Galvanostatic Electrodeposition of Ni-Co Alloys in DMSO under a Magnetic Field

This paper focuses on the galvanostatic magneto-electrodeposition of Ni-Co alloys in dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) in the presence and absence of a permanent parallel magnetic field (PPMF) to the cathode surface. It was found that the mass deposition was enhanced in the presence of PPMF(9 T) compared with the deposition without PPMF. The percentage enhancement potential (ξ%) was elevated (ξ5%=23.11, ξ2%=10.65, ξ0.5%= 4.85) with current densities of 5, 2 and 0.5 mA cm–2, respectively, in the presence of PPMF (9 T). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed that the roughness of the Ni-Co alloy films was reduced from 56.187 to 31.716 nm(at 0.2 mA cm–2) and 97.541 to 52.644 nm(at 0.5 mA cm–2) with applied PPMF(9 T) compared with that without the PPMF. The deposited layers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX).Keywords: Potential enhancement, roughness, DMSO, magnetic electrodepositio

Effect of foot reflexology on anxiety and agitation in patients under mechanical ventilation after open heart surgery: A randomized clinical trial study

زمینه و هدف: رویکردهای غیر دارویی از جمله ماساژ بازتابی پا به علت کاهش عوارض و هزینه ها در کانون توجه محققین در جامعه بیماران مختلف قرار گرفته است. این مطالعه با هدف بررسی تأثیر ماساژ بازتابی پا بر اضطراب و بیقراری بیماران تحت تهویه مکانیکی پس از جراحی قلب باز انجام شد. روش بررسی: این مطالعه کارآزمایی بالینی کنترل شده، سه گروهی و دو سو کور با طراحی اندازه گیری مکرر در دو بیمارستان وابسته به دانشگاه علوم پزشکی بقیه الله (عج) تهران، از بهمن1392 تا اردیبهشت 1393 انجام شد. 96 بیمار کاندید جراحی قلب باز به روش نمونه گیری در دسترس انتخاب و به صورت تخصیص تصادفی در سه گروه آزمون (ماساژ بازتابی پا 34 نفر)، درمان نما (تماس سطحی پاشنه پا 30 نفر) و کنترل (مراقبت های معمول 32 نفر) قرار گرفتند. در گروه آزمون، ماساژ بازتابی پا به مدت20 دقیقه بر روی نقاط بازتاب قلب و ریه، انجام شد. میزان اضطراب و بیقراری بر اساس مقیاس سنجش اضطراب (FAS) و مقیاس سنجش بیقراری ریچموند (RSAS) در 6 مرحله زمانی ثبت شد. یافته ها: داده های آماری 92 بیمار (31 نفر گروه آزمون، 30 نفر گروه درمان نما و 31 نفر گروه کنترل) جمع آوری گردید. در مقایسه روند تغییرات سطح اضطراب و بیقراری، آزمون درون گروهی فریدمن نشان داد، بین میانگین سطح اضطراب و بیقراری در گروه ها در مراحل زمانی مختلف تفاوت معنی دار آماری وجود دارد. همچنین آزمون کروسکال والیس نشان داد میزان اضطراب و بیقراری بین سه گروه در مراحل مختلف زمانی تفاوت معنی دار آماری با یکدیگر ندارند. نتیجه گیری: ماساژ بازتابی پا در نقاط بازتابی مربوط به قلب و ریه تغییر معنی داری در کاهش اضطراب و بیقراری بیماران پس از جراحی ایجاد نکرد

Neurotrophin receptors expression and JNK pathway activation in human astrocytomas

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neurotrophins are growth factors that regulate cell growth, differentiation and apoptosis in the nervous system. Their diverse actions are mediated through two different transmembrane – receptor signaling systems: Trk receptor tyrosine kinases (TrkA, TrkB, TrkC) and p75^NTRneurotrophin receptor. Trk receptors promote cell survival and differentiation while p75^NTRinduces, in most cases, the activity of JNK-p53-Bax apoptosis pathway or suppresses intracellular survival signaling cascades. Robust Trk activation blocks p75^NTR-induced apoptosis by suppressing the JNK-p53-Bax pathway. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the expression levels of neurotrophin receptors, Trks and p75^NTR, and the activation of JNK pathway in human astrocytomas and in adjacent non-neoplastic brain tissue.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded serial sections from 33 supratentorial astrocytomas (5 diffuse fibrillary astrocytomas, WHO grade II; 6 anaplastic astrocytomas, WHO grade III; 22 glioblastomas multiforme, WHO grade IV) were immunostained following microwave pretreatment. Polyclonal antibodies against TrkA, TrkB, TrkC and monoclonal antibodies against p75^NTRand phosphorylated forms of JNK (pJNK) and c-Jun (pc-Jun) were used. The labeling index (LI), defined as the percentage of positive (labeled) cells out of the total number of tumor cells counted, was determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Moderate to strong, granular cytoplasmic immunoreactivity for TrkA, TrkB and TrkC receptors was detected in greater than or equal to 10% of tumor cells in the majority of tumors independently of grade; on the contrary, p75^NTRreceptor expression was found in a small percentage of tumor cells (~1%) in some tumors. The endothelium of tumor capillaries showed conspicuous immunoreactivity for TrkB receptor. Trk immunoreactivity seemed to be localized in some neurons and astrocytes in non-neoplastic tissue. Phosphorylated forms of JNK (pJNK) and c-Jun (pc-Jun) were significantly co-expressed in a tumor grade-dependent manner (p < 0.05). Interestingly, a statistically significant (p < 0.05) reverse relationship between Trk receptors LIs and pc-Jun/pJNK LIs was noted in some glioblastomas multiforme.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In the context of astrocytomas, Trk receptors (TrkA, TrkB, TrkC) expression may promote tumor growth independently of grade. Furthermore, activation of JNK pathway may contribute to progression towards malignancy. Considering the fact that regional tumor heterogeneity may be a limiting factor for immunohistochemical studies, the significance of the reverse relationship between Trk receptors and pc-Jun/pJNK LIs with respect to biological behavior of human astrocytomas requires further evaluation.</p

Relationship Between Sonic Hedgehog Protein, Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Oxidative Stress in Autism Spectrum Disorders

The etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is not well known but oxidative stress has been suggested to play a pathological role. We report here that the serum levels of Sonic hedgehog (SHH) protein and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) might be linked to oxidative stress in ASD. By using the whole blood or polymorphonuclear leukocytes, we demonstrated that autistic children produced a significantly higher level of oxygen free radicals (OFR). In addition, we found significantly higher levels of serum SHH protein in children with mild as well as severe form of autism. We also found that the serum level of BDNF was significantly reduced in autistic children with mild form of the disorder but not with severe form of the disorder. Our findings are the first to report a correlation between SHH, BDNF and OFR in autistic children, suggesting a pathological role of oxidative stress and SHH in autism spectrum disorders

Fatigue in patients with chronic disease:results from the population-based Lifelines Cohort Study

(1) To evaluate the prevalence of severe and chronic fatigue in subjects with and without chronic disease; (2) to assess to which extent multi-morbidity contributes to severe and chronic fatigue; and (3) to identify predisposing and associated factors for severe and chronic fatigue and whether these are disease-specific, trans-diagnostic, or generic. The Dutch Lifelines cohort was used, including 78,363 subjects with (n = 31,039, 53 ± 12 years, 33% male) and without (n = 47,324, 48 ± 12 years, 46% male) ≥ 1 of 23 chronic diseases. Fatigue was assessed with the Checklist Individual Strength-Fatigue. Compared to participants without a chronic disease, a higher proportion of participants with ≥ 1 chronic disease were severely (23% versus 15%, p < 0.001) and chronically (17% versus 10%, p < 0.001) fatigued. The odds of having severe fatigue (OR [95% CI]) increased from 1.6 [1.5–1.7] with one chronic disease to 5.5 [4.5–6.7] with four chronic diseases; for chronic fatigue from 1.5 [1.5–1.6] to 4.9 [3.9–6.1]. Multiple trans-diagnostic predisposing and associated factors of fatigue were found, explaining 26% of variance in fatigue in chronic disease. Severe and chronic fatigue are highly prevalent in chronic diseases. Multi-morbidity increases the odds of having severe and chronic fatigue. Several trans-diagnostic factors were associated with fatigue, providing a rationale for a trans-diagnostic approach

Multiwavelength studies of MHD waves in the solar chromosphere: An overview of recent results

The chromosphere is a thin layer of the solar atmosphere that bridges the relatively cool photosphere and the intensely heated transition region and corona. Compressible and incompressible waves propagating through the chromosphere can supply significant amounts of energy to the interface region and corona. In recent years an abundance of high-resolution observations from state-of-the-art facilities have provided new and exciting ways of disentangling the characteristics of oscillatory phenomena propagating through the dynamic chromosphere. Coupled with rapid advancements in magnetohydrodynamic wave theory, we are now in an ideal position to thoroughly investigate the role waves play in supplying energy to sustain chromospheric and coronal heating. Here, we review the recent progress made in characterising, categorising and interpreting oscillations manifesting in the solar chromosphere, with an impetus placed on their intrinsic energetics.Comment: 48 pages, 25 figures, accepted into Space Science Review

Brain multiplexes reveal morphological connectional biomarkers fingerprinting late brain dementia states

Accurate diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) before conversion to Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) is invaluable for patient treatment. Many works showed that MCI and AD affect functional and structural connections between brain regions as well as the shape of cortical regions. However, \u27shape connections\u27 between brain regions are rarely investigated -e.g., how morphological attributes such as cortical thickness and sulcal depth of a specific brain region change in relation to morphological attributes in other regions. To fill this gap, we unprecedentedly design morphological brain multiplexes for late MCI/AD classification. Specifically, we use structural T1-w MRI to define morphological brain networks, each quantifying similarity in morphology between different cortical regions for a specific cortical attribute. Then, we define a brain multiplex where each intra-layer represents the morphological connectivity network of a specific cortical attribute, and each inter-layer encodes the similarity between two consecutive intra-layers. A significant performance gain is achieved when using the multiplex architecture in comparison to other conventional network analysis architectures. We also leverage this architecture to discover morphological connectional biomarkers fingerprinting the difference between late MCI and AD stages, which included the right entorhinal cortex and right caudal middle frontal gyrus

Physics of Solar Prominences: I - Spectral Diagnostics and Non-LTE Modelling

This review paper outlines background information and covers recent advances made via the analysis of spectra and images of prominence plasma and the increased sophistication of non-LTE (ie when there is a departure from Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium) radiative transfer models. We first describe the spectral inversion techniques that have been used to infer the plasma parameters important for the general properties of the prominence plasma in both its cool core and the hotter prominence-corona transition region. We also review studies devoted to the observation of bulk motions of the prominence plasma and to the determination of prominence mass. However, a simple inversion of spectroscopic data usually fails when the lines become optically thick at certain wavelengths. Therefore, complex non-LTE models become necessary. We thus present the basics of non-LTE radiative transfer theory and the associated multi-level radiative transfer problems. The main results of one- and two-dimensional models of the prominences and their fine-structures are presented. We then discuss the energy balance in various prominence models. Finally, we outline the outstanding observational and theoretical questions, and the directions for future progress in our understanding of solar prominences.Comment: 96 pages, 37 figures, Space Science Reviews. Some figures may have a better resolution in the published version. New version reflects minor changes brought after proof editin