Background: It's believed that HBD-3 is involved in the tissue remodeling process of articular cartilage. Also, HBD-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assay human beta-defensine-3 (HBD-3) in serum from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and investigate its correlation with proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: In this case-control study, fifty-eight RA patients were aged 20–65 years, and 29 age-matched healthy subjects (HS) had no inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The disease activity score-28 joint erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) was used to measure RA activity. CRP, ACPA, HBD-3, TNF-α, and IL-1β were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA). Res

Background: This clinical trial aims to evaluate the color changes of direct resin composite veneer (DCV) restorations based on spectrophotometric analysis of 4 different types of resin composites between the baseline immediately after polishing and after one year of follow-up. Materials and methods: 28 patients were assessed for eligibility for participation, aged between 18 and 38 years old, who indicated for DCV restorations in anterior maxillary teeth were considered for participation in this study. In total, 25 patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected (6 males and 19 females, mean age: 20.9 at the time of restoration placement), and 3 patients were excluded. Partic

Parasitological examination of gills of three species of sparid fishes in the territorial waters of Iraq was performed, two diplectanid monogenoids were isolated and described; Lamellodiscus indicus Tripathi, 1959 from both Haffara seabream Rhabdosargus haffara (Forsskål, 1775) and Goldline seabream R. sarba (Forsskål, 1775) and Protolamellodiscus senilobatus Kritsky, Jiménez-Ruiz and Sey, 2000 from King soldierbream Argyrops spinifer (Forsskål, 1775). The record of the parasites is considered new to the parasite fauna of Iraq. The redescription of L. indicus for the first time which is collected from a new distribution area (Arabian Gulf). R. haffara is considered a new host record .

This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of treatment actual potato chips processing wastewater in a continuously operated dual chambers microbial fuel cell (MFC) inoculated with anaerobic sludge. The results demonstrated significant removal of COD and suspended solids of more than 99% associated with relatively high generation of current and power densities of 612.5 mW/m³ and 1750 mA/m³, respectively at 100 Ω external resistance.

This study aims to evaluate drinking water quality at the Al Wahda plant (WTP) in Baghdad city. A conventional water treatment plant with an average flow rate of 72.82 MLD. Water samples were taken from the influent and effluent of the treatment plant and analyzed for some physicochemical and biological parameters during the period from June to November 2020. The results of the evaluation indicate that treated water has almost the same characteristics as raw water; in other terms, the plant units do not remove pollutants as efficiently as intended. Based on this, the station appears to be nothing more than a series of water passage units. However, apart from Total dissolved solids, the mean values of all parameters in th

The goal of our study is to perform detailed multiband surface photometry of the spiral galaxy NGC 4448 and its brightest star-forming regions. The structure and composition of the stellar population in the surface brightness galaxy NGC 4448 was studied using BVR CCD photometry. The observations were obtained on the 1.88 m optical telescope of Kottamia Astronomical Observatory (KAO), Egypt. A two-dimensional decomposition of the galaxy bulge and disk components is carried out. A powerful star forming region is observed near the galactic center. Based on the positions of the various components of the galaxy in two color diagrams. From the observations, the surface brightness profiles, Ellipticity profiles, position angle profiles and colo

Total Electron Content measurements derived from Athens station ionograms (ITEC),
located near Iraq, during the ascending phase of solar cycle 24 (July 2009- April 2010),
according to availability of data, are compared with the latest version of the International
Reference Ionosphere model, IRI-2012 (IRI TEC), using two options (NeQuick, IRI01-
Corr) for topside electron density.
The results obtained from both (ITEC and IRI TEC) techniques were similar, where
correlation coefficients between them are very high. Generally, the IRI predictions
overestimate the ITEC values.