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 series of 4-(methylsulfonyl)aniline derivatives were synthesized in order to obtain new compounds as a potential anti-inflammatory agents with expected selectivity against COX-2 enzyme. In vivo acute anti-inflammatory activity of the final compounds 11–14 was evaluated in rat using an egg-white induced edema model of inflammation in a dose equivalent to 3 mg/Kg of diclofenac sodium. All tested compounds produced significant reduction of paw edema with respect to the effect of propylene glycol 50% v/v (control group). Moreover, the activity of compounds 11 and 14 was significantly higher than that of diclofenac sodium (at 3 mg/Kg) in the 120–300 minute time interval, while compound 12 expressed a comparable effect to that of di
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One of the important units in Sharq Dijla Water Treatment Plant (WTP) first and second extensions are the alum solution preparation and dosing unit. The existing operation of this unit accomplished manually starting from unloading the powder alum in the preparation basin and ending by controlling the alum dosage addition through the dosing pumps to the flash mix chambers. Because of the modern trend of monitoring and control the automatic operation of WTPs due to the great benefits that could be gain from optimum equipment operation, reducing the operating costs and human errors. This study deals with how to transform the conventional operation to an automatic monitoring and controlling system depending on a Programmable
... Show MoreSome structures such as tall buildings, offshore platforms, and bridge bents are subjected to lateral loads of considerable magnitude due to wind and wave actions, ship impacts, or high-speed vehicles. Significant torsional forces can be transferred to the foundation piles by virtue of eccentric lateral loading. The testing program of this study includes one group consists of 3 piles, four percentages of allowable vertical load were used (0%, 25%, 50%, and 100%) with two L/D ratios 20 and 30, vertical allowable load 110 N for L/D = 20 and 156 N for L/D = 30. The results obtained indicate that the torsional capacity for pile group increases with increasing the percentage of allowable vertical load, when the percentage of allowable vertica
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The aim of this work is to evaluate some mechanical and physical
properties (i.e. the impact strength, hardness, flexural strength,
thermal conductivity and diffusion coefficient) of
(epoxy/polyurethane) blend reinforced with nano silica powder (2%
wt.). Hand lay-up technique was used to manufacture the composite
and a magnetic stirrer for blending the components. Results showed
that water had affected the bending flexural strength and hardness,
while impact strength increased and thermal conductivity decreased.
In addition to the above mentioned tests, the diffusion coefficient
was calculated using Fick’s 2nd law.
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This investigation integrates experimental and numerical approaches to study a novel solar air heater aimed at achieving an efficient design for a solar collector suitable for drying applications under the meteorological conditions of Iraq. The importance of this investigation stems from the lack of optimal exploitation of solar energy reaching the solar collector, primarily attributable to elevated thermal losses despite numerous designs employed in such solar systems. Consequently, enhancing the thermal performance of solar collectors, particularly those employed in crop drying applications, stands as a crucial focal point for researchers within this domain. Two identical double-pass solar air heaters were designed and constructed for
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Hydrogen and nanocarbon were produced by the catalytic decomposition of electrocracking gas obtained by the pyrolysis of liquid organic waste via electric arc discharge. The GIAP-16 (NiO-Al2O3) industrial catalyst was used to reduce the maximum decomposition temperature to 700 °C. In a fixed-bed reactor, under atmospheric pressure, reasonable amounts of high-purity hydrogen were produced, accompanied by deposits of nanocarbon by-product. The NiO-Al2O3 catalyst showed excellent catalytic activity. X-ray powder diffraction analysis of the NiO-Al2O3 composite revealed the presence of cubic NiO and rhombohedral Al2O3, which were chemically stable. However, above 500 °C, NiAl2O4 began to appear. The specific surface area of the catalyst was de
... Show MoreIn the last few years, the use of artificial neural network analysis has increased, particularly, in geotechnical engineering problems and has demonstrated some success. In this research, artificial neural network analysis endeavors to predict the relationship between physical and mechanical properties of Baghdad soil by making different trials between standard penetration test, liquid limit, plastic limit, plasticity index, cohesion, angle of internal friction, and bearing capacity. The analysis revealed that the changes in natural water content and plastic limit have a great effect on the cohesion of soil and the angle of internal friction, respectively. . On the other hand, the liquid limit has a great impact on the bearing capacity and
... Show MoreBackground: Orthodontic force is considered to stimulate cells in the periodontium to release many mediators such as cytokines which play a responsible role for periodontal and alveolar bone remodeling, bone resorption and new bone deposition. Aim of this study was carried out to estimate changes of the (interleukin-one beta, tumor necrosis factor – alpha and C-reactive protein) levels in unstimulated whole saliva during the leveling stage of orthodontic tooth movement. Materials and methods: The sample consisted of thirty adult patients (12 males and 18 females) with ages ranges (19-23) years. Each sample had Class I and Class II malocclusion dental classification and required bilateral extraction of their maxillary first premolars, und
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Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common and major opportunistic human pathogen, its causes many and dangersinfectious diseases due to death in some timesex: cystic fibrosis , wounds inflammation , burns inflammation , urinary tract infection , other many infections otitis external , Endocarditis , nosocomial infection and also causes other blood infections (Bacteremia). thereforebecomes founding fast and exact identification of P. aeruginosafrom samples culture very important.However, identification of this species may be problematic due to the marked phenotypic variabilitydemonstrated by samples isolates and the presence of other closely related species. To facilitate species identification, we used 16S ribosomal DNA(rRNA) sequence data
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