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Ali Ahmed

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Papers by Ali Ahmed

New and emerging technology in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cysts

Translational Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Pancreatic cysts have always presented as a diagnostic dilemma due to the difficulties in identif... more Pancreatic cysts have always presented as a diagnostic dilemma due to the difficulties in identifying patients with current imaging modalities that could most benefit from surgical intervention. Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) and mucinous cystadenomas (MCNs) carry the highest malignant potential of all pancreatic cysts and pancreatic adenocarcinoma carries a high mortality as the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. However, surgery to remove benign cysts also carries a high morbidity and occasional mortality. Opportunities to identify and reduce pre-cancer lesions must be aggressively pursued. Multidetector helical CT (MDHCT) or an up-to-date MRI is the first diagnostic tool to evaluate a suspected pancreatic lesion. Currently, review by a multidisciplinary group who specialize in pancreatic cysts and pancreatic cancer is advised to review factors such as a patient's comorbidities, the type of surgery needed to remove the cyst and the estimated morbidity and mortality associated with the procedure. Some recent data are emerging to assist with identifying those at highest risk such as cyst fluid analysis, laser endomicroscopy, and artificial intelligence (AI). This article reviews the current status, benefits, challenges and future prospects on diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cysts. Further prospective randomized control trials are needed to determine the optimal management and treatment for patients with pancreatic cysts.

Outcomes of pregnancy in Egyptian women with multiple sclerosis in the new treatment era: a multi-center retrospective observational study

The Egyptian Journal of Neurology, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery, 2021

Background Pregnancy is a recent growing issue in multiple sclerosis (MS) and the update in the d... more Background Pregnancy is a recent growing issue in multiple sclerosis (MS) and the update in the diagnostic criteria of MS and introduction of many disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) may cause changes in the relationship between MS, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. This study aimed to investigate the effect of pregnancy and breastfeeding on MS and vice versa. A retrospective observational study was conducted to include MS women with a history of at least one pregnancy during the last 7 years. Data were collected from the archived files in addition to a self-administrating questionnaire. The annualized relapsing rate (ARR) was calculated before, during, and after pregnancy. Results We included 116 successful pregnancies from 93 MS women with mean age 32.74 ± 5.12 years. Interferon-beta was the commonly used DMT during and after pregnancy. Despite the ARR during the two years preceding the conception was 0.36 (95% CI 0.32–0.41), this rate was significantly decreased during first, second, ...

Drug use among prisoners in three main prisons in Khartoum, Sudan

Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 1998

Druguse among prisoners in the three main prisons in Khartoum, Sudan in 1994 was studied. The res... more Druguse among prisoners in the three main prisons in Khartoum, Sudan in 1994 was studied. The results show variations in the use of drugs with regard to age, occupation, education, marital status and social status of inmates. Drug use was common among most prisoners, with alcohol and hashish being the most frequently used drugs. Alcohol use was more common among married prisoners;hashish use was more popular among single prisoners. Alcohol was frequently used with other drugs. Most prisoners started using drugs between the ages of 12 and 20 years. The principal reasons for drug use were temptation by friends and to escape social pressures

Nuruddin Farah and Somali culture

Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, 2020

I am honored to participate in this project, a theme issue of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde on Nuruddi... more I am honored to participate in this project, a theme issue of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde on Nuruddin Farah. Farah's shadow looms over most of my work. He was my 9 th grade teacher, and most of my writings-poetry and proseseem, in some small way, to be a kind of rejoinder to his distinguished work. One of my first stories, "Nudged", was written for him. If he does not remember, it won't be his fault, as it had all the hallmarks and insignia of a teenager's infatuation with the writing process. I, too, only vaguely remember the tenor and drift of that early story. In addition to that infatuation, it was written to impress a teacher who had just published his first novel, From a Crooked Rib. Reading Farah's first novel sent me on a storytelling path. That tendency, for sure, was already there, as both my parents were consummate storytellers. My contemplative essay in this issue, therefore, serves, in some modest way, to acknowledge the power a teacher could have on impressionable minds. It is uncanny to even reflect on the fact that my first book of poems, Fear is a Cow, was somehow a response to Farah's "Fear is a Goat", a brilliant earlier article. As Somalia's preeminent novelist, Nuruddin Farah has certainly internationalized the case of Somalia-the country, its literature, culture and politics, to the point that he has become the Somali countenance most easily recognizable in the world. Farah does not speak idly when he tells all and sundry that his writing keeps Somalia "alive". And keep it alive he has. When the world all but forgot about the war-ravaged country, Farah refused to let go of Somalia. He was not concerned whether readers would be interested or not in reading about a country that had cannibalized itself to the brink of oblivion. Rather, his abiding concern has always been how to ensure that the Somali agony will not fade into a nether region or domain of "donor/humanity-fatigue". And to that purpose he has devoted much of his work: starting with Gifts, which signals the beginning of the Somali collapse, and ending with his latest, North of Dawn. The seven novels about the destruction of Somalia comprise more than half of his total novelistic output, and have served to keep Somalia at the forefront of the world's gaze. In this he has succeeded, for the novelist is, to borrow from Milan Kundera, "an explorer of existence" (Kundera 44). Through his work, readers have been made privy to the trials and tribulations of humans swept up in a whirlpool of brutal existence, grim circumstances, and overall catastrophe. What Farah's characters reveal is the precipitous slope down which, more often than not, communities and nations tend to slide in times of war. Yet Farah's work equally reveals how nations and communities ignore their writers' warnings at their own peril. I have mentioned elsewhere (Ahmed, Daybreak is Near: Literature, Clans and the Nation-state in Somalia 95) that Farah's A Naked Needle could have helped Somalia and its then-leaders avoid the cataclysmic disorder that followed on the heels of the disintegration of the regime of Muhammed Siyad Barre. In short, he has succeeded to give victims of the civil war a platform on which their shattered humanity could be reassessed. This platform is rooted in history, even when the characters are not overtly perceived as sacrificial lambs on History's "slaughter bench", to quote Hegel. In his work, Farah reveals a deep understanding of Somali culture as, in his words, "metaphor-based" (Farah, Jussawalla and Dasenbrock 49). He correctly argues that Somali culture is not overtly "proverb-based". It is possible that many Somalis-scholars or otherwise-did not give much thought to this dichotomy. Proverb-based cultures give prominence to exemplary nuggets of knowledge, a kind of pedagogic knowledge that derives meaning from a precedent, a past still capable of framing the future. (This does not, however, imply that proverbs are irrelevant to contemporary life, or that they do not impart metaphoric knowledge; rather, proverbs, employed as apodictic tools, tend to give, or be utilized as, an unambiguous last word to discourse or discussion.) A metaphor-based discourse, on the other hand, compels the individual to be aware of the ellipses that dot the landscape of any discourse. A metaphor is able to create connections where you least expect them. It also fosters discussion,

A new black hole solution in dilaton gravity inspired by power-law electrodynamics

International Journal of Modern Physics A, 2019

In this work, a new class of slowly rotating black hole solutions in dilaton gravity has been obt... more In this work, a new class of slowly rotating black hole solutions in dilaton gravity has been obtained where dilaton field is coupled with nonlinear Maxwell invariant. The background space–time is a stationary axisymmetric geometry. Here, it has been shown that the dilaton potential can be written in the form of generalized three Liouville-type potentials. In the presence of these three Liouville-type dilaton potentials, the asymptotic behavior of the obtained solutions is neither flat nor (A)dS. One bizarre property of the electric field is that the electric field goes to zero when [Formula: see text] and diverges at [Formula: see text]. We show the validity of the first law of thermodynamics in thermodynamic investigations. The local and global thermodynamical stability are investigated through the use of heat capacity and Gibbs free energy. Also, the bounded, phase transition and the Hawking–Page phase transition points as well as the ranges of black hole stability have been show...

Effect of Labor Turnover on Productivity In Health Institutions In Khulais Governorate - Makkah

International Review of Management and Business Research, 2019

This study was conducted in the province of Khulais Emirate of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. A case stud... more This study was conducted in the province of Khulais Emirate of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. A case study applied to the health institutions in the province in order to study the impact of the rotation of employment on productivity in health institutions where the researcher used the descriptive analytical method, which is the scientific method that meets the purposes of the study. This method depends on the study of reality as it is on the ground and expressed in quantity and quality. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the data were analyzed in the SPSS program. The rate of labor turnover greatly affects productivity in health institutions in Khulais governorate. Where the study sought to answer the questions related to the problem of the study: Is the increase or decrease in the rate of turnover of labor affects the productivity in the health institutions in the province of Khulais? Are there positive or negative effects of labor turnover on productivity? How many and what kind of human resources are required to work in the facility? The study aims to test the following hypotheses: Employment turnover significantly affects productivity in health institutions in Khulais governorate. There are differences, which are statistically significant at the level of the function (0.05 = α) regarding the turnover of employment in health institutions in Khulais governorate attributed to the study variables. Differences were statistically significant at the level of function (0.05 = α) around the level of productivity in health institutions in Khulais governorate attributed to the study variables. There is a statistically significant relationship between turnover and productivity.

The Impact of Organizational Climate on the Performance of Human Resources (A field study on the employees working at the Aqaba Company for Managing and Operating ports)

International Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology, 2019

This paper is organized to prove that there is an effect of organization climate of the performan... more This paper is organized to prove that there is an effect of organization climate of the performance of human resources in Aqaba company for Managing and Operating ports, Thus the main goal of the paper is to measure the effect of climate, through questionnaire sheet included two axis, first one has 6 levels, and the second is functionality. The method which is used in this paper to have Mean, Standard deviation effect rank, and Eta, then analysis by OLS to have R2, and then ANOVA analyses. All tests supported that the null hypothesis of an impact of climate and accepted the null hypotheses.

Investigation of Geotechnical Specifications of Sand Dune Soil: A Case Study Around Baiji in Iraq

IIUM Engineering Journal, 2013

ABSTRACT:Â While more than half the land surface of Iraq consists of deserts covered mainly with ... more ABSTRACT:Â While more than half the land surface of Iraq consists of deserts covered mainly with sand dunes, little research has taken place to study the characteristics and the behavior of dune soils. This paper directed toward studying the geotechnical properties of dune sands taken from Baiji city (northwest of Iraq). A vast laboratory testing program was carried out to achieve the purpose of this paper. The physical tests, chemical tests, X-ray diffraction analysis, permeability test, compaction characteristics, compressibility and collapsibility tests; and shear strength tests were included in this program. The results indicate that soil of Baiji sand dune exhibits prefer engineering properties according to their state. As such, this soil is considered suitable for use in geotechnical constructions.Â ABSTRAK: Walaupun lebih separuh daripada bumi Iraq terdiri daripada gurun yang dipenuhi dengan bukit-bukit pasir, tidak banyak penyelidikan dijalankan untuk mengkaji sifat-sifat da...

The Surgical Treatment of Diverticulitis and its Complications

Surgical Clinics of North America, 1951

DIVERTICULA of the large bowel are outpouchings or herniations of the mucous membrane through the... more DIVERTICULA of the large bowel are outpouchings or herniations of the mucous membrane through the muscularis. They occur near the taenia where the blood vessels enter the gut. Diverticula may occur in any segment of bowel but are most prevalent in the descending colon and sigmoid. Multiple diverticula known as diverticulosis are usually found in the fourth, fifth and sixth decades of life, are more common in males than in females and produce few symptoms. As pointed out by Spriggs,l there are three main stages in the development and progress of diverticulitis: first, the prediverticular stage characterized roentgenologically by loss of normal bowel segmentation, second, the formation of definite diverticula (diverticulosis) and third, the stage of inflamed diverticula or diverticulitis. The third stage is secondary to inspissated, trapped fecal material within the sac or diverticula with associated strangulation and inflammation. The diagnosis and treatment of diverticulitis is mainly a medical or gastrointestinal problem. On occasion, however, certain complications, namely obstruction, perforation and fistula formation, occur which require surgical intervention.

Fine-needle aspiration findings of a rare hematopoietic neoplasm presenting as obstructive jaundice

Diagnostic cytopathology, Jan 27, 2017

A 51-year-old female who presented with obstructive jaundice was found to have masses in the panc... more A 51-year-old female who presented with obstructive jaundice was found to have masses in the pancreatic head and tail as well as suspicious liver and periaortic masses on imaging. Aspiration cytology of the pancreatic tail mass showed abundant large single cells with vacuolated eosinophilic cytoplasm, marked nuclear pleomorphism, large bizarre irregular nuclei, binucleation, and prominent nucleoli. Numerous cells also showed intracytoplasmic black to brown pigmentation. A cell block was obtained and extensive immunohistochemical staining was performed. S-100, HMB-45, Sox10, pancytokeratin, CK7, RCC antigen, synaptophysin, HepPar 1, inhibin, CD45, CD21, and CD123 were negative, making melanoma, epithelial malignancies, lymphoma, follicular dendritic and plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasms less likely. CD4 and CD56 showed partial positivity, and CD68, CD163, and CD14 were positive, supporting the diagnosis of histiocytic sarcoma. Surgical specimens and immunohistochemistry confirmed...

Evaluation of some heavy metals residues in batteries and deep litter rearing systems in Japanese quail meat and offal in Egypt

Veterinary world, 2017

The main objectives of this study were for comparing the effect of batteries and deep litter rear... more The main objectives of this study were for comparing the effect of batteries and deep litter rearing systems of domesticated Japanese quail, Coturnix coturnix japonica, on the concentration levels of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc from the quail meat and offal in Ismailia, Egypt. A total of 40 quail meat and their offal samples were randomly collected from two main quail rearing systems: Battery (Group I) and deep litter system (Group II) for determination of concentration levels of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc. In addition, 80 water and feed samples were randomly collected from water and feeders of both systems in the Food Hygiene Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University for heavy metals determination. The mean concentration levels of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc in Group I were 0.010, 0.027, 1.137, and 0.516 ppm and for Group II were 0.093, 0.832, 0.601, and 1.651 ppm, respectively. The mean concentration levels of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc in...

ERCP Cannulation in the Difficult Duct: Which technique should you pull out of your bag?

Digestive endoscopy : official journal of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society, Mar 20, 2017

Golf and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreaticography (ERCP) share a commonality where the hi... more Golf and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreaticography (ERCP) share a commonality where the highs of the successes are balanced by the lows of the frustrations. ERCP cannulation is one of the most difficult maneuvers in gastrointestinal endoscopy and is a requirement for the procedure's therapeutic benefit. As such, many different techniques have been developed to facilitate cannulation. The mission of the procedure is to provide access to the biliary or pancreatic duct typically with a guidewire, which can then be utilized as a platform for therapeutic and diagnostic procedures. An inherent challenge in ERCP is that the operator must make use of a two-dimensional imaging surrogate through fluoroscopy and navigate the three-dimensional biliary or pancreatic duct pathway. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

The Barley Powdery Mildew Effector Candidates CSEP0081 and CSEP0254 Promote Fungal Infection Success

PloS one, 2016

Effectors play significant roles in the success of pathogens. Recent advances in genome sequencin... more Effectors play significant roles in the success of pathogens. Recent advances in genome sequencing have revealed arrays of effectors and effector candidates from a wide range of plant pathogens. Yet, the vast majority of them remain uncharacterized. Among the ~500 Candidate Secreted Effector Proteins (CSEPs) predicted from the barley powdery mildew fungal genome, only a few have been studied and shown to have a function in virulence. Here, we provide evidence that CSEP0081 and CSEP0254 contribute to infection by the fungus. This was studied using Host-Induced Gene Silencing (HIGS), where independent silencing of the transcripts for these CSEPs significantly reduced the fungal penetration and haustoria formation rate. Both CSEPs are likely required during and after the formation of haustoria, in which their transcripts were found to be differentially expressed, rather than in epiphytic tissue. When expressed in barley leaf epidermal cells, both CSEPs appears to move freely between th...

Congenital esophageal stenosis and antral web. A new association and management challenge

Saudi Medical Journal, Jul 1, 2011

Congenital esophageal stenosis is a rare condition that may be associated with other anomalies. A... more Congenital esophageal stenosis is a rare condition that may be associated with other anomalies. Antral web is also a rare congenital condition. Association of both conditions is extremely rare. We present this rare association in preterm baby in whom initially misdiagnosis of esophageal atresia and trachea-esophageal fistula then followed by a dilemma in differentials diagnosis to explain the uneventful postoperative recovery. The aim of this report is to highlight the diagnostic and therapeutic difficulty of this rare condition.

Magnetic toy ingestion leading to jejunocecal fistula in a child

Saudi Medical Journal, Apr 1, 2010

The accidental ingestion of a foreign body is a common problem in children, but ingestion of magn... more The accidental ingestion of a foreign body is a common problem in children, but ingestion of magnets is rare. When multiple magnets are ingested, they may attract each other and cause pressure necrosis through the bowel walls and eventually lead to serious complications like obstruction, perforation, and fistula formation. We report a case of a 5-year-old girl with jejunocecal fistula following ingestion of 2 magnet toys; it highlights the diagnostic challenge and the need for early surgical intervention in children especially when multiple magnets are ingested.

Giant sauropod tracks from the Middle-Late Jurassic of Zimbabwe in close association with theropod tracks

Lethaia, 2004

Signi®cantly, in one of the sites are the ®rst giant sauropod footprints found in sub-Saharan Afr... more Signi®cantly, in one of the sites are the ®rst giant sauropod footprints found in sub-Saharan Africa (Fig 1). The location is ca. 400±500 m NW of the ®rst theropod trackway found (Broderick 1985) and falls on the Kachowe 1/50,000 scale toposheet (1629 B2), 30°00 E and 16°10 S. In the other sites we found 88 footprints of large theropod dinosaurs tracks (an ichnogenus similar to that recorded previously; see Broderick 1985; Munyikwa 1996), the largest number recorded in a single site in Zimbabwe to date. Fortythree of these are on the same horizon as the sauropod tracks and located close to them (ca. 140 m). The other 45, also close by, are in a marginally older horizon. A striking feature of this small exposure is the presence of ®ve closely associated theropod trackways heading in the same direction. The present paper gives a description of the sauropod footprints, their geology and sedimentary sub-environment. The association in time and space of sauropod and theropod dinosaurs in the region have implications for group predatory interactions (Lingham-Soliar et al., 2003). Evidence for a polytypic dinosaur fauna of the region is presented.

Barley Powdery Mildew Effector Candidate CSEP0105 Inhibits Chaperone Activity of Small Heat Shock Protein

Plant physiology, Jan 13, 2015

Pathogens secrete effector proteins to establish a successful interaction with their host. Here, ... more Pathogens secrete effector proteins to establish a successful interaction with their host. Here, we describe two barley powdery mildew Candidate Secreted Effector Proteins (CSEPs), CSEP0105 and CSEP0162, which contribute to pathogen success and appear to be required during or after haustorial formation. Silencing of either CSEP using host-induced gene silencing significantly reduced the fungal haustorial formation rate. Interestingly, both CSEPs interact with the barley small heat shock proteins, 16.9 and 17.5, in a yeast two-hybrid assay. Small heat shock proteins are known to stabilize several intracellular proteins including defense-related signaling components through their chaperone activity. CSEP0105 and CSEP0162 localized to the cytosol and the nucleus of barley epidermal cells, whereas Hsp16.9 and Hsp17.5 are cytosolic. Intriguingly, only those specific CSEPs changed localization and became restricted to the cytosol when co-expressed with Hsp16.9 and Hsp17.5, confirming the ...

Trust-aware access control: How recent is your transaction history?

2012 Second International Conference on Digital Information and Communication Technology and it's Applications (DICTAP), 2012

Establishing trust in a subject requesting access to a sensitive resource object is fundamental i... more Establishing trust in a subject requesting access to a sensitive resource object is fundamental in history-aware access control models. A subject&amp;#39;s past behaviour could be used as an indication about the subject&amp;#39;s trustworthiness. In fact, a subject&amp;#39;s trust plays a significant role in deciding the associated access rights in, for example, context-aware access control models. Recently, there have been efforts

Hand gesture based user interface for computer using a camera and projector

2011 IEEE International Conference on Signal and Image Processing Applications (ICSIPA), 2011

Abstract In this paper, we propose a hand gesture based human computer interaction system compris... more

Tayib Salih: ideology and the craft of fiction

The Journal of North African Studies, 2010

... and trans. by Hassan, p. 178). Hassan rightly sees the young man's inability to swim, as... more