Background: Polymorphisms in the TNF-α gene affect the development and progression of rheumatoid arthritis. Objective: To investigate the associations between (-806 T/C) and (-857 T/C) SNPs with rheumatoid arthritis severity and susceptibility in a sample of Iraqi patients. Methods: A case-control study was conducted in Baghdad, Iraq. Twenty healthy controls and 63 patients confirmed to be newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis were included. Those are divided into two groups (patients and controls), and the patients were further subdivided into severe and mild-moderate groups. Samples from those participants were analyzed for clinical and inflammatory parameter measurements. Genotyping by the Sanger method was performed to study the SNPs. Results: No associations were demonstrated between rheumatoid arthritis and polymorphisms at positions -806 and -857. Additionally, there were no differences in the distribution of those SNP genotypes and alleles among the severe and mild-moderate groups. Also, the (-806 C/T) SNP was found to be correlated with DAS 28 in all patients and with hs-CRP in the mild-moderate group. Finally, the -857 C/T SNP was found to be correlated with TNF-α within the mild-moderate group. Conclusions: Polymorphisms at positions -806 and -857 were not associated with rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility, and the CT genotype of -806 C/T SNP was associated with disease activity.
Binary mixtures of three heavy oil-stocks had been subjected to density measurments. The data had been aquired on the volumetric behaviour of these systems. The heavy oil-stocks used were of good varity, namely 40 stock , 60 stock, and 150 stock, 40 stock is the lightest one with the API gravity 33.7 while 60 stock is middle type and 150 stock is heavy one, with API gravity 27.7 and 23.8 respectively. Stocks with Kerosene or Xylene for non-ideal mixtures for which excess volume can be positive or negative. Mixture of heavy-oil stocks with paraffinic spike (Kerosene) show negative excess volume. While, aromatic rings results a lower positive excess volume, as shown in Xylene when blending with 40 stock and 60 stock but a negati
... Show MoreThis study included the extraction properties of spatial and morphological basins studied using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model linked to (GIS) to find the amount of sediment and rates of flow that flows into the Haditha reservoir . The aim of this study is determine the amount of sediment coming from the valleys and flowing into the Haditha Dam reservoir for 25 years ago for the period (1985-2010) and its impact on design lifetime of the Haditha Dam reservoir and to determine the best ways to reduce the sediment transport. The result indicated that total amount of sediment coming from all valleys about (2.56 * 106 ton). The maximum annual total sediment load was about (488.22 * 103 ton) in year 1988
... Show MoreIn this research, the removal of cadmium (Cd) from simulated wastewater was investigated by using a fixed bed bio-electrochemical reactor. The effects of the main controlling factors on the performance of the removal process such as applied cell voltage, initial Cd concentration, pH of the catholyte, and the mesh number of the cathode were investigated. The results showed that the applied cell voltage had the main impact on the removal efficiency of cadmium where increasing the applied voltage led to higher removal efficiency. Meanwhile increasing the applied voltage was found to be given lower current efficiency and higher energy consumption. No significant effect of initial Cd concentration on the removal efficiency of cadmium b
... Show MoreIn this research, deposition of titanium oxide (TiO2) and vanadium oxide (V2O5) thin film in different mixing percentage (0, 25 ,50, 75 and100)% on the substrate of glass .The coating thickness was ( 50 nm ).
In this research contact angle was measured and the effect of weather conditions. Results showed that the value of the contact angle of the prepared films reached its highest value at 50% (TiO2+V2O5) was 160º.
The results showed that the optical transmittance of TiO2 and V2O5 thin film decrease with increasing the deposition angle and decrease with increasing V2O5 pro
... Show MoreReinforcing asphalt concrete with polyester fibers considered as an active remedy to alleviate the harmful impact of fatigue deterioration. This study covers the investigation of utilizing two shapes of fibers size, 6.35 mm by 3.00 mm and 12.70 mm by 3.00 mm with mutual concentrations equal to 0.25 %, 0.50 % and 0.75 % by weight of mixture. Composition of asphalt mixture consists of different optimum (40-50) asphalt cement content, 12.50 mm nominal aggregate maximum size with limestone dust as a filler. Following the traditional asphalt cement and aggregate tests, three essential test were carried out on mixtures, namely: Marshall test (105 cylindrical specimens), indirect tensile strength test (21 cylindrical specimens)
... Show MoreStatic Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC) is a well known device for effectively regulating the active power flow in a power system. In this paper, the SSSC linearized power flow equations are incorporated into Newton-Raphson algorithm in a MATLAB written program to investigate the control of active poweer flow and the transient stability of a five bus and a thirty bus IEEE test systems, during abnormal conduction (three phase fault near buses). A comparison of the results obtained for the base case without SSSC and with it to investigate the effectiveness of the device on both of the active power flow and the transient stability.
The present work presents a new experimental study of the enhancement of turbulent
convection heat transfer inside tubes for combined thermal and hydrodynamic entry length of one
popular “turbulator” (twisted tape with width slightly less than internal tube diameter) inserted for
fire tube boilers. Cylindrical combustion chamber was used to burn (1.6 to 7kg/h) fuel oil #2 to
deliver hot gases with ranges of Reynolds number (10500 to 21700), and (11400 to 24150) for both
empty and inserted tube respectively.A uniform wall temperature technique was used by keeping
approximately constant water temperature difference (25ºC) between inlet and exit cooling water in
parallel flow shell and tube heat exchanger. The test
This research is concerned to investigate the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) deep beams strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The experimental part of this research is carried out by testing seven RC deep beams having the same dimensions and steel reinforcement which have been divided into two groups according to the strengthening schemes. Group one was consisted of three deep beams strengthened with vertical U-wrapped CFRP strips. While, Group two was consisted of three deep beams strengthened with inclined CFRP strips oriented by 45o with the longitudinal axis of the beam. The remaining beam is kept unstrengthening as a reference beam. For each group, the variable considered
... Show MoreWe investigated at the optical properties, structural makeup, and morphology of thin films of cadmium telluride (CdTe) with a thickness of 150 nm produced by thermal evaporation over glass. The X-ray diffraction study showed that the films had a crystalline composition, a cubic structure, and a preference for grain formation along the (111) crystallographic direction. The outcomes of the inquiry were used to determine these traits. With the use of thin films of CdTe that were doped with Ag at a concentration of 0.5%, the crystallization orientations of pure CdTe (23.58, 39.02, and 46.22) and CdTe:Ag were both determined by X-ray diffraction. orientations (23.72, 39.21, 46.40) For samples that were pure and those that were doped with
... Show MoreResearch aims to develop a novel technique for segmental beam fabrication using plain concrete blocks and externally bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers Laminates (CFRP) as a main flexural reinforcement. Six beams designed an experimentally tested under two-point loadings. Several parameters included in the fabrication of segmental beam studied such as; bonding length of carbon fiber reinforced polymers, the surface-to-surface condition of concrete segments, interface condition of the bonding surface, and thickness of epoxy resin layers. Test results of the segmental beams specimens compared with that gained from testing reinforced concrete beam have similar dimensions for validations. The results show the effectiven
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