A malaria membrane skeletal protein is essential for normal morphogenesis, motility, and infectivity of sporozoites

Membrane skeletons are structural elements that provide mechanical support to the plasma membrane and define cell shape. Here, we identify and characterize a putative protein component of the membrane skeleton of the malaria parasite. The protein, named PbIMC1a, is the structural orthologue of the Toxoplasma gondii inner membrane complex protein 1 (TgIMC1), a component of the membrane skeleton in tachyzoites. Using targeted gene disruption in the rodent malaria species Plasmodium berghei, we show that PbIMC1a is involved in sporozoite development, is necessary for providing normal sporozoite cell shape and mechanical stability, and is essential for sporozoite infectivity in insect and vertebrate hosts. Knockout of PbIMC1a protein expression reduces, but does not abolish, sporozoite gliding locomotion. We identify a family of proteins related to PbIMC1a in Plasmodium and other apicomplexan parasites. These results provide new functional insight in the role of membrane skeletons in apicomplexan parasite biology

Survey and Analysis of Safety Components and Costs in Construction Projects in Egypt

The difficulty of determining the factors that achieve safety on Egyptian construction sites as a result of multiple and different criteria and different relative weights of the criteria represents a challenge to achieve safety and a secure environment on construction sites. This issue has been of interest for many decades and continues to be a topic of discussion today because of construction project management is rapidly modernizing. The paper aims to identify the safety standards most commonly used on construction sites, and determine their relative weights as seen by the target audience and also estimate the cost of safety measures used in construction projects. The questionnaire was designed and implemented to collect realistic information covering relevant parties and distributed it to 82 target audiences from different categories, including consultants, site engineers, and site managers. It included 4 specific answers (Very important, Important, Little important, and Unimportant) and consists of 9 Main -criteria and 76 sub- criteria as the most important criteria. The most important Main - criteria are “Preparation of OHS plan , Work protective equipment (APE) , Personal protective equipment (PPE) , Signs required, Others related to Construction Safety risk control . This study concerns with providing construction managers and professionals with recommendations to achieve the highest safety standards in Egyptian construction sites and developing countrie

The Impact of Applying ISO Standards Systems on Improving the Quality of the Performance in Higher Educational Institutions in Egypt

Applying ISO 21001:2018 standard ensures that universities have a competitive advantage as well as the achievement of their objectives. This study aims to identify the impact of implementing ISO 21001: 2018 management systems standards on the performance quality of higher education institutions. The study investigates the reasons why private higher education institutions seek ISO standards certificates in general and the specifications of management systems for educational institutions in particular. The study applied a set of statistical testing methods on paired samples as well as independent samples to ensure quality assurance. The study also proposes the required prerequisites that should be considered. The study investigated a hypothesis stating that "there are no statistically significant differences before and after applying the ISO 21001:2018 management systems specification for educational institutions in improving the quality of performance in higher education institutions" which was rejected by conducting an experiment in Future University in Egypt and accepting the alternative hypothesis. The study confirmed the impact of quality which was previously investigated by prior research that has been discussed in this study. The study further presented the need to apply quality based on determined criteria which were not considered in prior studies. Moreover, the study proposed the impact of ISO standards in educational institutions in general and in Egypt in specific. This recommendation is proved by this study to enhance the quality level in educational institutions

Resonant CP Violation in Higgs Radiation at e^+e^- Linear Collider

We study resonant CP violation in the Higgsstrahlung process e^+e^- -> H_{1,2,3} (Z -> e^+e^-, \mu^+\mu^-) and subsequent decays H_{1,2,3} -> b \bar{b}, \tau^-\tau^+, in the MSSM with Higgs-sector CP violation induced by radiative corrections. At a high-energy e^+e^- linear collider, the recoil-mass method enables one to determine the invariant mass of a fermion pair produced by Higgs decays with a precision as good as 1 GeV. Assuming an integrated luminosity of 100/fb, we show that the production lineshape of a coupled system of neutral Higgs bosons decaying into b\bar{b} quarks is sensitive to the CP-violating parameters. When the Higgs bosons decay into \tau^-\tau^+, two CP asymmetries can be defined using the longitudinal and transverse polarizations of the tau leptons. Taking into account the constraints from electric dipole moments, we find that these CP asymmetries can be as large as 80 %, in a tri-mixing scenario where all three neutral Higgs states of the MSSM are nearly degenerate and mix significantly.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

On Some Classes of mKdV Periodic Solutions

We obtain exact periodic solutions of the positive and negative modified Kortweg-de Vries (mKdV) equations. We examine the dynamical stability of these solitary wave lattices through direct numerical simulations. While the positive mKdV breather lattice solutions are found to be unstable, the two-soliton lattice solution of the same equation is found to be stable. Similarly, a negative mKdV lattice solution is found to be stable. We also touch upon the implications of these results for the KdV equation.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in J. Phys.

Patentometric synthesis of upcoming technologies against tuberculosis: recommendations for public policies

Background: Pharmaceutical technologies depend heavily on patent protection for their development and further access by people. Methods: To give insights about the upcoming technologies (pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical) to fight TB this study prospected the global portfolio on TB patents registered worldwide from 2001-2021. Results: In the last two decades were registered 12,283 anti-TB patent families globally, with a peak by 2015, but almost half are inactive. 70% of the portfolio is focused on TB treatment, the remaining for diagnose or vaccine technologies. Most top-30 countries in TB assets are high-income. Holders are spread mainly in USA (43 %) and China (10%). Half of them are universities and research centers. Conclusion: The market monopoly of TB drugs by the pharmaceutical industry from high-income nations may be sustaining the obsolete portfolio of TB technologies worldwide, what favors TB strain resistance. Public policies have an important role in counterbalance this scenario by promoting research in universities and research centers, especially in mid- to low-income countries. We suggest incentives towards diagnosis and vaccine-related technologies to build a solid and effective portfolio of anti-TB patents

Strategic patent benchmark actions against Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is the second cause of death lead by infectious disease worldwide and with a growing incidence and death rates by 2022. United Nations preventive and treatment targets to fight TB were unmet and the upcoming TB patent portfolio is vulnerable what jeopardize global progress against TB. Funding for TB research is limited and strategical initiatives through intellectual property could be applied to optimize public and private efforts to fight TB epidemic. To stimulate the research and drug market aspects related with TB technologies, it was synthetized through searches in technological databases 15 strategic actions to enhance development and access of TB assets at regional, national and international level

210Po Log-normal distribution in human urines: Survey from Central Italy people

The death in London of the former secret service agent Alexander Livtinenko on 23 November 2006 generally attracted the attention of the public to the rather unknown radionuclide 210Po. This paper presents the results of a monitoring programme of 210Po background levels in the urines of noncontaminated people living in Central Italy (near the Republic of S. Marino). The relationship between age, sex, years of smoking, number of cigarettes per day, and 210Po concentration was also studied. The results indicated that the urinary 210Po concentration follows a surprisingly perfect Log-normal distribution. Log 210Po concentrations were positively correlated to age (p < 0.0001), number of daily smoked cigarettes (p = 0.006), and years of smoking (p = 0.021), and associated to sex (p = 0.019). Consequently, this study provides upper reference limits for each sub-group identified by significantly predictive variables

Vacuum-ultraviolet photoabsorption imaging system for laser plasma plume diagnostics

We describe a recently designed and constructed system based on a 1 m normal incidence vacuum monochromator with corrected (toroidal) optics that produces a wavelength tuneable and collimated vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) (λ=30–100 nm) beam. The VUV continuum source is a laser-generated gold plasma. The primary function of the system is the measurement of time resolved “images” or spatial distributions of photoabsorption/photoionization in expanding laser plasma plumes. This is achieved by passing the beam through the sample of interest (in our case a second synchronised plasma) and recording the “footprint” of the attenuated beam on a charge coupled device. Using this VUV photoabsorption imaging or “shadowgraphy” technique we track and extract column density distributions in expanding plasma plumes. We can also measure the plume front velocity. We have characterized the system, particularly in relation to spectral and spatial resolution and the experimental results meet very well the expectations from ray tracing done at the design phase. We present first photoabsorption images and column density distributions of laser produced Ca plumes from the system