Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease characterized by joint inflammation, involvement of exocrine salivary and lacrimal glands may occur as extra-articular mani¬festations in this disease. This study aimed to provide evidence of altered in function and composition of salivary gland in patients with rheumatoid arthritis by determine salivary flow rate and some biochemical parameters(total protein, amylase, peroxidase) and to investigate the relationship between disease activity and changes in function and composition of salivary gland. Materials and Methods: Fifty five patients with RA (7 males and 48 females) were enrolled in this study with age range (20-69) years. The patients were separated into two groups in proportion to their salivation: normal salivation group (37) and hypo salivation group (18). Thirty five (9 male and 26 female) apparently healthy volunteers were also participated in the study. Three ml of unstimulated saliva was collected from all patients and control to determine salivary flow rate on one hand and salivary total protein, α-amylase and peroxidase by colorimetric method on other hand. Results:Resultsshowed that there is highly significant decrease (P< 0.01; p< 0.001) in the median salivary levels of (flow rate, total protein, α-amylase and peroxidase) among RA patients when compared to control. There was highly significant reduction (P< 0.01) in median salivary levels of flow rate, total protein, α-amylase and peroxidase in two study groups (normal salivation and hypo salivation) as compared to that in control group. Also the levels of all these parameters (sialometry and sialochemistry) were significantly decrease (P =0.00) in RA patients with hypo salivation as compared to that in patients with normal salivation. There was strong positive correlation between total protein and salivary flow rate (r= 0.651, P=0.000), in one hand, and on the other hand, there was strong positive correlation between α-amylase and both salivary flow rate (r=623, P= 0.000) and total protein r=658, P=0.000). Conclusion: These findings indicate that the changes in salivary composition may represent involvement of salivary glands in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Chilled ceilings systems offer potential for overall capital savings. The main aim of the present research is to investigate the thermal performance of the indirect contact closed circuit cooling tower, ICCCCT used with chilled ceiling, to gain a deeper knowledge in this important field of engineering which has been traditionally used in various industrial & HVAC systems. To achieve this study, experimental work were implemented for the ICCCCT use with chilled ceiling. In this study the thermal performances of closed wet cooling tower use with chilled ceiling is experimentally and theoretically investigated. Different experimental tests were conducted by varying the controlling parameters to investigate their effects
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Natural convection in an annular space provided with metal foam fins attached to the inner cylinder is studied numerically. The metal foam fins made of copper were inserted in different axial sections with three fins in each section. The temperature of the inner cylinder is kept constant while the annular outer surface is adiabatic. The thickness effect of the inner pipe wall was considered. Naiver Stokes equation with Boussinesq approximation is used for the fluid regime while Brinkman-Forchheimer Darcy model is used for metal foam. In addition, the local thermal non-equilibrium condition in the energy equation of the porous media is presumed. The effect of Rayleigh numb |
Background: The present in-vitro study was undertaken to evaluate and compare fracture resistance of weakened endodontically treated premolars with class II MOD cavities restored with different bulk fill composite restorations (EverX posterior, Alert, Tetric EvoCeram Bulk Fill, and SDR). The type and mode of fracture were also assessed for all the experimental groups. Materials and Method: Forty-eight human adult maxillary premolar teeth were selected for this study. Standardized extensive class II MOD cavities with endodontic treatment were prepared for all teeth, except those that were saved as intact control. The teeth were divided into six groups of eight teeth each (n=8): (Group 1) intact control group, (Group 2) unrestored teeth with
... Show MoreArtificial Intelligence Algorithms have been used in recent years in many scientific fields. We suggest employing flower pollination algorithm in the environmental field to find the best estimate of the semi-parametric regression function with measurement errors in the explanatory variables and the dependent variable, where measurement errors appear frequently in fields such as chemistry, biological sciences, medicine, and epidemiological studies, rather than an exact measurement. We estimate the regression function of the semi-parametric model by estimating the parametric model and estimating the non-parametric model, the parametric model is estimated by using an instrumental variables method (Wald method, Bartlett’s method, and Durbin
... Show MoreThis article is an endeavour to highlight the relationship between social media and language evolution. It reviews the current theoretical efforts on communication and language change. The descriptive design, which is theoretically based on technological determision, is used. The assumption behind this review is that the social media plays a significant role in language evolution. Moreover, different platforms of social media are characterized by being the easiest and fastest means of communication. It concludes that the current theoretical efforts have paid much attention to the relationship between social media and language evolution. Such efforts have highlighted the fact that social media platforms are awash with a lot of acronyms, cybe
... Show MorePrimary and secondary response loss , often mediated by the development of anti-drug antibodies (ADAs), limit treatment efficacy. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is important in optimizing infliximab therapy by correlating drug level with clinical outcomes. This study aimed to find the relationship between infliximab level, ADA presence, and clinical activity in Iraqi Crohn's disease (CD) patients. This cross-sectional study included adult Crohn's disease patients receiving maintenance infliximab (IFX) treatment. Data on demographics and clinical characteristics were collected. Infliximab level and ADA were measured using ELISA. Forty-three patients were included. Patients in remission had significantly higher infliximab levels and lower
... Show MoreNigella sativa seeds (NSS) are reputed traditionally and scientifically as a potent agent that promote milk secretion (galactagogue), but their mechanism of action is studied trivially. One suggestion was that these seeds are bio-transformed to sex hormones within the ovaries. Therefore, this investigation was designated to throw light on the action of these seeds in the absence of ovaries i.e. in male rats. Thirty Norway male albino rats were used in this investigation. They were divided into experimental (n=20,fed NSS 2g/ Kg body weight /day for 14 days) and control (n=10, fed placebo for 14 days). After sacrifice mammary gland and blood samples were obtained. Experimental rats revealed a significant increase (p (0.01>in
... Show MoreThe diagnoses system of varicose disease has a good level of performance due to the complexity and uniqueness in patterns of vein of the leg. In addition, the patterns of vein are internal of the body, and its features are hard to duplicate, this reason make this method not easy to fake, and thus make it contains of a good features for varicose disease diagnoses. The proposed system used more than one type of algorithms to produce diagnoses system of varicose disease with high accuracy, in addition, this multi-algorithm technique based on veins as a factor to recognize varicose infection. The obtained results indicate that the design of varicose diagnoses system by applying multi- algorithms (Naïve Bayes and Back-Propagation) produced new
... Show MoreABSTRACTBackground: In Iraq smoking is a common habit in both the urban and rural areas. There are many respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis, bronchial carcinoma and emphysema which are related to chronic tobacco smoking.Objectives: To study the effect of tobacco smoking on the respiratory system, to establish a correlation between chronic tobacco smoking and its effects on the parameters which were studied and to create awareness in tobacco smokers about the effects of tobacco on their healthMethod: In this study 100 male subjects, 50 chronic smokers and 50 non- smokers were assessed for their pulmonary function tests by using a computerized spirometer.Results: Almost all their respiratory parameters were significantly reduced.
... Show MoreVitiligo is a common depigmenting skin disorder classified as an autoimmune ailment. It is linked to immune mechanisms, oxidative stress, and disturbances in the cellular environment. Among the factors contributing to histological changes, proteolytic enzymes such as collagenase stand out, due to their role in degrading components of the extracellular matrix. Prolidase is a key enzyme in collagen metabolism, involved in the breakdown of proline-rich peptides. Objective: This study aims to investigate the mechanism of collagen decline in Iraqi vitiligo patients, prolidase activity and basic homeostasis to understand their roles in disease progression. This study was conducted as a cross-sectional comparative study, and 150 p
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