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.
As cities across the world grow and the mobility of populations increases, there has also been a corresponding increase in the number of vehicles on roads. The result of this has been a proliferation of challenges for authorities with regard to road traffic management. A consequence of this has been congestion of traffic, more accidents, and pollution. Accidents are a still major cause of death, despite the development of sophisticated systems for traffic management and other technologies linked with vehicles. Hence, it is necessary that a common system for accident management is developed. For instance, traffic congestion in most urban areas can be alleviated by the real-time planning of routes. However, the designing of an efficie
... Show MoreAbstract: Persian literature, after the spread of Islam in Pars, received a lot of influence from the subtle and rhetorical details of the Holy Quran. This effect is more in poetry than in prose because the weights of Persian poetry are closer to the melody of the Qur'an and its weights.The effectiveness of most of the prose works is only in the Quranic themes and words. Persian poetry that has benefited from various sciences of rhetoric, including semantics, eloquence and rhetoric. The degree and manner of influence of each of the didactic, lyrical, epic and travelogue literary types is different from the rhetorical points of the Quran. The instructions under educational literature have benefited the least from Quranic rhetoric. The max
... Show MoreIt is very well known in the planning publications that when creating spacing development to a region or sub-region, it can be able to make more than an alternative consisting with the strategic directions overtaken from the actual development of region and the situational and developmental objectives needed. However, the difficulty facing the situational planning is in selecting one of these alternatives to be the best in order to make a balanced situational re-structure, and achieving the economic, social and civil objectives. The developmental situation elements in the regions and governorates, including (Karbala) impose themselves as situational power which implies the process of re-structural arrangement where the situational develo
... Show MoreIn this paper, a random transistor-transistor logic signal generator and a synchronization circuit are designed and implemented in lab-scale measurement device independent–quantum key distribution systems. The random operation of the weak coherent sources and the system’s synchronization signals were tested by a time to digital convertor.
Persuasion is an indispensable skill in everyday life; that is why, it has aroused researchers’ interest. This study aims to investigate the most frequently used persuasive strategies in texting WHO COVID-19 Virtual Press Conferences and explore how these strategies are employed to achieve persuasive messages.To this end, a text of WHO COVID-19 Virtual Press Conferences has been chosen randomly to be analyzed based on Dillard and Shen’s (2013) “Persuasive strategies in Health Campaigns”. A qualitative method has been adopted in analyzing the selected data to investigate the credibility and validity of the persuasive strategies used in such a domain. Findings have shown that most of the persuasive appeals based on the adopted mode
... Show MoreThe CO2-Assisted Gravity Drainage process (GAGD) has been introduced to become one of the mostinfluential process to enhance oil recovery (EOR) methods in both secondary and tertiary recovery through immiscibleand miscible mode. Its advantages came from the ability of this process to provide gravity-stable oil displacement forenhancing oil recovery. Vertical injectors for CO2 gas have been placed at the crest of the pay zone to form a gas capwhich drain the oil towards the horizontal producing oil wells located above the oil-water-contact. The advantage ofhorizontal well is to provide big drainage area and small pressure drawdown due to the long penetration. Manysimulation and physical models of CO2-AGD process have been implemented
... Show MoreThe contemporary development applications on scientific areas of acyclic and cyclic Schiff bases and their complexes.
Rhythm is considered one of the creative concepts in the recent architectural thought; it has emerged clearly as a mean of creating the highest levels of creativity in architecture, especially in contemporary architectural movements. The importance of rhythm has emerged, especially, when the architecture , its beginnings concentrated on the principle of the links with poetic structures. Many architectural studies deal with concept of rhythm in architecture with different ways various according to the trend of each study, this show the importance of studying the concept of rhythm in the architectural field in general. This study try to focus on the utilization of rhythm as creative system in architecture of heritage and contemporary
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