Effect of metformin on the spatial memory in aged rats

Background: Aging process is often accompanied with some degree of decline in all the abilities, including learning and memory. One of the attracting research fields has been devoted to finding antiaging drugs. Metformin has shown some memory-enhancing features in aged humans and laboratory animals. Aims and Objective: To evaluate the effects of 50, 75, and 100 mg/kg of metformin on the spatial memory performance of aged rats in the Morris water maze. Materials and Methods: Thirty-two male 24-month-old rats were divided randomly into four groups (n = 8) including control group and 50-, 75-, and 100-mg/kg metformin groups. After 36 days of treatment, the learning process was assessed by the reference memory task in the Morris water maze. All the rats received water maze training (four trials/day for 5 days) to assess the hippocampal-dependent spatial learning and, then, received a 60-s probe trial test of spatial memory retention 24 h after the twentieth trial. Result: Over 5 days of training, metformin (50, 75, and 100 mg/kg/day) treatment significantly reduced the latency and path length to find the escape platform (P < 0.01). In probe trials (without platform), on the last day of training, the metformin-treated groups spent significantly longer time in the platform quadrant when compared with the control group. Among the treated groups, 100 mg/kg dosage of metformin induced the best rehearsals memory (P < 0.05). Conclusion: These results showed that, in the old rats, 36-day orally administered metformin showed a positive influence on the spatial memory performance in the Morris water maze. © 2015 Farzaneh Ganji

A study on look-ahead control and energy management strategies in hybrid electric vehicles

Fuel efficiency in a hybrid electric vehicle requires a fine balance between usage of combustion engine and battery power. Information about the geometry of the road and traffic ahead can have a great impact on optimized control and the power split between the main parts of a hybrid electric vehicle. This paper provides a survey on the existing methods of control and energy management emphasizing on those that consider the look-ahead road situation and trajectory information. Then it presents the future trends in the control and energy management of hybrid electric vehicles.<br /

The Impact of Education, Based on the BASNEF Model, on Maternal Attitudes toward Child Abuse in Shahrekord Health Centers, 2012

Background As childhood is considered to be the infrastructure for growth and progress, experiencing misconduct may leave behind a heritage of imbalance and unrest which may be manifested in any situation in some form of mental disorder (neurotic attack). This problem leads to physical and mental disorder in children and inflicts heavy social and economic damages to the society. This research aims at evaluating the impact of education, based on BASNEF model, on maternal attitude towards child abuse. Methods The current research is based on an interventional study on 95 mothers referred to the Shahrekord health center. They were randomly selected and divided into two groups of test and control, and education was conducted in four sessions based on structures of BASNEF model. Finally their obtained information was analyzed using paired t-test, independent t-test, Mann-Whitney and Chi-square statistical tests. Results The mean score in beliefs was 77.73±7.27, attitudes 87.01±8.1, subjective norms 85.55±8.4 and enabling factors 82.77±10.64 in the test group. There was a significant difference in the average marks of the structures of the BASNEF model (beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, and enabling factors) between the control and intervention groups after the training process Conclusion Model-based training has a positive effect on improving attitudes; therefore, instead of traditional methods, applying a planned training program is suggested so that its effects can be reliable

Effect of noise factors in energy management of series plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

It has been demonstrated that charge depletion (CD) energy management strategies are more efficient choices for energy management of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The knowledge of drive cycle as a priori can improve the performance of CD energy management in PHEVs. However, there are many noise factors which affect both drivetrain power demand and vehicle performance even in identical drive cycles. In this research, the effect of each noise factor is investigated by introducing the concept of power cycle instead of drive cycle for a journey. Based on the nature of the noise factors, a practical solution for developing a power-cycle library is introduced. Investigating the predicted power cycle, an energy management strategy is developed which considers the influence of temperature noise factor on engine performance. The effect of different environmental and geographic conditions, driver behavior, aging of battery and other components are considered. Simulation results for a modelled series PHEV similar to GM Volt show that the suggested energy management strategy based on the driver power cycle library improves both vehicle fuel economy and battery health by reducing battery load and temperature.<br /

Seasonal changes in supercooling point and cold tolerance in field collected larvae of the beet moth, Scrobipalpa ocellatella (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in Karaj, Iran

A part of population of the beet moth, Scrobipalpa ocellatella (Boyd) in severe winter condition overwinters as larvae. In order to study overwintering potential ofthe pest, last instar larvae were collected monthly from September 2011 to March 2012. Seasonal changes in cold hardiness indices such as supercooling point (SCP) and lower lethal temperature of the beet moth were studied. The mean supercooling points of field collected larvae varied from –15.0 ± 0.99 to –17.8 ± 0.92 °C. Samples collected in October exhibited about 50% mortality, after 24 h exposure to -12 °C. It was gradually decrease until January (no mortality was observed) in January. Lethal temperature for 50% mortality (LT50) decreased from -13.2 ºC in October to -16.4 ºC in January. Supercooling points of overwintering larvae thorough the winter did not change significantly; while during the gradual decrease in ambient temperature, cold tolerance of S. ocellatella is progressively increased

A new practical method to evaluate the Joule-Thomson coefficient for natural gases

© 2017, The Author(s). The Joule–Thomson (JT) phenomenon, the study of fluid temperature changes for a given pressure change at constant enthalpy, has great technological and scientific importance for designing, maintenance and prediction of hydrocarbon production. The phenomenon serves vital role in many facets of hydrocarbon production, especially associated with reservoir management such as interpretation of temperature logs of production and injection well, identification of water and gas entry locations in multilayer production scenarios, modelling of thermal response of hydrocarbon reservoirs and prediction of wellbore flowing temperature profile. The purpose of this study is to develop a new method for the evaluation of JT coefficient, as an essential parameter required to account the Joule–Thomson effects while predicting the flowing temperature profile for gas production wells. To do this, a new correction factor, CNM, has been developed through numerical analysis and proposed a practical method to predict CNM which can simplify the prediction of flowing temperature for gas production wells while accounting the Joule–Thomson effect. The developed correlation and methodology were validated through an exhaustive survey which has been conducted with 20 different gas mixture samples. For each sample, the model has been run for a wide range of temperature and pressure conditions, and the model was rigorously verified by comparison of the results estimated throughout the study with the results obtained from HYSYS and Peng–Robinson equation of state. It is observed that model is very simple and robust yet can accurately predict the Joule–Thomson effect

Influence of two breakfast meals differing in glycemic load on satiety, hunger, and energy intake in preschool children

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Glycemic load (GL) is the product of glycemic index of a food and amount of available carbohydrate in that food divided by 100. GL represents quality and quantity of dietary carbohydrate. Little is known about the role of GL in hunger, satiety, and food intake in preschool children. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of two breakfast meals differing in GL on hunger, satiety, and subsequent food intake at lunch in preschool children aged 4-6 y.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty three subjects consumed low-GL (LGL) and high-GL (HGL) breakfast meals according to a randomized crossover design followed by an <it>ad libitum </it>lunch 4 h after consumption of breakfast. Children were asked to consume meals until they are full. Each treatment was repeated twice in non-consecutive days and data were averaged.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Children in LGL group consumed significantly lower amounts of GL, total carbohydrate, energy, energy density, and dietary fiber and higher amounts of protein and fat at the breakfast compared to those in HGL group. Prior to lunch, children were hungrier in the HGL intervention group compared to the LGL intervention group (<it>P </it>< 0.03). However, no significant difference was observed between LGL and HGL intervention groups in the amount of food and energy consumed during lunch.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Decreased hunger in children prior to lunch in LGL group is likely due to higher protein and fat content of LGL breakfast. Diets that are low in GL can be recommended as part of healthy diet for preschool children.</p

Inhibition of MicroRNA miR-222 with LNA Inhibitor Can Reduce Cell Proliferation in B Chronic Lymphoblastic Leukemia

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small regulatory molecules that negatively regulate gene expression by base-pairing with their target mRNAs. miRNAs have contribute significantly to cancer biology and recent studies have demonstrated the oncogenic or tumor-suppressing role in cancer cells. In many tumors up-regulation miRNAs has been reported especially miR-222 has been shown to be up-regulated in B chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). In this study we assessed the effected inhibition of miR-222 in cell viability of B-CLL. We performed inhibition of mir-222 in B-CLL cell line (183-E95) using locked nucleic acid (LNA) antagomir. At different time points after LNA-anti-mir-222 transfection, miR-222 quantitation and cell viability were assessed by qRT-real time polymerase chain reaction and MTT assays. The data were analyzed by independent t test and one way ANOVA. Down-regulation of miR-222 in B-CLL cell line (183-E95) with LNA antagomir decreased cell viability in B-CLL. Cell viability gradually decreased over time as the viability of LNA-anti-mir transfected cells was <47 % of untreated cells at 72 h post-transfection. The difference in cell viability between LNA-anti-miR and control groups was statistically significant (p < 0.042). Based on our findings, the inhibition of miR-222 speculate represent a potential novel therapeutic approach for treatment of B-CLL