Tuberculosis (TB) still remains an important medical problem due to high levels of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A series of innate immune mechanisms that create a cytokine network control the pathogenesis of tuberculosis and this response has the capacity to modify the host genomic DNA structure through epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation which could constantly alter the local gene expression pattern that can modulate the metabolism of the tissues and the immune-response. Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) is an important pro-inflammatory cytokine regulator of the innate immune response to TB. This study aims to determine DNA methylation patterns of INF-γ gene promoter and measure serum IFN- γ level in newly diagnosed TB patient

Objective: To assess the role of tumour necrosis factor alpha level and genotyping in susceptibility to leishmaniasis.Method: The case-control study was conducted from March to July 2021 at Baqubah Teaching Hospital, Diyala, Iraq,and comprised patients of cutaneous leishmaniasis in group A and healthy controls in group B. The serum level andsingle nucleotide polymorphisms of tumour necrosis factor-alpha rs41297589 and rs1800629 were compared betweenthe groups. Data was analysed using SPSS 28.Results: Of the 150 subjects, there were 75(50%) in group A; 39(52%) males and 36(48%) females with mean age23.91±13.14 years. The remaining 75(50%) subjects were in group B; 38(50.7%) males and 37(49.3%) females withmean age 22.84±4.35 years.

The Electric Discharge (EDM) method is a novel thermoelectric manufacturing technique in which materials are removed by a controlled spark erosion process between two electrodes immersed in a dielectric medium. Because of the difficulties of EDM, determining the optimum cutting parameters to improve cutting performance is extremely tough. As a result, optimizing operating parameters is a critical processing step, particularly for non-traditional machining process like EDM. Adequate selection of processing parameters for the EDM process does not provide ideal conditions, due to the unpredictable processing time required for a given function. Models of Multiple Regression and Genetic Algorithm are considered as effective methods for determ

Dual-species biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus generate difficult-to-treat illnesses. Nutrition stress in biofilms affects physiology, microbial metabolism, and species interactions, impacting bacteria growth and survival. Furthermore, the function of alginate, which is encoded by the algD gene, in the production of biofilms has been established. The present study aimed at investigating the impact of starvation on algD gene expression in single-species biofilm of P. aeruginosa and dual-species biofilms of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus from hospital sewage. A total of six P. aeruginosa and six S. aureus isolates were obtained from the microbiology laboratory at the Department of Biology, College of Science, Universit

Nowadays, information systems constitute a crucial part of organizations; by losing security, these organizations will lose plenty of competitive advantages as well. The core point of information security (InfoSecu) is risk management. There are a great deal of research works and standards in security risk management (ISRM) including NIST 800-30 and ISO/IEC 27005. However, only few works of research focus on InfoSecu risk reduction, while the standards explain general principles and guidelines. They do not provide any implementation details regarding ISRM; as such reducing the InfoSecu risks in uncertain environments is painstaking. Thus, this paper applied a genetic algorithm (GA) for InfoSecu risk reduction in uncertainty. Finally, the ef

Glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs) play a role in the detoxification of environmental chemicals and mutagens, such as those inhaled during tobacco smoking. There have been conflicting reports concerning GST polymorphisms as risk factors in the development of lung cancer. No studies focused on Arab populations exposed to Waterpipe (WP) tobacco smoke have been undertaken. Here Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and gene sequenc- ing were applied to analyze allelic variations in GSTP1-rs1695 and -rs1138272 amongst 123 lung cancer patients and 129 controls. The data suggest that WP smoking raised the risk of lung cancer more than three-fold (OR 3.6; 95% CI 2.1–6.0; p < 0.0001). However, there was no s