Explore the vast range of titles available.

Introduction Injuries are the third most important cause of overall deaths globally with one-quarter resulting from road traffic crashes. Majority of these deaths occur before arrival in the hospital and can be reduced with prompt and efficient prehospital care. The aim of this study was to highlight the burden of road traffic injury (RTI) in Lagos, Nigeria and assess the effectiveness of prehospital care, especially the role of Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS) in providing initial care and transportation of the injured to the hospital. A three-year, retrospective review of road traffic injured patients seen at the Surgical Emergency Room (SER) of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Nigeria, from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014 was conducted. Parameters extracted from the Institution Trauma Registry included bio-data, date and time of injury, date and time of arrival in SER, host status, type of vehicle involved, and region(s) injured. Information on how patients came to the hospital and outcome in SER also were recorded. Results were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS; IBM Corporation; Armonk, New York USA) version 16. A total of 23,537 patients were seen during the study period. Among them, 16,024 (68.1%) had trauma. Road traffic crashes were responsible in 5,629 (35.0%) of trauma cases. Passengers constituted 42.0% of the injured, followed by pedestrians (34.0%). Four wheelers were the most frequent vehicle type involved (54.0%), followed by motor cycles (30.0%). Regions mainly affected were head and neck (40.0%) and lower limb (29.0%). Less than one-quarter (24.0%) presented to the emergency room within an hour, while one-third arrived between one and six hours following injury. Relatives brought 55.4%, followed by bystanders (21.4%). Only 2.3% had formal prehospital care and were brought to the hospital by LASAMBUS. They also had significantly shorter arrival time. One hundred and nine patients (1.9%) died in the emergency room while 235 bodies were brought in dead. Less than three percent among the victims of road crashes had formal prehospital care and shorter hospital arrival time. Current facilities for emergency prehospital care in Lagos are inadequate and require improvement. Training lay first-responders, who bring the majority of the injured to hospital, in basic first-aid may improve prehospital care in Lagos. Ibrahim NA , Ajani AWO , Mustafa IA , Balogun RA , Oludara MA , Idowu OE , Solagberu BA . Road traffic injury in Lagos, Nigeria: assessing prehospital care. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32(4):424-430.

Purpose Child pedestrian injuries and fatalities in developing countries continue to increase. We examined child pedestrian injuries and fatalities in the most populated urban agglomeration in Africa in order to develop control measures. Methods Two-year prospective study of injured child pedestrians (≤15 years) at the Surgical Emergency Room (SER) to determine demography, vehicles involved, road location, injury mechanism, pre-hospital transport, injury-arrival time, regions injured, injury severity and fatalities was done. Results Some 226 pedestrians (114 boys and 112 girls) comprising 42 children aged ≤4 years, 91 aged 5–9 years and 93 aged 10–15 years were seen with car collisions (83 pedestrians, 36.7 %), motorcycles (76, 33.6 %), buses (41, 18.1 %), others (15, 6.6 %) and 11 undetermined vehicles. Injuries on the highways were 147 (65 %); inner-city roads 77 (34.1 %) and two undetermined roads. Crossing the road was responsible for 168 (74.3 %) pedestrian injuries; while three other mechanisms produced 58 (25.7 %) patients. Regions injured were head (42.9 %), lower limbs (35.4 %) and others (21.7 %). Relatives, bystanders and police/ambulance brought 186 (82.3 %), 31 (13.7 %) and eight (3.5 %) children, respectively; and within 6 h (43.4, 11.5 and 2.2 %) and after (38.9, 2.2 and 1.3 %). Nineteen deaths (10 brought-in-dead, nine SER deaths) occurred; 15 of them girls, 15 had severe head injury, 15 were brought by relatives. However, fatality risks were truck collisions (OR 5.97), female child (OR 4.25), head injury (OR 4.18) and age ≤4 years (OR 3.7). Conclusion The equal sex incidence, worse female fatality despite similar exposure and injury severity with male, deserve further research. Improved pre-hospital and SER care is needed.

The effects of load, resulted from construction of tall building in Port Sudan area using data obtained from existing boreholes and In-situ tests, are used to estimate the carrying Capacity and settlement of piles foundation on sabkha soil. Bowles (modified), Burland, and s methods were used to calculate the carrying capacity and pile settlement Carrying capacity value was found to be 1456.5 Kilo Newton (KN) and the value of pile settlement is 17.5 mm which is within acceptable range.

Ti?51at%Ni shape memory alloys (SMAs) were successfully produced via a powder metallurgy and microwave sintering technique. The influence of sintering parameters on porosity reduction, microstructure, phase transformation temperatures, and mechanical properties were investigated by optical microscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), compression tests, and microhardness tests. Varying the microwave temperature and holding time was found to strongly affect the density of porosity, presence of precipitates, transformation temperatures, and mechanical properties. The lowest density and smallest pore size were observed in the Ti?51at%Ni samples sintered at 900°C for 5 min or at 900°C for 30 min. The predominant martensite phases of β2 and β19′ were observed in the microstructure of Ti?51at%Ni, and their existence varied in accordance with the sintering temperature and the holding time. In the DSC thermograms, multi-transformation peaks were observed during heating, whereas a single peak was observed during cooling; these peaks correspond to the presence of the β2, R, and β19′ phases. The maximum strength and strain among the Ti?51at%Ni SMAs were 1376 MPa and 29%, respectively, for the sample sintered at 900°C for 30 min because of this sample's minimal porosity.

Salinity one of environmental factor that limits the growth and productivity of crops. This research was done to investigate whether GA 3 (0, 144.3, 288.7 and 577.5 μM) and nitrogen fertilizer (0, 90 and 135 kg N ha −1 ) could mitigate the negative impacts of NaCl (0, 100, and 200 mM NaCl) on emergence percentage, seedling growth and some biochemical parameters. The results showed that high salinity level decreased emergence percentage, seedling growth, relative water content, chlorophyll content (SPAD reading), catalase (CAT) and peroxide (POD), but increased soluble protein content, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) content. The SOD activity was decreased by nitrogen. However, the other measurements were increased by nitrogen. The interactive impact between nitrogen and salinity was significant in most parameters except EP, CAT and POD. The seedling length, dry weight, fresh weight, emergence percentage, POD, soluble protein and chlorophyll content were significantly affected by the interaction between GA 3 and salinity. The GA 3 and nitrogen application was successful mitigating the adverse effects of salinity. The level of 144.3 and 288.7 μm GA 3 and the rate of 90 and 135 kg N ha −1 were most effective on many of the attributes studied. Our study suggested that GA 3 and nitrogen could efficiently protect early seedlings growth from salinity damage.

The purple-spotted bigeye, Priacanthus tayenus , is a marine benthic fish native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including the Arabian Gulf in Saudi Arabia. This study identified a myxozoan parasite infecting wild P . tayenus from the Saudi Arabian Gulf. These parasites produced spherical to ovoid-shaped, white plasmodia enclosed within pseudocysts in the fish musculature. The annual infection rate was 5.1%, with the highest prevalence in summer (7.6%), followed by spring (6%), and autumn (2.5%), while no infections were observed in winter. The number of plasmodia per fish ranged from 100 to 150 (135.1 ± 16.2). Their dimensions were 4–4.7 mm (4.3 ± 0.3 mm) in length and 4.5–7 mm (6 ± 1.1 mm) in width. Milky-colored exudates within the plasmodia contained mature spores measuring 8–9 μm (8.6 ± 0.4 μm) x 6–7.5 μm (6.9 ± 0.5 μm). The polar capsules of the spores exhibited dimensions of 2–5 μm (3.5 ± 0.5 μm) x 2.5–4.5 μm (3 ± 0.45 μm). Both morphological and genetic analyses confirmed these plasmodia as a novel Kudoa species. Histopathological examination revealed atrophy in the surrounding muscles without an inflammatory response. This study documents the first occurrence of a novel Kudoa sp. in P . tayenus at the Jubail landing site in Saudi Arabia, emphasizing the need for further surveillance and investigations to elucidate its pathogenesis and implications for wild fish stocks.

The goal of the current work was to create an antibacterial agent by using polycaprolactone/chitosan (PCL/CH) nanofibers loaded with Cordia myxa fruit extract (CMFE) as an antimicrobial agent for wound dressing. Several characteristics, including morphological, physicomechanical, and mechanical characteristics, surface wettability, antibacterial activity, cell viability, and in vitro drug release, were investigated. The inclusion of CMFE in PCL/CH led to increased swelling capability and maximum weight loss. The SEM images of the PCL/CH/CMFE mat showed a uniform topology free of beads and an average fiber diameter of 195.378 nm. Excellent antimicrobial activity was shown towards Escherichia coli (31.34 ± 0.42 mm), Salmonella enterica (30.27 ± 0.57 mm), Staphylococcus aureus (21.31 ± 0.17 mm), Bacillus subtilis (27.53 ± 1.53 mm), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (22.17 ± 0.12 mm) based on the inhibition zone assay. The sample containing 5 wt% CMFE had a lower water contact angle (47 ± 3.7°), high porosity, and high swelling compared to the neat mat. The release of the 5% CMFE-loaded mat was proven to be based on anomalous non-Fickian diffusion using the Korsmeyer–Peppas model. Compared to the pure PCL membrane, the PCL-CH/CMFE membrane exhibited suitable cytocompatibility on L929 cells. In conclusion, the fabricated antimicrobial nanofibrous films demonstrated high bioavailability, with suitable properties that can be used in wound dressings.

In this study, 10 fish species, Jayan flounder ( Pseudorhombus javanicus ); Oriental sole ( Eurgglossa arientalis ); Oange-spotted grouper ( Epinephelus coioides ); Blacktip trevally ( Caranx heberi ); Towbar seabream ( Acanthopagrus bifascia ); Smalltooth emperor ( Lethrinus microdon ); Spangled emperio ( Lethrinus nebulous ); Sharptooth hammer croaker ( Johnius vogleri ); Bigeye croaker ( Pennahia anea ) and Redspine thread bream ( Nemipterus nemurus ), were examined in El-Jubail province, Saudi Arabia, Arabian Gulf region over three years from 2017 to 2020. The examined fish species showed muscular atrophy in a total percent of 1.1%, but with variable percentages of affections in each species. The highest incidence (2.06%) was oberved in Spangled emperior ( Lethrinus nebulous ) while the lowest incidence (0.40%) was in Orange spotted grouper ( Epinephelus coioides ) and Smalltooth emperor ( Lethrinus microdon ). The affected fishes appeared with sunken eyes, severe emaciation, and prominent loss of skeletal muscle mass. During dissection, the muscular tissue in some examined species was rough while in others, it was edematous and gelatinous, and the internal organs of all fishes were atrophied. For routine histopathological examination, the tissue samples were fixed in 10% buffered neutral formalin. The examined tissue sections of the affected muscles showed variable degrees of histopathological changes depending on the species. Vacuolation of muscle fibers, Zenker’s necrosis and myophagia were common in some species, while melanophores aggregation, edema, and hemorrhages were the most commonly observed changes in others. This study focused on the impact of this myodegenerative disease on the marketability of these edible fish species. Further investigation is needed to understand the impact of genetic predisposition, environmental pollution and other etiological agents on the occurrence of this phenomenon in this location.

Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROUVs) are increasingly important for high-resolution surveying of narrow shipping lanes. This paper presents 3Clifs, a LiDAR- and AI-enhanced ROUV designed for near-real-time topographic mapping and navigation support in shallow, constrained waterways, demonstrated at three cliff sites in the Suez Canal. The system integrates three-dimensional Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanning, an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and an onboard processor running the Robot Operating System (ROS) for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). To address data loss from underwater LiDAR (caused by scattering and reflection), we introduce an AI-driven optimisation module that reconstructs missing point cloud data and improves SLAM continuity. We also report propulsion and propeller design changes (propeller v05_1) that reduce flow turbulence and improve scan stability. We compare our approach to sonar-only ROUV mapping and to recent ROUV/LiDAR studies using metrics including point-cloud completeness, SLAM continuity, and navigation-path deviation. The main contributions are: (i) an integrated LiDAR, ROS and AI pipeline for underwater SLAM with missing-point recovery; (ii) a propulsion configuration optimized for LiDAR scanning stability; and (iii) a real-world Suez Canal case study demonstrating practical benefits for narrow-lane navigation.