Persona

Dementia shows us human existence without any decoration. We see it is heartbreaking, fragile, and delicate in all details. And we see more similarities than differences in our lives than we might imagine. We are all familiar with sadness, joy, fear, despair, depression, and happiness. People who have dementia feel the same way. Sadly, emotions confuse them and us. Formal and informal caregivers play a major role in caring for people who have dementia. These caregivers, however, frequently face great strain from care, stress, and have an increased risk of depression and anxiety. Their psychological distress is mostly caused by the shifting nature of dementia and its complexity. Despite the growing global impact, a lack of understanding of dementia leads to fears and to stigmatization. For those living with dementia (both the person and their family), the stigma gives rise to social isolation and to delays in looking for diagnosis and help. Therefore, there is an urgent need to raise awareness and understanding of dementia in all strata of society as a move towards enhancing the quality of life of people who have dementia and their caregivers and to adequately prepare formal and informal caregivers. ‘Persona’ is an artistic research project that adopts multiple design strategies to convey a better understanding of dementia to (in)formal caregivers and the public. Centered around scientific studies, and insights from primary caregivers, specialists, designers, and in collaboration with artists, this project aims to create an immersive experience to cultivate empathy, improve competence and alleviate psychological distress, and in doing so, humanize the disease and embrace the fragility of the human mind.Master of Design, Visual CommunicationMAV

Evaluation of the metformin effects on Anti-Müllerian Hormone in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome: A double-blind randomized clinical trial

This is a Letter to the Editor and does not have an abstract

Reliability, Validity, and Factorial Analysis of a Short Version of the Self-Regulation Inventory

AbstractThe study examined psychometric properties of a short version of the Self-Regulation Inventory (SRI-S) including reliability, validity, and exploratory factor analysis of the SRI-S in an Iranian students. Six hundred and seventy six Iranian volunteers (294 \males, 382 females) from universities in Iran were included in this study. All participants were asked to complete the SRI-S (Marques, Ibanez, Ruiperez, Moya, & Ortet, 2005), the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale (EPQ-RS; Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985), and the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-28; Besharat, 2009). The results of explarotary factor analysis supported a single general factor of self-regulation and a five factor structure including Positive Actions, Controllability, Expression of Feelings and Needs, Assertiveness, and Well-Being Seeking. The convergent and discriminant validity of the SRI-S were supported by an expected pattern of correlations between the scale and the measures of personality and mental health. All correlation coefficients between the mean scores on the SRI-S and scores of the extraversion, neuroticism, psychological well-being, and psychological distress were statistically significant

Are Commercial EV Chargers Ready to Aid with Household Power Consumption?

The transportation industry now accounts for approximately a quarter of worldwide energy-related direct CO2 emissions, and governments all around the globe have committed to converting their fossil-fuel vehicles to zero-emission ones by adopting electric vehicles. Current electric vehicles (EV) can store approximately 18 to 100 kWh of energy, which may be employed not only for commuting but also for other purposes such as delivering energy to households (V2H) or buildings (V2B), as well as offering ancillary services to the power grid (V2G). In this study, a real test setting including a trending bidirectional charger, an EV, a PV simulator, and household appliances are utilized to evaluate the performance of various V2H components and to learn about the concerns that may arise during V2H operation. The results of the tests on the bidirectional EV charger are presented in this paper. Although the results of the tests on the charger installed in the house are not satisfactory and consistent to the project’s goal, they are released in order to aid future studies in better understanding the true challenges of commercial bidirectional chargers

The effect of the human cumulus cells-conditioned medium on in vitro maturation of mouse oocyte: An experimental study

Background: To increase the results of infertility treatment, many efforts have been made to improve the treatment methods. As assisted reproductive technology is mainly using cell culture methods, one of the approaches to improve this technology is conditioned medium from different sources. It is desirable to apply in vitro maturation (IVM) and use oocytes from normal cycles instead of stimulating ovulation. Objective: To investigate the effect of human cumulus cell condition medium (hCCCM) on the IVM of immature mouse oocytes and morphology. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 240 germinal vesile oocytes were collected from four-six wk-old mice after 48 hr of 5IU pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) injection and cultured in hCCCM (test group, n = 120) and DMEM + 20% FBS (control group, n = 120). The IVM rates and changes in perivitelline space (PVS) and shape were investigated at 8, 16, and 24 hr following the culture. The mature (MII) oocytes were subjected to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the fertilization rate was assessed in three days. Results: A significant difference was observed between the maturation rates in the hCCCM and control groups (24.16% vs 0%; p = 0.001), as well as morphologic changes between the two groups (p = 0.04, p = 0.05). The development rate for MII oocytes attained from IVM in the hCCCM group was 27.58% (2-cell) and 6.89% (4-cell). Data displayed that hCCCM is an effective medium for oocytes maturation compared to the control medium. Conclusion: hCCCM supports oocyte in vitro growth and maturation. Moreover, hCCCM changes the oocyte shape and size of perivitelline space. Key words: Germinal vesicle, Cumulus cell, Conditioned medium, In vitro fertilization, In vitro maturation, Oocyte

Fabrication of UV/ TiO2 nanotubes / Pd system by electrochemical anodization for furfural photocatalytic degradation

The aim of this study was to degrade furfural by a new nanotube system. To degrade some organic pollutants as well as to reduce the amount of furfural which is a well-known pollutant in oil industry, the photocatalytic process along with ultraviolet (UV) irradiation may be employed. In this study, the UV/TiO2/Pd system in which the nanoparticles of palladium doped into the titanium dioxide was proposed for degradation of furfural. The rate of furfural decomposition in the proposed system was more than that of the system without TiO2 foils due to the degradable reactions. The experimental results demonstrate that the maximum degradation occurs at a distinct pH and specific temperature under the UV irradiation. After 100-minute UV-irradiation duration, the maximum and minimum degradations were 97.8% (pH 3), and 95.8% (pH 12), respectively. Also, the degradation values were as parabolic function at the pH values. The values of efficiency of decomposition for this irradiation duration at optimum pH 3 were 96.7% and 98.5% at 30◦C and 40◦C, respectively. Also, the minimum degradation under photolysis was 93.52% at 30oC under 20-minute UV-irradiation duration. Furthermore, while the irradiation duration was 70-75 min, the degradation values were independent of pH approximately. The difference between the degradation values at 30 and 40◦C was decreased with increasing the UV-irradiation duration till 60min, and then this difference was increased with increasing the UV-irradiation duration

Investigating the association of Val/Met polymorphism of the BDNF gene with the incidence of disease in patients with Alzheimer and comparison with healthy elderly people in Iran

Background: Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly and the genetic and environmental factors interfere with its creation. The BDNF gene is responsible for producing a brain-derived neuronal factor. In this disease, the valine66methionine polymorphism and nucleotide changes of 196 (G>A) BDNF are genetic risk factors .This polymorphism has not been investigated in patients with Alzheimer's disease in Iran. This study aimed to provide appropriate information on the prognosis of the disease and the ability to get it. Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, 73 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 100 healthy controls were evaluated. Blood samples were taken from the subjects and DNA was extracted. After quantitative and qualitative DNA analysis, PCR-RFLP was performed and the results of both groups were analyzed and compared. Results: Fourteen patients and seven controls had polymorphisms of BDNF gene. Fifty-nine patients had normal allele, 8 patients with heterozygote allele and 6 patients had methionine/methionine allele. In the controls, 93 patients had normal allele, 5 with heterozygote allele and 2 had methionine/methionine allele. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that the increase in valine/methionine polymorphism in the BDNF gene in Alzheimer's patients compared to the control group can express the role of this polymorphism in this disease. Also, patients with this polymorphism had a worse clinical status than patients without this polymorphism. Therefore, evaluation of this polymorphism can provide appropriate information about the patient's condition

Antihydrogen and mirror-trapped antiproton discrimination: Discriminating between antihydrogen and mirror-trapped antiprotons in a minimum-B trap

Recently, antihydrogen atoms were trapped at CERN in a magnetic minimum (minimum-B) trap formed by superconducting octupole and mirror magnet coils. The trapped antiatoms were detected by rapidly turning off these magnets, thereby eliminating the magnetic minimum and releasing any antiatoms contained in the trap. Once released, these antiatoms quickly hit the trap wall, whereupon the positrons and antiprotons in the antiatoms annihilated. The antiproton annihilations produce easily detected signals; we used these signals to prove that we trapped antihydrogen. However, our technique could be confounded by mirror-trapped antiprotons, which would produce seemingly-identical annihilation signals upon hitting the trap wall. In this paper, we discuss possible sources of mirror-trapped antiprotons and show that antihydrogen and antiprotons can be readily distinguished, often with the aid of applied electric fields, by analyzing the annihilation locations and times. We further discuss the general properties of antiproton and antihydrogen trajectories in this magnetic geometry, and reconstruct the antihydrogen energy distribution from the measured annihilation time history.Comment: 17 figure