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Abstract A proportional‐resonant (PR)‐based current control strategy for grid‐connected packed‐E cell (PEC) inverter is presented. Unlike the existing control strategies, which are based on proportional‐integral controller, developed for packed‐U cell and PEC inverters, the proposed PR‐based control strategy achieves zero steady‐state error in the grid current. Furthermore, it eliminates the necessity of employing the control loop for regulating the dc capacitor voltages. Also, the grid current synchronization is achieved by using a Lyapunov filter‐based phase locked loop (PLL). The consequence of using Lyapunov filter‐based PLL is that sinusoidal synchronization signal can be extracted from the distorted grid voltage. The performances of the proposed control strategy under steady‐state, load variation and non‐ideal grid voltage are investigated on a laboratory‐scale experimental prototype. It is reported that the control of both dc‐ and ac‐side variables of the system are accomplished.

This paper presents a novel model-free switching and control method for three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) converter using deep reinforcement learning (DRL). Our approach targets two primary control objectives: voltage balancing and current control. In this method, voltage balancing, current control and selection of optimal switches are achieved using a reward function which is calculated based on various signals measured as observations of the DRL agent. Since the action space is discrete, a deep Q-network (DQN) agent is utilized. DQN is used due to its capability of handling high-dimensional state spaces. In order to highlight its pros and cons, the proposed method is compared with model predictive control (MPC), which is another popular non-linear control method for power electronic converters. The proposed method is evaluated and compared with the MPC method in grid-connected mode using simulations in Matlab/Simulink. To evaluate the practical performance of the DRL method, various experimental results are obtained. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method effectively achieves accurate voltage balancing and ensures steady operation even in the presence of various dynamic changes, including variations in the reference currents and grid voltage. Additionally, the method successfully handles uncertainties, such as sensor measurement noise, and accommodates parameter variations, such as changes in the capacity of the DC-link capacitors and line impedance. The results demonstrate that this method exhibits superior adaptability to real-time changes and uncertainties, delivering more robust performance compared to similar conventional methods like MPC. Thus, this method can be considered a promising approach for intelligent control of power electronic converters, especially when conventional methods such as MPC face challenges in performance and accuracy under severe parameter variations and uncertainties.

Brucellosis is an endemic zoonotic disease caused by intracellular gram-negative coccobacilli called Brucella. This infectious disease may implicate many farm animals and is transmissible to exposed humans. Brucellosis is potentially life-threatening and may lead to granulomatous multi-organ involvement with tendency to chronicity and recurrence. The treatment of brucellosis requires combined and protracted antimicrobial therapies to eliminate the disease and to avoid its relapse. Genitourinary brucellosis is common among infected humans in endemic areas and is considered the second-most affected focal site, which commonly manifests as epididymo-orchitis. Testicular abscess, however, is an extremely rare complication of brucellosis. To the best of our knowledge, in the literature, there are to date only 16 previously published case reports, including 22 patients of brucellar testicular abscesses, emphasizing the extreme rarity of this condition. Most of these cases harbored small abscesses, which were treated conservatively using antibiotics therapy only, or with added drainage of the abscesses. Larger abscesses were reported to necessitate orchiectomy. In some cases, the abscesses were mimicking tumors, and surgeries for orchiectomy were done accordingly. A summary of the previously reported cases in the literature is presented. Here, we present the 17th case report of a 34-year-old man with a right-side huge multilocular brucellar testicular abscess apparently replacing the entire testicle, who was successfully treated with organ-sparing management by incision-drainage of the large abscess with antibiotics, to eventually preserve his testis. In conclusion, brucellosis should be considered among the differential diagnoses of any testicular swelling, especially in endemic areas. Drainage of brucellar testicular abscess with appropriate medical treatment is feasible and may preserve the testicle, even with large abscess apparently replacing the entire testicle.

AI has introduced a new reform direction for traditional education, such as automating Grammatical Error Correction (GEC) to reduce teachers’ workload and improve efficiency. However, current GEC models still have flaws because human language is very variable, and the available labeled datasets are often too small to learn everything automatically. One of the key principles of GEC is to preserve correct parts of the input text while correcting grammatical errors. However, previous sequence-to-sequence (Seq2Seq) models may be prone to over-correction as they generate corrections from scratch. Over-correction is a phenomenon where a grammatically correct sentence is incorrectly flagged as containing errors that require correction, leading to incorrect corrections that can change the meaning or structure of the original sentence. This can significantly reduce the accuracy and usefulness of GEC systems, highlighting the need for improved approaches that can reduce over-correction and ensure more accurate and natural corrections. Recently, sequence tagging-based models have been used to mitigate this issue by only predicting edit operations that convert the source sentence to a corrected one. Despite their good performance on datasets with minimal edits, they struggle to restore texts with drastic changes. This issue artificially restricts the type of changes that can be made to a sentence and does not reflect those required for native speakers to find sentences fluent or natural sounding. Moreover, sequence tagging-based models are usually conditioned on human-designed language-specific tagging labels, hindering generalization and the real error distribution generated by diverse learners from different nationalities. In this work, we introduce a novel Seq2Seq-based approach that can handle a wide variety of grammatical errors on a low-fluency dataset. Our approach enhances the Seq2Seq architecture with a novel copy mechanism based on a supervised attention approach. Instead of merely predicting the next token in context, the model predicts additional correctness-related information for each token. This auxiliary objective propagates into the weights of the model during training without requiring extra labels at testing time. Experimental results on benchmark datasets show that our model achieves competitive performance compared to state-of-the-art(SOTA) models.

Nadia Ghannam,1 Saleh Alahmed,2 Raed Aldahash,3 Naji Aljohani,4 Afaf Alshammary,5 Ashraf Amir,6 Abdullah Kamal,7 Said Khader,8 Mohammed Salah,9 Hani Shalabi,10,11 Ahmed Abdallah,12 Ahmed Elboghdady12 1Ghannam Clinic, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 2Almana Group of Hospitals, Dammam, Saudi Arabia; 3Ministry of National Guard (Health Affairs) and King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 4King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 5Ministry of National Guard (Health Affairs), King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh and King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 6Family Medicine International Medical Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 7Dallah Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 8Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Group, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 9Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt and GNP Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 10University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 11Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 12Merck Serono Middle East FZ-Ltd, Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Nadia Ghannam, Ghannam Clinic, King Abdulaziz Road, Jeddah, 21411, Saudi Arabia, Email ghannam_clinic@yahoo.comAbstract: The onset of type 2 diabetes increases the risk of vascular complications and death. We know now that that this risk begins long before the diabetes diagnosis. Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes are not separate entities in practice and exist within a continuum of dysglycaemia and vascular risk that increases in severity over time. This excess risk requires early intervention with lifestyle therapy supported with pharmacologic antidiabetic therapy, intensified promptly where necessary throughout the duration of the diabetes continuum. Metformin is an evidence-based treatment for preventing prediabetes and improves cardiovascular outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes from diagnosis onwards. Newer agents (SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 agonists) are appropriate for people presenting with type 2 diabetes and significant cardiovascular comorbidity. Additional therapies should be used without delay to achieve patients’ individualised HbA1c goals and to minimise cardiovascular risk.Keywords: prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, diabetes complications, antidiabetic therapy

The film and the music participate in dividing the element of time into well-defined rhythm patterns. There are certain natural rhythms that are inherent in the physical movements of many of the visual elements on the screen, from trees driven by the wind, footsteps, a car engine, etc., all of this creates natural rhythms. Creates an instinctive need to hear rhythmic sounds corresponding to the visual.The rhythmic pattern is also provided by the pace of the plot, by controlling how fast or slowly it develops. As well as by creating a rhythm by controlling the pace of dialogue and the natural rhythms of dialogue between characters. Tempo tempo is determined by repeating combination bits and controlling the duration of each shot between one cut and the next, giving each scene a unique rhythmic character. Although the synthesis "montage" divides the film into a number of separate parts, but it achieves sequence and flowing form, because the music possesses these same qualities of rhythm and continuity, and can easily adapt to the basic rhythms of the film.Music has a very great effect on the spectator's response, as it increases the reactions of almost any movie. Where music works to achieve a set of basic functions, namely:Create structural rhythms.Support and strengthen the emotional content of the image.Expressing emotions that cannot be conveyed through the visual image.Provoke imagination, emotional responses, stimulation of thoughts and the subconscious.Complementing and enhancing the dramatic and narrative structure by eliciting the emotional and emotional responses that parallels each single scene and the film as a whole.The research discusses the types and functions of music within the film, and the relationship between visual and audio variables, in order to find out how to balance between visual and technical dazzling, and between the desired contents of the film.

Tropical cyclones, one of the most extreme and destructive meteorological incidents, cause extensive damage to lives and livelihoods worldwide. This study utilized remotely sensed data along with multi-criteria decision-making, geospatial techniques, and major cyclonic events Aila, Amphan, and Yaas to identify the changes in the vulnerability of cyclone-induced floods in the 19 community development blocks of Indian Sundarbans in the years 2009–2010, 2020–2021, and 2021–2022 (the post-cyclonic timespan). The Sundarbans are a distinctive bioclimatic region located in a characteristic geographical setting along the West Bengal and Bangladesh coasts. In this area, several cyclonic storms had an impact between 2009 and 2022. Using the variables NDVI, MNDWI, NDMI, NDBI, BSI, and NDTI, Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager, Thermal Infrared Sensor, Resourcesat LISS-III, and AWiFS data were primarily utilized to map the cyclonic flood-effective zones in the research area. The findings indicated that the coastline, which was most impacted by tropical storms, has significant physical susceptibility to floods, as determined by the AHP-weighted overlay analysis. Significant positive relationships (p < 0.05, n = 19 administrative units) were observed between mangrove damage, NDFI, and physical flood susceptibility indicators. Mangrove damage increased with an increase in the flood index, and vice versa. To mitigate the consequences and impacts of the vulnerability of cyclonic events, subsequent flood occurrences, and mangrove damage in the Sundarbans, a ground-level implementation of disaster management plans proposed by the associated state government, integrated measures of cyclone forecasting, mangrove plantation, coastal conservation, flood preparedness, mitigation, and management by the Sundarban Development Board are appreciably recommended.

This study investigates the infestation dynamics of Panonychus ulmi McGregor 1916 and its associated predators in Malus domestica borkh orchards across three towns in Morocco: Midelt, Ait Sebaa, and Imouzzer-Kender, situated in the Fez-Meknes and Draa-Tafilalt regions. Ait Sebaa (Fez-Meknes region), characterized by high temperatures and a lower altitude, exhibited a substantial increase in P. ulmi and its predators. In contrast, Midelt (Draa-Tafilalt region), with the highest altitude, demonstrated lower mite counts. Imouzzer-Kender (Fez-Meknes region), at an intermediate altitude, showed moderate mite levels. Detailed findings reveal a positive correlation between P. ulmi and temperature, as well as with phytoseiid mites. Conversely, a negative correlation exists between P. ulmi and altitude. Additionally, a positive correlation between phytoseiid mites and temperature is identified. Overall, this study provides valuable information on the ecological interactions between mites, temperature, altitude and humidity in distinct Moroccan regions, highlighting the need to take regional specificities into account in pest management strategies.

This study introduces the Lines and Dots (LADs) technique, a new approach for administering botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) in treating forehead wrinkles. (1) Background: BoNT-A application patterns in the forehead often rely solely on the anatomy of the frontalis muscle. The LADs technique proposes a combination of anatomical features with nerve pathways. (2) Methods: The technique employed a grid system aligned with the supraorbital and supratrochlear nerve pathways and used an electronic acupuncture pen for validation. This study analyzed treatment outcomes for efficacy and safety and proposed a predictive model for BoNT-A dosage. (3) Results: LADs was associated with a high satisfaction rate and low side effect incidence. The predictive model followed BoNT-A Units=0.322×Muscle Pattern Code+1.282×Line Type Code+2.905×Severity Pre-Treatment+3.947. (4) Conclusions: The LADs technique offers an alternative approach to treating forehead wrinkles, optimizing efficacy while minimizing the BoNT-A dose required.

Healing in compromised and complicated bone defects is often prolonged and delayed due to the lack of bioactivity of the fixation device, secondary infections, and associated oxidative stress. Here, we propose amorphous silicon oxynitride (SiONx) as a coating for the fixation devices to improve both bioactivity and bacteriostatic activity and reduce oxidative stress. We aimed to study the effect of increasing the N/O ratio in the SiONx to fine-tune the cellular activity and the antioxidant effect via the NRF2 pathway under oxidative stress conditions. The in vitro studies involved using human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to examine the effect of SiONx coatings on osteogenesis with and without toxic oxidative stress. Additionally, bacterial growth on SiONx surfaces was studied using methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonies. NRF2 siRNA transfection was performed on the hMSCs (NRF2-KD) to study the antioxidant response to silicon ions. The SiONx implant surfaces showed a >4-fold decrease in bacterial growth vs. bare titanium as a control. Increasing the N/O ratio in the SiONx implants increased the alkaline phosphatase activity >1.5 times, and the other osteogenic markers (osteocalcin, RUNX2, and Osterix) were increased >2-fold under normal conditions. Increasing the N/O ratio in SiONx enhanced the protective effects and improved cell viability against toxic oxidative stress conditions. There was a significant increase in osteocalcin activity compared to the uncoated group, along with increased antioxidant activity under oxidative stress conditions. In NRF2-KD cells, there was a stunted effect on the upregulation of antioxidant markers by silicon ions, indicating a role for NRF2. In conclusion, the SiONx coatings studied here displayed bacteriostatic properties. These materials promoted osteogenic markers under toxic oxidative stress conditions while also enhancing antioxidant NRF2 activity. These results indicate the potential of SiONx coatings to induce in vivo bone regeneration in a challenging oxidative stress environment.

Citrus fruits stand as pivotal and extensively cultivated fruit crops on a global scale, boasting substantial economic and nutritional significance. Despite their paramount importance, citrus growers and the industry face a formidable obstacle in the form of post-harvest losses caused by plant pathogens. Effectively addressing this challenge has become imperative. The predominant approach to tackle these pathogens has traditionally involved the use of chemical fungicides. However, the escalating environmental concerns associated with chemical interventions, coupled with a growing consumer preference for pesticide-free produce, have catalyzed an earnest quest for alternative methods of disease control in the citrus industry. The antagonistic yeasts hold great promise as biocontrol agents for mitigating post-harvest fungal diseases in citrus. In this regard, this review summarizes the current state of knowledge regarding the study of yeast strains with biocontrol potential. Thus, the various modes of action employed by these yeasts and their effectiveness against prominent citrus pathogens such as Penicillium digitatum, Penicillium italicum and Geotrichum citri were discussed. Additionally, the review delved into the challenges associated with the practical implementation of yeast-based biocontrol strategies in citrus post-harvest management and investigated the potential of yeast-based approaches to enhance the safety and quality of citrus produce, while reducing the reliance on chemical fungicides and contributing to the sustainable and environmentally responsible future of the citrus industry.

PURPOSECancer is a major burden across Middle East, North Africa, Türkiye (MENAT). Many MENAT countries experience multiple conflicts that compound vulnerabilities, but little research investigates the linkages between vulnerability and cancer research. This study examines the current level and the potential for cancer research among vulnerable populations in the MENAT region, aiming to provide direction toward developing a research agenda on the region's vulnerable populations.METHODSExpert-driven meetings were arranged among the 10 authors. After obtaining institutional review board approval, a self-administered online survey questionnaire was circulated to more than 500 cancer practitioners working in 22 MENAT countries.RESULTSTwo hundred sixteen cancer practitioners across the MENAT region responded. Fifty percent of the respondents identified clinical research in vulnerable patients with cancer as a significant issue; 21.8% reported previous research experience that included vulnerable populations, and 60% reported encountering vulnerable populations in their daily clinical practice. The main barriers to conducting research were lack of funding (60%), protected time (42%), and research training (35%). More than half of the respondents believed that wars/conflicts constituted an important source of vulnerability. The most vulnerable cancer populations were the elderly, palliative/terminally ill, those with concomitant mental health-related issues, those with other chronic illnesses, and socioeconomically deprived patients.CONCLUSIONResults support that a major effort is needed to improve cancer research among vulnerable cancer populations in the MENAT region. We call for interdisciplinary research that accounts for the region's unique, compounding, and cumulative forms of vulnerability. This cancer research agenda on different vulnerable populations must balance sociobehavioral studies that explore sociopolitical barriers to quality care and clinical studies that gauge and refine treatment protocols. Building a research agenda through collaboration and solidarity with international partners is prime time.

Abstract In this work, the nonlinearity of PIN diode on frequency reconfigurable patch antenna is investigated. To perform frequency reconfiguration, the proposed design makes use of the switching capabilities of a PIN diode. The antenna has a dimension of 41 × 44 mm2 corresponding to 0.33 λ0 × 0.35 λ0, where λ0 represents the wavelength in free space at 2.4 GHz fabricated on Rogers Duroid RO3003TM material. In the OFF state of the PIN diode, a single resonance (ISM 5.8 GHz) is achieved. However, in the ON state of the PIN diode, a dual‐resonance (ISM 5.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz) is achieved. A directional and bidirectional radiation pattern can be observed in the E‐plane at 5.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively, and omnidirectional radiation patterns can be viewed in the H‐plane for both 5.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz. The gain is measured to be 4.84 dBi at 2.4 GHz and 5.87 dBi at 5.8 GHz, with total efficiencies of 91.8% and 92.5% at 5.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively. Two‐tone nonlinear measurements at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz are used to evaluate the PIN diode. Several third‐order intermodulation distortion products (IMD3) frequencies are observed with input powers between 0 and 20 dBm. The IMD3 at 2.4 GHz is −36.18 dBm, while at 5.8 GHz is −47.19 dBm and the third‐order input intercept point (IIP3) of +66.65 dBm is obtained at 2.4 GHz, while +22.69 dBm at 5.8 GHz. Additionally, at 2.4 GHz, the 1‐dB gain compression (P1‐dB) could not be identified, showing that the antenna behaves linearly within the spectrum of input power. Similarly, the P1‐dB is detected at 14.8 dBm input power at 5.8 GHz. The proposed antenna works in the linear region up to an input power level of 15 dBm, where the received signal strength of the IMD3 is minimal, according to the measurement of the nonlinearity caused by the PIN diode. The nonlinearity results confirm that the active reconfigurable antenna designed and implemented in this work is suitable for use in the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands for indoor and short‐range communication applications. Furthermore, the assessment of nonlinearity provides a deeper understanding of and helps mitigate the negative effects of nonlinearity on the proposed antenna. This measurement assists in refining biasing, selecting suitable linearization methods, improving the design, and evaluating performance at the system level. Ultimately, it enhances antenna performance and expands frequency reconfigurability by enabling optimization across multiple aspects.

Controlling early blight of tomatoes using endophytic bacteria is an eco-friendly and sustainable approach to manage this common fungal disease caused by Alternaria solani, Alternaria alternata, and Curvularia lunata. Endophytic bacteria are microorganisms that live inside plant tissues without causing harm and can help protect the host plant from pathogens. In this work, twenty endophytic bacterial isolates from tomato healthy plants were tested against pathogenic fungal isolates that caused early blight disease in vitro. Out of the 20 tested isolates, three (B4, B7, and B17) were considered effective isolates against the growth of fungal pathogens. The three isolates were recognized as Enterobacter cloacae HS-6 (B4), Pseudomonas gessardii HS-5 (B 7), and Pseudomonas mediterranea HS-4 (B17) using 16s-rDNA sequencing. Different concentrations of bacterial cultural diltrates at 20, 40, and 60% were tested for their antagonistic effects on the development of pathogenic fungi in vitro. The lowest dry weights of pathogenic isolates in all bacterial culture filtrates were discovered at 60%. In all culture filtrates, phenolic compounds showed the largest peak area. Under greenhouse conditions, the least disease severity of tomato early blight was found for E. cloacae and its culture filtrate compared to other treatments. Real-time PCR was used to examine the expression pattern of the defense response gene β-1.3 glucanase gene in infected tomato plants with pathogenic fungi (control) as well as its relations with efficient biocontrol agent (E. cloacae). The expression of the gene increased substantially and significantly after three days from the inoculation-infected plants with C. lunata and E. cloacae while it reached the maximum after five days from the inoculation with A. alternata, A. solani and E. cloacae. Our study concluded that the endophytic bacterial isolate E. cloacae can be considered a promising biocontrol agent for preventing tomato early blight.

Background: As pharmacy practice evolves, an increasing number of pharmacists are diversifying into non-traditional roles such as aesthetic procedures. Despite this shift, comprehensive research exploring demographic patterns, motivations, practice settings, and perceived support and barriers among pharmacists in this specialty, particularly in Alberta, Canada, remains scant. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the demographics, experience, practice settings, types of aesthetic services offered, and perceptions of support from the Alberta College of Pharmacy (ACP) among Alberta pharmacists. It also sought to understand the relationship between pharmacists' years of practice and the complexity of the aesthetic services they provide and to assess the impact of contacting the ACP on their perceptions of clarity in the aesthetic injection regulatory framework. Methods: An online survey was disseminated to registered pharmacists in Alberta, gathering data on demographics, experience, practice settings, aesthetic services offered, and perceived barriers and support. Statistical analysis was used to identify significant trends and associations, employing Chi-square, Kendall's tau-c, and Gamma tests. Results: The results showed a significant association between younger age and involvement in aesthetic practice, with a substantial presence in hospital settings. Part-time pharmacists showed stronger involvement, and those with less than five years of experience were more likely to practice aesthetic injections. No statistically significant relationship was found between the years of practice and the complexity of aesthetic services. Clear dissatisfaction was evident regarding the support and communication from the ACP, with contact with the ACP not necessarily resulting in clarity regarding aesthetic practice regulations. Conclusion: The findings suggest that aesthetic practices are becoming a significant part of pharmacy practice, particularly among younger, part-time pharmacists associated with hospital settings. However, this shift calls for improved support, clearer guidelines, and better communication from the ACP, particularly around aesthetic practice regulations.It also emphasizes the need for regulatory bodies to ensure pharmacists are equipped to offer these services safely and effectively, which could be crucial in shaping future policy-making and professional development initiatives.

Many people are killed by landslides due to earthquakes or severe rain, and structures and facilities built on or near slopes sustain significant damage. Such landslides on naturally occurring slopes can be large enough to utterly destroy towns or communities. Based on remote sensing and microtremor data, the area around Al Taif has been evaluated for its susceptibility to landslides. Digital elevation model (DEM), slope angle, and slope aspect thematic layers were used to depict remote sensing data. The landslide susceptibility was extracted from remote sensing thematic data. The elevations of the Al Taif area, which range from 832 to 2,594 m amsl, were identified based on the DEM. Al Taif’s slope angles range from 0° to 67.3° degrees. Nearly flat (0° to 4.75°), moderate (4.75° to 11.1°), steep (11.2° to 29.1°), and very steep slope (≤29.1°) are the different classifications for the slope. Additionally, measurements of the microtremor have been taken at 42 locations throughout the region. The horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) approach was used to process and analyze microtremor data in order to determine the resonance frequency and H/V amplification factor. The findings show that, while the amplification factor varies from 1.17 to 9.28, the dominant frequency values fall between 0.3 and 12.75 Hz. To determine the frequency, amplitude, and azimuthal site response, 11 sites were eventually chosen. Furthermore, the direction of the site response in the sliding areas was parallel to the landslide directional response, indicating that the site response direction tracked the landslide direction. Practical approval of the study’s findings has been given at a number of locations by field measurements at some of the Taif urban area’s most recent landslide occurrence areas. These findings show that the integration between remote sensing and microtremor measurements is a useful tool for pinpointing landslide-prone areas, which helps to lessen the danger to people’s lives and property. This susceptibility zonation applied to the Al Taif area has produced a good match between the distribution of the reported landslides and the zones of high susceptibility. To define the general trend and geographic distribution of potentially unstable slopes and landslide potential zones, this study’s findings must be used as a guide.

Estimates show that the world generates around 2.01 billion tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) each year, of which 33% is not managed properly. This demonstrates the urgent need for strategies to address the growing rate of MSW generation worldwide. Municipal waste collection, treatment and final deposition are among the important issues in the agendas of public administration. Brazil, like other developing countries has to develop its political policies to handle efficiently the MSW treatment. A significant part of the municipalities are still facing serious difficulties to eradicate dumping practices and implement adequate waste treatment routes. As a contribution, this review presents the actual scenario and future national plan for MSW for the period 2024-2040 including efforts to waste minimization, recycling, sanitation, and closure of polluted landfills, incentives to recovery of landfill gas, composting, and recovery of energy from MSW. Recent data shows that the actual MSW generated in Brazil in 2022 is about 81.8 million tons of which 76.1 million tons were collected (93.0%). Of the collected MSW, 46.4 million tons (61%) were deposited in sanitary landfills and about 29.7 million tons (39%) were sent to dumps. The recycling and composting activities were 1.12 million tons (or 1.47%) and 127,500 tons (or 0.168%), respectively. The new National Plan of Solid Waste, Planares, establishes among other targets, the elimination of controlled dumps and dumping sites starting from 2024 and the increase of the recovered MSW to 48.1% by 2040.

Thermoelectric power plants have been designed to operate in ISO conditions, similar to the temperate climatic conditions of the northern hemisphere. Thus, some equipment used in tropical regions operated outside the ideal conditions, with high relative humidity and ambient temperature. This ends up impairing its efficiency and maximum generation. This paper presents the analysis of 2020 and 2021 hourly electric generation and climatic conditions data for 2020 from the gas based combined cycle Cuiabá Thermoelectric Power Plant, located in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, center-west region of Brazil. The main objective is to present and discuss the correlations between meteorological conditions and power generation in the plant. Results show a strong correlation between generation and the wet bulb temperature. They also show that high wind speeds, increase thermal losses and the efficiency of the steam cycle. This paper shows that thermal electric power plants are particularly sensitive to climate conditions in hot and humid regions.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the bacterial strain that causes tuberculosis (TB). However, multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis are significant obstacles to effective treatment. As a result, novel therapies against various strains of M. tuberculosis have been developed. Drug development is a lengthy procedure that includes identifying target protein and isolation, preclinical testing of the drug, and various phases of a clinical trial, etc., can take decades for a molecule to reach the market. Computational approaches such as QSAR, molecular docking techniques, and pharmacophore modeling have aided drug development. In this review article, we have discussed the various techniques in tuberculosis drug discovery by briefly introducing them and their importance. Also, the different databases, methods, approaches, and software used in conducting QSAR, pharmacophore modeling, and molecular docking have been discussed. The other targets targeted by these techniques in tuberculosis drug discovery have also been discussed, with important molecules discovered using these computational approaches. This review article also presents the list of drugs in a clinical trial for tuberculosis found drugs. Finally, we concluded with the challenges and future perspectives of these techniques in drug discovery.

This study predicts sediment yield on various landuse surfaces within the Calabar River Catchment, Nigeria. Five experimental plots of 31 by 23 cm (representing urban, farm, grass, bare, and forest surfaces) were established on a convex slope series with a 20% gradient, oriented along the slope strike. Rainfall, morphological, and hydraulic stations were derived for each plot. Multiple regressions and Factor analysis were employed to analyse the collected data. The research identifies critical factors influencing sediment yield, such as rainfall amount, rainfall intensity, slope gradient, slope length, sand, silt, clay, vegetation cover, and infiltration capacity. The results (p

The Abakaliki Anticlinorium and its adjoining areas were appraised with the object of delineating high geothermal potential zones. Spectral depth analysis involving an improved centroid technique was used to analyze high-quality magnetic data. The obtained geothermal parameters were gridded to map various geothermal features within the investigated area. The obtained results varied from 4.99–9.35 km, 2.31–6.15 km, 6.11–16.28 km, 35.63°C–94.93°C/km, and 89.07–237.32 mW/m2 for centroid depth, top depth, Curie point depth, geothermal gradient, and heat flow values, respectively. The delineated semioval structure in the central zone of the investigated region characterized by a shallow Curie point depth (< 8.5 km) correlates with the location of the high-heat flow (>191.0 mW/m2) and geothermal gradient (>74.0°C/km) region. The high geothermal potential of the region is triggered by the massive post-rift tectonic event of the Santonian period related to the Abakaliki Anticlinorium. Further geophysical exploration programs should be carried out before exploitation activities at anomalous geothermal regions.

BackgroundHyper-inflammatory immune response, a hallmark of severe COVID-19, is associated with increased mortality. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a common manifestation. We undertook two phase I/II studies in five and then 16 subjects with severe/critical COVID-19 to assess the safety and preliminary efficacy of apoptotic cells (Allocetra™-OTS, Enlivex Therapeutics), a cellular immunomodulatory therapy that reprograms macrophages to reduce hyper-inflammatory response severity.MethodsEligible patients presenting to the Emergency Room with severe COVID-19 and respiratory dysfunction received one intravenous administration of Allocetra™-OTS and were monitored for adverse events (AEs) for 28 days. The primary aim was to determine the safety profile of treatment; secondary aims were recovery from ARDS, intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length-of-stay, and mortality. Immune modulator markers were measured to elucidate the mechanism of action of Allocetra™-OTS.Results21 patients with severe-critical COVID-19 of Gamma, Alpha and Delta variants, were treated with a single dose of apoptotic cells. 19/21 patients had mild-to-severe ARDS at presentation. Median age was 53 years, 16/21 were males, 16/21 were overweight/obese. No serious related adverse events (SAEs) were reported. All 21 study subjects survived to day 28 (end of study); 19/21 recovered completely. Comparable mortality rates at the hospital were 3.8%−8.9% for age- and gender-matched patients, and 39%−55% for critical patients. Recovering patients exhibited rapid ARDS resolution and parallel resolution of inflammation markers and elevated cytokines/chemokines.ConclusionIn patients with severe/critical COVID-19 associated with ARDS, Allocetra™-OTS was safe, well-tolerated, and showed promising results for resolution of respiratory failure and inflammation.Trial registrationhttps://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT04513470, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT04590053, Identifiers NCT04513470, NCT04590053.

The Kalabagh strike–slip fault, which is characterized by right-lateral movement, is part of the northwestern Himalayan foreland fold and thrust belt in Pakistan. This structure marks the western and eastern terminations of the Salt Range and Surghar Ranges, respectively. No significant (>M6) earthquakes have been reported along the Kalabagh Fault in recent decades. Here, we take advantage of space-borne Sentinel-1A SAR interferometry to gain insight into the mechanics of faulting, aseismic creeping, and stress loading of the seismic cycle on the Kalabagh Fault spanning over approximately 7 years. In this study, we also removed the tropospheric effects using the Generic Atmospheric Correction Online Service data from the rate map. We further resolved the LOS deformation into both horizontal and vertical deformations. Our Bayesian inversion indicates that the fault experiences significant horizontal and vertical displacements. The fault’s southern and northern segments exhibit a creeping rate of approximately ∼4.2 ± 1.3 to 4.8 ± 1.6 mm/year, respectively, while the central section does not display any horizontal creeping. We found that the creeping is confined between 0 and ∼2.7 ± 1.1 km depth at the northern section and 0 and ∼3.9 ± 1.1 km on the southern section of the faults. Nevertheless, we found that the vertical creeping of ∼10 mm/year is confined between 0.5 and 6 km depth in the central segment of the fault. Moreover, our model does not resolve the interseismic slip at depth on the Kalabagh Fault. Our results affirm that Kalabagh Fault is creeping, and the internal deformation due to the presence of a thick salt layer over the decollement facilitates the creeping on this fault. In addition, Coulomb stress modeling depicts that the creeping on the Kalabagh Fault increases the Coulomb stress changes in the northern section of the KBF.

Gravity-based imaging of the subsurface has increased worldwide recently. Improvements in the processing and analysis of gravity data have allowed us to locate the basement surface, map geologic basins, and define structural patterns. In this study, gravity data were analyzed to study the Bahira basin’s underlying geology. The Bahira basin is very important economically. The Ganntour plateau is distinctive due to the importance of the phosphate mining resources. Using gravity data, we mapped the subsurface and determined the underlying structural patterns that affect the study area. In this study, we used several techniques to edge detection including Total horizontal derivative (THDR), first vertical derivative (FVD), tilt derivative (TDR), and its horizontal derivative (THDR_TDR) methods. Accordingly, the geological history of the Bahira basin suggests that the main lineaments/faults trends are NE-SW, NW-SE, ENE-WSW, and WNW-ESE. The 3D Euler deconvolution showed the depth and location of lineaments/faults, and matched edge detection results. The eastern Bahira basin’s sedimentary layer is 2–8 km deeper according to the Euler technique. Two-dimensional forward modeling along three profiles in the Bahira basin revealed a horst-graben basement structure. The outcomes of this study improved the subsurface topographical variations of the Bahira Basin. The information collected so far can help future studies in the area.

Assessing and mapping the vulnerability of gully erosion in mountainous and semi-arid areas is a crucial field of research due to the significant environmental degradation observed in such regions. In order to tackle this problem, the present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of three commonly used machine learning models: Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, and Logistic Regression. Several geographic and environmental factors including topographic, geomorphological, environmental, and hydrologic factors that can contribute to gully erosion were considered as predictor variables of gully erosion susceptibility. Based on an existing differential GPS survey inventory of gully erosion, a total of 191 eroded gullies were spatially randomly split in a 70:30 ratio for use in model calibration and validation, respectively. The models’ performance was assessed by calculating the area under the ROC curve (AUC). The findings indicate that the RF model exhibited the highest performance (AUC = 89%), followed by the SVM (AUC = 87%) and LR (AUC = 87%) models. Furthermore, the results highlight those factors such as NDVI, lithology, drainage, and density were the most influential, as determined by the RF, SVM, and LR methods. This study provides a valuable tool for enhancing the mapping of soil erosion and identifying the most important influencing factors that primarily cause soil deterioration in mountainous and semi-arid regions.

IntroductionAlternaria solani is a challenging pathogen in the tomato crop globally. Chemical control is a rapid approach, but emerging fungicide resistance has become a severe threat. The present study investigates the use of culture filtrates (CFs) of three species of Trichoderma spp. to control this disease.MethodsHighly virulent A. solani strain and three Trichoderma fungal strains viz., T. harzianum (Accession No: MW590687), T. atroviride (Accession No: MW590689) and T. longibrachiatum (Accession No: MW590688) previously isolated by authors were used in this study. The efficacy of culture filtrates (CFs) to mitigate early blight disease were tested under greenhouse and field conditions, experiments were conducted in different seasons of 2020 using a tomato variety “doucen”.Results and discussionThe CFs of T. harzianum, T. longibrachiatum, and T. atroviride significantly inhibited the in vitro mycelial growth of A. solani (62.5%, 48.73%, and 57.82%, respectively, followed by control 100%). In the GC–MS analysis of Trichoderma CF volatile compounds viz., harzianic acid (61.86%) in T. harzianum, linoleic acid (70.02%) in T. atroviride, and hydroxymethylfurfural (68.08%) in the CFs of T. longibrachiatum, were abundantly present. Foliar application of CFs in the greenhouse considerably reduced the disease severity (%) in all treatments, viz., T. harzianum (18.03%), T. longibrachiatum (31.91%), and T. atroviride (23.33%), followed by infected control (86.91%), and positively affected the plant biomarkers. In the greenhouse, the plants treated with CFs demonstrated higher flavonoids after 6 days of inoculation, whereas phenolic compounds increased after 2 days. The CF-treated plants demonstrated higher antioxidant enzymes, i.e., phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and peroxidase (POD), after 4 days, whereas polyphenol oxidase (PPO) was higher after 6 days of inoculation, followed by healthy and infected controls. In open field conditions, disease severity in CF-treated plants was reduced in both seasons as compared to naturally infected plants, whereas CF-treated plants exhibited a higher fruit yield than controls. The present results conclude that CFs can be a potential biocontrol candidate and a promising alternative to the early blight pathogen for sustainable production.

In this review, we explore the application of novel biomaterial-based therapies specifically targeted towards craniofacial bone defects. The repair and regeneration of critical sized bone defects in the craniofacial region requires the use of bioactive materials to stabilize and expedite the healing process. However, the existing clinical approaches face challenges in effectively treating complex craniofacial bone defects, including issues such as oxidative stress, inflammation, and soft tissue loss. Given that a significant portion of individuals affected by traumatic bone defects in the craniofacial area belong to the aging population, there is an urgent need for innovative biomaterials to address the declining rate of new bone formation associated with age-related changes in the skeletal system. This article emphasizes the importance of semiconductor industry-derived materials as a potential solution to combat oxidative stress and address the challenges associated with aging bone. Furthermore, we discuss various material and autologous treatment approaches, as well as in vitro and in vivo models used to investigate new therapeutic strategies in the context of craniofacial bone repair. By focusing on these aspects, we aim to shed light on the potential of advanced biomaterials to overcome the limitations of current treatments and pave the way for more effective and efficient therapeutic interventions for craniofacial bone defects.

The Neoproterozoic Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) in the Eastern Desert of Egypt encloses the regional thermal-tectonic history from its development till the Oligo-Miocene when the Red Sea rift system was initiated. The application of multi-thermochronometry techniques has proven to be a successful approach to revealing the influence and extent of each regional tectonic event and the recreation of the tectono-thermal development of the studied region through time. Therefore, characteristic samples from the ANS different rock suits of the Gabal Loman area at the western flank of the northern Red Sea were collected. The Zircon fission-track data reveals the Carboniferous cooling ages, while the apatite fission-track cooling ages present two differential time spans of Cretaceous and Eocene-Oligocene. The time-temperature history modeling is integrated with fission-track data to reveal three differentiated cooling events developed in response to regional tectonic events: 1) the Hercynian (Variscan) tectonic event that influenced the ANS vicinity with rock uplifts of ca. 4 km through the Devonian-Carboniferous time, 2) the Gondwana disintegration event which influenced the region with differential rock exhumations, and 3) the northern Red Sea rifting through the Oligo-Miocene which caused a regional ca. 1 km of rift flanks exhumation. This modest rift flank uplift suggests a passive rift of the northern Red Sea rifting in the region of study.

Abstract Background In 2020, almost 20% of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Morocco are still unaware of their HIV status. Under these circumstances, HIV self-test (HIVST) can be an efficient additional tool for improving the testing rates in Morocco and reaching the first objective of the UNAIDS 95–95-95 goal. ALCS, a Community-based organization, involved in HIV Testing since 1992, and the Ministry of Health of Morocco conducted, a study on the acceptability and usability of HIVST among Female sex workers (FSW) and MSM (men who have sex with men), using a salivary rapid test. To our knowledge, this is the first study in Morocco exploring these parameters. Methods We conducted a pilot study on the usability of the OraQuick HIV-1/2 salivary self-test among MSM and FSW visiting the ALCS centers for standard HIV rapid testing in five Moroccan cities. Participants chose whether or not to be assisted by lay provider HIV testing. The counselors sampled them to perform a standard rapid test and then invited them to a private room to perform the HIV self-test simultaneously. In addition, a questionnaire was administered to collect socio-demographic data and to assess their opinion about the usability of the salivary HIVST. Results Our study was carried out for 5 months and included 492 participants (257 MSM and 233 FSW). The average age of the participants was 29 years among MSM vs 34 years among FSW. The FSW have a lower educational level, 28,8% of them are Illiterate vs. 6,1% of the MSM. Only 18% of participants were aware of the existence of the HIVST, nevertheless, we recorded a very high rate of acceptability (90,6%) of the HIVST. Performing the HIVST was deemed very easy for 92,2% of MSM versus 80,6% of FSW. Although it was found very difficult for six participants, including five FSW, 4 of them could not read or write. Overall, the study registered a high HIV positivity rate (3,8%) and 100% of concordance between HIVST participants’ interpretation and standard HIV testing performed by ALCS lay provider HIV testing. Conclusion Our study shows very high acceptability of HIVST among FSWs and MSM in Morocco, HIV self-testing is still unknown by key populations in Morocco, and the low level of education of FSWs may be a barrier to the use of this test, but with the proposed assistance and adapted demonstration tools, the HIV self-testing will certainly improve access to testing in Morocco.

The classic Lotka–Volterra model is a two-dimensional system of differential equations used to model population dynamics among two-species: a predator and its prey. In this article, we consider a modified three-dimensional fractional-order Lotka–Volterra system that models population dynamics among three-species: a predator, an omnivore and their mutual prey. Biologically speaking, population models with a discrete and continuous structure often provide richer dynamics than either discrete or continuous models, so we first discretize the model while keeping one time-continuous dependent variable in each equation. Then, we analyze the stability and bifurcation near the equilibria. The results demonstrated that the dynamic behaviors of the discretized model are sensitive to the fractional-order parameter and discretization parameter. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to explain and validate the findings, and the maximum Lyapunov exponents is computed to confirm the presence of chaotic behavior in the studied model.

Nowadays, antibiotic resistance is a serious problem, especially in countries that have unregulated use of antibiotics. We aimed to prepare and characterize Sily-Nano from silymarin to present its antimicrobial activities in comparison to silymarin and gentamycin and provide natural antibacterial from natural sources. Silymarin NPs (Sily-Nano) were prepared using a high-pressure homogenization and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet-visible (UV-visible) spectrum, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The antibacterial monitoring of Sily-Nano and silymarin was compared against Escherichia coli UN75 (E.coli-UN75), Enterobacter aerogenes SL3 (E.aerogenes-SL3), Staphylococcus aureus-PS41 (S.aureus-PS41), and Klebsiella pneumoniae-BD29 (K.pneumoniae-BD29). Sily-Nano was effectively prepared and confirmed using FTIR. SEM, with even distribution, and significant bacterial zone inhibition, compared with silymarin. In conclusion, Sily-Nano preparation is an efficient agent, and effective against certain clinical antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. Sily-Nano has a novel significant inhibitory effect against the antibiotic-resistant strain of K. pneumonia-BD29, Ent. Aerogenes-SL3 and E. coli UN75 when compared with silymarin and the common antibiotic gentamycin. Therefore, sily-Nano is potentially used as an antibacterial and natural sanitizer agent.

This study aims to an optimal dose of the superplasticizer (B-V-F) with the optimal replacement ratio of the Rice Husk Ash (RHA) and with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and compares their results. This study generated RHA by burning rice husk in an appropriate iron container for about 24 hours. To improve pozzolanic activity, RHA was ground in a flour mill. The chemical composition and physical properties of RHA were studied. The experimental program consists of seven groups of concrete mixes with different doses of superplasticizer and replacement percentages of RHA. The first group mix contained four mixtures of OPC with different RHA weight replacements (0, 10%, 15%, and 20%). The second group contains six mixtures with a constant slump (15±3) cm and a water-cement ratio (0.51). The compressive strength of these mixtures was studded and compared with a control mixture (PURE OPC). The sixth group A.1, contains six mixtures with optimal RHA replacement (10%) of OPC with a constant slump of 23 cm, and different plasticizing doses were applied. The result shows that the optimum replacement of RHA was 10% which increased concrete compressive strength by about 32%. The optimal dose of superplasticizer with optimal RHA replacement (10%) was 15 L/m3 which increased compressive strength by about 76%.

In this paper, the optical properties and optoelectronic parameters of two newly synthesized polymers forming a donor : acceptor (D : A) binary system are investigated, followed by their subsequent doping with Sudan dye to obtain a ternary system. The donor polymer is P(TER-CO-TRI), while the acceptor is poly(5-hydroxy-L-Tryptophane). A cost-effective solution-processing was carried out to obtain different binary and ternary composites with concentration of 0.5 mg/ml. Optical absorption spectroscopy was used to measure the optical response and optoelectronic parameters, while FTIR and cyclic voltammetry were used to assess the structure and molecular energy levels of the polymers. The results revealed that the non-dispersive refractive index and energy gap of binary D : A was decreased from 1.56 to 1.52 eV and from 2.84 to 2.10 eV, respectively, when it was doped with Sudan dye. It was concluded that with the help of doping process, different values of energy band gap, refractive index, dielectric constant, and optical conductivity are achieved. This tuning achievement of the optoelectronic parameters is crucial in determining the possible applications of these materials in the organic electronics, photodiodes and photovoltaic devices.

Objective: The aim of this study is to find out the link between the involvement of complement activation in the inflammatory reactions in COVID-19 patients, the deterioration of the clinical status and development of sever COVID-19 in those patients. Methodology: The study included 274 COVID-19 patients, divided into three groups; group1: severe COVID-19 patients (n=37), group 2; moderate COVID-19 severity patients (n=78), group 3; mild COVID-19 severity patients (n=159). Serum levels of C-reactive protein, D-dimer, and ferritin were measured in the three patient groups, and the patients were subjected to CT chest imaging. Serum levels of the tested biomarkers were measured by ELISA at diagnosis. Results: Sever COVID-19 patients had higher serum levels of ferritin and D-dimer in comparison to patients with moderate and mild severity COVID-19 with statistically significant difference (p < /em> value 0.01 and 0.02 respectively). There was a significant elevation in the serum levels IL-6 and TNF-α in severe COVID-19 patients (488.5±112.2 and 159.6±38.3 respectively) versus moderate (206.07±53.3 and 93.5±39.5) and mild group (200.9± 52.27 and 52.9±23) respectively, (p < /em> value < 0.001). There was also a significant elevation of C5b and C5b-9 serum levels in severe COVID-19 patients (18.6±10.3 and 73.25±7.35) compared to moderate (14.11±15.6 and 143.6±170) and mild COVID-19 groups (76± 11.32 and 3.9± 3.03) respectively. Conclusion: We conclude that the severity of inflammation presented in elevated neutrophil counts and serum levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF in association with sever complement activation are implicated in severity and bad prognosis of COVID-19.

Background: Spirulina is an interesting nutritional supplement that has attracted a lot of attention. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of spirulina supplementation on oxidative stress, inflammatory factors and plasma markers of exercise-induced muscle damage in male taekwondo athletes. Methods: A total of 18 trained taekwondo male athletes took part in a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study. Each subject received either spirulina (8 g/day) or placebo for 3 weeks. The study had two periods separated by a 14-day washout. Blood samples were taken after finishing a training checklist program (4 times in total). Results: There were no significant carryover effects; therefore, the two-week washout period was adequate. Compared to the placebo, a dose of 8 g / d of spirulina supplement over 21 days resulted in a significant decrease in plasma levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase (CK) and interleukin 6 (IL6) and a significant increase in plasma levels of total antioxidant capacity (TAC), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) (p0.05). Conclusion: Due to the improvement of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory conditions as well as appropriate protein content, spirulina supplementation can produce a preventive effect on exercise-induced muscle damage in taekwondo athletes.

Achmad Fauzi Kamal,1 Prima Rizky Oktari,1 Aryadi Kurniawan,1 Evelina Kodrat,2 Nadia Asmirtania Mumpuni3 1Department of Orthopedic and Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Dr Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia; 2Department of Anatomical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia; 3Pelni General Hospital, Jakarta, IndonesiaCorrespondence: Prima Rizky Oktari, Department of Orthopedic and Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Dr Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Jl Diponegoro No. 71, Central of Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia, Email primarizkyoktari@gmail.comPurpose: The lack of knowledge regarding osteoarticular tuberculosis (TB) cases in Indonesia leads to delayed and chronic conditions. This study aims to evaluate clinical outcomes of patients with osteoarticular TB.Materials and Methods: Thirty osteoarticular cases were retrospectively analyzed, with a focus on non-immunocompromised patients without spine involvement. Chemotherapy length, operative treatment method, and infection recurrence were evaluated.Results: The majority (60%) of patients were aged between 19 to 49 years. The most common complaint was painful swelling, particularly during physical activity. Weight-bearing joints, such as the hips, knees, and ankles, were the most affected. Laboratory results showed over half of the patients had anemia, 96% had elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and 76% had elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Radiological findings varied, with lytic lesions, abscesses, and joint destruction observed. All patients presented with pathognomonic histological tubercle appearances, with caseous necrosis, lymphocytes, and Langhans giant cells present. Twenty-nine cases were treated with anti-TB drugs for 12 months, while one recurrent case received the drugs for 24 months. All patients underwent surgery to gain local infection control.Conclusion: Osteoarticular TB is a common manifestation of extrapulmonary TB and must not be overlooked. Early detection of osteoarticular TB may prevent limb morbidity. Although anti-TB drugs are the primary treatment for osteoarticular TB, in some cases, surgery is required to establish a diagnosis and gain local infection control.Keywords: osteoarticular TB, tuberculosis, extrapulmonary TB, caseous necrosis, Jakarta

Other languages have influenced Arabic because of several factors, such as geographical nearness, trade communication, past Islamic conquests, science and technology, new devices, brand names, models, and fashion. As a result of these factors, foreign words are used in Arabic text and are known as Arabised words. Arabised words affect the Arabic natural language processing (NLP) task because identifying a correct stem or root from an Arabic word becomes more difficult. Therefore, a more efficient Arabic NLP can be developed if Arabised word removal is part of a pre-processing task. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for detecting and extracting Arabised words as a pre-processing task for an Arabic stemming task. This algorithm is a combination of lexicon-based and rule-based approaches. The lexicon list has been developed based on various sources of Arabic text resources, and the rule-based algorithm has been designed to cater to Arabised words with definite articles and use pattern matching on prefixes and suffixes. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed Arabised word removal algorithm on the Arabic NLP task, we use Arabised word removal as part of pre-processing in Arabic stemmers. Three Arabic stemmers are used in our evaluation, namely, light stemming, condition light and ARLS, on three types of Arabic standard datasets. Comparisons were made by measuring the performance of precision, recall and IFC on the stemmers with or without our Arabised word removal pre-processing. Results show that the performance on all the stemmers improves if Arabised word removal is included as part of the stemming's pre-processing. Therefore, an efficient Arabic NLP application or task can be developed if Arabised word removal is included in the pre-processing stage for Arabic NLP application, mainly Arabic stemming.https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.20088302.2022.20.4.6.5

Abstract Metastatic dissemination in breast cancer is regulated by specialized intravasation sites called “tumor microenvironment of metastasis” (TMEM) doorways, composed of a tumor cell expressing the actin-regulatory protein Mena, a perivascular macrophage, and an endothelial cell, all in stable physical contact. High TMEM doorway number is associated with an increased risk of distant metastasis in human breast cancer and mouse models of breast carcinoma. Here, we developed a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methodology, called TMEM Activity-MRI, to detect TMEM-associated vascular openings that serve as the portal of entry for cancer cell intravasation and metastatic dissemination. We demonstrate that TMEM Activity-MRI correlates with primary tumor TMEM doorway counts in both breast cancer patients and mouse models, including MMTV-PyMT and patient-derived xenograft models. In addition, TMEM Activity-MRI is reduced in mouse models upon treatment with rebastinib, a specific and potent TMEM doorway inhibitor. TMEM Activity-MRI is an assay that specifically measures TMEM-associated vascular opening (TAVO) events in the tumor microenvironment, and as such, can be utilized in mechanistic studies investigating molecular pathways of cancer cell dissemination and metastasis. Finally, we demonstrate that TMEM Activity-MRI increases upon treatment with paclitaxel in mouse models, consistent with prior observations that chemotherapy enhances TMEM doorway assembly and activity in human breast cancer. Our findings suggest that TMEM Activity-MRI is a promising precision medicine tool for localized breast cancer that could be used as a non-invasive test to determine metastatic risk and serve as an intermediate pharmacodynamic biomarker to monitor therapeutic response to agents that block TMEM doorway-mediated dissemination.

The crystallinity of semi-crystalline polymers is affected by both nucleation and growth processes, and the nucleation phase controls the kinetics of crystallization. In general, there are two types of homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation. Self-nucleation or memory effect is a type of homogeneous nucleation. This phenomenon occurs when the crystal nuclei of the remaining polymer due to insufficient melting temperature or melting time in the next cooling stage lead to the acceleration of nucleation. Despite many researches on self-nucleation, the exact concept and the factors affecting self-nucleation still need to be studied. In this article, after introducing the phenomenon of self-nucleation and its phenomenology, measurement and the method of determining the domains of self-nucleation are introduced. Then, the factors affecting self-nucleation such as molecular mass, topology, and the structural constraints are discussed. Molecular mass and topology affect the stability of the nuclei and the memory effect by means of constraints resulting from the polymer entanglements. The confinements in polymer/nano-particle system and block copolymers caused by reduction of chain diffusion. In these systems, tethering of the chains to the surface of the nanoparticles or the constraint implemented by the two-ended covalent bonds led to the disappearance of the self-nucleation domain (domain 2) and hampering of memory effect.

In this paper, we introduce $ \mathcal{J}_{s; \Omega} $-families of generalized pseudo-$ b $-distances in $ b $-gauge spaces $ (U, {Q}_{s; \Omega}) $. Moreover, by using these $ \mathcal{J}_{s; \Omega} $-families on $ U $, we define the $ \mathcal{J}_{s; \Omega} $-sequential completeness and construct an $ F $-type contraction $ T:U\rightarrow U $. Furthermore, we develop novel periodic and fixed point results for these mappings in the setting of $ b $-gauge spaces using $ \mathcal{J}_{s; \Omega} $-families on $ U $, which generalize and improve some of the results in the corresponding literature. The validity and importance of our theorems are shown through an application via an existence solution of an integral equation.

Abstract The effectiveness of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines against the long-term COVID-19 symptoms expressed by a substantial proportion of patients is not well understood. We determined whether vaccination with the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine was associated with incidence of reporting long-term symptoms post-SARS-CoV-2 infection. We invited individuals PCR-tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection at participating hospitals between March 2020 and November 2021 to fill an online questionnaire that included information about demographics, acute COVID-19 episode and symptoms they were currently experiencing. Using binomial regression, we compared vaccinated individuals with those unvaccinated and those uninfected, in terms of post-acute self-reported symptoms. Of the 951 infected, 637(67%) were vaccinated. In the study population, the most prevalent symptoms were: fatigue (22%), headache (20%), weakness of limbs (13%), and persistent muscle pain (10%). After adjusting for age, time from beginning of symptoms to responding to the survey, and baseline symptoms, those who received two vaccine doses were less likely than unvaccinated individuals to report any of these symptoms (fatigue, headache, weakness of limbs, persistent muscle pain) by 62%, 50%, 62%, and 66% respectively, (Risk ratios 0.38, 0.50, 0.38, 0.34, p

The present research aimed to study the insecticidal activity of four ethanolic extracts of Cercis siliquastrum L., Calendula officinalis L., Peganum harmala L., Melia azedarach L. against Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) as well as hatching time and hatching rate of Orius horvathi (Reuter). The results revealed that the extracts had no significant effect on the hatching time of the predatory bug. The result showed concomitant use of the extracts with releasing eggs of the O. horvathi could control thrips effectively. The lowest (73.66 ± 7.01%) hatching rate belonged to P. harmala, indicating concomitant use of P. harmala extract with releasing eggs of O. horvathi can cause effective control of adult thrips. Moreover, concomitant use of C. siliquastrum, C. officinalis extracts with releasing eggs of O. horvathi can control immature thrips effectively.

Caprazamycin is a nucleoside antibiotic that can interrupt bacterial peptidoglycan biosynthesis, but the biosynthesis of caprazamycin is not fully understood yet. Here, the authors characterize five key enzymes from caprazamycin/muraymycin gene cluster, particularly nonheme αKG-dependent enzyme Cpz10 as a β-hydroxylase that recruits two iron atoms and leads to caprazamycin formation.

(The semiology of dramatic television picture design and its impact on Egyptian societal values)An introduction:The function of art is to create beauty, beauty in its broad sense that stands at the limits of the sense and is not confined to a limited form, for art is the greatest means in existence through which ideas can penetrate into hearts and minds, and in light of the state of intellectual conflict that the world is witnessing now, art is the most dangerous A weapon in existence after the atomic bomb and weapons of mass destruction.Drama, like all the arts that preceded it, makes for itself a clear face and solid features, as the drama addresses the conscience and provokes it and presents reality with all its blatant facts and the entirety of its issues and was able to take from the narration everything in it and even that the novel is the main component of it.Research problem:The dramatic image presents many connotations and implications through the design of the visual elements of the image. These connotations give effects on the viewer in the way the visual content is received, which in turn affects the values of the scenes acquired through the dramatic visual content that they reach.Research goal:Study how the semantics of the design elements of the dramatic image affect the viewer and its societal values through the connotations that the image formulates through its design elements such as camera movement, lighting, size of shots, shooting angles and the effect of colors.research importance :The importance of the research comes in determining how to visually read the scenes of the drama and determining how the viewer receives the indications presented to him through the elements of image design and the effect of these indications on the values of society.search limits :The research is determined in the study of the semiology of the dramatic image, the implications of the design elements of the dramatic image, and how these indications affect the values of societal scenes.The series (Weld al-Ghalaba) will be inferred as a sample of the Ramadan series for 2019, which was one of the most watched series this year.

Objectives: The long-term impact of COVID-19 on health inequalities is under-researched. We investigated changes in health-related inequalities following SARS-CoV-2 infection between the Jewish majority and the Arab/Druze minority in Israel.Methods: Patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test processed from one of the Northern-Israeli government hospitals between 03/2021 and 05/2022 were invited to participate. We collected socio-demographic, COVID-19-related, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) information using a validated questionnaire. We compared pre- and post COVID-19 HRQoL changes between Jews and Arabs/Druze, up to 12+ months post-infection using an adjusted linear regression model.Results: Among the 881 included participants the average post-COVID HRQoL score was lower among Arabs/Druze than Jews (0.83 vs. 0.88; p = 0.005). Until 12 months post-infection, HRQoL changes were similar for Arabs/Druze and Jews. After 12 months, HRQoL dropped significantly more among Arabs/Druze than among Jews (0.11 points difference between the groups; p = 0.014), despite adjusting for socioeconomic variables.Conclusion: 12 months post-infection, COVID-19 affected the HRQoL of Arabs/Druze more than Jews, with the gap not fully explained by socio-economic differences. The COVID-19 pandemic may widen pre-existing long-term health inequalities.

Litho-facies classification is an essential task in characterizing the complex reservoirs in petroleum exploration and subsequent field development. The lithofacies classification at borehole locations is detailed but lacks in providing larger coverage areas. The acquired 3D seismic data provides global coverage for studying the reservoir facies heterogeneities in the study area. This study applies six supervised machine learning techniques (Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, Artificial Neural Network, Adaptive Boosting, Xtreme Gradient Boosting, and Multilayer Perceptron) to 3D post-stack seismic data to accurately estimate different litho-facies in inter-well regions and compares their performance. Initially, the efficacy of the said models was critically examined via the confusion matrix (accuracy and misclass) and evaluation matrix (precision, recall, F1-score) on the test data. It was found that all the machine learning models performed best in classifying the shale facies (87%–94%) followed by the sand (65%–79%) and carbonate facies (60%–78%) in the Penobscot field, Scotian Basin. On an overall accuracy scale, we found the multilayer perceptron method the best-performing tool, whereas the adaptive boosting method was the least-performing tool in classifying all three litho-facies in the current analysis. While other methods also performed moderately good for the classification of all three litho-facies. The predicted litho-facies using seismic attributes matched well with the log data interpreted facies on the borehole locations. It indicates that the facies estimated in inter-well regions are accurate and reliable. Furthermore, we validated the estimated results with the other seismic attributes to ascertain the accuracy and reliability of the predicted litho-facies between the borehole locations. This study recommends machine learning applications for litho-facies classification to reduce the risk associated with reservoir characterization.

Gully erosion has been identified in recent decades as a global threat to people and property. This problem also affects the socioeconomic stability of societies and therefore limits their sustainable development, as it impacts a nonrenewable resource on a human scale, namely, soil. The focus of this study is to evaluate the prediction performance of four machine learning (ML) models: Logistic Regression (LR), classification and regression tree (CART), Linear Discriminate Analysis (LDA), and the k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN), which are novel approaches in gully erosion modeling research, particularly in semi-arid regions with a mountainous character. 204 samples of erosion areas and 204 samples of non-erosion areas were collected through field surveys and high-resolution satellite images, and 17 significant factors were considered. The dataset cells of samples (70% for training and 30% for testing) were randomly prepared to assess the robustness of the different models. The functional relevance between soil erosion and effective factors was computed using the ML models. The ML models were evaluated using different metrics, including accuracy, the kappa coefficient. kNN is the ideal model for this study. The value of the AUC from ROC considering the testing datasets of KNN is 0.93; the remaining models are associated to ideal AUC and are similar to kNN in terms of values. The AUC values from ROC of GLM, LDA, and CART for testing datasets are 0.90, 0.91, and 0.84, respectively. The value of accuracy considering the validation datasets of LDA, CART, KNN, and GLM are 0.85, 0.82, 0.89, 0.84 respectively. The values of Kappa of LDA, CART, and GLM for testing datasets are 0.70, 0.65, and 0.68, respectively. ML models, in particular KNN, GLM, and LDA, have achieved outstanding results in terms of creating soil erosion susceptibility maps. The maps created with the most reliable models could be a useful tool for sustainable management, watershed conservation and prevention of soil and water losses.

One hundred seventy geotechnical boreholes, two geo-seismic profiles of multichannel analyses of surface waves (MASW), and two geoelectrical cross-sections of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) were carried out in the historical Diriyah urban zone. The borehole samples were analyzed for the geotechnical parameters of the standard penetration test (SPT N-value), the rock quality designation (RQD), and compressive strength (CS). Moreover, P- and S-wave velocities have been calculated. The measured SPT N-value has been corrected to amend the N60 parameter. According to the corrected N60, type, lithological, and soil profiles were divided into five distinct subsurface layers. It is indicated, for all recorded depths, these sediments become denser with depth where the values of N60 increase from 5 to 88 downward. According to grain size distribution, the major part of soil sites is composed of sand and varies from low to medium compressibility. The estimated RQD values range from 5 to 100 indicating rocks with significant variations in their geotechnical and physio-chemical characteristics. Furthermore, the compressive strength varies widely between 152.3 and 1,104.2 kg/cm2, which represents diverse geodynamic behavior under civil engineering constructions. Besides, the range of soil stiffness is indicated by the Shear-wave velocity (Vs) for soil layers, which varies from 171.3 to 456.2 m/s. According to the findings of the MASW profiles, the shear wave velocity is shown to be decreasing in MASW profile 1 between depths of 8 and 14 m, where the values range from 1,000 to 1,500 m/s, indicating a weak zone filled with secondary materials. But line 2 shows how the shear wave velocity decreased from depths of 5 m–11 m, where values ranged from 1,000 to 1,500 m/s, thus indicating a weak zone. The low resistivity zones in ERT cross-sections, which are found at the same depths in MASW profiles, are well associated with these findings. It can be concluded that there are a number of weak zones with varying depths, shapes, and dimensions found in the historical Diriyah urban zone’s near-surface deposits that civil engineers, urban planners, and urban developers should consider before undertaking any construction or developmental work involving civil engineering.

The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is a potential paradigm for explaining technology adoption and can be applied to a wide range of scenarios. During the COVID-19 (C-19) outbreak in China, mobile-payment platforms (Mpayment) were used extensively in everyday life because they allowed people to avoid direct and indirect connections during transactions, adhere to social-distancing guidelines, and support social-economic stabilization. By exploring the technological and psychological variables that influenced user Mpayment-adoption intentions during the C-19 pandemic, this study broadens the literature on technology adoption in emergency circumstances and expands the UTAUT. A total of 593 complete samples were collected online, with SPSS used for data analysis. The empirical findings reveal that performance expectancy, trust, perceived security, and social influence all had a significant influence on Mpayment acceptance during the C-19 outbreak, with social distancing having the greatest impact, followed by fear of C-19. Interestingly, perceived-effort expectancy had a negative influence on payment acceptance. These findings suggest that future studies should apply the expanded model to different countries and areas to investigate the impact of the C-19 pandemic on Mpayment acceptance.

Coastal zones occupy a prominent position in the sustainable management perspective of Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (TTA) region because they accommodate a majority of the region’s population and contribute to the economic wellbeing of local communities. High demographic and economic pressures associated to climatic and environmental factors increase and intensify the vulnerability of these coastal areas. The latter are severely affected by climate change implications in the course of time, which lead to damage and loss in coastal low-lying zones. In practice, the risks related to climate change, as coastal risks, are frequently addressed, and assessing coastal risk in the context of climate change is a research priority. The aim of this work is to evaluate the flooding risk of TTA coasts, taking into account the inundation level related to the conditions of extreme wave (return period of 100-year) and extreme sea level rise. We firstly defined the coastal hazard zone that corresponds to the maximum inundation level of 13 m for the whole area. We then applied a Coastal Risk Index application at the Local Scale (CRI-LS) methodology to calculate forcing, vulnerability, exposure and risk indices using nineteen physical, environmental and socioeconomical variables. Findings show that coastal hazard zone of Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region is extremely exposed to coastal forcing. More than 50% of the hazard zones indicates highly vulnerable zones and highest exposure is generally focused on the most populated urban zones. In the light of this, the coastal risk mapping shows hotspot zones in terms of climate change-related coastal risks located at Tangier Bay, south of Tangier city, Fnideq and Martil coasts, Tetouan city and north of Ksar El Kbir city. This paper corresponds to a useful support that can help policy-makers in decision-making to quietly follow coastal planning and management processes and participate in preserving coastal areas for future generations, which support the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030 started by the United Nations with the goal of eradicating all kinds of poverty.