Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a disease caused by Leishmania tropica parasite. Current treatments for this parasite are undesirable because of their toxicity, resistance, and high cost. Macrophages are key players against pathogens. Nitric oxide (NO), a molecule produce by immune cells, controls intracellular killing of pathogens during infection. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) demonstrated broad-spectrum activity against various types of infectious diseases. It has the ability to stimulate oxygen species production. This study aims to analyze the macrophages activation through NO production and estimate the cytotoxicity based on the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release upon exposure to L. tropica and Ag NPs. Serially concentrations of Ag NPs were used under two conditions during and following macrophages exposure to L. tropica. MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxicity of Ag NPs on L. tropica amastigotes during infection of macrophages in vitro. The results showed that by increasing the Ag NPs concentrations, the viability percentage of L. tropica amastigotes decreased and reached to 21.7 ± 0.64 % during infection compared with the control. The 50% inhibitory concentration of Ag NPs on amastigotes was 2.048µg/ml during infection. Moreover, post-phagocytosis study involved the assessment of NO and LDH release by macrophages upon exposure to L. tropica. It have shown that untreated macrophages released low levels of NO while in the presence of Ag NPs, macrophages were activated to produce higher levels of NO under all experimental conditions. On the other hand, macrophages were capable of controlling cytotoxicity and decreasing LDH levels during phagocytosis of L. tropica amastiogotes. Taking together, these findings suggest that Ag NPs can enhance macrophages NO production which provides a method for the identification of Ag NPs ligands with microbicidal and anti-cytotoxic properties against L. tropica pathogens.
In this research, (MOORA) approach based– Taguchi design was used to convert the multi-performance problem into a single-performance problem for nine experiments which built (Taguchi (L9) orthogonal array) for carburization operation. The main variables that had a great effect on carburizing operation are carburization temperature (oC), carburization time (hrs.) and tempering temperature (oC). This study was also focused on calculating the amount of carbon penetration, the value of hardness and optimal values obtained during the optimization by Taguchi approach and MOORA method for multiple parameters. In this study, the carburization process was done in temperature between (850 to 950 ᵒC) for 2 to 6
... Show MoreThe hydroisomerization of n-decane was studied on SAPO-11 catalyst. Catalyst of 0.25wt.%Pt/SAPO-11 was prepared locally and used in the present work. The hydroconversion performed in a continuous fixed-bed laboratory reaction unit. Experiments of n-decane isomerization were performed in a temperature range of 200 to 275°C,LHSV range of 0.5-2 h-1, and hydrogen to decane mole ratio of 2.1-8.2. The results show that the n-decane conversion increases with increasing temperature and decreasing LHSV , the maximum conversion 56.77 % was achieved at temperature 275°C and LHSV of 0.5 h-1. The kinetic of n-decane isomerization was also studied and the reaction was first order. The kinetic analysis also showed that the activation energy eq
... Show MoreThe hydroisomerization of n-decane was studied on SAPO-11 catalyst. Catalyst of 0.25wt.%Pt/SAPO-11 was prepared locally and used in the present work. The hydroconversion performed in a continuous fixed-bed laboratory reaction unit. Experiments of n-decane isomerization were performed in a temperature range of 200 to 275°C,LHSV range of 0.5-2 h-1, and hydrogen to decane mole ratio of 2.1-8.2. The results show that the n-decane conversion increases with increasing temperature and decreasing LHSV , the maximum conversion 56.77 % was achieved at temperature 275°C and LHSV of 0.5 h-1. The kinetic of n-decane isomerization was also studied and the reaction was first order. The kinetic analysis also showed that the
... Show MoreThe precipitation of calcite induced via microorganisms (MICP) is a technique that has been developed as an innovative sustainable ground improvement method utilizing ureolytic bacteria to soil strengthening and stabilization. Locally isolated Bacillus Sonorensis from Iraqi soil samples were found to have high abilities in producing urease. This study aims to use the MICP technique in improving the undrained shear strength of soft clay soil using two native urease producing bacteria that help in the precipitation of calcite to increase the cementation between soil particles. Three concentrations of each of the locally prepared Bacillus sonorensis are used in this study for cementation reagent (0.25M, 0.5M, and 1M) during
... Show MoreAn application of neural network technique was introduced in modeling the point efficiency of sieve tray, based on a
data bank of around 33l data points collected from the open literature.Two models proposed,using back-propagation
algorithm, the first model network consists: volumetric liquid flow rate (QL), F foctor for gas (FS), liquid density (pL),
gas density (pg), liquid viscosity (pL), gas viscosity (pg), hole diameter (dH), weir height (hw), pressure (P) and surface
tension between liquid phase and gas phase (o). In the second network, there are six parameters as dimensionless
group: Flowfactor (F), Reynolds number for liquid (ReL), Reynolds number for gas through hole (Reg), ratio of weir
height to hole diqmeter
Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue was studied using CdS and ZnS as catalyst. The photocatalytic activity of the specimen was studied by exposing to UV-radiation. The result shows that the degradation efficiency of the dye for CdS micro-particles was 92% after 7 hours and for ZnS micro-particles was 88.29% for the same time interval.
The shear strength of soil is one of the most important soil properties that should be identified before any foundation design. The presence of gypseous soil exacerbates foundation problems. In this research, an approach to forecasting shear strength parameters of gypseous soils based on basic soil properties was created using Artificial Neural Networks. Two models were built to forecast the cohesion and the angle of internal friction. Nine basic soil properties were used as inputs to both models for they were considered to have the most significant impact on soil shear strength, namely: depth, gypsum content, passing sieve no.200, liquid limit, plastic limit, plasticity index, water content, dry unit weight, and initial
... Show MoreWastewater recycling for non-potable uses has gained significant attention to mitigate the high pressure on freshwater resources. This requires using a sustainable technique to treat natural municipal wastewater as an alternative to conventional methods, especially in arid and semi-arid rural areas. One of the promising techniques applied to satisfy the objective of wastewater reuse is the constructed wetlands (CWs) which have been used extensively in most countries worldwide through the last decades. The present study introduces a significant review of the definition, classification, and components of CWs, identifying the mechanisms controlling the removal process within such units. Vertical, horizontal, and hybrid CWs
... Show MoreThe present study is concerned with the role of income tax in implementing economic goals in Iraq and treating the problems and pitfalls in the Iraq economy.
The study also aims at investigating the role of income tax in attracting promising favorite effects into economy.
The study was performed on data covering the period (2003 - 2012) with respect to the variables of (income tax, oil profits) as independent variables and (private consuming expenditure, private investmental expenditure, and standard figure of prices) as dependent variables. To analyze these data, a number of statistical descriptive and analytical techniques were used such as (percentage, standard variance, mediums, F test, T test and SPSS). It has been c
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