Death is undoubtedly the theme of Don DeLillo’s White Noise. Murray Siskind, a College-on-the-Hill professor who is obsessed with the exploration and reinterpretation of American popular culture, talks about the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the German mentor of Jack Gladney has been using the Egyptian Book of the Dead, translated into German. The core episode of the story is the Airborne Toxic Event, the associate of Heinrich (Jack’s teenage son), Orestes Mercator, dreams of becoming one of the great figures in the Guinness Book by challenging and confronting death by enclosing himself in a glass pen jam-packed with poisonous snakes, and Heinrich challenges an imprisoned mass murderer in a chess game. The scholarly expertise of Jack centers on the leading organizer of mass slaughter—Hitler—whereas Murray Siskind and his associates in the American Environments movement are fascinated with the melancholy related to the passing away of superstars and the killing of political figures, and the image of death in mainstream culture. In this paper, Don DeLillo’s White Noise is analyzed in relation to the fear of death with the guidance of the characters of the novel. Similar to others, Jack, who is the head of the Hitler course at the College-on-the-Hill and the storyteller of the narrative, and Babette, the wife of Jack who takes care of an old blind man and gives lecture on adult education, have been preoccupied with the concept of death due to their inexplicable fear of it. They are unable to admit or recognize death as a normal part of human existence. They are too absorbed by their fear of death that their emotions, thoughts, and everyday interactions are frequently disrupted by the uncertainty of death. Both of them assert their desire to die before the other because neither of them can endure the difficulty of surviving without the other. Yet, it is absurd that neither of them wishes to pass on first since the two of them dread death extremely.
Back ground: primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) is a socially distressing condition that can be troubling for children & their families. It affects 15-26% of five years olds. Several approaches are used to treat PNE including behavioral modification, alarms & drug therapy. Aim of the study: to determine the efficacy and safety of nasal desmopressin treatment in children with PNEPatients : fifty-four children with primary nocturnal enuresis with a mean age of ( 8.2) years ( range 6-15), underwent a 2 week observation period followed by entrance into a randomized controlled study, comparing desmopressin & placebo, lasting 4 weeks. The efficacy of the drug was measured in reduction of the number of wet nights per week. The enureti
... Show MoreLeishmania is the causative agent of leishmaniasis, a widely distributed disease. Amastigote forms of Leishmania are intracellular and reside within the macrophage of the vertebrate host. Previous studies showed that certain Leishmania species may scavenge host factors for survival, specially sphingolipids, the key element of the eukaryotic membranes. In this study we have investigated the survival of new world L. mexicana amastigotes in murine macrophage cell-line in the presence and absence of foetal bovine serum (FBS). Results showed that there was no significance in the infectivity of amastigotes and also the number of parasite per cell; such findings suggest that L. mexicana amastigotes have its own pathway of sphingolipid intake and c
... Show MoreThe compound chalcon originally is extracted form some plant and herbs, the studies of the antiviral activity of this compound were done in two cell line cultures the L2OB and RD, the compound relatively non toxic to both cell lines of the concentration of 32?g/ml or less ,the compound have significantly anti poliovirus activity in both L2OB cell line and RD cell line, we find that the concentration of 0.03 ?g/ml or more inhibit the 100TCDID50 of the poliovirus .The therapeutic index(TI)used in this study to evaluate the drug activity ,( TI is the ratio of dose of drug which is just toxic to the cells to the does which is just inhibit the viral multiplication, if this index more than one the margin of safety of drug is according great ) .In
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ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Infantile haemangioma one of the most common tumour of new borns , a safe and effective treatment options are under ongoing research . OBJECTIVE: The authors show the effectiveness and safety of low dose propranolol as a method for infantile haemangioma treatment . METHOD: In this study twenty- four patients with infantile haemangioma in different anatomical locations were treated with oral propranolol and the result were assessed in a retrospective analysis of the results patients were kept on 0.25 mg/kg/day for one month , then on 0.5mg/kg/day in 2 divided doses for another one month , in the third month the dose will be increased to 1 mg/kg/day in 2 divided doses , then the propranolol were given in a maintenance do
... Show MoreBackground: The altered status of some essential trace elements observed in diabetes could have deleterious influences on the health of the diabetics. Objectives: To estimate and study the potential role of serum Selenium in type 1, type 2 diabetics and healthy subjects; and its relation with lipid profile and glycemic index. Methods: A case control designed study was carried out at the National Diabetes Center (NDC) / Al-Mustansiria University; on a total of 94 participants formed of 32 type 1 diabetics, 32 type 2 diabetics and 30 healthy control participants. Data collected about age, sex and BMI; also, blood samples examined for FPG, HbA1C, serum total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, serum triglyceride and sera were
... Show MoreBackground: Acute appendicitis is the most common abdominal surgical emergency. The diagnosis of this condition is still essentially clinical and there is difficulty in the clinical diagnosis, especially among elderly, children and patients with a typical presentation, so early and accurate diagnosis of acute appendicitis is important to avoid its complications.Objectives: To evaluate the degree of accuracy of Alvarado scoring system in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis.Method: Two hundred patients were admitted to the Alkindy Teaching Hospital from January 2011 to april 2014- presented with symptoms and signs suggestive of acute appendicitis. After examination and investigations all patients were given a score according to Alvarado sc
... Show MoreBackground: Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory condition characterized by relapsing and remitting episodes of inflammation limited to the mucosal layer of the colon.Loop ileostomy might be helpful in the management of the disease.
Objective: To evaluate the role of loop ileostomy in the management of ulcerative colitis.
Methods: Between Januarys 2008 and January 2018, patients with fulminant ulcerative colitis resistant to medical therapy had been referred to our surgical unit and were included in our study. Assessment of the patients’ medical status (serum electrolytes, total serum protein, complete blood count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, general stool exam,and abdominal ultrasound
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This paper addresses some of the morphological views of Al-Seraphy in the matter of "altasqeer" (reduction) in his book, "shareh ketab Sibawayh" (the explanation of Sibawayh's book) linking between them (views of Al-Seraphy) and the data of the morphological theme, in ancient times, and recently. Through balancing between what we have learned from the views of Al-Seraphy and the views of other former linguists and grammarians and latecomers of him. In this research we have linguistically and idiomatically explained the definition of "altasqeer" (reduction), and it's standard morphological balancing and what has deviated from it, by the examples in both cases; then we has produced the views of the grammarians of that "the definition of "a
... Show MoreVitamin D receptor (VDR) is a nuclear transcription factor that controls gene expression. Its impaired expression was found to be related to different diseases. VDR also acts as a regulator of different pathways including differentiation, inflammation, calcium and phosphate absorption, etc. but there is no sufficient knowledge about the regulation of the gene itself. Therefore, a better understanding of the genetic and epigenetic factors regulating the VDR may facilitate the improvement of strategies for the prevention and treatment of diseases associated with dysregulation of VDR. In the present investigation, a set of databases and methods were used to identify putative functional elements in the VDR locus. Histone modifications, CpG I
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Two isolates of Staphylococcus xylosus (urease producer and non urease producer) were injected in mice at a dose of 2 × 108 colony-forming units (CFU) intraurethrally. Results showed that both isolates were able to colonize kidney and bladder of the injected mice, regardless of their urease production. Moreover, there were insignificant differences between the two groups. These results emphasized the pathogenicity of this bacteria in UTI.