Recently, Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was considered as one of the autoimmune diseases that the genetic and environmental factors contributed in the disease etiological profile. According to the environmental factors, infectious agents have been concluded to have a role in the etiology and pathogenesis of SLE. Chlamydia pneumoniae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae are among these infectious agents that have been suggested to be involved in the etiology of SLE. Accordingly, the current study was designed to assess the anti-C. pneumoniae and anti-M. pneumoniae IgG antibody status by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the sera of 64 Iraqi SLE females' patients and 32 Iraqi healthy females as controls. The patients' group were distributed into two equal subgroups (32 cases in each group); arthritis and nephritis. The findings revealed that 25% of the total SLE patient’s sera were positive for anti-C. pneumoniae IgG antibody, while such antibody was not detected in controls. The difference was significant (p = 9.8 x 10-4) and associated with OR of 22.1. With respect to M. pneumoniae, 67.7% of SLE patient’s sera were positive for anti-M. pneumoniae IgG antibody while none of control’s sera was positive. The difference was significant (p = 4.0 x 10-9) and the associated OR was 141.1. For both pathogens, a similar profile was observed in arthritis and nephritis SLE patients. These findings may suggest that C. pneumoniae and M. pneumoniae are two pathogens involved in etiology and pathogenesis of SLE.
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
... Show MoreThis work involved the co-substitution of the two bioactive ions of strontium and magnesium into the hydroxyapatite (HA) coating which was then electrochemically deposited on Ti-6Al-4V ELI dental alloy (Gr.23) before and after treatment by Micro Arc Oxidation (MAO). The deposited layers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The adhesion strength of the coating layer was estimated by using pull-off adhesion test. The adhesion strength of Sr/Mg-HA on the Ti-6Al-4V ELI dental alloy after MAO treatment was 1.79 MPa, which was higher than that before MAO treatment (1.62 MPa). The corrosion behavior of th
... Show MoreThe ï¤- Multiple mixing ratios of ï§-transitions from levels of 56Fe populated in 56 56 ( , ) Fe n n Fe ï§ ï‚¢ reactions are calculated by using const. S.T.M. This method has been used in other works [3,7] but with pure transition or with transitions that can be considered as pure transitionsØŒ in our work we used This method for mixed ï§ - transitions in addition to pure ï§ - transitions. The experimental angular distribution coefficients a2 was used from previous works [1] in order to calculet ï¤- values. It is clear from the results that the ï¤- values are in good agreement or consistent, within associated errors, with those reported previously [1]. The discrepancies that occur
... Show More<p><span>A Botnet is one of many attacks that can execute malicious tasks and develop continuously. Therefore, current research introduces a comparison framework, called BotDetectorFW, with classification and complexity improvements for the detection of Botnet attack using CICIDS2017 dataset. It is a free online dataset consist of several attacks with high-dimensions features. The process of feature selection is a significant step to obtain the least features by eliminating irrelated features and consequently reduces the detection time. This process implemented inside BotDetectorFW using two steps; data clustering and five distance measure formulas (cosine, dice, driver & kroeber, overlap, and pearson correlation
... Show MoreThis paper presents a computer simulation model of a thermally activated roof (TAR) to cool a room using cool water from a wet cooling tower. Modeling was achieved using a simplified 1-D resistance-capacitance thermal network (RC model) for an infinite slab. Heat transfer from the cooling pipe network was treated as 2-D heat flow. Only a limited number of nodes were required to obtain reliable results. The use of 6th order RC-thermal model produced a set of ordinary differential equations that were solved using MATLAB - R2012a. The computer program was written to cover all possible initial conditions, material properties, TAR system geometry and hourly solar radiation. The cool water supply was considered time
... Show MoreThe ability of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to uptake three pharmaceuticals (diclofenac, mefenamic acid and metronidazole) from two types of soil (clay and sandy soil) was investigated in this study to explore the human exposure to these pharmaceuticals via the consumption of beans. A pot experiment was conducted with beans plants which were grown in two types of soil for six weeks under controlled conditions. During the experiment period, the soil pore water was collected weekly and the concentrations of the test compounds in soil pore water as well as in plant organs (roots, stems and leaves) were weekly determined.
The results showed that the studied pharmaceuticals were detected in all plant tissues; their concentration
NH3 gas sensor was fabricated based on deposited of Functionalized Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs-OH) suspension on filter paper substrates using suspension filtration method. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the MWCNTs film were characterized by XRD, AFM and FTIR techniques. XRD measurement confirmed that the structure of MWCNTs is not affected by the preparation method. The AFM images reflected highly ordered network in the form of a mat. The functional groups and types of bonding have appeared in the FTIR spectra. The fingerprint (C-C stretch) of MWCNTs appears in 1365 cm-1, and the backbone of CNTs observed at 1645 cm-1. A homemade sensi
... Show MoreThis study depicts the removal of Manganese ions (Mn2+) from simulated wastewater by combined electrocoagulation/ electroflotation technologies. The effects of initial Mn concentration, current density (C.D.), electrolysis time, and different mesh numbers of stainless steel screen electrodes were investigated in a batch cell by adopting Taguchi experimental design to explore the optimum conditions for maximum removal efficiency of Mn. The results of multiple regression and signal to noise ratio (S/N) showed that the optimum conditions were Mn initial concentration of 100 ppm, C.D. of 4 mA/cm2, time of 120 min, and mesh no. of 30 (wire/inch). Also, the relative significance of each factor was attained by the analysis
... Show MoreThis study depicts the removal of Manganese ions (Mn2+) from simulated wastewater by combined electrocoagulation/ electroflotation technologies. The effects of initial Mn concentration, current density (C.D.), electrolysis time, and different mesh numbers of stainless steel screen electrodes were investigated in a batch cell by adopting Taguchi experimental design to explore the optimum conditions for maximum removal efficiency of Mn. The results of multiple regression and signal to noise ratio (S/N) showed that the optimum conditions were Mn initial concentration of 100 ppm, C.D. of 4 mA/cm2, time of 120 min, and mesh no. of 30 (wire/inch). Also, the relative significance of each factor was attained by the analysis of variance (ANO
... Show MoreErratum for Organic acid concentration thresholds for ageing of carbonate minerals: Implications for CO2 trapping/storage.