Explore the vast range of titles available.

Background. The etiology of foot intertrigo is varied. Several pathogens and skin conditions might play a role in toe web space lesions. Objective. To identify the possible etiological causes of toe web space lesions. Methods. 100 Egyptian patients were enrolled in this study (72 females and 28 males). Their ages ranged from 18 to 79 years. For every patient, detailed history taking, general and skin examinations, and investigations including Wood’s light examination, skin scraping for potassium hydroxide test, skin swabs for bacterial isolation, and skin biopsy all were done. Results. Among the 100 patients, positive Wood’s light fluorescence was observed in 24 and positive bacterial growth was observed in 85. With skin biopsy, 52 patients showed features characteristic for eczema, 25 showed features characteristic for fungus, 19 showed features characteristic for callosity, and 3 showed features characteristic for wart while in only 1 patient the features were characteristic for lichen planus. Conclusion. Toe web space lesions are caused by different etiological factors. The most common was interdigital eczema (52%) followed by fungal infection (25%). We suggest that patients who do not respond to antifungals should be reexamined for another primary or secondary dermatologic condition that may resemble interdigital fungal infection.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a lethal viral disease transmitted by contact with infected people and animals. Ebola infection represents a worldwide health threat causing enormous mortality rates and fatal epidemics. Major concern is pilgrimage seasons with possible transmission to Middle East populations. In this review, we aim to shed light on Ebola hemorrhagic fever as regard: virology, transmission, biology, pathogenesis, clinical picture, and complications to get the best results for prevention and management. We also aim to guide future research to new therapeutic perspectives to precise targets. Our methodology was to review the literature extensively to make an overall view of the biology of Ebola virus infection, its serious health effects and possible therapeutic benefits using currently available remedies and future perspectives. Key findings in Ebola patients are fever, hepatic impairment, hepatocellular necrosis, lymphopenia (for T-lymphocyte and natural killer cells) with lymphocyte apoptosis, hemorrhagic manifestations, and complications. Pathogenesis in Ebola infection includes oxidative stress, immune suppression of both cell-mediated and humoral immunities, hepatic and adrenal impairment and failure, hemorrhagic fever, activation of deleterious inflammatory pathways, for example, tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand, and factor of apoptotic signal death receptor pathways causing lymphocyte depletion. Several inflammatory mediators and cytokines are involved in pathogenesis, for example, interleukin-2, 6, 8, and 10 and others. In conclusion, Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a serious fatal viral infection that can be prevented using strict health measures and can be treated to some extent using some currently available remedies. Newer treatment lines, for example, prophetic medicine remedies as nigella sativa may be promising.

In modern machine learning, optimization algorithms are crucial; they steer the training process by skillfully navigating through complex, high-dimensional loss landscapes. Among these, stochastic gradient descent with momentum (SGDM) is widely adopted for its ability to accelerate convergence in shallow regions. However, SGDM struggles in challenging optimization landscapes, where narrow, curved valleys can lead to oscillations and slow progress. This paper introduces dual enhanced SGD (DESGD), which addresses these limitations by dynamically adapting both momentum and step size on the same update rules of SGDM. In two optimization test functions, the Rosenbrock and Sum Square functions, the suggested optimizer typically performs better than SGDM and Adam. For example, it accomplishes comparable errors while achieving up to 81–95% fewer iterations and 66–91% less CPU time than SGDM and 67–78% fewer iterations with 62–70% quicker runtimes than Adam. On the MNIST dataset, the proposed optimizer achieved the highest accuracies and lowest test losses across the majority of batch sizes. Compared to SGDM, they consistently improved accuracy by about 1–2% , while performing on par with or slightly better than Adam in accuracy and error. Although SGDM remained the fastest per-step optimizer, our method’s computational cost is aligned with that of other adaptive optimizers like Adam. This marginal increase in per-iteration overhead is decisively justified by the substantial gains in model accuracy and reduction in training loss, demonstrating a favorable cost-to-performance ratio. The results demonstrate that DESGD is a promising practical optimizer to handle scenarios demanding stability in challenging landscapes.

The use of natural preservatives became of great interest; good examples of these natural preservation agents are plant peels. The use of plant peels has dual benefits; first is their antimicrobial activity against food-borne pathogens, while the second is minimizing agro-industrial wastes. The evaluation of the antimicrobial potential of both methanolic and ethanolic extracts of three fruit peels (orange, pomegranate, and banana), against 4 Gram-positive (G.sup.+), 3 Gram-negative bacteria (G.sup.-), and 2 fungal strains revealed that both pomegranate peel extracts exhibited significantly higher inhibitory effect on all tested G.sup.+ bacteria. Methanolic extract of pomegranate peel gave higher activity than the ethanolic one against G.sup.+ and G.sup.- bacteria except for S. typhimurium. Against A. flavus and A. niger, both pomegranate and orange extracts showed activity ranging between 65 and 100% more than the positive control. The ethanolic extracts of all tested peels showed a considerable capacity of antioxidant compounds compared to the methanolic extracts. The highest antioxidant capacity was found for ethanolic and methanolic extracts of pomegranate, 66.870 and 56.262 mg/ml, respectively. Generally, the concentration of total phenolic compounds was higher than that of total flavonoids followed by tannins. The highest readings of all tested constituents were reported for pomegranate extracts followed by orange and then banana. The total phenolic content, total flavonoids, and tannins were proportional to antioxidant values. GC-MS of pomegranate peel extracts identified 23 compounds in the methanolic extract versus 31 compounds in the ethanolic one. These components were identified based on their retention times and mass spectral fragmentation pattern. 5-hydroxymethylfufural (HMF) represented the major component in both methanolic and ethanolic extracts with peak area percentage of 65.78% and 48.43%, respectively. The results showed negative effect of methanolic and ethanolic extracts of pomegranate on G.sup.+ and G.sup.- bacteria and two fungal pathogenic strains. The phytochemical analysis regarded these results to the high content of phenols, flavonoids, and tannins. GC-MS chromatogram identified many compounds known to be effective as antioxidants and antibacterial and antifungal agents. These indications show that pomegranate peel may be a superior natural food-preserver, but further studies about the suitable formulation, dosage, and possible side-effects are still needed.

PurposeTo determine the diagnostic sensitivity and interobserver agreement of Gallium 68-prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography/computed tomography (68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT) imaging for diagnosis and staging of patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer (PC).Materials and methodsOne hundred and seventy-three men (mean age, 68 ± 7.7 years; range 46–84 years) with newly diagnosed, untreated PC were enrolled in this prospective study between January 2017 and August 2018. All patients underwent a 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT examination. For each patient, we determined the disease stage, the Gleason score, and the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) for primary prostatic tumor and extraprostatic metastases. The diagnostic sensitivity and interobserver agreement of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT for diagnosis and staging of PC were established by histopathology as the reference standard.Results68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT examinations were interpreted as positive for PC in 166 of 173 patients (101 patients had primary prostatic tumor only, two patients had extraprostatic metastases only and 63 patients had combined lesions). The sensitivity of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT examination in the diagnosis of PC was 96%. 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT produced a significant change of stage in 28.6% patients with an upstage in 17.9% patients and a downstage in 10.7% patients. The interobserver agreements were almost good to perfect (k = 0.63–0.89) for visual image interpretation, SUVmax measurement, and tumor staging.Conclusion68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT is a valuable tool with high diagnostic sensitivity (96%) and high reproducibility for diagnosis and staging of patients with newly diagnosed PC.

A novel cost-effective, rapid, and eco-friendly method was described for the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the gaseous emissions of gasoline engines. This involved the use of a sandwich filter (~10 cm diameter) made of a nonwoven poly (m-phenylene isophthalamide) (Nomex) fabric loaded with a thin layer of activated carbon. The optimized filter, with an activated carbon mass of 2.89 mg/cm2, a thickness of 4.8 mm, and an air permeability of 0.5 cm3/cm2/s, was tested. A simple homemade sampling device equipped with solid-state electrochemical sensors to monitor the concentration levels of CO2 before and after filtration of the emissions was utilized. The data were transmitted via a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) link to an Internet of Things (IoT)-based gas monitoring system for remote management, and real-time data visualization. The proposed device achieved a 70 ± 3.4% CO2-removal efficiency within 7 min of operation. Characterization of the filter was conducted using a high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. The effects of loaded activated carbon mass, fabric type, filter porosity, gaseous removal time, and adsorption kinetics were also examined. The proposed filter displayed several advantages, including simplicity, compactness, dry design, ease of regeneration, scalability, durability, low cost, and good efficiency. Heat resistance, fire retardancy, mechanical stability, and the ability to remove other gasoline combustion products such as CO, SOx, NOx, VOCs, and particulates were also offered. The filtration system enabled both in situ and on-line CO2 real-time continuous emission monitoring.

This article presents the circularly polarized antenna operating over 28 GHz mm-wave applications. The suggested antenna has compact size, simple geometry, wideband, high gain, and offers circular polarization. Afterward, two-port MIMO antenna are designed to get Left Hand Circular Polarization (LHCP) and Right-Hand Circular Polarization (RHCP). Four different cases are adopted to construct two-port MIMO antenna of suggested antenna. In case 1, both of the elements are placed parallel to each other; in the second case, the element is parallel but the radiating patch of second antenna element are rotated by 180°. In the third case, the second antenna element is placed orthogonally to the first antenna element. In the final case, the antenna is parallel but placed in the opposite end of substrate material. The S-parameters, axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) gain, and radiation efficiency are studied and compared in all these cases. The two MIMO systems of all cases are designed by using Roger RT/Duroid 6002 with thickness of 0.79 mm. The overall size of two-port MIMO antennas is 20.5 mm × 12 mm × 0.79 mm. The MIMO configuration of the suggested CP antenna offers wideband, low mutual coupling, wide ARBW, high gain, and high radiation efficiency. The hardware prototype of all cases is fabricated to verify the predicated results. Moreover, the comparison of suggested two-port MIMO antenna is also performed with already published work, which show the quality of suggested work in terms of various performance parameters over them.

Objectives This investigation aims to assess the prognostic significance of the pre-therapeutic prognostic nutritional index (PNI) in individuals with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing treatment with either sorafenib or regorafenib. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 150 patients with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage B/C HCC treated with sorafenib (n = 130) or regorafenib (n = 20) between September 2021 and January 2024. PNI was calculated as 10 × albumin (g/dL) + 0.005 × lymphocyte count (/mm 3 ). Outcomes included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and radiological response (mRECIST). Results A PNI cutoff of 40.6 (sensitivity: 70%, specificity: 61%) stratified patients into high and low PNI groups. High PNI was significantly associated with longer OS in both sorafenib (6 vs. 3.3 months, P  < 0.001) and regorafenib (8 vs. 3.7 months, P  < 0.01) cohorts. Similarly, PFS was significantly prolonged in high PNI patients (sorafenib: 4.95 vs. 3 months; regorafenib: 7.7 vs. 3.1 months). Multivariate analysis confirmed high PNI and low albumin–bilirubin score (ALBI) score as independent predictors of OS and PFS. Conclusions Pretreatment PNI is a reliable, cost-effective predictor of OS and PFS in advanced HCC patients treated with sorafenib or regorafenib. Alongside Child–Pugh and ALBI scores, PNI may help guide personalized treatment strategies by identifying patients most likely to benefit.

This study reports the physicochemical characterization of clover ( Trifolium hybridum ) and citrus ( Citrus sinensis ) honeys produced in Fayoum, Egypt, by evaluating the analysis of moisture content, pH, total soluble solids (TSS), electric conductivity (EC), total sugars, crude protein, ash content, total acidity, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), and total phenolic compounds (TPC). Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of honey extracts and their flower extracts were determined. The results clearly indicated that ethanol gave the highest extraction yield of both clover and citrus flowers, while ethyl acetate showed the highest extraction recovery for the phenolic compounds, with TPC amounting to 338.5 and 536.4 mg gallic acid equivalent kg −1 fresh weight in clover and citrus flower extracts, respectively. Honey samples have less TPC than their flowers. The results showed that the TPC of citrus honey and its flowers was higher than clover honey and its flowers, respectively. Antioxidant activity was higher in extracts obtained from citrus flower than extracts of clover flower. The same trend was noticed for honey samples. Both clover and citrus honeys showed antimicrobial effects against tested microorganisms. HPLC analysis showed that p -coumaric acid was the main phenolic component in ethanol extracts of clover and citrus honeys, contributing about 83.0% and 52.2%, respectively. In citrus and clover flower extracts, syringic acid and quercetin were the main phenolics, respectively. It would be expected that characteristics of honey samples are mainly depended on the floral origin of nectar foraged by bees.

Drought stress and nutrient status are highly important for plant growth and productivity. Two field experiments were conducted during two consecutive seasons (2017–2018 and 2018–2019) at El-Molak, Abo-Hammad, Sharkia, Egypt. This work was conducted under sandy soil conditions to evaluate the effects of foliar application with growth regulators (PGRs) such as cycocel (CCC), applied at 0, 500, or 1000 mg L−1, and/or salicylic acid (SA), applied at 0, 0.05, or 0.1 mM on the productivity as well as improving drought tolerance of three wheat cultivars, i.e., Gemmeiza 11, Misr 1, and Giza 171 under three irrigation intervals, i.e., 10, 15, and 20 days. Foliar spray was given at 35 and 50 days after planting (DAP). The obtained results showed that mean squares as a result of the main effect and first- and second-order interactions were significant (p ≤ 0.01) for all studied traits. The application of SA increased total chlorophyll content and flag leaf area (cm2) while the number of days to 50% heading was decreased; however, the number of spikes m−2, protein and proline contents were increased with the application of CCC. The cultivar Misr 1 outperformed the other cultivars in the most studied traits. Estimates of heritability in the broad sense (h2b) were, on average, higher in five physiological traits than other agronomic traits, and the highest estimate of h2b (95.1%) was shown by the number of days to 50% heading followed by protein content (91.90%). Among the interactions between irrigation and growth regulators, the I(10) × SA(0.1) recorded the highest flag leaf area (cm2), SPAD value, number of grains spike−1, 1000-grain weight (g), and grain yield (t ha−1). Among the interactions between irrigation and cultivars, the I(10) × Misr 1 recorded the highest flag leaf area (cm2), SPAD value, number of grains spike−1, and grain yield (t ha−1). Among the interactions among irrigation, growth regulators and cultivars, the I(10) × SA(0.1) × Misr 1 recorded the highest flag leaf area (cm2), number of grains spike−1, 1000-grain weight (g), and grain yield (t ha−1). Correlation coefficient between grain yield (t ha−1) and each of the number of days to 50% heading, flag leaf area, total chlorophyll content, number of spikes m−2, number of grains spike−1, and 1000-grain weight was positive and significant. Three main factors for the studied variables were created from the application of the factor analysis technique. Grain yield ha−1 (Y) can be predicted by the method of forwarding stepwise through applying the automatic linear regression analysis. Besides, the best prediction equation of grain yield ha−1 (Y) was formulated as: Ỷ = −14.36 + 0.11 number of grains spike−1 (NGS) + 0.09 1000-grain weight (THW) + 0.04 number of spike m−2 (NSm) + 0.03 days to 50% heading (DF) + 0.02 total chlorophyll content (TC) with adjusted-R2 (87.33%).