Studies from our laboratory have shown that Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an ingredient found in marijuana plant Cannabis sativa, can attenuate acute lung injury induced by Staphylococcus enterotoxin B (SEB). In the current study, we investigated the role of THC on the metabolism of SEB-activated lymphocytes. To this end, we determined metabolic potential of SEB-activated lymphocytes treated with vehicle or THC by performing the Cell Mito Stress Test. The oxygen consumption rate (OCR) in THC-treated cells was decreased when compared to vehicle-treated group whereas the extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) was similar in both the groups. Specifically, electron transport chain inhibitors namely, oligomycin, FCCP and rotenone+antimycinA were added to measure ATP-linked respiration, maximal respiration and non-mitochondrial respiration, respectively. THC treatment led to a significant decrease in the basal respiration, ATP production, proton (H+) leak, maximal respiration, spare respiratory capacity and nonmitochondrial respiration. We also performed the Mito Fuel Flex assay to measure the dependency, capacity and flexibility of cells to oxidize glucose, glutamine and fatty acids. Treatment with inhibitors, BPTES and etomoxir showed a decline in the OCR in SEB+vehicle treated cells demonstrating that glutamine and/or fatty acids serve as major source of fuel in these cells when compared to SEB+THC treated group. However, when UK5099 was added, THC- and vehicle-treated cells showed a reduced response thereby indicating that glucose dependency was similar in both the groups. Together, THC modulates metabolic functions of activated lymphocytes which may affect their signaling, differentiation and toxicity.
Mixed-effects conditional logistic regression is evidently more effective in the study of qualitative differences in longitudinal pollution data as well as their implications on heterogeneous subgroups. This study seeks that conditional logistic regression is a robust evaluation method for environmental studies, thru the analysis of environment pollution as a function of oil production and environmental factors. Consequently, it has been established theoretically that the primary objective of model selection in this research is to identify the candidate model that is optimal for the conditional design. The candidate model should achieve generalizability, goodness-of-fit, parsimony and establish equilibrium between bias and variab
... Show MoreFor many years it was argued that there may be a gender differences in adverse drug reactions (ADRs). This assumption was based on many possible factors such as hormonal or behavior differences, and it was not clearly identified since the female gender was not preferred to be enrolled in many clinical trials. The primary aim of this study was to assess the extent of possibly relevant gender differences in drug–ADRs regarding causality, severity, preventability, seriousness, expectedness and outcome. While the secondary aim was to assess for which group of drugs and for which ADRs gender differences are identified most often. The study was a retrospective one that depends on processing a specially selected group of data obtained from th
... Show MoreThis research was designed to investigate the factors affecting the frequency of use of ride-hailing in a fast-growing metropolitan region in Southeast Asia, Kuala Lumpur. An intercept survey was used to conduct this study in three potential locations that were acknowledged by one of the most famous ride-hailing companies in Kuala Lumpur. This study used non-parametric and machine learning techniques to analyze the data, including the Pearson chi-square test and Bayesian Network. From 38 statements (input variables), the Pearson chi-square test identified 14 variables as the most important. These variables were used as predictors in developing a BN model that predicts the probability of weekly usage frequency of ride-hai
... Show MoreCyber security is a term utilized for describing a collection of technologies, procedures, and practices that try protecting an online environment of a user or an organization. For medical images among most important and delicate data kinds in computer systems, the medical reasons require that all patient data, including images, be encrypted before being transferred over computer networks by healthcare companies. This paper presents a new direction of the encryption method research by encrypting the image based on the domain of the feature extracted to generate a key for the encryption process. The encryption process is started by applying edges detection. After dividing the bits of the edge image into (3×3) windows, the diffusions
... Show MoreSpices are natural substances taken from special plants and have a different taste when added to food and some of them have great benefits for health and body. These plants vary from country to country depending on the type of soil and how they are grown and this affects their quality. In this study, the specific activity of 40K, 238U and 232Th series and 137Cs in some selected natural food spices commonly used in Iraq kitchen were determined using gamma spectrometry and the ingested doses via food consumption were also assessed. The average specific activity of 40K, 238<
Wellbore instability is one of the most common issues encountered during drilling operations. This problem becomes enormous when drilling deep wells that are passing through many different formations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate wellbore failure criteria by constructing a one-dimensional mechanical earth model (1D-MEM) that will help to predict a safe mud-weight window for deep wells. An integrated log measurement has been used to compute MEM components for nine formations along the studied well. Repeated formation pressure and laboratory core testing are used to validate the calculated results. The prediction of mud weight along the nine studied formations shows that for Ahmadi, Nahr Umr, Shuaiba, and Zubair formations
... Show MoreDrug consultation is an important part of pharmaceutical care. mobile phone call or text message can serve as an easy, effective, and implementable alternative to improving medication adherence and clinical outcomes by providing the information needed significantly for people with chronic illnesses like diabetes and hypertension particularly during pandemics like COVID-19 pandemic.
Artificial Intelligence Algorithms have been used in recent years in many scientific fields. We suggest employing artificial TABU algorithm to find the best estimate of the semi-parametric regression function with measurement errors in the explanatory variables and the dependent variable, where measurement errors appear frequently in fields such as sport, chemistry, biological sciences, medicine, and epidemiological studies, rather than an exact measurement.
The primary components of successful engineering projects are time, cost, and quality. The use of the ring footing ensures the presence of these elements. This investigation aims to find the optimum number of geogrid reinforcement layers under ring footing subjected to inclined loading. For this purpose, experimental models were used. The parameters were studied to find the optimum geogrid layers number, including the optimum geogrid layers spacing and the optimum geogrid layers number. The optimum geogrid layers spacing value is 0.5B. And as the load inclination angle increased, the tilting and the tilting improvement percent for the load inclination angles (5°,10°,15°) are (40%,28%, and 5%) respectively. The reduction percent o
... Show MoreBackground: Bacterial DNA released upon bacterial autolysis or killed by antibiotics, hence, many inflammatogenic reactions will be established leading to serious tissue damage. Aim: the present work aimed to elucidate the histopathological changes caused by prokaryotic (bacterial) DNA and eukaryotic (candidal) DNA. Materials and methods: twenty one Staphylococcus aureus and 36 Candida albicans isolates were isolated from UTI patients. Viable cells and DNA of the highest antibiotic sensitive isolates were injected, intraurethraly, in mice. Results were evaluated via histopathological examination. Results: Mildest reactions were obtained from mice challenged with viable C. albicans compared with those challenged with viable S. aureus. Dos
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