During infection, T. gondii disseminates by the circulatory system and establishes chronic infection in several organs. Almost third of humans, immunosuppressed individuals such as HIV/AIDS patients, cancer patients, and organ transplant recipients are exposed to toxoplasmosis. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the possibility that Toxoplasma infection could be a risk factor for COVID-19 patients and its possible correlation with C-reactive protein and ferritin. Overall 220 patients referred to the Al Furat General Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq were enrolled from 2020–2021. All serum samples were tested for T. gondii immunoglobulins (IgG and IgM) antibodies, C-reactive protein and ferritin levels. In patients with COVID-19, the results revealed a high positivity percentage for anti-Toxoplasma IgG. In COVID-19 patients infected with T. gondii, the C-reactive protein and ferritin levels were higher than the controls. The ferritin level was high in COVID-19 patients infected with toxoplasmosis compare with COVID-19 patient without toxoplasmosis in different gender and age while the level of CRP had no significant differences in COVID-19 patient with or without toxoplasmosis. These finding suggest that the incidental rate of toxoplasmosis could be considered as an indication to the high risk of COVID-19.
The present study evaluates the effects of Ginkgo biloba extract as monotherapy on the glycemic status, insulin resistance (IR), body mass index (BMI), and visceral adiposity index (VAI), in addition to the inflammatory markers, oxidative status and leptin level in patients with metabolic syndrome in comparison with metformin.
The study is a randomized, double-blind pilot study conducted during the period May to September, 2020. Fifty patients were recruited in the study and they were allocated into two groups (25 per each group): Ginkgo biloba and Metformin groups, they received (120 mg Ginkgo biloba extract/ capsule) and (500 mg Metformin/ capsule) respectively; orally as a single dose for 90 days. Blood samples were taken at z
... Show MoreOne of the recent significant but challenging research studies in computational biology and bioinformatics is to unveil protein complexes from protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs). However, the development of a reliable algorithm to detect more complexes with high quality is still ongoing in many studies. The main contribution of this paper is to improve the effectiveness of the well-known modularity density ( ) model when used as a single objective optimization function in the framework of the canonical evolutionary algorithm (EA). To this end, the design of the EA is modified with a gene ontology-based mutation operator, where the aim is to make a positive collaboration between the modularity density model and the proposed
... Show MoreStable isotopes 18O/16O and 13C/12C in the carbonate rocks of the Mishrif Formation are examined here to define the depositional characters in the basin includes paleo temperatures and paleo depth. The Mishrif formation (Cenomanian – Early Turonian) has extensive distribution in Iraq and Middle East. Mishrif Formation composed of organic detrital limestone. Four boreholes in four oilfields, Noor – well (11), Amarah – well (14), Buzurgan – well (24), Halfaya – well (8), in south east of Iraq have been studied. The studied samples have negative δ18O isotope values studied well, with Average (-4.11‰), (-4.47‰), (-4.48‰), (-4.18‰) in the studied wells res
... Show MoreBackground: 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
... Show MoreThis work studies the performance of zeolite permeable reactive barrier in removing cadmium from a contaminated shallow aquifer. Batch tests have been performed to characterize the equilibrium sorption properties of the zeolite in cadmium-containing aqueous solutions. A 1D numerical finite difference model has been developed to describe pollutant transport within groundwater taking pollutant sorption on the permeable reactive barrier (PRB), which is performed by Langmuir equation, into account. Numerical results show that the PRB starts to saturate after a period of time (~120 h) due to reduction of the retardation factor, indicating a decrease in the percentage of zeolite functionality. However, a reasonable agreement between model predict
... Show MoreNanocrystalline ZnO/Zeolite type A composite was prepared by simple method of operation by . the precipitation of zinc oxide and loading on zeolite 5A in one step. Characterization was made by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence(XRF), N2 adsorption- desorption for BET surface area, and Atomic force microscopy (AFM). Results showed that zinc oxide was loaded on zeolite as noticed by the characteristic peaks and was of nano scale having an average diameter of 88.57nm. The percentage loading of ZnO on zeolite A was 28.37% and the surface area was 222m2/g. The activity of the prepared catalyst was examined in the desulfurization of double hydrogenated diesel fuel. The process was investigated in a
... Show MoreThe electron correlation effect for inter-shell have been analysed in terms of Fermi hole and partial Fermi hole for Li-atom in the excited states (1s2 3p) and (1s2 3d) using Hartree-Fock approximation (HF). Fermi hole Δf(r12) and partial Fermi hole Δg(r12 ,r1) were determined in position space. Each plot of the physical properties in this work is normalized to unity. The calculation was performed using Mathcad 14 program.
Pots experiment was conducted in the green house of Biology Department, College of Education ( Ibn-AL-Haithum), University of Baghdad , during the growing season of 2005-2006 , to study the effect of five levels of urea fertilizer (0,50,100,150and 200) mg/pot in on vegetative growth of one wheat cultivar (Adanania) upon randomized complete block design with four replications. The results showed that significant difference between urea fertilizer levels above in vegetative growth characteristics ( plant height , leaf area , chlorophyll content, dry matter weight , relative efficiency and relative yield ) It was also showed that 200 mg/pot level was superior to urea fertilizer levels others in above charac
... Show MoreThe primary objective of current study was to evaluate the effects of different anastrozole dosages on the physiological performance, hematological profile, and serum biochemical parameters of broiler roosters. A total of Twenty-six Lohmann Brown roosters were randomly assigned to four treatment groups. The first group (T1) served as the control and received no anastrozole, while the other groups (T2, T3, and T4) were administered 0.2 mg, 0.4 mg, and 0.6 mg of anastrozole per day, respectively. The first and second groups consisted of six birds each, while the third and fourth groups had seven. The results demonstrated a significant improvement (P ≤ 0.05) in several physiological and biochemical parameters in the group receiving 0.6 mg of
... Show MoreThe reactive yellow azo dye (λmax = 420 nm) is widely utilized for textile coloring due to its low-cost stability and tolerance properties. Treatment of dye-containing wastewater by traditional methods is usually inadequate because of its resistance to biological and chemical degradation. From this research, the continuous reactor of an advanced oxidation method supported the use of H2O2/TiO2/UV to remove the coloration of the reactive yellow dye from the discharge. At constant best conditions obtained from the batch reactor tests pH=7, H2O2 dosage = 400 mg/l and TiO2=25mg/l , the aqueous solutions were tested in the continuous reactor at different dye concentration and d
... Show More