Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference Proceedings Volume 2014 Issue 1

Introduction: Depression is associated with cardiovascular diseases. Early detection and intervention for depression among cardiovascular (CV) patients can reduce morbidity and mortality rates. Understanding age and gender differences is necessary to adequately address the complex nature of depression as co-morbidity among Arab CV patients in the Middle East region. Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of depre Read More

Background: Qatar is facing an epidemic of metabolic diseases such as obesity, and insulin resistant due to the rapid lifestyle and nutrition transition in the last few decades. Previous epidemiological studies have identified high prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and obesity among Qataris. However, these studies are limited. Although obesity is an established risk factor for the MetS, studies have identified a s Read More

Periodicity in cellular processes is arguably the most underestimated phenomenon in molecular biology. We previously demonstrated the circadian oscillation of baseline expression in eukaryotic genes showing that cycling is a basic property of all genes and not a function of only a subset (10-15%). We further explore the periodicity of cellular processes in this study by asking the question of whether the circadian cascade of ge Read More

Introduction Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) commonly affects 1.5 million women in the UK, thereby prompting 1 in 20 women of reproductive age to seek treatment to improve their quality of life. The NICE guidelines recommend the use of Mirena in treating benign HMB, followed by endometrial destruction, if medical treatments fail to resolve symptoms. Several studies have shown the efficacy and cost-effectiveness Read More

Follicular Dendritic Cell Sarcoma: Cytogenetics and Pathological Findings Abstract Follicular Dendritic Cell Sarcoma (FDCS) is a rare neoplasm with a non-specific and insidious presentation that is further complicated by difficult diagnostic and therapeutic assessment. It has a low to intermediate risk of recurrence or metastasis. Unlike other soft tissue sarcomas, cytogenetic studies are very limited in FDCS. Although no specific ch Read More

A consanguineous family of Pakistani ethnicity with two female siblings (22 and 19 years of age), affected by a autosomal recessive Autism Spectrum Disease, was studied by homozygosity mapping and whole Exome Next Generation Sequencing [NGS] of the two affected siblings and one parent to identify the responsible gene and mutation. The disorder is marked by intellectual disability, speech and motor delay, con Read More

Background and Objectives Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a speech disorder characterized by articulation errors, i.e. the replacement of certain phonemes with alternatives. In previous work we proposed a simple method to evaluate the child's speech as correct or incorrect with an overall accuracy of 88.2%. In this work we present an enhanced method that increases the accuracy of the correct/incorrect evaluation Read More

ABSTRACT Background and Purpose: Restoring function in individuals who have severe paralysis of the upper extremity secondary to stroke is challenging. Recent technologies have made it possible to use robotic devices as novel tools for assisting the therapists to provide safe and intensive rehabilitation with repeated motions. However, most of the training robots are types of Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) devic Read More

Levels of overweight and obesity have reached alarming proportions in Qatar and other Gulf nations. In Qatar, the need to establish national strategies for the prevention and treatment of obesity was recognized in the National Health Strategy 2011-2016, which stresses the need for prevention. The treatment and prevention of childhood obesity is largely through lifestyle changes- encouraging health eating and physi Read More

Store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) is a ubiquitous Ca2+ influx pathway essential for many physiological functions. Dysregulation of SOCE causes disruption in Ca2+ homeostasis leading to cellular pathology of several diseases. Orai1, a key regulator of SOCE, constitutively recycles at steady state in the frog oocyte and internalizes into an intracellular vesicular compartments during meiosis, leading to inactivation of SOCE. Pre Read More