Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus: current situation and travel-associated concerns

This article is made available for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.The emergence of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012 brought back memories of the occurrence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2002. More than 1500 MERS-CoV cases were recorded in 42 months with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 40%. Meanwhile, 8000 cases of SARS-CoV were confirmed in six months with a CFR of 10%. The clinical presentation of MERS-CoV ranges from mild and non-specific presentation to progressive and severe pneumonia. No predictive signs or symptoms exist to differentiate MERS-CoV from community-acquired pneumonia in hospitalized patients. An apparent heterogeneity was observed in transmission. Most MERS-CoV cases were secondary to large outbreaks in healthcare settings. These cases were secondary to community-acquired cases, which may also cause family outbreaks. Travel-associated MERS infection remains low. However, the virus exhibited a clear tendency to cause large outbreaks outside the Arabian Peninsula as exemplified by the outbreak in the Republic of Korea. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge about MERS-CoV and highlight travel-related issues

Simulation the Behavior of Passive Rigid Pile in Sandy Soil

This research studied the behavior of a rigid pile driven into sandy soil and subjected to soil movement. The behavior of the pile was simulated in two cases: loaded and unloaded. The modeled piles were made of aluminum and had a diameter (D) of 10 mm. Embankment loads were applied at three different distances from the face of the pile (2.5, 5, and 10) D. Strain gauges were fixed at four points along the pile shaft using a half-bridge configuration to measure the strains resulted from the lateral movement of the soil. The results obtained from the physical model were the lateral and vertical movements at the surface of the soil and the bending strain along the pile shaft. These results were analyzed numerically to calculate the bending moment, pile rotation, pile deflection, shear force, and soil reaction profiles. Some of these results were measured experimentally and others were calculated theoretically based on the measured strains. The maximum deflection of the axially loaded pile was more than that in the unloaded pile by 26%, 108%, and 159%, with the embankment at distances (2.5, 5, and 10) D, respectively. The rigid pile provided more resistance to the pressure generated from the soil movement.

The Stress Distribution on the Zygapophyseal Joint of Lumbar Vertebra by ANSYS Program

Zygapophyseal joints (or facet joints), are a plane synovial joint which located between the articular facet processes of the vertebral arch which is freely guided movable joints. Ten dried vertebrae were used for the lumbar region and taking (L4) as a sample to reveal stress pathways across the joints by using ANSYS program under different loading conditions which used Finite Elements Analysis model. Results obtained from the ANSYS program are important in understanding the boundary conditions for load analysis and the points of stress concentration which explained from the anatomical point of view and linked to muscle and ligament attachments. This model used as a computational tool to joint biomechanics and to prosthetic implant analysis

Response of grooved composite laminates to out-of-plane contact loading via numerical models

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-305).The response of grooved composite laminates to out-of-plane contact loading is examined using numerical modeling through the consideration of contact pressure and stresses within the laminate, with particular focus on the area local to the groove. Finite element analysis is employed via ABAQUS, a commercial finite element modeling software. The indentor is modeled as a rigid body, and the validity of this approximation is assessed through comparison with a deformable, linear elastic indentor. The influence of ply angle is investigated through consideration of a family of [+/-[theta]/0]13s laminates for values of [theta] of 15°, 30°, 45°, and 60°, along with a quasiisotropic [+/-45/0/90]10s and a crossply [0/90]20s configuration, all using T700/2510 graphite/epoxy. The linearity of the response is investigated, and two loading configurations are studied and compared: a two-dimensional, cylinder-loaded configuration, and a three-dimensional, sphere-loaded configuration. Results show that the Hertzian contact model for isotropic bodies cannot be used to determine contact pressure due to an inability of that model to analytically determine the appropriate contact length. The basic form of the contact pressure curve is similar to the Hertzian model, but with significant local variations superposed due to stiffness variation, particularly in the longitudinal direction, due to ply orientation angle. Thus, if the contact length is supplied, the Hertzian model can be a valid overall approximation. Total vertical load magnitude is determined to be a primary factor in the response, as it determines contact length, and thus the distribution of contact pressure and the form of the stress field. The response is found to vary with significant nonlinearity with respect to applied load due to the relationship with contact length. The rigid body approximation of the steel indentor is deemed sufficiently accurate to capture the overall behavior, due to the high difference in stiffness between the steel indentor and the through-thickness stiffness of the composite. There is significant variation between the two-dimensional models and the three-dimensional models, particularly in determining the magnitude of the response. However, the two-dimensional model is sufficient to observe trends, and could be of use in preliminary design and analysis, although the full three-dimensional model is required to accurately determine the response in the final analysis, largely due to important issues of variation along the groove. In general, stress behavior is dependent on the laminate and the particular stress, with stress fields between laminates showing some similar trends, but also high variability depending on the composition of the laminate.by Jaffar S. Iqbal.S.M

Prediction-Based Channel Selection Prediction in Mobile Cognitive Radio Network

The emerging 5G wireless communications enabled diverse multimedia applications and smart devices in the network. It promises very high mobile traffic data rates, quality of service as in very low latency and improvement in user’s perceived quality of experience compared to current 4G wireless network. This encourages the increasing demand of significant bandwidth which results a significant urge of efficient spectrum utilization. In this paper, modelling, performance analysis and optimization of future channel selection for cognitive radio network by jointly exploiting both CR mobility and primary user activity to provide efficient spectrum access is studied.  The modelling and prediction method is implemented by using Hidden Markov Model algorithm. The movement of CR in wireless network yields location-varying spectrum opportunities. The current approaches in most literatures which only depend on reactive selection spectrum opportunities result of inefficient channel usages. Moreover, conventional random selection method tends to observe a higher handoff and operation delays in network performance.  This inefficiency can cause continuous transmission interruptions leading to the degradation of advance wireless services. This work goal is to improve the performance of CR in terms number of handoffs and operation delays. We perform simulation on our prediction strategy with a commonly used random sensing method with and without location. Through simulations, it is shown that the proposed prediction and learning strategy can obtain significant improvements in number of handoffs and operation delays performance parameters. It is also shown that future CR location is beneficial in increasing mobile CR performance. This study also shows that the number of primary user in the network and the PU protection range affect the performance of mobile CR channel selection for all methods

Independence in CLP Languages

Studying independence of goals has proven very useful in the context of logic programming. In particular, it has provided a formal basis for powerful automatic parallelization tools, since independence ensures that two goals may be evaluated in parallel while preserving correctness and eciency. We extend the concept of independence to constraint logic programs (CLP) and prove that it also ensures the correctness and eciency of the parallel evaluation of independent goals. Independence for CLP languages is more complex than for logic programming as search space preservation is necessary but no longer sucient for ensuring correctness and eciency. Two additional issues arise. The rst is that the cost of constraint solving may depend upon the order constraints are encountered. The second is the need to handle dynamic scheduling. We clarify these issues by proposing various types of search independence and constraint solver independence, and show how they can be combined to allow dierent optimizations, from parallelism to intelligent backtracking. Sucient conditions for independence which can be evaluated \a priori" at run-time are also proposed. Our study also yields new insights into independence in logic programming languages. In particular, we show that search space preservation is not only a sucient but also a necessary condition for ensuring correctness and eciency of parallel execution

A discrete inhomogeneous model for the yeast cell cycle

We study the robustness and stability of the yeast cell regulatory network by using a general inhomogeneous discrete model. We find that inhomogeneity, on average, enhances the stability of the biggest attractor of the dynamics and that the large size of the basin of attraction is robust against changes in the parameters of inhomogeneity. We find that the most frequent orbit, which represents the cell-cycle pathway, has a better biological meaning than the one exhibited by the homogeneous model.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

The Effect of Combined Oral Contraceptive Pills on Factor VII Activity and D-dimer Level in Healthy and Obese Women

Background: The combined pill includes a combination of an estrogen and a progestin. Users of these pills have an increased risk of developing thrombotic disorders compared to the non-users. Obesity is an independent risk factor for venous thromboembolism. Obesity with oral contraceptive use increases the risk of thrombosis furthermore. Objectives: To assess the effects of these pills in obese and healthy non-obese women on factor VII activity and D-dimer level. Also to compare the thrombophilic effects of combined pills in women with control group of normal healthy non-users women. Patients and Methods: This study was started on November 2014 and completed on March 2015, and included 50 females attended at Baghdad Teaching Hospital. They were using contraceptive pills (Microgynon® ED Fe) for at least 3 months. Females were divided into 2 equal groups; the non-obese group and the obese group. As well 25 non-obese age-matched non-pregnant females not on contraception or taking any hormonal therapy were recruited as a control. The hemostatic parameters done for them included the prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, factor VII, D-dimer level, and platelet count. Results: There were significant reductions in prothrombin time in both the non-obese and obese groups compared to the control (P= 0.014 and 0.020, respectively). The correlations between the duration of pills use and clotting times both showed insignificant differences in the study groups. The factor VII activity in the non-obese and obese groups were significantly higher than that of the control (P= 0.041 and 0.001, respectively). There were also significant increase in D-dimer levels in the non-obese and obese groups compared to the control (P= 0.029 and 0.038, respectively). The platelet count was significantly increased only in the obese group compared to the control (P = 0.027). Conclusion: The use of the combined oral contraceptive pills (Microgynon® ED Fe) is associated with significant increase in factor VII activity and the level of D-dimer that may lead to enhanced procoagulant activity. Therefore, females should be properly assessed and monitored before starting using the pills and while on them

Retrospective cohort study of the association between socioeconomic deprivation and incidence of gestational diabetes and perinatal outcomes

Introduction: Socioeconomic disparities have been shown to correlate with perinatal mortality and the incidence of type 2 diabetes. Few studies have explored the relationship between deprivation and the incidence of gestational diabetes (GDM). We aimed to identify the relationship between deprivation and incidence of GDM, after adjusting for age, BMI, and ethnicity. We also examined for relationships between deprivation and perinatal outcomes. Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis of 23,490 pregnancies from a major National Health Service Trust in Northwest London was conducted. The 2019 English Indices of Multiple Deprivation was used to identify the deprivation rank and decile for each postcode. Birthweight centile was calculated from absolute birthweight after adjusting for ethnicity, maternal height, maternal weight, parity, sex and outcome (live birth/stillbirth). Logistic regression and Kendall’s Tau were used to identify relationships between variables. Results: After controlling for age, BMI & ethnicity, Index of Multiple Deprivation postcode decile was not associated with an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes. Each increase in decile of deprivation was associated with an increase in birthweight centile by 0.471 (p < 0.001). After adjusting for confounders, age was associated with a 7.1% increased GDM risk (OR: 1.076, p < 0.001); BMI increased risk by 5.81% (OR: 1.059, p < 0.001). There was no significant correlation between Index of Multiple Deprivation rank and perinatal outcomes. Discussion: Our analysis demonstrates that socioeconomic deprivation was not associated with incidence of GDM or adverse perinatal outcomes. Factors such as genetic predisposition and lifestyle habits may likely play a larger role in the development of GDM compared to socioeconomic deprivation alone