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

The study involved 120 women, who were distributed into two groups of breast tumor patients (30 malignant and 30 benign) and a group of controls (60 women). The patients were referred to the Center for Early Detection of Breast Tumor at Al-Alwayia Hospital for Gynecology and Obstetrics (Baghdad) during the period June-December 2011. They were investigated for the frequency of ABO blood group phenotypes, menopausal status, oral contraceptive use, body mass index and family history of breast cancer or other cancers. The results demonstrated that 60.0% of malignant cases clustered after the age 50 years, while it was 20.0% in benign cases. Fifty percent of malignant breast tumor patients reached menopause, while in benign cases, the corresp

An eco-epidemiological system incorporating a vertically transmitted infectious disease is proposed and investigated. Micheal-Mentence type of harvesting is utilized to study the harvesting effort imposed on the predator. All the properties of the solution of the system are discussed. The dynamical behaviour of the system, involving local stability, global stability, and local bifurcation, is investigated. The work is finalized with the numerical simulation to observe the global behaviour of the solution.

Linear regression is one of the most important statistical tools through which it is possible to know the relationship between the response variable and one variable (or more) of the independent variable(s), which is often used in various fields of science. Heteroscedastic is one of the linear regression problems, the effect of which leads to inaccurate conclusions. The problem of heteroscedastic may be accompanied by the presence of extreme outliers in the independent variables (High leverage points) (HLPs), the presence of (HLPs) in the data set result unrealistic estimates and misleading inferences. In this paper, we review some of the robust

In today‟s fierce competitive world, entrepreneurship has taken an upswing because business owners are facing a technological challenge in which uniqueness and particularity are key elements to detour rivals. In this essence, entrepreneurs have to go by not only developing business plans but also a deep analysis of their environment.
Business plans for entrepreneurs can take different models depending on the party that will evaluate its elements based on its requirements. However, there exists a basic format that most entrepreneurs follow. Because of time constraints, business owners are urging its usefulness and so are the investors. Business plans are all about nailing down the business idea into writing and analysis, while th

The present study develops the sorption model for simulating the effects of pH and temperature on the uptake of cadmium from contaminated water using waste foundry sand (WFS) by allowing the variation of the maximum adsorption capacity and affinity constant. The presence of two acidic functional groups with the same or different affinity is the basis in the derivation of the two models; Model 1 and Model 2 respectively. The developed Bi-Langmuir model with different affinity (Model 2) has a remarkable ability in the description of process under consideration with coefficient of determination > 0.9838 and sum of squared error < 0.08514. This result is proved by FTIR test where the weak acids responsible of cadmium ions removal

Libraries, information centers, and everything related to organizing and preparing information need to be periodically re-evaluated in order to stand on the level of quality, which means improving the general reality of these institutions to ensure sufficient satisfaction from beneficiaries of the services provided. This is what was worked on in this research, as one of the most important quality standards in libraries and information centers, LibQUAL+®, was applied in one of the most important and oldest central university libraries, namely the Central Library of the University of Baghdad at its two locations, Al-Jadriya and Al-Waziriya. The sample of beneficiaries to whom the questionnaire was distributed reached 75 beneficiaries distrib

This study aims to identify the issue of observing media publishing and its importance for public relations in the management of special events; and its role in building the positive image of the target audience through communication messages that illustrate the political, economic and diplomatic importance of the Arab Summit. As such Summit is one of the conferences that Iraq sought to secure the requirements of its convening to re-activate its political and diplomatic role in the Arab Ocean, especially after the circumstances and crises that Iraq went through.

The convening of the Arab Summit under the auspices of Iraq was a qualitative transition, during which Iraq sought to achieve some gains b

This study aimed at evaluating the torsional capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beams externally wrapped with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials. An analytical model was described and used as a new computational procedure based on the softened truss model (STM) to predict the torsional behavior of RC beams strengthened with FRP. The proposed analytical model was validated with the existing experimental data for rectangular sections strengthened with FRP materials and considering torque-twist relationship and crack pattern at failure. The confined concrete behavior, in the case of FRP wrapping, was considered in the constitutive laws of concrete in the model. Then, an efficient algorithm was developed in MATLAB environment t