The epidemiology of hepatitis E virus (HEV), an enterically-transmitted cause of acute viral hepatitis (AVH), is not fully understood. During outbreaks on the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere, HEV causes severe AVH with mortality rates around 20% during pregnancy. In Egypt, where prevalence of HEV antibodies (anti-HEV) in rural communities is very high, severe HEV-caused AVH in pregnant women has not been reported. This study examined a cohort of 2,428 pregnant women in the Nile Delta to assess prevalence of, and risk factors for, anti-HEV and correlated these with history of liver disease. Anti-HEV prevalence was 84.3%. Several risk factors associated with anti-HEV included older age, many siblings, not using soap to wash produce and frequent contact with cats. History of jaundice and liver disease was rare and not increased in those having anti-HEV. Our results confirm Egypt's high HEV endemicity and show that almost all women of childbearing age in these communities had prior HEV exposures without a history of liver disease. Reasons for the lack of clinical hepatitis remain unclear but could be the result of early childhood HEV exposures, producing long-lasting immunity and/or modify subsequent responses to exposure. Alternatively, the predominant HEV strain(s) in Egypt are less virulent than those in South Asia.

Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were studied in 2,587 pregnant women from three rural Egyptian villages in the Nile Delta being admitted to a prospective cohort study of maternal-infant transmission; 408 (15.8%) had antibodies to HCV (anti-HCV) and 279 (10.8%) also had HCV-RNA. Fewer than 1% gave a history of jaundice or liver disease. Risk factors for anti-HCV included increasing age, low socioeconomic status and a history of blood transfusion or injection therapy for schistosomiasis. Sub-analyses after stratification of subjects by village revealed risks associated with specific venues for medical care, having a previous delivery attended by a traditional birth assistant (TBA), receiving medical care in a temporary clinic located in a mosque, overnight admission to a private doctor's clinic, and circumcision by a TBA or a 'health barber'. Our results suggest HCV causes very little detected illness in young adult Egyptian women and some sources of HCV transmission in rural Egypt in the past were associated with the provision of medical care and varied by location. Prevention should be focused on providing appropriate resources and health education should be given to formal and informal health care providers and should be sufficiently broad to adjust for local variations in exposures.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The present study deals with the response of a two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) system with quadratic coupling under parametric and harmonic excitations. The method of multiple scale perturbation technique is applied to solve the nonlinear differential equations and obtain approximate solutions up to and including the second order approximations. All resonance cases are extracted and investigated. Stability of the system is studied using frequency response equations and phase-plane method. Numerical solutions are carried out and the results are presented graphically and discussed. The effects of the different parameters on both response and stability of the system are investigated. The reported results are compared to the available published work.

In part I [1] we dealt with a tuned absorber, which can move in the transversally direction, where it is added to an externally excited pendulum. Active control is applied to the system via negative velocity feedback or its square or cubic value. The multiple time scale perturbation technique is applied throughout. An approximate solution is derived up to second order approximation. The stability of the system is investigated applying both frequency response equations and phase plane methods. The effects of the absorber on system behavior are studied numerically. Optimum working conditions of the system are obtained applying passive and active control methods. Both control methods are demonstrated numerically. In this paper, a tuned absorber, in the longitudinal direction, is added to an externally excited pendulum. Active control is applied to the system via negative acceleration feedback or via negative angular displacement or its square or cubic value. An approximate solution is derived up to the second order approximation for the system with absorber. The stability of the system is investigated applying both frequency response equations and phase plane methods. The effects of the absorber on system behavior are studied numerically. Optimum working conditions of the system are extracted when applying both passive and active control methods.