E-cigarette or Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) in a Hispanic male during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Electronic cigarette or vaping product use–associated lung injury established the relationship between vaping products and lung injury. Overlapping clinical manifestations may mimic those of other respiratory conditions including COVID-19. Multiple radiographic findings including diffuse, bilateral, ground-glass infiltrates with lower-lobe predominance, eosinophilic pneumonia, and diffuse alveolar damage have been described. It is important to consider this as an alternative diagnosis, particularly in patients with respiratory symptoms and a history of vaping in the last 90 days due to increased risk of COVID-19 infection and worse outcomes. Case presentation: A 25-year-old male with a history of polysubstance abuse and frequent E-cigarette use presented to the ED after losing consciousness. He was cyanotic and required emergent intubation due to severe acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. Initial chest CT reported extensive amount of bilateral scattered infiltrates with air bronchograms (Image 1a). Broad spectrum antibiotics were started due to high suspicion of aspiration pneumonia and CIWA protocol was started in setting of alcohol withdrawal symptoms. The patient was successfully extubated on day 5 of admission. Repeat Chest CT on day 9 showed improvement in dense perihilar infiltrates; perihilar interstitial increased markings were seen extending to the lung peripheries from residual pneumonitis versus subsequent fibrotic changes/scarring (Image 1b). Conclusion: EVALI has grave consequences on the respiratory system, including acute pathologies such as diffuse alveolar injury, acute fibrinous pneumonitis, and acute respiratory failure requiring noninvasive or invasive ventilation as well as chronic respiratory conditions. Among the most common culprits identified in the mechanism of EVALI are Vitamin E acetate, nicotine and THC. Furthermore, multiple drug users are at higher risk of more serious complications. More studies and clinical trials are needed to better understand the pathophysiology of EVALI and to explain short- and long-term effects of vaping

Examining Transnational Security Threats and Border Management: A Study of Cross-Border Crime Challenges at the Nigeria-Niger Border

This study investigates the complex dynamics of transnational security threats and the corresponding border management strategies at the Nigeria-Niger border, with a focus on cross-border crime challenges. The overarching theoretical framework employed in thisresearch is the Theory of Transnationalism, which emphasizes the interconnectedness and interdependence of countries in the contemporary global context. The study draws on a rich body of secondary data from various sources, including academic publications, government reports, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations. These sources provide insights into the multifaceted nature of cross-border crimes such as human trafficking, drug smuggling, arms proliferation, and terrorism, which have the potential to destabilize both Nigeria and Niger and have far-reaching consequences for the broader West African region. The analysis of the data reveals the intricacies of cross-border criminal networks, highlighting the role of porous borders, economic disparities, and political instability in facilitating criminal activities. In conclusion, this research underscores the importance of a comprehensive understanding of transnational security threats and the vital role of effective border management in addressing them. The findings contribute to the broader discourse on border security in the context of transnationalism and offer valuable insights for policymakers, security agencies, and international organizations working to combat cross-border crime and enhance regional stability in West Africa.&nbsp

Dynamic relationship of exchange rates and crude oil prices in South Africa: are there asymmetries?

We estimated the relationship between the exchange rates and crude oil prices for the period of 1960 to 2013. Based on Engle-Granger we found that the variables are cointegrated means there exist long-run relationship. However, when we move on to TAR and MTAR models the findings are opposite as there is no element of cointegration and the speed of adjustment is symmetric. This shows that based on TAR and MTAR models the effects of exchange rates on crude oil prices is insignificant. The policy relevance is that South African authority need to monitor its exchange rates persistently related to other currencies more especially American dollar because it determined the crude oil prices that might have greater influences on other macroeconomic variables

Dynamic relationship of exchange rates and crude oil prices in South Africa: Are there asymmetries?

We estimated the relationship between the exchange rates and crude oil prices for the period of 1960 to 2013. Based on Engle-Granger we found that the variables are cointegrated means there exist long-run relationship. However, when we move on to TAR and MTAR models the findings are opposite as there is no element of cointegration and the speed of adjustment is symmetric. This shows that based on TAR and MTAR models the effects of exchange rates on crude oil prices is insignificant. The policy relevance is that South African authority need to monitor its exchange rates persistently related to other currencies more especially American dollar because it determined the crude oil prices that might have greater influences on other macroeconomic variables. Keywords: Exchange rates, Oil prices, Asymmetry, South Africa, Error correction model

Numerical investigation of thermal losses from air filled annulus of a parabolic trough solar collector / Alhassan Salami Tijani and Muhammad Jaafar Jamarei

Solar energy has the potential to meet the growing need for global energy consumption. In recent times there is large number of solar energy systems developed, one of such widely used technology is parabolic trough collector (PTC). The PTC technology is one of the successful technologies because it is the most mature and one of the least expensive. PTC receivers with air filled annuli are used mainly for high temperature applications such as food processing industry. This is due to the fact that they are less costly but on the other hand they have high heat loss as compared to vacuum receivers. One of the techniques that can be adopted in order to enhance the thermal performance of the PTC has been discussed in this work. An insulation fiberglass with high heat resistant was inserted into the portion of the receiver annulus that does not receive concentrated sunlight. This study focuses on the calculation of conduction and convection heat losses of the half insulated annulus part only. The performance of the proposed concept was then compared to conventional receiver with air filled annulus. The effect of wind speed and mass flow rate of the working fluid was also considered. The reason for using mass flow rate and wind speed as manipulated variable is because both parameters affect the thermal loss of the system. The results shown that the heat loss from the half insulated is smaller compared to the heat loss from air annulus receiver by 70% depending on the wind speed of the location. Therefore, the proposed receiver is expected to be most suitable replacement for receivers with air annulus

Extraction and Characterisation of Chitin and Chitosan from Mussel Shell

In view of the increasing littering of the river banks by shells of crustaceans, a study was carried out to investigate the extraction and characterization of chitin and chitosan from mussel shell. Chitin and chitosan was extracted and characterized from mussel shell found in banks of the Gubi Dam in Bauchi, Nigeria using the conventional methods of pretreatment, demineralization, deprotienization and deacetylation. The results obtained revealed that  carbon nitrogen ratio of the chitosan extracted was 5.9 with a degree of deacetylation of 60.69% and 60.66% calculated from the elemental analysis and the FTIR spectra of chitosan respectively. The FTIR spectra for chitosan gave a characteristic –NH2 band of 3447 cm-1 and a carbonyl group band of   1477 cm-1. The mussel shell was discovered to contain a mineral content of 51.62% and a chitin composition was found to be 21.32%. KEYWORDS: Characterisation, Chitin, Chitosan, Extraction, Mussel

Detection of vascular intersection in retina fundus

Vascular intersection can be used as one of the symptoms for monitoring and diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy from fundus images. In this work we apply the knowledge of digital image processing, fuzzy logic and neural network technique to detect bifurcation and vein-artery cross-over points in fundus images. The acquired images undergo preprocessing stage for illumination equalization and noise removal. Segmentation stage clusters the image into two distinct classes by the use of fuzzy c-means technique, neural network technique and modified cross-point number (MCN) methods were employed for the detection of bifurcation and cross-over points. MCN uses a 5x5 window with 16 neighboring pixels for efficient detection of bifurcation and cross over points in fundus images. Result obtained from applying this hybrid method on both real and simulated vascular points shows that this method perform better than the existing simple cross-point number (SCN) method, thus an improvement to the vascular point detection and a good tool in the monitoring and diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy

Optimized Model Simulation of a Capacitated Vehicle Routing problem based on Firefly Algorithm

This paper presents an optimized solution to a capacitated vehicle routing (CVRP) model using firefly algorithm (FFA). The main objective of a CVRP is to obtain the minimum possible total travelled distance across a search space. The conventional model is a formal description involving mathematical equations formulated to simplify a more complex structure of logistic problems. These logistic problems are generalized as the vehicle routing problem (VRP). When the capacity of the vehicle is considered, the resulting formulation is termed the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). In a practical scenario, the complexity of CVRP increases when the number of pickup or drop-off points increase making it difficult to solve using exact methods. Thus, this paper employed the intelligent behavior of FFA for solving the CVRP model. Two instances of solid waste management and supply chain problems is used to evaluate the performance of the FFA approach. In comparison with particle swarm optimization and few other ascribed metaheuristic techniques for CVRP, results showed that this approach is very efficient in solving a CVRP model

Detection of vascular intersection in retina fundus image using modified cross point number and neural network technique

Vascular intersection can be used as one of the symptoms for monitoring and diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy from fundus images. In this work we apply the knowledge of digital image processing, fuzzy logic and neural network technique to detect bifurcation and vein-artery cross-over points in fundus images. The acquired images undergo preprocessing stage for illumination equalization and noise removal. Segmentation stage clusters the image into two distinct classes by the use of fuzzy c-means technique, neural network technique and modified cross-point number (MCN) methods were employed for the detection of bifurcation and cross-over points. MCN uses a 5x5 window with 16 neighboring pixels for efficient detection of bifurcation and cross over points in fundus images. Result obtained from applying this hybrid method on both real and simulated vascular points shows that this method perform better than the existing simple cross-point number (SCN) method, thus an improvement to the vascular point detection and a good tool in the monitoring and diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy

A Hybrid Fuzzy Time Series Technique for Forecasting Univariate Data

In this paper a hybrid forecasting technique that integrates Cat Swarm optimization Clustering (CSO-C) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) with Fuzzy Time Series (FTS) forecasting is presented. In the three stages of FTS, CSO-C found application at the fuzzification module where its efficient capability in terms of data classification was utilized to neutrally divide the universe of discourse into unequal parts. Then, disambiguated fuzzy relationships were obtained using Fuzzy Set Group (FSG). In the final stage, PSO was adopted for optimization; by tuning weights assigned to fuzzy sets in a rule. This rule is a fuzzy logical relationship induced from FSG. The forecasting results showed that the proposed method outperformed other existing methods; using RMSE and MAPE as performance metrics.