It was aimed to understand the interleukin-4 (IL-4) role in etio-pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two approaches were adopted. In the first one, a quantitative expression of IL4 gene was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and such findings were correlated with some demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters, which included gender, duration of disease, disease activity score (DAS-28), rheumatoid factors (RFs), C-reactive protein (CRP) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACCP) antibodies. In the second approach, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of IL4 gene (rs2243250) was inspected by DNA sequencing using specific primers. Fifty-one Iraqi RA patients (22 males and 29 females) were enrolled in the study. They were under therapy, which was a single weekly subcutaneous dose of 25 mg of etanercept (Enbrel) for a period of 3-5 years. The results of gene expression (2-??Ct) revealed an increased expression of IL4 mRNA (Mean ± SEM: 8.247 ± 2.442), especially female patients compared to male patients (11.545 ± 3.928 vs. 3.537 ± 1.530; p = 0.03). The expression was also subjected to variations that were related to clinical and laboratory findings. With respect to IL4 gene SNP, allele and genotype frequencies showed no significant differences between RA patients and controls. In addition, the SNP genotypes had no effect on IL4 gene expression. In conclusion, an up-regulation of IL4 gene expression was observed in RA patients, and it was more pronounced in female than male patients by approximately four folds, while no association between the IL4 SNP alleles or genotypes and RA was observed.
Unlike fault diagnosis approaches based on the direct analysis of current and voltage signals, this paper proposes a diagnosis of induction motor faults through monitoring the variations in motor's parameters when it is subjected to an open circuit or short circuit faults. These parameters include stator and rotor resistances, self-inductances, and mutual inductance. The genetic algorithm and the trust-region method are used for the estimation process. Simulation results confirm the efficiency of both the genetic algorithm and the trust-region method in estimating the motor parameters; however, better performance in terms of estimation time is obtained when the trust-region method is adopted. The results also show the po
... Show MoreIn this research we assumed that the number of emissions by time (𝑡) of radiation particles is distributed poisson distribution with parameter (𝑡), where < 0 is the intensity of radiation. We conclude that the time of the first emission is distributed exponentially with parameter 𝜃, while the time of the k-th emission (𝑘 = 2,3,4, … . . ) is gamma distributed with parameters (𝑘, 𝜃), we used a real data to show that the Bayes estimator 𝜃 ∗ for 𝜃 is more efficient than 𝜃̂, the maximum likelihood estimator for 𝜃 by using the derived variances of both estimators as a statistical indicator for efficiency
Artificial roughness applied to a Solar Air Heater (SAH) absorber plate is a popular technique for increasing its total thermal efficiency (ηt−th). In this paper, the influence of geometrical parameters of V-down ribs attached below the corrugated absorbing plate of a SAH on the ηt−th was examined. The impacts of key roughness parameters, including relative pitch p/e (6–12), relative height e/D (0.019–0.043), angles of attack α (30–75°), and Re (1000–20,000), were examined under real weather conditions. The SAH ηt−th roughened by V-down ribs was predicted using an in-house developed conjugate heat-transfer numerical model. The maximum SAH ηt−th was shown to be 78.8% as predicted under the steady-state condition
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Abstract
The study aims to identify the degree of citizenship values practiced by Bisha University students and identify the impact of gender, college, and academic level, on the degree of the practice of University students for citizenship values. The researcher used the descriptive-analytical method including a questionnaire of (44) items. To process the data, the researcher applied the computational averages, standard deviations, percentages, and T-test. The questionnaire was implemented on a sample of (600) of the 2 and 8 levels during the second semester of the academic year (2020-2019) at Bisha University. The study findings revealed that the degree of the pra
... Show MoreThe purpose of this preliminary study is to verify the possibility of using Iraqi Zahdi date palm biomass as a resource for biogas production, methane in particular using thermophilic anaerobic digestion with waste water treatment activated sludge. Moreover, is to investigate the influence of extra nutrients addition to the digestion mixture. Biogas was captured in sealed jars with remote sensing modules connected to computer with integrated program to record the gas pressure continuously. A total gas pressure with 67% Methane was produced from date pulp waste fermentation with a yield of 0.57 Lit for each gram volatile solid of substrate. Addition of 1% yeast extract solution as nutrient increased Methane yield in liters by 5.9%. This i
... Show MoreThis research estimates the effect of independent factors like filler (3%, 6%, 9%, 11% weight fraction), normal load (5N, 10N, 15N), and time sliding (5,7 , 9 minutes) on wear behavior of unsaturated polyester resin reinforced with jute fiber and waste eggshell and, rice husk powder composites by utilizing a statistical approach. The specimens polymeric composite prepared from resin unsaturated polyester filled with (4% weight fraction) jute fiber, and (3%, 6%, 9%, 11% weight fraction) eggshell, and rice husk by utilizing (hand lay-up) molding. Dry sliding wear experiments were carried utilizing a standard (pin on disc test setup) following a well designed empirical schedule that depends on Taguchi’s experimental design L9 (MINIT
... Show MoreThe influx of Arab Qahtani and Nizari tribes continued to the countries of Baluchistan and the Levant in pre-Islamic times until the Levant became open to the Arab-Islamic tide during the first century AH. The Islamic Orient until the early Islamic Arab Army reached the western borders of China. What we will see in the folds of the search.
In this work, a novel single-slope solar distillator of floating perforated absorber inserted with wicks (cotton ribbons), and a stepped distillator are designed and manufactured with the aim of developing the conventional distillator. They are examined experimentally at Baghdad, Iraq (33.3°N Latitude, 44.4°E Longitude) in order to enhance the freshwater productivity and the efficiency of the conventional distillator. Results showed that the daily productivity and efficiency of the stepped distillator are higher than that for conventional solar distillator by 30% and 36.19% respectively. The daily productivity and thermal efficiency for the distillator with the floating absorber are higher than that for the conventional distillator by 16%
... Show MoreIn this paper, the time-history responses of a square plan two-story reinforced concrete prototype building, considering the elastic and inelastic behavior of the materials, were studied numerically. ABAQUS software was used in three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear dynamic analysis to predict the inelastic response of the buildings. Concrete Damage Plasticity Model (CDPM) has been used to model the inelastic behavior of the reinforced concrete building under seismic excitation. The input data included geometric information, material properties, and the ground motion. The building structure was designed only for gravity load according to ACI 318 with
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