Performance evaluation and life cycle assessment of electrocoagulation process for manganese removal from wastewater using titanium electrodes.

Excess manganese (Mn) concentrations can pose environmental and health risks. Currently, research on Mn removal by electrocoagulation (EC) using transition metal electrodes and the determination of its potential environmental impacts is limited. This study aims to assess the electrocoagulation process's performance with a titanium electrode as a sacrificial anode while also performing a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the process. The initial pH, current density (CD), electrode spacings, electrolyte types, concentrations, and electrode arrangement were all examined. For synthetic wastewater, most of the experiments used a concentration of Mn of 2 mg/L and sodium chloride as a supporting electrolyte at a concentration of 1 g/L. LCA software (OpenLCA 1.11) was used to assess the potential environmental impacts. Optimal operating conditions within the experimental range were as follows: initial pH = 7, CD = 10 mA/cm2, gap distance = 2 cm, and 1 g/L NaCl. Under these conditions, the maximum Mn removal efficiency was 96.5% after 60 min. There was an improvement of 2% rise after 60 min when the temperature increased from 20 °C to 40 °C. For real wastewater, the highest removal efficiencies for Mn and chemical oxygen demand after 60 min were 91.3% and 92%, respectively. The pseudo second order model provides the highest coefficient of determination for expressing the experimental data. Global warming, human non-carcinogenic toxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity were the most important categories of impact examined in this work according to the LCA (0.00064 kg CO2 eq, 0.00018 kg 1,4-DCB, and 0.00028 kg 1,4-DCB, respectively). To effectively remove Mn using EC with Ti electrodes, it appears that a period of electrolysis of 10 min would be sufficient under most of the conditions investigated in this study. The reduction in the electrolysis time will lead to a reduction in the operating costs of the system.

The Impact of LEP rs7799039 Polymorphism and Obesity on the Severity of Coronavirus Disease-19.

Background and Aims: SARS-CoV-2 infection has been recorded in 230 countries to date. Obesity has a negative impact on one's quality of life and is one of the main causes of mortality globally. Obesity affects the immune system, making the host more susceptible to infectious infections. Also, obesity commonly provokes the severity of respiratory diseases so the correlation of LEP rs7799039 Polymorphism in corpulent patients with COVID-19 infection was clearly investigated in the current study. Methods: A total of 232 patients were recruited, 116 patients were obese with COVID-19 infection, and 116 patients were non obese COVID-19. Fasting blood glucose test (FBG), hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), complete blood count (CBC), international normalized ratio (INR), urea, alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), D dimer and C-reactive protein (CRP) were estimated. C.T. scan was performed for each patient, and C.T. severity score was calculated. Genotyping for the leptin rs7799039 SNPs was performed by TaqMan® (Applied Biosystems Step One TM Real-time PCR). Results: Regarding LEP polymorphism, all individuals of non-obese groups significantly had the homozygous allele GG (100%), whereas only 56% of obese groups had GG alleles (P = 0.001). The severity scores significantly (P = 0.001) varied regarding LEP polymorphism regarding Rs7799039, where the largest proportion of those with Grade IV had the homozygous allele AA (57.1%). Conclusion: There was a correlation between the leptin gene allelic discrimination and COVID-19 CT brutality in obese patients. The A allele was considered a risk factor for severity in COVID-19 patients while the G allele contributes to decreasing that risk.

The Incidence of Post Phacoemulsification Surgery Induced Dry Eye Disease in Upper Egypt.

Background: Dry eye is described as a multifactorial disorder of the tear film that occurs due to excessive tear evaporation or tears insufficiency, and so leads to ocular discomfort sensation and ocular tissue damage with time. Objective: To assess the incidence of dry eye disease after uncomplicated phacoemulsification surgery in patients with no pre-existed dry eye. Patients and Methods: This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the incidence of dry eye at 100 eyes of 100 patients who underwent uncomplicated phacoemulsification surgery, with age more than 45 years old. It is measured by dry eye tests Schirmer 1 and tear break up time. Results: This study showed that 22% of the patients who underwent uncomplicated phacoemulsification surgery suffered from dry eye with significant results at 1st week post-operative that improved over time. Conclusion: There was a statistically significant drop in the results of the Schirmer test 1 and TBUT post phacoemulsification surgery, but with no clinical significance as they still at the normal range. The tear film assessment results at the 1st week post-operative were out of the normal range with TBUT and were borderline with ST1 in 22% of the patients. These results improved over time to return to the normal values within 12 weeks postoperatively.

SARS-CoV-2: The Path of Prevention and Control.

The 2019 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) continues to expand worldwide. Although the number of cases and the death rate among children and adolescents are reported to be low compared to adults, limited data have been reported. We urgently need to find the treatment and vaccine to stop the epidemic. Vaccine development is in progress, but any approved and effective vaccine for COVID-19 will take at least 12 to 18 months. The World Health Organization (WHO), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have issued instructions and strategies for controlling COVID-19 outbreak to the general public, physicians, travelers and injured patients to follow so that the transmission to a healthy population can be prevented. In this review, we summarize demographic data, clinical characteristics, complications and outcomes and finally prevention and control strategies for this serious pandemic.

COVID-19 in Pediatrics: A Diagnostic Challenge.

Most pediatric patients with COVID-19 described in the literature have unusual or mild respiratory symptoms. Fever is usually a prominent feature. Cough is described frequently. Less common are sore throat, headache, productive cough, nausea, and diarrhea. Some studies estimate that children made up about 2% of the affected population. Nearly 1.2% of infected children need hospital treatment and some children require mechanical ventilation. The immune system in children is in its development stage, therefore the immune response to pathogens is different from adults.