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.
In this work 5-methylene-yl - (2-methy –oxazole-4-one) (1H) imidazole (1) were synthesized from the reaction of L-Histidine with acetic anhydride and which converted to the of 5-methylene-yl-(2-methyl 3-amino imidazole-4-one)-1H-imidazole (2) by reaction with hydrazine hydrate. Schiff bases (3-6) were synthesized from the reaction of compound (2) with different aromatic aldehyde. Reaction of compounds (3-6) with chloroacetyl chloride gives azetidinone one derivatives (7-10). These compounds were characterized by FT-IR and some of them with 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectroscopy.
Health and environmental factors as well as operational difficulties are major challenges facing the development of an anaerobic digestion process. Some of these problems relate to the use of sludge collected from primary and secondary clarifier units in wastewater treatment plants for laboratory purposes.
The present study addresses the preparation of sludge for laboratory purposes by using a mixture that consists of the digested sludge, which is less pathogenic, compared to the collected sludge from the primary or secondary clarifier, and food wastes. The sludge has been tested experimentally for 19 and 32 days under mesophilic conditions. The results show a steady methane production rate from the anaerobic dig
... Show MoreThis study investigated the feasibility of anaerobic co-digestion of giant reed (GR) inoculated with waste manure as a co-substrate for biogas production. The performance of co-digestion was evaluated in 4 anaerobic digesters operated in batch mode at different conditions. The effects of alkali pretreatment with NaOH (4% w/v) solution, inoculum type, and thermal condition were studied. The results demonstrated that the alkali-pretreatment of GR enhanced the biogas generation by about 15% at mesophilic conditions. Thermophilic conditions enhanced the biogas recovery from both alkali-free and alkali pretreated GR by 15% and 127%, respectively. The kinetic study of the co-digestion process of GR for biogas recovery suggeste
... Show MoreThis study aims to analyze spectra in real-time for λ Draconids, σ Hydrids, μ Virginid, and one sporadic meteor using spectroscopic chemical analysis and diagnose plasma parameters. Good-resolution spectroscopy and a CCD camera for meteor observation were used concurrently to examine the ablation spectra of these meteorites in situ. The Boltzmann and Lorentz methods were then used to determine the temperature and density of electrons, the length of Debye, and the frequency of plasma. Furthermore, spectra data can be analyzed and compared to data from other sources. Spectrum tests can be utilized to identify the chemical structure of meteorites' plasma.
Among a collection of ground beetles from Iraq the new species Acinopus euphraticus was designated and described here. The erection of this new species was mainly built on external features and the description of male genitalia.
Sixteen species of Armored Scale insects were recorded from Baghdad city during 2001-2005. Three of these are reported here for the first time Abgrallaspis cyanophylli (Signoret, 1869), Aonidiella citrina (Craw,1870) and Chrysomphalus aonidium (Linnaeus,1758). The other thirteen species were recorded earlier Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell), Aonidiella orientalis (Newstead), Chrysomphalus dictyospermi (Morgan), Diaspidiotus ostreaeformis (Curtis), Diaspidiotu perniciosus (Comctock), Hemiberlesia lataniae (Signoret), Lepidosaphes beckii (Newman), Lepidosaphes conchiformis (Gmelin), Lepidosaphes ulmi (Linnaeus), Mercetaspis halli
... Show MoreDiscrete Krawtchouk polynomials are widely utilized in different fields for their remarkable characteristics, specifically, the localization property. Discrete orthogonal moments are utilized as a feature descriptor for images and video frames in computer vision applications. In this paper, we present a new method for computing discrete Krawtchouk polynomial coefficients swiftly and efficiently. The presented method proposes a new initial value that does not tend to be zero as the polynomial size increases. In addition, a combination of the existing recurrence relations is presented which are in the n- and x-directions. The utilized recurrence relations are developed to reduce the computational cost. The proposed method computes app
... Show MoreThis study intends to look into the activities instructors use in the classroom to teach literature. Three models for teaching literature were added into the study in order to deepen the use of activities in the classroom. They are six activities in the teaching of literature were listed as indicators investigated during the study; language based, paraphrastic, information-based, personal response, moral-philosophical, and stylistic. An emphasizing the teaching of literature, the classroom activities used were mostly concentrated on the technical aspects of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Through observing the classroom, it was revealed that teachers employed more Language-Based activity, Moral-Philosophical activity, and Informa
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