Visceral leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease on the rise in different regions of Iraq, especially in areas with poor hygiene and among refugee populations. The effectiveness of existing chemotherapy for leishmaniasis is constrained by its high toxicity, cost, and the development of drug resistance. The current research examined various concentrations (ranging from 125 to 1000 μM) of lupeol to evaluate its ability to boost the generation of nitric oxide, which has anti-leishmanial properties, in an ex-vivo macrophage model. Griess assay was used to detect the nitric oxide (NO) production in Leishmania donovani infected U937 cell-line macrophages along 24 and 48 hours post treated. The nitric oxide concentration was significantly increased (P≤0.05) in the treated infected-macrophages after 24 and 48 hours post treated. Furthermore, the infectivity index was calculated for ex vivo amastigote-macrophage infection and the results showed a significant decrease in the percentage of invasion at higher concentrations of Lupeol at all periods of incubation (P≤0.05); whereas, the average of amastigotes per cell in lupeol-treated macrophages increased significantly (P≤0.05) only after 48hours of incubation. The results indicate that lupeol has the potential to enhance anti-leishmanial nitric oxide production by macrophages, enabling them to eliminate intracellular amastigote forms of the parasite. Further details on effect of Lupeol can be studied as a promising anti-leishmanial compound.
Zinc Oxide is an indispensable substance in the field of dental treatment. It is used daily and intensively in all governmental and private dental clinics, leading to the disposal of very high concentrations of zinc with waste and eventually in landfill sites as a final destination for solid waste removal. This indicates the urgent need to investigate its behavior upon disposal due to the surrounding conditions. Approximately 4195 g of mixed dental waste samples were collected from (17) healthcare centers in Baghdad Al-Karkh. The leaching behavior of ZnO powder was investigated through batch reactors using makeup dental solid waste samples. The ZnO leaching was tested with 3 conditions; acidic, alkaline, and Ionic Streng
... Show MoreThe effect of approaching nozzle jet from the deposition surface
on structural, optical and morphology properties of copper oxide thin
films was studied. The film was prepared by homemade fully
computerized CNC spray pyrolysis deposition technique at
preparations speed (3, 4, 5, and 6 mm/sec). The repeated line mode
was used at deposition temperature equal 450 °C whereas the
spraying time was in the range of (15-30 min) according to the
deposition speed. The film exhibit polycrystalline structure with
preferred orientation along (-111), (022) and (011), (002) at a 2θ
value of (35.63o) and (38.8o) respectively. Optical band gaps were
recorded at these speed shows variance in value from (1.53-2.08 eV).
Fi
Zinc oxide nanoparticles sample is prepared by the precipitation method. This method involves using zinc nitrate and urea in aqueous solution, then (AgNO3) Solution with different concentrations is added. The obtained precipitated compound is structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The average particle size of nanoparticles is around 28nm in pure, the average particle size reaches 26nm with adding AgNO3 (0.05g in100ml =0.002 M) (0.1g in100ml=0.0058M), AgNO3 (0.2g in 100ml=0.01M) was 25nm. The FTIR result shows the existence of -CO, -CO2, -OH, and -NO2- groups in sample and oxides (ZnO, Ag2O).and used an
... Show MoreCopper doped Zinc oxide and (n-ZnO / p-Si and n-ZnO: Cu / p-Si) thin films thru thickness (400±20) nm were deposited by thermal evaporation technique onto two substrates. The influence of different Cu percentages (1%,3% and 5%) on ZnO thin film besides hetero junction (ZnO / Si) characteristics were investigated, with X-ray diffractions examination supports ZnO films were poly crystal then hexagonal structural per crystallite size increase from (22.34 to 28.09) nm with increasing Cu ratio. The optical properties display exceptional optically absorptive for 5% Cu dopant with reduced for optically gaps since 3.1 toward 2.7 eV. Hall Effect measurements presented with all films prepared pure and doped have n-types conductive, with a ma
... Show MoreThis paper presents the effect of Cr doping on the optical and structural properties of TiO2 films synthesized by sol-gel and deposited by the dip- coating technique. The characteristics of pure and Cr-doped TiO2 were studied by absorption and X-ray diffraction measurement. The spectrum of UV absorption of TiO2 chromium concentrations indicates a red shift; therefore, the energy gap decreases with increased doping. The minimum value of energy gap (2.5 eV) is found at concentration of 4 %. XRD measurements show that the anatase phase is shown for all thin films. Surface morphology measurement by atomic force microscope (AFM) showed that the roughness of thin films decrease with doping and has a minimum value with 4 wt % doping ratio.
Twenty five samples out of sixty wound swabs taken from burn patients were identified as P. aeruginosabacteria by conventional methods. Antibiotics susceptibility tests were performed against thirteen antibiotics. P. aeruginosa samples were treated with 0.5 mg/ml of Safranin O solution then irradiated with 532nm Q-switched Nd:YAG laser at four energy densities (0.324, 0.704, 1.380, and 1.831 J/cm2) for different times of 5, 8 and 11 minutes with 5Hz repetition rate. The viability, susceptibility to antibiotic and production of pyocyanin were determined before and after irradiation. The results showed that the number of CFU/ml of P. aeruginosa decreased with increasing the dose of irradiation. Complete killing of cells was observed at 1.8
... Show MoreShumblan (SH) is one of the most undesirable aquatic plants widespread in the irrigation channels and water bodies. This work focuses on boosting the biogas potential of shumblan by co-digesting it with other types of wastes without employing any chemical or thermal pretreatments as done in previous studies. A maximum biogas recovery of 378 ml/g VS was reached using shumblan with cow manure as inoculum in a ratio of 1:1. The methane content of the biogas was 55%. Based on volatile solid (VS) and C/N ratios, biogas productions of 518, 434, and 580 ml/g VS were obtained when the shumblan was co-digested with food wastes (SH:F), paper wastes (SH:P), and green wastes (SH:G) respectively. No significant changes of methane contents were observ
... Show MoreThis experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of foliar spraying with gibberellic acid concentrations (0,50,100)mg.L¹ and proline acid concentrations (0, 25, 50)mg.L¹ and their interactions on some growth parameters of pea plant using clay pots in the botanical garden of Biology Department College of Education for pure science Ibn –Al-Haitham ,Baghdad University, for the growing season 2012-2013 the experiment involved the studing of some growth parameters as plant?s height, dry weight, wt. of pods.plant¹, biology yield and the concentration of some major elements (nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium) in plant?s seeds. The experiment was designed according to Completely Randomized Desig(CRD) with three replications. R
... Show MoreIn this work, the rate of charge transfer (CT) reaction at the N3-ZnS interface was calculated using a quantitative computational model to evaluate the efficiency of N3-ZnS heterojunction dye-sensitized solar cell devices using different types of solvents. This work discussed the influence of the effective driving energy force on the charge transport rate and performance of N3-ZnS devices with various solvents based on a donor-acceptor model. A solar cell model was used to study the optical efficiency when changing some of its parameters, such as the type of material and the thickness of the film, as they are important factors influencing the quality of the solar cell. It was found that the transition energy varies with different so
... Show More