The current study was conducted on 100 females who were divided into two main groups; 60 with breast cancer and 40 healthy controls. Blood samples were collected from both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer and healthy women. The samples were appropriately processed for the analysis of trace elements (zinc, copper, and lead) by using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry (FAAS). The results showed a highly significant decrease (p< 0.01) in the mean serum level of zinc of in both pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer women (71.7 + 5.1 and 70.4 + 5.4 µg/dL, respectively) compared with healthy controls (89.7 + 10.2 and 97.5 + 13.2 µg/dL, respectively) . Also, a highly significant elevation (p< 0.01) in the mean serum level of copper (157.2 + 13.9 µg/dL and 157.4 +11.9 µg/dL, respectively) was found in pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer women as compared to healthy controls (122.2 + 15.5 µg/dL and 112.2 + 15.8 µg/dL, respectively). Furthermore, a highly significant elevation (p< 0.01) in the mean blood level of lead (20.7 + 2.5 µg/dL and 19.9 + 1.7 µg/dL, respectively) was found in pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer women compared to healthy controls (15.1 + 2.0 µg/dL and 14.6 + 2.3 µg/dL, respectively). It is concluded that the disturbance in the homeostasis of some trace elements (zinc, copper, and lead) may lead to the development and even progression of breast cancer in both pre- and postmenopausal women.
Inflammatory bowel disease includes both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is a chronic, progressive relapsing disease of gastrointestinal tract that require long-term treatment or maintenance therapy. Taking patient’s beliefs about the prescribed medication in consideration had been shown to be an important factor that affects compliance of the patient in whom having positive beliefs is a prerequisite for better compliance. The aim of the current study was to investigate and assess beliefs about medicines among a sample of Iraqi patients with inflammatory bowel disease and to determine possible association between these beliefs and some patient-specific factors.
This study is a cross-sectional study carried out o
... Show MoreBackground: Angiogenesis is defined as the formation of new blood vessels. However, angiogenesis in cancer will lead to tumour growth and metastasis. Therefore, anti-angiogenesis is one of the ways to slow down growth and spreading of tumour. Moringa oleifera is also known as a “Miracle tree” which has high nutritive value and various therapeutics effect in different parts of the plant. This study aims to determine the anti-angiogenic property of Moringa oleifera leaves extract by using chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. Materials and Methods: The extracts were prepared by decoction method using methanol and water. The qualitative phytochemical screening was carried out for
... Show MoreThe aim of this paper is to present a method for solving high order ordinary differential equations with two point's boundary condition, we propose semi-analytic technique using two-point oscillatory interpolation to construct polynomial solution. The original problem is concerned using two-point oscillatory interpolation with the fit equal numbers of derivatives at the end points of an interval [0 , 1] . Also, many examples are presented to demonstrate the applicability, accuracy and efficiency of the method by comparing with conventional methods.
Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is considered as one of the best materials already used as a window layer in solar cells due to its antireflective capability. The ZnO/MgF2 bilayer thin film is more efficient as antireflective coating. In this work, ZnO and ZnO/MgF2 thin films were deposited on glass substrate using pulsed laser deposition and thermal evaporation deposition methods. The optical measurements indicated that ZnO thin layer has an energy gap of (3.02 eV) while ZnO/MgF2 bilayer gives rise to an increase in the energy gap. ZnO/MgF2 bilayer shows a high energy gap (3.77 eV) with low reflectance (1.1-10 %) and refractive index (1.9) leading to high transmittance, this bilayer could be a good candidate optical material to improve the performance
... Show MoreIn this investigation, Rayleigh–Ritz method is used to calculate the natural frequencies of rectangular isotropic and laminated symmetric and anti-symmetric cross and angle ply composite plate with general elastic supports along its edges. Each of the admissible functions here is composed of a trigonometric function and an arbitrary continuous function that is introduced to ensure the sufficient smoothness of the so-called residual displacement function at the edges. Perhaps more importantly, this study has developed a general approach for deriving a complete set of admissible functions that can be applied to various boundary conditions. Several numerical examples are studied to demonstrate the accuracy and convergence of the current s
... Show MoreThis research utilized natural asphalt (NA) deposits from sulfur springs in western Iraq. Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of an asphalt mixture incorporating NA and verify its suitability for local pavement applications. To achieve this, a combination of two types of NA, namely soft SNA and hard HNA, was blended to create a binder known as Type HSNA. The resulting HSNA exhibited a penetration grade that adhered to Iraqi specifications. Various percentages of NA (20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%) were added to petroleum asphalt. The findings revealed enhanced physical properties of HSNA, which also satisfied the requirements outlined in the Iraqi specifications for asphalt cement.
Consequently, HS
... Show MoreCoffee bean contains bioactive compounds including caffeine and chlorogenic acid (CGA) that have a stimulant effect and are used for combating fatigue and drowsiness, and enhancing alertness. However, when the coffee bean was processed in the form of green coffee bean (GCB) extract, it has an unpleasant flavour and limitations instability, activity, and bioavailability. This study aimed to produce microcapsules of the GCB (Coffea canephora) ethanolic extract containing considerable amounts of the bioactive compounds for nutraceutical supplements. The GCB ethanolic extract was microencapsulated by spray drying using a whey protein concentrate (WPC) biopolimer. The particle size (PSA), morphology (SEM), and physicochemical charact
... Show MoreIn this work, a solid core photonic crystal fibre (SC-PCF) has been designed with endlessly single mode of which both centerd core and holes in the cladding are organized by circles. The designed SC-PCF has a single solid centerd core which is ringed by a six rings hexagonal cladding. The computation of SC-PCF is achieved by using the finite element method (FEM) with perfectly matched layer (PML) boundary condition. All the designed factors like dimensions and distance of both core and cladding areas have varied with an optimized structure. After ending the numerical calculation, the results shows that there are a link between the air hols in the cladding , and the different normaliz
... Show MoreThis paper is devoted to investigate the effect of internal curing technique on the properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC). In this study, SCC is produced by using silica fume (SF) as partial replacement by weight of cement with percentage of (5%), sand is partially replaced by volume with saturated fine lightweight aggregate (LWA) which is thermostone chips as internal curing material in three percentages of (5%, 10% and 15%) for SCC, two external curing conditions water and air. The experimental work was divided into three parts: in the first part, the workability tests of fresh SCC were conducted. The second part included conducting compressive strength test and modulus of rupture test at ages of (7, 28 and 90). The third part i
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