Leishmania is one of the protozoan parasites that are transferred to human by infected sand flies and gives rise to a range of diseases entitled as Leishmaniasis. More than 20 known species of Leishmania can infect humans and cause various clinical symptoms. Three most known clinical manifestations are Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL), Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis (MCL) and Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) (kala-azar or black fever). The difference in the clinical form dependent on several factors: species of Leishmania, type of vector that transmits the Leishmania, and the immune status of an infected individual. The current drugs which are used as anti-leishaminial treatment are characterized by enormou

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a growing health concern that usually appears during the second and third trimester stage of pregnancy and is characterized by carbohydrate intolerance of variable severity. The aim of the present study was to scrutinize the relationship between the G972R polymorphism of the insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) gene with GDM in the Iraqi female population. One hundred and twenty of blood samples taken from healthy women (control) and women with gestational diabetes mellitus in 3rd trimester stage of pregnancy, fasting blood glucose (FBG) and HbA1c% measured to diagnose GDM, lipid profile (cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL, LDL, and VLDL), insulin concentration, insulin resistance and beta cell function to

Low-temperature stratification, high-volumetric storage capacity, and less-complicated material processing make phase-changing materials (PCMs) very suitable candidates for solar energy storage applications. However, their poor heat diffusivities and suboptimal containment designs severely limit their decent storage capabilities. In these systems, the arrangement of tubes conveying the heat transport fluid (HTF) plays a crucial role in heat communication between the PCM and HTF during phase transition. This study investigates a helical coil tube-and-shell thermal storage system integrated with a novel central return tube to enhance heat transfer effectiveness. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulations compare the proposed d

     Cadastral map environment is directed, more than ever before, towards Artificial Intelligence use to produce fast and accurate maps and keep up with the huge population growth. The traditional approach currently in production of maps is expensive and effort-intensive in addition to be considered as highly time-consuming process.  UAV-based cadastral mapping imagery that use automatic techniques are newly being exploited to accelerate the process of production or updating. The state-of-the-art intelligent algorithms are capable to extract land boundaries from images better than conventional techniques. This paper presents an automatic workflow of cadastral map production based on land boundary and automatic f

In this study, the flexural performance of a new composite beam–slab system filled with concrete material was investigated, where this system was mainly prepared from lightweight cold-formed steel sections of a beam and a deck slab for carrying heavy floor loads as another concept of a conventional composite system with a lower cost impact. For this purpose, seven samples of a profile steel sheet–dry board deck slab (PSSDB/PDS) carried by a steel cold-formed C-purlins beam (CB) were prepared and named “composite CBPDS specimen”, which were tested under a static bending load. Specifically, the effects of the profile steel sheet (PSS) direction (parallel or perpendicular to the span of the specimen) using different C-purlins c

In subterranean coal seam gas (CSG) reservoirs, massive amounts of small-sized coal fines are released during the production and development stages, especially during hydraulic fracturing stimulation. These coal fines inevitably cause mechanical pump failure and permeability damage due to aggregation and subsequent pore-throat blockage. This aggregation behavior is thus of key importance in CSG production and needs to be minimized. Consequently, such coal fines dispersions need to be stabilized, which can be achieved by the formulation of improved fracturing fluids. Here, we thus systematically investigated the effectiveness of two additives (ethanol, 0.5 wt % and SDBS, 0.001 and 0.01 wt %) on dispersion stability for a wide range of condit