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 s

The aim of the research is to identify to what extent to which Malcolm Baldrige standards of total quality are applied in the after-sales services of a private sector company for electrical appliances, from the point of view of administrative leaders, in it. To achieve this aim a questionnaire has been used to measure the degree of application of Malcolm’s seven criteria for total quality, namely: (leadership, strategic planning, focus on the customer, measurement and analysis and knowledge management, focus in human resource and operation management and results of the company’s management), the research found that the company achieved a good level of the standard from the de

Background: The early detection of oral cancers gives the greatest chance of curing and the delay in presentation has a significant impact on the associated morbidity and mortality. The lack of general dental practitioners (GDP) knowledge in early cancer detection has been shown to contribute to delays in referral and treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the oral cancer awareness among a group of GDP by assessing their knowledge of detection and prevention of oral cancer. Materials and methods: A questionnaire based study was designed. The questionnaire was delivered to 200 GDP assessing oral examination method, knowledge of oral cancer risk factors, clinical appearance and the most common site, point of referral and requests

This study was designed to investing the drug prescribing pattern which is the important point in the rational or irrational use of drugs among patients dispensing their prescriptions from the private pharmacies in Maysan governorate, Iraq for a period of 1 month. The data collected from prescriptions were calculated and analyzed according to the WHO prescribing guidelines. The data showed that the mean of drugs included in single prescription was 3.4, and 12% of prescribed drugs were written as generic names; moreover, the percentage of antibiotics, corticosteroids and anxiolytics were 33.3%, 11.4% and 23.8% respectively. Those results indicate the irrational use of drugs when compared with the world health organization standard values

Safety programmes are considered one of the means to protect workers from different accidents and injuries and also to protect all assets including machines equipment and various materials. In spite of world state interests in occupational safety, this subject didn't get the required attention by senior staff of management at most of our country construction factories and the application of safety programmes still limited and in active. In order to a achieve the goal of the study, scientific method has been pursued to obtain the necessary information related to this study through tours to related companies and their construction factories and review literature that deal with occupational safety subject and their programmes and cost, in a

The vegetable cover plays an important role in the environment and Earth resource sciences. In south Iraq, the region is classified as arid or semiarid area due to the low precipitations and high temperature among the year. In this paper, the Landat-8 satellite imagery will be used to study and estimate the vegetable area in south Iraq. For this purpose many vegetation indices will be examined to estimate and extract the area of vegetation contain in and image. Also, the weathering parameters must be investigated to find the relationship between these parameters and the arability of vegetation cover crowing in the specific area. The remote sensing packages and Matlab written subroutines may be use to evaluate the results.

During a period of two years, from January 1995 till December 1996, the first survey on fish parasites in Bahr Al-Najaf depression, mid Iraq, was achieved. A total of 6992 fishes, belonging to 11 species, were collected and inspected for external and internal parasites. These fishes were infected with three protozoans (Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, Trichodina domerguei and Myxobolus pfeifferi), two monogeneans (Dactylogyrus cornu and Gyrodactylus elegans), two digenetic trematodes (Clinostomum complanatum and Ascocotyle coleostoma), one nematode (Contracaecum sp.) and one acanthocephalan (Neoechinorhynchus iraqensis). Five fish species were recorded as new h

This study aims to evaluate the performance of the sewage treatment plant in Al-Diwaniya, one of cities in the southern part in Iraq. This evaluation could be used to facilitate effluent quality assessment or optimal process control of the plant. The influent reaching the plant is considered a medium to strong in strength with BOD5/COD ratio in the range 0.23 and 0.69 which can be considered an easily degradable sewage by the biological processes performed by the activated sludge unit. The quality of the effluent was found to be higher than the Iraqi standards for disposal to water bodies. The BOD5/COD ratios of the treated sewage varied over a wide range as low of 0.13 to 1.48 indicating operational problems in the plant. Regression ana