Cytokines are signaling molecules between inflammatory cells that play a significant role in the pathogenesis of a disease. Among these cytokines are interleukins (ILs) 17A and 33, and accordingly, the current case-control study sought to investigate the role of each of the two cytokines in the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS). Sixty-eight relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) Iraqi patients and twenty healthy individuals (control group) were enrolled. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits were used to determine serum levels of IL-17A and IL-33. Results revealed that IL-17A and IL-33 levels were significantly higher in MS patients than in controls (14.1 ± 4.5 vs. 7.5 ± 3.8 pg/mL; p < 0.001 and 65.3 ± 16.3 vs. 49.3 ± 20.0 pg/mL; p < 0.001, respectively). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis demonstrated that IL-17A was a very good predictor of MS (area under curve [AUC] = 0.869; 95% CI = 0.779 - 0.960; p < 0.001; cut-off value = 10.2 pg/mL; sensitivity = 80.8%; specificity = 75.0%). A similar prediction was presented by IL-33, but the AUC value was lower (AUC = 0.762; 95% CI = 0.63 - 0.89; p < 0.001; cut-off value = 56.4 pg/mL; sensitivity = 70.6%; specificity = 70.0%). Multinomial logistic regression analysis confirmed the significance of IL-17A and IL-33 in MS risk, and under three models of analysis, the estimated odds ratios for IL-17A (1.50, 1.49 and 1.50, respectively) and IL-33 (1.05, 1.05 and 1.06) were above 1.0. Patients stratified by gender (male and female), expanded disability status scale (EDSS: < 3 and ≥ 3) or medication (pre- and post-medication) showed no significant differences in serum levels of IL-17A and IL-33 for each stratum. However, with regard to response to medication, it was found that responding patients showed significantly higher levels of IL-33 than non-responders (70.9 ± 12.2 vs. 57.2 ± 18.2 pg/mL; p = 0.018). This difference was not observed when considering IL-17A. Pearson correlation analysis between IL-17A and IL-33 revealed that both cytokines were not significantly correlated. In conclusion, the study indicated that IL-17A and IL-33 were up-regulated in serum of MS patients, and this up-regulation was not influenced by age, gender, EDSS or medication status, but the elevated level of IL-33 was more pronounced in patients who responded to medication.
Due to the large population of motorway users in the country of Iraq, various approaches have been adopted to manage queues such as implementation of traffic lights, avoidance of illegal parking, amongst others. However, defaulters are recorded daily, hence the need to develop a mean of identifying these defaulters and bring them to book. This article discusses the development of an approach of recognizing Iraqi licence plates such that defaulters of queue management systems are identified. Multiple agencies worldwide have quickly and widely adopted the recognition of a vehicle license plate technology to expand their ability in investigative and security matters. License plate helps detect the vehicle's information automatically ra
... Show MoreA new Spectrophotometric method, is for individual and simultaneous determination of Ciprofloxacin hydrochloride(CIP) and Mebeverin hydrochloride(MEB) by the first and second derivative mode techniques. The first and second derivative spectra of these compounds permitted individual and simultaneous determination of CIP and MEB in concentration range of (4-28μg/mL) by measuring the amplitude of peak- to- base line and the area under peak at selected spectrum intervals. The methods showed a reasonable precision and accuracy and have been applied to determine CIP and MEB in four different pharmaceutical preparations.
The regressor-based adaptive control is useful for controlling robotic systems with uncertain parameters but with known structure of robot dynamics. Unmodeled dynamics could lead to instability problems unless modification of control law is used. In addition, exact calculation of regressor for robots with more than 6 degrees of freedom is hard to be calculated, and the task could be more complex for robots. Whereas the adaptive approximation control is a powerful tool for controlling robotic systems with unmodeled dynamics. The local (partitioned) approximation-based adaptive control includes representation of the uncertain matrices and vectors in the robot model as finite combinations of basis functions. Update laws for the weighting matri
... Show MoreTo determine the relationship between celiac disease and reproductive disorder, twenty two women with recurrent spontaneous abortion (18-35) years have been investigated from the period 2017/11/1 – 2018/2/1 and compared wih twenty two parentally healthy women. All studied groups were carried out to measure antitissue transglutaminase IgA and IgG antibodies by Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique, There were a highly significant differences (P < 0.01) in the concentration of anti TtG IgA and IgG Ab compared to control group, while there was non-significant differences (P > 0.05) in the concentration of anti TtG IgA according to the age group and there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the concentration of anti TtG I
... Show MoreThis work was conducted to study the extraction of eucalyptus oil from natural plants (Eucalyptus camadulensis leaves) by organic solvents. the effects of the main operating parameters were studied; type of solvent (n-hexane and ethanol), time to reach equilibrium, the temperature (45°C to 65°C) for n-hexane and (45°C to 75°C) for ethanol, solvent to solid ratio (5:1 to 8:1 (v/w)), agitation speed (0 to 900 rpm) and the particle size (0.5 to 2.5 cm) of fresh leaves to find the best processing conditions for the achieving maximum oil yield. The concentration of eucalyptus oil in solvent was measured by using UV-spectrophotometer. The results (for n-hexane) showed that the agitation speed of 900 rpm, temperature 65°C with solvent to soli
... Show MoreGenus Eucalyptus belongs to the family Myrtaceae that consists of more than 700 species, various hybrids and varieties. The majorly distributed species that are grown in Iraq are Eucalyptus alba, E. macarthurii, E. siderophloia and E. camaldulensis, E. tereticornis, E. vicina. Most Eucalyptus species are highly dependent on rainfall, and this is challenged by climatic changes owing to global warming making it difficult to effectively match the availability of mature trees and the market demand, especially for use as power transmission poles. With the widespread availability of other naturally occurring Eucalyptus species, it has become important to determine the genetic diversity and to analyze the phenotypic tra
... Show MoreAbstract
The fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technology has been rapidly applied in the sensing technology field. In this work, uniform FBG was used as pressure sensor based on measuring related Bragg wavelength shift. The pressure was applied directly by air compressor to the sensor and the pressure was ranged from 1 to 6 bar.
This sensor also was affected by the external temperature so as a result it could be used as a temperature sensor. This sensor could be used to monitor the pressure of dams. It has been shown from the result that the sensor is very sensitive to the pressure and the sensitivity was (67 pm\bar) and is very sensitive to temperature and the sensitivity was (10p
... Show MoreZnS:MnP2+P nanoparticles were prepared by a simple microwave irradiation method under mild condition. The starting materials for the synthesis of ZnS:MnP 2+P quantum dots were zinc acetate as zinc source, thioacetamide as a sulfur source, manganese chloride as manganese source (R & M Chemical) and ethylene glycol as a solvent. All chemicals were analytical grade products and used without further purification. The quantum dots of ZnS:MnP 2+P with cubic structure were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), the morphology of the film is seen by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) also by field effect scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The composition of the samples is analysed by EDS. UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy analysis
... Show MoreIn this paper, we define a cubic bipolar subalgebra, $BCK$-ideal and $Q$-ideal of a $Q$-algebra, and obtain some of their properties and give some examples. Also we define a cubic bipolar fuzzy point, cubic bipolar fuzzy topology, cubic bipolar fuzzy base and for each concept obtained some of its properties.