Given the paucity and toxicity of available drugs for leishmaniasis, coupled with the advent of drug resistance, the discovery of new therapies for this neglected tropical disease is recognised as being of the utmost urgency. As such antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been proposed as promising compounds against the causative Leishmania species, insect vector-borne protozoan parasites. Here the AMP temporins A, B and 1Sa have been synthesised and screened for activity against Leishmania mexicana insect stage promastigotes and mammalian stage amastigotes, a significant cause of human cutaneous disease. In contrast to previous studies with other species the activity of these AMPs against L. mexicana amastigotes was low. This suggests that amastigotes from different Leishmania species display varying susceptibility to peptides from the temporin family, perhaps indicating differences in their surface structure, the proposed target of these AMPs. In contrast, insect stage L. mexicana promastigotes were sensitive to two of the screened temporins which clearly demonstrates the importance of screening AMPs against both forms of the parasite. Copyright © 2011 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This study presents a comprehensive set of laboratory works for the examined soil layers extracted from Baghdad city (specifically from Alkadhimya, Alaitaifiya, and Alhurriya) to illustrate their engineering properties. The researchers have adopted the unified soil classification system for soil classification purposes. Also, the direct shear test was performed for soil samples with various degrees of saturation (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%). The test results have shown a significant reduction in cohesion property with higher moisture content within soil samples. Also, a noticeable reduction in angle of internal friction value has occurred with such changes. Furthermore, it has been found that the bearing capacity of unsaturated soi
... Show MoreIn this research the effect of cooling rate and mold type on mechanical properties of the eutectic
and hypoeutectic (Al-Si) alloys has been studied. The alloys used in this research work were (Al- 12.6%Si
alloy) and (Al- 7%Si alloy).The two alloys have been melted and poured in two types of molds with
different cooling rates. One of them was a sand mold and the other was metal mold. Mechanical tests
(hardness, tensile test and impact test) were carried out on the specimens. Also the metallographic
examination was performed.
It has been found that the values of hardness for the alloys(Al-12.6%Si and Al-7%Si) which poured in
metal mold is greater than the values of hardness for the same alloy when it poured in a heated
In this research, a study is introduced on the effect of several environmental factors on the performance of an already constructed quality inspection system, which was designed using a transfer learning approach based on convolutional neural networks. The system comprised two sets of layers, transferred layers set from an already trained model (DenseNet121) and a custom classification layers set. It was designed to discriminate between damaged and undamaged helical gears according to the configuration of the gear regardless to its dimensions, and the model showed good performance discriminating between the two products at ideal conditions of high-resolution images. So, this study aimed at testing the system performance at poo
... Show MoreIn this research, a study is introduced on the effect of several environmental factors on the performance of an already constructed quality inspection system, which was designed using a transfer learning approach based on convolutional neural networks. The system comprised two sets of layers, transferred layers set from an already trained model (DenseNet121) and a custom classification layers set. It was designed to discriminate between damaged and undamaged helical gears according to the configuration of the gear regardless to its dimensions, and the model showed good performance discriminating between the two products at ideal conditions of high-resolution images.
So, this study aimed at testing the system performance at poor s
... Show MoreThe consumption of fresh fruits has increased nowadays due to the lifestyle of the consumers. Maintaining the quality and nutritional value of cut fruits during storage is difficult compared to whole fruits. Deterioration of internal and external quality usually occurs in freshly harvested fruits. It is necessary to use different techniques to maintain the quality and increase the shelf life of the freshly cut product. This research studied the effect of treating apple slices with cold plasma once and with filtered water again on quality characteristics (hardness, moisture content, sugar content, carbohydrate content, and color) after being stored for five days. The best treatment was determined using two different pressures of the plasma j
... Show MorePolycyclicacetal was prepared by the reaction of PEG with 4-nitrobenzaldehyde. Cobalt was used for producing a polymer metal complex and solution casting was used to produce a polymer blend including nano chitosan. All produced compounds have been characterized by FT-IR, DSC/ TGA, and SEM techniques as well as biological activity. The production of polyacetal is illustrated by the FT-IR analysis. The DSC/TGA results indicate the prepared polymer blends' thermal stability. Staphylococcus aureas, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus subtilis, and Escherichia coli were the four types of bacteria selected to study and evaluate the antibacterial activity of produced polyacetal, its metal complex, and polymer blend. Results indicates that ther
... Show MoreNitrogen heterocycles are of a special interest because they constitute an important class of natural and non natural products, many of which exhibit useful biological activities.Among these nitrogen heterocycles are 1, 3, 4-thiadiazole containing compounds. The therapeutic effects of these derivatives have been well studied for a number of pathological conditions including inflammation, pain, or hypertension. Moreover, synthesis of thiadiazoles has attracted wide-spread attention due to their diverse applications as antibacterial, anticancer, antifungal anti-inflammatory and antidepressant agents.According to this information’s new derivatives of 1, 3, 4-thiadiazole were designed and synthesized and in the hope of having some act
... Show MorePathogenic 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
... Show MoreTernary polymer blend of chitosan/poly vinyl alcohol/ poly vinyl pyrrolidone was prepared by solution castingmethod, nanocomposite was prepared by sonication method with nano Ag and Zn. All prepared compounds have been characterizedby FT-IR, SEM, DSC, as well as Biological activity. Antimicrobialactivity related to prepared blendsand Nanocomposites againstsix types of bacteria namely, Staphylococcus aureas, E. faecalis, S.typhi, P. aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli andC. albicans fungal were examined and evaluated. The results reveal that the prepared polymer blends and nanocompositeshavegood antimicrobial activity against all kinds of microbials.
Biosynthesis of nanoparticles has received considerable attention due to the growing need to develop environmentally benign nanoparticle synthesis processes that do not use toxic chemicals. Therefore, biosynthetic methods employing both biological agents such as bacteria and fungus or plant extracts have emerged as a simple and a viable alternative to chemical synthetic and physical method .It is well known that many microbes produce an organic material either intracellular or extracellular which is playing important role in the remediation of toxic metals through reduction of metal ions and acting as interesting Nano factories. As a result, in the present study Ag NPs were syn
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