This work reports on CaMgAl-layered double hydroxide (LDH) based red mud (RM) composite prepared via a co-precipitation method, characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray ...diffraction patterns (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis (BET), and Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and subsequently used for elimination of ciprofloxacin (CIP) from an aqueous solution in batch mode experiments. Langmuir isotherm model provided a better fit of CIP adsorption onto CaMgAl/RM composites than a Freundlich isotherm model; indicating a monolayer adsorption phenomena. Pseudo-second-order kinetic models describe the kinetics of adsorption while the adsorption mechanisms were controlled by external mass transfer and intra-particle diffusion. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that the CIP adsorption onto CaMgAl-LDH/RM was exothermic and spontaneous in nature. The prepared adsorbent exhibited superior affinity towards CIP adsorption which yielded a maximum CIP adsorption capacity of up to 138 mg/g. The higher removal efficiency (89.45 %) was reached under the best conditions (pH 7, agitation speed 150 rpm, adsorbent dosage 0.5 g/100 ml, concentration of contaminant 70 ppm, and 90 min contact time). Moreover, the synthesized adsorbent can be recovered after six consecutive regeneration cycles with a minimal reduction in the adsorption ability of 31 %. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the CaMgAl-LDH/RM composite could be a promising adsorbent for removing antibiotics from wastewater.
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•Synthesized CaMgAl-LDH/RM used for ciprofloxacin (CIP) adsorption from an aqueous solution.•Conducted comprehensive adsorption studies: isotherm, kinetic, and thermodynamic analysis.•Max CIP adsorption capacity onto CaMgAl-LDH/RM: 138.16 mg/g.•The adsorbent demonstrated excellent reusability.
•Falsely elevated IGF-1 values result in unnecessary and extensive follow-up testing to rule out acromegaly and gigantism.•The Roche IGF-1 assay shows better agreement with the LC–MS assay at upper ...reference limits, resulting in fewer false positives compared to the Diasorin XL assay.•It is important to consider the bias between IGF-1 assays and the clinical needs of an institution when implementing IGF-1 reference intervals.
In this study, we compared the DiaSorin LiaisonXL IGF-1 immunoassay to both the Roche Elecsys IGF-1 immunoassay and to the liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC–MS) IGF-1 assay. Our study shows a constant positive bias in DiaSorin compared to the Roche immunoassay (mean 42 μg/L, 24%), and a proportional positive bias in DiaSorin compared to the LC–MS method (mean 49 μg/L, 29%). Further, we demonstrate the potential clinical impact of this bias by evaluating 43 adult samples, collected over a 2-month period, which were shown to be discrepant based on a chart review. Despite the positive analytical bias in the Diasorin assay compared to the LC–MS assay, the Diasorin assay upper reference limits were lower than those of the LC–MS assay. This effect caused nine out of forty-three samples to show falsely elevated results when they were clinically diagnosed as negative for acromegaly. Discussed in the context of previous literature, our findings emphasize the importance of adjusting reference intervals for IGF-1 assays based on the clinical needs of a patient population.
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•Multispectral Sentinel-2 data provided adequate spatial and temporal resolution to predict and monitor soil moisture.•Spectral water indices can be utilized as soil moisture ...indicators to predict high-risk mudflow phenomena in arid regions.•Indirect techniques can potentially validate the performance of spectral indices in inaccessible and large-scale areas.
This study aims to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of six spectral water indices - derived from Multispectral sentinel-2 data - to detect soil moisture and inundated area in arid regions to be used as an indicator of mudflow phenomena to predict high-risk areas. Herein, the validation of the performance of spectral indices was conducted using threshold method, spectral curve performance, and soil-line method. These indirect validation techniques play a key role in saving time, effort, and cost, particularly for large-scale and inaccessible areas. It was observed that the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (mNDWI), and RSWIR indices have the potential to detect soil moisture and inundated areas in arid regions. According to the temporal spectral curve performance, the spectral characteristics of water and soil moisture were distinct in the Near infrared (NIR) and Short-wave Infrared (SWIR1,2) bands. However, the rate and degree differed between these bands, depending on the amount of water in the soil. Furthermore, the soil line method supported the appropriate selection of threshold values to detect soil moisture. However, the threshold values varied with location, time, season, and between indices. We concluded that considering the factors influencing the behavior of water and soil reflectivity could support decision-makers in identifying high-risk mudflow locations.
Oral carcinogenesis is a multi-step process, affecting predominantly elderly males with a long history of smoking and alcohol drinking while the role of infectious agents in its progression has not ...been fully identified. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has been hypothesized in the oral pathogenesis and carcinogenesis. Usually, p16 protein is absent in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), either for p16 gene being mutated or deleted or its expression being abrogated while p16 expression is associated with favorable prognosis. Is to analyze the concordant impact of p16 expression and HCMV infection on tissues from a group of patients with Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in mid-Euphrates-Iraq. One-hundred formalin-fixed, paraffin- embedded Oral tissues enrolled in this study; 40 oral tissue-biopsies from Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC); 40 tissues obtained from patients with benign oral tumors and 20 apparently healthy oral tissues were used as control group. Detection of HCMV was done by chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) technique while the protein expression of p16 gene by using immunohistochemistry (IHC) detection system. In OSCC group, the hCMV-positive CISH and the p16-positive IHC reactions were detected in 42.5% and.52.5% of tissues, respectively. The correlation between HCMV and P16 was highly significant (P= 0.003). The significant co-expression of P16 and HCMV genes in OSCC tissues could point for their possible role in either oral pathogenesis or carcinogenesis. Keywords: HCMV, OSCC, P16, CISH, IHC.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The number of destroyed cities in Iraq has increased significantly over the last five years. It presents a negative impact on the country's economy on the one hand and on the environment on the ...other. Reconstruction of these cities requires substantial capital to provide building materials needed for reconstruction and this leads to depletion of natural resources. This paper aims at finding an effective management method that contributes to the investment of the remnants of the components of destroyed buildings, including reinforcing steel, using the building information modelling (BIM) technique. The results showed that the amount of steel reinforcement that can be obtained from the destroyed buildings is enormous. Therefore, these quantities must be addressed through reusing or recycling. The sale of these quantities as recycling materials can provide a large income which can be added to the capital of the project.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a vector-borne parasitic disease that is transmitted via the bites of infected female sandflies. CL has been endemic in several countries worldwide for many decades, ...and numerous cases have been reported in Saudi Arabia, particularly across six regions; one of which is AL-Ahsa. Our research aimed to evaluate the epidemiological situation of CL among the patients in Al-Ahsa, Eastern region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during the period from 2017 to 2023. The data were collected from the patients' registries and included 245 patients who were diagnosed with CL in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. Fewer than half of the cases (47.8%) were Saudi patients, with a significant number of them being males (84.5%). Over half of the cases (52.7%) were aged between 21 and 40 years, and about three-quarters (74.7%) of the cases resided in rural areas. Regarding the nature of the lesions, 38.4% of the cases had one lesion, which was mainly distributed on a lower extremity (62.0%) or an upper extremity (52.2%). A high percentage of the lesions (75.2%) were wet lesions and caused by L. major. Concerning risk factors, a greater number of patients (71.4%) had been in rural areas within the last three months. Additionally, more than half of the cases (54.3%) had close contact with rodents, followed by birds (28.2%), sheep (22.0%), dogs (16.3%), and other animals (1.2%). The results showed a low number of reported CL cases in 2020 and 2021, followed by a surge in 2022 and 2023. The study shows that cutaneous leishmaniasis is still a public health problem in Al-Ahsa and is primarily associated with rural areas.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is characterized by the gradual loss of renal function and is a major public health concern. Risk factors for CKD include hypertension and proteinuria, both of which are ...associated with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. ER stress-induced TDAG51 protein expression is increased at an early time point in mice with CKD. Based on these findings, wild-type and TDAG51 knock-out (TDKO) mice were used in an angiotensin II/deoxycorticosterone acetate/salt model of CKD. Both wild-type and TDKO mice developed hypertension, increased proteinuria and albuminuria, glomerular injury, and tubular damage. However, TDKO mice were protected from apoptosis and renal interstitial fibrosis. Human proximal tubular cells were used to demonstrate that TDAG51 expression induces apoptosis through a CHOP-dependent mechanism. Further, a mouse model of intrinsic acute kidney injury demonstrated that CHOP is required for ER stress-mediated apoptosis. Renal fibroblasts were used to demonstrate that TGF-β induces collagen production through an IRE1-dependent mechanism; cells treated with a TGF-β receptor 1 inhibitor prevented XBP1 splicing, a downstream consequence of IRE1 activation. Interestingly, TDKO mice express significantly less TGF-β receptor 1, thus, preventing TGF-β-mediated XBP1 splicing. In conclusion, TDAG51 induces apoptosis in the kidney through a CHOP-dependent mechanism, while contributing to renal interstitial fibrosis through a TGF-β-IRE1-XBP1 pathway.
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is implicated in chronic kidney disease (CKD) development in patients and in animal models. Here we show that ER stress inhibition through 4-phenylbutyric acid ...(4-PBA) administration decreases blood pressure, albuminuria, and tubular casts in an angiotensin II/deoxycorticosterone acetate/salt murine model of CKD. Lower albuminuria in 4-PBA-treated mice was associated with higher levels of cubilin protein in renal tissue membrane fractions. 4-PBA decreased renal interstitial fibrosis, renal CD3
T-cell and macrophage infiltration, mRNA expression of TGFβ1, Wnt signaling molecules, and ER stress-induced pro-inflammatory genes. CHOP deficient mice that underwent this model of CKD developed hypertension comparable to wild type mice, but had less albuminuria and tubular casts. CHOP deficiency resulted in higher nephrin levels and decreased glomerulosclerosis compared to wild type mice; this effect was accompanied by lower macrophage infiltration and fibrosis. Our findings portray ER stress inhibition as a means to alleviate hypertensive CKD by preserving glomerular barrier integrity and tubular function. These results demonstrate ER stress modulation as a novel target for preserving renal function in hypertensive CKD.
The objective of this study was to measure organization factors that can influence the ability of nursing staff to prevent and detect ADEs in public hospitals using Systems Engineering Initiative for ...Patient Safety (SEIPS) model.
This was a multi-center cross-sectional study. The study included a self-administered paper-based survey which was distributed and collected between October through December 2019. The study participants were nurses from 11 public hospitals located in two Iraqi provinces. Binary logistic regression was used to measure the relationship between the independent SEIPS factors (persons, organizations, tools, tasks, and environments) and the incidence of ADEs (outcome variable).
The study recruited 603 nurses (68.3% men) from 11 public hospitals across two provinces. Less than half (48.8%) of the nurses received enough training to detect ADEs, 43.1% had adequate experience to detect ADEs, and 69.8% had to report ADEs in a special record. More than three-quarters (78.4%) believed that their jobs need fast work. Two of the five SEIPS model domains had significant negative association with the incidence of ADEs including organization (nurse-physician collaboration) and nurse experience in ADE detection.
Nursing staff face several challenges to prevent and minimize ADEs including shortages in nurses, inadequate nurse experience in ADE detection, no training for ADE detection was received, fear of reporting ADEs, and a lack in monitoring equipment. Increasing nurse/patient ratio and providing more monitoring equipment and training courses can minimize ADEs and enhance their detection.
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