Organophosphorus insecticide and growth regulator namely Ethephon (2-chloroethylphosphonic acid) are widely used as a ripening process accelerator and a cultivation duration inhibitor. Pomegranate extract (PPE) has recently been taken into consideration due to its pharmacological effects especially those associated with renal diseases. Thus, this study aims to investigate the possible protective effect of PPE against ethephon-induced nephrotoxicity in rats. In this study four groups of adult male rats were divided into control group, PPE 400 mg/kg group, Ethephon 250 mg/kg group, and finally, PPE + Ethephon group (treated with the same dose of PPE group and Ethephon group). In the current study, kidney function parameters (KIM-1, creatinine, and urea) along with oxidative stress markers, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2 (Nrf2), glutathione (GSH) and its correlated enzymes, nitric oxide (NO), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) and catalase (CAT) were estimated. Additionally, mediators of renal inflammation: interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) were measured. Apoptotic biomarkers (Bax, caspase 3, and Bcl2) in addition to renal histopathological data were also investigated. Results revealed that Ethephon elicited a significant increase in oxidation markers and reduced antioxidant levels, accompanied by oxidative renal tissue injury. Consequently, administration of Ethephon was reported to provoke secretion of the pro-inflammatory mediators. Moreover, histopathological results showed that deformities in the renal tissues were noticed which is attributed to Ethephon exposure. Interestingly, co-administration of PPE and Ethephon resulted in significantly ameliorated the biochemical and histopathological alterations produced by Ethephon. Current results propose the potential effect of PPE in the protection of renal tissue from Ethephon induced nephrotoxicity in rats.
Traffic management at road intersections is a complex requirement that has been an important topic of research and discussion. Solutions have been primarily focused on using vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Key issues in VANETs are high mobility, restriction of road setup, frequent topology variations, failed network links, and timely communication of data, which make the routing of packets to a particular destination problematic. To address these issues, a new dependable routing algorithm is proposed, which utilizes a wireless communication system between vehicles in urban vehicular networks. This routing is position-based, known as the maximum distance on-demand routing algorithm (MDORA). It aims to find an optimal route on a hop-by-ho
... Show MoreIn this work, a chemical optical fiber sensor based on Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) was designed and implemented using plastic optical fiber. The sensor is used for estimating refractive indices and concentrations of various chemical materials (methanol, distilled water, ethanol, kerosene) as well as for evaluating the performance parameters such as sensitivity, signal to noise ratio, resolution and the figure of merit of the fabricated sensor. It was found that the value of the sensitivity of the optical fiber-based SPR sensor, with 40 nm thick and 10 mm long Au metal film of exposed sensing region, was 3μm/RIU, while the SNR was 0.24, the figure of merit was 20, and the resolution was 0.00066. The sort of optical fiber utilized i
... Show MoreTechnological development in recent years leads to increase the access speed in the networks that allow a huge number of users watching videos online. Video streaming is one of the most popular applications in networking systems. Quality of Experience (QoE) measurement for transmitted video streaming may deal with data transmission problems such as packet loss and delay. This may affect video quality and leads to time consuming. We have developed an objective video quality measurement algorithm that uses different features, which affect video quality. The proposed algorithm has been estimated the subjective video quality with suitable accuracy. In this work, a video QoE estimation metric for video strea
... Show MorePurpose: The research aims to estimate models representing phenomena that follow the logic of circular (angular) data, accounting for the 24-hour periodicity in measurement. Theoretical framework: The regression model is developed to account for the periodic nature of the circular scale, considering the periodicity in the dependent variable y, the explanatory variables x, or both. Design/methodology/approach: Two estimation methods were applied: a parametric model, represented by the Simple Circular Regression (SCR) model, and a nonparametric model, represented by the Nadaraya-Watson Circular Regression (NW) model. The analysis used real data from 50 patients at Al-Kindi Teaching Hospital in Baghdad. Findings: The Mean Circular Erro
... Show MoreTotal Electron Content measurements derived from Athens station ionograms (ITEC),
located near Iraq, during the ascending phase of solar cycle 24 (July 2009- April 2010),
according to availability of data, are compared with the latest version of the International
Reference Ionosphere model, IRI-2012 (IRI TEC), using two options (NeQuick, IRI01-
Corr) for topside electron density.
The results obtained from both (ITEC and IRI TEC) techniques were similar, where
correlation coefficients between them are very high. Generally, the IRI predictions
overestimate the ITEC values.
This paper sheds the light on the vital role that fractional ordinary differential equations(FrODEs) play in the mathematical modeling and in real life, particularly in the physical conditions. Furthermore, if the problem is handled directly by using numerical method, it is a far more powerful and efficient numerical method in terms of computational time, number of function evaluations, and precision. In this paper, we concentrate on the derivation of the direct numerical methods for solving fifth-order FrODEs in one, two, and three stages. Additionally, it is important to note that the RKM-numerical methods with two- and three-stages for solving fifth-order ODEs are convenient, for solving class's fifth-order FrODEs. Numerical exa
... Show MoreThe species of Opilio kakunini Snegovaya, Cokendolpher & Mozaffarian, 2018 was recorded for the first time in Iraq; as well as to four species belonging to this order which were recorded previously. In this paper, we added a new species to the checklist of Iraqi opilionid fauna with a description of the most important characteristics, along with genitalia, for both males and females are presented with digital photographs. Specimens of males and females were collected from Al- Rifai district northern of Dhi-Qar Province, southern of Iraq.
Wisconsin Breast Cancer Dataset (WBCD) was employed to show the performance of the Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART), specifically the supervised ART-I Artificial Neural Network (ANN), to build a breast cancer diagnosis smart system. It was fed with different learning parameters and sets. The best result was achieved when the model was trained with 50% of the data and tested with the remaining 50%. Classification accuracy was compared to other artificial intelligence algorithms, which included fuzzy classifier, MLP-ANN, and SVM. We achieved the highest accuracy with such low learning/testing ratio.