Surveillance for foodborne disease outbreaks in Iran, 2006-2011

Background: The outbreaks of foodborne diseases is a major health problem and occur daily in all countries, from the most to the least developed. This study is the first report of foodborne outbreaks in Iran that carried out from 2006 to 2011. Methods: A retrospective, longitudinal study carried out using foodborne disease national surveillance system data from 2006-2011, which have been reported by all provincial health centers to the Center for Communicable Disease Control. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 18 software. Results: Since 2006 to 2011, a total of 2250 outbreaks were reported in Iran. Analyzed data showed that the outbreak rate has increased from 0.07/100000 in 2006 to 1.38/100000 population in 2011. Khuzestan, Kermanshah and Qazvin were three provinces that reported more outbreaks than nationally expected outbreak incidence rate during 2011. Analysis of epidemiological characteristics of foodborne outbreaks during 2011 indicated that the numbers of outbreaks were highest in warm months, e.g. 17.8 of total outbreaks was just reported in August. Females and age group of 16-30 years old were more affected and 55 of cases occurred in rural area. Among 684 human samples which have been tested, E. coli, Shigella, Hepatitis A and Vibrio cholera were predominant etiologic agents respectively. Conclusion: Increasing the detection rate of foodborne outbreaks imply the expansion of surveillance activities and improved primary health care in Iran in recent years. Foodborne disease surveillance system is a new program in Iran that should be continued and strengthened including diagnostic laboratory capacities

Pelvic floor dysfunction and polycystic ovary syndrome

Objectives: To compare the prevalence of pelvic floor muscle dysfunction (PFMD) in patients with and without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS); to test PFMD in women with different PCOS phenotypes. Methods: This was a case-control study of 202 women who were recruited in an infertility clinic in Hormozgan, Iran: PCOS (n=103) and control groups who were healthy women whose husbands were diagnosed with male infertility (n=99). According to the presence or absence of menstrual dysfunction (M), hyperandrogenism (HA) and polycystic ovaries on ultrasonoghraphy (PCO), patients with PCOS were divided into three phenotypes: HA+PCO, M+PCO and M+HA+PCO. PFMD was assessed by the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory-20 (PFDI-20. Results: The reported PFMD symptoms were higher in PCOS (P=0.05) than the non-PCOS group. The mean PFDI score in the HA+M+PCO was higher compared to other phenotypes, although the difference did not reach significance level (P>0.05). The mean LH level was higher in HA+M+PCO than the two other phenotypes. There was a significant positive correlation between LH level and PFDI score (P<0.04). Conclusion: The findings suggest that a high level of LH may cause PFMD. Further studies are needed to determine the precise role of LH levels and potential treatment options in women with PCOS and PFMD. Keywords: polycystic ovary syndrome, pelvic floor distress inventory, pelvic floor muscle dysfunctio

The first report of familial adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma in Iran

We describe two siblings, 26-year-old man and 19-year-old woman, from northeast of Iran, who presented with similar clinical manifestations and within one year, diagnosed as Adult T-Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma (ATLL)

Study of penculture of the common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) fingerlings at the Gorgan Bay to the maturity stage (broodstock management)

The aim of present project is study on the possibilities of brood stock production from fingerlings in the penculture condition and the effect of density on it .this project was done during three years with two different treatment and three repetitions in the Gorgan Bay. First treatment with two fingerlings per square meter and the 2nd with four fingerlings per square meter in each pen.To carry out the project at first fingerlings were brought from breeding and recruitment centre –Sijeval (Kolmeh) and the stocked at the earthen pound with concentrated food .After that they were adaptated with brakish water between 7-10 days and transferred to Gorgan Bay for cultivation with average weight of 93.78±32.66 grams and 20.53±2.37 cm in length. It should be noted that 6 pens (which surrounded by nets in the water) were fixed using mast with 15-20 cm in diameter and 5.5 meter in length , Net mesh size was 16 mm with string number 33 of kapron.Feeding was done according to the program two times by giving concentrated food at the period of cultivation Physic -o -chemical factors were measured. biometery was done monthly at each pen and other fishes (unwanted) were observed at the same time. results indicate that in the 1st and 2nd treatments average survival rate was 52.3 and 41 percent respectively with average weight of 410±64.98 grams and 390±52.8 and 28.3±1.79 cm and 27.66±1.57in length. SPSS used to analysethe data such as average length and weight of fish in the treatments and in different months with ANOVA method (p≤ 0.05) . results show that there is no significant difference between treatments. Autopsy observation also showed that fishes (female and male) are mature and histological studies showed that most of observed eggs are entirely mature with 800-1200 micron diameter gonad ( male) were mature at the pen in the Gorgan Bay condition .The male and female hormones were evaluated. 17-B- Estradiol and 11-keto testosterone hormones for adult fish (female and male) parents respectively are similar in dense with those adult fish before injection to use at the artificial breeding. Maturation were verified by autopsy, histology and hormone studies

Incidence, mortality, and burden of acute watery diarrhea and its geographical distribution in Iran during 2009-2016

Background: Diarrhea is a major cause of public health burden, especially in children under 5 yr of age. This study aimed at estimating the incidence, mortality, burden, and geographical distribution of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) in Iran from 2009 to 2016. Methods: This study was conducted in 2018. The data on the incidence and mortality from 2009 to 2016 was obtained from AWD surveillance system of the Centre for Communicable Diseases Control (CCDC), Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) of Iran. Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) was used to estimate the burden of AWD. The DALYs-related AWD was calculated using a method developed by WHO. The average duration of the disease and its disability weight, respectively, were set at 5 d (0.0137 years) and 0.093 for all age groups. Results: The incidence of AWD had an ascending trend over the studied period. Forty cases of deaths from AWD were reported. The lowest and highest burdens of AWD, respectively, were 436.1 DALYs in 2010 and 975.9 DALYs in 2015. The incidence and burden of AWD did not have an equal distribution across the country, between the provinces. Conclusion: The incidence of AWD had an ascending trend over the studied period that can be attributed to the improvements in the disease surveillance system. Moreover, the incidence, mortality, and burden of AWD did not have an equal distribution in Iran. Hence, it is recommended to strengthen AWD surveillance system. In addition, it is suggested to adopt proper interventions for controlling the disease in areas with a high burden of AWD. © 2019, Iranian Journal of Public Health. All rights reserved

Renal primitive neuroectodermal tumor: does age at diagnosis impact outcomes?

Primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET) of the kidney is a rare and highly malignant neoplasm. The median age for renal PNET is 27 years but it can be seen also in a wide age range between 3 and 78 years. We performed a Medline search for the term renal PNET and identified 79 cases up till December of 2010. We report here a new case of renal PNET and a literature review for published data for evaluation of clinicopathological prognostic factors, with an emphasis on prognosis in two groups of adults and children-adolescents: 18 years of age or under and over 18 years

Testing General Relativity with Present and Future Astrophysical Observations

One century after its formulation, Einstein's general relativity has maderemarkable predictions and turned out to be compatible with all experimentaltests. Most of these tests probe the theory in the weak-field regime, and thereare theoretical and experimental reasons to believe that general relativityshould be modified when gravitational fields are strong and spacetime curvatureis large. The best astrophysical laboratories to probe strong-field gravity areblack holes and neutron stars, whether isolated or in binary systems. We reviewthe motivations to consider extensions of general relativity. We present a(necessarily incomplete) catalog of modified theories of gravity for whichstrong-field predictions have been computed and contrasted to Einstein'stheory, and we summarize our current understanding of the structure anddynamics of compact objects in these theories. We discuss current bounds onmodified gravity from binary pulsar and cosmological observations, and wehighlight the potential of future gravitational wave measurements to inform uson the behavior of gravity in the strong-field regime

On the constraints violation in forward dynamics of multibody systems

It is known that the dynamic equations of motion for constrained mechanical multibody systems are frequently formulated using the Newton-Euler’s approach, which is augmented with the acceleration constraint equations. This formulation results in the establishment of a mixed set of partial differential and algebraic equations, which are solved in order to predict the dynamic behavior of general multibody systems. The classical resolution of the equations of motion is highly prone to constraints violation because the position and velocity constraint equations are not fulfilled. In this work, a general and comprehensive methodology to eliminate the constraints violation at the position and velocity levels is offered. The basic idea of the described approach is to add corrective terms to the position and velocity vectors with the intent to satisfy the corresponding kinematic constraint equations. These corrective terms are evaluated as function of the Moore-Penrose generalized inverse of the Jacobian matrix and of the kinematic constraint equations. The described methodology is embedded in the standard method to solve the equations of motion based on the technique of Lagrange multipliers. Finally, the effectiveness of the described methodology is demonstrated through the dynamic modeling and simulation of different planar and spatial multibody systems. The outcomes in terms of constraints violation at the position and velocity levels, conservation of the total energy and computational efficiency are analyzed and compared with those obtained with the standard Lagrange multipliers method, the Baumgarte stabilization method, the augmented Lagrangian formulation, the index-1 augmented Lagrangian and the coordinate partitioning method.The first author expresses his gratitude to the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through the PhD grant (PD/BD/114154/2016). This work has been supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology with the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2013, by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) with the reference project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio