The effects of curcumin on hepatic T2*MRI and liver enzymes in patients with β‐thalassemia major: a double‐blind randomized controlled clinical trial

Background: Curcumin present in turmeric has been considered due to its cancer-preventive features, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial with a reasonable sample size and longer intervention period was conducted to investigate how oral curcumin affected cardiac and hepatic T2*MRI and liver enzymes in patients with β‐thalassemia major.Method: This clinical trial study was conducted on 171 patients over 5 years old. The subjects were randomly divided into a curcumin-treatment group and a placebo group to receive either curcumin capsules twice daily or placebo for 6 months. Patients were examined once a month for 6 months to receive capsules and measure the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), direct and total bilirubin, ferritin and cardiac and hepatic T2*MRI.Result: There was a significant decrease in levels of AST, ALT, ALP, and bilirubin (direct and total) in the curcumin group compared with the placebo group by the end of the study (p < 0.05). The levels of serum ferritin remained unchanged in both groups at the end of the follow‐up period (p > 0.05). No significant differences were observed between the curcumin and placebo groups at baseline values or at the end of the study of cardiac and hepatic T2*MRI and serum magnesium.Conclusion: Administration of curcumin has some beneficial effects on liver function by reducing liver enzymes in patients with beta-thalassemia major

High prevalence of hypovitaminosis D3 among pregnant women in central Iran: correlation with newborn vitamin D3 levels and negative association with gestational age

Objective Hypovitaminosis D3 is a significant concern among pregnant women and their newborns because vitamin D3 (Vit-D3) plays a crucial role in embryonic growth, development, and health. This study aimed to evaluate the Vit-D3 status of a group of pregnant Iranian women and its association with newborn Vit-D3 levels, medical and clinical indices after delivery. Methods A total of 206 pregnant women and their newborns were assessed for Vit-D3 levels and their correlation with gestational age. Mean±standard deviation (SD) or the orders (non-parametric tests) of variables were compared, and correlation estimations were performed to elucidate any differences or associations between groups, with a confidence interval of at least 0.95. Results The mean±SD of mothers’ age and gestational age were 29.65±6.18 years and 35.59±1.6 weeks, respectively. Neonatal Vit-D3 levels were associated with maternal age. Using a 30 ng/mL cutoff point for serum Vit-D3 levels, 83.5% of pregnant women and 84.7% of newborns had hypovitaminosis D3. The average Vit-D3 levels of mothers and newborns at delivery time were 23.5±8.07 ng/mL and 20.76±9.14 ng/mL, respectively. Newborn Vit-D3 levels were positively correlated with maternal Vit-D3 serum levels (R=0.744; P<0.001) and gestational age (R=0.161; P=0.022). In newborns, head circumference was inversely correlated with bilirubin level (R=−0.302; P<0.001) but directly associated with weight (R=0.640; P<0.001). Conclusion Hypovitaminosis D3 remains a significant challenge for pregnant Iranian women. Maternal Vit-D3 levels provide for the newborn’s needs, particularly in the late stages of pregnancy. Therefore, Vit-D3 supplementation and regular monitoring are essential for pregnant women and their newborns

The global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, 2010-19 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background Understanding the magnitude of cancer burden attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors is crucial for development of effective prevention and mitigation strategies. We analysed results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to inform cancer control planning efforts globally. Methods The GBD 2019 comparative risk assessment framework was used to estimate cancer burden attributable to behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risk factors. A total of 82 risk-outcome pairs were included on the basis of the World Cancer Research Fund criteria. Estimated cancer deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in 2019 and change in these measures between 2010 and 2019 are presented. Findings Globally, in 2019, the risk factors included in this analysis accounted for 4.45 million (95% uncertainty interval 4.01-4.94) deaths and 105 million (95.0-116) DALYs for both sexes combined, representing 44.4% (41.3-48.4) of all cancer deaths and 42.0% (39.1-45.6) of all DALYs. There were 2.88 million (2.60-3.18) risk-attributable cancer deaths in males (50.6% [47.8-54.1] of all male cancer deaths) and 1.58 million (1.36-1.84) risk-attributable cancer deaths in females (36.3% [32.5-41.3] of all female cancer deaths). The leading risk factors at the most detailed level globally for risk-attributable cancer deaths and DALYs in 2019 for both sexes combined were smoking, followed by alcohol use and high BMI. Risk-attributable cancer burden varied by world region and Socio-demographic Index (SDI), with smoking, unsafe sex, and alcohol use being the three leading risk factors for risk-attributable cancer DALYs in low SDI locations in 2019, whereas DALYs in high SDI locations mirrored the top three global risk factor rankings. From 2010 to 2019, global risk-attributable cancer deaths increased by 20.4% (12.6-28.4) and DALYs by 16.8% (8.8-25.0), with the greatest percentage increase in metabolic risks (34.7% [27.9-42.8] and 33.3% [25.8-42.0]). Interpretation The leading risk factors contributing to global cancer burden in 2019 were behavioural, whereas metabolic risk factors saw the largest increases between 2010 and 2019. Reducing exposure to these modifiable risk factors would decrease cancer mortality and DALY rates worldwide, and policies should be tailored appropriately to local cancer risk factor burden. Copyright (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.Peer reviewe

Importance of Attachments in Treatment with Clear Aligners: A Narrative Review: Attachments in clear aligner therapy (running title)

Objectives At present, clear aligners are widely used for treatment of complicated orthodontic cases such as severe crowding, and class II or III malocclusion. However, some movements such as extrusion, derotation, torque formation, or closing of large spaces are still challenging to perform with clear aligners. Resin attachments, elastics, some certain gingival margin designs, and thermopliers have been suggested to increase the predictability of tooth movement with aligners. At present, it is well understood that attachments are a non-negligible part of treatment with aligners. Different experimental and clinical studies have assessed these features, but there is still no exact guideline for indications of each feature, or their effectiveness. Thus, the aim of this study was to review in vitro and clinical studies and to discuss the best approach to achieve more predictable tooth movement with clear aligners. Methods Different databases including PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus were searched and articles evaluating retention of aligners, different approaches to increase retention, and characteristics of attachments were included in this review. Results 39 experimental and clinical studies were included for this narrative review. Conclusion The composition of aligner material probably plays a more important role than material thickness in retention. However, more comprehensive studies should be performed to confirm this. There is no doubt upon the necessity of using attachments to increase the retention of aligners and predictability of tooth movements. It seems that rectangular attachments are more efficient than ellipsoid ones. Also, quarter-sphere shaped attachments are preferred for rotational and root movements

A discrete firefly meta-heuristic with local search for makespan minimization in permutation flow shop scheduling problems

During the past two decades, there have been increasing interests on permutation flow shop with different types of objective functions such as minimizing the makespan, the weighted mean flow-time etc. The permutation flow shop is formulated as a mixed integer programming and it is classified as NP-Hard problem. Therefore, a direct solution is not available and meta-heuristic approaches need to be used to find the near-optimal solutions. In this paper, we present a new discrete firefly meta-heuristic to minimize the makespan for the permutation flow shop scheduling problem. The results of implementation of the proposed method are compared with other existing ant colony optimization technique. The preliminary results indicate that the new proposed method performs better than the ant colony for some well known benchmark problems

Effects of Applying Hydrotherapy on Quality of Life in Women with Multiple Sclerosis

Objective: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common chronic diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), which causes important changes patient’s life, specially in adults life. MS decreases the quality of life (QOL) of patients severely and led to disability gradually. The aim of this study is to assess the effects of applying hydrotherapy on quality of life of Multiple Sclerosis patients. Materials & Methods: In this Quasi-experimental study, 50 Multiple Sclerosis patients were selected with no probability sampling according to specific criteria and then assigned to experimental and control groups (25 patients in each group) with balanced randomized allocation. Hydrotherapy performed for 24 sessions by experimental group during three months but no intervention was done for control group. Data collector tools included: demographic questionnaire, SF8- QOL questionnaire, Self report checklists. Statistical analysis was done by use of statistical tests such as: chi square, paired t-test, student t-test, ANOVA with repeated measurements and independent t-test.  Results: There was no significant difference between two groups in phycical and mental dimensions (P=0.04 & P=0.2) and whole (P=0.81) scores of QOL before intervention, but there were significant differences between two groups after intervention in these scores (P<0.001, P=0.003 & P<0.001). ANOVA test with repeated measurements showed that there is significant difference in mean score of whole (P=0.04) and physical (P=0.05) and mental (P=0.04) dimensions of QOL between two groups in 4 times. Conclusion: Hydrotherapy is practically feasible and is associated with increase of MS patient ,s QOL so that applying this technique can promote MS patient ,s QOL and offered to these patients

Effect of Applying Progressive Muscle Relaxation Activities of Daily Living in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Objective: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common chronic unpredictable demyelinization diseases of the Central Nervous System (CNS). The aim of this study is to assess the effect of applying the Progressive Muscle Relaxation on activities of daily living of Multiple Sclerosis patients. Materials & Methods: This is a interventional and experimental study. Sixty six Multiple Sclerosis patients were selected with non probability sampling according to specific criteria then assigned to experimental and control groups (33 patients in each group) with random allocation. Data collector tools included: demographic questionnaire, ADL-MS questionnaire and self report checklists. Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) performed for 63 sessions by experimental group during two months but no intervention was done for control group. Data was analyzed by suing statistical analysis such as paired T-test, independent T-test, ANOVA and correlation coefficient determination.  Results: The findings showed that there is no significant difference between two groups in mean scores of ADL before the study (P>0/05) but there are significant differences, within one and two months after intervention (P<0/05). ANOVA test with repeated measurements showed that there is a significant difference in mean score of social dimension of ADL between two groups in 3 times (P<0/02), but no significant difference in mean scores of another dimensions of ADL (physical, sensory, intimacy) and whole ADL (P&ge0/095). Conclusion: The results of this study show that Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is practically feasible and may be associated with Activities of Daily Living (ADL) increase in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients. Therefore, applying such technique can promote Multiple Sclerosis patients Activities of Daily Living