Background: Infection with Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) leads to activation of T-helper cells (Th-1 and Th-2) which are involved in the synthesis and release of different cytokines which may lead to endothelial dysfunction. Objectives: To evaluate the endothelial function in patients with acute toxoplasmosis. Methods: This case-control study involved 31 patients with toxoplasmosis aged 19 - 47 years matched with 20 healthy subjects. Anti-T. gondii antibody (IgG, IgM, IgA) was determined by direct antigen-antibody reaction. Interleukin-6(IL-6), endothelin-1 (ET-1) and human malondialdehyde (MDA) serum levels were measured. Results: IgM, IgG and IgA levels were high in the infected patients compared with controls (P < 0.01). Furthermore, IL-

The aim of present study was to develop solid and liquid  self-microemulsifying drug  delivery system of poorly water soluble drug mebendazole using Aerosil 200 as solid carrier.  Microemulsions are clear, stable, isotropic liquid mixtures of oil, water and surfactant, frequently in combination with a co-surfactant having droplet size range usually in the range of 20-250 nm. Oleic acid, tween 80 and polypropylene glycol were selected as oil, surfactant and co-surfactant respectively and for preparation of stable SMEDDS, micro emulsion region was identified by constructing pseudo ternary phase diagram containing different proportion of surfactant: co-surfactant (1:1, 2:1 and 3:1), oil and water. In brief S/ CoS mix means su

Background: Placenta is a chief cause of maternal and perinatal mortality and significant factor in fetal growth retardation. It undergoes different variations in weight, volume, structure, shape and function continuously throughout the gestation tosupport the prenatal life. Cautious examination of placenta can give information which can be useful in the management of complications in mother and the newborn. Objective: The present work has been attempted towards determination of the morphological ( macroscopic and microscopic) parameters of human full-term placentae and their relation with different parity and age group of mothers. Patients and Methods: A whole of 40 placentae were recently collected.They were divided into four groups

Objective: Carbamazepine is typically used for the treatment of seizure disorders and neuropathic pain. One of the major problems with this drug is its low solubility in water; therefore the objective of this study was to enhance the solubility of carbamazepine by complexation with cyclodextrin to be formulated as effervescent and dispersible granules.Methods: Solvent evaporation method was used to prepare, binary (Carbamazepine/β-cyclodextrin) complex and ternary (Carbamazepine/β-cyclodextrin/hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC E5). The more soluble complex will be further formulated as unit dose effervescent and dispersible granules. The complexes were evaluated for their solubility, drug content, percentage practical yield and

This study was designed to investigate the effect of thyroid hormone disturbance on lipids profiles and liver functions. Eighteen mature male rats Rattus norvegicus were divided into three groups. The first and the second groups were injected subcutaneously with thyroxine (T4) and carbimazol (both at 600 µg/kg BW) respectively on alternate days, to produce recurrent periods of hyper and hypothyroidism .The control group which is the third group was injected with physiological saline. The process continued 4 weeks, after that, injection, blood specimens were collected to estimate serum levels of T3 and T4, Total cholesterol (TC), Triglycerides (TG), High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) an

In the analysis of multiple linear regression, the problem of multicollinearity and auto-correlation drew the attention of many researchers, and given the appearance of these two problems together and their bad effect on the estimation, some of the researchers found new methods to address these two problems together at the same time. In this research a comparison for the performance of the Principal Components Two Parameter estimator (PCTP) and The (r-k) class estimator and the r-(k,d) class estimator by conducting a simulation study and through the results and under the mean square error (MSE) criterion to find the best way to address the two problems together. The results showed that the r-(k,d) class estimator is the best esti

CdO:NiO/Si solar cell film was fabricated via deposition of CdO:NiO in different concentrations 1%, 3%, and 5% for NiO thin films in R.T and 723K, on n-type silicon substrate with approximately 200 nm thickness using pulse laser deposition. CdO:NiO/n-Si solar cell photovoltaic properties were examined under 60 mW/cm2 intensity illumination. The highest efficiency of the solar cell is 2.4% when the NiO concentration is 0.05 at 723K.

   The aim of this study is to investigate the kinetics of copper removal from aqueous solutions using an electromembrane extraction (EME) system. To achieve this, a unique electrochemical cell design was adopted comprising two glass chambers, a supported liquid membrane (SLM), a graphite anode, and a stainless-steel cathode. The SLM consisted of a polypropylene flat membrane infused with 1-octanol as a solvent and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (DEHP) as a carrier. The impact of various factors on the kinetics constant rate was outlined, including the applied voltage, initial pH of the donor phase solution, and initial copper concentration. The results demonstrated a significant influence of the applied voltage on enhancing the rate of c

A systematic approach is presented to achieve the stable grasping of objects through a two-finger robotic hand, in which each finger cavity was filled with granular media. The compaction of the latter, controlled by vacuum pressure, was used to adjust the structural and contact stiffness of the finger. The grasping stability was studied under the concurrent effect of an external torque and applied vacuum pressure. Stable grasping was defined as the no slippage condition between the grasped object and the two fingers. Three control schemes were adopted and applied experimentally to ensure the effectiveness of the grasping process. The results showed that stable and unstable grasping regions exist for each combination of applied torqu