Assessment of Emergency Medical Education on Knowledge Alterations of Medical Students in Rasoul Akram Hospital (2005-2006)

Background and objectives: Education and management are considered two integrated and non-separable requirements of an emergency department (ED). Despite the emphasis on teaching of essentials of approaching and management of critical patients, medical students do not acquire the necessary knowledge to handle these patients during their rotation in different specialties other than emergency medicine (EM). This study aims to evaluate the changes in EM knowledge of interns during their one month rotation in ED of Rasoul Akram Hospital. Methods: In a 15-month period, 226 interns were entered into this study. A pretest was taken at the beginning of their one-month internship period. Then, the interns were provided with a handbook, which was prepared and revised according to the approved curriculum of Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran and latest emergency medicine textbooks. The interns were taught by several lecture and practical sessions. At the end of their EM internship period, a post-test was taken and the change of their emergency medical knowledge was assessed by comparison of pre-and post-test results. Results: The results showed a significant increase of mean post-test scores compared with the pretest scores. Also, there was a significant difference between the scores obtained by males and those obtained by females (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The one-month EM training significantly improved the level of interns’ knowledge. Keywords: Student, Medical; Curriculum; Education; Emergency Medicin

Investigation of Compost Fertilizer Granulation Parameters Using Response Surface Methodology

Nowadays compost fertilizers are suitable alternative to chemical fertilizers, due to the threats for human health and agriculture products. The most important problems for applying the compost fertilizer in the farm are: transportation (high volume), high moisture content, spreading problem, impurity such as dust and storage. To solve the problems mentioned, pressing process such as converting the compost to pellets and granules are suggested. In this research the effects of some granulation parameters on the percent of useful granules in a laboratory scale rotating drum was evaluated. The percentage of useful granules decreased by increasing the granulation time and increased by increasing the percentage of drum filling. The optimal conditions for granules production was achieved at drum rotational speed of 40.38 rpm, granulation time of 15 min, drum filling of 10% and molasse percentage of 40.97. According to these conditions, the response for useful granule was estimated as 81.6% with R2 of 0.924

The effect of rotational speed of the drum on physical properties of granulated compost fertilizer

Granulation is one of the fundamental operations in particulate processing which has an ancient history and a widespread use. Compost fertilizer was granulated using drum granulation method under different level of drum rotational speed. Rotational speed of the drum (ω) ranged from 40 to 60 rev min–1 (40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 rev min–1). The effect of rotational speed of the drum (ω) on some physical properties of granulated compost fertilizer including: useful granules, granules size, fracture force, mass of the granules, bulk density, angle of friction and angle of repose are investigated in the present study.Results indicated that with the increasing drum rotational speedthe percentage of useful granules, fracture force, bulk density, angle of friction and angle of reposeincrease from 69.91% to 80.88%, 34.35 N to 35.23 N, 743.23 to 765.08 kg m–3, 26.50 to 28.01º and 10.83 to 12.88º, respectively. Also the average size of granules decreases from10.15 to 7.05 mm

Elevated expression of miR-21 and miR-155 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells as potential biomarkers for lupus nephritis

Aim: Lupus nephritis (LN) is a severe complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). There is a great interest in using microRNAs (miRNAs) as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in autoimmune diseases. Materials and methods: This study evaluated miR-16, miR-21, miR-141, miR-146a, and miR-155 expression levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 55 female SLE patients with absent, inactive, or active nephritis, and 30 healthy controls (HCs) using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results: MiR-21 and miR-155 levels were significantly greater in the active nephritis group than in the absent, inactive or HC groups. Moreover, receiver operating characteristic and logistic regression analyses revealed miR-21 and miR-155 were significant risk factors for LN. Conclusion: Overexpression of miR-21 and miR-155 in PBMCs may participate in LN pathophysiology and these miRNAs could be used as biomarkers for the condition. © 2018 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Lt

Chondrogenic differentiation of human scalp adipose-derived stem cells in Polycaprolactone scaffold and using Freeze Thaw Freeze method

Human adipose tissue has been identified as a viable alternative source for mesenchymal stem cells. SADSCs were isolated from human scalp biopsy and then were characterized by Flow cytometry. SADSCS expressed CD90, CD44, and CD105 but did not express CD45 surface marker. Growth factors were used for chondrogenesis induction. Histology and immunohistology methods and gene expression by real‐time PCR 14 days after induced cells have shown the feature of chondrocytes in their morphology and extracellular matrix in both inducing patterns of combination and cycling induction. Moreover, the expression of gene markers of chondrogenesis for example collagen type II aggrecan and SOX9 has shown by real‐time PCR assay. Then, SADSCs were seeded alone on polycaprolatone (PCL) and with Freeze thaw Freeze (PCL+FTF) scaffolds and SADSCs differentiated toward the chondrogenic lineage and chondrogenesis induction were evaluated using scanning electron microcopy (SEM) and MTT assay. Our results showed that SADSCs were also similar to the other adipose‐derived stem cells. Using TGF‐beta3 and BMP‐6 were effective for chondrogenesis induction. Therefore using of TGF‐beta3 and BMP‐6 growth factors may be the important key for in vitro chondrogenesis induction. The bio‐composite of PCL+FTF nanofibrous scaffolds enhance the chondroblast differentiation and proliferation compared to PCL scaffolds .Therefore, our model will make it possible to study the mechanism of transition from chondroblast to chondrocyte