The aim of this study is to investigate the antibacterial capabilities of different coating durations of three nanoparticle (NP) coatings: molybdenum (Mo), tantalum (Ta), and zinc oxide (ZnO), and their effects on the surface characteristics of 316L stainless steel (SS). The coated substrates underwent characterization utilizing field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), and X-ray diffractometer (XRD) techniques. The antibacterial efficacy of NPs was evaluated using the agar diffusion method. The FE-SEM and EDX images confirmed the presence of nano-sized particles of Mo, Ta, and ZnO on the surface of the substrates with perfectly symmetrical spheres and a uniform distribution of the NPs. All groups demonstrated antibacterial activity, and the ability to inhibit the growth of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus acidophilus bacteria. The ZnO group had the most potent antibacterial effect, followed by the Mo group, while the Ta group had the least effect. A direct-current (DC) plasma sputtering system was used to produce nano-coatings of high purity that were homogeneous, crack-free and showed no sign of delamination. Bacterial strains exposed to Mo, Ta, and ZnO coated surfaces exhibited a significant loss of viability in a time-dependent manner. The optimum sputtering time to ensure the best antibacterial properties and preserve the resources was 1 hour (h) for Mo, 3 h for Ta and 6 h for ZnO.
The clinical response to natalizumab in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) may be significantly influenced by genetic variation. Mutations in genes related to the drug’s mechanism of action or the pathological milieu of MS can contribute substantially to interindividual differences in treatment outcomes. This review aims to provide an overview of previous studies that have examined genetic polymorphisms associated with the clinical efficacy of natalizumab. A systematic literature search was conducted across the PubMed, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate databases using targeted keywords relevant to the subject matter. Several genetic loci were found to be linked to natalizumab responsiveness, including the integrin subunit alpha 4 (ITGA4
... Show MoreObjective: the objective of this study was to compare the intraoperative blood loss, intraoperative time, postoperative pain and secondary hemorrhage between electrodissection and cold steel dissection tonsillectomy.
Methods: One hundred and six patients were enrolled in this study, the patients were randomly allocated into electrodissection group A (n=51) and cold steel dissection tonsillectomy group B (n=53). All patients are above 7 years and had history of recurrent tonsillitis and/or tonsillar hypertrophy with obstructive symptoms. Intraoperative parameters and postoperative outcome were assessed.
Results: In group A patients had statically significa
... Show MoreA three-stage learning algorithm for deep multilayer perceptron (DMLP) with effective weight initialisation based on sparse auto-encoder is proposed in this paper, which aims to overcome difficulties in training deep neural networks with limited training data in high-dimensional feature space. At the first stage, unsupervised learning is adopted using sparse auto-encoder to obtain the initial weights of the feature extraction layers of the DMLP. At the second stage, error back-propagation is used to train the DMLP by fixing the weights obtained at the first stage for its feature extraction layers. At the third stage, all the weights of the DMLP obtained at the second stage are refined by error back-propagation. Network structures an
... Show MorePerennial biofuel and cover crops systems are important for enhancing soil health and can provide numerous soil, agricultural, and environmental benefits. The study objective was to investigate the effects of cover crops and biofuel crops on soil hydraulic properties relative to traditional management for claypan soils. The study site included selected management practices: cover crop (CC) and no cover crop (NC) with corn/soybean rotation, switchgrass (SW), and miscanthus (MI). The CC mixture consisted of cereal rye, hairy vetch, and Austrian winter pea. The research site was located at Bradford Research Center in Missouri, USA, and was implemented on a Mexico silt loam. Intact soil cores (76‐mm diam. by 76‐mm long) were taken from the
... Show MoreCyclophosphamide (CP) is a cytotoxic alkylating agent it's used associated with different side effects including lung toxicity. Vitamin B2 and vitamin B12 have lung-protective effects. This study was designed to evaluate lung-protective effects of both vitamins against lung toxicity induced by cyclophosphamide. seventy healthy adult albino male and female rats divided into seven groups each group containing ten rats were used in the present study and treated for seven days. On day eight rats were sacrificed and serum was obtained for glutathione and total antioxidant capacity measurement and lung extracted for immunohistochemical study; both vitamins significantly (P<0.05) increased glutathione and total antioxidant capacity in compar
... Show MoreCardiac toxicity can occur during the therapy with several cytotoxic drugs, including 5- Fluorouracil (5- FU). It is an antimetabolite that acts during the S phase of the cell cycle and is activated by thymidine phosphorylase into fluorodeoxyuridylate (5 fluoro 2'deoxyuridine 5'monophosphate, 5-FdUMP) that inhibits thymidylate synthase, thus preventing DNA synthesis that leads to imbalanced cell growth and ultimately cell death. It is still a widely used anticancer drug, since 1957. The present study aimed to evaluate the possible cardio-protective effects of ethanolic artichoke extract (Cynara scolymus L.) against 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) induced cardio-toxicity in rats by evaluating serum levels of Alanine aminotransferase, aspartate amin
... Show MoreIn the case where a shallow foundation does not satisfy with design requirements alone, the addition of a pile may be suitable to improve the performance of the foundation design. The lack of in-situ data and the complexity of the issues caused by lagging in the research area of pile foundations are notable. In this study, different types of piles were used under the same geometric conditions to determine the load-settlement relationships with various sandy soil relative densities. The ultimate pile capacity for each selected pile is obtained from a modified California Bearing Ratio (CBR) machine to be suitable for axial pile loading. Based on the results, the values of Qu for close-ended square pile were increased by 15
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