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.
The study aims to find out the extent to which several Iraqi institutional accreditation standards (governance and administration, scientific research, curricula) are applied in two public universities (Baghdad and Middle Technical University) and two private universities (Uruk and Al-Mansour College) by diagnosing strengths and weaknesses and proposing a mechanism and procedures to help educational institution aims to reduce or eliminate the gap. The study stems from the extent of application of several Iraqi institutional accreditation standards represented as it was worked on through observation and field coexistence to reach scientific and practical facts. The method of case study and comparison betwe
... Show MoreAlmost human societies are not void of poverty, as the latter accompanied the emergence of humanity, and it, thus, represents an eternal problem. To advance an individual's reality and raise the level of the poor social classes, social security networks have been established. Such networks operate in society following social systems and laws to provide food, and material support. Besides, such networks help to rehabilitate the individual academically and vocationally. They empower vulnerable groups through the establishment of courses and workshop, provide (conditional) subsidies related to the health and educational aspects in order to achieve the sustainable development goals of (2030), and apply developmental roles of social safety ne
... Show MoreIn this paper, a microcontroller-based electronic circuit have been designed and implemented for dental curing system using 8-bit MCS-51 microcontroller. Also a new control card is designed while considering advantages of microcontroller systems the time of curing was controlled automatically by preset values which were input from a push-button switch. An ignition based on PWM technique was used to reduce the high starting current needed for the halogen lamp. This paper and through the test result will show a good performance of the proposed system.
In this study, we made a comparison between LASSO & SCAD methods, which are two special methods for dealing with models in partial quantile regression. (Nadaraya & Watson Kernel) was used to estimate the non-parametric part ;in addition, the rule of thumb method was used to estimate the smoothing bandwidth (h). Penalty methods proved to be efficient in estimating the regression coefficients, but the SCAD method according to the mean squared error criterion (MSE) was the best after estimating the missing data using the mean imputation method
In this study, Laser Shock Peening (LSP) effect on the polymeric composite materials has been investigated experimentally. Polymeric composite materials are widely used because they are easy to fabricate and have many attractive features. Unsaturated polyester resin as a matrix was selected and Aluminum powder with micro particles as a reinforcement material was used with different volume fraction (2.5%, 5% and 7.5%). Hand lay-up process was used for preparation the composites. Fatigue test with constant amplitude with stress ratio (R =-1) was carried out before and after LSP process with two levels of energy (1Joule and 2Joule). The result showed an increase in the endurance strength of 25.448% at 7.5% volume fraction when peened is 1J
... Show MoreFootball has progressed from being a ritual and a celebration to become an amateur sport, a professional sport, and now, increasingly, a commercial sport. In the analysis of football business model, the systemic approach should be adopted. If sport is regarded as one of the business sectors, then the application of business system methodology can be fully justified. The interest to create strong football business system calls for the search of the ways of popularizing football business model and boosting the economic potential of its participants. In the research literature tend to ignore the business processes within the sports business. Besides, the systemic approach in football business is usually limited to p
... Show MoreSatire is genre of the literary arts that has always been the source of human interest. Because it is difficult to accept direct criticism, Satire appears as a literary tool in which vices, follies, abuses and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. A satirical critic usually employs irony to attain this goal. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often profitable social criticism, using wit to draw at
... Show MoreIn this paper, the concept of normalized duality mapping has introduced in real convex modular spaces. Then, some of its properties have shown which allow dealing with results related to the concept of uniformly smooth convex real modular spaces. For multivalued mappings defined on these spaces, the convergence of a two-step type iterative sequence to a fixed point is proved
Abstract:
The objective of this study, is to attempt to explain the reality of the Structural Imbalances in the Iraqi Economy during the period of research, by providing a quantitative analysis of the most important types of Imbalances, Which are represented by the disruption in the Productive Structure, the imbalance of the structure of Public Budget, and the imbalance of the Structure of Trade. The problem of the research, is the fact that the economy structure in Iraq has long suffered from an Imbalances in its economic structure, which are represented in the unequal relations between its constituent elements, according to the proportions levels defined by the economic theory.
... Show MoreBy driven the moment estimator of ARMA (1, 1) and by using the simulation some important notice are founded, From the more notice conclusions that the relation between the sign and moment estimator for ARMA (1, 1) model that is: when the sign is positive means the root gives invertible model and when the sign is negative means the root gives invertible model. An alternative method has been suggested for ARMA (0, 1) model can be suitable when