This study is an attempt to find whether arginine metabolism dysregulation by arginase activity is related to hyperglycemia, followed by changes in nitric oxide (NO) generation in type 2 diabetic patients. This study includes 42 control subjects (Group I), and 92 Iraqi patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The patient group was subdivided into two groups: Group II (54) with T2DM only and Group III (38) with T2DM and dyslipidemia (who were treating with atorvastatin along with diabetes treatment). The samples were obtained to measure arginase activity and NO levels. Serum arginase activity increased significantly in patients(groupII and groupIII) compared to control group. While serum NO level was significantly lower in diabetic pa

Background: It's believed that HBD-3 is involved in the tissue remodeling process of articular cartilage. Also, HBD-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assay human beta-defensine-3 (HBD-3) in serum from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and investigate its correlation with proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: In this case-control study, fifty-eight RA patients were aged 20–65 years, and 29 age-matched healthy subjects (HS) had no inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The disease activity score-28 joint erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) was used to measure RA activity. CRP, ACPA, HBD-3, TNF-α, and IL-1β were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA). Res

For more than a decade, externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites successfully utilized in retrofitting reinforced concrete structural elements. The function of CFRP reinforcement in increasing the ductility of reinforced concrete (RC) beam is essential in such members. Flexural and shear behaviors, ductility, and confinement were the main studied properties that used the CFRP as a strengthening material. However, limited attention has been paid to investigate the energy absorption of torsion strengthening of concrete members, especially two-span concrete beams. Hence, the target of this work is to investigate the effectiveness of CFRP-strengthening technique with regard to energy absorption of two-span RC

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

Twelve species from Brassicaceae family were studied using two different molecular techniques: RAPD and ISSR; both of these techniques were used to detect some molecular markers associated with the genotype identification. RAPD results, from using five random primers, revealed 241 amplified fragments, 62 of them were polymorphic (26%).

    ISSR results showed that out of seven primers, three (ISSR3, UBC807, UBC811) could not amplify the genomic DNA; other primers revealed 183 amplified fragments, 36 of them were polymorphic (20%). The similarity evidence and dendrogram for the genetic distances of the incorporation between the two techniques showed that the highest similarity was 0.897 between the va

This work is concerned with the synthesis of two types of composites thin films (Sb2O3:WO3 and (Sb2O3:In2O3) with different concentrations (0.0,0.05,0.1, and 0.15). The prepared thin films are characterized with the use of the X-ray diffraction atomic force microscope AFM and UV-Vis–infrared spectrophotometer. The structural examination shows that both composite's thin films were polycrystalline with nano size with cubic phase as majority and orthorhombic phase as minority phase. The crystal size decreases from 34.6 to 24.7 and 21.7 nm for (Sb2O3:WO3) and (Sb2O3:In2O3) thin films, respectively. The average roughness shows non-regular growth by increasing the concentration of both oxides. The optical energy band gap shows a red shi

      Compounds from tin oxide doped with gallium oxide and cerium oxide were synthesized. Thin films from (SnO2:Ga2O3,CeO2) with different doping ratios were prepared on glass and single crystal silicon as substrates with the use of the pulsed laser deposition technique. The results of FTIR spectrums analysis was presented. Varies heterojunctions were fabricated from (SnO2:Ga2O3,CeO2 /Cu2S/c-pSi) heterojunctions solar cell which are formed from two layers: the first was Cu2S and the second was layer from tin oxide doped with two oxides named gallium oxide and cerium oxide with different doping ratios (0, 0.03, 0.05, and 0.07). The heterojuntion (SnO2:5%Ga2O3 /Cu2S/c-pSi photovoltaic structure exhibits open circuit voltage (Voc

The thin films of SnO2,SnO2:TiO2 , SnO2:MoO3 , SnO2:WO3 , SnO2:Cr2O3 , and SnO2: Fe2O3 were prepared by pulsed laser deposition technique using (Nd:YAG) laser of λ=1064 nm average frequency (6) Hz and pulse duration (10 ns) under vacuum of 10 -2 mbar)deposited on glass, n-Si single crystals substrate room temperature with thickness of (100±10) nm. The structures of pure SnO2 and ,SnO2:TiO2 , SnO2:MoO3 , SnO2:WO3 , SnO2:Cr2O3 , SnO2:Co3O4 compounds were studied by X–ray diffraction .the results showed that there was red shift accompanied addition of MoO3 and TiO2 while a blue shift accompanied the addition of WoO3 , Cr2O3 , Fe2O3 to tin oxide . The gas sensing measurements of NO2 gas showed that S

In this study, several models of the rocket fins were made of hyper composite materials (with two or more reinforced materials) with different volume fractions of components used to produce isotropic composite plate structures. The reinforcement of polyester resin material was done in two ways, with fibre reinforcement and powder reinforcement. The types of fibresthat used were chopped glass fibre and chopped carbon fibre, and the type of powder used was carbon powder. A concentrated load was applied to the models in the form of a cantilever plate. The effect of adding carbon powder on the stiffness to weight ratio and the effect of temperature on this stiffness to weight ratio were studied and discussed. It was observed that hybridization

Copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles were synthesized through the thermal decomposition of a copper(II) Schiff-base complex. The complex was formed by reacting cupric acetate with a Schiff base in a 2:1 metal-to-ligand ratio. The Schiff base itself was synthesized via the condensation of benzidine and 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde in the presence of glacial acetic acid. This newly synthesized symmetric Schiff base served as the ligand for the Cu(II) metal ion complex. The ligand and its complex were characterized using several spectroscopic methods, including FTIR, UV-vis, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, CHNS, and AAS, along with TGA, molar conductivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements. The CuO nanoparticles were produced by thermally decomposing the