Role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.T lymphocytes and macrophages appear to play an important role in mediating ß-cell damage and causing Type 1 diabetes. Both activated T cells and macrophages operate and interact through the release of soluble factors called cytokines, which influence the type and magnitude of immune responses. It has been suggested that cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-1α can damage the N-cell directly. In Type 1 diabetes, cytokines are likely to have a critical role in individuals whose immune system is unbalanced allowing the emergence of self-destructive processes. To investigate this possibility, sensitive assays to detect a range of cytokines of potential relevance to the immune pathogenesis of diabetes were establised. Using these, serum levels of IL-1α, IL-1N, TNF-α and IL-6 (macrophage-derived cytokines), IFN-γ and IL-2 (T helper 1 cytokine profile) and IL-4 and IL-10 (T helper 2 profile) have been measured in patients with Type 1 diabetes of different disease duration. Increased levels of TNF-α, IL-1α, IL-2 and IFN-γ were found in recently diagnosed patients with Type 1 diabetes when compared with both disease and metabolic control subjects and with normal controls. The presence of this profile of cytokines implies activation of the TH1 subset of helper cells near to diagnosis of Type 1 diabete

Fertility Transition in Pakistan: Evidence from Census

In the absence of an accurate and complete registration system, efforts were made to estimate the levels of vital statistics through sample surveys. The first such effort was made through the Population Growth Estimation (PGE) project conducted from January, 1962 to December 1965. Later on, various demographic surveys were conducted almost at regular intervals and the last effort in the series was Pakistan Reproductive Health and Family Planning Survey (PRHFPS) in the year 2000-01. Although all these efforts were made to ascertain levels and trends of various demographic events, yet the estimates particularly the ones on fertility remained controversial. The first signal of fertility reduction was emanated from the 1975 Pakistan Fertility Survey (PFS) which estimated a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 6.3 children from over 7 children estimated earlier from PGE data. However, all hopes of the onset of fertility transition were shattered by the [Retherford’s, et al. (1987)] study entitled “Fertility Trend in Pakistan: The Decline that Wasn’t”. By using the Own Children Method, they confirmed that the decline in fertility was an artifact of the data. Another study by Shah, Pullum, and Irfan (1986) also termed the fertility decline shown by the PFS data as spurious. The Pakistan Labour Force and Migration Survey, conducted five years later, in 1979-80, estimated a TFR of 6.5 children, thus providing another proof supporting the fact that fertility had not declined to the extent believed

Capital Flows Management During the Post-2007 Global Financial Crisis: The Experiences of SEACEN Economies

Although global financial stability in late 2010 and early 2011 has, in general, improved when compared to the 2008-2009 period of the sub-prime global financial crisis, vulnerabilities remain high. The recent World Economic Outlook of the IMF (WEO, September 2011) underlines the two speed recovery processes taking place in the world economies. In advanced economies, especially those hit hardest by the crisis, firms, government and household sectors continue to be heavily indebted and are likely to spur relatively weak demand. Although the financial markets of these economies have, in most parts, returned to profitability, the overall frail balance sheets reflect the general subdued state of the local economy. In sharp contrast, the emerging economies, including those of the SEACEN region, are posting robust growth rates until the second half of 2011, meeting new challenges associated with strong demand, rapid credit and excess liquidity. Price pressures, including potential asset price bubbles, have been the common themes of policy challenges for the SEACEN economies. Managing macro-financial risks, namely balancing growth, balance sheet soundness of the financial institutions, particularly the banking sector, and keeping a lid on inflationary pressures, have been and will likely be the primary policy challenges for these emerging markets in 2011 and 2012. This paper takes stock of recent trends and developments with regard to capital flows in the SEACEN economies. It elaborates in detail, the breakdowns and compositions of the flows. In particular, the focus of the analyses is on key flows such as the international bank lending activities to the region. The paper also summarises and analyses some of the basic push and pull factors of these flows to understand some of the domestic and external drivers of these flows. Some of the economic consequences of these capital flows and policy dilemma facing the SEACEN economies are also looked at. The paper also examines the policy responses of the central banks/monetary authorities, in particular, to mitigate the negative consequences and maximise the benefits of capital flows.

Petrophysical Study of Limestone Rocks for Al-Nfayil Formation –Bahr Al-Najaf Depression and Suitability for Industrial Purposes

مقدمة: ينتشر الحجر الجيري في الطبيعة على نطاق واسع ويشكل حوالي (20-25٪) من إجمالي الصخور الرسوبية [1]. وتحتل المرتبة الثالثة عالمياً من حيث المصادر المعدنية والصخور المستخرجة [2]. يمثل الحجر الجيري نسبة كبيرة من العمود الطبقي في العراق [3]. طرق العمل: تقييم صخور الحجر الجيري كمواد بناء لتكوين النفايل في منخفض بحر النجف بواقع 15 محطة موزعة على منطقة الدراسة. اشتمل البحث على الجوانب الحقلية والمختبرية. الاستنتاجات: من خلال الفحوصات اللازمة، تم تحديد صلاحية الحجر الجيري لأغراض البناء. وكانت مناسبة للبناء لأنها نجحت في تلبية متطلبات معيار البناء (ASTM، C568، 2004) ولم تفِ بمتطلبات معيار صخور التحكم في السكك الحديدية (O.R.B.D، 1999، Raymond، 1979). لذا توصي الدراسة بتقدير وحساب كمية احتياطيات الصخور الجيرية المتوفرة في منطقة الدراسة لغرض حساب الجدوى الاقتصادية.Abstract Background:        Limestone is widely spread in nature and constitutes about (20-25%) of the total sedimentary rocks [1]. It is ranked third globally from mineral sources and extracted rocks [2]. Limestone represents the large ratio of the stratified column of Iraq [3].   Materials and Methods: This study involves the evaluation of limestone rocks as construction materials of Al- Nfayil formation in Bahr Al-Najaf Depression by 15 stations distributed over a region. The research includes field and laboratory aspects. Results: Through the tests, the viability of limestone for construction purposes was determined. As it is suitable for construction because it succeeded the requirements of the building standard (ASTM, C568, 2004), and did not succeed in the requirements of the standard for railway control aggregates (O.R.B.D, 1999, Raymond, 1979). The study recommends estimating and calculating the amount of reserves of limestone rocks available in the study area for the purpose of calculating economic feasibilit

A NEW MECHANISM FOR RISKLESS AUTHORIZED DEDUPLICATION IN CLOUD

Data de duplication is among important data compression approaches for getting rid of duplicate copies of repeating data, and it has been broadly utilized in cloud storage to lessen the quantity of space for storage and save bandwidth. To safeguard the confidentiality of sensitive data while supporting de duplication, the convergent file encryption method has been suggested to secure the information before outsourcing. To higher safeguard data security, this paper helps make the first make an effort to formally address the issue of approved data de duplication. Not the same as traditional de duplication systems, the differential rights of customers are further considered in duplicate check aside from the data itself. Like a evidence of concept, we implement a prototype in our suggested approved duplicate check plan and conduct test bed experiments using our prototype. We reveal that our suggested approved duplicate check plan incurs minimal overhead in comparison to normalcy procedures

Pomegranate juice protects kidneys from Cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity

Background: Cisplatin is a potent anti-cancer agent used successfully in treatment of cancers of solid organs, but it has a high rate of nephrotoxicity. Objective: The present study was designed to study Cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity and the nephroprotective property of pomegranate juice. Materials and Methods: The experiment was performed on 36 Iraqi white male domestic rabbits. Rabbits were divided into three groups; control group (received neither pomegranate juice, no Cisplatin), Cisplatin group (received Cisplatin only), and pomegranate group (received pomegranate juice and Cisplatin). Results: Cisplatin group showed marked reduction of renal function manifested by high levels of blood urea, serum creatinine, and low level of serum albumin.Raised levels of oxidative stress markers and severe renal parenchymal damage by histopathology.While, pomegranate group showed almost normal renal function tests and normal levels of oxidative stress markers, and normal renal parenchymal histopathology. Conclusion: Cisplatin in a highly nephrotoxic drug, and Pomegranate juice has a nephroprotective activity against Cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity

A COMBINED APPROACH & SERVICE ORIENTED TECHNOLOGIES THAT ASSISTS SPEED DATA ACCESS OF RESOURCES ON THE NET

Data like a Service (DaaS) develops on service-oriented technologies to allow immediate access to data sources on the internet. Nevertheless, this paradigm boosts several new privacy concerns that traditional privacy models don't handle. Additionally, DaaS composition may reveal privacy-sensitive information. Within this paper, we advise a proper privacy model to be able to extend DaaS descriptions with privacy abilities. The privacy model enables something to define a online privacy policy and some privacy requirements. We propose a privacy-protecting DaaS composition approach permitting to ensure the compatibility between privacy requirements and guidelines in DaaS composition. We advise a settlement mechanism that assists you to dynamically reconcile the privacy abilities of services when incompatibilities arise inside a composition. We validate the usefulness of our proposal via a prototype implementation and some experiments

A new model for study of quality attributes to components based development approach

Software development costs, time-to release and quality product are important factors affecting the construction of software. Different types of tools and techniques are suggested by researchers to improve in delivering quality software systems with lower cost and reduce time to delivery. One such practice is development of software using Component Based Software Development (CBSD) techniques[1]. CBSD recommended building software systems using existing reusable components, instead of writing from scratch. The main objective of CBSD is to writes once and reuse any number of time with no or modification. Some of the advantages that a company may available by adapting CBSD for the Software development are shorter development time which results in meet tight dead line, increase productivity and Quality Product. CBSD also, support reusability[3]. The aim of this paper is to develop the new model of software product and describe the characteristics of some selected of attributes of CBSD models that are widely practiced in software industries with explain about IT project. We proposed a complete model for Component Based Software Development for reuse. This Model will cover both component based software development as well as Component development phases for A-Model. This Model is represent one good solution for Component Based Development with reduce cost and time to deliverable and save the quality of produc