Performance of a Solar Chimney Under Egyptian Weather Conditions: Numerical Simulation and Experimental Validation

High solar radiation and ambient temperature, and large desert in Egypt are excellent conditions to install efficiently solar chimney power plants there. Therefore this research aimed to develop a validated mathematical model and governing equations of solar chimney. It is proposed to improve the performance of solar chimney under effects of various parameters, and study of possibility of installing solar chimney in Egypt. The mathematical simulation of the solar chimney has been developed including all its performance parameters, dimensions (of collector, chimney and turbine) and the metrological data; which were considered as inputs of the simulation program. A comparison between the mathematical and experimental performance has been investigated to validate the mathematical simulation. The mathematical model has been used to predict the performance of the solar chimney power plant over a year in Egypt. It is used to study of effects of geometrical parameters, and investigate possibility of the optimum geometrical dimensions. It is obtained that there is in fact no optimum physical size for such plants without considering the economical constraints. The chimney height has a significant effect in the chimney performance. Visualizing of annual performance of the solar chimney would seem to be essentially a power generator in Egypt if it installed in a large scale.Key words: Solar chimney; Numerical simulation; Annual performance; Experimental validation; Optimizatio

Myocarditis: an expected health hazard associated with water resources contaminated with Coxsackie viruses type B

Enteroviruses, especially Coxsackie B viruses (CBVs), are responsible for approximately 50% of cases of viral myocarditis. In the present study, serum samples (160) were collected from acute myocarditis patients at different age groups and 104 samples of the same age groups as a control. Cholesterol, LDH, CPK, and GOT were measured for all serum samples (264). Also, to study the source of virus transmission, 72 water and 72 wastewater samples were collected from water and wastewater treatment plants at intakes and outlets. Water and wastewater samples were concentrated by filtration through Zeta-plus filter cartridges and reconcentrated by the PEG-6000 precipitation method. Serum, water, and wastewater samples were inoculated in BGM cells for three successive passages. RT -PCR with enterovirus primers was carried out directly for serum samples and for 1st and 3rd cell culture passages. The positive samples were used for neutralization assay using anti-CBV sera pool to determine the CBV followed by neutralization with separate antisera. The results showed that 50 (31.25%) serum samples from acute myocarditis patients and two (1.4%) samples from the controls were positive for enterovirus RT -PCR. For water and wastewater samples enteroviruses were present in 63.8% and 8.3% for intake and outlet of water treatment plants and, 66.6% and 47.2% for intake and outlet of wastewater treatment plants, respectively. The level of CBV serotypes was varied where CBV3 was dominant for all age groups of myocarditis patients and CBV2 and CBV5 were also detected while CBV2 was the main CBV in water samples and CBV2, 3 and 5 were detected in wastewater samples. The integration of cell culture-PCR reduces the time required for virus detection and enhances the sensitivity of the test

SARS-CoV-2-specific immunoglobulin Y antibodies are protective in infected mice

Safe, passive immunization methods are required against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants. Immunization of chickens with antigen is known to induce specific IgY antibodies concentrated in the egg yolk and has a good safety profile, high yield of IgY per egg, can be topically applied, not requiring parenteral delivery. Our data provide the first evidence of the prophylactic efficacy of Immunoglobulin Y antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in mice. Lohmann hens were injected with recombinant SARS-CoV-2 RBD protein; IgY-Abs were extracted from the eggs and characterized using SDS-PAGE. Antiviral activity was evaluated using plaque reduction neutralization tests. In additional experiments, IgY-RBD efficacy was examined in mice sensitized to SARS-CoV-2 infection by transduction with Ad5-hACE2 (mild disease) or by using mouse-adapted virus (severe disease). In both cases, prophylactic intranasal administration of IgY-Abs reduced SARS-CoV-2 replication, and reduced morbidity, inflammatory cell infiltration, hemorrhage, and edema in the lungs and increased survival compared to control groups that received non-specific IgY-Abs. These results indicate that further evaluation of IgY-RBD antibodies in humans is warranted

AGREE-S: AGREE II extension for surgical interventions - United European Gastroenterology and European Association for Endoscopic Surgery methodological guide

The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument has been developed to inform the methodology, reporting and appraisal of clinical practice guidelines. Evidence suggests that the quality of surgical guidelines can be improved, and the structure and content of AGREE II can be modified to help enhance the quality of guidelines of surgical interventions

Uncovering Potential Roles of Differentially Expressed Genes, Upstream Regulators, and Canonical Pathways in Endometriosis Using an In Silico Genomics Approach

Endometriosis is characterized by ectopic endometrial tissue implantation, mostly within the peritoneum, and affects women in their reproductive age. Studies have been done to clarify its etiology, but the precise molecular mechanisms and pathophysiology remain unclear. We downloaded genome-wide mRNA expression and clinicopathological data of endometriosis patients and controls from NCBI’s Gene Expression Omnibus, after a systematic search of multiple independent studies comprising 156 endometriosis patients and 118 controls to identify causative genes, risk factors, and potential diagnostic/therapeutic biomarkers. Comprehensive gene expression meta-analysis, pathway analysis, and gene ontology analysis was done using a bioinformatics-based approach. We identified 1590 unique differentially expressed genes (129 upregulated and 1461 downregulated) mapped by IPA as biologically relevant. The top upregulated genes were FOS, EGR1, ZFP36, JUNB, APOD, CST1, GPX3, and PER1, and the top downregulated ones were DIO2, CPM, OLFM4, PALLD, BAG5, TOP2A, PKP4, CDC20B, and SNTN. The most perturbed canonical pathways were mitotic roles of Polo-like kinase, role of Checkpoint kinase proteins in cell cycle checkpoint control, and ATM signaling. Protein–protein interaction analysis showed a strong network association among FOS, EGR1, ZFP36, and JUNB. These findings provide a thorough understanding of the molecular mechanism of endometriosis, identified biomarkers, and represent a step towards the future development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic options

Sharing the costs of complex water projects: Application to thewest deltawater conservation and irrigation rehabilitation project, Egypt

Effective sharing mechanisms of joint costs among beneficiaries of a project are a fundamental requirement for the sustainability of the project. Projects that are heterogeneous both in terms of the landscape of the area under development or the participants (users) lead to a more complicated set of allocation mechanisms than homogeneous projects. The analysis presented in this paper uses cooperative game theory to develop schemes for sharing costs and revenues from a project involving various beneficiaries in an equitable and fair way. The proposed approach is applied to theWest Delta irrigation project. It sketches a differential two-part tariff that reproduces the allocation of total project costs using the Shapley Value, a well-known cooperative game allocation solution. The proposed differential tariff, applied to each land section in the project reflecting their landscape-related costs, contrasts the unified tariff that was proposed using the traditional methods in the project planning documents

The effect of administration of fosfomycin in the management of ventilator-associated pneumonia

Introduction Recently, lack of new antibiotics, together with the rising resistance of antimicrobials against extensively drug-resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, and carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, had caused the restoration of old antibiotics like fosfomycin. Fosfomycin is considered a bactericidal antibiotic of the 1970s. It presents activity against multidrug resistant microorganisms. Patients and methods A randomized, controlled trial was designed between November 2015 and April 2016, including 40 patients diagnosed with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Patients were classified into two equally sized groups: group A (control group) comprised patients receiving only empirical systemic antibiotics and group B included patients receiving oral fosfomycin combined with empirical systemic antibiotics. Clinical pulmonary infection score (CPIS) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were used as predictors of improvement in both groups. Additionally, improvement and mortality rate were secondary endpoints of assessment. Results Age and sex among both groups did not show significant differences. The majority of patients in groups A and B were diagnosed as early-onset pneumonia 75 and 70%, respectively. K. pneumoniae was the most prevalent organism in cases of early as well as late-onset pneumonia (34.4 and 36%, respectively). CPIS and CRP were improved significantly in group B compared with baseline. Furthermore, CPIS and CRP had been declined significantly in group B compared with group A. Despite the significant improvement of CPIS and CRP in group B, it did not show significant lower mortality than in group A. Conclusion Fosfomycin is an effective antimicrobial agent in the treatment of VAP with low mortality rate. Furthermore, CPIS is a potential score used to evaluate the effectiveness of therapy in cases of VAP