BACKGROUND: The number of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) positive patients and fatalities keeps rising. It is important to recognize risk factors for severe outcomes. Evidence linking vitamin D deficiency and the severity of COVID-19 is tangential but substantial – relating to race, obesity, and institutionalization. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the function of vitamin D and nutritional defense against infections such as COVID-19, which is the goal of this research. METHODS: This study includes observational cohort, cross-sectional, and case-control studies that estimated variances in serum levels of vitamin D among patients with mild or severe forms of COVID-19, and in patients who died or were discharged from hospit

A hydraulic platform was manufactured to serve palm trees and to enhance palm tree services, with a height of 12 meters, by the General Company for Hydraulic Industries, one of the Ministry of Industry's formations. This platform was tested in the field after being manufactured according to a randomized complete block design using split-split plots with three factors. The first factor represented the shape of the orchard land, with two levels (flat land and uneven land), serving as the main plots. The second factor had three levels representing palm tree heights (4, 8, and 12 meters), which served as the sub-plots. The third factor was the palm tree services, represented at three levels (pruning, pollination, and harvesting), with each trea

The automatic liquid filling system is used in different applications such as production of detergents, liquid soaps, fruit juices, milk products, bottled water, etc. The automatic bottle filling system is highly expensive. Where, the common filling systems required to complex changes in hardware and software in order to modify volume of liquid. There are many important variables in the filling process such as volume of liquid, the filling time, etc. This paper presents a new approach to develop an automatic liquid filling system. The new proposed system consists of a conveyor subsystem, filling stations, and camera to detect the level of the liquid at any instant during the filling process. The camera can detect accurately the leve

Copper electrodeposition by electrorefining process in acidic sulfate media contains 40 g/l of cupric ions and 160 g/l of sulfuric acid was achieved to study the influence of the operating parameters on cathode purity, surface morphology, deposition rate, current efficiency and power consumption. These operating parameters and there ranges are: current density 200, 300 and 400 A/m², electrolyte temperature 35, 50 and 65 ^oC, electrodes spacing 15, 30 and 45 mm and electrolyte residence time 6, 4 and 2 h were utilized. XRF, SEM and EDX analyses were attained to clarify the properties of the produced cathode.

Dam and powerhouse operation sustainability is a major concern from the hydraulic engineering perspective. Powerhouse operation is one of the main sources of vibrations in the dam structure and hydropower plant; thus, the evaluation of turbine performance at different water pressures is important for determining the sustainability of the dam body. Draft tube turbines run under high pressure and suffer from connection problems, such as vibrations and pressure fluctuation. Reducing the pressure fluctuation and minimizing the principal stress caused by undesired components of water in the draft tube turbine are ongoing problems that must be resolved. Here, we conducted a comprehensive review of studies performed on dams, powerhouses, a

Lymphoma is a cancer arising from B or T lymphocytes that are central immune system ‎components. It is one of the three most common cancers encountered in the canine; ‎lymphoma affects middle-aged to older dogs and usually stems from lymphatic tissues, ‎such as lymph nodes, lymphoid tissue, or spleen. Despite the advance in the management of ‎canine lymphoma, a better understanding of the subtype and tumor aggressiveness is still ‎crucial for improved clinical diagnosis to differentiate malignancy from hyperplastic ‎conditions and to improve decision-making around treating and what treatment type to use. ‎This study aimed to evaluate a potential novel biomarker related to iron metabolism,

This study investigates the influence of Strategic Consensus (SC) on Organizational Performance (OP), with Strategic Alignment (SA) serving as a mediating variable, within private academic institutions in Iraq. The research utilized scales developed to measure each variable: SC, OP, and SA, all of which are unidimensional. The sample comprised 131 senior participants, including deans and faculty council members, with questionnaires distributed across three institutions: Dijla University College (35 respondents), Baghdad College of Economic Sciences (31 respondents), and the University of Uruk (65 respondents). Data analysis employed various statistical techniques, including normality testing, confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statis

The distress of moisture induced damage in flexible pavement received tremendous attention over the past decades. The harmful effects of this distress expand the deterioration of other known distresses such as rutting and fatigue cracking. This paper focused on the efficiency of using the waste material of demolished concrete to prepare asphalt mixtures that can withstand the effect of moisture in the pavement. For this purpose, different percentages of waste demolished concrete (0, 10, 20, 30, 50, 70 and 100) were embedded as a replacement for coarse aggregate to construct the base course. The optimum asphalt contents were determined depending on the Marshall method. Then after, two parameters were founded to evaluate the moisture

This study investigates the constructs and related theories that drive social capital in energy sector from the intention perspectives. This research uses theories of 'social support' and 'planned behaviour' alongside satisfaction and perceived value to propose a research model that drives social capital for energy sectors in Malaysia. The model reveals that the Theories of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Social Support Theory (SST) alongside satisfaction and perceived value factors promote social capital development in energy sectors. Using PLS-SEM to analyse data gathered from energy sector employees in Malaysia, this research demonstrates that social capital is present when there is trust and loyalty among the users and positively effects en