A survey on alzheimer�s disease detection using gait analysis

Introduction: Early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD), as a neurodegenerative disease and the most common cause of dementia in the elderly people, using gait analysis have been particularly noted by researcher in recent years. Because this novel method is non-invasive, less cost, and feasible in non-clinical and laboratory environments. Therefore, in this Meta-Analysis review article, detection of AD using gait analysis based on information technology tools surveyed in previous studies. Materials and Methods: The search for previous articles was done in databases such as Google Scholar, Pubmed, IEEE, Springer, and Elsevier. After finding articles in these databases, appropriate articles were selected to survey based on criteria such as focusing of the study on elderly patients with AD or mild cognitive impairment, the detection and assessment of AD, and the use of sensor technology to record gait. Results: AD can be detected, even in the early stages and also at a stage of mild cognitive impairment based on gait analysis using new technologies with sensors and information technologies. Also, it is possible to quantitatively evaluate and more accurately detect the disease based on the combination of different sensor technologies and the use of artificial intelligence techniques. Conclusion: Although gait analysis can be a novel tool for early detection of AD, but it is essential to be developed and improved based on sensors and artificial intelligence in order to be used as a reliable clinical tools. © 2020, Semnan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Development and validation of iranian children's participation assessment scale

Background: Participation is mostly cultural and familial based, and there is not any assessment scales for evaluating kids' participation in Iranian context, therefore the purpose of this study was developing children's participation assessment scale for Iranian children. Methods: Development of this scale occurred in two phases; phase I: planning: following reviewing the literature and adopting and compiling some items of available evaluation tools in the area (such as CAPE, CPQ, CLASS, Life-H) and receiving advice from two expert panels, the preliminary94- item questionnaire was prepared. Phase II: construct: the survey study was carried out on40 children and 21 of their parents to assess the popularity of the activity in Iran; thus, the items of the questionnaire reduced to 92 and after face and content validity, the final version prepared with 71 items. Results: The final 71-item questionnaire was developed in two parent-report and child-report versions. The 71 items based on the literature and expert panels' advice were categorized in 8 areas of occupation according to Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (ADL, IADL, Play, leisure, social participation, education, work, and sleep/rest). Conclusion: Iranian children's participation assessment is a useful and culturally relevant tool to measure participation of Iranian children. It can be used in rigorous clinical and population-based research

Molecular Diagnosis of Iris Yellow Spot Virus (IYSV) on Onion in Iran

Viral symptoms indicative of Iris yellow spot virus (IYSV) were observed on onion in several fields near Chenaran in Khorasan Razavi Province. Mechanical inoculation of herbaceous hosts with onion sap extracts from symptomatic plants showed similar symptoms to those described for IYSV. The mechanically transmitted virus reacted only with antisera specific to IYSV in DAS-ELISA but not with antisera specific to seven other tospoviruses. In RT-PCR, a DNA fragment approximately 822 bp in size was amplified from infected Nicotiana benthamiana by using primers specific to the nucleocapsid (N) gene of IYSV. After cloning and sequencing, the deduced N protein sequence of two isolates (GenBank accession no. HQ148173 and HQ148174) showed 98% amino acid identity with a Sri Lankan isolate, 96% with a Dutch isolate and 92% with a Brazilian isolate. To our knowledge, this is the first molecular characterization of IYSV in Ira

Strategic crossing of biomass and harvest index—source and sink—achieves genetic gains in wheat

To accelerate genetic gains in breeding, physiological trait (PT) characterization of candidate parents can help make more strategic crosses, increasing the probability of accumulating favorable alleles compared to crossing relatively uncharacterized lines. In this study, crosses were designed to complement “source” with “sink” traits, where at least one parent was selected for favorable expression of biomass and/or radiation use efficiency—source—and the other for sink-related traits like harvest-index, kernel weight and grains per spike. Female parents were selected from among genetic resources—including landraces and products of wide-crossing (i.e. synthetic wheat)—that had been evaluated in Mexico at high yield potential or under heat stress, while elite lines were used as males. Progeny of crosses were advanced to the F4 generation within Mexico, and F4-derived F5 and F6 generations were yield tested to populate four international nurseries, targeted to high yield environments (2nd and 3rd WYCYT) for yield potential, and heat stressed environments (2nd and 4th SATYN) for climate resilience, respectively. Each nursery was grown as multi-location yield trials. Genetic gains were achieved in both temperate and hot environments, with most new PT-derived lines expressing superior yield and biomass compared to local checks at almost all international sites. Furthermore, the tendency across all four nurseries indicated either the superiority of the best new PT lines compared with the CIMMYT elite checks, or the superiority of all new PT lines as a group compared with all checks, and in some cases, both. Results support—in a realistic breeding context—the hypothesis that yield and radiation use efficiency can be increased by improving source:sink balance, and validate the feasibility of incorporating exotic germplasm into mainstream breeding efforts to accelerate genetic gains for yield potential and climate resilience

Study of decay properties of D and D

We present a theoretical approach to obtain the decay properties of D and Ds mesons. As the Cornell potential includes confinement because of the linear potential, and it also includes the single-gluon exchange potential, which is the Coulomb potential, we have considered this potential for the study of mesonic systems. The two-parameter variational method has been applied to investigate the masses and the decay properties of mesons. It has been observed that the predictions of the masses and decay widths are consistent with other model predictions as well as with the known experimental values

Nonresonant three-body decays of B to J/ψππ

We investigate the nonresonant three-body decays of the B meson to J/ψπ+π− and J/ψπ+π0 final-states mesons. There are a tree and a penguin diagram for these decays modes in the naive factorization approach. The transition matrix element of $B\rightarrow J/\psi \pi \pi$ is factorized into a $B\rightarrow \pi \pi$ form factor multiplied by the J/ψ decay constant. We assume that the J/ψ meson remains stationary and the two pion mesons move back to back. We calculate the branching ratio of the $B^0\rightarrow J/\psi \pi ^+\pi ^-$ and $B^+\rightarrow J/\psi \pi ^+\pi ^0$ decays and obtain 1.09 × 10−5 and 5.45 × 10−6, respectively, while the experimental results are less than 1.2 × 10−5 and 7.3 × 10−6, respectively. The branching ratios obtained in our model, are compatible with the upper limits of the experimental results

Study of B and B

In this paper, we have studied the B and Bs mesons spectra and their decays within the framework of nonrelativistic potential model. We have considered a new potential model for the interaction of mesonic systems, the Coulomb plus exponential type potential. We have applied the perturbation approach and reported the total wave function. We have used the Nikiforov-Uvarov (NU) technique to calculate the parent wave function and thereby obtained a series solution for the perturbative wave function. Besides the decay constant and leptonic decay width, we have considered the semileptonic decay width which is related to the Isgur-Wise function. The obtained results are compared with the available experimental and theoretical data