Improving Passing Lane Safety and Efficiency for Alaska’s Rural Non‐divided Highways

INE/AUTC 14.0

Design of Digital Model for Re-Planning of Informal Settlements Using Geographic Information Systems

The process of re-planning settlements is a complex process, governed by technical foundations, legal regulations, procedures and practical steps to improve and develop these settlements to be at the perfect planning level, with minimum damages as much as possible. Execution of this process manually leads to slow down the solution with disconnected procedures and sometimes to increase the complexity of the problem by adding new extension of informal settlements, losing time, effort, cost and decrease the accuracy .In this research a new method had been proposed depending on digital systems to execute re-planning process by analyzing the foundations and regulations that govern the re-planning process and design the required digital solutions for its implementation applying the analysis tools of geographic information systems softwares together with its capabilities of input process of spatial data and their attributes in one digital database which enables its efficient integration, quick retrieval, ease of analysis and presentation. This method contributes in making re-planning process easy, quickly, secured, precise and of low cost.Aerial photographs had been used as a source of spatial data, non spatial attributes had been collected from the field using forms designed for this purpose and ArcGis software had been used to execute the steps of the process in the study area. Finally a digital re-planning model for the informal settlements had been designed to be as a guidance to execute the same steps for other areas by changing the data only

The role of losartan and enalapril in the protection against stress-induced gastric mucosal ulceration in rats

Background: Angiotensin II (ANG II) is a stress hormone and its level dramatically increases in the stomach during stress. In addition, it generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) with cellular damage and inflammation. So the aim of this study is to evaluate the mechanism of losartan and enalapril in the prevention of stress-induced gastric ulcer through their action on mucosal prostaglandin (PGs) and antioxidant enzymes and compare between them.Methods: Thirty- six adult male wistar albino rats weighing 180-200 g were divided into 6 groups; n= 6. Groups 1, 2, and 3 were received saline (normal control), losartan (3 mg/kg/day) and enalapril (10 mg/kg/day) i.p respectively for 4 weeks. Groups 4, 5, and 6 were pretreated with saline (ulcer control), losartan (3 mg/kg/day) and enalapril (10 mg/kg/day) i.p respectively for 4 weeks duration. On 29th day, group 4, 5 and 6 were submitted to gastric ulcer by water immersion method, then animals of all groups were sacrificed, stomachs were excised for gross and microscopic examination and determination of the mucosal levels of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), superoxide dismutase (SOD), nitric oxide (NO) and catalase (CAT).Results: Stress produced gastric ulcer and a significant decrease in all measured gastric parameters compared to normal control group. Pre-treatment of rats with losartan or enalapril decreased the stress-induced alterations in mucosal parameters, but only losartan caused a significant increase in CAT activity in addition.Conclusions: Antagonize the action of ANG II by losartan and enalapril have preventive advantages in stress-induced gastric ulcer and losartan has better influence as it has an additional effect on CAT activity

Enumeration of Coliform Bacteria and E. coli Contaminating the Drinking Water of Al Gedarif City

ABSTRACT The present study enumerated the bacteriological contamination of   the main sources of drinking water in Al Gedarif city. A total of 134 water samples (raw waters, treated waters, main reservoirs, main pipelines, and sabeel zeer waters) were tested for their total coliforms and E. coli counts, using the most probable number technique (MPN). The results indicated that the total coliform and E. coli counts were lower in the ground water sources (Al Azaza and Abu Al Naja boreholes) than that in the surface sources (Atbara River, Al Saraf and Dalassa dams). Moreover, both counts in most of the zeer water samples were higher than those of the other sources. It was also noticed that the zeers located in public areas (market) were more contaminated than the other sabeel zeers. The seasonal variations study was performed for the surface sources, where it was found that the maximum densities of coliform bacteria and   E. coli were occurred during the autumn season and the summer, while the periodical variations study was made for the ground sources, where the coliforms and E. coli densities were found almost higher during the second period of each year

Isolation, Identification and Distribution of the Gram-Positive Bacterial Isolates Contaminating the Drinking Water of Al Gedarif City, Sudan

In this study, the possible aerobic Gram-positive bacteria were isolated from the main sources of the drinking water in Al Gedarif city (raw and treated waters of Atbara River, main reservoirs and zeer waters of all sources). The isolates were identified using the manual identification tests (primary and biochemical). The primary tests identified the isolates up to the genera level. The results indicated that the isolates belonged to four genera (Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, Bacillus and Corynebacterium). However, the biochemical tests identified the isolates up to the species level. The species identified included three of the genus Staphylococcus, four of the genus Micrococcus and eight of the genus Bacillus, as well as the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. The study also included the distribution of the identified species in the different sources. It was found that Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis were found in almost all sources. However, the other bacterial species were detected in some of the sources and absent in the others. On the other hand, S. saprophyticus, M. varians, M. kristinae, B. thuringiensis, B. pantothenticus and B. firmus were not detected in any of the underground sources

Adsorptive removal of Fe(III) using gallic acid anchored iron magnetic nano-adsorbents synthesized via two different routes under microwave irradiation

9-20Under microwave solvent free conditions, bare iron magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4-MNPs) have been silica coated, amine functionalized and gallic acid grafted, in presence and absence of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS). The synthesized adsorbents in both cases have been followed up by Fourier transform infrared, scan electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy analyses to verify and compare the progress of surface modification. The effects of various parameters on the adsorption efficiency of Fe(III) such as pH of solution, amount of adsorbent and contact time have been studied and optimized. The adsorbents Fe3O4-MNPs-SiO2-CPTMS-1,2-EDA-GA and MNPs-CPTMS-1,2-EDA-GA exhibit higher Fe(III) capacities (4.980 and 4.700 mmol/g) than their analogous Fe3O4-MNPs-SiO2-APTMS-GA and Fe3O4-MNPs-APTMS-GA (4.324 and 4.230 mmol/g). The studies of sorption kinetics showed rapid sorption dynamics by a second-order kinetic model, suggesting chemisorption mechanism. Fe(III) adsorption equilibrium data have been fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm. The results of medium stability as criteria for potential coating and values of metal uptake capacity support the possibility of the direct use of alkoxysilanes as an alternative to TEOS not only for coating but also for amine functionalization. This is strengthened by almost equal capability of gallic acid anchored adsorbents for extraction of trace concentrations of Fe(III) spiked natural water samples

Infraclavicular arterio-arterial prosthetic loop is a safe and effective vascular access technique for haemodialysis in frail patients: a prospective observational study

Vascular access failure causes significant morbidity among end stage renal failure patients. With the increased life expectancy and frailty of those patients, maintaining vascular access became a great challenge. In this study, we assess the short and midterm outcomes of infraclavicular arterio-arterial prosthetic loop (IAAPL) as vascular access for haemodialysis in frail patients who have exhausted conventional vascular access methods. A prospective observational study of 43 patients undergoing IAAPL was conducted in a single centre between May 2017 and March 2020. Primary, assisted primary and secondary patency rates were recorded in addition to complications and patient compliance with access. The achieved primary, assisted primary and secondary patency rates at 6 months are 87.5%, 95%, 97.5% respectively, at one year, corresponding rates were 75%, 83.3%, 94.4% and at 18 months they were 68.6%, 77.1%, 85.7% respectively. There was no procedure related mortality and life-threatening complications during the study period. So we can assume that infraclavicular AAPL is a safe and effective method of obtaining alternative vascular access for hemodialysis in frail patients for whom the conventional vascular access for hemodialysis is not suitable or contraindicated