Effects of The Long-Time Wearing of Gloves by Health Care Workers Managing Covid-19 Assessed by Electrodermal Activity: A Pilot Study

Continues wearing gloves is a crucial problem among health care workers treating patients with coronavirus (COVID-19) infection that may cause skin complications. In the present study, the skin conductance (SC), skin potential (SP) and skin susceptance (SS) were used to identify the effects of long-term wearing gloves among health care workers managing COVID-19. The experimental procedure was repeated 30 times on three subjects recruited as volunteers to wear gloves for 4 hours. The baseline of parameters SC, SP, and SS were recorded at normal conditions without wearing the glove at zero time (To). The parameters were again recorded in the cases of glove-wearing with and without zinc oxide ointment (ZnO) for the same period. Noticeable differences were found in each of SC, SP and SS for subjects who wore gloves when compared to the baseline for 4 h. Results also showed significant differences in each of SP and SS during the same period with applying ZnO comparing to wearing gloves without applying ZnO. The results show that skin hydration is significantly improved by using ZnO. However, changing gloves at least every four hours of continuous wearing is recommended.

AL QAEDA AND HYPERTERRORISM – THE SUCCESSFUL EMERGENCE OF BINLADENISM AT GLOBAL LEVEL

September 11, 2001 can be interpreted as a t0 (zero time) for the studies on terrorism, because that was the moment when the shift from classical terrorism to hyperterrorism occurred. The emergence of hyperterrorism at global level via Al Qaeda was successful owing to very well defined strategies and tactics, which were put into practice under Osama bin Laden's coordination. The in-depth knowledge of the strategies and tactics of a complex enemy, who practices Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, constitutes a starting point in elaborating antiterrorist strategies adapted to the dynamism of the international security environment.

Continuous-Curvature Trajectory Planning

Continuous‐curvature paths play an important role in the area of driving robots: as vehicles usually cannot changethe steering angle in zero‐time, real trajectories must not have discontinuities in the curvature profile. Typical continuous‐curvature paths are thus built of straight lines, arcs and clothoids. Due to the geometric nature of clothoids, some questions in the area of trajectory planning are difficult the answer – usually we need approximations here. In this paper we describe a full approach for continuous‐curvature trajectory planning for mobile robots – it covers a maneuver‐based planning with Viterbi optimization and geometric approximations required to construct the respective clothoid trajectories.

The Role of Ginkgo biloba Extract as Monotherapy in Improving the Outcomes of Patients with Metabolic Syndrome: A Pilot Comparative Study with Metformin

The present study evaluates the effects of Ginkgo biloba extract as monotherapy on the glycemic status, insulin resistance (IR), body mass index (BMI), and visceral adiposity index (VAI), in addition to the inflammatory markers, oxidative status and leptin level in patients with metabolic syndrome in comparison with metformin. The study is a randomized, double-blind pilot study conducted during the period May to September, 2020. Fifty patients were recruited in the study and they were allocated into two groups (25 per each group): Ginkgo biloba and Metformin groups, they received (120 mg Ginkgo biloba extract/ capsule) and (500 mg Metformin/ capsule) respectively; orally as a single dose for 90 days. Blood samples were taken at zero time and after 90 days and utilized for analysis of blood glucose, HbA1c, insulin and leptin levels, lipid profile, TAOS, hsCRP, TNF

3D MRI of the Spine

Three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance imaging of the spine is now clinically feasible due to technological advancements. Its advantages over two-dimensional imaging include higher in-plane spatial resolution and the ability for reformation in any plane that enables time savings in image acquisition and aids more accurate interpretation. Multispectral 3D techniques for imaging around metal are sometimes useful for evaluating anatomy adjacent to spinal fixation hardware. 3D gradient-recalled echo sequences, including ultrashort or zero time to echo sequences, can provide osseous detail similar to conventional computed tomography.

Emotion detection using electroencephalography signals and a zero-time windowing-based epoch estimation and relevant electrode identification

Recognizing emotions using biological brain signals requires accurate and efficient signal processing and feature extraction methods. Existing methods use several techniques to extract useful features from a fixed number of electroencephalography (EEG) channels. The primary objective of this study was to improve the performance of emotion recognition using brain signals by applying a novel and adaptive channel selection method that acknowledges that brain activity has a unique behavior that differs from one person to another and one emotional state to another. Moreover, we propose identifying epochs, which are the instants at which excitation is maximum, during the emotion to improve the system’s accuracy. We used the zero-time windowing method to extract instantaneous spectral information using the numerator group-delay function to accurately detect the epochs in each emotional state. Different classification scheme were defined using QDC and RNN and evaluated using the DEAP database. The experimental results showed that the proposed method is highly competitive compared with existing studies of multi-class emotion recognition. The average accuracy rate exceeded 89%. Compared with existing algorithms dealing with 9 emotions, the proposed method enhanced the accuracy rate by 8%. Moreover, experiment shows that the proposed system outperforms similar approaches discriminating between 3 and 4 emotions only. We also found that the proposed method works well, even when applying conventional classification algorithms.

All waves have a zero tunneling time

Zero tunneling time and thereby a faster than light traversal velocity was calculated nearly a hundred years ago and has been observed recently. We report about experimental results and estimations, which confirm the zero time tunneling for elastic as well as for electromagnetic and Schrödinger waves. Zero time tunneling was first observed with microwaves 1992 (H. Aichmann and G. Nimtz, Found. Phys., vol. 44, p. 678, 2014; A. Enders and G. Nimtz, J. Phys. I, vol. 2, p. 169, 1992). In 2008, zero time was also observed for tunneling electrons (P. Eckle, A. N. Pfeiffer, C. Cirelli, et al., Science, vol. 322, p. 1525, 2008). Presumably, this effect took place with atoms quite recently (R. Ramos, D. Spierings, I. Racicot, and A. M. Steinberg, Nature, vol. 583, p. 529, 2020). The Einstein relation E 2 = (ħk)2 c 2 is not satisfied in the tunneling process, since the wave number k is imaginary (E is the total energy, ħ the Planck constant, and c the vacuum velocity of light), Zero time tunneling is described by virtual photons (A. Stahlhofen and G. Nimtz, Europhys. Lett., vol. 76, p. 189, 2006). The tunneling process itself violates the Special Theory of Relativity. Remarkably, Brillouin conjectured that wave mechanics is valid for all waves independent of their field (L. Brillouin, Wave Propagation in Periodic Structures, Chap. VIII, New York, Dover Publications, 1953).

Effect of Electron Beam Irradiation on Viability of Sarcocystis spp. in Beef

Background: Sarcocystosis is one of the most distributed parasitic diseases over the world, caused by Sarcocystis spp. In this study, we assessed the effect of electron beam irradiation on the viability of Sarcocystis spp. in beef. Methods: Experimental beef groups were irradiated by four different electron beam doses of 1, 2, 3, and 4 kGy, at intervals of 0 and 24 h after irradiation, then the samples were transferred inside a sterile microtube containing RNAlater solution and stored at -20 °C till next steps. RNA extractions and cDNA synthesis were done using the related kit in order to detect the presence of the 18S ribosomal RNA region. Relative quantification was carried out using SYBR Green Real time Polymerase Chain Reaction. The statistical analysis was done using SPSS 16.0 by Tukey’s and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results: Irradiation at zero time was not effective on viability of Sarcocystis, but at 24 h, irradiation doses of 3 (p=0.003) and 4 kGy (p=0.008) caused a significant reduction in Sarcocystis viability. Irradiation doses of 1 and 2 kGy had no significant (p>0.05) effect on Sarcocystis viability reduction. Also, no significant differences (p>0.05) were observed between irradiation doses of 3 and 4 kGy. Conclusion: Electron beam radiation at dose of 3 kGy was effective as the optimal dose for the elimination of Sarcocystis spp. in beef.