Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disease characterized by elevated levels of circulating anti-nuclear autoantibodies and interferon-alpha (INFs-α). Interferon regulatory factor-5 (IRF5) plays an important role in the induction of type I interferon and pro-inflammatory cytokines, and participates in the SLE pathogenesis. This study aimed to investigate the role of IRF5 gene expression levels in a sample of SLE Iraqi patients and its correlation with disease activity, and to identify its diagnostic ability as a biomarker reflecting disease activity. Blood samples were taken from 45 participants diagnosed with SLE cases classified according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria. They were scored via the SLE disease activity index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) to assess the disease activity and according to it, they were subdivided into “SLE (I) group” (SLEDAI-2k ≤5), and “SLE (II) group” (SLEDAI-2k >5), as well as age and gender matched healthy control group. RNA was isolated from whole blood samples and gene expression levels of IRF5 were determined using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Our results revealed that the expression levels of the IRF5 gene were significantly increased in SLE (I) and SLE (II) patient groups compared with the control group (p<0.05, and p<0.01) respectively, as well as higher in SLE (II) group than the SLE (I) group (p<0.01). Moreover, the expression levels of IRF5 were found to be related positively and significantly to the disease activity index in both SLE patient groups. The analysis of receiver operator curves (ROC) for gene expression levels of IRF5 in SLE (II) group showed a perfect accuracy to distinguish between SLE patients and healthy individuals (AUC=0.989, sensitivity= 95.5%, and specificity= 88.0%). However, in SLE (I) group showed a good accuracy to discriminate between SLE patients and healthy individuals. (AUC=0.769, sensitivity= 69.6%, and specificity= 80.0%). The correlation between gene expression levels of IRF5 with other parameters revealed that a significant positive correlation was found with uric acid and ALP in SLE (I) group, while in SLE (II) group with urea, creatinine, and uric acid. Our conclusion suggests that the up-regulation of IRF5 gene expression levels correlates positively with disease activity in SLE patients reflecting the possibility of using it as an immunological biomarker for diagnosis, and monitoring the disease flare.
LED is an ultra-lightweight block cipher that is mainly used in devices with limited resources. Currently, the software and hardware structure of this cipher utilize a complex logic operation to generate a sequence of random numbers called round constant and this causes the algorithm to slow down and record low throughput. To improve the speed and throughput of the original algorithm, the Fast Lightweight Encryption Device (FLED) has been proposed in this paper. The key size of the currently existing LED algorithm is in 64-bit & 128-bit but this article focused mainly on the 64-bit key (block size=64-bit). In the proposed FLED design, complex operations have been replaced by LFSR left feedback technology to make the algorithm perform more e
... Show MoreThe effect of molecules intersystem crossing (Kisc) on characteristics
(energy and duration) of a Passive Q- switched Laser Pulse has been
studied by mathematical description (rate equations model) for
temporal performance of which was used as a saturable absorber
material (passive switch) with laser. The study shows that the energy
and duration pulse are decreasing while the molecules intersystem
crossing into saturable absorber energy levels is increasing.
In this paper, the 5 minutes measured wind speed data for year 2012 at 10 meter height for Tweitha have been statically analyzed to assess the time of wind turbine electrical power generation. After collection Tweitha wind data and calculation of mean wind speed the cumulative Weibull diagram and probability density function was ploted, then each of cumulative Weibull distribution, cut-in and furling turbine wind speed could be used as a mathematical input parameters in order to estimate the hours of electrical power generation for wind turbine during one day or one year. In Tweitha site, found that the average wind speed was (v= 1.76 m/s), so five different wind turbines were be selected to calculate hours of electrical generation for A
... Show MoreA computational investigation is carried out in the field of charged –particle optics with the aid of numerical analysis method using the personal computer. The work is concerned with the design of electron gun with space-charge effect. The Finite element method (FEM) used in the solution of Poison's equation for determine the axial potential distribution of the two-electrode immersion lens operated under zero magnification condition , and from the solution of the paraxial ray equation the optical properties such as the focal length , spherical and chromatic aberration coefficients are determined, also a calculation of the brightness and perveance for the lens. The electrodes geometry was determined in two and three dimensi
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study was to investigate the bacterial etiology of urinary tract infections microbiologic properties of Escherichia coli isolated from urinary tract infection patients against nine amoxicillin antibiotic. E.coli isolates were collected from patients samples suffering from urinary tract infection, based on biochemical tests of Epi 20 system .Nine Amoxicillin antibiotics were selected (some vials and other are capsules) which manufactured in different countries were bought from local pharmacies in Baghdad, for the purpose of knowing the inhibitory activity of these antibiotics on E.coli one of the main microorganisms to cause urinary tract infection, the antibiotics were prepared in a concentration of 100mg/ml and their
... Show MoreIn this work 27 events have been chosen for the period from (17 Feb 2000 to 10 Sep 2014) to analyze their intensity profile and find out what is the most effective reason behind the bulk of the accelerated SEPs as seen in the interval from the onset to the maximum intensity. It was found that the parameters of the associated eruptions (CME and solar flare) could play a major role in this acceleration. We considered some of these parameters such as: flare class related to soft X-ray flux, CME's speed and acceleration, site of the eruption (western, eastern) and particle transport in the IP medium. The shape of the profile showed a clear changing in ΔT1 (time from onset to maximum), as an inverse relation with the acceleration of coronal
... Show MoreIn this work, some of numerical methods for solving first order linear Volterra IntegroDifferential Equations are presented. The numerical solution of these equations is obtained by using Open Newton Cotes formula. The Open Newton Cotes formula is applied to find the optimum solution for this equation. The computer program is written in (MATLAB) language (version 6)
An approximate solution of the liner system of ntegral cquations fot both fredholm(SFIEs)and Volterra(SIES)types has been derived using taylor series expansion.The solusion is essentailly
The research aims to clarify the COBIT5 framework for IT governance and to develop of a criterion based on Balanced Scorecard that contributes in measuring the performance of IT governance. To achieve these goals, the researchers adopted the deductive approach in the design of balanced scorecard to measure the IT governance at the Bank of Baghdad that was chosen because it relied heavily on IT.
The research has reached a number of conclusions, the most important of which is that the performance of IT department in the Bank of Baghdad falls within the good level that requires constant monitoring, the most committed items of Balanced Scorecard by the Bank were customer, internal operation, growth and finally the financial item; IT
... Show MoreThis paper is concerned with finding solutions to free-boundary inverse coefficient problems. Mathematically, we handle a one-dimensional non-homogeneous heat equation subject to initial and boundary conditions as well as non-localized integral observations of zeroth and first-order heat momentum. The direct problem is solved for the temperature distribution and the non-localized integral measurements using the Crank–Nicolson finite difference method. The inverse problem is solved by simultaneously finding the temperature distribution, the time-dependent free-boundary function indicating the location of the moving interface, and the time-wise thermal diffusivity or advection velocities. We reformulate the inverse problem as a non-
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