Abstract Introduction: MMP3 plays a crucial role in the process of bone erosion in the pathomechanism of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It acts by removing the outer osteoid layer, which allows the osteoclasts to tightly connect and carry out the subsequent damage to the underlying bone. MMP3 can trigger the production of other MMPs like MMP-1, MMP-7, and MMP-9, it plays a pivotal role in the remodeling of connective tissues. Aim of the study: to assess the influence of MMP-3 serum levels and single-nucleotide polymorphisms of rs679620 in the rheumatoid arthritis patients' group in comparison to the control group. Subjects: eighty eight samples, 45 rheumatoid arthritis patients after being referred by their treating physician for regular RA test. The remaining 43 samples all represent apparently healthy people. The present study investigated the serum concentration of MMP-3 and rs679620 SNPs in the group of patients with RA, in comparison to the control group. Results: The results indicated a significant elevation in MMP-3 levels in RA patients in comparison to healthy individuals (12.75 ± 0.38 vs. 9.69 ± 0.37) and the findings of rs679620 SNPs appeared that the patient group has a non-significant increase in both allele frequency A and genotype frequency AA when compared to the control group (66.2 vs. 52.2 %; p = 0.172; OR = 1.79 and 35.3 vs. 17.4 %; p = 0.229; OR = 2.59) , but a non-significant decrease in both allele frequency C and genotype frequency CC when compared to the control group (2.94 vs. 4.4 %; p = 1.0; OR = 0.67 and 2.9 vs. 4.3 %; p = 1.0; OR = 0.67), as well as a non-significant decrease in allele frequency G and both genotypes frequency GG and AG when compared to the control group (30.9 vs. 43.5 %; p = 0.233; OR = 0.58, 0.0 vs. 8.7 %; p = 0.159; OR = 0.12 and 61.8 vs. 69.6 %; p = 0.585; OR = 0.71 ). Patients carrying the AA and AG genotype, had significantly higher serum levels of MMP-3 compared to control (P= 0.005 and 0.004) respectively. Conclusion: Rs679620 may influence joint destruction via increase MMP-3 production.
With the development of communication technologies, the use of wireless systems in biomedical implanted devices has become very useful. Bio-implantable devices are electronic devices which are used for treatment and monitoring brain implants, pacemakers, cochlear implants, retinal implants and so on. The inductive coupling link is used to transmit power and data between the primary and secondary sides of the biomedical implanted system, in which efficient power amplifier is very much needed to ensure the best data transmission rates and low power losses. However, the efficiency of the implanted devices depends on the circuit design, controller, load variation, changes of radio frequency coil’s mutual displacement and coupling coef
... Show MoreFinding communities of connected individuals in complex networks is challenging, yet crucial for understanding different real-world societies and their interactions. Recently attention has turned to discover the dynamics of such communities. However, detecting accurate community structures that evolve over time adds additional challenges. Almost all the state-of-the-art algorithms are designed based on seemingly the same principle while treating the problem as a coupled optimization model to simultaneously identify community structures and their evolution over time. Unlike all these studies, the current work aims to individually consider this three measures, i.e. intra-community score, inter-community score, and evolution of community over
... Show MoreTo evaluate the effectiveness of different microwave irradiation exposure times on the disinfection of dental stone samples immersed in different solutions, and its affect on the dimensional accuracy and surface porosity. Dental stone casts were inoculated with an isolate of Bacillus subtilis to examine the efficiency of microwave irradiation as a disinfection method while immersed in different solutions; water, 40% sodium chloride, or without immersion for different durations. Dimensional accuracy and surface porosity were also evaluated. Significant reduction in colony counts of Bacillus subtilis were observed after 5 minutes of microwave irradiation of immersed dental casts in water and NaCl solution. No evidence of growth was observed a
... Show MoreOne of the most important challenges facing the development of laser weapons is represented by the attenuation of the laser beam as it passed through the layers of atmosphere.This paper presents a theoretical study to simulate the effect of turbulence attenuation and calculates the decrease of laser power in Iraq. The refractive index structure C_n^2 is very important parameter to measure the strength of the atmospheric turbulence, which is affected by microclimate conditions, propagation path, season and time in the day. The results of measurements and predictions are based on the Kolmogorov turbulence theory. It was demonstrated by simulations that the laser weapons in Iraq were severely affected due to the large change in temperatures,
... Show MorePyrolysis of virgin polyethylene plastics was studied in order to produce hydrocarbon liquid fuel. The pyrolysis process carried out for low and high-density polyethylene plastics in open system batch reactor in temperature range of 370 to 450°C.
Thermo-gravimetric analysis of the virgin plastics showed that the degradation ranges were between 326 and 495 °C. The results showed that the optimum temperature range of pyrolysis of polyethylene plastics that gives highest liquid yield (with specific gravity between 0.7844 and 0.7865) was 390 to 410 °C with reaction time of about 35 minutes. Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy gave a quite evidence that the produced hydrocarbon liquid fuel consisted ma
... Show MoreCommunication has seen a big advancement through ages; concepts, procedures and technologies, it has also seen a similar advancement of language. What unites language and media is the fact that each one of them guides and contributes to the other; media exists and results from language and from the other sign systems, and what strengthens this connection is the symbolic language system, as media helps it by providing knowledge and information. The change that occurred through time must leave a significant trace in the media, for example Diction, which has changed concerning development and growth, also the ways and mediums of media have become manifold and widespread. This change affected the recipient whether it was a reader, listener o
... Show MoreIn recent years, the demand for air travel has increased and many people have traveled by plane. Most passengers, however, feel stressed due to the limited cabin space. In order to make these passengers more comfortable, a personal air-conditioning system for the entire chair is needed. This is because the human body experiences discomfort from localized heating or cooling, and thus, it is necessary to provide appropriate airflow to each part of the body. In this paper, a personal air-conditioning system, which consists of six vertically installed air-conditioning vents, will be proposed. To clarify the setting temperature of each vent, the airflow around the passenger and the operative temperature of each part of the body is investigate
... Show MoreNowadays, the mobile communication networks have become a consistent part of our everyday life by transforming huge amount of data through communicating devices, that leads to new challenges. According to the Cisco Networking Index, more than 29.3 billion networked devices will be connected to the network during the year 2023. It is obvious that the existing infrastructures in current networks will not be able to support all the generated data due to the bandwidth limits, processing and transmission overhead. To cope with these issues, future mobile communication networks must achieve high requirements to reduce the amount of transferred data, decrease latency and computation costs. One of the essential challenging tasks in this subject
... Show MoreIn this paper, two meshless methods have been introduced to solve some nonlinear problems arising in engineering and applied sciences. These two methods include the operational matrix Bernstein polynomials and the operational matrix with Chebyshev polynomials. They provide an approximate solution by converting the nonlinear differential equation into a system of nonlinear algebraic equations, which is solved by using