Complications leading to hospitalization due to consumption of anti-TB drugs in patients with tuberculosis in Gorgan, Iran (2007-12)

Background and Objective: Anti tuberculosis drugs therapy is the most effective method for controling the tuberculosis (TB). Early detection and appropriate treatment can prevent the TB-drug resistance. This study was carried out to determine the complications leading to hospitalization due to consumption of anti-TB drugs in patients with tuberculosis. Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, 1550 records of patients with TB in urban and rural health centers of Gorgan, north of Iran were assessed during 2007-12. Checklist consists of demographic and clinical data for each patient was recorded in a questionare. Results: 44 cases experienced the complications of anti-TB drugs. 27 (61.4%) of cases with complications were women. 77.3% and 22.7% of patients affected with pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis,respectively. 38.6% of patients were diabetic. The hepatic complication was seen in 37 cases (84.1%). Skin and other complications were seen in 5 and 2 cases, respectively. There was not any relationship between drug complications and other disases. Conclusion: Hepatic damage is the most common complication leading to hospitalization in tuberculosis patients using anti-TB drugs. Keywords: Tuberculosis, Anti-TB drug, Live

Isolation of keratinophilic fungi and aerobic actinomycetes from park soils in Gorgan, North of Iran

Background: Keratinophilic fungi are a group of fungi that colonize in various keratinous substrates and degrade them to the components with low molecular weight. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of keratinophilic fungi and aerobic Actinomycetes in soil of city parks in Gorgan. Objectives: In this study, we surveyed the city park soils of Gorgan (a northern province of Iran) to determine the identities and diversity of soil aerobic Actinomycetes, keratinophilic and non-keratinophilic fungi. Materials and Methods: A total of 244 soil samples were collected from 22 diferent parks of Gorgan, North of Iran. The samples were collected from the superfcial layer with depth not exceeding than 0-10 cm in sterile polyethylene bags. We used hair bait technique for isolation keratinophilic fungi. The colonies identifed by macroscopic and microscopic characterization after slide culturing. Actinomycetes were isolated by antibiotic dilution methods and detected by using physiological tests such as Lysozyme, Casein, Xanthine, Hypoxanthine, Gelatin, Urea Broth, and modifed acid-fast stain. Results: Totally, 75 isolates of aerobic Actinomycetes were detected that Actinomadura madurae and Nocardia asteroides were the most prevalent strains, with 14.66 and 28% prevalence respectively. Microsporum gypseum was more frequent than other keratinophilic fungi (22.96%) and Aspergillus spp. was the most species of saprophyte fungi (15.92%). Conclusions: This study showed that the collected soil from studied areas was rich of keratinophilic fungi and Actinomycetes, therefore hygiene protocol should be taken to prevent the spread of pathogenic and saprophytes fungi in the environment of susceptible person. © 2013, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

Improved model for the analysis of air fluorescence induced by electrons

A model recently proposed for the calculation of air-fluorescence yield excited by electrons is revisited. Improved energy distributions of secondary electrons and a more realistic Monte Carlo simulation including some additional processes have allowed us to obtain more accurate results. The model is used to study in detail the relationship between fluorescence intensity and deposited energy in a wide range of primary energy (keVs - GeVs). In addition, predictions on the absolute value of the fluorescence efficiency in the absence of collisional quenching will be presented and compared with available experimental data.Comment: Contribution to the 5th Fluorescence Workshop, El Escorial, Madrid, Spain, September 2007, to appear in Nuclear Instruments and Methods A. Revised version.- More details on the comparison with experimental dat

On the heat stability of whey protein: Effect of Sodium hexametaphosphate

Despite a growing demand for whey protein‐based drinks, their instability and lack of solubility during thermal processing is a major challenge for food product formulators. In the present study, the effects of different hydrocolloids and sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) on the heat stability, rheological properties, microstructure and sensory characteristics of whey protein concentrate (WPC) dispersions were evaluated. The results indicated that at pH 4, xanthan, k‐carrageenan, low methoxyl pectin (LMP) and guar stabilised WPC dispersion without heat treatment, all maintained stability during pasteurisation but not sterilisation. For pH 7, for the same set of hydrocolloids, a similar trend was also observed, albeit at different concentrations. However, by adding optimum ratios of SHMP protein denaturation was retarded, particularly in the case of LMP and i‐carrageenan. The highest and lowest apparent viscosities were exhibited by samples containing 0.01% and 0.15% w/w SHMP, respectively. This study highlights the potential capability of SHMP in the prevention of protein denaturation. An exact plausible stability mechanism still needs further more detailed investigation

Solving an Optimal Control Problem of Cancer Treatment by Artificial Neural Networks

Cancer is an uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells in any tissue of the body. Many researchers have focused on machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) based on approaches for cancer treatment. Dissimilar to traditional methods, these approaches are efficient and are able to find the optimal solutions of cancer chemotherapy problems. In this paper, a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with the state variables of immune cells, tumor cells, healthy cells and drug concentration is proposed to anticipate the tumor growth and to show their interactions in the body. Then, an artificial neural network (ANN) is applied to solve the ODEs system through minimizing the error function and modifying the parameters consisting of weights and biases. The mean square errors (MSEs) between the analytical and ANN results corresponding to four state variables are 1.54e-06, 6.43e-07, 6.61e-06, and 3.99e-07, respectively. These results show the good performance and efficiency of the proposed method. Moreover, the optimal dose of chemotherapy drug and the amount of drug needed to continue the treatment process are achieved

Client Satisfaction Towards Quality of Health Services: an Assessment at Primary Healthcare of District Gujranwala

This survey designed to evaluate the satisfaction level and the factors that affect the patient satisfaction regarding health care delivery services with the aim to improve the services in the primary health care settings of Gujranwala. A Cross Sectional Study done on randomly selected patients attending the basic health units of Gujranwala, with more than18 years of age. Pretested structured "Liker scale questionnaire" was used for data collection. Out of total respondents, 62 (41.3%) clients were satisfied with the services provided by the basic health units of Gujranwala. The factors identified to determine patient satisfaction were accessibility of services, behavior of staff, health education, level of cleanliness, drug availability and miscellaneous services. Not a single ranked area of satisfaction noticed. Client\u27s occupation and income had significant relationship with the patient satisfaction level. Gender, age, and education of clients were not contributing factors; they not affect the client satisfaction level.Less than half clients were satisfied with the services provided by the basic health units. Management of health facilities needs to improve the services

An investigatiozn on Prime and Semiprime fuzzy hyperideals in po-ternary semihypergroups

The aim of this paper is to apply the concept of fuzzification on prime hyperideals and semiprime hyperideals in po-ternary semihypergroups and look for some of their related characteristics. Moreover, a number of characterizations for intra-regular po-ternary semihypergroups had been given by using the concept of fuzzy hyperideals

Genomic affinity between Oryza sativa and Oryza brachyantha as revealed by in situ hybridization and chromosome pairing

Genomic affinity between Oryza sativa (2n = 24 AA), and Oryza brachyantha (2n = 24 FF) was assessed by using three strategies: genomic in situ hybridization (GISH), meiotic chromosome pairing, pollen andspikelet sterility. The chromosome pairing was examined in pollen mother cells of O. brachyantha, O.sativa and the hybrid between O. sativa and O. brachyantha. The hybrid was highly sterile with no pollen stain ability. Both parents showed regular meiosis with normal chromosome pairing. The F1hybrid exhibited limited chromosome pairing. On an average, 0-2 bivalents and 20-24 univalents were recorded at metaphase-1 and 0 - 1 univalent at diakinesis. The most frequent configuration was twobivalents and twenty univalent. The meiosis was highly irregular showing unequal distribution of chromosomes at anaphase, formation of multipolar bodies and variation in the cell cycle of both genomes. GISH revealed unequivocal discrimination of O. brachyantha chromosomes as appeared red from O. sativa chromosomes that fluoresced yellow. No cross hybridization was examined between the labeled genomic DNA of O. brachyantha and the chromosomes of O. sativa. Mitotic chromosomes of O. brachyantha and O. sativa, in the hybrid, were discriminated by GISH. High sterility in this hybrid could be due to abnormal meiosis and lack of pairing