Clinical features of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever in the United Arab Emirates

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (C-CHF) re-emerged recently in the United Arab Emirates. The clinical outcome of 11 cases of viral haemorrhagic fever patients admitted to hospital between June 1994 and January 1995 is described. Four cases were laboratory confirmed retrospectively as C-CHF, the other patients were diagnosed likely to have the same disease on epidemiological and clinical grounds. In 72.7% of the patients, infection was fatal. Symptoms started 3.5 days before hospitalization. On admission, 81.8% of patients had high fever, 45.5% were vomiting, 63.6% had diarrhoea, 45.5% had haemorrhagic signs, and 18.2% had throat pain. Fatalities occurred 6.8 days after admission. Survivors were hospitalized for 9.3 days. Nosocomial transmission was not observed.     

Fluctuations of the group path and the group-delay time of waves obliquely reflected by a plane-layered medium

The spatial correlation properties of the group path and the group-delay time of a radio signal leaving a random plane-layered reflecting medium similar to the ionosphere are considered. The spatial-correlation distances for the group path lying in the incidence plane and oriented perpendicularly to this plane are obtained for various angles of propagation of a wave entering the medium. It is shown that, when a radio signal is scattered by isotropic irregularities of the medium’s permittivity, regular refraction results in anisotropic fluctuations of the signal’s characteristics and the degree of anisotropy grows with the sounding angle.     

Ferroelastic domains and phases in ferromagnetic nanostructured FePd alloy

Polarization optical, electron microscopic, and thermomagnetic investigations of FePd single crystals undergoing an A1 → L1₀ phase transformation have been carried out. The results obtained have been analyzed proceeding from the concept of ferroelasticity and the experimental criteria of its existence. The features of phase transformations in equiatomic FePt and FePd alloys have been compared. A conclusion has been drawn that the atomic ordering in the FePd alloy is preceded by the formation of a ferroelastic lowsymmetry disordered (BCT) phase, and the A1 → L1₀ phase transformation presents a combination of different types of phase transitions such as cooperative displacement and ordering of atoms.