Background: Osteoarthritis is a complicated, chronic disorder of cartilage and bone, associated with homeostasis of bio-elements. The current study aims to assess the role of serum progranulin levels among Iraqi patients with knee osteoarthritis. Patients and Methods: The study encompassed 50 patients aged 52.50 ± 3.12 years (25 males and 25 females), admitted to the at the Baghdad Medical City through the period from November 2021 to March 2022. All individuals were identified by physicians in a Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic and the clinical data was collected along with the assess¬ment of biochemical parameters. Fasting serum glucose, lipid profile, calcium, magnesium, alkaline phosphatase, vitamin D3, and progranulin levels were determined. Results: All patients in this study had higher levels of serum glucose and dyslipidemia with significant increases (p < 0.05) in alkaline phosphatase and progranulin levels and considerable reduced (p < 0.05) in serum calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D3 as compared to healthy group. Additionally, hypovitaminosis D were appeared in all patients and progranulin levels were (56.30±8.50 ng/mL) vs. (40.45 ± 8.90 ng/mL) in control group with OR and CI= 1.54 (0.97-2.58). Conclusions: Inflammation has an integral role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. Serum vitamin D3 level is considerably low in patients with knee osteoarthritis paralleled to healthy individuals. However, this study demonstrates increased progranulin levels in knee osteoarthritis patients and associates with vitamin D level, disease activity, and inflammation among those patients. Keywords: Knee osteoarthritis, Calcium, Magnesium, Alkaline phosphatase,Vitamin D3, Progranulin.
The high and low water levels in Tigris River threaten the banks of the river. The study area is located on the main stream of Tigris River at Nu’maniyah City and the length of the considered reach is 5.4 km, especially the region from 400 m upstream Nu’maniyah Bridge and downstream of the bridge up to 1250 mwhich increased the risk ofthe problemthat itheading towardsthe streetand causingdanger tonearbyareas.
The aim of this research is to identify the reason of slope collapse and find proper treatments for erosion problem in the river banks with the least cost. The modeling approach consisted of several steps, the first of which is by using “mini” JET (Jet Erosion Test) d
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This paper describes DC motor speed control based on optimal Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) technique. Controller's objective is to maintain the speed of rotation of the motor shaft with a particular step response.The controller is modeled in MATLAB environment, the simulation results show that the proposed controller gives better performance and less settling time when compared with the traditional PID controller.
The ground state properties including the density distributions of the neutrons, protons and matter as well as the corresponding root mean square (rms) radii of proton-rich halo candidates 8B, 12N, 23Al and 27P have been studied by the single particle Bear– Hodgson (BH) wave functions with the two-body model of (core+p). It is found that the rms radii of these proton-rich nuclei are reproduced well by this model and the radial wave functions describe the long tail of the proton and matter density distributions. These results indicate that this model achieves a suitable description of the possible halo structure. The plane wave Born approximation (PWBA) has been used to compute the elastic charge form factors.
A theoretical study to design a conformal microstrip antennas was introduced in this work. Conformal microstrip antennas define antennas which can be conformed to a certain shape or to any curved surface. It is used in high-speed trains, aircraft, defense and navigation systems, landing gear and various communications systems, as well as in body wearable. Conformal antennas have some advantages such as a wider-angle coverage compared to flat antennas and low radar cross-sectional (RCS) and they are suitable for using in Radome. The main disadvantage of these antennas is the narrow bandwidth. The FDTD method is extremely useful in simulating complicated structures because it allows for direct integration of Maxwell's equations depending o
... Show MoreThis paper investigates the experimental response of composite reinforced concrete with GFRP and steel I-sections under limited cycles of repeated load. The practical work included testing four beams. A reference beam, two composite beams with pultruded GFRP I-sections, and a composite beam with a steel I-beam were subjected to repeated loading. The repeated loading test started by loading gradually up to a maximum of 75% of the ultimate static failure load for five loading and unloading cycles. After that, the specimens were reloaded gradually until failure. All test specimens were tested under a three-point load. Experimental results showed that the ductility index increased for the composite beams relative to the reference specim
... Show MoreIn this research, CNRs have been synthesized using pyrolysis of plastic waste(pp) at 1000 ° C for one hour in a closed reactor made from stainless steel, using magnesium oxide (MgO) as a catalyst. The resultant carbon nano rods were purified and characterized using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The surface characteristics of carbon rods were observed with the Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The carbon was evenly spread and had the highest concentration from SEM-EDX characterization. The results of XRD and FESEM have shown that carbon Nano rods (CNRs) were present in Nano figures, synthesized at 1000 ° C and with pyrolysis temperature 400° C. One of t
... Show MoreThis work presents the construction of a test apparatus for air-conditioning application that is flexible in changing a scaled down adsorbent bed modules. To improve the heat and mass transfer performance of the adsorbent bed, a finned-tube of the adsorbent bed heat exchanger was used. The results show that the specific cooling power (SCP) and the coefficient of performance (COP) are 163 W/kg and 0.16, respectively, when the cycle time is 40 min, the hot water temperature is 90oC, the cooling water temperature is 30oC and the evaporative water temperature is 11.4oC.
Tillage tools are subject to friction and low-stress abrasive wear processes with the potential deterioration of the desired soil quality, loss of mechanical weed efficacy, and downtime for replacing worn tools. Limited experimental methods exist to quantify investigate the effect of wear-resistant coatings on shape parameters of soil-engaging tools. ASTM standard sand/rubber wheel abrasion and pin-on-disk tests are not able to simulate wear characteristics of the complex shape of the tillage tools. Even though the tribology of tillage tools can be realistic from field tests, tillage wear tests under field conditions are expensive and often challenging to generate repeatable engineeri