Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic parasite in immune-compromised persons. The prevalence of toxoplasmosis in psoriasis patients is investigated. In addition, the treatment effect on psoriasis patients infected with toxoplasmosis through evaluating Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α) cytokine levels is studied. Blood samples were collected from 130 individuals who involved 60 control samples and 70 samples with psoriasis. They attended Medical City Hospital in Baghdad province from October 2017 - February 2018. Then, the anti- T. gondii antibodies (IgM and IgG) and TNF- α in the sera were determined via the enzyme linked immune-sorbent assay. The highest rate of anti-Toxoplasma IgG was in psoriasis patients before treatment, it was 45 (64.29%) compared with the control which was 33 (55.00%), while the highest sero-positive rate of T. gondii IgM in the control group was 14 (23.33%) compared with patients with psoriasis 10 (14.29%). The highest rate of toxoplasmosis was in the age group (21-30) years in psoriasis patients which was 14 (31.82%). In addition, the TNF- α levels in psoriatic patients before treatment were 180.2±2.2 µg/ml, and after treatment were 223.3±41.1 µg/ml compared with the healthy control group 90.5±1.9 µg/ml. These findings suggest that incidental rate of toxoplasmosis is higher in psoriasis patients. Thus, the incidental rate of toxoplasmosis could be considered as an indication to the high risk of psoriasis.
Advertising is an important and influential tool in various commercial operations, as it represents a means of communication that depends on influencing individuals or society as a whole, working on a link between the producer and the consumer, so the importance of advertising appears in two dimensions, the first is economic represented in its role in achieving economic growth for the facility, while the social dimension lies in its role By influencing the behaviors and ideas of individuals, and from here it appears to us the importance of formulating, organizing and designing the advertising message that advertising agencies resort to in their advertising campaigns. Orientation, definition, and raising the level of the advertising messa
... Show MoreUniversity campuses in Iraq are substantial energy consumers, with consumption increasing significantly during periods of high temperatures, underscoring the necessity to enhance their energy performance. Energy simulation tools offer valuable insights into evaluating and improving the energy efficiency of buildings. This study focuses on simulating passive architectural design for three selected buildings at Al-Khwarizmi College of Engineering (AKCOE) to examine the effectiveness of their cooling systems. DesignBuilder software was employed, and climatic data for a year in Baghdad was collected to assess the influence of passive architectural strategies on the thermal performance of the targeted buildings. The simulations revealed that the
... Show MoreSimple, rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric method was proposed for the analysis of metoclopramide hydrochloride (MPH) in pure form as well as in pharmaceutical tablets. The method is based on the diazotization reaction of MPH with sodium nitrite in hydrochloric acid medium to form diazonium salt, which is coupled with 1-naphthol in sodium hydroxide medium to form azo dye, showing absorption maxima at 550 nm. Beer’s law is obeyed in the concentration range of 0.4 – 18 µg mL-1 of MPH with detection limit 0.5448 µg mL-1. The molar absorptivity and Sandell’s sensitivity are 3.4969 × 104 L mol-1 cm-1 and 0.0101 µg cm-2, respectively. The method was successfully applied to the determination of MPH in pharmaceutical tablets with
... Show MoreBackground Obstructing dentinal tubules is a valuable approach for managing dentin hypersensitivity. Although various agents promote dentin remineralization, direct comparisons between theobromine, bioactive glass (BAG), and nano-hydroxyapatite (Nano-HAP) under simulated oral conditions remain limited. To fill this gap, this in vitro study aimed to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of these three treatments on exposed cervical dentin. The assessment focused on their chemical, morphological, and mechanical effects on dentin. Materials and methods Forty-eight human dentin slabs were obtained from the cervical portions of twelve sound premolar teeth. Baseline Raman spectroscopy and VMH tests were done to exclude outliers. All specimens we
... Show MoreBackground: Neural tube defects (NTDs) are said to be inherited in a multifactorial fashion, i.e. genetic-environmental interaction. Maternal nutritional deficiencies had long been reported to cause NTDs, especially folate deficiency during early pregnancy. More attention had been paid to the exact mechanism by which this deficiency state causes these defects in the developing embryo. The most significant of all researches was that connecting reduced folate and increased homocysteine level in maternal serum on one hand and the risk of developing a NTD baby on the other hand. Objectives : to determine the significance of homocysteine level in Iraqi mothers who gave birth to babies with NTDs as compared to normal controls. Patients, Materials
... Show MoreAryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor that regulates T cell function. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of AhR ligands, 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), and 6-Formylindolo[3,2-b]carbazole (FICZ), on gut-associated microbiota and T cell responses during delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction induced by methylated bovine serum albumin (mBSA) in a mouse model. Mice with DTH showed significant changes in gut microbiota including an increased abundance of
The effects of T-shaped fins on the improvement of phase change materials (PCM) melting are numerically investigated in vertical triple-tube storage containment. The PCM is held in the middle pipe of a triple-pipe heat exchanger while the heat transfer fluid flows through the internal and external pipes. The dimension effects of the T-shaped fins on the melting process of the PCM are investigated to determine the optimum case. Results indicate that while using T-shaped fins improves the melting performance of the PCM, the improvement potential is mainly governed by the fin’s body rather than the head. Hence, the proposed T-shaped fin did not noticeably improve melting at the bottom of the PCM domain; additionally, a flat fin is ad
... Show MoreThe pretreatment process can be considered one of the important processes in wastewater treatment, especially coagulation process to decrease the strength of many pollutants. This paper focused on using powdered date seeds as natural coagulant in addition to chemical coagulants (alum and ferric chloride) to find the optimum dosage of each coagulant that makes efficient removal of turbidity and chemical oxygen demand (COD) from domestic wastewater as a pretreatment process, then finding the optimum combined dosages of date seeds with alum, date seeds with ferric chloride that make efficient removal for both pollutants. Concerning turbidity, the optimum dosage for date seeds, alum and ferric chloride were 40 mg/l (79%), 70
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