Leishmania parasites are the causative agent of leishmaniasis. Many studies are inspecting chemical drugs, including the use of miltefosine and amphotericin B, but curative values may be limited for these drugs with side effects due to the chemical origin, therefore, investigating less toxic therapies is essential. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of artemisinin on Iraqi strain of Leishmania tropica, by experimental macrophage ex vivo infection of amastigotes into mouse macrophage cell-line RAW264.7. Different concentrations (100, 200, 300, 400, 500)μM of artemisinin (ART) were screened to examine the susceptibility of L. tropica amastigotes to invade macrophage cell line along three times of follow up (24, 48 and

This study examines the transformation of political slogans, clichés, and stereotypes in Russia and Iraq during periods of political regime change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The main objective of the work is to identify and comparatively analyze the linguistic and cultural changes that accompanied political transformations in both countries. The research is based on theoretical concepts of political myth, framing, and critical discourse analysis. The research methodology includes content analysis of political texts, comparative analysis of linguistic transformations, and analysis of statistical data on cultural consumption. The main hypothesis is that, despite the presence of common trends in linguistic and cultural

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative aging disease, with idiopathic PD being most common. Gastrointestinal tract disorders (GITD) and microbiota changes may trigger idiopathic PD. Neurotoxins from microbiota can travel from the gut to the brain via the brain-gut axis (BGA), leading to α-syn protein misfolding and dopaminergic neuron death. Methods: The aim of the current study was to investigate the link between PD and GITD by measuring several biochemical and immunological markers in 142 patients. The biochemical markers measured were vitamins B6, B12, and D, calcium, serotonin, ghrelin, dopamine, and α-syn protein. The immunological markers included transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), tu

      The alterations in glyoxylate reductase and hydroxy-pyruvate reductase concentrations in the sera and the genetic alterations associated with calcium oxalate kidney stones in Iraqi patients were not studied previously so this study aimed to focus on these points. This study included 80 subjects; they were 50 patients with calcium oxalate stones compared to 30 apparently healthy controls. Biochemical investigations for kidney functions (creatinine, urea, and uric acid), were performed on the sera of both groups. Also, complete blood count, random blood sugar, and blood group tests. Furthermore, urine had been collected for General Urine Examination to visualize oxalate crystals in the urine of the patient. Also, the GRHPR

In order to study the dynamic response of historical masonry structures, a scaled down brick masonry model constructed in civil engineering department at Baghdad University to simulate a part of a real case study, which is Alkifil historic minaret. Most of the previous researches about masonry structures try to understand the behavior of the masonry under seismic loading by experimental and numerical methods. In this paper, the masonry units (bricks) simulated in scale (S= 1/6) with the exact shape of the prototype bricks. Cementitious tile adhesive was selected to be the mortar for the modeling. The height of the model designed to be 1.5 m with a 0.5 m diameter. Detailed construction steps were presented in this paper. Experts buil

This paper presents the dynamic responses of generators in a multi-machine power system.  The fundamental swing equations for a multi-machine stability analysis are revisited. The swing equations are solved to investigate the influence of a three-phase fault on the network largest load bus. The Nigerian 330kV transmission network was used as a test case for the study. The time domain simulation approach was explored to determine if the system could withstand a 3-phase fault. The stability of the transmission network is estimated considering the dynamic behaviour of the system under various contingency conditions. This study identifies Egbin, Benin, Olorunsogo, Akangba, Sakete, Omotosho and Oshogbo as the key buses w

The present work evaluated the differences in mechanical properties of two athletic prosthetic feet samples when subjected to impact while running. Two feet samples designated as design A and B were manufactured using layers of different orientations of woven glass fiber reinforced with unsaturated polyester resin as bonding epoxy. The samples’ layers were fabricated with hand lay-up method. A theoretical study was carried out to calculate the mechanical properties of the composite material used in feet manufacturing, then experimental load-deflection  test was applied at 0 degree position and 25 degree dorsiflexion feet position  and impact test were applied for both feet designs to observe the behavior

Abstract 

This paper presents an intelligent model reference adaptive control (MRAC) utilizing a self-recurrent wavelet neural network (SRWNN) to control nonlinear systems. The proposed SRWNN is an improved version of a previously reported wavelet neural network (WNN). In particular, this improvement was achieved by adopting two modifications to the original WNN structure. These modifications include, firstly, the utilization of a specific initialization phase to improve the convergence to the optimal weight values, and secondly, the inclusion of self-feedback weights to the wavelons of the wavelet layer. Furthermore, an on-line training procedure was proposed to enhance the control per