious blinding outcome in the future. Objectives: 1-Assess the clinical condition frequency. 2-Assess associated complications as cataract and glaucoma (PXG). Settings and Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study of partially random sample. Patients and methods: Partially selected elderly Kurds patients aged 55 years or above those visited Aso eye hospital for any reason, we enrolled 252 patients, 128 female and 124 male patients in the survey, Full slit lamp examination, visual acuity, refraction, fundoscopy and intraocular pressure measurement by Applanation tonometer were done to the patients. Statistical analysis used: Microsoft excels 2010. Results: Of total 252 patients examined, we report 73 patients (146 eyes) have the syndrome; this represents a frequency or relative prevalence of about 29%. 30(44%) are females and 43 (56%) are males, so female to male ratio was about 2/3, of the affected 73 patients, 56 (76.7%) patients have the disease in both eyes (112 eyes) and 17 (23%) patients (34 eyes) of them was affected in one eye, of those affected 73 patients, 60 (82.2%) patient aged 65 years or above, 67(91.7%) of them were moderate to heavy smokers.

Objective of this study was to determine Biochemical condition and Microbiological load of water and soil sample of some costal shrimp Hatchery and Fisheries of Bangladesh. 8 samples were taken from 6 individual costal shrimp Hatchery. pH, temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, Biological Oxygen Demand, Ammonia, Salinity and Alkalinity of each sample was determined. The temperature and pH of the collected samples were found to vary from 29 to 32°C and 7.5 to 8.5 respectively. The Biological Oxygen Demand of the collected samples from different sources was found to range from 8.0 to 13.0 mg/L. The Dissolved Oxygen of the samples was observed to vary from 3.0 to 4.0 ppm. The ammonia content was observed to vary from 0.5 to 0.8 mg/L. The salinity was in the range of 28 to 32 ppt. The alkalinity of the samples was found to range from 120 to 130 mg/L. The total bacterial count and Vibrio load count of was done from collected samples. The maximum bacterial load was found to exist in the soil sample of dumping ground and at the zone of mixing point of hatchery discharged water with sea water next to it.

A simple and precise reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the determination of gliclazide in human plasma was developed and validated. Using glipizide as an internal standard (IS), separation was achieved on Atlantis dC18 column. The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile and water (pH= 2.5±0.2 adjusted with phosphoric acid) (55:45, v:v), and delivered at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. 0.5 ml plasma samples were deproteinized with dichloromethane and centrifuged. 100 µl supernatant clear solutions were injected to HPLC system. The eluent was monitored spectrophotometricly at 230 nm. No interference in blank plasma or of commonly used drugs was observed. The relationship between the concentration of gliclazide in plasma and peak height ratio of gliclazide to the IS was linear over the range of 0.05-10.0 μg/ml. Intra-day and inter-day coefficient of variation (CV) and bias were 3.1% to 6.8% and 3.8% to 9.3% respectively. Mean extraction recovery of gliclazide and the IS from plasma samples was 94% and 87% respectively. The method was applied to assess the stability of gliclazide under various conditions generally encountered in the clinical laboratory. Stability for processed and unprocessed samples was ≥ 90% and ≥ 93% respectively

Hemosiderotic Fibrolipomatous Tumor (HFLT) and pleomorphic hyalinizing angiectatic tumor of soft parts (PHAT) are rare, locally aggressive neoplasms with overlapping morphological and immunohistochemical features. HFLT is a recently described neoplasm whose cytological features have not been widely described in the literature. We present the cytological and histopathological features of this case because of its rarity and the intermediate features exhibited in this tumor, suggesting a continuous spectrum of tumors of uncertain differentiation, which includes both HFLT and PHAT. A 29 year old female presented with a painful swelling over the dorsum of foot for 1½ months. FNA of the swelling showed features of a spindle cell neoplasm with marked pleomorphism, cytoplasmic pigment, intranuclear and intracytoplasmic inclusions. A possibility of a sarcoma was given. Histopathological examination of the excised specimen showed features in favor of a soft tissue tumor of intermediate malignancy of uncertain type. Immunohistochemistry showed immunoreactivity for CD34 and negativity for CD31, S-100, HMB-45, Melan-A and pancytokeratin. These findings favoured the possibility of a HFLT. An early PHAT was also considered owing to considerable overlap seen in these two tumors.

Atherogenic cardiovascular risk assessment is important in the management of dyslipidaemia associated with antiretroviral therapy (ART). Generally, Castelli’s Risk Index (CRI), Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP) and Atherogenic coefficient (AC) are becoming useful indices as risk predictors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). We studied the importance of these indices in identifying at-risk HIV individuals receiving treatment. Eighty (80) HIV-patients comprising treatment (n=40) and treatment-naïve (n=40) groups with age- and sex-matched were enrolled. Traditional lipid parameters {Total cholesterol (TC), Triglycerol (TG), and HDLc} were analyzed using spectrophotometry. The LDLc was calculated using Friedewald equation. Non-HDLc, CRI-I (TC/HDLc ratio) and CRI-II (LDLc/HDLc ratio), AIP {Log10 (TG/HDL-c)} and AC {(Non-HDLc)/HDLc} were also calculated. The CD4+ cell count was determined using flow cytometry. The correlations between atherogenic indices and lipid profile were determined using Pearson’s correlation.

Abstract: The study sought to investigate the influence of knowledge management systems on performance of small and medium enterprises. The study was anchored on systems theory. Descriptive cross sectional research design was adopted. Owners and employees of small and medium enterprises in Nanyuki town were targeted. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 115 respondents. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and regression analysis was used to establish the relationships between the variables. The findings were presented in tables and figures. The findings showed that knowledge management systems were lowly adopted by SMEs especially for feedback and decision support systems. Knowledge management systems (p=0.11) was not found to be statistically significant. It was concluded that majority of managers and employees did not have awareness of these systems. Failure to adopt these systems therefore remains the gap in the performance of SMEs. The study recommended that SME owners and employees should be sensitized about knowledge systems to enable them adopt the same and enhance performance.

The rate of non-fatal deliberate self-harm (DSH) in Sri Lanka has increased in recent years, with associated morbidity and economic cost to the country. Pesticide ingestion is the commonest mode of suicide in Asia with an estimated loss of around 300,000 lives every year. We conducted a cross-sectional observational study in patients with 12 years of age and above who were admitted with deliberate self-harm (DSH) in Teaching Hospital Batticaloa, SriLanka. Of the 121 patients observed 83 (68.6%) females and 38 (31.4%) males. Among them, 119 (98.34%) cases (1.65%)) were of intentional poisoning and only two cases (1.44%) were of accidental poisoning. In this study, the majority of victims 47(38.84%) were young age group (20-29). Forty-two (34.71%) were teenagers.In the present study, the commonest poisoning agent was yellow oleander seeds 33 (27.3 %) followed by organophosphorus compounds 23(19%) and Paracetamol overdose 22 (18.2%). These findings support a strategy of limiting easy access to pesticides and oleander, and for improving the supply and effectiveness of antidotes, as a strategy for reducing fatal self- poisoning in rural SriLanka