Introduction and Aim: The pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-39, a member of the IL-12 family plays a key role in the inflammatory response by modulating immune cell activity and inflammation. A literature search shows no study undertaken for the effect of IL-39's on arthritis so far. Hence, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of IL-39 in rheumatoid arthritis. Materials and Methods: This study involved 80 patients with rheumatoid arthritis registered at the Rheumatology Clinic at Baghdad teaching hospital. The patients were divided into three groups based on treatments received. Group 1 included patients who were not on any treatment for arthritis, Group 2 with patients on hydroxychloroquine and or prednisone treatment, and Group 3 that received Enbrel® (etanercept) and HUMIRA® (adalimumab) treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. A control group was included in the study. Patients in all groups were assessed for their serum IL-39 concentration, C - reactive protein, Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (ACCP) and ESR. Results: The patient age and BMI were not significantly different between the groups receiving treatment for Rheumatoid arthritis. A significant increase in the interleukin 39 concentration was observed in treatment groups (G1, G2, G3) as compared to normal healthy controls regardless of whether they were positive or negative for the anti-CCP test. Conclusion: This study showed that the serum interleukin IL-39 levels significantly increased in patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis thus suggesting that IL-39 could be considered as a potential inflammatory biomarker of RA.
Abstract
Mitoxantrone is an antitumor agent used in the treatment of breast and prostate cancer, acute leukemia, lymphoma, and also in the treatment of multiple sclerosis due to its immunosuppressive properties. The mitoxantrone's cardiotoxicity is irreversible, dose-dependent, and it may occur years after treatment. Zinc is considered as an essential mineral for cell division and the synthesis of DNA and protein; furthermore, such mineral has an important role in states of cardiovascular diseases; and may have protective effects in coronary artery disease and cardiomyopathy.
Objective: The current study is designed to investigate effects of two different doses of zinc sulfat
... Show MoreAim: To evaluate the wettability and microhardness of Zirconium (ZrO2) dental material when coated with different concentrations of Faujasite. Materials and methods: 30 circular disks produced from ZrO2, then each group is classified into 10 control groups, 10 coated groups with 3% Faujasite, and 10 coated groups with 7% faujasite by electro-spun tool to study variable properties in hardness and water contact angle of implant materials. Results: This study stated the high hardness in 7% of faujasite concentration for ZrO2, in addition, the contact angle decreased gradually until reach 0 ᵒ in 7% concentration of faujasite with ZrO2 Conclusion: Water contact angle (WCA) declined till disappeared in (7% wt.) of faujasite coated with the Z
... Show MoreSelf-assessment is a process of formative assessment during which teachers reflect on and evaluate the quality of their work, decide the degree to which they reflect explicitly stated goals or criteria, identify strengths and weaknesses in their work, and revise accordingly. The present study is an attempt to find out the SA of Iraqi English language teachers. The sample consists of 100 teachers in Baghdad. An inventory of many domains distributed to the teachers, they are, routines, expectations, language, time, opportunities, physical environment, and interactions. The results show that the EFL teachers practice four domains of SA they are: routines, physical environment, time, and language.
Objective: To assess the fear of laboring women regarding the delivery on themselves and their
newborns.
Methodology : A descriptive study was conducted on (100) pregnant women who where admitted to
labor room in Al- Yarmock Teaching Hospital/Maternity Units, Fatima Al- Zahra and Ibn-Al Baladi
Maternity and Pediatric Hospital. The questionnaire was consisted of pregnant women
socio-demographic data, reproductive data and fear items of labor. Data were collected by using a
questionnaire format, through interview technique and reviewing pregnant records, descriptive and
inferential statistical procedure were used to analyze the data.
Results: The main results of the study revealed a high mean of scores with moderate
Recently new concepts such as free data or Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) emerged on Web 2.0 technologies. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is one of the most representative projects of this trend. Geospatial data from different source often has variable accuracy levels due to different data collection methods; therefore the most concerning problem with (OSM) is its unknown quality. This study aims to develop a specific tool which can analyze and assess the possibility matching of OSM road features with reference dataset using Matlab programming language. This tool applied on two different study areas in Iraq (Baghdad and Karbala), in order to verify if the OSM data has the same quality in both study areas. This program, in general, consists
... Show MoreThe study focuses on assessment of the quality of some image enhancement methods which were implemented on renal X-ray images. The enhancement methods included Imadjust, Histogram Equalization (HE) and Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE). The images qualities were calculated to compare input images with output images from these three enhancement techniques. An eight renal x-ray images are collected to perform these methods. Generally, the x-ray images are lack of contrast and low in radiation dosage. This lack of image quality can be amended by enhancement process. Three quality image factors were done to assess the resulted images involved (Naturalness Image Quality Evaluator (NIQE), Perception based Image Qual
... Show MoreThe present study aims to study the content and spatial distribution of lead (Pb) contamination in the soils of some Baghdad cities (Middle of Iraq). Twenty soil samples were randomly collected from different land-use in the studied area at a depth between 5 to 30 cm. Ten samples are collected from Al-Rissafa side areas (Adhamiya, Al-Wazeeria (Battery Manufacturer), Shikh Omer, Ziyouna, Karada, Shaab, Sadr city, Al-Za’franiya, Al-Dora expressway, and Alselikh ) and other ten samples are collected from Al-Krakh side areas Al-Dora, Al-Masafi junction, Al-Dora, Sayidia, Al-Salam university college, Al-Bayaa (Industrial District), Jehad, Amirya, Abu Ghraib, Al-hurriya, and Kadhimiya. The soil samples have been analyzed for the lead (P
... Show MoreObjective(s): The aim of this study was to assess the severity of anemia among children under 5 years and to find
out relationship between severity of anemia in children with socio-demographic variables such as: child gender,
age, supplement diet, hookworm, pica, parent's education level, father's and mother's occupation, and family
monthly income with severity of anemia
Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted at the primary health care centers in Alsadr city
for the period of 1
st July 2011 to the 1st November 2011.Non probability (purposive) sample of (630) children who
aged under 5 years and who attended to primary health care centers of Alsadr city. The data were collected
through using
This study reports on natural convection heat transfer in a square enclosure of length (L=20 cm) with a saturated porous medium (solid glass beads) having same fluid (air) at lower horizontal layer and free air fill in the rest of the cavity's space. The experimental work has been performed under the effects of heating from bottom by constant heat flux q=150,300,450,600 W/m2 for four porous layers thickness Hp (2.5,5,7.5,1) cm and three heaters length δ(20,14,7) cm. The top enclosure wall was good insulated and the two side walls were symmetrically cooled at constant temperature. Four layers of porous media with small porosity, Rayleigh number range (60.354 - 241.41) and (Da) 3.025x10-8 has been investigated. The obtained data of temperatu
... Show MoreThis study uses an environmentally friendly and low-cost synthesis method to manufacture zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) by using zinc sulfate. Eucalyptus leaf extract is an effective chelating and capping agent for synthesizing ZnO NPs. The structure, morphology, thermal behavior, chemical composition, and optical properties of ZnO nanoparticles were studied utilizing FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDAX, AFM, and Zeta potential analysis. The FE-SEM pictures confirmed that the ZnO NPs with a size range of (22-37) nm were crystalline and spherical. Two methods were used to prepare ZnO NPs. The first method involved calcining the resulting ZnO NPs, while the second method did not. The prepared ZnO NPs were used as adsorbents for removing acid black 210
... Show More