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 s

This work aimed to study the effect of laser surface treatment on the mechanical characteristics and corrosion behaviour of grey cast iron type A159. Many technical applications used conventional surface treatment, but laser surface hardening has recently been used to enhance the surface properties of many alloys. The mechanical characteristics, including microstructure, microhardness, and wear resistance of A159 grey cast iron, were studied, in addition to corrosion behaviour. The experimental laser parameters in this work were 0.9, 1.2, and 1.5 KW power with continuous wave carbon dioxide lasers with scanning speeds of 10 and 12 mm/s were used. The results found that phase-transitional alterations in microstructure were influenced by lase

New membrane electrodes for determination of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride were prepared depending on ciprofloxacin hydrochloride - phosphotungstic acid (CFH-PT) as an active material and these electrodes were made with three plasticizers: Di-octylphenylphosphonate(DOPH), Di-butyl phosphate (DBP)Tri-n-butyl phosphate(TBP), in PVC matrix. One of the ciprofloxacin electrodes was gave Nernstian slope equal to 57.21 mV/ decade for DOPH membrane with concentration range from 1.5×10-5 to1.0×10-1 M, and detection limit equal to 1.5×10-6 M .Lifetime was 93 days. Non- Nernstian responses equal to 39.40 and 30.70 mV/ decade for membranes DBP, TBP, respectively. These electrodes were gave concentration range from 1.0× 10-5 to 1.0×10-2 and from 4.0

Objective: Synthesized a series of new thiourea (TU) derivatives, tested their antioxidant activity, and investigated their expected biological activity by theoretical study (computational methods). Methods: The derivatives were made using a one-pot reaction with two steps. Initially, succinyl chloride was mixed with KSCN to make succinyl isothiocyanate. Then, primary and secondary amines were used to make TU derivatives. The theoretical studies were done by Swiss ADME and molecular docking via Genetic Optimization of Linkage Docking (GOLD). Then evaluate antioxidant activity using the DPPH scavenging method. Results: FT-IR, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR spectroscopy show the verification of all the prepared derivatives. Compounds (II), (VIII),

   A new nano-sized NiMo/TiO₂-γ-Al₂O₃ was prepared as a Hydrodesulphurization catalyst for Iraqi gas oil with sulfur content of 8980 ppm, supplied from Al-Dura Refinery. Sol-gel method was used to prepare TiO₂- γ-Al₂O₃ nano catalyst support with 64% TiO_2, 32% Al₂O₃, Ni-Mo/TiO-γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst was prepared under vacuum impregnation conditions to loading metals with percentage 3.8 wt.% and 14 wt.% for nickel and molybdenum respectively while the percentage for alumina, and titanium became 21.7, and 58.61 respectively. The synthesized TiO₂- γ-Al₂O₃ nanocomposites and Ni-Mo /TiO₂

An antibacterial and antifungal piperonal-derived compound and its Rh(III), Pd(II), Pt(IV), and Cd(II) metal complexes were synthesized and characterized by spectroscopic methods, conductivity, metal analyses and magnetic moment measurements. The nature of the complexes formed in ethanolic solution was studied following the molar ratio method. From the spectral studies, octahedral geometry was suggested for rhodium (III) and platinum (IV) complexes, while a square planer structure was suggested for palladium (II) complex and a tetrahedral geometry for cadmium (II) complex. Structural geometries of these compounds were also suggested in gas phase by using hyperchem-8 program for the molecular mechanics and semi-empirical calculations.

In this paper, simulation studies and applications of the New Weibull-Inverse Lomax (NWIL) distribution were presented. In the simulation studies, different sample sizes ranging from 30, 50, 100, 200, 300, to 500 were considered. Also, 1,000 replications were considered for the experiment. NWIL is a fat tail distribution. Higher moments are not easily derived except with some approximations. However, the estimates have higher precisions with low variances. Finally, the usefulness of the NWIL distribution was illustrated by fitting two data  sets