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.
Radiation treatment has long been the conventional approach for treating nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) tumors due to its anatomic features, biological characteristics, and radiosensitivity. The most common treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma is radiotherapy. This study aimed to assess the better quality of radiotherapy treatment techniques using intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT). The VMAT and IMRT are comparative techniques. Forty patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and forwarded for radiotherapy were treated with both advanced techniques, IMRT and VMAT, using eclipse software from Varian. The x-ray energy was set at 6 MV. The total prescribed dose was 70 Gy. The results show that the
... Show MoreIn this research, a group of gray texture images of the Brodatz database was studied by building the features database of the images using the gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), where the distance between the pixels was one unit and for four angles (0, 45, 90, 135). The k-means classifier was used to classify the images into a group of classes, starting from two to eight classes, and for all angles used in the co-occurrence matrix. The distribution of the images on the classes was compared by comparing every two methods (projection of one class onto another where the distribution of images was uneven, with one category being the dominant one. The classification results were studied for all cases using the confusion matrix between every
... Show MoreThis research is addressing the effect of different ferrocene concentration (0.00, 2.15x10-3, 4.30x10-3, 8.60x10-3, and 12.9x10-3) on the bulk free radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate monomer in benzene using benzoyl peroxide as initiator. The polymerization was conducted at 60º C under free oxygen atmosphere. The resulting polymers were characterized by FTIR. The results were compared with the presence and absence of ferrocene at 10% conversion. The %conversion was 3.04% with no ferrocene present in the polymerization medium and its increase to 9.06 with a first lowest ferrocene concentration added, i.e. 2.15 x10-3mol/l. This was positively reflected on the poly(methyl methacrylate) molecular weight measured by viscosity techniq
... Show MoreSilica-based mesoporous materials are a class of porous materials with unique characteristics such as ordered pore structure, large surface area, and large pore volume. This review covers the different types of porous material (zeolite and mesoporous) and the physical properties of mesoporous materials that make them valuable in industry. Mesoporous materials can be divided into two groups: silica-based mesoporous materials and non-silica-based mesoporous materials. The most well-known family of silica-based mesoporous materials is the Mesoporous Molecular Sieves family, which attracts attention because of its beneficial properties. The family includes three members that are differentiated based on their pore arrangement. In this review,
... Show MoreThis paper present a study about effect of the random phase and expansion of the scale sampling factors to improve the monochrome image hologram and compared it with previous produced others. Matlab software is used to synthesize and reconstruction hologram.
The current investigation examines the combined impacts of ultrasonic radiation and hydrogen donors on the viscosity of heavy crude oil. The impact of exposure time, power, duty cycle, and temperature on the viscosity of Iraqi heavy crude oil with 20.32 API was studied. Also, the viscosity of the oil samples, which were mixed with a hydrogen donor (decalin) and subjected to ultrasonic treatment under optimal conditions, was examined to evaluate the combined impact of ultrasonic radiation and hydrogen donor on the viscosity of crude oil. The viscosity experienced a decrease of 52.34% at 2 min of irradiation, 360 W ultrasonic power, 0.8 duty cycle, 35 ⁰C, and 8vol% decalin. To validate the outcomes of the experiments, asphaltene content, s
... Show MoreThe main function of a power system is to supply the customer load demands as economically as possible. Risk criterion is the probability of not meeting the load. This paper presents a methodology to assess probabilistic risk criteria of Al-Qudus plant before and after expansion; as this plant consists of ten generating units presently and the Ministry Of Electricity (MOE) is intending to compact four units to it in order to improve the performance of Iraqi power system especially at Baghdad region. The assessment is calculated by a program using Matlab programming language; version 7.6. Results show that the planned risk is (0.003095) that is (35 times) less than that in the present plant risk; (0.1091); which represents respectable imp
... Show MoreThis work is concerned with a two stages four beds adsorption chiller utilizing activated carbon-methanol adsorption pair that operates on six separated processes. The four beds that act as thermal compressors are powered by a low grade thermal energy in the form of hot water at a temperature range of 65 to 83 °C. As well as, the water pumps and control cycle consume insignificant electrical power. This adsorption chiller consists of three water cycles. The first water cycle is the driven hot water cycle. The second cycle is the cold water cycle to cool the carbon, which adsorbs the methanol. Finally, the chilled water cycle that is used to overcome the building load. The theoretical results showed that average cycle cooling power
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