Port Said University

Manzala Lagoon, the largest coastal wetland of Egypt, lies within the Nile Delta and serves as an essential sanctuary for both resident and migratory birds. Despite its importance for regional biodiversity, the ecosystem faces significant anthropogenic pressures, with recent dredging activities constituting a major disturbance. This study aimed to evaluate dredging impacts on bird diversity and environmental health in the Ashtoum El-Gamil Protected Area. Seasonal monitoring in 2024, combining camera-based morphological identification with molecular barcoding of feathers (n = 13; cytochrome oxidase 1 gene), documented 123 species across 11 orders and 23 families, with 51 species consistently observed year-round. Health assessments in the endemic Coturnix coturnix (common quail) were conducted by measuring genotoxic damage, DNA repair capacity (via poly(ADP)-ribosylation), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in the gut, liver, and gonads. Results revealed reduced DNA recovery, elevated antioxidant capacity, and a prominent 40kDa PARP immunoreactive band, particularly in gut and gonads. These oxidative stress indicators were independent of low heavy metal loads, implicating factors like rising temperatures may be the primary drivers. These findings highlight dredging's limited immediate effects on species diversity but underscore subtle health risks, advocating sustained, long-term monitoring and targeted management to safeguard wetland biodiversity.

Abstract The performance of high-speed optical communication systems is constrained by Chromatic Dispersion (CD), which poses a significant challenge to data transmission integrity. This paper proposes a method to mitigate CD using cascaded Apodized Fiber Bragg Gratings (AFBGs). The apodization function plays a crucial role in dispersion mitigation, effectively reducing side lobes in the Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) reflection spectrum. The proposed model employs two cascaded stages, each utilizing an apodization function that merges the Nuttall and Bartlett profiles. This model is investigated to enhance FBG performance and is compared with other apodization functions. Using an induced refractive index of 2.8 × 10⁻⁵ and a grating length of 60 mm, numerical results show that the Nuttall-Bartlett apodization function achieves the narrowest Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of 0.027 nm—a 20.48% improvement over the uniform model—while maintaining a reflectivity of 99.12%. The performance of the proposed model is further evaluated through the quality factor (Q-factor) and Bit Error Rate (BER), yielding an improvement in both metrics over the uniform model.

The Kuramoto–Sivashinsky (KS) equation and its fractional generalizations (FKSs) arise as canonical models for a wide class of nonlinear dissipative–dispersive systems, including thin-film flows, combustion fronts, drift–wave turbulence in plasmas, and chemically reacting media, where shock-like and strongly localized structures play a central role in the dynamics. Despite their apparent simplicity, KS-type models become analytically intractable once higher-order dissipation, geometric effects, and memory (fractional) operators are incorporated, and standard perturbative or transform-based schemes often lead to cumbersome recursive structures, slow convergence, or severe restrictions on the initial data. In this work, a novel direct approximation procedure, referred to as the Tantawy Technique (TT), is developed and implemented to solve and analyze planar fractional KS-type equations and their Burgers-type reductions in a systematic manner. The central difficulty is to construct, for a given physically motivated initial profile, a rapidly convergent series in fractional time that remains stable for a broad range of the fractional order and transport coefficients, while still retaining a clear link to the underlying shock-wave physics. To overcome this, the TT combines (i) a Tanh-based exact shock solution of the planar integer-order KS equation, obtained first as a reference via the standard Tanh method, with (ii) a carefully designed fractional-time ansatz in powers of tρ, where the spatial coefficients are determined recursively from the governing equation in the Caputo sense. This construction yields closed-form expressions for the first few terms in the approximation hierarchy and allows one to monitor convergence through residual and absolute error measures.

Abstract Introduction Black mucosal pigmentation of the bronchial tree (“black bronchoscopy”) is an uncommon bronchoscopic finding with diverse etiologies, including malignancy, environmental exposures, and infections. Active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is a rare cause. This case report describes a 67-year-old male with microbiologically confirmed active pulmonary tuberculosis presenting with diffuse bilateral black bronchial mucosal pigmentation in the absence of airway stenosis — a presentation that, to our knowledge, has rarely been documented in the literature. Most previous reports of tuberculosis-related “black bronchoscopy” describe localized pigmentation with significant airway narrowing, often in patients with biomass or smoking exposure. Our patient differed by having: 1. Diffuse pigmentation involving both main bronchi and multiple segmental branches 2. No airway stenosis, suggesting an earlier stage before fibrotic remodeling 3. Direct microbiological confirmation from the pigmentation site 4. No environmental exposure history 5. Minimal respiratory symptoms despite cavitary lung disease Case Presentation A 67-year-old male from Chad presented for routine evaluation with mild chest tightness. High-resolution CT revealed a thick-walled cavitary lesion with surrounding consolidation in the right upper lobe. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy showed diffuse black pigmentation of the bronchial mucosa, most pronounced in the right upper lobe bronchus. Bronchoalveolar lavage tested positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Ziehl–Neelsen staining, in addition to Endobronchail biopsy from pigmented mucosa, which revealed caseating granuloma. The patient commenced standard anti-TB therapy, with symptomatic improvement and negative sputum microscopy after two months. Conclusion This case highlights active pulmonary TB as a rare cause of diffuse black bronchial mucosal pigmentation. Awareness of this presentation may facilitate timely diagnosis in patients with atypical bronchoscopic findings.

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound global impact, resulting in millions of deaths and major disruptions to daily life. This has prompted the investigation of various therapeutic agents, including vitamin D3, due to its potential immunomodulatory effects. This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the efficacy and safety of vitamin D3 in the management of COVID-19. Methods A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase up to March 2025. Primary outcomes included length of hospital stay, ICU admission, ICU length of stay, need for oxygen supplementation, and need for mechanical ventilation. Secondary outcomes included inflammatory markers ( C-Reactive Protein(CRP), D-dimer,Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and ferritin). Results Seventeen randomized controlled trials with a total of 2,762 patients were included. Vitamin D3 was not associated with a significant reduction in hospital stay (MD = -0.26, 95% CI [-1.63 to 1.11], P = 0.71), oxygen supplementation (RR = 0.97, 95% CI [0.83 to 1.15], P = 0.75), or mechanical ventilation (RR = 0.88, 95% CI [0.66 to 1.17], P = 0.38). However, a significant reduction in ICU admissions was observed in the vitamin D3 group (RR = 0.76, 95% CI [0.58 to 0.99], P = 0.04). There was no significant difference in ICU length of stay (MD = 0.45, 95% CI [-1.78 to 2.67], P = 0.69). No significant differences were found in inflammatory biomarkers between the groups. Conclusion Vitamin D3 supplementation may reduce ICU admissions in patients with COVID-19, though no significant effects were observed for other clinical or laboratory outcomes. Subgroup analyses suggest a potential reduction in hospital stay, warranting further high-quality research. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures