The study aimed to assess the level of ANG‑2 in MM patients at diagnosis and in remission state and elaborate on its correlation with interleukin‑6 (IL‑6) and beta‑2 microglobulin (B2M) levels. Sixty MM patients; 20 newly diagnosed (ND), and 40 patients in remission were included. Twenty healthy individuals were included as a control group. Plasma levels of ANG‑2, B2M, and IL‑6 were tested by enzyme‑lin ked immunosorbent assay. There are significant statistical differences between ND patients and those in remission in hemoglobin, neutrophil count, blood urea, serum creatinine, glomerular filtration rate, B2M, IL6, and ANG‑2 (P = 0.001, 0.033, 0.005, 0.001, 0.001, 0.001, 0.004, and 0.001, respectively). ANG‑2 showed signifi

Green buildings are considered more efficient than traditional buildings due to the incorporated techniques and the multidisciplinary specializations required to comply with their specifications, in addition to the advanced commissioning, which undergoes before handing over the buildings to the owners to ensure requirements conformance. As a result, the appropriate selection of a project delivery system acts as the essential factor that affects the performance of the project. This research aims at building a system that helps to select the best method to implement green buildings. Through studying the recent research approaches in project delivery systems, the factors that affect the selection of the optimal implementation method fo

In recent years, the rapid development in the field of wireless technologies led to the appearance of a new topic, known as the Internet of things (IoT). The IoT applications can be found in various fields of our life, such as smart home, health care, smart building, and etc. In all these applications, the data collected from the real world are transmitted through the Internet; therefore, these data have become a target of many attacks and hackers. Hence, a secure communication must be provided to protect the transmitted data from unauthorized access. This paper focuses on designing a secure IoT system to protect the sensing data. In this system, the security is provided by the use of Lightweight AES encryption algorithm to encrypt the d

This paper deals with "the prohibition of autonomous weapons in the light of the principles of international humanitarian law", The autonomous  weapon is the newly developed type of weapon, and it is the latest of the genius of the human race in finding another "automatic" race to undertake combat operations on its behalf, However, this matter was not left at all, Rather, each party to the armed conflict must abide by the principles of international humanitarian law to avoid the harmful effects of that weapon, In particular, adherence to the text of Article 36 of the First Additional Protocol of 1977, which obliges the Contracting Parties to conduct a review of their weapons before their launch to find out what is prohibited and per

This paper presents a meta-heuristic swarm based optimization technique for solving robot path planning. The natural activities of actual ants inspire which named Ant Colony Optimization. (ACO) has been proposed in this work to find the shortest and safest path for a mobile robot in different static environments with different complexities. A nonzero size for the mobile robot has been considered in the project by taking a tolerance around the obstacle to account for the actual size of the mobile robot. A new concept was added to standard Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) for further modifications. Simulations results, which carried out using MATLAB 2015(a) environment, prove that the suggested algorithm outperforms the standard version of AC

Abstract The aim of this paper is to shed light on the theme of Gender Struggle and Women’s Predicament in Tennessee Williams’ A Street Car Named Desire .The paper tries to show William's dealings with the critical social themes like Men's Brutality and women's predicament. The paper exposes the complete shift of the balance of power between the genders in America after the two world wars. Williams illustrates society’s changing attitudes towards masculinity and denounces the society's attitudes towards women in America at that time. He rebels against the cruelty of the modern age and regrets the disintegration of the values of the south and their being replaced by the disruptive forces of modern life. In the end of the play, brutalit

Low-intensity laser irradiation has been explored as an alternative, non-invasive method to encourage chronic wounds to heal. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of low level laser therapy (biostimulation) using semiconductor diode laser with wavelength (785 nm) on the enhancement of chronic wound healing. Fifty patients with chronic wounds were selected to be treated with Low Level Laser Therapy. Their ages ranged between 1 to 76 years. The wound sites were distributed in the lower limb, upper limb, trunk , perineum and head (70%,14%,12%,2%,2%, respectively). Application of laser therapy by noncontact method few millimeters from the skin for 15 minutes per one session twice weekly for two months ; ie,16 sessions for each patient. R

In this paper, a miniaturized 2 × 2 electro-optic plasmonic Mach– Zehnder switch (MZS) based on metal–polymer–silicon hybrid waveguide is presented. Adiabatic tapers are designed to couple the light between the plasmonic phase shifter, implemented in each of the MZS arms, and the 3-dB input/output directional couplers. For 6 µm-long hybrid plasmonic waveguide supported by JRD1 polymer (r33= 390 pm/V), a π-phase shift voltage of 2 V is obtained. The switch is designed for 1550 nm operation wavelength using COMSOL software and characterizes by 2.3 dB insertion loss, 9.9 fJ/bit power consumption, and 640 GHz operation bandwidth

The pandemic SARS-CoV-2 is highly transmittable with its proliferation among nations. This study aims to design and exploring the efficacy of novel nirmatrelvir derivatives as SARS entry inhibitors by adapting a molecular modeling approach combined with theoretical design. The study focuses on the preparation of these derivatives and understanding their effectiveness, with a special focus on their binding affinity to the S protein, which is pivotal for the virus’s access to the host cell. Considering molecular docking aspects in the scope of a study on nirmatrelvir derivatives and S protein, dynamics simulations with 25 nanoseconds of their binding are explored. The study shows that these derivatives might work as effective antivi

Background: Determine how do obesity and type2 diabetes intertwined? and what it takes to turn an obese person into a person with diabetes. That link may help to understand why some obese people never develop diabetes while many others do. Serum sugar level was used as indicator of insulin level; leptin level was used as indicator of leptin resistance.
A total of 50 obese subjects were involved in this study, 25 obese subject (BMI >30) had diabetes mellitus type 2(no insulin dependant), selected from Baghdad teaching Hospital in Baghdad /Iraq. The remaining 25 obese (BMI >30) were normal healthy individuals.
Patients and Methods: ELSA technique was used for the measurement of serum leptin. Blood