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 article introduces the concept of finitely null-additive set function relative to the σ– ring and many properties of this concept have been discussed. Furthermore, to introduce and study the notion of finitely weakly null-additive set function relative to the σ– ring as a generalization of some concepts such as measure, countably additive, finitely additive, countably null-additive, countably weakly null-additive and finitely null-additive. As the first result, it has been proved that every finitely null-additive is a finitely weakly null-additive. Finally, the paper introduces a study of the concept of outer measure as a stronger form of finitely weakly null-additive.
Abstract
The study aims to know the degree of secondary school managers' practice of servant leadership in Gaza from their teachers’ perspective. It further aims to examine whether there are any statistically significant differences at (α 0.05≥) between the means of the study sample’s members attributed to variables such as (gender, educational qualification, and years of experience). To achieve the objectives of the study, the study adopted the descriptive survey method, using a questionnaire consisting of (30) items distributed to four domains: (workers service, ethical dealing, motivation & influence, and building an organized, integrated society). Then, the questionnaire was distributed to t
... Show MoreThis research dealt with the subject of auditing bank credit risks in accordance with international auditing standards and aims to develop procedures and design a credit risk audit program in accordance with international auditing standards and demonstrate their impact on the truth, truthfulness and fairness of financial statements and on their overall performance and continuity in the banking sector Its importance lies in relying on international auditing standards to assess and measure bank credit risk and its impact on the financial situation as well as the ability to predict financial failure. A set of conclusions have been reached, the most important of which is that the bank faces difficulties in measuring credit risk in accordance
... Show MoreInternet of Things (IoT) is one of the newest matters in both industry and academia of the communication engineering world. On the other hand, wireless mesh networks, a network topology that has been debate for decades that haven’t been put into use in great scale, can make a transformation when it arises to the network in the IoT world nowadays. A Mesh IoT network is a local network architecture in which linked devices cooperate and route data using a specified protocol. Typically, IoT devices exchange sensor data by connecting to an IoT gateway. However, there are certain limitations if it involves to large number of sensors and the data that should be received is difficult to analyze. The aim of the work here is to implement a self-
... Show MoreThe aerodynamic and elastic forces may cause an oscillation of the structure such as the high frequency of the airfoil surfaces and the dynamic instability occurring in an aircraft in flight and failure may occur at a speed called flutter speed. In this work, analytical and numerical investigations of flutter limits of thin plates have been carried out. The flutter speed of rectangular plates were obtained and compared with some published results. Different design parameters were investigated such as aspect ratio, thickness and their effects on flutter velocity. It was found that the structural mode shape plays an important role in the determination of the flutter speed and the coupling between the bending and torsional mode is the main
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Abstract
Personality is one of the most important elements that should be developed in university student. Thus, we have to develop the positive traits and neutralize the negative traits of students as well as we have to pay attention to the level of student achievement at the same time, the researcher designed a scale to measure the traits of study sample. The research come out with a number of recommendations and proposals, the most important of which Enhancing the positive characteristics of university students in order to reach them to the level of mature personality with mental health. Enhancing the positive role of the high level of achievement by motivating the stude
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Binary polymer blend was prepared by mechanical mixing method of unsaturated polyester resin with Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR) with different weight ratios (0, 5, 10 and 15) % of (NBR). Tensile characteristics and wear rates of these blends were studied for all mixing ratios. The microstructure of fracture surfaces of the prepared samples were investigated by optical microscope. The results were showed that strain rates of the resin material increase after blending it with rubber while the ultimate tensile strength and Young’s modulus values of it will decrease. It is also noticed that the wear rate of resin decreases with increasing of (NBR) content.
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... Show MoreThe region-based association analysis has been proposed to capture the collective behavior of sets of variants by testing the association of each set instead of individual variants with the disease. Such an analysis typically involves a list of unphased multiple-locus genotypes with potentially sparse frequencies in cases and controls. To tackle the problem of the sparse distribution, a two-stage approach was proposed in literature: In the first stage, haplotypes are computationally inferred from genotypes, followed by a haplotype coclassification. In the second stage, the association analysis is performed on the inferred haplotype groups. If a haplotype is unevenly distributed between the case and control samples, this haplotype is labeled
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