Understanding the evolution of the Israel Lobby\u27s influence on U.S. foreign policy

The aim of this project is to observe the evolution of the Israel Lobby. The project looks at specific conflicts in history beginning with the Iraq War of \u2703 in order to present that by this point in history the Israel lobby had already gained ground in American politics. The project then goes back in history to directly contrast this moment of strength by observing the American Jewish community during the Holocaust, the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, the Suez Crisis of 1956, the Six-Day war in 1967, and finally the Yom Kippur war of 1973. The project does not look at the specific causes of the conflicts, but it looks at the role played by the Israel lobby during these events. Because this thesis is very historical, it includes several primary sources as well as interviews in order to support its argument. This thesis is significant because it explores an under discussed subject; the Israel Lobby is constantly observed as the entity that exists today, but scholars overlook its history and the way in which it was able to become this powerful entity. It is necessary to look at the lobby’s history because it enables other lobbies to learn from its experience; in the case of this project, the lobby I am most concerned with is the Arab lobby. Therefore, the Arab lobby can learn from the steps that the Israel lobby has been through in order to build a coalition that has a weighted voice in the American political scene

The Molecular Background Associated with the Progression of Hepatitis C to Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health problem worldwide. The DNA PM of cancer-related genes plays an important role in the development and progression of HCC. The data reported in our studies provide evidence that PM of p73, p14, and O6-MGMT is associated with HCC, whereas PM of the APC gene is more common in chronic hepatitis (CH) cases. Thus, it could be used as a maker for early detection of HCV-induced chronic active hepatitis. A panel of four genes APC, p73, p14, and O6-MGMT independently affected the classification of cases into HCC and CH with accuracy (89.9%), sensitivity (83.9%), and specificity (94.7%). Also, the detection of PM of APC, FHIT, p15, p16, and E-cadherin in peripheral blood of HCV-infected patients is a highly sensitive and specific. Therefore, blood could be used as efficiently as tissue biopsies to assess PM of different genes. This could help in the follow-up of CH patients and early detection of HCC. We did not observe a significant difference in the methylation status according to the virus type HBV versus HCV. So, plasma DNA is a reliable resource for methylation studies in the future, irrespective of the type of hepatitis infection

Arabic Documents classification method a Step towards Efficient Documents Summarization

The massive growth of online information obliged the availability of a thorough research in the domain of automatic text summarization within the Natural Language Processing (NLP) community. To reach this goal, different approaches should be integrated and collaborated. One of these approaches is the classification od documents. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to propose a successful framework for agricultural documents classification as a step forward for a language independent automatic summarization approach. The main target of our serial research is to propose a complete novel framework which not only responses to the question, but also gives the user an opportunity to find additional information that is related to the question. We implemented the proposed method. As a case study, the implemented method is applied on Arabic text in the agriculture field. The implemented approach succeeded in classifying the documents submitted by the user. The approach results have been evaluated using Recall, Precision and F-score measures. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15017

Assessment of health-related quality of life in patients receiving stem cell therapy for end-stage liver disease: an Egyptian study

INTRODUCTION: This prospective cohort study aimed to assess the influence of stem cell therapy (SCT) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) by using the SF-36 v2 and to elucidate the influence of objective clinical variables on subjective HRQOL. METHODS: The study included 100 chronic liver disease patients (50 received SCT, and 50 received supportive medical treatment (SMT)). Both groups completed a modified SF-36 v2 form before therapy and at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month intervals. Fifty healthy Egyptian volunteers were enrolled in the study and completed the SF-36 v2 form once. RESULTS: Both SCT and SMT groups showed significantly lower pretherapy SF 36 v2 scores compared with healthy volunteers. In SCT-treated patients, limited complications were encountered (SF-36 v2 scores showed significant improvement in all domains throughout the follow-up period) compared with the deterioration shown by SMT patients after therapy. A significant association was detected between SF-36 v2 scores and laboratory data in SCT patients during the first month after therapy. The grade of ascites improved during the follow-up in SCT compared with SMT patients. The mean survival time was 277.56 days (95% CI, 246.217 to 308.903) for SMT and 359.300 days (95% CI, 353.022 to 365.578) for SCT patients (log rank, 0.00). Stem cell-treated patients showed no malignancies. CONCLUSIONS: SCT positively affects health-related quality of life in cirrhosis patients. The survival rate was significantly improved after SCT

Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension among Saudi Adult Population: A National Survey

This cross-sectional study aimed at estimating prevalence, awareness, treatment, control, and predictors of hypertension among Saudi adult population. Multistage stratified sampling was used to select 4758 adult participants. Three blood pressure measurements using an automatic sphygmomanometer, sociodemographics, and antihypertensive modalities were obtained. The overall prevalence of hypertension was 25.5%. Only 44.7% of hypertensives were aware, 71.8% of them received pharmacotherapy, and only 37.0% were controlled. Awareness was significantly associated with gender, age, geographical location, occupation, and comorbidity. Applying drug treatment was significantly more among older patients, but control was significantly higher among younger patients and patients with higher level of physical activity. Significant predictors of hypertension included male gender, urbanization, low education, low physical activity, obesity, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia. In conclusion prevalence is high, but awareness, treatment, and control levels are low indicating a need to develop a national program for prevention, early detection, and control of hypertension

Hepatoblastoma survival and the prognostic role of cancer stem cell markers

Purpose: Hepatoblastoma (HB) is an embryonal tumor of the liver that occurs in infants and young children. Complete surgical resection and cisplatin-containing chemotherapy are crucial for cure in HB. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) constitute a newly identified subpopulation, which may differentiate into heterogeneous progenies of malignant cells. The aim of this study was to assess the survival outcome and the prognostic value of CSCs markers (CD133, CD90 and CD44) in a cohort of HB patients from Egypt.Methods: Disease status of 43 HB patients was evaluated at the main checkpoints of therapy and during follow-up. Treatment included surgical tumor resection and systemic chemotherapy (cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and vincristine). Protein and RNA expressions of CD44, CD 90 and CD 133 were assessed by immunohistochemistry and quantitative PCR. Results: The OS for all patients was 58.2 at 4 years. Patients with localized disease stages (I&II) had a better OS than those with advanced stages (III&IV) (81.9% versus 30%, p<0.001). Total surgical resection was superior to incomplete/no resection (83.8% versus 25.2 %; p<0.001). The OS was significantly correlated with tumor response (p<0.001) and each of CD44, CD 90, CD 133 expression (p<0.001) whereas reduced DFS was associated with CD44 and CD133 expression (p<0.001).Conclusion: Localized disease is associated with higher OS than more advanced stages III and IV. Complete surgical resection facilitated with systemic preoperative chemotherapy in initially irresectable cases can improve survival in HB while CSC markers (CD133, 44, and 90) can predict survival and response to treatment in HB patients.-------------------------------------------------------------Cite this article as:Fawzy M, Bahnassy A, El-Wakil M, Abdel-Sayed A.  Hepatoblastoma survival and the prognostic role of cancer stem cell markers. Int J Cancer Ther Oncol 2014; 2(1):02011.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14319/ijcto.0201.

Haematological, lipid profile and other biochemical parameters in normal and hypertensive subjects among the population of the eastern province of Saudi Arabia

Objective: To determine the lipid profile complete blood count and other biochemical parameters in normotensive and hypertensive individuals. Design: Cross-sectional population-based epidemiological household survey. Setting: Population sample of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Results: Hypertensive individuals had significantly higher mean levels of glucose, Tc, LDL-c, HDL-c, triglycerides and HBAIc, compared to normotensive individuals while there were no significant difference in the mean levels of Apo AI and Apo B. Within the same group there were variations in the levels of certain parameters between male and female. While the mean levels of haemoglobin, WBC and platelets were significantly higher in the hypertensive group compared to normotensive, there were no significant differences between these two groups in the levels of RBC, MCV, HCT, MCH and MCHC. However, the mean levels haemoglobin, RBC count and HCT were significantly higher in male compared to female within the same group with no significant difference in levels of WBC, MCV, MCH and MCHC. Furthermore, the mean concentration of platelets was significantly higher in females compared to male within the same group. Hypertensive individuals had significantly higher serum sodium, chloride and calcium levels but a significantly lower potassium level when compared to normotensive with no siginificant differences between male and female within the same group. Conclusion: The lipid and electrolyte profile of hypertensive individuals differ from that of normotensive individuals in this population. This study has contributed towards establishing the normal values for a number of parameters involved in the aetiology of cardiovascular diseases in the population of Eastern province. East African Medical Journal Vol. 83(1) 2006: 44-4

Genetic profile of Egyptian hepatocellular-carcinoma associated with hepatitis C virus Genotype 4 by 15 K cDNA microarray: Preliminary study

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens