The levels of circulating angiogenic and anti-angiogenic factors, namely vascular endothelial growth factor–A (VEGF-A) and soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (sVEGFR-1), have been linked to the development of renal dysfunction due to the proliferation of microvasculature within the kidneys of type 2 diabetic (T2DM) patients. The study aims to scrutinize serum levels of VEGF and sVEGFR-1 in a sample of Iraqi diabetic nephropathy patients to support their reliability as markers for the prediction of nephropathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients as well as to assess the ACE inhibitor’s effect on the levels of these two markers. Method: The ninety participants of this case-control study were split into three groups: thirty-five patients with T2DM and an equal number of patients with DN and the third group involve twenty apparently healthy individuals as the control group. The two diabetic groups have been further divided into four groups according to the ACE inhibitors use. Laboratory measurements involve the glycemic indices, renal function test with serum VEGF-A and sVEGFR-1. Results: the median serum levels of VEGF-A show valuable discrepancies between the three groups (p-value<0.05) but for sVEGFR-1 it doesn’t show a notable difference between the DM and the DN groups only(p-value> 0.05).
Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are integral to Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), enabling real-time communication between vehicles and infrastructure to enhance traffic flow, road safety, and passenger experience. However, the open and dynamic nature of VANETs presents significant privacy and security challenges, including data eavesdropping, message manipulation, and unauthorized access. This study addresses these concerns by leveraging advancements in Fog Computing (FC), which offers lowlatency, distributed data processing near-end devices to enhance the resilience and security of VANET communications. The paper comprehensively analyzes the security frameworks for fog-enabled VANETs, introducing a novel taxonomy that c
... Show MoreMulti-carrier direct sequence code division multiple access (MC-DS-CDMA) has emerged recently as a promising candidate for the next generation broadband mobile networks. Multipath fading channels have a severe effect on the performance of wireless communication systems even those systems that exhibit efficient bandwidth, like orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and MC-DS-CDMA; there is always a need for developments in the realisation of these systems as well as efficient channel estimation and equalisation methods to enable these systems to reach their maximum performance. A novel MC-DS-CDMA transceiver based on the Radon-based OFDM, which was recently proposed as a new technique in the realisation of OFDM systems, will be us
... Show More<p>Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANET) suffer from dynamic network environment and topological instability that caused by high mobility feature and varying vehicles density. Emerging 5G mobile technologies offer new opportunities to design improved VANET architecture for future intelligent transportation system. However, current software defined networking (SDN) based handover schemes face poor handover performance in VANET environment with notable issues in connection establishment and ongoing communication sessions. These poor connectivity and inflexibility challenges appear at high vehicles speed and high data rate services. Therefore, this paper proposes a flexible handover solution for VANET networks by integrating SDN and
... Show MoreUtilizing the modern technologies in agriculture such as subsurface water retention techniques were developed to improve water storage capacities in the root zone depth. Moreover, this technique was maximizing the reduction in irrigation losses and increasing the water use efficiency. In this paper, a polyethylene membrane was installed within the root zone of okra crop through the spring growing season 2017 inside the greenhouse to improve water use efficiency and water productivity of okra crop. The research work was conducted in the field located in the north of Babylon Governorate in Sadat Al Hindiya Township seventy-eight kilometers from Baghdad city. Three treatments plots were used for the comparison using surface
... Show MoreSoil water use and water storage vary by vegetative management practices, and these practices affect land productivity and hydrologic processes. This study investigated the effects of agroforestry buffers (AB), grass buffers (GB), and biofuel crops (BC), relative to row crops (RC) on soil water use for a claypan soil in northern Missouri, USA. The experiment located at the Greenley Memorial Research Center included RC, AB, GB, and BC established in 1991, 1997, 1997, and 2012, respectively. Soil water reflectometer sensors installed at 5‐, 10‐, 20‐, and 40‐cm depths monitored soil water from April to November in 2017 and 2018. Results showed significant differences in weekly volumetric water content (VWC) among treatments for all fou
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