Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) is characterized by clonal proliferation of malignant plasma cells within the bone marrow. In most patients, monoclonal immunoglobulin heavy chains or light chains are produced and are associated with organ dysfunction. The growth factor B-cell activating factor (BAFF) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma due to its ability to promote B-cell survival, expansion, and differentiation. Objective: to measure the circulatory level of B-cell activating factor in multiple myeloma patients in relapsed and remission states and explore its possible correlations with the clinical staging, β2-microglobulin, and interleukin-6. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 60 multiple myeloma patients, with 30 in remission and 30 in relapse, as well as 20 healthy individuals serving as a control group. The study was conducted in the Hematology department of Baghdad Teaching Hospital in the Medical City Complex from January to September 2020. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique was used to measure plasma levels of B-cell activating factor, β2-microglobulin, and interleukin-6. Results: The B-cell activating factor levels were significantly higher in multiple myeloma patients compared to the control, and in relapsed patients compared to those in remission. The level of B-cell activating factor increased with advanced disease, in both remission and relapse states. There are positive correlations with β2-microglobulin and interleukin-6 levels in both relapsed and remission states. Conclusion: Increased B-cell activating factor level in relapse more than remission states is a useful biomarker of disease activity in multiple myeloma and has positive correlations with β2-microglobulin and interleukin-6 levels.
In this research, beam expander, BEX, is explained and designed for illuminating the
remote flying target. The BEX is optically designed to be suited for Nd:YAG laser of given
specifications. The BEX is modified to be zoom one to meet the conditions of preventing the
receiving unit; i.e the photodetector, from getting saturated at near and far laser tracking.
Decollimation could be achieved by automatic motor, which controls zoom lens of the BEX
according to the required expansion ratio of beam expander
The complete genome sequence of bacteriophage VPUSM 8 against O1 El Tor Inaba
Background: Bacteriocin is a peptidic toxin has many advantages to bacteria in their ecological niche and has strong antibacterial activity. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluation of bacteriocin using Streptococcus sanguinis isolated from human dental caries.
Subjects and Methods: Thirty five streptococcus isolates were diagnosed and tested for their production of bacteriocin, and then the optimal conditions for production of bacteriocin were determined. After that, the purification of bacteriocin was made partially by ammonium sulfate at 95% saturation levels, followed by and gel filtration chromatography
... Show MoreMinister Yacoub Ben Keles distinguished himself with leadership and administrative talents, as well as his abilities in the field of jurisprudence, which made him the top political, administrative and cultural scene of the Fatimid state and left its mark on it by influencing its fateful decisions.
He was the son of Kels of the Jews of Baghdad, where he learned writing and arithmetic, and moved with his father to Syria and then carried him to Egypt.
Egypt embraced the son of Kels, living in a transitional period from the Achaishid era to the Fatimid period. Both these two covenants reconciled this man to his career until he became minister in the Fatimids in 368 A.H. / 978 A.D.
His character was overshadowed by most of the state'
During COVID-19, wearing a mask was globally mandated in various workplaces, departments, and offices. New deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) based classifications were proposed to increase the validation accuracy of face mask detection. This work introduces a face mask model that is able to recognize whether a person is wearing mask or not. The proposed model has two stages to detect and recognize the face mask; at the first stage, the Haar cascade detector is used to detect the face, while at the second stage, the proposed CNN model is used as a classification model that is built from scratch. The experiment was applied on masked faces (MAFA) dataset with images of 160x160 pixels size and RGB color. The model achieve
... Show MoreBiodiesel is an environmentally friendly fuel and a good substitution for the fossil fuel. However, the purity of this fuel is a major concern that challenges researchers. In this study, a calcium oxide based catalyst has been prepared from local waste eggshells by the calcination method and tested in production biodiesel. The eggshells were powdered and calcined at different temperatures (700, 750, 800, 850 and 900 °C) and periods of time (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 hr.). The effect of calcination temperature and calcination time on the structure and activity of the solid catalyst were examined by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Brunaure-Emmett-Teller (BET). The optimum catalyst performance was obtained at 900 °C
... Show MoreNitrogen dioxide NO2 is one of the most dangerous contaminant in the air, its toxic gas that cause disturbing respiratory effects, most of it emitted from industrial sources especially from the stack of power plants and oil refineries. In this study Gaussian equations modelled by Matlab program to state the effect of pollutant NO2 gas on area around Durra refinery, this program also evaluate some elements such as wind and stability and its effect on stacks height. Data used in this study is the amount of fuel oil and fuel gas burn inside refinery at a year 2017. Hourly April month data chosen as a case study because it’s unsteady month. After evaluate emission rate of the all fuel and calculate exit velocity from
... Show MoreA system was used to detect injuries in plant leaves by combining machine learning and the principles of image processing. A small agricultural robot was implemented for fine spraying by identifying infected leaves using image processing technology with four different forward speeds (35, 46, 63 and 80 cm/s). The results revealed that increasing the speed of the agricultural robot led to a decrease in the mount of supplements spraying and a detection percentage of infected plants. They also revealed a decrease in the percentage of supplements spraying by 46.89, 52.94, 63.07 and 76% with different forward speeds compared to the traditional method.