Unique biodiversity of the Red Sea brine floor revealed by comparative taxonomic analysis of Atlantis II and Discovery Deep brine sediments

The sea floor is a unique and diverse ecosystem to investigate how geochemical processes affect the diversity of biological life. Red Sea brine pools are water bodies characterized by a unique multitude of extreme conditions, including high temperature, high salinity, and unusual high concentration of heavy metals. We performed a comparative metagenomic analysis of the microbial communities in the sea floor of the Atlantis II (2168 m; 68oC), Discovery Deep (2166 m; 48oC) brine pools and two non-brinesites (1,856 m; 21.93°C and 1,937 m; 31.87°C) in the Red Sea. Each brine core wasvertically dissected into seven distinct subsections. CHN&S profiles showed significant fluctuations in sulfur and nitrogen levels in two of the brine pool subsections. A comprehensive 16S rDNA analysis of about one million 16S rDNA reads, allowed the identification of an exclusive assemblage of microbial communities in the sulfur rich Atlantis II and the nitrogen rich Discovery Deep brine pool subsections when compared to adjacent brine and non-brine sediments. Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria,and Deferribacteres were the most abundant bacterial phyla. Interestingly, the S-rich Atlantis II subsection showed distinctive abundance of the recently identified Chloroflexiorder Anaerolineales, Fusobacteria and OP1. Crenarchaeota dominated all the sediment samples with the exception to the S-rich Atlantis II and the N-rich Discovery Deep sample that was dominated by Euryarchaeota. Our study illustrates a distinct stratification of the microbial communities in both the nitrogen rich and the sulfur rich brine subsections. However, the lack of apparent stratification in the remaining layers of the brine and non-brine sediments despite variations in metals and CHN&S profiles implies that sulfur and nitrogen are the major players that dictate the microbial assemblage in the Red Sea

Effects of Different Atorvastatin Doses on Immunohistochemical Markers in the Hippocampus of Male Adult Rats

Statins, beyond their lipid lowering role, exert beneficial effect by acting as a neuroprotective agent in some clinical cases such as brain injury, stroke, ischemia, seizures and Alzheimer’s disease. The aim of this study is toinvestigate the effects of different oral doses of atorvastatin on normal male rats, via studying immunohistochemical markers in the hippocampus. Twenty-four adult male Wistar rats were used in the experiment. They were obtained from the animal house (at Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, College of Pharmacy/ Al-Mustansiriya University). Animals are divided into 4 groups randomly each group contains 6 animals as follow: Group 1: Animals are administered saline orally for 30 days and serve as (control group), Group 2: Animals are administered 5 mg/kg/day Atorvastatin in the form of oral suspension for 30 days, Group 3: Animals are administered 10mg/kg/day Atorvastatin for 30 days, Group 4: Animals are administered 20 mg/kg/day Atorvastatin for 30 days. All animals in this study were dissected under anesthesia; heads were decapitated for extraction of the brain. Immunohistochemical method was used to evaluate the expression of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein, Glutathione Reductase and neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase markers in the rat’s hippocampus. There was a significant reduction of GFAP expression in the group of rats treated with 20 mg/kg atorvastatin when compared with the control and 5 mg/kg atorvastatin. While, a significant increase in GR expression was noticed in the group treated with 20 mg/kg atorvastatin compared with other groups. Also, the results showed a significant reduction in nNOS expression in the hippocampus of rats treated with 20 mg/kg atorvastatin when compared with other groups. The present study demonstrates that atorvastatin exerts its neuroprotective effects in a 20 mg/kg dose, more than in 5 mg/kg or 10 mg/kg doses. The decreasing in astrocytes activity, promoting of anti-oxidant enzymes and reducing in nitrative stress were documented when a short term high atorvastatin dose used. Keywords: hippocampus, atorvastatin, neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase (nNOS), Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP), Glutathione Reductase (GR)

The microbiome of The Egyptian Red Sea proper and Gulf of Aqaba

The Red Sea is one of the most unique environments worldwide. It possesses a unique geography, physical, chemical and biological characteristics. It encounters several ecosystems articulating with each other, these include, corals, mangroves, algae, fisheries, invertebrates and microbiota of each one of these along with microbiota of the Red Sea waters and sediments. Studying the collective microbial communities of the Egyptian Red Sea coastal sediments have not been reported before. In regards to the severe pollution impacting the different Red Sea ecosystems, sediments samples have been collected from different impacted sites. The selected sites included 1- four ports for shipping aluminum, ilmenite and phosphate, 2-a site previously reported to have suffered extensive oil spills, 3-a reported tourism impacted site 4- two mangrove sites and 5-two lakes. Bacterial communities for each site have been studied through two different approaches, Culture-Dependent and Culture-Independent approaches. Pyrosequencing of V6-V4 hypervariable regions of 16S rDNA, isolated through the two approaches, has been used to assess the microbial community of each site. Physical parameters, Chemical analysis for 29 elements, selected semi-volatile oil contents, along with Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Sulfur (CHNS) contents have been measured for each site. 131,402 and 136,314 significant reads have been generated through the Culture-Dependent and Independent approaches, respectively. Generally, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobateria, Fusobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes and Bacteriodetes are the major bacterial groups detected through the two approaches. The Culture-Dependent datasets distinctive analysis revealed three main patterns (1) marine Vibrio spp.-suggesting a marine Vibrio phenomenon ; (2) potential human pathogens; and (3) oil-degrading bacteria. While the Culture-Independent datasets analysis reported (1) an Egyptian Red Sea Coastal Microbiome, taxa detected in all the sites and (2) Hydrocarbon biodegrading bacteria predominance to the majority of the sites; particularly in two ports. On the other hand, the two lakes, through the two approaches, showed unique bacterial patterns, which generally grouped into anaerobic, halophilic and sulfur metabolizing bacteria. Individually, sites showed unique evolution of their microbial communities based on minor intrinsic and imposed variation per sites. Our results draw attention to the effects of different sources of pollution on the Red Sea and suggest the need for further analysis to overcome the hazardous effects observed at the impacted sites

The impact of (DEM) Accuracy on the Watersheds areas as a function of spatial data

Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is main input for watershed modelling. Recently, (DEM) is available online for free in different accuracies, and spatial resolutions as a product of several remote sensing satellites. Hence, it is necessary to find out which one is the best for watershed modeling in the study area. In this study, the different accuracies 30m spatial resolution DEMs of (Copernicus, SRTM, and ASTER) can be examined by using Remote sensing (RS) and Geographic Information systems (GIS) techniques to delineate and calculate the topographic characteristics for five different size and topography watersheds (Swaidy, Garlond, Khuwayr Hirah, Naqab, and Kalak) located on both sides of the Mosul reservoir in the northeastern part of Iraq. The analysis results can be led to find that the Copernicus (GLO-30) 30 m resolution DEM is the optimum and most accurate DEM in the selected study area at the vertical accuracy (1.3521 m) and with 95% confidence level is (2.6502 m) represented by the minimum Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the elevations differences between check points (MOWR elevations and LIDAR DEM 1 m resolution) and the used DEMs. The watershed delineation and calculated topographic characteristics (watersheds boundary, elevations, area, perimeter and slope areas) are affected by DEM accuracy. Where the considerable accuracy of the differences is with the (Copernicus-SRTM) DEMS at the minimum RMSE of watersheds characteristics

Pulmonary hydatid cyst in pregnancy

A 26-year-old pregnant lady was referred from a private hospital to the emergency department with a cough, shortness of breath, decreased oxygen saturation, and repeated vomiting. She went to the private hospital for obstetrics and gynecology follow-up for her pregnancy. The patient is 21 weeks pregnant with no known comorbidities. She is gravida three and para two. The patient claimed that since 3 days, the shortness of breath (SOB) and cough have been worsening, and she has been inducing herself to vomit more frequently, however, there is no associated dysphagia. She denied fever, headache, dizziness, abdominal pain, or a change in bowel habits

Theoretical and Experimental Study of Corrosion Behavior of Carbon Steel Surface in 3.5% NaCl and 0.5 M HCl with Different Concentrations of Quinolin-2-One Derivative

تم اجراء دراسة نظرية وتجريبية على حماية تآكل سطح حديد الصلب الكربوني عند تراكيز مختلفة من مشتق (الكوينولين-2-اون) الذي يحمل الاسم:7-Ethyl-4-methyl-1-[(4-nitro-benzylidene)-amino]-1H-quinolin-2-one  (EMNQ2O). من الناحية النظرية، تم استخدام نظرية دالة الكثافة  (DFT)عند المستوى(B3LYP) 6-311++G (2d,2p)  ـلحساب التركيب الهندسي والخصائص الفيزيائية ومعايير كفاءة التثبيط الكيميائية، مع مواقع الامتزاز الفعالة من أجل التنبؤ بمعرفة المواقع المحتملة للهجمات النكليوفيلية والالكتروفيلية  في الفراغ و في اثنين من المذيبات  DMSO)و(H2O ، كل ذلك عند الاشكال الهندسية التوازنية. من الناحية التجريبية، تمت دراسة كفاءاة التثبيط (%IE) في محلولي3.5%)  من (NaCl  و(HCl  0.5M)  باستخدام قياسات الاستقطاب المجهادي. أظهرت النتائج أن كفاءة التثبيط (%IE) في المحلول الملحي ((94.98% أكبر مما هي في المحلول الحامضي (81.40%). المعلمات الديناميكية الحرارية التي تم الحصول عليها تدعم آلية الامتزاز الفيزيائي وأن امتزازه على سطح حديد الصلب الكربوني يطيع ايزوثيرم امتزاز لنكماير isotherm Langmuir. وتمت دراسة التغيرات السطحية لحديد الصلب الكربوني باستخدام تقنيتي الفحص المجهري للإلكترون (SEM) والفحص المجهري للقوة الذرية(AFM) .A theoretical and protection study was conducted of the corrosion behavior of carbon steel surface with different concentrations of the derivative (Quinolin-2-one), namely 7-Ethyl-4-methyl-1-[(4-nitro-benzylidene)-amino]-1H-quinolin-2-one (EMNQ2O). Theoretically, Density Functional Theory (DFT) of B3LYP/ 6-311++G/ 2d, 2p level was carried out to calculate the geometrical structure, physical properties and chemical inhibition chemical parameters, with the local reactivity in order to predict both the reactive centers and to know the possible sites of nucleophilic and electrophilic attacks, in vacuum and two solvents (DMSO and H2O), all at the equilibrium geometry. Experimentally, the inhibition efficiencies (%IE) in (3.5% NaCl) and (0.5M HCl) solutions were studied using potentiometric polarization measurements. The results revealed that the (%IE) in the salty solution (94.98%) is greater than that in the acidic solution (81.40%). The thermodynamic parameters obtained, supported the physical adsorption mechanism and the adsorption followed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The surface changes of the carbon steel were studied using SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) techniques

Prodrugs of Acyclovir - A Computational Approach

Density functional theory calculation results demonstrated that the efficiency of the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of Kirby’s acid amides 1–15 is strongly dependent on the substitution on the C–C double bond and the nature of the amide N-alkyl group. Further, the results established that while in the gas phase the hydrolysis rate-limiting step is the tetrahedral intermediate formation in polar solvents such as water, the rate-limiting step could be either the formation or the collapse of the tetrahedral intermediate depending on the substitution on the C–C double bond and on the amide nitrogen substituent. Based on a linear correlation between the calculated and experimental effective molarities, the study on the systems reported herein could provide a good basis for designing prodrug systems that are less hydrophilic than their parental drugs and can be used, in different dosage forms, to release the parent drug in a controlled manner. For example, based on the calculated log effective molarities values, the predicted t1/2 (a time needed for 50% of the reactant to be hydrolyzed to products) for acyclovir prodrugs, ProD 1–4, was 29.2 h, 6097 days, 4.6 min, and 8.34 h, respectively. Hence, the rate by which acyclovir prodrug releases acyclovir can be determined according to the structural features of the linker (Kirby’s acid amide moiety).The Karaman Co. is thanked for support of our computational facilities. Special thanks are also given to Angi Karaman, Donia Karaman, Rowan Karaman, and Nardene Karaman for technical assistance

Holistic Study of Thermal Management in Direct Liquid Cooled Data Centres: from the Chip to the Environment

The IT (Information Technology) infrastructure power consumption constitutes a large portion of global electricity consumption and a large proportion of this energy is to maintain an acceptable thermal environment for the IT equipment. Therefore, it is important to understand and improve the thermal and energy management of data centres for lower cost and higher sustainability. Toward this goal, Direct Contact Liquid Cooled (DCLC) servers, where liquid loop heat exchangers are attached to the CPU, were proposed to study the use of chiller-less energy efficient data centre. Thirty Sun Fire V20z servers in a data centre rack have their CPUs water cooled with the remaining components air cooled, together with a rear door heat exchanger to capture this air heat flow. The heat generated by the servers is ultimately transferred to the environment using an Air Handling Unit (AHU). The AHU was fitted with a water spray system to increase the heat transfer capacity. The designed DCLC system was tested and characterised in terms of power consumption and thermal performance. The design successfully provided stable inlet coolant temperature (±1℃) to the IT despite the variation in the IT workload and environmental conditions. Activating the spray reduced the thermal resistance of the AHU heat exchanger (HE) by 50%. However, the power consumption and pressure drop across the HE was increased. The flow distribution and the coolant pumping configurations of centralised (where the coolant is pumped by two central pumps connected in series) and distributed (where small pumps inside the servers are activated) was investigated. The EPANET software was used to analyse the flow and showed that the servers in the top of the rack receive a higher flow rate (by approximately 30%) than the servers in the bottom of the rack. This resulted in a variation in the CPU temperatures of different servers. Optimisation analysis proposed increasing the manifolds size to improve the flow rate and reduce the flow maldistribution. In the distributed pumping case, the CPUs temperature showed to be 2℃ higher compared with the central pumping case for the high IT workload. The rack inlet temperature was tested in the range of the ASHRAE W4 envelope in terms of CPU temperatures, power consumption and computational efficiency. Increasing the coolant inlet temperature resulted in high energy saving in the AHU, while the rack energy consumption increases marginally in idle operation and considerably more in high IT workloads. This results in an improvement in the energy effectiveness of 17% but a deterioration in the computational efficiency of 4%. Finally, a parallel study was carried out to investigate the droplet evaporation over heated surfaces which ultimately be used in studying sprays in the AHU or in direct on chip cooling via evaporation. A novel experimental design was proposed to track the lifetime of any droplet size that span the surface tension to gravitydominated regimes. A theoretical model was also proposed to predict the droplet lifetime based on the initial contact angle, contact radius and the receding contact angle. The model predicted the droplet evaporation over hydrophobic surfaces with good accuracy of an error less than 4% while under estimated the evaporation with hydrophilic surfaces

INFLUENCE OF AEROBIC AND ANAEROBIC EXERCISE ON OXYGEN SATURATION

The aim of this study was to examine to acute effects of aerobic and anaerobic exercises on oxygen saturation. Twenty three sedentary male subjects were voluntarily participated in the study. Oxygen saturation was measured with four different trials such as before warming up, after warming up, after anaerobic exercise, and after aerobic exercise, acutely. Repeated measures one way ANOVA and LSD correction tests were used for statistical analysis. According to obtained data, oxygen saturation parameter showed statistically changes between trials (p<0.05). Especially, after anaerobic trial, oxygen saturation showed significant changes. In conclusion, it could be considered that warm-up, and aerobic exercise does not affect oxygen saturation, however anaerobic exercise has significant effect on it.  Article visualizations