B.1.1.529 is the newest form of SARS- CoV-2. It was initially reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on November 24, 2021, by South Africa. WHO recognized it as a variant of concern on November 26, 2021, and named it "Omicron.” The Omicron variant features an exceptionally large number of mutations, many of which are unique, and a substantial number of which impair the spike protein targeted by most COVID-19 vaccines at the time of its discovery. Despite initial studies showing that the variant caused less serious disease than prior strains, this amount of miscellany has raised worries about its transmissibility, immune system evasion, and vaccine resistance. Omicron is suspected to be much more infectious than previous variants of concerns, spreading around 70 times faster in the bronchi, but it is less able to penetrate deep lung tissue, which may explain why there is a significant reduction in the risk of severe disease requiring hospitalization. Nonetheless, because of the virus's fast rate of transmission and capacity to resist both two-dose vaccination and the immune system, the overall number of patients requiring medical care at present remains a major worry. In this article, the current state of the art for Omicron variant has been discussed to provide a strong framework for future research. The evolution, mutation, epidemiology, infectivity, vaccine breakthrough, and antibody resistance of the Omicron variant are investigated and discussed.

Glioblastoma is the most frequent and malignant type of brain tumor. It has a reputation for being resistant to current treatments, and the prognosis is still bleak. Immunotherapies have transformed the treatment of a variety of cancers, and they provide great hope for glioblastoma, although they have yet to be successful. The justification for immune targeting of glioblastoma and the obstacles that come with treating these immunosuppressive tumors are reviewed in this paper. Cancer vaccines, oncolytic viruses (OVs), checkpoint blockade medications, adoptive cell transfer (ACT), chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells, and nanomedicine-based immunotherapies are among the novel immune-targeting therapies researched in glioblastoma. Key clinical trial outcomes and current trials for each method are presented from a clinical standpoint. Finally, constraints, whether biological or due to trial design, are discussed, along with solutions for overcoming them. In glioblastoma, proof of efficacy for immunotherapy approaches has yet to be demonstrated, but our rapidly growing understanding of the disease's biology and immune microenvironment, as well as the emergence of novel promising combinatorial approaches, may allow researchers to finally meet the medical need for patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

The behavior of the pressure along the trajectories of finite-sized nuclei in isotropic homogeneous turbulence is investigated using direct numerical simulations at Reλ = 150. The trajectories of nuclei of different sizes are computed by solving a modified Maxey–Riley equation under different buoyancy conditions. Results show that larger nuclei are more attracted to the vortex cores and spend more time at low-pressure regions than smaller nuclei. The average frequency of pressure fluctuations toward negative values also increases with size. These effects level off as the Stokes number becomes greater than 1. Buoyancy, characterized by the terminal velocity w, counteracts the attraction force toward vortex cores while simultaneously imposing an average vertical drift between the nuclei and the fluid. Computational results indicate that weak vortices, associated with moderately low pressures, lose their ability to capture finite-sized nuclei if w ≥ u′. The attraction exerted by the strongest vortices on the largest of the considered nuclei, on the other hand, can only be overcome by buoyancy if w ≥ 8u′. The quantitative results of this study are shown to have a significant impact on modeling cavitation inception in water. For this purpose, the Rayleigh–Plesset equation is solved along the nuclei trajectories with realistic sizes and turbulence intensities. The simulations predict cavitation inception at mean pressures several kPa above vapor pressure.

Homogeneous and isotropic turbulent fields obtained from two Direct Numerical Simulation databases (with Re λ equal to 150 and 418) were seeded with point particles that moved with the local fluid velocity to obtain Lagrangian pressure histories. Motivated by cavitation inception modeling, the statistics of events in which such particles undergo low-pressure fluctuations were computed, parameterized by the amplitude of the fluctuations and by their duration. The main results are the average frequencies of these events and the probabilistic distribution of their duration, which are of predictive value. A connection is also established between these average frequencies and the pressure probability density function, thus justifying experimental methods proposed in the literature. Further analyses of the data show that the occurrence of very-low-pressure events is highly intermittent and is associated with worm-like vortical structures of length comparable to the integral scale of the flow.

Mutations are causing SARS-CoV-2 to alter its genetic structure to improve its potential to elude the immune system, making vaccine buildout against the virus more difficult. Multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants have been found up to this point; based on their impact on public health some are considered variants of concern (VOCs) and some are considered variants of interests. VOCs are linked to superior transmissibility, a decline in neutralization by natural or vaccine induced antibodies, evading capability of detection, and a reduction in the efficacy of vaccines or therapeutics. In this article, a SARS-CoV-2 subtype, known as Delta, has been revised to provide the current state of the art and an appropriate foundation for future research works. The evolution, pathogenesis, current trends of transmission, associated symptoms, suggested prevention and treatments, and vaccine efficacy of Delta variant are reviewed and discussed.

The unprecedented consequences brought by the COVID pandemic are still going on, the virus hasn’t been tamed yet. It is evolving through mutations to consistently being a risk to public health. Recently, the Delta variant has been declared as the variant of concern by the World Health Organization (WHO). In this article, a subvariant of Delta known as Delta Plus has been presented to provide a relevant foundation for future research works. The evolution, pathogenesis, associated symptoms, suggested prevention and treatments, vaccine efficacy, and current trends of transmission of Delta Plus variant of SARS-CoV-2 are reviewed and discussed.

Unresolved pressure fluctuations at the sub-grid scale (SGS) level of large eddy simulation (LES) or Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes computations affect cavitation inception predictions, as SGS low pressures are simply ignored. We present a framework to take the unresolved SGS flow into account. Representing the SGS flow as canonical turbulence, in this paper, homogeneous isotropic turbulence (HIT), the pressure fluctuations, and transport and cavitating behavior of nuclei in such turbulence can be evaluated from direct numerical simulations (DNS) and used to create a model of cavitation inception that accounts for SGS fluctuations. To accomplish this, nuclei of different sizes were transported in DNS of HIT using their pressure history to drive the Rayleigh–Plesset equation that simulates bubble dynamics. In this way, expected average cavitation frequencies were tabulated for a range of SGS Taylor scale Reynolds numbers ([Formula: see text]), nucleus size, turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate, and mean pressure. The model uses this table to estimate the cavitation event rate in each cell of a computational fluid dynamics solution. Inception can then be predicted by comparing the total cavitation rate with the detection criterion. The model is first assessed on two cases of HIT (at [Formula: see text] = 240 and 324) by comparing the pressure statistics, which it predicts in LES runs using the SGS cavitation model against the statistics of DNS. Then, a high [Formula: see text] (1660–1880) HIT flow is simulated using LES, and cavitation events are compared against experimental data. The inception model successfully predicts the inception pressure and the cavitation rates in the flow.

A global pandemic instigated by SARS-CoV-2 virus has been going strongly for almost two years. There have been almost 240 million cases with almost 5 million fatalities all over the world so far. COVID has affected almost every aspect of people’s lives halting the world in immeasurable ways. Although COVID-19 is mostly affecting the respiratory system, it is also responsible for a significant amount of cardiovascular system involvement. On one hand, it deteriorates any pre-existing cardiovascular condition, on another hand, it triggers other inflammation-facilitated acute events. They comprise of inflammatory heart disease, severe pericardial effusion, ventricular arrhythmias, endothelial dysfunction, pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, and many more. In this article, we summarize the features, management, and treatment of several important COVID-19 induced cardiovascular complications. Recent advances in the treatment of these diseases along with the justification and concerns of specific therapeutic measures are also discussed.