Search

Background: Small percentage of hepatitis C (HCV) patients develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) during their lifetime, suggesting that genetic factors might modulate HCC development. Numerous variations on the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) have been recognized in human cancers. The majority of them cause VDR to be unable to bind to 1, 25-OH-D. The aim of the present work was to investigate the relation of VDR FokI (rs2228570), BsmI (rs3782905) and ApaI (rs7975232) gene polymorphisms and the risk of HCC development in chronic HCV Egyptian patients. Methods: A total of 311 Egyptian patients were enrolled for this study. They were divided into 3 groups: 103 patients with liver Cirrhosis, 107 patients with HCC and 101 normal healthy subjects as the control group. Human genomic DNA Extraction was carried out using QIAamp® DNA Blood Mini Kit (QIAGEN) Genotyping of VDR ApaI (rs7975232) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was carried out using real-time PCR TaqMan allelic discrimination assay with allele-specific designed fluorescent MGB probes. Results: Patients with HCC had a higher frequency of ApaI CC genotype (P=0.035) CI (0.031-0.038). Patients with HCC carried a higher ratio of ApaI CC genotype compared to those with liver cirrhosis (x2=5.4 and P = 0.03) or controls (x2=6.8 and P = 0.01). Univariate analysis revealed that age, lower platelet count (3/μL), higher AFP (>100 ng/ml), and ApaI CC genotype were the factors significantly associated with the development of HCC. Stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that all were independent predictors. Conclusion: ApaI CC VDR gene mutation is an independent risk factor for HCC development in Egyptian Cirrhotic HCV patients.

Background/Aim: Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease which is common in many areas of the world including Egypt. A lot of controversy regarding the pathogenesis of UC exist. The current study is an attempt to detect some pathogenic bacteria in UC patients. Materials and methods: Endoscopic colonic biopsies obtained from 40 patients with ulcerative colitis and 20 controls were analyzed by means of real-time PCR technique for the presence of Clostridium difficile, Helicobacter Pylori (H. pylori) and pathogenic Escherichia Coli (E. coli) which are positive for KPC and/or OXA-48. Results: All patients and control samples were negative for Clostridium difficile. Three of the 40 patient samples (7.5%) and none of the 20 controls were positive for H. pylori with no significant difference between the two groups. KPC-positive E. coli were detected in 11 of the 40 patients (27.5%) and in none of the controls with a significant difference between the two groups (P=0.01). All patients and control samples were negative for OXA-48 positive E. coli. Conclusion: Although this study does not support the claim that Clostridium difficile and/or H. pylori have a role in UC, it greatly suggests that pathogenic E. coli may be involved in one way or another in the course of UC. Keywords: Ulcerative colitis; Colonic biopsies; Clostridium difficile; H. pylori; E. coli.

Objective—To evaluate the efficacy of extracorporeal shock wave treatment (ESWT) on pain in calcaneal spur. Methods— A single-blind randomized study was performed in which 15 patients underwent a regular treatment Pre and post-experimental design. their ages ranged from 25 to 45 years old. They were examined before and after treatment with shock waves because of pain post calcaneal spur. They were treated by shock wave therapy with 2000 strokes, 10 Hz frequency and 2.5 bar capacity. Two sessions/ week for 6 weeks. Variations in symptoms were evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS) and Serum cortisone level. Results—A significant decrease in VAS was seen. There is a statistically significant increase in the mean cortisol level after in comparison to before Conclusion—ESWT is safe and improves the symptoms of most patients with a painful heel, and reduce pain.

Bladder cancer represents a global health problem. It ranks ninth in worldwide cancer incidence. In Egypt, carcinoma of the bladder is the most prevalent cancer, Bladder cancer has the highest recurrence rate of any malignancy. Certainly, suitable molecular diagnostic markers are required to improve the early detection of bladder cancer and then to prolong survival of patients. The present study was aimed to explore the expression of CDk4 and STAT3 in bladder cancer tissues as prospective for target therapy. Our studied groups showed higher values of CDK4 and STAT3 expression in malignant tissues (SCC andUC collectively) compared to cystitis, however, significantly higher values of CDK4 and STAT3 expression were detected in UC group compared to SCC group. Urothelial carcinomas with papillary patterns showed lower parameters of CDK4 and STAT3 expression compared to the non-papillary variant, with significant differences. Higher grades of UC showed significantly higher parameters of CDK4 and STAT3 expression compared to low grade ones. Muscle invasion increases the level of CDK4 and STAT3 expression parameters, compared to non-muscle invasive UC. Conclusion: Our results showed a good correlation of the expression patterns of both the cell cycle (CDK4) and inflammatory (STAT3) markers studied and might be helpful for suggesting more selective agents in the therapeutic scenario of bladder cancer in the near future. Potential biomarkers such as CDK4 andSTAT3 may be targets for molecular based therapeutic strategies in the prevention or management of bladder cancer. Future studies should explore molecular mechanisms of these proteins to define their roles in tumorigenesis.

In fact autoantibodies are immunoglobulins against self-antigens that are known as endogen antigens. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an occasion that the body begins a fight against its own cells and organs. There are different types of autoantibodies that have been identified in recent years. The most familiar is anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA). They are created against cell nuclei, and one of the methods used for its detection and its pattern determination is indirect immunofluorescence test (IIF). IIF was used for that purpose in our study, and concluded that ANA positivity rate was higher in female patients than the male ones, where ANA was positive in 36.1% of the male patients and 48.2% of female patients. Also, the most frequent ANA patterns in SLE patients were speckled pattern, where 21.6% & 41.3% of maleand female patients, respectively, have speckled pattern of ANA.

Background: Berberine and cinnamic acid are natural compounds that exhibit potent anticancer activities through distinct molecular mechanisms. Objective: In the present study, we aimed to investigate the proapoptotic potential of cinnamic acid and berberine in cancer cells by examining their effect on the expression of proapoptotic and antiapoptotic genes. Moreover, the effects of berberine and cinnamic acid on the antitumor activity of cisplatin were investigated in Ehrlich solid tumor-bearing mice. Methods: For the study, 90 male mice were inoculated intramuscularly with Ehrlich ascites tumor cells (2.5 × 106/mouse), and then on day 4, mice were randomly divided into six experimental groups (group 1-untreated Ehrlich solid tumor (EST), group 2-EST treated CDDP, group 3-EST treated CA, group 4-EST treated BER, group 5-EST treated CA + CDDP, and group 6-EST treated BER + CDDP). Results: The results showed that berberine and cinnamic acid significantly decreased tumor growth and tumor volume (-74.8 and -75.5%, respectively) both as single agents and in combination with cisplatin. Moreover, both berberine and cinnamic acid increased the ratio of tumor growth inhibition (-91.5 and -92.6%, respectively), mean survival time (61.5 and 26 days, respectively), and percentage increase in lifespan (559 and 263%, respectively) of the treated mice. Our results also showed that both berberine and cinnamic acid-induced apoptosis by increasing the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio (74.1 and 45.1, respectively) and caspase-3 expression (14.3- and 11.6-fold increase, respectively). Additionally, berberine and cinnamic acid decreased oxidative stress markers, as shown by the decrease in lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide levels and an increase in reduced glutathione level. Conclusion: These results suggest that berberine and cinnamic acid have potential as antitumor and antioxidant agents derived from natural sources, which could be used alone or in combination with regular chemotherapeutic agents, such as cisplatin. These effects could be attributed to the proapoptotic activity of berberine and cinnamic acid.

Background Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer (BC) with ill-defined therapeutic targets. Androgen receptor (AR) and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) had a prognostic and predictive value in TNBC. The relationship between AR, TILs and clinical behavior is still not fully understood. Methods Thirty-six TNBC patients were evaluated for AR (positive if ≥ 1% expression), CD3, CD4, CD8 and CD20 by immunohistochemistry. Stromal TILs were quantified following TILs Working Group recommendations. Lymphocyte-predominant breast cancer (LPBC) was defined as having stromal TILs ≥ 50%, whereas lymphocyte-deficient breast cancer (LDBC) was defined as vs. 25 months, p = 0.77). LPBC was 32.2%. Median TILs was 37.5% and 10% (p = 0.1) and median CD20 was 20% and 7.5% (p = 0.008) in AR- and AR+, respectively. Mean CD3 was 80.7% and 93.3% (p = 0.007) and CD8 was 75% and 80.8% (p = 0.41) in AR- and AR + respectively. All patients who were ≥ 60 years old expressed CD20. LDBC was found to be significantly higher in N + vs. N- patients (p = 0.03) with median TILs of 20% vs. 50% in N + vs. N-, respectively (p = 0.03). LDBC was associated with higher risk of lymph node involvement (OR = 6, 95% CI = 1.05–34.21, p = 0.04). Conclusions AR expression was evident in older age (≥ 50 years). Median CD20 was higher in AR- TNBC, while mean CD3 was higher in AR + tumors. LDBC was associated with higher risk of lymph node involvement. Larger studies are needed to focus on the clinical impact of the relation between AR and TILs in TNBC.

Background Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer (BC) with ill-defined therapeutic targets. Androgen receptor (AR) and tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) had a prognostic and predictive value in TNBC. The relationship between AR, TILs and clinical behaviour is still not fully understood. Methods Thirty-six TNBC patients were evaluated for AR (positive if ≥1% expression), CD3, CD4, CD8 and CD20 by immunohistochemistry. Stromal TILs were quantified following TILs Working Group recommendations. Lymphocyte-predominant breast cancer (LPBC) was defined as stromal TILs ≥ 50%, whereas lymphocyte-deficient breast cancer (LDBC) was defined as

Background:Prostate Cancer (PCa) is defined as a major health problem faced by the male population.Aim:We aimed to investigate the protective effects of Orange Peel Extract (OPE) and/or Selenium (Se) on chronic non-bacterial prostatitis in a rat model.Methods:Fifty-six adult male Wistar albino rats were castrated; after 5 days, they were divided randomly into eight groups (n= 7). The control group received saline treatment; while 17β-estradiol (E2) (0.25mg/kg) was injected subcutaneously in rats from Groups V, VI, VII, and VIII to induce chronic non-bacterial prostatitis. They were then treated with OPE (400mg/kg body weight; Groups II, IV, VI, and VIII) and/or sodium selenite (0.5mg/kg body weight; Groups III, IV, VII, and VIII) for 30 days. Interleukin-2 (IL2) and Prostate Cancer Antigen 3 (PCA3) mRNA expressions were determined using qPCR; Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) protein expression was determined immunohistochemically. Prostate tissue histology was examined by hematoxylin and eosin staining, and the levels of oxidative stress markers and antioxidant enzymes were measured.Results:E2 administration significantly increased IL2 and PCA3 mRNA expressions, and PSA protein expression. It also increased the prostate wet weight and body weight, and lipid peroxidation, nitric oxide, TNF-., and IL-1β levels, decreased the glutathione and antioxidant enzyme levels and caused distinct histological alterations in the prostate gland. OPE and/or Se markedly improved all the studied parameters due to their antioxidant properties and anti-inflammatory effects.Conclusion:OPE and Se showed protective effects against 17β-estradiol-induced chronic non-bacterial prostatitis. These results suggest that protection of chronic non-bacterial prostatitis by OPE+Se combination involves anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation. Moreover, their synergistic mechanism was mostly achieved via the regulation of oxidative stress and inflammation processes.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is the fourth most common cause of death from cancer in Egypt. Few studies have been conducted to assess the relationship between vitamin D serum level and vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms with the survival of PC patients. This is the first study in Egypt to investigate the association of the status of vitamin D serum level and genotypic distribution of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) Fok1 with the risk of developing PC and whether they could detect survival or not. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included a total of 47 PC cases that were histopathologically proven to have PC, and 37 controls that were attending at the same time for investigation but proved that they were all PC free. Pre-diagnostic concentrations of vitamin D and VDR polymorphism Fok1 were assessed from all participants in the study. RESULTS: There was a 1.5-fold increase in the serum level of vitamin D in PC patients when compared to non-PC subjects. Regarding VDR Fok1, polymorphism distribution in PC was CC (Wild Type) 26 (55.3%), CT 16 (34%), and TT 5 patients (10.7%). For the control group, CC was found in 24 (64.8%), CT in 12 (32.4%), and TT genotype was found only in one individual 1 (2.8%) with no statistically significant difference between the two studied groups (P 0.72). CONCLUSION: Low serum vitamin D or VDR-SNP is not a risk factor for PC in Egyptian patients. Recommendations to increase vitamin D concentrations in healthy persons for the prevention of cancer and improving overall survival should be carefully considered.

Systemic administration of 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NPA) is commonly used to induce Huntington's disease (HD)-like symptoms in experimental animals. Here, the potential neuroprotective efficiency of rutin and selenium (RSe) co-administration on 3-NPA-induced HD-like symptoms model in mice was investigated. 3-NPA injection evoked severe alterations in redox status, as indicated via increased striatal malondialdehyde and nitric oxide levels, accompanied by a decrease in levels of antioxidant molecules including glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase. Moreover, 3-NPA potentiated inflammatory status by enhancing the production of interleukin-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α, and myeloperoxidase activity. Pro-apoptotic cascade was also recorded in the striatum as evidenced through upregulation of cleaved caspase-3 and Bax, and downregulation of Bcl-2. 3-NPA activated astrocytes as indicated by the upregulated glial fibrillary acidic protein and inhibited brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Furthermore, perturbations in cholinergic and monoaminergic systems were observed. RSe provided neuroprotective effects by preventing body weight loss, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and the apoptotic cascade. RSe inhibited the activation of astrocytes, increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and improved cholinergic and monoaminergic transmission following 3-NPA intoxication. Taken together, RSe co-administration may prevent or delay the progression of HD and its associated impairments through its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and neuromodulatory effects.

In this paper, we present analysis, design and show experimental results of a new type of CMOS based power amplifier (PA) known as class-O Aref et al. (ISSCC Digest of Technical Papers, 2015). Modern CMOS based PAs design is constrained by three fundamental trade-offs, i.e. linearity, efficiency and reliability. More precisely, for a standalone PA, unless advanced and expensive solutions are employed, no such PA architecture exists which is able to meet aforementioned design trade-offs. Theoretical insight is needed to understand the origin of performance trade-offs and the possible solutions to counter them. Class-O is a novel out-of-the-box solution to meet these tough challenges. Our prototype amplifier is a highly linear low-band 706 MHz 4G long term evolution (LTE) compatible class-O RF power amplifier in 130 nm CMOS technology for handheld wireless applications. The class-O architecture uses two sub-amplifiers working together as one grand PA. These two sub-amplifiers are common-source (CS) and common-drain (CD) amplifiers working in parallel feeding a common load with high linearity without the need for digital predistortion (DPD). The prototype chip is measured and characterized with continuous wave (CW), modulated signal and reliability measurements. With CW measurements, 1-dB compression point (P$$_{1\,{\mathrm{dB}}}$$1dB) of 30.6 dBm and peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 45.2 $$\%$$% is achieved. For the modulated signal measurements, the amplifier is tested with 16-QAM 20 MHz LTE signal with peak-to-average-power ratio of 6.54 dB. The amplifier meets the stringent LTE specs with an adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) less than ź30 dBc for both EUTRA and UTRA1 with average output power of 27 dBm and PAE above 20 $$\%$$%. Owing to the voltage following between gate source junctions in the common-drain amplifier in addition to cascode structure of common source amplifier, the stress is significantly reduced at the transistor terminals. The reliability is demonstrated by operating the amplifier in nominal and worst voltage-standing-wave-ratio (VSWR) conditions.

This paper presents the design of a fully integrated Doherty power amplifier in 28 nm CMOS technology. The circuit is optimised for the frequency band 5–6 GHz to provide maximum output power of 20 dBm with 10 dB output power back-off (OBO) and power gain of 10 dB at 0 dBm input power level. Drain efficiency (DE) of 35 % is obtained at OBO with almost flat response over the entire bandwidth.

Objective Evaluation of cell-free DNA (cf-DNA) as a noninvasive tool to discriminate between malignant and benign ovarian growth. Patients and methods DNA was extracted from the plasma of 50 women with ovarian lesion. A total of 20 women with pathologically proven malignancy and 30 women with benign ovarian lesions were included. Quantification of cf-DNA was performed using real-time PCR. cf-DNA was correlated with the histopathology. Results The preoperative plasma cf-DNA level was statistically significantly higher (P Conclusion Detection of cf-DNA holds promise as a diagnostic test for women with ovarian cancer. We recommend its incorporation into the workup investigations for women attending with adnexal mass.

This paper presents an analytical study of the impact of delay mismatch on the linearity of outphasing transmitters. Analytical expressions are derived to quantify the impact of delay mismatch between the two amplifying paths on the adjacent channel power ratio and error vector magnitude of any complex modulated output signal. These expressions can be used to specify delay mismatch for any given requirement of linearity performance of an outphasing transmitter. A complete LTE transceiver physical layer model in simulink is used to simulate the whole transceiver chain. An embedded model of an outphasing transmitter with a variable delay mismatch is included to compare error vector magnitude simulation data with theoretically derived results for different LTE downlink channels of 1.4 MHz, 10 MHz and 20 MHz channel bandwidths. Outphasing signals are synthesized with different delays and uploaded to a vector signal generator such that adjacent channel power ratios can be measured. This allows for a comparison between hardware-probed results and the theoretical calculations for LTE channels of 1.4 MHz and 10 MHz channel bandwidths.

Background The intramedullary skeletal kinetic distractor (ISKD) is one of the relatively recent methods developed to overcome the complications of conventional bone lengthening methods, such as external fixators. These complications include pain, muscle transfixation, pin-tract infection, reduced joint motion, and prolonged fixation time. However, ISKD-specific complications such as uncontrollable lengthening and hardware failure make the outcomes of ISKD lengthening questionable. In this article, we review published literature on the efficacy and complications of the ISKD device. Methods A database search was conducted in PubMed, Ovid Medline, Ovid Full Text, Springer link, EBSCO Medline, Science Direct, ISI Web of Knowledge, and Google Scholar. We included English articles with extractable data about the study population and outcomes, reporting ISKD implantation in the femur or tibia of skeletally mature patients. The included studies were too heterogeneous for a metaanalysis to be performed. Results Fifteen of 89 potentially relevant citations were found to match the inclusion criteria. The most common causes of limb-length discrepancy indicating an ISKD implantation were traumatic and congenital. The average lengthening achieved, average patient discharge period, mean follow-up time, average consolidation time and index, average distraction time and index, and number of patients requiring additional operations as well as other outcome measures are discussed in this article. The most common complications were runaway nail, difficulty in achieving lengthening, and poor bone regenerate formation. Conclusion Even though the classic complications of external lengthening are virtually diminished, alterations to the current design of the ISKD are needed to avoid the distraction- related complications. Risk of unplanned surgery could be minimized through proper patient selection and proper surgical techniques.

Background: Interferon therapy is used as a line of treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) in several areas of the world including Egypt. Objective: Our aim was to investigate the value of hepatic progenitor cells (HPCs) in predicting response of patients with chronic HCV, genotype 4 to pegylated interferon (PEGIFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) therapy. Methods: Pre-treatment liver biopsies obtained from 110 patients with chronic HCV, genotype 4 were examined immunohisto- chemically for HPCs using cytokeratin19. The mean number of HPCs as ductular reaction (DR) and as isolated progenitor cells (IPCs) was counted in each case. The patients were classified into: those with sustained virological response (SVR) and those who did not achieve SVR. The results were compared between the two groups. Also, the relationships between HPCs and other clinico-pathologic variables were estimated using multivariate analysis. Results: The mean number of HPCs was the only independent predictor of therapeutic response, being significantly higher in non-responders (P = 0 for DR and P = 0.03 for IPCs). On the other hand, fibrosis stage and steatosis were the only independent factors which showed a significant direct association with the mean number of HPCs in the form of DR and IPCs (P = 0 for each). Conclusion: The number of HPCs provides prognostic information in chronic HCV since it is significantly associated with stage of fibrosis. More importantly, it can be used as a marker to predict response of patients with chronic HCV to PEGIFN plus RBV therapy. Keywords: Chronic hepatitis C, genotype 4, response to therapy, hepatic progenitor cells.

This work presents a high power highly linear multi-level outphasing transmitter, which meets ACLR specifications for an LTE downlink signal without the use of DPD. This is feasible, because up to 64 discrete output power levels can be used. These are needed to attain the required dynamic range for high peak-to-average-power signals. The three-stage GaN power amplifier (PA) line-up of each branch provides a gain of greater than 55 dB and overall PAE of 50 % at a peak output power of 120 W. Operated with four amplitude levels and an isolating power combiner, the transmitter employing two of these PAs delivers an ACLR of −41 dBc, whereas in a 64-level configuration the transmitter meets the standard with −46 dBc for a 5 MHz downlink LTE signal. The average output power is more than 25 W (160 W peak), while EVM is 2.81 %. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest power outphasing transmitter reported in literature.

This paper presents a fully integrated adaptive multiband multimode switching-mode power amplifier (SMPA) in CMOS technology. The power amplifier (PA) module, consisting of input matching, driver, output stage, load transformation network (LTN), and auxiliary circuitry, utilizes optimized driving waveforms to increase output power and efficiency of a SWPA. The PA module is packaged in a 32 quad flat no-lead package. Based on the detailed analysis on appropriate driving waveforms, the SMPA is designed to maximize its output power and efficiency with minimum on-chip harmonic terminations. Furthermore, an adaptive gain control technique is proposed to control the SMPA gain at back-off while boosting the power-added efficiency (PAE) using a fully integrated tunable LTN. Employing both techniques concurrently enables us to have a multiband multimode SMPA. Measurements on a PA module designed in 90-nm CMOS and incorporating theses findings result in peak PAE of 43% for an output power of 27.1 dBm, associated with a large-signal gain of 22.1 dB at 1.97 GHz, when the devices are biased at 2.8 V. With the tunable LTN PAE at 4- and 6-dB backoff is 30% and 23%, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first fully integrated multiband multimode SMPA in CMOS technology.

This paper presents a highly linear low-band 706MHz LTE compatible class-O RF power amplifier in 130nm CMOS technology for handheld wireless applications. Class-O topology uses a combination of common-source and common-drain amplifiers working in parallel with high linearity without the need for digital predistortion(DPD). With continuous wave measurements, 1-dB compression point (P1dB) of 30.6dBm and peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 45.2% is achieved. For the modulated signal measurements, the amplifier is tested with 16-QAM 20MHz LTE signal with peak-to-average-power ratio of 6.54 dB. The amplifier meets the stringent LTE specs with an ACPR less than −30 dBc for both EUTRA and UTRA1 with average output power of 27 dBm and PAE above 20%. Owing to the voltage following between gate source junctions in the common-drain amplifier in addition to cascode structure of common-source amplifier, the stress is significantly reduced at the transistor terminals. The reliability is demonstrated by operating the amplifier in nominal and worst VSWR conditions.

Integration of RF transceiver blocks along with the digital signal processing part in CMOS is becoming the trend in the semiconductor industry for lower cost and smaller form factor. Nowadays, the interest is even growing towards implementing the RF PA in CMOS technology. Cost reduction, diversifying means of fabrication and the addition of performance enhancement circuitry are the main reasons behind this growing interest. However, implementing RF PAs for 3G/4G standards in CMOS is quite challenging: The low breakdown voltage of nanoscale CMOS causes a ruggedness problem at typical average output power (P avg ) levels of 26dBm or more. In [1,2], power-combining techniques were used to reach PA output power (P out ) of 33dBm. However, amplification of signals with high peak-to-average-power-ratio (PAPR) requires also a high degree of linearity. Significant AM-PM distortions caused by the voltage-dependent parasitics are a fundamental problem in CMOS PAs. Thus far, predistortion is used to meet EVM requirements [2]. To overcome these challenges, this work presents a new class of operation, termed as Class-O, demonstrated by the design and the measurement of a single-stage PA implemented in 0.13μm CMOS and operating from a 3.3V supply.

This paper studies the impact of bandwidth limita- tion on the linearity of multilevel LINC (ML-LINC) transmitter. By using the signals with discrete levels for characterisation, both amplitude and phase dispersions around levels can be observed, which result in the degradation of system linearity. It is also shown that improvement on both adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) and error vector magnitude (EVM) can be obtained by either increasing the number of levels or system bandwidth in each amplification path. A measurement setup including two highly efficient power amplifiers (PAs) in GaN technology, which delivers 41 dBm output power with drain efficiency of 69% at 2.05 GHz, is built to verify the analysis. With the configuration of 16 levels and 80 MHz system bandwidth, the built ML- LINC transmitter gives 36 dBm average output power with 54% drain efficiency after calibration for the standard 5 MHz LTE downlink signal with a PAPR of 7. 5d B. The measured ACLR is −50.5 dBc and EVM is 1.6% for QPSK and 3.1% for 64-QAM with enough margin left according to the standard.

Zinc has been found to be low in chronic hepatitis patients. Its level was correlated with response to Interferon/ribavirin therapy in patients infected with hepatitis C genotype 1. In Egypt, inexpensive predictors to treatment response in Hepatitis C genotype 4 infected patients are desperately needed. We aim to explore if pretreatment zinc serum levels correlate with response to pegylated- interferon and ribavirin therapy in Egyptian patients.This is an observational prospective study where 57 treatment naive hepatitis C genotype 4 infected patients that were Hepatitis B and Human Immunodeficiency virus negative were recruited in a hospital setting. The study was performed from October 2010 till June 2012. Patients had Liver biopsy and basic biochemical profiles were performed pretreatment for all patients. Treatment consisted of 48 weeks of pegylated-interferon-alpha2a and ribavirin therapy. Blood samples were withdrawn from 21 healthy subjects to compare zinc levels and other biochemical markers. Patients were followed up to 72 weeks.Pretreatment serum zinc levels were significantly lower in hepatitis C infected patients compared to healthy volunteers (p0.05). Moreover, zinc levels correlated to sustained virological response in treated patients (p = 0.00).Serum zinc levels can be used as an inexpensive predictor to effective Pegylated-interferon/ribavirin therapy in Egyptian patients infected with Hepatitic C genotype 4.

This study aimed to investigate the potential protective role of Physalis peruviana L. (family Solanaceae) against cadmium-induced hepatorenal toxicity in Wistar rats. Herein, cadmium chloride (CdCl2) (6.5 mg/kg bwt/day) was intraperitoneally injected for 5 days, and methanolic extract of physalis (MEPh) was pre-administered to a group of Cd-treated rats by an oral administration at a daily dose of 200 mg/kg bwt for 5 days. The findings revealed that CdCl2 injection induced significant decreases in kidney weight and kidney index. Cadmium intoxication increased the activities of liver enzymes and the bilirubin level, in addition to the levels of uric acid, urea and creatinine were increased in the serum. The pre-administration of MEPh alleviated hepatorenal toxicity in Cd-treated rats. Physalis was noted to play a good hepatorenal protective role, reducing lipid peroxidation, nitric oxide, and enhancing enzymatic activities and non-enzymatic antioxidant molecule, glutathione, in hepatic and renal tissues of Cd-treated rats. Moreover, physalis treatment was able to reverse the histopathological changes in liver and kidney tissues and also increased the expression of Bcl-2 protein in liver and kidney of rats. Overall, the results showed that MEPh can induce antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects and also exerts beneficial effects for the treatment of Cd-induced hepatorenal toxicity.

Background Immunotherapy for human hepatocellular cancer (HCC) is slowly making progress towards treating these fatal cancers. The identification of new antigens can improve this approach. We describe a possible new antigen, hepatocellular carcinoma‐associated antigen‐519/targeting protein for Xklp‐2 (HCA519/TPX2), for HCC that might be beneficial for T‐cell specific HCC immunotherapy. Methods HCC was studied for the expression for 15 tumor‐associated antigens considered useful for immunotherapy within three HCC cell lines (HepG2, Hep3B, and PLC/PRF/5), lymphocytes, non‐cancerous livers, and clinical HCC. The expression of tumor antigenic precursor proteins (TAPPs) messenger RNA was first screened by reverse transcriptase quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction. Results Four antigens (alpha fetoprotein, aspartyl/asparaginyl β­hydroxylase, glypican­3 and HCA519/TPX2) proved to be the best expressed TAPPs within the HCC specimens by molecular analyses. HCA519/TPX2 was detected by intracellular cell flow cytometry within HCC cell lines by using a specific antibody towards this TAPP. This antibody also detected the protein within primary HCCs. We synthesized two HCA519/TPX2 peptides (HCA519464–472 and HCA519351–359) which can bind to human leukocyte antigen (HLA)‐A*0201. Dendritic cells pulsed with these peptides stimulated cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTLs). These killer T‐cells lysed HLA‐A*0201+ T2 cells exogenously loaded with the correct specific peptide. The CTLs killed HepG2 (HLA‐A2+ and HCA519+), but not the Hep3B and PLC/PRF/5 cell lines, which are HCA519+ but HLA‐A2‐negative. In silico analysis reveals that HCA519/TPX2 has the inherent ability to bind to a very wide variety of HLA antigens. Conclusion HCA519/TPX2 is a viable immunotarget that should be further investigated within HCC patients., Video abstract

This paper proposes an iterative calibration technique to enhance the linearity for multilevel LINC transmitters. With this approach, the precision of characterising AM/AM and AM/PM behaviours for discrete levels can be improved, which results in better adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) and error vector magnitude (EVM) performance. An ML-LINC transmitter is built with two PAs in GaN technology, which delivers 40.8 dBm output power with 68% drain efficiency at 2.05 GHz. Up to 5 dB ACLR improvement can be observed by iterative calibration using S1/S2 for a 5 MHz LTE signals. The configuration with 16 levels can give satisfying linearity performance to meet the standard specification, while keep the complexity reasonable. Measurement results show an ACLR of -46 dBc, EVM of 1.9% (QPSK) and 4.2% (64-QAM) at average output power of 35.7 dBm with 51.1% drain efficiency for a 10 MHz LTE signals with a PAPR of 7.9 dB. The performance of the built ML-LINC tranmitter is compared to the state-of-the-art. Both the linearity and drain efficiency are quite competitive.

We investigated the effects of methanolic leaves extract ofAzadirachta indica(MLEN, 500 mg/kg bwt) on cisplatin- (CP-) induced nephrotoxicity and oxidative stress in rats. CP (5 mg/kg bwt) was injected intraperitoneally and MLEN was given by gastric gavage for 5 days before or after CP injection. After 5 days of CP injection, CP-induced injury of the renal tissue was evidenced (i) as histopathological damage of the renal tissue, (ii) as increases in serum uric acid, urea, and creatinine, (iii) as increases in malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide (NO), (iv) as decreases in the level of glutathione and activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione reductase, glutathione-S-transferase, and glutathione peroxidase, and (v) as increase in the expression of nuclear factor kappa B and apoptosis in kidney tissues. However, the oral administration of MLEN to CP-intoxicated rats for 5 days brought back MDA, NO production, and enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidants to near normalcy. Moreover, the histological observations evidenced that neem extract effectively rescues the kidney from CP-mediated oxidative damage. Furthermore, PCR results for caspase-3 and caspase-9 and Bax genes showed downregulation in MLEN treated groups. Therefore,Azadirachta indicacan be considered a potential candidate for protection of nephrotoxicity induced by cisplatin.

This paper presents a new mismatch calibration technique for outphasing transmitters by means of instantaneous measurement characterisation. Results will show that by creating a model of the instantaneous measurements, the gain and phase imbalance between the outphasing paths can be fully compensated using only a single iteration. A multilevel-outphasing transmitter is implemented using 10 W GaN devices at 1.9 GHz. An ACPR performance of −51 dBc and −47 dBc are obtained for 1.4 MHz and 10 MHz LTE signals with a PAPR of 10 dB, respectively, while delivering 2 W average output power without requiring any form of predistortion.

The active constituent profile in Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruvianaL.) juice was determined by GC-MS. Quercetin and kaempferol were active components in the juice. In this study we have evaluated its potential protective effect on hepatic injury and fibrosis induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). Twenty-eight rats divided into 4 groups: Group I served as control group, and Group II received weekly i.p. injection of 2 mL CCl4/kg bwt for 12 weeks. Group III were supplemented with Physalis juice via the drinking water. The animals of Group IV received Physalis juice as Group III and also were intraperitoneally injected weekly with 2 mL CCl4/kg bwt for 12 weeks. Hepatoprotective effect was evaluated by improvement in liver enzymes serum levels, reduction in collagen areas, downregulation in expression of the fibrotic marker MMP-9, reduction in the peroxidative marker malonaldehyde and the inflammatory marker nitric oxide, and restoration of the activity of antioxidant enzymatic and nonenzymatic systems, namely, glutathione content, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione-S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione reductase activities. The results show that the potential hepatoprotective effects ofPhysalis peruvianamay be due to physalis acts by promotion of processes that restore hepatolobular architecture and through the inhibition of oxidative stress pathway.

Azadirachta indicaA. Juss. (neem, family: Meliaceae) is perhaps the most commonly used traditional medicinal plant of India. In this study we investigated the protective effect of methanolic neem leaves extract (MNLE; 500 mg/Kg bwt) on rats treated with cisplatin (CDDP)-induced hepatotoxicity. Adult rats were randomly divided into four groups. CDDP was given to rats by intraperitoneal injection, while MNLE was given by oral gavage for 5 days after the CDDP injection. The injury and oxidative stress caused by CDDP on the liver and the effect of MNLE were evaluated by measuring (a) histological changes, (b) tissue biochemical oxidant and antioxidant parameters, and (c) investigating apoptosis markers immunohistochemically and by real time PCR. After treatment with MNLE, the histological damage and apoptosis induction caused by cisplatin were improved. Malondialdehyde and nitric oxide were significantly decreased; the antioxidant system, namely, glutathione content, glutathione-S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase activities were significantly elevated. In conclusion, MNLE may have a potential role when combined with cisplatin in chemotherapy to alleviate cisplatin-induced damage and oxidative stress in liver.

Despite the incidence rate of pancreatic cancer (PC) is uncommon in developing countries, it is considered as one of the most lethal disease. Improving patients' survival requires diagnosis of the disease at early stage. Therefore, it is imperative to identify more specific and sensitive marker(s) to be used for early detection of PC.Our aim is to evaluate the potential role of circulating ADH and MIC-1 to be used as diagnostic markers in Egyptian patients and assess their value either alone or combined with CA19-9 in early detection of PC.Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), macrophage inhibitory cytokine (MIC-1) and CA19-9 were measured by ELISA in serum procured from PC patients (n = 50) versus normal subjects (n = 20).Our results demonstrate that the circulating levels of ADH, MIC-1 and CA19-9 in blood of PC were significantly higher than in healthy controls (HCs) (p0.001). The highest marker sensitivity observed at early stage was MIC-1 (90%) and specificity was ADH (83%). The level of all three markers was elevated significantly in early stage of PC in comparison to HCs. The addition of ADH and MIC-1 to CA19-9 significantly improved the efficacy of diagnosis (p = 0.023).Our data demonstrate that not only the combination of ADH and MIC-1 to CA19-9 can be used in early detection of PC but also can improve the overall quality of diagnosis of this lethal disease.

This paper analyses the impact of the level locations in a multilevel LINC transmitter on the obtainable linearity performance. Results show that by placing levels in the upper dynamic region of outphased signals, a linearity performance suitable for LTE applications and beyond can be achieved. A multilevel LINC transmitter with 5 levels is implemented using 10 W GaN CREE devices at 1.9 GHz. A 10 dB PAPR 1.4 MHz LTE signal is decomposed for outphasing and recombined to achieve an ACPR performance of -50 dBc while delivering 2 W average output power.

This paper analyses an energy-efficient multilevel LINC transmitter with low complexity. Compared with a conventional multilevel LINC using a supply modulator, a new architecture to realise multiple levels is analysed. With this architecture, distortion caused by delay mismatch and memory effects caused by the limited bandwidth of PAs can be mitigated resulting in improved out-of-band emissions. A system analysis shows the improvement of performance regarding efficiency, spectrum and ACLR in presence of delay mismatch and system bandwidth limitations. The analysis at system level is verified by measurements complying with 3GPP LTE specification. An improvement of 17 dB in out-of-band emission is observed by increasing the number of levels from 1 to 40. Meanwhile, average efficiency is also increased from 12 % to 42 %.

Interleukin-10 (IL-10) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) have been reported to be related to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) prognosis. This study aimed to investigate the clinical usefulness of serum levels of IL-6 and IL-10 as biomarkers for HCC among high-risk patients.Materials and Methods. 80 individuals were enrolled in this study; they were categorized into 4 groups: group 1 healthy individuals (NC) (n=20), group 2 chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients (n=20), group 3 cirrhotic patients (LC) (n=20), and HCC group (n=20). Using ELISA technique serum levels of IL-6, IL-10, and alpha fetoprotein (AFP) were evaluated in all groups.Results. The mean serum levels of IL-6 were significantly higher in HCC than in LC, HCV, and NC groups (13.99±1.80,7.49±0.43,5.78±0.74, and2.57±0.31), respectively (P<0.05); also the serum levels of IL-10 were significantly higher in HCC compared with LC, HCV, and NC groups (13.69±1.89,7.37±0.53,5.18±0.6, and3.31±0.42) (P<0.05). We also found that the tumor size is correlated strongly with IL-6 and IL-10 levels (r=0.925,P<0.001;r=0.821,P<0.001), respectively.Conclusion. The combination of those markers may help to identify a group of HCC patients with low AFP.

This paper presents a novel energy-efficient multi-standard multilevel LINC transmitter architecture. The proposed system is able to provide a large number of reconfigurable multiple levels by arbitrarily controlling the output power of the two efficient power amplifiers. The novelty of the architecture relies in the efficient generation of the arbitrary multilevels. In fact, the system uses only one fixed supply voltage. An algorithm is developed to optimise the different symmetrical levels depending on the actual signal statistics in order to boost average system efficiency. A multilevel LINC transmitter system demonstrator was build to validate the proposed concept. Besides The system employs two identical hybrid power amplifiers designed using GaN HEMTs for a centre frequency of 2.28 GHz and output power of 40 dBm, the system employs only off-the-shelf components or measurement equipment. Measurement results on the demonstrator show that compared with a conventional LINC transmitter, average power efficiency of the proposed system can be improved from 28 % to 41 % for a WCDMA signal with a measured adjacent-channel-power ratio (ACPR) below −45 dBc. For a 10 MHz LTE signal efficiency is improved by nearly 24 percentage-points compared with a regular LINC system.