Background: COVID-19 has caused a considerable number of hospital admissions in China since December 2019. Many COVID-19 patients experience signs of acute respiratory distress syndrome, and some are even in danger of dying. Objective: to measure the serum levels of D-dimer, Neutrophil-Lymphocyte count ratio (NLR), and neopterin in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 in Baghdad, Iraq. And to determine the cut-off values (critical values) of these markers for the distinction between the severe patients diagnosed with COVID‐19 and the controls. Materials and methods: In this case-control study, we collect blood from 89 subjects, 45 were severe patients hospitalized in many Baghdad medical centers who were diagnosed with COVID

Collagen triple helix repeat containing-1 (CTHRC1) is an essential marker for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), but its relationship with pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory, and inflammatory markers has been scantily covered in extant literature. To evaluate the level of CTHRC1 protein in the sera of 100 RA patients and 25 control and compare levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 10 (IL-10), RA disease activity (DAS28), and inflammatory factors. Higher significant serum levels of CTHRC1 (29.367 ng/ml), TNF-α (63.488 pg/ml), and IL-10 (67.1 pg/ml) were found in patient sera as compared to that in control sera (CTHRC1 = 15.732 ng/ml, TNF-α = 33.788 pg/ml, and IL-10 = 25.122 pg/ml). There was no significant correlation be

The most universal and basic damages caused by an earthquakes are buildings damage and human casualties. A simplified method, the RADIUS 99 Tool is used to calculate seismic intensity (shaking) distribution, buildings damage, number of casualties and lifelines damage, due to assumed earthquake scenario. In this study, Al - Kadhmiya sector in Baghdad city was chosen for assessing seismic risk, for this purpose, this area was divided into mesh of 1*1 km2 cell size, and a scenario of (Manjil) earthquake (that struck Iran in 1990) was utilized with following earthquake magnitudes (5 and 7), with epicenter distance (3, 10 and 100 km), and depths (2 and 5 km). It was found that, the best soil types for constructions are those with medium and h

Background: Psoriatic arthritis is a type of arthritis that can often affect some patients who suffer from psoriasis. Approximately 40-50% of individuals with psoriatic arthritis have the HLA-B27 genotype

Objective: To investigate whether we could confirm the role of HLA-B27 alleles and psoriatic arthritis in Iraqi Arab Muslims patients.

Method: A cross sectional case control comparative study included thirty Iraqi Arab Muslims who had psoriatic arthritis that consulted the Dermatological and Rheumatological Department in AL-Kindy Teaching Hospital from November 2014 to June 2015. HLA-genotyping for HLA-B27 were assessed. A control group consisted of fifty-one healthy vol

Porcelain is one of the most important ceramic materials with a wide range of traditional and technical applications. Since most mixtures of porcelain have a high sintering temperature, bentonite has been added in this research to improve the characteristics of sintering and burning. The porcelain mixture consisted of the following Iraqi raw materials: 30% wt kaolin, 30 wt% non-plastic clay (grog), 10% wt sodium feldspar, 10 wt% potassium feldspar and 20 wt% flint. After the mechanical mixing process and transfer the powder mixture to the slurry by adding distilled water, then different weight percentage of the sodium bentonite(0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10) wt% was added. The specimens were prepared by using the solid casting m

The permanent deformation of flexible pavement represent serious problem in hot climate region. Numerous efforts are devoted to mitigate this distress such as modifying asphalt binder by polymers. The present study demonstrate the effect of utilizing four types of polymers to reduce the permanent deformation, these polymers are Polyethylene Wax (PEW), Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR), Ethylene Propylene Dien Monomer (EPDM) and Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA). The prepared mixtures composed of 4.9 % of 40/50 asphalt binder, 12.5 mm nominal aggregate maximum size and limestone dust as filler. The permanent and resilient strains have been recorded when the cylindrical specimens, 101.6 mm in diameter and 203.2 mm in height, tested by repeated loa

This research deals with study of the effect of additives on rheological properties (yield point, plastic viscosity ,and apparent viscosity) of emulsions. Twenty seven emulsion samples were prepared; all emulsions in this investigation are invert emulsions when water droplets are dispersed in diesel oil. The resulting emulsions are called water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions. The rheological properties of these emulsions were investigated using a couett coaxial cylinder rotational viscometer (Fann-VG model 35 A), by measuring shear stress versus shear rate. It was found that the effect of additives on rheological properties of emulsions as follow: the increase in the concentration of asphaltic material tends to increase the rheological propertie

Alginate from Large brown seaweeds act as natural polymer has been investigated as polymer and has been added to concrete in different percentages ( 0% , 0.5% , 1% and 1.5% ) by the cement weight and the study show the effect of using alginate biopolymer admixtures on  some of the fresh properties of the concrete (slump &  the density  fresh) also in the hardened state (  Compressive strength , Splitting tensile strength  and Flexural strength ) at 28 days. The mix proportion was (1:2.26:2.26) (cement: sand: gravel) respectively and at constant w/c equal to 0.47. The results indicate that the use of alginate as a percent of the cement weight possess a positive effect on fresh properties of co

The study of vegetative change of cities is one of the most important studies related to human life because of its direct correlation with the temporal conditions that occur. These include the economic problems that force people to move and look for job opportunities in the city, which leads to an increase in the population density of cities, especially for cities with an important economic and administrative location as in the capital city of Baghdad. In this study, the effect of the increasing in population density was analyzed on the urban planning of Baghdad city. The decreasing in vegetation was due to the increasing of urban areas on the outskirts of the city, which led to an increase in its area. Moreover, urban cities increased t