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.
This research deals with the risks of non-compliance and its impact on the profitability of Islamic banks. Research variables were measured and analyzed as the risk of non-compliance as an independent variableand profitability as a dependent variable. The profitability was measured by three indicators ((rate of return on assets, rate of return on equity and rate of return on Total deposits)) The results of the research showed a significant relationship between the risk of non-compliance and the rate of return on assets and rate of return on total deposits, while there was no relationship between the risk of non-compliance and rate of return on ownership. The research recommended that the senior management of the Islamic Investment Bank s
... Show MoreCorruption, in all its categories and forms, is regarded as the nowadays virus which has greatly spread in most institutes and society, a matter that cause a great waste of resources.
According to the reports of international transparency Institute, Iraq is regarded as one of the greatest countries in corruption.
Regardless of the reasons and forms of corruption, the retreat in work – values and ethics are the main reasons behind that.
Being the main source of providing qualified staff "educators" for the working market, the high education institutes face great challenges in standing against corruption inside and outside
... Show MoreWith the shift of narration and the revolution against the traditional methods which were dominated by the authorial intrusion and the single narrative voice, there appeared new forms that go along with the change in methods of narration. Form becomes the representation which equips us to understand more fully aspects of existence outside of art. Form is the objectifying of idea, and its excellence depends upon its appropriateness to the idea.1 One of the most important approaches to writing fiction is the power of point of view.
In the strategy of 'point of view' lies the secret of art and, as Norman Friedman indicates, it provides a method for distinguishing the possible degrees of authorial extinction in the narrati
... Show MoreImage is an important digital information that used in many internet of things (IoT) applications such as transport, healthcare, agriculture, military, vehicles and wildlife. etc. Also, any image has very important characteristic such as large size, strong correlation and huge redundancy, therefore, encrypting it by using single key Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) through IoT communication technologies makes it vulnerable to many threats, thus, the pixels that have the same values will be encrypted to another pixels that have same values when they use the same key. The contribution of this work is to increase the security of transferred image. This paper proposed multiple key AES algorithm (MECCAES) to improve the security of the tran
... Show MoreThe purpose of this article was to identify and assess the importance of risk factors in the tendering phase of construction projects. The construction project cannot succeed without the identification and categorization of these risk elements. In this article, a questionnaire for likelihood and impact was designed and distributed to a panel of specialists to analyze risk factors. The risk matrix was also used to research, explore, and identify the risks that influence the tendering phase of construction projects. The probability and impact values assigned to risk are used to calculate the risk's score. A risk matrix is created by combining probability and impact criteria. To determine the main risk elements for the tend
... Show MoreThe purpose of this article was to identify and assess the importance of risk factors in the tendering phase of construction projects. The construction project cannot succeed without the identification and categorization of these risk elements. In this article, a questionnaire for likelihood and impact was designed and distributed to a panel of specialists to analyze risk factors. The risk matrix was also used to research, explore, and identify the risks that influence the tendering phase of construction projects. The probability and impact values assigned to risk are used to calculate the risk's score. A risk matrix is created by combining probability and impact criteria. To determine the main risk elements for the tender phase of
... Show MoreThe ï¤-mixing of ï§ - transition in Er 168 populated in Er(n,n ) Er 168 168 ï‚¢ï§ reaction is calculated in the present work by using a2- ratio method. This method has used in previou studies [4, 5, 6, 7] in case that the second transition is pure or for that transition which can be considered as pure only, but in one work we applied this method for two cases, in the first one for pure transition and in the 2nd one for non pure transitions. We take into accunt the experimental a2- coefficient for previous works and ï¤-values for one transition only [1]. The results obtained are, in general, in agood agreement within associated errors, with those reported previously [1], the discrepancies that occur are due to in
... Show MoreThe integration of gender in urban studies is considered a goal and objective to build a society characterized by justice and equality. It further allows all its residents to enjoy the opportunities to live in a safe urban life. Based on the that, the limitations of the research and its field of interest related to the relationship between gender and urban studies have become clear. The insufficient knowledge in this regard considers gender as a concept that does not exist in itself, but rather overlaps and intersects with several concepts and studies, including urban studies. Thus, it has become necessary to adopt a descriptive methodology that helps reach a theoretical framework to explain the beginnings of such an interaction and inte
... Show MoreIn this paper, a self-tuning adaptive neural controller strategy for unknown nonlinear system is presented. The system considered is described by an unknown NARMA-L2 model and a feedforward neural network is used to learn the model with two stages. The first stage is learned off-line with two configuration serial-parallel model & parallel model to ensure that model output is equal to actual output of the system & to find the jacobain of the system. Which appears to be of critical importance parameter as it is used for the feedback controller and the second stage is learned on-line to modify the weights of the model in order to control the variable parameters that will occur to the system. A back propagation neural network is appl
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