Background: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a common disease, and a major determinant of morbidity and mortality in all races. The pleiotropic effects of the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand (RANKL) such as modulation of cell survival, mineralization and inflammation, make it an interesting candidate mediator in the progression and destabilization of atherosclerotic lesions.Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the role of RANKL in the pathogenesis of ACS.Methods: The levels of RANKL were measured by ELISA method in sera of 60 ACS patients, 31 patients with unstable angina (UA) and 29 patients with myocardial infarction (MI) in comparison with 20 apparently healthy controls.Results: Current data indicated that there was a decrease in the median serum level of RANKL but statistically not significant (p>0.05)in ACS patients as compared with a healthy control group.Conclusion: Current study revealed a low RANKL serum level but statistically not significant in ACS patients in addition there were no significant differences in median serum levels of RANKL in ACS patients according to gender type, family history, smoking habit and troponin enzyme
Scrophularia. striata from Scrophulariacea family has been used in Iranian folk medicine for the treatment of infectious diseases. In this study we evaluated the synergistic effect of S. striata hydroalcoholic extract (SSE) and commercially available antibiotics against P. aeroginosa and Methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The resazurin-based microdilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of plan extract and standard antibiotics. The interaction between standard antibiotics and SSE was evaluated by using checkerboard method. The results of this study revealed that SSE enhance the antibacterial activity of antibiotics. The combin
... Show MoreThe efficient behavior of a low-concentrating photovoltaic-thermal system with a micro-jet channel (LCPV/T-JET) and booster mirror reflector is experimentally evaluated here. Micro-jets promote the thermal management of PV solar cells by implementing jet water as active cooling, which is still in the early stages of development. The booster mirror reflector concentrates solar irradiance into solar cells and improves the thermal, electrical, and combined efficiencies of the LCPV/T-JET system. The LCPV/T-JET system was tested under ambient weather conditions in the city of Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia, and all data was recorded between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Parametric studies were conducted to compare the performance of the LCPV/T-JET system
... Show MoreBackground: The interest in herbal extracts as antimicrobial agents has increased over the past few years in endodontic therapy. Nasturtium officinale (watercress) is a promising plant with great medicinal values. This study aimed to investigate the antifungal activity of watercress oil in combination with calcium hydroxide against Candida albicans as intracanal medicament. Materials and Methods: Candida albicans was isolated from patients with necrotic root canal or failed root canal treatment. The sensitivity of Candida albicans to different concentrations of watercress oil extract was determined by using the agar well diffusion method in comparison with calcium hydroxide paste. The agar plate method was used to determine the minimum fung
... Show MoreBackground: Dental implant considers a unique treatment option for the replacement of missing dentition. The new trend of implants is looking for materials which accelerate bone formation in bone implant interface and enhance osseointegration to provide immediate loading directly after placement and decrease the time period which is disturbs patients and uncomfortable. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of nano zirconium oxide (ZrO2) and nano hydroxyapatite (Hap) mixture coating of screw shaped commercially pure titanium (cpTi) implants on bond strength at the bone implant interface with torque removal test and histological analysis in comparison with non coated implants. Materials and methods: Forty screws were machined from c
... Show MoreBackground: A wound is defined as a break or damage in the skin, resulting from physical or thermal damage or as a result of the presence of an underlying medical or physical condition. Herbal medicine can be called one of the branches of medicine in various forms.Phyllunthus amarus is a small herb well known for its medicinal properties and widely used worldwide. P. amarus is an important plant of Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine. Fibronectin is a major component of the extracellular matrix. It is secreted by various cells, primarily fibroblasts, as a soluble protein dimer and is then assembled into an insoluble matrix in a complex cell-mediated process. Materials and methods: Forty rats will be subjected for a surgical operation
... Show MoreParticulate matter (PM) emitted from diesel engine exhaust have been measured in terms of mass, using
99.98 % pure ethanol blended directly, without additives, with conventional diesel fuel (gas – oil),to
get 10 % , 15 %, 20 % ethanol emulsions . The resulting PM collected has been compared with those
from straight diesel. The engine used is a stationary single cylinder, variable compression ratio Ricardo
E6/US. This engine is fully instrumented and could run as a compression or spark ignition.
Observations showed that particulate matter (PM) emissions decrease with increasing oxygenate
content in the fuel, with some increase of fuel consumption, which is due to the lower heating value of
ethanol. The reduction in
Some degree of noise is always present in any electronic device that
transmits or receives a signal . For televisions, this signal i has been to s the
broadcast data transmitted over cable-or received at the antenna; for digital
cameras, the signal is the light which hits the camera sensor. At any case, noise
is unavoidable. In this paper, an electronic noise has been generate on
TV-satellite images by using variable resistors connected to the transmitting cable
. The contrast of edges has been determined. This method has been applied by
capturing images from TV-satellite images (Al-arabiya channel) channel with
different resistors. The results show that when increasing resistance always
produced higher noise f
The phenomena of Dust storm take place in barren and dry regions all over the world. It may cause by intense ground winds which excite the dust and sand from soft, arid land surfaces resulting it to rise up in the air. These phenomena may cause harmful influences upon health, climate, infrastructure, and transportation. GIS and remote sensing have played a key role in studying dust detection. This study was conducted in Iraq with the objective of validating dust detection. These techniques have been used to derive dust indices using Normalized Difference Dust Index (NDDI) and Middle East Dust Index (MEDI), which are based on images from MODIS and in-situ observation based on hourly wi
Recurrent strokes can be devastating, often resulting in severe disability or death. However, nearly 90% of the causes of recurrent stroke are modifiable, which means recurrent strokes can be averted by controlling risk factors, which are mainly behavioral and metabolic in nature. Thus, it shows that from the previous works that recurrent stroke prediction model could help in minimizing the possibility of getting recurrent stroke. Previous works have shown promising results in predicting first-time stroke cases with machine learning approaches. However, there are limited works on recurrent stroke prediction using machine learning methods. Hence, this work is proposed to perform an empirical analysis and to investigate machine learning al
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