Effectiveness of positive pressure evaporative cooling on broilers production

   The main concept of this research depends on the experimental work being performed on broiler houses, using positive pressure evaporative cooling systems. The experiments were conducted at the farms of the People's Development Company for Animal Production, Wad Medani, Sudan, during the period of May-July 1998. The objective was maintaining better environmental conditions during summer months, i.e., temperature and relative humidity, for housed birds, in order to obtain the maximum rate of birds growth, and reduce the rate of mortality, thus increasing economic returns. To evaluate the performance of broilers production, the parameters studied were temperature and relative humidity for bird's houses, live body weight, feed intake, water intake and mortality rate. The results of the experiments showed that evaporative cooling reduced the temperature by 18.9% and 16.6% in the houses with bird density of 10 birds/m2 and 13 birds/m2, respectively. The live body weight increased by 26.5% and 21.9% in the houses with bird density of 10 birds/m2 and 13 birds/m2, respect- tively. The mortality rate in the same houses was reduced by 79% and 75.7%, respectively. The results indicated that evaporative cooling effect was highly •siY1ificantly and positively correlated with most of the measured triats

Clinicopathological Significance of Vimentin and Cytokeratin Protein in the Genesis of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Cervix

Cervical cancer is one of the commonest types of cancers worldwide especially in developing countries. Intermediate filaments protein family has shown a role in the diagnosis of various cancers, but a few studies are available about the vimentin and cytokeratin roles in the cervical cancer. This case control study aimed to interpret the expression of vimentin and cytokeratin proteins in the development and progression of cervical cancer and its correlation with clinicopathological features. The cytoplasmic expression of vimentin was observed in 40% of cases, but not in inflammatory lesions of cervix. It was noticed that vimentin expression was increasing significantly with high grade of the tumour. Cytokeratin expression was observed in 48.33% and it was noticed that the expression was 62.5% in well differentiated (G1), 45% in moderately differentiated (G2), and 41.66% in poorly differentiated carcinoma, yet statistically insignificant. The expression of vimentin and cytokeratin proteins was not significantly associated with age groups. The current findings concluded a possible role of vimentin in the development and progression of cervical cancer and vimentin marker will be useful in the diagnosis and grading of cervical cancer

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Effect of Copper Ion and Water on Anodic Dissolution of Metallic Copper in a Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES)

This report presents influence of water and copper salt on the anodic dissolution of metallic copper in a eutectic solvent of choline chloride and ethylene glycol (DES) in a 1 : 2 molar ratio. The mechanism of copper dissolution anodically was investigated using anodic linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Atomic force microscope (AFM) was used to examine the morphology and topography of the surface after electrochemical dissolution course. The addition of 1, 4, 8, 16 and 20 vol% of water cause pitting and has no significant impact on the electrochemical behavior, in particular the shape of anodic linear sweep voltammetry remains unchanged. The more profound effect was seen from the microscopic analysis. The addition of 0.1 and 0.81 M CuCl2 into this eutectic solvent resulted in relatively high resistance at the interfacial region where charge transfer occurs during anodic dissolution of metallic copper using impedance responses. The results confirmed that water will not affect anodic dissolution behavior and the chemistry of dissolution in the deep eutectic solvent

Device-associated infection rates in adult and pediatric intensive care units of hospitals in Egypt. International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) findings

► Surveillance of device-associated infections in intensive care units in Egypt is proposed. ► Using INICC methods and CDC-NHSN definitions enabled us to obtain comparative data. ► Systematic surveillance enables benchmarking against other health care settings. ► Device-associated rates in our settings are higher than in developed countries. ► Infection control programs with surveillance must be prioritized in these settings. To determine the rate of device-associated healthcare-associated infections (DA-HAIs) at a respiratory intensive care unit (RICU) and in the pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) of member hospitals of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) in Egypt. A prospective cohort DA-HAI surveillance study was conducted from December 2008 to July 2010 by applying the methodology of the INICC and the definitions of the NHSN-CDC. In the RICU, 473 patients were hospitalized for 2930d and acquired 155 DA-HAIs, with an overall rate of 32.8%. There were 52.9 DA-HAIs per 1000 ICU-days. In the PICUs, 143 patients were hospitalized for 1535d and acquired 35 DA-HAIs, with an overall rate of 24.5%. There were 22.8 DA-HAIs per 1000 ICU-days. The central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI) rate was 22.5 per 1000 line-days in the RICU and 18.8 in the PICUs; the ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) rate was 73.4 per 1000 ventilator-days in the RICU and 31.8 in the PICUs; and the catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) rate was 34.2 per 1000 catheter-days in the RICU. DA-HAIs in the ICUs in Egypt pose greater threats to patient safety than in industrialized countries, and infection control programs, including surveillance and guidelines, must become a priority

Proceedings of First Conference for Engineering Sciences and Technology: Vol. 1

This volume contains contributed articles of Track 1, Track 2 & Track 3, presented in the conference CEST-2018, organized by Faculty of Engineering Garaboulli, and Faculty of Engineering, Al-khoms, Elmergib University (Libya) on 25-27 September 2018. Track 1: Communication and Information Technology Track 2: Electrical and Electronics Engineering Track 3: Oil and Chemical Engineering Other articles of Track 4, 5 & 6 have been published in volume 2 of the proceedings at this lin