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.
Research problem:
Problem of current research can determine the dimensions to answer the following question: The effect of teaching using the six thinking hats on academic achievement for students in the second grade average in the subject of Family Education. The importance of research: research is gaining importance in terms of:
1. That this research is the first of its kind in the researcher's knowledge _ which deals with the teaching of Family Education by using the six hats, the researcher hopes to fill a gap in the educational field and serve in other studies serve the materials home economics. 2. Keep pace with the new field of modern education and strategies. 3. Highlight on the educational strategy in the field of creative
The performance analyses of 15 kWp (kW peak) Grid -Tied solar PV system (that considered first of its type) implemented at the Training and Energy Research Center Subsidiary of Iraqi Ministry of Electricity in Baghdad city has been achieved. The system consists of 72 modules arranged in 6 strings were each string contains 12 modules connected in series to increase the voltage output while these strings connected in parallel to increase the current output. According to the observed duration, the reference daily yields, array daily yields and final daily yields of this system were (5.9, 4.56, 4.4) kWh/kWp/day respectively. The energy yield was 1585 kWh/kWp/year while the annual total solar irradiation received by solar array system was 198
... Show MoreThe availability of different processing levels for satellite images makes it important to measure their suitability for classification tasks. This study investigates the impact of the Landsat data processing level on the accuracy of land cover classification using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. The classification accuracy values of Landsat 8 (LS8) and Landsat 9 (LS9) data at different processing levels vary notably. For LS9, Collection 2 Level 2 (C2L2) achieved the highest accuracy of (86.55%) with the polynomial kernel of the SVM classifier, surpassing the Fast Line-of-Sight Atmospheric Analysis of Spectral Hypercubes (FLAASH) at (85.31%) and Collection 2 Level 1 (C2L1) at (84.93%). The LS8 data exhibits similar behavior. Conv
... Show MoreThe political struggle being waged by Muslims today is one of the most important issues that have preoccupied the Arab and international media, and the failures that have afflicted Muslims in our contemporary world have negatively affected the younger generations and led them, and with the influence of anti-Islam media, to rely on accusing Islam as a religion with all the negative in Islamic and Arab society . So secularism took its role in spreading these concepts by deviating from its course from the concept of science to the concept of (the religion).
From here the calls for reform rose to return the Muslims to the incubator of Islam, so people turned around them, but they turned into competing Islamic polit
Economic performance is one of the most important indicators of economic activity and with the performance of the economy progress varied sources of output and increase economic growth rates and per capita national income, and to recover the business environment and increase investment rates and rising effectiveness of the financial and monetary institutions and credit market. Which leads to increased employment rates and reducing unemployment rates and the elimination of many of the social problems and improve the average per capita income as well as improve the level of national income.
The input / output tables is a technique mathematical indicates economic performance
... Show MoreTo identify the fungi associated with water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes [Mart.] Solms), an aquatic weed, which presents in Tigris river from Baghdad south ward. Five regions from middle and south of Iraq (Al-Noumanya, Saeid Bin-Jubier, Al-Azizia, Al-Reyfay and Al-Hay) were selected for this study. Twelve fungal species were isolated. Alternaria alternata, Acremonium sp and Cladsporium herbarum, were the most frequently species (91.66 % ,50 % and 25 %) respectively. The fungi Alternaria alternata, Acremonium sp. and Phoma eupyrena were more aggressive to water hyacinth as (91.66%,83,33%, and 75%) in pathogenicity test.
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and remains one of the main reasons of cancer-related mortality in women worldwide. KRAS variant rs61764370 (T>G) is associated with an increased risk of occurrence of many cancers, Here The case-control study was accomplished on 135 women including 45 women with breast cancer patients, 45 women with benign breast lesions and 45 healthy women to analyze the association of KRAS variant rs (61764370 T>G) with breast cancer. LCS 6 variant in KRAS gene was amplified by using specific primers, then genotype was detected after sequencing the PCR products. The results showed that the genotype and allele frequency of TT and GT allele of KRAS
... Show MoreComplexes of Au (III), Pd (II), Pt (IV ) and Rh(III) with S–propynyle-2- thiobenzimidazole (BENZA) have been prepared and characterized by IR and UV- Visible spectral methods in addition to magnetic and conductivity measurements and micro–elemental analysis (CHN).The probable structures of the new complexes have been suggested.