A case–control study (80 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus [HBV] infection and 96 controls) was performed to evaluate the association of an IL12A gene variant (rs582537 A/C/G) with HBV infection. Allele G showed a signifcantly lower frequency in patients compared to controls (31.2 vs. 46.9%; probability [p]=0.009; corrected p [pc]=0.027) and was associated with a lower risk of HBV infection (odds ratio [OR]=0.49; 95% confdence interval [CI]=0.29–0.83). A similar lower risk was associated with genotypes CG (17.5 vs. 29.2; OR=0.25; 95% CI=0.08–0.81; p=0.02) and GG (10.0 vs. 16.7; OR=0.25; 95% CI=0.07–0.91; p=0.036), but the pc value was not signifcant (0.12 and 0.126, respec‑ tively). Serum IL35 levels showed signifcant difere

The current study introduces a novel technique to handle electrochemical localized corrosion in certain limited regions rather than applying comprehensive cathodic protection (CP) treatment. An impressed current cathodic protection cell (ICCPC) was fabricated and firmly installed on the middle of a steel structure surface to deter localized corrosion in fixed or mobile steel structures. The designed ICCPC comprises three essential parts: an anode, a cathode, and an artificial electrolyte. The latter was developed to mimic the function of the natural electrolyte in CP. A proportional-integrated-derivative (PID) controller was designed to stabilize this potential below the ICCPC at a cathodic potential of −850 mV, which is crucial for prote

The current paper aims to identify potential factors associated with employees’ intentions to leave information and communication technology companies in Iraq. There is evident variability in the literature regarding these factors; hence, a factor analysis approach was employed to identify these factors within the surveyed environment. Due to the difficulty in precisely delineating the size of the research population, a purposive sampling method was employed to reach an appropriate number of respondents within the aforementioned companies. A total of 288 employees responded to the survey conducted via Google Forms. The test results revealed the presence of five primary factors associated with employees’ intentions to leave, name

Background:- Cholesterol is high in ascetic fluid due
to malignancy and other causes of exudates.
Objective:-To use cholesterol as a marker to
differentiate between exudative and transudative
ascetic fluid and to compare that with other routine
parameters.
Methods:-Twenty eight patients were included in this
study 17 females with mean age of 41.9 years, 11
males with mean age of 48.2 years. The patients were
divided in group I suspected transudate, and group II
suspected exudate according to history and clinical
examination.
Ascetic fluid samples were sent for total protein,
albumin, and cholesterol measurement blood samples
were sent for serum protein and albumin measurement.
Results:-In this

Cyber security is a term utilized for describing a collection of technologies, procedures, and practices that try protecting an online environment of a user or an organization. For medical images among most important and delicate data kinds in computer systems, the medical reasons require that all patient data, including images, be encrypted before being transferred over computer networks by healthcare companies. This paper presents a new direction of the encryption method research by encrypting the image based on the domain of the feature extracted to generate a key for the encryption process. The encryption process is started by applying edges detection. After dividing the bits of the edge image into (3×3) windows, the diffusions

Atmospheric transmission is disturbed by scintillation, where scintillation caused more beam divergence. In this work target image spot radius was calculated in presence of atmospheric scintillation. The calculation depend on few relevant equation based on atmospheric parameter (for Middle East), tracking range, expansion ratio of applied beam expander's, receiving unit lens F-number, and the laser wavelength besides photodetector parameter. At maximum target range Rmax =20 km, target image radius is at its maximum Rs=0.4 mm. As the range decreases spot radius decreases too, until the range reaches limit (4 km) at which target image spot radius at its minimum value (0.22 mm). Then as the range decreases, spot radius increases due to geom

In 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.