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Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is cognitive decline after surgery. The authors hypothesized that gene-level changes could be involved in the pathogenesis of POCD. The present study evaluated the incidence of POCD and its associated differentially expressed genes. This was a prospective cohort study conducted on high-risk coronary artery bypass graft patients aged 40 to 75 years. POCD classification was based on a one standard deviation decline in the postoperative scores compared to the preoperative scores. The differentially expressed genes were identified using microarray analysis and validated using quantitative RT-PCR. Forty-six patients were recruited and completed the study. The incidence of POCD was identified using a set of neurocognitive assessments and found to be at 17% in these high-risk CABG patients. Six samples were selected for the gene expression analyses (3 non-POCD and 3 POCD samples). The findings showed five differentially expressed genes in the POCD group compared to the non-POCD group. The upregulated gene was ERFE, whereas the downregulated genes were KIR2DS2, KIR2DS3, KIR3DL2, and LIM2. According to the results, the gene expression profiles of POCD can be used to find potential proteins for POCD diagnostic and predictive biomarkers. Understanding the molecular mechanism of POCD development will further lead to early detection and intervention to reduce the severity of POCD, and hence, reduce the mortality and morbidity rate due to the condition.

Kota Bharu city in Kelantan, Malaysia was reported with the highest cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among other districts. Kota Bharu is the capital city of Kelantan, which acts as the administrative, commercial, and financial areas. A large population pool may become a potential carrier for disease transmission to become an epidemic. However, the impact of population density on the COVID-19 outbreak in Malaysia is still unknown and undiscovered. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of population density on COVID-19 as a potential virus transmission carrier using linear regression models. The chances of formulating new strategies for combating COVID-19 are higher when the driver of transmission potential is identified. This study shows that the highest value of infected area density is in Kota Bharu (0.76), while the infected risk area was highest in Jeli (0.33). This study found that there is a strong relationship between COVID-19 infection cases in Kelantan and population density (R2 which is 0.845). Therefore, high population density was identified as a potential driver of transmission of COVID-19 outbreak. Understanding the potential drivers of the disease in a local setting is very important for better preparation and management. The outcome of the study can aid in the development of a new analytical model for strategic planning of Zero COVID-19 for securing the public health and wellness, both social and economic, by researchers, scientists, planners, resource managers, and decision-makers.

The cyanidation leaching method is hazardous to the environment, but it is widely applied in the gold mining process because it is effective for gold extraction. This study fabricates polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs), which have environment-friendly properties, with graphene oxide (GO) as an alternative to the cyanidation leaching method for gold extraction. Poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-hexa-fluoropropylene)-based PIMs with different GO concentrations in five membranes (i.e., M1 (0 wt.%), M2 (0.5 wt.%), M3 (1.0 wt.%), M4 (1.5 wt.%), and M5 (2.0 wt.%)) are studied for their potential to extract gold from a hydrochloric acid solution. The membranes are prepared using di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid as the extractant and dioctyl phthalate as the plasticizer. Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, ion exchange capacity, and water uptake are used to characterize the physical and chemical properties of the fabricated PIMs. The results show that the optimized membrane for gold extraction is M4 (1.5 wt.% GO), which yields a better performance on thermal stability, ion exchange capacity (IEC), and water uptake. M4 (1.5 wt.% GO) also exhibits a smooth and dense structure, with the maximum extraction efficiency obtained at 84.71% of extracted gold. In conclusion, PIMs can be used as an alternative for extracting gold with a better performance by the presence of 1.5 wt.% GO in membrane composition.

The widespread application of hybrid nanofluid in real applications has been accompanied by a large increase in computational and experimental research. Due to the unique characteristics of hybrid nanofluid, this study aspires to examine the steady two-dimensional mixed convection stagnation point flow of a hybrid nanofluid past a vertical plate with radiation, Dufour, and Soret effects, numerically. The formulations of the specific flow model are presented in this study. The model of fluid flow that is expressed in the form of partial differential equations is simplified into ordinary differential equations via the transformation of similarity, and then solved numerically by using the boundary value problem solver known as bvp4c in MATLAB, which implements the finite difference scheme with the Lobatto IIIa formula. Two possible numerical solutions can be executed, but only the first solution is stable and meaningful from a physical perspective when being evaluated via a stability analysis. According to the findings, it is sufficient to prevent the boundary layer separation by using 2% copper nanoparticles and considering the lesser amount of Dufour and Soret effects. The heat transfer rate was effectively upgraded by minimizing the volume fraction of copper and diminishing the Dufour effect. Stronger mixed convection would lead to maximum skin friction, mass transfer, and heat transfer rates. This important preliminary research will give engineers and scientists the insight to properly control the flow of fluids in optimizing the related complicated systems.

Pasteurella spp. are Gram-negative facultative bacteria that cause severe economic and animal losses. Pasteurella-based vaccines are the most promising solution for controlling Pasteurella spp. outbreaks. Remarkably, insufficient biomass cultivation (low cell viability and productivity) and lack of knowledge about the cultivation process have impacted the bulk production of animal vaccines. Bioprocess optimization in the shake flask and bioreactor is required to improve process efficiency while lowering production costs. However, its state of the art is limited in providing insights on its biomass upscaling, preventing a cost-effective vaccine with mass-produced bacteria from being developed. In general, in the optimum cultivation of Pasteurella spp., production factors such as pH (6.0–8.2), agitation speed (90–500 rpm), and temperature (35–40 °C) are used to improve production yield. Hence, this review discusses the production strategy of Pasteurella and Mannheimia species that can potentially be used in the vaccines for controlling pasteurellosis. The physicochemical factors related to operational parameter process conditions from a bioprocess engineering perspective that maximize yields with minimized production cost are also covered, with the expectation of facilitating the commercialization process.

The special causes of variations, which is also known as a shift, can occur in a single or more than one related process characteristics. Statistical process control tools such as control charts are useful to monitor shifts in the process parameters (location and/or dispersion). In real-life situation, the shift is emerging in different sizes, and it is hard to identify it with classical control charts. Moreover, more than one process of characteristics required special attention because they must monitor jointly due to the association among them. This study offers two adaptive control charts to monitor the different sizes of a shift in the process mean vector. The novelty behind this study is to use dimensionally reduction techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) and an adaptive method such as Huber and Bi-square functions. In brief, the multivariate cumulative sum control chart based on PCA is designed, and its plotting statistic is utilized as an input in the classical exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart. The run length (RL) properties of the proposed and other control charts are obtained by designing algorithms in MATLAB through a Monte Carlo simulation. For a single shift, the performance of the control charts is assessed through an average of RL, standard deviation of RL, and standard error of RL. Likewise, overall performance measures such as extra quadratic loss, relative ARL, and the performance comparison index are also used. The comparison reveals the superiority over other control charts. Furthermore, to emphasize the application process and benefits of the proposed control charts, a real-life example of the wind turbine process is included.

(1) Background: The literature discusses the inverse Maxwell distribution theoretically without application. Control charting is promising, but needs development for inverse Maxwell processes. (2) Methods: Thus, we develop the VIM control chart for monitoring the inverse Maxwell scale parameter and studied its statistical properties. The chart’s performance is evaluated using power curves and run length properties. (3) Results: Further, we use simulated data to compare the shift detection capability of our chart with Weibull, gamma, and lognormal charts. (4) Conclusion: The analysis demonstrates our chart’s efficiency for monitoring skewed processes. Finally, we apply our chart for monitoring real world lifetimes of car brake pads.

Haematococcus lacustris (formerly called Haematococcus pluvialis) is regarded as the most promising microalgae for the production of natural astaxanthin, which is secondary metabolism used as a dietary supplement, also for cosmetic applications, due to its high anti-oxidant activity. Astaxanthin has a wide range of biological activities and high economic potential, and currently dominates the market in its synthetic form. Furthermore, because of the difficulty of bioprocess and the high cost of cultivation, astaxanthin extracted from this microalga is still expensive due to its low biomass and pigment productivities. Large-scale biomass production in biotechnological production necessitates the processing of a large number of cultures as well as the use of both indoor and outdoor systems, such as open pond raceway systems and photo-bioreactors (PBR). The photo-bioreactors systems are suitable for mass production because growth conditions can be controlled, and the risk of contamination can be reduced to a certain extent and under specific culture parameters. This review discusses current technologies being developed to improve cultivation and operation efficiency and profitability, as well as the effect of parameter factors associated with H. lacustris cultivation on biomass and astaxanthin bioproduction, and even strategies for increasing bioproduction and market potential for H. lacustris astaxanthin.

The numerical study of nanofluid stagnation point flow coupled with heat and mass transfer on a moving sheet with bi-directional slip velocities is emphasized. A magnetic field is considered normal to the moving sheet. Buongiorno’s model is utilized to assimilate the mixed effects of thermophoresis and Brownian motion due to the nanoparticles. Zero nanoparticles’ flux condition at the surface is employed, which indicates that the nanoparticles’ fraction are passively controlled. This condition makes the model more practical for certain engineering applications. The continuity, momentum, energy and concentration equations are transformed into a set of nonlinear ordinary (similarity) differential equations. Using bvp4c code in MATLAB software, the similarity solutions are graphically demonstrated for considerable parameters such as thermophoresis, Brownian motion and slips on the velocity, nanoparticles volume fraction and temperature profiles. The rate of heat transfer is reduced with the intensification of the anisotropic slip (difference of two-directional slip velocities) and the thermophoresis parameter, while the opposite result is obtained for the mass transfer rate. The study also revealed the existence of non-unique solutions on all the profiles, but, surprisingly, dual solutions exist boundlessly for any positive value of the control parameters. A stability analysis is implemented to assert the reliability and acceptability of the first solution as the physical solution.

Steel slag is one of the most common waste products from the steelmaking industry. Conventional methods of slag disposal can cause negative impacts on humans and the environment. In this paper, the process of steel and steel slag production, physical and chemical properties, and potential options of slag recycling were reviewed. Since steel is mainly produced through an electric arc furnace (EAF) in Malaysia, most of the recycling options reviewed in this paper focused on EAF slag and the strengths and weaknesses of each recycle option were outlined. Based on the reports from previous studies, it was found that only a portion of EAF slag is recycled into more straightforward, but lower added value applications such as aggregates for the construction industry and filter/absorber for wastewater treatments. On the other hand, higher added value recycling options for EAF slag that are more complicated such as incorporated as raw material for Portland cement and ceramic building materials remain at the laboratory testing stage. The main hurdle preventing EAF slag from being incorporated as a raw material for higher added value industrial applications is its inconsistent chemical composition. The chemical composition of EAF slag can vary based on the scrap metal used for steel production. For this, mineral separation techniques can be introduced to classify the EAF slag base on its physical and chemical compositions. We concluded that future research on recycling EAF slag should focus on separation techniques that diversify the recycling options for EAF slag, thereby increasing the waste product’s recycling rate.

A starch-resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF)-lithium triflate (LiTf) based biodegradable polymer electrolyte membrane was synthesized via the solution casting technique. The formation of RF crosslinks in the starch matrix was found to repress the starch&rsquo, s crystallinity as indicated by the XRD data. Incorporation of the RF plasticizer improved the conductivity greatly, with the highest room-temperature conductivity recorded being 4.29 &times, 10&minus, 4 S cm&minus, 1 achieved by the starch:LiTf:RF (20 wt.%:20 wt.%:60 wt.%) composition. The enhancement in ionic conductivity was an implication of the increase in the polymeric amorphous region concurrent with the suppression of the starch&rsquo, s crystallinity. Chemical complexation between the plasticizer, starch, and lithium salt components in the electrolyte was confirmed by FTIR spectra.

Natural and anthropogenic aerosols over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) play a major role in affecting the regional radiation budget. The long-term variability of these aerosols&rsquo, physical and optical parameters, including aerosol optical depth (AOD) and &Aring, ngstr&ouml, m exponent (&alpha, ), were measured at a location near central KSA using the Solar Village (SV) AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) station during the period December 1999&ndash, January 2013. The AERONET measurements show an overall increase in AOD on an annual basis. This upward trend is mainly attributed to a prolonged increase in the monthly/seasonal mean AOD during March&ndash, June and during August&ndash, September. In contrast, lower AOD values were observed during November&ndash, December. This can be attributed to a low frequency of dust outbreaks and higher precipitation rates. An overall, weak declining trend in &alpha, was observed, except during the summer. The spring and summer seasons experienced a pronounced increase in the number of coarse particles (~2 &micro, m) during April 2006&ndash, January 2013 as compared to December 1999&ndash, March 2006, suggesting an increase in natural aerosol loadings. Using the HYSPLIT model, it was found that the March 2009 dust storm contributed to the mixing of long-transported dust with anthropogenic local emissions near the SV. The results suggest that extensive industrial activity contributed to the increase of anthropogenic emissions over KSA during the period April 2006&ndash, January 2013.

The present study accentuates the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) flow and heat transfer characteristics of a dual stratified micropolar fluid over a permeable stretching/shrinking sheet. Thermal and solutal buoyancy forces are also included to incorporate with the stratification effect. Similarity, transformation is applied to reduce the governing model (partial differential equations) into a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) due to its complexity. Using bvp4c solver in the MATLAB software, numerical results for some limiting cases are in favorable agreement with the earlier published results. Both assisting and opposing buoyancy flows have dual similarity solutions within specific range of suction and stretching/shrinking parameters, whereas only a distinctive solution is observed for pure forced convective flow. The micropolar fluid shows a disparate pattern of flow, heat and mass transfer characteristics between stretching and shrinking cases. Unlike the shrinking flow, the surface velocity gradient, local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers for stretching flow intensify with the increment of the material parameter. The result from stability analysis reveals that the first solution is the real solution, whereas the second solution is virtual.

The Citarum River has a volcanic catchment area in West Java Province, and is one of the nationally strategic rivers in tropical Indonesia due to its roles in water supply and in power generation. The river is economically important, but it is also polluted by industrial, agricultural, and residential wastes. Suspended sediment samples were collected along a certain section of the Citarum River, starting in Balekambang through the area of Bandung Regency to the downstream village of Nanjung, where the river is dammed. Similar samples were also collected from seven tributaries of the Citarum River. Magnetic and heavy metal analyses show that unlike river sediments from a non-volcanic catchment area in temperate climates, magnetic susceptibility values tend to decrease downstream, showing that the magnetic minerals in the upstream area are mostly lithogenic in origin, containing more Fe-bearing minerals compared to those in tributary samples which are anthropogenic in origin. Anthropogenic pollution is also represented by the increase of Zn content along the river. The results suggest that applying magnetic methods for monitoring river pollution in the tropics or in the volcanic areas should be carefully analyzed and interpreted.

Lake Limboto is one of the major lakes in Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is currently undergoing serious degradation due to population pressure. As more residential areas have been established around the lake, the sedimentation rate has increased because of the contribution of anthropogenic particles. In this study, the lithogenic and anthropogenic components in surface sediments from 17 points in the lake were studied and identified using a combination of magnetic and geochemical analyses. The results showed that although the magnetic susceptibility values in R (residential) and NR (non-residential) areas were relatively similar, the values of saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) as well as those of SIRM/χLF differed significantly, implying that the magnetic characteristics of the lithogenic component (in the NR area) differ from those of the anthropogenic component (in the R area). The discrepancy between the anthropogenic and lithogenic contributions was further supported by trace metals and rare earth element (REE) contents. Sediment samples in the R area contained higher levels of Mn, La, Pr, and Gd, while in the NR area they contained higher levels of Fe, Sc, Nd, and Ce. The magnetic susceptibility also correlated strongly with Fe, Cu, Zn, and Mn contents in the NR area. A similar correlation was not observed in the R area. The results above imply that a combination of magnetic and geochemical analyses can successfully differentiate lithogenic and anthropogenic components or contributions in lake sediments.