Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune diseasecharacterized by chronic inflammationthat affects joints and cartilage. Bone complications such asRA-relatedosteoporosis are one of the most extra-articular manifestations. Many inflammatory mediators are released during RA disease pathophysiology; these mediators stimulate osteoclast genesis of bone by direct effects on RANKL and OPG. The study aimedto measure RANKL, OPG in RA patients treated with Etanercept only and other groups treated with Methotrexate onlyat baseline and after three months to evaluate bone state. An observational case-control prospective study was done on 30 RA patients who received MTX, 30 RA patients who received ETN, and 30 healthy,age-matched control groups. The level of RANKL and OPG was measured at baseline and after three months of therapy by immunoenzymatically assay (ELISA). The results were tabulated and statistically analyzed usingthe statistical package for social science. The result demonstrated that RANKL level had a positive correlation with age and disease duration in contrast to OPG level showed a negative correlation with age and duration of disease. In the patients group treated with MTX at baseline, the RANKL level was significantly higher (181.336±65.583) than post-therapy (166.097±69.229), while the OPG level at baseline significantly lower (594.398±133.238) than post therapy (614.499±150.879). In ETN treated patients, the level of RANKL in baseline was significantly higher than (231.247±73.134) RANKL level post-therapy (200.363±76.807), while OPG level in baseline waslower (463.263±96.392) than post therapy (503.608±107.692). The study demonstrated in baseline RANKL/OPG ratio significant higher (0.4340±0.234) than post therapy (0.3690±0.222). All RA patients had or were at high risk for osteoporosis.Both Etanarcept and methotrexate produce insignificant differences on OPG and RANKL levels, in the same time this biomarkers are not good indicators for bone state.
In this work, the nano particles of Na-A zeolite were synthesized by sol –gel method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray luorescence (XRF), Surface area and pore volume, Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Results show that the nano A zeolite is with average crystal size is 74.77 nm., Si/Al ratio 1.03, BET surface area was 581.211m2/g and the pore volume for NaA was found equal to 0.355cm3/g.
The specific activity of 29 soil samples collected from Fuel
Fabrication Facility FFF at AL-Tuwaitha site, 20 km south of
Baghdad were determined using HPGe detector in a low background
configuration, it's relative efficiency of 40%, and resolution of 2keV
for the 1332 keV gamma ray emission of 60Co. The range of activity
concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K were between (12.56-31.96),
(10.2-18.4) and (47.47-402.1) Bq/kg respectively. In order to assess
any radiological hazard to human health, the absorbed gamma dose
rate D in air at 1m above the ground surface was calculated in the
range (18.87 to 36.46) nGy/h; the outdoor annual effective dose
equivalent AEDE was evaluated to vary from 0.0039 to 0.0076
The paper presents mainly the dynamic response of an angle ply composite laminated plates subjected to thermo-mechanical loading. The response are analyzed by analytically using Newmark direct integration method with Navier solution, numerically by ANSYS. The experimental investigation is to fabricate the laminates and to find mechanical and thermal properties of glass-polyester such as longitudinal, transverse young modulus, shear modulus, longitudinal and transverse thermal expansion. Present of temperature could increase dynamic response of plate also depending on lamination angle, type of mechanical load and the value of temperature.
This paper features the modeling and design of a pole placement and output Feedback control technique for the Active Vibration Control (AVC) of a smart flexible cantilever beam for a Single Input Single Output (SISO) case. Measurements and actuation actions done by using patches of piezoelectric layer, it is bonded to the master structure as sensor/actuator at a certain position of the cantilever beam.
The smart structure is modeled based on the concept of piezoelectric theory, Bernoulli -Euler beam theory, using Finite Element Method (FEM) and the state space techniques. The number of modes is reduced using the controllability and observability grammians retaining the first three
dominant vibratory modes, and for the reduced syste
The purpose of this interview study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of Response to Intervention (RtI) implementation in their school. Particularly, the study explored teachers’ knowledge of RtI, teachers’ perceptions of RtI their intervention/instruction in school, and teachers’ suggestions of RtI implementation in their school. The study design was a qualitative interview in nature and data were collected from face-to-face interviews with four teachers in one school. The findings revealed that RtI means to identify students’ problems; the positive teachers’ perceptions of their implementation included: (a) students who demonstrate progress through RtI are those who receive private education services, (b) progress monito
... Show MoreThis paper presents a meta-heuristic swarm based optimization technique for solving robot path planning. The natural activities of actual ants inspire which named Ant Colony Optimization. (ACO) has been proposed in this work to find the shortest and safest path for a mobile robot in different static environments with different complexities. A nonzero size for the mobile robot has been considered in the project by taking a tolerance around the obstacle to account for the actual size of the mobile robot. A new concept was added to standard Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) for further modifications. Simulations results, which carried out using MATLAB 2015(a) environment, prove that the suggested algorithm outperforms the standard version of AC
... Show MoreThis paper is dealing with non-polynomial spline functions "generalized spline" to find the approximate solution of linear Volterra integro-differential equations of the second kind and extension of this work to solve system of linear Volterra integro-differential equations. The performance of generalized spline functions are illustrated in test examples
The brief description to the theory of propagation of electromagnetic waves in plasma was done. The cutoff and resonance regions have been showed. The principles of plasma heating at electron cyclotron resonance (ECRH) method have been mentioned. The numerical simulation to three different station: Tosca station in United Kingdom, ISX-B station in USA and T-10 station in Russia had been done. The optical depth and the friction of energy absorbed A have been calculated. The simulation results indicate that both and A are increase with size of the tokamak and it is possible to obtain full absorption in large tokamak.
lar water heating systems with heat pipes of three diameter groups of 16, 22 and 28.5 mm. The first and third groups had evaporator lengths of 1150, 1300 and 1550 mm. The second group had an additional length of 1800 mm. all heat pipes were of fixed condenser length of 200 mm. Ethanol at 50% fill charge ratio of the evaporator volume was used as the heat pipes working fluid. Each heat pipe condenser section was inserted in a storage tank and the evaporator section inserted into an evacuated glass tube of the Owens- Illinois type. The combined heat pipe and evacuated glass tube form an active solar collector of a unique design.
The resulting ten solar water heating systems were tested outdoors under the meteorological conditions of Bag