Clinical course and effective factors of primary vesicoureteral reflux

Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is one of the most important causes of urinary tract infection and renal failure in children. It is a potentially self-limited disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical course and significant factors in children with primary VUR. The medical charts of 125 infants and children (27.2 males, 72.8 females) with all grades of primary VUR were retrospectively reviewed. Mean age at diagnosis was 22.3±22.9 months. 52 of patients had bilateral VUR. Mild reflux (Grade I, II) was the most common initial grade. 53.6 of patients achieved spontaneous resolution. 30.1 of patients had decreased renal function on initial DMSA renal scan, significantly in males and severe VUR. Reflux nephropathy occurred in 17.6 of patients, especially in renal damage and male sex. No significant association was observed between recurrent urinary tract infection with the severity of VUR, and the presence of renal damage at admission. Age at diagnosis, gender, grade, laterality, the absence of recurrent urinary tract infection and renal damage had a significant correlation between spontaneous VUR resolution. Spontaneous resolution of primary VUR occurred significantly in female patients, age � 30months at diagnosis, mild-to-moderate VUR, unilateral reflux, the absence of recurrent urinary tract infection, and renal damage. © 2015 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

An experimental analysis of the effects of dietary lipid sources and feeding ration on the reproductive performance, egg and larval quality of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (L.)

This study investigates the effects of dietary lipid sources on the growth and reproductive performance of Nile tilapia over three consecutive spawnings. Fish were reared using three experimental diets, with the goal of replacing dietary fish oil with palm oil. Three experimental diets and a commercial trout diet was used as the control. The effect of dietary lipid on the growth performance, spawning interval, fecundity, relative fecundity (number of eggs per unit weight), egg size, egg fertilization and hatching rate in addition to an assessment of larval quality was investigated. Growth was significantly (p0.05). Similar results were observed for the egg to body weight ratio (EW:BW) and the inter-spawning interval (ISI) for the fish fed control diet (diet 4). The total fecundity (number of eggs produced per fish) obtained from the fish fed the mixed oil diet (PO:CO) was significantly higher (p<0.05) than from those fed the palm oil and control diets. This study suggests that palm oil can replace fish oil in diets fed to O. niloticus with no subsequent negative effects on the eggs and larval quality

Effects of an Osteoporosis Prevention Program Based on Health Belief Model Among Females

Background: Several studies reported the efficacy of osteoporosis prevention interventions in improvement of people’s preventive behaviors. However, there are reports that the interventions were not successful in altering osteoporosis health beliefs and preventive behaviors. Objectives: The current study aimed to assess the effect of a program based on health beliefs model (HBM) on females’ health beliefs and performances about osteoporosis preventive behaviors. Patients and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 120 patients registered in two healthcare centers of Fasa, Fars Province, Iran in 2014. A questionnaire including demographic information and HBM constructs was employed to measure the females’ beliefs regarding nutrition and walking performance in prevention of osteoporosis bone mineral density (BMD) measured at the lumbar spine and femur before, immediately after the intervention, and six months after the intervention. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, independent samples t-, Mann-Whitney U tests and repeated measures ANOVA. Results: Immediately and six months after the intervention, a significant increase was found in the intervention group’s health beliefs, nutrition, and walking performances to prevent osteoporosis. Six months after the intervention, lumbar spine BMD T-score increased to 0.127 ± 0.061 in the intervention group but reduced to -0.043 ± 0.059 in the control group. Also, hip BMD T-score increased to 0.125 ± 0.088 in the intervention group, but decreased to -0.028 ± 0.052 in control group. Conclusions: The current study showed the effectiveness of HBM in adoption of nutrition and walking behaviors as well as the increase of bone density to prevent osteoporosis

Numerical modelling for nanoparticle thermal migration with effects of shape of particles and magnetic field inside a porous enclosure

Computational modelling for nanoparticle migration inside a permeable space has been reported. Impacts of shape factor and radiation were included in the mathematical model. CVFEM was employed to analyse magnetic force impact. Impacts of magnetic radiative parameters, buoyancy forces and nanoparticle shape on nanomaterial behaviour were demonstrated. Utilizing the Darcy model helps us to predict the behaviour of porous media. Outputs revealed higher convective mode can be achieved with augmenting buoyancy force while opposite outcome appears when magnetic field is imposed. Thermal plume vanishes with the rise of conductive mode which is gained as Hartmann increases

comparison of three adjuvant chemotherapy regimes using an extended log-logistic model in women with operable breast cancer

Objective: The main objective of the present study was to compare the effects of three common chemotherapy regimes in terms of disease-free survival (DFS) of breast cancer (BC) patients; the three explored regimes were taxane-based, anthracycline-based and CMF (cyclophosphamide methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil). Materials and methods: In this historical-cohort study, we obtained the information of 62 patients with confirmed BC in non-metastatic stage and followed them for 8 years. All the patients had undergone modified radical mastectomy surgery and had received adjuvant chemotherapy in three medical centers in Tehran, Iran. DFS was considered as the end-point. Afterwards, an extended log-logistic regression model was used to compare these regimes. Results: The mean (SD) age of patients was 49.0 (10.3) years. The median time of follow-up was 20.0 months and the probability of 5-years DFS was 0.48. Survival analysis indicated that the type of chemotherapy (OR(CMF vs. taxane) = 0.33, OR(anthracycline vs. taxane) = 0.74), grade (OR(III vs. I or II) = 0.35), tumor size (OR(>5cm vs. <5cm)= 0.179) and nodal involvements (OR(Yes vs. No)= 0.36) affected DFS. Conclusion: The current study revealed that the efficacy of taxane-based, in terms of DFS, was more than CMF (p = 0.05). Moreover, taxane-based chemotherapy prolonged DFS more than anthracycline-based one although the difference was not significant (p= 0.63). Finally, considering the importance of tumor size, histological grade and number of involved lymph nodes in lengthening DFS, it is crucial to highlight the role of public education and screening programs in order to detect tumor in its early stages

Induced spermiation of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, using a GnRh analogue

In this study, the benefits of using the first Iranian made GnRHa[D-Ala6 des Gly10] mGnRH ethylamide, to induce spermiation in male rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, were evaluated, In addition, its effect on acceleration and synchronization, quality and quantity of milt and the plasma Testosterone (T) fluctuations were examined. For these purposes, 40 non-spermiating male rainbow trouts were injected with a mammalian gonadotropin releasing hormone analog (GnRHa) preparations of 0 (control), 30, 40 and 80 μg/kg B.W. or vehicle (propylene glycol). Spermiation was very synchronous and accelerated in treated groups. Six days after first injection, the cumulative spermiation rates reached respectively 40, 49 and 79% in injected groups (i.e. 30 to 80 μg/kg B.W.) while none of the control fish was spermiated. GnRHa injections advanced spermiation and reduced the average time to spermiation from 16 3.67 days for control group to 14.3± 2.2, 9.2 ±0.75 and 6.6± 0.29 days for treated groups, respectively (p0.05). Circulating levels of testosterone (T) prior to the GnRHa treatment were relatively low in all groups. Treatment with GnRHa induced significant increase in plasma T after 12 h, increasing it to 43.43±5.82, 38.66±5.63, 39.72±5.07 ng/ml in groups 2 to 4, respectively, which were higher than T levels for control (i.e. 24.58±7.13 ng/ml) p<0.05. These levels remained high up until 48 h in treated groups; but after this time, T levels reduced to the basal levels of time 0, except in 4 which had received its second GnRHa injection at time 48

Theoretical study of fMet-tRNA and fAla-tRNA structures by using quantum calculation

AbstractIn the prokaryotes, protein synthesis always starts with N-formylmethionine amino acid. Comparison of this amino acid with other amino acids is attempted and that is why formylmethionine is always the first amino acid to begin protein synthesis, in this paper we added a formyl group to alanine amino acid and then studied it when attached to the tRNA molecule and compared this structure with formylmethionine-tRNA structure. The quantum chemical calculations have performed using Gaussian 03 suite of programs. The fAla-tRNA and fMet-tRNA structures have fully optimized at the HF and B3LYP levels with 3–21G∗ and 6–31G∗ basis sets as well as MP2/3–21G∗ level and theoretically solvent effects on the structures were investigated. Then we studied electronic structures of the compounds using Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) analysis and calculated NMR parameters at the gas-phase. Frequency analysis was also calculated at the HF and B3LYP/3-21G∗ levels in the different solvents in 298.15K, 310.15K temperatures and 1.00 atmosphere pressure