Objectives: Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) is WNT/b-catenin pathway antagonist which plays a detrimental role in the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). This research aimed to assess serum DKK-1 levels in diabetic patients who have and have not developed DR and, compare them with the control subjects finding out whether we can use it as an indicator for DR early diagnosis and to find out which one of the widely used two groups of antidiabetic treatments had the greater effect on this biomarker and hence on the progression of DR. Methods: The study participants were divided into two subgroups: First, 70 patients (36 male, 34 female) with type 2 diabetes mellitus, among them 35 patients diagnosed with DR and 35 with no evidence of DR, and secondly, non-diabetic controls (11 male, 9 female) were selected from the patients attending Ibn AL-Haitham hospital for ophthalmology and a specialized center for endocrinology and diabetes. Venous blood samples of all participants were drawn after an overnight fast, and serum samples were stored at -20ºC until DKK-1 assay. Results: Serum DKK-1 showed significantly lower levels in diabetic patients with (6.1 ± 2 ng/mL) or without DR (14 ± 6.2 ng/mL) when compared to those of controls (34 ± 12.25 ng/mL) (p 0.05). Furthermore, serum DKK-1 levels were lower in the late stage of DR compared to the early stage 5.6 ± 1.7 and 7 ± 1.9 ng/mL, respectively. Furthermore, DPP-4 inhibitors cause a better increment in DKK-1 levels when compared to SU in the NDR group. Conclusions: Reduced serum levels of DKK-1 are related to the existence and worsening of DR and have the prospect to serve as an indicator for this condition.
Ecological risk assessment of mercury contaminant has a means to analyze the ecological risk aspect of ecosystem using the potential impact of mercury pollution in soil, water and organism. The ecological risk assessment in a coastal area can be shown by mangrove zonation, clustering and interpolation of mercury accumulation. This research aims to analyze ecological risk assessment of potential mercury (including bioaccumulation and translocation) using indicators of species distribution, clustering, zonation and interpolation of mercury accumulation. The results showed that the Segara Anakan had a high risk of mercury pollution, using indicators like as the potential of mercury contaminant in water body was 0137±0.0137 ppm, substrate a
... Show MoreWere studied changes in the concentration of copper, iron and zinc in blood serum of one hundred patients with chronic kidney and treated dialysis blood were also measured the level of calcium kidney and phosphate Calciotropic in serum of these patients took samples of blood from these patients before and after treatment dialysis vessels as well as the statement of changes in those standards Alkimaahiatih Results were compared with twenty-five healthy people (control group)
Smear zone is usually formed around the prefabricated vertical drains (PVD’s) due to mandrel driving. The geotechnical properties of the soil in this zone exhibit significant changes that affect the performance of the PVD’s. The most relevant property in this respect is the coefficient of permeability. So far, no serious attention is paid to investigate the effects of shearing under large shear strains on the geotechnical properties of the soft soil in Fao region. In this study, an extensive laboratory testing program was conducted to assess the characteristics of the smear zone with an emphasis on the permeability coefficient of Fao soft soil. The results show that the permeability of the smear zone is about 70% of
... Show MoreThe topic of the research dealt with the image of Iraq in the British press based on a sample of the newspapers (The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph), which are among the most important and largest newspapers in the United Kingdom and the world, because of its active role in guiding local and international public opinion towards important issues and events, Since these two newspapers are interested in the accuracy of sensitive political topics, the message aimed at knowing the media image that these two newspapers painted about Iraq in the period that was limited to the first quarter of 2019, and also to know the nature of the contents promoted by these newspapers about the Iraqi reality, The method of content analysis was used as an ap
... Show MoreThis study aims to focus on the Motives behind volunteer work among a sample of volunteers working in civil society organizations and check if there are statistical differences with those variables according to (gender, age, job, period of volunteer work, and residence. The sample consists of (220 )volunteers,(189) male and(31) female from southern, northern and central governorate .The Volunteer Functions Inventory(VFI)(Clary & et al,1989)was applied, It consisting of(30) items with six fields( Values, Understanding, Social motives, Career, Protective, Enhancement).
The results show that the most common and important motivations are (Values, Understanding, and social motivations), there are differenc
... Show MoreThe research topic (The Impact of the Compulsory Reserve on the Banks Credit-an applied research on a sample of Iraqi banks), was chosen on basis of the Iraqi private Banks attempts to increase their credit activities in hope to gain more profits.This coincided with the CBI aim to back the private banking market.It is thus apparent why the CBI issued its regulation to those banks to increase their capitals up to IDB250. On the other hand,the CBI acted as an obstacle in the way of increasing the private banks of their capitals,that is by implementing the quantitive monetary tool so called the compulsory reserve.This is why we intended to overlook at this contradictional problome
... Show MoreBreast tumors patients generally have more oxidative stress than normal females. This was clear from a highly significant elevation (P<0.05) in malondialdehyde level in RBCs, serum and tissue of all patients groups with breast cancer as compared with control group. In this study we had found that free radicals in malignant breast tumors were higher than benign tumors, therefore the MDA might be used as a marker for prognosis of the disease.
The aim of this study was extraction of jojoba oil using different solvents. A mixture of waterhexane and water-ethanol are used as solvents to extract jojoba oil in a batch extraction process and compared with a pure solvent extraction process. The effects of particle size of crushed seeds, solvent-to-water ratio and time on jojoba oil extraction were investigated. The best recovery of oil was obtained at the boiling temperature of the solvent and four hour of extraction time. When seed particle size was 0.45 mm and a pure ethanol was used (45% yield of oil extraction), whereas, it was 40% yield of oil at 25% water-hexane mixture. It was revealed that the water-ethanol and water-hexane mixtures have an effect on the oil extraction yield. T
... Show MoreThe aim of the research is to diagnose the level of awareness and response of the researched sample to the concept of enlightened leadership and strategic alignment, as well as to measure the strength and weakness of the relationships between the independent variable of enlightened leadership and the dependent variable of strategic alignment with its dimensions. Thus, the research problem was defined by the main question of identifying the role played by enlightened leadership in achieving strategic alignment in a number of private Iraqi commercial banks. In light of this, the hypothetical research model was designed, embodying the relationship between the research variables. The descriptive analytical approach was adopted, and a ques
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