Vitamin D receptor (VDR) is a nuclear transcription factor that controls gene expression. Its impaired expression was found to be related to different diseases. VDR also acts as a regulator of different pathways including differentiation, inflammation, calcium and phosphate absorption, etc. but there is no sufficient knowledge about the regulation of the gene itself. Therefore, a better understanding of the genetic and epigenetic factors regulating the VDR may facilitate the improvement of strategies for the prevention and treatment of diseases associated with dysregulation of VDR. In the present investigation, a set of databases and methods were used to identify putative functional elements in the VDR locus. Histone modifications, CpG Islands, epigenetic marks at VDR locus were indicated. In addition, repeated sequences, enhancers, insulators, transcription factor binding sites and targets of the VDR gene, as well as protein-protein interactions with bioinformatics tools, were reported. Some of these genetic elements had overlapped with CpG Islands. These results revealed important new insight into the molecular mechanisms of the VDR gene regulation in human cells and tissues.
The fatty acid composition in the seed and flower of Ligustrun lucidum and olive oil was studied by Gas Chromatography. Results showed that the main components of seed oil were Palmitic (C16:0) 5,893% ,Palmitolic acid (C16:1)0,398%, Steaeic (C18:0)2,911% ,Oleic (C18:1)74,984%,Linoleic (C18:2) 12,959%,and Linolenic (C18:3) 0,997%. The proportion of unsaturated fatty acid was above 89,338%, so the seed oil of L. lucidum ait belonged to unsaturated oil which possessed promising application. The components of flower oil were Palmitic (C16:0) 65,674% ,Palmitolic acid (C16:1)6,516%, Steaeic (C18:0)2,641% ,Oleic (C18:1)14,707%,Linoleic (C18:2) 3,113%,and Linolenic (C18:3) 2,70%. The proportion of unsaturated fatty acid and saturated fatty acid wa
... Show MoreGas lift is one of the most important artificial lift methods for increasing oil production, as wells often require this method after the reservoir's energy has decreased. In this research, an optimal gas lift system is designed for five horizontal wells in the Ahdab oil field, which suffers from low production. At the same time, water cut in some of these wells reaches 66%, while the productivity index is low in others, which makes the challenges clear, and a deep analysis is needed to find an optimal system. The Pipesim program is used to design the optimal gas lift system, which contains features that facilitate the implementation of the appropriate design and provide the ability to analyze and determine the optimal design v
... Show MoreConcrete structures are exposed to aggressive environmental conditions that lead to corrosion of the embedded reinforcement and pre-stressing steel. Consequently, the safety of concrete structures may be compromised, and this requires a significant budgets to repair and maintain critical infrastructure. Prediction of structural safety can lead to significant reductions in maintenance costs by maximizing the impact of investments. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework to assess the reliability of existing post-tensioned concrete bridges. A time-dependent reliability analysis of an existing post-tensioned involving the assessment of Ynys-y-Gwas bridge has been presented in this study. The main cause of failure of this bridge was c
... Show MoreThe study focused on the results of first paleostress from thrust fault slip data on Tertiary age of Hemrin North Structure, North of Iraq. The stress inversion was performed for fault slip data using an improved right dihedral model, and then followed by rotational optimization (Georient Software). The trend of the principal stress axes (σ1, σ2 and σ3) and the ratio of the principal stress differences (R) show the main paleostress field is NE-SW compression regime. As well as using Lisle graph and Mohr diagram to determine the magnitudes of palestress. The values paleostress of the study area were σ1=1430 bars, σ2=632 bars and σ3=166 bar. The large magnitudes of the primary stress axes could be attributed to active tecto
... Show MoreThis study was chosen because of the entry of our regions into the seismic zone recently, where Diyala governorate was hit by the Halabja earthquake in 2017 by 7.3Mw. Therefore, the impact of earthquakes will be studied on the AL-Mafraq bridge foundations piles located in Iraq- east of Baghdad in Diyala Governorate and the extent of its resistance to the Halabjah, EL-Centro, and Kobe earthquakes with acceleration 0.1g, 0.34g, and 0.58g respectively. After modeling and performing the analysis by using Midas Gts-Nx software, the settlement (mm) results at nine nodes (four nodes for the pile cap and five nodes for the piles) were obtained for each of Halabjah, EL-Centro, and Kobe earthquakes to know the resistance of the br
... Show MoreInvestigation of the adsorption of acid fuchsin dye (AFD) on Zeolite 5A is carried out using batch scale experiments according to statistical design. Adsorption isotherms, kinetics and thermodynamics were demonstrated. Results showed that the maximum removal efficiency was using zeolite at a temperature of 93.68751 mg/g. Experimental data was found to fit the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo second order kinetics with maximum removal of about 95%. Thermodynamic analysis showed an endothermic adsorption. Optimization was made for the most affecting operating variables and a model equation for the predicted efficiency was suggested.