Optimizing multi-objective dynamic facility location decisions within green distribution network design

Despite the surge of sustainable economic development which inspires corporations to optimize investment on environmental-friendly infrastructural facilities, limited pragmatic evidences are observed in product-service networks. The importance of such optimized decisions would be highlighted where various stakeholders' objectives are involved in network design. This paper addresses the joint study of optimization for profitability, customer satisfaction, and sustainability by optimizing facility location decisions in distribution-service network with forward and reverse streams. The contribution is minimizing establishment, transportation and inventory management costs and simultaneously maximizing customer satisfaction with sustainable perspective. The presented model is the optimum approach for multiobjective, multi-period, multi-commodity, distribution-service system. The applicability of the proposed model is validated by a real case study. Provided solution proved that a green distribution-service network will increase the efficiency in terms of profitability and customer satisfaction.Scopu

A Review on Potential Mechanisms of Terminalia chebula

The current management of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) focuses on acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) and NMDA receptor antagonists, although outcomes are not completely favorable. Hence, novel agents found in herbal plants are gaining attention as possible therapeutic alternatives. The Terminalia chebula (Family: Combretaceae) is a medicinal plant with a wide spectrum of medicinal properties and is reported to contain various biochemicals such as hydrolysable tannins, phenolic compounds, and flavonoids, so it may prove to be a good therapeutic alternative. In this research, we reviewed published scientific literature found in various databases: PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, Scirus, and Google Scholar, with the keywords: T. chebula, AD, neuroprotection, medicinal plant, antioxidant, ellagitannin, gallotannin, gallic acid, chebulagic acid, and chebulinic acid. This review shows that T. chebula extracts and its constituents have AChEI and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, all of which are currently relevant to the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease

CT-LungNet: A Deep Learning Framework for Precise Lung Tissue Segmentation in 3D Thoracic CT Scans

Segmentation of lung tissue in computed tomography (CT) images is a precursor to most pulmonary image analysis applications. Semantic segmentation methods using deep learning have exhibited top-tier performance in recent years, however designing accurate and robust segmentation models for lung tissue is challenging due to the variations in shape, size, and orientation. Additionally, medical image artifacts and noise can affect lung tissue segmentation and degrade the accuracy of downstream analysis. The practicality of current deep learning methods for lung tissue segmentation is limited as they require significant computational resources and may not be easily deployable in clinical settings. This paper presents a fully automatic method that identifies the lungs in three-dimensional (3D) pulmonary CT images using deep networks and transfer learning. We introduce (1) a novel 2.5-dimensional image representation from consecutive CT slices that succinctly represents volumetric information and (2) a U-Net architecture equipped with pre-trained InceptionV3 blocks to segment 3D CT scans while maintaining the number of learnable parameters as low as possible. Our method was quantitatively assessed using one public dataset, LUNA16, for training and testing and two public datasets, namely, VESSEL12 and CRPF, only for testing. Due to the low number of learnable parameters, our method achieved high generalizability to the unseen VESSEL12 and CRPF datasets while obtaining superior performance over Luna16 compared to existing methods (Dice coefficients of 99.7, 99.1, and 98.8 over LUNA16, VESSEL12, and CRPF datasets, respectively). We made our method publicly accessible via a graphical user interface at medvispy.ee.kntu.ac.ir

Superiority of Buprenorphine over Suboxone in Preventing Addiction Relapse in Opioid Addicts under Maintenance Therapy: A Double-Blind Clinical Trial

Background: In maintenance therapy for opioid addiction, to reduce the risk of buprenorphine (BUP) abuse, the combination of BUP and naloxone (NX) has been developed and is commercially available as suboxone (BUP/NX). This study was designed to compare addiction relapse frequency in patients receiving BUP and BUP/NX as maintenance therapy. Methods: In this double-blind clinical trial with cross over design, 100 opioid abusers were randomly assigned to two treatment groups to receive either BUP or BUP/NX. After three months, without a time-out period, subjects undertook treatment with the other drug. The subjects were screened weekly for urinary morphine. Results: In each of the study arms, when the patients were given BUP/NX, the number of relapses was significantly higher compared to when they received BUP (0.13±0.24 vs. 0.04±0.09, P = 0.001). If participants’ age was taken into account, the number of relapses was significantly higher when BUP/NX was given in age groups of 31 to 40 years and over 50 years (P < 0.05). The length of addiction had also a significant impact on the number of relapses, i.e., patients with over 10-year history of addiction had higher number of relapses if they were given BUP/NX compared with BUP (P < 0.05). Conclusion:BUP seems to be more effective than BUP/NX in preventing addiction relapse in opioid abusers under maintenance treatment

Homesickness, Depression and Happiness in University Students of Hamadan, Iran

Background and aims: Students are exposed to multiple various mental disorders. One of the most important difficulties the students encounter are homesickness and depression the occurrence of which cause less happiness in the students. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship among 3 factors of homesickness, depression, and happiness in dormitory students of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 387 dormitory students of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences from January to April 2016. The participants of the study were selected through stratified random sampling technique with proportional allocation. Data were collected through self-reporting and four questionnaires including demographic data questionnaire, homesickness Benfleet questionnaire, University Students Depression Inventory (USDI), and Oxford happiness questionnaire. A quantitative analysis of the inquiry was performed using SPSS software, version 23. Results: The results showed that depression had an indirect relationship (-0.6) with happiness. That is, by increasing the depression scores happiness will decrease. In addition, depression had a significantly direct relationship (0.3) with homesickness. It implies that an increase in homesickness score leads to an increase in depression score. Moreover, homesickness had a significantly indirect relationship (-0.2) with happiness. Namely, an increase in homesickness, results in a decrease in happiness. Conclusion: In view of the results obtained and given the importance of mental health of the students in dormitories, it seems that the reasons related to homesickness and depression should be recognized and included in intervention and prevention programs. Besides, appropriate interventions must be designed and implemented in this regard

Detection of Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Corresponding Biomarkers Using Optical Spectroscopy

1) Investigate the use of optical reflectance spectroscopy to differentiate malignant and non-malignant tissues in head and neck lesions; 2) Characterize corresponding oxygen tissue biomarkers that are associated with pathologic diagnosi

The influence of vernalization and daylength on expression of flowering-time genes in the shoot apex and leaves of barley (Hordeum vulgare).

Responses to prolonged low-temperature treatment of imbibed seeds (vernalization) were examined in barley (Hordeum vulgare). These occurred in two phases: the perception of prolonged cold, which occurred gradually at low temperatures, and the acceleration of reproductive development, which occurred after vernalization. Expression of the VERNALIZATION1 gene (HvVRN1) increased gradually in germinating seedlings during vernalization, both at the shoot apex and in the developing leaves. This occurred in darkness, independently of VERNALIZATION2 (HvVRN2), consistent with the hypothesis that expression of HvVRN1 is induced by prolonged cold independently of daylength flowering-response pathways. After vernalization, expression of HvVRN1 was maintained in the shoot apex and leaves. This was associated with accelerated inflorescence initiation and with down-regulation of HvVRN2 in the leaves. The largest determinant of HvVRN1 expression levels in vernalized plants was the length of seed vernalization treatment. Daylength did not influence HvVRN1 expression levels in shoot apices and typically did not affect expression in leaves. In the leaves of plants that had experienced a saturating seed vernalization treatment, expression of HvVRN1 was higher in long days, however. HvFT1 was expressed in the leaves of these plants in long days, which might account for the elevated HvVRN1 expression. Long-day up-regulation of HvVRN1 was not required for inflorescence initiation, but might accelerate subsequent stages of inflorescence development. Similar responses to seed vernalization were also observed in wheat (Triticum aestivum). These data support the hypothesis that VRN1 is induced by cold during winter to promote spring flowering in vernalization-responsive cereals

Soluble Fas might serve as a diagnostic tool for gastric adenocarcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Fas (Apo-1/CD95) and its specific ligand (FasL) are key elements in apoptosis. They have been studied in different malignancies but there are few published studies about the soluble forms of these markers (i.e. sFas/sFasL) in gastric cancer. We have compared the serum levels of sFas/sFasL in gastric adenocarcinoma patients and cases with pre-neoplastic lesions as potential markers for early diagnosis, and investigated their relation with clinicopathological characteristics.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifty-nine newly-diagnosed cases of gastric adenocarcinoma who had undergone gastrectomy, along with 62 endoscopically- and histologically-confirmed non-cancer individuals were enrolled in this study. sFas/sFasL serum levels were detected by Enzyme Linked Immunosurbent Assay.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mean serum sFas level was significantly higher in gastric cancer patients than in control group (305.97 ± 63.71 (pg/ml) vs. 92.98 ± 4.95 (pg/ml), P < 0.001); while the mean serum level of sFasL was lower in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma (0.138 ± 0.04 (pg/ml) vs. 0.150 ± 0.02 (pg/ml), P < 0.001). Mean serum levels of sFas/sFasL were significantly different in both intestinal/diffuse and cardiac/non-cardiac subtypes when compared to the control group (P < 0.001). There was an increase in the serum level of sFas from the first steps of pre-neoplastic lesions to gastric adenocarcinoma (P < 0.001). Patients who had no lymph node involvement (<it>N₀</it>) showed significantly higher serum levels of sFas compared to others (P = 0.044).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Production of sFas may play a critical role in the carcinogenesis of intestinal-type gastric cancer. sFas serum level may serve as a non-invasive tool for early diagnosis of gastric cancer.</p

Measuring progress from 1990 to 2017 and projecting attainment to 2030 of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals for 195 countries and territories: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for and threats to improving health by 2030. To fully deliver on the SDG aim of “leaving no one behind”, it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017), we measured progress on 41 of 52 health-related SDG indicators and estimated the health-related SDG index for 195 countries and territories for the period 1990–2017, projected indicators to 2030, and analysed global attainment. Methods We measured progress on 41 health-related SDG indicators from 1990 to 2017, an increase of four indicators since GBD 2016 (new indicators were health worker density, sexual violence by non-intimate partners, population census status, and prevalence of physical and sexual violence [reported separately]). We also improved the measurement of several previously reported indicators. We constructed national-level estimates and, for a subset of health-related SDGs, examined indicator-level differences by sex and Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile. We also did subnational assessments of performance for selected countries. To construct the health-related SDG index, we transformed the value for each indicator on a scale of 0–100, with 0 as the 2·5th percentile and 100 as the 97·5th percentile of 1000 draws calculated from 1990 to 2030, and took the geometric mean of the scaled indicators by target. To generate projections through 2030, we used a forecasting framework that drew estimates from the broader GBD study and used weighted averages of indicator-specific and country-specific annualised rates of change from 1990 to 2017 to inform future estimates. We assessed attainment of indicators with defined targets in two ways: first, using mean values projected for 2030, and then using the probability of attainment in 2030 calculated from 1000 draws. We also did a global attainment analysis of the feasibility of attaining SDG targets on the basis of past trends. Using 2015 global averages of indicators with defined SDG targets, we calculated the global annualised rates of change required from 2015 to 2030 to meet these targets, and then identified in what percentiles the required global annualised rates of change fell in the distribution of country-level rates of change from 1990 to 2015. We took the mean of these global percentile values across indicators and applied the past rate of change at this mean global percentile to all health-related SDG indicators, irrespective of target definition, to estimate the equivalent 2030 global average value and percentage change from 2015 to 2030 for each indicator.Background Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for and threats to improving health by 2030. To fully deliver on the SDG aim of “leaving no one behind”, it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017), we measured progress on 41 of 52 health-related SDG indicators and estimated the health-related SDG index for 195 countries and territories for the period 1990–2017, projected indicators to 2030, and analysed global attainment. Methods We measured progress on 41 health-related SDG indicators from 1990 to 2017, an increase of four indicators since GBD 2016 (new indicators were health worker density, sexual violence by non-intimate partners, population census status, and prevalence of physical and sexual violence [reported separately]). We also improved the measurement of several previously reported indicators. We constructed national-level estimates and, for a subset of health-related SDGs, examined indicator-level differences by sex and Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile. We also did subnational assessments of performance for selected countries. To construct the health-related SDG index, we transformed the value for each indicator on a scale of 0–100, with 0 as the 2·5th percentile and 100 as the 97·5th percentile of 1000 draws calculated from 1990 to 2030, and took the geometric mean of the scaled indicators by target. To generate projections through 2030, we used a forecasting framework that drew estimates from the broader GBD study and used weighted averages of indicator-specific and country-specific annualised rates of change from 1990 to 2017 to inform future estimates. We assessed attainment of indicators with defined targets in two ways: first, using mean values projected for 2030, and then using the probability of attainment in 2030 calculated from 1000 draws. We also did a global attainment analysis of the feasibility of attaining SDG targets on the basis of past trends. Using 2015 global averages of indicators with defined SDG targets, we calculated the global annualised rates of change required from 2015 to 2030 to meet these targets, and then identified in what percentiles the required global annualised rates of change fell in the distribution of country-level rates of change from 1990 to 2015. We took the mean of these global percentile values across indicators and applied the past rate of change at this mean global percentile to all health-related SDG indicators, irrespective of target definition, to estimate the equivalent 2030 global average value and percentage change from 2015 to 2030 for each indicator