The Love Creek Nature Center, one of the three nature centers located within the boundaries of Berrien County, is owned and operated by the county for public enjoyment and instruction of nature. The 44.5 ha study area, located seven km east of Berrien Springs, and two km southwest of Berrien Center, on Huckleberry Road, in T6S, R17W, sections 16, 17 (Lat. 41° 56' N; Long. 86° 18' W) is made up of deciduous woods and abandoned fields at various stages of succession. It is bounded on the east by the Berrien County Dog Pound and Huckleberry Road, to the north by cultivated Berrien County land and the Berrien General Hospital, to the west by the recently closed Berrien - Oronoko Township Landfill Dump; and to the south b

This study was carried out to determine the heavy metal accumulation of Juncus rigidus Desfontaines, 1798 from three different regions of the Basrah Province in Southern of Iraq. Specifically, the concentrations of lead, nickel, and cadmium were determined in the roots, culms and leaves of the plant. The results indicated that the highest accumulation of the heavy metal was recorded in lead (Pb) 12.50± 3.58 mg kg^-1and then in nickel (< 0.30). The lowest value was recorded for cadmium (< 0.05). As well, lead concentrations in J. rigidus varied in different locations and parts of the plant from undetectable in control to 12.66, 19.33, and 9.80 mg kg^-1 in leaves, culm, and roots respective

Surface electromyography (sEMG) and accelerometer (Acc) signals play crucial roles in controlling prosthetic and upper limb orthotic devices, as well as in assessing electrical muscle activity for various biomedical engineering and rehabilitation applications. In this study, an advanced discrimination system is proposed for the identification of seven distinct shoulder girdle motions, aimed at improving prosthesis control. Feature extraction from Time-Dependent Power Spectrum Descriptors (TDPSD) is employed to enhance motion recognition. Subsequently, the Spectral Regression (SR) method is utilized to reduce the dimensionality of the extracted features. A comparative analysis is conducted between the Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) class

Many oil and gas processes, including oil recovery, oil transportation, and petroleum processing, are negatively impacted by the precipitation and deposition of asphaltene. Screening methods for determining the stability of asphaltenes in crude oil have been developed due to the high cost of remediating asphaltene deposition in crude oil production and processing. The colloidal instability index, the Asphaltene-resin ratio, the De Boer plot, and the modified colloidal instability index were used to predict the stability of asphaltene in crude oil in this study. The screening approaches were investigated in detail, as done for the experimental results obtained from them. The factors regulating the asphaltene precipitation are different fr

Background: Orthodontic mini-implants are increasingly used in orthodontics and the bone density is a very important factor in stabilization and success of mini-implant. The aim of this study was to observe the relationship among maximum bite force (MBF); body mass index (BMI); face width, height and type; and bone density in an attempt to predict bone density from these variables to eliminate the need for CT scan which have a highly hazard on patient. Materials and Methods: Computed tomographic (CT) images were obtained for 70 patients (24 males and 46 females) with age range 18-30 years. The maxillary and mandibular buccal cortical and cancellous bone densities were measured between 2nd premolar and 1st molar at two levels from the alveol

Background: It's believed that HBD-3 is involved in the tissue remodeling process of articular cartilage. Also, HBD-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assay human beta-defensine-3 (HBD-3) in serum from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and investigate its correlation with proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: In this case-control study, fifty-eight RA patients were aged 20–65 years, and 29 age-matched healthy subjects (HS) had no inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The disease activity score-28 joint erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) was used to measure RA activity. CRP, ACPA, HBD-3, TNF-α, and IL-1β were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA). Res