Background: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a common disease, and a major determinant of morbidity and mortality in all races. The pleiotropic effects of the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand (RANKL) such as modulation of cell survival, mineralization and inflammation, make it an interesting candidate mediator in the progression and destabilization of atherosclerotic lesions.Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the role of RANKL in the pathogenesis of ACS.Methods: The levels of RANKL were measured by ELISA method in sera of 60 ACS patients, 31 patients with unstable angina (UA) and 29 patients with myocardial infarction (MI) in comparison with 20 apparently healthy controls.Results: Current data indicate

Learning a foreign language is a highly interactive process, and a belief that communicative activities foster a great amount of linguistic production provides language practice and opportunities for negotiation of meaning during communicative exchanges. Thus, this study examines what benefits learner-centered classroom setting offers compared with that of teacher–centered classroom, and how less proficient learners accomplish their tasks and activities with scaffolded help during interaction with the help of proficient classmates and under the guidance of a skilful person, i.e., the teacher. The subjects participating in this study are 30 Iraqi 4^th year college students in the Department of English, College of Arts , Univer

Cloud computing is a newly developed concept that aims to provide computing resources in the most effective and economical manner. The fundamental idea of cloud computing is to share computing resources among a user group. Cloud computing security is a collection of control-based techniques and strategies that intends to comply with regulatory compliance rules and protect cloud computing-related information, data apps, and infrastructure. On the other hand, data integrity is a guarantee that the digital data are not corrupted, and that only those authorized people can access or modify them (i.e., maintain data consistency, accuracy, and confidence). This review presents an overview of cloud computing concepts, its importance in many

Insufficient and poor sleep quality significantly impacts the health and quality of life of persons with end-stage renal failure (ESRF) on hemodialysis. This study explored the effectiveness of teaching patients on hemodialysis, Benson’s relaxation technique. Seventy-one persons on hemodialysis in Iraq were randomly assigned to either the experimental or the control group. The experimental group received training and encouragement to use the Benson relaxation technique. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score was collected for all the patients before and after the intervention. After 8 weeks a repeated measurement of the post-test on sleep quality was done for both groups. The experimental group showed a statistically sign

Background: To elucidate the possible role of human cytomegalovirus in pregnancy loss through induction of certain pro-inflammatory adhesion molecules.
Methods: Paraffin embedded sections of curate samples were obtained from 34 women had spontaneous abortion, and 5 women had elective termination of pregnancy (as control), and then subjected for immunohistochemistry analysis to detect human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) early protein and VCAM-1 molecule.
Results: Nine out of 34 women with spontaneous abortion were positive for HCMV early protein, with a
significantly higher expression of VCAM-1 in HCMV positive cases as compared with HCMV negative and the control groups (p = 0.05, 0.001 respectively).
Conclusion: HCMV infection may p

Plasma generated by a 1064 nm pulsed Nd: YAG laser with pulse duration of 10 ns concentrated onto an Al solid target under vacuum pressure was examined spectroscopically. The temperature and electron density specifying the plasma were measured by time-resolved spectroscopy of neutral atom and ion line emissions in the time period range of 300–2000 ns. An echelle spectrograph is utilized to appear the plasma emission lines. The temperature was obtained using the spectral line comparison method and the electron density was calculated using the Stark Broadening (SB) method. The electron density was characterized as a function of laser pulse energy. The time range where the plasma is optically thin and is also in local thermodynamic equilibri

Background The escalating global concern over increased body weight in adolescents, coupled with the rising rates of adolescent pregnancy worldwide, presents a significant challenge to healthcare systems. We plan to identify the maternal and neonatal consequences associated with pre-pregnancy overweight in adolescent women. Methods Throughout five years, all singleton adolescent pregnant women with pre-pregnancy self-reported body mass index (BMI) of 18.5– ≤ 29.9 were involved during the first-trimester visit. Two groups were generated: overweight and appropriate-weight (BMI 25–29.9 and 18.5–24.9, respectively). Obstetric and neonatal outcomes were observed prospectively and statistically adjusted for the confounding factors.

Some new heterocyclic compounds containing, cyclohexenone, indazole, isoxazoline, pyrmidine and pyrazoline ring system were prepared from chalcones (1a,b). The starting chalcones (1a,b) were obtained by a base catalyzed condensation of appropriately substituted benzaldehydes and 2-acetylbenzofuran. The reaction of the prepared chalcones with ethylacetoacetate/hydrazine hydrate, hydroxylamine hydrochloride, urea, thiourea, hydrazine hydrate, phenyl hydrazine or hydrazide derivatives gave the mentioned heterocycles. All synthesized compounds have been characterized by physical and spectral methods.