Preparation and Characterization of Green Fe3 O4 Nanoparticle Using the Aqueous Plant Extract of Gundelia tournefortii L.

In this work, the magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4-NPs) synthesized using a simple, fast, and environmentally acceptable green approach. Gundelia Tournefortii Extract, an aqueous plant extract, was used for the first time in green synthesis to prepare nanoparticles as reducing, capping, and stabilizing agents. Such biomolecules as flavonoids, alkaloids, and antioxidants are found in the aqueous leaf extract, and their presence has been determined to have an important role in the synthesis of Fe3O4-NPs. The techniques used in this analysis include Fourier Transform Infrared, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction, Transmission Electron Microscopy, and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer. The Vibrating Sample Magnetometer demonstrated that the samples were superparamagnetic, with a magnetization value of 48.6 emu/g. The prepared nanoparticle was applied to  remove Chrystal Violet (CV), Malachite Green(MG), and Safranin (S) dyes from prepared aqueous solutions with the adsorption capacity of 13.9, 15.6, and 14.4 mg/g respectively

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FONT RECOGNITION USING CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORKS AND TWO FEATURE EXTRACTION METHODS WITH SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINE

Font recognition is one of the essential issues in document recognition and analysis, and is frequently a complex and time-consuming process. Many techniques of optical character recognition (OCR) have been suggested and some of them have been marketed, however, a few of these techniques considered font recognition. The issue of OCR is that it saves copies of documents to make them searchable, but the documents stop having the original appearance. To solve this problem, this paper presents a system for recognizing three and six English fonts from character images using Convolution Neural Network (CNN), and then compare the results of proposed system with the two studies. The first study used NCM features and SVM as a classification method, and the second study used DP features and SVM as classification method. The data of this study were taken from Al-Khaffaf dataset [21]. The two types of datasets have been used: the first type is about 27,620 sample for the three fonts classification and the second type is about 72,983 sample for the six fonts classification and both datasets are English character images in gray scale format with 8 bits. The results showed that CNN achieved the highest recognition rate in the proposed system compared with the two studies reached 99.75% and 98.329 % for the three and six fonts recognition, respectively. In addition, CNN got the least time required for creating model about 6 minutes and 23- 24 minutes for three and six fonts recognition, respectively. Based on the results, we can conclude that CNN technique is the best and most accurate model for recognizing fonts

Nutrition and Quality Properties of Low-calorie Cake Made by Low-calorie Fat Formula

اجريت هذه الدراسة لانتاج دهن منخفض السعرات الحرارية يتميز بالمواصفات الطبيعية للدهون التجارية وبخصائص مقبولة الجودة و استخدامها في اعداد كيك منخفض السعرات كبديل لدهون التقصير. تم تحضير نماذج دهون منخفضة السعرة عن طريق خلط شمع النحل المحلي مع زيت عباد الشمس بثلاث نسب مختلفة (25:75 ، 50:50 ، 75:25) على اساس الوزن .تم تقييم الخواص الفيزيائية و الكيميائية للعينات الثلاث اضافة الى الخصائص التغذوية والسعرية والحسية للكيك المحضر ومقارنتها بعينة السيطرة. هناك ارتفاع ملحوظ في خصائص نقطة الانصهار و قيمة البيروكسيد (P≤0.05 ) للعينات الثلاث اما بالنسبة لنتائج الاحماض الدهنية الحرة و قيمة الحامض فكانت اعلى في25:75 Aو 75:25 C  مقارنة بالعينة B 50:50.على عكس ذلك فانمستوى المزج 25:75Aكان لديه اعلى نقطة دخان. لا توجد اي فروقات معنوية (p>0.05) بالنسبة للخصائص الحسية فيما يتعلق بالطعم ، النكهة، اللون،النعومة، النسجة والاحساس بالفم اضافة الى المجموع الاجمالي. المحتويات الغذائية: الرماد ، البروتين ، الكربوهيدرات، وقيمة السعرات الحرارية جميعها تأثرت معنويا(P≤0.05). اما القيم المئوية لخفض السعرات الحرارية تأثرت معنويا و بشكل ملحوظ (P≤ 0.05) بالنسبة لجميع العينات.The present study was conducted to produce a low-calorie fat (LCF) characterized by normal specification of commercial fat and acceptable quality properties, to be used in making low calorie cakes with Low-calorie fat. The low- calorie fat formulated by blending of beeswax and sunflower oil in three different ratios (25:75, 50:50, 75:25) w/w. The physiochemical properties of Low-calorie fat and nutritional, caloric and sensory properties of prepared cakes were evaluated. The properties of melting point and peroxide value are significantly increased (P≤ 0.05) for the three formulated fats. While the values of free fatty acids and acid value, their values are higher in A25:75 and C 75:25 samples as compared with B 50:50 sample. Inversely, the blending level of 25:75 had a higher smoke point score. The sensory properties of prepared cakes all are  insignificant (p>0.05) for control A, B and C samples in terms of Taste, Favor, Crumb color, Crumb softness, texture and overall score. A nutritional content sash, protein, carbohydrate, caloric value, caloric decreasing percentage values are significantly (P≤ 0.05) influenced by control, A, B and C samples. The caloric value of all cake samples is significantly (P≤ 0.05) decreased with respect to control sample

Efficient Delivery of Transducing Polymer Nanoparticles for Gene-mediated Induction of Osteogenesis for Bone Regeneration

Developing non-viral gene therapy vectors that both protect and functionally deliver nucleic acid cargoes will be vital if gene augmentation and editing strategies are to be effectively combined with advanced regenerative medicine approaches. Currently such methodologies utilize high concentrations of recombinant growth factors, which result in toxicity and off-target effects. Herein we demonstrate the use of modified cell penetrating peptides (CPPs), termed Glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-binding Enhanced Transduction (GET) peptides with plasmid DNA (pDNA) encapsulated poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) PLGA nanoparticles (pDNA-encapsulated PLGA NPs). In order to encapsulate the pDNA, it was first condensed with a cationic low molecular weight Poly L-Lysine (PLL) into 30–60 nm NPs followed by encapsulation in PLGA NPs by double emulsion; yielding encapsulation efficiencies (EE) of ∼30%. PLGA NPs complexed with GET peptides show enhanced intracellular delivery (up to sevenfold) and transfection efficiencies (up to five orders of magnitude). Moreover, the pDNA cargo has enhanced protection from nucleases (such as DNase I) promoting their translatability. As an example, we show these NPs efficiently deliver pBMP2 which can promote osteogenic differentiation in vitro. Gene delivery to human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (hMSCs) inducing their osteogenic programming was confirmed by Alizarin red calcium staining and bone lineage specific gene expression (Q RT-PCR). By combining simplistic and FDA-approved PLGA polymer nanotechnology with the GET delivery system, therapeutic non-viral vectors could have significant impact in future cellular therapy and regenerative medicine applications

Relationship between type II diabetes mellitus and Helicobacter pylori infection in Erbil city

Background and objective: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by the increase in blood glucose due to insulin resistance or deficiency of insulin. The subjects are more likely to be prone to infection. So, it could be correlated with Helicobacter pylori infection, which means that gastrointestinal inflammation might be affected by uncontrolled glycemic level. This study aimed to examine the correlation of type II diabetes and infection of gastrointestinal in order to illustrate such complication of diabetes mellitus apart from others. Methods: A total of 64 persons from Erbil city participated in this cross-sectional study. They were divided into two groups, each group involving 32 persons. The cases group included those suffering from type II diabetes and were selected by simple random sampling method. The other group included those not possessing any types of disease including diabetes mellitus. Examination of Helicobacter pylori, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), besides measuring blood pressure and body mass index were performed for all individual subjects in both groups. Chi-Square and unpaired t-test were used for data analysis. Results: There was a 59% positively Helicobacter pylori in diabetes group whereas there was a 31% positively Helicobacter pylori in non-diabetes mellitus. The difference between the rates of Helicobacter pylori in both groups was statistically significant (P <0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in diabetics was significantly higher than the non-diabetics

Efficient delivery of transducing polymer nanoparticles for gene-mediated induction of osteogenesis for bone regeneration

Developing non-viral gene therapy vectors that both protect and functionally deliver nucleic acid cargoes will be vital if gene augmentation and editing strategies are to be effectively combined with advanced regenerative medicine approaches. Currently such methodologies utilize high concentrations of recombinant growth factors, which result in toxicity and off-target effects. Herein we demonstrate the use of modified cell penetrating peptides (CPPs), termed Glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-binding Enhanced Transduction (GET) peptides with plasmid DNA (pDNA) encapsulated poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) PLGA nanoparticles (pDNA-encapsulated PLGA NPs). In order to encapsulate the pDNA, it was first condensed with a cationic low molecular weight Poly L-Lysine (PLL) into 30–60 nm NPs followed by encapsulation in PLGA NPs by double emulsion; yielding encapsulation efficiencies (EE) of ∼30%. PLGA NPs complexed with GET peptides show enhanced intracellular delivery (up to sevenfold) and transfection efficiencies (up to five orders of magnitude). Moreover, the pDNA cargo has enhanced protection from nucleases (such as DNase I) promoting their translatability. As an example, we show these NPs efficiently deliver pBMP2 which can promote osteogenic differentiation in vitro. Gene delivery to human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (hMSCs) inducing their osteogenic programming was confirmed by Alizarin red calcium staining and bone lineage specific gene expression (Q RT-PCR). By combining simplistic and FDA-approved PLGA polymer nanotechnology with the GET delivery system, therapeutic non-viral vectors could have significant impact in future cellular therapy and regenerative medicine applications.</p

Kinetic characteristics for the adsorption of BG, MG, and SA.

Kinetic characteristics for the adsorption of BG, MG, and SA.</p

S4 Fig -

(a) pseudo-first-order kinetics model, (b) pseudo-second-order kinetics model, and (c) Intra-particle diffusion kinetic model for adsorption of BG, MG, and SA by MC adsorbent. (DOCX)</p

Reusability of adsorbent for dyes removal percent.

Reusability of adsorbent for dyes removal percent.</p

FT-IR spectrum of Crown ether, Aldehyde, and Ketone.

FT-IR spectrum of Crown ether, Aldehyde, and Ketone.</p