We report a new theranostic device based on lead sulfide quantum dots (PbS QDs) with optical emission in the near infrared wavelength range decorated with affibodies (small 6.5 kDa protein-based antibody replacements) specific to the cancer biomarker human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and zinc(II) protoporphyrin IX (ZnPP) to combine imaging, targeting and therapy within one nanostructure. Colloidal PbS QDs were synthesized in aqueous solution with a nanocrystal diameter of ∼5 nm and photoluminescence emission in the near infrared wavelength range. The ZHER2:432 affibody, mutated through the introduction of two cysteine residues at the C-terminus (Afb2C), was used as capping ligand to form Afb2C-PbS QDs that have a high binding affinity for HER2, which is overexpressed in several types of cancer including breast cancer. Afb2C-PbS QDs were further modified by conjugation with ZnPP, which acts as an anticancer agent. The biological activity of these QDs was tested against SKBR3 (HER2-positive) and MDA-MB-231 (HER2-normal) breast cancer cells, with results showing that ZnPP-Afb2C-functionalized PbS QDs were successfully targeted to the HER2-overexpressing cancer cells and induced cell apoptosis thanks to the conjugation with ZnPP. These results expand the use of the QD nanoplatform with the formulation of novel nanomaterials for targeted delivery and combined imaging and therapy via direct surface-protein interaction.
In Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) the non-linear data projection provided by a one hidden layer Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), trained to recognize phonemes, and has previous experiments to provide feature enhancement substantially increased ASR performance, especially in noise. Previous attempts to apply an analogous approach to speaker identification have not succeeded in improving performance, except by combining MLP processed features with other features. We present test results for the TIMIT database which show that the advantage of MLP preprocessing for open set speaker identification increases with the number of speakers used to train the MLP and that improved identification is obtained as this number increases beyond sixty.
... Show MoreBackground: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a collection of chronic, recurrent inflammatory illnesses of the gastrointestinal system, including Crohn's disease (CD). Infliximab is one of the biological medications used to treat CD. Therapeutic drug monitoring has evolved as a treatment in IBD, aiming to optimize benefit while meeting more demanding, objective end criteria. Objective: To determine the achievement of target trough level (TL), develop anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) to infliximab, assess response to therapy, and study TL relations with different variables. Methods: The present study was cross-sectional and conducted from May 2022 to November 2022. It included 40 CD patients allotted into 2 groups: group 1 patients ach
... Show MoreIn this work Nano crystalline (Cu2S) thin films pure and doped 3% Al with a thickness of 400±20 nm was precipitated by thermic steaming technicality on glass substrate beneath a vacuum of ~ 2 × 10− 6 mbar at R.T to survey the influence of doping and annealing after doping at 573 K for one hour on its structural, electrical and visual properties. Structural properties of these movies are attainment using X-ray variation (XRD) which showed Cu2S phase with polycrystalline in nature and forming hexagonal temple ,with the distinguish trend along the (220) grade, varying crystallites size from (42.1-62.06) nm after doping and annealing. AFM investigations of these films show that increase average grain size from 105.05 nm to 146.54 nm
... Show MoreIn this modern Internet era and the transition to IPv6, routing protocols must adjust to assist this transformation. RIPng, EIGRPv6 and OSPFv3 are the dominant IPv6 IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocols). Selecting the best routing protocol among the available is a critical task, which depends upon the network requirement and performance parameters of different real time applications. The primary motivation of this paper is to estimate the performance of these protocols in real time applications. The evaluation is based on a number of criteria including: network convergence duration, Http Page Response Time, DB Query Response Time, IPv6 traffic dropped, video packet delay variation and video packet end to end de
... Show MoreThis work is a trial to ensure the absolute security in any quantum cryptography (QC) protocol via building an effective hardware for satisfying the single-photon must requirement by controlling the value of mean photon number. This was approximately achieved by building a driving circuit that provide very short pulses (≈ 10 ns) for laser diode -LD- with output power of (0.7-0.99mW) using the available electronic components in local markets. These short pulses enable getting faint laser pulses that were further attenuated to reach mean photon number equal to 0.08 or less.
Azo ligand 4-((2-hydroxy-3,5-dimethylphenyl)diazenyl) benzoic acid was synthesized from 4-aminobenzoic acid and 2,4- dimethylphenol. Azo dye compounds have been characterized by different techniques (1H-NMR, UV-Vis and FT-IR). Metal chelates of (ZnII, CdII and HgII) have been synthesized with azo ligand (L). Produced compounds have been identified by using spectral studies, elemental analysis(C.H.N.) and conductivity. Produced metal chelates were studied using mole ratio as well sequences contrast types. Rate of concentration(1×10-4-3×10-4 Mole/L) sequence Beer's law. Compound solutions have been noticed height molar absorptivity. The addendum of ligand and compounds has applied as disperse dyes on cotton fabrics for antibacterial activit
... Show MoreBackground: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare congenital condition that results in bone fragility, recurrent fractures, and various extra-skeletal manifestations. Currently, intravenous bisphosphonate is the mainstay of medical treatment in OI. Objective: To identify the effect of current management strategies on Iraqi children diagnosed with OI. Methods: A retrospective study enrolled OI patients who were registered in Central Child Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, from January 2015 to December 2022. We enrolled confirmed OI cases (either clinically and/or radiologically) who received cyclic pamidronate therapy for at least 3 cycles. They neither received other types of bisphosphonates nor underwent surgical intervention. Res
... Show More