Background: Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a common health problem that has a worldwide distribution. Apart from the direct effect of the virus on the liver, there are many extrahepatic manifestations among which the probable effect on bone turnover associated with low bone mineral density (BMD). Objectives: This study aimed to determine the association between treated and untreated chronic HBV infection with BMD. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which included a total of 48 patients with chronic HBV (28 patients treated with tenofovir-disoproxil-fumarate [TDF] antiviral drug and 20 patients have not yet started treatment). Other age- and sex-matched 30 apparently healthy individuals were recruited to represent the hea

Water pollution is one of the global challenges that the society must address in the 21^st century aiming to improve the water quality, reduce human pollutants and ecosystem health impacts. In phytotoxicity test, the plant of Iresine herbstii was exposed to remove nickel from simulated wastewater using two different ratios (mass of plant to the mass of nickel) (,R_p/Ni) for 21 days with sub-surface batch system. During the exposure period, the removal of Ni concentrations (2, 5 and 10 mg/L) for two mass ratio (2,800 and 34,000) were (83.6%, 77.2%, 78.0%) and (86.8%, 97% and 95.6%), respectively. final result of the rate was found that the highest removal occurred, 97%, at a mass ratio of 34,000 and

In this study a composite materials were prepared containing matrix of polymer blend (Epoxy (EP) 90% + unsaturated polyester (UPS) 10%), (Epoxy (EP) 80% + unsaturated polyester (UPS) 20%), reinforced with Kevlar (K) or, and iron woven (Fe) with one value of volume fraction (30) %. This composite are from: (EP 90%, UPE 10% +K), (EP 90%, UPE 10% +K+Fe), (EP 80%, UPE 20% +K), (EP 80%, UPE 20% +K+Fe). All samples were prepared using hand layup method and then impact test was done in both normal condition and after immersion in tap water for the same period time (eight weeks) also diffusion test was done for period's time (three months). The results showed that had been effected differently after immersion, but specimen (EP80%+UPS20%+K+Fe) ha

            The widespread use of the Internet of things (IoT) in different aspects of an individual’s life like banking, wireless intelligent devices and smartphones has led to new security and performance challenges under restricted resources. The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) is the most suitable choice for the environments due to the smaller size of the encryption key and changeable security related parameters. However, major performance metrics such as area, power, latency and throughput are still customisable and based on the design requirements of the device.

The present paper puts forward an enhancement for the throughput performance metric by p

Compressing an image and reconstructing it without degrading its original quality is one of the challenges that still exist now a day. A coding system that considers both quality and compression rate is implemented in this work. The implemented system applies a high synthetic entropy coding schema to store the compressed image at the smallest size as possible without affecting its original quality. This coding schema is applied with two transform-based techniques, one with Discrete Cosine Transform and the other with Discrete Wavelet Transform. The implemented system was tested with different standard color images and the obtained results with different evaluation metrics have been shown. A comparison was made with some previous rel

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus current pandemic (COVID-19) is the striking subject worldwide hitting countries in an unexplained non-universal pattern. Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine was an adopted recent justification depending on its non-specific immune activation properties. Still the problem of post-vaccine short duration of protection needs to be solved. The same protective mechanism was identified in active or latent tuberculosis (TB). For each single patient of active TB, there are about nine cases of asymptomatic latent TB apparently normal individuals living within the community without restrictions carrying benefits of immune activation and involved in re-infection cycles in an excellent example of repeated immunity tr

Free water surface constructed wetlands (FSCWs) can be used to complement conventional waste water treatment but removal efficiencies are often limited by a high ratio of water volume to biofilm surface area (i.e. high water depth). Floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) consist of floating matrices which can enhance the surface area available for the development of fixed microbial biofilms and provide a platform for plant growth (which can remove pollutants by uptake).  In this study the potential of FTWs for ammoniacal nitrogen (AN) removal was evaluated using experimental mesocosms operated under steady-state flow conditions with ten different treatments (two water depths, two levels of FTW mat coverage, two different plant densities and

The artistic process operates whether in general in all arts or specifically in one type of arts or one of the genres of arts types on the preoccupations of the pressing artistic references as the founder of the artistic work in the material formulations on the one hand and on the other hand as a translator to understand the artistic achievement in general and plastic art in particular and for the importance The researcher chose the title of her research tagged (the preoccupations of the pressing reference and its impact on the formations of postmodern arts).
The first chapter of the methodological framework deals with the problem of research, importance, objective, limits, and then terminology and its definition, and then the secon

Most studies indicated that the values ​​of atmospheric variables have changed from their general rates due to pollution or global warming etc. Hence, the research indicates the changes of direct solar radiation values ​​over a whole century i.e. from 1900 to 2000 depending on registered data for four cities, namely (Mosul - Baghdad - Rutba - Basra. Moreover, attemptsto correlate the direct solar radiation with the temperature values have been ​​recorded over that period. The results showed that there is a decreasing pattern of radiation quantities over time throughout the study period, where the value of direct radiation over the city of Baghdad 5550 w/m² was recorded in the year 1900, but this ratio decreased cle