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

Introduction: The major drawback of Silver diamine ϔŽuor‹de was the dark discoloration of the treated carious lesion. Aim: This study was conducted to determine the parental acceptability and perceptions to the discoloration and assess whether the degree of their acceptability could be altered with the position of the discoloured teeth, child attitude and the demographic characteristics of parents. Method: The parents who attended the dental clinic received a questionnaire which formulated with short summery about silver diamine ϔŽuor‹de with photographs (before and after treatment) and containing questions about the demographical data, attitude of the child in the dental clinic and the acceptability of SDF discoloration at different

Nanoparticles are a special group of materials with unique features and extensive applications in diverse fields. The use of nanoparticles of some metals is a viable solution to stop infectious diseases due to the antimicrobial properties of these nanoparticles. The present work demonstrates the effect of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the antibacterial activity of four different antibiotics (amoxicillin, ceftriaxone, chloramphenicol, and penicillin) against eleven Gram-positive and Gram-negative isolates. Disk diffusion method was used to determine the antibacterial activity of various classes of antibiotics in the absence and presence of sub-inhibitory silver nanoparticles of concentration (80 microgram/ml). A synergistic effect was o

Proteus mirabilis is considered as a third common cause of catheter-associated urinary tract infection, with urease production, the potency of catheter blockage due to the formation of biofilm formation is significantly enhanced. Biofilms are major virulence factors expressed by pathogenic bacteria to resist antibiotics; in this concern the need for providing new alternatives for antibiotics is getting urgent need, This study aimed to explore whether green synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) can function as an anti-biofilm agent produced by P.mirabilis. Bacterial cells were capable of catalyzing the biosynthesis process by producing reductive enzymes. The nanoparticles were synthesized from cell free

Under cyclic loading, aluminum alloys exhibit less fatigue life than steel alloys of similar strength and this is considered as Achilles's heel of such alloys. A nanosecond fiber laser was used to apply high speed laser shock peening process on thin aluminum plates in order to enhance the fatigue life by introducing compressive residual stresses. The effect of three working parameters namely the pulse repetition rate (PRR), spot size (ω) and scanning speed (v) on limiting the fatigue failure was investigated. The optimum results, represented by the longer fatigue life, were at PRR of 22.5 kHz, ω of 0.04 mm and at both v's of 200 and 500 mm/sec. The research yielded significant results represented by a maximum percentage increase in the fa

The 17 α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) adsorption from aqueous solution was examined using a novel adsorbent made from rice husk powder coated with CuO nanoparticles (CRH). Advanced analyses of FTIR, XRD, SEM, and EDSwere used to identify the classification parameters of a CRH-like surface morphology, configuration, and functional groups. The rice husk was coated with CuO nanoparticles, allowing it to create large surface area materials with significantly improved textural qualities with regard to functional use and adsorption performance, according to a detailed characterization of the synthesized materials. The adsorption process was applied successfully with elimination effectiveness of 100% which can be kept up to 61.3%. The parameters of ads

Systemic lupus Erythematosus is an autoimmune disease of unknown aetiology affecting multiple organ system. Reactive nitrogen and oxygen species are claimed to play a role in this disease. However, the potential of Nitrosative/Oxidative Stress to elicit an autoimmune, response remain till now largely unexplored in humans. This study was done to investigate the status and contribution of nitrosative/oxidative stress in Iraqi patients for systemic lupus erythematosus. Blood samples from 19 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and 19 age-and sex- matched apparently healthy controls were evaluated for serum levels of nitrosative/oxidative stress markers including nitric oxide, peroxynitrite and malondialdehyde. Nitric oxide levels were

In this work, an investigation for the dynamic analysis of thin composite cylindrical and spherical shells is presented. The analytical solution is based upon the higher order shear deformation theory of elastic shells from which the developed equations are derived to deal with orthotropic layers. This will cover the determination of the fundamental natural frequencies and mode shapes for simply supported composites cylindrical and spherical shells.

      The analytical results obtained by using the derived equations were confirmed by the finite element technique using the well known Ansys package. The results have shown a good agreement with a maximum percentage of discrepancy, which gives a confidence o

The faujasite type Y zeolite catalyst was prepared from locally available kaolin. For prepared faujasite type NaY zeolite X-ray, FT-IR, BET pore volume and surface area, and silica/ alumina were determined. The Xray and FT-IR show the compatibility of prepared catalyst with the general structure of standard zeolite Y. BET test shows that the surface area and pore volume of prepared catalyst were 360 m2 /g and 0.39 cm3 /g respectively.
The prepared faujasite type NaY zeolite modified by exchanging sodium ion with ammonium ion using ammonium nitrate and then ammonium ion converted to hydrogen ion. The maximum sodium ion exchange with ammonium ion was 53.6%. The catalytic activity of prepared faujasite type NaY, NaNH4Y and NaHY zeolites

Tin Oxide (SnO2) films have been deposited by spray pyrolysis technique at different substrate temperatures. The effects of substrate temperature on the structural, optical and electrical properties of SnO2 films have been investigated. The XRD result shows a polycrystalline structure for SnO2 films at substrate temperature of 673K. The thickness of the deposited film was of the order of 200 nm measured by Toulansky method. The energy gap increases from 2.58eV to 3.59 eV when substrate temperature increases from 473K to 673K .Electrical conductivity is 4.8*10-7(.cm)-1 for sample deposited at 473K while it increases to 8.7*10-3 when the film is deposited at 673K