IMMUNOMODULATORY ROLE OF HONEY AND PROPOLIS ON CARBON TETRACHLORIDE (CCl4) INJECTED RATS

Objective: To evaluate the role of some inflammatory cytokines in hepatic injury induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). Also, the effects of honey bee and propolis extract to modulate the role of these cytokines.Methods: Fifty female Wister rats were divided into five groups, 10 per each group. After 6 w of all treatments, rats were sacrificed, whole blood and serum were collected to determine the number of white blood cells (WBCs), percentage of granulocytes, percentage of lymphocytes and the level of some cytokines such as gamma interferon(INF-γ), tumor necrosis factor(TNF-α) and interleukin-2(IL-2).Results: CCl4 administration resulted in significant increase in the number of WBCs and percentage of granulocytes (P<0.05 and P<0.01 respectively). After treatment with honey and propolis, the number of WBCs was decreased significantly in the case of propolis treatment (P<0.05) compared with CCl4 group. The levels of TNF-α and INF-γ cytokines were significantly decreased (P<0.05) after treatment with honey or propolis compared with CCl4 group. However, there is no significant change in the level of IL-2 after treatment of CCl4 administered rats with honey or propolis.Conclusion: The present study suggested that honey and propolis can improve the immune disorders induced by CCl4 in rats by modulating the levels of inflammatory cytokines, TNF-α, and IFN-γ.Â

An efficient technique for out-of-band power reduction for the eliminated CP-STC-shaped system for 5G requirements

The most dominant needs for the recent wireless mobile applications are higher bandwidth (BW) efficiency, higher energy efficiency higher quality of services (QOS). The main technique in 4G systems is OFDM but it suffers from some limitations such as large peak to average power ratio (PAPR), higher Out-of-Band (OOB) power radiation, and wasting bandwidth efficiency due to cyclic prefix (CP) extension. In his paper, these OFDM limitations will be reduced with low computational complexity compared to filter bank multicarriers (FBMC). The proposed scheme is based on symbol time compression (STC) for OFDM system. The proposed STC-Shaped system is achieved via interleaver-spreader and symbol shaper in the transmitter side in addition to equalization and combining processes in the receiver side. Comparative study between the proposed system and the conventional OFDM in case of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and COST 207 typical multipath fading channel will be presented. The numerical results show that the proposed STC-Shaped scheme reduces OOB significantly. The proposed scheme improves BER in multipath Rayleigh fading although it is without CP. Thus, the proposed system is more robust against inter symbol interference (ISI) compared to conventional OFDM system. Also, the numerical results show that the PAPR of the proposed system is decreased significantly and also, it is derived theoretically. Also, the proposed scheme overcomes CP extension, and hence increases the bandwidth (BW) efficiency. Finally, the computational complexity for the proposed scheme is derived and it has very low complexity compared to FBMC. The system performance measurments has been fulfilled using cumulative distribution function (CDF), power spectral density (PSD) and bit error rate (BER)

Arc Characteristics and a Single-Pole Auto-Reclosure Scheme for Alexandria HV Transmission System

Abstract -Arcing faults are the most common faults that occur in the 220kV transmission line national grid of Egypt, in the vicinity of 'Alexandria' city. This part of the network also feeds a large industrial load in the form of steel works, which injects a large amount of harmonics into the network. In this paper the performance of this 220kV TL network during arcing faults is studied with the aid of the PSCAD/EMTDC program together with a specially designed arcing fault custom model incorporated in the program. Several arcing faults are simulated, and the effect of harmonics on the fault current and secondary arc duration time is demonstrated. Based upon the simulation results, recommendations regarding single-pole autoreclosing and arc suppression methods are suggested

Layer-by-Layer Nanoparticles for Systemic Codelivery of an Anticancer Drug and siRNA for Potential Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Treatment

A single nanoparticle platform has been developed through the modular and controlled layer-by-layer process to codeliver siRNA that knocks down a drug-resistance pathway in tumor cells and a chemotherapy drug to challenge a highly aggressive form of triple-negative breast cancer. Layer-by-layer films were formed on nanoparticles by alternately depositing siRNA and poly-l-arginine; a single bilayer on the nanoparticle surface could effectively load up to 3500 siRNA molecules, and the resulting LbL nanoparticles exhibit an extended serum half-life of 28 h. In animal models, one dose via intravenous administration significantly reduced the target gene expression in the tumors by almost 80%. By generating the siRNA-loaded film atop a doxorubicin-loaded liposome, we identified an effective combination therapy with siRNA targeting multidrug resistance protein 1, which significantly enhanced doxorubicin efficacy by 4 fold in vitro and led to up to an 8-fold decrease in tumor volume compared to the control treatments with no observed toxicity. The results indicate that the use of layer-by-layer films to modify a simple liposomal doxorubicin delivery construct with a synergistic siRNA can lead to significant tumor reduction in the cancers that are otherwise nonresponsive to treatment with Doxil or other common chemotherapy drugs. This approach provides a potential strategy to treat aggressive and resistant cancers, and a modular platform for a broad range of controlled multidrug therapies customizable to the cancer type in a singular nanoparticle delivery system.Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. (TRANSCEND Grant)National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Koch Institute Support (Core) Grant P30-CA14051)National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) (CJ Martin Fellowship)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research FellowshipNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Postdoctoral Fellowship

Layer-by-Layer Assembled Antisense DNA Microsponge Particles for Efficient Delivery of Cancer Therapeutics

Antisense oligonucleotides can be employed as a potential approach to effectively treat cancer. However, the inherent instability and inefficient systemic delivery methods for antisense therapeutics remain major challenges to their clinical application. Here, we present a polymerized oligonucleotides (ODNs) that self-assemble during their formation through an enzymatic elongation method (rolling circle replication) to generate a composite nucleic acid/magnesium pyrophosphate sponge-like microstructure, or DNA microsponge, yielding high molecular weight nucleic acid product. In addition, this densely packed ODN microsponge structure can be further condensed to generate polyelectrolyte complexes with a favorable size for cellular uptake by displacing magnesium pyrophosphate crystals from the microsponge structure. Additional layers are applied to generate a blood-stable and multifunctional nanoparticle via the layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly technique. By taking advantage of DNA nanotechnology and LbL assembly, functionalized DNA nanostructures were utilized to provide extremely high numbers of repeated ODN copies for efficient antisense therapy. Moreover, we show that this formulation significantly improves nucleic acid drug/carrier stability during in vivo biodistribution. These polymeric ODN systems can be designed to serve as a potent means of delivering stable and large quantities of ODN therapeutics systemically for cancer treatment to tumor cells at significantly lower toxicity than traditional synthetic vectors, thus enabling a therapeutic window suitable for clinical translation.United States. Dept. of Defense. Ovarian Cancer Research Program (Teal Innovator Award Grant OC120504)Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Postdoctoral Fellowship)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award 1F32EB017614-01)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowshi

Comparative evidence on the value relevance of IFRS-based accounting information in Germany and the UK

This paper uses panel cointegration with a corresponding vector error correction model (VECM) to investigate the changes in the value relevance of accounting information before and after the mandatory adoption of IFRS in Germany and the UK under three different valuation models. First, a basic Ohlson model, where our results indicate that despite the value relevance of the book values of equity has declined, it has been replaced by the increasing prominence of earnings in both Germany and the UK after the switch to the IFRS. Second, a modified model, which shows that the incremental value relevance of both earnings and book values are considerably higher in the long term for firms in the UK than in Germany. Third, a simultaneous addition of accounting and macroeconomic variables in an extended model, which indicates a significant rise in the relative predictive power of the book value of equity in the UK compared with the more noticeable impact on the value relevance of earnings in Germany. Collectively, the results of these models indicate that: (i) the explanatory power of linear equity valuation models is higher in UK than in the Germany, (ii) a long-run Granger-causal relationship exists between accounting variables and share prices in common law countries like the UK. Nevertheless, the implications of our findings lie in the knowledge that the potential costs of switching to the IFRS is completely nullified within three years by the benefits arising from a reduction in information asymmetry and earning mismanagement among firms which are listed on the stock exchanges of both common law and code law-based EU countries

Management of urethrocutaneous fistula after hypospadias repair: 10 years' experience

Objectives To report the outcome of managing urethrocutaneous fistula after hypospadias repair over 10 years. Patients and methods Forty-seven patients (mean age 7.6 years, range 2-18) underwent repair of 57 urethrocutaneous fistulae after hypospadias surgery. The fistula was single in 37 patients and multiple in 10; 42 fistulae were small (< 4 mm) and 15 large (> 4 mm). Twenty-one fistulae were at the corona, 15 at the anterior shaft, 16 at the mid-shaft and five were penoscrotal. The interval between primary hypospadias repair and the first attempt at fistula repair was 6-12 months. Small fistulae were repaired using a multilayer simple closure technique, and large fistulae repaired using rotational and advancement skin flaps. Suprapubic urinary diversion was used in all patients with large fistulae or small multiple fistulae (25 patients); an overnight urethral catheter was used in the remaining patients. Results Simple closure was successful in 30 of 42 small fistulae (71%); eight were successfully closed by secondary closure, while four needed a third closure. Rotational and advancement skin flaps were successful in 13 of 15 large fistulae; one required secondary flap repair and one was closed simply. Most recurrences (78%) were of coronal fistulae; there was recurrence in four of 25 (16%) patients in whom suprapubic diversion was used, in contrast to 10 of 22 (45%) with no suprapubic diversion. Conclusions Although simple closure of a fistula is easy and not time-consuming it is followed by a significantly higher rate of recurrence than when skin flaps are used. Rotational and advancement flaps are the optimal methods for repairing fistulae after hypospadias, particularly for large and coronal fistulae. Thus, the appropriate indication for simple closure is small fistulae at the penile shaft. Suprapubic diversion is important in those with large or multiple fistulae