Background. Material tribology has widely expanded in scope and depth and is extended from the mechanical field to the biomedical field. The present study aimed to characterize the nanocoating of highly pure (99.9%) niobium (Nb), tantalum (Ta), and vanadium (V) deposited on 316L stainless steel (SS) substrates which considered the most widely used alloys in the manufacturing of SS orthodontic components. To date, the coating of SS orthodontic archwires with Nb, Ta, and V using a plasma sputtering method has never been reported. Nanodeposition was performed using a DC plasma sputtering system with three different sputtering times (1, 2, and 3 hours). Results. Structural and elemental analyses were conducted on the deposited coatings using XRD, FESEM, and EDS showing a unique phase of coating metals over their substrates with obvious homogeneous even deposition. A highly significant positive correlation was found between sputtering time and thickness of the achieved coatings. AFM revealed a reduction in the surface roughness of 316L SS substrates sputtered with all coating materials, significantly seen in V coatings. Conclusions. Sputtering time and coating material play a significant role in terms of microstructure and topography of the achieved coatings being the best in the Ta group; moreover, surface roughness was significantly improved by V coatings. Likewise, it is found to be sputtering time independent for all used coatings.
Contracting cancer typically induces a state of terror among the individuals who are affected. Exploring how chemotherapy and anxiety work together to affect the speed at which cancer cells multiply and the immune system’s response model is necessary to come up with ways to stop the spread of cancer. This paper proposes a mathematical model to investigate the impact of psychological scare and chemotherapy on the interaction of cancer and immunity. The proposed model is accurately described. The focus of the model’s dynamic analysis is to identify the potential equilibrium locations. According to the analysis, it is possible to establish three equilibrium positions. The stability analysis reveals that all equilibrium points consi
... Show MoreNear surface mounted (NSM) carbon fibers reinforced polymer (CFRP) reinforcement is one of the techniques for reinforcing masonry structures and is considered to provide significant advantages. This paper is composed of two parts. The first part presents the experimental study of brick masonry walls reinforced with NSM CFRP strips under combined shear-compression loads. Masonry walls have been tested under vertical compression, with different bed joint orientations 90° and 45° relative to the loading direction. Different reinforcement orientations were used including vertical, horizontal, and a combination of both sides of the wall. The second part of this paper comprises a numerical analysis of unreinforced brick masonry (URM) wa
... Show MoreIn Australia, most of the existing buildings were designed before the release of the Australian standard for earthquake actions in 2007. Therefore, many existing buildings in Australia lack adequate seismic design, and their seismic performance must be assessed. The recent earthquake that struck Mansfield, Victoria near Melbourne elevated the need to produce fragility curves for existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Australia. Fragility curves are frequently utilized to assess buildings’ seismic performance and it is defined as the demand probability surpassing capacity at a given intensity level. Numerous factors can influence the results of the fragility assessment of RC buildings. Among the most important factors that can affe
... Show MoreTo identify the fungi associated with water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes [Mart.] Solms), an aquatic weed, which presents in Tigris river from Baghdad south ward. Five regions from middle and south of Iraq (Al-Noumanya, Saeid Bin-Jubier, Al-Azizia, Al-Reyfay and Al-Hay) were selected for this study. Twelve fungal species were isolated. Alternaria alternata, Acremonium sp and Cladsporium herbarum, were the most frequently species (91.66 % ,50 % and 25 %) respectively. The fungi Alternaria alternata, Acremonium sp. and Phoma eupyrena were more aggressive to water hyacinth as (91.66%,83,33%, and 75%) in pathogenicity test.
Leishmania species are the causative agent of a tropical disease known as leishmaniasis. Previous studies on the old world species Leishmania major, showed that the amastigotes form which resides inside the macrophage of the vertebrate host, utilize host’s sphingolipids for survival and proliferation. In this study, gene expression of serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT) subunit two (MmLCB2) of the mouse macrophage cell line (RAW264.7), which is the first enzyme in the de novo sphingolipid biosynthesis, was detected in both infected and non-infected macrophages. This was detected under condition where available sphingolipid was reduced, with the new world species Leishmania mexicana. Results of qPCR analysis showed that there was no differen
... Show MoreSorghum seeds suffer from a low germination ratio, so a factorial experiment was carried out in the Seed Technology Laboratory, Department of Field Crops, College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad during 2022 according to a Completely Randomized Design with four replications to study the effect of stimulating seeds with aqueous extract of banana peels with a concentration of (0, 15, 25 and 35%) and citric acid at concentrations (0, 50, 100 and 200 mg L-1) on viability and vigour of seed properties. Seeds that soaked with banana peel extract at a concentration of 25% outperformed in first count (79.8%), final count (85.0%), radicle length (13.2 cm), plumule length (11.6 cm), and seedling vigour index (2109), noting
... Show MoreAbstract:- Cyberspace is a new arena for conflict between international powers, especially since the cost of cyber-conflict is less than its traditional warfare counterparts regardless of the nature of the weapons used, whether traditional or non-traditional. Cyber conflict is necessarily based on strategies to deter, attack, and defend. The aim of the cybercrime conflict is to ensure the defensive sufficiency of the state, ensuring its national security and safeguarding its supreme interests. Despite Japan-China relations characterized by convergence and cooperation in post-Cold War economic spheres, Japan continues to retain the growing Chinese influence in East Asia. These variables prompted Japan to announce a hedging strategy due to un
... Show MoreSARS-CoV-2 stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 which is the causative agent of spreading coronavirus disease 2019 that is known as COVID-19 pandemic, the disease leads to severe acute respiratory illness. Matrix metalloproteinases- 9 (MMP-9) plays several important physiological functions. This enzyme could also be implicated in the "cytokine storm" in some way, which may represent one of the possible scianrios during coronavirus infection, in addition to its role in the mechanism of lung fibrosis on molecular basis.. The tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMPs) are well characterized for controlling the activity of MMPs in extracellular matrix remodeling. They also considered as signaling molecules anal
... Show MoreA seemingly uncorrelated regression (SUR) model is a special case of multivariate models, in which the error terms in these equations are contemporaneously related. The method estimator (GLS) is efficient because it takes into account the covariance structure of errors, but it is also very sensitive to outliers. The robust SUR estimator can dealing outliers. We propose two robust methods for calculating the estimator, which are (S-Estimations, and FastSUR). We find that it significantly improved the quality of SUR model estimates. In addition, the results gave the FastSUR method superiority over the S method in dealing with outliers contained in the data set, as it has lower (MSE and RMSE) and higher (R-Squared and R-Square Adjus
... Show MoreIn the present study, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with outside diameters of< 8 nm and 20−30 nm were covalently functionalized with β-Alanine using a novel synthesis procedure. The functionalization process was proved successful using Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, and TEM. Utilizing the two-step method with ultrasonication, the MWCNTs treated with β-Alanine (Ala-MWCNTs) with weight concentrations of 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.075%, and 0.1% were dispersed in distilled water to prepare water-based nanofluids. The aqueous colloidal dispersions of pristine MWCNTs were unstable. While for Ala-MWCNTs and after> 50 days from preparation, higher colloidal stability was obtained up to relative concentration of 0.955 and 0.939 for the 0.075-wt% samp
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