Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a disease caused by Leishmania tropica parasite. Current treatments for this parasite are undesirable because of their toxicity, resistance, and high cost. Macrophages are key players against pathogens. Nitric oxide (NO), a molecule produce by immune cells, controls intracellular killing of pathogens during infection. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) demonstrated broad-spectrum activity against various types of infectious diseases. It has the ability to stimulate oxygen species production. This study aims to analyze the macrophages activation through NO production and estimate the cytotoxicity based on the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release upon exposure to L. tropica and Ag NPs. Serially concentrations of Ag NPs were used under two conditions during and following macrophages exposure to L. tropica. MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxicity of Ag NPs on L. tropica amastigotes during infection of macrophages in vitro. The results showed that by increasing the Ag NPs concentrations, the viability percentage of L. tropica amastigotes decreased and reached to 21.7 ± 0.64 % during infection compared with the control. The 50% inhibitory concentration of Ag NPs on amastigotes was 2.048µg/ml during infection. Moreover, post-phagocytosis study involved the assessment of NO and LDH release by macrophages upon exposure to L. tropica. It have shown that untreated macrophages released low levels of NO while in the presence of Ag NPs, macrophages were activated to produce higher levels of NO under all experimental conditions. On the other hand, macrophages were capable of controlling cytotoxicity and decreasing LDH levels during phagocytosis of L. tropica amastiogotes. Taking together, these findings suggest that Ag NPs can enhance macrophages NO production which provides a method for the identification of Ag NPs ligands with microbicidal and anti-cytotoxic properties against L. tropica pathogens.
In this research, Haar wavelets method has been utilized to approximate a numerical solution for Linear state space systems. The solution technique is used Haar wavelet functions and Haar wavelet operational matrix with the operation to transform the state space system into a system of linear algebraic equations which can be resolved by MATLAB over an interval from 0 to . The exactness of the state variables can be enhanced by increasing the Haar wavelet resolution. The method has been applied for different examples and the simulation results have been illustrated in graphics and compared with the exact solution.
Software testing is a vital part of the software development life cycle. In many cases, the system under test has more than one input making the testing efforts for every exhaustive combination impossible (i.e. the time of execution of the test case can be outrageously long). Combinatorial testing offers an alternative to exhaustive testing via considering the interaction of input values for every t-way combination between parameters. Combinatorial testing can be divided into three types which are uniform strength interaction, variable strength interaction and input-output based relation (IOR). IOR combinatorial testing only tests for the important combinations selected by the tester. Most of the researches in combinatorial testing appli
... Show MoreSteganography is a technique of concealing secret data within other quotidian files of the same or different types. Hiding data has been essential to digital information security. This work aims to design a stego method that can effectively hide a message inside the images of the video file. In this work, a video steganography model has been proposed through training a model to hiding video (or images) within another video using convolutional neural networks (CNN). By using a CNN in this approach, two main goals can be achieved for any steganographic methods which are, increasing security (hardness to observed and broken by used steganalysis program), this was achieved in this work as the weights and architecture are randomized. Thus,
... Show MoreThe invention relates to a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) for determining a measuring position of a probe. The AACMM isdepends on the robotkinematics (forward and reverse) in their measurementprinciple, i.e., using the AACMM links and joint angles todetermine the exact workspace or part coordinates. Hence, themeasurements are obtained using an AACMM will be extremely accurate and precise since that ismerely dependent on rigid structural parameters and the only source of measurement error is due to human operators. In this paper, a new AACMM design was proposed. The new AACMM design addresses common issues such as solving the complex kinematics, overcoming the workspace limitation, avoiding singularity, and eliminating the effects of
... Show MoreA content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is a technique used to retrieve images from an image database. However, the CBIR process suffers from less accuracy to retrieve images from an extensive image database and ensure the privacy of images. This paper aims to address the issues of accuracy utilizing deep learning techniques as the CNN method. Also, it provides the necessary privacy for images using fully homomorphic encryption methods by Cheon, Kim, Kim, and Song (CKKS). To achieve these aims, a system has been proposed, namely RCNN_CKKS, that includes two parts. The first part (offline processing) extracts automated high-level features based on a flatting layer in a convolutional neural network (CNN) and then stores these features in a
... Show MoreDevelopments are carried out to enhance the performance of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT). This paper studies the performance of the ducted wind turbine with convergent duct (DAWT). Basically, the duct technique is utilized to provide the desired wind velocity facing the turbine. Methodology was developed to estimate the decisive performance parameter and to present the effect of the convergent duct with different inlet angles. The ducted wind turbine was analyzed and simulated using MATLAB software and numerically using ANSYS-Fluent 17.2. Result of both approaches were presented and showed good closeness for the two cases of covering angles 12 and 20 respectively. Results also showed that the convergent duct with an inlet angl
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The aim of this paper is to investigate and discuss the mechanisms of corrosion of epoxy coatings used for potable water tanks. Two distinct types of Jotun epoxy coatings: Tankguard 412 contained polyamine cured epoxy and Penguard HB contained polyamide cured epoxy, were tested and studied using the electrochemical impedance spectroscopic (EIS) method. The porosity of epoxy coatings was determined using EIS method. The obtained results showed that the two epoxy coatings have excellent behavior when applied and tested in potable water of Basrah city. Polyamine is more resistance to water corrosion compared to polyamide curing epoxy and has high impedance values. Microscopic inspection after te
... Show MoreThe study investigates the water quality of the Orontes River, which is considered one of the important water recourses in Syria, as it is used for drinking, irrigation, swimming and industrial needs. A database of 660 measurements for 13 parameters concentrations used, were taken from 11 monitoring points distributed along the Orontes River for a period of five years from 2015-2019, and to study the correlation between parameters and their impact on water quality, statistical analysis was applied using (SPSS) program. Cluster analysis was applied in order to classify the pollution areas along the river, and two groups were given: (low pollution - high pollution), where the areas were classified according to the sources of pollution to w
... Show MoreSome of the main challenges in developing an effective network-based intrusion detection system (IDS) include analyzing large network traffic volumes and realizing the decision boundaries between normal and abnormal behaviors. Deploying feature selection together with efficient classifiers in the detection system can overcome these problems. Feature selection finds the most relevant features, thus reduces the dimensionality and complexity to analyze the network traffic. Moreover, using the most relevant features to build the predictive model, reduces the complexity of the developed model, thus reducing the building classifier model time and consequently improves the detection performance. In this study, two different sets of select
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