The etiology of Crohn's disease (CD) is still unknown. However, many factors, including a dysregulated immune system, altered microbiota, inheritance, and environmental factors, have been implicated. This work was conducted to estimate the effect of fungal microbiota on two bone mineral density markers, RANKL and sclerostin, in addition to the correlation between these markers and vitamin B12, D3, and zinc in CD patients, along with their potential effect on fungal microbiota and vice versa. Peripheral blood and carry-Blair Stool samples were collected from 88 participants (60 newly diagnosed with CD without treatment and 28 healthy controls) to detect serum levels of RANKL and sclerostin, and culture media were used to grow, isolate, and identify fungi attendant to CD and its effect on RANKL and sclerostin levels. Sociodemographic data (vitamin B12, D3, and zinc levels) were collected from patients' medical records. The results showed significant differences in RANKL and sclerostin levels in various types of fungal microbiota in CD patients along with a significant increase in RANKL and sclerostin levels in these patients. Moreover, RANKL levels were negatively significantly correlated with Zinc, while sclerostin levels correlated negatively with vit D3. The findings of this study suggest that fungal microbiota may play a role in the inflammatory process and interactions with bone density by affecting levels of RANKL and sclerostin, vitamin D3, and zinc, suggesting that the use of the fungal microbiota in the monitoring and treatment of CD patients.
Biologically active natural compounds are molecules produced by plants or plant-related microbes, such as endophytes. Many of these metabolites have a wide range of antimicrobial activities and other pharmaceutical properties. This study aimed to evaluate (in vitro) the antifungal activities of the secondary metabolites obtained from Paecilomyces sp. against the pathogenic fungus Rhizoctonia solani. The endophytic fungus Paecilomyces was isolated from Moringa oleifera leaves and cultured on potato dextrose broth for the production of the fungal metabolites. The activity of Paecilomyces filtrate against the radial growth of Rhizoctonia solani was tested by mixing the filtrate with potato dextrose agar medium at concentrations of 15%,
... Show MoreA new Ni(II) nanostructured chelating system (DHN) was introduced for selective optical heavy-metal ion sensing in an aqueous medium. The cooperative chelating system comprising 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) and dimethylglyoxime (DMG) has been developed for the first time in association with fibre optic sensing for selective optical heavy-metal ion sensing in an aqueous medium. The Ni(II) nanocompound fluoresces upon 578 nm excitation, showing a highly sensitive optical response with a linear calibration curve in the range 0–100 ng/mL. The regression equation of the calibration curve is y = 0.0035x + 0.9990, which indicates very good linearity, implying R2 = 0.999 with high sensitivity (calibration slope of 0.0035) and low baseline noise (bla
... Show MoreBiologically active natural compounds are molecules produced by plants or plant-related microbes, such as endophytes. Many of these metabolites have a wide range of antimicrobial activities and other pharmaceutical properties. This study aimed to evaluate (in vitro) the antifungal activities of the secondary metabolites obtained from Paecilomyces sp. against the pathogenic fungus Rhizoctonia solani. The endophytic fungus Paecilomyces was isolated from Moringa oleifera leaves and cultured on potato dextrose broth for the production of the fungal metabolites. The activity of Paecilomyces filtrate against the radial growth of Rhizoctonia solani was tested by mixing the filtrate with potato dextrose agar medium at concentrations of 15%,
... Show MoreThe temperature control process of electric heating furnace (EHF) systems is a quite difficult and changeable task owing to non-linearity, time delay, time-varying parameters, and the harsh environment of the furnace. In this paper, a robust temperature control scheme for an EHF system is developed using an adaptive active disturbance rejection control (AADRC) technique with a continuous sliding-mode based component. First, a comprehensive dynamic model is established by using convection laws, in which the EHF systems can be characterized as an uncertain second order system. Second, an adaptive extended state observer (AESO) is utilized to estimate the states of the EHF system and total disturbances, in which the observer gains are updated
... Show MoreThis article introduces a novel procedure to detect an approximate solution to Fredholm fractional integro-differential equations with linear type (LFFIDE) defined using Caputo fractional derivative. The new procedure approximates the solution using three types of polynomials: Laguerre polynomials, Hermite polynomials, and Legendre polynomials, thereafter transforming the problem into a linear programming problem. The approximate solutions are compared using testing examples to examine the efficiency of the suggested approach. Also, a comparison with the other methods using the same polynomials illustrates The effectiveness and consistency of the proposed technique. Finally, the error analysis of the proposed technique and convergent are di
... Show MoreGas-lift technique plays an important role in sustaining oil production, especially from a mature field when the reservoirs’ natural energy becomes insufficient. However, optimally allocation of the gas injection rate in a large field through its gas-lift network system towards maximization of oil production rate is a challenging task. The conventional gas-lift optimization problems may become inefficient and incapable of modelling the gas-lift optimization in a large network system with problems associated with multi-objective, multi-constrained, and limited gas injection rate. The key objective of this study is to assess the feasibility of utilizing the Genetic Algorithm (GA) technique to optimize t