Dictyostelium discoideum amoeba is a powerful system to study gene function through genetic and functional analysis. Paracaspase (Pcp) is a caspase-like protein that has recently identified in D. discoideum. Study paracaspase molecular function in Dictyostelium will provide insight into its cellular role in more complex organisms and the possibility to use it as a drug target against the parasitic amoeba. In this study, pcp was tagged with Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and over-expressed in the cell. The knockout version of pcp (pcp-) was also investigated. In the course of our examination, it was observed that cells overexpress Pcp was unable to complete the developmental process, leading us to examine its role in development. Those cells were unable to initiate early development and failed to aggregate under starvation conditions. Aggregation is severely defected as cells have decreased cell-cell cohesion. In particular, these cells demonstrated a reduction in adhesion. This data suggests that over-expression of Pcp causes a signaling defects crucial to normal development in Dictyostelium. On the other hand, cells with pcp- mutant demonstrated larger aggregation in normal media as well as under starvation conditions compared to the control cell lines. As a result, we propose that Dictyostelium Pcp is a regulated protein involved in cellular functions including signal relay pathways that are essential for cell aggregation and development. Thus, Pcp protein is a candidate drug target against the amoebic parasitic infection by prevent development to their infective stages.
This study aimed to incorporate hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nHA) or amorphous calcium phosphate nanoparticles (nACP) into a self-etch primer (SEP) to develop a simplified orthodontic bonding system with remineralizing and enamel preserving properties.
nHA and nACP were incorporated into a commercial SEP (Transbond™ plus) in 7% weight ratio and compared with the plain SEP as a control. Shear bond strengths (SBS), enamel damage, and adhesive remnant index (ARI) scores were evaluated at 24 h
(7)
(4)
Objective: To study the effect of epidural spinal injection over one year in case of spinal stenosis. Methodology: This prospective study included 566 patients with spinal stenosis seen at Al-Kindy Teaching and Al-Sader, Hospitals who were treated by local epidural steroid injection. They were followed up for at least five subsequent visits after seven days, one month, three months, six months, and one year to assess efficacy. Result: Mean age of patients was 49.5 years, with a predominance of females (65%). L4/L5 was the most involved level in the spinal stenosis (70%). Grade II stenosis accounted for (45.4%) of cases. The pairwise comparison revealed that there was significant decrease in proportions of patients with pain in day
... Show More
(3)
(1)
(29)
‎ Since the first outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 31, 2019, COVID-19 pandemic ‎has been spreading to many countries in the world. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused a ‎major global crisis, with 554,767 total confirmed cases, 484,570 total recovered cases, and ‎‎12,306 deaths in Iraq as of February 2, 2020. In the absence of any effective therapeutics or drugs ‎and with an unknown epidemiological life cycle, predictive mathematical models can aid in ‎the understanding of both control and management of coronavirus disease. Among the important ‎factors that helped the rapid spread of the ep
... Show More
(20)
(9)
The university course timetable problem (UCTP) is typically a combinatorial optimization problem. Manually achieving a useful timetable requires many days of effort, and the results are still unsatisfactory. unsatisfactory. Various states of art methods (heuristic, meta-heuristic) are used to satisfactorily solve UCTP. However, these approaches typically represent the instance-specific solutions. The hyper-heuristic framework adequately addresses this complex problem. This research proposed Particle Swarm Optimizer-based Hyper Heuristic (HH PSO) to solve UCTP efficiently. PSO is used as a higher-level method that selects low-level heuristics (LLH) sequence which further generates an optimal solution. The proposed a
... Show More
(11)
(3)
The interest in green energy in recent years is very noticeable, as this energy is a very important alternative that can replace fuel in many applications, most notably electric power generation, so work must be done to develop a form of this energy such as wind energy by working on the development of turbines. The DMST method provided by Qblade software is an integrated tool for making a simulation of a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). The simulation was carried out on vertical axis wind turbines, designing turbine blades according to symmetrical NACA0018, and calculating some parameters such as power, torque and power coefficient. It is found that this type of turbine can be improved by treating the blade edges that cont
... Show More
(1)
(2)
(2)
Background. After tooth extraction, alveolar bone resorption is inevitable. This clinical phenomenon challenges dental surgeons aiming to restore esthetic and function. Alveolar ridge preservation can be applied to minimize dimensional changes with a new socket grafting material, an autogenous dentin graft, produced by mechanically and chemically processing natural teeth. This study assessed the safety and efficacy of using autogenous dentin biomaterial in alveolar ridge preservation. Materials and Methods. Patients with nonrestorable maxillary anterior teeth bounded by natural sound teeth were included in this study. After a detailed clinical and tomographic examination, eligible participants were randomly allocated into two groups
... Show More
(5)
(3)
The aim of this paper is to present a new methodology to find the private key of RSA. A new initial value which is generated from a new equation is selected to speed up the process. In fact, after this value is found, brute force attack is chosen to discover the private key. In addition, for a proposed equation, the multiplier of Euler totient function to find both of the public key and the private key is assigned as 1. Then, it implies that an equation that estimates a new initial value is suitable for the small multiplier. The experimental results show that if all prime factors of the modulus are assigned larger than 3 and the multiplier is 1, the distance between an initial value and the private key
... Show More
(9)
(3)