OBJECTIVE: In developed countries, pharmacists play a crucial role in designing and implementing cancer treatments as part of a multidisciplinary oncology team. However, developing countries have a shortage of pharmacists, and their role is generally limited to dispensing and selling drugs. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of providing clinical pharmacy educational activities via international teleconferencing to improve cancer care in developing countries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Meticulous preparation and intense promotion of the workshop were done in Egypt before the telepharmacy conferences began. Multiple connectivity tests were performed to resolve technical problems. Nine telepharmacy conferences were delivered during 3-h sessions that were held on three consecutive days. Talks were subsequently made available via Web streaming. Attendees were requested to complete a survey to measure their satisfaction with the sessions. RESULTS: The teleconference was attended by a total of 345 persons, and it was subsequently reviewed online via 456 log-in sessions from 10 countries. Technical issues (e.g., poor auditory quality) were resolved on the first day of the event. The rate of attendees' responses on the survey was 30.1%, and satisfaction with the event was generally good. CONCLUSIONS: Telecommunication is a relatively inexpensive approach that may improve pharmacy practices, especially those used to treat patients with cancer in developing countries. Special attention to patient-based telepharmacy education, including the use of cost-effective technology, should be considered.

The advent of inexpensive digital cameras with depth sensing capabilities (RGB-D cameras) has opened the door to numerous useful applications that need quantitative measures of dynamic fields whose simultaneous time history quantification (at many points as dictated by the resolution of the camera) provides capabilities that were previously accessible only through expensive sensors (e.g., laser scanners). This paper presents a comprehensive experimental and computational study to evaluate the performance envelope of a representative RGB-D sensor (the first generation of Kinect sensor) with the aim of assessing its suitability for the class of problems encountered in the structural dynamics field, where reasonably accurate information of evolving displacement fields (as opposed to few discrete locations) that have simultaneous dynamic planar translational motion with significant rotational (torsional) components. This study investigated the influence of key system parameters of concern in selecting an appropriate sensor for such structural dynamic applications, such as amplitude range, spectral content of the dynamic displacements, location and orientation of sensors relative to target structure, fusing of measurements from multiple sensors, sensor noise effects, rolling-shutter effects, etc. The calibration results show that if the observed displacement field generates discrete (pixel) sensor measurements with sufficient resolution (observed displacements more than 10 mm) beyond the sensor noise floor, then the subject sensors can typically provide reasonable accuracy for transnational motion (about 5%) when the frequency range of the evolving field is within about 10 Hz. However, the expected error for torsional measurements is around 6% for static motion and 10% for dynamic rotation for measurements greater than 5°.

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy with increasing incidence. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is an important downstream mediator of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K/Akt) signaling and regulates cell growth, apoptosis and metabolism. The mTOR gene is frequently mutated in human cancers. Although PI3K/Akt pathway and its component genes were extensively studied in thyroid cancer, it is not known whether mTOR gene is somatically mutated and play a role in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). To determine the status of mTOR mutations in 53 DTC, we extensively examined 19 selected exons of mTOR gene which were reported to be frequently mutated in other human cancers. Unlike in other human cancers, we did not find common somatic mutations in the mTOR gene in differentiated thyroid cancer, except for some synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms. Our results suggest that mTOR mutation is very rare and may not play a significant role in DTC.

Abstract We describe the convergent synthesis of a 5-O-?-D-ribofuranosyl-based apramycin derivative (apralog) that displays significantly improved antibacterial activity over the parent apramycin against wild-type ESKAPE pathogens. In addition, the new apralog retains excellent antibacterial activity in the presence of the only aminoglycoside modifying enzyme (AAC(3)-IV) acting on the parent, without incurring susceptibility to the APH(3?) mechanism that disables other 5-O-?-D-ribofuranosyl 2-deoxystreptamine type aminoglycosides by phosphorylation at the ribose 5-position. Consistent with this antibacterial activity, the new apralog has excellent 30?nM activity (IC50) for the inhibition of protein synthesis by the bacterial ribosome in a cell-free translation assay, while retaining the excellent across-the-board selectivity of the parent for inhibition of bacterial over eukaryotic ribosomes. Overall, these characteristics translate into excellent in?vivo efficacy against E. coli in a mouse thigh infection model and reduced ototoxicity vis à vis the parent in mouse cochlear explants.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is one of the analytical techniques which has vast applications in the material analysis. We have applied LIBS technique for the elemental analysis to determine trace elements as impurities in polystyrene and polycarbonate polymer materials. These polymer samples were collected from one of the Saudi industries which are being used as containers for food and water. The study was carried out under high vacuum (1 × 10−5 mbar) using a 10 Hz Q-switched pulsed Nd:YAG laser at wavelength 1064 nm, 20 mJ energy and 8 ns pulse width to generate the plasma of the polymer samples. By analyzing the plasma plume emission, LIBS spectra revealed the existence of Al, Si, P, Ca, Mg, N in Polystyrene and Br, Mg, Ca, N in polycarbonate as trace elements. Molecular lines of CN, CO, C2 and CH in these samples have been observed as well. The presence of Al, Si, and P traces in these polymer samples might be harmful to the human body. LIBS is found to be a simple, non-contact, online and cost-effective method to identify the hazardous elements in polymers. The industries can adopt this method to provide harmless containers for water or food products. © 2019

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