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 wer

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of Nd:YAG laser shock processing (LSP) on micro-hardness and surface roughness of 86400Cu-Zn alloy. X-ray fluorescence technique was used to analyze the chemical composition of this alloy. LSP treatment was performed with a Q-switched Nd: YAG laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm. The results show that laser shock processing can significantly increase. The micro-hardness and surface roughness of the LSP-treated sample. Vickers diamond indenter was used to measure the micro-hardness of all samples with different laser pulse energy and the different number of laser pulses. It is found that the metal hardness can be significantly increased to more than 80% by increasing the laser energy and t

The effect of D phase polyamide (PA6)on the rheological properties, Young Modulus and the thermal expansion coefficient of two blends groups (bitumen-polyamide) were tested. The first group was for bitumen-PA6 blends and the second group for bitumen blended with polymer resulted from the crystallization of PA6-formic acid solution in water(PAFW).The obtained results proved that adding both types of polyamide has led to a rise in toughness and softening point temperature while the penetration Index approached -3 after adding the polyamide. So, all these changes make bitumen-polyamide blends more suitable for use in hot climate regions. The blends properties were explained according to the reaction that takes place between the polyamide and

Background: Sialosis described as a specific consequence of diabetes. In diabetic sialosis, the increased volume of the glands is due to the infiltration of adipose in the parenchyma. The B-scan ultrasonography is a generally accepted tool for determining parotid gland enlargement. Oral health is, to a greater extent, dependent on quality and quantity of saliva, both of which may be altered in diabetics. This study was established to detect the enlargement of parotid gland in diabetic patient and study the changes in physical properties of saliva and its relation with the salivary gland enlargement. Subjects, Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study with highly specified criteria with ages ranged (20-65) years, male and female subject

This paper presents a comparative study of two learning algorithms for the nonlinear PID neural trajectory tracking controller for mobile robot in order to follow a pre-defined path. As simple and fast tuning technique, genetic and particle swarm optimization algorithms are used to tune the nonlinear PID neural controller's parameters to find the best velocities control actions of the right wheel and left wheel for the real mobile robot. Polywog wavelet activation function is used in the structure of the nonlinear PID neural controller. Simulation results (Matlab) and experimental work (LabVIEW) show that the proposed nonlinear PID controller with PSO
learning algorithm is more effective and robust than genetic learning algorithm; thi