Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease. It is one of the major causes of disability in developed and developing countries. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) as part of immune system has a role in the disease process.Objectives: To investigate whether there is an association between HLA class II-DRB and OA.Methods: A case control study with 26 patients with osteoarthritis and 22 apparently healthy obese control persons matching in ethnicity were enrolled in this study during the period between October 2012 till March 2013. Direct interview was done with each patient and HLA typing was done by molecular method using Sequence Specific Primer (PCR-SSP) method using One Lambda Kit-USA. Results: The results showed that fem

The aim of the current study is to in evaluate the role of SOD activity in the previously reported oxidative stress in our laboratory(1), in the patients with different brain tumors. SOD activity was assayed according to riboflavin/NBT method and its specific activity was calculated in patients with benign and malignant brain tumors and control. Moreover the specific activity was compared in these samples according to gender and the occurrence of disease.Non significant elevation (P > 0.05) in SOD specific activity was observed in tissue of malignant tumors in comparison to that of in benign brain tumors. While a highly significant decrease (P < 0.001) of the specific activity was found in sera of malignant patients group in comparison to t

Topic management is the awareness of how speakers deal with initiating, developing, changing, and ending a topic and how they fix the relationship when a misunderstanding occurs. It is such an important unit of conversation as it includes the transition from one strategy to the other to be accomplished in a systematic and orderly manner. These strategies are impaired in dementia patients thus lead to communication breakdown. This study aims at detecting the dementia patients' topic management strategies in selected speeches and answering the questions of which of these strategies are fully or partially detected in these speeches. The researchers use a qualitative method to examine the speeches of those patients and they adopt an eclectic

The conjunctive ''and'' and its Arabic counterpart ''و'' are discourse markers that express certain meanings and presuppose the presence of other elements in discourse. They are indispensable aids to both the text writers and readers. The present study aims to show that such cohesive ties help the writer to organize his main argument and communicate his ideas vividly and smoothly. They also serve as explicit signals that help readers unfold text and follow its threads as realized in the progression of context. The researcher has utilized the Quirk Model of Semantic Implication for data analysis. A total of 42 (22 for English and 20 for Arabic) political texts selected from different elite newspapers in both Arabic and English for the analy

Mixed-effects conditional logistic regression is evidently more effective in the study of qualitative differences in longitudinal pollution data as well as their implications on heterogeneous subgroups. This study seeks that conditional logistic regression is a robust evaluation method for environmental studies, thru the analysis of environment pollution as a function of oil production and environmental factors. Consequently, it has been established theoretically that the primary objective of model selection in this research is to identify the candidate model that is optimal for the conditional design. The candidate model should achieve generalizability, goodness-of-fit, parsimony and establish equilibrium between bias and variab

Rutting is one of the major distresses in pavement. The objective of this paper is to develop an improved asphalt binder grading system for Iraq based on the principal of Superpave system, and increasing performance grade of product asphalt binder in Iraq using polymers without raising the viscosity of the binder. Two types of polymers are used, Plastomers, Functionalized Polyethylene (PE) which is developed by asphalt research group in Wisconsin University in the USA, and Elastomers, Styrene Butadiene Styrene (SBS) with and without cross linker. Mastercurve are drown for these modified binders, Rolling thin film aged, to show effects on rheological properties at high temperature for complex modulus (G*) and phas

In this work, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were biosynthesized from leaves of Ziziphus mauritiana Lam. jujube plant in Iraq and tested against fungal pathogens. Extract of leaves of Z. mauritiana mixed with 10-3 M AgNO3exposed to slight sunlight for 3 days. Characterization of AgNPs was done using UV-visible spectroscopy, SPM (scanning probe microscopy) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The change of solution color from pale brown to dark brown and the exhibited maximum peak at 445 nm accepted as an indicator to biosynthesized AgNPs. Aqueous extract of Ziziphus mauritiana is considered as biological reduced and stabilized agent for Ag+ to Ag0. AFM showed the formation of irregular shapes of AgNPs. The biosynthesized silver nanoparticles ha

Thin films of pure polycarbonate (PC) with anthracene doping PC films for different doping ratios (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 ml) were prepared by using a casting method. The influence of anthracene doping ratio on photo-fries rearrangement of polycarbonate was systematic investigated. Furthermore, pure PC and anthracene doping PC films were irradiated via UV light at a wavelength (254 nm) for different periods (5, 240, 288, and 360 hrs). The photo-fries rearrangement occurring in pure PC and anthracene doping PC films were monitored using UV and FTIR spectroscopies. The photo-fries rearrangement leads to scission the carbonate linkage and formation phenylsalicylate and dihydroxybenzophenes. The result of the UV spectrum confirms disappea