Background: Several infectious lung diseases often develop in patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), especially during immunosuppressive medication, including disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The present study aimed to determine the role of respiratory tract bacterial infection in RA activity. Methods: Blood and sputum samples were collected from 31 patients with RA and 12 healthy subjects as control. The bacterial isolates were isolated and identified in collected sputum by biochemical tests and Vitec 2 system. Results: In the present study, thirty-one patients with RA were compared with 12 healthy subjects. Eight patients with RA were not infected with pathogenic bacteria (RA-NIPB) (25.8%). Twenty-three RA patients were infected with pathogenic bacteria (RA-IPB) (74.19%). From 23 RA-IPB, 10 RA patients were infected with Staphylococcus aureus, 6 RA patients were infected with Klebsiella pneumonia, 4 RA patients were infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae, and 3 RA patients were infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. No pathogenic bacteria were isolated from the sputum of a healthy subjects. There was no significant difference between RA-NIPB and RA-IPB in terms of the level of disease activity score DAS28. Conclusion: The current study showed that patients with RA have a higher incidence of being infected with pathogenic bacteria than the healthy control group. No significant effect of bacterial species infection on the level of DAS28. The present study is the pioneer study that showed no effect of bacterial respiratory infections and different RA treatments on RA disease activity.
Effect of the thermal annealing at 400oC for 2 hours and Argon laser radiation for half hour on the optical properties of AgAlS2 thin films, prepared on glass slides by chemical spray pyrolysis at 360oC with (0.18±0.05) μm thickness .The optical characteristics of the prepared thin films have been investigated by UV/Vis spectrophotometer in the wavelength range (300 – 1100)nm .The films have a direct allow electronic transition with optical energy (Eg) values decreased from (2.25) eV for untreated thin films to (2.10) eV for the annealed films and to (2.00) eV for the radiated films. The maximum value of the refractive index (n) for all thin films are given about (2.6). Also the extinction coefficient (K) and the real and imaginary d
... Show MoreThe present study aimed to evaluate the concentration of Malon dialdehyde (MDA) in pregnant women during different stages of pregnancy (stage of pregnancy, abortion, contraceptives and parity number).The study included (120) blood samples from normal pregnant women in age of the procreating were subdivided into three trimesters of pregnancy (40/group), and (40) samples from non-pregnant women as a control group. The results showed a significant increase in MDA in three stages of pregnancy compared with the control group. The concentration of MDA increased significantly in pregnant women with multipregnancy when compared with pregnant women for the first time, and in pregnant women whom was using contraceptions compared with p
... Show MoreThe study was conducted in the poultry field, College of Agriculture, Al-Muthanna University from 1/3/2018 to 6/4/2018 to determine the effect of commercial Ascomax powder produced from seaweed (Ascophyllum nodocum) on some productive performance of broilers. A total of 400, one day, Ross 308 broiler chicks were used for 35 days. The chicks were randomly distributed to 4 treatments, four replicates per treatment (25 chick / replicate). The treatments were as follows: T1: (control treatment), while T2, T3 and T4 added diet by Ascomax powder by 1, 1.5 and 2 g per 1 kg of the basal diet, respectively. The results of the study showed a significant superiority (P <0.05) for the added Ascomax powder treatments compared to the treatment of control
... Show MoreIn this study, Laser Shock Peening (LSP) effect on the polymeric composite materials has been investigated experimentally. Polymeric composite materials are widely used because they are easy to fabricate and have many attractive features. Unsaturated polyester resin as a matrix was selected and Aluminum powder with micro particles as a reinforcement material was used with different volume fraction (2.5%, 5% and 7.5%). Hand lay-up process was used for preparation the composites. Fatigue test with constant amplitude with stress ratio (R =-1) was carried out before and after LSP process with two levels of energy (1Joule and 2Joule). The result showed an increase in the endurance strength of 25.448% at 7.5% volume fraction when peened is 1J
... Show MoreDouble drum dryer is operated for producing pregelatinized maize starches using feed starch slurries of different
solids(7, 10 and13 g/100 g )content . Steam pressure (2,3,and 4 bar), the level of pool between the drums (4,7,and 10
cm) , and speed of drums rotation (3,4,and 6 rpm) are varied together with the feed solids content in a practical range of
values. The response of the dryer is registered by measuring several output variables, i.e. external drum temperature,
product moisture content, mass flow rate.
This study was aimed to investigate the effect of essential oil extracted from the yellow peels of Citrus aurantium on the growth of four species of fungi: Penicillium expansum, Penicillium oxalicum, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium proliferatum and effect of one fungicide: Aliette (fosetyl-aluminum) against these fungi. The results showed that the essential oil of C. aurantium inhibited the radial growth of P. oxalicum at concentration 4.5% while P. expansum and F. oxysporum at concentrations 5% and F. proliferatum at concentrations 5.5% additionally the one fungicide tested showed inhibitory effect on radial growth of these fungi. So that there is a negative relationship between the increasing of concentration and radial growth of fungi.
Background: Nanotechnology represents a new science that promises to provide a broad range of uses and improved technologies for biological and biomedical applications. One of the reasons behind the intense interest is that nanotechnology permits synthesis of materials that have structure is less than 100 nanometers. The present work revealed the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on Streptococcus mutans of Human Saliva in comparison to de-ionized water. Materials and methods: Streptococcus mutans were isolated from saliva of forty eight volunteers of both sexes their age range between 18-22 years and then purified and diagnosed according to morphological characteristic and biochemical tests. Different concentrations of ZnO NPs w
... Show MoreThe present study aimed to explain the dose-dependent possible deleterious effects of 30 day administration of Tramadol on some hematological and biochemical parameters of laboratory male rats (Rattus norvegicus), the study consisted of eighteen adult male rats randomly divided into three equal groups (each of six). Group 1 (control) were treated by intraperitoneal injection of normal saline solution (0.2 ml), group two (low dose) was treated by intraperitonealy (i.p) injection of Tramadol at a dose of 50 mg/kg/day, group three (high dose) was treated by intraperitonealy injection of Tramadol at a dose of 100 mg/kg/day for 30 days. At the end of experimental period, rats were sacrificed. Blood were collected by cardiac puncture to inv
... Show MoreNowadays, the use of recycled waste construction materials instead of aggregates is becoming popular in construction owing to its environmental benefits. This paper presents an experimental and analytical campaign to study the behavior of axially loaded columns constructed from recycled aggregates. The latter was used instead of natural aggregates, and they were collected from the waste of previous concrete constructions. Different concrete mixtures made from varying amounts of recycled aggregates ranged from 0 to 50% of the total coarse aggregate were conducted to achieve 28 MPa. The effect of steel fibers is another investigated variable with volumes ranged from 0 to 2% concerning concrete’s mixture. The experimental
... Show MoreIn the present work, nanocomposite of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) incorporated with functionalized graphene oxide (FGO) were fabricated using casting method. PVA was dispersed by varying content of FGO (0.3, 0.5, 0.8, 1 wt %). The PVA- FGO nanocomposite was characterized by FT‐IR, FE-SEM and XRD. Frequency dependence of real permittivity (ε’), imaginary (ε’’) and a.c conductivity of PVA/FGO and PVA/GO nanocomposite were studied in the frequency range 100 Hz- 1 MHz. The experimental results showed that the values of real (ε’) and imaginary permittivity (ε’’) increased dramatically by increasing the FGO content in PVA matrix. PVA/ FGO (1 wt %) nanocomposite revealed higher electrical conductivity of 6.4×10-4 Sm-1 compared to
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