Gulf states have a moral obligation to stop importing Somali charcoal

Farah M. Mohamed says that high charcoal exports to the Gulf States are steering Somalia towards an environmental calamity

Synthesis, antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity of new fused pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine and pyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazine derivatives from new 5-aminopyrazoles

New 5-aminopyrazoles 2a–c were prepared in high yields from the reaction of known α,α-dicyanoketene-N,S-acetals 1a–c with hydrazine hydrate under reflux in ethanol. These compounds were utilized as intermediates to synthesize pyrazolo[1,5-a]-pyrimidines 3a–c, 4a–d, 5a–c, and 6a–c, as well as pyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazines 7a–c and 8a–c, by the reaction of 2-[bis(methylthio)methylene]malononitrile, α,α-dicyanoketene-N,S-acetals 1a–b, acetylacetone, acetoacetanilide as well as acetylacetone, and malononitrile, respectively. Furthermore, cyclization of 2a–c with pentan-2,5-dione yielded the corresponding 5-pyrrolylpyrazoles 9a–c. Moreover, fusion of 2a–c with acetic anhydride resulted in the corresponding 1-acetyl-1H-pyrazoles 10a–c. The antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity against Vero cells of several selected compounds are also reported

Exploring the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards Use of Unprescribed Drugs among Adults of a Selected City of Somaliland

Background: The emergence and spread of resistance related to the irrational use of antibiotics is a major global public health problem. The aim of this study was to assess Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards use of unprescribed drugs among adults in a selected city of Somaliland. Methods: This study used cross-sectional survey and data was collected through semi-structured questionnaire. A purposive sampling of 400 individuals was obtained; Slovene’s Formula was used to calculate the sample size & Data was analysed by using SSPS v.20 and Ms Excel. Results: It is found that 64.3% of the respondents used any form of medicine without a medical practitioner's prescription. It is found that there is a significant association between respondent's level of knowledge and practice of unprescribed drug use. Conclusion: The conclusion is that it is important to formulate policies and strategies for drug distribution and sales aimed for controlling the public use of unprescribed drugs

WATER PERMEABILITY AND CHLORIDE AND SULPHATE RESISTANCE OF RUBBERISED FIBRE MORTAR

Non-biodegradable solids such as waste tyres and oil palm fruit fibre (OPFF) would cause environmental problems if not disposed properly. This research studied the water permeability and chloride and sulphate resistance of mixes with addition of OPFF and sand replacement with Treated Crumb Rubber (TCR). The mix known as Rubberised Fibre Mortar (RFM) is a composite of 10% to 30% of TRC and addition of 1% to 1.5% of OPFF. In total sixteen different mixes, with water to cement ratio of 0.48 were prepared and subjected to related tests up to 56 days. The specimens are separated to two water curing types; immersion and spraying. The results show immersion cured specimens is less permeable and more resistance to chloride and sulphate than spraying specimens. The TCR does reduce the water permeability of the mix when 20% and less replacement made, while addition of less than 1% OPFF allows medium permeability. The moderate chloride resistance is achieved in mix with less than 10% TCR replacement and OPFF is not added. While sulphate resistance of RFM with less than 30% TCR is acceptable but addition of OPFF must be limited to 1% to prevent large strength reduction. In conclusion, for indoor mortar applications such as partition wall, RFM made of less than 10% TCR and less than 1% OPFF is recommended

WATER PERMEABILITY AND CHLORIDE AND SULPHATE RESISTANCE OF RUBBERISED FIBRE MORTAR

Non-biodegradable solids such as waste tyres and oil palm fruit fibre (OPFF) would cause environmental problems if not disposed properly. This research studied the water permeability and chloride and sulphate resistance of mixes with addition of OPFF and sand replacement with Treated Crumb Rubber (TCR). The mix known as Rubberised Fibre Mortar (RFM) is a composite of 10% to 30% of TRC and addition of 1% to 1.5% of OPFF. In total sixteen different mixes, with water to cement ratio of 0.48 were prepared and subjected to related tests up to 56 days. The specimens are separated to two water curing types; immersion and spraying. The results show immersion cured specimens is less permeable and more resistance to chloride and sulphate than spraying specimens. The TCR does reduce the water permeability of the mix when 20% and less replacement made, while addition of less than 1% OPFF allows medium permeability. The moderate chloride resistance is achieved in mix with less than 10% TCR replacement and OPFF is not added. While sulphate resistance of RFM with less than 30% TCR is acceptable but addition of OPFF must be limited to 1% to prevent large strength reduction. In conclusion, for indoor mortar applications such as partition wall, RFM made of less than 10% TCR and less than 1% OPFF is recommended

Causes of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction failure: A meta-analysis

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is one of the most common knee injuries among athletes and during sports activities for which ligament reconstruction is the optimal therapeutic procedure. Functional instability of the knee because of ACL injury is prone to relapse. Relapse is commonly reported following surgery due to various reasons. Knowing the possible causes are major key in the management of patients with an ACL tear after reconstruction. This meta-analysis was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines. PubMed, Cochrane library, and Google Scholar were searched for eligible articles from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2020. The articles were selected on inclusion and exclusion criteria mentioned in the study protocol. Following the screening of all the articles, the short-listed articles were subjected to full-text review by two independent reviewers. The overall search process gave us 1571 articles in total, from which 13 were selected for meta-analysis. A total of 891 patients were included in the 13 studies evaluated with respect to the factors responsible for failure of the primary ACL reconstructive procedure. Tunnel placement error and traumatic reinjury were the most reported associated factors responsible for primary ACL reconstruction failure. However, the overall summary estimate for the two major etiologies was not significant. The P-value for overall effect was 0.76, along with a Z score of 0.30 and an I2 test value of 91%, indicating high study variability. The odd’s ratio was calculated using the Mantel-Haenszel random effects model for ACL reconstruction failure, which was 0.88. Understanding the cause of primary ACL failure and developing strategies to minimize or avoid it completely will help in reducing the incidence of ACL reconstructive failure and improve patient outcomes

Vision-based Object’s Shape Determination for Robot Alignment

This study provides vision-based system solutions for a peg-in-hole problem faced by a fork lift like robot used to transport copper wire spools from a rack, in which the spools are arranged side by side to a specified place. The copper wire spool (a cylindrical object on which the copper wire is wound and have a rim at each end) is held by 3 cylindrical shafts; one of the shafts is inserted through the center hole of the spool and another two shafts is held at the bottom of the spool. The aim of the development of vision-based system is to enable the robot to pick up the spool autonomously. To enable the center cylindrical shaft to be inserted nicely through the center hole of the spool, the center point of the spool must be on the center line of the camera Field of View (FOV). The problem to be solved in this study is how to determine that the center point is overlapped with the center line of the camera FOV. Firstly, a circle with the same radius of the spool’s rim was created at the center of the camera frame on screen, and then the spool’s front rim was tracked until it is overlapped with the circle on the screen image to ensure it is on the line of the camera FOV. However, the scope of this paper is limited to copper wire spool detection, and the confirmation of the front rim overlapping conditions is based on real time video processing. The proposed system uses Circular Hough Transform (CHT), binarization, morphology and edge detection of the sampled images from real-time video recording. A Logitech Webcam C270, which has an autofocus camera and HD view with lower price is used. By integrating the Logitech webcam for windows with MATLAB R2016a, all computations, programming and processing of this project are done using the MATLAB. Several experiments had been carried out and from the result obtained, the system is able to track the spool and determine the correct position of the robot to pick up the spool

Viral shedding and antibody response in 37 patients with MERS-coronavirus infection

Background. The Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus causes isolated cases and outbreaks of severe respiratory disease. Essential features of the natural history of disease are poorly understood. Methods. We studied 37 adult patients infected with MERS coronavirus for viral load in the lower and upper respiratory tracts (LRT and URT, respectively), blood, stool, and urine. Antibodies and serum neutralizing activities were determined over the course of disease. Results. One hundred ninety-nine LRT samples collected during the 3 weeks following diagnosis yielded virus RNA in 93% of tests. Average (maximum) viral loads were 5 × 106 (6 × 1010) copies/mL. Viral loads (positive detection frequencies) in 84 URT samples were 1.9 × 104 copies/mL (47.6%). Thirty-three percent of all 108 serum samples tested yielded viral RNA. Only 14.6% of stool and 2.4% of urine samples yielded viral RNA. All seroconversions occurred during the first 2 weeks after diagnosis, which corresponds to the second and third week after symptom onset. Immunoglobulin M detection provided no advantage in sensitivity over immunoglobulin G (IgG) detection. All surviving patients, but only slightly more than half of all fatal cases, produced IgG and neutralizing antibodies. The levels of IgG and neutralizing antibodies were weakly and inversely correlated with LRT viral loads. Presence of antibodies did not lead to the elimination of virus from LRT. Conclusions. The timing and intensity of respiratory viral shedding in patients with MERS closely matches that of those with severe acute respiratory syndrome. Blood viral RNA does not seem to be infectious. Extrapulmonary loci of virus replication seem possible. Neutralizing antibodies do not suffice to clear the infection

Genetic matching and the identification of a promising biocontrol agent validates a decision to survey natural enemies of Urena lobata in Malaysia

Urena lobata is a major introduced pasture weed in Vanuatu where a biocontrol program to mitigate its impacts commenced in 2018. There was considerable uncertainty regarding the native range of U. lobata, although published literature, coupled with very simple climate matching suggested that Southeast Asia should be the most promising region in which to survey for natural enemies. We, therefore, conducted surveys for candidate biocontrol agents in Malaysia and conducted genetic matching to compare plants growing in Vanuatu, Malaysia, and other regions in the invaded and purportedly native range of U. lobata. Surveys in Malaysia prioritized a tingid bug Haedus vicarius as a promising candidate agent for the biocontrol of U. lobata and subsequent host specificity testing confirmed it is sufficiently host specific to be released in Vanuatu. Genetic matching indicated that plants growing in Malaysia are a good match to plants present in Vanuatu, validating our selection of survey sites