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 research aims at identifying the level of quality of University environment according to the viewpoint of female students taking the College of Sciences for Woman an example, as represented in the college units as registration unit and the unit of students' affairs, the curricula, instructors, study halls, the college library, scientific labs, computer access, stationary and photocopying services, health care center, the unit of artistic, cultural and sportive activity, the canteen, the college gardens, college buildings and equipment and bathrooms. To achieve the objectives of the research, the researcher prepared a questionnaire to identify the viewpoints of female students concerning the extent of the availability of the standards o
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The public procurement crisis in Iraq plays a fundamental role in the delay in the implementation of construction projects at different stages of project bidding (pre, during, and after). The procurement system of any country plays an important role in economic growth and revival. The paper aims to use the fuzzy logic inference model to predict the impact of the public procurement crisis (relative importance index and Likert scale) was carried out at the beginning to determine the most important parameters that affect construction projects, the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) to set up, and finally, the fuzzy decision maker's (FDM) verification of the parameter for comparison with reality. Sixty-five
... Show MorePolymer electrolytes were prepared using the solution cast technology. Under some conditions, the electrolyte content of polymers was analyzed in constant percent of PVA/PVP (50:50), ethylene carbonate (EC), and propylene carbonate (PC) (1:1) with different proportions of potassium iodide (KI) (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 wt%) and iodine (I2) = 10 wt% of salt. Fourier Transmission Infrared (FTIR) studies confirmed the complex formation of polymer blends. Electrical conductivity was calculated with an impedance analyzer in the frequency range 50 Hz–1MHz and in the temperature range 293–343 K. The highest electrical conductivity value of 5.3 × 10-3 (S/cm) was observed for electrolytes with 50 wt% KI concentration at room
... Show MoreIron–phthalocyanine (FePc) organic photoconductive detector was fabricated using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique to work in ultraviolet (UV) and visible regions. The organic semiconductor material (iron phthalocyanine) was deposited on n-type silicon wafer (Si) substrates at different thicknesses (100, 200 and 300) nm. FePc organic photoconductive detector has been improved by two methods: the first is to manufacture the detector on PSi substrates, and the second is by coating the detector with polyamide–nylon polymer to enhance the photoconductivity of the FePc detector. The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics, responsivity, photocurrent gain, response time and the quantum efficiency of the fabricated photoconduc
... Show MoreData steganography is a technique used to hide data, secret message, within another data, cover carrier. It is considered as a part of information security. Audio steganography is a type of data steganography, where the secret message is hidden in audio carrier. This paper proposes an efficient audio steganography method that uses LSB technique. The proposed method enhances steganography performance by exploiting all carrier samples and balancing between hiding capacity and distortion ratio. It suggests an adaptive number of hiding bits for each audio sample depending on the secret message size, the cover carrier size, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR). Comparison results show that the proposed method outperforms state of the art methods
... Show MoreThe holmium plasma induced by a 1064-nmQ-switched Nd:YAG laser in air was investigated. This work was done theoretically and experimentally. Cowan code was used to get the emission spectra for different transition of the holmium target. In the experimental work, the evolution of the plasma was studied by acquiring spectral images at different laser pulse energies (600,650,700, 750, and 800 mJ). The repetition rates of (1Hz and 10Hz) in the UV region (200-400 nm). The results indicate that, the emission line intensities increase with increasing of the laser pulse energy and repetition rate. The strongest emission spectra appeared when the laser pulse energy is 800mJ and 10 Hz repetition rate at λ= 345.64nm, with the maximum intensi
... Show MoreContinuous conflict between Parisian and Ottoman states the results that Iraq became as
aground for their battles which leads to their own interests in Iraq which are shape their
strategy. The conflict continues for long time. In spite of, they signed many treatments and
protocols between the two sides, as Arzarom treaty , the first and the second, Tahran protocols
, and Astana protocol. This conflict, no sides of them to dose any part of their land, but these
treaties leaded to a big loss to Iraq ,which lost parts of it's land and water area in Ahwaz and
shatt AL-Arab, so, Iraq became as a smoth target for their interests, and lost its
sovereignty,and lost self-govern of the country country . so the research conclud