Gene Polymorphism of Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha in a Sample of Iraqi Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients

The study aimed to investigate the association between tumor necrosis factor (TNF gene) alleles and pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in a sample of Iraqi patients, in which a total of 94 patients were investigated, in addition to 80 age, gender and ethnicity matched controls. All subjects were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers (SSP-PCR) method at two positions of TNF gene; -308 and -238 (TNF-308 and TNF-238), which were presented with three genotypes (GG, GA and AA) at both positions. At position -308, a significant (P = 6.9 x 10-5) decreased frequency of GG genotype was observed in PTB patients compared to controls (60.6 vs. 87.5%), and the preventive fraction of such difference was 0.68. In contrast, the genotype GA was significantly (P = 1.3 x 10-4) increased in patients (38.2 vs. 12.5%), and the associated relative risk and etiological fraction were 4.34 and 0.30, respectively. The corresponding TNF-308 alleles (G and A) also showed variations between patients and controls. Allele G was decreased (79.8 vs. 93.8%), while C allele was increased (20.2 vs. 6.2%) in patients, and both differences were significant at a P of 1.5 x 10-4. However, at position -238, neither TNF-238 genotypes nor alleles demonstrated a significant difference between patients and controls. The present results suggest that the GG genotype and G allele of TNF gene at position -306 may be associated with a protection against PTB in Iraqi population. Keywords: Tumor necrosis factor; Gene polymorphism, PCR; Pulmonary tuberculosis

Monitoring and Assessing the Coastal Ecosystem at Hurghada, Red Sea Coast, Egypt

In the framework of the investment plan, the government of Egypt introduced an accelerated development of Hurghada in collaboration with the private sector, as   early as 1980's.  The government intended to construct tourist resort communities, which required establishment of infrastructures. The  demand  of  such  facilities, in absence of enforced environmental roles led owners  to implement  processes  of  landfilling  and  dredging  for the purpose of smoothing, paving and widening the beach in order to construct swimming pools, marinas and other recreational facilities. Such activities came on the expense of the marine ecosystem and especially assault on the coral reef communities. For monitoring and assessing such oppressive activities;  MSS,  TM,  ETM+,  and SPOT XS 4 satellite images acquired  during  1972,  1984,  1992,  2004  and 2011. Shoreline change detection from 1972 to 2011 reveals landfilling of some 7.56Km2 and dredging of 2.67km2, with loss of 5.34km2 of the reef tracts. At the same period, the region has witnessed expansions in urban and road network by 16.47km2 and 8.738km2 respectively. The Egyptian government issued the essential laws for regulating and saving the coastal ecosystem, yet mostly violated. Activation of such laws, applying judicial officers, toughening penalties and establishment of coastal building front line (CBFL), and a reef protection line (RPL) are important tasks especially south of Hurghada to the Egyptian-Sudanese borders to preserve the remnants of such unique coastal ecosystem. Keywords: Satellite images, Hurghada, Red Sea, coastal ecosystem, shoreline changes, urban, road network, environment law

Validation of four automatic devices for self-measurement of blood pressure according to the international protocol of the European Society of Hypertension

Jirar Topouchian1, Davide Agnoletti1, Jacques Blacher1, Ahmed Youssef1, Isabel Ibanez2,3, Jose Khabouth2, Salwa Khawaja2, Layale Beaino2, Roland Asmar1–31Centre de Diagnostic, Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu, Paris, France; 2Hôpital Libanais and Faculté Libanaise de Médecine, Beirut, Lebanon; 3Foundation-Medical Research Institutes, Geneva, SwitzerlandBackground: Four oscillometric devices for self-measurement of blood pressure (SBPM) were evaluated according to the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) international protocol and its 2010 revision in four separate studies. The Omron® M2, Omron M3, and Omron M6 measure blood pressure (BP) at the brachial level, while the Omron R2 measures BP at the wrist level.Methods: The international protocol requires a total number of 33 subjects in which the validation is performed. The Omron M2 and Omron R2 were validated in 2009 according to the ESH international protocol, while the Omron M3 and Omron M6 were validated in 2010–2011 according to the 2010 ESH international protocol revision. The protocol procedures were followed precisely.Results: All four tested devices passed the validation process. The mean differences between the device and mercury readings were 2.7 ± 5.0 and –1.4 ± 3.2 mmHg for systolic and diastolic BP, respectively, using the Omron M2 device, and 1.7 ± 3.2 and –0.9 ± 2.6 mmHg using the Omron M3, 1.6 ± 2.9 and -0.9 ± 2.5 mmHg using the Omron M6, and –1.1 ± 4.8 and –0.9 ± 4.3 mmHg using the Omron R2.Conclusion: Readings from the Omron M2, Omron M3, Omron M6, and Omron R2, differing by less than 5, 10, and 15 mmHg, fulfill the ESH international protocol and its 2010 revision requirements. Therefore, each of these four devices can be used by patients for SBPM.Keywords: Omron R2, M2, M3, M6, blood pressure measurement, validation, international protocol, European Society of Hypertensio

Attitudes and practices of public health academics towards research funding from for-profit organizations: cross-sectional survey.

OBJECTIVES: The growing trend of for-profit organization (FPO)-funded university research is concerning because resultant potential conflicts of interest might lead to biases in methods, results, and interpretation. For public health academic programmes, receiving funds from FPOs whose products have negative health implications may be particularly problematic. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey assessed attitudes and practices of public health academics towards accepting funding from FPOs. The sampling frame included universities in five world regions offering a graduate degree in public health; 166 academics responded. Descriptive, bivariate, and logistic regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Over half of respondents were in favour of accepting funding from FPOs; attitudes differed by world region and gender but not by rank, contract status, % salary offset required, primary identity, or exposure to an ethics course. In the last 5 years, almost 20% of respondents had received funding from a FPO. Sixty per cent of respondents agreed that there was potential for bias in seven aspects of the research process, when funds were from FPOs. CONCLUSIONS: Globally, public health academics should increase dialogue around the potential harms of research and practice funded by FPOs

Using macroscopic information in image segmentation

Post processing “macroscopically” output segmented images obtained from conventional image segmentation (IS) techniques, leads into the concept of Micro-Macro Image Segmentation (MMIS). MMIS pays extra attention to information extracted from relatively large image regions and as a result, overall system segmentation performance improves both subjectively and objectively. The proposed post processing scheme is generic, in the sense that can be used together with any other existing segmentation approach. Thus given an input segmented image, MMIS has the ability to automatically select an appropriate number of regions and classes in a way that helps object oriented visual information to become more apparent in the final segmented output image. Computer simulation results clearly indicate that significant IS performance benefits can be obtained by augmenting conventional IS schemes within an MMIS framework, with or without input images being corrupted by additive Gaussian noise

GENETIC POLYMORPHISMS OF IL-17A IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE RISK OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS IN IRAQI PATIENTS

Objectives: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, TB is the second biggest killer, globally. The aim of this study was to examine the association between IL-17A rs2275913 SNP and pulmonary TB susceptibility in Iraqi population.Methods: From January 2017 to April 2017, 80 pulmonary TB patients were selected as the case group, another 40 healthy control were enrolled as the control group. The genotype frequencies of IL-17A rs2275913 was detected using amplification refractory mutation system.Results: The results of IL-17A serum level demonstrated that there were significant differences (p<0.05) between patients groups. The result showed that A allele have a higher frequency (55% vs. 50%) in TB patients than the control sample with OR value of 1.22 and EF value 0.1 and G have lower frequency (45% vs. 50%) in TB patients than control sample with OR value of 0.82 with PF value of 0.09, but this difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05).Conclusion: There were no significant associations between IL-17A rs2275913 polymorphism and risk of TB in Iraqi population