Mediterranean diet improves dyslipidemia and biomarkers in chronic renal failure patients

Dyslipidemia, oxidative stress (OS) and inflammation increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in chronic renal failure (CRF) patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of nutritional advice on dyslipidemia and biomarkers in CRF patients. 40 CRF patients with dyslipidemia, hypertriglyceridemia and/or hypercholesterolemia were randomly assigned to either the control or the intervention group. The intervention group received nutritional advice adapted to a Mediterranean diet (MD). Patients were assessed at baseline (T0) and after 30 (T1), 60 (T2) and 90 (T3) days for dietary intake and biomarkers. In the intervention group compared to the control group, TG concentrations were decreased by 26% at T3 (p < 0.05), TC concentrations were diminished by 14% at T2 and by 35% at T3 (p < 0.05). A decrease in LDL-C was noted at T2 and T3 (p < 0.05). The TC/HDL-C ratio was diminished at T1, T2 and T3 (p < 0.05). The apo A-I/apo B ratio was elevated at T3 (p < 0.05). HDL-C, apo A-I, apo B concentrations and the TC/LDL-C ratio were similar in the both groups at T1, T2 and T3. Creatinine, urea, glomerular filtration rate (GFR), urate, iron and bilirubin values remained unchanged in both groups. Haemoglobin concentrations were elevated at T1 (p < 0.05). Increased albumin values were observed at T2 (p < 0.05). CRP concentrations were decreased by 29% at T1 (p < 0.05) and 40% (p < 0.01) at T3. Fibrinogen (p < 0.01) concentrations were decreased at T3. In the intervention group compared to control group (p < 0.01), TBARS values were decreased by 16% at T2 and 21% at T3 (p < 0.05). In this study, we demonstrate that the nutritional management of CRF patients before dialysis based on the MD improves food consumption, reduces dyslipidemia and protects against lipid peroxidation and inflammation, allowing patients to enter dialysis with an acceptable nutritional and cardiovascular state.     

Characterization of natural sand proppant used in hydraulic fracturing fluids

Natural sand was the first material introduced as a proppant to hydraulic fracturing operations to keep induced rock fractures both open and conductive. It has remained the most commonly used proppant for this process, since its economic advantages are obvious. In this context, the growth of the unconventional gas industry in Algeria has raised many environmental and economical concerns in terms of local sand valorization for a possible use as proppant agents. This paper deals with the physical analysis of 10 sand samples of two types: quarry sand samples and Aeolian dune sand samples, from different geographic locations in Algeria according to ISO 13503-2 which provides standard testing procedures for evaluating certain physical properties of proppants used in hydraulic fracturing and gravel packing operations. These assessments should enable to compare the physical characteristics of the various tested sands and to select the useful ones to evaluate their interaction with one chemical (SP breaker) in fracturing fluid system by sorption under several operating conditions (temperature, proppant dosage, SP breaker concentration).     

Content authentication and tampering detection of Arabic text: an approach based on zero-watermarking and natural language processing

Pattern Analysis and Applications - Due to the rapid increase in exchange of text information via internet network, the security and the reliability of the digital content has become a major...     

Modified tribo-charging device for the electrostatic separation of plastics from granular industrial wastes

Tribo-electrostatic separation is the solution of choice for the selective sorting of various plastics contained in a granular mixture. This work is aimed at validating the efficiency of a modified compressed-air-operated tribo-charging device for the electrostatic separation of mixed granular plastics originating from industrial waste. The experiments are carried out with a mixture of mm-size orange and beige PVC granules, using a free-fall electrostatic separator. At optimum operating conditions, 93% of the orange PVC and 96% of the beige PVC were recovered at purities higher than, respectively, 99% and 95%. The numerical simulation of charged particles trajectories facilitates the interpretation of the experimental results and the analysis of the factors that affect the efficiency of the separation process: high-voltage level, configuration of the electrodes system, and position of the feeding unit.     

Securing Arabic Contents Algorithm for Smart Detecting of Illegal Tampering Attacks

The most common digital media exchanged via the Internet is in text form. The Arabic language is considered one of the most sensitive languages of content modification due to the presence of diacritics that can cause a change in the meaning. In this paper, an intelligent scheme is proposed for improving the reliability and security of the text exchanged via the Internet. The core mechanism of the proposed scheme depends on integrating the hidden Markov model and zero text watermarking techniques. The watermark key will be generated by utilizing the extracted features of the text analysis process using the third order and word level of the Markov model. The Embedding and detection processes of the proposed scheme will be performed logically without the effect of the original text. The proposed scheme is implemented using PHP with VS code IDE. The simulation results, using varying sizes of standard datasets, show that the proposed scheme can obtain high reliability and provide better accuracy of the common illegal tampering attacks. Comparison results with other baseline techniques show the added value of the proposed scheme.     

Approximate analytical solutions for systems with axial dispersion. The steady state behaviour of a binary distillation plate

A perturbation method is applied to obtain an approximate analytical solution to the non-linear differential equation which describes the steady state concentration profile of the liquid flowing on a distillation plate. This method proved effective in producing results with reasonable deviations from the exact solution of the differential equation and a considerable reduction in computing time. However, it sometimes requires the solution of a single first order differential equation. Thus, a further approximation was adopted, giving a method which does not involve the solution of any differential equation. Although the deviation in the exit liquid composition is somewhat higher, yet the computing time is less.     

Thermodynamic properties of methanol–benzene mixtures at elevated temperatures

The total pressure and the compositions of the vapour and liquid phases of the methanol–benzene system have been determined under equilibrium conditions at 100°, 120°, 140°, 160°, 180°, 200° and 220° for ten levels of concentration. The corresponding activity coefficients of methanol and benzene are reported; their values indicate that the equilibrium data are thermodynamically consistent. An azeotrope is found at all temperatures, its methanol content increasing as the temperature is increased. The relationship log P_az = 6·5098—(1,766/T) expresses the interdependence of the azeotrope vapour pressure P_az(lb/in² abs.) and temperature T(°K). Estimates of integral heat of mixing (H^E) and entropy change due to mixing (S^E) as functions of liquid composition (x_meth) have been made from the excess free energy of mixing G^E,(T) x_meth functions. Both H^E and S^E at a given x are positive increasing functions of temperature. These phenomena are discussed in terms of the dissociation of methanol ‘polymer’ and the formation of benzene–methanol ‘complexes’.     

Metaheuristic Resource Allocation Strategy for Cluster Based 6G Industrial Applications

The emergence of Beyond 5G (B5G) and 6G networks translated personal and industrial operations highly effective, reliable, and gainful by speeding up the growth of next generation Internet of Things (IoT). Industrial equipment in 6G encompasses a huge number of wireless sensors, responsible for collecting massive quantities of data. At the same time, 6G network can take real-world intelligent decisions and implement automated equipment operations. But the inclusion of different technologies into the system increased its energy consumption for which appropriate measures need to be taken. This has become mandatory for optimal resource allocation in 6G-enabled industrial applications. In this scenario, the current research paper introduces a new metaheuristic resource allocation strategy for cluster-based 6G industrial applications, named MRAS-CBIA technique. MRAS-CBIA technique aims at accomplishing energy efficiency and optimal resource allocation in 6G-enabled industrial applications. The proposed MRAS-CBIR technique involves three major processes. Firstly, Weighted Clustering Technique (WCT) is employed to elect the optimal Cluster Heads (CHs) or coordinating agents with the help of three parameters namely, residual energy, distance, and node degree. Secondly, Decision Tree-based Location Prediction (DTLP) mechanism is applied to determine the exact location of Management Agent (MA). Finally, Fuzzy C-means with Tunicate Swarm Algorithm (FCM-TSA) is used for optimal resource allocation in 6G industrial applications. The performance of the proposed MRAS-CBIA technique was validated and the results were examined under different dimensions. The resultant experimental values highlighted the superior performance of MRAS-CBIR technique over existing state-of-the-art methods.