Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a significant global health problem. Populations of different ethnicities show great heterogeneity in HBV genotype frequency distributions. A cross-sectional study was conducted during June–October 2018 to determine frequency of HBV genotypes among chronic HBV patients from Baghdad, Iraq. The method of detection was nested polymerase chain reaction system. Further, the study assessed the impact of HBV genotypes on serum level of liver-function tests: total serum bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase. Eighty chronic HBV patients were enrolled in the study. Six HBV genotypes were identified (A, B, C, D, E and F). The most frequently encountered genotypes

Reliability analysis methods are used to evaluate the safety of reinforced concrete structures by evaluating the limit state function 𝑔(𝑋𝑖). For implicit limit state function and nonlinear analysis , an advanced reliability analysis methods are needed. Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) can be used in this case however, as the number of input variables increases, the time required for MCS also increases, making it a time consuming method especially for complex problems with implicit performance functions. In such cases, MCS-based FORM (First Order Reliability Method) and Artificial Neural Network-based FORM (ANN FORM) have been proposed as alternatives. However, it is important to note that both MCS-FORM and ANN-FORM can also be time-con

In the present study, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with outside diameters of< 8 nm and 20−30 nm were covalently functionalized with β-Alanine using a novel synthesis procedure. The functionalization process was proved successful using Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, and TEM. Utilizing the two-step method with ultrasonication, the MWCNTs treated with β-Alanine (Ala-MWCNTs) with weight concentrations of 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.075%, and 0.1% were dispersed in distilled water to prepare water-based nanofluids. The aqueous colloidal dispersions of pristine MWCNTs were unstable. While for Ala-MWCNTs and after> 50 days from preparation, higher colloidal stability was obtained up to relative concentration of 0.955 and 0.939 for the 0.075-wt% samp

Acrylic polymer/cement nanocomposites in dark and light colors have been developed for coating floors and swimming pools. This work aims to emphasize the effect of cement filling on the mechanical parameters, thermal stability, and wettability of acrylic polymer. The preparation was carried out using the casting method from acrylic polymer coating solution, which was added to cement nanoparticles (65 nm) with weight concentrations of (0, 1, 2, 4, and 8 wt%) to achieve high-quality specifications and good adhesion. Maximum impact strength and Hardness shore A were observed at cement ratios of 2 wt% and 4 wt%, respectively. Changing the filling ratio has a significant effect on the strain of the nanocomposites. The contact angle was i

  يعد تحليل العلاقات الكمية بين البنية والممتلكات/النشاط (QSPR/QSAR) أمرًا بالغ الأهمية لفهم خصائص المركبات المرتبطة بالمخدرات، خاصة في علاج مرض الزهايمر. في هذه الدراسة، هدفنا هو استخدام أساليب مبتكرة بما في ذلك استخدام المؤشرات الطوبولوجية -درجة و-  درجة ، المستمدة من نظرية الرسم البياني، لتقييم الخصائص والخصائص الفيزيائية والكيميائية لخمسة أدوية لمرض الزهايمر: تاكرين، دونيبيزيل، ريفيستيجمين، جالانتامي

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains a lethal and deforming disease, with a significant mortality and a rising incidence in younger and female patients. It is thus imperative to identify potential risk factors for OSCC and oral PMDs and to design an accurate data collection tool to try to identify patients at high risk of OSCC development. 14 factors consistently found to be associated with the pathogenesis of OSCC and oral PMDs. Eight of themwere identified as high risk (including tobacco, alcohol, betel quid, marijuana, genetic factors, age, diet and immunodeficiency) and 6 low risk (such as oral health, socioeconomic status, HPV, candida infection, alcoholic mouth wash and diabetes) were stratified according to severit

      In this research, the nonparametric technique has been presented to estimate the time-varying coefficients functions for the longitudinal balanced data that characterized by observations obtained through (n) from the independent subjects, each one of them is measured repeatedly by group of  specific time points (m). Although the measurements are independent among the different subjects; they are mostly connected within each subject and the applied techniques is the Local Linear kernel LLPK technique. To avoid the problems of dimensionality, and thick computation, the two-steps method has been used to estimate the coefficients functions by using the two former technique. Since, the two-

By- products of corn starch industry were used to prepare media for propagation the lactic acid bacteria as a natural auxotroph. The by- products used were the corn steep water (S) and gluten extract (G) after a proper treatment to get them ready for media preparation. The results showed that it was possible to replace the peptone and meat extract by gluten extract in MRS medium. The growth was approximately similar to that obtained in standard MRS media. Corn steep water (S) was used as well and the growth enhanced by including Tween – 80 at 1% level. The later media named MZ, which was superior for growing standard and local strains and starters. The MZ medium modified by adding acetate and glacial acetic acid similarly to

A numerical computation for determination transmission coefficient and resonant tunneling energies of multibarriers heterostructure has been investigated. Also, we have considered GaN/Al_0.3Ga_0.7N superlattice system to estimate the probability of resonance at specific energy values, which are less than the potential barrier height. The transmission coefficient is determined by using the transfer matrix method and accordingly the resonant energies are obtained from the T(E) relation. The effects of both well width and number of barriers (N) are observed and discussed. The numbers of resonant tunneling peaks are generally increasing and they become sharper with the increasing of N. The resonant tunneling levels are sh