Loss of skeletal muscle mass is a poorly understood complication of end-stage liver disease (ESLD). Based on recent stem cell literature, we hypothesized that the potent negative regulator of muscle mass, myostatin, could play a role in the muscle loss associated with ESLD. In this preliminary investigation, we measured myostatin levels in patients undergoing liver transplant evaluation, using ...

The design issues in designing low noise amplifier (LNA) for Software-Defined-Radio (SDR) are reviewed. An inductor-less wideband low noise amplifier aiming at low frequency band (0.2-2 GHz) for Software-DefinedRadio is presented. Shunt-shunt LNA with active feedback is used as the first stage which is carefully optimized for low noise and wide band applications. A digitally controlled second s...

Objective A unique feature of embryo metabolism is production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). It is well established that during in vitro culture, ROS levels increase over normal ranges observed for embryos developed in vivo. This study evaluates and compares the stepwise pattern of ROS production during in vitro development of reconstructed goat embryos produced by zona-free method of somati...

Tumor-associated angiogenesis is important for tumor growth and metastasis. Interleukin (IL)-8 was recently reported to be an important angiogenic factor both in vitro and in vivo. In this study we evaluated, for the first time, IL-8 messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), using real-time quantitative reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and correlated...

Sudan is a large country with an area of 1.88 million Km2, and has the second largest animal population in Africa consisting of 52.08 million sheep, 43.44 million goats, 41.76 million cattle and 4.62 million camels (MARF, 2013). The majority of animal wealth is concentrated in western Sudan (40%), followed by central Sudan (23%) (MARF, 2011). Minerals are divided into two groups, macro-minerals...

PURPOSE Recent literature has shown that lymph node ratio is superior to the absolute number of metastatic lymph nodes in predicting the prognosis in several malignances other than colorectal cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of the lymph node ratio (LNR) in patients with stage III colorectal cancer. METHODS We included 186 stage III colorectal cancer p...

This paper presents the design and experimental results of a miniaturized monolithic 2.4/5.7 GHz concurrent dual-band low noise amplifier with cascade configuration using InGaP/GaAs HBT technology for the first time. The first stage of the LNA provides high gain and input matching simultaneously at both 2.4 GHz and 5.7 GHz bands. The output matching of the second stage is realized by shunt-shun...

OBJECTIVE To identify women's patterns of readiness to engage in weight self-management behaviors during the postpartum period. DESIGN Prospective, longitudinal design with repeated measures, guided by the transtheoretical model of behavior change (TTM). SETTING A tertiary perinatal center in an urban setting in the midwestern United States with approximately 3,000 births annually. PARTIC...

Both cleavage-stage and blastocyst-stage embryo transfer policieshave advantages and drawbacks.Potential advantages of blastocyst culture and transfer in human IVF include: i. synchronization of the embryo with the female tract leading to increasedimplantation rates; thereby, reducing the need for multipleembryo transfers, ii. assessment of viability of an embryobefore transfer. This can be ach...

In this study, the effects of concentration and application time of ethephon on growth parameters; stem height, stem diameter, biomass, carbohydrate content; sucrose content, invert sugar, brix value, and juice volume of two sweet sorghum cultivars were determined. Three ethephon application time (8 leaves, booting, and flowering) and five ethephon concentrations (0, 200, 400, 600, and 800 ppm)...