Microbiological contamination by fungi impacts the quality and safety of wheat grain storage. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of cold plasma in restricting the growth of the fungus, Aspergillus niger, which was isolated from wheat grains. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operating at atmospheric pressure generated cold plasma that was used to treat the fungus, and the impact of this treatment was investigated at various periods  1, 2, 4, 6, and 15 minutes. The results revealed a highly significant decrease in the growth and number of spores of Aspergillus niger compared to the controls. This study revealed an efficient technique for enhancing wheat grain storage that could be a foundation for further large-scale studies.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common liver disease that ranges from simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). So far, the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. Here, we show that hepatic carboxylesterase 2 (CES2) is markedly reduced in NASH patients, diabetic db/db mice, and high‐fat diet (HFD)‐fed mice. Restoration of hepatic CES2 expression in db/db or HFD‐fed mice markedly ameliorates liver steatosis and insulin resistance. In contrast, knockdown of hepatic CES2 causes liver steatosis and damage in chow‐ or Western diet‐fe

Pro-inflammatory cytokines play an important role in intercellular communications. In the last two decades, many cytokines have been identified in human milk. These cytokines are variable according to different conditions such as pathogenic infections which strongly stimulated the immune response. The present study aims to determine of IL1β and TNF-α in Toxoplasma gondii-free and infected women in an attempt to clarify the impacts of the infections on cytokines especially in mother's milk. The serum and milk sample were collected from 96 samples (48 for seropositive and 48 for seronegative). To confirm the Toxoplasma gondii infection; enzyme linked immunofluorescence assay (ELIFA) was used to detect anti-Toxoplasma Ig

Some new complexes of 4-(5-(1,5-dimethyl-3-oxo-2-phenyl pyrazolidin-4- ylimino)-3,3-dimethyl cyclohexylideneamino) -1,5- dimethyl-2- phenyl -1H- pyrazol -3(2H) –one (L) with Mn(II), Fe(III), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Pd(II), Re(V) and Pt(IV) were prepared. The ligand and its metal complexes were characterized by phisco- chemical spectroscopic techniques. The spectral data were suggested that the (L) as a neutral tetradentate ligand is coordinated with the metal ions through two nitrogen and two oxygen atoms. These studies revealed Octahedral geometries for all metal complexes, except square planar for Pd(II) complex. Moreover, the thermodynamic activation parameters, such as ?E*, ?H, ?S, ?G and K are calculated from the TGA curves using Coa

Pathogenic microorganisms are becoming more and more resistant to antimicrobial agents. So the synthesis of new antimicrobial agents is very important. In this work, new 5-fluoroisatin-chalcone conjugates 5(a–g) were synthesized based on previous research that showed the modifications of the isatin moiety led to the synthesis of many derivatives that have antimicrobial activity. 4-aminoacetophenone reacts with 5-fluoroisatin to form Schiff base (3), which in turn reacts with two different groups of aromatic (carbocyclic and heterocyclic) aldehydes 4(a–g) separately to form the final compounds 5(a–g). Proton-nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy were used to confirm the chemic

Because the Coronavirus epidemic spread in Iraq, the COVID-19 epidemic of people quarantined due to infection is our application in this work. The numerical simulation methods used in this research are more suitable than other analytical and numerical methods because they solve random systems. Since the Covid-19 epidemic system has random variables coefficients, these methods are used. Suitable numerical simulation methods have been applied to solve the COVID-19 epidemic model in Iraq. The analytical results of the Variation iteration method (VIM) are executed to compare the results. One numerical method which is the Finite difference method (FD) has been used to solve the Coronavirus model and for comparison purposes. The numerical simulat

Background. Body mass index (BMI) is a person's weight in kilograms (or pounds) divided by the square of height in meters (or feet). Obesity affects a wide spectrum of age groups, from the young to the elderly, and there are several eye diseases related to obesity like diabetic retinopathy, floppy eyelid syndrome, retinal vein occlusion, stroke-related vision loss, age-related macular degeneration, and possibly, refractive errors. Refractive errors (RE) are optical imperfections related to the focusing ability of the eye and are the main cause of visual impairment which may result in missed education and employment opportunities, lower productivity and impaired quality of life. Aim. The study aimed to find an association between bod