Background: The genetic polymorphisms of vitamin D receptor (VDR) have an association with thalassemia development, additionally to the environmental elements that elicited the disorder in the genetically predisposed individuals. As well, VDR functions responsible for the regulation of bone metabolism, such its part in immunity. Aim: The sitting study intended to inspect the association between thalassemia disease and the genetic polymorphisms of VDR among the Iraqi population then compared these findings to other findings of thalassemia patients in other different ethnic populations. Materials and methods: The restriction enzymes Bsm-I and Fok-I were applied to determine the genetic polymorphisms frequencies of VDR by a Polymerase Chain Re

Despite extensive investigations, an effective treatment for sepsis remains elusive and a better understanding of the inflammatory response to infection is required to identify potential new targets for therapy. In this study we have used RNAi technology to show, for the first time, that the inducible lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 2 (LPCAT2) plays a key role in macrophage inflammatory gene expression in response to stimulation with bacterial ligands. Using siRNA- or shRNA-mediated knockdown, we demonstrate that, in contrast to the constitutive LPCAT1, LPCAT2 is required for macrophage cytokine gene expression and release in response to TLR4 and TLR2 ligand stimulation but not for TLR-independent stimuli. In addition, cells transfe

The objective of this study is to apply Artificial Neural Network for heat transfer analysis of shell-and-tube heat exchangers widely used in power plants and refineries. Practical data was obtained by using industrial heat exchanger operating in power generation department of Dura refinery. The commonly used Back Propagation (BP) algorithm was used to train and test networks by divided the data to three samples (training, validation and testing data) to give more approach data with actual case. Inputs of the neural network include inlet water temperature, inlet air temperature and mass flow rate of air. Two outputs (exit water temperature to cooling tower and exit air temperature to second stage of air compressor) were taken in ANN.

Background: Birth weight is a powerful predictor of infant growth and survival. Evidence now shows that children born with low birth weight face an increased risk of chronic diseases and have many health problems including oral health. The aims of this study were to assess the salivary flow rate, viscosity, and salivary cortisol among low birth weight kindergarten children aged 5 years old in Hilla centre, in relation to dental caries and compares them with the normal birth weight children of the same age and gender. Materials and methods: The total sample involved 80 children (40 low birth weights and 40 normal birth weights) aged 5 years old. The diagnosis and recording of severity of dental caries was recorded through the application of

Activation of farnesoid X receptor (FXR) markedly attenuates development of atherosclerosis in animal models. However, the underlying mechanism is not well elucidated. Here, we show that the FXR agonist, obeticholic acid (OCA), increases fecal cholesterol excretion and macrophage reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) dependent on activation of hepatic FXR. OCA does not increase biliary cholesterol secretion, but inhibits intestinal cholesterol absorption. OCA markedly inhibits hepatic cholesterol 7α‐hydroxylase (Cyp7a1) and sterol 12α‐hydroxylase (Cyp8b1) partly through inducing small heterodimer partner, leading to reduced bile acid pool size and al

The rise of edge-cloud continuum computing is a result of the growing significance of edge computing, which has become a complementary or substitute option for traditional cloud services. The convergence of networking and computers presents a notable challenge due to their distinct historical development. Task scheduling is a major challenge in the context of edge-cloud continuum computing. The selection of the execution location of tasks, is crucial in meeting the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of applications. An efficient scheduling strategy for distributing workloads among virtual machines in the edge-cloud continuum data center is mandatory to ensure the fulfilment of QoS requirements for both customer and service provider. E

          In this paper, we have investigated some of the most recent energy efficient routing protocols for wireless body area networks. This technology has seen advancements in recent times where wireless sensors are injected in the human body to sense and measure body parameters like temperature, heartbeat and glucose level. These tiny wireless sensors gather body data information and send it over a wireless network to the base station. The data measurements are examined by the doctor or   physician and the suitable cure is suggested. The whole communication is done through routing protocols in a network environment. Routing protocol consumes energy while helping non-stop communic