Vitamin D Status and Anthropometric Indices of an Omani Study Population

Objectives: Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations reflect vitamin D status, with deficiency implicated as causative of many diseases. This study assessed vitamin D status and anthropometric indices in a sample of healthy Omanis. Methods: Serum 25(OH)D concentrations were measured by high performance liquid chromatography in 206 healthy Omanis, aged 18–55 years (mean age: men 31.1, women 26.8) in Muscat, Oman. Of this number, 95% indicated that they had never taken vitamin D supplements. Findings were compared with published values for populations domiciled in more northerly latitudes. Classical procedures were used to determine global obesity (body mass index [BMI]), and central obesity determined by waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and waist-to-height ratio. Results: Women, as compared to men, had markedly lower concentrations of 25(OH)D. Applying the cut-off point of serum 25(OH)D levels at 50 nmol/L, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the study population was 87.5%; this was higher than the rates reported for the British, and European-, Hispanic-, and African-Americans. At a BMI cut-point of ≥30 kg/m2, the prevalence of obesity was 14.6%; this was lower than the rates reported for European-, Hispanic-, and African-Americans. Levels of 25(OH) D increased relative to age and obesity. WHR was the main predictor of 25(OH)D levels. Conclusion: The striking vitamin D deficiency seen in the study population, relative to more northerly populations, may be linked to sun avoidance, inadequate dietary vitamin D, and virtual non-intake of supplemental vitamin D. Age and male-gender determined the status of vitamin D and of obesity

Assessing the Application of Coagulation and Flocculation Process in the Physical Treatment of Zoshk Shandiz River Water

Water has long been a debate about human attention. This colorless liquid is one of the purest materials available on Earth and yet the most complex hosting solution. Thus, more attention from industry, national government and all elements of each country will draw. Increasing pollution and the subsequent decline in water quality, the need for proper management of these resources is essential for a variety of uses. River zoshk- shandiz one of the most important river in the west of the city of Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi province is permanent Check the water quality of the river since the river water for agricultural purposes in gardens and farms along the way and some of it is used for storage and for use in gardens in the city of Mashhad band golestan used is important. In this study, coagulation, flocculation using a two-coagulant (lime and alum) to improve the parameters of the jar test apparatus was used for river pollution zoshk shandiz. Among the coagulant substance of lime and alum, lime coagulants best material was selected because the TSS and turbidity coagulant substance other than to tend to bring down. The amount of lime added to the water in grams per liter of water River zoshk-shandiz in the range of 0/4 grams per liter will show the best results

Epidemiology and Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma in North-East of Iran

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer, is a life-threatening disease worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiology and clinical features of HCC patients who referred to Omid hospital in Mashhad, northeast of Iran.Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional retrospective study, we reviewed the medical records of patients who referred to Omid hospital – a cancer research center– in Mashhad during 1991 to 2012. Medical records of 29 patients with primary liver cancer proven with biopsy, CT scan or MRI were analyzed in this study.Results: Of 25 eligible cases, 68% were men and the rest were women. The majority of HCC patients were in the 60-69 age group. Also, 44% of patients were found to be hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) positive.Conclusion: The age distribution and male preponderance of HCC patients observed in the present study in line with other conducted studies in Iran and other countries. Since this is a retrospective study, a comprehensive study with a larger sample size in a case-control study is needed to establish other HCC-related factors in our province

A comparison and analysis of the Twitter discourse related to weight loss and fitness

More than 30 of the world population is concerned with the problem of overweight. Social media can play a role in human health by offering them correct food patterns and increasing their awareness about different features of appropriate food and diet. Several researches have been carried out on context analysis of social network messages, but there is a paucity of literature on analysis of feelings in tweets and their different geographical locations. This study aims at understanding tweets stated on the amount of reception shown by people in the course of weight loss in a period of 1 month. This study uses cross-sectional and descriptive method to analyze over 2,684,858 of tweets quantitatively. It also compares the emotional aspects present in the tweets. Users, who are active in this domain, are classified into six classes. An investigation and comparison of the number of activities with relation to weight loss has been carried out by searching users� geographical information of social networks in different continents. English tweets have been chosen because of the generality of the English language. After reviewing the previous literature and the results of the analysis on these tweets, using the MALLET software, six classifications were considered for the tweets. The results show that there is a meaningful relation among the extracted parameters in the research. © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature

Identification and characterisation of novel SNP markers in Atlantic cod: Evidence for directional selection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Atlantic cod (<it>Gadus morhua</it>) is a groundfish of great economic value in fisheries and an emerging species in aquaculture. Genetic markers are needed to identify wild stocks in order to ensure sustainable management, and for marker-assisted selection and pedigree determination in aquaculture. Here, we report on the development and evaluation of a large number of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers from the alignment of Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) sequences in Atlantic cod. We also present basic population parameters of the SNPs in samples of North-East Arctic cod and Norwegian coastal cod obtained from three different localities, and test for SNPs that may have been targeted by natural selection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 17,056 EST sequences were used to find 724 putative SNPs, from which 318 segregating SNPs were isolated. The SNPs were tested on Atlantic cod from four different sites, comprising both North-East Arctic cod (NEAC) and Norwegian coastal cod (NCC). The average heterozygosity of the SNPs was 0.25 and the average minor allele frequency was 0.18. <it>F</it>_{<it>ST </it>}values were highly variable, with the majority of SNPs displaying very little differentiation while others had <it>F</it>_{<it>ST </it>}values as high as 0.83. The <it>F</it>_{<it>ST </it>}values of 29 SNPs were found to be larger than expected under a strictly neutral model, suggesting that these loci are, or have been, influenced by natural selection. For the majority of these outlier SNPs, allele frequencies in a northern sample of NCC were intermediate between allele frequencies in a southern sample of NCC and a sample of NEAC, indicating a cline in allele frequencies similar to that found at the Pantophysin I locus.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The SNP markers presented here are powerful tools for future genetics work related to management and aquaculture. In particular, some SNPs exhibiting high levels of population divergence have potential to significantly enhance studies on the population structure of Atlantic cod.</p

Timing Is Critical for Effective Glucocorticoid Receptor Mediated Repression of the cAMP-Induced CRH Gene

Glucocorticoid negative feedback of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis is mediated in part by direct repression of gene transcription in glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expressing cells. We have investigated the cross talk between the two main signaling pathways involved in activation and repression of corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) mRNA expression: cyclic AMP (cAMP) and GR. We report that in the At-T20 cell-line the glucocorticoid-mediated repression of the cAMP-induced human CRH proximal promoter activity depends on the relative timing of activation of both signaling pathways. Activation of the GR prior to or in conjunction with cAMP signaling results in an effective repression of the cAMP-induced transcription of the CRH gene. In contrast, activation of the GR 10 minutes after onset of cAMP treatment, results in a significant loss of GR-mediated repression. In addition, translocation of ligand-activated GR to the nucleus was found as early as 10 minutes after glucocorticoid treatment. Interestingly, while both signaling cascades counteract each other on the CRH proximal promoter, they synergize on a synthetic promoter containing ‘positive’ response elements. Since the order of activation of both signaling pathways may vary considerably in vivo, we conclude that a critical time-window exists for effective repression of the CRH gene by glucocorticoids

The dopamine D1 receptor is expressed and induces CREB phosphorylation and MUC5AC expression in human airway epithelium

Background Dopamine receptors comprise two subgroups, Gs protein-coupled “D1-like” receptors (D1, D5) and Gi-coupled “D2-like” receptors (D2, D3, D4). In airways, both dopamine D1 and D2 receptors are expressed on airway smooth muscle and regulate airway smooth muscle force. However, functional expression of the dopamine D1 receptor has never been identified on airway epithelium. Activation of Gs-coupled receptors stimulate adenylyl cyclase leading to cyclic AMP (cAMP) production, which is known to induce mucus overproduction through the cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) in airway epithelial cells. We questioned whether the dopamine D1 receptor is expressed on airway epithelium, and whether it promotes CREB phosphorylation and MUC5AC expression. Methods We evaluated the protein expression of the dopamine D1 receptor on native human airway epithelium and three sources of cultured human airway epithelial cells including primary cultured airway epithelial cells, the bronchial epithelial cell line (16HBE14o-), and the pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma cell line (NCI-H292) using immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting. To characterize the stimulation of cAMP through the dopamine D1 receptor, 16HBE14o- cells and NCI-H292 cells were treated with dopamine or the dopamine D1 receptor agonists (SKF38393 or A68930) before cAMP measurements. The phosphorylation of CREB by A68930 in both 16HBE14o- and NCI-H292 cells was measured by immunoblot. The effect of dopamine or A68930 on the expression of MUC5AC mRNA and protein in NCI-H292 cells was evaluated by real-time PCR and immunofluorescence staining, respectively. Results The dopamine D1 receptor protein was detected in native human airway epithelium and three sources of cultured human airway epithelial cells. Dopamine or the dopamine D1-like receptor agonists stimulated cAMP production in 16HBE14o- cells and NCI-H292 cells, which was reversed by the selective dopamine D1-like receptor antagonists (SCH23390 or SCH39166). A68930 significantly increased phosphorylation of CREB in both 16HBE14o- and NCI-H292 cells, which was attenuated by the inhibitors of PKA (H89) and MEK (U0126). Expression of MUC5AC mRNA and protein were also increased by either dopamine or A68930 in NCI-H292 cells. Conclusions These results suggest that the activation of the dopamine D1 receptor on human airway epithelium could induce mucus overproduction, which could worsen airway obstructive symptoms

MASP-1 Induces a Unique Cytokine Pattern in Endothelial Cells: A Novel Link between Complement System and Neutrophil Granulocytes

Microbial infection urges prompt intervention by the immune system. The complement cascade and neutrophil granulocytes are the predominant contributors to this immediate anti-microbial action. We have previously shown that mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-1 (MASP-1), the most abundant enzyme of the complement lectin pathway, can induce p38-MAPK activation, NFkappaB signaling, and Ca(2+)-mobilization in endothelial cells. Since neutrophil chemotaxis and transmigration depends on endothelial cell activation, we aimed to explore whether recombinant MASP-1 (rMASP-1) is able to induce cytokine production and subsequent neutrophil chemotaxis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). We found that HUVECs activated by rMASP-1 secreted IL-6 and IL-8, but not IL-1alpha, IL-1ra, TNFalpha and MCP-1. rMASP-1 induced dose-dependent IL-6 and IL-8 production with different kinetics. rMASP-1 triggered IL-6 and IL-8 production was regulated predominantly by the p38-MAPK pathway. Moreover, the supernatant of rMASP-1-stimulated HUVECs activated the chemotaxis of neutrophil granulocytes as an integrated effect of cytokine production. Our results implicate that besides initializing the complement lectin pathway, MASP-1 may activate neutrophils indirectly, via the endothelial cells, which link these effective antimicrobial host defense mechanisms

The Western and Eastern Roots of the Saami - The Story of Genetic "Outliers" Told by Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosomes

Funding Information: We thank Tatyana Karafet and Boris Malyarchuk, for useful information; Henry Harpending, for the program POPSTR; Vincent Macaulay, for the program SAMPLING; Ille Hilpus and Jaan Lind, for technical assistance; and Charles Kurland and Thomas Gilbert, for helpful discussion and comments. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and advice. The research of R.V. was supported by Estonian basic research grant 514 and European Commission Directorate General Research grant ICA1CT20070006. The research of T.K. was supported by Estonian basic research grant 5574. The work of E.K. was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project number 01-04-48487a) and the Ministry of Sciences and Technology of Russia. M.G., S.Z., and L.O. received support from expedition grants from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1992–1997) and the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (project number 02-06-80524-a), and the research of P.R. received support from project number 0196005 of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Croatia.The Saami are regarded as extreme genetic outliers among European populations. In this study, a high-resolution phylogenetic analysis of Saami genetic heritage was undertaken in a comprehensive context, through use of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and paternally inherited Y-chromosomal variation. DNA variants present in the Saami were compared with those found in Europe and Siberia, through use of both new and previously published data from 445 Saami and 17,096 western Eurasian and Siberian mtDNA samples, as well as 127 Saami and 2,840 western Eurasian and Siberian Y-chromosome samples. It was shown that the "Saami motif" variant of mtDNA haplogroup U5b is present in a large area outside Scandinavia. A detailed phylogeographic analysis of one of the predominant Saami mtDNA haplogroups, U5b1b, which also includes the lineages of the "Saami motif," was undertaken in 31 populations. The results indicate that the origin of U5b1b, as for the other predominant Saami haplogroup, V, is most likely in western, rather than eastern, Europe. Furthermore, an additional haplogroup (H1) spread among the Saami was virtually absent in 781 Samoyed and Ob-Ugric Siberians but was present in western and central European populations. The Y-chromosomal variety in the Saami is also consistent with their European ancestry. It suggests that the large genetic separation of the Saami from other Europeans is best explained by assuming that the Saami are descendants of a narrow, distinctive subset of Europeans. In particular, no evidence of a significant directional gene flow from extant aboriginal Siberian populations into the haploid gene pools of the Saami was found.Peer reviewe