The relationship between ABO/rhesus blood groups and type 2 diabetes mellitus in Maghnia, western Algeria

Background: To determine the relationship between ABO/rhesus (Rh) blood groups and type 2 diabetes mellitus in a western Algerian population.Method: This case-control study was conducted at the Regional Hospital Centre of Maghnia, Tlemcen, from July 2008 to May 2009, involving 280 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 271 healthy controls. Blood samples were collected from the patients after consent had been obtained. The samples were tested for ABO and Rh blood groups, using the Beth-Vincent and Simonin-Michon methods. The allele frequencies were calculated according to the Bernstein formulas. Results: The χ2 test results showed that there was no association between the ABO blood group and type 2 diabetes mellitus. It was also noted that the O blood group was distributed with the highest frequency among diabetic subjects (52.85%). For the Rh system, d allele frequency presence was higher in diabetics than in nondiabetics (0.3778 and 0.3644 respectively). The difference between phenotype frequencies was not significant (p = 0.733). The distribution of ABO/Rh blood groups between gender and ethnic group showed no significant difference (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Our study confirms that there is no association between ABO/Rh blood group and diabetes mellitus in this Algerian population.Keywords: ABO, rhesus, type 2 diabetes, Algeri

The relationship between ABO/rhesus blood groups and type 2 diabetes mellitus in Maghnia, western Algeria

Background: To determine the relationship between ABO/rhesus (Rh) blood groups and type 2 diabetes mellitus in a western Algerian population. Method: This case-control study was conducted at the Regional Hospital Centre of Maghnia, Tlemcen, from July 2008 to May 2009, involving 280 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 271 healthy controls. Blood samples were collected from the patients after consent had been obtained. The samples were tested for ABO and Rh blood groups, using the Beth-Vincent and Simonin-Michon methods. The allele frequencies were calculated according to the Bernstein formulas. Results: The #9672 test results showed that there was no association between the ABO blood group and type 2 diabetes mellitus. It was also noted that the O blood group was distributed with the highest frequency among diabetic subjects (52.85%). For the Rh system, d allele frequency presence was higher in diabetics than in nondiabetics (0.3778 and 0.3644 respectively). The difference between phenotype frequencies was not significant (p = 0.733). The distribution of ABO/Rh blood groups between gender and ethnic group showed no significant difference (p 0.05). Conclusion: Our study confirms that there is no association between ABO/Rh blood group and diabetes mellitus in this Algerian population

A matheuristic based on ant colony system for the combined flexible jobshop scheduling and vehicle routing problem

5 páginasHoy en día, el comportamiento del mercado y la globalización implican que los consumidores finales esperan con gran rapidez la entrega de sus pedidos. Este contexto obliga a las empresas a tener una alta disponibilidad de productos terminados. Por ello, las industrias que conforman las cadenas de suministro se ven obligadas a implementar estrategias para satisfacer esta necesidad del cliente. Una práctica eficiente es la integración de las actividades de producción y transporte. En la literatura, pocos trabajos de investigación integran la programación de las tareas de producción con el enrutamiento de vehículos. Este trabajo busca proponer un enfoque de solución para el problema combinado. La configuración del sistema de producción se define como un taller flexible, mientras que el problema de distribución se modela como un problema de enrutamiento de vehículos. El enfoque propuesto consta de dos partes. En primer lugar, se minimiza el tiempo de producción mediante un algoritmo híbrido basado en un sistema de colonias de hormigas y búsqueda local. Posteriormente, el problema de enrutamiento se resuelve de forma óptima mediante programación matemática para minimizar el tiempo total de viaje. Se adaptan ejemplos de referencia de la literatura para abordar el problema combinado. Los resultados experimentales demuestran la eficiencia y eficacia del algoritmo propuesto

Artesunate induces necrotic cell death in schwannoma cells

Established as a potent anti-malaria medicine, artemisinin-based drugs have been suggested to have anti-tumour activity in some cancers. Although the mechanism is poorly understood, it has been suggested that artemisinin induces apoptotic cell death. Here, we show that the artemisinin analogue artesunate (ART) effectively induces cell death in RT4 schwannoma cells and human primary schwannoma cells. Interestingly, our data indicate for first time that the cell death induced by ART is largely dependent on necroptosis. ART appears to inhibit autophagy, which may also contribute to the cell death. Our data in human schwannoma cells show that ART can be combined with the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine (CQ) to potentiate the cell death. Thus, this study suggests that artemisinin-based drugs may be used in certain tumours where cells are necroptosis competent, and the drugs may act in synergy with apoptosis inducers or autophagy inhibitors to enhance their anti-tumour activity

Tb3+/Yb3+ codoped silica-hafnia glass and glass-ceramic waveguides to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells

In this paper we present the investigation of the energy transfer efficiency between Tb3+ and Yb3+ ions in silica-hafnia waveguides. Cooperative energy transfer between these two ions allows to cut one 488 nm photon in two 980 nm photons and could have important applications in improving the performance of photovoltaic solar cells. Previous works revealed that for a given concentration of donors (Tb3+, increasing the number of acceptors (Yb3+) located near to the Tb3+ ion can increase the Tb-Yb transfer probability. However, when increasing the density of active ions, some detrimental effects due to cross-relaxation mechanisms become relevant. On the basis of this observation the sample doping was chosen keeping constant the molar ratio [Yb]/[Tb] = 4 and the total rare earths contents were [Tb + Yb]/[Si + Hf] = 5%, 7%, 9%. The choice of the matrix is another crucial point to obtain an efficient down conversion processes with rare earth ions. To this respect a 70SiO(2)-30HfO(2) waveguide composition was chosen. The comparison between the glass and the glass-ceramic structures demonstrated that the latter is more efficient since it combines the good optical properties of glasses with the optimal spectroscopic properties of crystals activated by luminescent species. A maximum transfer efficiency of 55% was found for the highest rare earth doping concentration

miR-24 is elevated in ulcerative colitis patients and regulates intestinal epithelial barrier function

Inflammatory bowel disease is characterized by high levels of inflammation and loss of barrier integrity in the colon. The intestinal barrier is a dynamic network of proteins that encircle intestinal epithelial cells. miRNAs regulate protein-coding genes. In this study, miR-24 was found to be elevated in colonic biopsies and blood samples from ulcerative colitis (UC) patients compared with healthy controls. In the colon of UC patients, miR-24 is localized to intestinal epithelial cells, which prompted an investigation of intestinal epithelial barrier function. Two intestinal epithelial cell lines were used to study the effect of miR-24 overexpression on barrier integrity. Overexpression of miR-24 in both cell lines led to diminished transepithelial electrical resistance and increased dextran flux, suggesting an effect on barrier integrity. Overexpression of miR-24 did not induce apoptosis or affect cell proliferation, suggesting that the effect of miR-24 on barrier function was due to an effect on cell–cell junctions. Although the tight junctions in cells overexpressing miR-24 appeared normal, miR-24 overexpression led to a decrease in the tight junction–associated protein cingulin. Loss of cingulin compromised barrier formation; cingulin levels negatively correlated with disease severity in UC patients. Together, these data suggest that miR-24 is a significant regulator of intestinal barrier that may be important in the pathogenesis of UC

Rare predicted loss-of-function variants of type I IFN immunity genes are associated with life-threatening COVID-19

Background: We previously reported that impaired type I IFN activity, due to inborn errors of TLR3- and TLR7-dependent type I interferon (IFN) immunity or to autoantibodies against type I IFN, account for 15–20% of cases of life-threatening COVID-19 in unvaccinated patients. Therefore, the determinants of life-threatening COVID-19 remain to be identified in ~ 80% of cases. Methods: We report here a genome-wide rare variant burden association analysis in 3269 unvaccinated patients with life-threatening COVID-19, and 1373 unvaccinated SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals without pneumonia. Among the 928 patients tested for autoantibodies against type I IFN, a quarter (234) were positive and were excluded. Results: No gene reached genome-wide significance. Under a recessive model, the most significant gene with at-risk variants was TLR7, with an OR of 27.68 (95%CI 1.5–528.7, P = 1.1 × 10−4) for biochemically loss-of-function (bLOF) variants. We replicated the enrichment in rare predicted LOF (pLOF) variants at 13 influenza susceptibility loci involved in TLR3-dependent type I IFN immunity (OR = 3.70[95%CI 1.3–8.2], P = 2.1 × 10−4). This enrichment was further strengthened by (1) adding the recently reported TYK2 and TLR7 COVID-19 loci, particularly under a recessive model (OR = 19.65[95%CI 2.1–2635.4], P = 3.4 × 10−3), and (2) considering as pLOF branchpoint variants with potentially strong impacts on splicing among the 15 loci (OR = 4.40[9%CI 2.3–8.4], P = 7.7 × 10−8). Finally, the patients with pLOF/bLOF variants at these 15 loci were significantly younger (mean age [SD] = 43.3 [20.3] years) than the other patients (56.0 [17.3] years; P = 1.68 × 10−5). Conclusions: Rare variants of TLR3- and TLR7-dependent type I IFN immunity genes can underlie life-threatening COVID-19, particularly with recessive inheritance, in patients under 60 years old