Chitinase-3-like 1 protein (YKL-40) is a glycoprotein primarily produced in the arthritic joint and plays a crucial role in inflammatory processes. The aim of the study is to establish the role of YKL-40 as a biomarker for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to proinflammatory biomarkers and disease activity. The study included 58 patients and 18 control. Diseases activity score (DAS-28) and clinical disease activity index (CDAI) were measured. Serum level of YKL-40, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1B (IL-1β), erythrocyte sedimentation (ESR), rheumatoid factor (RF), C-reactive protein (CRP), and anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) were assessed. The results showed that the median serum YKL-40 level which was 5.42 ng/ml, the TNF-a level which was 123.6 ng/ml, and the IL-1B level which was 204.365 pg/dl were significantly higher in patients compared to control 3.28 (1.58–4.99) ng/ml, 56.47 (9.38–77.01) ng/ml and 67.887 (15.493–122.689)pg/dl respectively. There was no correlation between serum YKL-40 and disease activity, while there were significant associations observed with TNF-α (r=0.5,p =0.0001) and IL-1β (r=0.41, p=0.001). YKL-40 indicating good levels of RA prediction at 2.47 ng/ml, sensitivity 87.9%, specificity 58.6%, accuracy 78.1%, PPV 80.9%, and NPV 70.8%. In conclusion, a higher level of serum YKL-40 is found in RA patients. The findings from our study suggest a strong association between YKL-40 and the proinflammatory biomarkers. As a result, these biomarkers together might play a role in RA pathogenesis, and YKL-40 may be used as a potential diagnostic biomarker for RA.
من أجل فهم دور سلطنة عُمان في المفاوضات الإقليمية والوساطة وحل النزاعات يجب تقدير سياستها الخارجية، والتي سيتم تقييمها من أجل فهم كيفية نشأتها وتشكلها وأثر ذلك على مواقفها السياسية طوال سنوات حكم السلطان الراحل قابوس بن سعيد. وتقع عُمان في منطقة مضطربة، وقد طُلب منها في عدة مناسبات أن تعمل كمفاوض أو وسيط في الصراعات الإقليمية. سيبحث هذا البحث في كيفية قيام السلطنة بالوساطة الدولية، خاصة في الصراع الأمريكي
... Show MoreThe covid-19 global pandemic has influenced the day-to-day lives of people across the world. One consequence of this has been significant distortion to the subjective speed at which people feel like time is passing. To date, temporal distortions during covid-19 have mainly been studied in Europe. The current study therefore sought to explore experiences of the passage of time in Iraq. An online questionnaire was used to explore the passage of time during the day, week and the 11 months since the first period of covid-19 restrictions were imposed in Iraq. The questionnaire also measured affective and demographic factors, and task-load. The results showed that distortions to the passage of time were widespread in Iraq. Participants co
... Show MoreThe mechanical function of the heart is governed by the contractile properties of the cells, the mechanical stiffness of the muscle and connective tissue, and pressure and volume loading conditions on the organ. Although ventricular pressures and volumes are available for assessing the global pumping performance of the heart, the distribution of stress and strain that characterize regional ventricular function and change in cell biology must be known. The mechanics of the equatorial region of the left, ventricle was modeled by a thick-walled cylinder. The tangential (circumferential) stress, radial stress and longitudinal stress in the wall of the heart have been calculated. There are also significant torsional shear in the wall during b
... Show MoreA restrictive relative clause (RRC hereafter), which is also known as a defining relative clause, gives essential information about a noun that comes before it: without this clause the sentence wouldn’t make much sense. A RRC can be introduced by that, which, whose, who, or whom. Givon (1993, 1995), Fox (1987), Fox and Thompson (1990) state that a RCC is used for two main functions: grounding and description. When a RRC serves the function of linking the current referent to the preceding utterance in the discourse, it does a grounding function; and when the information coded in a RRC is associated with the prior proposition frame, the RRC does a proposition-linking grounding function. Furthermore, when a RRC is not used to ground a new di
... Show MoreMetal contents in vegetables are interesting because of issues related to food safety and potential health risks. The availability of these metals in the human body may perform many biochemical functions and some of them linked with various diseases at high levels. The current study aimed to evaluate the concentration of various metals in common local consumed vegetables using ICP-MS. The concentrations of metals in vegetables of tarragon, Bay laurel, dill, Syrian mesquite, vine leaves, thymes, arugula, basil, common purslane and parsley of this study were found to be in the range of, 76-778 for Al, 10-333 for B, 4-119 for Ba, 2812-24645 for Ca, 0.1-0.32 for Co, 201-464 for Fe, 3661-46400 for K, 0.31–1.
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The present article concerns one of the objects of media sociology under construction. The transformation of the rites in the use of the television contents in the era of digital technologies and media convergence. By an analytic contextual approach, based on the study of the uses, we formulate the following hypothesis: so many changes in the rites of uses are real, in particular at the young people, so, many pieces integer of the everyday life remain impervious to these changes, and it is true under the influence of a slowness of the social and cultural orders, rooted for a long time in the traditional social fabric. We shall then try to bring a sociological look to this societal, cultural, and communicational object that is the pas