Plasma Leptin, hTERT Gene Expression, and Anthropometric Measures in Obese and Non-Obese Women with Breast Cancer

Introduction Expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) occurs in most cancers but its relation with obesity is unclear. This study explores the association between leptin levels and anthropometric indices with hTERT mRNA levels in breast cancer patients of different obesity grades. Materials and methods In this case-control study, 65 breast cancer patients participated. Expression of tissues hTERT mRNA was carried out by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Leptin concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunoassay. Results Twelve patients (18.46%) were hTERT negative and 53(81.54%) were positive. hTERT mRNA levels were associated with BMI but not with waist circumference (WC) (r = 0.219, P = 0.22) and waist to hip ratio (WHR) (r = 0.212, P = 0.237). Leptin level and hTERT mRNA levels (r = 0.484, P = 0.008) were correlated as well as BMI and hTERT expression. Conclusions This study has shown a correlation between leptin levels and hTERT expression. These findings may clarify the role of leptin in breast carcinogenesis, and hence obesity could be responsible for increased incidences in breast cancer as well as its progression via enhanced production of leptin

A study on the concepts and themes of color and light in the exquisite islamic architecture

Today, diverse ideologies, thoughts, and beliefs exist in the world all of which try to transfer concepts and ideas to others using the indirect language of semantics. In this regard, architecture, especially the valuable architecture of Iran with wide application and permanent presence in human life has gained considerable attention. Iranian art has always been in coordination with the spirit of Islam and an indicator of its truth. Architecture is where meaning is represented in the formal, structural, and spatial aspects. Light and color are two important visual elements of formation and cognition of architectural works. Color does not manifest by itself unless it is seen through a design, when becomes the origin of work and intervenes in its sense of space.It should be considered that how the existence of light and color in the patterns has been effective in the environmental psychology and how the space is defined in terms of these two elements? And whether the sole use of light and color in the historical architecture was to represent meaning?The present study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach to review and explain the semantic elements of light and color, their application and conceptual features in the historical architecture and hence examines these two distinct elements in the art and architecture of the past and tries to find their semantic features to the extent that have influenced the face and essence of modern architecture in the hope of providing useful insights for the modern architecture.Keywords: Islamic architecture, light, color, concepts, exquisite architectur

Transdiagnostic treatment of co-occurrence of anxiety and depressive disorders based on repetitive negative thinking: A case series

Objective: The transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral treatments for treating the coexistence of anxiety and mood disorders received useful empirical supports in the recent years. However, these treatments still have moderate efficacy. Following the improvements and developments in transdiagnostic protocols and considering the importance of repetitive negative thinking as a core transdiagnostic factor in emotional disorders, this study examined a new form of transdiagnostic treatment based on Repetitive Negative Thinking (TTRNT) of co-occurrence of anxiety and depressive disorders. Methods: Treatment efficacy was assessed using single case series with multiple baselines. Three patients meeting the criteria for co-occurrence of anxiety and depressive disorders were selected using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV. The patients were treated individually for 12 weekly sessions. Participants completed the standardized outcome measures during the baseline, treatment and one-month follow-up. Results: At post-treatment, all participants showed significant clinical changes on a range of standardized outcome measures, and these gains were largely maintained through the one-month follow-up both in the principle and co-principal diagnosis. Conclusions: Although the results of this preliminary investigation indicated that TTRNT could be a time effective and efficient treatment for individuals with co-occurrence of anxiety and depressive disorders, further controlled clinical trials are necessary to examine this new treatment approach

The Possible Impact of Obesity on Androgen, Progesterone and Estrogen Receptors (ERα and ERβ) Gene Expression in Breast Cancer Patients

Background Obesity has been associated with increased mortality from hormone dependant cancers such as breast cancer which is the most prevalent cancer in women. The link between obesity and breast cancer can be attributed to excess estrogen produced through aromatization in adipose tissue. The role of steroid hormone receptors in breast cancer development is well studied but how obesity can affect the expression pattern of steroid hormones in patients with different grades of breast cancer was the aim of this study. Methods In this case-control study, 70 women with breast cancer participated with different grades of obesity (36 none obese, BMI < 25 kg/m 2 and 34 obese, BMI ≥ 25 kg/m 2 ). The mean age of participants was 44.53 ± 1.79 yr (21–70 yr). The serum level of estrogen, progesterone and androgen determined by ELISA. Following quantitative expression of steroid hormone receptors mRNA in tumor tissues evaluated by Real-time PCR. Patients with previous history of radiotherapy or chemotherapy were excluded. SPSS 16 was used for data analysis and P < 0.05 considered statistically significant. Results The difference in ERα, ERβ and PR mRNA level between normal and obese patients was significant ( P < 0.001). In addition, the expression of AR mRNA was found to be higher than other steroid receptors. There was no significant relation between ERβ gene expression in two groups ( P = 0.68). We observed a significant relationship between ERα and AR mRNA with tumor stage and tumor grade, respectively ( P = 0.023, P = 0.015). Conclusion According to the obtained results, it is speculated that obesity could paly a significant role in estrogen receptors gene expression and also could affect progression and proliferation of breast cancer cells

Parcels and particles: Markov blankets in the brain

At the inception of human brain mapping, two principles of functional anatomy underwrote most conceptions—and analyses—of distributed brain responses: namely, functional segregation and integration. There are currently two main approaches to characterizing functional integration. The first is a mechanistic modeling of connectomics in terms of directed effective connectivity that mediates neuronal message passing and dynamics on neuronal circuits. The second phenomenological approach usually characterizes undirected functional connectivity (i.e., measurable correlations), in terms of intrinsic brain networks, self-organized criticality, dynamical instability, and so on. This paper describes a treatment of effective connectivity that speaks to the emergence of intrinsic brain networks and critical dynamics. It is predicated on the notion of Markov blankets that play a fundamental role in the self-organization of far from equilibrium systems. Using the apparatus of the renormalization group, we show that much of the phenomenology found in network neuroscience is an emergent property of a particular partition of neuronal states, over progressively coarser scales. As such, it offers a way of linking dynamics on directed graphs to the phenomenology of intrinsic brain networks

Research paper: Characteristics of an online HIV education program for iranian female methadone patients: The first study

Objectives: Female methadone patients need specific education on HIV. However, few studies have been conducted on the essential characteristics of designing an online HIV education program for this population. Therefore, the current qualitative study aimed at addressing this research gap. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 female patients and 19 methadone treatment providers in 11 methadone treatment centres in Tehran, Mashhad and Sari, Iran. Both focus group discussions and individual interviews were conducted and a narrative analysis approach was implemented. The NVivo 9 software was used for data analysis. Results: The qualitative analyses of the data revealed three major themes and six minor themes as follows: a. information for focused action (knowing the epidemic response) using the effective visual presentation and audio presentation; b. interventions for impact evaluation (covering the needed services) by short-term documentary movies and animations; and c. program delivery for understanding (covering the population in need of services) using problem-solving and taking quizzes. Discussion: Audio and visual components, as well as the role of documentary movies and animations, should be considered in HIV education. The active role of women in learning using problem-solving and taking quizzes was highlighted. The findings of this study can be used in designing women-specific HIV education programs in Iran. Randomized controlled trials are suggested to evaluate the effectiveness of such programs. © 2020 University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences

The nature of the relationship between teacher and learner in comprehensive e-learning process with an emphasis on ideas of Deleuze

Background and Objectives: The aim of this research is study the nature of the relationship between teacher and learner in comprehensive e-learning process with an emphasis on ideas of Deleuze. With the expansion of e-learning, one of the important aspects of change in education is in the field of teaching and learning, including the relation between the teacher and the learner. In the analysis and evaluation of the nature of the relation and its role in human cognition, one of the post structuralist emerging paradigms is Deleuze's rhizomatic epistemology. In the area of Deleuze's ideas and electronic learning based on connectivism theory, separate researches have been done. However, what distinguishes this study from other studies is the assessment of the important fact that whether the new area which Deleuze names rhizomatic and by which means challenges the traditional relationships between the teacher and the learner in the tree system and deterritorializes can support the new atmosphere of electronic learning. Do these two accompany each other? MethodS:The methodology of this study is philosophical analysis and deduction, which were used to answer the research question (What is the nature of the relation between the teacher and the learner in the process of e-learning?). The method of data collection is desk-documentation study. Based on concept analysis, valid understanding of the concept and a clear explanation of its relationship with other concepts was achieved. Moreover, based on deductive approach, the implications of the nature of the relation between the teacher and the learner according to Deleuze's ideas in the process of teaching - learning in e-learning was assessed. Then, these were analyzed philosophically. In other words, Deleuze's rhizomatic epistemological concepts and the related elements on the one hand and the concepts of electronic learning based on connectivism theory on the other hand were analyzed, interpreted and clarified. In the end, the proportion of relation in e-learning to Deleuze's rhizomatic relation was evaluated.  Findings: First, basic factors in rhizomatic epistemology of Deleuze were investigated. Based on the findings of this study, the essentialistic of the relationship between the teacher and the learner, according to Deleuze’s opinions, is rhizomatic. This means that it has features such as Interconnection and heterogeneity, pluralism, immigration, mapping, and non-indicative dissociation of rhizome, suggesting nonlinear, horizontal and non-hierarchical, fluid and fragile, decentralizing, spontaneous and molecular, dense and multiplexed, flexible and permeable relationships. Second, the nature of relationship in virtual learning process was illuminated according to the principles of communication theory, which is the new theory of learning in the age of information and communication technology, communication in E-learning is a systemic and network communication that has nonlinear relationships among system components and network.According to this theory, E-learning is the process of network components communicating with each other. At the end, the nature of relationship virtual Learning in relation with, the nature of rhizomatic epistemology of Deleuze was examined Therefore, the orientation of communication in E-learning is in line with Deleuze's rhizomatic relationship. Conclusion: Based on connectivism theory, electronic education is the very process of network elements connecting with each other. Thus, the direction of e-learning is aligned with Deleuze's rhizomatic relation. Thus, Deleuze's rhizomatic relationships with regard to the capabilities it holds, promises the ideal relationship between the teacher and the learner in the E-learning era and can serve as a model to address some of the challenges of the traditional educational system.   ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS  ©2020 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.  ====================================================================================

Half brain irradiation in a murine model of breast cancer brain metastasis: Magnetic resonance imaging and histological assessments of dose-response

Background: Brain metastasis is becoming increasingly prevalent in breast cancer due to improved extra-cranial disease control. With emerging availability of modern image-guided radiation platforms, mouse models of brain metastases and small animal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we examined brain metastases\u27 responses from radiotherapy in the pre-clinical setting. In this study, we employed half brain irradiation to reduce inter-subject variability in metastases dose-response evaluations. Methods: Half brain irradiation was performed on a micro-CT/RT system in a human breast cancer (MDA-MB-231-BR) brain metastasis mouse model. Radiation induced DNA double stranded breaks in tumors and normal mouse brain tissue were quantified using γ-H2AX immunohistochemistry at 30 min (acute) and 11 days (longitudinal) after half-brain treatment for doses of 8, 16 and 24 Gy. In addition, tumor responses were assessed volumetrically with in-vivo longitudinal MRI and histologically for tumor cell density and nuclear size. Results: In the acute setting, γ-H2AX staining in tumors saturated at higher doses while normal mouse brain tissue continued to increase linearly in the phosphorylation of H2AX. While γ-H2AX fluorescence intensities returned to the background level in the brain 11 days after treatment, the residual γ-H2AX phosphorylation in the radiated tumors remained elevated compared to un-irradiated contralateral tumors. With radiation, MRI-derived relative tumor growth was significantly reduced compared to the un-irradiated side. While there was no difference in MRI tumor volume growth between 16 and 24 Gy, there was a significant reduction in tumor cell density from histology with increasing dose. In the longitudinal study, nuclear size in the residual tumor cells increased significantly as the radiation dose was increased. Conclusions: Radiation damages to the DNAs in the normal brain parenchyma are resolved over time, but remain unrepaired in the treated tumors. Furthermore, there is a radiation dose response in nuclear size of surviving tumor cells. Increase in nuclear size together with unrepaired DNA damage indicated that the surviving tumor cells post radiation had continued to progress in the cell cycle with DNA replication, but failed cytokinesis. Half brain irradiation provides efficient evaluation of dose-response for cancer cell lines, a pre-requisite to perform experiments to understand radio-resistance in brain metastases