Purpose: In view of the trend toward using international financial reporting standards when generating financial statements, we looked at the interaction between audit services and non-audit services for auditors in the context of actuarial services for insurance firms. CPAs are authorized to work in banks and insurance businesses, but those with a practicing license obtained after earning a higher academic degree are not. Design/methodology/approach: A small number of auditing firms control the decisions issued by the Iraqi Accountants Association, monopolizing audit services in banks and insurance businesses. In the case of actuarial services used in reserve estimation, they are credited to an external party's account withou

This study offers additional evidence for the occurrence of oil residues within fractures of the basement rocks in the Upper Benue Trough, Nigeria. The data suggests that the observed oil residues were originally generated as light oils, which were later biodegraded into heavy oils. These Upper Benue Trough's oil stains are a valuable tool for hydrocarbon exploration in the region as they indicate the existence of a petroleum system in the basin. We find a strong similarity to the proportions of C27, C28, and C29 regular steranes of oils found in the sandstones and shales of the Bima Formation in the Upper Benue Trough when we plot the relative quantities of these steranes of the investigated basement rock oil types on a ternary gra

Abstract: The aim of the present work is to measure radon concentration in wood. Solid state nuclear track detectors of type CR – 39 was used as measurement device. Eight different samples of imported and local wood were collected from markets. Samples were grinded, dried in order to measure radon concentrations in it. Cylindrical diffusion tube was used as detection technique. Results show that the higher concentration was in Iraqi sample 1 which recorded (14.02 ± 0.9) Bq / m3, while the less was in Emirates Sample which recorded (5.35 ± 1.2) Bq / m3. From the present work, all wood samples were with lowest concentrations of radon gas than other building materials.

This study is an attempt to find whether arginine metabolism dysregulation by arginase activity is related to hyperglycemia, followed by changes in nitric oxide (NO) generation in type 2 diabetic patients. This study includes 42 control subjects (Group I), and 92 Iraqi patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The patient group was subdivided into two groups: Group II (54) with T2DM only and Group III (38) with T2DM and dyslipidemia (who were treating with atorvastatin along with diabetes treatment). The samples were obtained to measure arginase activity and NO levels. Serum arginase activity increased significantly in patients(groupII and groupIII) compared to control group. While serum NO level was significantly lower in diabetic pa

Background: It's believed that HBD-3 is involved in the tissue remodeling process of articular cartilage. Also, HBD-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assay human beta-defensine-3 (HBD-3) in serum from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and investigate its correlation with proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: In this case-control study, fifty-eight RA patients were aged 20–65 years, and 29 age-matched healthy subjects (HS) had no inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The disease activity score-28 joint erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) was used to measure RA activity. CRP, ACPA, HBD-3, TNF-α, and IL-1β were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA). Res

Background and objective: Viral Hepatitis Type B&C is serious public health challenge throughout the world.Hepatitis B and C viruses still remain to be the major causes of chronic hepatitis.It is estimated that around 350-400 million people in the world are chronic carriers of HBV, which represents approximately 7% of the total populationwhereas infection with HCV is found in approximately 3% of the world population, which represents 160 million people. Hepatitis B infection has a wide range of seroprevalence in the Mediterranean countries ranging from intermediate (=>2% ) to high prevalence ( =>7%). World Health Organization estimated a prevalence rate for HCV infection of about 4.6% in Eastern Mediterranean in 1999. During the eightieths

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with polymorphic expression. B cells have an essential contribution in immune system activation via the production of different cytokines and functioning as potent antigen-presenting cells. Therefore, a drug that particularly targets B cells may represent an ideal therapeutic approach for SLE. Rituximab (RTX), an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody causing transient B-cell depletion, has been used to manage SLE. This study aims to assess Rituximab effects on lupus nephritis (LN) patients when added to conventional immunosuppressants. Twenty four patients, 15-32 years old, with class III/IV/V LN were involved in this study. All were on steroids before lupus nephritis occurrence. They were