Abstract

Abstract

Introduction:

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious res-

piratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. The disease was first broke out in

Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China and subsequently spread to all countries

and was considered by WHO as a worldwide pandemic. This study is aimed

to determine the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 and the presence of UK va-

riants in Zintan city of Libya taking some risk factors into account. Me-

thods: In a cross-sectional retrospective study, a total of 15486 nasopha-

ryngeal swabs were collected from COVID-19 suspected patients, travelers

and people need disease-free certificates for hospital admission, etc. The

samples were collected during the period from August 2020 to June 2021

and tested using real-time RT -PCR (rRT-PCR) kits for SARS-CoV-2 and

UK variants. Age groups, sex, and monthly weather were considered as risk

factors. Results: The positivity rate of COVID-19 in Zintan city was esti-

mated to be (3891; 25.12%) for the period from August 2020 to June 2021.

Females showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher positivity rate (2100; 54%) as

compared to males (1791; 46%). Out of the 3891 positive cases, 52 were de-

ceased. The Case Fatality Rate (CFR) was 1.33 recorded significantly in cas-

es aged ≥ 65 years which was higher in males (56.66%) than females (43.33%).

The peak of the first wave of infection was recorded in October 2020 (590;

15.15%) whereas the peak of the second wave of infection was recorded in

April 2021 (727; 18.71%). The positivity rate was decreased as the tempera-

ture increased. UK variant is detected firstly in May 2021 with the percen-

tage of 6.2% of tested samples. Conclusions: Health Authorities are en-

crease phase of infection to stop transmission of the virus in the next wave.

Early detection of new variants and studying their genetic characteristics

play a valuable role in prevention and control.

Keywords

SARS

-

CoV

-

2, UK Variant, Epidemiology, Zintan,

Libya, rRT

-

PCR.

Lithostratigraphically, the Sidi As sid Formation (Upper Cretaceous) in the El Zintan section (JabalNafusah, NW Libya) consists of three units: upper marl, middle marl with intercalations of dolostone, and lower dolostone. Based on crystal size and shape, three types of dolomite have been classified. Fine crystalline dolomite (D1) consists of nonplanar dolomites, fine to medium crystalline dolomite (D2), and very coarse, consisting of mostly planar dolomites (D-3). The Cathodoluminescence technique also showed that most of these dolomites have bright yellow to red and dull orange luminescence and zoning. Based on X-ray diffraction (XRD), all dolomites are relatively well ordered and non to nearly stoichiometric dolomite. The stable isotopic studies and element analysis show that the major elements such as sodium (D1: 412.166 ppm; D2: 175 ppm; D3: 420 ppm), strontium (D1: 107 ppm; D2: 85 ppm; D3: 81.2 ppm), manganese (D1: 271 ppm; D2: 91 ppm; V3: 242 ppm), and iron (D1: 4856.66 ppm; D2: 373 ppm; D3: 3287 ppm) and the values of the stable isotope of oxygen (D1:-2.202‰; D2:-2.131; D3:-4.359‰) and carbon (D1: 2.080; D2: 2.076‰; D3: 1.581‰). The values of major elements and depletion of the carbon and oxygen isotopes can be related to the effects of temperature diagenetic, and mesosaline reflux of dolomitizing fluids during the early diagenesis. These dolomites originated in a tidal environment in this Formation. The major sources of magnesium for the dolomites are seawater and hypersaline fluids.

In this study, we present the new generalized derivative and integral operators which are based on the newly constructed new generalized Caputo fractal–fractional derivatives (NGCFFDs). Based on these operators, a numerical method is developed to solve the fractal–fractional differential equations (FFDEs). We approximate the solution of the FFDEs as basis vectors of shifted Legendre polynomials (SLPs). We also extend the derivative operational matrix of SLPs to the generalized derivative operational matrix in the sense of NGCFFDs. The efficiency of the developed numerical method is tested by taking various test examples. We also compare the results of our proposed method with the methods existed in the literature In this paper, we specified the fractal–fractional differential operator of new generalized Caputo in three categories: (i) different values in  and fractal parameters, (ii) different values in fractional parameter while fractal and  parameters are fixed, and (iii) different values in fractal parameter controlling fractional and  parameters.

The study of integral equations is one of the most important topics that researchers are interested in, it arises in many scientific fields for instance engineering, and mathematical and scientific analysis. The first who mentioned the term integral equations is Du Bois-Reymond (1888). As a result, a lot of interest appeared from researchers, and the most important of these researchers are Laplace, Fourier, Poission, Liouville, and Able. Upadhyay et al., (2015) provided some special types of integral equations. The quadratic integral equation is a special form of integral equations. The initial study appeared by Chandrasekhar (1947). More appearance of Quadratic integral equation was in the theory of radiative transfer, kinetic theory of gases, in the theory of neutron transport, and in the traffic theory, see Argyros (1985), Banaś et al. (2007), El-Sayed et al. (2008).

Medicinal herbs are used for growth promotion, disease control and other health benefits in aquaculture industry.

Here, we examined the effect of dietary laurel-leaf cistus (Cistus laurifolius) ethanolic extract on growth

performance, digestive enzyme activity, haematological profile and nonspecific immune responses in common

carp (Cyprinus carpio). In addition, resistance against Aeromonas hydrophila infection was examined. Common

carp was fed diets containing 0 (Control), 0.1 (CL0.1), 0.5 (CL0.5) and 1 (CL1) g kg􀀀 1 laurel-leaf cistus extract for

45 days. After 30 days, superoxide anion production (SAP) increased in CL0.1 and CL0.5 fish groups and at the

end of the study all experimental fish groups had higher SAP compared to that of the control (P ˂ 0.05).

Lysozyme activity (LA) was elevated in CL0.5 and CL1 treated groups on 30th day (P < 0.05), and this increase

was only observed in C0.1 fish group at the end of study compared to control (P ˂ 0.05). Myeloperoxidase activity

was significantly increased in CL0.5 and CL1 fish groups at the end of study. IL-1βgene expression was

significantly increased in treated fish in a dose-depended manner. Similar results were observed for transcription

of IL-6 and IL-8 (P < 0.05). Anti-inflammatory cytokines, IL-10 and TGF-β were highly up-regulated in the intestine

and head kidney of CL treated fish groups compared to control (P < 0.05). At the end of experiment,

significantly higher final body weight, weight gain, and specific growth rate were obtained in CL0.1 treated fish

group compared to control. However, growth was negatively affected in CL1 fish group (P < 0.05). CL1 fish

group had also a significantly higher FCR. Amylase activity was significantly increased in all experimental fish

groups compared to control (P ˂ 0.05). Trypsin activity was decreased in CL0.1 and CL1 fish groups (P ˂ 0.05).

WBC and RBC were significantly increased (P ˂ 0.05) in CL0.5 and CL1 fish groups, whereas haemoglobin,

haematocrit, mean cell, mean cell haemoglobin contents were no significantly changed among control and

treatment groups. Result of challenge test with A. hydrophila exhibited that survival rate in all treatment groups

was significantly higher than that of control. These findings demonstrated that laurel-leaf cistus at 0.1 g kg􀀀 1 can

be a suitable candidate for growth promotion, immune system induction and infection control in fish.

The salinity of irrigation water is a serious problem facing crop plants in the Mediterranean region, where plants are exposed to high temperatures and severe shortage of water in the dry season. So, this study was carried out in order to test the effects of five different salinity levels of sodium chloride (0.0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 300 mM) on seed germination and early seedling growth of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Fifty homogenous and cleaned seeds were germinated in Petri dishes inthree replicates. The salt stress decreased seed germination, the response of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) to salt stress and water stress was evaluated at the germination stage. The severe reduction in germination percentage and particularly germination speed with prolonged lag period by moderate salinity level at 100 mM NaCl, suggests that Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a salt-sensitive species during germination. Salinity reduced germination uniformity and germination synchrony and might delay start of germination but accelerates its termination with a consequent shortening of the time spread of germination. The recovery percentage was lo wer but speed of recovery was higher compared with the corresponding parameters of the control seeds. Recovery percentage was slightly improved with increasing in the concentration of NaCl.

Abstract: This study was designed to evaluate the growth and digestive enzyme activity parameters of rainbow trout juvenile Oncorhynchus mykiss fed diets containing different levels (0%, 0.1%, 0.5% or 1%) of Glycyrrhiza glabra, Coriandrum sativum and Cassia angustifolia aqueous methanolic extract as a feed additive seventy-five days. The fish with initial weight of 22.65 ± 0.07 g were divided into 30 tanks so that 10 groups would be formed and stored as 50 fish in each tank, so the experiment was started as three replications. At the end of every month, samples are collected from the digestive system for use in measuring digestive enzymes, and scales and weights for use in measuring growth rate. Digestive enzymes like pepsin, trypsin, amylase and lipase and growth parameters such as final weight, weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR). Amylase, lipase, pepsin and trypsin are different in terms of enzyme activities. The effect of medicinal plants gave a good indication of improvement in the effectiveness of digestive enzymes with the length of the experiment during the surrounding environment. The values related to the growth parameters were lower than the control group in the study where similar or low values were encountered.

The groundwater aquifers in Azintan, northwestern Libya suffer from an acute shortage of water. The groundwater was evaluated to determine its suitability for drinking and irrigation purposes from major two aquifers in north and south of Azintan area. This study carried out to assess the groundwater quality and to identify major affecting variables. Twelve samples from the two aquifers were collected. The two aquifers were collected and analyzed for total dissolved solid (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), pH, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl-, SO42-, CO32- and HCO3-. The results show that, the groundwater in many places is dominated by higher concentrations of Cl-, SO42- and HCO3-. Two water types were recognized in this region are Cl-SO4-Na-Ca and Cl-SO4-Na. Gibbs and Piper method, as well as the hardness, soluble sodium percentage and the permeability index all have been used to assess the diagram quality of the groundwater of aquifers. Further, the multiple correlations and Cluster Analysis of groundwater quality parameters were carried out for further classification and interpretation of the groundwater quality. Finally, water qualities in the study area are compared with Libyan standards and WHO guidelines of drinking water and irrigation purposes.