Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists’ therapy are expensive and has a non-responsive rate between 30% to 40% in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Genetic variation plays a vital role in the responsiveness to this type of therapy.The aim of this study is to investigate if the presence of genetic polymorphism in the TNF-α gene promoter region at locations -376 G/A (rs1800750), -806 C/T (rs4248158), and -1031 T/C (rs1799964) affects rheumatoid arthritis patient's tendency to be a non-responder to etanercept.

Eighty RA patients on etanercept (ETN) for at least six months were recruited from the Rheumatology Unit at Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Based on The European League Against Rheumatism response (EULAR) criteria, patient

Background: Background : Patients with non-rheumatic atrial fibrillation have high risk of thromboembolism especially ischemic stroke usually arising from left atrial appendage .Transoesophageal echocardiography provides useful information for risk stratification in these patients as it detects thrombus in the left atrial or left atrial appendage. Objective : This study was conducted at Al-Kadhimiya Teaching Hospital to assess the prevalence of left atrial chamber thrombi in patients with chronic non-rheumatic atrial fibrillation using transoesophageal echocardiography and its clinical significance as well as to verify the superiority of transoesophageal over transthoracic echocardiography in the detection of these abnormalities. Type of

Groupwise non-rigid image alignment is a difficult non-linear optimization problem involving many parameters and often large datasets. Previous methods have explored various metrics and optimization strategies. Good results have been previously achieved with simple metrics, requiring complex optimization, often with many unintuitive parameters that require careful tuning for each dataset. In this chapter, the problem is restructured to use a simpler, iterative optimization algorithm, with very few free parameters. The warps are refined using an iterative Levenberg-Marquardt minimization to the mean, based on updating the locations of a small number of points and incorporating a stiffness constraint. This optimization approach is eff

Samples of the ovary and uterus of local breed cats used to investigate the histological, histometrical and hormonal features. The paraffin embedding technique was used for processing of tissue that stained by hematoxyline and eosin stain, and massons trichrom stain. Ovary of at proestrus or oestrus phases composed of outer cortex that covered by cuboidal germinal epithelium and inner medulla. Tunica albuginea composed of a thin layer of characterized by fusiform stromal cells. The cortex content groups of Oogonial cells, numerous primordial follicles, little primary, secondary and tertiary follicles in addition for 1-2 follicular cysts and mature corpus letium. In pregnant cat the thickness of ovarian cortex was significantly incre

A numerical investigation is adopted for two dimensional thermal analysis of rocket thrust chamber wall (RL10), employing finite difference model with iterative scheme (implemented under relaxation factor of 0.9 for convergence) to compute temperature distribution within thrust chamber  wall (which is composed of Nickel and Copper layers). The analysis is conducted for different boundary conditions: only convection boundary conditions then combined radiation, convection boundary conditions also for  different aspect ratio (AR) of cooling channel. The results show that Utilizing cooling channels of high aspect ratio leads to decrease in temperature variation across thrust chamber wall, while no effects on heat transferred to the

      In this work, a test room was built in Baghdad city, with (2*1.5*1.5) m³  in dimensions, while the solar chimneys (SC) were designed with aspect ratio (ar) bigger than 12. Test room was supplied by many solar collectors; vertical single side of air pass with ar equals 25, and tilted 45^o double side of air passes with ar equals 50 for each pass, both collectors consist of flat thermal energy storage box collector (TESB) that covered by transparent clear acrylic sheet, third type of collector is array of evacuated tubular collectors with thermosyphon in 45^o instelled  in the bottom of TESB of vertical SC. The TESB was

Abstract

The study aims to identify the levels of core competencies dimensions and types of organizational flexibility in the investigated organization, as well as to determine the nature of the relationship and the impact of core competencies dimensions with the process of organizational flexibility. Thus, a number of research questions were presented to express the research problem as follows:

• What is the level of the investigated individuals' awareness to core competencies and organizational flexibility across their dimensions and types in the investigated organization?
• To what extent are core competencies and organizational flexibility available in the Organiz

Mechanical and thermal properties of composites, consisted of unsaturated polyester resin, reinforced by different kinds of natural materials (Orange peels and Date seeds) and industrial materials (carbon and silica) with particle size 98 µm were studied. Various weight ratios, 5, 10, and 15 wt. % of natural and industrial materials have been infused into polyester. Tensile, three-point bending and thermal conductivity tests were conducted for the unfilled polyester, natural and industrial composite to identify the weight ratio effect on the properties of materials. The results indicated that when the weight ratio for polyester with date seeds increased from 10% to 15%, the maximum Young’s modulus decreased by 54%. When the weight rat