Glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs) play a role in the detoxification of environmental chemicals and mutagens, such as those inhaled during tobacco smoking. There have been conflicting reports concerning GST polymorphisms as risk factors in the development of lung cancer. No studies focused on Arab populations exposed to Waterpipe (WP) tobacco smoke have been undertaken. Here Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and gene sequenc- ing were applied to analyze allelic variations in GSTP1-rs1695 and -rs1138272 amongst 123 lung cancer patients and 129 controls. The data suggest that WP smoking raised the risk of lung cancer more than three-fold (OR 3.6; 95% CI 2.1–6.0; p < 0.0001). However, there was no s

This paper proposes a compact, plasmonic-based 4 × 4 nonblocking switch for optical networks. This device uses six 2 × 2 plasmonic Mach-Zehnder switch (MZS), whose arm waveguide is supported by a JRD1 polymer layer as a high electro-optic coefficient material. The 4 × 4 switch is designed in COMSOL environment for 1550 nm wavelength operation. The performance of the proposed switch outperforms those of conventional (nonplasmonic) counterparts. The designed switch yields a compact structure ( 500 × 70   µ m 2 ) having V π L = 12   V · µ m , 1.5 THz optical bandwidth, 7.7 dB insertion loss, and −26.5 dB crosstalk. The capability of the switch to route 8 × 40 Gbps WDM signal is demonstrated successfully.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic infection that triggers immune cells to produce cytokines and inflammatory mediators that are responsible for abnormal or aborted immune responses. This study highlights the evaluation of the Dectin-1 receptor and cytokine IL-37 in the serum of 80 patients who had miscarried in the first trimester and were infected with toxoplasmosis, as well as 40 pregnant women in the first trimester who had a successful pregnancy (control groups). The serum was first screened for the T. gondii IgM and IgG antibodies by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and then the serum levels of IL-37 and Dectin-1 were determined. The results showed that the serum level of Dectin-1 was significantly increased in anti-

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of airways mediated by T-helper 2 (Th2) cells involving complex signaling pathways. Although resveratrol has previously been shown to attenuate allergic asthma, the role of miRNA in this process has not been studied. We investigated the effect of resveratrol on ovalbumin-induced experimental allergic asthma in mice. To that end, BALB/c mice were immunized with ovalbumin (OVA) intraperitoneally followed by oral gavage of vehicle (OVA-veh) or resveratrol (100 mg/kg body) (OVA-res). On day 7, the experimental groups received intranasal challenge of OVA followed by 7 days of additional oral gavage of vehicle or resveratrol. At day 15, all mice were euthanized and bronchioalveolar fluid (BALF), se

Dermatophytes are species with slight genetic variation, and are yet several uncertainties about the differences among species. This study aims to isolate and diagnose the Trichophyton interdigitale by molecular technique and to reveal the phylogenetic distance and similarity of the Iraqi isolates to other isolates from the globe, in addition, to submit the obtained sequences to the NCBI database. This study included 86 with multiple lesions on different parts of the body. The results showed different variations within the ITS gene between the isolates. It was concluded that Trichophyton interdigitale in Iraqi isolates had two types of substitution variations (Transition and Transversion) different than global isolates. Moreover, it

The objective of this study was to evaluate the alteration in levels of gonado trophins hormones i.e.,Leutizing (LH),Follicular(FSH) in sera of patients with thyroid disorders and molecular binding study of (LH ,FSH) with their antibodies The study was conducted at the specialized center for endocrinology and diabetes from January / 2009 to March / 2010.Two hundreds and twenty three Iraqi subjects, 109 patients with thyroid disorders at age range between (40-50) years and 114 healthy individuals as control group were included in this study.The majority of patients were female with hyperthyroidism and (49.54 % ) were at age range between(40 - 50) years. The levels of hormones(LH,FSH.tri iodothyronine(T3).thyroxine(T4), thy

Background: Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction that results in fluctuating muscle weakness as well as significant fatigue. Disease exacerbation is a critical condition, and the predisposing factors for it need to be identified to improve preventive measures.

Objectives:  Our study aims to determine the predisposing factors for myasthenia gravis exacerbations in a group of Iraqi patients.

Subjects and Methods: A total number of 30 myasthenia gravis patients were admitted to the hospital with an exacerbation of their symptoms, determined as the development of functional disability, dysphagia, or respiratory fai

The analysis, behavior of two-phase flow incompressible fluid in T-juction is done by using "A Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model" that application division of different in industries. The level set method was based in “Finite Element method”. In our search the behavior of two phase flow (oil and water) was studed. The two-phase flow is taken to simulate by using comsol software 4.3. The multivariable was studying such as velocity distribution, share rate, pressure and the fraction of volume at various times.  The velocity was employed at the inlet (0.2633, 0.1316, 0.0547 and 0.0283 m/s) for water and (0.1316 m/s) for oil, over and above the pressure set at outlet as a boundary condition. It was observed through the program

Chronic Hepatitis B(CHB) is a serious sequel after Hepatitis B Virus infection, although the rate of chronicity is inverse with age but it may be associated with a significant proportion of deaths related to cirrhosis and liver cancer. HBV serology and measurement of hepatocytic enzymes with viral load can predict disease prognosis and response to treatment. HBeAg refers to a high viral replication and associated with more infectivity to others. This study aimed to determine the impact of HBeAg status in chronically infected patients on various baseline tests. A total of 90 patients with CHB infection who were included in this study. Several standardized measures used for liver function tests, viral load and hepatitis B serological