Metrics and Algorithms for Processing Multiple Continuous Queries

Data streams processing is an emerging research area that is driven by the growing need for monitoring applications. A monitoring application continuously processes streams of data for interesting, significant, or anomalous events. Such applications include tracking the stock market, real-time detection of diseaseoutbreaks, and environmental monitoring via sensor networks.Efficient employment of those monitoring applications requires advanced data processing techniques that can support the continuous processing of unbounded rapid data streams. Such techniques go beyond the capabilities of the traditional store-then-query Data BaseManagement Systems. This need has led to a new data processing paradigm and created a new generation of data processing systems,supporting continuous queries (CQ) on data streams.Primary emphasis in the development of first generation Data Stream Management Systems (DSMSs) was given to basic functionality. However, in order to support large-scale heterogeneous applications that are envisioned for subsequent generations of DSMSs, greater attention willhave to be paid to performance issues. Towards this, this thesis introduces new algorithms and metrics to the current design of DSMSs.This thesis identifies a collection of quality ofservice (QoS) and quality of data (QoD) metrics that are suitable for a wide range of monitoring applications. The establishment of well-defined metrics aids in the development of novel algorithms that are optimal with respect to a particular metric. Our proposed algorithms exploit the valuable chances for optimization that arise in the presence of multiple applications. Additionally, they aim to balance the trade-off between the DSMS's overall performance and the performance perceived by individual applications. Furthermore, we provide efficient implementations of the proposed algorithms and we also extend them to exploit sharing in optimized multi-query plans and multi-stream CQs. Finally, we experimentally show that our algorithms consistently outperform the current state of the art

Design and implementation of an optical fiber sensing based vibration monitoring system

Vibration analysis is generally used in the industries for condition monitoring of various electromechanical equipment. For the predictive maintenance of the industry equipment, several techniques have been applied which are based on capacitive and piezoelectric accelerometers. However, they possess several real time problems due to the negative influence of electromagnetic interference. The major problem lies in the detection and transmission of various physical parameters in the noisy and harsh environment. In order to solve the weak points of commonly used structural vibration detection sensors that are easily affected by the harsh environment of the engineering site, the principle of optical fiber sensing is studied, and the system optical path is designed based on MZ interference technology. In this work, a special data acquisition and processing software is developed to acquire the sensed data and the vibration detection is carried out on the steel cantilever structure pasted with fiber optic sensors. Extraction using FFT and pattern recognition through bp neural network yields the system accuracy rate of 96.7 %. The proposed interference type optical fiber technology provides a novel approach for real-time monitoring of engineering structure vibration laying the foundation for the research of intelligent buildings

Pulmonary prophylactic impact of melatonin and/or quercetin: A novel therapy for inflammatory hypoxic stress in rats

The study aims to compare, through histological and biochemical studies, the effects of quercetin, melatonin and their combination in regulation of immuno-inflammatory mediators and heat shock protein expressions in sodium nitrite induced hypoxia in rat lungs. The results revealed that NaNO2 injection caused a significant decrease in Hb in rats, while serum levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and CRP, VEGF and HSP70 were elevated compared to the control group. Administration of melatonin, quercetin or their combination before NaNO2 injection markedly reduced these parameters. Histopathological examination of the lung tissue supported these biochemical findings. The study suggests that melatonin and/or quercetin are responsible for lung tissue protection in hypoxia by downregulation of immuno-inflammatory mediators and heat shock protein expressions. Pre-treatment of hypoxic animals with a combination of melatonin and quercetin was effective in modulating most of the studied parameters to near-normal levels

Biogenic silver nanoparticles eradicate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from the sputum of COVID-19 patients

In recent investigations, secondary bacterial infections were found to be strongly related to mortality in COVID-19 patients. In addition, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria played an important role in the series of bacterial infections that accompany infection in COVID-19. The objective of the present study was to investigate the ability of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles from strawberries (Fragaria ananassa L.) leaf extract without a chemical catalyst to inhibit Gram-negative P. aeruginosa and Gram-positive Staph aureus isolated from COVID-19 patient’s sputum. A wide range of measurements was performed on the synthesized AgNPs, including UV–vis, SEM, TEM, EDX, DLS, ζ -potential, XRD, and FTIR. UV-Visible spectral showed the absorbance at the wavelength 398 nm with an increase in the color intensity of the mixture after 8 h passed at the time of preparation confirming the high stability of the FA-AgNPs in the dark at room temperature. SEM and TEM measurements confirmed AgNPs with size ranges of ∼40-∼50 nm, whereas the DLS study confirmed their average hydrodynamic size as ∼53 nm. Furthermore, Ag NPs. EDX analysis showed the presence of the following elements: oxygen (40.46%), and silver (59.54%). Biosynthesized FA-AgNPs (ζ = −17.5 ± 3.1 mV) showed concentration-dependent antimicrobial activity for 48 h in both pathogenic strains. MTT tests showed concentration-dependent and line-specific effects of FA-AgNPs on cancer MCF-7 and normal liver WRL-68 cell cultures. According to the results, synthetic FA-AgNPs obtained through an environmentally friendly biological process are inexpensive and may inhibit the growth of bacteria isolated from COVID-19 patients

Osteogenic Differentiation Potential of Human Bone Marrow and Amniotic Fluid-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Vitro & in Vivo

BACKGROUND: Cell therapies offer a promising potential in promoting bone regeneration. Stem cell therapy presents attractive care modality in treating degenerative conditions or tissue injuries. The rationale behind this is both the expansion potential of stem cells into a large cell population size and its differentiation abilities into a wide variety of tissue types, when given the proper stimuli. A progenitor stem cell is a promising source of cell therapy in regenerative medicine and bone tissue engineering. AIM: This study aimed to compare the osteogenic differentiation and regenerative potentials of human mesenchymal stem cells derived from human bone marrow (hBM-MSCs) or amniotic fluid (hAF-MSCs), both in vitro and in vivo studies. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Human MSCs, used in this study, were successfully isolated from two human sources; the bone marrow (BM) and amniotic fluid (AF) collected at the gestational ages of second or third trimesters. RESULTS: The stem cells derived from amniotic fluid seemed to be the most promising type of progenitor cells for clinical applications. In a pre-clinical experiment, attempting to explore the therapeutic application of MSCs in bone regeneration, Rat lumbar spines defects were surgically created and treated with undifferentiated and osteogenically differentiated MSCs, derived from BM and second trimester AF. Cells were loaded on gel-foam scaffolds, inserted and fixed in the area of the surgical defect. X-Ray radiography follows up, and histopathological analysis was done three-four months post- operation. The transplantation of AF-MSCs or BM-MSCs into induced bony defects showed promising results. The AF-MSCs are offering a better healing effect increasing the likelihood of achieving successful spinal fusion. Some bone changes were observed in rats transplanted with osteoblasts differentiated cells but not in rats transplanted with undifferentiated MSCs. Longer observational periods are required to evaluate a true bone formation. The findings of this study suggested that the different sources; hBM-MSCs or hAF-MSCs exhibited remarkably different signature regarding the cell morphology, proliferation capacity and osteogenic differentiation potential CONCLUSIONS: AF-MSCs have a better performance in vivo bone healing than that of BM-MSCs. Hence, AF derived MSCs is highly recommended as an alternative source to BM-MSCs in bone regeneration and spine fusion surgeries. Moreover, the usage of gel-foam as a scaffold proved as an efficient cell carrier that showed bio-compatibility with cells, bio-degradability and osteoinductivity in vivo

Microbiologically-influenced corrosion of the electroless-deposited NiP-TiNi – Coating

In this study, we reveal the microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) behavior of the new electroless NiP-TiNi nanocomposite coating in simulated seawater using the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique after different periods of incubation time (7, 10, 14, 21, 28 days) in a sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) medium. The biofilm formation and the corrosion products were characterized using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The EIS results revealed the carbon steel (CS)/NiP-TiNi and NiP-TiNi/SRB biofilm interfaces' characteristics after different incubation times in the SRB media. EIS measurements revealed that the NiP-TiNi nanocomposite coating's MIC resistances are superior relative to API X80 carbon steel and a TiNi-free NiP coating, with ∼93% of corrosion inhibition efficiency after 28 days of incubation

Eco-friendly highly efficient BN/rGO/TiO2 nanocomposite visible-light photocatalyst for phenol mineralization

Boron nitride (BN) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) of different loadings were composited with commercial P25 TiO2 (Ti) through the hydrothermal method. The as-prepared nanocomposites were characterized using various techniques: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermal gravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopies, and transmission and scanning electron microscopies. It was observed that 10% and 0.1% of BN and rGO, respectively, loaded on TiO2 (10BNr0.1GOTi) resulted in the best nanocomposite in terms of phenol degradation under simulated sunlight. A 93.4% degradation of phenol was obtained within 30 min in the presence of H2O2. Finally, to ensure the safe use of BNrGOTi nanoparticles in the aquatic environment, acute zebrafish toxicity (acutoxicity) assays were studied. The 96-h acute toxicity assays using the zebrafish embryo model revealed that the LC50 for the BNrGOTi nanoparticle was 677.8 mg L−1 and the no observed effect concentration (NOEC) was 150 mg L−1. Therefore, based on the LC50 value and according to the Fish and Wildlife Service Acute Toxicity Rating Scale, BNrGOTi is categorized as a “practically not toxic” photocatalyst for water treatment.Open access funding provided by the Qatar National Library. This work was supported by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF, a member of the Qatar Foundation) through the National Priority Research Program Grant (NPRP) NPRP13S-0117-200095. Also, this publication was supported by Qatar University ' s internal grant IRCC-2021-015. Statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors

Symptomatic Acute Hepatitis C in Egypt: Diagnosis, Spontaneous Viral Clearance, and Delayed Treatment with 12 Weeks of Pegylated Interferon Alfa-2a

The aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of spontaneous viral clearance (SVC) after symptomatic acute hepatitis C and to evaluate the efficacy of 12 weeks of pegylated interferon alfa-2a in patients who did not clear the virus spontaneously.Patients with symptomatic acute hepatitis C were recruited from two "fever hospitals" in Cairo, Egypt. Patients still viremic three months after the onset of symptoms were considered for treatment with 12 weeks of pegylated interferon alfa-2a (180 microg/week).Between May 2002 and February 2006, 2243 adult patients with acute hepatitis were enrolled in the study. The SVC rate among 117 patients with acute hepatitis C was 33.8% (95%CI [25.9%-43.2%]) at three months and 41.5% (95%CI [33.0%-51.2%]) at six months. The sustained virological response (SVR) rate among the 17 patients who started treatment 4-6 months after onset of symptoms was 15/17 = 88.2% (95%CI [63.6%-98.5%]).Spontaneous viral clearance was high (41.5% six months after the onset of symptoms) in this population with symptomatic acute hepatitis C. Allowing time for spontaneous clearance should be considered before treatment is initiated for symptomatic acute hepatitis C