Background: Asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory diseases in the world, standing for the most frequent cause for hospitalization and emergency cases. Respiratory viruses are the most triggering cause. Aim: To assess the role of viral infections, especially COVID-19, in the pathogenesis of asthma initiation and exacerbations. Method: Electronic search was done for the manuscripts focusing on asthma as a risk factor for complications after COVID-19 infection. The outcomes were titles, materials, methods and classified studies related or not related to the review study. Three hundred publications were identified and only ten studies were selected for analysis. Seven studies were review, one retrospective, one longitudinal cohort study and one letter to the editor. Results: The included literature sources have highlighted different effect of asthma on COVID-19 progression. Asthma can be triggered by this virus and asthmatic patients with COVID-19 should not stop their treatment. Others suggest that asthma does not appear to be a significant risk factor for developing severe COVID-19 requiring hospitalization or intubation. Conclusions: Asthma is considered as comorbidity factor leading to complications and mortality in subjects infected with COVID-19.
This study deals with the elimination of methyl orange (MO) from an aqueous solution by utilizing the 3D electroFenton process in a batch reactor with an anode of porous graphite and a cathode of copper foam in the presence of granular activated carbon (GAC) as a third pole, besides, employing response surface methodology (RSM) in combination with Box-Behnk Design (BBD) for studying the effects of operational conditions, such as current density (3–8 mA/cm2), electrolysis time (10–20 min), and the amount of GAC (1–3 g) on the removal efficiency beside to their interaction. The model was veiled since the value of R2 was high (>0.98) and the current density had the greatest influence on the response. The best removal efficiency (MO Re%)
... Show MoreCombining different treatment strategies successively or simultaneously has become recommended to achieve high purification standards for the treated discharged water. The current work focused on combining electrocoagulation, ion-exchange, and ultrasonication treatment approaches for the simultaneous removal of copper, nickel, and zinc ions from water. The removal of the three studied ions was significantly enhanced by increasing the power density (4–10 mA/cm2) and NaCl salt concentration (0.5–1.5 g/L) at a natural solution pH. The simultaneous removal of these metal ions at 4 mA/cm2 and 1 g NaCl/L was highly improved by introducing 1 g/L of mordenite zeolite as an ion-exchanger. A remarkable removal of heavy metals was reported
... Show MoreIn this study, biodiesel was prepared from chicken fat via a transesterification reaction using Mussel shells as a catalyst. Pretreatment of chicken fat was carried out using non‐catalytic esterification to reduce the free fatty acid content from 36.28 to 0.96 mg KOH/g oil using an ethanol/ fat mole ratio equal to 115:1. In the transesterification reaction, the studied variables were methanol: oil mole ratio in the range of (6:1 ‐ 30:1), catalyst loading in the range of (9‐15) wt%, reaction temperature (55‐75 °C), and reaction time (1‐7) h. The heterogeneous alkaline catalyst was greenly synthesized from waste mussel shells throughout a calcin
A multistep synthesis was established for the preparation of a new vanillic acid-1, 2, 4-1triazole-3-thiol conjugate (
Pure and Fe-doped zinc oxide nanocrystalline films were prepared
via a sol–gel method using -
C for 2 h.
The thin films were prepared and characterized by X-ray diffraction
(XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission scanning
electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and UV- visible spectroscopy. The
XRD results showed that ZnO has hexagonal wurtzite structure and
the Fe ions were well incorporated into the ZnO structure. As the Fe
level increased from 2 wt% to 8 wt%, the crystallite size reduced in
comparison with the pure ZnO. The transmittance spectra were then
recorded at wavelengths ranging from 300 nm to 1000 nm. The
optical band gap energy of spin-coated films also decreased as Fe
doping concentra
This study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From
... Show MoreFor the design of a deep foundation, piles are presumed to transfer the axial and lateral loads into the ground. However, the effects of the combined loads are generally ignored in engineering practice since there are uncertainties to the precise definition of soil–pile interactions. Hence, for technical discussions of the soil–pile interactions due to dynamic loads, a three-dimensional finite element model was developed to evaluate the soil pile performance based on the 1 g shaking table test. The static loads consisted of 50% of the allowable vertical pile capacity and 50% of the allowable lateral pile capacity. The dynamic loads were taken from the recorded data of the Kobe e