Neisseria meningitidis nasopharyngeal carriage during the Hajj: A cohort study evaluating the need for ciprofloxacin prophylaxis

Background The annual Muslim pilgrimage has the potential of increase risk for acquisition of Neisseria meningitidis. Here, we evaluate the Hajj impact on the prevalence of N. meningitidis carriage in a paired and non-paired cohort of pilgrims. Secondary objectives were to calculate the compliance with recommended vaccination. Methods This is a prospective paired (arriving and departing), non-paired arriving and non-paired departing cohort study with the collection of nasopharyngeal samples at the start and the end of the Hajj. Results The study included unpaired arriving pilgrims at King Abdul Aziz International Airport (N = 1055), unpaired departing cohort (N = 373), and a paired cohort (N = 628) who were tested on arrival and departure. Meningococcal vaccination was received by all pilgrims, 98.2% received quadrivalent polysaccharide vaccine (ACWY), and 1.8% received meningococcal quadrivalent conjugate vaccine (MCV4). Only 1.61% and 23.03% received pneumococcal and influenza vaccines, respectively. Of the 1055 arriving unpaired pilgrim, 36 (3.4%) tested positive for nasopharyngeal carriage of N. meningitidis, and 24 (66.7%) of these were serogroup B, the remainder were non-groupable. Haemophilus influenza was detected among 45 (4.3%), and 11 (1%) carriers were positive for both N. meningitidis and H. influenzae. Out of 373 in the unpaired departing cohort, 6 (1.61%) tested positive for N. meningitidis, and 34 (9.1%) were positive for H. influenzae. Of the 628 paired cohort pilgrims, 36 (5.7%) pilgrims were positive for N. meningitidis at arrival and 16 (2.5%) pilgrims were positive after the hajj. Conclusion This the largest study of the epidemiology of N. meningitidis among pilgrims. The study showed a significant difference in the carriage between pilgrims from high endemicity and other pilgrims with a predominance of serogroup B. The continued use of ciprofloxacin as prophylactic antibiotics should be reconsidered as well as the consideration to add serogroup B as a required vaccination

Deletion of low molecular weight protein tyrosine phosphatase (Acp1) protects against stress-induced cardiomyopathy.

The low molecular weight protein tyrosine phosphatase (LMPTP), encoded by the ACP1 gene, is a ubiquitously expressed phosphatase whose in vivo function in the heart and in cardiac diseases remains unknown. To investigate the in vivo role of LMPTP in cardiac function, we generated mice with genetic inactivation of the Acp1 locus and studied their response to long-term pressure overload. Acp1(-/-) mice develop normally and ageing mice do not show pathology in major tissues under basal conditions. However, Acp1(-/-) mice are strikingly resistant to pressure overload hypertrophy and heart failure. Lmptp expression is high in the embryonic mouse heart, decreased in the postnatal stage, and increased in the adult mouse failing heart. We also show that LMPTP expression increases in end-stage heart failure in humans. Consistent with their protected phenotype, Acp1(-/-) mice subjected to pressure overload hypertrophy have attenuated fibrosis and decreased expression of fibrotic genes. Transcriptional profiling and analysis of molecular signalling show that the resistance of Acp1(-/-) mice to pathological cardiac stress correlates with marginal re-expression of fetal cardiac genes, increased insulin receptor beta phosphorylation, as well as PKA and ephrin receptor expression, and inactivation of the CaMKIIδ pathway. Our data show that ablation of Lmptp inhibits pathological cardiac remodelling and suggest that inhibition of LMPTP may be of therapeutic relevance for the treatment of human heart failure

Hydrogen Production Using TiO2-Based Photocatalysts: A Comprehensive Review

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is one of the most widely used photocatalysts due to its physical and chemical properties. In this study, hydrogen energy production using TiO2- and titanate-based photocatalysts is discussed along with the pros and cons. The mechanism of the photocatalysis has been elaborated to pinpoint the photocatalyst for better performance. The chief characteristics and limitations of the TiO2 photocatalysts have been assessed. Further, TiO2-based photocatalysts modified with a transition metal, transition metal oxide, noble metal, graphitic carbon nitride, graphene, etc. have been reviewed. This study will provide a basic understanding to beginners and detailed knowledge to experts in the field to optimize the TiO2-based photocatalysts for hydrogen production

Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia

Recently, dust has created many problems, including negative effects on health, and environmental and economic costs, for people who live both near to and far from sources of dust. The aim of this study is to evaluate and quantify the impact of dust sources located inside Saudi Arabia on the physical growth and vegetation status of cities. In order to do so, satellite data sets, simulated surface data, and soil data for Saudi Arabia from 2000 to 2021 were used. In the first step, a dust sources map of the study area was generated using multi-criteria decision analysis. Land surface temperature (LST), vegetation cover, soil moisture, precipitation, air humidity, wind speed, and soil erodibility factors were considered as effective criteria in identifying dust sources. In the second step, built-up land and vegetation status maps of major cities located at different distances from dust sources were generated for different years based on spectral indicators. Then, the spatiaotemporal change of built-up land and vegetation status of the study area and major cities were extracted. Finally, impacts of major dust sources on urban physical growth and vegetation were quantified. The importance degrees of soil erodibility, wind speed, soil moisture, vegetation cover, LST, air humidity, and precipitation to identify dust sources were 0.22, 0.20, 0.16, 0.15, 0.14, 0.07, and 0.05, respectively. Thirteen major dust sources (with at least 8 years of repetition) were identified in the study area based on the overlap of the effective criteria. The identified major dust sources had about 300 days with Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) values greater than 0.85, which indicates that these dust sources are active. The location of the nine major dust sources identified in this study corresponds to the location of the dust sources identified in previous studies. The physical growth rates of cities located 400 km from a major dust source (DMDS) are 46.2% and 95.4%, respectively. The reduction rates of average annual normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in these sub-regions are 0.006 and 0.002, respectively. The reduction rate of the intensity of vegetation cover in the sub-region close to dust sources is three times higher than that of the sub-region farther from dust sources. The coefficients of determination (R2) between the DMDS and urban growth rate and the NDVI change rate are 0.52 and 0.73, respectively, which indicates that dust sources have a significant impact on the physical growth of cities and their vegetation status.Institutional Fund ProjectsPeer Reviewe

Visible light‐active pure and lanthanum‐doped copper oxide nanostructures for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye and hydrogen production

Clean water and renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly important in the current era, as well as a future challenge, and one of the potential solutions is photocatalysis. In the current study, a simple one-step hydrothermal technique is employed to fabricate the pure and La-doped CuO (0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, and 7%) photocatalysts. The influence of varying La concentration on structure, morphology, and optical properties is determined by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet (UV)–visible spectroscopy, and photoluminescence. SEM showed that synthesized nanostructures are irregularly spherical and transform into needle-like nanostructures on increasing La concentration. XRD revealed the monoclinic phase with a crystallite size of 15–23 nm. The UV–visible spectrum exhibited a decrease in the band gap of La-doped CuO needle-like nanostructures from UV to visible light. The composition and purity of synthesized nanostructures are evaluated via the energy-dispersive X-ray spectrum which revealed that needle-like nanostructures are pure without any impurity traces. The synthesized nanostructures were used as a photocatalyst against methylene blue dye to examine their photocatalytic activity. The synthesized CuO-3La photocatalyst exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance of dye degradation and hydrogen production 95.3 μmol h−1 g−1 with more than 97% cyclic stability. Therefore, the synthesized La-doped CuO nanostructures are potential candidates for photocatalytic water splitting and hydrogen evolution

Theoretical design and prediction of novel fluorene based non-fullerene acceptors for environmentally friendly organic solar cells

Organic solar cells (OSCs) with electron-withdrawing cyano-group (−C≡N) have created massive interest by exhibiting higher efficiencies. Nevertheless, introducing the −C≡N group through malononitrile during their synthesis is highly toxic and harmful to the environment. Therefore, the development of environmentally friendly OSCs (EFOSCs) is of utmost importance. Taking inspiration from the recent reports, this manuscript looks to suggest more efficient novel fluorene-based EFOSCs based on DTC-T-F type molecule containing fluorene as central core and thiophene as the linker. The −C≡N of 2-(6-oxo-5,6-dihydro-4H-cyclopenta[c]thiophen-4-ylidene) malononitrile (TC) present as an end-capped acceptor in DTC-T-F is replaced with non-toxic electron-pulling units -CF3, -SO3H, -NO2 and a novel series developed through quantum chemical calculation of fluorene-based photovoltaic materials (C1- C9). Frontier molecular orbital, density of state, heat maps of TDM, and finally, the charge shift process is observed by blending the C3 acceptor with donor polymer PTB7-Th (HOMOPTB7-Th-LUMOC3). The designed molecules gave comparable and better results from reference C. The minimum energy gap is observed in C3, C6 and C9 molecules with 2.29 eV, 2.28 eV and 2.27 eV energy gap values respectively. The proposed C9 compound exhibits a prominent redshift in solvent (681.82 nm) and gas phase (618.88 nm). Open circuit voltage (Voc) is the key parameter while assessing the OSC efficiency. The highest Voc is possessed by C5 (2.05 V). Exciton binding energy (Eb) is computed, and C7 has the lowest value of Eb=0.38 eV. Finally, the reorganization energy values shown by proposed molecules indicate that fluorene-based series are effective candidates for manufacturing EFOSCs. All of the data showed that the designed molecules not only have superior optoelectronic properties to those of the synthetic compound, but also possess environmentally benign properties. This theoretical understanding will provide a C-N-free strategy for developing next-generation EFOSCs and novel fluorene-based environmentally friendly materials for OSCs applications

Metabolomics: a promising tool for deciphering metabolic impairment in heavy metal toxicities

Heavy metals are the metal compounds found in earth’s crust and have densities higher than that of water. Common heavy metals include the lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, copper, manganese, chromium, nickel, and aluminum. Their environmental levels are consistently rising above the permissible limits and they are highly toxic as enter living systems via inhalation, ingestion, or inoculation. Prolonged exposures cause the disruption of metabolism, altered gene and/or protein expression, and dysregulated metabolite profiles. Metabolomics is a state of the art analytical tool widely used for pathomolecular inv22estigations, biomarkers, drug discovery and validation of biotransformation pathways in the fields of biomedicine, nutrition, agriculture, and industry. Here, we overview studies using metabolomics as a dynamic tool to decipher the mechanisms of metabolic impairment related to heavy metal toxicities caused by the environmental or experimental exposures in different living systems. These investigations highlight the key role of metabolomics in identifying perturbations in pathways of lipid and amino acid metabolism, with a critical role of oxidative stress in metabolic impairment. We present the conclusions with future perspectives on metabolomics applications in meeting emerging needs

Randić energies in decision making for human trafficking by interval-valued T-spherical fuzzy Hamacher graphs

The interval-valued ($IV$) T-spherical fuzzy set $(IVTSFS)$ appears to be more effective and practical in dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity while dealing with various decision-making ($DM$) problems than other fuzzy sets, for example, the q-rung ortho-pair fuzzy set, T-spherical fuzzy set, and picture fuzzy set. In real-life problems, where intuitionistic fuzzy sets, interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets, or interval-valued picture fuzzy sets give unsatisfactory results, the $IVTSFS$ is a mathematical model that is used to deal with such problems where these method fails, and one can handle it efficiently by using $IVTSFS.$ If there is a different framework that has a base of four opinions — yes, no, abstains, and refusal — the $IVTSFS$ looks to be the most beneficial, and it is also proven to be so. In this article, an idea of interval-valued T-spherical fuzzy Hamacher graphs $(IVTSFHGs)$ is proposed, which is based on the Hamacher t-norm ($TN$) and Hamacher t-conorm ($TCN$). It provides enhanced discrimination and flexibility in uncertain environments by capturing a broader spectrum of hesitancy and indeterminacy, which other fuzzy models like interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set ($IVIFS$) or picture fuzzy set ($PFS$) may overlook. This article aims to examine the energy associated with the splitting of $IVTSFHGs,$ as well as the energy related to shadow $IVTSFHGs.$ Moreover, the Randić energy of $IVTSFHGs$ was presented, and an in-depth analysis of its essential outcomes was conducted. Additionally, this study introduces interval-valued T-spherical fuzzy Hamacher digraphs $(IVTSFHDGs)$ and explores their diverse outcomes. An algorithm involving $IVTSFHDGs$ was also studied, which is used to propose energies of $IVTSFHGs$ in $DM$, problems, and Hamacher aggregation operators. To validate the proposed results, a comparative study is conducted

Persistent COVID-19 symptoms at least one month after diagnosis: a national survey

Background Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS) is an important healthcare burden. We examined persistent symptoms in COVID-19 patients at least four weeks after the onset of infection, participants’ return to pre-COVID-19 health status and associated risk factors. Methods Cross-sectional study was conducted (December 2020 to January 2021). A validated online questionnaire was sent to randomly selected individuals aged more than 14 years from a total of 1397,386 people confirmed to have COVID-19 at least 4 weeks prior to the start of this survey. This sample was drawn from the Saudi ministry of health COVID-19 testing registry system. Results Out of the 9507 COVID-19 patients who responded to the survey, 5946 (62.5%) of them adequately completed it. 2895 patients (48.7%) were aged 35–44 years, 64.4% were males, and 91.5% were Middle Eastern or North African. 79.4% experienced unresolved symptoms for at least 4 weeks after the disease onset. 9.3% were hospitalized with 42.7% visiting healthcare facility after discharge and 14.3% requiring readmission. The rates of main reported persistent symptoms in descending order were fatigue 53.5%, muscle and body ache 38.2%, loss of smell 35.0%, joint pain 30.5%, and loss of taste 29.1%. There was moderate correlation between the number of symptoms at the onset and post-four weeks of COVID-19 infection. Female sex, pre-existing comorbidities, increased number of baseline symptoms, longer hospital-stay, and hospital readmission were predictors of delayed return to baseline health state (p < 0.05). Conclusion The symptoms of PACS are prevalent after contracting COVID-19 disease. Several risk factors could predict delayed return to baseline health state