Background: Osteoarthritis is a complicated, chronic disorder of cartilage and bone, associated with homeostasis of bio-elements. The current study aims to assess the role of serum progranulin levels among Iraqi patients with knee osteoarthritis. Patients and Methods: The study encompassed 50 patients aged 52.50 ± 3.12 years (25 males and 25 females), admitted to the at the Baghdad Medical City through the period from November 2021 to March 2022. All individuals were identified by physicians in a Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic and the clinical data was collected along with the assess¬ment of biochemical parameters. Fasting serum glucose, lipid profile, calcium, magnesium, alkaline phosphatase, vitamin D3, and progranulin levels were determined. Results: All patients in this study had higher levels of serum glucose and dyslipidemia with significant increases (p < 0.05) in alkaline phosphatase and progranulin levels and considerable reduced (p < 0.05) in serum calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D3 as compared to healthy group. Additionally, hypovitaminosis D were appeared in all patients and progranulin levels were (56.30±8.50 ng/mL) vs. (40.45 ± 8.90 ng/mL) in control group with OR and CI= 1.54 (0.97-2.58). Conclusions: Inflammation has an integral role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. Serum vitamin D3 level is considerably low in patients with knee osteoarthritis paralleled to healthy individuals. However, this study demonstrates increased progranulin levels in knee osteoarthritis patients and associates with vitamin D level, disease activity, and inflammation among those patients. Keywords: Knee osteoarthritis, Calcium, Magnesium, Alkaline phosphatase,Vitamin D3, Progranulin.
As a result of recent developments in highway research as well as the increased use of vehicles, there has been a significant interest paid to the most current, effective, and precise Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). In the field of computer vision or digital image processing, the identification of specific objects in an image plays a crucial role in the creation of a comprehensive image. There is a challenge associated with Vehicle License Plate Recognition (VLPR) because of the variation in viewpoints, multiple formats, and non-uniform lighting conditions at the time of acquisition of the image, shape, and color, in addition, the difficulties like poor image resolution, blurry image, poor lighting, and low contrast, these
... Show MoreThe study aims to build a water quality index that fits the Iraqi aquatic systems and reflects the environmental reality of Iraqi water. The developed Iraqi Water Quality Index (IQWQI) includes physical and chemical components. To build the IQWQI, Delphi method was used to communicate with local and global experts in water quality indices for their opinion regarding the best and most important parameter we can use in building the index and the established weight of each parameter. From the data obtained in this study, 70% were used for building the model and 30% for evaluating the model. Multiple scenarios were applied to the model inputs to study the effects of increasing parameters. The model was built 4 by 4 until it reached 17 parame
... Show MoreAfter the fall of the Iraqi regime in the 9th of April 2003, and after the disintegration of the country, political and party political chaos that had never been witnessed before, has now taken over. In the past 2 years, the American military forces had a primary role in spreading this chaos and disorder by applying a set of wrong measures and policies. This chaos that is still affecting the iraqi people was completely ignored by the USA even 2 years after the occupation, no serious steps have been taken in order to bring back order and security, on the other hand, most of the government institutions and its forces were disintegrated, along with the decision made by Paul Bremer of dismissing all the iraqi journals and the workers of the
... Show Moreنتيجة للتطورات الأخيرة في أبحاث الطرق السريعة بالإضافة إلى زيادة استخدام المركبات، كان هناك اهتمام كبير بنظام النقل الذكي الأكثر حداثة وفعالية ودقة (ITS) في مجال رؤية الكمبيوتر أو معالجة الصور الرقمية، يلعب تحديد كائنات معينة في صورة دورًا مهمًا في إنشاء صورة شاملة. هناك تحدٍ مرتبط بالتعرف على لوحة ترخيص السيارة (VLPR) بسبب الاختلاف في وجهة النظر، والتنسيقات المتعددة، وظروف الإضاءة غير الموحدة في وقت الحصول
... Show MoreEnglish is spoken by its native speakers in two different forms. Reduced form which marks the colloquial and rapid speech so that it is easily produced and a citation or unreduced form which is a characteristic of careful, emphasized and slow speech.
This paper investigates Iraqi EFL university students’ production of the two forms mentioned above. The sample chosen includes twenty fourth year students, of which ten are males and the other ten are females from the Department of English of the College of Languages of the University of Duhok in Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the academic year 2020-2021. The material tested is six connective words which represent the commonest ones in every-day co
... Show MoreThe study investigates the relationship between the volatility of the Iraqi Stock Exchange Index (ISX), and the volatility of global oil prices benchmarks, Brent and West Intermediate Texas (WTI), in additional to the Iraqi Oil, Basra Crude Light (BSL) which represents the most exported Iraqi oil and the major influential factor on the Iraqi governmental revenues. Using monthly data covering the period: 1/2005-12/1205, econometrical and technical tools represented by Co-incretion, Vector Error Correction Model – VECM, Granger Causality, and Bollinger band were employed in order to explore the relationship between the variables.
The econometric analysis revealed the impact of the oil prices volatility on
... Show MoreUnconfined Compressive Strength is considered the most important parameter of rock strength properties affecting the rock failure criteria. Various research have developed rock strength for specific lithology to estimate high-accuracy value without a core. Previous analyses did not account for the formation's numerous lithologies and interbedded layers. The main aim of the present study is to select the suitable correlation to predict the UCS for hole depth of formation without separating the lithology. Furthermore, the second aim is to detect an adequate input parameter among set wireline to determine the UCS by using data of three wells along ten formations (Tanuma, Khasib, Mishrif, Rumaila, Ahmady, Maudud, Nahr Um
... Show MoreIt seems that the features of the theatrical discourse , since its early establishment by the Greeks, were cultural features specifically confined to that society. Such features determined the direction of the theatrical discourse for this state instead of that state. There could be some sort of similarity among those features , nevertheless they remained within the general humanitarian framework . What achieved relatedness were those features and particularities that distinguished the theatrical community. Such features and particularities vary from one show to another. This is what we call " Local Specificity" .The Iraqi theatrical memory has always emphasized the concept of Experimentation through originality and renewal since the arr
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