Background: COVID-19 has caused a considerable number of hospital admissions in China since December 2019. Many COVID-19 patients experience signs of acute respiratory distress syndrome, and some are even in danger of dying. Objective: to measure the serum levels of D-dimer, Neutrophil-Lymphocyte count ratio (NLR), and neopterin in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 in Baghdad, Iraq. And to determine the cut-off values (critical values) of these markers for the distinction between the severe patients diagnosed with COVID‐19 and the controls. Materials and methods: In this case-control study, we collect blood from 89 subjects, 45 were severe patients hospitalized in many Baghdad medical centers who were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, and 44 were apparently healthy subjects as a control. The time of collection is from September 15 th to December 31 th, 2021. The optimal cut-off points (critical values) and prognostic relevance of D-dimer, Neutrophil-Lymphocyte count ratio (NLR), and neopterin were investigated using (ROC) curves analysis. Results: In severe patients hospitalized with COVID-19 the levels of D-dimer, NLR, and neopterin were statistically significantly higher than in control participants (P< 0.005). The D-dimer, NLR, and neopterin tests have areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of 0.920, 0.90, and 0.74 respectively, and their critical values for the differentiation between the severe patients and control were 0.22 μg/ml, 2.56, and 3.02 nmol/L. Conclusions: D-dimer, NLR, and neopterin levels in sever COVID-19 patients were higher than control, with values of greater than 0.22μg/ml, 2.56 and 3.02nmol/L respectively was linked to a severe COVID-19infection with good sensitivity and selectivity.
In this work, enhancement to the fluorescence characteristics of laser dye solutions hosting highly-pure titanium dioxide nanoparticles as random gain media. This was achieved by coating two opposite sides of the cells containing these media with nanostructured thin films of highly-pure titanium dioxide. Two laser dyes; Rhodamine B and Coumarin 102, were used to prepare solutions in hexanol and methanol, respectively, as hosts for the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles and thin films were prepared by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The enhancement was observed by the narrowing of fluorescence linewidth as well as by increasing the fluorescence intensity. These parameters were compared to those of the dye only and the dye solution
... Show More4-((2-hydroxy-3,5-dinitrophenyl)diazenyl)-1,5-dimethyl-2-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-3(2H)-one was produced through the reaction of diazonium salt from 4-amino antipyrine with 2,4-dinitrophenol. This ligand is examined by (UV-Vis, FTIR,1H,13CNMR, and LC-Mass) spectral techniques and micro elemental analysis (C.H.N.O). Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) complexes were also performed and depicted. Metal chelates were distinguished by utilizing flame atomic absorption, infrared analysis, and elemental, visible, as well as ultraviolet spectroscopy, in addition to conductivity and magnetic quantification. Methods of mole ratio and continuous contrast have been studied to determine the nature of the compounds. Beer's law was followed throughout a co
... Show MoreIn this paper, variable gain nonlinear PD and PI fuzzy logic controllers are designed and the effect of the variable gain characteristic of these controllers is analyzed to show its contribution in enhancing the performance of the closed loop system over a conventional linear PID controller. Simulation results and time domain performance characteristics show how these fuzzy controllers outperform the conventional PID controller when used to control a nonlinear plant and a plant that has time delay.
In this study, a packed bed was used to remove pathogenic bacteria from synthetic contaminated water. Two types of packing material substrates, sand and zeolite, were used. These substrates were coated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which were prepared by decomposition of Ag ions from AgNO3 solution. The prepared coated packings were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The packed column consisted of a PVC cylinder of 2 cm diameter and 20 cm in length. The column was packed with silver nanoparticlecoated substrates (sand or zeolite) at a depth of 10 cm. Four types of bacteria were studied: Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae, Pseudomonas aerugi
... Show Moredue to the presence of chemoresistance and the risk of tumor recurrence and metastasis. There is a pressing necessity to develop efficient treatments to improve response for treatment and increase prolong survival of breast cancer patients. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has attracted interest for its features as a noninvasive and relatively selective cancer treatment. This method relies on light-activated photosensitizers that, upon absorbing light, generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) with powerful cell-killing outcomes. Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), a transcription factor, plays a key role in cancer development by regulating cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival. Inhibiting NF-κB can sensitize tumor cells to chemotherapeuti
... Show MoreLED is an ultra-lightweight block cipher that is mainly used in devices with limited resources. Currently, the software and hardware structure of this cipher utilize a complex logic operation to generate a sequence of random numbers called round constant and this causes the algorithm to slow down and record low throughput. To improve the speed and throughput of the original algorithm, the Fast Lightweight Encryption Device (FLED) has been proposed in this paper. The key size of the currently existing LED algorithm is in 64-bit & 128-bit but this article focused mainly on the 64-bit key (block size=64-bit). In the proposed FLED design, complex operations have been replaced by LFSR left feedback technology to make the algorithm perform more e
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