Zinc nanoparticles are documented to be harmful to fish because their accumulation in fish bring about many irreversible changes in their health. Nigella sativa and its oil have been endorsed in ...aquaculture to improve fish health.
Two hundred seventy experimental fish (113 ± 5 g body weight) were divided into 6 groups G1–6; control fish fed a diet without any treatment (G1), 0.3% of NSO (G2), 0.5% of NSO (G3), ZnO NPs (40 mg/kg diet) (G4), 0.3% of NSO and ZnO NPs (40 mg/kg diet) (G5), 0.5% of NSO and ZnO NPs (40 mg/kg diet) (G6), the trial lasted for six weeks.
Growth performance was enhanced in fish received diets containing NSO, final weight (FW), weight gain (WG), daily weight gain (DWG), and relative growth rate (RGR) were significantly increased with lower food conversion ratios (FCR) compared to the control. The hepatic glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT), and metallothionein (MT) were increased in response to ZnO NPs stress and only 0.5% NSO supplementation could ameliorate such increment. The immune-related genes interleukin1-beta (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-beta (TNF-β), transforming growth factor-beta 2 (TGF-β2) and C-type lysozyme as well as growth-related gene insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) in liver showed an upregulation in fish fed with NSO diets. Administration of ZnO NPs lowered the resistance of Oreochromis niloticus against bacterial infection with Aeromonas hydrophila and NSO could enhance the immunity in the highest tested concentration (0.5%) (G6).
The obtained results implied that NSO could enhance the oxidative and immune status of O. niloticus which could compensate ZnO NPs stress as well as experimental infection of a virulent strain of A. hydrophila. Our results revealed that NSO might increase fish growth and immunity only at a high dose (0.5%).
•Zinc nanoparticles could suppress Nile tilapia immunity.•Nigella sativa oil could ameliorate nanoparticles withdrawals.•Cytokines expressions affected by Zinc nanoparticles and Nigella sativa oil supplementation.
The increase in electricity demand places its focus on renewable energies as sustainable energy resources. Wind energy is one of the most important green energy sources. The doubly fed induction ...generator (DFIG)‐based wind farm has now gained prominence due to its many advantages, such as variable speed operation and autonomous control of active and reactive power. When the DFIG stator windings are directly connected to the power grid, when a grid fault occurs, some unwanted high current may be produced in the rotor windings, and the protection system will prevent the rotor side converter (RSC) from operating. Therefore, voltage stability is a significant factor in maintaining the DFIG‐based wind farm in operation during grid faults and disturbances. This paper applies a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) to restore the voltage levels of the Egyptian power grid connected to Al Zafarana‐5th stage wind farm, which is made of 100 Gamesa G52/850 kW DFIG machines. In this paper, the STATCOM is controlled by a proportional integral (PI) and is compared with a STATCOM controlled by fuzzy logic control (FLC). For simulation, the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment is used. Moreover, the simulation results show that STATCOM devices with fuzzy logic controllers improve the effects of grid faults and disturbances such as a single line to ground fault, a line to line fault, voltage sag, and voltage swell as compared with STATCOM with PI controllers. Also, STATCOM devices based on FLC improve the stability and power quality of the system and the power system restoration procedures for the existing and future‐planned wind farms.
MERS-CoV seronegative and seropositive camels received a single intramuscular dose of ChAdOx1 MERS, a replication-deficient adenoviral vectored vaccine expressing MERS-CoV spike protein, with further ...groups receiving control vaccinations. Infectious camels with active naturally acquired MERS-CoV infection, were co-housed with the vaccinated camels at a ratio of 1:2 (infected:vaccinated); nasal discharge and virus titres were monitored for 14 days. Overall, the vaccination reduced virus shedding and nasal discharge (p = 0.0059 and p = 0.0274, respectively). Antibody responses in seropositive camels were enhancedby the vaccine; these camels had a higher average age than seronegative. Older seronegative camels responded more strongly to vaccination than younger animals; and neutralising antibodies were detected in nasal swabs. Further work is required to optimise vaccine regimens for younger seronegative camels.
Amorphous nanoparticles of cadmium sulfide (CdS), titanium oxide (TiO2), and 50/50 of TiO2-CdS mixtures were prepared and immobilized in poly 2,2-bithiophene (PBTh) by occlusion electrodeposition ...method. X-ray studies indicated that a heterogeneous crystal structure of CdS (cubical-hexagonal) was formed. Optical studies indicated that occlusion of CdS or TiO2 or both into PBTh significantly decreased the intensity of the inter band transition as revealed by the values of (Ed) dispersion energy. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) studies revealed evidence of fast charge recombination due to the hole accumulations at the interfaces. Furthermore, PEC studies indicated that, regardless of the method of the preparation of CdS-TiO2 mixtures, CdS was the dominating factor in the photocurrent generation. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopic studies (EIS) revealed that occluded assembly films possess a porous-type structure, with multiple phases as indicated by the generation of Nyquist plots with composite semi-circles. The study also shows that occlusion increased the frequencies of the dispersion and charge carrier hopping. The studied assemblies showed photostability for a long time of illumination. Photoelectrochemical, EIS, and optical outcomes did not follow monotonic properties of each component of these hybrid assemblies.
Background
Polyomavirus, known as BK virus, is an important cause of allograft dysfunction in renal transplant patients, leading to BK virus nephropathy. The main study objectives were to assess the ...disease incidence and disease course in pediatric patients, and assess the diagnostic accuracy of BK screening for asymptomatic patients.
Methods
This is a single‐center observational study, which included 81 pediatric renal allograft recipients that were transplanted and/or followed at King Fahad Specialist Hospital‐Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Screening for BK virus was performed prospectively according to a predetermined hospital protocol. Our BK screening protocol consisted of periodic quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction test in the plasma. In patients with deranged graft function, graft biopsies were evaluated for the presence of BK nephropathy.
Results
Our study detected BK viremia in 14 patients (17.3%), while BK nephropathy occurred in seven patients (8.6%). The onset of BK viremia had bimodal distribution, 78 percent occurring within first year post‐transplantation, while 21.4% occurred late.
Patients who developed BK nephropathy had a higher BK level than BK viremia patients, for both mean and peak values (p = .02, p = .02). A BK cutoff level of 40 000 copies/mL showed sensitivity and specificity of 85.7%, 85.7%, respectively, in predicting the conversion of BK viremia to BK nephropathy.
Conclusions
BK viremia and BK nephropathy occur in pediatric patients with similar incidence rates compared to adult patients. Protocolized screening led to early detection of viremia, and could predict the conversion of BK viremia to BK nephropathy and allow for early immunosuppression modulation.
▶ Measurement of hot-spotting temperature formed during high-energy braking. ▶ Coupling an infrared camera and a two-colour pyrometer, consideration of disc emissivity. ▶ Frictional forces and ...subsurface damage are correlated with the surface temperature. ▶ Plastic deformation and microcracks perpendicularly and parallel to the rubbing surface. ▶ Solid–solid phase transformations taking place beneath the hot spots were observed.
Thermal levels of hot spots formed during high-energy braking with an organic matrix composite pad facing a steel disc have been studied using an infrared camera and a two-colour pyrometer. The coupling of these two devices allowed us to follow the friction areas and measure the disc surface temperature by taking into account the non-uniformity and variation of the emissivity. It also provided information about thermal gradients on the rubbing surfaces. Hot spot evolutions have been compared to friction contact variations. Material analyses revealed the occurrence of severe damage beneath the hot spots, particularly in the form of plastic deformation and microcracks propagating perpendicularly and parallel to the rubbing surface. In addition, solid–solid phase transformations taking place beneath the hot spots were observed in the vicinity of the rubbed surface. Finally, frictional force variations and subsurface damage were correlated with the surface temperature.
This study discusses the Gompertz distribution’s statistical inference using unified hybrid censored data. Under various loss functions, the maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches are explored ...for estimating the parameters for the Gompertz distribution. To compare the suggested methodologies, the Monte Carlo simulation is used, which also introduces the simulation research. By examining a genuine dataset, the applicability of the presented inference in practice is finally demonstrated.
Four agricultural wastes, i.e., sugarcane bagasse, rice straw, cotton stalk, and corn stalk were experienced as low-cost lignocellulosic materials for their ability to adsorb reactive red dye from ...its contaminated solutions. Batch adsorption technology was carried out in order to analyze sorption behavior of dye-adsorbent systems at different wastes, initial dye concentration, and solution pH value. The acid pH treatment was detected to significantly enhance the adsorption efficiency of used lignocellulosic wastes to maximum removal efficiency (96%). Bioreactor technology was applied as up-scaling experiments using sugarcane bagasse (SCB) waste (the best adsorbent under batch experiments) with different adsorbent dosage and flow rates. The maximum removal efficiency (89.65%) was recorded by 448 g of SCB waste, hydraulic retention time of 24 h and 12.6 l/h flow rate. The SEM characterization illustrated accumulation of dye molecules onto lignocellulosic structure. Also, elemental analyses by EDAX instrument confirmed absorption technology. Thus, the sugarcane bagasse wastes can be applied as low-cost and environmental safe absorbent for RR dye removal from its contaminated wastewater and introducing non-traditional water resource.
In recent years, there has been a lot of interest in the research of cooperative censoring schemes. In this work, we compared the relative benefits of two competing length-of-life products using ...inverse Weibull lifetime products with a joint type-II hybrid censoring scheme (JHC-Type II). We initially examined the maximum likelihood estimators and their confidence intervals (CIs) for the unknown parameters based on JHC-Type II. Then, under the premise of independent gamma priors, we offer Bayes estimates of the parameters using squared error loss and LINEX loss functions. We used the Markov chain Monte Carlo method to create credible intervals and Bayesian estimates. Based on the parametric bootstrapping techniques known as Boot-p and Boot-t, we create two bootstrapping CIs. In addition, we do a Monte Carlo simulation experiment to track how well the aforementioned approaches work and to determine the corresponding confidence and credible intervals. Finally, to show how the approaches covered in this paper might be used, we consider a real physical dataset.
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