The pancreatic islet: a micro-organ in control

The islets of Langerhans constitute the endocrine pancreas which regulates blood glucose homeostasis and their dysfunction results in diabetes. Each of the pancreatic islets constitutes an entire micro-organ with intricate cell to cell interactions and that is well vascularized and innervated. An important therapeutic advantage in islet transplant is that pancreatic islets maintain their organ integrity when isolated and transplanted to patients with severe diabetes. Once transplanted, the islet micro-organs actively contribute to their own vascularization and start to function immediately. Hence, in terms of organ transplantation, the application of pancreatic islets will be a decisive clinical tool for future diabetes care (credit: Tilo Moede)

Financial Technology and its Role in Achieving Sustainable Development

هدفت هذه الدراسة بشكل أساسي الى ايضاح دور التكنولوجيا المالية كتجربة مالية حديثة في القطاع المصرفي ودورها في تمكين هذا القطاع من تحقيق تنمية اقتصادية واجتماعية من خلال تمكين مختلف الفئات الاجتماعية من اقتناء الخدمات الالكترونية والاستفادة منها في تلبية حاجاتهم، اذ اعتمدت الدراسة على المنهج الوصفي التحليلي في دراسة الجوانب المجتلفة للتكنولوجيا المالية والتنمية المستدامة واختبار فرضية البحث من خلال عمل استبانة من 22 فقرة وقد تم تحليلها على وفق البرنامج الاحصائي spss  فضلا عن قياس صدق وثبات الاستبانة من خلال اختبار درجة المصداقية بمعامل الفا كرومباخ وذلك لغرض اختبار وقياس درجة المصداقية في الاستجابات الواردة عن أ أسئلة الاستبانه، اذ تكمن مشكلة البحث في بيان دور التكنولوجيا المالية في تحقيق عمليات التنمية المستدامة، والتي على أساسها تم قبول الفرضية البديلة وقد توصل البحث الى ان هناك دور كبير للتكنولوجيا المالية في تحقيق جوانب تنموية اقتصادية واجتماعية مختلفة، كما توصل البحث الى جملة من التوصيات أهمها ان استخدام ابتكارات ومميزات التكنولوجيا المالية في تقديم الخدمات المصرفية يساهم بشكل كبير في تحقيق التنمية الاقتصاديةThis study aimed mainly to clarify the role of financial technology as a modern financial experience in th banking sector and its role in enabling this sector to achieve economic and social development by enabling various social groups to acquire electronic services and benefit from them in meeting their needs, as the study relied on the descriptive analytical approach in Study the various aspects of financial technology and sustainable development and test the research     hypothesis by doing a questionnaire of 29 items, It was analyzed according to the statistical program (spss) as well as measuring the validity and consistency of the questionnaire by testing the degree of reliability in the alpha Krumbach factor, for the purpose of testing and measuring the degree of credibility (reliability) in the responses to the questionnaire, as the research problem lies in explaining the role of financial technology in achieving sustainable development operations, on the basis of which the alternative hypothesis was accepted and the research has concluded that there is a large role for financial technology in Achieving various aspects of economic and social development. The research also reached a number of recommendations, the most important of which is that the use of innovations and features of financial technology in providing banking services contributes significantly to achieving economic developmen

Evaluation of Bituminous Moisture Damage of High Silica Aggregate

Moisture damage (Stripping) in Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) is the loss of adhesive bond between aggregate particles and bitumen due to water action. Most urban roads in Iraq have been exposed to moisture damage failure because of the high silica content in aggregate, this phenomenon led to a decrease in the service life of roads and an increase in maintenance cost. This study used two anti-stripping agents: hydrated lime and Wetfix-BE. Lime was added as a powder to the aggregate in a dosage of 2.0 % of the aggregate weight and Wetfix-BE, a liquid chemical adhesion promoter for hot and warm mix asphalt, was added to asphalt at in dosage of 0.5 % from the total weight of asphalt. The retained Marshall stability, tensile strength ratio, Texas boiling test, and static immersion test are calculated to determine the resistance to moisture damage. The results indicated that both Wetfix-BE and lime could increase Marshall retained stability, tensile strength, and resistance to moisture damage of mixtures, especially at higher condition temperatures. The bitumen modified with Wetfix-BE had better results than bitumen modified with lime for all tests at different temperatures

The Financial Technology (Fintech) and cybersecurity: Evidence from Iraqi banks

In this paper, we investigate the definition of Fintech and measure the extent of the impact of Fintech variables on the Cybersecurity as the dependent variable. The hypotheses developed by the authors which are based on research through the statistical results of the research variables and as all correlation coefficients were a positive relationship and at the level of significance 0.01 which made the authors accept the correlation hypotheses, and for the results of the influence factor between the research variables it also had a positive effect when the level of 0.05 for all sections of the independent variable, as we have also noticed that the influence of the independent variable of financial technology when linked to all of its sections with Cybersecurity. We find the influence of the influence coefficient significantly increased to 0.908, which explains that there is a complementarity between the sections of the independent variable

Clinical intraocular islet transplantation is not a number issue

It is now well established that beta cell replacement through pancreatic islet transplantation results in significant improvement in the quality-of-life of type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients. This is achieved through improved control and prevention of severe drops in blood sugar levels. Islet transplant therapy is on the verge of becoming standard-of-care in the USA. Yet, as with other established transplantation therapies, there remain hurdles to overcome to bring islet transplantation to full fruition as a long-lasting therapy of T1D. One of these hurdles is establishing reliable new sites, other than the liver, where durable efficacy and survival of transplanted islets can be achieved. In this article, we discuss the anterior chamber of the eye as a new site for clinical islet transplantation in the treatment of T1D. We specifically focus on the common conceptions, and preconceptions, on the requirements of islet mass, and whether or not the anterior chamber can accommodate sufficient islets to achieve meaningful efficacy and significant impact on hyperglycemia in clinical application

A Composite Biomarker Signature of Type 1 Diabetes Risk Identified via Augmentation of Parallel Multi-Omics Data from a Small Cohort

Biomarkers of early pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes (T1D) are crucial to enable effective prevention measures in at-risk populations before significant damage occurs to their insulin producing beta-cell mass. We recently introduced the concept of integrated parallel multi-omics and employed a novel data augmentation approach which identified promising candidate biomarkers from a small cohort of high-risk T1D subjects. We now validate selected biomarkers to generate a potential composite signature of T1D risk.Twelve candidate biomarkers, which were identified in the augmented data and selected based on their fold-change relative to healthy controls and cross-reference to proteomics data previously obtained in the expansive TEDDY and DAISY cohorts, were measured in the original samples by ELISA.All 12 biomarkers had established connections with lipid/lipoprotein metabolism, immune function, inflammation, and diabetes, but only 7 were found to be markedly changed in the high-risk subjects compared to the healthy controls: ApoC1 and PON1 were reduced while CETP, CD36, FGFR1, IGHM, PCSK9, SOD1, and VCAM1 were elevated.Results further highlight the promise of our data augmentation approach in unmasking important patterns and pathologically significant features in parallel multi-omics datasets obtained from small sample cohorts to facilitate the identification of promising candidate T1D biomarkers for downstream validation. They also support the potential utility of a composite biomarker signature of T1D risk characterized by the changes in the above markers