Social and demographic factors associated with morbidities in young children in Egypt: A Bayesian geo-additive semi-parametric multinomial model.

Globally, the burden of mortality in children, especially in poor developing countries, is alarming and has precipitated concern and calls for concerted efforts in combating such health problems. Examples of diseases that contribute to this burden of mortality include diarrhoea, cough, fever, and the overlap between these illnesses, causing childhood morbidity and mortality. Methods: To gain insight into these health issues, we employed the 2008 Demographic and Health Survey Data of Egypt, which recorded details from 10,872 children under five. This data focused on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of household members. We applied a Bayesian multinomial model to assess the area-specific spatial effects and risk factors of co-morbidity of fever, diarrhoea and cough for children under the age of five. Results: The results showed that children under 20 months of age were more likely to have the three diseases (OR: 6.8; 95% CI: 4.6-10.2) than children between 20 and 40 months (OR: 2.14; 95% CI: 1.38-3.3). In multivariate Bayesian geo-additive models, the children of mothers who were over 20 years of age were more likely to have only cough (OR: 1.2; 95% 2 CI: 0.9-1.5) and only fever (OR: 1.2; 95% CI: 0.91-1.51) compared with their counterparts. Spatial results showed that the North-eastern region of Egypt has a higher incidence than most of other regions. Conclusions: This study showed geographic patterns of Egyptian governorates in the combined prevalence of morbidity among Egyptian children. It is obvious that the Nile Delta, Upper Egypt, and south-eastern Egypt have high rates of diseases and are more affected. Therefore, more attention is needed in these areas. Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist

Copper-based glass-ceramic as an efficient catalyst in the synthesis of pyrazolo[1,5-a] pyrimidineunder solvent-free condition with docking validation as Covid-19 main protease (Mpro) inhibitor

Copper-based oxide glass-ceramic was successfully synthesized through the single-step melt annealing technique. Synthesized glass-ceramics was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) supported with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and mapping. Pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines 5a-f were synthesized via the reaction of 5-amino-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxamide (1) with enaminones 2a-f in the presence of synthesized oxide glass-ceramic catalyst powder under solvent-free condition. The molecular docking study demonstrated that the COVID-19 main protease (MPro) inhibitor.                     KEY WORDS: Pyrazolopyrimidine, Enaminones, Copper-based catalysis, Solvent-free, COVID-19   Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2021, 35(1), 185-196. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v35i1.1

V2O5/SiO2 as an efficient catalyst in the synthesis of 5-amino- pyrazole derivatives under solvent free condition

An efficient and facile approach for the synthesis of 5-aminopyrazoles from ketene S,N-acetal and hydrazine hydrate via catalytic reaction under solvent free condition has been described. V2O5/SiO2 as a heterogeneous catalyst was prepared and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM).               KEY WORDS: One-pot synthesis, 5-Amino-1H-pyrazole, Hydrazine hydrate, Vanadium oxide, Silica Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2019, 33(1), 135-142DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v33i1.13

Effect of water immersion on monomer and strength of FRC

This journal suppl. entitled: Abstracts of the Academy of Dental Materials Annual Meeting, 8-11 October 2014 - Bologna, ItalyPURPOSE: There is an interest in the use of fiber-reinforced composite (FRC) to support the concept of minimal invasive dentistry. The exposure of FRC to the oral environment causes detrimental effect of water sorption (Takashi et al. Dent Mat 2006 22:291). With time water molecules will act as plasticizers and decrease the mechanical properties (Mese and Guzel. J Prosthet Dent 2008 99:153). Monomer system is the backbone of the dental composite (Garcia et al. Clinical Dentistry 2005: 215) and residual monomer may dissolve in water (Tanaka et al. J Oral Rehab 1991 18:353). Some released monomers are knownto elicit cytotoxic effects (Sakaguchi and Powers. Craig’s Restorative Dental Materials 2012:343), and methyl methacrylate (MMA) is mentioned as cytotoxic (Pradeep and Sreekumar. J Contemp Dent Pract 2012 6:838). This study investigated the effect of water immersion duration on monomer release and the compressive strength of fiber-reinforced composite. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Materials used were: E-glass fibre (Stick Tech, Finland), bis-GMA (Sigma–Aldrich, USA), MMA (ProSciTech, Australia), CQ (Esstech, USA) and CEMA (Esstech, USA). Fifteen specimens (2mm×2mm×25mm) with the composition of: 78.4% bis-GMA+19.6%MMA+ 1.0%CQ + 1.0%CEMA were prepared and divided into 2 groups: compressive strength (CS-12specimens) and residual monomer (RM-3specimens). Each specimen had two fiber rovings of 25mm and placed in a mould, and light-cured with halogen light-curing unit on both sides for 3×40 s. Specimens from each group were divided into three groups based on the water immersion durations (1, 14 and 21 days) and immersed into 10 ml distilled water at 37 ◦C. The three RM-specimens were analyzed using HPLC to test the residual monomer concentration. All CS-specimens were tested using UTM (Torsee’s UTM, Tokyo Testing Machine Mfg., Co., Ltd., Japan) for the compressive strength. RESULTS: The data of MMA concentration was descriptively analyzed. It started on day 1 (2352.96µg/ml) followed by an increase on day14 (3567.15µg/ml) and decreased on day 21 (2427.19µg/ml). Compressive strength showed an average (MPa) for day 1 (93.84±8.30); day 14 (67.83±4.82) and day 21 (51.08±2.10), respectively. Data from the compressive strength was analyzed by ANOVA, and it proved a significant decrease as the water immersion duration increases (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The duration of water immersion of e-glass FRC showed different effect on the concentration of released monomer and the compressive strength. Highest concentration of MMA concentration occurred on day 14 and followed by a decrease. As for the compressive strength, it decreased as the water immersion duration increased.postprin

Individual and contextual factors associated with malaria among children 6–59 months in Nigeria: a multilevel mixed effect logistic model approach

Background/Purpose: Over the last two decades, malaria has remained a major public health concern worldwide, especially in developing countries leading to high morbidity and mortality among children. Nigeria is the world most burdened malaria endemic nation, contributing more than a quarter of global malaria cases. This study determined the prevalence of malaria among children at 6–59 months in Nigeria, and the effects of individual and contextual factors. Methods: This study utilized data from 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) involving a weighted sample size of 10,185 children who were tested for malaria using rapid diagnostic test (RDT). Given the hierarchical structure of the data set, such that children at Level-1 were nested in communities at Level-2, and nested in states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at Level-3, multilevel mixed effect logistic regression models were used for the analysis. Results: The proportion of children 6–59 months of age in Nigeria that had malaria fever positive as assessed by RDTs was 35.5% (3418/10,185), (CI: 33.9–37.1). Kebbi State had 77.7%, (CI: 70.2–83.5), which was the highest proportion of 6–59 months who were malaria positive, next in line was Katsina State with 55.5%, (CI: 47.7–63.1). The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja had the proportion of 29.6%, (CI: 21.6–39.0), malaria positive children of 6–59 months of age. Children between the age of 48 and 59 months were 2.68 times more likely to have malaria fever than children of ages 6–11 months (AOR = 2.68, 95% CI: 2.03–3.54). In addition, children from the rural area (AOR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.75–2.57), were more likely to suffer from malaria infection compared to children from urban area. Conclusion: The study identified some individual and contextual predictors of malaria among children in Nigeria. These factors identified in this study are potential areas that need to be considered for policy designs and implementations toward control and total elimination of malaria-related morbidity and mortality among children in Nigeria

New Conjugate Gradient Method for Unconstrained Optimization with Logistic Mapping

In this paper , we suggested a new conjugate gradient algorithm for unconstrained optimization based on logistic mapping, descent condition and sufficient descent condition for our  method are provided. Numerical results show that our presented algorithm is more efficient for solving nonlinear unconstrained optimization problems comparing with (DY)

Drivers of U.S. toxicological footprints trajectory 1998–2013

By exploiting data from the Toxic Release Inventory of the United States, we have established that the toxicological footprint (TF) increased by 3.3% (88.4 Mt) between 1998 and 1999 and decreased by 39% (1088.5 Mt) between 1999 and 2013. From 1999 to 2006, the decreasing TF was driven by improvements in emissions intensity (i.e. gains in production efficiency) through toxic chemical management options: cleaner production; end of pipe treatment; transfer for further waste management; and production scale. In particular, the mining sector reduced its TF through outsourcing processes. Between 2006 and 2009, decreasing TF was due to decrease in consumption volume triggered by economic recession. Since 2009, the economic recovery increased TF, overwhelming the influence of improved emissions intensity through population growth, consumption and production structures. Accordingly, attaining a less-toxic economy and environment will be influenced by a combination of gains in production efficiency through improvement in emissions mitigation technologies and changes in consumption patterns. Overall, the current analysis highlights the structural dynamics of toxic chemical release and would inform future formulation of effective mitigation standards and management protocols towards the detoxification of the environmen

Strain and localization effects in InGaAs(N) quantum wells: Tuning the magnetic response

We investigated effects of localization and strain on the optical and magneto-optical properties of diluted nitrogen III-V quantum wells theoretically and experimentally. High-resolution x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence (PL), and magneto-PL measurements under high magnetic fields up to 15 T were performed at low temperatures. Bir-Pikus Hamiltonian formalism was used to study the influence of strain, confinement, and localization effects. The circularly polarized magneto-PL was interpreted considering localization aspects in the valence band ground state. An anomalous behavior of the electron-hole pair magnetic shift was observed at low magnetic fields, ascribed to the increase in the exciton reduced mass due to the negative effective mass of the valence band ground state

MSC encapsulation in alginate microcapsules prolongs survival after intra-articular injection, a longitudinal in vivo cell and bead integrity tracking study

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are promising candidates for use as a biological therapeutic. Since locally injected MSC disappear within a few weeks, we hypothesize that efficacy of MSC can be enhanced by prolonging their presence. Previously, encapsulation in alginate was suggested as a suitable approach for this purpose. We found no differences between the two alginate types, alginate high in mannuronic acid (High M) and alginate high in guluronic acid (High G), regarding MSC viability, MSC immunomodulatory capability, or retention of capsule integrity after subcutaneous implantation in immune competent rats. High G proved to be more suitable for production of injectable beads. Firefly luciferase-expressing rat MSC were used to track MSC viability. Encapsulation in high G alginate prolonged the presence of metabolically active allogenic MSC in immune competent rats with monoiodoacetate-induced osteoarthritis for at least 8 weeks. Encapsulation of human MSC for local treatment by intra-articular injection did not significantly influence the effect on pain, synovial inflammation, or cartilage damage in this disease model. MSC encapsulation in alginate allows for an injectable approach which prolongs the presence of viable cells subcutaneously or in an osteoarthritic joint. Further fine tuning of alginate formulation and effective dosage for might be required in order to improve therapeutic efficacy depending on the target disease. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]