Traveling wave solutions for the Couple Boiti-Leon-Pempinelli System by using extended Jacobian elliptic function expansion method

In this work, an extended Jacobian elliptic function expansion method is pro-posed for constructing the exact solutions of nonlinear evolution equations. The validity and reliability of the method are tested by its applications to the Couple Boiti-Leon-Pempinelli System which plays an important role in mathematical physics

Evaluation of some toxic metals in blood samples of smokers in Saudi Arabia by inductive coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Purpose: To determine some toxic elements in the blood of cigarette and tobacco pipe smokers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Methods: The study setting was Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh City. Male volunteers, aged 20 - 58 year, whose blood samples were collected, were classified into three groups of cigarette smokers (N = 30), tobacco pipe smokers (N = 30) and non-smokers (24). Inductive coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) measurement was conducted to determine the concentration of toxic metals in the blood samples after microwave acid digestion.Results: The mean concentrations of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg) and nickel (Ni) were 0.23 ± 0.30, 26.42 ± 20.08, 19.43 ± 10.00, 8.77 ± 6.98 and 79.57 ± 70.51), respectively, for cigarette smokers; (0.31 ± 0.19, 8.11 ± 8.60, 4.80 ± 3.01, 13.05 ± 3.01 and 9.96 ± 5.00), respectively, for tobacco pipe smokers; and 0.07 ± 0.20, 3.89 ± 5.82, 10.09 ± 2.75, 10.44 ± 5.37 and 1.60 ± 2.77), respectively, non-smokers.Conclusion: The results showed that the blood concentrations of heavy metals in smokers were higher than those in non-smokers.Keywords: Blood, Heavy metals, Smokers, Tobacco pipe smokers, Inductive coupled plasma mass spectrometr

Depth Of Maximum Of Air-shower Profiles At The Pierre Auger Observatory. I. Measurements At Energies Above 1017.8ev

901

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

A century of trends in adult human height

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities 1,2 . This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity 3�6 . Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55 of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017�and more than 80 in some low- and middle-income regions�was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing�and in some countries reversal�of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories. © 2019, The Author(s)

Ionophore-based potentiometric PVC membrane sensors for determination of phenobarbitone in pharmaceutical formulations

The fabrication and development of two polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membrane sensors for assaying phenobarbitone sodium are described. Sensors 1 and 2 were fabricated utilizing β- or γ-cyclodextrin as ionophore in the presence of tridodecylmethylammonium chloride as a membrane additive, and PVC and dioctyl phthalate as plasticizer. The analytical parameters of both sensors were evaluated according to the IUPAC guidelines. The proposed sensors showed rapid, stable anionic response (-59.1 and -62.0 mV per decade) over a relatively wide phenobarbitone concentration range (5.0 × 10-6-1 × 10-2 and 8 × 10-6-1 × 10-2 mol L-1) in the pH range of 9-11. The limit of detection was 3.5 × 10-6 and 7.0 × 10-6 mol L-1 for sensors 1 and 2, respectively. The fabricated sensors showed high selectivity for phenobarbitone over the investigated foreign species. An average recovery of 2.54 μg mL-1 phenobarbitone sodium was 97.4 and 101.1 %, while the mean relative standard deviation was 3.0 and 2.1 %, for sensors 1 and 2, respectively. The results acquired for determination of phenobarbitone in its dosage forms utilizing the proposed sensors are in good agreement with those obtained by the British Pharmacopoeial method

EFFECT OF POLLUTION WITH PETROLEUM ON SOME SOIL CHARACTERISTICS AND PLANT GROWTH

Petroleum products are complex mixtures of hundreds of hydrocarbon compounds. Petroleum has been recognized as a potential environmental contaminant. This research was undertaken to evaluate the effect of petroleum hydrocarbon on soil characteristics and seeds germination in arid lands. Results indicated that bulk density and real density of the polluted samples are relatively higher and lower respectively then the corresponding values of the unpolluted soils. Percent ages of the clay fraction obtained with and without removing the cementing agents showed high and low values for % clay fraction respectively. Low calcium carbonate content was found in the polluted samples as a result of solubilization effects of the petroleum products on calcium carbonate particles. ECe values were very high in the polluted samples (ECe = 28.6 - 82.5 dS/m) and very low in the unpolluted samples (ECe = 2.75 - 2.79 dS/m). Soluble calcium and sulphat ions were the dominant ions in the saturation extract of unpolluted soil samples. Organic matter contents were high (4.94%) in the polluted soil and Low in the unpolluted soil (0.54%). Soil polluted with hydrocarbon was very high (7.13-7.5%) in the unpolluted soil and very low (0.63-0.71%) in the polluted soil. Total elemental contents shows that the most important metals with regard to potential hazards in the contaminated soils, are Cr, Pb, and Ni. Other heavy metals indicated low to medium concentration either in petroleum polluted or the non polluted soils. The concentration of toxic elements in the tested soils could be derived from petroleum pollution and/or from it's chemical weathering particularly under the relatively low pH of the polluted soils. Results indicated no barley seed emergence after 14 days in the polluted soil even after several leaching to alleviate the high level of salt concentrations in the polluted soil. The data reflect the serious effects of petroleum products on the deterioration of soil characteristics which reflected on the emergence of barley seeds