Single nucleotide polymorphism E23K of KCNJ11 gene and other risk factors associated with type-2 diabetes mellitus in Gaza

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a multifactorial disease in which environmental triggers interact with genetic variants in predisposition to disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate (E23K) SNP in KCNJ11 gene as a possible contributor to T2DM among Gaza City patients. Also to consider relation between E23K SNP and other risk factors for T2DM. Two hundred male and female individuals were examined: 100 T2DM patients and 100 control individuals. The glucose level was determined, and the groups were genotyped for the SNP (E23K) by PCR/RFLP technique using the BanII restriction enzyme. A questionnaire was completed to evaluate the role of physical and environmental risk factors for T2DM. There was a strong statistically significant relation between the E23K polymorphism and T2DM (P= 0.000). Forty three percent of cases were E/K compared to 29% of controls; and 15% of cases were K/K compared to 3% of controls. Obesity, persistent stress, absence of physical activity and low level of education were also significantly related to T2DM (P= 0.000). The mean fasting blood sugar level was significantly higher among the cases than the control, and particularly among homozygous and heterozygous cases (P= 0.000). In conclusion, risk factors that are significantly related with T2DM patients in Gaza city include the E23K polymorphism, obesity, persistent stress, absence of physical activity, and low level of education. The inheritance of the K allele predisposes for T2DM, provided that other genetic or/and physical and environmental risk factors be present

Class discovery from semi-structured EEG data for affective computing and personalisation

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Many approaches to recognising emotions from metrical data such as EEG signals rely on identifying a very small number of classes and to train a classifier. The interpretation of these classes varies from a single emotion such as stress [24] to features of emotional model such as valence-arousal [4]. There are two major issues here. First classification approach limits the analysis of the data within the selected classes and is also highly dependent on training data/cycles, all of which limits generalisation. Second issue is that it does not explore the inter-relationships between the data collected missing out on any correlations that could tell us interesting facts beyond emotional recognition. This second issue would be of particular interest to psychologists and medical professions. In this paper, we investigate the use of Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) in identifying clusters from EEG signals that could then be translated into classes. We start by training varying sizes of SOM with the EEG data provided in a public dataset (DEAP). The produced graphs showing Neighbour Distance, Sample Hits, Weight Position are analysed holistically to identify patterns in the structure. Following that, we have considered the ground- truth label provided in DEAP, in order to identify correlations between the label and the clustering produced by the SOM. The results show the potential of SOM for class discovery in this particular context. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of this work and the difficulties in evaluating the outcome

MicroRNA-targeting in male infertility : Sperm microRNA-19a/b-3p and its spermatogenesis related transcripts content in men with oligoasthenozoospermia

Objective: To elucidate and validate the potential regulatory function of miR-19a/b-3p and its spermatogenesis-related transcripts content in sperm samples collected from men with oligoasthenozoospermia. Methods: Men presenting at an infertility clinic were enrolled. MicroRNA (miRNA) and target genes evaluation were carried out using in silico prediction analysis, Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) validation, and Western blot confirmation. Results: The expression levels of miRNA-19a/b-3p were significantly upregulated and 51 target genes were significantly down-regulated in oligoasthenozoospermic men compared with age-matched normozoospermic men as determined by RT-qPCR. Correlation analysis highlighted that sperm count, motility, and morphology were negatively correlated with miRNA-19a/b-3p and positively correlated with the lower expression level of 51 significantly identified target genes. Furthermore, an inverse correlation between higher expression levels of miRNA-19a/b-3p and lower expression levels of 51 target genes was observed. Consistent with the results of the RT-qPCR, reduced expression levels of STK33 and DNAI1 protein levels were identified in an independent cohort of sperm samples collected from men with oligoasthenozoospermia. Conclusion: Findings suggest that the higher expression of miRNA-19a/b3p or the lower expression of target genes are associated with oligoasthenozoospermia and male infertility, probably through influencing basic semen parameters. This study lay the groundwork for future studies focused on investigating therapies for male infertility

Investigation of optical and electrical properties of Cobalt-doped Ge-Sb-S thin film

Amorphous Germanium Antimony Sulphide (Ge-Sb-S) doped with Cobalt (Co) have been deposited on glass substrates by thermal evaporation technique on a glass substrate. The films deposited onto glass substrates are characterized by Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer, UV–VIS spectrophotometer, Raman spectroscopy, and Capacitance-Voltage Keithley meter. The optical band gap was calculated from the UV–Visible spectrum and found to be 2.05 eV. Raman spectroscopy measurements reveal that a wide band spectrum from 300 to 410 cm−1 centered at 355 cm−1. The Raman shift peaks at 325 cm−1 and 350 cm−1 are as-signed to the bond stretching mode Sb-S and Ge-S, respectively. In addition, from the obtained Raman spectra it is concluded that the presence of Co doped with Ge-Sb-S. The capacitance and conductance versus voltage measurements were performed at different temperatures. The results show a slight increase in the capacitance with temperature and it reaches a maximum value around 150 °C, and eventually it becomes negative. This behavior is interpreted in terms of the nucleation growth process and the thermally activated conduction process with measured activation energy of 0.79 eV.This work is funded by the University Program for Advanced Research - United Arab Emirates University , (project no. 31S313 ).Scopu

Energy efficient algorithm for swarmed sensors networks

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.In this work we are presenting the design of an intelligent hybrid optimization algorithm which is based on Evolutionary Computation and Swarm Intelligence to increase the life time of mobile wireless sensor networks (WSNs). It is composed of two phases; Phase-1 is designed to divide the sensor nodes into independent clusters by using Genetic Algorithms (GAs) to minimise the overall communication distance between the sensor-nodes and the sink-point. This will decrease the energy consumption for the entire network. Phase-2 which is based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is designed to keep the optimum distribution of sensors while the mobile sensor network is directed as a swarm to achieve a given goal. One of the main strengths in the presented algorithm is that the number of clusters within the sensor network is not predefined, this gives more flexibility for the nodes’ deployment in the sensor network. Another strength is that sensors’ density is not necessary to be uniformly distributed among the clusters, since in some applications constraints, the sensors need to be deployed in different densities depending on the nature of the application domain. Although traditionally Wireless Sensor Network have been regarded as static sensor arrays used mainly for environmental monitoring, recently, its applications have undergone a paradigm shift from static to more dynamic environments, where nodes are attached to moving objects, people or animals. Applications that use WSNs in motion are broad, ranging from transport and logistics to animal monitoring, health care and military. These application domains have a number of characteristics that challenge the algorithmic design of WSNs

Production of sensitive gas sensors using CuO/SnO2 nanoparticles

Metal oxide nanoparticles, such as CuO and SnO2, are outstanding systems for H2S gas sensing in air. In this work, those nanoparticles were deposited with different mixing percentages on substrates to form percolating networks of nanoparticles. Electrical electrodes were deposited on the nanoparticles’ films to investigate their gas sensing response against H2 and H2S, and their electrical characteristics. The sensor devices based on CuO–SnO2 nanoparticles revealed enhanced sensing characteristics against H2S with a sensitivity of 10 ppm. The enhanced sensing characteristics could be attributed to the formation of PN-junctions among CuO and SnO2 nanoparticles. The reasonable production cost (due to simple structure and cheap used materials), low power consumption ( ~ 1 µW for H2S at room temperature), high sensitivity, high response, and reasonable response time of the present sensors qualify them for practical implementation in portable gas sensing devices with enhanced characteristics.Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library. This work was supported by both Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) under a Grant Number UREP21-035-2-013, and Qatar University fund under a Grant Number QUCG-CAS-20182019-1. The SEM/EDS measurements were accomplished in the Central Laboratories unit at Qatar University. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations

The effect of retinoic acid on the activation of the human H19 promoter by a 3′ downstream region

AbstractThe human H19 is paternally imprinted (maternally expressed). It is transcribed by RNA pol II, but has no protein product. Its function is unknown. We showed that the transcription of the human H19 gene is under the simultaneous control of both a 5′ upstream (promoter) region and a 3′ downstream region in cell lines derived from human choriocarcinomas. Moreover, the activation of the H19 promoter by retinoic acid in cells derived from human testicular germ cell tumors is dependent upon the 3′ downstream region. The possibility that the action of retinoic acid on the H19 promoter is an indirect one and involves a member of the AP2 transcription factor family is discussed

Association of Inherited Thrombophilia with Recurrent Pregnancy Loss in Palestinian Women

Objective. This study aimed at analyzing the association between recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) and factor V G1691A (FVL), prothrombin G20210 (FII); and MTHFR C677T (MTHFR) in Palestinian women. Method. We studied 329 Palestinian women with RPL and/or stillbirth (SB); and compared them to 402 healthy reproductive Palestinian women. Cases and controls were tested for the above mutations. Odds ratio (OR) at confidence interval (CI) of 95% was used as a measure of association between the mutations and RPL. Results. Our statistical analysis showed a slightly increased association, which was not significant between FVL and RPL (OR 1.32, 95% CI 0.90–1.94), and no association between FII (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.38–1.92), MTHFR (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.32–1.03), and RPL. Further analysis of RPL subgroups revealed an association between FVL and first-trimester loss (OR 1.33, 95% CI 0.892–1.989), and second-trimester loss (OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.480–2.426), both were not statistically significant. Furthermore, the only statistically significant association was between FVL and SB (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.05–3.70). Conclusion. Our analysis had failed to find a significant association between FVL, FII, MTHFR; and RPL in either the first or second trimester. FVL was significantly associated with fetal loss if the loss was a stillbirth