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.
Wireless Body Area Sensor Network (WBASN) is gaining significant attention due to its applications in smart health offering cost-effective, efficient, ubiquitous, and unobtrusive telemedicine. WBASNs face challenges including interference, Quality of Service, transmit power, and resource constraints. Recognizing these challenges, this paper presents an energy and Quality of Service-aware routing algorithm. The proposed algorithm is based on each node's Collaboratively Evaluated Value (CEV) to select the most suitable cluster head (CH). The Collaborative Value (CV) is derived from three factors, the node's residual energy, the distance vector between nodes and personal device, and the sensor's density in each CH. The CEV algorithm operates i
... Show MoreOne of the most important problems that would continuously face the Higher education organizations is how to improve the service level presented by them, and how this can lead to increase demand for services of this organizations.As this issue has exhausted many organizations pushed some of them to withdraw from the market Because of weaknesses in their services. Here lies the importance of this matter to be given more attention in order to maintain the organization competitive position. According to that, The selection of the research title (The Impact of Quality on the Level of the University Service Request) which seeks to measure the impact of service quality on the level of demand, At a time when world&
... Show MoreLED is an ultra-lightweight block cipher that is mainly used in devices with limited resources. Currently, the software and hardware structure of this cipher utilize a complex logic operation to generate a sequence of random numbers called round constant and this causes the algorithm to slow down and record low throughput. To improve the speed and throughput of the original algorithm, the Fast Lightweight Encryption Device (FLED) has been proposed in this paper. The key size of the currently existing LED algorithm is in 64-bit & 128-bit but this article focused mainly on the 64-bit key (block size=64-bit). In the proposed FLED design, complex operations have been replaced by LFSR left feedback technology to make the algorithm perform more e
... Show MoreFeedback on students’ assignments can be done in many different ways. Nowadays, the growing number of students at universities has increased the burden on the instructors to give feedback on students’ writings quickly and efficiently. As such, new methods of modern online automated feedback tools, such as Hemingway app and ecree,are used to assist and help instructors. Hence, this research is an explanatory study to examine the effect of using the online automated feedback on some Iraqi EFL learners’ writings at the university level. The study comprised 60 students enrolled in an English language course at the University of Anbar. They were divided randomly into two groups, experi
... Show MoreA computational investigation is carried out in the field of charged –particle optics with the aid of numerical analysis method using the personal computer. The work is concerned with the design of electron gun with space-charge effect. The Finite element method (FEM) used in the solution of Poison's equation for determine the axial potential distribution of the two-electrode immersion lens operated under zero magnification condition , and from the solution of the paraxial ray equation the optical properties such as the focal length , spherical and chromatic aberration coefficients are determined, also a calculation of the brightness and perveance for the lens. The electrodes geometry was determined in two and three dimensi
... Show MoreHigh smoke emissions, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter typically produced by diesel engines. Diminishing the exhausted emissions without doing any significant changes in their mechanical configuration is a challenging subject. Thus, adding hydrogen to the traditional fuel would be the best practical choice to ameliorate diesel engines performance and reduce emissions. The air hydrogen mixer is an essential part of converting the diesel engine to work under dual fuel mode (hydrogen-diesel) without any engine modification. In this study, the Air-hydrogen mixer is developed to get a homogenous mixture for hydrogen with air and a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio according to the speed of the engine. The mixer depends on the balance between th
... Show MoreIn the era of the digital economy, public organizations need to consolidation the capabilities of entrepreneurial alertness to reduce the risks of sudden transformations and changes, and to find effective mechanisms to discover and invest in environmental opportunities proactively, as this concern has become a knowledge gap in public sector institutions, the current research aims to identify the role of digital competence in influencing on entrepreneurial alertness in the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), the descriptive analytical approach was used as a research method to describe and analyze the main research variables. digital competence as an explanatory variable includes three dimensions: digital infrastructure, digital integration, and d
... Show MoreExperimental work was carried out to investigate the effect of fire flame (high temperature) on specimens of one way slabs using Self Compacted Concrete (SCC). By using furnace manufactured for this purpose, twenty one reinforced concrete slab specimens were exposed to direct fire flame. All of specimens have the same dimensions. The slab specimens were cooled in two types, gradually by left them in the air and suddenly by using water. After that the specimens were tested under two point loads, to study, the effect of
different: temperature levels (300ºC, 500ºC and 700ºC), and cooling rate (gradually and sudden cooling conditions) on the concrete compressive strength, modulus of rupture, flexural strength and the behavior of reinf