Aim of the study: Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is an enzyme generally involved in the pathogenesis of several diseases.. The current study aimed to investigate serum MPO levels in Egyptian obese women and assess its relation with insulin resistance (IR) and other biochemical risk parameters. \n Methods: The study included 80 obese women with IR and 50 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Insulin resistance (IR) was evaluated by the Homeostasis Model Assessment-Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR). Serum MPO, fasting glucose, insulin and blood lipids and anthropometry were measured. Obese IR cases were divided into three groups based on MPO tertiles. A receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was performed to obtain the optimal cut-off values of MPO to predicate IR in obese women\nResults: The mean serum MPO was significantly higher in IR cases than controls. \nCases in the highest MPO tertile had higher HOMA-IR, blood lipids and pressure levels compared with those in the lower tertile. The cutoff point of MPO was > 86.8 (ng/mL) and area under curves was 0.82 (p<.01).\nConclusions: MPO levels were higher in obese Egyptian IR women than healthy controls. Elevation of MPO was associated with abnormal metabolic paeameters. MPO might be used as an earlier biomarker for IR in obese women and cases at high risk for metabolic disturbance.

Capsaicin, is commonly used in folk medicine to management oxidative stress in cells and might decrease the riskiness effects of cancers. The study was applied to evaluate the suppressive activity of capsaicin against mammary carcinoma induced by N-nitrosomethylurea in rats. The study continued for four months and the animal groups consisted of 80 female rats which were divided equally among four groups. Body and gain weights, estradiol and progesterone, Carcinoembryonic Antigen, anti-oxidant enzymes, oxidative stress marker, histopathological and proliferating cell nuclear antigen immunohistochemical investigations were recorded. N-nitrosomethylurea treated group displayed a significant decrease body weight and antioxidant enzymes. Also, subjects in this group displayed a significant increase estradiol, progesterone, CEA and Malondialdehyde. Additionally, the NMU exposure and capsaicin treated significantly showed the protective potential of capsaicin in restoring the altered sexual hormones, antioxidants and others biochemical analysis. Rats treated with NMU and protected with capsaicin improved the histopathological changes induced by NMU and showed that the desquamation of most of the layers of carcinoma cells leaving one or two epithelial layers in some cases and in some instances. Animals treated with NMU immunostained for PCNA displaying the strong positive stained nuclei in most of the cells, but in capsaicin treated against the NMU effects immunostained for PCNA displaying the positive stained nuclei less than that detected in NMU group. Conclusion, the results clearly establish that capsaicin performs a very important defensive role during breast carcinogenesis and has the ability to act as a chemo-suppressive factor against NMU effects.

Background: The rs12255372 variant of TCF7L2 have been strongly associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk in most populations examined up to now. While a high incidence of type 2 diabetes in Egypt, the role of this variant in Egyptians has not been established.\nMethods: We performed a case-control association study amongst 200 Egyptian patients with type 2 diabetic and 100 controls. All participants were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism assay to investigate the association of rs12255372 (G/T) of the transcription factor 7–like 2 (TCF7L2) gene with type 2 diabetes mellitus.\nResults: Significant differences between patients and controls were found in BMI, SBP, DBP and lipid profile parameters; accordingly, those were the potential covariates that were controlled for in the subsequent analysis.\nThe frequency of T allele in the diabetic cases (32.75%) was not different from that found in the controls (40%). In addition, the TT genotype carriers in diabetic patients had significantly higher body mass index, blood pressure levels, total cholesterol and LDL-C than those with the GG genotype.\nConclusion: Our study emphasized no association of TCF7L2 rs12255372 (G/T) polymorphism and T2D in Egyptians, however it cannot rule out the possibility of its effect of on the biochemical parameters. Our findings suggest that the rs12255372 (G/T) polymorphism of the TCF7L2 gene is an important risk factor for metabolic abnormalities in Egyptian patients with T2D.

Social capital is an intangible element, which is found in social relations and can act as an effective shaper to collective and individual actions. It can be expected that the bigger the social capital presence in a region, the bigger the level of economic development. The focus of this article is to verify the possible relationship between levels of social capital and human development within the Brazilian municipalities and regions. Methodologically, the Social Capital Index (SCI) was created through this study and was applied to all Brazilian municipalities. The result obtained shows that the level of social capital is low, nevertheless, with variations depending on the region. Another important result was the fact that it was possible to demonstrate that the resemblance of other interaction studies concerning social capital around the world, in the case of Brazil, show positive similarities among social capital, human capital and human development.

In order to improve its robustness, a Variable Structure Control (VSC) is applied to a vector-controlled Induction Machine (IM) system drive, the robustness is ameliorated and compared using several intelligent methods of observation, Sliding Mode Control (SMC) with an Extended Luenberger Observer (ELO) and Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) Observer, controlled by Proportional Integral (PI) and Fuzzy-PI (FPI) controllers. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.