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.
Background: The incisive canal is an anatomical structure with an important location in the anterior maxilla, analyzing this canal and its relation to the bone anterior to the canal is necessary during dental implant. Aim of this study is evaluated effect of gender, age and tooth loss in area of maxillary central incisors teeth on the dimensions of incisive canal and buccal bone anterior to the canal using spiral computed tomography. Materials and Methods: Sample consists of prospective study for 156 subjects for both gender, they divided into two groups, 120 dentate group (60 male and 60 female) with age ranging from (20-70) and 36 edentate group (with missing maxillary central incisors) (18 male and 18 female) with age ranging from (50-70
... Show MoreIn this study, we set up and analyze a cancer growth model that integrates a chemotherapy drug with the impact of vitamins in boosting and strengthening the immune system. The aim of this study is to determine the minimal amount of treatment required to eliminate cancer, which will help to reduce harm to patients. It is assumed that vitamins come from organic foods and beverages. The chemotherapy drug is added to delay and eliminate tumor cell growth and division. To that end, we suggest the tumor-immune model, composed of the interaction of tumor and immune cells, which is composed of two ordinary differential equations. The model’s fundamental mathematical properties, such as positivity, boundedness, and equilibrium existence, are exami
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The field of climatic geography focuses on the study of the Earth's surrounding atmosphere, particularly the lower (surface) part close to the Earth's surface. This field examines the interactions within the atmosphere resulting from the solar radiation that reaches the Earth and the subsequent distribution of atmospheric pressure. Consequently, certain surface pressure systems, both high and low, emerge and vary in their temporal and spatial impacts on the climate of the Arabian Peninsula. Therefore, it is essential to conduct a comprehensive and detailed study to understand the causes, development, movement, geographical distribution, and monthly and seasonal recurrence of these pressure systems. For this purpose, a minor climatic
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Satire is genre of the literary arts that has always been the source of human interest. Because it is difficult to accept direct criticism, Satire appears as a literary tool in which vices, follies, abuses and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. A satirical critic usually employs irony to attain this goal. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often profitable social criticism, using wit to draw at
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Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of Iraqi dentists towards cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) applications in endodontics by using an online survey. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire, consisting of 31 questions, targeted general dental practitioners and specialists in different dental specialities. A total of 306 participants were included. Data were assessed according to the frequency of distribution and the chi-square test was applied to analyse the difference in responses between two independent groups. Results: Among the participants 63.4% were using digital radiography in their daily practice, and 84% had awareness about CBCT's uses, with higher statistically significant responses among e
... Show MoreIn the last few years, the literature conferred a great interest in studying the feasibility of using memristive devices for computing. Memristive devices are important in structure, dynamics, as well as functionalities of artificial neural networks (ANNs) because of their resemblance to biological learning in synapses and neurons regarding switching characteristics of their resistance. Memristive architecture consists of a number of metastable switches (MSSs). Although the literature covered a variety of memristive applications for general purpose computations, the effect of low or high conductance of each MSS was unclear. This paper focuses on finding a potential criterion to calculate the conductance of each MMS rather t
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Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative aging disease, with idiopathic PD being most common. Gastrointestinal tract disorders (GITD) and microbiota changes may trigger idiopathic PD. Neurotoxins from microbiota can travel from the gut to the brain via the brain-gut axis (BGA), leading to α-syn protein misfolding and dopaminergic neuron death. Methods: The aim of the current study was to investigate the link between PD and GITD by measuring several biochemical and immunological markers in 142 patients. The biochemical markers measured were vitamins B6, B12, and D, calcium, serotonin, ghrelin, dopamine, and α-syn protein. The immunological markers included transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), tu
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The therapeutic value of the phenolic component and pure thymol was well known; this study comprised the extraction of crude phenol from two plants (Thymus vulgaris and Artemisia annua) which contain thymol with pure thymol and evaluate their effect on hematological and histological by using three different concentrations of each plant extract and pure thymol to tested them on lab mice. All the mice were allowed free access to water and feed for 21 days in laboratory conditions; orally, pure water was administered to the control mice (group I), while groups II, III, and IV were given orally with T. vulgaris, A. annua, combination of last two crude phenol plant extract 50:50 and pure thymol respectively. The levels of CHO, TRI, and HDL were
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Background: Psoriasis is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease with unknown aetiology that may be associated with the defect in proliferation and differentiation of the keratinocytes related to inflammatory cell infiltration. According to published reports, it is universal in occurrence; its prevalence in different populations varies from 0.1% to 11.8%. Receiving Apremilast resulted in a strong reduction in interleukin 17 and interleukin 23, as well as reduced expression of other inflammatory cytokines and improvement of psoriatic lesions. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the impact of Apremilast on levels of IL-17, IL-23, and lipids in obese psoriatic patients. Methods: Thirty obese patients with psoriasis were included in
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