Systemic lupus Erythematosus is an autoimmune disease of unknown aetiology affecting multiple organ system. Reactive nitrogen and oxygen species are claimed to play a role in this disease. However, the potential of Nitrosative/Oxidative Stress to elicit an autoimmune, response remain till now largely unexplored in humans. This study was done to investigate the status and contribution of nitrosative/oxidative stress in Iraqi patients for systemic lupus erythematosus. Blood samples from 19 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and 19 age-and sex- matched apparently healthy controls were evaluated for serum levels of nitrosative/oxidative stress markers including nitric oxide, peroxynitrite and malondialdehyde. Nitric oxide levels were

A paraffin wax and copper foam matrix were used as a thermal energy storage material in the double passes air solar chimney (SC) collector to get ventilation effect through daytime and after sunset. Air SC collector was installed in the south wall of an insulated test room and tested with different working angles (30^o, 45^o and 60^o). Different SC types were used; single pass, double passes flat plate collector and double pass thermal energy storage box collector (TESB). A computational model based on the finite volume method for transient tw dimensional domains was carried out to describe the heat transfer and storage in the thermal energy storage material of collector. Also, equivalent specific heat metho

Flexible molecular docking is a computational method of structure-based drug design to evaluate binding interactions between receptor and ligand and identify the ligand conformation within the receptor pocket. Currently, various molecular docking programs are extensively applied; therefore, realizing accuracy and performance of the various docking programs could have a significant value. In this comparative study, the performance and accuracy of three widely used non-commercial docking software (AutoDock Vina, 1-Click Docking, and UCSF DOCK) was evaluated through investigations of the predicted binding affinity and binding conformation of the same set of small molecules (HIV-1 protease inhibitors) and a protein target HIV-1 protease enzy

Unused and expired pharmaceutical drugs are a novel type of organic corrosion inhibitor. They are less expensive, more effective, and less harmful than conventional organic corrosion inhibitors. This study investigated the effects of concentration, adsorption mechanism and thermodynamic parameters of enalapril malate (ENAP) as a corrosion inhibitor for carbon steel in a saline solution (3.5 % NaCl). The polarization method was used to determine the corrosion rate and inhibition efficiency. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force spectroscopy (AFM) were used to investigate the surface morphology and topography of carbon steel after immersion in both uninhibited and inhibited media for 24 h. Fourier transform inf

Background: Large amounts of oily wastewater and its derivatives are discharged annually from several industries to the environment. Objective: The present study aims to investigate the ability to remove oil content and turbidity from real oily wastewater discharged from the wet oil's unit (West Qurna 1-Crude Oil Location/ Basra-Iraq) by using an innovated electrocoagulation reactor containing concentric aluminum tubes in a monopolar mode. Methods: The influences of the operational variables (current density (1.77-7.07 mA/cm2) and electrolysis time (10-40 min)) were studied using response surface methodology (RSM) and Minitab-17 statistical program. The agitation speed was taken as 200 rpm. Energy and electrodes consumption had been studi