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.
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This study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From
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A multistep synthesis was established for the preparation of a new vanillic acid-1, 2, 4-1triazole-3-thiol conjugate (
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This study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From
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The increasing global energy demand and environmental concerns necessitate the development of sustainable energy storage solutions. Sodium-ion batteries have emerged as a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries due to the abundance and low cost of sodium. This study investigates the impact of incorporating hybrid nanoparticles, specifically polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane- poly(ethylene glycol) (POSS-PEG(13.3)), on the performance of polyethylene oxide (PEO)- sodium perchlorate (NaClO4) based solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs). The results demonstrate that the incorporation of POSS-PEG(13.3) effectively disrupts the crystallinity of the PEO matrix, as confirmed by X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry analyses.
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Poly(ethylene oxide) is a promising material for solid-state lithium batteries due to its safety, ease of processing, and compatibility with lithium. However, conventional linear PEO falls short of practical requirements due to its limited ionic conductivity, a consequence of the high crystallinity of its ethylene oxide chains. This crystallinity hinders the movement of lithium ions, limiting its performance in solid-state battery applications. In this study, we successfully prepared the plasticized solid polymer electrolytes (PSPEs) based on poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)/ tetracyanoethylene (TCE) complexed with lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) salt and studied the effect of TCE on structural, mechanical, electrical and elec
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The 3D electro-Fenton technique is, due to its high efficiency, one of the technologies suggested to eliminate organic pollutants in wastewater. The type of particle electrode used in the 3D electro-Fenton process is one of the most crucial variables because of its effect on the formation of reactive species and the source of iron ions. The electrolytic cell in the current study consisted of graphite as an anode, carbon fiber (CF) modified with graphene as a cathode, and iron foam particles as a third electrode. A response surface methodology (RSM) approach was used to optimize the 3D electro-Fenton process. The RSM results revealed that the quadratic model has a high R2 of 99.05 %. At 4 g L-1 iron foam particles, time of 5 h, and
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