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.

Background: Direct measurement of intracellular magnesium using erythrocytes has been suggested as a sensitive indicator for the estimation of body magnesium store. Marked depletion in plasma and erythrocyte magnesium levels was particularly evident in diabetic patients with advanced retinopathy and poor diabetic control. While insulin has been shown to stimulate erythrocyte magnesium uptake, hyperglycemia per se suppressed intracellular magnesium in normal human red cells.
Aim of the study: To investigate the erythrocyte magnesium level in Iraqi type I and II diabetic patients, with specific emphasis on the effect of both, metabolic control and the type of antidiabetic treatments.
Methods: Sixty two diabetic patients (7 with type

The Dynamic Load Factor (DLF) is defined as the ratio between the maximum dynamic and static responses in terms of stress, strain, deflection, reaction, etc. DLF adopted by different design codes is based on parameters such as bridge span length, traffic load models, and bridge natural frequency. During the last decades, a lot of researches have been made to study the DLF of simply supported bridges due to vehicle loading. On the other hand, fewer works have been reported on continuous bridges especially with skew supports. This paper focuses on the investigation of the DLF for a highly skewed steel I-girder bridge, namely the US13 Bridge in Delaware State, USA. Field testing under various load passes of a weighed load vehicle was u

The Isolated Combustion and Diluted Expansion (ICADE) internal combustion engine cycle combines the advantages of constant volume combustion of the Otto cycle with the high compression ratio of the Diesel cycle.   This work studies the effect of isolated air mass (charge stratification) on the efficiency of the cycle; the analysis shows that the decrease of isolated air mass will increase the efficiency of the cycle and the large dilution air mass will quench all NO_x forming reactions and reduce unburned hydrocarbons. Furthermore, the effect of Fuel / Air ratio on the efficiency shows that the increase of Fuel / Air ratio will increase efficiency of the cycle.

To enhance the structural performance of concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns, various strengthening techniques have been proposed, including the use of internal steel stiffeners, external wrapping with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets, and embedded steel elements. However, the behavior of concrete-filled stainless-steel tube (CFSST) columns remains insufficiently explored. This study numerically investigates the axial performance of square CFSST columns internally strengthened with embedded I-section steel profiles under biaxial eccentric loading. Finite element (FE) simulations were conducted using ABAQUS v. 6.2, and the developed models were validated against experimental results from the literature. A comprehen

Background: Biologic mechanisms of the form-function interaction are one of important component of orthodontic diagnosis. The purpose of this study is to search for the statistical associations between natural postural and craniofacial morphologic variables of the head. Materials and methods: The sample comprised natural head posture (NHP) cephalograms of 90 subjects, aged 18 to 25 years. Interpretation of the facial structure was made by using both intracranial and the extra-cranial reference lines in AutoCAD computer program. Results The measures of anteroposterior maxillary position, SNA showed a low negative correlations with the anterior cranial base angulation to true vertical (SN.Ver) and with the cranio-cervical position of the head

Thirty six bacteria were isolated from various sourcesc (soil, starch, cooked rice and other foods) and subjected to a series of primary screening tests to obtain the optimal isolation to production of amylase. The volume of producing zone by logal indicator for (Seven) isolates of the secondary screening by measuring the enzymatic activity and specific enzymatic activity. The isolate A4 was found to be the most efficient for production of amylase. Then this isolate was diagnosed through microscopic, vitek 2 system technique. in addition by gentic diagnesis through gene 16s of the genes nitrogen bases by use the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which reached 1256 bases. In comparison to the available information at the National Center for

Back ground: Diabetic nephropathy is rapidly becoming the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The onset and course of DN can be ameliorated to a very significant degree if intervention institutes at a point very early in the course of the development of this complication.
Objective: The aim of this study was to characterize risk factors associated with nephropathy in type I diabetes and construct a module for early prediction of diabetic nephropathy (DN) by analyzing their risk factors.
Methods: Case control design of 400 patients with type I diabetes mellitus (IDDM), aged 19-45 years. The cases were 200 diabetic patients with overt protein urea while the controls were 200 diabetic patients with no protein urea or micr