Molecular aspects of MERS-CoV

This article is made available for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a betacoronavirus which can cause acute respiratory distress in humans and is associated with a relatively high mortality rate. Since it was first identified in a patient who died in a Jeddah hospital in 2012, the World Health Organization has been notified of 1735 laboratory-confirmed cases from 27 countries, including 628 deaths. Most cases have occurred in Saudi Arabia. MERS-CoVancestors may be found in OldWorld bats of the Vespertilionidae family. After a proposed bat to camel switching event, transmission of MERS-CoV to humans is likely to have been the result of multiple zoonotic transfers from dromedary camels. Human-to-human transmission appears to require close contact with infected persons, with outbreaks mainly occurring in hospital environments. Outbreaks have been associated with inadequate infection prevention and control implementation, resulting in recommendations on basic and more advanced infection prevention and control measures by the World Health Organization, and issuing of government guidelines based on these recommendations in affected countries including Saudi Arabia. Evolutionary changes in the virus, particularly in the viral spike protein which mediates virus-host cell contact may potentially increase transmission of this virus. Efforts are on-going to identify specific evidence-based therapies or vaccines. The broad-spectrum antiviral nitazoxanide has been shown to have in vitro activity against MERS-CoV. Synthetic peptides and candidate vaccines based on regions of the spike protein have shown promise in rodent and non-human primate models. GLS-5300, a prophylactic DNA-plasmid vaccine encoding S protein, is the first MERS-CoV vaccine to be tested in humans, while monoclonal antibody, m336 has given promising results in animal models and has potential for use in outbreak situations

Development of Machine Learning Algorithm for Acquiring Machining Data in Turning Process

Manufacturing cost for machining components is affected by the available machining parameters which include the selection of appropriate cutting material, cutting tools, and machining data of cutting speed, feed, and depth of cut. Computerized machining data systems have been classified into two general types, the mathematical model and the database model. The database model is based on the collection and storage of a large quantity of data from laboratory experiments and workshop experience, which can then simply retrieve recommended cutting speeds and feed. The most widely used source of such data is the Machining Data Handbook (MDH) published by Metcut Research Association, (1980). Although the handbook approach is often a logical and effective solution to the requirement of machining data, but it has limitations. The applications of computational intelligence in manufacturing, in particular, play a leading role in the technological development of intelligent manufacturing systems. In this study an intelligent learning system was developed to automate the collection of the machining data used by the skilled machinist. The Machine Learning Method is utilized for this task, which gives the computer the ability to learn. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was selected from Machine Learning Algorithms to be the learning algorithm. ANN is a computer-based simulation of the living nervous system which works quite differently from conventional programming. The design network is trained by presenting several target machining data that the network must learn according to a learning rule (algorithm). In designing the network, a combination of back propagation or generalized delta learning rule with sigmoid transfer function has been used. The machining data available in MDH was used to train the designed network. One cutting material (medium carbide steel) with its complete set of cutting tools (High Speed Steel, Brazed Uncoated Carbide, Indexable Uncoated Carbide, and Coated Carbide) discretized into 243 data sets was used in one training session for the designed network. Building knowledge within the network was measured by calculating the total percentage of error between target machining data and the outputs from the network during the training process. The process of building the machining data knowledge (training) was successfully achieved. A Comparison between the learned target machining data and data from MDH shows a low percentage of error. An Intelligent Learning System for the turning process was developed. Visual C++ object-oriented programming language was used to build the Intelligent Learning System for Turning. Live data can be fed into the system from indirect way (Keyboard, Internet) or directly from machine to computer. The developed system may open the door for automating the collection of machining data for all manufacturing processe

Evaluation of Hypoglycemic Activity of Boswellia carterii and Cissus rotundifolia in Streptozotocin/Nicotinamide-Induced Diabetic Rats

Objective: To evaluate the hypoglycemic activity of Boswellia carterii and Cissus rotundifolia in rats compared to that of glibenclamide and metformin as common oral hypoglycemic drugs.Methods: Thirty-six male Wistar rats, divided into six groups of six rats each, were assigned into diabetic and non-diabetic groups. Diabetes was induced in rats by single intraperitoneal administration of streptozotocin (65 mg/kg b.w.) and nicotinamide (110 mg/kg b.w.). The first two groups were normal and diabetic controls, whereas the other four diabetic groups were treated with water extracts of the medicinal plants; B. carterii (100 mg/kg b.w.) and C. rotundifolia (100 mg/kg b.w.), glibenclamide (5 mg/kg b.w.) and metformin (150 mg/kg b.w.). Body weight and serum glucose were measured on days 1, 7, 14, 21 and 28. Serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels were also measured.Results: Treatment of diabetic rats with the water extracts of B. carterii and C. rotundifolia for four weeks resulted in a significant (p<0.05) increase in their body weights and a significant decrease in the levels of serum glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides. The effects of the two plant extracts were almost similar to those of glibenclamide and metformin.Conclusion: Water extracts of B. carterii or C. rotundifolia have a hypoglycemic effect resembling those of glibenclamide and metformin, and these findings provide a pharmacological evidence for their anti-diabetic claims in folk medicine

A neural network model for estimation soil temperature bases on limited meteorological parameters in selected provinces in Iraq

Soil temperature is an important meteorological variable which plays a significant role in hydrological cycle. In present study, artificial intelligence technique employed for estimating for 3 daysa head soil temperature estimation at 10 and 20 cm depth. Soil temperature daily data for the period 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2013 measured in three stations namely (Mosul, Baghdad and Muthanna) in Iraq. The training data set includes 616 days and the testing data includes 109 days. The Levenberg-Marquardt, Scaled Conjugate Gradient and Bayesian regularization algorithms. To evaluate the ANN models, Root mean square error (RMSE), Mean absolute error (MAE), Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and Correlation Coefficient (r) were determined. According to the four statistical indices were calculated of the optimum ANN model, it was ANN model (3) in Muthanaa station for the depth 10 cm and ANN model (3) in Baghdad station for the depth 20 were (RMSE=0.959oC, MAE=0.725, MAPE=4.293, R=0.988) and (RMSE=0.887OC, MAE=0.704, MAPE=4.239, R=0.993) respectively, theses statistical criteria shown the efficiency of artificial neural network for soil temperature estimation

Scalability Improvement Of Multicast Source Movement Over Mobile Ipv6 Using Clustering Technique

Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) describes how a mobile node can change its point of attachment to the Internet. While MIPv6 focuses on unicast communications, it also proposes two basic mechanisms, known as bi-directional tunnelling and remote subscription, to handle multicast communications with mobile members. In the mean time, the deployment of Source-Specific Multicast (SSM) is of great interest, using the Protocol Independent Multicast-Sparse Mode (PIM-SM) and Multicast Listener Discovery (MLDv2) protocols. In the particular case of mobile IPv6 SSM sources, the mechanism proposed in MIPv6 to support multicast communications introduced a number of problems that need to be addressed. First, in most scenarios the MIPv6 solution leads to suboptimal routing by setting up a tunnel to forward packets between the home agent in its home network and the current location in the foreign network. The use of a third party when roaming which is the home agent leads to suboptimal routing. Second, it introduces a central point of failure (i.e. the Home Agent (HA)) that is not to be neglected. The proposed MIPv6 solution also induces a great traffic concentration around this central point. Third, the processing task of the central point increases with the number of mobile sources it serves, thus reducing the efficiency of multicast delivery. The objective of this thesis is to remove some of the obstacles encountered in the way of multicast deployment in the Internet, thereby making Mobile IPv6 better equipped to support mobile SSM sources. Recent proposals to provide multicasting over mobile IP focuses mainly on recipient mobility but little attention has been given to the case of source mobility. This thesis attempts to address this problem. The basic essence of the problem is that while the effect of receiver movement on the multicast tree is local, the effect of source movement may be global and it may affect the complete multicast delivery tree. The initial design was motivated by the need to support one-to-many and many-to-many applications in a scalable fashion. Such applications cannot be serviced efficiently with unicast delivery. As the overall problem statement of “Scalability Improvement of Multicast Source Movement over IPv6 Using Clustering Technique” is extremely complex, we divide the problem into the following components: build the multicast delivery tree for source specific multicast which is a routing issue; clustering receivers based on their IPv6 addresses; improve the state scalability of these clusters which is a deployment issue; find an efficient way for service distribution which is a deployment issue as well; and finally, the seamless integration of the work with Mobile IPv6 allowing it to support multicast efficiently for mobile nodes. The combined solution provides a comprehensive procedure for planning and managing a multicast-based IPv6 network. The outcome of this thesis are: a software to represent an architecture of a multicast delivery tree for one-to-many type of group communication, a group management scheme that could handle the end nodes subscription/un-subscription process with the required updates, an average subscription delay of between 0.255 ms-0.530 ms and un-subscription delay of between 0.0456 ms-0.087 ms for up to 50000 nodes, an approach to multicast forwarding state reduction that could support small-size groups as well as large-size groups, and finally the integration of the work with Mobile IPv6 to handle the multicast source movement

Effect montmorillonite clay as aggregate in lightweight concrete cement-free

Light weight concrete has many advantages that can be used in the construction of buildings. Perhaps one of the most important of these features is its light weight, which contributes a lot to reducing stress on the soil, which provides the possibility of rising buildings and increasing the number of floors. In addition to its role in thermal insulation and its impact on reducing the consumption of energy sources in cooling and heating, light weight concrete is considered one of the sustainability factors in buildings. One of the second major factors in sustainability is to reduce or avoid the use of cement in the manufacture of this concrete, because of the harmful effects of cement on the environment and global warming. Cement-free concrete is considered a sustainable material in terms of its depletion of the waste materials and spin-off products from different industries apposite of consumption of natural resources in the cement industry (mud, limestone). In this research first aim is to produce lightweight cement-free concrete using pozolanic material and montmorillonite clay as coarse and fine aggregate. Studying some properties of producing light weight concrete (density, compression, tensile,) with different ages (7, 28, 56) days

Heat transfer in a channel with inclined target surface cooled by single array of centered impinging jets

An experimental investigation has been carried out to study the heat transfer characteristics in a channel with heated target plate inclined at an angle cooled by single array of equally spaced centered impinging jets for three different jet Reynolds numbers (Re=9300, 14400 and 18800). Air ejected from an array of orifices impinges on the heated target surface The target plate forms the leading edge of a gas turbine blade cooled by jet impingement technique. The work includes the effect of jet Reynolds numbers and feed channel aspect ratios (H/d = 5, 7, 9 where H=2.5, 3.5, 4.5 cm and d=0.5 cm) on the heat transfer characteristics for a given orifice jet plate configuration with equally spaced centered holes with outflow exiting in both directions (with inclined heated target surface). In general, It has been observed that, H/d=9 gives the maximum heat transfer over the entire length of the target surface as compared to all feed channel aspect ratios. H/d=9 gives 3% more heat transfer from the target surface as compared to H/d=5 (for Re=14400). Also, it has been observed that the magnitude of the averaged local Nusselt number increases with an increase in the jet Reynolds number for all the feed channel aspect ratios studied