Cobalt Sulfide/Spongy functionalized Graphene nanostructured electrodes for High-Performance Supercapacitors

A simple approach is illustrated for the preparation of functionalized spongy graphene/cobalt sulfide (FG-CoS) nanocomposites as unified, porous 3-dimensional (3D) network crinkly sheets. These crinkly sheets contain the reduced spongy graphene oxide (SGO) sheets and the intercalated CoS nanoparticles within the spongy graphene. The fabricated FG-CoS composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Raman spectroscopy. The synthesized materials were examined as supercapacitor materials in an aqueous electrolyte (3M KOH) using cyclic voltammetry (CV) at a wide range of potential scan rates, and galvanostatic charge/discharge at various current densities. The FG-CoS electrode yielded a maximum specific capacitance of 1072 F/g at a scan rate of 1 mV/s. In addition, it showed outstanding cyclability retention of 117% after the 1000th cycle at 100mV/s. The obtained energy density is 35.2 Wh/kg along with a power density of 250 W/kg at 1.0 A/g. Such high performance can be attributed to the synergistic effect of graphene and CoS, where CoS is sandwiched between graphene nanosheets. This makes the FG/CoS composite a promising electrode material for a superior-performance supercapacitor

Development of SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitors Using Molecular Docking Study with Different Coronavirus Spike Protein and ACE2

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is an acute respiratory tract infection that emerged in Wuhan city, China. The spike protein of coronaviruses is the main driving force for host cell recognition and is responsible for binding to the ACE2 receptor on the host cell and mediates the fusion of host and viral membranes. Recognizing compounds that could form a complex with the spike protein (S-protein) potently could inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infections. The software was used to survey 300 plant natural compounds or derivatives for their binding ability with the SARS-CoV-2 S-protein. The docking score for ligands towards each protein was calculated to estimate the binding free energy. Four compounds showed a strong ability to bind with the S-protein (neohesperidin, quercetin 3-O-rutinoside-7-O-glucoside, 14-ketostypodiol diacetate, and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose) and used to predict its docking model and binding regions. The highest predicted ligand/protein affinity was with quercetin 3-O-rutinoside-7-O-glucoside followed by neohesperidin. The four compounds were also tested against other related coronavirus and showed their binding ability to S-protein of the bat, SARS, and MERS coronavirus strains, indicating that they could bind and block the spike activities and subsequently prevent them infection of different coronaviruses. Molecular docking also showed the probability of the four ligands binding to the host cell receptor ACE2. The interaction residues and the binding energy for the complexes were identified. The strong binding ability of the four compounds to the S-protein and the ACE2 protein indicates that they might be used to develop therapeutics specific against SARS-CoV-2 and close related human coronaviruses

MASS SPECTROMETRIC DETERMINATION OF RETINOL IN EMIRATI POPULATION

This thesis is concerned with analyzing vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin A is crucial for several functions, including vision, growth, and cell differentiation. the main aim is to develop and validate an LC-MS/MS method for the determination of vitamin A in plasma matrix and use the new method for the determination of vitamin A levels in the obese Emirati population. Methods: A positive ion electrospray ionisation (ESI) LC-MS/MS method was used in the Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) mode for quantification. It involved i) LC-MS/MS, ii) a guard column together with C18 Ascentis Express F5 column iii) Internal standard, 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 (6, 19, 19-d3), and iv) identification via ESI and monitoring of three fragmentations of the parent ion. To demonstrate the practical value of this method, blood samples were collected from 452 Emirati participants (277 obese; 175 healthy). The method was validated according to FDA-US guidelines. The method has been applied to a sample of 277 Emirati obese patients, including 277 baselines, 277 follow-ups, and 175 health samples. The characteristics of the sample included: mixed-gender with 73 males in the age group of (18–82 years) and 204 females in the age group of (18–65 years). The results show that the concentrations of vitamin A for both females and males increased after supplementation (372 ng/mL to 440 ng/mL for the female samples, and 438 ng/mL to 540 ng/mL for the male sample). This has led to a sufficient level of vitamin A in participants. The new method allowed chromatographic separation and quantification of vitamin A. The new assay could detect 0.48 ng/mL of vitamin A in serum with the calibration curve ranging from 7.8 to 1000 ng/ml. The method validation parameters, including intra and inter-day precision, intra and inter-day accuracy, recovery, linearity, specificity, and stability, were within range. For example, the recovery percentage found were 99%, 96%, and 94% for QCH, QCM, and QCL respectively, while the percentage of change in the stability of vitamin A ranges between 0 and 3%. The applied LC-MS/MS method was intended to accurately detect Vitamin A in human plasma and has proven to be specific, reliable, and robust. The method can detect low levels of vitamin A. This analytical method does not require time-consuming derivatization and complex extraction techniques and could prove very useful in clinical studies

MASS SPECTROMETRIC DETERMINATION OF RETINOL IN EMIRATI POPULATION

This thesis is concerned with analysing vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin A is crucial for several functions, including vision, growth, and cell differentiation. the main aim is to develop and validate an LC-MS/MS method for the determination of vitamin A in plasma matrix and use the new method for the determination of vitamin A levels in the obese Emirati population. Methods: A positive ion electrospray ionisation (ESI) LC-MS/MS method was used in the Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) mode for quantification. It involved i) LC-MS/MS, ii) a guard column together with C18 Ascentis Express F5 column iii) Internal standard, 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 (6, 19, 19-d3), and iv) identification via ESI and monitoring of three fragmentation of the parent ion. To demonstrate the practical value of this method, blood samples were collected from 452 Emirati participants (277 obese; 175 healthy). The method was validated according to FDA-US guidelines. The method has been applied on a sample of 277 Emirati obese patients, including 277 baselines, 277 follow-ups, and 175 health samples. The characteristics of the sample included: mixed-gender with 73 males in the age group of (18–82 years) and 204 females in the age group of (18–65 years). The results show that the concentrations of vitamin A for both females and males increased after supplementation (372 ng/mL to 440 ng/mL for female sample, and 438 ng/mL to 540 ng/mL for male sample). This has led to a sufficient level of vitamin A in participants. The new method allowed chromatographic separation and quantification of vitamin A. The new assay could detect 0.48 ng/mL of vitamin A in serum with the calibration curve ranging from 7.8 to 1000 ng/ml. The method validation parameters, including intra and inter-day precision, intra and inter-day accuracy, recovery, linearity, specificity, and stability, were within range. For example, the recovery percentage found were 99%, 96%, and 94% for QCH, QCM, and QCL respectively, while the percentage of change in the stability of vitamin A ranges between 0 and 3%. The applied LC-MS/MS method was intended to accurately detect Vitamin A in human plasma, and has proven to be specific, reliable, and robust. The method can detect low levels of vitamin A. This analytical method does not require time-consuming derivatisation and complex extraction techniques and could prove very useful in clinical studies

Corrigendum to "Development of SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitors Using Molecular Docking Study with Different Coronavirus Spike Protein and ACE2” [J Mol Docking. 2021;1(2):1-14]

Authors have found an error in the previous version (Shamkh, IM, & Pratiwi, D. (2021). Development of SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitors Using Molecular Docking Study with Different Coronavirus Spike Protein and ACE2. Journal of Molecular Docking, 1(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.33084/jmd.v1i1.2212), of which Dr. Hanaa S. Omar as supervisor of the research, is not listed as one of the authors. In this note, Dr. Hanaa S. Omar was added as one of the authors, with the status of the corresponding author in the study

Mixed Statistical Matching Approaches Using a Latent Class Model: Simulation Studies

In the era of data revolution, availability and presence of data is a huge wealth that has to be utilized. Instead of making new surveys, benefit can be made from data that already exists. As, enormous amounts of data become available, it is becoming essential to undertake research that involves integrating data from multiple sources in order to make the best use out of it. Statistical Data Integration (SDI) is the statistical tool for considering this issue. SDI can be used to integrate data files that have common units, and it also allows to merge unrelated files that do not share any common units, depending on the input data. The convenient method of data integration is determined according to the nature of the input data. SDI has two main methods, Record Linkage (RL) and Statistical Matching (SM). SM techniques typically aim to achieve a complete data file from different sources which do not contain the same units. There are a number of traditional matching techniques mentioned in the literature. Among these techniques, there are various approaches for continuous data, but not as many methods for categorical data. This paper proposes a Statistical Matching technique for categorical data based on latent class models within a Bayesian framework. Dirichlet Process Mixture of Product of Multinomial distributions model is used in Statistical Matching throughout this paper which is a fully Bayesian estimation method for latent class models. Performance of the proposed latent class model used for Statistical Matching is evaluated using an empirical comparison with several existing matching procedures based on simulation studies

Distribution of Aminoglycoside Resistance Mediated by 16S rRNA Methylation among IraqI Isolates of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

One hundred   clinical isolates  of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (58 , 42 isolates respectively ) were obtained  from patients   suffering from  different infections at Baghdad \Iraq  teaching  hospital . These isolates were diagnosed using api 20E  .Results of primary screening test for aminoglycoside resistance using determination the minimum inhibitory concentration  revealed that all the isolates conferring multidrug resistance and the highest resistance was against kanamycin, while the lowest  was against amikacin .Phenotypic detection of Extended spectrum ?–lactamase ( ES?Ls) was preformed and the results showed that 84% of the isolates gave positive results. Highly resistant isolates (20 for each ) were selected for the genetic study using polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR) to determine  aminoglycoside resistance mediated by methylation 16S rRNA  beside detection blaCTX –M gene responsible for ESBLs production .Seven 16S rRNA methylase genes were amplified ,the ArmA (846 bp), RmtA(635bp), RmtB(584bp), RmtC(711bp), RmtD (500 bp), RmtF(453bp) and npmA (641bp) beside amplifying blaCTX –M gene ( 550bp) .Out of 20 E.coli isolates ,16(80%)gave positive results for ArmA gene, while non of P.aeruginosa harboured this gene. Only one isolates out of 20(5%) harboured  RmtB methylation gene in E.coli isolates, while 3 isolates out of 20(15%) contains RmtC gene and 1 isolates(5%) harboured  RmtD gene in E.coli isolates while in P.aeruginosa showed 3 isolates out of  20 (15%) positive results in this gene. The sixth methylation gene was npmA was detected in only one isolate (5%) out of 20. For blaCTX –M gene , it was detected in all E.coli isolates  (100%) while  it was  detected in 17(85%)  of  P.aeruginosa. This is the first report in Iraq for the emergence of 16S rRNA methylases  among  E.coli and P.aeruginosa in correlation with ES?Ls  production . Key words: Aminoglycoside resistance, 16S rRNA methylation genes, and ES?Ls  blaCTX –M genes

Estimating Bed Requirements for a Pediatric Department in a University Hospital in Egypt

Every day, a considerable number of children in need for health monitoring and control are turned away because of lack of beds in the Pediatric department in Zagazig University hospital in Egypt. This paper estimates the required number of beds needed for controlling this number of turned away children. The paper also investigates the effect of redistributing beds among different specialties on the service level. An Erlang Loss model is applied for estimating required capacity, then an optimization model is used for finding the optimum bed distribution that minimize number of turned away children

Estimating the Risk of Financial Distress Using a Multi-Layered Governance Criterion: Insights from Middle Eastern and North African Banks

open access articleIn this study, we explored the association of bank-level governance and state-level governance with the likelihood of banks’ financial distress in developing economies. Using a panel data sample of 954 bank-year observations of 106 conventional banks across 14 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries from 2010 to 2018, we found that bank governance arrangements seemed to be negatively attributed to the probability of financial distress. We also found that the relationship of political stability with financial distress prospects is—contrary to our expectation—insignificant, whereas government effectiveness negatively influences the likelihood of financial distress. Our empirical evidence offers practical implications for bank managers, regulators, and credit rating agencies, and suggests several future research avenues that can build on our findings

IN SILICO MOLECULAR MODELING AND DOCKING STUDIES OF NANO COMPOSITES COMPOUND TO REGULATION, INHIBITION AND TREATMENT LEAF AND STEM WHEAT RUST

Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) and P. triticina (Pt), the causal agents of stem and leaf rust, respectively form new physiological races that significantly reduce growth and yield of wheat cultivars. Therefore, seeking for exploring if there an inhibition effect of the Nano Composites compound on leaf and stem rust to regulation, inhibition and treatment leaf and stem wheat rust objectives to continuously produce new wheat pesticides resistant to stem and leaf rust. The aim of the study was to finding natural and Nano compounds to control, treatment and regulation of wheat rust. In this study we used molecular modeling and docking for the two vital proteins in stem and leaf wheat rust MAP kinase 1 [Puccinia triticina] and PGTG Puccinia graminis f. sp. Tritici. In the silico analysis, the two vital proteins activity is suppressed and inhibited In this work the chitosan and chitosan –Cu which selected for the study are considered as safe compounds the compounds showed interaction with the MAPK1 and PGAT proteins Thus the bioactive compounds that are interacting with the target can be used as a potent inhibitor to block the action of our proteins