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.
Language contains various kinds of grammatical rules that are used to express thoughts and feelings. The present paper studies some of the German language grammatical rules as being the most important basics needed to master and develop the art of writing for the German language learners. Writing is one of the productive language learning skills that transform thoughts into a written form. Hence, constant exercising on the use of the language to master the grammatical rules enables German language learners to develop their creative writing skills.
The present study discusses the importance of grammatical exercises in developing the language learning abilities. The study provides a gener
... Show MoreIn present study the effect of soil extracts of different types of soil on ability of two clinical isolates, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus to form biofilm. The extract of soil was done by using sterile phosphate buffer saline and analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopic (FTIR). Spectrophotometric method was used to check ability of the studied isolated bacteria to form biofilm on polystyrene microtiter plates. The data of FTIR showed very little difference was observed among extracts of three types of soil (soil contaminated with hydrocarbons; garden soil collected from gardens of al-jadrea, Baghdad and containers soil), but the highest difference was observed in the extract obtained from peat moss clay soil.
... Show MoreThe field efficacy of Actellic (organophosphate), Neporex (insect growth regulator) and
Ficam (carbamate), at the application rates of 2-4, 0.4-0.8 and 0.1-0.2 g AI/m2 respectively,
was studied against the larvae of Musca domestica L. Results of treatments involving horse
manure indicated that Actellic and Neporex produced sharp decrease of larval numbers (close
to zero) for 21d. But there was a slight recovery in larval numbers 14 d following treatment
with Ficam. The populations of predator mites were not affected due to insecticidal
applications.
A simple, fast, inexpensive and sensitive method has been proposed to screen and optimize experimental factors that effecting the determination of phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE.HCl) in pure and pharmaceutical formulations. The method is based on the development of brown-colored charge transfer (CT) complex with p-Bromanil (p-Br) in an alkaline medium (pH=9) with 1.07 min after heating at 80 °C. ‘Design of Experiments’ (DOE) employing ‘Central Composite Face Centered Design’ (CCF) and ‘Response Surface Methodology’ (RSM) were applied as an improvement to traditional ‘One Variable at Time’ (OVAT) approach to evaluate the effects of variations in selected factors (volume of 5×10-3 M p-Br, heating time, and temperature) on
... Show MoreThe plant Conyza canadensis, which belongs to Asteraceae (Compositae) family and known as Canadian horseweed. It was used as traditional medicine in China, Pakistan, India, and Africa for the treatment of various diseases causing by bacteria, fungi, or viruses. The plant has antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer pharmacological activity. This study provides the first phytochemical investigation of the plant in Iraq and is concerned with extraction, fractionation, isolation, and purification of some of the important phytochemicals detected in the plant-like phenolic acids, flavonoids, and alkaloids. Also, the literature survey has revealed that the plant has a substantial antimicrobial activity, so it w
... Show MoreBackground: To investigate the effect of different types of storage media on enamel surface microstructure of avulsed teeth by using atomic force microscope.Materials and methods : Twelve teeth blocks from freshly extracted premolars for orthodontic treatment were selected . The study samples were divided into three groups according to type of storage media :A-egg white , B- probiotic yogurt , and C-bovine milk . All the samples were examined for changes in surface roughness and surface granularity distribution using atomic force microscope, at two periods: baseline, and after 8 hours of immersing in the three types of storage media. Results: Milk group had showed a significant increase in the mean of the roughness values at
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Metaphor is a linguistic phenomenon related to people's cultures. It is an integral part of cultural heritage. This paper tackles the use of animal-based metaphors in the field of football club titles so as to draw comparisons between those in Russian with their counterparts in Arabic. Names of animals are used to refer to some clubs and teams, where these names or titles reflect animal features such as strength, preying on victims; or animal figures are employed in the club symbols, or due to the similarity of the club shirt to the animal outer shapes in colours. For instance, "an-Nawaris", which means gulls in English, is used to refer to az-Zawraa club du
... Show MoreThe existence of succession system has appeared in Arab Islamic state after the death of the prophet Mohammed (peace be upon God and peace), So there was caliphate, then the Umayyad dynasty in Syria , until 132 AH , the date o the emergence of the Abbasid state adopted a system ministry formally , hafs bin sulaiman ( Abu salamah Khallal ) was the first minister emerged on the political scene. He was killed at the time of the first Abbasid caliph , Abu Albbas , incest 132-136 who had put Khalid bin barmak as a minister instead of Hafs bin Sulaiman . During the reign of AL-Mansur 136-158 , there was an importance and a place for the ministry , despite of AL-Mansur strength personality that covered on his ministers personalities
... Show MoreHate speech (henceforth HS) has recently spread and become an important issue. This type of speech in children's writings has a particular formulation and specific objectives that the authors intend to convey. Thus, the study aims at examining qualitatively and quantitatively the classism HS and its pragmatic functions via identifying the speech acts used to express classism HS, the implicature instigated as well as impoliteness. Since pragmatics is the study of language in context, which is greatly related to the situations and speaker’s intention, this study depends on pragmatic theoriespeech acts, impoliteness and conversational implicature) to analyze the data which are taken from Katherine Mansfield's short story (The D
... Show MoreThe research aims to measure the accounting conservatism practice of listed companies in the Iraq stock exchange using Basu model to measure the degree of accounting conservatism in a sample of companies of (21) companies for the period from 2007 to 2011, the researcher found that most of the listed companies in the market exercised accounting conservatism when measurement and disclosure of the result of the activity and financial position and there is a variation in the degree of accounting conservatism between economic sectors , which included banking , investment , insurance , industry , agriculture , tourism and hotels.
Because the practice of accounting conservatism properly
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