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•4-Chloro benzaldehyde was coupled with chitosan to prepare Schiff base I.•Benzophenone was coupled with chitosan to prepare Schiff base II.•The chemical structures of the Schiff ...bases verified through FT-IR, TGA and DSC.•The antimicrobial activities of the Schiff bases increased more than chitosan.•The new Schiff bases could be applied as antimicrobial wound dresser.
Recently, there have been significant scientific interests to scientists for the chemical modifications of chitosan to increase its applications. The main objective of this study was to prepare two aromatic chitosan Schiff bases (I and II) via coupling with 4-chloro benzaldehyde and benzophenone respectively for improvement the antimicrobial property of chitosan. The chemical structures of the prepared Schiff bases verified through FT-IR, TGA and DSC. However, degrees of substitution were estimated using potentiometric analysis, and they were 7.9% and 4.17% for Schiff bases (I and II) respectively. Antimicrobial activities evaluation were conducted against three Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella sp.), two Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus) and Candida albicans strain. The antimicrobial activities of the new derivatives increased significantly more than chitosan in most microorganisms. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Schiff base (I) with concentration (50μg/ml) exhibited the highest activity against C. Albicans with growth inhibition up to 27.42%. While, 50μg/ml of Schiff base (II) showed high activity against E. coli, Salmonella sp., S. aeureus and B. cereus more than chitosan. The results clearly suggested that the new Schiff bases could be applied as antimicrobial wound dressing agents to ameliorate wound healing.
The detection of glucose is crucial in the management of diabetes and other medical conditions but also crucial in a wide range of industries such as food and beverages. The development of glucose ...sensors in the past century has allowed diabetic patients to effectively manage their disease and has saved lives. First-generation glucose sensors have considerable limitations in sensitivity and selectivity which has spurred the development of more advanced approaches for both the medical and industrial sectors. The wide range of application areas has resulted in a range of materials and fabrication techniques to produce novel glucose sensors that have higher sensitivity and selectivity, lower cost, and are simpler to use. A major focus has been on the development of enzymatic electrochemical sensors, typically using glucose oxidase. However, non-enzymatic approaches using direct electrochemistry of glucose on noble metals are now a viable approach in glucose biosensor design. This review discusses the mechanisms of electrochemical glucose sensing with a focus on the different generations of enzymatic-based sensors, their recent advances, and provides an overview of the next generation of non-enzymatic sensors. Advancements in manufacturing techniques and materials are key in propelling the field of glucose sensing, however, significant limitations remain which are highlighted in this review and requires addressing to obtain a more stable, sensitive, selective, cost efficient, and real-time glucose sensor.
Abstract
Fungi of the basal lineage order Mucorales are able to cause infections in animals and humans. Mucormycosis is a well-known, life-threatening disease especially in patients with a ...compromised immune system. The rate of mortality and morbidity caused by mucormycosis has increased rapidly during the last decades, especially in developing countries. The systematic, phylogenetic, and epidemiological distributions of mucoralean fungi are addressed in relation to infection in immunocompromised patients. The review highlights the current achievements in (i) diagnostics and management of mucormycosis, (ii) the study of the interaction of Mucorales with cells of the innate immune system, (iii) the assessment of the virulence of Mucorales in vertebrate and invertebrate infection models, and (iv) the determination of virulence factors that are key players in the infection process, for example, high-affinity iron permease (FTR1), spore coat protein (CotH), alkaline Rhizopus protease enzyme (ARP), ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF), dihydrolipoyl dehydrogenase, calcineurin (CaN), serine and aspartate proteases (SAPs). The present mini-review attempts to increase the awareness of these difficult-to-manage fungal infections and to encourage research in the detection of ligands and receptors as potential diagnostic parameters and drug targets.
•The Improved Slime Mould Algorithm (ISMA) has been derived and proposed.•The economic emission dispatch problem is solved using ISMA and other algorithms.•The proposed ISMA outperforms SMA, PSO, and ...TSA in solving the EED problem.•Both single- and multi-objective functions are solved using the proposed ISMA.
In this paper, an Improved version of the Slime Mould Algorithm (ISMA) is proposed and applied to efficiently solve the single-and bi-objective Economic and Emission Dispatch (EED) problems considering valve point effect. ISMA is developed to improve the performance of the conventional Slime Mould Algorithm (SMA). In ISMA, the solution positions are updated depending on two equations borrowed from the sine–cosine algorithm (SCA) to obtain the best solution. Multi-objective SMA (MOSMA) and Multi-objective ISMA (MOISMA) are developed based on the Pareto dominance concept and fuzzy decision-making. In the multi-objective EED problem, MOSMA and MOISMA are applied to minimize the total fuel costs and total emission with the valve point effect simultaneously. The proposed single-and bi-objective economic emission dispatch algorithms are validated using five test systems, 6-units, 10-units, 11-units, 40-units, and 110-units. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with Harris Hawk Optimizer (HHO), JellyfishSearch optimizer (JS), Tunicate Swarm Algorithm (TSA), Particle swarm optimization (PSO), and SMA algorithms. The results show that the proposed algorithms are more robust than other well-known algorithms. Feasible solutions using the proposed algorithms are also achieved, which adjust the schedule of generation without violation of the operating generation limits.
Over the last few years, load growth, increases in intermittent generation, declining technology costs and increasing recognition of the importance of customer behaviour in energy markets have ...brought about a change in the focus of Demand Response (DR) in Europe. The long standing programmes involving large industries, through interruptible tariffs and time of day pricing, have been increasingly complemented by programmes aimed at commercial and residential customer groups. Developments in DR vary substantially across Europe reflecting national conditions and triggered by different sets of policies, programmes and implementation schemes. This paper examines experiences within European countries as well as at European Union (EU) level, with the aim of understanding which factors have facilitated or impeded advances in DR. It describes initiatives, studies and policies of various European countries, with in-depth case studies of the UK, Italy and Spain. It is concluded that while business programmes, technical and economic potentials vary across Europe, there are common reasons as to why coordinated DR policies have been slow to emerge. This is because of the limited knowledge on DR energy saving capacities; high cost estimates for DR technologies and infrastructures; and policies focused on creating the conditions for liberalising the EU energy markets.
The bridge towards fully autonomous, context-aware surgical robots is fraught with challenges, not least of which is ascribing legal responsibility in the event of inadvertent patient injury or ...death. Of the civil liability frameworks potentially applicable to AI-related harm, this article examines the substantive rules of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability and the European Commission's newly proposed directive on liability for defective products to determine whether a plaintiff would be entitled to redress against a manufacturer should patient injury or death occur during an operation performed by a fully autonomous surgical robot. Specifically, the comparative analysis discusses the concepts of 'product' and 'defectiveness' and information disclosure provisions, anticipated to be the primary legal battlegrounds in this area. Overall, the article contends that the existing product liability framework in the US and the regime proposed in Europe would not be entirely inadequate for protecting the fundamental rights of patients in the context of autonomous robotic surgery.
Egypt's National Road Project is a large infrastructure project which presently aims to upgrade 2500 kilometers of road networks as well as construct 4000 kilometers of new roads to meet today's ...need. This leads to an increase in the number of work zones on highways and therefore a rise in hazardous traffic conditions. This is why highways agencies are shifting towards night construction in order to reduce the adverse traffic impacts on the public. Although many studies have investigated work zone crashes, only a few studies provide comparative analysis of the difference between nighttime and daytime work zone crashes.
Data from Egyptian long-term highway work zone projects between 2010 and 2016 are studied with respect to the difference in injury severity between nighttime and daytime crashes by using separate mixed logit models.
The results indicate that significant differences exist between factors contributing to injury severity. Four variables are found significant only in the nighttime model and four other variables significant in the daytime model. The results show that older and male drivers, the number of lane closures, sidewise crashes, and rainy weather have opposite effects on injury severity in nighttime and daytime crashes. The findings presented in this paper could serve as an aid for transportation agencies in development of efficient measures to improve safety in work zones.
A simulation was needed to simulate generating energy from Jatropha plants’ solid wastes in combined cycle power plants. In this study, a simulation was built to simulate energy generation from ...gasified Jatropha solid wastes. Solid wastes from Jatropha plants' were generated from biodiesel production to produce 1.53 kg/s biodiesel. An assumption was made these solid wastes were gasified to generate energy. Energy production was simulated using DWSIM software. Solid wastes were classified into three categories; cake, shell, and husk. The amount of cake was calculated to be 1.62 kg/s, the shell calculated to be 3.6 kg/s, and the husk was calculated to be 2.16 kg/s. Therefore, the producer gas for each Jatropha solid waste was estimated according to the literature to be 3.65 m3/s for the cake, 4.86 m3/s for husk, and 8.1 m3/s for the shell. The simulation of generating energy from the syngas was validated using experimental data from the literature. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to find the optimum conditions. The results showed that the energy produced from Jatropha waste was higher than that produced from biodiesel. From the simulation, the net energy generated in the gas turbine section was 21.34 MW and from HRSG 12.472 MW. The water flow rate in the compression section of syngas was found to be 10.18 kg/s, which was converted to steam and added more power to the power plant.
Solid fuel, Simulation, Power plant, Syngas.
Two self-associating biopolymers, namely chitosan (Ch) and a high-molar-mass hyaluronan (HA), were used to prepare membranes with the aim to protect and to enhance the healing of injured skin. A ...mitochondrially-targeted antioxidant-MitoQ-was incorporated into the mixture of biopolymers prior to their self-association. These three-component membranes were evaluated in detail utilising surface roughness measurements, contact angle measurements, hemocompatibility, and thrombogenicity analyses. Furthermore, in vivo application of Ch/HA/MitoQ membranes was assessed on injured rabbit and rat skin utilizing histological methods. The results showed that the prepared thrombogenic Ch/HA/MitoQ membranes had higher roughness, which allowed for greater surface area for tissue membrane interaction during the healing processes, and lower cytotoxicity levels than controls. MitoQ-loaded composite membranes displayed superior healing properties in these animal models compared to control membranes.
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