Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune diseasecharacterized by chronic inflammationthat affects joints and cartilage. Bone complications such asRA-relatedosteoporosis are one of the most extra-articular manifestations. Many inflammatory mediators are released during RA disease pathophysiology; these mediators stimulate osteoclast genesis of bone by direct effects on RANKL and OPG. The study aimedto measure RANKL, OPG in RA patients treated with Etanercept only and other groups treated with Methotrexate onlyat baseline and after three months to evaluate bone state. An observational case-control prospective study was done on 30 RA patients who received MTX, 30 RA patients who received ETN, and 30 healthy,age-matched control groups. The

This paper studies the main characteristics of the traditional urban configuration of Arab cities, as an important built heritage, discussing the approach adopted with such configuration at the local level, and examines its ability to preserve the character of the city, as well as, its responsiveness to the recent  requirements of its society that constantly change; in order to reach the appropriate procedures to deal with the traditional urban configuration of the Iraqi city to achieve a vital cultural communication with the vernacular built heritage, by dealing with the Form-Moral Values structure. Due to its importance within other traditional Iraqi cities, the research chose Al-Kadhimiya as a case study, so it discusses and compares

Background: Osteoarthritis is a chronic pathology of the joints causing disability and morbidity. Diacerein is a disease-modifying agent indicated for osteoarthritis management with enhanced performance and have much lower side effects profile than conventional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Oral administration of Diacerein is associated with a laxative effect, thus causing treatment discontinuation. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the activity of Diacerein novasome-based transdermal gel compared with standard oral treatment in the management of induced osteoarthritis in a rat model. Materials and methods: A single intra-articular injection of monosodium iodoacetate was administered to the left knee joint, resulting in the develop

To asses methylene blue as a cell marker, the cells of the buffy coat were labelled by incubating them in a medium containing a lable [Methylene blue] which is prepared in a concentration of 1%[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] drops were tried at different periods of incubation [+/-,+/-, 1+/-, 1+/-] at 37 C degree. The results showed that monocytes and polymorphs are the main cells involved in the phagocytosis of this dye

This study was aimed to determine a phytotoxicity experiment with kerosene as a model of a total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPHs) as Kerosene pollutant at different concentrations (1% and 6%) with aeration rate (0 and 1 L/min) and retention time (7, 14, 21, 28 and 42 days), was carried out in a subsurface flow system (SSF) on the Barley wetland. It was noted that greatest elimination 95.7% recorded at 1% kerosene levels and aeration rate 1L / min after a period of 42 days of exposure; whereas it was 47% in the control test without plants. Furthermore, the percent of elimination efficiencies of hydrocarbons from the soil was ranged between 34.155%-95.7% for all TPHs (Kerosene) concentrations at aeration rate (0 and 1 L/min). The Barley c

The segmentation of aerial images using different clustering techniques offers valuable insights into interpreting and analyzing such images. By partitioning the images into meaningful regions, clustering techniques help identify and differentiate various objects and areas of interest, facilitating various applications, including urban planning, environmental monitoring, and disaster management. This paper aims to segment color aerial images to provide a means of organizing and understanding the visual information contained within the image for various applications and research purposes. It is also important to look into and compare the basic workings of three popular clustering algorithms: K-Medoids, Fuzzy C-Mean (FCM), and Gaussia

Some problems want to be solved in image compression to make the process workable and more efficient. Much work had been done in the field of lossy image compression based on wavelet and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). In this paper, an efficient image compression scheme is proposed, based on a common encoding transform scheme; It consists of the following steps: 1) bi-orthogonal (tab 9/7) wavelet transform to split the image data into sub-bands, 2) DCT to de-correlate the data, 3) the combined transform stage's output is subjected to scalar quantization before being mapped to positive, 4) and LZW encoding to produce the compressed data. The peak signal-to-noise (PSNR), compression ratio (CR), and compression gain (CG) measures were used t

Different solvents (light naphtha, n-heptane, and n-hexane) are used to treat Iraqi Atmospheric oil residue by the deasphalting process. Oil residue from Al-Dura refinery with specific gravity 0.9705, API 14.9, and 0.5 wt. % sulfur content was used. Deasphalting oil (DAO) was examined on a laboratory scale by using solvents with different operation conditions (temperature, concentration of solvent, solvent to oil ratio, and duration time). This study investigates the effects of these parameters on asphaltene yield. The results show that an increase in temperature for all solvents increases the extraction of asphaltene yield. The higher reduction in asphaltene content is obtained with hexane solvent at operating conditions of (90 °C

Gypsum Plaster is an important building materials, and because of the availabilty of its raw materials. In this research the effect of various additives on the properties of plaster was studied , like Polyvinyl Acetate, Furfural, Fumed Silica at different rate of addition and two types of fibers, Carbon Fiber and Polypropylene Fiber to the plaster at a different volumetric rate. It was found that after analysis of the results the use of Furfural as an additive to plaster by 2.5% is the optimum ratio of addition to that it improved the flexural Strength by 3.18%.
When using Polyvinyl Acetate it was found that the ratio of the additive 2% is the optimum ratio of addition to the plaster, because it improved the value of the flexural stre

The ability of pulverized walnut-shell to remove oil from aqueous solutions has been studied. It involves two-phase process which consists of using walnut-shell as a filtering bed for the accumulation and adsorption of oil onto its surface. Up to 96% oil removal from synthetic wastewater samples was achieved while tests results showed that 75% of oil can be removed from the actual wastewater discharged from Al- Duara refinery in the south of Baghdad.