A shocking third species emerged from a family of coronaviruses (CoV) in late 2019 following viruses causing SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-CoV) in 2003 and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-CoV) in 2012; it’s a novel coronavirus now called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; formerly called 2019-nCoV). First emerging in China, it has spread rapidly across the globe, giving rise to significant social and economic costs and imposing severe strain on healthcare systems. Since many attempts to control viral spread has been futile, the only old practice of containment including city lockdown and social distancing are working to some extent. Unfortunately, specific antiviral drugs and vaccines remain un available yet. Many factors are encountered to play essential roles in viral pathogenesis. These include a broad viral-host range with high receptor binding affinity to various human tissues, viral adaptation to humans, a high percentage of asymptomatic but infected carriers, prolonged incubation, and viral shedding periods. There are also a wide variety of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tissue damage mechanisms including direct cell injury or immune-mediated damages involving the immune cells, upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines, and antibody dependent enhancement that can result in multi-organ failure. In this article, we summarise some evidence on the various steps in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis and immune evasion strategies to assess their contribution to our understanding of unresolved problems related to SARS-CoV-2 prevention, control, and treatment protocols.
Membrane distillation (MD) is a hopeful desalination technique for brine (salty) water. In this research, Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD) and Air Gap Membrane Distillation (AGMD) will be used. The sample used is from Shat Al –Arab water (TDS=2430 mg/l). A polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) flat sheet membrane was used as a flat sheet form with a plate and frame cell. Several parameters were studied, such as; operation time, feed temperature, permeate temperature, feed flow rate. The results showed that with time, the flux decreases because of the accumulated fouling and scaling on the membrane surface. Feed temperature and feed flow rate had a positive effect on the permeate flux, while permeate temperatu
... Show MoreIn this study, ultraviolet (UV), ozone techniques with hydrogen peroxide oxidant were used to treat the wastewater which is produced from South Baghdad Power Station using lab-scale system. From UV-H2O2 experiments, it was shown that the optimum exposure time was 80 min. At this time, the highest removal percentages of oil, COD, and TOC were 84.69 %, 56.33 % and 50 % respectively. Effect of pH on the contaminants removing was studied in the range of (2-12). The best oil, COD, and TOC removal percentages (69.38 %, 70 % and 52 %) using H2O2/UV were at pH=12. H2O2/ozone experiments exhibited better performance compared to
... Show MoreThe way artists deal with body in their artistic works has had so many forms and methods, whether as an object for their drawings or as a material to create live artistic performances that relate to the idea of correspondence and interaction between different artistic categories such as: drama, dance, and painting as it is the case of the artist Marina Abramovic who has always used her body as an artistic unit to generate meaning and to perform her lively shows.
To go deeper into her career, our work was divided into 3 sections:
The first section was devoted to follow the main artistic stages that her body had gone through, starting with paintings she performed using concepts based on acting, simulation and nudity and ending wi
Background: pregnancy as a systemic condition causes changes in the functioning of human body as a whole and specifically in the oral cavity and it also is considered as a stressful condition. These changes may favor the increase of oxidative stress. Aim: The aim of this study was to estimate the level of marker of oxidative stress (malondialdehyde) and antioxidant (uric acid) in saliva of pregnant compared to non-pregnant women and to assess the gingival health condition in both groups. Additionally, unstimulated salivary flow rate was determined in both groups. Subjects, materials and methods: The study group consisted of sixty pregnant women, they were divided into three equal groups according to trimester (20 pregnant women for each
... Show MoreTo identify and explore the factors nurses perceive as influencing their knowledge acquisition in relation to diabetes care and its management in Saudi Arabia.
Diabetes continues to pose major healthcare challenges despite advances in diabetes management. Nurses have a crucial role in diabetes care, but diabetes knowledge deficits deter effective collaboration with other healthcare providers in educating patients about diabetes self‐management.
An exploratory descriptive qualitative design.
A total of (25) stool samples were collected from children and adults (2- 4) years old suffering from diarrhea to isolate E. coli strains that produce heat-stable enterotoxin a (STa), and after performing microscopic examination, cultural characterization and biochemical identification only (11) isolates showed positive E. coli. STa activity was estimated by using suckling mouse assay (SMA) and from these (11) isolates only (5) showed STa activity and the one with the highest STa activity was selected for large scale production of STa, which was followed by partial purification using ion-exchange chromatography (normal phase) using DEAE sephadex A-50 column. After purification and determination of protein concentration by using the standard
... Show MoreThe sensitivity of SnO2 nanoparticles/reduced graphene oxide hybrid to NO2 gas is discussed in the present work using density functional theory (DFT). The SnO2 nanoparticles shapes are taken as pyramids, as proved by experiments. The reduced graphene oxide (rGO) edges have oxygen or oxygen-containing functional groups. However, the upper and lower surfaces of rGO are clean, as expected from the oxide reduction procedure. Results show that SnO2 particles are connected at the edges of rGO, making a p-n heterojunction with a reduced agglomeration of SnO2 particles and high gas sensitivity. The DFT results are in
This paper discusses a comparative study to relate parametric and non-parametric mode decomposition algorithms for response-only data. Three popular mode decomposition algorithms are included in this study: the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm with the Natural Excitation Technique (NExT-ERA) for the parametric algorithm, as well as the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) for the non-parametric algorithms. A comprehensive parametric study is provided for (i) different response types, (ii) excitation types, (iii) system damping, and (iv) sensor spatial resolution to compare the mode shapes and modal coordinates of using a 10-DOF building model. The mode decomposition results are also compared using
... Show MoreThis paper proposes a neuro-fuzzy system to model β-glucosidase activity based on the reaction’s pH level and temperature. The developed fuzzy inference system includes two input variables (pH level and temperature) and one output (enzyme activity). The multi-input fuzzy inference system was developed in two stages: first, developing a single input-single output fuzzy inference system for each input variable (pH, temperature) separately, using the robust adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) approach. The neural network learning techniques were used to tune the membership functions based on previously published experimental data for β-glucosidase. Second, each input’s optimized membership functions from the ANF
... Show MoreDespite the global economic downturn, online e-commerce, especially the sale of counterfeit goods, continues to witness a rise in sales, and one of the important players in e-commerce is the owners of e-commerce auction sites. Although they do not have a direct role in trademark infringement, they still consider them indirectly responsible (secondary liability) for infringing on their trademarks. Thus, many cases have been filed by the owners of the original trademarks (which have been infringed by persons who have sold some of the goods and products that are imitating their marks through some electronic auctions) against the owners of those auctions. In view of the international character of the Internet, in different countries, and despit
... Show More