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 present study reports Morchella conica Pers.1818, which belongs to the family, Morchellaceae as a new record of Iraqi macromycota based on the morphological and molecular methods. During their short and often sporadic fruiting season, this fungal species was found in mixed forest unburned areas in Branan ranges (Suliamaniya Province, Northeast Iraq). Currently, M. conica is the second Morchella species reported from Iraq. The current study aimed to introduce this new record, which is poorly studied in the Middle East. M. conica is morphologically described and phylogenetically confirmed. The relationship between this species and other species within the genus was studied using the nrDNA ITS sequences from different species and divers
... Show MoreCompassion competence is a nurse's ability to provide patient-centered care and communicate with patients in a sensitive and insightful manner. This descriptive cross-sectional survey study aimed to assess the compassion competence of a multinational group of nursing students.
A total of 1,158 undergraduate nursing students participated in this study, and stratified random sampling method was used to select participants from the 100 study level to the 400 or 500 level. Data were collected using the Compassion Competence Scale.
<In their growth stages, cities become an aggregation of different urban contexts as a result of development or investment projects with other goals, which creates urban tension at several levels. Previous studies presented different approaches and methods to address specific aspects of urban stress, and thus contemporary visions and propositions varied, which required a field for research. The research, from a review of the proposals, the research problem emerged in need to study the indicators and trends of balanced urban development that address the tensions between different social, economic and urban contexts". Accordingly, the objective of the research is determined as "Building a comprehe
... Show MoreIn this article, we aim to define a universal set consisting of the subscripts of the fuzzy differential equation (5) except the two elements and , subsets of that universal set are defined according to certain conditions. Then, we use the constructed universal set with its subsets for suggesting an analytical method which facilitates solving fuzzy initial value problems of any order by using the strongly generalized H-differentiability. Also, valid sets with graphs for solutions of fuzzy initial value problems of higher orders are found.
Background: The highest concentrations of
blood glucose during the day are usually found
postprandialy. Postprandial hyperglycemia (PPH)
is likely to promote or aggravate fasting
hyperglycemia. Evidence in recent years suggests
that PPH may play an important role in functional
& structural disturbances in different body organs
particularly the cardiovascular system.
Objective: To evaluate the effect of (PPH) as a
risk factor for coronary Heart disease in Type 2
diabetic patients.
Methods: Sixty-three type2 diabetic patients
were included in this study. All have controlled
fasting blood glucose, with HbA1c correlation.
They were all followed for five months period
(from May to October 2008)
In this work, an experimental analysis is made to predict the thermal performance of the natural-convection phenomenon from a heated vertical externally finned-tube to surrounding air through an open-ended enclosure. Two different configurations of longitudinal rectangular fin namely, continuous and interrupted are utilized with constant thickness, different numbers, and different heights are extended radially on the outer surface of a heated tube. The tube is heated electrically from inner surface with five varied power input magnitudes. The effect of fins configuration, fins number, fins height, and heat flux of the inner tube surface on the thermal performance of natural c
... Show MoreGeotechnical engineering like any other engineering field has to develop and cope with new technologies. This article intends to investigate the spatial relationships between soil’s liquid limit (LL), plasticity index (PI) and Liquidity index (LI) for particular zones of Sulaymaniyah City. The main objective is to study the ability to produce digital soil maps for the study area and determine regions of high expansive soil. Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation tool within the GIS (Geographic Information System) program was used to produce the maps. Data from 592 boreholes for LL and PI and 245 boreholes for LI were used for this study. Layers were allocated into three depth ranges (1 to 2, 2 to 4 and 4 to 6)
... Show MoreThis paper deals with defining Burr-XII, and how to obtain its p.d.f., and CDF, since this distribution is one of failure distribution which is compound distribution from two failure models which are Gamma model and weibull model. Some equipment may have many important parts and the probability distributions representing which may be of different types, so found that Burr by its different compound formulas is the best model to be studied, and estimated its parameter to compute the mean time to failure rate. Here Burr-XII rather than other models is consider because it is used to model a wide variety of phenomena including crop prices, household income, option market price distributions, risk and travel time. It has two shape-parame
... Show MoreCassava, a significant crop in Africa, Asia, and South America, is a staple food for millions. However, classifying cassava species using conventional color, texture, and shape features is inefficient, as cassava leaves exhibit similarities across different types, including toxic and non-toxic varieties. This research aims to overcome the limitations of traditional classification methods by employing deep learning techniques with pre-trained AlexNet as the feature extractor to accurately classify four types of cassava: Gajah, Manggu, Kapok, and Beracun. The dataset was collected from local farms in Lamongan Indonesia. To collect images with agricultural research experts, the dataset consists of 1,400 images, and each type of cassava has
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