Solvent effect on 14N NMR shielding of glycine, serine, leucine, and threonine: comparison between chemical shifts and energy versus dielectric constant

The polarizable continuum model (PCM) is employed to describe the system in the condensed phase. The performance of DFT and PCM in describing high order nonlinear mixed electric and magnetic effects in condensed phase are described. In this paper we consider the effect of 10 solvents with a wide range of dielectric constants on 4 amino acids. NMR shielding values (ppm), isotropic and anisotropic effects, energy interaction between solute and solvent, and the effect of hydrogen bond on shielding are described. Direct and indirect solvent effects on shielding are also calculated. The observed solvent-induced shielding variation is more strongly related to the intensity of the solvent reaction field rather than on the change of molecular geometry induced by the solvent. KEY WORDS: Solvent effect, 14N NMR shielding, Solvent-induced shielding, Polarizable continuum model, Amino acids   Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2007, 21(1), 111-116

Comparison of the effect of cycloplegic versus NSAID eye drops on pain after photorefractive keratectomy

Purpose: To compare the effect of Homatropine and Diclofenac eye drops for reducing pain after photorefractive keratectomy (PRK). Methods: This randomized, double-masked, interventional study included 32 patients (64 eyes) who underwent bilateral PRK. After operation, patients received Homatropine eye drops in one eye and Diclofenac eye drops in the fellow eye for 48 h. The level of pain was evaluated using visual analogue scale (VAS), verbal rating scale (VRS), and pain rating index (PRI) at 0.5, 24, and 48 h after operation. Results: The level of pain was statistically similar between the two eyes half an hour after operation; however, Diclofenac eyes had significantly less pain 24 h after operation (1.7 ± 1.4 vs 5.8 ± 2.1, P < 0.001 for VAS, 0.6 ± 0.6 vs 2.4 ± 1.1, P < 0.001 for VRS, and 3.4 ± 3.4 vs 12.0 ± 6.9, P < 0.001 for PRI, respectively). Also, 48 h after surgery, the pain scores were less in the Diclofenac eyes (1.6 ± 1.8 vs 3.4 ± 2.8, P < 0.001 for VAS, 0.6 ± 0.6 vs 1.2 ± 0.9, P < 0.001 for VRS, and 3.3 ± 3.7 vs 6.5 ± 6.2, P < 0.001 for PRI). No case with delayed epithelial healing in both groups was observed. Conclusion: The effect of Homatropine seems to be lower compared to Diclofenac for reducing pain after photorefractive keratectomy. © 2015 Iranian Society of Ophthalmology

A suggested prototype for assessing bone health

Background- Osteoporosis is becoming a health concern worldwide. Considering the fact that prevention plays an important role in reducing the burden of this silent disease and in view of the limited resources available, many countries have adopted certain programs to fight osteoporosis through shifting their attention towards at-risk individuals. The Iranian Multicenter Osteoporosis Study (IMOS) is one of these programs. The program aims to assess bone health and the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in different parts of Iran with various altitudes, latitudes and lifestyle habits in a way that the results could be generalized to the country. Method- The present article presents the protocol used in the third phase of the study. It was designed based on the experiences gathered in the previous phases to overcome the shortcomings particularly subject loss. The questionnaire applied in this study was developed based on a thorough literature review of the risk factors and secondary causes of osteoporosis and was approved by an expert panel. It should be added that while the majority of the existing studies aim to study a certain aspect of osteoporosis, the present protocol provides the information needed for policy makers and researchers to study different osteoporosis-related issues. Conclusion- The authors believe the protocol, to be implemented with small modifications, can help policymakers in different parts of the world, particularly developing countries, gather accurate information on different aspects of bone health at the national level. © 2015, Academy of Medical Sciences of I.R. Iran. All rights reserved

Comparing research investment to United Kingdom institutions and published outputs for tuberculosis, HIV and malaria: A systematic analysis across 1997-2013

Background: The "Unfinished Agenda" of infectious diseases is of great importance to policymakers and research funding agencies that require ongoing research evidence on their effective management. Journal publications help effectively share and disseminate research results to inform policy and practice. We assess research investments to United Kingdom institutions in HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and analyse these by numbers of publications and citations and by disease and type of science. Methods: Information on infection-related research investments awarded to United Kingdom institutions across 1997-2010 were sourced from funding agencies and individually categorised by disease and type of science. Publications were sourced from the Scopus database via keyword searches and filtered to include only publications relating to human disease and containing a United Kingdom-based first and/or last author. Data were matched by disease and type of science categories. Investment (United Kingdom pounds) and publications were compared to generate an 'investment per publication' metric; similarly, an 'investment per citation' metric was also developed as a measure of the usefulness of research. Results: Total research investment for all three diseases was £1.4 billion, and was greatest for HIV (£651.4 million), followed by malaria (£518.7 million) and tuberculosis (£239.1 million). There were 17,271 included publications, with 9,322 for HIV, 4,451 for malaria, and 3,498 for tuberculosis. HIV publications received the most citations (254,949), followed by malaria (148,559) and tuberculosis (100,244). According to UK pound per publication, tuberculosis (£50,691) appeared the most productive for investment, compared to HIV (£61,971) and malaria (£94,483). By type of science, public health research was most productive for HIV (£27,296) and tuberculosis (£22,273), while phase I-III trials were most productive for malaria (£60,491). According to UK pound per citation, tuberculosis (£1,797) was the most productive area for investment, compared to HIV (£2,265) and malaria (£2,834). Public health research was the most productive type of science for HIV (£2,265) and tuberculosis (£1,797), whereas phase I-III trials were most productive for malaria (£1,713). Conclusions: When comparing total publications and citations with research investment to United Kingdom institutions, tuberculosis research appears to perform best in terms of efficiency. There were more public health-related publications and citations for HIV and tuberculosis than other types of science. These findings demonstrate the diversity of research funding and outputs, and provide new evidence to inform research investment strategies for policymakers, funders, academic institutions, and healthcare organizations.Infectious Disease Research Networ

Evaluation silo (Cylindrical) fish tanks as an applicable method for aquaculture of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

This investigation conducted for evaluation Silo (Cylindrical) Fish Tanks as an applicable method for aquaculture of Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Current research was designed in two practical phases as accidental experiments through 3 treatments and repeats of which stocked by three Rainbow trout (375 gr) densities as 75, 100 and 125 fish/m^3 in 9 silo fish tanks (2 m^3). For better understandings of the silo performance method, concrete circular fish tanks (similar volume) considered as controls and stocked as similar fish densities as silo tanks. The duration of the first phase of experiment was 150 days. The second phase of the experiment was determined for evaluating two proposed silo type (Inlet and outlet in bottom side / Inlet from bottom and outlet in upper side). In this stage, proposed silos (stocked by fish of 294 gr weigh) tested for rearing trout for 30 days. Water supplied from two surface wells after some aeration operations. Stocked fish were fed by pellets made by Fish Feed Chineh Company (Ltd) in Iran. Feeding operation conducted according to the recognized manuals by consideration of water temperature, fish weight and biomass. Meanwhile, biometry operation conducted in 10 days intervals while fish were anaesthetized. In addition, water quality was determined by daily measurements. According to the results of the first phase of experiment, there were significant variations on Growth rate, survival rate, FCR, FCE and SGR through the cultured organisms in silo tanks compared to the circular tanks. Meanwhile, according the results of an economic study on this survey, the fish culture in silo tanks showed significant economical and profitable in compare to controls. In additions, the second phase of experiment showed better aeration conditions in silo tanks when inlet water supply from bottom side and outlet located in upper side. Because of the fine distribution of fish in silo tanks and more usage of depth by this method, fish culture would be an applicable and profitable technique in narrow lands and slopes through the mountains area. The maximum stocking rate recorded more than 100 Kg fish/m^3 in silo tanks

DMD: A Large-Scale Multi-Modal Driver Monitoring Dataset for Attention and Alertness Analysis

Vision is the richest and most cost-effective technology for Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS), especially after the recent success of Deep Learning (DL) methods. The lack of sufficiently large and comprehensive datasets is currently a bottleneck for the progress of DMS development, crucial for the transition of automated driving from SAE Level-2 to SAE Level-3. In this paper, we introduce the Driver Monitoring Dataset (DMD), an extensive dataset which includes real and simulated driving scenarios: distraction, gaze allocation, drowsiness, hands-wheel interaction and context data, in 41 hours of RGB, depth and IR videos from 3 cameras capturing face, body and hands of 37 drivers. A comparison with existing similar datasets is included, which shows the DMD is more extensive, diverse, and multi-purpose. The usage of the DMD is illustrated by extracting a subset of it, the dBehaviourMD dataset, containing 13 distraction activities, prepared to be used in DL training processes. Furthermore, we propose a robust and real-time driver behaviour recognition system targeting a real-world application that can run on cost-efficient CPU-only platforms, based on the dBehaviourMD. Its performance is evaluated with different types of fusion strategies, which all reach enhanced accuracy still providing real-time response.Comment: Accepted to ECCV 2020 workshop - Assistive Computer Vision and Robotic

Topical immunotherapy of severe alopecia areata with diphenylcyclopropenone (DPCP): experience in an Iranian population

BACKGROUND: Highly variable results of topical diphenylcyclopropenone (DPCP) in the treatment of alopecia areata have been reported so far. The purposes of the present study were to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of DPCP treatment in severe alopecia areata. METHODS: Twenty-eight patients (16 female and 12 male, 10–35 years old, mean age 25 years) with extensive alopecia areata were enrolled in an open-label clinical trial. After sensitization with 2% DPCP, progressively higher concentrations beginning at 0.001% were applied weekly for 6 months to one side of the scalp, after which, if terminal hair growth was noted, the entire scalp was then treated under the same weekly protocol. The maximum concentration of DPCP in acetone was 2%. RESULTS: Twenty-seven of 28 patients completed therapy. The overall response rate was 81.5% (22/27), complete remission (90%-100% terminal hair re-growth) was obtained 22.2% (6/27) and partial remission (10%-90% terminal hair re-growth) in 59.3% (16/27). In all patients an eczematous reaction consisting of erythema, itching, and scaling at the site of application were observed. During therapy, other side effects including, occipital lymphadenopathy 40.7% (11/27), severe eczema/blister formation 40.7% (11/27), hyperpigmentation 18.5% (5/27) were observed, but no hypopigmentation, vitiligo, contact urticaria, and erythema multiforme-like reaction were seen in the patients. Nineteen of 27 (70.4%) patients had at least one side effect, other than eczematous reaction. Notably, partial recurrence was observed in 50.9% (13/22) of these patients after 6 to 12 months of follow-up. During the follow-up time the maintenance DPCP immunotherapy was continued. CONCLUSION: Topical DPCP treatment for alopecia areata is an effective therapy with a slightly high relapse rate during bilateral maintenance treatment. According to the author's knowledge this is the first experience with DPCP in Iran

Factors associated with TBS worse than BMD in non-osteoporotic elderly population: Bushehr elderly health program

Background: Bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score (TBS) are moderately correlated. TBS is sometimes used as an adjuvant to BMD in the fracture risk assessment. Some individuals with normal BMD or osteopenia, have more degraded TBS. We aimed to identify factors associated with TBS worse than BMD in the non-osteoporotic elderly population. Methods: The study subjects were selected from 2384 women and men aged ≥60 years participating in the second stage of the Bushehr Elderly Health program, a population-based prospective cohort study in Iran. The BMDs of different sites and the lumbar spine texture were measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and the TBS algorithm, respectively. Subjects were categorized based on their BMD and TBS status