Background: Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is an inflammatory, systemic rheumatic condition that mostly affects the axial skeleton. Tenascin-C (TN-C) is a hexameric glycoprotein of considerable size, upregulated in many inflammatory conditions, while Interleukin-17 (IL-17) a cytokine that plays an important role in SpA symptoms. Objective: to investigate the upregulation between the serum levels of TN-C and IL-17 in Iraqi axSpA patients and the disease characteristics. Patients and Methods: Seventy-four axSpA patients and 28 matched controls were studied. Fifty-four patients received a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) and 20 did not. Serum TN-C and IL-17 concentrations were determined using the ELISA technique. The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) was assessed. For statistical tests, Chi Square, Mann Whitney, Independent Samples T, and Pearson's correlation tests are used. Results: Patients mean age was 35.6±0.9 years, 65 males and 9 females, and disease duration was 5.18±0.6 years. 47.4% were smokers, 47% had inflammatory low back pain, and HLA-B27 was present in 91%. BASDAI mean was 6.1±0.4 in non-TNFi and 2.6±0.3 in those on TNFi. The serum TN-C concentration was significantly increased in patients, especially those on non-TNFi (79±9.6 pg/mL) compared to those on TNFi (69.1±3.2 pg/mL) and control (53±3.9 pg/mL) (p=0.003). Serum IL-17 was significantly elevated in those receiving TNFi (877.9±257 pg/mL) compared to non-TNFi (487.2±234 pg/mL) and control (182.4±36.6 pg/mL) (p=0.033). The TN-C significantly correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r=0.27, p=0.02) and with hemoglobin (Hb) concentration (r=0.26, p=0.02). TN-C and IL-17 were non-significantly related (r=0.14, p=0.2). Conclusions: axSpA Patients demonstrated high levels of serum TN-C, particularly in those not receiving TNFi, and high IL-17 levels in those receiving TNFi, suggesting that there is an association with tissue injury from the disease and stimulation of immunological and resident tissue cells. Patients who had not received TNFi showed significantly higher disease activity than others.
Earth dams are constructed mainly from soil. A homogenous earth dam is composed of only one material. The seepage through such dams is quite high. Upstream impervious blanket is one of the methods used to control seepage through the dam foundations. Bennet's method is one of the commonly used methods to design an impervious upstream blanket. Design charts are developed relating the length of blanket, total reservoir head, total base width of the dam (excluding downstream drainage), the coefficient of permeability of the blanket material, blanket thickness, foundation thickness, and coefficient of permeability of the foundation soil, based on the equations governing the Bennet's method for a homogenous earth dam with a blanket of uniform
... Show MoreMelatonin is a potent scavenger of reactive oxygen species or free radicals like superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. The oxidation of hemoglobin to methemoglobin (meth-Hb) by oxidizing compounds has been widely studied. The present work was designed to evaluate the ability of different concentrations of melatonin to inhibit nitrite–induced oxidation of hemoglobin. Blood samples were obtained from apparently healthy individuals from which erythrocyte hemolysate was prepared. Different concentrations of melatonin (10-9-1.0 mg/ml) were incubated for 10 min with the hemolysate, then to the resultant mixture 1 ml of sodium nitrite (final concentration 0.6 mM) was added, and the
... Show MoreThe present study aims to detection optimal conditions of production of amylase enzyme from isolate of B. subtillis A4. Nine carbonic sources were represented by starch, maltose, fructose, sucrose, glucose, arabinose, xylose, sorbitol and mannitol) at concentration of 1% for each source. It was found that the best was represented by starch carbonic, which showed higher activity and qualitative activity of 7.647 Unit/ ml and 461.56 Unit/ mg. Ten nitrogen sources were selected, including yeast extract, peptone, trypton, gelatin, urea and meat extract as organic sources Ammonium sulphate, Sodium nitrate, Potassium nitrate and Ammonium chloride as inorganic sources. These sources were added at aconcentration of 0.5% to the production medium. Th
... Show MoreThe research aims to identify the role of strategic improvisation as an independent variable with its dimensions (Building the Solution, Intuition, Adaptation, and Spontaneity) and the Entrepreneurial Orientation as a dependent variable with its dimensions (Identifying Opportunities, Creativity, Adopting risk, and Vision). This research has been applied in the Rafidain Bank and its branches (Sunk, People, Al-Firdaws, and Alawiya); it used the questionnaire as a basic tool for collecting information. The sample was intentionality, which included all the heads of departments in the bank’s branches, which amounted to (33) workers, and data on the questionnaire paragraphs of 28 were processed using the SPSS V.23 and AMOS V.23). The most impor
... Show MoreSimple, rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric method was proposed for the analysis of metoclopramide hydrochloride (MPH) in pure form as well as in pharmaceutical tablets. The method is based on the diazotization reaction of MPH with sodium nitrite in hydrochloric acid medium to form diazonium salt, which is coupled with 1-naphthol in sodium hydroxide medium to form azo dye, showing absorption maxima at 550 nm. Beer’s law is obeyed in the concentration range of 0.4 – 18 µg mL-1 of MPH with detection limit 0.5448 µg mL-1. The molar absorptivity and Sandell’s sensitivity are 3.4969 × 104 L mol-1 cm-1 and 0.0101 µg cm-2, respectively. The method was successfully applied to the determination of MPH in pharmaceutical tablets with
... Show MoreBackground: Antioxidant, sedative, anticancer, and antibacterial properties are among the numerous pharmacological characteristics of Galium verum. Aim: The primary goal of this research was to investigate the therapeutic effects of G. verum extract against folic acid-induced acute kidney injury (AKI). Materials and methods: 18 male rats were assigned into three groups: Control, AKI, and G. verum. AKI was induced by a dose of folic acid (250 mg/kg, i.p.) while G. verum (250 mg/kg) was administrated for 7 consecutive days. Results: G. verum methanol extract contains flavonoids, anthraquinones, tannins, iridoids, triterpen
... Show MoreIn this study, we investigate the behavior of the estimated spectral density function of stationary time series in the case of missing values, which are generated by the second order Autoregressive (AR (2)) model, when the error term for the AR(2) model has many of continuous distributions. The Classical and Lomb periodograms used to study the behavior of the estimated spectral density function by using the simulation.
Anodic electrodeposition was used to synthesize a composite electrode of nanostructured manganese dioxide/carbon fiber (CF) galvanostatically. Different characterization results of the nanostructured MnO2 were obtained by varying the H2SO4 concentration and the current density. Field emission scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy were utilized to characterize the prepared composite electrodes. The best conditions were: 0.3 mA cm−2 current density and 0.64 M H2SO4 concentration. The electrosorption performance of the MnO