Assessment of Antiviral and Photodynamic Inactivation Activity of Different Compounds Against Hepatitis A Virus

Food contamination from hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a great concern to food producers worldwide. Finding an innovative approach to inactivate HAV on food contact surfaces and on different produce remains a challenge. Using chemical disinfectants (e.g. chlorine) is an effective way to inactivate HAV on fomites, but it maybe unfavorable for food products. While heat inactivation of HAV remains the most efficient way to inactivate HAV when present in foods, most foodborne outbreaks of HAV are related to ready-to-eat (RTE) foods including produce which do not undergo further heating. Therefore, finding compounds with effective anti-HAV activities will be of great benefit to the food sector. In our study, oleanolic acid (OA) and ursolic acid (UA) have been investigated for their anti-HAV properties. OA at 600 μg/ml and UA at 360 μg/ml showed 2.27±0.67 and 1.33±0.35 log PFU/ml reduction after a 1 h treatment, respectively. Furthermore, to increase virus inactivation, photodynamic inactivation (PDI) was applied, which uses oxygen, light and a photosensitizer to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS). Grape seed extract (GSE) and oleanolic acid with known antiviral properties were tested as photosensitizers. Conditions using UV light at 254 nm with a distance of 72 cm and doses (energy density) of 0.012±0.000, 0.020±0.001, 0.040±0.001, 0.061±0.002, 0.081±0.002 and 0.121±0.003 J/cm2 for 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 min exposure times, respectively were applied for the PDI experiments. However, the acquired viral reductions by GSE and OA mediated PDI were attributed to UV light more than ROS production. Future work may include the use of different light sources for illumination, and the use of UA as a potential photosensitizer compound

System for Forecasting COVID-19 Cases Using Time-Series and Neural Networks Models

COVID-19 is one of the biggest challenges that countries face at the present time, as infections and deaths change daily and because this pandemic has a dynamic spread. Our paper considers two tasks. The first one is to develop a system for modeling COVID-19 based on time-series models due to their accuracy in forecasting COVID-19 cases. We developed an “Epidemic. TA” system using R programming for modeling and forecasting COVID-19 cases. This system contains linear (ARIMA and Holt’s model) and non-linear (BATS, TBATS, and SIR) time-series models and neural network auto-regressive models (NNAR), which allows us to obtain the most accurate forecasts of infections, deaths, and vaccination cases. The second task is the implementation of our system to forecast the risk of the third wave of infections in the Russian Federation

Case-Study-Based Overview of Methods and Technical Solutions of Analog and Digital Transmission in Measurement and Control Ship Systems

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of possible solutions to improve the performance of measurement and control processes in maritime engineering applications. This improvement can be basically provided by adopting techniques to enhance the reliability of measurement/control systems based on the 4–20 mA analogue standard. This aspect will be discussed through a Simscape Simulink model illustrating methods of noise and ground loops elimination for pressure measurement of a 4–20 mA current loop in the tank level measurement system on a bulk carrier commercial ship. Alternatively, improved measurement and control processes can be rendered by utilizing smart transmitters based on wired hybrid analogue–digital (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART)), wired digital (Foundation Fieldbus (FF)) or wireless (wireless HART) communication protocols. A brief theoretical description of these protocols will be presented in this article. As an example of using smart transmitters, a simulation-based case study will analyze the possible options to implement non-intrinsically safe as well as intrinsically safe FF models for the tank level measurement system on a bulk carrier commercial ship. Conclusions obtained through analysis of the simulation results will characterize the behavior of FF segments in safe as well as explosive hazardous areas, highlighting the characteristics of field barriers and segment protectors used in conjunction with the HPTC (High-Power Trunk Concept) intrinsically safe model

Prospect of Bioactive Curcumin Nanoemulsion as Effective Agency to Improve Milk Based Soft Cheese by Using Ultrasound Encapsulation Approach

The aim of this paper was to determine the effect of stabilized curcumin nanoemulsions (CUNE) as a food additive capable of directionally acting to inhibit molecules involved in dairy products’ quality and digestibility, especially cheese. The objects were cheeses made from the milk of higher grades with addition of a CUNE and a control sample. The cheeses were studied using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) in terms of organoleptic properties, such as appearance, taste, and aroma. The results show that the addition of CUNEs improved the organoleptic properties compared to the control cheese by 150% and improved its shelf life. The SEM study shows that formulation with CUNE promotes the uniform distribution of porosity. The CUNE-based cheese shows a better sensory evaluation compared to the emulsion without curcumin. CUNE-processed cheese provided better antioxidant and antimicrobial analysis than the control sample and offers added value to the dairy sector

Periodic and breather solutions for miscellaneous soliton in metamaterials model by computational schemes

In this paper, the novel exact solitary wave solutions for the generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation with parabolic nonlinear (NL) law employing the improved cosh(Gamma((omega) over bar)) - sech(Gamma((omega) over bar)) function scheme and the combined cos(Gamma((omega) over bar)) - sec(Gamma((omega) over bar)) function scheme are found. Diverse collections of hyperbolic and trigonometric function solutions acquired rely on a map between the considered equation and an auxiliary ODE. Received solutions are recast in several hyperbolic, rational and trigonometric forms based on different restrictions between parameters involved in equations and integration constants that appear in the solution. A few significant ones among the reported solutions are pictured to perceive the physical utility and peculiarity of the considered model utilizing mathematical software. The main subject of this work is that one can visualize and update the knowledge to overcome the most common techniques and defeat to solve the ODEs and PDEs. We demonstrated that these solutions validated the program using Maple and found them correct. The proposed methodology for solving the metamaterials model has been designed to be effectual, unpretentious, expedient and manageable. Applications of the solutions by the mentioned techniques will be useful to investigate the signals properties of optical fibers, plasma physics phenomena, electromagnetic fields occurrences and various types of nonlinear metamaterials models

Fractal Features of Soil Particles as an Indicator of Land Degradation under Different Types of Land Use at the Watershed Scale in Southern Iran

Soil particle-size distribution (PSD) is an important soil feature that is associated with soil erosion, soil fertility, and soil physical and chemical properties. However, very few studies have been carried out to investigate soil degradation using the fractal dimension (D) of the PSD of soils from different land-use types in the calcareous soil of Iran. For this study, 120 soil samples (0–20 cm) were collected from different land-use types in the Fars Province, and various basic soil properties such as soil organic matter (SOM), soil texture fractions, calcium carbonate (CaCO3), pH, and cation-exchange capacity (CEC) were measured. The PSD of the soil samples was determined using the international classification system for soil size fraction, and the D of the PSD was calculated for all soils. The results of this study show that D is significantly correlated with clay content (r = 0.93) followed by sand content (r = −0.54) and CEC (r = 0.51). The mean D values of the forest areas (D = 2.931), with a SOM content of 2.1%, are significantly higher than those of the agricultural land (D = 2.905 and SOM = 1.6%) and pastures (D = 2.910 and SOM = 1.6%), indicating that fine soil particles, particularly clay, have been preserved in forest soils but lost in agricultural and pasture soils. We conclude that agricultural land has experienced significantly higher levels of soil erosion than forest areas

Fractal Features of Soil Particles as an Indicator of Land Degradation under Different Types of Land Use at the Watershed Scale in Southern Iran

Soil particle-size distribution (PSD) is an important soil feature that is associated with soil erosion, soil fertility, and soil physical and chemical properties. However, very few studies have been carried out to investigate soil degradation using the fractal dimension (D) of the PSD of soils from different land-use types in the calcareous soil of Iran. For this study, 120 soil samples (0–20 cm) were collected from different land-use types in the Fars Province, and various basic soil properties such as soil organic matter (SOM), soil texture fractions, calcium carbonate (CaCO3), pH, and cation-exchange capacity (CEC) were measured. The PSD of the soil samples was determined using the international classification system for soil size fraction, and the D of the PSD was calculated for all soils. The results of this study show that D is significantly correlated with clay content (r = 0.93) followed by sand content (r = −0.54) and CEC (r = 0.51). The mean D values of the forest areas (D = 2.931), with a SOM content of 2.1%, are significantly higher than those of the agricultural land (D = 2.905 and SOM = 1.6%) and pastures (D = 2.910 and SOM = 1.6%), indicating that fine soil particles, particularly clay, have been preserved in forest soils but lost in agricultural and pasture soils. We conclude that agricultural land has experienced significantly higher levels of soil erosion than forest areas

Lump and Interaction Solutions to the (3+1)-Dimensional Variable-Coefficient Nonlinear Wave Equation with Multidimensional Binary Bell Polynomials

In this paper, we study the (3 + 1)-dimensional variable-coefficient nonlinear wave equation which is taken in soliton theory and generated by utilizing the Hirota bilinear technique. We obtain some new exact analytical solutions, containing interaction between a lump-two kink solitons, interaction between two lumps, and interaction between two lumps-soliton, lump-periodic, and lump-three kink solutions for the generalized (3 + 1)-dimensional nonlinear wave equation in liquid with gas bubbles by the Maple symbolic package. Making use of Hirota's bilinear scheme, we obtain its general soliton solutions in terms of bilinear form equation to the considered model which can be obtained by multidimensional binary Bell polynomials. Furthermore, we analyze typical dynamics of the high-order soliton solutions to show the regularity of solutions and also illustrate their behavior graphically

Hybrid Deep Learning Algorithm for Forecasting SARS-CoV-2 Daily Infections and Death Cases

The prediction of new cases of infection is crucial for authorities to get ready for early handling of the virus spread. Methodology Analysis and forecasting of epidemic patterns in new SARS-CoV-2 positive patients are presented in this research using a hybrid deep learning algorithm. The hybrid deep learning method is employed for improving the parameters of long short-term memory (LSTM). To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, a dataset was collected based on the recorded cases in the Russian Federation and Chelyabinsk region between 22 January 2020 and 23 August 2022. In addition, five regression models were included in the conducted experiments to show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach. The achieved results show that the proposed approach could reduce the mean square error (RMSE), relative root mean square error (RRMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), coefficient of determination (R Square), coefficient of correlation (R), and mean bias error (MBE) when compared with the five base models. The achieved results confirm the effectiveness, superiority, and significance of the proposed approach in predicting the infection cases of SARS-CoV-2

A Mathematical Study of the (3+1)-D Variable Coefficients Generalized Shallow Water Wave Equation with Its Application in the Interaction between the Lump and Soliton Solutions

In this paper, the Hirota bilinear method, which is an important scheme, is used. The equation of the shallow water wave in oceanography and atmospheric science is extended to (3+1) dimensions, which is a well-known equation. A lot of classes of rational solutions by selecting the interaction between a lump and one- or two-soliton solutions are obtained. The bilinear form is considered in terms of Hirota derivatives. Accordingly, the logarithm algorithm to obtain the exact solutions of a (3+1)-dimensional variable-coefficient (VC) generalized shallow water wave equation is utilized. The analytical treatment of extended homoclinic breather wave solutions is studied and plotted in three forms 3D, 2D, and density plots. Using suitable mathematical assumptions, the established solutions are included in view of a combination of two periodic and two solitons in terms of two trigonometric and two hyperbolic functions for the governing equation. Maple software for computing the complicated calculations of nonlinear algebra equations is used. The effect of the free parameters on the behavior of acquired figures to a few obtained solutions for two nonlinear rational exact cases was also discussed