Iraqi Journal of Science

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the chronic inflammatory autoimmune
diseases which occurs as a result of unknown reasons. This study was conducted at
Baghdad Teaching Hospital/City of Medicine, where blood samples were taken
from 60 Iraqi patients with RA (49 females and 11 males) and these patients were
matched by age and sex with 20 healthy controls (16 females and 4 males). Patients
with RA were diagnosed by a consultant rheumatologist according to ACR /
EULAR criteria in 2010. In this study the patients were divided into four groups as
follows; the first group consisted of 12 patients treated with methotrexate (MTX),
the second group consisted of 10 patients treated with etanercept, the third group
consisted of 18 patients treated with a combination of MTX, etanercept and
prednisolone, the fourth group consisted of 20 patients treated with MTX and
etanercept. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect
CCL18/PARC antibodies, while a spectrophotometer (Humalyzer2000) was used for
the measurement of alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Serum levels of CCL18 / PARC
showed a significant increase in RA patients compared with healthy controls (p ≤
0.001). The levels of CCL18/PARC showed a significant correlation with disease
activity (CDAI), except in RA patients treated with etanercept. There was also no
significant correlation between CCL18/PARC and erythrocyte sedimentation rate
(ESR). The results showed a significant increase in serum levels of alkaline
phosphatase (ALP) was recorded in RA patients (with treatment) as compared to
healthy controls (p ≤ 0.001).

Aims: Because of the high incidence of cancer in females, we need to identify an
accurate therapy to deal with the treatment of different types and stages of cancer.
Histopathology acts as an important step to foresee the stage in which the cancer is
present, its risk of metastasis, and the health outcomes after completion of treatment.
Histopathology grading acts as an important criterion to determine the treatment
pattern to be adopted, the prognosis in patients and other possible future risks.
Hence conducting novel histopathologcial studies in major female cancers is
necessary in determining the treatment plan to be chosen for the patient.
Study design: Retrospective Observational study
Place and Duration of Study: St. Ann’s Cancer Hospital, Warangal, Telangana,
India. The patient’s histopathological reports were collected between March and
August 2018.
Methodology: The study sample included 275 non-pregnant female patients aged
above 20 years and diagnosed with different cancers based on histopathology.
Histopathological observations were taken by collecting parameters that included
specimen submitted, lymphadenopathy specimen, macroscopic appearance,
macroscopic tumour site, coexistent pathology, histological tumour grade,
lymphovascular invasion, and distant metastasis.
Results: The histopathologcial study concludes that regional lymph nodes (55.2%)
were more common than other lymph nodes. Mostly, tumours demonstrated swollen
and ulcerative appearance (48%), with grading as G0 stage (57.45%) having better
prognosis and good quality of life. The most commonly observed types of tumours
were as follows; In Breast Cancer: infiltrating ducal carcinoma (61. 9%), in Cervix
Cancer: squamous cell carcinoma (83.92%), in Ovarian Cancer: mucinous
cystadenocarcinoma (53.84%), in Vaginal Cancer, and in Vulvar Cancer: squamous
cell carcinoma (100%).
Conclusion: Knowing the type of tumour to develop, the threat it poses to health,
and the mechanisms that mediate its development are important factors in the
management of the disease. This detailed information may aid the implementation of
more accurate preventive measures in a population by selecting the proper treatment
plan and understanding the risk of future chances of reoccurrence and metastasis.

The impact of smoking on human health is remarkable and can lead to death.
This research was performed to test the effects of cigarette smoking on some
parameters that are considered as signs of critical problems in human body. The
study was carried out on fifty Iraqi male smokers in Baghdad city, who smoked at
least 10 cigarettes per day for at least 15 years. The group includes 25 male smokers
with an age range of 20 -55 years and 25 male non-smokers who were collected
with the same range of age for statistical comparison. The results of the study
revealed significant increases in blood parameters, including hemoglobin (Hb,
16.0917 (g/dl) , packed cell volume (PCV, 49.2%), red blood cells (RBC, 5.4763
X1012/L), white blood cell (WBC, 12.5565 X109/L), and platelet (PLT, 430.000
x1012/L). Similar effects were observed in relation to the serum biochemical
parameters o of kidney function (urea, 53.2400 mg/ dl; creatinine, 1.5480 mg/ dl) as
well as liver function (alanine aminotransferase, ALT, 104.9200 U/l; aspartate
transaminase, AST, 122.3040 U/l; alkaline phosphatase, ALP, 337.4000U/l); total
serum bilirubin, TSB, 0.6780 mg/ dl). However, significantly decreased levels of
total protein (60.6800 mg/ dl) and uric acid (4.2400 mg/ dl) were recorded in
cigarette smokers when compared with non-smokers group.

The current study aims to evaluate levels of metabolic hormones and lipid profile
in a sample of growth hormone (GH) deficient patients. Seventy-five GH deficient
patients and twenty healthy subjects, used as a control group, participated in this
study during their attendance to the National Diabetic Center for Treatment and
Research/Al-Mustansiriya University. The studied subjects’ ages were with a range
of 3-15 years. Blood samples were collected from the studied subjects to determine
basal levels of GH, GH2 and GH3 after 1 hr. and 1:30 hr. of provocation with
clonidine. In addition, levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), metabolic
hormones [thyroid profile: triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxin (T4), and thyroid
stimulating hormone (TSH) and cortisol], and lipid profile elements [cholesterol,
triglyceride, high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and very
low density lipoprotein (VLDL)] were studied.
The findings of the anthropometric measurements of the studied groups revealed
that insignificant (P>0.05) difference was found in the weight between the patients
(26.59 ± 1.35 kg) and the control (30.95 ± 2.09 kg), while the mean of height in the
patients (123.35 ± 2.18 cm) was significantly (P<0.05) lower than its value in the
control (132.72 ± 3.60 cm). Mean BMI values demonstrated insignificant (P>0.05)
differences between the patients (16.71 ± 0.54 kg/m2) and the control (17.12 ± 0.55
kg/m2). However, mean BMI percentile and mean BMI Z-score revealed a
significant (P<0.05) decrease in the patients (27.90 ± 3.16; -1.107 ± 0.21) compared
to their values in the control (44.30 ± 5.75; -0.169 ± 0.16), respectively.
The results also showed insignificant (P>0.05) differences in the level of basal
GH between the patients (0.39 ± 0.04 ng/ml) and the control (0.57 ± 0.18 ng/ml),
while a highly significant (P<0.01) decrease was found in the levels of GH2 (2.97 ±
0.27 ng/ml) and GH3 (2.43 ± 0.23 ng/ml) in the patients group compared to the
control group (12.70 ± 0.45 ng/ml; 8.10 ± 0.43 ng/ml), respectively. The Level of
IGF-1 showed a significant (P<0.05) decrease in the patients (128.75 ± 10.69 ng/ml)
compared to the control (176.85 ± 16.36 ng/ml).
The results of metabolic hormones revealed insignificant (P>0.05) differences in
the level of serum T3 between the patients (2.39 ± 0.07 nmol/L) and control (2.19 ±
0.12 nmol/L), while a highly significant (P<0.01) decrease was found in serum T4
level in the patients (98.19 ± 1.76 nmol/L) compared to control (114.85 ± 4.42
nmol/L). An insignificant (P>0.05) difference was found in serum TSH between the
patients (2.51 ± 0.14 μIU/ml) and control (2.45 ± 0.14 μIU/ml). The data of serum
cortisol showed a significant (P<0.05) increase in the patients (138.72 ± 18.05
ng/mL) compared to control (112.61 ± 13.92 ng/mL).
The results of lipid profile showed insignificant (P>0.05) differences in serum
cholesterol level between the patients (186.34 ± 5.56 mg/dL) and control (150.35 ±
4.31 mg/dL), while triglyceride showed a significant (P<0.05) increase in the
patients (88.90 ± 6.19 mg/dL) compared to control (61.40 ± 4.15 mg/dL). An

Trichomonas vaginalis is an eukaryotic parasite that causes the most common
non-viral sexually transmitted infection, trichomoniasis. This disease is responsible
for many serious health problems such as preterm birth. More than half of the
infected women do not develop symptoms, which makes it difficult to diagnose the
disease. In this study, a specific indirect ELISA method was developed to detect
anti-Trichomonas vaginalis IgM and IgG immunoglobulins in the sera of infected
females. The aim of this study was to investigate the sensitivity of a simple ELISA
procedure in comparison to the classical urine examination and vaginal wet mount
preparation for the diagnosis of T. vaginalis. The sensitivity of the indirect ELISA
was compared with the classical vaginal discharge swab and urine microscopic
examination, and the results showed sensitivities of 65.5% and 57.2%, respectively.
Furthermore, the infection was measurable as acute or chronic with the refined test.

Acinetobacter baumannii is highly adapted to hospital environments, causing
persistent chronic infections due to its ability to form biofilms. In this work, the
antibiofilm activity of AuNPs with a subMIC concentration of 9.34 μg/ml was
investigated by the microtiter plate method against 80 clinical isolates of A.
baumannii. The results revealed that the biofilm was significantly (P< 0.05) reduced
by 48.2 – 82.1%.

Lactobacillus spp. is one of the most important strains used worldwide in different
applications that range from medical to industrial uses. Therefore, this study aimed
to determine the potential capability of the putative probiotic L. rhamnosus isolated
from clinical vaginal specimens to produce exopolysaccharide (EPS). From a total
of 100 clinical samples, only 13 (13%) samples were represented as Lactobacillus
spp, as characterized by the use of the API 50CHL system. The results revealed that
the number of L. rhamnosus isolates constituted 4/13 (30.8%), with a confident
percentage of more than 80%. In addition, characterization by 16S rRNA
sequencing showed 100% similarity to the characterized species of L. rhamnosus.
Also, the results showed a strong capability of all Lactobacillus spp. isolates to
produce biofilm. On the other hand, the antimicrobial susceptibility test revealed
increases of antimicrobial resistance. The selected L. rhamnosus showed the
capability to produce exopolysaccharide with carbohydrate and protein
concentrations of 74.774 μg/ml and 0.0145μg/ml, respectively. This bacterial isolate
demonstrated the ability to form a thin capsule with carbohydrate and protein
concentrations of about1.314 μg/ml and 0.01μg/ml, respectively.

In this work, a chemical optical fiber sensor based on Surface Plasmon
Resonance (SPR) was designed and implemented using plastic optical fiber. The
sensor is used for estimating refractive indices and concentrations of various
chemical materials (methanol, distilled water, ethanol, kerosene) as well as for
evaluating the performance parameters such as sensitivity, signal to noise ratio,
resolution and the figure of merit of the fabricated sensor. It was found that the value
of the sensitivity of the optical fiber-based SPR sensor, with 40 nm thick and 10 mm
long Au metal film of exposed sensing region, was 3μm/RIU, while the SNR was
0.24, the figure of merit was 20, and the resolution was 0.00066. The sort of optical
fiber utilized in this work is plastic optical fiber with a core diameter of 980 μm, a
fluorinated polymer cladding of 20μm and a numerical aperture of 0.51.

Nano-silver oxide thin films with high sensitivity for NH3 gas were deposited on
glass substrates by the chemical bath deposition technique. The preparations were
made under different values of pH and deposition time at 70ᵒ C, using silver nitrate
AgNO3 and triethanolamine. XRD analysis showed that all thin films were
polycrystalline with several peaks of silver oxides such as Ag2O, AgO and Ag3O4,
with an average crystallite size that ranged between 31.7 nm and 45.8 nm,
depending on the deposition parameters. Atomic force microscope (AFM) technique
illustrated that the films were homogenous with different surface roughness and the
grain size ranged between 55.69 nm and 86.23 nm. The UV-Vis spectrophotometer
showed that the optical direct energy gap ranged between 1.66 eV to 2.12 eV. The
silver oxide thin film gives a high sensitivity of 70.12 for NH3 gas at 75°C
operating temperature. This study shows that different types of silver oxides can be
prepared by the CBD techniques, with the nanostructure to be used in gas sensors
and optoelectronic applications.

In this study, a new theoretical method for the estimation of absorption and
fluorescence spectra is accomplished. These estimations were established
following experimental measurements of absorption and fluorescence spectra for the
solutions of fluorescein laser dye mixed with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles
in distilled water. The used concentration of fluorescein dye was 1x10-5 M, whereas
the masses of titanium dioxide nanoparticles were 0.0003g, 0.0005g, 0.001g and
0.002g. An absorption spectra improvement was observed upon raising the mass of
TiO2 nanoparticles, which specifies that doping the fluorescein dye with TiO2
nanoparticles have an essential influence on the dye absorption spectra. On the other
side, all fluorescence spectra for the dye quenched as TiO2 nanoparticles mass was
increased, because of the induced electron transfer. The new method of theoretical
estimations was based on curve fitting using Logistic Power Peak (LPP) function to
estimate theoretical models for the absorption and fluorescence spectra of these
samples. The results revealed that these estimated models had exceptional matching
shapes with the experimental shapes, so that the estimated models can substitute the
experimental measurements.

The paper aims at investigating the content of particles and minerals of soft clay
soil in the Mekong Delta coastal provinces, southern Vietnam, as well as improving
soil stability using inorganic adhesives, i.e.lime and cement-based stabilization. To
study the composition of soft clay soil, a series of different laboratory methods were
carried out and revealed various characteristics related to mineral composition, pH
value, soluble salt content, and grain particle composition of soft clay soils. The
results demonstrated five soil subtypes, namely high – saline soil (S2), low-saline
soil (S1), acid sulfate soil (A), acid sulfate - saline soil (S-A), soil without salt and
acid sulfate content (S0- A0). The soft clay soil (C) included 5 subtypes, which were
C-S2, C-S1, C-A, C-AS, and C-S0-A0, whereas the soft sandy clay soil (SC)
included three subtypes, namely SC-S2, SC- S1, and SC-S0-A0. Analysis of the
above results showed that the high - saline soil, acid sulfate soil, and acid sulfate -
saline soil are not suitable for lime and cement stabilization. This observation was
illustrated by the initial experiment of cement – soil mixture properties.

In this paper, we generalized the principle of Banach contractive to the relative
formula and then used this formula to prove that the set valued mapping has a fixed
point in a complete partial metric space. We also showed that the set-valued
mapping can have a fixed point in a complete partial metric space without satisfying
the contraction condition. Additionally, we justified an example for our proof.

We wrote this paper to proffer new types of the perfectly supra continuous
functions. We also introduced new types of supra continuous, supra open and supra
closed functions

Let be a unitary left R-module on associative ring with identity. A
submodule of is called -annihilator small if , where is a
submodule of , implies that ann( )=0, where ann( ) indicates annihilator of in
. In this paper, we introduce the concepts of -annihilator-coessential and -
annihilator - coclosed submodules. We give many properties related with these types
of submodules.

The aim of this work is to survey the two rows resolution of Weyl module and
locate the terms and the exactness of the Weyl Resolution in the case of skew-shape
(8,6)/(2,1).

In this paper, we introduce and study the concepts of hollow – J–lifting modules
and FI – hollow – J–lifting modules as a proper generalization of both hollow–lifting
and J–lifting modules . We call an R–module M as hollow – J – lifting if for every
submodule N of M with
is hollow, there exists a submodule K of M such that
M = K Ḱ and K N in M . Several characterizations and properties of hollow
–J–lifting modules are obtained . Modules related to hollow – J–lifting modules are
given .

Let R be an associative ring with identity and let D be a left R-module. As a
generalization of T-essential we introduce the concept of the small Tessential
. Let T be a proper of a module D. A
N such that N T is small T-essential (ST-essential) and denoted by
, if for each L of a module D, such that T, implies
that . We also define ST-complement submodules and show the relationships
between ST-essential and S-closed, ST-essential and S-singular, and STcomplement
and ST-essential submodules. Some properties and theories about these
concepts are also provided.

This paper deals with the estimation of the stress strength reliability for a
component which has a strength that is independent on opposite lower and upper
bound stresses, when the stresses and strength follow Inverse Kumaraswamy
Distribution. D estimation approaches were applied, namely the maximum
likelihood, moment, and shrinkage methods. Monte Carlo simulation experiments
were performed to compare the estimation methods based on the mean squared error
criteria.

In this paper, we study the impacts of variable viscosity , heat and mass transfer
on magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) peristaltic flow in a asymmetric tapered inclined
channel with porous medium . The viscosity is considered as a function of
temperature. The slip conditions at the walls were taken into consideration. Small
Reynolds number and the long wavelength approximations were used to simplify
the governing equations. A comparison between the two velocities in cases of slip
and no-slip was plotted. It was observed that the behavior of the velocity differed in
the two applied models for some parameters. Mathematica software was used to
estimate the exact solutions of temperature and concentration profiles. The
resolution of the equations to the momentum was based on the perturbation method
to find the axial velocity, pressure gradient and trapping phenomenon. The
influences of the various flow parameters of the problem on these distributions were
debated and proved graphically by figures.

Some researchers are interested in using the flexible and applicable properties of
quadratic functions as activation functions for FNNs. We study the essential
approximation rate of any Lebesgue-integrable monotone function by a neural
network of quadratic activation functions. The simultaneous degree of essential
approximation is also studied. Both estimates are proved to be within the second
order of modulus of smoothness.

The aim of this paper is to employ the fractional shifted Legendre polynomials
(FSLPs) in the matrix form to approximate the fractional derivatives and find the
numerical solutions of the one-dimensional space-fractional bioheat equation (SFBHE).
The Caputo formula was utilized to approximate the fractional derivative.
The proposed methodology applied for two examples showed its usefulness and
efficiency. The numerical results showed that the utilized technique is very
efficacious with high accuracy and good convergence.

In this paper, we introduce and study the essential and closed fuzzy submodules
of a fuzzy module X as a generalization of the notions of essential and closed
submodules. We prove many basic properties of both concepts.

Underground water is extracted by wells that are connected through underground
canals. Thus, the levels of pollutant elements in ground water could be evaluated
directly from water samples collected from the wells. This study was conducted in
the city of Samara / Salah-Aldeen province – Iraq. The samples were taken from 29
wells within the study area for the period 2012-2014 with a supervision from the
General Authority for Groundwater / the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources. GIS
technology was adopted to calculate the pollution elements at Samara water table.
The concentrations of chemical elements [K, Na, Mg, Cl, Ca] and compounds [SO4,
HCO3] were manipulated and calculated for the entire area. The results of laboratory
analyses showed that the groundwater in this area is not suitable for use as drinking
water for humans, since the concentrations of the chemical elements and the
compounds exceeded the permissible limits and are not in accordance with WHO
standards. However, the results also indicated that the groundwater in the covered
area is suitable for agriculture irrigation.

The process of converting coordinates is, still, considered an important and
difficult issue due to the way of conversion from geographic ellipsoidal system to
the projected flat system. The most common method uses contiguous UTM system
as one of the most accurate systems in the conversion process, but the users of the
system face problems related to contiguity, especially at the large areas that lie
within more than one zone. The aim of the present research is to solve the problem
related to the multiple zones coverage found in the Iraqi territory using a
mathematical model based on the use of Taylor series. The most accurate conversion
equation used in this paper was based on the 4th order polynomial of two variables.
The calculation of equations’ coefficients was performed using least square criterion
for the coordinate’s values, i.e., either latitude, longitude) or East (E), North (N)
coordinates. The two basic determinations, for the forward and backward, were
applied. In the first stages, the conversion of the coordinates from Longitude/
Latitude to East/ North was determined. Then, the second conversion stage was
determined, i.e., the coordinates conversion from East, North to Longitude,
Latitude). For each phase, a spatial accuracy assessment was conducted. The results
showed that the adopted mathematical model was successful to accomplish the
conversion process. A very small error average of about 3 cm at east and less than 5
cm at north was reached using the 4th order polynomial equations.

Most of today’s techniques encrypt all of the image data, which consumes a
tremendous amount of time and computational payload. This work introduces a
selective image encryption technique that encrypts predetermined bulks of the
original image data in order to reduce the encryption/decryption time and the
computational complexity of processing the huge image data. This technique is
applying a compression algorithm based on Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). Two
approaches are implemented based on color space conversion as a preprocessing for
the compression phases YCbCr and RGB, where the resultant compressed sequence
is selectively encrypted using randomly generated combined secret key.
The results showed a significant reduction in image quality degradation when
applying the system based on YCbCr over RGB, where the compression ratio was
raised in some of the tested images to 50% for the same Peak Signal to Noise Ratio
(PSNR). The usage of 1-D DCT reduced the transform time by 47:1 times compared
to the same transform using 2-D DCT. The values of the adaptive scalar quantization
parameters were reduced to the half for the luminance (Y band) to preserve the
visual quality, while the chrominance (Cb and Cr bands) were quantized by the
predetermined quantization parameters. In the hybrid encoder horizontal zigzag,
block scanning was applied to scan the image. The Detailed Coefficient (DC)
coefficients are highly correlated in this arrangement- where DC are losslessly
compressed by Differential Pulse Coding Modulation (DPCM) and the
Accumulative Coefficients (AC) are compressed using Run Length Encoding
(RLE). As a consequence, for the compression algorithm, the compression gain
obtained was up to 95%. Three arrays are resulted from each band (DC coefficients,
AC values, and AC runs), where the cipher is applied to some or all of those bulks
selectively. This reduces the encryption decryption time significantly, where
encrypting the DC coefficients provided the second best randomness and the least
encryption/decryption time recorded (3 10-3 sec.) for the entire image. Although the
compression algorithm consumes time but it is more efficient than the saved
encryption time.