It was aimed to understand the interleukin-4 (IL-4) role in etio-pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two approaches were adopted. In the first one, a quantitative expression of IL4 gene was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and such findings were correlated with some demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters, which included gender, duration of disease, disease activity score (DAS-28), rheumatoid factors (RFs), C-reactive protein (CRP) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACCP) antibodies. In the second approach, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of IL4 gene (rs2243250) was inspected by DNA sequencing using specific primers. Fifty-one Iraqi RA patients (22 males and 29 females) were enrolled in the study. They were under therapy, which was a single weekly subcutaneous dose of 25 mg of etanercept (Enbrel) for a period of 3-5 years. The results of gene expression (2-??Ct) revealed an increased expression of IL4 mRNA (Mean ± SEM: 8.247 ± 2.442), especially female patients compared to male patients (11.545 ± 3.928 vs. 3.537 ± 1.530; p = 0.03). The expression was also subjected to variations that were related to clinical and laboratory findings. With respect to IL4 gene SNP, allele and genotype frequencies showed no significant differences between RA patients and controls. In addition, the SNP genotypes had no effect on IL4 gene expression. In conclusion, an up-regulation of IL4 gene expression was observed in RA patients, and it was more pronounced in female than male patients by approximately four folds, while no association between the IL4 SNP alleles or genotypes and RA was observed.
The using of the parametric models and the subsequent estimation methods require the presence of many of the primary conditions to be met by those models to represent the population under study adequately, these prompting researchers to search for more flexible models of parametric models and these models were nonparametric models.
In this manuscript were compared to the so-called Nadaraya-Watson estimator in two cases (use of fixed bandwidth and variable) through simulation with different models and samples sizes. Through simulation experiments and the results showed that for the first and second models preferred NW with fixed bandwidth fo
... Show MoreIn this paper, a robust adaptive sliding mode controller is designed for a mobile platform trajectory tracking. The mobile platform is an example of a nonholonomic mechanical system. The presence of holonomic constraints reduces the number of degree of freedom that represents the system model, while the nonholonomic constraints reduce the differentiable degree of freedom. The mathematical model was derived here for the mobile platform, considering the existence of one holonomic and two nonholonomic constraints imposed on system dynamics. The partial feedback linearization method was used to get the input-output relation, where the output is the error functions between the position of a certain point on the platform
... Show MoreThis paper aims at exploring the impact of the Iraq-Iran war in the poetry of Adnan Al-Sayegh. Al-Sayegh participation in this war makes him a first hand witness to the atrocities of the trenches and fight in the first lines. This war did not only change his life and world view for good, it changes the nature of his poetry as well. As aresult, war becomes a central issue not only in the poetry Al-Sayegh wrote in the 1980s and 1990s Iraq, but also in the exile.
Key Words: War, Al-Sayegh, Poetry.
Recent years have seen an explosion in graph data from a variety of scientific, social and technological fields. From these fields, emotion recognition is an interesting research area because it finds many applications in real life such as in effective social robotics to increase the interactivity of the robot with human, driver safety during driving, pain monitoring during surgery etc. A novel facial emotion recognition based on graph mining has been proposed in this paper to make a paradigm shift in the way of representing the face region, where the face region is represented as a graph of nodes and edges and the gSpan frequent sub-graphs mining algorithm is used to find the frequent sub-structures in the graph database of each emotion. T
... Show MoreSoils that cause effective damages to engineer structures (such as pavement and foundation) are called problematic or difficult soils (include collapsible soil, expansive soil, etc.). These damages occur due to poor or unfavorited engineering properties, such as low shear strength, high compressibility, high volume changes, etc. In the case of expansive soil, the problem of the shrink-swell phenomenon, when the soil reacts with water, is more pronounced. To overcome such problems, soils can be treated or stabilized with many stabilization ways (mechanical, chemical, etc.). Such ways can amend the unfavorited soil properties. In this review, the pozzolanic materials have been selected to be presented and discussed as chem
... Show MoreRobots have become an essential part of modern industries in welding departments to increase the accuracy and rate of production. The intelligent detection of welding line edges to start the weld in a proper position is very important. This work introduces a new approach using image processing to detect welding lines by tracking the edges of plates according to the required speed by three degrees of a freedom robotic arm. The two different algorithms achieved in the developed approach are the edge detection and top-hat transformation. An adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system ANFIS was used to choose the best forward and inverse kinematics of the robot. MIG welding at the end-effector was applied as a tool in this system, and the wel
... Show MoreNanocrystalline ZnO/Zeolite type A composite was prepared by simple method of operation by . the precipitation of zinc oxide and loading on zeolite 5A in one step. Characterization was made by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence(XRF), N2 adsorption- desorption for BET surface area, and Atomic force microscopy (AFM). Results showed that zinc oxide was loaded on zeolite as noticed by the characteristic peaks and was of nano scale having an average diameter of 88.57nm. The percentage loading of ZnO on zeolite A was 28.37% and the surface area was 222m2/g. The activity of the prepared catalyst was examined in the desulfurization of double hydrogenated diesel fuel. The process was investigated in a
... Show MoreRobots have become an essential part of modern industries in welding departments to increase the accuracy and rate of production. The intelligent detection of welding line edges to start the weld in a proper position is very important. This work introduces a new approach using image processing to detect welding lines by tracking the edges of plates according to the required speed by three degrees of a freedom robotic arm. The two different algorithms achieved in the developed approach are the edge detection and top-hat transformation. An adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system ANFIS was used to choose the best forward and inverse kinematics of the robot. MIG welding at the end-effector was applied as a tool in this system, and the wel
... Show MoreA single-blind randomized controlled clinical trial in patients with deep caries and symptoms of reversible pulpitis compared outcomes from a self-limiting excavation protocol using chemomechanical Carisolv gel/operating microscope (self-limiting) versus selective removal to leathery dentin using rotary burs (control). This was followed by pulp protection with mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) and restoration with glass ionomer cement and resin composite, all in a single visit. The pulp sensibility and periapical health of teeth were assessed after 12 mo, in addition to the differences in bacterial tissue concentration postexcavation. Apical radiolucencies were assessed using cone beam computed tomography/periapical radiographs (CBC
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