Prevalence, Clinical Features, and Radiological Features of Iraqi Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Objective: To estimate  prevalence, clinical feature, radiological feature  of Iraqi patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and  its  possible correlation with the disease activity and eye involvement.Patients and Method: A cross sectional study was conducted on 318 Iraqi patients with AS diagnosed according to the modified New York criteria. Clinical  evaluation (age , gender, symptom of AS, duration of the disease , presence of eye symptoms ,family history of AS, clinical assessment scoring of disease activity by bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity Index  (BASDAI) as well as function by Bath ankylosing spondylitis functional index (BASFI) and radiological evaluation (Plain x-ray of sacroiliac joint , pelvic, dorso-lumbar spine and cervical spine as well as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)   for  sacroiliac joint and spine were recorded for each patients, and  laboratory investigation (complete blood count , erythrocyte sedimentation rate(ESR) C-reactive protein (CRP), and human leucocyte antigen B 27 (HLA-B27) status were  tested using the standard serological method .Results: The prevalence rate of AS in the sample studied was 0.9 %, male was 90.6% with male to female ratio 9:1. The percentage of enthesiopathy   was 80.5% , axial arthritis was 68.2% and the peripheral arthritis was 13.8% . HLA-B27 was positive in 55%. Eye involvement was 23.6% and uveitis (all of the patients unilateral) 18.9%. There was significant association between eye manifestation with peripheral arthritis, high function class and severe disease activity but not with the sex, age, disease duration, family history of AS , HLA-B27 positive and extent  axial involvement  .Conclusions: Prevalence of AS in the sample studied was 0.9 % with male predominance, enthesiopathy was 80.5% , axial spondylitis 68.2%, peripheral arthritis 13.8%,  Eye involvement was 23.6%. .HLA-B27 was positive in 55%.There was significant association between eye manifestation with peripheral arthritis, high function class and severe disease activity. Keywords:-Iraq, Ankylosing spondylitis, Clinical feature, Radiological feature, HLA-B27

The planned sub-centres for riyadh city, a shift towards polycentric metropolitan development

Riyadh city, the capital of Saudi Arabia, will be transformed in the near future to a polycentric model which corresponds to the characteristic of modern cities. The city is now a monocentric, and its urban form was affected by the expansion of low-density residential areas. Riyadh has a population of just over four million inhabiting a developed land of nearly 1200 km2. The city was and will continue to be a focal point of attraction for migration, economic activities, and many key urban services. In February 2007, new regulations for the city new sub-centres were approved by the High Commission for the Development of Riyadh. This planned change for the city which is part of a polycentric metropolitan strategy tends to create new developments of sub-centres that could accommodate some key urban services outside the central business district as well as offering employment opportunities. This paper explores the reasons behind such changes, and the new regulations proposed for the planned sub-centres

Metal oxides as photocatalysts

AbstractMetal oxides are of great technological importance in environmental remediation and electronics because of their capability to generate charge carriers when stimulated with required amount of energy. The promising arrangement of electronic structure, light absorption properties, and charge transport characteristics of most of the metal oxides has made possible its application as photocatalyst. In this article definition of metal oxides as photocatalyst, structural characteristics, requirements of the photocatalyst, classification of photocatalysts and the mechanism of the photocatalytic process are discussed

Synthesis and Characterizations of Titanium Tungstosilicate and Tungstophosphate Mesoporous Materials

The work reports a development approach for the synthesis of novel multi-components mesoporous materials of titanium tungstate (meso-TiW) titanium tungstosilicate (meso-TiWSi) and tungstophosphate (meso-TiWP) mixed oxides that have high surface area and ordered mesoporous structures at nanometer length scale. Using the solvent evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) new oxides of bi- and tri-component of meso-TiW, meso-TiWSi and meso-TiWP oxides with different compositions and porosity were achieved. The physicochemical properties of the mesoporous oxides were characterized by X-ray diffraction, BET surface area analyzer, scanning, and transmission electron microscopes. Subject to the oxide composition, the obtained meso-TiW, meso-TiWSi and meso-TiWP exhibits high surface area, ordered 2D hexagonal mesostructured with order channels extended over a large area. The produced meso-TiW, meso-TiWSi, and meso-TiWP adsorbents exhibit good adsorption efficiency for the removal of Pb(II), Cd(II) and Hg(II) ions from water solution due to the presence of high surface area and accessibility of surface active sites. The adsorption efficiency of these mesoporous oxide reaches up to 95% and is found to be dependent contact time and adsorbents dose. The synthesis strategy is particularly advantageous for the production of new complex (multi-component) inorganic mesoporous materials that might have an application in the field of environmental, catalysis or energy storage and production

Determination of Cadmium and Lead in Sewage Sludge from the Middle Region (Misrata, Msallata and Tarhünah Cities) of Libya

The concentrations of cadmium and lead in sewage sludge samples were determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrometric Method. Samples of sewage sludge were obtained from three sewage treatment plants localised in Middle Region of Libya (Misrata, Msallata and Tarhünah cities). The results shows that, the mean levels of Cadmium for all regions are ranges from 81 to 123.4 ppm and these values are higher than the limitations for the international standard which are not registered more than 50 ppm (dry weight) in USA, Egypt and the EU countries. While, the lead concentrations are ranged from 8.0 to 189.2 ppm and all values are within the standard limits which graduated between (275–613) ppm

The Algerian Arabic version of the Juvenile Arthritis Multidimensional Assessment Report (JAMAR)

The Juvenile Arthritis Multidimensional Assessment Report (JAMAR) is a new parent/patient-reported outcome measure that enables a thorough assessment of the disease status in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). We report the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the parent and patient versions of the JAMAR in the Algerian Arabic language. The reading comprehension of the questionnaire was tested in ten JIA parents and patients. Each participating centre was asked to collect demographic, clinical data and the JAMAR in 100 consecutive JIA patients or all consecutive patients seen in a 6-month period and to administer the JAMAR to 100 healthy children and their parents. The statistical validation phase explored descriptive statistics and the psychometric issues of the JAMAR: the three Likert assumptions, floor/ceiling effects, internal consistency, Cronbach\u2019s alpha, interscale correlations, test\u2013retest reliability, and construct validity (convergent and discriminant validity). A total of 70 JIA patients (10.0% systemic, 35.7.0% oligoarticular, 21.4% RF negative polyarthritis, 32.9% other categories) and 70 healthy children, were enrolled in a paediatric rheumatology centre. The JAMAR components discriminated well healthy subjects from JIA patients. All JAMAR components revealed satisfactory psychometric performances. In conclusion, the Algerian Arabic version of the JAMAR is a valid tool for the assessment of children with JIA and is suitable for use both in routine clinical practice and clinical research

Evaluation of efficient vehicular ad hoc networks based on a maximum distance routing algorithm

Traffic management at road intersections is a complex requirement that has been an important topic of research and discussion. Solutions have been primarily focused on using vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Key issues in VANETs are high mobility, restriction of road setup, frequent topology variations, failed network links, and timely communication of data, which make the routing of packets to a particular destination problematic. To address these issues, a new dependable routing algorithm is proposed, which utilizes a wireless communication system between vehicles in urban vehicular networks. This routing is position-based, known as the maximum distance on-demand routing algorithm (MDORA). It aims to find an optimal route on a hop-by-hop basis based on the maximum distance toward the destination from the sender and sufficient communication lifetime, which guarantee the completion of the data transmission process. Moreover, communication overhead is minimized by finding the next hop and forwarding the packet directly to it without the need to discover the whole route first. A comparison is performed between MDORA and ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) protocol in terms of throughput, packet delivery ratio, delay, and communication overhead. The outcome of the proposed algorithm is better than that of AODV

The Arabic version of the Juvenile Arthritis Multidimensional Assessment Report (JAMAR)

The Juvenile Arthritis Multidimensional Assessment Report (JAMAR) is a new parent/patient reported outcome measure that enables a thorough assessment of the disease status in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). We report the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the parent and patient versions of the JAMAR in the Arabic language. The reading comprehension of the questionnaire was tested in 10 JIA parents and patients. Each participating centre was asked to collect demographic and clinical data and the JAMAR in 100 consecutive JIA patients or all consecutive patients seen in a 6-month period and to administer the JAMAR to 100 healthy children and their parents. The statistical validation phase explored descriptive statistics and the psychometric issues of the JAMAR: the 3 Likert assumptions, floor/ceiling effects, internal consistency, Cronbach\u2019s alpha, interscale correlations, test\u2013retest reliability, and construct validity (convergent and discriminant validity). A total of 100 JIA patients (27.0% systemic JIA, 23.0% oligoarticular, 25.0% RF negative polyarthritis, and 25.0% other categories) and 100 healthy children, were enrolled in one paediatric rheumatology centre. The JAMAR components discriminated well healthy subjects from JIA patients. All JAMAR components revealed satisfactory psychometric performances. In conclusion, the Arabic version of the JAMAR is a valid tool for the assessment of children with JIA and is suitable for use both in routine clinical practice and in clinical research