Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is a chronic rheumatic inflammatory disease affecting mainly the spine and sacroiliac joints. Since the copper-to-zinc ratio (Cu/Zn) indicates an inflammatory response, the change in ratio is expected to correlate with axSpA. This study compared levels of Cu/Zn in the serum of axSpA patients. Serum samples were obtained from 53 patients with axSpA divided according to biological treatment into cohorts A and B, and 28 healthy control as cohort C. Serum levels of Cu and Zn were determined first by a fully automated chemistry analyzer TC-Matrix Plus, then the ratio was obtained. The elevated serum Cu concentration means of cohort B (189.32 ± 13.808 µg/dL) compared to cohort A (168.85 ± 7.244 µg/dL) and cohort C (155.68 ± 3.707 µg/dL) with 0.029 p-values. Reduced Zn concentration means of cohort B (79.74 ± 4.344 µg/dL) compared to cohort A (91.26 ± 4.159 µg/dL) and cohort C (100.93 ± 6.161 µg/dL) with 0.031 p-values. The Cu/Zn mean of cohort B was (2.54 ± 0.25) compared to the Cu/Zn mean of cohort A (1.968 ± 0.125) and cohort C (1.679 ± 0.104) with 0.002 p-values. Due to the results suggesting that the differences between cohorts were associated with inflammatory responses since there was a similar change in ESR levels; however, the differences between cohorts A and B are due to the anti-inflammatory therapy (TNF inhibitor) that cohort A was treated with. Keywords: Axial spondyloarthritis; copper-to-zinc ratio; copper; zinc; inflammation.
In this paper , concrete micro-piles were used to improve the bearing capacity of the soil which is supporting the shallow foundation by using groups of (4; 6 and 9)bored short micro-piles which have, (D=0.125m and D=0.1m), and length to diameter ratio (L/D) equal to (6; 10 and 12) respectively. To calculate the bearing capacity of the micro-piles,(Tomlinson) and (Lamda) methods were used; also the soil properties were taken from Al-Muthana airport,(Al-Qyssi,2001) [1]. The results show that; increasing the number of piles and/ or the diameters and lengths; and the interaction between the bearing capacity of the shallow foundation with the bearing capacity of the pile group which leads to increasing the strength against the external loads
... Show MoreWill address this research interaction and coordination between fiscal and monetary policies and the impact of this interaction and coordination on economic stability and growth، and how the financial implications of monetary policy may stimulate action monetary policy and treatment side effects and the nature of responsiveness and bounce between procedures both two policies and their impact on the balance of overall economic and explained in the folds of searchjustifications coordination and the extent necessary in order to address the imbalances in economic activity through twinning actions of monetary and fiscal، has embodied this coordination and interaction between policies and their impact m
... Show MoreA novel planar type antenna printed on a high permittivity Rogers’ substrate is proposed for early stage microwave breast cancer detection. The design is based on a p-shaped wide-slot structure with microstrip feeding circuit to eliminate losses of transmission. The design parameters are optimized resulting in a good reflection coefficient at −10 dB from 4.5 to 10.9 GHz. Imaging result using inhomogeneous breast phantom indicates that the proposed antenna is capable of detecting a 5 mm size cancerous tumor embedded inside the fibroglandular region with dielectric contrast between the target and the surrounding materials ranging from 1.7 : 1 to 3.6 : 1.
Karbala province regarded one part significant zones in Iraq and considered an economic resource of vegetation such as trees of fruits, sieve and other vegetation. This research aimed to utilize Normalized Difference Vegetation index (NDVI) and Subtracted (NDVI) for investigating the current vegetation cover at last four decay. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is the most extensively used satellite index of vegetation health and density. The primary goals of this research are gather a gathering of studied area (Karbala province) satellite images in sequence time for a similar region, these image captured by Landsat (TM 1985, TM 1995, ETM+ 2005 and Landsat 8 OLI (Operational Land Imager) 2015. Preprocessing such gap filli
... Show MoreAbstract
The aim of the research is to identify the level of awareness and emotional experience among university students and to identify the effect of the educational program based on (Guttmann) model for developing awareness and emotional experience among university students by verifying the validity of the following zero hypotheses: 1) There are no statistically significant differences in the development of awareness and emotional experience among university students at the level of (0.05) between the mean scores of the experimental group in the pre and post-tests. 2) There are no statistically significant differences in the development of awareness and emotional experience among university students at the lev
... Show MoreIn this work, the calculation of matter density distributions, elastic charge form factors and size radii for halo 11Be, 19C and 11Li nuclei are calculated. Each nuclide under study are divided into two parts; one for core part and the second for halo part. The core part are studied using harmonic-oscillator radial wave functions, while the halo part are studied using the radial wave functions of Woods-Saxon potential. A very good agreement are obtained with experimental data for matter density distributions and available size radii. Besides, the quadrupole moment for 11Li are generated.
Sultan Said bin Sultan bin Ahmed bin Said Al-Busaidi (1223-1273 AH / 1806-1856 AD) was able to rule Oman and Zanzibar in a unified Arab-African state during his reign. However, it was separated for several reasons. Thus, the study aims to clarify the efforts made by Sultan Said for annexing Zanzibar to Oman, establishing the Arab-African Sultanate, and shedding light on the role played by Britain in dividing the Arab-African Sultanate and separating Zanzibar from the Omani rule in (1275 AH-1861 AD). The study has adopted the historical descriptive analytical approach. The study has reached several conclusions, such as: The economic motivators were the most important factors that pushed Sultan Said to move his capital from Muscat to
... Show MoreBackground: As photochemical reaction that can stiffen the cornea, CXL is the only promising method of preventing progression of keratectasia such as KC and secondary ectasia following refractive surgery. The aim of CXL is to stabilize the underlying condition with a small chance of visual improvement. Objective: To show the sequences of changes in visual acuity and topographic outcomes during 1 year post CXL for patients with progressive Keratoconus.Type of the study: Cross sectional studyMethods: CXL procedure was done for 45 eyes with progressive KC. The following parameters had been monitored pre operatively, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months postoperatively: K apex, K2, corneal thickness at thinnest location, anterior and posterior elevation po
... Show MoreIn this paper, split-plate airlift electrochemical reactor as an apparatus with new configuration for wastewater treatment was provided. Two aluminum plates were fixed inside the reactor and present two functions; first it works as split plates for internal loop generation of the airlift system (the zone between the two plates acts as riser while the other two zones act as downcomer) and second it works as two electrodes for electrocoagulation process. Simulated wastewater contaminated with zinc ions was used to test the performance of this apparatus for zinc removal by studying the effect of different experimental variables such as initial concentration of zinc (50-800 ppm), electrical current density (2.67-21.4 mA/cm2), init
... Show More