Coronaviruses as the emerging threats for human health: should we be prepared for the future outbreaks of new coronaviruses?

Recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in human communities as the first major zoonotic pandemics of the new millennium following the emergence of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV has increased our awareness about the future threat of viral zoonosis. Although, several studies have been conducted for better understanding of these viruses` evolution, and designing the effective anti-viral drugs and vaccines, the impact of human beings on occurrence of zoonotic diseases has been less considered and discussed. Improvement in global health resulted in human population growth, increasing demand for animal proteins, more exposures to wildlife, zoonotic and degradation of environment, which have facilitated interspecies transmissions. Since world population is increasing proportionately, the protection of public health against zoonotic diseases is a challenging task. It seems that intensified revision of human lifestyle is the best strategy to prevent the potential devastating future zoonotic pandemics. Herein, the characteristics of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, their transmission routs, their pathogenicity, the therapeutic and prevention approaches including of attempts for designing of effective prophylactic vaccines, anti-viral drugs, and the animal models that have been used for these studies have been reviewed (Ref. 134). Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, pandemic, zoonosis, SARS, MERS.

Substrate-Controlled Magnetism: Fe Nanowires on Vicinal Cu Surfaces.

Here we present a novel approach to controlling magnetic interactions between atomic-scale nanowires. Our ab initio calculations demonstrate the possibility to tune magnetic properties of Fe nanowires formed on vicinal Cu surfaces. Both intrawire and interwire magnetic exchange parameters are extracted from density functional theory (DFT) calculations. This study suggests that the effective interwire magnetic exchange parameters exhibit Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida-like (RKKY) oscillations as a function of Fe interwire separation. The choice of the vicinal Cu surface offers possibilities for controlling the magnetic coupling. Furthermore, an anisotropic Heisenberg model was used in Monte Carlo simulations to examine the stability of these magnetic configurations at finite temperatures. The predicted critical temperatures of the Fe nanowires on Cu(422) and Cu(533) surfaces are well above room temperature.