The Correlation between the Value of Mortgage-Backed Securities & the Value of FTSE 100 Shares Price Index: September 2013 Prices

Using the latest information and prices for mortgage-backed securities in September 2013 this analytical piece tests the correlation between the value of these instruments and the value of the FTSE 100 share price index.The correlation between the value of mortgage-backed securities and the value of FTSE 100 shares price index

Subclinical hypothyroidism ups the risk of vascular complications in type 2 diabetes

The incidence of thyroid dysfunction in diabetic patients is higher than that of the general population. Undiagnosed thyroid dysfunction may affect the metabolic control and enhance cardiovascular, and other chronic complication risks in diabetic patients. Few studies have examined the relationship between subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) and vascular complications of type 2 diabetes.Objectives: To find out the relationship between SCH and vascular complications in patients with Type 2 diabetes. Subjects andMethods: Our cross sectional study included 110 patients with type 2 DM (45 males and 65 females) who were followed at the Diabetes outpatient Clinics in the state of Kuwait during 6 months period. All patients subjected to complete clinical and laboratory data, including thyroid function tests, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), HDL-C, LDL-C, urinary albumin, fundus examination, ECG, and Glycosylated hemoglobin.Results: Among 110 patients, 21 (19.1%) Patients had SCH. Patients with SCHwere more significantly older, with longer duration of diabetes, higher HbA1c, total cholesterol and LDL-C than euthyroid group. However, gender (p = 0.076), BMI (p = 0.092), and smoking (P = 0.715) were not significantly different between the SCH and euthyroid groups. The SCH group had a higher prevalence of dyslipidemia (p = 0.017), diabetic nephropathy (p = 0.003) diabetic retinopathy (p = 0.004) and IHD (p = 0.011) than the euthyroid group while no significant difference in the prevalence of diabetic neuropathy (p = 0.420).Conclusions: SCH is a common endocrine disorder in patients with Type 2 diabetes. It could be associated with a higher prevalence of vascular complications in type 2 diabetes. We could not prove a relation between SCH and diabetic neuropathy.Keywords: Subclinical hypothyroidism, Diabetes, Vascular complicatio

The role of interleukins 4, 17 and interferon gamma as biomarkers in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and their correlation with disease activity

AbstractAim of the workThis work was designed to study the production of proinflammatory cytokines in SLE patients and their correlation with disease activity and study if they can be used as biomarkers for renal activity in lupus nephritis patients.Patients and methodsThis study was carried out on 70 subjects divided into two groups: Group I (SLE group) which included 40 SLE patients and Group II (Control group) which included 30 apparently healthy controls. The patients were subjected to full history taking and complete clinical examination. Assessment of disease activity in SLE patients by Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI). Sera of patients and controls were screened for the level of cytokine expression of T helper cells including interleukin 17 (IL-17), interleukin 4 (IL-4) and interferon gamma (IFN-γ).ResultsSerum levels of IL-4 were significantly lower while both IL-17 and IFN-γ were significantly higher in SLE patients than in the control group. The most powerful predictor and correlated cytokine with the SLEDAI in SLE patients was IL-17. Higher serum level of IFN-γ was associated with more pyuria and hematuria, while higher IL-17 was associated with more pyuria and proteinuria in SLE patients.ConclusionThe serum level of IL-17 and IFN-γ was proven to be significantly higher in SLE patients and can be used as biomarkers of renal activity

Prevalence of microbial pathogens in blood cultures: an etiological and histopathological study

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Modeling FDI Flows from the USA to Canada: Two Main International Financial Variables Affect the Long-Run Economic Growth

This paper develops a model to predict for the spillover effects of the foreign capital inflows on the long run growth under conditions of international economic exposure to foreign exchange rate fluctuations. The paper utilizes a simple open economy version of the Solow growth model with the main features of real business cycle models. In addition, the paper uses a time series model with substitution techniques to test the impact of the spillover effect of foreign capital inflows from the USA on long run growth in Canada, while controlling for exposure to foreign exchange rate fluctuations, as well as for both external and internal balances. The results support the existence of positive spillover effects from foreign direct investment on the economy. The results also show that foreign exchange rate fluctuations have weaken the impact of underlying changes in productivity on the attractiveness of the economy to overseas investors and hence moderate the overall impact of the technology spillover effect of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on long-run growth

Simulation and performance assessment of a modified throttled load balancing algorithm in cloud computing environment

Load balancing is crucial to ensure scalability, reliability, minimize response time, and processing time and maximize resource utilization in cloud computing. However, the load fluctuation accompanied with the distribution of a huge number of requests among a set of virtual machines (VMs) is challenging and needs effective and practical load balancers. In this work, a two listed throttled load balancer (TLT-LB) algorithm is proposed and further simulated using the CloudAnalyst simulator. The TLT-LB algorithm is based on the modification of the conventional TLB algorithm to improve the distribution of the tasks between different VMs. The performance of the TLT-LB algorithm compared to the TLB, round robin (RR), and active monitoring load balancer (AMLB) algorithms has been evaluated using two different configurations. Interestingly, the TLT-LB significantly balances the load between the VMs by reducing the loading gap between the heaviest loaded and the lightest loaded VMs to be 6.45% compared to 68.55% for the TLB and AMLB algorithms. Furthermore, the TLT-LB algorithm considerably reduces the average response time and processing time compared to the TLB, RR, and AMLB algorithms

PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF ZINGIBER OFFICINALE AGAINST CARBON TETRACHLORIDE INDUCED LIVER FIBROSIS

Objective: Liver plays a pivotal role in regulating various physiological processes in the body such as metabolism, secretion, and storage. It has a great capacity to detoxify toxic substances and synthesize useful principles. The current study was designed to investigate the possible protective effects of Zingiber officinale (ginger) extract on liver fibrosis induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) in rats.Methods: The animals were divided into four groups with eight rats in each. To induce liver fibrosis, Wistar albino rats received CCl4 (2 ml/kg diluted in corn oil) twice weekly for eight weeks. Rats were concurrently treated with Z. officinale extract at two different doses (300 and 600 mg/kg/day).Results: CCl4 ­­induced liver injury characterized by fibrotic changes, degenerated hepatocytes and focal accumulation of inflammatory cells. In addition, CCl4 administration produced a significant increase in serum aminotransferases, lipids, liver lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide. The hepatoprotective effects of Z. officinale extract were evidenced by the significant decrease in serum aminotransferases and liver lipid peroxidation. Further, concurrent treatment with either dose of Z. officinale enhanced liver glutathione and enzymatic antioxidant defenses.Conclusion: Z. officinale showed a marked hepatoprotective effect against CCl4–induced liver fibrosis and injury through the abolishment of oxidative stress and potentiation of the antioxidant defense system.Keywords: Antioxidant, Ginger, Fibrosis, Oxidative stres

Endogenous bone marrow stem cell mobilization in rats: Its potential role in homing and repair of damaged inner ear

AbstractThe stem cells are widely used in the last few years in different fields of medicine, either by external transplantation or endogenous mobilization, most of these studies are still experimental on animals; few were tried on humans as in the spinal cord injury or myocardial infarction. As regards its use in the inner ear, stem cell transplantation was examined in many previous studies, while the mobilization idea is a new method to be experimented in inner ear hair cell regeneration.The aim of this work was to assess the use of GCSF to induce bone marrow SC mobilization to home and repair the damaged inner ear hair cells in rats after the damage had been inflicted by Amikacin injection.First we had to develop an animal model for damaged inner ear, so we used the well known ototoxic effect of Amikacin intra-tympanic injection till we reached complete loss of hearing function. And this can be assessed by DPOAEs. Now we have an animal model of damaged inner ear hair cells and mobilization of bone marrow SCs was induced by subcutaneous injection of G-CSF for 5days.Clinical assessment was done using DPOAEs before and after G-CSF injection also histological assessment of the inner ear was done before and after G-CSF by two methods H&E staining and Scanning Electron Microscopy.The results of histological examination of the specimens showed some promising changes that may be responsible for the improvement of hearing function in some rats that was detected by OAEs

Computational and experimental elucidation of the boosted stability and antibacterial activity of ZIF-67 upon optimized encapsulation with polyoxometalates

Water microbial purification is one of the hottest topics that threats human morbidity and mortality. It is indispensable to purify water using antimicrobial agents combined with several technologies and systems. Herein, we introduce a class of nanosized metal organic framework; Zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-67) cages encapsulated with polyoxometalates synthesized via facile one-step co-precipitation method. We employed two types of polyoxometalates bioactive agents; phosphotungstic acid (PTA) and phosphomolybdic acid (PMA) that act as novel antibacterial purification agents. Several characterization techniques were utilized to investigate the morphological, structural, chemical, and physical properties such as FESEM, EDS, FTIR, XRD, and N₂ adsorption/desorption isotherms techniques. The antibacterial assessment was evaluated using colony forming unit (CFU) against both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus as models of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, respectively. The PTA@ZIF-67 showed higher microbial inhibition against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria by 98.8% and 84.6%, respectively. Furthermore, computational modeling using density functional theory was conducted to evaluate the antibacterial efficacy of PTA when compared to PMA. The computational and experimental findings demonstrate that the fabricated POM@ZIF-67 materials exhibited outstanding bactericidal effect against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and effectively purify contaminated water