Background: Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G)and Toll-like receptor-9 (TLR-9)play a role in the regulation of autoimmune diseases and inflammatory processes. Aim of the study: To detect the HLA-G + 3142G > C gene polymorphism that associated with the susceptibility to SLE patients and associated with Hepatitis B infection and TLR-9 serum level. Patients and methods: This study was done on 75 SLE patients and 75 healthy control groups. Genotyping of HLA-G + 3142G > C were detected by PCR and PCR-RFLP methods. In addition to the estimation of Hepatitis B surface (HBs)antigen status by immunochromatography technique and TLR-9 serum level by ELISA technique. Results: The HLA-G + 3142G > C gene polymorphism between the SLE patients and controls in CC, CG and GG genotyping (5.33% vs. 45.34%; OR = 0.07; P = 1.0 × 10−8, 21.33% vs. 37.34%; OR = 0.46; P = 0.048, 73.33% vs. 17.33%, OR = 47.45; P = 4.5 × 10−12 respectively). In addition, there was a significant increase frequency of G allele in SLE patients compared to controls (0.84 vs. 0.36). While the C allele showed a significantly decreased frequency in patients compared to controls (0.16 vs. 0.64). The seropositive status of HBs antigen showed no significant difference between the SLE patients' group and controls (OR = 7.3, 95%CI = 0.38–140.81). While the mean of TLR-9 serum level was significantly increased in SLE patients' group compared to the control group (399.9 ± 66.7 pg/ml vs. 122.2 ± 28.5 pg/ml; p ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: The HLA-G + 3142G > C homozygous genotype GG and G allele were more associated with SLE patients. The HBs antigen showed no significant association with SLE patients. While, TLR-9 serum level showed a significant association with SLE development.
Twitter data analysis is an emerging field of research that utilizes data collected from Twitter to address many issues such as disaster response, sentiment analysis, and demographic studies. The success of data analysis relies on collecting accurate and representative data of the studied group or phenomena to get the best results. Various twitter analysis applications rely on collecting the locations of the users sending the tweets, but this information is not always available. There are several attempts at estimating location based aspects of a tweet. However, there is a lack of attempts on investigating the data collection methods that are focused on location. In this paper, we investigate the two methods for obtaining location-based dat
... Show MoreGlass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) beams have gained attention due to their promising mechanical properties and potential for structural applications. Combining GFRP core and encasing materials creates a composite beam with superior mechanical properties. This paper describes the testing encased GFRP beams as composite Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams under low-velocity impact load. Theoretical analysis was used with practical results to simulate the tested beams' behavior and predict the generated energies during the impact loading. The impact response was investigated using repeated drops of 42.5 kg falling mass from various heights. An analysis was performed using accelerometer readings to calculate the generalized inertial load
... Show MoreRapid worldwide urbanization and drastic population growth have increased the demand for new road construction, which will cause a substantial amount of natural resources such as aggregates to be consumed. The use of recycled concrete aggregate could be one of the possible ways to offset the aggregate shortage problem and reduce environmental pollution. This paper reports an experimental study of unbound granular material using recycled concrete aggregate for pavement subbase construction. Five percentages of recycled concrete aggregate obtained from two different sources with an originally designed compressive strength of 20–30 MPa as well as 31–40 MPa at three particle size levels, i.e., coarse, fine, and extra fine, were test
... Show MoreBackground: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of in vitro long-term simulation of oral conditions on the bond strength of PEEK CAD/CAM lingual retainers.
Material and methods: The sample consisted of 12 PEEK CAD/CAM retainers each composed of 2 centrally perforated 3x4mm pads joined by a connector. They were treated by 98% sulfuric acid for 1 minute and then conditioned with Single Bond Universal and bonded to the lingual surface of premolar teeth by 3M Transbond TM System. Half of the retainers were artificially aged using a 30-day water storage and 5000 thermocycling protocol before bond strength testing to compare with the non-aged specimens.
Results: The artificially aged retainers showed a marginally
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