Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and systemic autoimmune disease that is characterized by severe synovial inflammation, cartilage erosion, bone loss, and generalized vasculopathy. Although the immunologic mechanism of RA is still unclear, it is now thought to be a primarily Th17-driven disease. Along with other factors, IL-23 stimulates the expansion of Th17 cells from naive CD4+ T cells.

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the circulating levels of interleukin (IL)-23 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and determine the correlation between plasma/serum IL-23 levels and disease activity. So, we performed a systematic review with meta-analysis comparing

The current work reports a new Schiff base [N1-benzylidenebenezene-1,2-diamine(L) = C20H16N2] has been synthesized from benzaldehyde (C6H5CHO) and O- aminoaniline (O-C6H4(NH2)2. Metal mixed ligand complexes of the Schiff base were prepared from chloride salts of Zn(II), Cd(II) and Hg(II) in ethanol and 8-hydroxyquinoline(8HQ)(C9H7NO) containing sodium hydroxide. All the complexes were characterized on the basis of their; FT-IR and U.V spectra, melting point, molar conductance, and determination of the percentage of the metal in the complexes by flame (AAS). In the all complexes, (8HQ) behaves as a bidentate ligand as primary ligand through –-OH phenolic group and –N groups of pyridine group. Also, the prepared ligand (L) was bidentate i

Since the Internet has been more widely used and more people have access to multimedia content, copyright hacking, and piracy have risen. By the use of watermarking techniques, security, asset protection, and authentication have all been made possible. In this paper, a comparison between fragile and robust watermarking techniques has been presented to benefit them in recent studies to increase the level of security of critical media. A new technique has been suggested when adding an embedded value (129) to each pixel of the cover image and representing it as a key to thwart the attacker, increase security, rise imperceptibility, and make the system faster in detecting the tamper from unauthorized users. Using the two watermarking ty

In May 20th. 1985 two species of aphids were found on the roots of Vicia faba L. in Hammam region 30 Kilometer south of Mosul. Samples of these aphids were sent to the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology, London. ( No. 17002/9804 Asia ) and identified as being Smynthurodes betas westwood and Dysaphis crataegi (Kaltenbach) (APhididae : Homoptera). The first species was dominant. The latter species was also noticed on the roots of the common bishop's weed (Ammi majus L.) and on the wide carrot (Daucus carrota L.) of the family Umbelliferae (Bodenheimer & Swirski, 1957).

The aim of this study was to isolate and identify the cyanobacterium Scytonema hofmanni Var. calcicolum from the domestic drinking tanks as a new record in Iraqi drinking water. Scytonema hofmanni var. calcicolum, a filamentous freshwater cyanobacterium (blue-green alga). This alga was isolated from the walls of the domestic plastic water tanks in Al- karkh/ Baghdad city on July 2014. The sampling was performed by collecting three samples from this tanks, the three examined samples microscopically revealed the dominance of this cyanobacterium as unialgal in the studied samples. The results showed this alga has the ability to tolerate high temperature up to 42 Cº and very low light intensity inside the tanks which up to 10 μE/m²/s.

Abstract

The research Compared two methods for estimating fourparametersof the compound exponential Weibull - Poisson distribution which are the maximum likelihood method and the Downhill Simplex algorithm. Depending on two data cases, the first one assumed the original data (Non-polluting), while the second one assumeddata contamination. Simulation experimentswere conducted for different sample sizes and initial values of parameters and under different levels of contamination. Downhill Simplex algorithm was found to be the best method for in the estimation of the parameters, the probability function and the reliability function of the compound distribution in cases of natural and contaminateddata.

Stimulative effect of 10 mW He-Ne laser on the phagocytic activity of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes( PMNs) has been studied in vitro. Normal polymorphonuclear leucocytes were isolated from the human peripheral blood. A mixture of 0.25 ml of Hanks solution, 0.25 ml of serum, 0.25 ml of Candida albicans suspension and 0.25 ml of PMNs suspension was prepared. The samples of mixture of PMNs and Candida were subdivided in 1 ml ependrof tubes and irradiated to He-Ne laser for 1, 3, 5, 10 and 20 min. The diameter of the irradiated area was 0.8 cm. For calculation of Phagocytic index before and after irradiation, the samples were incubated (37°C) at 5, 15, 30, 60 min. The slides of samples were prepared and stained using Giemsa stain. The

Background: The potential use of zinc oxide and other metal oxide nanoparticles in biomedical are gaining interest in the scientific and medical communities, largely due to the physical and chemical properties of these nanomaterials. The present work revealed the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) on the total salivary peroxidase enzyme activity of human saliva in comparison to de-ionized water. Materials and methods: Forty eight unstimulated saliva samples were collected from dental students/University of Baghdad 18-22 years. Then measure the total salivary peroxidase activity first without any addition to human saliva as a control, second with dilution the saliva with de-ionized water, and third with zinc oxide nanoparticles in c

The aim of this research to show the role of some enzymes in pathological mechanism of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease. Sixty patients with RA and matched number of apparently healthy volunteers were included in the study. Spectrophotometric methods were used to determine Peroxy nitrite (ONOO), Nitric oxide (NO), Nitric oxide synthase activity (NOS) cycloxygenase-2 activity (COX-2), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activity and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in serum of both groups. Colorimetric assay kits were used to determine Iron. Rheumatoid factor (RF) was determined using Imuno-Latex kit. ONOO, NO levels, and NOS activity were significantly higher in the patients compared to the control group. Conversely, Iron level, SOD