Basal breccia unconformity layer between Anah and Euphrates Formations in Al-Haqlaniyah area, Western desert, include enormous sinkholes and cavities usually cause severe damages to any kind of engineering facilities built over it. Two-dimensional resistivity imaging has been applied to detect the depth and extent of the subsurface caves at five stations. The dipole-dipole array is chosen with an electrode spacing of 2 meters. 2D Dipole-dipole imaging inverse models show the resistivity values have a big variation between the anomalous background resistivity of rocks and part of cavities. These models showed shallow cavities at 1 to 3 m depth and others at 5to 6 m depth and extending to a depth of 23 m. The unconformity layer

Seeds of the two rice genotypes namely Amber 33 (A33) and Amber Baghdad (AB) were divided into two groups; the first was presoaked in different concentrations of ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) as chemical mutagen for different duration times (3, 6 and 12) hrs, and the other was exposed to different exposure times of ultra violate (UV-B) radiation (280-320 nm) as physical mutagen for different times (20, 40 and 60) min at room temperature. Treated and non-treated seeds were transferred into the callus induction medium containing 2.5 mg/L 2,4- dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) and 0.5 mg/L benzyl adenine (BA) under aseptic conditions. Calli were divided into two groups the first was treated with several EMS concentrations (0.0, 0.50. 1.0, 1

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

TNF-α-induced osteoclastogenesis is central to post-menopausal and inflammatory bone loss, however, the effect of phytoestrogens on TNF-α-induced bone resorption has not been studied. The phytoestrogens genistein, daidzein, and coumestrol directly suppressed TNF-α-induced osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption. TRAP positive osteoclast formation and resorption area were significantly reduced by genistein (10(-7) M), daidzein (10(-5) M), and coumestrol (10(-7) M), which was prevented by the estrogen antagonist ICI 182,780. TRAP expression in mature TNF-α-induced osteoclasts was also significantly reduced by these phytoestrogen concentrations. In addition, in the presence of ICI 182,780 genistein and coumestrol (10(-5) -10(-6) M) augmente

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

Background: Cytokines are the messengers of the immune system.They are mostly secreted by macrophages and lymphocytes and their production is induced in response to injury or infections.
Objective: Biopsy speciemens from the middle body of the stomach were obtained from 18 patients with gastric carcinoma, 32 patients with atrophic gastritis, 50 patients with chronic gastritis and 20 healthy subjects and IL-8 and IL-1B levels were detrmined.
Methods: Sandwich-type enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit was used to determine the IL-8 and IL-1B levels.
Results: IL-8 and IL-1B levels were significantly higher in gastric carcinoma patients than patients with atrophic gastritis and both significantly higher than healthy subjects.
C

4 Blood Res 2018;53:314-319. Received on August 11, 2018 Revised on August 30, 2018 Accepted on August 30, 2018 Background Iron overload is a risk factor affecting all patients with thalassemia intermedia (TI). We aimed to determine whether there is a relationship of serum ferritin (SF) and alanine ami- notransferase (ALT) with liver iron concentration (LIC) determined by R2 magnetic reso- nance imaging (R2-MRI), to estimate the most relevant degree of iron overload and best time to chelate in patients with TI. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 119 patients with TI (mean age years) were randomly se- lected and compared with 120 patients who had a diagnosis of thalassemia major (TM). Correlations of LIC, as determined by R2-MRI, with SF

Dust storms are a natural phenomenon occurring in most areas of Iraq. In recent years, the study of this phenomenon has become important because of the danger caused by increasing desertification at the expense of the green cover as well as its impact on human health. In this study  is important to devote the remote sensing of dust storms and its detection.Through this research, the dust storms can be detected in semi-arid areas, which are difficult to distinguish between these storms and desert areas. For the distinction between the dust storm pixels in the image with those that do not contain dust storm can be applied the Normalized Difference Dust Index (NDDI) and Brightness Temperature variation (BTV). MODIS sensors that carried