Livable City One Step Towards Sustainable Development

Cities are the engines of economic growth. According to the United Nations, Today the global urban population is expected to reach 3 billion to 5 billion (61 percent) by 2030.The industrial revolution and the resulting economic-social changes led to the transformation of residential patterns and living patterns. Due to the increasing development of cities and its problems, the theory of sustainable development followed by the approach of the livable city was considered. Livable city environment with good planning is an attractive and safe environment for life, work and development, including good governance, competitive economy, high quality of life and environmental sustainability. The results indicate that the social, economic and environmental aspects of livability of the city of Arak are moderate and unfavorable. Also, the results of the Topsis model, which is a multi-criteria and decision-making model, show that in the environmental dimension of the region two with a score of 0.6859 and in the social dimension of the region of three with a score of 0.92 and in the economic dimension of the region three with a score of 1, the highest rank Have won. As a result, the city of Arak ranked 58th, is not livable and of the three city areas, zone 3 is closer to the surface of livable. And this process will not be in the path of sustainable development

Neural Networks Approach for Characterization of Non-Isothermal Thermoplastic Membrane

Recent developments in computer-aided polymer processing have brought with them the need for an accurate description of the behaviour of industrial thermoplastic membranes under the combined effect of applied stress and temperature. In order to serve this purpose, we consider a non-isothermal approach to characterize the ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene) membrane under biaxial deformation using the bubble inflation technique. Thereafter, Rivlin's theory of hyper-elasticity is employed to define the constitutive model of flat circular membranes. The nonlinear equilibrium equations of the inflation process are solved using finite difference method with deferred corrections. For the final step, a neuronal algorithm (ANN model) is employed to minimize the difference between calculated and measured parameters to determine material constants. The effect of experimental temperature (between -30 and 80 oC) on behaviour is considered in this work

Acute Lithium Intoxication and Factors Contributing to its Morbidity: a 10-Year Review

Background: Lithium has been commonly used for the treatment of several mood disorders particularly bipolar disorder in the last 60 years. This study aimed to analyze patients with lithium intoxication referred to Loghman- Hakim teaching hospital.Methods: This is a cross sectional study that has been done on 108 patients with lithium intoxication during 2001 to 2010. Necessary data were collected by checklists and then analyzed by statistical methods in SPSS version 20.Results: 39.8% of patients were male and most of them were in age group 20-40 years (47.2%). The rate of lithium use in 66.7% of patients was lower than 20 grams and the level of lithium in blood was 1 mEq/lit in 44.4% of patients. The rate of recovery has been significantly relation with BUN, creatinin, Intubation, pCO2 and pH. There was a significant relation between hospitalized with pH, pCO2, Na, absorbent materials, intubation and bicarbonate.Conclusion: Results showed that we should note to the rate and time of lithium used and also severity of signs in management and treatment of patients with the lithium toxicity

Engineered Tumor-Derived Extracellular Vesicles: Potentials in Cancer Immunotherapy

Exosomes are nano vesicles from the larger family named Extracellular Vesicle (EV)s which are released by various cells including tumor cells, mast cells, dendritic cells, B lymphocytes, neurons, adipocytes, endothelial cells, and epithelial cells. They are considerable messengers that can exchange proteins and genetic materials between the cells. Within the past decade, Tumor derived exosomes (TEX) have been emerged as important mediators in cancer initiation, progression and metastasis as well as host immune suppression and drug resistance. Although tumor derived exosomes consist of tumor antigens and several Heat Shock Proteins such as HSP70 and HSP90 to stimulate immune response against tumor cells, they contain inhibitory molecules like Fas ligand (Fas-L), Transforming Growth Factor Beta (TGF-β) and Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) leading to decrease the cytotoxicity and establish immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). To bypass this problem and enhance immune response, some macromolecules such as miRNAs, HSPs and activatory ligands have been recognized as potent immune inducers that could be used as anti-tumor agents to construct a nano sized tumor vaccine. Here, we discussed emerging engineered exosomes as a novel therapeutic strategy and considered the associated challenges. © Copyright © 2020 Taghikhani, Farzaneh, Sharifzad, Mardpour, Ebrahimi and Hassan

Study Clinical Symptoms and Para-Clinical Findings in Poisoning Patient with Aluminum Phosphide in Patients Referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ardabil (Northwest of Iran)

Background: Aluminum phosphide is used in different area in Iran. According to that the herbal form of these pills are used increasingly, comparison and evaluation of these patients in terms of clinical and laboratory symptoms are important. We studied on clinical and Para-clinical findings in patients who had taken aluminum phosphide and its herbal form in this study.Methods: This is a descriptive and analytic study which carried out during 2006-2012. In this study, laboratory variables, white blood cell count, hematocrit, blood glucose, sodium, potassium and bicarbonate, arterial blood gas also clinical finding after taking aluminum phosphide pills, and vital signs of poisoned patients were extracted.Results: In this study 386 poisoned patients were evaluated. We divided poisoned patients in two groups, case and herbal. 35% had been taking original Aluminum phosphide (case group) and 65% herbal form (herbal group). In totally 18.7% of poisoned patients were male. The average age of patients in herbal group was 23.22 ±8.20 years and in case group was 24.78±7.04 years. In both groups, nausea and vomiting were the most prevalent clinical signs. Experiments in a separate group showed significant different in blood pressure upper (P<0.001), Po2 level lower (P<0.001), pH lower (P<0.001) and bicarbonate lower (P<0.001) but there was no significant difference in respiratory rate, temperature, hemoglobin level and hematocrit. Also was observed that 70.4% of patients in case group died but all patients in herbal group survived (P<0.001).Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that arterial blood gas of patients is a useful tool for differentiating oral poisoning with original and herbal rice pill. Hence, in patients with clinical toxicity of rice tablet can be used to differentiate these two tablets

The combined molecular adjuvant CASAC enhances the CD8+ T cell response to a tumor-associated self-antigen in aged, immunosenescent mice

BACKGROUND: Ineffective induction of T cell mediated immunity in older individuals remains a persistent challenge for vaccine development. Thus, there is a need for more efficient and sophisticated adjuvants that will complement novel vaccine strategies for the elderly. To this end, we have investigated a previously optimized, combined molecular adjuvant, CASAC (Combined Adjuvant for Synergistic Activation of Cellular immunity), incorporating two complementary Toll-like receptor agonists, CpG and polyI:C, a class-II epitope, and interferon (IFN)-γ in aged mice. FINDINGS: In aged mice with typical features of immunosenescence, antigen specific CD8+ T cell responses were stimulated after serial vaccinations with CASAC or Complete/Incomplete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA/IFA) and a class I epitope, deriving either from ovalbumin (SIINFEKL, SIL) or the melanoma-associated self-antigen, tyrosinase-related protein-2 (SVYDFFVWL, SVL). Pentamer analysis revealed that aged, CASAC/SIL-vaccinated animals had substantially higher frequencies of H-2K(b)/SIL-specific CD8+ T cells compared to the CFA/IFA-vaccinated groups. Similarly, higher frequencies of H-2K(b)/SVL-pentamer+ and IFN-γ+ CD8+ T cells were detected in the aged, CASAC + SVL-vaccinated mice than in their CFA/IFA-vaccinated counterparts. In both antigen settings, CASAC promoted significantly better functional CD8+ T cell activity. CONCLUSION: These studies demonstrate that functional CD8+ T cells, specific for both foreign and tumour-associated self-antigens, can be effectively induced in aged immunosenescent mice using the novel multi-factorial adjuvant CASAC

Analysis of relationships between altitude and distance from volcano with Stomach Cancer incidence using a geographic information system

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common cancer in the world, with a wide variation in incidence rates across different geographical areas. In Iran GC is the most common cancer in males and it is reported to be the third most prevalent after breast and colorectal in females. A geographical information system (GIS) allows investigation of the geographical distribution of diseases. The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between gastric cancer and effective climatic factors using GIS. The dispersion distribution and the relationship between environmental factors effective on cancer were measured using Arc GIS. Of all cases, 672 (73.8) were in males with a sex ratio of 3 to1. The highest incidence by cities was seen in Namin with 137.5 per 100,000. The results of this study showed that the distribution of GC around the Sabalan volcanic mountain was significantly higher than other places in the same province. These results can be considered as a window to future comprehensive research on gastric cancer

Fucoidan and cancer: A multifunctional molecule with anti-tumor potential

There is a wide variety of cancer types yet, all share some common cellular and molecular behaviors. Most of the chemotherapeutic agents used in cancer treatment are designed to target common deregulated mechanisms within cancer cells. Many healthy tissues are also affected by the cytotoxic effects of these chemical agents. Fucoidan, a natural component of brown seaweed, has anti-cancer activity against various cancer types by targeting key apoptotic molecules. It also has beneficial effects as it can protect against toxicity associated with chemotherapeutic agents and radiation. Thus the synergistic effect of fucoidan with current anti-cancer agents is of considerable interest. This review discusses the mechanisms by which fucoidan retards tumor development, eradicates tumor cells and synergizes with anti-cancer chemotherapeutic agents. Challenges to the development of fucoidan as an anti-cancer agent will also be discussed