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Background: Acromegaly is a rare endocrine disorder; it has an incidence of 4 per million annually and a prevalence of 40 per million. It is due to growth hormone-secreting pituitary adenoma. The objective of our study is to evaluate the levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in patients with acromegaly with and without obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Materials and Methods: One hundred five registered patients with acromegaly in the National Diabetes Center-Mustansiriyah University were enrolled in the study. Out of 105 patients with acromegaly, 81 have OSA while the remaining 24 have no OSA. OSA affects 81.8% of males and 72% of females. All recruited patients have given oral consent to participate in the study which was conducted during the period from January to October 2023. Results: Males with OSA had a mean age of 52 years while those without OSA had a mean age of 46 years. Epworth Sleepiness Scale is higher among those with OSA. BNP is found to be higher in females with OSA (905.54 pg/ml) while in males with OSA, it drops down to 878.76 pg/ml. In no OSA group, the BNP level was 355.33 ± 30.1 pg/ml while in those with OSA, it jumped to 890.66 ± 205.63 pg/ml. Conclusions: The results showed that BNP was elevated in patients with acromegaly and OSA versus those without OSA, OSA is more common in males particularly when they get older.

This experimental investigation describes an extensive series of reduced laboratory scale tests, conducted on circular and ring footing models rested on a geogrid reinforced cohesionless soil. The study examined the impact of several factors at different relative sand densities, such as the inner to the outer diameter ratio of the ring footing, the number of geogrid reinforcements, the depth of the initial reinforcement, and the vertical spacing between the geogrids, as well as the geogrid stiffness. The results indicated that the optimum diameter ratio of ring footings resting on loose or medium-dense cohesionless soil is 0.40 at which the maximum bearing capacity is reached, leading in a cost-effective design of the footings, while for the dense soil, a diameter ratio of 0.45 is the optimal ratio. Also, the results indicated that the optimum number of reinforcement layers which after the bearing capacity improvement can be considered negligible is three layers for the circular footing and four layers for the ring footing model. To achieve the maximum increase in bearing capacity, the study identifies optimal values for the depth of the first geogrid reinforcement layer and the vertical spacing between reinforcements, which apply to circular and ring footing. While the stiffness of the reinforcement has a significant effect on the bearing capacity, this effect is not proportional.

Artificial intelligence tools depend on generating various images on the available datasets, but there is a lot of data that is not completely available, especially images of heritage and archaeological ornament. In this paper, a tool was developed to generate ornament based on the geometric shapes of heritage ornaments. A group of basic geometric shapes was collected. The new ornament are reshaped in three stages, relying on the permutation equation and reshaping of the overlapping sizes of the shapes, In the first stage, the number of layers that make up the ornament is determined. In the second stage, the formation of the ornament is determined through rotation or mirroring. In the final stage, the set of ornaments is generated in the form of an integrated matrix.

The sustainability and impact of copper fibres on pure gypsum is the primary purpose of this study to investigate a combination of two kinds of copper fibres obtained from environmental waste (damaged electrical wires). The copper fibres are dividings into a fixed length of 10 mm, but with two different diameters: the first is 0.83 mm and the second is 0.63 mm, where the ratio of width to height (L/D) is 12 and 15.9, respectively, with a volume ratio Vf = 0.4 %, the ratios 0.5 and 0.6 represent the Water to Gypsum ratio (W/G) individually. Each W/G ratio has two types of mixtures which organize according to diameter. The first considers a reference mixture without copper fibres (CF), and the other is a copper fibres (CF) mixture. This work found that the compressive strength increased from adding the copper fibres to a mixture of pure gypsum. Furthermore, this increase is apparent in pure gypsum compressive strength when raising the aspect ratio because of reducing the copper fibres’ diameters. In another way, increasing ratio of W/G in the case of existing copper fibres or none may reduce a compressive strength of mixtures. Therefore, when the ratio of (W/G) drops, the significance of copper fibres may become more apparent.

Azo dye ligand (HMDA), namely N-(4-((E)-((1E,6E)-1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-3,5-dioxohepta-1,6-dien-4-yl)diazenyl)phenyl)acetamide was prepared by coupling diazonium salt of 4-aminoacetanilide with curcumin in basic conditions. The HMDA ligand and its Au(III) complex were characterized by elemental analysis, mass spectroscopy, 1H-NMR, FTIR, UV-visible spectra, and molar conductivity. The molar ratio method was applied to ascertain the stoichiometric composition of the Au(III) complex in aqueous solution, which was 1:2 (metal ion to ligand). HMDA ligand binding with Au(III) ion used the enolate form moiety of curcumin under alkaline conditions which was observed by infrared spectra and investigated by elemental analysis and 1H-NMR. HMDA and its Au(III) complex have been evaluated as stains for intestine, pancreas and kidney tissues of mice and exhibited important contrast. Both compounds showed the most potent staining activity toward blood cells, collagen, muscle fibers and cytoplasm in the selected tissues of mice. This azo dye and its complex of Au(III) succeeded in dyeing mice tissues, compared with the conventional stains.

Brucellosis is a contagious bacterial disease that causes public health problems and financial losses in animal productions. This study aims to describe the incidence of human brucellosis, seroprevalence of brucellosis in cattle, and risk factors of disease spreading. The total incidence cases of human brucellosis in Thi-Qar province are estimated at 5.4% per 100,000 people for eight years, and the highest number of 43 patients are observed in 2019. The number of the positive samples using the Rose Bengal test (RBT) are 32 (21.8%) from a total of 147 blood samples assembled randomly from cattle populations. The seroprevalence of brucellosis is estimated as 3.4% (95%Cl:1.1-7.8) through employing the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The questionnaire interview with the animal owners revealed that the large proportion neither handle aborted animals properly nor dispose of the waste materials of abortions. Besides, the majority of the owners prefer lending bulls for mating or breeding purposes rather than artificial insemination. The study concludes that brucellosis is an endemic disease in Thi-Qar Province and that it is important to abide by the One Health Approach for the management of disease control in animal population and minimize human incidence rates.

As an extension of recent developments in concrete understanding, an extensive study is currently being conducted on the structural performance of reactive powder concrete (RPC). This article guides how to investigate the shear behavior of RPC T-beams and calculate their ultimate and breaking shear capacities. The mechanical features of this construction material and approach to revising the reactive powder shear hybrid segment T-beams are cast-off in this motion and are investigated in this experimental study. To evaluate the effects of volumetric ratio of steel fibers, silica fume ratio, and tensile steel ratio, introductory section on the effectiveness of T-beam shearing reactive powder, the program of experimentation involved trying four beams. The research aimed to determine the deflection conduct of the load, downtime approach, strain amount over the beams’ depth, and failure form of cracks. In examining reaction powder’s mechanical characteristics mixtures, steel fiber volumetric ratio and silica fume volumetric ratio were also studied. Furthermore, a hybrid beam study revealed that by using reactive powder web and regular concrete in flange effectively, T-beam concert is enhanced when associated with normal concrete T-beams by 12%. Hybrid beams have also revealed that using reactive powder flange and usual concrete in a web effectively advances the show of T-beams when associated with standard concrete T-beams by 28%.

Ciprofloxacin (Cip) and hydrocortisone (Hyd) were simultaneously measured as hydrochloride and sodium succinate, respectively, using the H-point standard addition method (HPSAM). The approach can precisely identify Cip in the presence of Hyd with various analyte-to-interference ratios (5:5, 5:10, 10:5, 10:10) µg.mL-1, in mixed samples containing (1-5µg.ml-1) of Cip, at the wavelengths of (236 and 257) nm. In the same way, Hyd was analyzed in the presence of Cip in different analytes with an interference ratio of (5:5, 5:10, 10:5, 10:10) µg.mL-1, in mixed samples containing (1-5 µg.mL-1) of Hyd, at wavelengths of (266 and 278) nm. The satisfactory results show good reproducibility of the developed method (RSD equals 0.9735-1.6825 and 0.9692-1.7671 for Cip and Hyd, respectively). The results also show that the excipients had no influence on the assaying of the above drugs (Recovery, 98.87–101.73). The recommended technique has successfully been used to determine the Cip and Hyd in pharmaceutical composites simultaneously with an RSD range of (0.972 to 1.671) and (0.898 to 1.820) for Cip and Hyd, respectively.

Regarding the significance of binder quantity, alkali activator molarities, and thermal curing, this work was utilized to geopolymerize with a potassium-based alkaline activator to strengthen soils. Five different molarities of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) in four different amounts were utilized to activate the clayey soil. POFA admixtures have been used to test soils. The results showed that for mixtures with 10 and 12.5 molarities, the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) with 15 % and 20 % of POFA was stronger. Comparing the strengths of the blends with various POFA amounts and concentration molarities allowed for this determination. To increase the strength, it is crucial to consider how the geopolymerization method's temperature and curing time affect the UCS of the soil-POFA mixture with and without fibers. The UCS of the treated soil mixtures was changed by heating at 30, 50, 70, and 90 °C. The outcomes demonstrate that increasing the curing temperature will hasten the alkaline activation process. After seven days of heating, the treated soil specimens with and without fibers exhibit the best mechanical properties at a healing temperature of about 70 °C, with compressive strengths of 16.7 and 11.4 MPa. The interaction between the geo-polymeric matrix and the fiber surface, the molarities of the alkaline solution, and the heating temperature were the most important aspects, according to an investigation of the microstructures, in improving the behavior of the reinforced mixes. By offering an efficient approach for increasing the qualities of soil treated by the alkali activation of POFA through the inclusion of glass fibers with adequate molarities of reagent and cure heating temperature, the current work offers new insights into soil stabilization operations. This has advantages over conventional calcium-based binders due to their emission of carbon dioxide during manufacture, which is one of the major causes of global warming.

Background and Objective: As the need for adult orthodontic treatment develops and cosmetic dentistry becomes more fashionable, orthodontists are frequently faced with the issue of bonding attachments to porcelain-restored teeth. The purpose of this study was to determine the most effective surface etching technique to obtain the optimum shear bond strength of ceramic brackets to porcelain surface without damage to the ceramic surface after debonding. Also, different methods were used on the porcelain surface to evaluate the shear bond strength. Methods: In this study, 40 feldspathic porcelain discs were fabricated and randomly assigned to four groups (n=10). Group (1) ceramic bracket bonded to HFA-etched porcelain discs; Group (2) ceramic bracket bonded to PHA-etched porcelain discs; Group (3) ceramic bracket bonded to 3W Er, Cr: YSGG laser-conditioned porcelain discs; Group (4) ceramic bracket bonded to 6W Er, Cr: YSGG laser-conditioned porcelain discs. Extra samples from each group were selected before bonding to test the topography of the ceramic surface using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Debonding surfaces were investigated under an optical stereomicroscope. Findings: Surface treatment conditioning methods caused significant differences in bond strength among groups (p=0.001). The highest bond strength was 22.40±1.74 MPa in the HFA-etched group, and the lowest bond strength was 11.40±2.95 MPa for 6W Er, Cr: YSGG laser-conditioned group. Among all groups, the HFA-etched group exhibited damage to porcelain surfaces on debonding. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the Er, Cr: YSGG laser group produced a more consistently conditioned surface treatment for bonding between orthodontic ceramic brackets and feldspathic ceramic surfaces, and minimal surface damage during debonding. Consequently, the Er, Cr: YSGG laser conditioning method is appropriate for ceramic surfaces.

هدفَ البحث الى معرفة دور برامج السخرية التلفزيونية بتشكيل صورة السياسي العراقي، حيث تلخصت مشكلة الدراسة بالتساؤل الرئيس: ما دور السخرية في برامج التلفزيون بتشكيل صورة السياسي العراقي، وتنتمي هذه الدراسة إلى البحوث الوصفية، وقد استخدم الباحث المنهج المسحي، واستمارة الاستبانة أداة رئيسة لجمع المعلومات والبيانات، فضلًا عن الملاحظة والمقياس، واعتمد أيضًا على نظرية الغرس الثقافي دليلًا علميًا لتوجيه البحث، كما وقام بتوزيع (430) استمارة على المبحوثين الذين يشاهدون البرامج الساخرة، وهو عدد كافٍ للوصول إلى نتائج علمية دقيقة، اختارها بطريقة العينة العشوائية متعددة المراحل، بطريقة قصدية. وتوصل الباحث إلى جملة من النتائج أهمها: يرى أغلب الجمهور من مجموع عينة البحث أن الصورة التي تشكلت لديهم عن السياسي العراقي من خلال البرامج الساخرة هي سلبية، ونسبة قليلة تعتقد أنه لا توجد صورة واضحة عن السياسي العراقي في البرامج الساخرة، ويرى أغلب الجمهور أن أبرز الملامح السلبية التي تحاول البرامج الساخرة ابرازها عن السياسي العراقي هي شخصيات عاجزة عن توفير الخدمات للمواطنين، ولا تظهر البرامج التلفزيونية الساخرة أي ملامح إيجابية عن السياسي العراقي، ولا تبرز اي مواقف لبعض السياسيين الذين يهتمون في تطبيق بنود الدستور العراقي.

Utilizing thermal storage integrated into a solar air heater SAH is a promising solution to enhance the thermal performance of solar air heaters. The present work experimentally investigated the thermal impact of an absorber-finned heat exchanger-thermal storage unit integrated inside a solar air heater. The experiments were conducted under the conditions of Tikrit-Iraq in December 2021 and January 2022. RT42 and RT50 were used as PCMs in two separate solar air heaters. Each PCM filled the thermal storage of SAH. A finned heat exchanger, in which air was forced through, was immersed in the thermal storage. Two arrangements were tested. In the first arrangement, the two SAHs were separated from each other. In the second arrangement, the two SAHs were connected in series, first the RT42 SAH and then the RT50 SAH. The results showed that the highest recorded temperature was for RT50, i.e., 59 °C, in the separation arrangement. Also, the solar air heater with RT50 in the series arrangement continued to heat the forced air until 5 AM the next day.

An accurate and sensitive determination procedure has been established for the quantification of cefdinir in pure and pharmacological formulas. The approach was dependent on derivatizing cefdinir with sodium anthraquinone-2-sulfonate (SAS) in an alkaline medium to produce a magenta-colored derivative with a maximum absorbance at 517 nm against the reagent blank. Different factors affecting the interaction of cefdinir with SAS were studied carefully and optimized, such as the buffer value, medium acidity, the duration of hydrolysis, and the reagent percentage. Under optimized conditions, a linear calibration curve with a correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.9995 was obtained over the concentration range of cefdinir 0.5–100 μg/mL. The values of the parameters that represented the sensitivity of the method were satisfactory, i.e., the limit of detection, the limit of quantification, as well as Sandell's sensitivity (л) were 0.1 μg/mL, 0.5 μg/mL, and 0.064 μg/cm2/0.001 Au, respectively. The relative standard deviation was below 1.35%, while the percentage recovery was 99.930%–102.257%. The mole ratio of the colored complex was estimated by following Job's method of continuous variation, which indicated that the cefdinir-SAS ratio was 1:1. The suggested approach was proven to be adequately accurate, precise, and without interfering with common excipients and additives. Thus, it could be implemented successfully for the standard determination of cefdinir in its pure and pharmaceutical forms.

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are one of the most common global challenges faced by service providers on the web. It leads to network disturbances, interruption of communication and significant damage to services. Researchers seek to develop intelligent algorithms to detect and prevent DDoS attacks. The present study proposes an efficient DDoS attack detection model. This model relies mainly on dimensionality reduction and machine learning algorithms. The principal component analysis (PCA) and the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) techniques perform the dimensionality reduction in individual and hybrid modes to process and improve the data. Subsequently, DDoS attack detection is performed based on random forest (RF) and decision tree (DT) algorithms. The model is implemented and tested on the CICDDoS2019 dataset using different data dimensionality reduction test scenarios. The results show that using dimensionality reduction techniques along with the ML algorithms with a dataset containing high-dimensional data significantly improves the classification results. The best accuracy result of 99.97% is obtained when the model operates in a hybrid mode based on a combination of PCA, LDA and RF algorithms, and the data reduction parameter equals 40.

IntroductionIndustrial applications of lentil (LP) and quinoa (QP) proteins are limited due to their relatively poor water solubility. In this study, a combination of protein-protein interaction (PPI) and fermentation was used to improve the functionality and nutritional value of LP by conjugating them with QP. The reaction conditions between LP and QP for producing these conjugates were established.MethodsThe ratio of LP to QP was equal (50:50), and complexation was carried out at 25°C for 60 min. Fermentation of the solubilized LP-QP complexes (1%, w/v) for 5 days at 25°C with water kefir (5%, v/v) was carried out to enhance the protein quality and functionality of the LP-QP complexes.ResultsThe combined technique significantly enhanced protein digestibility, decreased the proportion of α-helices in the protein structure in favor of random coil components, and improved the phenolic content of the LP-QP complexes. Digestibility increased to 87%, up from 76% for unfermented LP-QP. Moreover, the LP-QP complexes produced using the combined technique generated a highly nutritional protein with a reduced saponin content.ConclusionThis research revealed that a combination of PPI and water kefir fermentation significantly enhances the nutritional and functional quality of LP, creating new opportunities for leveraging the growing popularity of plant-based proteins into high-value industrial applications.

Reactive powder concrete (RPC) is one of the most recent and significant advancements in the world of building. Due to its higher concrete characteristics, it has a common excessive benevolence happening in the globe at the moment, excessive ductility, shrinkage resistance, and corrosion and abrasion resistance. Investigated is the method for amending the RPC experimentally in punching shear slab action and the properties of construction material to investigate properties of volumetric ratios of steel fiber, and silicas fume, tensile steel ratio, the most important component for construction is reinforced concrete, which works well with other materials to create structures in any shape that is needed. In the present research, investigational work of RC slab with (1,000 × 1,000 × 60) mm dimensions was tested. This study aims to see how the relative volume of steel fibers (Vf) and silica fume content (Sf) affect the actions of RC slabs after being exposed to fire. It originated that a concrete mix containing 2% steel fibers improved the RPC slab's cracking and final punching shear. The existence of reactive powder increases fire resistance. This study's experiment aimed to see how reactive powder and Slab's ultimate punching shear strength were affected by replacement ratio. Whenever a fire is present. After fire exposure, the initial and subsequent stiffness of reinforced concrete slabs reduced considerably the temperature grew from 25 to 750°C.

The incorporation of additional functional groups such as bismuth nanoparticles (Bi NPs) into magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) is critical for their properties modification, stabilization, and multi-functionalization in biomedical applications. In this work, ultrasound has rapidly modified iron oxide (Fe3O4) NPs via incorporating their surface through coating with Bi NPs, creating unique Fe3O4@Bi composite NPs. The Fe3O4@Bi nanocomposites were synthesized and statistically optimized using an ultrasonic probe and response surface methodology (RSM). A face-centered central composite design (FCCD) investigated the effect of preparation settings on the stability, size, and size distribution of the nanocomposite. Based on the numerical desirability function, the optimized preparation parameters that influenced the responses were determined to be 40 ml, 5 ml, and 12 min for Bi concentration, sodium borohydride (SBH) concentration, and sonication time, respectively. It was found that the sonication time was the most influential factor in determining the responses. The predicted values for the zeta potential, hydrodynamic size, and polydispersity index (PDI) at the highest desirability solution (100%) were −45 mV, 122 nm, and 0.257, while their experimental values at the optimal preparation conditions were −47.1 mV, 125 nm, and 0.281, respectively. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) result shows that the ultrasound efficiently stabilized and functionalized Fe3O4NPs following modification to Fe3O4@Bi NPs, improved the zeta potential value from –33.5 to −47.1 mV, but increased the hydrodynamic size from 98 to 125 nm. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX) validated the elemental compositions and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the presence of Sumac (Rhus coriaria) compounds in the composition of the nanocomposites. The stability and biocompatibility of Fe3O4@Bi NPs were improved by using the extract solution of the Sumac edible plant. Other physicochemical results revealed that Fe3O4NPs and Fe3O4@Bi NPs were crystalline, semi-spherical, and monodisperse with average particle sizes of 11.7 nm and 19.5 nm, while their saturation magnetization (Ms) values were found to be 132.33 emu/g and 92.192 emu/g, respectively. In vitro cytotoxicity of Fe3O4@Bi NPs on the HEK-293 cells was dose- and time-dependent. Based on our findings, the sonochemical approach efficiently produced (and RSM accurately optimized) an extremely stable, homogeneous, and biocompatible Fe3O4@Bi NPs with multifunctional potential for various biomedical applications.

A flat foot is one of the most common skeletal disorders that affect the function of the foot. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of two types of corrective exercise programs with a comprehensive and localized approach in correcting flat foot deformities in adolescents. The statistical population consisted of adolescent male students in Mashhad. Using cluster sampling, 75 students aged 11 to 12 years, who had simultaneously flat feet, crossed knees, and internal rotation of the knee was purposefully selected. They were randomly divided into three experimental groups: local exercises (n=25), comprehensive (n=25), and control (n=25). The severity of flat feet was measured by the navicular bone loss test (pre-test). The experimental groups performed local and comprehensive correction programs for 6 weeks. The results showed that local corrective exercises and comprehensive corrective exercises have a significant effect on correcting flat foot deformities. There was also a significant difference between the effect of local and comprehensive exercises in correcting flat foot deformities and the effect of comprehensive exercises was greater. It is concluded that for the treatment of plantar fasciitis, both local corrective exercises and comprehensive corrective exercises can be used as effective training methods and comprehensive corrective exercises have an advantage over local corrective exercises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]