Naltrexone; as an efficient adjuvant in induction of Th1 immunity and protection against Fasciola hepatica infection

Toxic effects of available therapeutics are major drawbacks for conventional management approaches in parasitic infections. Vaccines have provided a promising opportunity to obviate such unwanted complications. In present study, we examined immune augmenting capacities of an emerging adjuvant, Naltrexone, against Fasciola hepatica infection in BALB/c mice. Seventy BALB/c mice were divided into five experimental groups (14 mice per group) including 1- control (received PBS), 2- vaccine (immunized with F. hepatica E/S antigens), 3- Alum-vaccine (immunized with Alum adjuvant and E/S antigens), 4- NLT-vaccine (immunized with NLT adjuvant and E/S antigens), and 5- Alum-NLT-vaccine (immunized with mixed Alum-NLT adjuvant and E/S antigens). Lymphocyte stimulation index was assessed by MTT assay. Production of IFN-γ, IL-4, IgG2a and IgG1 was assessed by ELISA method. Results showed that NLT, either alone or in combination with alum, can induce immune response toward production of IFN-γ and IgG2a as representatives of Th1 immune response. Also, using this adjuvant in immunization experiment was associated with significantly high proliferative response of splenocytes/lymphocytes. Utilization of mixed Alum-NLT adjuvant revealed the highest protection rate (73.8%) in challenge test of mice infected with F. hepatica. These findings suggest the potential role of NLT as an effective adjuvant in induction of protective cellular and Th1 immune responses against fasciolosis. © 2018 Elsevier Inc

Tissue-specific transcriptome analysis reveals candidate genes for terpenoid and phenylpropanoid metabolism in the medicinal plant ferula assafoetida

© 2019 ABRF. Methionine oxidation plays a critical role in many processes of biologic and biomedical importance, including cellular redox responses and stability of protein pharmaceuticals. Bottom-up methods for analysis of methionine oxidation can suffer from incomplete sequence coverage, as well as an inability to readily detect correlated oxidation between 2 or more methionines. However, the methodology for quantifying protein oxidation in top-down analyses is lacking. Previous work has shown that electron transfer dissociation (ETD)–based tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) fragmentation offers accurate and precise quantification of amino acid oxidation in peptides, even in complex samples. However, the ability of ETD-based MS/MS fragmentation to accurately quantify amino acid oxidation of proteins in a top-down manner has not been reported. Using apomyoglobin and calmodulin as model proteins, we partially converted methionines into methionine sulfoxide by incubation in H2O2. Using top-down ETD-based fragmentation, we quantified the amount of oxidation of various ETD product ions and compared the quantified values with those from traditional bottom-up analysis. We find that overall quantification of methionine oxidation by top-down MS/MS ranges from good agreement with traditional bottom-up methods to vast differences between the 2 techniques, including missing oxidized product ions and large differences in measured oxidation quantities. Care must be taken in transitioning ETD-based quantitation of oxidation from the peptide level to the intact protein level

District flood vulnerability index: urban decision-making tool

Flood vulnerability assessment as an essential part of the urban flood management is done by various methods by several researchers. In fact, the improvement in assessment methods is related to the necessity for enhanced decision-making procedures; for instance, economic or infrastructural investments in cities can be assigned in the best form. To achieve this aim, introducing indices for evaluating vulnerability and identifying more vulnerable zones and then doing relevant comparisons can be useful. District flood vulnerability index (DFVI) developed by the author uses 25 indicators in its calculation. Nevertheless, it is obvious that some of these indicators have no effect on the consequences. This paper presents the results of the analysis for the selection of the most significant indicators of the DFVI construction. This index is appropriate for urban district scaling (or: the urban district scale) and the various components of flood vulnerability (social, economic, environmental and physical). DFVI was made by analyzing the indicators’ relevance and by studying the main indicators needed to depict reality of the urban district floods in an effective way. For this purpose, expert elicitation was done by Delphi and AHP method in two separate phases. Then, all these results were combined in order to construct DFVI equations. Finally, the index was implemented in Kuala Lumpur city’s districts. This paper outlines which district of cities (in this case Kuala Lumpur) are most vulnerable to flood hazard with regard to the system’s components, that is, social, physical, environmental and economic

Flood vulnerability assessment in urban areas in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The District Flood Vulnerability Index (DFVI) is a composite index that allows direct comparison of the relative overall flood vulnerability of urban districts worldwide, and describes the relative contributions of various factors to that overall risk. The methodology involves two concepts. First, vulnerability, which covers three related conceptions named factors of vulnerability: exposure, susceptibility and resilience. The other conception concerns the actual flooding; considerate which elements of a system are suffering from this natural disaster. Four main components of a system are recognized which are affected by flooding: social, physical, environmental and economic components. The interaction among the vulnerability factors and the components attends as the base of the recommended methodology. The development of the DFVI brings together a body of knowledge about flood risk vulnerability from a wide range of Disciplines to offer three principal benefits. First, the direct comparison of general flood vulnerability provides a useful tool for inter-city allocation of mitigation resources and effort. Most previous work in flood risk assessment has focused on a single component of the risk, and/or on a single region. The DFVI provides a systematic way to directly compare the overall flood risk vulnerability across a large number of districts or urban regions. Second, the disaggregated DFVI will increase awareness of the wide range of factors on which a district’ vulnerability depends, from the expected runoff amount, to the number of inhabitants, to a district’s existing economic condition. A comprehensive DFVI will highlight the fact that even in urban regions with low vulnerability, a flood may occur, and if it does, the other characteristics of the area could turn that single event into a major disaster. Third, by reassessing the index periodically, the DFVI may be used to monitor trends in flood vulnerability over time. The DFVI has been developed using the following six-step procedure: (1) create a conceptual framework of all the factors that contribute to flood vulnerability—social, physical, environmental and economic factors; (2) identify simple, measurable indicators to represent each of the factors in the framework (e.g., population, dominant land use of each district, precipitation, percentage of the green and open space); (3) combine the indicators Mathematically into the composite DFVI; (4) gather data and evaluate the DFVI for each of the Kuala Lumpur major districts, (5) perform a sensitivity analysis to determine the robustness of the results, (6) interpret the numerical findings to assess their reasonableness and implications, and present the results in a variety of easily understandable graphical forms. A six sample analysis was conducted to explore the challenges associated with this process, and to illustrate its feasibility. Regards to findings of this research In the Kuala Lumpur districts, Wangsa Maju is the most socially vulnerable to floods, followed by the City Centre, and Damansara is determined the least vulnerable zone. The high social vulnerability of Wangsa Maju is mainly due to its maximum population density relative to all the Kuala Lumpur zones. In considering physical vulnerability, it was revealed that the high physical vulnerability index of the City Centre zone is the consequence of high number of low cost and old buildings in this area, Damansara has the least vulnerability in terms of physical vulnerability. Comparing the results of environmental DFVI, it can be seen that Wangsa Maju has a higher environmental vulnerability and the smallest value of environmental vulnerability index belongs to Bandar Tun Razak, It is apparent from the results of economic vulnerability index comparison between Kuala Lumpur zones that Sentul has the highest economic vulnerability index where Damansara has the lowest economic vulnerability index. Combining the four main components vulnerability results in overall DFVI values shows all districts of Kuala Lumpur place in vulnerable districts category special Wangsa Maju and city center zones have high vulnerability to flood

Association of the rs555172 polymorphism in SENCR long non-coding RNA and atherosclerotic coronary artery disease

Introduction: Variants in long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated as potential biomarkers in prediction of complex disorders such as coronary artery disease (CAD). Studies considering the impact of the SENCR antisense lncRNAs on CAD have not established yet in Iranian population. This study aimed to investigate the association between SENCR rs555172 polymorphism and CAD in south Iranian population. Methods: Amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction (ARMS-PCR) was performed to determine the allele and the genotype distribution of SENCR lncRNA polymorphism in 150 patients with CAD compared with 149 healthy controls through this hospital-based case-control study. Results: The frequency of AA, AG, and GG genotypes in cases were 32.7%, 44.7%, and 22.6%, and in controls were 26.8%, 49%, and 24.2%, respectively. Association was not found with any of the genotypes in comparison of cases and controls. The allelic frequencies did not differ between cases and controls. Cross-tabulating the population based on the gender, the frequency of the GG genotype was significantly higher among women of the case group compared to men. The difference was not seen in the control group between two sexes. Conclusion: The results suggested that the SENCR gene polymorphism did not confer susceptibility to CAD

Effectiveness of computer-based stress inoculation training (SIT) counseling approach on anxiety, depression, and stress of students with premenstrual syndrome

Abstract Background Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) is a common public health issue affecting many women of reproductive age worldwide. This study has been designed to investigate of computer-based stress inoculation training (SIT) counseling approach on anxiety, depression, and stress of university students with PMS. Methods A randomized trial study with two parallel arms was done from 30 October 2022 to 21 June 2023 on 100 university students aged 18 to 38 at Babol University of Medical Sciences. The participants were randomly divided into two groups intervention and control. The data collection tools included questionnaires on demographic-fertility characteristics, the Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14), the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) and Riff’s Psychological Well-being Scale (RPWS). The data were assessed using chi-square, t-student, ANOVA repeated measure, and linear regression tests. A significance level of P < 0.05 was considered for the analysis. Results The results of the study showed that the SIT interventions decreased the PMS severity and most psychological factors so in the intervention group, SIT was able to significantly reduce anxiety, depression, perceived stress, and Sheehan’s disability after intervention (P < 0.001). Based on multiple linear regression analysis, the most predictors of HADS were the PSS and SDS (β = 0.285, p = 0.009 and β = 0.236, p = 0.024, respectively). Conclusion The computer-based SIT counseling approach could reduce the severity of symptoms and psychological factors in students. Therefore, SIT intervention is recommended to manage their PMS. Trial registration IRCT20230130057274N2

Novel Robot Manipulator Adaptive Artificial Control: Design a Novel SISO Adaptive Fuzzy Sliding Algorithm Inverse Dynamic Like Method.

Refer to the research, design a novel SISO adaptive fuzzy sliding algorithm inverse dynamic like method (NAIDLC) and application to robot manipulator has proposed in order to design high performance nonlinear controller in the presence of uncertainties. Regarding to the positive points in inverse dynamic controller, fuzzy logic controller and self tuning fuzzy sliding method, the output has improved. The main objective in this research is analyses and design of the adaptive robust controller based on artificial intelligence and nonlinear control. Robot manipulator is nonlinear, time variant and a number of parameters are uncertain, so design the best controller for this plant is the main target. Although inverse dynamic controller have acceptable performance with known dynamic parameters but regarding to uncertainty, this controller's output has fairly fluctuations. In order to solve this problem this research is focoused on two methodology the first one is design a fuzzy inference system as a estimate nonlinear part of main controller but this method caused to high computation load in fuzzy rule base and the second method is focused on design novel adaptive method to reduce the computation in fuzzy algorithm

Factors affecting students’ attitudes towards reproductive health in the north of Iran: Designing an educational program

Abstract Background It is essential to empower young people to promote reproductive health (RH) and develop effective educational programs to prevent risky behaviors. This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting students’ attitudes towards RH based on the ecological model and then design an educational program. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on 461 female students aged 18–29 in the north of Iran. This study was done in two stages. In the first stage, factors affecting the attitude towards RH including demographic questionnaire, interpersonal communication skills, family communication pattern, depression, stress and anxiety, body self-image, and self-confidence were determined. In the second stage, an educational program was designed based on the most effective factors. Independent t-test, ANOVA, and multiple linear regression were employed using SPSS version 20 software. Also, STATA version 15 software was utilized for statistical modeling to predict the best predictive model of attitude towards RH. Results 47.7% of students had a good attitude toward RH. The majority of students had problems with interpersonal communication skills (60.7%). Also, 28.5% experienced depression, 35.8% anxiety, and 12.8% stress at different levels. More than a quarter of the students (26.5%) had poor body self-image and 18.7% had Undesirable self-esteem. Interpersonal skills (P = 0.002), family communication pattern (P = 0.004), stress (p = 0.019), anxiety (P = 0.001), and body self-image (P = 0.034) have a significant relationship with the attitude towards RH. The multiple regression showed that the most important effective factor on RH is the dialogue orientation of family communication pattern (P = 0.041), stress (P = 0.002), and anxiety (P = 0.001). Conclusion Stress and anxiety management training and the use of dialogue orientation in the family communication pattern for young female students are recommended based on the scientific model