DC-SIGN Receptor Level in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients in Baghdad; Serological study

التهاب المفاصل الروماتويدي هو أحد أمراض المناعة الذاتية الالتهابية الجهازية التي ترتبط ارتباطًا وثيقًا بتدمير الغضاريف والعظام. يعد DC-SIGN من مستقبلات C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) المهمة و يعبر على سطح الخلايا المتغصنة و البلعمية  و له  دور اساسي في تنظيم المناعة الفطرية والمكتسبة ،  كما يعمل كمستقبل للتعرف على الأنماط و ايضا كجزيئة التصاق. أثبتت الدراسات تورط الـ DC-SIGN في الفسيولوجية المرضية للالتهابات المزمنة، لذلك تم ربط علاقة الـ DC-SIGN بالعديد من امراض المناعة الذاتية، لذا قد تلعب عاملاً ومؤشرًا أساسيًا في التسبب وتطورمرض التهاب المفاصل الروماتويدي. لذا الغرض من هذه الدراسة هو تحديد المستوى المصلي للـ DC-SIGN في مرضى التهاب المفاصل الروماتويدي، وكذلك دراسة المستوى المصلي للـ DC-SIGN اعتماداً على الخصائص الديموغرافية للمرضى. شملت الدراسة خمسون مريضا عراقيا يعاني من التهاب المفاصل الروماتويدي، وتضمنت الدراسة ايضا عينة سيطرة لاشخاص اصحاء (تم التأكد عن طريق الفحوصات السريرية والمختبرية)، وتمت مطابقتهم حسب الجنس والعمر والعرق مع المرضى. تم حساب تركيز DC-SIGN في مصل المرضى ومقارنته بالسيطرة باستخدام اختبار ELISA وأظهرت النتائج زيادة معنوية في مستوى مصل DC-SIGN (12.047 ± 1.114 مقابل 6.863 ± 0.806 نانوغرام / مل) في مرضى التهاب المفاصل الروماتويدي مقارنة بالسيطرة. وعند ربط النتائج، تبين أن تركيز DC-SIGN في المصل لم يسجل فرقًا معنوياً بين الجنس والعمر وكذلك الحال لمجاميع الدم. و لتحديد تأثير الحالة العلاجية لمرضى التهاب المفاصل الروماتويدي على مستوى DC-SIGN ، وجد أن تركيز مستوى DC-SIGN كان أعلى في المرضى الغير المعالجين مقارنة بالمرضى المعالجين. و عندما أجريت دراسة على مرضى التهاب المفاصل الروماتويدي المصابين بـ SARS-CoV-2 ، لم يظهر مستوى مصل DC-SIGN في مرضى التهاب المفاصل الروماتويدي و المصابين بـ COVID-19 أي تغيير في تركيز DC-SIGN مقارنة بمرضى التهاب المفاصل الروماتويدي الغير مصابين.Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), is an autoimmune, and inflammatory disease that is closely related to the destruction of cartilage and bone. DC-SIGN are important types of C-type lectin receptors (CLRs), expressed on dendritic cells and macrophages, and have a central role in regulating innate and adaptive immunity, function as pattern recognition receptors, and as cell adhesion molecules. Recent evidence has demonstrated that DC-SIGN is involved in the pathophysiological of chronic inflammation, so DC-SIGN has been linked to several autoimmune and may play an essential indicator in the pathogenesis and progression of RA. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the serum level of DC-SIGN in RA patients, as well as the level of DC-SIGN based on demographic characteristics. Fifty Iraqi RA patients were enrolled in the study, and a control sample of 38 healthy individuals (ascertain by laboratory and clinical tests) were included and matched by gender, age, and ethnicity with the patients. The DC-SIGN concentration was calculated in the patients’ serum and compared to control using the ELISA assay and the results revealed significantly increased serum level of DC-SIGN (12.047 ± 1.114 vs. 6.863 ± 0.806 ng/ml) was recorded in RA patients compared to controls. When correlating results, it was shown that the concentration of DC-SIGN in the serum did not record a significant difference between gender and age, as well as the blood groups. To determine the impact of the therapeutic status in RA patients on the DC-SIGN level, it was found that the concentration of DC-SIGN level was higher in untreated patients compared to treated patients. Regarding viral infection, when an investigation was conducted in RA patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, the serum level of DC-SIGN in RA patients with COVID-19 showed no change in concentrations compared to uninfected RA patients

WSNs Based- L4L Rule for Fuzzy Inventory Control Decision Making (WSN-FL4L)

تعد وظيفة السيطرة على الخزين واحدة من اهم الانشطة التي تقوم بها الشركات الصناعية . تلعب انظمة السيطرة على الخزين دور كبير في ضمان الرقابة التامة على عناصر المخزون. من جهة ثانية،  نال استخدام تقنية شبكات الاستشعار اللاسلكية اهتماماً كبيراً من حيث تطبيقها في حقل السيطرة على الخزين كونها تقنية كفوءة و رخيصة الثمن و سهلة التنصيب . اقترح البحث الحالي نظام سيطرة مخزنية ذكي بالاعتماد على تقنية الاستشعار اللاسلكي و المنطق المضبب، بالاعتماد على قاعدة حجم الدفعة المكافيء للاحتياج  ضمن نظام تخطيط الاحتياجات المادية ليمكن استخدامه لحل اغلب المشاكل الصناعية. تم تطبيق النظام المقترح على حالة افتراضية لمنتوج يمثل قطعة من الاثاث الخشبي خماسي الدواليب الجرارة.  تكمن فائدة النظام المقترح في قدرته على المساعدة في اتخاذ قرارات المخزون في ظل حالات مختلفة فقد تم اختبار حالات متعددة لاعادة تعزيز المخزون بالاعتماد على قاعدة (اذا – عند ذلك) من المنطق الضبابي. تم نشر وبرمجة حساسات لقياس المسافة لغرض حساب عدد قطع مفردات المخزون بالاعتماد على قياس سمك القطعة.. تم اعتماد تقنية ASP.net و لغة C# بالاعتماد على قاعدة بيانات في الخادم الرئيس. Inventory control is one of the most important tasks for industrial companies. Inventory control systems play an important role in inventory monitoring. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) technology has been taken into great attention in the field of inventory control because it is considered as an efficient, low-cost technology to control inventories. This paper proposes an intelligent inventory control system depending on WSNs and fuzzy logic to control the dependent demand items effectively under MRP system and L4L lot sizing rule. to be used to solve the industrial problems. A numerical example of a 5 drawers - chest of drawers product has been experimented. The advantage of the proposed WSN-FL4L system could be represented in its ability to make decisions in different inventory states. Different cases of replenishment were investigated depending on the (IF-THEN rules) statement of fuzzy logic. Ultrasonic - distance sensor has been programmed to compute the number of items’ pieces, depending on the thickness of each piece. ASP.net web application and C# programming language based on SQL database server are applied

Watermarking in WAV Files Bases on Phase Coding

The growth of the network multimedia open the illegal ways for users to use the digital media without any hindrance or control. This state created, the need for the copyright protection of various digital media. WAV audio files is one of these media, these media file format itself has no built in copy protection controls. Other systems must be used to prevent illegal copying called watermarking. In this paper, we used the phase coding method to embed the watermark, by using FFT method in two ways. The first way used the block size of the wave data equal to (22) and the second way used the block size of the wave data equal to (23). The results of the above two ways shows that, when we use the first way the noise of the sound will be very smaller than the results of the second way. On the other hand the length of the watermark in second way will be longer than when use the first way. Finally, we can say that the two ways yield good results

Primary angiitis of the central nervous system presenting with subacute and fatal course of disease: a case report

BACKGROUND: Primary angiitis of the central nervous system is an idiopathic disorder characterized by vasculitis within the dural confines. The clinical presentation shows a wide variation and the course and the duration of disease are heterogeneous. This rare but treatable disease provides a diagnostic challenge owing to the lack of pathognomonic tests and the necessity of a histological confirmation. CASE PRESENTATION: A 28-year-old patient presenting with headache and fluctuating signs of encephalopathy was treated on the assumption of viral meningoencephalitis. The course of the disease led to his death 10 days after hospital admission. Postmortem examination revealed primary angiitis of the central nervous system. CONCLUSION: Primary angiitis of the central nervous system should always be taken into consideration when suspected infectious inflammation of the central nervous system does not respond to treatment adequately. In order to confirm the diagnosis with the consequence of a modified therapy angiography and combined leptomeningeal and brain biopsy should be considered immediately

Inclusion of MUC1 (Ma695) in a panel of immunohistochemical markers is useful for distinguishing between endocervical and endometrial mucinous adenocarcinoma*

BACKGROUND: Distinguishing endocervical adenocarcinoma (ECA) from endometrial mucinous adenocarcinoma (EMMA) is clinically significant in view of the differences in their management and prognosis. In this study, we used a panel of tumor markers to determine their ability to distinguish between primary endocervical adenocarcinoma and primary endometrial mucinous adenocarcinoma. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibodies to MUC1 (Ma695), p16, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and vimentin, was performed to examine 32 cases, including 18 EMMAs and 14 ECAs. For MUC1, cases were scored based on the percentage of staining pattern, apical, apical and cytoplasmic (A/C), or negative. For p16, cases were scored based on the percentage of cells stained. For the rest of the antibodies, semiquantitative scoring system was carried out. RESULTS: For MUC1, majority of EMMA (14 of 18 cases, 78%) showed A/C staining, whereas only few ECA (2 of 14, 14%) were positive. The difference of MUC1 expression in the two groups of malignancy was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Staining for p16 was positive in 10 of 14 (71%) ECA and 4 of 18 (22%) EMMA. Estrogen receptor was positive in 3 of 14 (21%) ECA and 17 of 18 (94%) EMMA. Progesterone receptor was positive in 3 of 14 (21%) ECA and 16 of 18 (89%) EMMA. Vimentin was positive in 1 of 14 (7%) ECA, and 9 of 18 (50%) EMA, with median and range of 0 (0–6), and 1.5 (0–9) respectively. CONCLUSION: A panel of immunohistochemical markers including MUC1, p16, ER, PR, and vimentin is recommended, when there is morphological and clinical doubt as to the primary site of endocervical or endometrial origin

An in vitro collagen perfusion wound biofilm model; with applications for antimicrobial studies and microbial metabolomics

BackgroundThe majority of in vitro studies of medically relevant biofilms involve the development of biofilm on an inanimate solid surface. However, infection in vivo consists of biofilm growth on, or suspended within, the semi-solid matrix of the tissue, whereby current models do not effectively simulate the nature of the in vivo environment. This paper describes development of an in vitro method for culturing wound associated microorganisms in a system that combines a semi-solid collagen gel matrix with continuous flow of simulated wound fluid. This enables culture of wound associated reproducible steady state biofilms under conditions that more closely simulate the dynamic wound environment. To demonstrate the use of this model the antimicrobial kinetics of ceftazidime, against both mature and developing Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms, was assessed. In addition, we have shown the potential application of this model system for investigating microbial metabolomics by employing selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) to monitor ammonia and hydrogen cyanide production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms in real-time. ResultsThe collagen wound biofilm model facilitates growth of steady-state reproducible Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms under wound like conditions. A maximum biofilm density of 1010 cfu slide-1 was achieved by 30 hours of continuous culture and maintained throughout the remainder of the experiment. Treatment with ceftazidime at a clinically relevant dose resulted in a 1.2 – 1.6 log reduction in biofilm density at 72 hours compared to untreated controls. Treatment resulted in loss of complex biofilm architecture and morphological changes to bacterial cells, visualised using confocal microscopy. When monitoring the biofilms using SIFT-MS, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide levels peaked at 12 hours at 2273 ppb (±826.4) and 138 ppb (±49.1) respectively and were detectable throughout experimentation. ConclusionsThe collagen wound biofilm model has been developed to facilitate growth of reproducible biofilms under wound-like conditions. We have successfully used this method to: (1) evaluate antimicrobial efficacy and kinetics, clearly demonstrating the development of antimicrobial tolerance in biofilm cultures; (2) characterise volatile metabolite production by P. aeruginosa biofilms, demonstrating the potential use of this method in metabolomics studies