Objectives: Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID 19) became a major public health issue, causing millions of deaths world wide. The burden of COVID 19 pandemics on access to medical care and the treatment of patients with chronic diseases and acute coronary syndromes (ACS) is not fully determined yet. . Methods: A total of 239 patients with ACS were enrolled into the study. Patients were divided into two groups. First group was prepandemic group consisted of patients admitted at January and February 2020, before the pandemic. Second group was consisted of ACS patients admitted through April and May 2020 during pandemic. Both groups were compared according to demographic properties, blood chemistry findings, angiographic features, revascularisation strategies and clinical outcomes. Results: During pandemic period we observed an increase in total number of patient with ST elevation miyocardial infarction (STEMI) patients compared to prepandemic period ( 59(45%) vs 32 (29.6%) respectively). Initial high sensitive troponin and CK-MB levels were statistically higher in the pandemic group patients(1953 pg/ml vs 259 pg/ml for troponın I and 14 ng/ml vs 6ng/ml for CK-MB p<0.0001, p=0.02 respectively). TYPE 4a myocardial infarction due to stent thrombosis was more frequent in pandemic group relative top re-pandemic group (10 vs 0 p=0.003). Post procedural TIMI flow grade was lower in pandemic group and distal embolization and TIMI thrombus score were significantly higher in the pandemic group compared top re-pandemic group (, p=0.001, p=0.02 ,p=0.002 respectively). However; there was no statistically significant difference in hospital mortality and short –term all cause mortality, among groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: We observed that although clinical, laboratory, and angiographic features were worse in ACS patients admitted during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic period, the mortality rate of ACS was similar. It is important to keep coronary care units open and fully-functioning during the pandemic.

4-(2-Methoxyethyl) phenol (MEP) is an significant methoxypheolic compound, which has been shown to play an important role in the formation of secondary organic aerosols(SOA). The present work focuses on the gas-phase oxidation mechanism and kinetics of MEP and OH radical by the density functional theory (DFT). Energetically favourable reaction channels and feasible products were identified. The initial reactions of MEP with OH radical have two different channels: OH addition and H abstraction. Subsequent reaction schemes of main intermediates in the presence of O2 and NOx are investigated using quantum chemical methods at M06-2X/6-311++G(3df,2p)//M06-2X/6-311+G(d,p) level. Ketene, Phenyldiketones and nitrophenol compounds are demonstrated to be possible oxidation products. The total rate constant(1.69×10-11 cm3 molecule-1 s-1) and individual rate constant are calculated using the traditional transition state (TST) theory at 298K and 1atm. The lifetime of MEP is estimated to be 16.4 hours, which provides a comprehensive explanation for atmospheric oxidation pathway of MEP and shows MEP would be removed by OH radical in the atmosphere.

The present work is intended to bring to the forefront a relatively less explored area of N-Heterocyclic Carbene (NHC) catalyzed alkyne hydro- thiolation and selenation reactions. The present work can be regarded as the first ever computational investigation on the catalytic activity of the NHC catalyzed hydro- thiolation and selenation reactions by exploring the reaction mechanism. Reaction mechanism involves chalcogenol activation followed by alkyne insertion and the second step is found to be the rate determining step. A comparison with the reported uncatalyzed gas phase reaction showed that a simple imidazol-2-ylidene catalyst can lower the free energy barrier by 19.62 and 14.63 kcal/mol respectively for acetylene hydro- thiolation and selenation reaction. All the employed NHCs are proved to be better catalyst for both hydrothiolation and hydroselenation. Effects of factors such as changing the heterocycle, increasing the conjugation, ring expansion and electronic/steric substitution were also investigated. Effect of solvent polarity on the reaction energetics and selectivity has also been analyzed employing THF, DMSO and MeOH as the solvents.

Aquatic vegetation, hydraulics and sediment transport have complex interactions that are not yet well understood. These interactions are important for sediment conveyance, sediment sequestration, phasing of sediment delivery from runoff events, and management of ecosystem health in lowland streams. To address this knowledge gap detailed field measurements of sediment transport through natural flexible aquatic vegetation are required to supplement and validate laboratory results. This paper contributes a field study of suspended sediment transport through aquatic vegetation and includes mechanical removal of aquatic vegetation with a weed cutting boat. It also provides methods to quantify vegetation cover through remote sensing with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and estimate biomass from ground truth sampling. Suspended sediment concentrations were highly dependent on aquatic vegetation abundance, and the distance upstream that had been cleared of aquatic vegetation. When the study reach was fully vegetated (i.e. cover >80%), the maximum recorded SSC was 14.6 g/m3 (during a fresh with discharge of 2.47 m3/s), during weed cutting operations SSC was 76.8 g/m3 at 0.84 m3/s (weedcutting boat 0.5-1 km upstream from study reach), however following weed cutting operations (4.6 km cleared upstream), SSC was 139.0 g/m3 at a discharge of 1.52 m3/s. The data indicates that fine sediment was being sequestered by aquatic vegetation and likely remobilised after vegetation removal. Investigation of suspended sediment spatial dynamics illustrated changes in particle size distribution due to preferential settling of coarse particles within aquatic vegetation. Hydraulic resistance in the study reach (parameterized by Manning’s n) dropped by over 70% following vegetation cutting. Prior to cutting hydraulic resistance was discharge dependent, while post cutting hydraulic resistance was approximately invariant of discharge. Aerial surveying captured interesting changes in aquatic vegetation cover, where some very dense regions of aquatic vegetation were naturally removed leaving behind unvegetated riverbed and fine sediment.

In this paper we utilize the new operators using three different kernels,namely, power law, exponential decay, and the generalized Mittag-Leffler function based on the fractal-fractional differentiation. These constructed operators have two parameters: the first is considered as fractional order and the second as fractal dimension. We studied the effect of the fractal-fractional derivative order as well as the nonlinear term order 1 < q ≤ 2 on the behavior of the numerical solutions of the fractal-fractional reaction diffusion equations (FFRDE). The iterative approximations are constructed by applying the theory of fractional calculus with the help of Lagrange polynomial functions. In the case of β = k = 1 , all the numerical solutions based on power kernel, exponential kernel, and the generalized Mittag-Leffler kernel are very close to each other and so one of the kernel was compared with numerical methods like finite difference methods (FDM) and an excellent agreement obtained. All calculations in this paper were done using the mathematica package.

This paper aims to identify, through harmonic analysis, the damping factor of a sandwich beam for which is maximal the reduction of internal stress. The general idea is to promote the use of harmonic analyses at design time to fairly accurately estimate the dissipative capacity of the system. After introducing the theoretical notions of the laws that govern beam dynamics, we will discuss the results of a parametric analysis conducted through the FEA software ANSYS.

Background: Periostin has emerged as a novel biomarker in the pathogenesis of T helper 2-type allergic diseases in the last years. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of serum periostin levels with clinical features in children with asthma. Methods: Children with physician-diagnosed asthma who attended regularly to an outpatient pediatric allergy and asthma center were enrolled in the study along with control subjects. Asthma severity and control status of the patients were evaluated according to recent GINA guidelines. Results: A total of 158 children (125 with asthma and 33 age and sex-matched control subjects) with a median age of 10.2 years (range 5.9-17.0) were enrolled. Asthma severity was mild in 41 (32.8%), moderate in 63 (50.4%) and severe in 21 (16.8%) children. Children with asthma had significantly higher periostin levels than controls (53.1 ± 13.1 vs 43.0 ± 11.2 ng/mL; p < 0.001). The mean serum periostin levels of children with severe asthma (63.8 ± 10.8) were significantly higher than in children with moderate asthma (53.3 ± 12.7) and mild asthma (47.4 ± 11.1) (p < 0.001). Serum periostin levels were found to be significantly correlated with asthma severity (Spearman’s rho [r]=0.41, p < 0.001). Results of multivariable logistic regression analysis demonstrated an association between serum periostin levels and asthma severity in children (OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.04-1.15; p <0.001) Conclusion: Serum periostin levels may serve clinicians in identifying children with severe asthma.

The main object of the present paper is to consider the binomial transforms for Horadam quaternion sequences. We gave new formulas for recurrence relation, generating function, Binet formula and some basic identities for the binomial sequence of Horadam quaternions. Working with Horadam quaternions, we have found the most general formula that includes all binomial transforms with recurrence relation from the second order. In the last part, we determined the recurrence relation for this new type of quaternion by working with the iterated binomial transform, which is a dierent type of binomial transform.

In this article, we derive Hermite-Hadamard inequalities for preinvex functions using the quantum integrals and show their validation with mathematical examples. We prove midpoint and trapezoidal inequalities for q^{ϰ₂}-differentiable preinvex functions via q^{ϰ₂}-quantum integrals. Moreover, we show with an example that the already proved inequality of Hermite-Hadamard type for preinvex functions via q_{ϰ₁}-quantum integrals is not valid for preinvex functions and we give its correct version. We prove the midpoint inequalities for q_{ϰ₁}-differentiable preinvex functions via q_{ϰ₁}-quantum integrals. It is also shown that the newly proved results transformed into some known results by considering the limit q→1⁻ and η(ϰ₂,ϰ₁)=-η(ϰ₁,ϰ₂)=ϰ₂-ϰ₁ in the newly derived results.

A document by Dylan Simpson. Click on the document to view its contents.

African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) is a highly contagious pathogen causing disease in pigs, commonly characterised by acute haemorrhagic fever. Prior to August 2018, African Swine Fever (ASF) had not been reported in Asia, but has since spread throughout China, Mongolia, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea. Using data collated from reports of confirmed cases, we applied spatio-temporal analysis to describe ASFV spread throughout Asia, from 1 August 2018 (reported start date) to 31 December 2019. Analysis revealed a propagating epidemic of ASFV throughout Asia, with peaks corresponding to increased reports from China, Vietnam and Laos. Two clusters of reported outbreaks were found. During the epidemic, ASFV primarily spread from the North-East to the South-East: a larger, secondary cluster in the North-East represented earlier reports, whilst the smaller, primary cluster in the South-East was characterised by later reports. Significant differences in country-specific epidemics, morbidity, mortality and unit types were discovered, likely attributable to differences in prevention, surveillance and control measures. The initial number of outbreaks and enterprise size are likely predictors of the speed of spread and the effectiveness of ASFV stamping out procedures. Biosecurity methods, wild boar populations and the transportation of pigs and movement of infected fomites are discussed as likely risk factors for facilitating ASFV spread across Asia.

Sternal osteomyelitis and dehisense are a common problem with an incidence rate of 0.5% to 5.0% after major cardiac surgery. However, the management of separation of the sternum in the patient’s thorax remains a challenge for cardiac surgeons and thoracic surgeons using the incision. After cardiac surgery, postop sternal dehiscence and osteomyelitis was developed in the patient. The old steel wires were removed and the sternum was resected due to long-term infection and extensive deformation of the sternum. Pectoralis muscle flaps were partially mobilized and adducted. The large defect was closed using a large prolene patch. Proper sized transversal titanium plates were selected. Due to the sternum bone was severely destroyed by infection, longer transversal titanium plates were chosen to achieve thoracic stability. Healthy tissues were detected on the ribs. A total of 4 titanium plates were placed intermittently. The plates were fixed to the ribs with titanium locking screws. The pectoral muscle flaps adducted to the plates by the plastic surgery team. A total of 3 drains were placed, one in the mediastinum and two between the thoracic wall and muscle structures.

Monitoring following catheter or surgical ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) is an essential tool used to assess outcomes for research purposes and help guide clinical decision making. The most commonly used methods to monitor for post-intervention AF include a variety of ambulatory external electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors, cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED), and more recently, direct to consumer digital health technologies. The traditional metric of ablation success, recurrence > 30 seconds at 1 year, is below the detection capabilities of almost all monitoring techniques yet still undervalues the efficacy of AF interventions. Measures of AF burden reduction and duration give a more complete assessment of the impact of AF surgeries and ablation. As it is increasingly being recognized that AF burden and duration is related to stroke risk, long-term, inexpensive, non-invasive monitoring methods are needed. Smart phones and watches with AF-detecting capabilities, which are increasingly being used by the majority of US adults, have emerged as viable options to achieve this goal, shifting the paradigm of AF monitoring to a more patient centered approach.

International socioeconomic relationships form the background that underlies the history of invasive species. Species with economic value, such as the North American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus), are more likely to become internationally distributed and to be subsequently introduced to non-native areas and, consequently, become more difficult to control. Using population genetics methods, we investigated the invasion pathways, the connectivity among clusters in different countries and the native population of origin of globally introduced bullfrog populations. Throughout the analysis of seven microsatellite nuclear loci, one fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b locus, and historical information, four main lineages were identified and analyzed along with previous findings. This species’ capability to colonize several countries from few starting lineages highlights the necessity to control new propagule pressure to ensure successful management programs, as high inbreeding and bottleneck effect seem not to diminish the invasive success of this species. There is a consensus between markers that most areas of South America belong to the same genetic population while populations in Asia have a more complex history of introduction.

Esophageal injury still occurs with high frequency during ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF). The purpose of this study is to provide a review of methods to protect the esophagus from injury during AF ablation. Despite advances in imaging and ablation, the potential risk of esophageal injury during AF ablation remains an important concern with a high occurrence of esophageal injury (≈15%). There have been numerous studies evaluating varied techniques for esophageal protection including active cooling and displacement of the esophagus. These techniques are reviewed in this manuscript as well as the role of esophageal protection in managing patients undergoing AF ablation procedure.

Peatlands are globally important long-term sinks of carbon, however there is concern that enhanced moss moisture stress due to climate change mediated drought will reduce moss productivity making these ecosystems vulnerable to carbon loss and associated long-term degradation. Peatlands are resilient to summer drought moss stress because of negative ecohydrological feedbacks that generally maintain a wet peat surface, but where feedbacks may be contingent on peat depth. We tested this ‘survival of the deepest’ hypothesis by examining water table position, near-surface moisture content, and soil water tension in peatlands that differ in size, peat depth, and catchment area during a summer drought. All shallow sites lost their WT (i.e. the groundwater well was dry) for considerable time during the drought period. Near-surface soil water tension increased dramatically at shallow sites following water table loss, increasing ~5–7.5× greater at shallow sites compared to deep sites. During a mid-summer drought intensive field survey we found that 60%–67% of plots at shallow sites exceeded a 100 mb tension threshold used to infer moss water stress. Unlike the shallow sites, tension typically did not exceed this 100 mb threshold at the deep sites. Using species dependent water content - chlorophyll fluorescence thresholds and relations between volumetric water content and water table depth, Monte Carlo simulations suggest that moss had nearly twice the likelihood of being stressed at shallow sites (0.38 ± 0.24) compared to deep sites (0.22 ± 0.18). This study provides evidence that mosses in shallow peatland may be particularly vulnerable to warmer and drier climates in the future, but where species composition may play an important role. We argue that a critical ‘threshold’ peat depth specific for different hydrogeological and hydroclimatic regions can be used to assess what peatlands are especially vulnerable to climate change mediated drought.

Neonatal period is the key stage of lung development. However, tidal breathing pulmonary function (TBPF) of late preterm and full-term infants without pathology has rarely been studied. Our research focuses on the early neonatal period and aims to detect the factors influencing PF and implemente effective interventions earlier. Methods: This prospective study evaluated the PF characteristics of 142 infants admitted to our neonatology department. Potential explanatory variables for TBPF were analyzed using single-factor and multi-factor linear regression analyses. Results: PF characteristics, including tidal volume (VT) and minute ventilation (MV), were significantly lower in late preterm infants compared to full-term infants (P<0.01). TPTEF/TE and VPTEF/VE were not significantly different between groups (P>0.05). In the single-factor analysis, changes in parameters related to lung volume (VT, VT/kg, MV) were mainly correlated with gestational age (GA), corrected GA, birth weight, weight at examination, weight changes, and serum albumin(SAB). After birth, VT/kg and indicators of airway obstruction (VPTEF/VE and TPTEF/TE) changed significantly with increasing age. In the multiple-factor analysis, the main factors influencing VT, VT/kg, and MV were corrected GA and daily weight change, GA and corrected GA, and corrected GA and SAB, respectively. Conclusion: The main difference in PF between full-term and late premature infants was the lung volume. In these newborns PF was associated with GA, corrected GA, daily weight change, and SAB level. These results suggest that an adequate energy supply is critical for PF development in neonates, and especially for premature infants.

The identification of the closest prior art is a good starting point for evaluating the legal and the economic value of an intellectual property (IP) asset. The next step is the evaluation of the patentability requirements (novelty, inventive step and industrial application).Other factors to be taken into consideration are: potential market, development stage, time to market, product lifecycle, technology risk, detectability, design arounds and product value.License agreements are the best way to ascribe value to an academic invention. 

In the power distribution network, real power loss and voltage profile management are critical issues. By providing active and reactive power support, both of these issues can be managed. This paper utilized the Meta heuristic-based method for the optimal size and placement of distributed generation (DG) and capacitor (QG) sources for loss reduction by incorporating network current carrying capacity constraint in the optimization problem. The overall problem is optimized using an upgraded method of the fitness assignment and solution chasing based on the aggregate approach called Multi-objective Whale Optimization Algorithm (MWOA). Wind and solar photovoltaic sources are utilized as the distributed generation with their probabilistic outputs. The developed method is tested using two feeders of practical Bahir Dar Distribution Network, Ethiopia. The results of loss minimization and voltage profile management with MWOA are compared with multi-objective particle swam optimization (MPSO) with an equal number of iteration to show the superiority of the developed method.

Abstract Aim: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of adjuvant use of melatonin in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: This single-center, double-blind, randomized clinical trial included 74 hospitalized patients with confirmed mild to moderate COVID-19 at Baqiyatallah Hospital in Tehran, Iran, from April 25, 2020 to June 5, 2020. Patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive standard of care and standard of care plus melatonin at a dose of 3 mg three times daily for 14 days. Clinical characteristics, laboratory, and radiological findings were assessed and compared between two study groups at baseline and post-intervention. Safety and clinical outcomes were followed up for four weeks. Results: A total of 24 patients in the intervention group and 20 patients in the control group completed the treatment. Compared with the control group, the clinical symptoms such as cough, dyspnea, and fatigue, as well as the level of CRP and the pulmonary involvement in the intervention group had significantly improved (P < 0.05). The mean time of hospital discharge of patients and return to baseline health was significantly shorter in the intervention group compared to the control group (P < 0.05). No deaths and adverse events were observed in both groups during this study. Conclusions: Adjuvant use of melatonin has a potential to improve clinical symptoms of COVID-19 patients and contribute to a faster return of patients to baseline health. Keywords: COVID-19, Melatonin, Clinical trial, Adjunctive therapy Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04409522

In recent decades, due to the effect of climate change and the interference of human activities, the species habitat index fallen 2%. Studying the geographical distribution pattern and predicting the potential geographical distribution of species are of great significance for developing scientific and effective biodiversity conservation strategies. The purpose of this research is to predict the potential geographical distribution of 25 rare and endangered plant species in Northwest Yunnan, China on the grid map with a resolution of 0.05° × 0.05° and analyze the explanation capabilities of various environmental factors on the potential geographical distribution patterns of these species, and explore the main restrictive environmental factors. Initially, we employed the ecological niche model MaxEnt to predict the potential geographical distribution of target species. Following that, we overlaid the potential geographical distribution of each species, and we obtained the potential geographical distribution pattern of species richness on the spatial scale of the ecological niche model with a resolution of 0.05° × 0.05°. Ultimately, we also adopted geographically weighted regression (GWR) model to investigate the explanation capabilities of various environmental parameters on the potential distribution patterns. The results showed that the average AUC value of each species was between 0.80 and 1.00, which indicated that the simulation precision of the MaxEnt model for each species was good or excellent. Besides, the potential distribution areas of these species were between 826.33 km2 and 44,963.53 km2. In addition, the average contribution values of the annual precipitation (Bio12), precipitation of coldest quarter (Bio19) and population density (Pop) were 25.92%, 15.86% and 17.95%, respectively. Moreover, the goodness of fit R2 and AIC value of the water model were 0.88 and 7,703.82, respectively, which indicated the water factor largely influenced the potential distribution of these species. The results of this study would be helpful for implementing long-term conservation and reintroduction for these species.

    Bu içeriğimizde Kevin Houston tarafından yazılmış ve Türkçeye Mehmet Terziler ile Tahsin Öner tarafından çevrilmiş olan Matematikçi Gibi Düşünmek adlı kitabın "Mantıksal Nasıl Düşünülür?" kısmının özeti yer alıyor. Lisans matematiği için bir kılavuz olarak belirtilen bu kitaptaki her başlığın temel kısımlarını kendi görsellerimizle derledik. UYARI  Bu özete dair tanım, teorem ve açıklamaların detayları halihazırda kitapta bulunmaktadır. Bu nedenle konuları daha detaylı öğrenmek, örneklerle pekiştirmek ve konularla ilgili alıştırma yapmak için lütfen kitaba başvurunuz.

The gastrointestinal (GI) mucus layer plays a pivotal role in tissue homoeostasis and functionality of the gut. However, due to the shortage of affordable, realistic in vitro mucus models, studies with deeper insights into its structure and characteristics are rare. To obtain an improved mucus model, we developed a reusable culture chamber facilitating the application of physiologically relevant GI shear stresses (0.002-0.08 dyn/cm2) to cells in a bioreactor system. Differentiation of a confluent monolayer of human mucus-producing epithelial HT29-MTX cells was monitored under dynamic and static culture conditions. Cells under flow remained highly proliferative and analysis via confocal microscopy revealed superior reorganization into 3-dimensional villi-like structures compared to static culture (up to 120 vs. 80 µm in height). Additionally, the median mucus thickness was significantly increased under dynamic conditions compared to static culture (41±14 vs. 29±14 µm) with a simultaneous drastic reduction of culture time from three to two weeks for sufficient maturation into goblet-like cells. We demonstrated the impact of culture conditions on the differentiation of HT29-MTX cells, revealing outstanding in vivo like reorganization of cells and the production of thick adherent mucus networks when cultured under physiological shear stress using our newly designed culture chamber.

Background: Telehealth is delivering health care services remote from healthcare facilities using telecommunications and virtual technology. Egypt is aiming to reach Universal Health Coverage; this increases the demand of telehealth in routine health services. Telehealth benefits are increasing access to expertise in difficultly reached geographical areas with no available medical teams and may be used as fast first aid. It could also minimize costs of hospitals, as patients can be monitored remotely even from home. As for barriers, especially in developing countries, are the unavailable infrastructure and the resistance of patients. Objective: To measure the awareness of telehealth among attendees of primary health care units and their acceptance of application of telehealth. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study among attendees of primary health units. A sample size was calculated to be 162. A valid Arabic interview questionnaire was designed, and 170 questionnaires were filled by attendees. Ethical issues were considered. Results: Awareness percentage of telehealth among attendees was 64.7% while willingness to implement telehealth was 78%. Both awareness and willingness were significantly associated with age groups, residence, socioeconomic status and presence of computer with net access. Conclusion: It is concluded that a large percentage of attendees to primary health care centers are aware of telehealth and are willing to implement it. The major cause of refusal to implement telehealth was due ignorance of using telecommunication devices and the desire to be in close contact with the physicians.