Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder that involves autoantibodies attacking and weakening joints. RA is characterized by leukocyte (Monocyte, Lymphocyte mast cell .etc) infiltrations into the synovial compartment leading to inflammation in the synovial membrane. Synovitis leads to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, matrix metalloproteinases, chemokines, complement proteins, and growth factors. Objective: The current study pointed to verify the diagnostic values of interleukin -17 A and interleukin -18 in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and the effect of treatment thereon. Study subjects and methods: A total of 88 samples with RA were selected from the health clinics of AL-Yarmouk teaching hospital/rheumatology clinic in Baghdad, with female rheumatoid arthritis patients as the patient group (50) and (38) healthy females as the control group. All patients were exposed to clinical, laboratory, and ultrasound assessments, besides measuring the serum level of both (IL-17A and IL-18) by the method of Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: The results show that there is a significant difference (p≤0.05) in IL-17A levels between patients and controls. The concentration of IL-17A in premenopausal patients is higher when compared to control groups (18.06 ± 3.85 vs 15.71 ± 1.82 pg/ml), so, the concentration in postmenopausal studied groups (17.19 ± 2.91 vs 14.13 ± 1.06 pg/ml). Also, there are significant differences (p≤0.05) in the level of IL-18 between the patients and the control; it is found that the level of IL-18 within the premenopausal patients was higher compared to the control (16.09 ± 9.69 vs 12.52 ± 8.30 pg/ml). Conclusion: A High level of IL-17A in RA patients contributes to the pathogenesis of RA as an inflammatory disease. As well as, the elevated levels of IL-18 suggest its physiological role to induce inflammatory disorder Treatment with (MTX and Etanercept) causes a decrease in the inflammatory markers of this disease RF in patient groups.
A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computerized database management system for accumulating, storage, retrieval, analysis, and display spatial data. In general, GIS contains two broad categories of information, geo-referenced spatial data and attribute data. Geo-referenced spatial data define objects that have an orientation and relationship in two or three-dimensional space, while attribute data is qualitative data that can be counted for recording and analysis. The main aim of this research is to reveal the role of GIS technology in the enhancement of bridge maintenance management system components such as the output results, and make it more interpretable through dynamic colour coding and more sophisticated visualization
... Show MoreAbstract: The researcher aims to highlight the historical frames of political development in royal regime era (1921-1949) and study its transitions on social-political aspect for the various periods during this consistent era of Iraq history. As some elements played an important role in shaping this era’s features ,as well as 2hat succeed it, which mainly affected the political progression’s configuration, such as : political culture role, social and cultural foundation, state policy essence and the unofficial institutions remarkable role in influencing public awareness and concerning it's relation to the state ,the clan and religious institutions. The researcher employed Alexis de Tocqueville’s evaluation criteria and indi
... Show MoreGas-lift technique plays an important role in sustaining oil production, especially from a mature field when the reservoirs’ natural energy becomes insufficient. However, optimally allocation of the gas injection rate in a large field through its gas-lift network system towards maximization of oil production rate is a challenging task. The conventional gas-lift optimization problems may become inefficient and incapable of modelling the gas-lift optimization in a large network system with problems associated with multi-objective, multi-constrained, and limited gas injection rate. The key objective of this study is to assess the feasibility of utilizing the Genetic Algorithm (GA) technique to optimize t
In the present work, the efficiency of Tri-octyl Methyl Ammonium Chloride (TOMAC) ionic liquid was investigated as new and green demulsifier for three types of Iraqi crude oil emulsions (Nafut Khana (NK), Kirkuk and Basrah). The separation efficiency was studied at room temperature and by using microwave heating technique. Several batch experiments were done to specify the suitable conditions for the emulsification and demulsification which were specified as 45 minutes and 3000 rpm for crude oil emulsification while the ionic liquid doses were (500,300,150,50) ppm and the conditions of microwave heating were 1000 watt and 50 second as irradiation time. The results were very encouraging especially for NK and Kirkuk crude oil emulsions whe
... Show MoreThis study describe the effect of temperature on the optical
properties of nickel(ii) phthalocyanine tetrasulfonic acid tetrasodium
salt (NiPcTs) organic thin films which are prepared by spin coating
on indium tin oxide (ITO-glass). The optical absorption spectra of
these thin films are measured. Present studies reveal that the optical
band gap energies of NiPcTs thin films are dependent on the
annealing temperatures. The optical band gap decreases with increase
in annealing temperature, then increased when the temperature rising
to 473K. To enhance the results of Uv-Vis measurements and get
more accurate values of optical energy gaps; the Photoluminescence
spectra of as-deposited and annealed NiPcTs thin fi
This paper investigated the fatigue life behavior of two composite materials subjected to different times of shot peening (2, 4 and 6 min).The first material prepared from unsaturated polyester with E-glass reinforcement by 33% volume fraction. While, the second one was prepared from unsaturated polyester with aluminum powder by2.5% volume fraction. The experimental results showed that the improvement in endurance limit was obtained (for the first material) at 2, 4 and 6 min shot peening times where the percentage of maximum improvement was 25% at shot peening time of 6 min. While, the endurance limit of the second material decreased at shot peening times of 2, 4 and 6 min where the percentage of maximum reduction was 29 % at shot peenin
... Show More
Codes of red, green, and blue data (RGB) extracted from a lab-fabricated colorimeter device were used to build a proposed classifier with the objective of classifying colors of objects based on defined categories of fundamental colors. Primary, secondary, and tertiary colors namely red, green, orange, yellow, pink, purple, blue, brown, grey, white, and black, were employed in machine learning (ML) by applying an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm using Python. The classifier, which was based on the ANN algorithm, required a definition of the mentioned eleven colors in the form of RGB codes in order to acquire the capability of classification. The software's capacity to forecast the color of the code that belongs to an ob
... Show MoreNow-a-days the Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) technology is very effective in improving the power flow along the transmission lines and makes the power system more flexible and controllable. This paper deals with the most robust type of FACTS devices; it’s a Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC). Many cases have been taken to study how the system behaves in the presence and absence of the UPFC under normal and contingency conditions. The UPFC is a device that can be used to improve the bus voltage, increasing the loadability of the line and reduce the active and reactive power losses in the transmission lines, through controlling the flow of real and reactive power. Both the magnitude and the phase angle of th
... Show MoreThis article presents the simultaneous adsorption of bimetal Cu2+ and Zn2+ from an aqueous solution using activated carbon synthesized from a plum seed precursor by sulfuric acid and microwave activation: plum seeds chemically activated by 45% (w/w) sulfuric acid with 2:1 ratio for 4 h, then carbonized for 2 h at 700 °C and the product obtained activated in a microwave oven for 20 min at 700 W for final of activation. Plum seeds and activated carbon produced were characterized in terms of their physical and chemical composition using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller measurements, field emission scanning electr