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.
This study offers numerical simulation results using the ABAQUS/CAE version 2019 finite element computer application to examine the performance, and residual strength of eight recycle aggregate RC one-way slabs. Six strengthened by NSM CFRP plates were presented to study the impact of several parameters on their structural behavior. The experimental results of four selected slabs under monotonic load, plus one slab under repeated load, were validated numerically. Then the numerical analysis was extended to different parameters investigation, such as the impact of added CFRP length on ultimate load capacity and load-deflection response and the impact of concrete compressive strength value on the structural performance of
... Show MoreA thin film of AgInSe2 and Ag1-xCuxInSe2 as well as n-Ag1-xCuxInSe2 /p-Si heterojunction with different Cu ratios (0, 0.1, 0.2) has been successfully fabricated by thermal evaporation method as absorbent layer with thickness about 700 nm and ZnTe as window layer with thickness about 100 nm. We made a multi-layer of p-ZnTe/n-AgCuInSe2/p-Si structures, In the present work, the conversion efficiency (η) increased when added the Cu and when used p-ZnTe as a window layer (WL) the bandgap energy of the direct transition decreases from 1.75 eV (Cu=0.0) to 1.48 eV (Cu=0.2 nm) and the bandgap energy for ZnTe=2.35 eV. The measurements of the electrical properties for prepared films showed that the D.C electrical conductivity (σd.c) increase
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Shear and compressional wave velocities, coupled with other petrophysical data, are vital in determining the dynamic modules magnitude in geomechanical studies and hydrocarbon reservoir characterization. But, due to field practices and high running cost, shear wave velocity may not available in all wells. In this paper, a statistical multivariate regression method is presented to predict the shear wave velocity for Khasib formation - Amara oil fields located in South- East of Iraq using well log compressional wave velocity, neutron porosity and density. The accuracy of the proposed correlation have been compared to other correlations. The results show that, the presented model provides accurate
... Show MoreSolar energy usage in Iraq is facing many issues; one of those is the accumulation “of the dust on the surface of the solar module which” would highly lower its efficiency. The present work study the effect of dust accumulation” on installing fixed solar modules with different inclined angles 15o, 33o, 45o, 60o. Evaluation of the solar modules performance under different circumstance conditions such as rain, wind and humidity are considered in study of dust effect on solar module performance. The results show that the lowest output average efficiencies of solar modules occurs at 15o horizontally inclined angle are 7.4% , 6.7% , 8.0% , 8.1%, and 8.4% for the cor
... Show MoreThe measurements and tests of the samples conducted in the laboratories of the College of Agriculture included isolating bio-fertilizers and testing the efficiency of isolates that fix atmospheric nitrogen and solubilize phosphorous compounds. Bacteria were isolated and identified from the rhizosphere soils of different plants collected from various agricultural areas. A total of 74 bacterial isolates were obtained based on the phenotypic characteristics of the developing colonies, as well as biochemical and microscopic traits. The results of isolation and identification showed that among the 74 bacterial isolates, there were 15 isolates of A. chroococcum, 13 of Az. lipoferum, 13 of B. megaterium, 10 of P. putida, 10 of Actinomycetes, and n
... Show MoreThe current research aims to investigate the skills of the intended meaning beyond the context when reading poetry among fifth literary students. To achieve the aim of the research, the researcher has followed the descriptive approach and used two tools: an open questionnaire that includes an inquiry about the skills of the intended meaning beyond the poetic context, and a closed questionnaire that were examined by the juries, and modified accordingly. Besides, its validity and stability were examined by applying the study on an exploratory sample of (15) teachers to reach its final version and determine the time required to answer it. Then, the researcher applied it on the research sample of (9
... Show MoreIn this research , we study the inverse Gompertz distribution (IG) and estimate the survival function of the distribution , and the survival function was evaluated using three methods (the Maximum likelihood, least squares, and percentiles estimators) and choosing the best method estimation ,as it was found that the best method for estimating the survival function is the squares-least method because it has the lowest IMSE and for all sample sizes
Nonlinear time series analysis is one of the most complex problems ; especially the nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous variable (NARX) .Then ; the problem of model identification and the correct orders determination considered the most important problem in the analysis of time series . In this paper , we proposed splines estimation method for model identification , then we used three criterions for the correct orders determination. Where ; proposed method used to estimate the additive splines for model identification , And the rank determination depends on the additive property to avoid the problem of curse dimensionally . The proposed method is one of the nonparametric methods , and the simulation results give a
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