The potential protective effects of erythropoietin and estrogen on renal ischemia reperfusion injury in ovariectomized rats

Background: Renal ischemia–reperfusion (RIR) is an important etiopathological mechanism of acute renal failure (ARF). Erythropoietin (EPO) has been candidate as a nephroprotectant agent. However, its nephroprotective effect when it is accompanied with estrogen has not been studied in female.Methods: Fifty-six female rats were divided into seven groups. Each formed of 8 rats. Group I: control group. Group II: Female rats exposed to RIR (named RIR group).Group III: Female rats exposed to RIR and pretreated with EPO (named RIR + EPO group). Group IV: ovariectomized rats exposed to RIR (named OVR + RIR group). Group V: ovariectomized rats received estrogen (E) then exposed to RIR (named OVR + RIR + E group). Group VI: ovariectomized rats received EPO before RIR (named OVR + RIR + EPO group). Group VII: ovariectomized rats received E then received EPO before RIR (named OVR +RIR +E + EPO group).Serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and renal blood flow (RBF) were measured. Tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a), Myeloperoxidase activity (MPO), nitric oxide (NO), endothelin-1(ET-1) and EPO levels were assessed in the renal tissue. Histopathology was assessed to detect renal damage score.Results: RIR significantly increased the serum levels of creatinine and BUN with decrease in RBF. In addition it significantly increased TNF-a, MPO and endothelin-1 levels with decrease in NO and EPO levels in renal tissue. However, these parameters significantly reversed by EPO except RBF. Combination of E and EPO leads to significant decrease in the protective effect of EPO.Conclusion: It seems that EPO could protect the kidney against RIR, while this protective effect was decreased when E was supplemented

Evaluating Maintainability Prejudices with a Large-Scale Study of Open-Source Projects

Exaggeration or context changes can render maintainability experience into prejudice. For example, JavaScript is often seen as least elegant language and hence of lowest maintainability. Such prejudice should not guide decisions without prior empirical validation. We formulated 10 hypotheses about maintainability based on prejudices and test them in a large set of open-source projects (6,897 GitHub repositories, 402 million lines, 5 programming languages). We operationalize maintainability with five static analysis metrics. We found that JavaScript code is not worse than other code, Java code shows higher maintainability than C# code and C code has longer methods than other code. The quality of interface documentation is better in Java code than in other code. Code developed by teams is not of higher and large code bases not of lower maintainability. Projects with high maintainability are not more popular or more often forked. Overall, most hypotheses are not supported by open-source data.Comment: 20 page

ICI and PAPR enhancement in MIMO-OFDM system using RNS coding

The Inter-Carrier-Interference (ICI) is considered a bottleneck in the utilization of Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems, due to the sensitivity of the OFDM towards frequency offsets which lead to loss of orthogonality, interference and performance degradation. In this paper Residue Numbers as a coding scheme is impeded in MIMO-OFDM systems, where the ICI levels is measured and evaluated with respect to conventional ICI mitigation techniques implemented in MIMO-OFDM. The Carrier-to-Interference Ratio (CIR), the system Bit-Error-Rate (BER) and the Complementary Cumulative Distribution Function (CCDF) for MIMO-OFDM system with Residue Number System (RNS) coding are analyzed and evaluated. The results had demonstrated a performance of transmission model with and without RNS

Performance Enhancement of MIMO-OFDM using Redundant Residue Number System

Telecommunication industry requires high capacity networks with high data rates which are achieved through utilization of Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication along with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system. Still, the communication channel suffers from noise, interference or distortion due to hardware design limitations, and channel environment, and to combat these challenges, and achieve enhanced performance; various error control techniques are implemented to enable the receiver to detect any possible received errors and correct it and thus; for a certain transmitted signal power the system would have lower Bit Error Rate (BER). The provided research focuses on Redundant Residue Number System (RRNS) coding as a Forward Error Correction (FEC) scheme that improves the performance of MIMO-OFDM based wireless communications in comparison with current methods as Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) coders at the transmitter side or equalizers at receiver side. The Bit Error Rate (BER) performance over the system was measured using MATLAB tool for different simulated channel conditions, including the effect of signal amplitude reduction and multipath delay spreading. Simulation results had shown that RRNS coding scheme provides an enhancement in system performance over conventional error detection and correction coding schemes by utilizing the distinct features of Residue Number System (RNS)

Olmesartan modulates proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression and improves dextran sulfate - induced ulcerative colitis in rats

Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease characterized by sudden attacks of remissions and exacerbations with increased incidence of cancer colon. The present study aims to determine the possible ameliorative mechanisms of Olmesartan in UC induced experimentally in rat.Methods: Adult albino rats were randomly grouped into control, UC model non treated group: Rats received dextran sodium (DSS) orally for 21 days with intra-colic administration of acetic acid (AA) for 3 consecutive days for induction of UC model, Olmesartan (1, 5, 10mg/kg/orally) and UC + Olmesartan in different doses (1 mg, 5 mg and 10 mg/kg/day orally).Results: DSS orally and AA intra-rectal produced sever colitis manifested by significant weight loss, watery and bloody diarrhea. Significant increase in serum and colonic tissue levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukine-1β. Pro-apoptotic Bax protein, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and expression of PCNA significantly increased in colonic tissue. Lipid peroxidation (MDA) significantly elevated while reduced glutathione (GSH) was depleted in UC non-treated group compared with normal control group. Treatment with Olmesartan (5 mg, 10 mg/kg/day, orally) ameliorated mucosal ulceration and improved inflammatory signs as confirmed by immunohistochemical and histopathological examination. Also, Olmesartan significantly attenuates overexpression of PCNA in colonic mucosa.Conclusions: Our results point out that Olmesartan had ameliorative effects on UC by its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects and attenuates PCNA expression which is the main cause of dysplasia and colorectal cancer. Olmesartan may be a promising therapeutic drug for treating UC and protection of colorectal carcinoma. 

High dimensional biological data retrieval optimization with NoSQL technology.

Background High-throughput transcriptomic data generated by microarray experiments is the most abundant and frequently stored kind of data currently used in translational medicine studies. Although microarray data is supported in data warehouses such as tranSMART, when querying relational databases for hundreds of different patient gene expression records queries are slow due to poor performance. Non-relational data models, such as the key-value model implemented in NoSQL databases, hold promise to be more performant solutions. Our motivation is to improve the performance of the tranSMART data warehouse with a view to supporting Next Generation Sequencing data. Results In this paper we introduce a new data model better suited for high-dimensional data storage and querying, optimized for database scalability and performance. We have designed a key-value pair data model to support faster queries over large-scale microarray data and implemented the model using HBase, an implementation of Google's BigTable storage system. An experimental performance comparison was carried out against the traditional relational data model implemented in both MySQL Cluster and MongoDB, using a large publicly available transcriptomic data set taken from NCBI GEO concerning Multiple Myeloma. Our new key-value data model implemented on HBase exhibits an average 5.24-fold increase in high-dimensional biological data query performance compared to the relational model implemented on MySQL Cluster, and an average 6.47-fold increase on query performance on MongoDB. Conclusions The performance evaluation found that the new key-value data model, in particular its implementation in HBase, outperforms the relational model currently implemented in tranSMART. We propose that NoSQL technology holds great promise for large-scale data management, in particular for high-dimensional biological data such as that demonstrated in the performance evaluation described in this paper. We aim to use this new data model as a basis for migrating tranSMART's implementation to a more scalable solution for Big Data

Anisotropic nonlinear elasticity in a spherical bead pack: influence of the fabric anisotropy

Stress-strain measurements and ultrasound propagation experiments in glass bead packs have been simultaneously conducted to characterize the stress-induced anisotropy under uniaxial loading. These measurements, realized respectively with finite and incremental deformations of the granular assembly, are analyzed within the framework of the effective medium theory based on the Hertz-Mindlin contact theory. Our work shows that both compressional and shear wave velocities and consequently the incremental elastic moduli agree fairly well with the effective medium model by Johnson et al. [J. Appl. Mech. 65, 380 (1998)], but the anisotropic stress ratio resulting from finite deformation does not at all. As indicated by numerical simulations, the discrepancy may arise from the fact that the model doesn't properly allow the grains to relax from the affine motion approximation. Here we find that the interaction nature at the grain contact could also play a crucial role for the relevant prediction by the model; indeed, such discrepancy can be significantly reduced if the frictional resistance between grains is removed. Another main experimental finding is the influence of the inherent anisotropy of granular packs, realized by different protocols of the sample preparation. Our results reveal that compressional waves are more sensitive to the stress-induced anisotropy, whereas the shear waves are more sensitive to the fabric anisotropy, not being accounted in analytical effective medium models.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Effect of valproic acid administration during pregnancy on postnatal development of cerebellar cortex and the possible protective role of folic acid

Background: Valproic acid (VPA), one of the most important antiepileptic drugs, proved to be inevitable for epileptic pregnant women to limit the hazards of convulsions on the foetuses and mothers. Periconceptional folic acid supple­mentation was investigated to protect against several birth defects. However, its role against VPA cerebellar toxicity was not properly investigated. The present study was conducted to evaluate the protective effect of folic acid against VPA cerebellar neurotoxicity. Materials and methods: Twenty-four pregnant female albino rats were divided into three groups; group I (control group, did not receive any drugs), group II (given VPA at a dose of 50 mg/kg body weight once daily) and group III (given the same dose of VPA and 400 μg/kg of body weight folic acid once daily). Ten male offspring from each group were sacrificed at two ages: at 2 and 12 weeks after birth. Samples of cerebellar cortex were taken and prepared for light, electron microscopic examination, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunohistochemical study and histomorphometric analysis. Results: The present study confirmed the neurotoxic effect of prenatal VPA on the cerebellar cortex, especially on Purkinje cells. The cells appeared shrunken, reduced in density, disorganised and surrounded by empty haloes. Nuclear damage and axon degeneration in the form of vacuolation, loss of organelles and absence of neurofilaments with myelin sheath depletion were detected. Concomitant supply of folic acid was shown to retain the normal architecture of Purkinje cells with their axons and nuclei. In many animals receiving folic acid, the thickness of all layers of the cortex increased up to that of the control groups, after being markedly reduced in VPA-treated groups. GFAP immunoreaction was also improved against the strong positive gliosis detected in VPA-treated groups. Conclusions: The present study confirmed the protective role of folic acid against the cerebellar neurotoxic effects of VPA prenatal exposure. It is recommended that folic acid supplements should be given to every epileptic pregnant mother treated with VPA. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 2: 201–209

Crystal structure of 3-(adamantan-1-yl)- 4-(4-chlorophenyl)-1H-1,2,4-triazole- 5(4H)-thione

The title compound, C18H20ClN3S, is a functionalized triazoline- 3-thione derivative. The benzene ring is almost perpendicular to the planar 1,2,4-triazole ring [maximum deviation = 0.007 (1) A ° ] with a dihedral angle of 89.61 (5)� between them and there is an adamantane substituent at the 3-position of the triazolethione ring. In the crystal, N—H� � �S hydrogenbonding interactions link the molecules into chains extending along the c-axis direction. The crystal packing is further stabilized by weak C—H� � �� interactions that link adjacent chains into a two-dimensional structure in the bc plane. The crystal studied was an inversion twin with a 0.50 (3):0.50 (3) domain ratio