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

In this research we have been studied the 3rd order spherical aberration for an optical system consisted of obscured circular aperture with non central circular obscuration through the calculation of point spread function (P.S.F) in presence of the obscuration in the center and comparing the obtained results with that results of moving obscuration far away from the center, where the results showed significant improvement for(P.S.F) value. The study was done of different obscurities ratios in addition to the different 3rd order spherical aberration values (W40=0.25 ,0.5 ,0.75 ,1 ).

Nowadays, most of the on-chip plasmonic single-photon sources emit an unpolarized stream of single photons that demand a subsequent polarizer stage in a practical quantum cryptography system. In this paper, we numerically demonstrated the coupling of the light emitted from a quantum emitter (QE) at 700 nm wavelength to the propagation mode supported by an on-chip hybrid plasmonic waveguide (HPW) polarization rotator. Our results proved that the light emitted is linearly polarized at 0º, 45º/−45º, and 90º with propagation lengths of 5 μm, 3.3 μm, and 3.9 μm, respectively. Moreover, high power-conversion efficiency was obtained from an applied transverse magnetic (TM) mode (0º-polarization) to a transverse electric (TE) (90º-polari

Length of plasma generated by dc gas discharge under different vacuum pressures was studied experimentally. The cylindrical discharge tube of length 2m was evacuated under vacuum pressure range (0.1-0.5) mbar at constant external working dc voltage 1500V. It was found that the plasma length (L) increased exponentially with increasing of background vacuum air pressure. Empirical equation has been obtained between plasma length and gas pressure by using Logistic model of curve fitting. As vacuum pressure increases the plasma length increases due to collisions, ionizations, and diffusions of electrons and ions.

This work studies the impact of input machining parameters of Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) on the machining process performance. Tool steel O1 was selected as the workpiece material, copper as the electrode material, and kerosene as the dielectric medium. Experimental runs have been carried out with a Design of Experiment (DOE) technique. Twenty tests are accomplished with the current range of (18 to 24 Ampere), a pulse duration range of (150 to 200 µs), and a pulse-off time range of (25 to 75 µs). Based upon the experimental study's output results, the EDM parameter's effect (voltage of power supply, discharge current, pulse duration, and pulse pause interval) on the responses of the process represented by sur

This paper presents the study and analysis, analytically and numerical of circular cylindrical shell pipe model, under variable loads, transmit fluid at the high velocity state (fresh water). The analytical analysis depended on the energy observation principle (Hamilton Principle), where divided all energy in the model to three parts , strain energy, kinetic energy and transmitted energy between flow and solid (kinetic to potential energy). Also derive all important equations for this state and approach to final equation of motion, free and force vibration also derived. the relations between the displacement of model function of velocity of flow, length of model, pipe thickness, density of flowed with location coordinate x-axis and angle

This study was conducted to determine the ability of water treatment system (Vortisand) to reduce some chemical and physical properties for tigris river raw water, It consisted of turbidity, electrical conductivity, pH, total hardness, calcium Hardness as well as temperature in order to determine the unit`s efficiency for reducing their concentration as compared to those in the water produced by some classical potable water projects (Dora and Wathba) in Baghdad. Samples were collected during the cold months (December 2016 and January 2017) and during the hot months (May and June 2017). The results showed that this system has the ability to reduce some properties such as turbidity, the values were 215NTU in raw water and decreased to NTU

In this research, the X-ray diffraction pattern was used, which was obtained experimentally after preparation of barium oxide powder. A program was used to analyze the X-ray diffraction lines of barium oxide nanoparticles, and then the particle size was calculated by using the Williamson-Hall method, where it was found that the value of the particle size is 25.356 nm. Also, the dislocation density was calculated, which is equal to1.555 x1015 (lines/nm2), and the value of the unit cell number was also calculated, as it is equal to 23831.