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The natural radioactivity level of heavy oil, ash and soil samples around Assiut Thermal Power Plant (ATPP) in Egypt was determined using gamma ray spectrometry. The average concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in fly ash were found to be 2307±143, 1281±80 and 1218±129 Bq kg-1, respectively, while the corresponding values in soil samples were 2670±107, 1401±78 and 1495±100 Bq kg-1, respectively. These are extremely high and higher by several orders of magnitude than the worldwide population-weighted average values in soil. The radium equivalent activity, the air absorbed dose rate, external hazard index and the annual effective dose rate were calculated and compared with the international recommended values. All averages of these parameters are much higher by several orders of magnitude than the international recommended values, indicating significant radiological health hazards around ATPP due to the radionuclides in the soil. Moreover, the water samples investigated have high activity concentrations indicating that the water is highly contaminated with radioactive materials. The results of the current study highlight the severity of this radioactive pollution on the population in the vicinity of ATPP.

The Nubian Aquifer System (NAS) is the world´s largest fossil water aquifer system which has been non-renewable source and in a transient condition. And even groundwater has been identified as the biggest future source of water to meet growing demands and development goals in each country. And although, is found in very huge amounts and very good quality within the area of interest, but in the same time it is also found at great depths and can be un-economic. This was the motivation or the trigger to initiate this work. Water scarcity increases globally with increasing world population and decreasing of fresh water resources. This problem is magnified in the arid and semi-arid regions like the area under investigation. In Kharga Oasis,( the southeastern part of the Western Desert ,Egypt between latitudes 24° 20′ and 25° 40′ N and longitudes 30° 30′ and 30° 45′ E) surface water resources are not present and the rainfall is virtually zero. Therefore, the oasis depends exclusively on the water supply from the wells, which tap the NAS. Groundwater is the primary and the sole source of water supply in this area. Along with this comes the over-extraction of existing water resources to sustain water supply for the ever increasing demand. The basic objective of this present issue is trying to make evaluation for the NAS in Kharga oasis by the estimation of the hydraulic parameters (The coefficient of storage and Transmissivity) from the field data. This approach was proposed to 1) evaluate the geological and hydrogeological data and information which has accumulated in the past decades in the study area, in order to define the geological and hydro-geological framework, 2) Give a particular picture on the groundwater availability and extraction stresses, 3) examine the effects of development activities on groundwater resources, 4) Give solutions and scenarios for the proposed groundwater utilization in the future based on the groundwater availability and demand. This research is an attempt to investigate and evaluate the potentiality and properties of the NAS within Kharga oasis. Several pumping tests were used for this purpose. The quality of the groundwater of the Nubian Aquifer System in the area of interest was investigated and the proper chemical analysis for all purposes was achieved.

Elevated levels of type I interferon (IFN) during type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) are associated with a defective immune response. In the present study, we investigated whether blocking type I IFN signaling during streptozotocin- (STZ-) induced T1D in mice improves lymphocyte proliferation and escape from continuous apoptosis. Three groups of mice were examined: diabetic mice, type I IFN signaling-incompetent diabetic mice, and control nondiabetic mice. We first found that diabetes induction was accompanied by an elevation in the plasma levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), hydroperoxide, malondialdehyde (MDN), and the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1 α , IL-1 β , IL-6, and CXCL10. Blocking type 1 IFN signaling in diabetic mice significantly decreased the levels of oxidative stress and proinflammatory cytokines. In addition, lymphocytes from diabetic mice exhibited a marked reduction in their proliferative capacity, increased apoptosis, upregulation of the exhaustion marker PD-1, and aberrant phosphorylation of STAT1, STAT2, AKT and I κ B- α . Interestingly, following the blocking of type I IFN signaling in diabetic mice, the lymphocytes exhibited restored proliferative capacity, decreased apoptosis, normal expression of PD-1, and normal phosphorylation of STAT1, STAT2, AKT and I κ B- α . Our data suggest that elevated levels of type I IFN during T1D trigger lymphocyte exhaustion and a defective lymphocyte-medicated immune response.

Type I diabetes (TID) is an autoimmune disease characterized by abnormalities in the defense mechanisms against a variety of infectious agents. Susceptibility to infections occurring in diabetic individuals is attributed to the decrease in the number of lymphocytes, which is probably a clinical consequence of the occurrence of apoptosis described in diabetes. TID is associated with increased cytokines that dampen lymphocytes proliferation, functions and subsequently increase risk to infection. Previous studies have reported an increase in IFN-α level which is associated with TID pathogenesis. In the present study, we further investigated the effect of blocking type I IFN receptor signaling pathway on the lymphocyte proliferation and functions within spleen as a secondary lymphoid organ in a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type I diabetic mouse model. Three groups of mice were used (10 mice in each group): group 1, control non-diabetic mice; group 2, diabetic mice; and group 3, diabetic mice intraperitoneal injected with anti-IFNAR1 (10 mg/kg body weight once/day for up to 20 days). We found that diabetic mice exhibited increase in the apoptosis, DNA fragmentation, chromatin condensation and cell shrinkage; prolonged elevation in IFN-α and TNF-α levels and obvious reduction in spleen-homing T lymphocytes as compared to control mice. Interestingly, blocking type I IFN receptor of diabetic mice significantly decreased (P 0.05) apoptotic changes of the diabetic lymphocyte, significantly restored the distribution and numbers of T lymphocytes in the spleen and also decreased the level of IFN-α and TNF-α as compared to diabetic non treated mice. Our data revealed the correlation between the elevated levels of IFN-α during TID and the perturbation in lymphocyte architecture and distribution within lymphoid organs.

In this work, we study the flow and heat transfer characteristics of a viscous nanofluid over a nonlinearly stretching sheet in the presence of thermal radiation, included in the energy equation, and variable wall temperature. A similarity transformation was used to transform the governing partial differential equations to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. An efficient numerical shooting technique with a fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme was used to obtain the solution of the boundary value problem. The variations of dimensionless surface temperature, as well as flow and heat-transfer characteristics with the governing dimensionless parameters of the problem, which include the nanoparticle volume fraction j, the nonlinearly stretching sheet parameter n, the thermal radiation parameter NR, and the viscous dissipation parameter Ec, were graphed and tabulated. Excellent validation of the present numerical results has been achieved with the earlier nonlinearly stretching sheet problem of Cortell for local Nusselt number without taking the effect of nanoparticles.