Sphingolipids (SLs) are major structural constituents of eukaryotes, including the kinetoplastid parasite Leishmania. SLs are important for cellular trafficking and signaling and participate in different cell functions, such as, differentiation and cell death (apoptosis). In this study we have investigated the viability of Leishmania major wild type (W.T) and L. major knockout LmLCB2, one of two subunits of serine palmitoyl transferase (SPT) after treatment with myriocin (potent inhibitor of SPT) in order to detect the survival and proliferation of the parasites in vitro. This is to focus on the de novo sphingolipids biosynthesis pathway in both Leishmania wild type which can synthesize SPT and knockout Leishmania which genetically ablated

        In this paper, an estimate has been made for parameters and the reliability function for Transmuted power function (TPF) distribution through using some estimation methods as proposed new technique for white, percentile, least square, weighted least square and modification moment methods. A simulation was used to generate random data that follow the (TPF) distribution on three experiments (E₁ , E₂ , E₃)  of the real values of the parameters, and with sample size (n=10,25,50 and 100) and iteration samples (N=1000), and taking reliability times (0< t < 0) . Comparisons have been made between the obtained results from the estimators using mean square error (MSE). The results showed the

The work includes fabrication of undoped and silver-doped nanostructured nickel oxide in form thin films, which use for applications such as gas sensors. Pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) technique was used to fabricate the films on a glass substrate. The structure of films is studied by using techniques of x-ray diffraction, SEM, and EDX. Thermal annealing was performed on these films at 450°C to introduce its effect on the characteristics of these films. The films were doped with a silver element at different doping levels and both electrical and gas sensing characteristics were studied and compared to those of the undoped films. Reasonable enhancements in these characteristics were observed and attributed to the effects of thermal annealing

Problem of water scarcity is becoming common in many parts of the world.  Thus to overcome this problem proper management of water and an efficient irrigation systems are needed.  Irrigation with buried vertical ceramic pipe is known as a very effective in management of irrigation water.  The two- dimensional transient flow of water from a buried vertical ceramic pipe through homogenous porous media is simulated numerically using the software HYDRUS/2D to predict empirical formulas that describe the predicted results accurately.   Different values of pipe lengths and hydraulic conductivity were selected.  In addition, different values of initial volumetric soil water content were assumed in this simulation a

<p>Analyzing X-rays and computed tomography-scan (CT scan) images using a convolutional neural network (CNN) method is a very interesting subject, especially after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this paper, a study is made on 423 patients’ CT scan images from Al-Kadhimiya (Madenat Al Emammain Al Kadhmain) hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, to diagnose if they have COVID or not using CNN. The total data being tested has 15000 CT-scan images chosen in a specific way to give a correct diagnosis. The activation function used in this research is the wavelet function, which differs from CNN activation functions. The convolutional wavelet neural network (CWNN) model proposed in this paper is compared with regular convol

The ongoing research to improve the clinical outcome of titanium implants has resulted in the implementation of multiple approaches to deliver osteogenic growth factors accelerating and sustaining osseointegration. Here we show the presentation of human bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP-7) adsorbed to titanium discs coated with poly(ethyl acrylate) (PEA). We have previously shown that PEA promotes fibronectin organization into nanonetworks exposing integrin- and growth-factor-binding domains, allowing a synergistic interaction at the integrin/growth factor receptor level. Here, titanium discs were coated with PEA and fibronectin and then decorated with ng/mL doses of BMP-7. Human mesenchymal stem cells were used to investigate cellular resp

Spent hydrodesulfurization (Co-Mo/γ-Al2O3) catalyst generally contains valuable metals like molybdenum (Mo), cobalt (Co), aluminium (Al) on a supporting material, such as γ-Al2O3. In the present study, a two stages alkali/acid leaching process was conducted to study leaching of cobalt, molybdenum and aluminium from Co-Mo/γ-Al2O3 catalyst. The acid leaching of spent catalyst, previously treated by alkali solution to remove molybdenum, yielded a solution rich in cobalt and aluminium.