Characterization of blue green algae isolated from Egyptian rice field with potential anti-hepatitis C active components

Several species of cyanobacteria has been recognized for its therapeutic value that can be used for treatment of malnutrition, cancer and viral infection. Many natural occurring cyanobacteria are known to produce toxins, for example, species of the genera Microcystis, Nodularia, Nostoc, Anabaena, Aphanizomenon, Cylindrospermopsis, and Planktothrix (Oscillatoria). Cyanotoxins are classified according to their mode of action in vertebrates as hepatotoxins, neurotoxins, cytotoxins, dermatotoxins, and irritants. Microcystin is a hepatotoxin which commonly found in Microcystis and it was found to be produced by other genera, including Anabaena, Nostoc, Nodularia, and Planktothrix. In the present study cyanobacteria strain isolated from Egyptian soil was purified, characterized and identified as Nostoc sp. and named Nostoc EGY. PCR-based techniques targeting the toxin biosynthesis genes were used verifying absence of toxic genes in the newly purified cyanobacteria. Cell lysate was prepared from the purified strain; the efficacy of this lysate to prevent hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication in vitro was proved qualitatively and quantitatively. Lysate prepared from isolated cyanobacteria after 10 and 25 days of cultivation was able to prevent replication of in vitro cultivated HCV.Keywords: Hepatitis C, green algae, cyanobacteria, polymerase chain reactionAfrican Journal of Biotechnology, Vol. 13(9), pp. 1086-1096, 26 February, 201

QUALITY OF LIFE OF PATIENTS WITH SEVERE KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS IN HUNGARY: CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Introduction: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic musculoskeletal disease that is associated with mortality, disability, and low quality of life. In Hungary, the number of patients diagnosed with severe knee osteoarthritis is dramatically increasing yearly. Objective: This study aims to assess the quality of life among patients with severe knee osteoarthritis who undergo knee replacement surgery after one month to assess their quality of life (QoL). Material and Method: Ten patients (6 female, 4 male, 70±4 years, 30.7±3.4 kg/m2) with severe knee osteoarthritis were included from an orthopedic clinic in Pécs, Hungary. The SF-36 questionnaire (Hungarian version) was used to assess QoL of the patients one month prior to knee replacement surgery. Results: The participants with severe knee OA reported allow overall average of pain (40.95%), role limitations due to physical health (42.5%), and role limitations due to emotional problems (46.7%) that reduced their QoL. In addition, there are significant differences between women and men in some domains. Women had significantly lower physical functioning and role limitations due to emotional problems than men, by 42.8% (p=0.03) and 73.3% (P=0.005), respectively. Moreover, women had a higher feeling of pain than men; however, the differences was insignificant. Conclusions: Patients with severe knee osteoarthritis have low quality of life and severe pain during daily activities. Furthermore, women with severe knee OA had significantly higher pain and lower quality of life than men due to their emotional status. Further studies with large sample sizes are needed. Received 2022 June 30; Revised 2022 July 15; Accepted 2022 July 21; Available online 2022 June 30; Available print 2022 August 30

The Issue of Race in Post-Colonial African American Poetry

With studying of selected poems by Gwendolyn Brooks, the researcher aims to investigate the issue of race in Post-Colonial African American poetry via comparative- typological approaches. Brooks tries to depict the social inequality and the subordination of her people that has happened during the sixties of the twentieth century. As a result, Brooks’ poetry was an attempt to forcefully encourage the blacks to be inspired by their heritage to attain their principal role in the society. As a conclusion, Brooks places emphasis on the humanistic love too being one of the principal requirements to a happy and brotherly lifeCon el estudio de poemas seleccionados por Gwendolyn Brooks, el investigador tiene como objetivo investigar el tema de la raza en la poesía afroamericana postcolonial a través de enfoques tipológicos comparativos. Brooks trata de representar la desigualdad social y la subordinación de su gente que ha ocurrido durante los años sesenta del siglo veinte. Como resultado, la poesía de Brooks fue un intento de alentar enérgicamente a los negros a inspirarse en su herencia para alcanzar su papel principal en la sociedad. Como conclusión, Brooks pone énfasis en que el amor humanista es uno de los requisitos principales para una vida feliz y fraternal

ISOLATION SOME ACTIVE MATERIALS IN THE IRAQI FRUITS AND SEEDS OF CITRULLUS COLOCYNTHIS L. AND STUDY OF THEIR EFFECTS ON AQUEOUS AND ALCOHOLIC EXTRACTS OF SOME PATHOLOGICAL BACTRIA AND CANCER CELLS TYPE L20B

The aim of this research is to detect and identify the functional chemical materials in the fruits and seeds of citrulluscolocynthisL..The results show that the fruits contain Tannins , phlobatannins , Saponins , flavonoids , glycosides , terepens , phenols , resins , carbohydrates , alkaloids , and iridoiglycosids . while the seeds contain tannins , saponins , flavonoids , terepens , phenols , resin , amino acids , carbohydrates , alkaloids , and iridoidglycosides .The percentage of isolated saponins , tannins , and volatile oils in fruits 10.92% , 17.6% , and 2.04% whereas their percentage in seeds are 3.77% , 7.39% , and 18.7% respectively .The concentrations of isolated materials , aqueous extracts and alcoholic extracts (1 , 5 , 12 , 25 , 50 mg/ml )have been studied as a biological activities against E.coli and staph.aureus the results show the highest inhibition diameter is 18mm against E,coli using 12mg /ml while against staph.aureus is 20mm using 25mg/ml concentration .The aqueous and alcoholic extracts of fruits and seeds gave a good inhibition towards the growth of L20B cell line and the highest growth inhibition is 67.7%

Resource Allocation for Enabled-Network-Slicing in Cooperative NOMA-based Systems with Underlay D2D Communications

International audienceNon-orthogonal multiple access technique (NOMA) has appeared at the forefront as a viable solution capable of improving spectral and energy efficiency in fifth-generation (5G) and beyond-5G networks. This study aims at evaluating the benefits of adopting network slicing in cooperative NOMA-based systems with underlay Device-to-Device (D2D) communications. We formulate an optimization problem that maximizes the overall system's throughput while guaranteeing slices' technical requirements. We decouple the problem into two sub-problems: first, assigning the cellular users to resource blocks allocated to each NOMA group and then assigning D2D pairs to NOMA groups. A two-stage resource allocation solution by swappingbased matching theory is implemented. Numerical results show that the proposed scenario outperforms other ones in terms of the overall system's throughput and the number of admitted D2D pairs

Throughput maximization in multi-slice cooperative NOMA-based system with underlay D2D communications

International audienceThe fifth generation (5G) and beyond-5G networks aim to meet the rapidly growing traffic demands while considering the scarcity of radio resources and the heterogeneity of services and technical requirements. Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) has been considered a key technology to address resource scarcity by enabling more users to share the resources. Furthermore, network slicing tackles the requirements’ heterogeneity by partitioning the physical network into multiple logical slices. In this study, the aforementioned key technologies are adopted to maximize the overall throughput and satisfy the technical requirements of a multi-slice system. We formulate an optimization problem in a multi-slice cooperative NOMA-based system with underlay D2D communications that jointly addresses user grouping, radio resource blocks allocation, and D2D admission. Its objective is to maximize the overall system throughput while considering each slice’s constraints. Given the complexity of the optimization problem, we propose a three-step, low-complexity solution: a matching theory-based approach for the user grouping and the D2D admission sub-problems, and a heuristic approach for the resource blocks allocation sub-problem. [Numerical results demonstrate the: (1) low complexity of the proposed solution; (2) high impact of interference cancellation imperfection; (3) superior performance of the proposed solution compared to literature baselines. Specifically, under dense network, our solution achieves up to 34% enhancement in overall system throughput, up to 35% improvement in D2D admission, and up to 125% and 32%, respectively, in cellular users and D2D pairs satisfaction. It also outperforms under strict eMBB and URLLC requirements. Also, results show significant overestimation in Shannon’s evaluation of URLLC throughputs considered in some papers from the literature compared to the finite block length evaluation considered in our work, particularly at higher URLLC reliability requirements

Resource Allocation for Downlink Full-Duplex Cooperative NOMA-Based Cellular System with Imperfect SI Cancellation and Underlaying D2D Communications

International audienceIn this paper, the interplay between non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), device-to-device (D2D) communication, full-duplex (FD) technology, and cooperation networks is proposed, and a resource allocation problem is investigated. Specifically, a downlink FD cooperative NOMA-based cellular system with underlaying D2D communications is proposed, where, in each NOMA group, the strong user assists the weak user as an FD relay with imperfect self interference (SI) cancellation. In terms of reaping spectral efficiency benefits, the system sum rate is to be maximized by optimizing channel allocation. This optimization is based on quality of service (QoS) constraints of D2D pairs and cellular users (CUs), power budget of base station and strong user (cooperative phase), and successive interference cancellation (SIC) constraints. Since the maximization formulated problem is computationally challenging to be addressed, a two-sided stable many-to-one matching algorithm, based on Pareto improvement, performs sub-channel assignment. Extensive simulations are implemented to demonstrate the system performance indicated by different metrics

Design charts for sizing CC/DV system aided with personalized evaporative cooler to the desired thermal comfort

This work extends chilled ceiling displacement ventilation (CC/DV) design charts to a wider operation range of DV supply temperatures and flow rates when aided with personalized evaporative cooler (PEC) at typical office of peak load of 70 W/m2. The overall thermal comfort (OTC) of the occupant can be read off from the chart at different operating conditions of DV/CC-PEC system. The charts simplify the sizing procedure of the CC/DV-PEC system by specifying the operational design parameters which include temperatures of DV supply and CC surface, PEC airflow rate, the ratio of total load over DV airflow rate named displaced air parameter (P), and the CC cooling load. In producing the charts, extensive simulations were performed using a multilayer space thermal model to determine the human microenvironment conditions and local comfort models to determine occupant thermal comfort.The use of the charts is demonstrated through case studies. It is found that the addition of PEC at flow rate of 10 l/s provided acceptable thermal comfort up to DV supply temperature of 26 °C. In such conditions, the CC/DV heat removal is about 83% of the space baseline load in design conditions which leads to energy savings while maintaining comfort

A 7-year-old girl with multiple skin ulcers: Case report and literature review

Introduction: There has been an increase in the number of tuberculosis (TB) cases worldwide, but TB of the skin remains rare. Case presentation: A case of 7-year-old girl with multiple ulcerating nodules who presented with four ulcers in the skin of the left elbow. The patient was unresponsive to broad-spectrum antibiotics treatment initially. Because of poor clinical response to conventional therapy, TB was suspected. Although tuberculin skin test was negative, positive QuantiFERON TB Gold test and clinical picture strongly indicated TB. Clinical diagnosis was confirmed by positive culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Conclusion: A high index of clinical suspicion is necessary to suspect TB of the skin. Positive culture remains the gold standard for diagnosis