Alopecia areata is considered as a major health problem, its importance is attributed to its
recent increased incidence in our population. Till now, there is no exact cause for alopecia areata
although researchers thought it's an autoimmune disease.
This clinical study was designed to evaluate the role of trace elements (zinc and copper) in patients
with alopecia areata. Twenty patients were diagnosed as having alopecia areata with an age range
(10-40 years) were involved in this study. Normal subjects of the same age group were also
evaluated as control. The level of serum Zn and Cu were measured by flame atomic absorption
spectrophotometry in both control and patient group. And the ratio of Zn/Cu was also estimated.
The results of patients group revealed that serum Zn level was significantly lower than those of
control (p<0.001), while serum Cu was significantly higher than that of control group (p=0.002).
Furthermore, Zn/Cu ratio of patients group was significantly lower than that of control subjects
(p<0.001). These results suggest the possible role of Zn and Cu level in alopecia areata. In addition
to that the utility of measuring Zn/ Cu ratios for the diagnosis of the disease over that of
determining the serum level of Zn or Cu alone since this ratio clearly reflects the severity of the
progress.
KA Sharquie, AA Al-Nuaimy, Annals of Saudi Medicine, 2002 - Cited by 48
Microbial fuel cell is a device that uses the microorganism metabolism for the production of electricity under specific operating conditions. Double chamber microbial fuel cell was tested for the use of two cheap electrode materials copper and aluminum for the production of electricity under different operating conditions. The investigated conditions were concentration of microorganism (yeast) (0.5- 2 g/l), solutions temperature (33-45 oC) and concentration of glucose as a substrate (1.5- 6 g/l). The results demonstrated that copper electrode exhibit good performance while the performance of aluminum is poor. The electricity is generated with and without the addition of substrate. Addition of glucose substrate
... Show MoreInfluence of metal nanoparticles synthesized by microorganisms upon soil-borne microscopic fungus Aspergillus terreus K-8 was studied. It was established that the metal nanoparticles synthesized by microorganisms affect the enzymatic activity of the studied culture. Silver nanoparticles lead to a decrease in cellulase activity and completely suppress the amylase activity of the fungus, while copper nanoparticles completely inhibit the activity of both the cellulase complex and amylase. The obtained results imply that the large-scale use of silver and copper nanoparticles may disrupt biological processes in the soil and cause change in the physiological and biochemical state of soil-borne microorganisms as well.
Copper Telluride Thin films of thickness 700nm and 900nm, prepared thin films using thermal evaporation on cleaned Si substrates kept at 300K under the vacuum about (4x10-5 ) mbar. The XRD analysis and (AFM) measurements use to study structure properties. The sensitivity (S) of the fabricated sensors to NO2 and H2 was measured at room temperature. The experimental relationship between S and thickness of the sensitive film was investigated, and higher S values were recorded for thicker sensors. Results showed that the best sensitivity was attributed to the Cu2Te film of 900 nm thickness at the H2 gas.
In this paper we present the first ever measured experimental electron momentum density of Cu2Sb at an intermediate resolution (0.6 a.u.) using 59.54 keV 241Am Compton spectrometer. The measurements are compared with the theoretical Compton profiles using density function theory (DFT) within a linear combination of an atomic orbitals (LCAO) method. In DFT calculation, Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) scheme is employed to treat correlation whereas exchange is included by following the Becke scheme. It is seen that various approximations within LCAO-DFT show relatively better agreement with the experimental Compton data. Ionic model calculations for a number of configurations (Cu+x/2)2(Sb-x) (0.0≤x≤2.0) are also performed utilizing free a
... Show MoreIn-vitro biological activities of the free new H4L ( indole-7-thiocarbohydrazone) ligand and its Ni(II), Pd(II) , Pt(II), Cu(II), Ag(I), Zn(II) and Cd(II) complexes are screened against two cancerous cell lines, that revealed significant activity only for [Cu2Cl2(H4L)2(PPh3)2] after 72 h treatment by the highest tested concentrations. The Copper(I) complex was characterized by X-ray Crystallography and the NMR spectra, whereas it has been confirmed to have momentous cytotoxicity against ovarian, breast cancerous cell lines (Caov-3, MCF-7). The apoptosis-inducing properties of the Cu(I) complex have been investigated through fluorescence microscopy visualization, DNA fragmentation analysis and propidium iodide flow cytometry.