Research Title: Nanomedicines in cancer management: diagnosis, therapy and nanodrug delivery.

Author: Balakumar Chandrasekarn, Published Year: 2020

Faculty: Pharmacy

Abstract: Cancer is one of the most controversial diseases known for humanity and emerged as a global health problem all the time. The drug discovery scientists and clinicians have attempted to cure cancer since centuries. Conventional cancer treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy have many limitations including low specificity, lack of stability, rapid drug clearance, biodegradation and limited targeting besides number of side effects associated with these treatments on the actual patients. Nanomedicine has evolved over the past few years and became a breakthrough technology for the diagnosis and the treatment of several cancer types. Specifically, the drug is being carried out through carriers called nanoparticles in which the properties of these carriers are very important for the successful treatment of deadly diseases like cancer. In this chapter, we describe the application of nanotechnology and nanomedicines in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Further,we discuss the targeted-nanodrug delivery to cancer cells in a broad context. Moreover, we provide a glimpse on marketed nanomedicines available for the management of cancer.

Keywords: Nanodrug delivery · Nanomedicine · Brain cancer · Breast cancer · Lung cancer · Nanoparticles

Research Title: The importance of nano-materials characterization techniques

Author: Balakumar Chandrasekarn, Published Year: 2020

Faculty: Pharmacy

Abstract: The potential application of nanotechnology in the medical field ranges from nanomaterials and biological devices, to nanoelectronics biosensors, can be extended to molecular nanotechnology like biological machines. Nanomaterial characterization is a keystone for the development and adoption of nanomaterials for certain applications. The unique and novel physico-chemical properties of nanomaterial gave rise to a number of characterization techniques. Therefore, nanoparticles are characterized to study various physical and chemical features such as composition, structure size, morphology, surface area, optical properties, surface composition, oxidation state, and electrochemistry. The characterization of nanomaterials should not be limited to a single technique, because usually multiple measurements are needed to capture all pertinent nanomaterial characteristics. Hence, in this chapter, details of different characterization techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Xray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), infrared spectroscopy (IR), and zeta potential (ZP) are discussed.

Keywords: Nanomaterials · X-ray diffraction · Transmission electron microscopy · Dynamic light scattering · Zeta potential · Scanning electron microscopy

Research Title: Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel carbazole hybrids as promising antimicrobial agents

Author: Balakumar Chandrasekarn, Published Year: 2020

Chemistry and Biodiversity,

Faculty: Pharmacy

Abstract: Two series of carbazole analogs of 8‐methoxy‐ N ‐substituted‐9 H ‐carbazole‐3‐carboxamides (series‐1) and carbazolyl substituted rhodanines (series‐2) were synthesized through facile synthetic routes. All the final compounds from these two series were evaluated for their preliminary in vitro antifungal and antibacterial activity against four fungal ( Candida albicans , Cryptococcus neoformans , Cryptococcus tropicalis and Aspergillus niger ) and four bacterial ( Staphylococcus aureus , Bacillus subtilis , Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ) strains, respectively. Among the tested compounds, 6d , 6e and 6f (series‐1) displayed promising antifungal and antibacterial activity, especially against C. neoformans and S. aureus. In addition, compound 6f displayed notable antimicrobial activity (MIC: 6.25 µg/mL) against clinical isolates of C. albicans and C. neoformans (MIC: 12.5 µg/mL). From the second series, 15f , 15g , 15i and 16f exhibited significant antifungal and antibacterial activity, especially against C. neoformans and S. aureus . The most active compound 15i displayed a prominent antimicrobial activity against C. neoformans (MIC: 3.125 µg/mL) and S. aureus (MIC: 1.56 µg/mL), respectively.

Keywords: Carbazole Antifungal Antibacterial Clinical isolate of S. aureus

Research Title: Green biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles using Croton sparsiflorus leaves extract and evaluation of UV protection, antibacterial and anticancer applications

Author: Balakumar Chandrasekarn, Published Year: 2020

Applied Organometallic Chemistry, 34

Faculty: Pharmacy

Abstract: Our study reports greener synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) tethered to the extract of Croton sparsiflorus and in vitro evaluation of UV‐protection, antibacterial and anticancer activities. Sophisticated instrumental analytical techniques such as UV–vis spectrophotometer, FT‐IR, XRD, FE‐SEM, and TEM were employed for the existence and confirmation of the nanoparticles. FT‐IR and HPLC analysis were executed in the identification of the plausible functional groups implicated in the reduction of gold ions to AuNPs. UV protection property and antibacterial action of AuNPs‐coated cotton fabric were also presented. Moreover, in vitro anticancer evaluation against HepG2 cell line was conducted by MTT assay for Croton sparsiflorus extract derived AuNPs in different concentrations (50 to 150 μg/ml). Thus, the results of this work revealed that greener synthesized AuNPs exhibited good therapeutic applications as UV‐protection, antibacterial and anticancer agents.

Keywords: antibacterial anticancer Croton sparsiflorus gold nanoparticles UV‐protection

Research Title: Herbal medication for the management of diabetes mellitus

Author: Balakumar Chandrasekarn, Published Year: 2020

Current Traditional Medicine,

Faculty: Pharmacy

Abstract: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder of the endocrine system affecting people worldwide. It is a serious disorder that needs life time control which is mainly treated by numerous chemical agents. But most of these chemical agents are associated with various unpleasant adverse effects, as a result of which there is a growing interest towards the alternative medicines which are found to be comparatively safer causing less adverse effects. As there are many plant’s extracts which are evident to provide hypoglycemic effect, intensive investigations are under progress to explore their advantageous effects on diabetic patients. This article discusses some of these important plants that are either being used for the treatment or under investigation for future drug development.

Keywords: Alternative therapy, Herbal medication, Diabetes mellitus., Diabetes, alternative medicines, endocrine system

Research Title: قراءة في مسودات تصريح بلفور: 12تموز 1917- 2 تشرين الثاني 1917م.

Author: Amjad Ahmad Alzoubi, Published Year: 2020

مجلة العلوم الانسانية-جامعة الشارقة ,

Faculty: Arts

Abstract: تعدّ السياسة الاستعمارية البريطانية مدرسة ميكافيلية لاتزال متجذرة في العقلية الأنجلوسكسونية؛ وظفت فيها كافة الأساليب والأدوات في إطار التنافس الاستعماري والحرب الكونية الأولى، حيث قدمت بريطانيا في سبيل مصالحها وخدمة لمجهودها الحربي وعودا متناقضة لكافة الدول والأطراف: الروس،والفرنسيين والايطاليين والعرب والصهاينة. فقد صدر تصريح بلفور ضمن هذا المنحى وليس بعيدا عنه؛ فقد التقت فكرة التوظيف للحركة الصهيونية بجذورها المعادية للسامية مع طموحات الحركة الناشئة حديثا. وكلاهما بالنتيجة سعى لنفس الهدف؛ ليكون هدف الراغبين بالتخلص من اليهود والمعادين لليهود المحرك الأساسي لإصدار تصريح بلفور لإقامة وطن قومي لليهود في فلسطين. تسلط الدراسة الضوء على الجهود التي بذلتها بريطانيا لتحقيق الانتصار في الحرب الكونية الأولى من خلال التركيز على كسب الحركة الصهيونية إلى جانبها لخدمة مصالحها الاستعمارية في المشرق العربي. حيث استخدمت الدراسة المنهج التاريخي التحليلي بالاعتماد على المصادر الأولية في رصد وتحليل الاحداث وارتباطاتها لإثبات فرضيتها. وخلصت الدراسة إلى أن تصريح بلفور لم يكن له أي قيمة تذكر الا بعد تضمينه في صك الانتداب البريطاني على فلسطين 1922م، ليصبح جزء من القانون الدولي. فلا زال تصريح بلفور يلقي بظلال الجدل والشكوك ويحتاج إلى مزيد من البحث والتحري في جوانبه الأخرى.

Keywords: الاستعمار، تصريح بلفور، الصهيونية، معاداة السامية.

Research Title: On the Parallel Processing for Wireless Sensors Converged Network

Author: Qadri Jamal Al-Hamarsheh, Published Year: 2020

IEEE SSD'20, 17th International Multi-Conference on Systems, Signals & Devices, Tunis

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: This paper studies the capability of multi-parallel processing to be accommodated in machine-to-machine communications. A testbed convergence between the wireless sensor network and the wireless mobile network is performed. It deals with enhancing wireless mobile network performance. This testbed is divided into three stages; combating the peak-to-average power ratio problem, observing a real data making use of an actual wireless sensors, and proposing a multi-parallel processing communications. The mentioned testbed above is done in a realistic academic environment, where selected signals from those sensors are evaluated. Thus, a design improvement is detailed in terms of the peak-to-average power ratio and the efficient use of the limited resources. In particular, the scope focuses on the mitigation of the nonlinear distortion and its effect on bit error rate. The validation process is attained based on performing an extensive simulation. It is observing some certain performance parameters such as the sensor life time, and the consumed energy. From the testbed simulation results, the proposed work shows promising results comparing to the conventional wireless sensor network. The delay reduction reaches around 85%, while the peak to average power ratio values has improved by 42.3%.

Keywords: OFDM, WSN, UWB, Wavelets, and Power Management.

Research Title: Enhancing the Performance of OFDM Systems-Based PAPR Reduction

Author: Qadri Jamal Al-Hamarsheh, Published Year: 2019

Accepted to be published in the Advances on Systems, Signals and Devices, (Issues on Communication, Signal Processing & Information Technologies), --

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: in this work a comparison has been made among dierent pro- posed algorithms in order to improve the performance of a power consump- tion wireless network. They are used to combat one of the Orthogonal Fre- quency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technique drawbacks, which are con- sidered as a key technique in enhancing the new era of wireless systems' quality of service (QoS). Therefore, three dierent propositions have been investigated and covered by this work and classied as; linear coding based, wavelet transformation based, PWM based. Furthermore, a MATLAB pro- gram has been run to check their performance and covers two dierent crite- ria; the curves of CCDF and the SER curves. This is in order to reduce the Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) eect.

Keywords: OFDM, PAPR, wavelet, linear coding, PWM.

Research Title: فاعلية بَرنامِج إرشادي في خَفض الضُغوط النفسية وتحسين مستوى جودة الحياة و الرضا المهني لدّى العاملات المتزوجات في جامعة فيلادلفيا

Author: Sanaa Nasser Alkhawaldeh, Published Year: 2019

مجلة جامعة القدس المفتوحة للأبحاث والدراسات النفسية والتربوية,

Faculty: Arts

Abstract: هدفت الدراسة الحالية التعرف إلى فاعلية برنامج إرشادي في خفض الضغوط النفسية وتحسين جودة الحياة والرضا المهني لدى العاملات المتزوجات في جامعة فيلادلفيا. طبقت الدراسة على جميع العاملات المتزوجات في جامعة فيلادلفيا للعام الدراسي 2018 / 2019 واللواتي أبدين رغبة بالاشتراك في الدراسة. وتم توزيع كل من مقياس الضغوط النفسية ومقياس جودة الحياة ومقياس الرضا المهني على مجتمع الدراسة كإختبار قبلي، وتكونت عينة الدراسة من العاملات المتزوجات اللواتي حصلن على درجة مرتفعة في مقياس الضغوط النفسية و درجة منخفضة في كل من مقياس جودة الحياة ومقياس الرضا المهني، ووزعت عينة الدراسة إلى مجموعتين ضابطة وتجريبية وقد بلغ عددهن ( 40 ) عاملة، في كل مجموعة ( 20 ) عاملة حيث تلقت المجموعة التجريبية برنامج إرشادي، بينما لم تتعرض المجموعة الضابطة لأي برنامج إرشادي. واستخدم تحليل التباين المتعدد المصاحب ( MANCOVA ) لفحص الفروق بين متوسطي مجموعتي الدراسة على القياس البعدي لمقياس جودة الحياة ومقياس الضغوط النفسية، ومقياس الرضا المهني. أشارت نتائج التحليل الإحصائي إلى وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية عند( α≤0.05 ) بين المجموعة التجريبية والضابطة على الاختبار البعدي لكل من مقياس الضغوط

Keywords: الكلمات المفتاحية: برنامج إرشادي ، الضغوط النفسية، جودة الحياة، الرضا المهني، العاملات المتزوجات، جامعة فيلادلفيا

Research Title: Investigating the molecular structure of placenta and plasma in pre-eclampsia by infrared microspectroscopy

Author: Randa Shehda Mansour, Published Year: 2020

Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 184

Faculty: Pharmacy

Abstract: Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a serious hypertensive disorder with unclear etiology and lack of reliable diagnostic tests. In this study, IR microspectroscopy was applied to identify molecular changes associated with the pathogenesis of PE in placental tissues and plasma samples from pre-eclamptic women and normotensive matched controls. The obtained spectra were analyzed by multivariate analysis in the spectral ranges of 3050–2800 cm−1 and 1855–1485 cm−1 corresponding to lipid and protein-carbonyl components, respectively. In the lipid region, an increase in CH2/CH3 ratio was noticed and higher level of unsaturation index in placenta was evident. New lipid species emerged as a consequence of oxidative stress. The more intense peak at 1740 cm−1 in PE reflected higher level of LDL and VLDL. In the protein region, a decrease in the α-helix structure associated with gain in β-sheet and β-turn structures was detected. Our results revealed significant conformational changes in the protein secondary structure in PE illustrated by peak shifts and intensity alterations, particularly in amide I component. Variations in lipid order, membrane integrity, fatty acid saturation and plasma lipid profile were also detected in PE. The ROC curve generated from plasma samples yielded AUC values of 98.4% and 99.9% for lipid and protein-carbonyl regions, respectively. The current study shed light on the promising role of IR microspectroscopy as a new analytical tool that can aid in providing better diagnosis and understanding of the pathophysiology of PE.

Keywords: Pre-eclampsia; Placenta; Plasma; IR microspectroscopy; Oxidative stress; PCA