Urotensin-II (UII), a pluripotent vasoactive cyclic peptide, exhibits the progression of cardiovascular diseases and the glucose metabolic disorder of insulin resistance. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is entirely associated with insulin resistance. This study aimed to demonstrate the association of UII with insulin resistance in diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. A total of 73 male and female subjects aged 40-60 years were recruited in this case-control study. They included 35 non- diabetic subjects with a body mass index of (BMI) ≤ 25 and 38 patients with Diabetes Mellitus and BMI ≥ 25. UII levels were assessed beside other vasoactive and clinical parameters.     The results re

The problem of non-Darcian-Bènard double diffusive magneto-Marangoni convection   is considered in a horizontal infinite two layer system. The system consists of a two-component fluid layer placed above a porous layer, saturated with the same fluid with a constant heat sources/sink in both the layers, in the presence of a vertical magnetic field.   The lower porous layer is bounded by rigid boundary, while the upper boundary of the fluid region is free with the presence of Marangoni effects.  The system of ordinary differential equations obtained after normal mode analysis is solved in a closed form for the eigenvalue and the Thermal Marangoni Number (TMN) for two cases of Thermal Boundary Combinations (TBC); th

Several adipokines are produced and secreted from adipose tissue, such as retinol binding protein-4, which triggers metabolic syndromes and insulin resistance. Retinol binding protein-4 transfers vitamin A or retinol in the blood. Higher levels of retinol binding protein-4 are interrelated with progress of metabolic disease, comprising obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The present study investigates the role of retinol-binding protein-4 levels in type 2 diabetic Iraqi patients with metabolic syndrome. Sixty type 2 diabetic patients aged 40–53 years were examined. Of these 30 patients has metabolic syndrome and 30 without metabolic syndrome. The patients sampled were from the National Diabetes Center/ Mustansiriyah

Concrete structures are exposed to aggressive environmental conditions that lead to corrosion of the embedded reinforcement and pre-stressing steel. Consequently, the safety of concrete structures may be compromised, and this requires a significant budgets to repair and maintain critical infrastructure. Prediction of structural safety can lead to significant reductions in maintenance costs by maximizing the impact of investments. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework to assess the reliability of existing post-tensioned concrete bridges. A time-dependent reliability analysis of an existing post-tensioned involving the assessment of Ynys-y-Gwas bridge has been presented in this study. The main cause of failure of this bridge was c

Moringa oleifera Lam. tree has often been considered a medicinal and economical plant for its nutritional and medicinal properties. This study is intended to use plant tissue culture and elicitation technologies to increase secondary metabolites in the callus cultures of the M. oleifera. Young nodal segments were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different concentrations of plant growth regulators (PGRs). A combination of 1.5 mg/l NAA plus 0.5 mg/l TDZ resulted in a high callusing rate (70%) with the largest size. Various concentrations of Salicylic acid (SA) and Methyl jasmonate (MeJa) were individually added to the growth medium to evaluate their impact on the biomass of callus cul

Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death among type 2 diabetic patients. Higher levels of plasminogen activator urokinase receptor have been found to predict morbidity and mortality across acute and chronic diseases in the common populace. This study aims to explore the role of serum plasminogen activator urokinase receptor levels as a cardiometabolic risk factor among type 2 diabetic Iraqi patients. Methods: Seventy type 2 diabetic patients (40 male and 30 female) (mean age: 46.20±7.56 years) participated in this study; 35 patients were with cardiovascular disease and 35 were without cardiovascular disease; their ages range was 40-55 years. In addition, 30 individuals who apparently healthy were selected a

Despite extensive investigations, an effective treatment for sepsis remains elusive and a better understanding of the inflammatory response to infection is required to identify potential new targets for therapy. In this study we have used RNAi technology to show, for the first time, that the inducible lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 2 (LPCAT2) plays a key role in macrophage inflammatory gene expression in response to stimulation with bacterial ligands. Using siRNA- or shRNA-mediated knockdown, we demonstrate that, in contrast to the constitutive LPCAT1, LPCAT2 is required for macrophage cytokine gene expression and release in response to TLR4 and TLR2 ligand stimulation but not for TLR-independent stimuli. In addition, cells transfe