Mitochondria-Targeted Hydrogen Sulphide Donors Protect Renal Cells From Hypoxia Re-Oxygenation Injury

Abstract Introduction: Hypoxia re-oxygenation in kidney transplantation affects the outcome. Hydrogen sulphide (H2S), (the newest Gasotransmitter), showed significant protective effect on renal transplantation induced IRI. Our objective was to determine if new mitochondria targeted H2S donor molecule (AP39) would be more efficacious in protecting renal cells against IRI compared to the non-specific H2S donor molecule GYY4137. We hypothesized that AP39 would be more potent. Methods: in vitro porcine kidney tubular epithelial cells (LCC-PK1) were exposed to warm hypoxia, without treatment (Control), with AP39 or GYY4137 followed by re-oxygenation. Results: 200nM of AP39 protected the cells and maintained a high viability. AP39 was superior to GYY4137. Significant reduction of Apoptosis and ROS were noted in AP39 samples when compared to control. Both BCL2 and BID genes did not show any significant changes, compared to the control and GYY4137 samples. Conclusion: AP39 is protective and superior to GYY4137 in renal IRI

Radar High Resolution Range & Micro-Doppler Analysis of Human Motions

In radar imaging it is well known that relative motion or deformation of parts of illuminated objects induce additional features in the Doppler frequency spectra. These features are called micro-Doppler effect and appear as sidebands around the central Doppler frequency. They can provide valuable information about the structure of the moving parts and may be used for identification purposes [1]. Previous papers have mostly focused on ID micro-Doppler analysis [2-4]. In this paper, we propose to emphasize the analysis of such "non stationary targets" using a 2D imaging space, using both the micro-Doppler and a high range resolution analysis. As in 2D-ISAR imaging, range separation enables us to better discriminate the various effects caused by the time varying reflectors. We will focus our study on human motion. We will see how micro-Doppler signature can be used to extract information on pedestrians gait. We will show examples on simulated and experimental data

The Biological and Medical Applications of Laser Light Abstract

ان عملية تطور تقنية الليزر بسرعة مع وجود أحدث أجهزة الليزر، التي يتم إدخالها باستمرار أصبح مهما في مجموعة متنوعة من المجالات البيولوجية والطبية. اصبح العلاج بالليزر المنخفض المستوى (Low Level Laser Therapy)  ذو اهمية كبيرة لعلاج اصابات الأنسجة الرخوة وحالات التهاب المفاصل. حيث لوحظ بالفعل زيادة في تكاثر الخلايا وزيادة الكولاجين بعد LLLTفي تحسين التئام الجروح عن طريق تحسين الالتهاب وانتشار الأرومة الليفية وتولد الأوعية وإزالة الكولاجين وإعادة بناء الانسجة. يعتبر العلاج الديناميكي الضوئي (PDT) باستخدام اشعة الليزر علاج مؤكد للسرطان والأمراض الأخرى والاصابات البكتيرية المقاومة للمضادات الحيوية في الجروح والحروق.The process of rapidly developing laser technology with the presence of the latest laser devices, which are constantly being introduced has become important in a variety of biological and medical fields. Low Level Laser Therapy has become of great importance for the treatment of soft tissue injuries and arthritis. An increase in cell proliferation and collagen after LLLT has already been observed in improving wound healing by improving inflammation, spread of fibroblasts, angiogenesis, collagen removal and tissue reconstruction. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using laser beams is a proven treatment for cancer, other diseases, and bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics in wounds and burns

A modified generalized projective Riccati equation method

A modification of the generalized projective Riccati equation method is proposed to treat some nonlinear evolution equations and obtain their exact solutions. Some known methods are obtained as special cases of the proposed method. In addition, the method is implemented to find new exact solutions for the well-known Dreinfelds-Sokolov-Wilson system of nonlinear partial differential equations

Workers’ Remittances in Yemen: Macroeconomic Determinants and Impact on Economic Growth

This study aims to examine the determinants of workers’ remittances and their impact on economic growth in Yemen. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test to co-integration and error correction model (ECM) were applied on data covering the period from 1990 to 2014. According to the model of remittances determinants, workers’ remittances in Yemen respond to the macroeconomic conditions of both the home and host countries. It is found that, in the long-run, migrant stock and income level at the host countries are positively and strongly influence remittances level, with a feeble impact of domestic inflation rates. The effect of the home country’s income seems to be positive but insignificant in explaining the behaviour of remittances level. The model of economic growth suggests that, in the long run, the impact of workers’ remittances appears to be positive and moderate with positive and stronger influences observed for financial development and official development assistance. Accordingly, it is recommended that a lesser weight should be given to remittances in the strategic planning process, taking into consideration the increasing potentials of the conditions in the neighbouring host countries to be changed. In addition, using remittances as a means of economic growth can be enhanced by encouraging migrants to direct their savings towards productive investment activities, and via formal channels

Biochemical effects of low-dose whole body x-irradiation on mouse liver and the protective action of ectoine

Purpose: To investigate the possible role of ectoine, which is known to protect protein hydration and folding and structural organization of biological membranes, in protecting mouse liver against low-dose x-irradiation.Methods: The study included thirty Swiss albino mice weighing 20 - 22 g each, which were divided into five groups of six animals each: group (1) naïve animals serving as control, group (2) animals irradiated with a whole-body 2 Gy single dose of x-ray, and sacrificed after one day, group (3) x-irradiated and sacrificed after one week (each animal in the 3 groups received 0.2 mL saline daily by oral gavage). Group 4 consisted of x-irradiated animals dosed with ectoine 200 mg/kg in saline and sacrificed after one day. Group 5 cmoprised of x-irradiated animals and were dosed daily with ectoine 200 mg/kg and sacrificed after one week. The evaluated inflammation parameters in the animals’ liver were interleukin- 1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Furthermore, the oxidative stress parameters, viz, malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH), oxidized glutathione (GSSG) and their ratio (GSH/GSSG) were also assessed.Results: Whole body low-dose x-irradiation resulted in statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) increases in all ILs tested as well as PGE2 of mice liver. Indications of oxidative stress included elevated levels of MDA and oxidized glutathione with decreased reduced glutathione. The effects of radiation were progressive and the changes in the tested parameters increased from day 1 to day 7. Administration of ectoine significantly (p ≤ 0.05) ameliorated the biochemical effects induced by whole body x-irradiation. Furthermore, the modulating action was dependent on the accumulation of ectoine, as it was more effective after repeated administration.Conclusion: Ectoine has a post-irradiation protective effect on mouse liver via its action on inflammatory and oxidative stress pathways. It probably has similar action in other vital organs. Preventive treatment of healthcare personnel and technicians frequently exposed to low doses of radiation with ectoine is worth investigating.Keywords: X-irradiation, Ectoine, Oxidative stress, Mice, Radioprotectio

Performance Evaluation of a Conventional Solar Still with Different Types and layouts of Wick Materials

Solar distillation is regarded by many investigators as one of the important methods of utilizing solar energy to solve water scarcity problems. A solar still is a simple device which can be effectively used to convert saline water into fresh water. The enhancement of solar stills performance and improving their production capacity of distilled water are the main goals of the investigators in recent years.  In this research, three identical conventional basin type solar stills were designed and constructed in order to experimentally investigate the affect of using different wick materials in two different layout arrangements. The first solar still was used as a reference still for comparison. The second solar still was used for uniformly spreading the wick material sheets in the saline water. In this case, the wick materials sheets were completely immersed in the saline water covering the total still basin area. The third solar still had a specially designed set up of steel mesh wires.  In this case, the wick materials were partially immersed in the saline. The net basin horizontal effective area of each solar still was 1 m², and the glass cover's tilted angle was fixed at 32.5º.  Five types of wick materials in the form of material sheets were used. They were light black cotton fabric, light jute fabric, black velvet fabric, black sheer mesh fabric, and a 4 mm thick sponge sheet. Spreading the wick material sheet to cover the basin area had the effect of preventing the sunrays from reaching the still basin and consequently absorbed by the saline water and the wick material resulting in enhancing the yields of solar stills. The aim of adding mesh wire layout arrangement is to have the additional effect of increase the surface area of evaporation relaying on capillary effect to raise the saline water to the non-immersed part of the materials. It has been found that the solar still with only wick materials and no special arrangement performed much better than the other two solar stills. In both layout arrangements, it has been found that the light black cotton fabric was the most effective material in enhancing the still productivity in with 36.9% and 26.3% respectively. The sponge sheet was found the less effective material in enhancing the still productivity with 11.5% and 9.9% respectively. Keywords: Productivity; Solar stills; Water desalination; Wick materials; Wire mes

Moderating Role of Psychological Ownership between Authentic Leadership and Sports Team Performance: Mediating Effect of Sports Training

This study examines the mediating influence of sports training between authentic leadership (AL) and sports team performance (STP) in the setting of Saudi Arabia, with the moderating role of psychological ownership (PO). This study employs a cross-sectional survey design to obtain data from 300 members of sports teams. The results indicate that AL significantly and positively affects STP and that sports training mainly mediates this relationship. In addition, the data indicate that PO moderates the relationship between AL and athletic performance, such that the association is stronger for team members with a strong feeling of PO. These findings have significant implications for Saudi Arabian organizations seeking to improve the performance of their sports teams. While adopting the study's conclusions, it is recommended that employers engage in AL development, give frequent athletic training chances, promote a sense of Unity among team members, and consider cultural and socioeconomic aspects. We examine the study's limitations and potential areas for future investigation

LTM: Scalable and Black-box Similarity-based Test Suite Minimization based on Language Models

Test suites tend to grow when software evolves, making it often infeasible to execute all test cases with the allocated testing budgets, especially for large software systems. Therefore, test suite minimization (TSM) is employed to improve the efficiency of software testing by removing redundant test cases, thus reducing testing time and resources, while maintaining the fault detection capability of the test suite. Most of the TSM approaches rely on code coverage (white-box) or model-based features, which are not always available for test engineers. Recent TSM approaches that rely only on test code (black-box) have been proposed, such as ATM and FAST-R. To address scalability, we propose LTM (Language model-based Test suite Minimization), a novel, scalable, and black-box similarity-based TSM approach based on large language models (LLMs). To support similarity measurement, we investigated three different pre-trained language models: CodeBERT, GraphCodeBERT, and UniXcoder, to extract embeddings of test code, on which we computed two similarity measures: Cosine Similarity and Euclidean Distance. Our goal is to find similarity measures that are not only computationally more efficient but can also better guide a Genetic Algorithm (GA), thus reducing the overall search time. Experimental results, under a 50% minimization budget, showed that the best configuration of LTM (using UniXcoder with Cosine similarity) outperformed the best two configurations of ATM in three key facets: (a) achieving a greater saving rate of testing time (40.38% versus 38.06%, on average); (b) attaining a significantly higher fault detection rate (0.84 versus 0.81, on average); and, more importantly, (c) minimizing test suites much faster (26.73 minutes versus 72.75 minutes, on average) in terms of both preparation time (up to two orders of magnitude faster) and search time (one order of magnitude faster)