Therapeutic interventions of remdesivir in diabetic and nondiabetic COVID-19 patients: A prospective observational study conducted on Pakistani population.

We aimed to investigate the interventions of remdesivir in both diabetic and nondiabetic individuals who were suffering from a severe infection of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In this study, we aimed to explore the relationship between therapeutic effectiveness of remdesivir and complications of diabetes mellitus by observing the recovery period among diabetic and nondiabetic patients associated with COVID-19 infection. A total of 850 COVID-19 patients were recruited for this study, out of which 48% were diabetic and 52% were nondiabetics. The results of this study indicated that nondiabetic individuals administered with remdesivir recovered from COVID-19 within 10 days showing a 95% confidence interval (p < 0.01), while the diabetic individuals recovered in 15 days. Nondiabetic patients administered with remdesivir exhibited higher chances of clinical improvement at 15th day than those who were associated with diabetes. Remdesivir administration improved the levels of various biochemical parameters, such as C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase, d-Dimer, and ferritin both in diabetic and nondiabetic patients. However, a significant improvement (p < 0.01) was seen in the level of biochemical parameters among nondiabetic patients as compared to that of diabetic patients administered with remdesivir treatment. In the end, it was concluded that remdesivir could be considered as a possible therapeutic agent in the treatment of COVID-19 both in diabetic and nondiabetic situations. However, diabetic patients showed a delayed recovery as compared with that of nondiabetic patients, in which the recovery rate was high.

Carbon nanotubes within polymer matrix can synergistically enhance mechanical energy dissipation.

Safe operation and health of structures relies on their ability to effectively dissipate undesired vibrations, which could otherwise significantly reduce the life-time of a structure due to fatigue loads or large deformations. To address this issue, nanoscale fillers, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), have been utilized to dissipate mechanical energy in polymer-based nanocomposites through filler-matrix interfacial friction by benefitting from their large interface area with the matrix. In this manuscript, for the first time, we experimentally investigate the effect of CNT alignment with respect to reach other and their orientation with respect to the loading direction on vibrational damping in nanocomposites. The matrix was polystyrene (PS). A new technique was developed to fabricate PS-CNT nanocomposites which allows for controlling the angle of CNTs with respect to the far-field loading direction (misalignment angle). Samples were subjected to dynamic mechanical analysis, and the damping of the samples were measured as the ratio of the loss to storage moduli versus CNT misalignment angle. Our results defied a notion that randomly oriented CNT nanocomposites can be approximated as a combination of matrix-CNT representative volume elements with randomly aligned CNTs. Instead, our results points to major contributions of stress concentration induced by each CNT in the matrix in proximity of other CNTs on vibrational damping. The stress fields around CNTs in PS-CNT nanocomposites were studied via finite element analysis. Our findings provide significant new insights not only on vibrational damping nanocomposites, but also on their failure modes and toughness, in relation to interface phenomena.