Abstract Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a prevalent chronic microvascular diabetic complication. As inflammation plays a vital role in the development and progress of DN the macrophages migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a proinflammatory multifunctional cytokine approved to play a critical function in inflammatory responses in various pathologic situations like DN. This study aimed To assess serum levels of MIF in a sample of Iraqi diabetic patients with nephropathy supporting its validity as a marker for predicting nephropathy in T2DM patients. In addition, to evaluate the nephroprotective effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in terms of their influence on MIF levels. This is a case-control study involving ninety subjects that have been divided into three groups: twenty apparently healthy control group and seventy patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus divided into two equal groups according to the presence of diabetic nephropathy that has been further divided into two groups according to the use of ACE inhibitors or not. Serum MIF, urea, creatinine, RBS, HbA1c, BMI, eGFR, and urinary albumin to creatinine ratio have been measured for each subject. Serum MIF’s highest levels were observed in the diabetic nephropathy patients (24.9 ng/ml) followed by the diabetics (14. 1 ng/ml) with the lowest level observed in the control group (4.8 ng/ml). There was a significant relation between MIF levels and ACE inhibitors (p-value <0.05) with reduced MIF levels in ACE inhibitors users. The ROC curve showed that MIF has a good performance in disease prediction. These findings support the reliability of MIF as a biomarker for the prediction of diabetic nephropathy and the possible reducing effect of ACE inhibitors on MIF levels.
The deposition process and investigation of the physical properties of tungsten trioxide (WO3) thin films before and after gamma irradiation are presented in this paper. The WO3 thin films were deposited, using the pulse laser deposition technique, on glass substrates at laser energies of 600mJ and 800mJ. After deposition, the samples were gamma irradiated with Co60. The structural and optical properties of polycrystalline WO3 thin films are presented and discussed before and after 5kGy gamma irradiation at the two laser energies. X-ray diffraction spectra revealed that all the films consisted of WO3 crystallized in the triclinic form; the dislocation density and lattice strain increased with the absorbed dosage of gamma
... Show MoreIn this paper, our aim is to study variational formulation and solutions of 2-dimensional integrodifferential equations of fractional order. We will give a summery of representation to the variational formulation of linear nonhomogenous 2-dimensional Volterra integro-differential equations of the second kind with fractional order. An example will be discussed and solved by using the MathCAD software package when it is needed.
Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) were fabricated containing host molecule of conjugated polymer MEH-PPV poly (2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenlenevinylene) which was dissolved in chloroform solvent and doped with guest molecules MWCNTs that were dissolved in DMF solvent with different volume ratios 0.05 and 0.15, nanocomposite system which acts as active layer in OLEDs device. The Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly-(styrenesulfonate) "PEDOT:PSS" and Tris98-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum "Alq3" as hole transport layer HTL and electron transport layer ETL were used respectively, to enhanced the injection charge from the electrodes to the active layer. Spin coating method used for achieving facile and low cost OLED. The absorption s
... Show MoreIn this work, a novel single-slope solar distillator of floating perforated absorber inserted with wicks (cotton ribbons), and a stepped distillator are designed and manufactured with the aim of developing the conventional distillator. They are examined experimentally at Baghdad, Iraq (33.3°N Latitude, 44.4°E Longitude) in order to enhance the freshwater productivity and the efficiency of the conventional distillator. Results showed that the daily productivity and efficiency of the stepped distillator are higher than that for conventional solar distillator by 30% and 36.19% respectively. The daily productivity and thermal efficiency for the distillator with the floating absorber are higher than that for the conventional distillator by 16%
... Show MoreThis study was focused on biotreatment of soil which polluted by petroleum compounds (Diesel) which caused serious environmental problems. One of the most effective and promising ways to treat diesel-contaminated soil is bioremediation. It is a choice that offers the potential to destroy harmful pollutants using biological activity. Four bacterial strains were isolated from diesel contaminated soil samples. The isolates were identified by the Vitek 2 system, as Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Pentoae species, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterobacter cloacae. The potential of biological surfactant production was tested using the Sigma 703D stand-alone tensiometer showed that these isolates are biological surfactant producers. The bet
... Show MoreThin films of cadmium sulphoselenide (CdSSe) have been prepared by a thermal evaporation method on glass substrate, and with pressure of 4x10-5 mbar. The optical constants such as (refractive index n, dielectric constant ?i,r and Extinction coefficient ?) of the deposition films were obtained from the analysis of the experimental recorded transmittance spectral data. The optical band gap of (CdSSe) films is calculate from (?h?)2 vs. photon energy curve. CdSSe films have a direct energy gap, and the values of the energy gap were found to increase when increasing annealing temperature. The band gap of the films varies from 1.68 – 2.39 eV.
Heat transfer process and fluid flow in a solar chimney used for natural ventilation are investigated numerically in the present work. Solar chimney was tested by selecting different positions of absorber namely: at the back side, front side, and at the middle of the air gap. CFD analysis based on finite volume method is used to predict the thermal performance, and air flow in two dimensional solar chimney under unsteady state condition, to identify the effect of different parameters such as solar radiation. Results show that a solar chimney with absorber at the middle of the air gap gives better ventilation performance. A comparison between the numerical and previous experimental results shows fair agreement.
Many experiments were achieved to determine the allelopathic potential of the plant Myrtle parts in which it may affects other plants, like: volatile substances which released from the Myrtle leaves , and its effect examined on the germination (GE) and growth (GR) of the selected crops ; Chickpea ( C ) , Wheat(W) , and Lentil (L)., the aqueous extract of the leaf and the root of the plant examined to test its effect on the (GE) and (GR) of the selected crops ; (C) , (W) , and (L)., also plant residue of (M) and its effect tested on the (GE) and (GR) of the selected crops ; ( C ) , (W) , and (L) . Experiments proceeded on Spring 2007 in the greenhouse conditions , and main results which found were that; the effect of the volatile s
... Show MoreThis paper presents a control system to make the robotic hand mimic human hand motion in real time and offline mode. The human hand tracking system is a wearable sensing arm (potentiometers) used to determine the position in space and to sense the grasping task of human hand. The maskable sensing arm was designed with same geometrical arrangement of robotic hand that needs to be controlled. The control software of a robot was implemented using Visual Basic and supported with graphical user interface (GUI). The control algorithm depends on joint to joint mapping method to match between the motions at each joint of portable sensing arm with corresponding joint of a robot in order to make the robot mimic the motion.
This study was aimed to assess the efficiency of N.oleander to remove heavy metals such as Copper (Cu) from wastewater. A toxicity test was conducted outdoor for 65-day to estimate the ability of N.oleander to tolerate Cu in synthetic wastewater. Based on a previous range-finding test, five concentrations were used in this test (0, 50, 100, 300, 510 mg/l). The results showed that maximum values of removal efficiency was found 99.9% on day-49 for the treatment 50 mg/l. Minimum removal efficiency was 94% day-65 for the treatment of 510 mg/l. Water concentration was within the permissible limits of river conservation and were 0.164 at day-35 for the 50 mg/l treatment, decreased thereafter until the end of the observation, and 0.12 at d
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