Background: Cytokines produced by inflammatory cells play a pivotal role in synovial inflammation and joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis.
Patients and Methods: The cytokine serum levels were measured by EASIA (Enzyme amplified sensitivity immunoassay) in sera from 50 RA patients, and 40 healthy donors. Cytokine levels were compared in different RA subpopulations (positive or negative rheumatoid factor (RF), long term or recent onset disease, high or low disease activity). In addition, the possible association with other demographic and clinical parameters (gender, age, etc) was also analyzed.
Results: It was demonstrated that IL-2, IL-6 and IFN-δ levels were elevated in serum samples of RA pati

The present study aimed to assess the potential impact of serum concentration of undercarboxylated osteocalcin (the active form of osteocalcin) and fibroblast growth factor-23 on the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in type 2 diabetics with carotid artery calcification and the possible association with metabolic changes in relation to glucose and minerals homeostasis.

This study included 52 men with carotid artery calcification type 2 diabetes mellitus. These patients were categorized; as follows: group A includes 30 patients who had cardiovascular disease and group B includes 22 patients who had no cardiovascular disease. These groups were compared with 25 apparently healthy control (Group C). 

It has been shown

This study aims at detecting the differences in genotyping of coding region fusA gene in clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii from Baghdad, Iraq. Collected two hundred clinical samples (50 samples from urine, 50 samples from wound, 50 samples from sputum and 50 samples from otitis infections). Laboratory diagnosis for bacterial isolates carried out by some biochemical tests and confirmed by using VITEK- 2 compact system. The results appeared that twenty isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii in all these samples. Genotyping study was performed of coding region fusA gene of the extracted genome of all bacterial isolates and used specific primers in achieved amplification process of this target gene. DNA sequencing of this gene and alig

There is a great risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and vascular thrombosis in patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). These patients exhibit numerous abnormalities in coagulation, fibrinolytic, inhibitory protein abnormalities in multiple levels. The study aimed to assess hypercoagulable changes by measuring the levels of antithrombin, plasma fibrinogen and FXII activity in patients with ESRD, and to find their correlation with Hemoglobin (Hb) level, WBC count, reticulocyte percentage and platelet count. This study was conducted at Al-Hayat center, Al Karama Teaching Hospital on 50 ESRD patients aged < 60 years of both genders. In addition, 20 apparently healthy individuals were included as a control group. The mean Hb level, total

This paper discusses the method for determining the permeability values of Tertiary Reservoir in Ajeel field (Jeribe, dhiban, Euphrates) units and this study is very important to determine the permeability values that it is needed to detect the economic value of oil in Tertiary Formation. This study based on core data from nine wells and log data from twelve wells. The wells are AJ-1, AJ-4, AJ-6, AJ-7, AJ-10, AJ-12, AJ-13, AJ-14, AJ-15, AJ-22, AJ-25, and AJ-54, but we have chosen three wells (AJ4, AJ6, and AJ10) to study in this paper. Three methods are used for this work and this study indicates that one of the best way of obtaining permeability is the Neural network method because the values of permeability obtained be

Due to the continuing demand for larger bandwidth, the optical transport becoming general in the access network. Using optical fiber technologies, the communications infrastructure becomes powerful, providing very high speeds to transfer a high capacity of data. Existing telecommunications infrastructures is currently widely used Passive Optical Network that apply Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) and is awaited to play an important role in the future Internet supporting a large diversity of services and next generation networks. This paper presents a design of WDM-PON network, the simulation and analysis of transmission parameters in the Optisystem 7.0 environment for bidirectional traffic. The simulation shows the behavior of optical

Abstract

Due to the continuing demand for larger bandwidth, the optical transport becoming general in the access network. Using optical fiber technologies, the communications infrastructure becomes powerful, providing very high speeds to transfer a high capacity of data. Existing telecommunications infrastructures is currently widely used Passive Optical Network that apply Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) and is awaited to play an important role in the future Internet supporting a large diversity of services and next generation networks. This paper presents a design of WDM-PON network, the simulation and analysis of transmission parameters in the Optisystem 7.0 environment for bidirectional traffic. The sim

The ground state proton, neutron, and matter density distributions and corresponding root-mean-square (rms) of P19PC exotic nucleus are studied in terms of two-frequency shell model (TFSM) approach. The single-particle wave functions of harmonic-oscillator (HO) potential are used with two different oscillator parameters bRcoreR and bRhaloR. According to this model, the core nucleons of P18PC nucleus are assumed to move in the model space of spsdpf. The shell model calculations are carried out for core nucleons with w)20(+ truncations using the realistic WBP
interaction. The outer (halo) neutron in P
19
PC is assumed to move in the pure 2sR1/2R-
orbit. The halo structure in P
19
PC is confirmed with 2sR1/2R-dominant c

      Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disease characterized by elevated levels of circulating anti-nuclear autoantibodies and interferon-alpha (INFs-α). Interferon regulatory factor-5 (IRF5) plays an important role in the induction of type I interferon and pro-inflammatory cytokines, and participates in the SLE pathogenesis. This study aimed to investigate the role of IRF5 gene expression levels in a sample of SLE Iraqi patients and its correlation with disease activity, and to identify its diagnostic ability as a biomarker reflecting disease activity. Blood samples were taken from 45 participants diagnosed with SLE cases classified according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria. T