Analysis of Association between IL-17 gene rs2275913 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism and Chronic Hepatitis B Infection

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Hepatitis B disease is one of the main causes of inflammation and liver damage that can lead to chronic hepatitis B virus infection. Single nucleotide polymorphism in the cytokines gene can affect the host immune response. Interleukin 17 produced by Thelper17 cells has been shown to play a role in immune function in infectious and inflammatory diseases. This study was conducted to investigate the association between polymorphism in IL-17 gene (rs2275913) and chronic hepatitis B infection. METHODS: This case-control study was performed on 130 chronic patients as a case group and 130 healthy individuals as control. Patients with positive result of ELISA test for HBsAg and Anti-HBc Ab and control subjects with negative result of this test were enrolled. PCR-RFLP was used to genotype extracted DNA from blood samples. FINDINGS: The genotype frequencies of rs2275913 did not show significant difference between patients and control groups. Distribution of genotypes inpatients were, 40.8% GG, 41.5% AG, 17.7% AA and in control group were, 42.3% GG, 45.4% AG, 12.3% GG (p=0.469). CONCLUSION: The results of study showed no relation between IL-17 gene polymorphism rs2275913 and chronic HBV

Granzyme A-producing T helper cells are critical for acute graft-versus-host disease

Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) can occur after hematopoietic cell transplant in patients undergoing treatment for hematological malignancies or inborn errors. Although CD4+ T helper (Th) cells play a major role in aGVHD, the mechanisms by which they contribute, particularly within the intestines, have remained elusive. We have identified a potentially novel subset of Th cells that accumulated in the intestines and produced the serine protease granzyme A (GrA). GrA+ Th cells were distinct from other Th lineages and exhibited a noncytolytic phenotype. In vitro, GrA+ Th cells differentiated in the presence of IL-4, IL-6, and IL-21 and were transcriptionally unique from cells cultured with either IL-4 or the IL-6/IL-21 combination alone. In vivo, both STAT3 and STAT6 were required for GrA+ Th cell differentiation and played roles in maintenance of the lineage identity. Importantly, GrA+ Th cells promoted aGVHD-associated morbidity and mortality and contributed to crypt destruction within intestines but were not required for the beneficial graft-versus-leukemia effect. Our data indicate that GrA+ Th cells represent a distinct Th subset and are critical mediators of aGVHD

Shear Strength Parameters of Improved Peat by Chemical Stabilizer.

The present research aimed to discuss the applicability of cationic grouts in geotechnical engineering. The effects of several cationic stabilizers such as monovalent (sodium silicate), divalent (calcium oxide and calcium chloride), and trivalent (aluminum hydroxide) were investigated on shear strength improvement of tropical peat samples. The unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests were performed after the time frame of 7, 21, and 30 days as curing time, respectively. Apart from the physicochemical characteristics of the stabilized peat, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy tests were also carried out to study the ongoing microstructural changes. It is to be noted that the shear strength values for peat samples rose to 8, 6, 6, and 4 % of sodium silicate, calcium oxide, calcium chloride, and aluminum hydroxide, respectively. The highest observed UCS outcome is the one taken from the calcium oxide where the UCS of treated peat after 30-day curing time increased to 76 kPa. The strength changes resulted from the various cationic stabilizers can best be explained via the consideration within the mineralogical composition as well as those physicochemical changes happening in the peat

SVD Audio Watermarking: A Tool to Enhance the Security of Image Transmission over ZigBee Networks, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2011, nr 4

The security is important issue in wireless networks. This paper discusses audio watermarking as a tool to improve the security of image communication over the IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee network. The adopted watermarking method implements the Singular-Value Decomposition (SVD) mathematical technique. This method is based on embedding a chaotic encrypted image in the Singular Values (SVs) of the audio signal after transforming it into a 2-D format. The objective of chaotic encryption is to enhance the level of security and resist different attacks. Experimental results show that the SVD audio watermarking method maintains the high quality of the audio signals and that the watermark extraction and decryption are possible even in the presence of attacks over the ZigBee network

An Efficient Chaotic Interleaver for Image Transmission over IEEE 802.15.4 Zigbee Network, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2011, nr 2

This paper studies a vital issue in wireless communications, which is the transmission of images over wireless networks. IEEE ZigBee 802.15.4 is a short-range communication standard that could be used for small distance multimedia transmissions. In fact, the ZigBee network is a wireless personal area network (WPAN), which needs a strong interleaving mechanism for protection against error bursts. This paper presents a novel chaotic interleaving scheme for this purpose. This scheme depends on the chaotic Baker map. A comparison study between the proposed chaotic interleaving scheme and the traditional block and convolutional interleaving schemes for image transmission over a correlated fading channel is presented. The simulation results show the superiority of the proposed chaotic interleaving scheme over the traditional schemes

A novel clinical score (InterTAK Diagnostic Score) to differentiate takotsubo syndrome from acute coronary syndrome: results from the International Takotsubo Registry

AIMS. Clinical presentation of takotsubo syndrome (TTS) mimics acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and does not allow differentiation. We aimed to develop a clinical score to estimate the probability of TTS and to distinguish TTS from ACS in the acute stage. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients with TTS were recruited from the International Takotsubo Registry ( www.takotsubo-registry.com) and ACS patients from the leading hospital in Zurich. A multiple logistic regression for the presence of TTS was performed in a derivation cohort (TTS, n = 218; ACS, n = 436). The best model was selected and formed a score (InterTAK Diagnostic Score) with seven variables, and each was assigned a score value: female sex 25, emotional trigger 24, physical trigger 13, absence of ST-segment depression (except in lead aVR) 12, psychiatric disorders 11, neurologic disorders 9, and QTc prolongation 6 points. The area under the curve (AUC) for the resulting score was 0.971 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96-0.98] and using a cut-off value of 40 score points, sensitivity was 89% and specificity 91%. When patients with a score of ≥50 were diagnosed as TTS, nearly 95% of TTS patients were correctly diagnosed. When patients with a score ≤31 were diagnosed as ACS, ∼95% of ACS patients were diagnosed correctly. The score was subsequently validated in an independent validation cohort (TTS, n = 173; ACS, n = 226), resulting in a score AUC of 0.901 (95% CI 0.87-0.93). CONCLUSION: The InterTAK Diagnostic Score estimates the probability of the presence of TTS and is able to distinguish TTS from ACS with a high sensitivity and specificity

Global burden of peripheral artery disease and its risk factors, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Peripheral artery disease is a growing public health problem. We aimed to estimate the global disease burden of peripheral artery disease, its risk factors, and temporospatial trends to inform policy and public measures. Methods: Data on peripheral artery disease were modelled using the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 database. Prevalence, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and mortality estimates of peripheral artery disease were extracted from GBD 2019. Total DALYs and age-standardised DALY rate of peripheral artery disease attributed to modifiable risk factors were also assessed. Findings: In 2019, the number of people aged 40 years and older with peripheral artery disease was 113 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 99·2–128·4), with a global prevalence of 1·52% (95% UI 1·33–1·72), of which 42·6% was in countries with low to middle Socio-demographic Index (SDI). The global prevalence of peripheral artery disease was higher in older people, (14·91% [12·41–17·87] in those aged 80–84 years), and was generally higher in females than in males. Globally, the total number of DALYs attributable to modifiable risk factors in 2019 accounted for 69·4% (64·2–74·3) of total peripheral artery disease DALYs. The prevalence of peripheral artery disease was highest in countries with high SDI and lowest in countries with low SDI, whereas DALY and mortality rates showed U-shaped curves, with the highest burden in the high and low SDI quintiles. Interpretation: The total number of people with peripheral artery disease has increased globally from 1990 to 2019. Despite the lower prevalence of peripheral artery disease in males and low-income countries, these groups showed similar DALY rates to females and higher-income countries, highlighting disproportionate burden in these groups. Modifiable risk factors were responsible for around 70% of the global peripheral artery disease burden. Public measures could mitigate the burden of peripheral artery disease by modifying risk factors. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Consequences of Eukaryotic Enhancer Architecture for Gene Expression Dynamics, Development, and Fitness

The regulatory logic of time- and tissue-specific gene expression has mostly been dissected in the context of the smallest DNA fragments that, when isolated, recapitulate native expression in reporter assays. It is not known if the genomic sequences surrounding such fragments, often evolutionarily conserved, have any biological function or not. Using an enhancer of the even-skipped gene of Drosophila as a model, we investigate the functional significance of the genomic sequences surrounding empirically identified enhancers. A 480 bp long “minimal stripe element” is able to drive even-skipped expression in the second of seven stripes but is embedded in a larger region of 800 bp containing evolutionarily conserved binding sites for required transcription factors. To assess the overall fitness contribution made by these binding sites in the native genomic context, we employed a gene-replacement strategy in which whole-locus transgenes, capable of rescuing even-skipped- lethality to adulthood, were substituted for the native gene. The molecular phenotypes were characterized by tagging Even-skipped with a fluorescent protein and monitoring gene expression dynamics in living embryos. We used recombineering to excise the sequences surrounding the minimal enhancer and site-specific transgenesis to create co-isogenic strains differing only in their stripe 2 sequences. Remarkably, the flanking sequences were dispensable for viability, proving the sufficiency of the minimal element for biological function under normal conditions. These sequences are required for robustness to genetic and environmental perturbation instead. The mutant enhancers had measurable sex- and dose-dependent effects on viability. At the molecular level, the mutants showed a destabilization of stripe placement and improper activation of downstream genes. Finally, we demonstrate through live measurements that the peripheral sequences are required for temperature compensation. These results imply that seemingly redundant regulatory sequences beyond the minimal enhancer are necessary for robust gene expression and that “robustness” itself must be an evolved characteristic of the wild-type enhancer

Quantitative Models of the Mechanisms That Control Genome-Wide Patterns of Transcription Factor Binding during Early Drosophila Development

Transcription factors that drive complex patterns of gene expression during animal development bind to thousands of genomic regions, with quantitative differences in binding across bound regions mediating their activity. While we now have tools to characterize the DNA affinities of these proteins and to precisely measure their genome-wide distribution in vivo, our understanding of the forces that determine where, when, and to what extent they bind remains primitive. Here we use a thermodynamic model of transcription factor binding to evaluate the contribution of different biophysical forces to the binding of five regulators of early embryonic anterior-posterior patterning in Drosophila melanogaster. Predictions based on DNA sequence and in vitro protein-DNA affinities alone achieve a correlation of ∼0.4 with experimental measurements of in vivo binding. Incorporating cooperativity and competition among the five factors, and accounting for spatial patterning by modeling binding in every nucleus independently, had little effect on prediction accuracy. A major source of error was the prediction of binding events that do not occur in vivo, which we hypothesized reflected reduced accessibility of chromatin. To test this, we incorporated experimental measurements of genome-wide DNA accessibility into our model, effectively restricting predicted binding to regions of open chromatin. This dramatically improved our predictions to a correlation of 0.6–0.9 for various factors across known target genes. Finally, we used our model to quantify the roles of DNA sequence, accessibility, and binding competition and cooperativity. Our results show that, in regions of open chromatin, binding can be predicted almost exclusively by the sequence specificity of individual factors, with a minimal role for protein interactions. We suggest that a combination of experimentally determined chromatin accessibility data and simple computational models of transcription factor binding may be used to predict the binding landscape of any animal transcription factor with significant precision