Background: Dyslipidemia is defined as an abnormally high level of various lipids in the blood. It is considered a major risk for atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. Genetic susceptibility can have a significant influence on the development and progression of dyslipidemia. ApoB-100 R3500Q mutation and ApoE variants are among those genetic risks for dyslipidemia. This study aims to assess the possible contribution of ApoB and ApoE variants on lipid profile among a group of early-onset ischemic heart disease (IHD) patients in comparison to a group of controls. Methods: Forty patients with dyslipidemia and early-onset IHD without chronic conditions likely to cause derangement of lipid levels were recruited to this case-control study along with 20 disease-free controls. Basic demographic and clinical features along with lipid profile changes of the recruited individuals were analyzed and correlated with ApoB R3500Q mutation and ApoE variants in both groups. Results: The majority (80%) of participants were males. Hypertension showed a significant association with abnormal lipid profile among the patients, unlike family history of dyslipidemia, IHD or stroke, smoking status, and parental consanguinity, where no significant association was observed. ApoB R3500Q mutation was detected in a heterozygous state in one IHD patient only. ApoE variants were reported as follows: e3/e3 in 81.7% of recruited individuals while 10% have e3/e4 variant and 8.3% have e2/e3 variant. None of these variants showed a significant correlation with most clinical and lipid profile abnormalities. A noticeable proportion (25-30%) of the controls had marginally increased TC and TG levels respectively, while 60% of the controls had borderline high VLDL levels, which warrants further evaluation. Conclusions: The studied ApoB and ApoE variations do not seem to be the major contributing factors for dyslipidemia and IHD among the recruited individuals. The unhealthy lifestyle or other genetic causes are possible culprits in the absence of chronic medical conditions, which requires the application of certain preventive/therapeutic measures for the community.
Millions of pilgrims and visitors from numerous parts of the world flock to Karbala (one of the most prominent ideological and religious places in central Iraq) each year to visit the holy shrines in Karbala due to their sanctity. Many improvements have been made to the Two Holy Shrines (THS), the Shrines of Imam Husayn and Imam Abbas, and the area between them (ATHS), due to the high temperatures in this region and to improve pedestrian thermal comfort. Studies on improving outdoor thermal comfort in Karbala are scarce. Hence, this research aims to look into historical and current architectural changes and how they affect thermal comfort. On the hottest summer day, the ENVI-met software program was used to simulate the building des
... Show MoreRecent phosphorus (P) pollution in the United States, mainly in Maine, has raised some severe concerns over the use of P fertilizer application rates in agriculture. Phosphorus is the second most limiting nutrient after nitrogen and has damaging impacts on crop yield if found to be deficient. Therefore, farmers tend to apply more P than is required to satisfy any P loss after its application at planting. Several important questions were raised in this study to improve P efficiency and reduce its pollution. The objective of this study was to find potential reasons for P pollution in water bodies despite a decrease in potato acreage. Historically, the potato was found to be responsible for P water contamination due to its high P sensitivity a
... Show MoreThe consumption of fresh fruits has increased nowadays due to the lifestyle of the consumers. Maintaining the quality and nutritional value of cut fruits during storage is difficult compared to whole fruits. Deterioration of internal and external quality usually occurs in freshly harvested fruits. It is necessary to use different techniques to maintain the quality and increase the shelf life of the freshly cut product. This research studied the effect of treating apple slices with cold plasma once and with filtered water again on quality characteristics (hardness, moisture content, sugar content, carbohydrate content, and color) after being stored for five days. The best treatment was determined using two different pressures of the plasma j
... Show MoreThe study discussed here deals with the isolation of Aspergillus niger from palm dates, the formal and the most famous fruit in Iraq, to test and qualify this fungus isolate for its ability to produce citric acid. Submerged fermentation technique was used in the fermentation process. A.niger isolated from “Zahdi” Palme dates was used in the study of the fermentation kinetics to get the production efficiency of citric acid. Kinetics of CA production via fermentation by A. niger S11 was evaluated within 432 h fermentation time and under submerged conditions of 11% (w/v) sucrose, 5% (v/v) inoculum size, pH 4, 30 °C and 150 rpm. The maximum citric acid produced was (37.116 g/l). Kine
Background: The primary stability of the dental implant is a crucial factor determining the ability to initiate temporary implant-supported prosthesis and for subsequent successful osseointegration, especially in the maxillary non-molar sites. This study assessed the reliability of the insertion torque of dental implants by relating it to the implant stability quotient values measured by the Osstell device. Material and methods: This study included healthy, non-smoker patients with no history of diabetes or other metabolic, or debilitating diseases that may affect bone healing, having non-restorable fractured teeth and retained roots in the maxillary non-molar sites. Primary dental implant stability was evaluated using a torque ratc
... Show MoreThe study was conducted at the fields of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening, College of Agriculture, University of Baghdad " Abu Ghraib" during the growing seasons 2013-2014 to Evaluate the Vegetative growth , yield traits and genetic parameter of some tomato mutants. Results showed significantly increased of plant height in M6-2 mutant 245cm in Comparison with M6- 3 130 cm . M6-4 mutant significantly increasing of floral clusters 13 . Mutant M6-3 showed significantly increasing the average of, fruit weight 125.9g and plant yield 7.17 kg.plant-1 as comparison with M6-2 which showed decreasing of average of fruit weight and plant yield 79.40g and 4.38 kg.plant-1 respectively. Also results showed the highest Genetic variat
... Show MoreThe study was conducted at the fields of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening,College of Agriculture, University of Baghdad during the growing seasons of 2013- 2014 .forPerformance of Evaluation Vegetative growth and yield traits and estimate some important geneticparameter on seven selected breed of tomato which (S1-S7 ) Pure line. the results found significantdifferences between breeds in all study trails except clusters flowering number .S1 significantly plantlength which reached 227.3 .Also S1,S2 and S4 were significantly increased the number fruit for plant,Fruit weight Increased in S3 ,S6 and plant yield. Increased in S1, S4 ,S5. Genetic variation valueswere low in Floral clusters , TSS and fruit firmest and medium i
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In this work, diabetic glucose concentration level control under disturbing meal has been controlled using two set of advanced controllers. The first set is sliding mode controllers (classical and integral) and the second set is represented by optimal LQR controllers (classical and Min-, ax). Due to their characteristic features of disturbance rejection, both integral sliding mode controller and LQR Minmax controller are dedicated here for comparison. The Bergman minimal mathematical model was used to represent the dynamic behavior of a diabetic patient’s blood glucose concentration to the insulin injection. Simulations based on Matlab/Simulink, were performed to verify the performance of each controll
... Show MoreQuantitative real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) has become a valuable molecular technique in biomedical research. The selection of suitable endogenous reference genes is necessary for normalization of target gene expression in RT-qPCR experiments. The aim of this study was to determine the suitability of each 18S rRNA and ACTB as internal control genes for normalization of RT-qPCR data in some human cell lines transfected with small interfering RNA (siRNA). Four cancer cell lines including MCF-7, T47D, MDA-MB-231 and Hela cells along with HEK293 representing an embryonic cell line were depleted of E2F6 using siRNA specific for E2F6 compared to negative control cells, which were transfected with siRNA not specific for any gene. Us
... Show MoreManufacturing systems of the future foresee the use of intelligent vehicles, optimizing and navigating. The navigational problem is an important and challenging problem in the field of robotics. The robots often find themselves in a situation where they must find a trajectory to another position in their environment, subject to constraints posed by obstacles and the capabilities of the robot itself. On-line navigation is a set of algorithms that plans and executes a trajectory at the same time. The system adopted in this research searches for a robot collision-free trajectory in a dynamic environment in which obstacles can move while the robot was moving toward the target. So, the ro
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