Structure and genome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus responsible for the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is the seventh coronavirus known to infect humans (the previous human coronaviruses are HCoV-OC43, HCoV-229E, HCoV-HKU1, HCoV-NL63, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV) and the third human coronavirus known to cause severe illness in human after SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. These three coronaviruses have caused three different severe respiratory diseases outbreaks within the last two decades: SARS in 2002-2003, MERS in 2012 and COVID-19 in 2020. The aim of this review was to summarize information on the genome and structure of SARS-CoV-2.    SARS-CoV-2 is an enveloped positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus with a crown-like appearance due to the presence of spike glycoprotein on the envelope. The nonsegmented genome of SARS-CoV-2 of approximately 30kb encodes two large polyproteins, four main structural proteins namely spike, membrane, envelope and nucleocapsid proteins as well as several accessory proteins. Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genome shows that it is highly related to coronavirus from the bat (96%), pangolin (91%) and SARS-CoV (80%). Variants of SARS-CoV-2 have evolved continuously as a result of genetic mutations and are circulating worldwide. These variants have varying degrees of transmissibility, disease severity, susceptibility to therapeutics and detection by diagnostic tools. Understanding the structure and genome of SARS-CoV-2 is important in the control, management, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 as well as vaccine development

The Carmaux Strike

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Application of experimental design for the optimization of forced degradation and development of a validated stability-indicating LC method for luliconazole in bulk and cream formulation

AbstractA stability-indicating LC method was developed and validated for the determination of luliconazole in bulk and cream formulation. Luliconazole was exposed to acid, alkali and water hydrolysis, oxidation effect by hydrogen peroxide, dry heat and photolytic conditions. Full factorial design was used during forced degradation experiments and the factors/combination of factors which were most likely to effect degradation of luliconazole under various conditions were identified and further were optimized using surface response curve. Drug was found to be stable under wet heat and dry heat conditions, but substantial degradation was observed under acid, alkali, oxidative and photolytic conditions. Drug and its degradation products were optimally resolved on HiQ sil C-18HS (250×4.6mm, 5μm) column with the mobile phase consisting of methanol and water (80:20, v/v) at a flow rate of 1mL/min, detection was performed at 296nm. The procedure was validated for specificity, linearity, accuracy and precision. There was no interference of excipients and degradation products in the determination of active pharmaceutical ingredient. The method was accurate and precise and the response was found to be linear in the range of 2–14μg/mL. The method was found to be simple and fast by making use of experimental design

Effects of Electronic Devices and Social Media in the Prospects of Australian Higher Education, Teaching and Learning [Efectos de los dispositivos electrónicos y las redes sociales en las perspectivas de la educación superior, la enseñanza y el aprendizaje en Australia]

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the effects of electronic devices and social media in the prospects of Australian higher education, teaching and learning. The purpose of this research is to discover teaching and learning when electronic devices and social media are implemented and integrated in Australian educaN2o3e4liaztion. This paper mainly has used secondary research data and methods to provide a broad investigation of teaching and learning with electronic devices and the roles social media play. The research is subject to academic journal articles, project reports, media articles, corporation based documents and other appropriate information. The study found that electronic devices and social media present both opportunities and challenges to higher education. In addition, they offer advantages for student learning and frustrations from learning with electronic devices. One of the most important advantages is the ability to access information quickly and conveniently such as accessing course contents such a discussion boards, course readings, and video clips they need to watch for class on their mobile devices. In addition, they use their devices to upload and post content to course sites. Overall, the students found using mobile devices very convenient. Also constant connectivity among the devices helps the students to communicate with fellow classmates and the teachers. Social media such as Face book, Twitter have allowed students to share their thoughts immediately with their classmates within the course of their everyday lives. Finally the review found that though Australian students have considered electronic devices helpful, frustrations from learning with the devices are obvious which include anti-technology instructors in other classes, e-device challenges, and devices as a distraction.Keywords: Electronic Devices; Social Media; Higher Education; Teaching & Learning; Australia. Resumen:Este artículo presenta un análisis exhaustivo de los efectos de los dispositivos electrónicos y las redes sociales en las perspectivas de la educación superior, la enseñanza y el aprendizaje australianos. El propósito de esta investigación es descubrir la enseñanza y el aprendizaje cuando los dispositivos electrónicos y las redes sociales se implementan e integran en la educación australiana. Este documento ha utilizado principalmente datos y métodos de investigación secundaria para proporcionar una amplia investigación de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje con dispositivos electrónicos y los roles que desempeñan las redes sociales. La investigación está basada en artículos de revistas académicas, informes de proyectos, artículos de medios, documentos corporativos y otra información apropiada. El estudio mostró que los dispositivos electrónicos y las redes sociales presentan oportunidades y desafíos para la educación superior. Además, ofrecen ventajas para el aprendizaje de los alumnos y frustraciones derivadas del aprendizaje con dispositivos electrónicos. Una de las ventajas más importantes es la capacidad de acceder a la información de manera rápida y cómoda, como acceder a los contenidos del curso, tales como paneles de discusión, lecturas de cursos y videoclips que deben ser vistos por la clase en sus dispositivos móviles. Además, utilizan sus dispositivos para cargar y publicar contenido en los sitios del curso. En general, los estudiantes encontraron que usar dispositivos móviles es muy conveniente. También la conectividad constante entre los dispositivos ayuda a los estudiantes a comunicarse con sus compañeros de clase y los profesores. Los medios sociales como Facebook o Twitter han permitido a los estudiantes compartir sus pensamientos de inmediato con sus compañeros de clase en el transcurso de su vida cotidiana. Finalmente, la revisión encontró que aunque los estudiantes australianos han considerado útiles los dispositivos electrónicos, las frustraciones por aprender con los dispositivos son obvias, lo que incluye a los instructores antitecnología en otras clases, los desafíos de dispositivos electrónicos y los dispositivos como una distracción.Palabras clave: dispositivos electrónicos; Medios de comunicación social; Educación Superior; Enseñanza y aprendizaje; Australia

Optimization of Forced Degradation Using Experimental Design and Development of a Stability-Indicating Liquid Chromatographic Assay Method for Rebamipide in Bulk and Tablet Dosage Form

A novel stability-indicating RP-HPLC assay method was developed and validated for quantitative determination of rebamipide in bulk and tablet dosage form. Rebamipide (drug and drug product) solutions were exposed to acid and alkali hydrolysis, thermal stress, oxidation by hydrogen peroxide and photodegradation. Experimental design has been used during forced degradation to determine significant factors responsible for degradation and to obtain optimal degradation conditions. In addition, acid and alkali hydrolysis was performed using a microwave oven. The chromatographic method employed the HiQ sil C-18HS (250 × 4.6 mm; 5 μm) column with mobile phase consisting of 0.02 M potassium phosphate (pH adjusted to 6.8) and methanol (40:60, v/v) and the detection was performed at 230 nm. The procedure was validated for specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision and robustness. There was no interference observed of excipients and degradation products in the determination of the active pharmaceutical ingredient. The method showed good accuracy and precision (intra and inter day) and the response was linear in a range from 0.5 to 5 μg mL−1. The method was found to be simple and fast with less trial and error experimentation by making use of experimental design. Also, it proved that microwave energy can be used to expedite hydrolysis of rebamipide

The role of web-based promotion on the development of a relationship marketing model to enable sustainable growth

AbstractIn recent years the web-based Relationship Marketing (RM) has been receiving a great attention from e-marketing perspective. The RM is evolved as a contemporary marketing initiative, which can be applied to all types of industries. Concurrently, because of the advancement of the Information Technology, web-based promotion and market offering are considered as dominating business development tool. From this context, five grown sporting cases have been analysed to realise how web-based promotion influences RM to develop a sustainable growth model, where the cases have been utilising the RM and web-based promotion lucratively to attain and retain the key stakeholders to sustain their growth. Following the initial literature review, the websites of the cases have been scrutinised thoroughly as data collection tool. Nineteen RM indicators are identified as different RM perspectives. The cases are positioning web-based promotions and offerings underlying these RM indicators as a combined promotional effort to enhance competitive advantage. From the case analysis, the concept of stakeholder causal scope is evolved as identical with this combined promotional effort, as well as proportionate with at least one of the four identified growth strategies. Finally, the RM centred ‘Sustainable Growth Model’ has been developed through the synthesis of the impact of the web-based RM indicator focused combined promotional effort of the cases on the associated stakeholder causal scopes and their relevancy with the growth strategies. Reinforcing the model is established significantly for marketers in various industries to enhance competitive advantage aiming to sustain organisational growth

Developing the EBS Management Model to Assist SMEs to Evaluate E-Commerce Success

In the literature, a lack of strong consensus or well-known theoretical research framework exists to defining and evaluating e-commerce success among small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Exploring more effective methods to describe and evaluate e-commerce success becomes a challenging task. This research seeks to help fill the gap by proposing a new model to evaluate e-commerce success from a business perspective. This measure has been termed e-commerce business satisfaction (EBS). A total of 2401 surveys were successfully sent to SMEs. The usable response rate for the surveys was 7.54%. Principal component analysis with varimax rotation method was then adopted within the factor analysis. Using the 15 critical success factors (CSFs) obtained from previous research as a foundation, an EBS management model was finally simply developed to assist SMEs business managers in effectively adopting e-commerce systems or evaluating e-commerce success, which was categorised into five components including Marketing, Management Support and Customer Acceptance, Website Effectiveness and Cost, Managing Change and Knowledge and Skills. Further research is needed to determine the weighting of each CSF so that a yardstick measurement method might be further developed to assist SMEs in adopting e-commerce successfully