Bioinspired bactericidal surfaces with polymer nanocone arrays

Infections resulting from bacterial biofilm formation on the surface of medical devices are challenging to treat and can cause significant patient morbidity. Recently, it has become apparent that regulation of surface nanotopography can render surfaces bactericidal. In this study, poly(ethylene terephthalate) nanocone arrays are generated through a polystyrene nanosphere-mask colloidal lithographic process. It is shown that modification of the mask diameter leads to a direct modification of centre-to-centre spacing between nanocones. By altering the oxygen plasma etching time it is possible to modify the height, tip width and base diameter of the individual nanocone features. The bactericidal activity of the nanocone arrays was investigated against Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. It is shown that surfaces with the most densely populated nanocone arrays (center-to-center spacing of 200 nm), higher aspect ratios (>3) and tip widths <20 nm kill the highest percentage of bacteria (∼30%)

The efficacy of aspirin and dipyridamole on the patency of arteriovenous fistulae and grafts; Review of the randomized control trials

Vascular access failure is known as a principal cause of morbidity of end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. The major reason for vascular access failure is the neointimal hyperplasia which leads to venous thrombosis and stenosis. The efficacy of different pharmacological therapies has been studied in increasing the vascular access patency duration or decreasing the thrombosis of arteriovenous grafts or fistulas. In the current review, we reviewed the results obtained in different randomized control trials considering the efficacy of pharmacotherapy on the thrombosis rate and duration of vascular access grafts patency in HD patients

Natural and anthropogenic forcings lead to contrasting vegetation response in long-term vs. short-term timeframes

Understanding vegetation response to natural and anthropogenic forcings is vital for managing watersheds as natural ecosystems. We used a novel integrated framework to separate the impacts of natural factors (e.g. drought, precipitation and temperature) from those of anthropogenic factors (e.g. human activity) on vegetation cover change at the watershed scale. We also integrated several datasets including satellite remote sensing and in-situ measurements for a twenty-year time period (2000–2019). Our results show that despite no significant trend being observed in temperature and precipitation, vegetation indices expressed an increasing trend at both the control and treated watersheds. The vegetation cover was not significantly affected by the natural factors whereas the watershed management practice (as a human activity) had significant impacts on vegetation change in the long-term. Further, the vegetation cover long-term response to watershed management practice was mainly linear. We also found that the vegetation indices values in the 2011–2019 period (as the treated period in treated watershed) were significantly higher than those in the 2000–2010 period. In the short-term, however, the drought condition and decreased precipitation (as natural factors) explained the majority of the change in vegetation cover. For example, the majority of the breakpoints occurred in 2008, and it was related to a widespread extreme drought in the area. The watershed management practice as a human activity along with extreme climatic events could explain a large part of the vegetation changes observed in the treated and control watersheds

Salmonellosis Phytotherapy: A review on Iranian most important medicinal plants affecting on Salmonella

Salmonella are isolated from diarrheal diseases, typhoid fever, bacteriemia and enterocolitis. Salmonella-related diseases are major health problem in most of countries. Scientific research approach has been to achieve plants bioactive substances due to drug resistance and side effects of chemical antimicrobial drugs. Plants can be considered as a source of potentially useful chemicals but only a fraction of them have been used in medicine. We aimed in this review article to present anti Salmonella effects of Iranian native medicinal plants. The information was obtained using key words including Salmonellosis, Salmonella, medicinal plant, essential oil, searching scientific databases scientific information database (SID), Magiran, Google scholar, Blackwell, Wiley, Springer and Sciencedirect. Ten plant families of native medicinal plants of Iran were found to be effective on Salmonella including Thymus multiflora, Thymus vulgaris, Hibiscus sabdariffa, Ferulago angulata, Avicennia marina, Crocus sativus L, Cordia myxa L, Ziziphora clinopodioides, Allium sativum, Teucrium polium L, Satureia hortensis L, Anethum graveolens and Vaccinium arctostaphylosplants. Phenolic compounds, flavonoids and tannins, such as thymol, carvacrol and coumarin have been isolated from the most anti salmonellosis plants. Carvacrol is common antioxidant and bioactive compound in all of these plants. Most used medicinal plants as anti-Salmonella compound has belonged to Lamiaceae family (31% of Iranian native plant families). Active ingredients of Lamiaceae medicinal plants can be produced and entered in pharmaceutical market as anti-Salmonella drugs

Nutritional Status and Its Associated Factors in Elderly With Diabetes, 2015

Objectives Malnutrition is a clinical disorder and a common risk factor in older patients with diabetes that may impact their health. This study aimed to assess nutritional status and associated factors in elderly with diabetes in Kerman City, Iran. Methods & Materials This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Kerman in which 190 older patients with diabetes were included. Their nutritional habit was measured using the MNA. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and correlation among variables, analyzed by the Chi Square, T-test, and One Way ANOVA. Results The findings showed that 5.3% of elderly patients were suffering from malnutrition, and in 51.6% nutritional status was normal. Also, there was a statistically significant association between nutritional status and gender (P=0.036). There was a significant negative relationship between duration of diabetes and nutritional status in the elderly (r=0.192, P=0.008). Conclusion It is necessary to maintain and improve the status of elderly diabetic patients with malnutrition by administering normal nutritional status and special attentio