Curcumin (Cur) possesses remarkable pharmacological properties, including cardioprotective, neuroprotective, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities. However, the utilization of Cur in pharmaceuticals faces constraints owing to its inadequate water solubility and limited bioavailability. To overcome these hurdles, there has been notable focus on exploring innovative formulations, with nanobiotechnology emerging as a promising avenue to enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of these complex compounds. We report a novel safe, effective method for improving the incorporation of anticancer curcumin to induce apoptosis by reducing the expression levels of miR20a and miR21. The established method features three aspects that, to our knowledge, have not been formally verified: (1) use of a novel formula to incorporate curcumin, (2) use of all biocompatible biodegradable materials to produce this formula without leaving harmful residues, and (3) an incorporation process at temperatures of approximately 50 °C. The formula was prepared from lecithin (LE), and chitosan (CH) with an eco-friendly emulsifying agent and olive oil as the curcumin solvent. The formula was converted to nanoscale through ultrasonication and probe sonication at a frequency of 20 kHz. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the nano formula was spherical in shape with sizes ranging between 49.7 nm in diameter and negative zeta potentials ranging from 28 to 34 mV. Primers miR20a and miR21 were designed for molecular studies. Nearly complete curcumin with an encapsulation efficiency of 91.1% was established using a straight-line equation. The nano formula incorporated with curcumin was used to prepare formulations that exhibited anticancer activities. The apoptosis pathway in cancer cells was activated by the minimum inhibitory concentration of the nano formula. These findings suggest the potential of this nanoformulation as an effective and selective cancer treatment that does not affect the normal cells.
Electrocardiogram (ECG) is an important physiological signal for cardiac disease diagnosis. With the increasing use of modern electrocardiogram monitoring devices that generate vast amount of data requiring huge storage capacity. In order to decrease storage costs or make ECG signals suitable and ready for transmission through common communication channels, the ECG data
volume must be reduced. So an effective data compression method is required. This paper presents an efficient technique for the compression of ECG signals. In this technique, different transforms have been used to compress the ECG signals. At first, a 1-D ECG data was segmented and aligned to a 2-D data array, then 2-D mixed transform was implemented to compress the
Most below-knee prostheses are manufactured in Iraq without considering the fast progress in smart prostheses, which can offer movements in the desired directions according to the type of control system designed for this purpose. The proposed design appears to have the advantages of simplicity, affordability, better load distribution, suitability for subjects with transtibial amputation, and viability in countries with people having low socio-economic status. The designed prosthetics consisted of foot, ball, and socket joints, two stepper motors, a linkage system, and an EMG shield. All these materials were available in the local markets in Iraq. The experimental results showed t
... Show MoreThis paper shows the characteristics of temperature and adsorbed (water vapor) mass rate distribution in the adsorber unit which is the key part to any adsorption refrigeration system. The temperature profiles of adsorption/desorption phases (Dynamic Sorption) are measured experimentally under the operating conditions of 90oC hot water temperature, 30oC cooling water temperature, 35oC adsorption temperature and cycle time of 40 min. Based on the temperature profiles, The mass transfer equations for the annulus adsorbent bed are solved to obtain the distribution of adsorption velocity and adsorbate concentration using non-equilibrium
model. The relation between the adsorption velocity with time is investigated during the process of ads
A 2D geological model for Mauddud Formation in the Badra oil field is built using Rockworks 16 software. Mauddud Formation produces oil from limestone units; it represents the main reservoir in the Badra oil field. Six wells (BD-1, BD-2, BD-4, BD-5, P-15, and P-19) are selected to build facies and petrophysical (Porosity and Water saturation) models. Wells data are taken from the core and cutting samples and studied through the microscopic. The petrophysical data (effective porosity and water saturation) are derived from computer processes interpretation results that are calculated by using Interactive Petrophysics software. The 2D models are built to illustrate the vertical and horizontal distribution of petrophysical properties between we
... Show MoreWhen embankment is constructed on very soft soil, special construction methods are adopted. One of the techniques is a piled embankment. Piled (stone columns) embankments provide an economic and effective solution to the problem of constructing embankments over soft soils. This method can reduce settlements, construction time and cost. Stone columns provide an effective improvement method for soft soils under light structures such as rail or road embankments. The present work investigates the behavior of the embankment models resting on soft soil reinforced with stone columns. Model tests were performed with different spacing distances between stone columns and two lengths to diameter ratios of the stone columns, in addition to different
... Show MoreWarm mix asphalt (WMA) is relatively a new technology which enables the production and compaction of asphalt concrete mixtures at temperatures 15-40 °C lower than that of traditional hot mix asphalt HMA. In the present work, six asphalt concrete mixtures were produced in the mix plant (1 ton each) in six different batches. Half of these mixes were WMA and the other half were HMA. Three types of fillers (limestone dust, Portland cement and hydrated lime) were used for each type of mix. Samples were then taken from these patches and transferred to lab for performance testing which includes: Marshall characteristics, moisture susceptibility (indirect tension test), resilient modulus, permanent deformation (axial repe
... Show MoreIn this paper two main stages for image classification has been presented. Training stage consists of collecting images of interest, and apply BOVW on these images (features extraction and description using SIFT, and vocabulary generation), while testing stage classifies a new unlabeled image using nearest neighbor classification method for features descriptor. Supervised bag of visual words gives good result that are present clearly in the experimental part where unlabeled images are classified although small number of images are used in the training process.
Biosignal analysis is one of the most important topics that researchers have tried to develop during the last century to understand numerous human diseases. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) are one of the techniques which provides an electrical representation of biosignals that reflect changes in the activity of the human brain. Monitoring the levels of anesthesia is a very important subject, which has been proposed to avoid both patient awareness caused by inadequate dosage of anesthetic drugs and excessive use of anesthesia during surgery. This article reviews the bases of these techniques and their development within the last decades and provides a synopsis of the relevant methodologies and algorithms that are used to analyze EEG sig
... Show MoreAsphaltene is one of the fractions of the crude oil which is soluble in aromatics such as benzene or toluene and insoluble in alkane such as n-heptane, n-pentane or petroleum ether (mixture of alkane compounds). Asphaltene precipitation is one of the most common problems that sometimes occurs in both oil recovery and refinery processes as a result of changing in pressure, oil composition, or temperature. Therefore the stability of asphaltene in the crude oil must be studied to show the tendency of it for precipitating asphaltene to prevent it (Asphaltene precipitation and deposition problem) and eliminate the burden of high treatment costs.
In the present study, saturate, aromatic, resin and asphaltene (SAR
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