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Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease of unknown etiology that increases the risk of developing colorectal cancer and imposes a lifelong healthcare burden on millions of patients worldwide. Current treatment strategies are associated with significant risks and have been shown to be fairly effective. Hence, discovering new therapies that have better efficacy and safety profiles than currently exploited therapeutic strategies is challenging. It has been well delineated that NF-κB/Nrf2 crosstalk is a chief player in the interplay between oxidative stress and inflammation. Ambroxol hydrochloride, a mucolytic agent, has shown antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity in humans and animals and has not yet been examined for the management of UC. Therefore, our approach was to investigate whether ambroxol could be effective to combat UC using the common acetic acid rat model. Interestingly, a high dose of oral ambroxol (200 mg/kg/day) reasonably improved the microscopic and macroscopic features of the injured colon. This was linked to low disease activity and a reduction in the colonic weight/length ratio. In the context of that, ambroxol boosted Nrf2 activity and upregulated HO-1 and catalase to augment the antioxidant defense against oxidative damage. Besides, ambroxol inactivated NF-κB signaling and its consequent target pro-inflammatory mediators, IL-6 and TNF-α. In contrast, IL-10 is upregulated. Consistent with these results, myeloperoxidase activity is suppressed. Moreover, ambroxol decreased the susceptibility of the injured colon to apoptosis. To conclude, our findings highlight the potential application of ambroxol to modify the progression of UC by its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiapoptotic properties.

Background: Idiopathic scoliosis is a common spinal malalignment that negatively impacts the respiratory system and physical conditioning in adolescents. Equine-assisted therapy comprises therapeutic horseback riding that optimizes physical performance and mobility in a range of contexts. However, the influence of equine-assisted therapy on pulmonary function remains unclear.Objective: To examine the impact of 10 weeks of hippotherapy combined with Schroth exercises on pulmonary function and aerobic capacity in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis.Methods: A randomized controlled trial including 45 patients, randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, was performed. Patients in the experimental group received 15 30-min sessions of hippotherapy over a period of 10 weeks. The 2 groups attended a 60-min session of Schroth exercises 3 times/week for 10 weeks. Pulmonary function and functional capacity were assessed before and after the intervention.Results: Pre- and post-intervention variables (FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC, MVV and 6MWT) revealed significant improvement in both groups (p < 0.05). The improvement in the experimental group was significantly higher than in the control group (p < 0.05).Conclusion: The addition of hippotherapy to Schroth exercises resulted in improved pulmonary function and aerobic capacity in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis. LAY ABSTRACTScoliosis is a 3-dimensional spine deformation disorder that has direct consequences on the thoracic cage, resulting in lung constriction and functional difficulties in adolescents. Conservative therapy approaches are mostly designed to correct the spinal bony curvature rather than address adverse negative deterioration. This study investigated the effect of hippotherapy (equine therapy) in combination with Schroth exercises on pulmonary function and aerobic capacity in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis. The combination of hippotherapy with Schroth exercises had a significant benefit compared with Schroth exercises alone. Horseback riding therapy could be an innovative complementary physical therapy technique for improving respiratory and physical functioning in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis.

This article is devoted to studying the effect of using gestures on the emergence of new words in the languages. Gestures are often used by people to emphasize the meaning of some points of the verbal speech or to express feelings and emotions, which can’t be expressed by words. From this point, new words start to appear in the language, which are more descriptive and meaningful to their predecessors. Cultures that use more nonverbal forms of communication tend to have bigger dictionary bases, or even if they have small dictionary bases, they will have several words which don’t have any equivalent in other languages. There is always a tendency for the language to improve and enrich its vocabulary base. Countries that have a huge population, tend to have bigger language bases, where numerous factors affect the expansion of the language. Such factors include the use of gestures, which plays a role in easing the communication in crowded cities. Bigger language bases mean more literacy, and accordingly more literacy means advancement in different branches of life sciences and human sciences., Данная статья посвящена изучению влияния использования жестов на появление новых слов в языках. Жесты часто используются людьми для того, чтобы подчеркнуть значение некоторых моментов вербальной речи, или для выражения чувств и эмоций, которые не могут быть выражены словами. С этого момента в языке начинают появляться новые слова, более описательные и значимые по сравнению со своими предшественниками. Культуры, которые используют больше невербальных форм общения, как правило, имеют большую словарную базу, или даже если у них небольшая словарная база, в них будет несколько слов, которые не имеют отношения к другим языкам. Всегда существует тенденция к совершенствованию и обогащению словарной базы языка. Страны с огромным населением, как правило, имеют большую языковую базу, где на распространение языка влияет множество факторов. К таким факторам относится использование жестов, что играет роль в облегчении общения в многолюдных городах. Большая языковая база означает большую грамотность, а, соответственно, большая грамотность означает прогресс в различных областях наук о жизни и гуманитарных науках.

Medium voltage distribution networks lack the adequate capability of being remotely monitored, controlled and having smart response due to their traditional and low-level automated protection devices. This paper assesses the reliability and performance improvement in medium voltage distribution networks after increasing the system automation by applying the fusesaver device on lateral line coordinated with the recloser device on the main feeder line. All nowadays applied advanced devices and previous solution scenarios are discussed and summarized through a critical literature review. The detailed methodology for the fusesaver coordinated implementation is explained. The evaluation can be achieved by calculating in a historical way the most common distribution system reliability indices, then a comparison between the case study results before and after fusesaver installation is presented. As a result, an enormous reduction occurred in outage frequency and duration, and the number of affected customers. Moreover, online monitoring of the line helped in estimating fault location and giving precise control decisions.

Background: In recent years, MRI has increasingly become the modality of choice for imaging of musculoskeletal disor-ders. Diffusion weighted MR sequences provide microscopic information to supplement the macroscopic information pro-vided by conventional sequences. It is a non invasive imaging technique which is suitable for probing the physical structure of a biologic tissue at a microscopic level and it exploits the random, translational motion of water protons in a biologic tissue, which reflects the tissue specific diffusion capacity and can be used for tissue characterization.Aim of Work: The aim of this study is to determine the value of Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) in differentiation between different causes of vertebral collapse.Patients and Methods: This is a prospective study carried out in Radio-Diagnosis Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University between August 2014 and February 2016 for patients diagnosed with vertebral body collapse. A total number of 35 patients (20 males and 15 females) with age range 18-74 (average 52).The MRI sequences obtained were sagittal T1WI, T2WI, STIR and axial T1WI, T2WI & DWI (± post contrast images in some patients). Bone marrow signal intensity of the collapsed vertebra was analyzed by comparing its signal intensity with the signal intensity of the intervertebral disc, fat and muscle tissue on T1-weighted images, the signal intensity of the affected veteba was also inspected on DWI then ADC values were automatically calculated using the software provided by the MR scanner manufacturer (Diffusion Calculation: Philips Medical Systems) and the ADC quantitative parameter was expressed in: 10–3mm2/s.Results: Our study included 35 patients who were diag-nosed with vertebral body collapse. Qualitative evaluation of the lesion contrast in diffusion-weighted MRI of the vertebral column has been shown to be valuable for the differentiation of lesion etiology; however, visual assessment of high signal intensity was not specific for malignancy.On the other hand the quantitative assessment by meas-uring the ADC value was able to distinguish different types of vertebral collapse.In our study, there was statistically Highly Significant (HS) difference between malignant and the following benign causes of vertebral collapse; acute fracture, chronic osteoporot-ic collapse and pyogenic spondylodiscitis. There is also statistically significant difference (S) between malignant and TB spondylodiscitis lesions according to ADC values.Conclusion: Diffusion weighted MRI can be used as a reliable tool in differentiation between different causes of vertebral body collapse. DWI could be applied as a cost effective substitute for the gadolinium enhanced scan especially in patients with contraindication for contrast administration.

Objective: Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways appropriate to pulmonary eosinophilia, airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and mucus overproduction. We now investigate the level of Periostin serum concentration in Egyptian asthmatic patients and define any correlation between periostin and Pulmonary Function Tests (PFT) Methods: 80 subjects were enrolled in the study: 20 control (11 male and 9 female), 28 atopic asthmatic patients (19 male and 9 female) and 32 non- atopic asthmatic patients (14 male and 18 female).Blood samples were obtained from the subjects for laboratory investigations which divided into two aliquots, First aliquot for whole blood used for complete blood count to determine blood eosinophil count by using Sysmex XP-300 and Second aliquot for serum used for estimation of Periostin, Transforming Growth Factor (TGF-β1) and Total Immunoglobulin (IgE) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays(ELISA).Results: Periostin concentrations were significantly higher in atopic and non- atopic groups (mean±SE; 6889±393.8 and 6212±348.8 pg/ml respectively) compared to control group (3053±446.5 pg/ml) at P < 0.05.TGF-β1 were significantly higher in atopic and non- atopic groups (mean±SE;75.83 ±1.53and 73.47±1.09 pg/ml respectively) compared to control group (51.26±2.65 pg/ml) at P < 0.05and IgE were significantly higher in atopic group (mean±SE;151.3±15.10IU /ml) compared to control group and non- atopic groups (52.47±3.045 and 48.51±1.827 IU /ml respectively) at P < 0.05.Periostin correlated negatively with PFT which Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume1(FEV1) and Forced Expiratory Volume 1% (FEV1%).Conclusions: Serum Periostin is increased in Egyptian asthmatic (atopic and non- atopic) patients compared to control and Periostin correlated negatively with pulmonary function tests in asthmatic patients. Asthma is the most significant variable relates to high Periostin serum concentration.

Low-density parity-check codes (LDPC) have been shown to have good error correcting performance, putting in mind the Shannon's limit approaching capability. This enables an efficient and reliable communication. However, the construction method of LDPC code can vary over a wide range of parameters such as rate, girth and length. There is a need to develop methods of constructing codes over a wide range of rates and lengths with good performance. This research studies the construction of LDPC codes in randomized and structured form. The contribution of this thesis is introducing a method called "Randomly permutated copies of parity check matrix" that uses a base parity check matrix designed by a random or structured construction method such as Gallager or QC-LDPC codes respectively to get codes with multiple lengths and same rate of the base matrix. This is done by using a seed matrix with row and column weights of one, distributed randomly and can be addressed by a number in the base matrix. This method reduces the memory space needed for storing large parity check matrices, and also reduces the probability of failing to construct a parity matrix by random approaches. Numerical results show that the proposed construction performs similarly to random codes with the same length and rate as in Gallager's and Mackay's codes. It also increases the girth average of the Tanner graph and reduces the number of 4 cycles in the resulted matrix if exists in a base graph.

A new generation of medium voltage vacuum circuit breakers were used to retrofit sealed Sf6 contactors which experienced difficulty in disconnecting the loads safely after 15 years of service. The new breakers which replaced the contactors and the associated fuses were mounted on the same panel truck preserving all original interlocks. Mechanical and electrical modifications were implemented to match the new breakers to the existing panel. Retrofitted breakers are in good service successfully for 5 years now.

5557 Background: In locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) weekly cisplatin concurrent with radiation therapy is the standared treatment. However some patients cannot tolerate cisplatin. So we conduct a prospective randomized trial comparing cisplatin versus gemcitabine. Methods: This trial was done in Kasr El-Ainy Center of Clinical Oncology and Radiation therapy (NEMROCK), during the period from March 2010 till June 2011. Sixty patients with locally advanced HNSCC were randomized to receive Cisplatin (30 mg/m2) weekly for 6 consecutive weeks (30 patients) or Gemcitabine (50 mg/m2) weekly for 6 consecutive weeks (30 patients) both concomitant with radiation therapy reaching a dose of 70 Gy over 7 weeks. Primary end points include response rate, progression free survival and toxicity. Toxicities were graded according to NCI-CTCAE v3.0. Results: Thewhole study group included 48 (80%) males and 12 (20%) females. Mean age was 47.9 (± 6.5) years (range 26-61). Both arms were comparable regarding their age, gender, performance status and stage. There were 9 (30%) CR, 7 (23.3%) PR, 2 (6.7%) SD and 12 (40%) PD in cisplatin arm versus 12 (40%) CR, 4 (13.3%) PR, 1 (3.3%) SD and 11 (36.7%) PD in gemcitabine arm. Median progression free survival (PFS) in cisplatin arm was 9 months versus 11months in gemcitabine arm with a hazard ratio of 0.08 (95% CI 0.005 – 1.47). We did not reach median overall survival. Radiotherapy induced skin toxicity (slight or patchy atrophy), nausea, vomiting, mucositis, salivary gland affection and weight loss were equally distributed in both arms. Dysphagia and fatigue were markedly higher in gemcitabine arm. While infection and neutropenia were slightly higher in cisplatin arm. Conclusions: Weekly gemcitabine 50mg/m2 concomitant with radiotherapy was found to be of equal efficacy and toxicity comparable with weekly cisplatin in the treatment of locally advanced HNSCC.

PurposeTo evaluate the diagnostic impact of echo planar DW imaging in distinguishing benign from malignant musculoskeletal soft-tissue masses using ADC mapping as a quantitative assessment tool.Patients and methodsWe evaluated 73 tumors (21 bone tumors and 52 soft-tissue tumors). MR examinations were performed with a 1.5-T system. Diffusion-weighted single-shot EPI images were obtained in all patients. Apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) were calculated by using b factors of 0 and 1000s/mm2. ADC value measurements were compared with the histopathological findings.ResultsThe average ADC of benign tumors was 1.86±0.67×10−3mm2/s, and that of malignant soft-tissue tumors was 0.97±0.35×10−3mm2/s. ADC value of malignant tumors was significantly lower than that of the benign tumor group (p