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

Impact of buildings in Iraq and other countries on the environment is obvious; this problem began to take scientific and humanitarian dimensions in order to reduce and eliminate this problem. This impact can be seen through the energy, water and raw materials consumed for the establishment, operation and maintenance of these buildings, as well as the emissions of hazardous gases and generations of solid wastes.

This work was conducted to assess the current maintenance managerial practice for the governmental buildings to stand on the main obstacle and extrapolation of measures by means of interviews with experts to determine the effective factors and closed questionnaire to state the features and the need for new

Climate change causes water shortage (water scarcity) in addition to the dams built by neighboring countries, which caused a lack of Iraq's water share. Therefore, evaluating the irrigation system requires considering its suitability, adequacy, and efficiency. Irrigation is considered adequate when it maintains water availability within the root zone, and if the amount to be added is determined, irrigation efficiency becomes possible by avoiding water loss. Babil Governorate is considered one of the agricultural governorates in the country that depends on its irrigation from Shatt Al-Hilla. The study area is the Elaj project. Three fields were selected for the project (B₁, B_2, and B₃). These fields are lo

This research examines the factors which influence pedestrian's walking speed in Baghdad. the variations in walking speed of pedestrians are related to pedestrian characteristics such as gender, age group, and clothing traditions. Using the established methodology, the counts of pedestrians were performed using manual and video counting. The case study was performed in two streets located in a highly crowded commercial zone at the city center of Baghdad: Al-Karada Dakhel and Al- Sina’a Street. Data were subjected to statistical analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics 19 software. It has been found that Iraqi pedestrians walk slower than other pedestrians in the developed countries or in the region with minimum walking speed of 29.85 m/min.

Mineral filler is one of important  materials and affecting on properties and quality of asphalt mixtures .There are different types of mineral filler depended on cost and quality , the matter encourages us to achieve this study to evaluate hydrated lime filler effects on properties of asphalt mixes related with strength and durability. Conventional asphaltic concrete mixtures with Portland cement and soft sandstone fillers and mixtures modified with hydrated lime were evaluated for their fundamental engineering properties as defined by Marshall properties , index of retained strength , indirect tensile strength , permanent deformation characteristics , and fatigue resistance .A typical dense graded mixture employed in construction

         Many trials were made to prepare Tinidazole 2% as bioadhesive vaginal gels using different gel bases including hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (3 and 4% w/w), methylcellulose (3 and 4%w/w) and    carboxymethylcellulose (2 and 3% w/w) .Swelling index of the polymers,pH , viscosity , bioadhesive force , and in-vitro drug release to the simulating vaginal fluid (S.V.F.) were investigated for all the prepared bioadhesive gels . The mechanism of drug release from the gel bases was also investigated.

The results revealed that C MC 3% gave the highest viscosity and bioadhesive strength with the lowest release rate while lowest viscosity and bioadhesive force

Urinary tract infection is a bacterial infection that often affects the bladder and thus the urinary system. E. coli is one of the leading uropathogenic bacteria that cause urinary tract infections. Uropathogenic E. coli is highly effective and successful in causing urinary tract infections through biofilm formation and urothelial cell invasion mechanisms. Other organisms that cause urinary tract infections include members of the Enterobacteriaceae family, streptococci and staphylococci species and perch. In addition, K.penumoniae is another important gram-negative bacterium that causes urinary tract infections. With the PCR technique, unseen bacterial species can be detected using standard clinical microbiology methods. In this study, the

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory chronic disease with an autoimmune pathogenesis. To determine the role of Helicobacter pylori as a trigger agent, twenty five patients with rheumatoid arthritis of ages (15-47) years have been investigated and compared with twenty healthy individuals. All the studied groups were carried out to measure the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) IgM, anti-CCP antibody IgG and IgA by ELISA test and by measured anti-IgG antibody level of H. pylori by using ELISA and IFAT techniques. The present study showed significant differences (P< 0.05) of anti-H. Pylori in sera of RA patients than control group, this lead to suggest that H. pylori had a role in pathogenesis of RA.

Investigating the heavy metals in soil is important to the life of humans and living organisms. Diyala River Lower Reaches was chosen due to the changes in environmental characteristics that took place in recent years. Twelve sediment samples were collected from four different sites. The physical, and chemical properties and the concentrations of nine heavy metals were indicated. The results showed that the average concentrations of arsenic, copper, chromium, cobalt, iron, manganese, nickel, lead, and zinc are 8.5, 45.7, 538.5, 12.2, 5.07, 991.7, 183.5, 16.07, 136.5 ppm, respectively. They reflect contamination with arsenic, chromium, and nickel, while they are free of lead, and zinc contamination, according to the Environmental Pro