Preventive replacement for belligerent systems

A mortar is commonly used as an indirect firing weapon to support close fires with a variety of ammunition. There are mortar weapons with various shells. Each type of shells fired by mortars does damage to a weapon when the total damage on a mortar weapon reaches the tolerance limit, the mortar weapon either fails or explodes, leading to a compulsory replacement which is costly. In order to maintain the mortar weapons and archers in wars, a research was conducted to find the best number of mortar shells that will be fired until a preventive replacement for mortar weapons is implemented

Algerian Acid Activated Clays as Efficient Catalysts for a Green Synthesis of Solketal by Chemoselective Acetalization of Glycerol with Acetone

The production of solketal and conversion of glycerol takes a major importance in the field of the sustainability of the biodiesel industry. The synthesis of (2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl)methanol by the acetalization of glycerol with acetone successfully applied out using various Algerian acid activated clays (maghnia-H+) under autogenous pressure and without solvent. The acid catalyst clays are prepared by an easy technique by activation with the available and low-cost Maghnia clay. The purified Maghnia clay named ALC and the resulting series of acid-activated clays AL1, AL2, AL3, and AL4 are characterized by X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) investigation, N2-adorption/desorption Brunauer–Emmett–Teller  (BET) surface area, X-rays Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infra Red (FT-IR) spectroscopy, SEM microscopy and the cation exchange capacity (CEC) with copper bisethylenediamine complex method, in order to study the effect of activation at the acid and the catalytic behaviour in the acetalization reaction. The results show a high catalytic activity whose that the yield of solketal production interest reached 95 % at a temperature of 40 °C for a reaction time of 48 hours with full selectivity and glycerol conversion reaching up to 89 %. A mechanistic is proposed to explain the chemoselective of solketal production. These results indicate the potential of this Algerian acid activated clays catalysts for the acetalization of glycerol for an environmentally benign process. Copyright © 2019 BCREC Group. All rights reserved

Optimization of the aptamers’ immobilization conditions for maximizing the response of a dualaptasensor for cancer biomarker detection

Osteopontin (OPN) is a protein that is present in several body fluids and has been reported as a possible cancer biomarker, being its overexpression associated with tumour progression and metastasis [1,2]. A simple and sensitive method that allows the simultaneous detection of single or multiple cancer biomarkers is envisaged and may be an important tool in cancer diagnosis. In this work, two bioreceptors specific for OPN, a RNA aptamer (OPN-R3) previously described by Mi and co-workers [3] and a DNA aptamer (C10K2) developed by our research group, were biotinylated and immobilized on a dual-screen printed gold electrode through streptavidin-biotin interaction. The voltammetric signals generated by the dual-aptasensor array, after the formation of the aptamers-protein complex, were monitored using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square- wave voltammetry (SWV), using [Fe(CN)6]−3/−4 as a redox probe. The optimal immobilization conditions for the dual-aptasensor array were established by response surface methodology. The maximum voltammetric response was obtained for a 0.5 μM aptamer concentration after 20 min of aptamers’ immobilization and 30 min of aptamer- OPN interaction time at an incubation temperature of 4ºC. The satisfactory preliminary results obtained, although needing further confirmation for synthetic or real human samples, point out that the proposed electrochemical dual-aptasensor array could be a simple and sensitive tool for the detection of OPN, as well as for other potential cancer biomarkers and therefore, may be applied in the future for cancer disease monitoring.This work was also financially supported by Project POCI-01–0145-FEDER-006984 – Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM funded by FEDER through COMPETE2020 and by national funds through FCT, Portugal. S. Meirinho also acknowledges the research grant provided by Project UID/EQU/50020/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PREVALENCE OF CRYPTOSPORIDIUM SPP. AMONG ASYMPTOMATIC HEALTHY EXPATRIATE WORKERS IN SHARJAH, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Background: Epidemiological data on Cryptosporidium infections in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is scarce. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Cryptosporidium species among a community of expatriates in Sharjah, UAE working in different sectors, including the food industry, house maids and other domestic occupations. Materials and Methods: One hundred and thirty four stool samples were collected from asymptomatic individuals presenting to the Sharjah Municipality Public Health Clinic (SMPHC) for screening of intestinal parasites for work permission purposes between 2009 and 2011. Demographic information such as age, sex, and country of origin was collected. Genomic DNA extracted from the stool samples were tested for Cryptosporidium species using real-time PCR (qPCR). Results: Twenty-six individuals (19.4%) were positive for Cryptosporidium sp. by PCR. The infection rate was found to be highest in Afghan nationals (33%; 3/9) compared with the rest of the study population; yet, no significant association existed between nationality and infection rate. Moreover, no association was observed between infection rate and gender (χ2 = 2.439; P = 0.118), nor infection rate and age group (χ2 = 1.219; P = 0.544). Conclusion: Infection by Cryptosporidium sp. was common in the study group, and further studies are needed within the native Emirati population before any conclusions can be made about foreigners potentially transmitting the parasite. Furthermore, data provided in this study could help determine its public and veterinary significance particularly in outbreaks in the country

Multispacer sequence typing of Coxiella burnetii from milk and hard tick samples from ruminant farms in Lebanon

his study was carried out to detect and characterize Coxiella burnetii in ruminant milk samples and in different tick species from seropositive farms in four Lebanese regions. Milk and tick samples were screened for C. burnetii presence by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) targeting IS1111 region followed by multispacer sequence typing (MST). The overall positive percentages of 9.6% (27/282) and 95.45% (84/88) for C. burnetii were recorded in ruminant milk and tick samples, respectively. In detail, the C. burnetii DNA was recorded in 52/54 (96.3%) of Rhipicephalus annulatus, 20/21 (95.24%) of Rhipicephalus turanicus, 6/6 (100%) of Hyalomma anatolicum, 5/6 (83.3%) of Rhipicephalus sanguineus and 1/1 of Rhipicephalus bursa. After genotyping of some IS1111-positive samples (17/111), different MST genotypes were identified. Out of 15 positive ticks, 10 were infected with MST2 genotype, 4 were infected with MST7 genotype and 1 was infected with MST57. Moreover, genotypes MST20 and MST58 were found in one cow and one goat milk samples, respectively. The present study confirmed the high genetic diversity of C. burnetii in Lebanon

The combination of arsenic, interferon-alpha, and zidovudine restores an “immunocompetent-like” cytokine expression profile in patients with adult T-cell leukemia lymphoma

BACKGROUND: HTLV-I associated adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) carries a dismal prognosis due to chemo-resistance and immuno-compromised micro-environment. The combination of zidovudine and interferon-alpha (IFN) significantly improved survival in ATL. Promising results were reported by adding arsenic trioxide to zidovudine and IFN. RESULTS: Here we assessed Th1/Th2/T(reg) cytokine gene expression profiles in 16 ATL patients before and 30 days after treatment with arsenic/IFN/zidovudine, in comparison with HTLV-I healthy carriers and sero-negative blood donors. ATL patients at diagnosis displayed a T(reg)/Th2 cytokine profile with significantly elevated transcript levels of Foxp3, interleukin-10 (IL-10), and IL-4 and had a reduced Th1 profile evidenced by decreased transcript levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and IL-2. Most patients (15/16) responded, with CD4(+)CD25(+) cells significantly decreasing after therapy, paralleled by decreases in Foxp3 transcript. Importantly, arsenic/IFN/zidovudine therapy sharply diminished IL-10 transcript and serum levels concomittant with decrease in IL-4 and increases in IFN-γ and IL-2 mRNA, whether or not values were adjusted to the percentage of CD4(+)CD25(+) cells. Finally, IL-10 transcript level negatively correlated with clinical response at Day 30. CONCLUSIONS: The observed shift from a T(reg)/Th2 phenotype before treatment toward a Th1 phenotype after treatment with arsenic/IFN/zidovudine may play an important role in restoring an immuno-competent micro-environment, which enhances the eradication of ATL cells and the prevention of opportunistic infections

Exergy Analysis of a Desiccant Cooling Cycle Recovering Heat from Hot Exhaust

The manufacturing processes of industrial gases are major consumers of energy as electricity or fossil fuel. A big part of this energy ends up as heat in the process gas at temperatures around 150°C. Today, this thermal energy is generally released to the atmosphere through cooling towers. In this paper, the recovery of waste heat by the production of cooling capacity is considered via a desiccant cooling cycle. The liquid desiccant dehumidification and regeneration processes, uses lithium chloride (LiCl) as a liquid desiccant. The numerical model is upgraded permitting the calculation of the exergy destruction due to water evaporation rate in the regenerator, the desiccant temperature and concentration at the exit of the regenerator. An exergy analysis of the hot exhaust and the desiccant cooling cycle is performed, assessing the global exergy efficiency variation as a function of each operating parameter in the studied cycle and permitting the identification of the optimal design

Zinc and strontium co-substituted hydroxyfluorapatite: Synthesis, sintering and mechanical properties

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