Activation of β2-Adrenoceptors Is Required for Mucin Production in Airway Bronchial Epithelial Cells

Asthma, a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, is associated with mucus hypersecretion by airway epithelium. Accumulated mucus in the airways contributes to airway obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness and sometimes death. In a murine model of asthma, chronically blocking β2-adrenoceptors (β2-ARs) or genetic ablation of β2-ARs causes a reduction in mucus secretion, an index of inflammatory responses, in response to allergen. The detailed molecular components of these effects remain to be elucidated. We examined the β2-AR signaling pathways involved in mediating mucin production in response to IL-13 in airway epithelial cells. The expression of MUC5AC, the predominant mucin-producing gene in asthma, and mucin content were induced by IL-13 in normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells as compared to control cells only in the presence of epinephrine. Blocking β2-ARs, but not β1-ARs, attenuated the IL-13 effect. The three members of MAPK family, ERK1/2, p38 and JNK, were all involved in inducing mucin production in response to IL-13 in the presence of epinephrine. Since β2-ARs signal through the canonical Gs-adenylyl cyclase or β-arrestin signaling cascade, we examined each pathway separately. Elevating intracellular cAMP levels was associated with enhanced IL-13 response, either in the presence or absence of epinephrine and increased epithelial cell number. Moreover, inhibiting the activity of PKA and PDE4 resulted in attenuated IL-13 response. Stimulating β-arrestin-2 signaling did not alter the IL-13 response in NHBE cells, either in the presence or absence of epinephrine. However, the absence of β-arrestin-2 from mouse airway epithelial cells attenuated the response to IL-13 as compared to cells expressing β-arrestin-2. β2-ARs did not seem to affect IL-13 mediated mucuciliary shift from ciliated to goblet cells or cell proliferation. We conclude that, in human bronchial epithelial cells, epinephrine-induced β2-AR signaling is required to enhance mucus production in response to IL-13. Moreover, MAPKs, cAMP and cAMPdependent protein kinases are all involved components of β2-AR signaling in mediating the effect of IL-13 in NHBE cells.Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department o

Vehicle Speed Control Equipped with Special Combinations, Brake System and Safe Distance Measurements

Abstract: -It is a system that aims to control vehicle"s speed in accordance with the street and road speed limit. The system finds out the whereabouts of the vehicle then it identifies the allowed speed for that particular place. After this, it starts decreasing the speed gradually until it reaches the desirable limit. When the vehicle runs, The GPS finds the location of the vehicle then it sends the longitude and the latitude to the control unit to identify the speed limit of the street. If it has been found that the vehicle"s speed exceeds the limit, a signal will be sent to the brake system to reduce the speed until it drops to the limits. One of the most important characteristics of the system that it senses the distances between two vehicles by (Ultrasonic sensor) allowing a certain distance between them which is in correspondent to their speed and that results in non-occurrence of accidents and crashes. All of which is done without exceeding the speed limit of streets. If the system fails for any malfunction, a warning message containing the number of the vehicle and information about it will be sent to the traffic department as a feedback

Inhibition of EZH2 Ameliorates Lupusâ Like Disease in MRL/lpr Mice

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151823/1/art40931_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151823/2/art40931.pd

Osteoporosis is a neglected health priority in Arab World: a comparative bibliometric analysis

Osteoporosis is an important health problem with serious consequences. Evaluation of osteoporosis scientific output from Arab countries has not been explored and there are few internationally published reports on research activity about osteoporosis. The main objectives of this study were to analyze the research output originating from Arab countries and 3 Middle Eastern non-Arab countries, particularly Israel, Turkey and Iran in the field of osteoporosis. Original scientific articles or reviews published from the 21 Arab countries, Israel, Turkey and Iran about “osteoporosis” were screened using the ISI Web of Science database. The time frame for the result was up to year 2012. The total number of original and review research articles published globally about osteoporosis was 43,571. The leading country in osteoporosis research was United States of America (14,734; 33.82%). Worldwide, Turkey ranked 16th while Israel and Iran ranked 24th and 31st respectively. Among Arab countries, Egypt and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia came on positions 41 and 45 respectively. A total of 426 documents about “osteoporosis” were published from Arab countries which represents 0.98% of the global research output. Research about osteoporosis from Arab countries was very low until 2002 and then increased steadily. The total number of citations for osteoporosis documents from the Arab world was 5551 with an average citation of 13.03 per document and an h- index of 35. Thirty (7.04%) documents published from Arab countries about osteoporosis were published in Saudi Medical Journal. Egypt, with a total publication of 117 (27.47%) ranked first among the Arab countries in research about osteoporosis while American University in Beirut was the most productive institution with a total of 47 (11.03%) documents. Compared with other non-Arab countries in the Middle East, the research productivity from the Arab countries was lesser than that from Turkey and Israel but higher than that from Iran. The present data showed low research productivity in osteoporosis field in Arab countries. Research output can be improved by investing in more international and national collaborative research projects in the field of osteoporosis

Continuity Culture: A Key Factor for Building Resilience and Sound Recovery Capabilities

This article investigates the extent to which Jordanian service organizations seek to establish continuity culture through testing, training, and updating of their business continuity plans. A survey strategy was adopted in this research. Primary and secondary data were used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with five senior managers from five large Jordanian service organizations registered with the Amman Stock Exchange. The selection of organizations was made on the basis of simple random sampling. Interviews targeted the headquarters only in order to obtain a homogenous sample. Three out of five organizations could be regarded as crisis prepared and have better chances for recovery. The other two organizations exhibited characteristics of standard practice that only emphasizes the recovery aspect of business continuity management (BCM), while paying less attention to establishing resilient cultures and embedding BCM. The findings reveal that the ability to recover following major incidents can be improved by embedding BCM in the culture of the organization and by making BCM an enterprise-wide process. This is one of few meticulous studies that have been undertaken in the Middle East and the first in Jordan to investigate the extent to which service organizations focus on embedding BCM in the organizational culture

Molecular epidemiology of human cutaneous leishmaniasis in Jericho and its vicinity in Palestine from 1994 to 2015

Cutaneous leishmaniases (CL) are vector-borne parasitic diseases endemic inmany countries of the Middle East including Palestine. Between 1994 and 2015, 2160 clinically suspected human cases of CL from the Jericho District were examined. Stained skin tissue smears and aspirates were checked by microscopy and cultured for promastigotes, respectively. For leishmanial species identification, amplification products from a PCR-ITS1 followed by RFLP analysis using Hae III. Data were analyzed using Epi Info free-software. The overall infection rate was 41.4% (895/2160), 56.3% (504/895) of the cases were male, 43.7% (391/895) female, 60.5% (514/849) children under age 14, 41.3% (259/627) of the cases were caused by Leishmania major and 57.3% (359/627) by Leishmania tropica. The case numbers peaked in 1995, 2001, 2004, and 2012. Statistically-significant clusters of cases caused by L. major were restricted to the Jericho District; those caused by L. tropica were from the districts of Jericho, Bethlehem, Nablus and Tubas. CL is seasonal and trails the sand fly season. Distribution of cases was parabolicwith fewest in July. Themonthly total number of cases of CL and just those caused by L.major correlated significantly with temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, evaporation, wind speed and sunshine (P b 0.05, r2= 0.7–0.9 and P b 0.05, r2=0.5–0.8, respectively). Cases caused by L. tropica, significantly, had a single lesion compared to cases caused by L. major (P=0.0001), which, significantly, had multiple lesions (P=0.0001). This and previous studies showed that CL is present in all Palestinian districts. The surveillance of CL has increased public awareness and molecular biologicalmethodology for leishmanial species identification is an essential addition to classical diagnosis. The overall results are discussed, correlated to climatic and environmental changes and largescale human activities.This work received financial support from grants of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Scho 448/6-1-3, Scho 448/8-1, Scho 448/8-2 that extended from 1998 until 2015. It also received support fromEurNegVeg COST Action TD1303 (Cost 037/13). At one time during the study WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO), Division of Communicable Diseases (DCD) and the WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR): the EMRO/DCD/TDR Small Grants Scheme for Operational Research in Tropical and Communicable Diseases financially supported this work. We thank Dr. L. F. Schnur for going over our manuscript

Treatment of olive mill based wastewater by means of magnetic nanoparticles: Decolourization, dephenolization and COD removal

AbstractOlive mill wastewater (OMW) is an environmental concern that has been highlighted as a serious environmental problem in the Mediterranean basin countries because of its high organic load and phytotoxic and antibacterial phenolic compounds, which resist biological degradation. Consequently, this type of wastewater represents a huge challenge for the conventional wastewater treatment techniques as it can impact the lifetime of bacteria needed for the treatment. Iron-oxide nanoparticles are attractive for wastewater treatment for two important reasons. First, nanoparticles can remove pollutants from wastewater rapidly. Second, this magnetic type of nanoparticles could be separated easily using a magnet after finishing treatment process. In this study, we aimed at investigating the effectiveness of the magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in the removal of large organic contaminants from OMW. Batch and continuous mode processes were applied on OMW treatment to determine the effect of contact time, solution pH, coexisting contaminants and the adsorption isotherm.The results showed that the adsorption was fast and the adsorption reached equilibrium within less than 30min. The adsorption equilibrium data fit very well to the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) Model, indicating multi-layers adsorption. The adsorption of major pollutants was associated to an efficient removal of coexisting contaminants such as heavy metals and free ions. The adsorption of OMW pollutants was dependent on pH of the solution. Finally, continuous-mode process was tested successfully using a packed bed column that combined sand filtration with magnetic nanoparticles to decolourize OMW effluent. This study will provide valuable insight on the effect of nanoparticles toward the treatment and recyclability of olive mill wastewater, which is crucial for the local olive mill industry. After seeing the successful achievement of integrating nanoparticles with fixed bed filtration, a preliminary process description and cost estimation of stand-alone plant (with a capacity of 4m3/h) for OMW treatment were considered in this study. Process capital and annual operating costs were estimated to be $12,306 and$476/year, respectively