A Campbellian Analysis of Departure in Shaffer’s The Gift of the Gorgon

Among the mythologist of the 20th century whose concern was to relate any mythical story to the human psyche and studies of human psychology, Joseph John Campbell (1904-1987) — An American mythologist, professor, writer, speaker, and anthropologist- was greatly influential. Campbell brought to life the myths and legends of cultures throughout the world when he introduces his theory of Monomyth or hero’s journey—the term he borrowed from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Departure, initiation, and return are his monomyth three stages; each of them is divided into some subsections. Among Campbell’s contemporaries, Peter Shaffer (1926) — an English playwright and screenwriter of many award winning plays- is the one moving readily from farce to the portrayal of human suffering in his myth-like plays .This study attempts to highlight the quotations carrying either concepts of monomyth and demonstrate that Peter Shaffer’s play The Gift of the Gorgon is a mythical one, where several elements of departure glamorously glitters

Effects of aspirin on adverse pregnancy outcome in patients with abnormal aneuploidy screening biochemistry tests: A randomized clinical trial

Subject: The aim of this research is to study the effects of low dose aspirin on preventing any adverse pregnancy outcome in women with aneuploidy abnormal screening tests in second quarter and to compare the effects of aspirin on normal and abnormal Doppler.Method: This clinical trial study was performed on pregnant women with abnormal aneuploidy screening tests and normal Karyotype at the gestational age 15-18 week. It consists of 83 persons in aspirin receiving group and 84 persons in control group. Doppler ultrasound was simultaneously done on them to survey the Doppler results. Any adverse pregnancy outcome (APO) was compared between two groups.Results: The frequency of APO was 32.8% in aspirin receiving group and 41.7% in control group (p=o.o14, RR=0.438). The frequency of preterm delivery before 37th week in the group receiving aspirin with normal Doppler was 8.07% and in the control group was 32.7% (P=0.025). The frequency of NICU reception with normal Doppler was 5.8% in aspirin group and 19.7% in control group (p=0.015). APO frequency in the group with many abnormal factors was 11.5% in the group receiving aspirin and 53.8% in control group (p=0.015). APO frequency in abnormal Doppler group was 46.7% in the group receiving aspirin and 50% in control group (p=0.849, RR=0.112).Conclusion: Low dose of aspirin reduces APO. It reduces preterm delivery and reference of pregnant women to NICU with abnormal aneuploidy screening tests

Hospital Patient Safety Culture in Developing Countries: A Comparative Study in Ilam City, Iran.

Aims: In this study, patient safety culture was assessed in four educational hospitals in Ilam city, Iran. Study Design and Setting: A cross-sectional study was carried out in four educational hospitals (Imam Khomeini, Mustafa Khomeini, Taleghani and Kowsar hospitals) in Ilam city (Iran). Study Duration: The study was conducted over 2014. Methods: The data collection was conducted via the Iranian version of Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) questionnaire. The questionnaire contains 42 items that evaluates 12 dimensions of patient safety culture. Results: The results showed that 47% of the participants had 1- 5 years of work experience and 71.1% of them worked more than 40 hours per week in hospital. The mean positive answers score of the safety culture in this study was obtained 40% that was much lower than the benchmark (64%). The highest and lowest percentages of the positive answer were attributed to teamwork within units (70%) and non-punitive response to error (11%), respectively. Conclusion: In order to increase the patient safety culture in the hospitals, the number of professional staff should be increased and a practical plan about the patient safety culture should be provided. Moreover, the hospitals management should support the staff to report errors without fear of the punishment

A Study on the Effectiveness of Learning Strategies in English

This article is concerned with ''learning strategies of English in English Foreign Language setting in Iran. The role of language strategy is to reach or complete a language learning process or language teaching process in target language. It is worth mentioning strategies of learning can be considered as the important factor in learning and teaching target language in order to help determine how language learners learn their target language in EFL or ESL settings. Subjects for this research project were eighty EFL students in the age range of 18 to 24 at under-graduate level in Bushehr Persian Gulf University. The two types of questionnaires were designed to reach the purpose of this study: the first test included age, gender, language attitude and subjects etc. and a learning strategies questionnaire has included a twenty-nine-test adapted from the original willing (1994) survey. However, the Effectiveness of Learning Strategies was revealed in this study

Diabetic Patients’ Experience of Coping with Diabetes Mellitus: A Grounded Theory Study

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease with high prevalence in the world and Iran. Uncontrolled DM puts financial pressure on health system and society. It also affects patients physically and mentally, and changes their social relationship with others. In spite of advances in DM control, there is only a little information regarding patients’ experience of living with DM and coping with this disease in Iran. This study aimed to explore diabetic patients’ experience of coping with DM. Method: This qualitative study was conducted using grounded theory and semi-structured interviews in Yazd, Iran, in 2013. Fifteen diabetic patients (8 females and 7 males) were selected using purposive sampling. Recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Strauss and Corbin method simultaneous with data collection. Guba and Lincoln criteria were used to ensure credibility of the findings. Results: In this study, 73 primary codes, 22 primary categories, and 7 main categories for strategies of coping with DM were extracted. The categories include: perceived problem, trust in treatment recommendations, ability to predict prognosis, subjective theory, family support, comorbidities and life events. According to diabetic patients’ experience of living with DM, these factors have a key role in coping with diabetes. Conclusion: According to the results, the coping strategy of diabetic patients is a correlated, dynamic, complex, and constant concept influenced by the factors affecting diabetic patients and the disease. On the one hand, trust in treatment recommendations and ability to predict prognosis, and on the other hand, life events and family support affect coping strategies for diabetes. The findings of this study can help health policy makers to introduce interventions and educational programs to improve DM control. Keywords: Diabetes, Coping behavior, Ira

Broad blocking of MDR efux pumps by acetylshikonin and acetoxyisovalerylshikonin to generate hypersensitive phenotype of malignant carcinoma cells

Cytotoxic activities of acetylshikonin and acetoxyisovalerylshikonin alone and in combination with chemotherapeutic agents against parental and drug resistant cell lines were determined using the MTT assay. Effects of Shikonin derivatives on BCRP, MDR1 and MRP transcript and protein levels were relatively measured. Finally, accumulation and efflux kinetics were conducted. The results revealed cell- A nd concentration-dependency of the cell cytotoxicity. Acetylshikonin and acetoxyisovalerylshikonin transiently made the mRNA ocean turbulent, but FACS analyses using fluorescent-labeled antibodies showed no significant change in the MDR-protein levels. Functional kinetics revealed significant block of MDR1, BCRP and MRP transporter in the presence of shikonin derivatives. Maximum accumulation fold changes was quantified to be 4.4 and consequently, acetoxyisovalerylshikonin pretreated EPG85.257RDB cells was chemosensitized to daunorubicin tension 3.1-fold. Although, the MDR blockage was reported to follow time- A nd cell-dependent patterns, MDR1, BCRP and MRP2 responses to the shikonins are concentration-independent. These data suggest uncompetitive transporter blockage behavior of these agents. The results indicated that shikonin derivatives stimulate uptake and reduce efflux of chemotherapeutic agents in the malignant cancer cells, suggesting that chemotherapy in combination with shikonin compounds may be beneficial to cancer cells that overexpress multidrug resistance transporters. © 2018 The Author(s)

New Economics of the Biopharmaceutical Industries and Job Opportunities

Background Biopharmaceutical is either protein or nucleic acid based drug that is approved for therapeutic, diagnostic, or disease prevention applications. Methods This study was conducted by a careful bibliography and search through original pharmaceutical company websites such as Web of Sciences, Springer, Scopus, Pubmed, and Google scholar. Results The annual pharmaceutical company reporting season started a few months ago and brought exciting full-year events. The global market value was estimated US$780 billion in 2016, representing an accelerating trend with more than 4.9$72 billion in 2016. Despite the growing challenges posed to the pharmaceutical companies, they are estimated to grow at an average rate of 6.3% per year, reaching $1.3 trillion by 2022. In 2016, biopharmaceutical products represented sales of$197 billion appropriated 24% of the global market. Antibodies alone had sales of $82 billion, near to half of the biopharmaceutical market. Conclusion Results from the health care world represent that the biopharmaceutical industries are spectacularly occupying the pharmaceutical market and they are expected to continue to grow up to 30$190 billion in 2022. Therefore, it is not surprising to recognize Roche as the top ranking biopharmaceutical pipeline with innovative oncology projects in the industry. Roche is expected to be the best biopharmaceutical selling company, competing Novartis for the first spot in 2022. Keywords: Pharmaceutical Biotechnology , Biologic agents , Economics , Protei

Diversity and ecotypic variation in the antioxidant and antigenotoxic effects of Thymus kotschyanus Boiss & Hohen

Thymus species are amongst the most popular medicinal plants because of their biological effects and pharmacological properties, and they are widely used in folk medicine for many disorders. Fourteen ecotypic Thymus kotschyanus essential oils were isolated, and the biological functionalities of ecotypic oils were characterized in terms of free radical scavenging and antigenotoxic properties. The most abundant ecotypic oil constituents were thymol and carvacrol (27.2–75.6%). The oils produced scavenging capacity, bleaching inhibitory capacity, and COMET-inhibitory capacity values in a dose-dependent manner ranging from 0.15 to 4.79 mg/ml, 0.04 to 3.1 mg/ml and 0.03 to 5.00 mg/ml, respectively. The benefits of T. kotschyanus essential oils from different regions vary, and they represent an inexpensive source of natural substances that have the potential to be used as antioxidative and antigenotoxic agents. Although the impacts of the microenvironment, climate difference and agronomical condition on the medical benefits of the plant were complex and highly context dependent, some correlations among the biological effects, main essential constituents, and the geographical environment were predicted. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyrigh

Therapeutic efficacy of Trifolium pratense L. on letrozole induced polycystic ovary syndrome in rats

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is considered as one of the leading endocrine disorders during reproductive age in women. This study designed to determine the therapeutic effects of red clover (Trifolium pratense) on letrozole-induced PCOS in vivo. Forty female Sprague–Dawley rats were equally divided into five groups. Control group with a regular sexual cycle received normal saline (letrozole vehicle). Letrozole (1 mg/kg) was used to induce the PCOS to the rats in the treatment groups. After induction of PCOS, four treatment groups received the normal saline, or clomiphene citrate (1 mg/kg), or red clover extracts (500 or 750 mg/kg) for 30-days. After treatment, ovary and uterus were removed, weighed, and the ovaries were subjected to histopathological studies. Serum testosterone and estradiol levels, antioxidant activities, and lipid profiles were evaluated. Red clover extracts and clomiphene citrate decreased testosterone levels and showed a significant increase in estradiol levels in comparison to PCOS induced group (p<0.05). Red clover administration restored the GSH, SOD and CAT levels (p<0.05) and decreased the NO and MDA levels (p<0.05). Treatments caused no significant change in levels of TG, TC, and FBG factors when compared to PCOS induced group (P>0.05). However, red clover (750 mg/kg) significantly increased HDL and decreased LDL levels when compared to PCOS induced group (P<0.05). Treatment with red clover reduced ovarian weight, volumes of ovarian, medulla, cortex and number of cysts and increased number of oocytes compared to PCOS group. Both red clover and clomiphene citrate could treat the letrozole induced PCOS in rats; however, red clover indicated antioxidant activities more than clomiphene citrate. Red clover may be used for discovering anti-PCOS drugs with lower side effects