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.
The aim of this article is to solve the Volterra-Fredholm integro-differential equations of fractional order numerically by using the shifted Jacobi polynomial collocation method. The Jacobi polynomial and collocation method properties are presented. This technique is used to convert the problem into the solution of linear algebraic equations. The fractional derivatives are considered in the Caputo sense. Numerical examples are given to show the accuracy and reliability of the proposed technique.
Greywater is a possible water source that can be improved for meeting the quality required for irrigation. Treatment of greywater can range from uncomplicated coarse filtration to advanced biological treatment. This article presents a simple design of a small scale greywater treatment plant, which is a series of physical and natural processes including screening, aeration, sedimentation, and filtration using granular activated carbon filter and differentiates its performance with sand filter. The performance of these units with the dual filter media of (activated carbon with sand) in treatment of greywater from Iraqi house in Baghdad city during 2019 and that collected from several points including washbasins, kitchen si
... Show MoreThe effects of nutrients and physical conditions on phytase production were investigated with a recently isolated strain of Aspergillus tubingensis SKA under solid state fermentation on wheat bran. The nutrient factors investigated included carbon source, nitrogen source, phosphate source and concentration, metal ions (salts) and the physical parameters investigated included inoculum size, pH, temperature and fermentation duration. Our investigations revealed that optimal productivity of phytase was achieved using wheat bran supplemented with: 1.5% glucose. 0.5% (NH4)2SO4, 0.1% sodium phytate. Additionally, optimal physical conditions were 1 × 105 spore/g substrate, initial pH of 5.0, temperature of fermentation 30˚C and fermentation dura
... Show MoreThis study reports on natural convection heat transfer in a square enclosure of length (L=20 cm) with a saturated porous medium (solid glass beads) having same fluid (air) at lower horizontal layer and free air fill in the rest of the cavity's space. The experimental work has been performed under the effects of heating from bottom by constant heat flux q=150,300,450,600 W/m2 for four porous layers thickness Hp (2.5,5,7.5,1) cm and three heaters length δ(20,14,7) cm. The top enclosure wall was good insulated and the two side walls were symmetrically cooled at constant temperature. Four layers of porous media with small porosity, Rayleigh number range (60.354 - 241.41) and (Da) 3.025x10-8 has been investigated. The obtained data of temperatu
... Show MoreThe largest use of x-ray in medical by dentists, employers or persons that needed by patients with specific conditions, lead to higher exposure of x-ray that may cause many diseases. In the present work radiography films have been used in evaluating the efficiency of using unsaturated polyester polymer reinforced with lead oxide (PbO) as shield material for medical x-ray devices, many parameters studied like concentration and thickness that they are increasing the attenuation of x-ray in them. The results show that the attenuation of X-ray increasing with concentration of reinforced material and with thickness, and the optical density decreases with increasing concentration from 0% to 50%, we chose 30% as suitable concentration to increase
... Show MoreThis paper compare the accurecy of HF propagation prediction programs for HF circuits links between Iraq and different points world wide during August 2018 when solar cycle 24 (start 2009 end 2020) is at minimun activity and also find out the best communication mode used. The prediction programs like Voice of America Coverage Analysis Program (VOACAP) and ITU Recommendation RS 533 (REC533 ) had been used to generat HF circuit link parameters like Maximum Usable Frequency ( MUF) and Frequency of Transsmision (FOT) .Depending on the predicted parameters (data) , real radio contacts had been done using a radio transceiver from Icom model IC 7100 with 100W RF
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The purpose of our study was to develop Dabigatran Etexilate loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (DE-NLCs) using Glyceryl monostearate and Oleic acid as lipid matrix, and to estimate the potential of the developed delivery system to improve oral absorption of low bioavailability drug, different Oleic acid ratios effect on particle size, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency and loading capacity were studied, the optimized DE-NLCs shows a particle size within the nanorange, the zeta potential (ZP) was 33.81±0.73mV with drug entrapment efficiency (EE%) of 92.42±2.31% and a loading capacity (DL%) of 7.69±0.17%. about 92% of drug was released in 24hr in a controlled manner, the ex-vivo intestinal p
... Show MoreIn this study, NAC-capped CdTe/CdS/ZnS core/double shell QDs were synthesized in an aqueous medium to investigate their utility in distinguishing normal DNA from mutated DNA extracted from biological samples. Following the interaction between the synthesized QDs with DNA extracted from leukemia cases (represents damaged DNA) and that of healthy donors (represents undamaged DNA), differential fluorescent emission maxima and intensities were observed. It was found that damaged DNA from leukemic cells DNA-QDs conjugates at 585 nm while intact DNA (from healthy subjects) DNA–QDs conjugates at 574 nm. The obtained results from the optical analyses indicate that the prepared QDs could be utilized as probe for detecting disrupted DNA th
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