High-sensitive cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) is a recognized marker of myocardial injury in acute coronary syndromes, but its utility in chronic coronary syndromes (CCS) remains unclear. Midkine (MK), a heparin-binding growth factor, plays a role in inflammation and vascular remodeling in atherosclerosis. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of serum hs-cTnI and MK in determining the severity of coronary artery obstruction in patients with CCS. The study included 125 subjects undergoing coronary angiography (CAG) at the Iraqi Center of Heart Disease/ Medical City/Baghdad, from March to December 2024. Subjects were classified into three groups based on CAG findings: no CAD, 1- or 2-vessel disease, and 3-ve

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease initiated by dysbiotic biofilms and sustained by an altered host response, resulting in progressive destruction of the tooth-supporting tissues. Alongside immune-mediated damage, epithelial–mesenchymal transition has been proposed as a contributing mechanism in gingival barrier disruption and periodontal tissue remodeling. This narrative review examines the roles of the EMT-related transcription factors Snail1 and Twist1 in periodontitis, with particular focus on their involvement in epithelial junction loss, mesenchymal activation, and disease-associated tissue change. Relevant literature was identified through targeted searches of PubMed/MEDLINE and Google Scholar using terms relat

In this work, effects of using different evaporative cooling pads (ECPs) on the energetic and exergetic efficiency of a direct evaporative air cooler (DEAC) have been theoretically and experimentally investigated. Three types of ECPs were used, i.e., honeycomb cellulose cooler pad (HCCP), shading-cloth cooler pad (SCCP), and aspen wood wool cooler pad (AWWCP). For SCCP and AWWCP, a 3-cm pad thickness was used, while for the HCCP, three different values of pad thickness were used, i.e., 3, 5, and 7 cm. Tests were carried out using air velocities of 8, 14, and 19 m/s, measured at the DEAC outlet. Engineering equation solver (EES) used for performing the required calculations of the various parameters affecting the thermal performance of the D

Software-defined networks (SDN) have a centralized control architecture that makes them a tempting target for cyber attackers. One of the major threats is distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It aims to exhaust network resources to make its services unavailable to legitimate users. DDoS attack detection based on machine learning algorithms is considered one of the most used techniques in SDN security. In this paper, four machine learning techniques (Random Forest, K-nearest neighbors, Naive Bayes, and Logistic Regression) have been tested to detect DDoS attacks. Also, a mitigation technique has been used to eliminate the attack effect on SDN. RF and KNN were selected because of their high accuracy results. Three types of ne

Industrial development has recently increased, including that of plastic industries. Since plastic has a very long analytical life, it will cause environmental pollution, so studies have resorted to reusing recycled waste plastic (sustainable plastic) to produce environmentally friendly concrete (green concrete). In this research, producing environmentally friendly load-bearing concrete masonry units (blocks) was considered where five concrete mixtures were compressed at the blocks producing machine. The cement content reduced from 400 kg/m³ (B-400) to 300 kg/m³ (B-300) then to 200 kg/m³ (B-200). While (B-380) was produced using 380 kg/m³ cement and 20 kg/m³ nano-sil