From a medical perspective, autoimmunity reflects the abnormal behaviour of a human being. This state is shaped when the defense of an organism betrays its own tissues. Allegedly, the immune system should protect the body against attacking cells. When an autoimmune disease attacks, it results in perilous actions like self-destruction. However, from a psychological perspective, the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) explains that autoimmunity harms both the self and the other. As a result, the organ disarms the betraying cells, as the immune system cannot provide necessary protection. From a literary perspective, Derrida has termed autoimmunity as deconstruction for almost forty years. Autoimmunity starts with the stage of a normal human feeling of doubt, in which a person can be cured through evidences. In this phase, the doubter is looking for answers and may be convinced when proof is shown. However, when doubt develops further it transforms into skepticism. Here, it is harder to convince a skeptic with proof because the feelings of pride, jealousy and bad temper are involved. Therefore, skepticism is more difficult to cure than doubt. When skepticism is left untreated, the sufferer becomes selfish and chooses violence. This leads to autoimmune diseases in which the person is ready to harm the self and others to obtain her/his goal. So autoimmunity revolutionizes the common human behaviour turning it into an animalistic one. The aim of this paper is to examine Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code (2003), to mirror how people should always expect autoimmune attacks in the future. The novel bears two autoimmune followers who should be a part of the autoimmune body. The follower is thus a cell that is a part of the body (the leader), but the body decides to get rid of what should be part of him. Keywords: Autoimmunity, animalistic behaviour, the self and the other, political terrorism.
A new methodology was applied to the synthesis of new imidazolones and oxyazepine derivatives containing imidazo thiazole fused rings. Starting with 5-(4-bromo phenyl) imidazo (2, 1-b) thiazole, which was synthesized using the standard procedure, the Carbaldehyed group was introduced at position 6 of 5-(4-bromo phenyl) imidazo (2, 1-b) thiazole. Then, this 6-carbaldehyed derivative was condensed with different substituted aromatic amines to afford new Schiff bases. The latter were cyclized into new oxazepine and imidazolone derivatives by using phthalic anhydride and glycine, respectively. These new derivatives were characterized by using FT-IR, 1HHNMR, and 13CNMR spectra, as well as examined (evaluated) for anti-bacterial and anti-fungal a
... Show MoreNear surface mounted (NSM) carbon fibers reinforced polymer (CFRP) reinforcement is one of the techniques for reinforcing masonry structures and is considered to provide significant advantages. This paper is composed of two parts. The first part presents the experimental study of brick masonry walls reinforced with NSM CFRP strips under combined shear-compression loads. Masonry walls have been tested under vertical compression, with different bed joint orientations 90° and 45° relative to the loading direction. Different reinforcement orientations were used including vertical, horizontal, and a combination of both sides of the wall. The second part of this paper comprises a numerical analysis of unreinforced brick masonry (URM) wa
... Show MoreHepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a significant global health problem. Populations of different ethnicities show great heterogeneity in HBV genotype frequency distributions. A cross-sectional study was conducted during June–October 2018 to determine frequency of HBV genotypes among chronic HBV patients from Baghdad, Iraq. The method of detection was nested polymerase chain reaction system. Further, the study assessed the impact of HBV genotypes on serum level of liver-function tests: total serum bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase. Eighty chronic HBV patients were enrolled in the study. Six HBV genotypes were identified (A, B, C, D, E and F). The most frequently encountered genotypes
... Show More