Abstract Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a prevalent chronic microvascular diabetic complication. As inflammation plays a vital role in the development and progress of DN the macrophages migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a proinflammatory multifunctional cytokine approved to play a critical function in inflammatory responses in various pathologic situations like DN. This study aimed To assess serum levels of MIF in a sample of Iraqi diabetic patients with nephropathy supporting its validity as a marker for predicting nephropathy in T2DM patients. In addition, to evaluate the nephroprotective effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in terms of their influence on MIF levels. This is a case-control study involving ninety subjects that have been divided into three groups: twenty apparently healthy control group and seventy patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus divided into two equal groups according to the presence of diabetic nephropathy that has been further divided into two groups according to the use of ACE inhibitors or not. Serum MIF, urea, creatinine, RBS, HbA1c, BMI, eGFR, and urinary albumin to creatinine ratio have been measured for each subject. Serum MIF’s highest levels were observed in the diabetic nephropathy patients (24.9 ng/ml) followed by the diabetics (14. 1 ng/ml) with the lowest level observed in the control group (4.8 ng/ml). There was a significant relation between MIF levels and ACE inhibitors (p-value <0.05) with reduced MIF levels in ACE inhibitors users. The ROC curve showed that MIF has a good performance in disease prediction. These findings support the reliability of MIF as a biomarker for the prediction of diabetic nephropathy and the possible reducing effect of ACE inhibitors on MIF levels.
Value Engineering is an analytical study on projects or services using a specific procedure and a multidisciplinary working group, works for the identification and classification of the project functions; either for a better perfuming of these functions or to lessen the total project cost or the two together. Value Engineering main aim is on finding innovative alternatives, without effecting the basic requirements of the project, its methodology based on the functional balancing between the three elements of production "performance, quality and cost". This methodology based on the "functional analysis", had shown high possibilities in solving any problem facing the production procedure , achieve better investment for available re
... Show MoreIn a world of limited space, the owners are always surrounded by others next to them, and, consequently, there is hardly any activity which the owner may exercise on his land which would not affect the other owners. If he builds a building, that building may block the sun's rays or the air from the buildings next to it and owned by other people. And if he runs a business, the lands adjacent to that business may be overburdened with the accompanying noise or traffic. If oil is prospected in a land, the neighboring lands may be deprived of oil or their owners may be exposed to toxic fumes. Hence the importance of researching the intention of harming others, as it is one of the most important forms of abuse in the use of the right (especially
... Show MoreThe research aims at identify the role of the electronic trading system used in the Iraq stock exchange to promote trading activity for the stocks of listed companies in this market.
To prove the hypothesis of research, it was selected the main trading indicators for the market to be a main field in test the research hypothesis.it was selected as the period of time for (9)years span between the years (2005-2013) because they represent the first two articles of equal time periods represent aperiod that preceded the introduction of electronic trading system while the second represents the period of time that followed
The research found a number of conclusions but the mo
... Show MoreDeception is an inseparable facet of political discourse in attaining strategic political gains though compromising public opinion. However, the employment of discursive deception strategies by the policy-making institutions of think tanks has not received due attention in the literature. The current study aims at exploring how the ideologizing deception strategies are utilized by the conservative American think tank of the Washington Institute to reproduce socio-political realities and re-shape public opinion. To fulfill this task, van Dijk’s (2000) notion of ideological polarization which shows positive self-representation and negative other representation is adopted to conduct a critical discourse analysis of four Arabic texts relea
... Show MoreIn the present work, asphaltenes and resins separated from emulsion samples collected from two Iraqi oil wells, Nafut Kana (Nk) and Basrah were used to study the emulsion stability. The effect of oil resins to asphaltene (R/A) ratio, pH of the aqueous phase, addition of paraffinic solvent (n-heptane), aromatic solvent (toluene), and blend of both (heptol) in various proportions on the stability of emulsions had been investigated. The conditions of experiments were specified as an agitation speed of 1000 rpm for 30 minutes, heating at 50 °C, and water content of 30%. The results showed that as the R/A ratio increases, the emulsion will be unstable and the amount of water separated from emulsion increases. It was noticed that the em
... Show MoreThe present research aims at identifying the impact of S.N.I.P.S strategy on the achievement of fifth grade students in natural geography
For the purpose of verifying the objective of the research, the researcher put the following zero hypothesis: There is no statistically significant difference at the level of (0.05) between the mean score of experimental group who study according to the (S.N.I.P.S) strategy, and the mean score of control group who study according to the traditional method in the achievement test.
In order to verify the validity of this null hypothesis, the researcher adopted the experimental method. Two groups of (60) fifth grade literary students were collecte
... Show MoreFaujasite type NaY zeolite catalyst was prepared from locally available kaolin, then the prepared NaY zeolite have been modified by exchanging of sodium ion with ammonium to produce NH4Y zeolite. NH4Y zeolite was converted to HY zeolite by ion exchanging with oxalic acid. Zinc and nickel promoters have been added to the prepared HY zeolite catalyst, and the effect of these promoters on the catalytic activity of the prepared HY catalyst was studied in fluid catalytic cracking process using light gas oil as a feedstock. The experimental results show that the promoted catalyst gives higher gas oil conversion and gasoline yield than HY zeolite catalyst at the same reaction temperature and WHSV. It was also found that the promoted catalyst gi
... Show MoreBackground: Tobacco smoking and tuberculosis (TB) are two major public health problems; Associations between smoking and tuberculosis including death from tuberculosis have been reported , A reduction in smoking could be expected to have a significant impact on TB incidence and prevalence .
Objectives: to assess the effect of smoking on tuberculosis.
Methods: This study was conducted from June 2011 to June 2012 in 200 patients, adult ( aged 17 years and more), newly diagnosed patients of pulmonary tuberculosis, at the chest and Respiratory Disease Specialized Center in Baghdad. Demographic data, presenting symptoms, data on smoking, and recurrence of disease were compared. Information on smoking status, tobacco smoking was collecte
The performance of photovoltaic (PV) panel having staggered metal foam fins was examined experimentally in Baghdad, Iraq. Three staggered metal foam fin configurations attached to the backside of the PV panel were studied. The measured parameters were front and back surfaces temperature, open voltage and current circuits, maximum power, and PV efficiency. It was noted that the maximum electrical efficiency enhancement was 4.7% for staggered metal foam fins (case III) than the reference PV panel. The operating temperature of the cell was increased when the value of solar intensity was high. Thereby, the electrical efficiency was decreased. It was found that the metal foam fins decreased the PV temperature by 2-3 o
... Show MoreSignificant advancements in nanoscale material efficiency optimization have made it feasible to substantially adjust the thermoelectric transport characteristics of materials. Motivated by the prediction and enhanced understanding of the behavior of two-dimensional (2D) bilayers (BL) of zirconium diselenide (ZrSe2), hafnium diselenide (HfSe2), molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2), and tungsten diselenide (WSe2), we investigated the thermoelectric transport properties using information generated from experimental measurements to provide inputs to work with the functions of these materials and to determine the