Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflamed chronic autoimmune disease in which genetics and environment are the most common causative factors. Peptidyl arginine deiminase type IV (PADI4) is an enzyme responsible for the posttranslational conversion of arginine residues into citrulline. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a specific technique was used to determine gene polymorphism. One hundred twenty three patients molecularly confirmed with RA and sixty healthy control subjects were recruited. By applying the logistic regression analysis, some alleles and genotypes were associated with susceptibility to RA. Under the allelic model, C allele frequency was significantly increased in RA patients compared

Detection of pathogenic bacteria, such as Listeria  monocytogenes, in food is crucial for safeguarding public health in Iraq.  Forty five samples of frozen meat (15 samples of each of minced red meat, chicken, and fish) were collected from different markets in Baghdad city. Molecular (RT-PCR) and culturing (conventional microbiological examination) methods were used to determine the level of contamination of L. monocytogenes in these types of meat.

For the culturing method, TSYEB broth was used as an enrichment medium, whereas BALCAM medium (HiMedia) with the listeria selective supplement FD061 was used as a selective medium, for the isolation and identification of this bacterium. The isolates were con

The rise in the general level of prices in Iraq makes the local commodity less able to compete with other commodities, which leads to an increase in the amount of imports and a decrease in the amount of exports, since it raises demand for foreign currencies while decreasing demand for the local currency, which leads to a decrease in the exchange rate of the local currency in exchange for an increase in the exchange rate of currencies. This is one of the most important factors affecting the determination of the exchange rate and its fluctuations. This research deals with the currency of the European Euro and its impact against the Iraqi dinar. To make an accurate prediction for any process, modern methods can be used through which

Many problems were encountered during the drilling operations in Zubair oilfield. Stuckpipe, wellbore instability, breakouts and washouts, which increased the critical limits problems, were observed in many wells in this field, therefore an extra non-productive time added to the total drilling time, which will lead to an extra cost spent. A 1D Mechanical Earth Model (1D MEM) was built to suggest many solutions to such types of problems. An overpressured zone is noticed and an alternative mud weigh window is predicted depending on the results of the 1D MEM. Results of this study are diagnosed and wellbore instability problems are predicted in an efficient way using the 1D MEM. Suitable alternative solutions are presented

Steganography is the art of concealing security data in media, such as pictures, audio, video, text, and protocols. The objective of this paper is hiding a secret message in a colour image to prevent an attacker from accessing the message. This is important because more people use the Internet all the time and network connections are spread around the world. The hidden secret message uses two general algorithms that are embedded and extracted. This paper proposes a new algorithm to conceal a secret message in a colour image in LSB. This algorithm includes three phases: 1) dividing the colour image into a number of blocks, 2) concealing the secret message, and 3) transmitting the stego-image from the sender in a multiplexer network and re

Transit agencies constantly need information about system operations and passengers to support their regular scheduling and operation planning processes. The lack of these processes and cultural motivations to use public transportations contributes enormously to the reliance on the private cars rather than public transportation, resulting in traffic congestions. The traffic congestions occur mainly during peak hours and the accidents happening as a result of road accidents and construction works.  This study investigates the effects of weekday and weekend travel variability on peak hours of the passenger flow distribution on bus lines, which can effectively reflect the degree of traffic congestion. A study of passen

In this research Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique was applied to study the filtration process in water treatment. Eight models have been developed and tested using data from a pilot filtration plant, working under different process design criteria; influent turbidity, bed depth, grain size, filtration rate and running time (length of the filtration run), recording effluent turbidity and head losses. The ANN models were constructed for the prediction of different performance criteria in the filtration process: effluent turbidity, head losses and running time. The results indicate that it is quite possible to use artificial neural networks in predicting effluent turbidity, head losses and running time in the filtration process, wi

The integral transformations is a complicated function from a function space into a simple function in transformed space. Where the function being characterized easily and manipulated through integration in transformed function space. The two parametric form of SEE transformation and its basic characteristics have been demonstrated in this study. The transformed function of a few fundamental functions along with its time derivative rule is shown. It has been demonstrated how two parametric SEE transformations can be used to solve linear differential equations. This research provides a solution to population growth rate equation. One can contrast these outcomes with different Laplace type transformations

Methods of speech recognition have been the subject of several studies over the past decade. Speech recognition has been one of the most exciting areas of the signal processing. Mixed transform is a useful tool for speech signal processing; it is developed for its abilities of improvement in feature extraction. Speech recognition includes three important stages, preprocessing, feature extraction, and classification. Recognition accuracy is so affected by the features extraction stage; therefore different models of mixed transform for feature extraction were proposed. The properties of the recorded isolated word will be 1-D, which achieve the conversion of each 1-D word into a 2-D form. The second step of the word recognizer requires, the

One of the wellbore instability problems in vertical wells are breakouts in Zubair oilfield. Breakouts, if exceeds its critical limits will produce problems such as loss circulation which will add to the non-productive time (NPT) thus increasing loss in costs and in total revenues. In this paper, three of the available rock failure criteria (Mohr-Coulomb, Mogi-Coulomb and Modified-Lade) are used to study and predict the occurrence of the breakouts. It is found that there is an increase over the allowable breakout limit in breakout width in Tanuma shaly formation and it was predicted using Mohr-Coulomb criterion. An increase in the pore pressure was predicted in Tanuma shaly formation, thus; a new mud weight and casing pr