China's economic ascendance over the past two decades has generated ripple effects in the world economy. Its search for natural resources to satisfy the demands of industrialization has led it to ...Sub-Saharan Africa. Trade between China and Africa in 2006 totaled more than $ 50 billion, with Chinese companies importing oil from Angola and Sudan, timber from Central Africa, and copper from Zambia. Demand from China has contributed to an upward swing in prices, particularly for oil and metals from Africa, and has given a boost to real GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa. Chinese aid and investment in infrastructure are bringing desperately needed capital to the continent. At the same time, however, strong Chinese demand for oil is contributing to an increase in the import bill for many oil-importing Sub-Saharan African countries, and its exports of low-cost textiles, while benefiting African consumers, is threatening to displace local production. China poses a challenge to good governance and macroeconomic management in Africa because of the potential Dutch disease implications of commodity booms. China presents both an opportunity for Africa to reduce its marginalization from the global economy and a challenge for it to effectively harness the influx of resources to promote poverty-reducing economic development at home.
Recently, iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted much consideration due to their unique properties, such as superparamagnetism, surface-to-volume ratio, greater surface area, and easy ...separation methodology. Various physical, chemical, and biological methods have been adopted to synthesize magnetic NPs with suitable surface chemistry. This review summarizes the methods for the preparation of iron oxide NPs, size and morphology control, and magnetic properties with recent bioengineering, commercial, and industrial applications. Iron oxides exhibit great potential in the fields of life sciences such as biomedicine, agriculture, and environment. Nontoxic conduct and biocompatible applications of magnetic NPs can be enriched further by special surface coating with organic or inorganic molecules, including surfactants, drugs, proteins, starches, enzymes, antibodies, nucleotides, nonionic detergents, and polyelectrolytes. Magnetic NPs can also be directed to an organ, tissue, or tumor using an external magnetic field for hyperthermic treatment of patients. Keeping in mind the current interest in iron NPs, this review is designed to report recent information from synthesis to characterization, and applications of iron NPs.
With a significant deployment of smart meters across end-user platforms, the dynamic visibility of energy flow among the end-users has been increased significantly. The granular information of smart ...meters can be used to improve the load forecast accuracy and to influence energy consumption patterns with demand side management (DSM) schemes. This paper addresses the challenges of smart meter data size, complexity, variability and volatility for efficient use in load forecast and DSM. A novel clustering-based approach for analysis of smart meter data, aimed at more accurate and detailed load profiling, reduced profile complexity, improved load forecast accuracy and providing optimal DSM solutions is proposed. The proposed approach utilizes an advanced clustering algorithm to reduce the data size. The approach addresses data complexity, variability and volatility by linearizing the load profiles and minimizing the errors. The validity of the approach is demonstrated on an Irish smart meter dataset and on a simulated solar photovoltaic (PV) data and showed an improved load forecast accuracy, improved DSM solutions, and reduced computational burden. The improvements in the DSM solution are evidenced by a higher cost saving with a higher peak load reduction at the lower level of demand flexibility.
A new series of 1,3,4-oxadiazoles derivatives was synthesized, characterized, and evaluated for their in vitro and in vivo anti-thrombotic activity. Compounds (
⁻
) exhibited significant clot lysis ...with respect to reference drug streptokinase (30,000 IU), and enhanced clotting time (CT) values (130⁻342 s) than heparin (110 s). High affinity towards 1NFY with greater docking score was observed for the compounds (
,
,
,
, and
) than the control ligand RPR200095. In addition, impressive inhibitory potential against factor Xa (F-Xa) was observed with higher docking scores (5612⁻6270) with Atomic Contact Energy (ACE) values (-189.68 to -352.28 kcal/mol) than the control ligand RPR200095 (Docking score 5192; ACE -197.81 kcal/mol). In vitro, in vivo, and in silico results proposed that these newly synthesized compounds might be used as anticoagulant agents.
Water constitutes ≈70–90% of the organism's body by mass and is highly important for its survival. Water contains a variety of chemical contaminants introduced by various sectors, resulting in ...contamination that has a direct impact on the ecosystem. Various approaches are in practice to tackle these issues. Among these, semiconductor photocatalysis appears to be the cutting‐edge technology for the degradation of wastewater contaminants. Herein, the fabrication of Fe3O4−SiO2 nanocomposite via facile co‐precipitation and Stober methods are reported. Various characterization techniques are employed for the structural elucidation, morphology, crystallinity, and stability of the as‐prepared composite. The nanocomposite is employed in catalytic and photocatalytic applications toward the removal of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) dyes from a comparative perspective. It is observed that the composite can remove about 93% of MB and 51% of MO within 7 and 6 h, respectively. These findings indicate that the nanocomposite has a higher MB removal effectiveness than the MO. This trend can be accredited to the difference in the chemical structure of both dyes. The nanocomposite is also evaluated for antioxidant and antileishmanial activity, and it is shown to be quite effective even at very low concentrations.
Water contains a variety of chemical contaminants introduced by various sectors, resulting in contamination that has a direct impact on the ecosystem. Herein, the fabrication of Fe3O4−SiO2 nanocomposite via facile co‐precipitation and Stober methods is reported, for the catalytic and photocatalytic applications toward the removal of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) dyes from a comparative perspective.
This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary iron on growth, haematology oxidative stress and determine the optimum dietary iron level for Heteropneustes fossilis by feeding graded levels ...of iron (6.9, 25.5, 47.0, 66.7, 86.6, 107.1, 126.8 and 146.9 mg kg−1) achieved by supplementing ferrous sulfate (0, 99.4, 198.8, 298.2, 397.6, 497.0, 596.4 and 695.4 mg kg−1). Increase in dietary iron levels from 6.9 to 86.6 mg kg−1 significantly improved (P < 0.05) the growth performance and conversion efficiencies in terms of absolute weight gain (AWG; 50.4 g fish−1), feed conversion ratio (FCR; 1.6), specific growth rate (SGR; 2.5% day−1) and protein retention efficiency (PRE; 28.2%) beyond which no significant change was observed. The concentration of iron in liver also increased up to 86.6 mg kg−1 while whole body iron increased up to the level of 107.1 mg kg−1 and then stabilized. Red blood cells (RBC) counts, haemoglobin (Hb), haematocrit (Hct), mean cell haemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) also improved up to 86.6 mg kg−1 and then stabilized. Activities of hepatic superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) were found to increase while malondialdehyde (MDA) content decreased with increasing levels of dietary iron up to 86.6 mg kg−1. Hepatic ascorbic acid concentration was found to decrease up to 86.6 mg kg−1. Based on broken-line regression analysis of AWG, PRE, Hct and serum iron concentration against increasing levels of dietary iron, optimum level of dietary iron for H. fossilis was found to range between 82.51 and 86.05 mg kg−1 of dry diet.
•Effects of dietary iron on growth, haematology, and oxidative stress of fingerling Heteropneustes fossilis were evaluated.•Optimum dietary iron requirement was established.•Addition of iron in diets of fingerling H. fossilis in the range of 82.51–86.05 mg kg−1 is recommended.
In international guidelines, risk estimation for thoracic ascending aortic aneurysm (TAAA) is based on aortic diameter. We previously introduced the aortic size index (ASI), defined as aortic ...size/body surface area (BSA), as a predictor of aortic dissection, rupture, and death. However, weight might not contribute substantially to aortic size and growth. We seek to evaluate the height-based aortic height index (AHI) versus ASI for risk estimation and revisit our natural history calculations.
Aortic diameters and long-term complications of 780 patients with TAAA were analyzed. Growth rate estimates, yearly complication rates, and survival were assessed. Risk stratification was performed using regression models. The predictive value of AHI and ASI was compared.
Patients were stratified into 4 categories of yearly risk of complications based on their ASI and AHI. ASIs (cm/m2) of ≤2.05, 2.08 to 2.95, 3.00 to 3.95 and ≥4, and AHIs (cm/m) of ≤2.43, 2.44 to 3.17, 3.21 to 4.06, and ≥4.1 were associated with a 4%, 7%, 12%, and 18% average yearly risk of complications, respectively. Five-year complication-free survival was progressively worse with increasing ASI and AHI. Both ASI and AHI were shown to be significant predictors of complications (P < .05). AHI categories 3.05 to 3.69, 3.70 to 4.34, and ≥4.35 cm/m were associated with a significantly increased risk of complications (P < .05). The overall fit of the model using AHI was modestly superior according to the concordance statistic.
Compared with indices including weight, the simpler height-based ratio (excluding weight and BSA calculations) yields satisfactory results for evaluating the risk of natural complications in patients with TAAA.
Successful microbial colonization of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract hinges on an organism's ability to overcome the intense competition for nutrients in the gut between the host and the resident gut ...microbiome. Enteric pathogens can exploit ethanolamine (EA) in the gut to bypass nutrient competition. However, Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) is an asymptomatic gut colonizer and, unlike well-studied enteric pathogens, harbors two genetically distinct ethanolamine utilization (eut) loci. Our investigation uncovered unique roles for each eut locus depending on EA utilization as a carbon or nitrogen source. Murine gut colonization studies demonstrated the necessity of both eut loci in the presence of intact gut microbiota for robust GI colonization by K. pneumoniae. Additionally, while some Escherichia coli gut isolates could metabolize EA, other commensals were incapable, suggesting that EA metabolism likely provides K. pneumoniae a selective advantage in gut colonization. Molecular and bioinformatic analyses unveiled the conservation of two eut loci among K. pneumoniae and a subset of the related taxa in the K. pneumoniae species complex, with the NtrC-RpoN regulatory cascade playing a pivotal role in regulation. These findings identify EA metabolism as a critical driver of K. pneumoniae niche establishment in the gut and propose microbial metabolism as a potential therapeutic avenue to combat K. pneumoniae infections.
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