Background. Alopecia areata (AA) is a common form of noncicatricial hair loss of unknown cause, affecting 0.1-0.2% of the general population. Most evidence supports the hypothesis that it is disease of the hair follicle of autoimmune nature mediated by T-cells, with important cytokine role. Objective of the Study. The objective of this study is to study the association and changes in serum levels of interleukin-15 (IL-15) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in patients with AA in relation to the type, activity, and disease duration. Patients and Methods. Thirty-eight patients with AA and 22 individuals without the disease as controls were enrolled in this case-controlled study conducted in the Department of Dermatology in the Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital and Baghdad Medical City, Iraq, during a period from the 1st of April 2021 to the 1st of December 2021. Serum concentrations of IL-15 and TNF-α assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results. The mean serum concentration values for IL-15 and TNF-α were higher significantly in patients with AA than in controls (2.35 versus 0.35 pg/mL and 50.11 versus 20.92 pg/mL, respectively). IL-15 and TNF-α showed no statistically significant differences in level in terms of the type, duration, and activity of the disease, but TNF-α significantly higher in those with totalis-type than in other types. Conclusion. Both IL-15 and TNF-α are markers for alopecia areata. The level for these biomarkers was not affected by duration or disease activity, but it was affected by the type of disease, as the concentrations of IL-15 and TNF-α were higher in patient with Alopecia totalis than in other types of Alopecia.
Denture cleansing is an essential step that can stop cross‑contamination and adds to the health of the patient, denture durability, and the general quality of life. A disinfection technique must be practical and devoid of damaging effects on the material's properties used to construct the denture base. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of three concentrations of electrolyzed water denture cleanser on heat cure acrylic and polyamide after immersion in electrolyzed water. The evaluation is based on their efficacy on surface hardness, wettability, and color stability compared with one submerged in distilled water as a control group. The method consists of eighty samples of heat-cured acrylic and polyamide material.
... Show MoreSurface electromyography (sEMG) and accelerometer (Acc) signals play crucial roles in controlling prosthetic and upper limb orthotic devices, as well as in assessing electrical muscle activity for various biomedical engineering and rehabilitation applications. In this study, an advanced discrimination system is proposed for the identification of seven distinct shoulder girdle motions, aimed at improving prosthesis control. Feature extraction from Time-Dependent Power Spectrum Descriptors (TDPSD) is employed to enhance motion recognition. Subsequently, the Spectral Regression (SR) method is utilized to reduce the dimensionality of the extracted features. A comparative analysis is conducted between the Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) class
... Show MoreThe current study aims at the extent of determining the interest of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and its various departments in the process of strategic foresight, and whether this interest is reflected in its strategic decisions if the study relies on an exploratory and analytical approach and has targeted managers in the higher management within this ministry, and the questionnaire has also been used as a basic tool for collecting For data, the study population was (94), (89) questionnaires were distributed, (86) questionnaires were retrieved, and usable questionnaires amounted to (83). The sub-variable had the highest impact on strategic decision-making (intuition), as this research demonstrated the
... Show MoreApple slice grading is useful in post-harvest operations for sorting, grading, packaging, labeling, processing, storage, transportation, and meeting market demand and consumer preferences. Proper grading of apple slices can help ensure the quality, safety, and marketability of the final products, contributing to the post-harvest operations of the overall success of the apple industry. The article aims to create a convolutional neural network (CNN) model to classify images of apple slices after immersing them in atmospheric plasma at two different pressures (1 and 5 atm) and two different immersion times (3 and again 6 min) once and in filtered water based on the hardness of the slices usin
In the current study, a direct method was used to create a new series of charge-transfer complexes of chemicals. In a good yield, new charge-transfer complexes were produced when different quinones reacted with acetonitrile as solvent in a 1:1 mole ratio with N-phenyl-3,4-selenadiazo benzophenone imine. By using analysis techniques like UV, IR, and 1H, 13C-NMR, every substance was recognized. The analysis's results matched the chemical structures proposed for the synthesized substances. Functional theory of density (DFT)
has been used to analyze the molecular structure of the produced Charge-Transfer Complexes, and the energy gap, HOMO surfaces, and LUMO surfaces have all been created throughout the geometry optimization process ut
The beet armyworm (BAW), Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a highly destructive pest of vegetables and field crops. Management of beet armyworm primarily relies on synthetic pesticides, which is threatening the beneficial community and environment. Most importantly, the BAW developed resistance to synthetic pesticides with making it difficult to manage. Therefore, alternative and environment-friendly pest management tactics are urgently required. The use of pesticidal plant extracts provides an effective way for a sustainable pest management program. To evaluate the use of pesticidal plant extracts against BAW, we selected six plant species (Lantana camara, Aloe vera, Azadirachta indica, Cymbopogon citratus, Nicotiana tabacum ,
... Show MoreThe current study aimed to use some bacterial isolates from the local soil of Baghdad city by study the effects of temperature, pH and incubation period on the growth rates of isolated bacteria and choose the optimal conditions for their diversity and for understanding bacterial growth and their requirements for survival and proliferation. This information can be applied to obtain their high growth rate for use in various fields such as agriculture, medicine and environmental sciences in the future. And it used to assess the degree of variation in across bacteria species in pH, temperature and incubation period. A number of local bacterial isolates as