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.
The oil and gas industry relies heavily on IT innovations to manage business processes, but the exponential generation of data has led to concerns about processing big data, generating valuable insights, and making timely decisions. Many companies have adopted Big Data Analytics (BDA) solutions to address these challenges. However, determining the adoption of BDA solutions requires a thorough understanding of the contextual factors influencing these decisions. This research explores these factors using a new Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework, presenting technological, organisational, and environmental factors. The study used a Delphi research method and seven heterogeneous panelists from an Oman oil and gas company
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يجمع المختصون أن ليس من نقد إلا وكان مُرحِّلا لنظرية لسانية إلى فضائه، فكان أثر اللسانيات السوسيرية، ومن ثم اللسانيات التوليدية التحويلية معروفا، ولم يكن هذا الأثر محدودا باللسانيين أو نقاد الأدب فحسب، بل امتد إلى الشعراء والجماليين أيضا. وفي هذا البحث سنتوقف عند أثر اللسانيات الوظيفية، وهو ما لم يتوقف عنده إلا قلة من المختصين. ولن نقف عند نقد الوظيفيين للشعر، بل سنقف عند نقدهم للرواية، بقراءة
... Show MoreThis study examined the imperative construction: the command, the interrogative, the prohibition, the call, and the wish. In the Diwan of Al-Shamakh bin Dirar; where the poetic verses were monitored in each of the topics of the student's creation, and the rhetorical meanings that he came out with. What is new in this study is that it is the first to study the demanded composition in the poetry of a glorious poet, Al-Shammakh bin Dirar Al-Dhubyani. As his poetry did not receive such a study, it sought to employ what was written by rhetoric scholars, in an attempt to explore the demanded composition in the poetry of Al-Shamakh. The study adopted the descriptive analytical approach, which is based on counting the number of times the poet us
... Show MoreMicrobial fuel cell is a device that uses the microorganism metabolism for the production of electricity under specific operating conditions. Double chamber microbial fuel cell was tested for the use of two cheap electrode materials copper and aluminum for the production of electricity under different operating conditions. The investigated conditions were concentration of microorganism (yeast) (0.5- 2 g/l), solutions temperature (33-45 oC) and concentration of glucose as a substrate (1.5- 6 g/l). The results demonstrated that copper electrode exhibit good performance while the performance of aluminum is poor. The electricity is generated with and without the addition of substrate. Addition of glucose substrate
... Show More Thsst researcher problem of delays faced by researchers are all waiting to evaluate their standards by the experts who must take their views to extract the truth Virtual important step first step in building standards whatsoever, then the difference of opinion among experts about the paragraphs Whatever the scope of their functions, leading to confusion in maintaining these paragraphs or delete? Or ignore the views and opinion of the researcher to maintain the same? Or as agreed upon with the supervisor if he was a student? Especially if the concepts of a modern new building.
Therefore, the researcher sought to try to find a solution to her problem to conduct an experiment to test building steps
Abstract
The pressures of life have become a tangible phenomenon in all societies in varying degrees. This disparity determines several factors, including the nature of societies, the level of their urbanization, the intensity of interaction, the intensity of conflict, and the increasing rate of change in those societies. many people name The modern era in which we live the “era of pressures", where one of the most important of these changes is the “new Coronavirus 19-COVID”, which has spread widely throughout the world, as the pandemic, has affected all aspects of daily life, including the educational and academic process, academic activities have been suspended in universities, which caused sudden change
... Show MoreComputations of the relative permeability curves were made through their representation by two functions for wetting and nonwetting phases. Each function contains one parameter that controls the shape of the relative permeability curves. The values of these parameters are chosen to minimize an objective function, that is represented as a weighted sum of the squared differences between experimentally measured data and the corresponding data calculated by a mathematical model simulating the experiment. These data comprise the pressure drop across core samples and the recovery response of the displacing phase. Two mathematical models are constructed in this study to simulate incompressible, one-dimensional, two-phase flow. The first model d
... Show MoreThe paper presents an annotated checklist of the Salticidae of Armenia. This study was carried out in 2019-2020 in order to provide an inventory of the Salticidae fauna. Thirteen species are reported for the Armenian fauna for the first time: Afraflacilla epiblemoides (Chyzer, 1891); Aelurillus v-insignitus (Clerck, 1757); Asianellus festivus (C. L. Koch, 1834); Heliophanus dubius C. L. Koch, 1835; Heliophanus kochii Simon, 1868; Heliophanus tribulosus Simon, 1868; Heliophanus curvidens (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872); Macaroeris nidicolens (Walckenaer, 1802); Pellenes diagonalis (Simon, 1868); Pellenes geniculatus (Simon, 1868); Pellenes seriatus (Thorell, 1875); Pellenes tripunctatus (Walckenaer, 1802) and Phlegra fasciata (Hahn, 1826).
... Show MoreThree-dimensional (3D) reconstruction from images is a most beneficial method of object regeneration by using a photo-realistic way that can be used in many fields. For industrial fields, it can be used to visualize the cracks within alloys or walls. In medical fields, it has been used as 3D scanner to reconstruct some human organs such as internal nose for plastic surgery or to reconstruct ear canal for fabricating a hearing aid device, and others. These applications need high accuracy details and measurement that represent the main issue which should be taken in consideration, also the other issues are cost, movability, and ease of use which should be taken into consideration. This work has presented an approach for design and construc
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