phytobiotics were introduced to poultry industries for enhancement of immunity and growth perform... more phytobiotics were introduced to poultry industries for enhancement of immunity and growth performance. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of propolis and ginger aqueous extract on body weight gain and immune-related organ weight. 100 one day old chicks were allocated into five groups; control, ginger-treated, propolis-treated, ginger/propolis-treated, and vaccinated untreated groups for 35 days. At the end of experiment, the body weight and immune-related organ weight were recorded. The result showed that the treated groups with ginger, propolis, and ginger/propolis non significantly increased the body weight and the weight of spleen and thymus gland alongside with non-significant decrease in the bursa of fabricius weight. This study concluded that ginger and propolis could be considered as growth promoter used for enhancement of growth in broiler chickens.
Background Pediatric pyeloplasty in ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) is indicated in ren... more Background Pediatric pyeloplasty in ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) is indicated in renal impaired drainage or renal function deterioration. The improvement of renal function after pediatric pyeloplasty is still controversial in poorly functioning kidneys. Past studies on poorly functioning kidneys had a variable SRF specification, and these studies often had a limited number of patients so that they did not achieve statistical significance. The study aims to detect the renal functional improvement after pediatric Anderson-Hynes pyeloplasty (AHP) with split renal function (SRF) less than 20% (poor renal function). Results A retrospective study included 46 pediatric patients with unilateral UPJO who underwent open AHP with SRF < 20% on a renal isotope scan from August 2012 to October 2018. Success was defined based on either improvement in symptoms, improvement in drainage on postoperative renography, and/or improvement or stability in SRF on the renal scan done 6 months...
Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs), because of their superparamagnetic characteristics, are of cons... more Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs), because of their superparamagnetic characteristics, are of considerable interest in nanotechnology related fields including biomedical, environmental, industrial applications. however, the knowledge of IONPs toxicity is very limited especially in vivo studies. Quercetin (QT); a natural flavonoid, strong antioxidant , free radical scavenger and iron chelator, has multiple therapeutic effects. The present study aimed to explore role of IONPs and QT in rat body weight and possible protective effect of QT in chelating iron preventing fenton reaction. Twenty five male adult rats were allocated equally into five groups: control, IONPs (50 mg/kg b.w i.p. 3 times/week), QT (25 mg/kg b.w. daily per os)+IONPs, QT (50 mg/kg b.w. daily per os) + IONPs, QT (100 mg/kg b.w. daily per os) + IONPs. Rat body weights were assessed weekly till end of the study. After the 30 days brain tissues were collected for measurement of iron level. IONPs induced a non-significant difference in all weeks except at day of sacrifice there was a significant increment in body weight. Compared to IONPs group, QT 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg b.w.+IONPs induced a non-significant difference in body weight in all weeks. IONPs induced a significant increment in Fe level. Compared to IONPs group, QT 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg+IONPs induced a non-significant reduction in Fe level. The results of this study showed role of IONPs and quercetin in body weight gain and suggested protective role of quercetin in chelating Fe preventing fenton reaction occurred from its increase by IONPs.
Background: Ischemic mitral regurgitation is a common clinical problem of coronary artery disease... more Background: Ischemic mitral regurgitation is a common clinical problem of coronary artery disease, developing acutely after myocardial infarction in up to 19 % of patients. It may be chronic condition being found approximately in 3 % of patients undergoing coronary angiography, or may less commonly occur as a regional episode of ischemia. Aim of the Work: We reviewed outcomes of the most problematic subgroup of patients in terms of surgical approach—patients with moderate IMR. We evaluated the effectiveness of CABG with or without repair MVr with regard to changes in functional class, postoperative MR, LV function and short term survival benefit. Patients and Methods: Between July 2017 and June 2020, a cohort of sixty patients with ischemic heart disease associated with moderate chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation. The study was carried out in the department of cardiac surgery and other multicenters after obtaining the approval of the local ethical committee and a fully-informed w...
ABSTRACT Background and Aims: The link between gut and liver diseases could be explained by the p... more ABSTRACT Background and Aims: The link between gut and liver diseases could be explained by the presence of a population of T cells capable of homing both to the liver and the gut through portal circulation. Peripheral and hepatic FoxP3 regulatory T cells (Treg) play a fundamental role in the balance between the tissue-damaging and protective effects of the immune response to HCV. The relationship between colonic mucosal Treg and HCV pathogenesis has not been explored. In this study we investigated the frequency of Treg cells in colonic tissue and its relationship to the outcome of anti-HCV therapy, viral persistence and degree of liver inflammation. Methods: Colonic tissue biopsies were collected from patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection naïve to therapy (n=20), patients with CHC non responders (NR) to the standard of care therapy (Peg-IFN/Rib) (n=20), HCV infected patients with sustained virological response (SVR) (n=20), and healthy control subjects (n=10). The plasma viral load was determined by RT-PCR. Liver biopsies were examined to assess inflammatory score and fibrosis stage according to METAVIR scoring system. The frequency of Treg in colonic biopsies was estimated by Fluorescent immunohistochemistry using confocal microscopy Results: A significant increase in the frequency of colonic mucosal Treg was found in patients with CHC naïve to treatment (mean ± SD; 3.5 ±3.5 cells/HPF), compared with healthy controls (0.5 ±0.7 cells/HPF), and SVR group (0.3 ±0.6 cells/HPF), (p=0.0004 and p&amp;lt;0.0001, respectively). Additionally, the frequency of colonic mucosal Treg was significantly higher in NR group (3.6 ±2.6 cells/HPF), compared to controls, and SVR group (p&amp;lt;0.0001, and p&amp;lt;0.001, respectively). However, there were no significant differences in the frequency of colonic Treg in SVR group compared to controls, and in NR group compared to naïve group. The frequency of colonic Treg was significantly (p&amp;lt; 0.0001) positively correlated with viral load (R=0.77) and negatively correlated with METAVIR score (p=0.0001, R= - 0.5), and fibrosis stage (p=0.0097, R = - 0.4). No significant correlation was detected between viral load and METAVIR score or fibrosis. Conclusions: Treg in colonic mucosa is associated with liver inflammation and HCV replication. This mechanism could be through inhibition of HCV-specific immune responses and subsequent decrease in liver inflammation and fibrosis. Follow-up analysis of mucosal Treg cells during HCV infection may open the field for a new line of immunotherapy to manipulate Treg cells during the course of infection in order to improve responses to therapy and to prevent liver inflammation. Supported by Egyptian Scholarship for Helal F. Hetta.
Abstract—For languages with rich content over the web, business reviews are easily accessible via... more Abstract—For languages with rich content over the web, business reviews are easily accessible via many known websites, e.g., Yelp.com. For languages with poor content over the web like Arabic, there are very few websites (we are actually aware of only one that is indeed unpopular) that provide business reviews. However, this does not mean that such reviews do not exist. They indeed exist unstructured in websites not originally intended for reviews, e.g., Forums and Blogs. Hence, there is a need to mine for those Arabic reviews from the web in order to provide them in the search results when a user searches for a business or a category of businesses. In this paper, we show how to extract the business reviews scattered on the web written in the Arabic language. The mined reviews are analyzed to also provide their sentiments (positive, negative or neutral). This way, we provide our users the information they need about the local businesses in the language they understand, and therefore...
Title Adiponectin Inhibits LPS-Induced HMGB1 Release through an AMP Kinase and Heme Oxygenase-1-D... more Title Adiponectin Inhibits LPS-Induced HMGB1 Release through an AMP Kinase and Heme Oxygenase-1-Dependent Pathway in RAW 264 Macrophage Cells Author(s) Elfeky, Mohamed; Kaede, Ryuji; Okamatsu-Ogura, Yuko; Kimura, Kazuhiro Citation Mediators of inflammation, 2016: 5701959 Issue Date 2016-05-10 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/62602 Rights(URL) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Type article File Information 5701959.pdf
Gastric ulceration is a multifactorial disease defined as a defect in the gastric wall that exten... more Gastric ulceration is a multifactorial disease defined as a defect in the gastric wall that extends through the muscularis mucosae into the deeper layers of the wall. The most common cause of gastric ulceration is alcohol consumption. In the current study, rats were gavaged by ethanol to investigate the protective (before ethanol) and curative (after ethanol) ability of Commiphora myrrh (myrrh) oil and extract against gastric ulcer oxidative alterations induced by ethanol. Myrrh significantly improved ulcer index, histomorphology, and periodic acid Schiff (PAS) impaired by ethanol. In addition, myrrh improved the antioxidant potential of gastric mucosa through enhancement of nuclear factor related to erythroid 2 (Nrf2), total glutathione (GSH), reduced GSH, and oxidized glutathione (GSSG), along with significant reduction in malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Amelioration of gastric oxidative stress by myrrh enables gastric mucosa to counteract the ethanol’s inflammatory and apoptotic pr...
2018 IEEE Spoken Language Technology Workshop (SLT), 2018
Current state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition systems are trained to work in specific 'do... more Current state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition systems are trained to work in specific 'domains', defined based on factors like application, sampling rate and codec. When such recognizers are used in conditions that do not match the training domain, performance significantly drops. This work explores the idea of building a single domain-invariant model for varied use-cases by combining large scale training data from multiple application domains. Our final system is trained using 162,000 hours of speech. Additionally, each utterance is artificially distorted during training to simulate effects like background noise, codec distortion, and sampling rates. Our results show that, even at such a scale, a model thus trained works almost as well as those fine-tuned to specific subsets: A single model can be robust to multiple application domains, and variations like codecs and noise. More importantly, such models generalize better to unseen conditions and allow for rapid adaptation-we show that by using as little as 10 hours of data from a new domain, an adapted domain-invariant model can match performance of a domain-specific model trained from scratch using 70 times as much data. We also highlight some of the limitations of such models and areas that need addressing in future work.
The present study was carried out to investigate the effects of different levels of dietary bovin... more The present study was carried out to investigate the effects of different levels of dietary bovine lactoferrin (BLF) or chitosan nanoparticles (CHN) alone or in combinations on the serum biochemical indices, antioxidative capacity, transcriptomic responses, immunity, and resistance of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) against challenge with Aeromonas hydrophila. Fish were fed on the basal diet with no supplements and served as control (CTR), and six experimental diets containing different levels of BLF (800 and 1200 mg per kg diet), CHN (500 and 1000 mg per kg diet), and combinations of both (400 mg BLF plus 250 mg CHN per kg diet, and 600 mg BLF plus 500 mg CHN per kg diet) for 45 days. At the end of the experiment, serum, and tissue specimens (liver and kidney) were collected, and finally, fish in all groups were challenged with A. hydrophila and observed for another ten days for determination of the RPS. Compared to the CTR group, no significant differences were recorded in the TP, ALB, GLO, BUN, and CREAT values among all treatments. Serum LYZ, ALT, AST, and ALP enzyme activities were significantly increased in all experimental groups over the CTR (P < 0.05), and their highest values were recorded in the combined treatments. Moreover, dietary supplementation with CHN (1000 mg/kg) and combined treatments significantly increased the SOD, CAT, and GSH-Px enzyme activities compared with other groups (P < 0.05). Similarly, the highest mRNA expression levels of IGF-1 gene in liver, and IL-1β, and IFN-γ genes in kidneys were recorded in CHN (1000 mg/kg) and combined treatments more than other experimental groups. Interestingly, no, or mild histopathological alterations were noticed in the hepatopancreas and posterior kidney of the treated groups. A significantly higher RPS was identified in the combined treatments challenged with A. hydrophila compared with the CTR group. This study exemplifies the positive impacts of dietary supplementation with BLF or CHN alone or combinations on the antioxidative status, immunity, and disease resistance of Nile tilapia.
Iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP) therapy has diverse health benefits but high doses or prolonged th... more Iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP) therapy has diverse health benefits but high doses or prolonged therapy might induce oxidative cellular injuries especially in the brain. Therefore, we conducted the current study to investigate the protective role of quercetin supplementation against the oxidative alterations induced in the brains of rats due to IONPs. Forty adult male albino rats were allocated into equal five groups; the control received a normal basal diet, the IONP group was intraperitoneally injected with IONPs of 50 mg/kg body weight (B.W.) and quercetin-treated groups had IONPs + Q25, IONPs + Q50 and IONPs + Q100 that were orally supplanted with quercetin by doses of 25, 50 and 100 mg quercetin/kg B.W. daily, respectively, administrated with the same dose of IONPs for 30 days. IONPs induced significant increases in malondialdehyde (MDA) and significantly decreased reduced glutathione (GSH) and oxidized glutathione (GSSG). Consequently, IONPs significantly induced severe brain t...
The importance of the incorporation of nanomaterials in concrete has emerged as a promising resea... more The importance of the incorporation of nanomaterials in concrete has emerged as a promising research interest due to the outstanding functionalized properties of the materials at that size level. This study aims to investigate the engineering and durability properties of concrete incorporated with hybrid nanomaterials. In this study, the influence of carbon nanotube (CNT) on microstructure, mechanical, and corrosion characteristics of nano-clay-based (NC) concrete has been evaluated. The cement was replaced with CNT at different percentages of 0.01%, 0.02%, and 0.04% by weight, while NC was replaced at a constant percentage of 5%. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to examine the microstructural characterization of the samples. To investigate the influence of carbon nanotubes in the fresh properties, slump and air content tests were carried out. The compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, and bond strength of the hardened concrete was evaluated accordin...
Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are more commonly utilised in medicine, however they have negative e... more Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are more commonly utilised in medicine, however they have negative effects on the majority of organs, including the reproductive system. AgNPs were reported to be able to reach the testes due to their small size, which allows them to pass through blood testicular barriers. The goal of this study was to see if LA (alpha lipoic acid) or GB (ginkgo biloba) might protect adult rat testes after intraperitoneal injection of AgNPs. Forty male healthy adult Wister albino rats were randomly assigned to four groups (10 rats each); control, AgNPs-intoxicated group intraperitoneally injected AgNPs 50 mg/kg b.w, 3 times a week, LA + AgNPs group intoxicated with AgNPs and orally gavaged with 100 mg LA/kg b.w, and GB + AgNPs group injected with AgNPs and orally given GB extract 120 mg/kg b.w were continued for 30 consecutive days. Biochemical changes in testicular tissue (testosterone, ACP, and Prostatic acid phosphatase), oxidative indices in testicles tissues, mRNA e...
Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2021
Acrylamide (ACR) is an unsaturated monomer that entered in various elds however, it is a potent n... more Acrylamide (ACR) is an unsaturated monomer that entered in various elds however, it is a potent neurotoxic. The present study target is to explore the neuroprotective e cacy of allicin and melatonin on ACR-induced neurotoxicity. Thirty-six male adult rats were non-selectively separated into six groups: placebo, allicin (20 mg/kg b.w daily per os), melatonin (10 mg/kg b.w 3 times/week per os), ACR (50 mg/kg b.w daily per os), ACR + allicin and ACR + melatonin with the same doses. The assessment of brain biomarkers, neurotransmitters, antioxidative status, Nrf2 signalling pathway, and histopathological analyses were performed following 21 days. ACR exposure enhanced the brain lipid and DNA oxidative damage as well as a reduction in the GSH levels. The obvious brain oxidative injuries was contributed to distinct brain dysfunction that was assured by alteration of brain neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine, and acetylcholinesterase), and pathological brain lesions. Furthermore, ACR exposure increased hydroxy deoxy guanosine (8-OHdG), tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and amyloid protein (AB-42). Finally, the mRNA transcripts of brain Keap-1, Nrf2, and NF-kB were up regulated after ACR intoxication. Interestingly, allicin and melatonin alleviated the ACR-induced brain damage assessed by normalization of the mentioned analyses. The present study demonstrated the protective role of both allicin and melatonin on ACR-prompted neuropathy by alleviation of redox imbalance and enhancement of neurotransmitters as well as relieving DNA damage and anti-in ammatory effect.
Aging is an oxidative stress-associated process that progresses with age. Our aim is to delay or ... more Aging is an oxidative stress-associated process that progresses with age. Our aim is to delay or attenuate these oxidative alterations and to keep individuals healthy as they age using natural compounds supplementation. Therefore, we conducted the present study to investigate the protective potentials of quercetin against D-galactose (D-gal)-associated oxidative alterations that were induced experimentally in male Wistar rats. Forty-five rats were randomly allocated into five groups of nine rats each. The groups were a control group that was reared on a basal diet and injected subcutaneously with 120 mg D-gal dissolved in physiological saline solution (0.9% NaCl) per kg body weight daily and quercetin-treated groups that received the same basal diet and subcutaneous daily D-gal injections were supplemented orally with 25, 50, and 100 mg of quercetin per kg body weight for 42 days. Pancreatic and renal samples were subjected to histopathological, immunohistochemical, and relative mRN...
Research has shown that automatic speech recognition (ASR) performance typically decreases when e... more Research has shown that automatic speech recognition (ASR) performance typically decreases when evaluated on a dialectal variation of the same language that was not used for training its models. Similarly, models simultaneously trained on a group of dialects tend to underperform when compared to dialect-specific models. When trying to decide which dialect-specific model (recognizer) to use to decode an utterance (e.g., a voice search query), possible strategies include automatically detecting the spoken dialect or following the user's language preferences as set in his/her cell phone. In this paper, we observe that user's voice search queries are usually directed to a dialect-specific recognizer that does not match the user's current location, and present a study that shows that automatically selecting the recognizer based on the user's geographical location helps improve the user experience.
Background: Ureteral catheters are valuable indispensable devices may readily acquire biofilms on... more Background: Ureteral catheters are valuable indispensable devices may readily acquire biofilms on the inner or outer surfaces. This study evaluated the efficacies of ureteral catheters impregnated with ciprofloxacin, N-acetylcysteine each alone and in combination on microbial adherence. Methods: Antimicrobial durability of ureteral catheters coated, through instant dip method, with ciprofloxacin were determined using modified Kirby-Bauer method. Ciprofloxacin-coated catheters showed zones of inhibition ranged from 15 to 45 mm in diameter (baseline) against nine clinical strains recently isolated from patients undergoing ureteral stent removal. Segments coated with ciprofloxacin, N-acetylcysteine each alone and in combination, through instant dip method, were incubated with the tested microorganisms, washed, sonicated, cultured and the number of viable cells were determined. Results: Ciprofloxacin-coated catheters soaked in urine and incubated at 37 °C, maintained antimicrobial activities and produce zones of inhibition that measured 2-10 mm for at least 8 weeks. Effect of ciprofloxacin and N-acetylcysteine coated catheters on microbial adherence were found to be dose dependent. Catheters impregnated with ciprofloxacin/N-acetylcysteine showed the highest inhibitory effect on microbial adherence when compared with controls (85.5%-100%). Conclusion: Catheters impregnated with ciprofloxacin, using instant dip method, were shown to have broad spectrum, prolonged antimicrobial durability and high efficacy. On the other hand, Catheters impregnated with ciprofloxacin/NAC showed the highest inhibitory effect on microbial adherence to stent surfaces.
Gnetum gnemon L.) seed extract induces uncoupling protein 1 expression in brown fat and protects ... more Gnetum gnemon L.) seed extract induces uncoupling protein 1 expression in brown fat and protects mice against diet-induced obesity, inflammation, and insulin resistance. Ntr (2018),
phytobiotics were introduced to poultry industries for enhancement of immunity and growth perform... more phytobiotics were introduced to poultry industries for enhancement of immunity and growth performance. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of propolis and ginger aqueous extract on body weight gain and immune-related organ weight. 100 one day old chicks were allocated into five groups; control, ginger-treated, propolis-treated, ginger/propolis-treated, and vaccinated untreated groups for 35 days. At the end of experiment, the body weight and immune-related organ weight were recorded. The result showed that the treated groups with ginger, propolis, and ginger/propolis non significantly increased the body weight and the weight of spleen and thymus gland alongside with non-significant decrease in the bursa of fabricius weight. This study concluded that ginger and propolis could be considered as growth promoter used for enhancement of growth in broiler chickens.
Background Pediatric pyeloplasty in ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) is indicated in ren... more Background Pediatric pyeloplasty in ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) is indicated in renal impaired drainage or renal function deterioration. The improvement of renal function after pediatric pyeloplasty is still controversial in poorly functioning kidneys. Past studies on poorly functioning kidneys had a variable SRF specification, and these studies often had a limited number of patients so that they did not achieve statistical significance. The study aims to detect the renal functional improvement after pediatric Anderson-Hynes pyeloplasty (AHP) with split renal function (SRF) less than 20% (poor renal function). Results A retrospective study included 46 pediatric patients with unilateral UPJO who underwent open AHP with SRF < 20% on a renal isotope scan from August 2012 to October 2018. Success was defined based on either improvement in symptoms, improvement in drainage on postoperative renography, and/or improvement or stability in SRF on the renal scan done 6 months...
Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs), because of their superparamagnetic characteristics, are of cons... more Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs), because of their superparamagnetic characteristics, are of considerable interest in nanotechnology related fields including biomedical, environmental, industrial applications. however, the knowledge of IONPs toxicity is very limited especially in vivo studies. Quercetin (QT); a natural flavonoid, strong antioxidant , free radical scavenger and iron chelator, has multiple therapeutic effects. The present study aimed to explore role of IONPs and QT in rat body weight and possible protective effect of QT in chelating iron preventing fenton reaction. Twenty five male adult rats were allocated equally into five groups: control, IONPs (50 mg/kg b.w i.p. 3 times/week), QT (25 mg/kg b.w. daily per os)+IONPs, QT (50 mg/kg b.w. daily per os) + IONPs, QT (100 mg/kg b.w. daily per os) + IONPs. Rat body weights were assessed weekly till end of the study. After the 30 days brain tissues were collected for measurement of iron level. IONPs induced a non-significant difference in all weeks except at day of sacrifice there was a significant increment in body weight. Compared to IONPs group, QT 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg b.w.+IONPs induced a non-significant difference in body weight in all weeks. IONPs induced a significant increment in Fe level. Compared to IONPs group, QT 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg+IONPs induced a non-significant reduction in Fe level. The results of this study showed role of IONPs and quercetin in body weight gain and suggested protective role of quercetin in chelating Fe preventing fenton reaction occurred from its increase by IONPs.
Background: Ischemic mitral regurgitation is a common clinical problem of coronary artery disease... more Background: Ischemic mitral regurgitation is a common clinical problem of coronary artery disease, developing acutely after myocardial infarction in up to 19 % of patients. It may be chronic condition being found approximately in 3 % of patients undergoing coronary angiography, or may less commonly occur as a regional episode of ischemia. Aim of the Work: We reviewed outcomes of the most problematic subgroup of patients in terms of surgical approach—patients with moderate IMR. We evaluated the effectiveness of CABG with or without repair MVr with regard to changes in functional class, postoperative MR, LV function and short term survival benefit. Patients and Methods: Between July 2017 and June 2020, a cohort of sixty patients with ischemic heart disease associated with moderate chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation. The study was carried out in the department of cardiac surgery and other multicenters after obtaining the approval of the local ethical committee and a fully-informed w...
ABSTRACT Background and Aims: The link between gut and liver diseases could be explained by the p... more ABSTRACT Background and Aims: The link between gut and liver diseases could be explained by the presence of a population of T cells capable of homing both to the liver and the gut through portal circulation. Peripheral and hepatic FoxP3 regulatory T cells (Treg) play a fundamental role in the balance between the tissue-damaging and protective effects of the immune response to HCV. The relationship between colonic mucosal Treg and HCV pathogenesis has not been explored. In this study we investigated the frequency of Treg cells in colonic tissue and its relationship to the outcome of anti-HCV therapy, viral persistence and degree of liver inflammation. Methods: Colonic tissue biopsies were collected from patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection naïve to therapy (n=20), patients with CHC non responders (NR) to the standard of care therapy (Peg-IFN/Rib) (n=20), HCV infected patients with sustained virological response (SVR) (n=20), and healthy control subjects (n=10). The plasma viral load was determined by RT-PCR. Liver biopsies were examined to assess inflammatory score and fibrosis stage according to METAVIR scoring system. The frequency of Treg in colonic biopsies was estimated by Fluorescent immunohistochemistry using confocal microscopy Results: A significant increase in the frequency of colonic mucosal Treg was found in patients with CHC naïve to treatment (mean ± SD; 3.5 ±3.5 cells/HPF), compared with healthy controls (0.5 ±0.7 cells/HPF), and SVR group (0.3 ±0.6 cells/HPF), (p=0.0004 and p&amp;lt;0.0001, respectively). Additionally, the frequency of colonic mucosal Treg was significantly higher in NR group (3.6 ±2.6 cells/HPF), compared to controls, and SVR group (p&amp;lt;0.0001, and p&amp;lt;0.001, respectively). However, there were no significant differences in the frequency of colonic Treg in SVR group compared to controls, and in NR group compared to naïve group. The frequency of colonic Treg was significantly (p&amp;lt; 0.0001) positively correlated with viral load (R=0.77) and negatively correlated with METAVIR score (p=0.0001, R= - 0.5), and fibrosis stage (p=0.0097, R = - 0.4). No significant correlation was detected between viral load and METAVIR score or fibrosis. Conclusions: Treg in colonic mucosa is associated with liver inflammation and HCV replication. This mechanism could be through inhibition of HCV-specific immune responses and subsequent decrease in liver inflammation and fibrosis. Follow-up analysis of mucosal Treg cells during HCV infection may open the field for a new line of immunotherapy to manipulate Treg cells during the course of infection in order to improve responses to therapy and to prevent liver inflammation. Supported by Egyptian Scholarship for Helal F. Hetta.
Abstract—For languages with rich content over the web, business reviews are easily accessible via... more Abstract—For languages with rich content over the web, business reviews are easily accessible via many known websites, e.g., Yelp.com. For languages with poor content over the web like Arabic, there are very few websites (we are actually aware of only one that is indeed unpopular) that provide business reviews. However, this does not mean that such reviews do not exist. They indeed exist unstructured in websites not originally intended for reviews, e.g., Forums and Blogs. Hence, there is a need to mine for those Arabic reviews from the web in order to provide them in the search results when a user searches for a business or a category of businesses. In this paper, we show how to extract the business reviews scattered on the web written in the Arabic language. The mined reviews are analyzed to also provide their sentiments (positive, negative or neutral). This way, we provide our users the information they need about the local businesses in the language they understand, and therefore...
Title Adiponectin Inhibits LPS-Induced HMGB1 Release through an AMP Kinase and Heme Oxygenase-1-D... more Title Adiponectin Inhibits LPS-Induced HMGB1 Release through an AMP Kinase and Heme Oxygenase-1-Dependent Pathway in RAW 264 Macrophage Cells Author(s) Elfeky, Mohamed; Kaede, Ryuji; Okamatsu-Ogura, Yuko; Kimura, Kazuhiro Citation Mediators of inflammation, 2016: 5701959 Issue Date 2016-05-10 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/62602 Rights(URL) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Type article File Information 5701959.pdf
Gastric ulceration is a multifactorial disease defined as a defect in the gastric wall that exten... more Gastric ulceration is a multifactorial disease defined as a defect in the gastric wall that extends through the muscularis mucosae into the deeper layers of the wall. The most common cause of gastric ulceration is alcohol consumption. In the current study, rats were gavaged by ethanol to investigate the protective (before ethanol) and curative (after ethanol) ability of Commiphora myrrh (myrrh) oil and extract against gastric ulcer oxidative alterations induced by ethanol. Myrrh significantly improved ulcer index, histomorphology, and periodic acid Schiff (PAS) impaired by ethanol. In addition, myrrh improved the antioxidant potential of gastric mucosa through enhancement of nuclear factor related to erythroid 2 (Nrf2), total glutathione (GSH), reduced GSH, and oxidized glutathione (GSSG), along with significant reduction in malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Amelioration of gastric oxidative stress by myrrh enables gastric mucosa to counteract the ethanol’s inflammatory and apoptotic pr...
2018 IEEE Spoken Language Technology Workshop (SLT), 2018
Current state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition systems are trained to work in specific 'do... more Current state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition systems are trained to work in specific 'domains', defined based on factors like application, sampling rate and codec. When such recognizers are used in conditions that do not match the training domain, performance significantly drops. This work explores the idea of building a single domain-invariant model for varied use-cases by combining large scale training data from multiple application domains. Our final system is trained using 162,000 hours of speech. Additionally, each utterance is artificially distorted during training to simulate effects like background noise, codec distortion, and sampling rates. Our results show that, even at such a scale, a model thus trained works almost as well as those fine-tuned to specific subsets: A single model can be robust to multiple application domains, and variations like codecs and noise. More importantly, such models generalize better to unseen conditions and allow for rapid adaptation-we show that by using as little as 10 hours of data from a new domain, an adapted domain-invariant model can match performance of a domain-specific model trained from scratch using 70 times as much data. We also highlight some of the limitations of such models and areas that need addressing in future work.
The present study was carried out to investigate the effects of different levels of dietary bovin... more The present study was carried out to investigate the effects of different levels of dietary bovine lactoferrin (BLF) or chitosan nanoparticles (CHN) alone or in combinations on the serum biochemical indices, antioxidative capacity, transcriptomic responses, immunity, and resistance of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) against challenge with Aeromonas hydrophila. Fish were fed on the basal diet with no supplements and served as control (CTR), and six experimental diets containing different levels of BLF (800 and 1200 mg per kg diet), CHN (500 and 1000 mg per kg diet), and combinations of both (400 mg BLF plus 250 mg CHN per kg diet, and 600 mg BLF plus 500 mg CHN per kg diet) for 45 days. At the end of the experiment, serum, and tissue specimens (liver and kidney) were collected, and finally, fish in all groups were challenged with A. hydrophila and observed for another ten days for determination of the RPS. Compared to the CTR group, no significant differences were recorded in the TP, ALB, GLO, BUN, and CREAT values among all treatments. Serum LYZ, ALT, AST, and ALP enzyme activities were significantly increased in all experimental groups over the CTR (P < 0.05), and their highest values were recorded in the combined treatments. Moreover, dietary supplementation with CHN (1000 mg/kg) and combined treatments significantly increased the SOD, CAT, and GSH-Px enzyme activities compared with other groups (P < 0.05). Similarly, the highest mRNA expression levels of IGF-1 gene in liver, and IL-1β, and IFN-γ genes in kidneys were recorded in CHN (1000 mg/kg) and combined treatments more than other experimental groups. Interestingly, no, or mild histopathological alterations were noticed in the hepatopancreas and posterior kidney of the treated groups. A significantly higher RPS was identified in the combined treatments challenged with A. hydrophila compared with the CTR group. This study exemplifies the positive impacts of dietary supplementation with BLF or CHN alone or combinations on the antioxidative status, immunity, and disease resistance of Nile tilapia.
Iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP) therapy has diverse health benefits but high doses or prolonged th... more Iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP) therapy has diverse health benefits but high doses or prolonged therapy might induce oxidative cellular injuries especially in the brain. Therefore, we conducted the current study to investigate the protective role of quercetin supplementation against the oxidative alterations induced in the brains of rats due to IONPs. Forty adult male albino rats were allocated into equal five groups; the control received a normal basal diet, the IONP group was intraperitoneally injected with IONPs of 50 mg/kg body weight (B.W.) and quercetin-treated groups had IONPs + Q25, IONPs + Q50 and IONPs + Q100 that were orally supplanted with quercetin by doses of 25, 50 and 100 mg quercetin/kg B.W. daily, respectively, administrated with the same dose of IONPs for 30 days. IONPs induced significant increases in malondialdehyde (MDA) and significantly decreased reduced glutathione (GSH) and oxidized glutathione (GSSG). Consequently, IONPs significantly induced severe brain t...
The importance of the incorporation of nanomaterials in concrete has emerged as a promising resea... more The importance of the incorporation of nanomaterials in concrete has emerged as a promising research interest due to the outstanding functionalized properties of the materials at that size level. This study aims to investigate the engineering and durability properties of concrete incorporated with hybrid nanomaterials. In this study, the influence of carbon nanotube (CNT) on microstructure, mechanical, and corrosion characteristics of nano-clay-based (NC) concrete has been evaluated. The cement was replaced with CNT at different percentages of 0.01%, 0.02%, and 0.04% by weight, while NC was replaced at a constant percentage of 5%. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to examine the microstructural characterization of the samples. To investigate the influence of carbon nanotubes in the fresh properties, slump and air content tests were carried out. The compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, and bond strength of the hardened concrete was evaluated accordin...
Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are more commonly utilised in medicine, however they have negative e... more Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are more commonly utilised in medicine, however they have negative effects on the majority of organs, including the reproductive system. AgNPs were reported to be able to reach the testes due to their small size, which allows them to pass through blood testicular barriers. The goal of this study was to see if LA (alpha lipoic acid) or GB (ginkgo biloba) might protect adult rat testes after intraperitoneal injection of AgNPs. Forty male healthy adult Wister albino rats were randomly assigned to four groups (10 rats each); control, AgNPs-intoxicated group intraperitoneally injected AgNPs 50 mg/kg b.w, 3 times a week, LA + AgNPs group intoxicated with AgNPs and orally gavaged with 100 mg LA/kg b.w, and GB + AgNPs group injected with AgNPs and orally given GB extract 120 mg/kg b.w were continued for 30 consecutive days. Biochemical changes in testicular tissue (testosterone, ACP, and Prostatic acid phosphatase), oxidative indices in testicles tissues, mRNA e...
Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2021
Acrylamide (ACR) is an unsaturated monomer that entered in various elds however, it is a potent n... more Acrylamide (ACR) is an unsaturated monomer that entered in various elds however, it is a potent neurotoxic. The present study target is to explore the neuroprotective e cacy of allicin and melatonin on ACR-induced neurotoxicity. Thirty-six male adult rats were non-selectively separated into six groups: placebo, allicin (20 mg/kg b.w daily per os), melatonin (10 mg/kg b.w 3 times/week per os), ACR (50 mg/kg b.w daily per os), ACR + allicin and ACR + melatonin with the same doses. The assessment of brain biomarkers, neurotransmitters, antioxidative status, Nrf2 signalling pathway, and histopathological analyses were performed following 21 days. ACR exposure enhanced the brain lipid and DNA oxidative damage as well as a reduction in the GSH levels. The obvious brain oxidative injuries was contributed to distinct brain dysfunction that was assured by alteration of brain neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine, and acetylcholinesterase), and pathological brain lesions. Furthermore, ACR exposure increased hydroxy deoxy guanosine (8-OHdG), tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and amyloid protein (AB-42). Finally, the mRNA transcripts of brain Keap-1, Nrf2, and NF-kB were up regulated after ACR intoxication. Interestingly, allicin and melatonin alleviated the ACR-induced brain damage assessed by normalization of the mentioned analyses. The present study demonstrated the protective role of both allicin and melatonin on ACR-prompted neuropathy by alleviation of redox imbalance and enhancement of neurotransmitters as well as relieving DNA damage and anti-in ammatory effect.
Aging is an oxidative stress-associated process that progresses with age. Our aim is to delay or ... more Aging is an oxidative stress-associated process that progresses with age. Our aim is to delay or attenuate these oxidative alterations and to keep individuals healthy as they age using natural compounds supplementation. Therefore, we conducted the present study to investigate the protective potentials of quercetin against D-galactose (D-gal)-associated oxidative alterations that were induced experimentally in male Wistar rats. Forty-five rats were randomly allocated into five groups of nine rats each. The groups were a control group that was reared on a basal diet and injected subcutaneously with 120 mg D-gal dissolved in physiological saline solution (0.9% NaCl) per kg body weight daily and quercetin-treated groups that received the same basal diet and subcutaneous daily D-gal injections were supplemented orally with 25, 50, and 100 mg of quercetin per kg body weight for 42 days. Pancreatic and renal samples were subjected to histopathological, immunohistochemical, and relative mRN...
Research has shown that automatic speech recognition (ASR) performance typically decreases when e... more Research has shown that automatic speech recognition (ASR) performance typically decreases when evaluated on a dialectal variation of the same language that was not used for training its models. Similarly, models simultaneously trained on a group of dialects tend to underperform when compared to dialect-specific models. When trying to decide which dialect-specific model (recognizer) to use to decode an utterance (e.g., a voice search query), possible strategies include automatically detecting the spoken dialect or following the user's language preferences as set in his/her cell phone. In this paper, we observe that user's voice search queries are usually directed to a dialect-specific recognizer that does not match the user's current location, and present a study that shows that automatically selecting the recognizer based on the user's geographical location helps improve the user experience.
Background: Ureteral catheters are valuable indispensable devices may readily acquire biofilms on... more Background: Ureteral catheters are valuable indispensable devices may readily acquire biofilms on the inner or outer surfaces. This study evaluated the efficacies of ureteral catheters impregnated with ciprofloxacin, N-acetylcysteine each alone and in combination on microbial adherence. Methods: Antimicrobial durability of ureteral catheters coated, through instant dip method, with ciprofloxacin were determined using modified Kirby-Bauer method. Ciprofloxacin-coated catheters showed zones of inhibition ranged from 15 to 45 mm in diameter (baseline) against nine clinical strains recently isolated from patients undergoing ureteral stent removal. Segments coated with ciprofloxacin, N-acetylcysteine each alone and in combination, through instant dip method, were incubated with the tested microorganisms, washed, sonicated, cultured and the number of viable cells were determined. Results: Ciprofloxacin-coated catheters soaked in urine and incubated at 37 °C, maintained antimicrobial activities and produce zones of inhibition that measured 2-10 mm for at least 8 weeks. Effect of ciprofloxacin and N-acetylcysteine coated catheters on microbial adherence were found to be dose dependent. Catheters impregnated with ciprofloxacin/N-acetylcysteine showed the highest inhibitory effect on microbial adherence when compared with controls (85.5%-100%). Conclusion: Catheters impregnated with ciprofloxacin, using instant dip method, were shown to have broad spectrum, prolonged antimicrobial durability and high efficacy. On the other hand, Catheters impregnated with ciprofloxacin/NAC showed the highest inhibitory effect on microbial adherence to stent surfaces.
Gnetum gnemon L.) seed extract induces uncoupling protein 1 expression in brown fat and protects ... more Gnetum gnemon L.) seed extract induces uncoupling protein 1 expression in brown fat and protects mice against diet-induced obesity, inflammation, and insulin resistance. Ntr (2018),
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Papers by Mohamed Elfeky