New instrumentation technologies for testing the bonding of sensors to solid materials

This report presents the results of a comprehensive research and development project that was conducted over a three-year period to develop new technologies for testing the attachment of sensors to solid materials for the following NASA applications: (1) testing the performance of composites that are used for the lining of solid rocket motor nozzles, (2) testing the bonding of surface-mounted platinum resistance thermometers that are used on fuel and oxidizer lines of the space shuttle to detect valve leaks by monitoring temperature, (3) testing the attachment of strain gages that are used in testing the performance of space shuttle main engines, and (4) testing the thermocouples that are used for determining the performance of blast tube liner material in solid rocket boosters

Solving boundary value problems via the Nyström method using spline Gauss rules

We propose to use spline Gauss quadrature rules for solving boundary value problems (BVPs) using the Nyström method. When solving BVPs, one converts the corresponding partial differential equation inside a domain into the Fredholm integral equation of the second kind on the boundary in the sense of boundary integral equation (BIE). The Fredholm integral equation is then solved using the Nyström method, which involves the use of a particular quadrature rule, thus, converting the BIE problem to a linear system. We demonstrate this concept on the 2D Laplace problem over domains with smooth boundary as well as domains containing corners. We validate our approach on benchmark examples and the results indicate that, for a fixed number of quadrature points (i.e., the same computational effort), the spline Gauss quadratures return an approximation that is by one to two orders of magnitude more accurate compared to the solution obtained by traditional polynomial Gauss counterparts

Inpatient opioid withdrawal management of street children and adolescents admitted to child and adolescent psychiatricward: A preliminary case series

Background: About 10 million children worldwide live or work on the street. International reports estimate the prevalence of substance use among street children to be between 25-90, which is who were referredntal disorders and high-risk behaviors. Objectives: The objective of this study was to report the outcomes of assisted withdrawal of opioid-dependent vulnerable children and adolescents who were referred to child and adolescent psychiatric ward of Ali Ebne Abitaleb hospital, an academic hospital in Zahedan city. Methods: Clinical chart abstractions were performed on a convenience sample of 40 serial opioid-dependent street children and adolescents (mean age: 11.14 ± 3.6 years) who were referred to child and adolescent psychiatric ward of Ali Ebne Abitaleb treatment and research center from November 2014 to May 2015. The demographic data, drug use history, comorbid physical and psychiatric conditions, symptomatology of opioid withdrawal syndrome, pharmacotherapiesandpsychosocial services, length of hospital stay, and any adverse events were extracted from the patients� files using a checklist developed by the authors. Results: Twenty-four (60) patients were male, and 16 (40) were female. The main drug used by all patients was opioids. Heroin Kerack (which has a street name of crystal in southeast Iran) was the most common (75) drug of use, followed by opium (10) and opium residue (7.5). None of the participants self-reported using injected drugs. The high rate of a lack of eligibility for guardianship was documented among parents (87.5) mainly due to their use of illegal drugs. Musculoskeletal pain and diarrhea were the most common withdrawal symptoms of the patients upon admission. The mean length of stay was 10.8 (± 7.30) days, and no significant adverse events were reported during the symptomatic treatment of opioid withdrawal syndrome. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to report on the safety and feasibility of inpatient symptomatic pharmacological treatment for assisted withdrawal among opioid-dependent children and adolescents in Iran. More well-designed studies to investigate the long-term outcomes of opioid treatment among children are warranted. © 2016, Growth & Development Research Center

Nut and peanut butter consumption and mortality in the national institutes of health-AARP diet and health study

Although previous studies have shown inverse associations between nut consumption and mortality, the associations between nut consumption and less common causes of mortality have not been investigated. Additionally, about 50% of peanut consumption in the US is through peanut butter but the association between peanut butter consumption and mortality has not been thoroughly evaluated. The National Institutes of Health-AARP (NIH-AARP) Diet and Health Study recruited 566,398 individuals aged 50–71 at baseline in 1995–1996. A food-frequency questionnaire was used to evaluate nut and peanut butter consumption. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for mortality using the non-consumers as reference groups and three categories of consumption. After excluding subjects with chronic diseases at baseline, there were 64,464 deaths with a median follow-up time of 15.5 years. We observed a significant inverse association between nut consumption and overall mortality (HR C4 vs C1 = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.76, 0.81, p ≤ 0.001). Nut consumption was significantly associated with reduced risk of cancer, cardiovascular, respiratory, infectious, renal and liver disease mortality but not with diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease mortality. We observed no significant associations between peanut butter consumption and all-cause (HR C4 vs C1 = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.98, 1.04, p = 0.001) and cause-specific mortality. In a middle-aged US population, nut intake was inversely associated with all-cause mortality and certain types of cause-specific mortality. However, peanut butter consumption was not associated with differential mortality

Investigating Genetic Mutations in a Large Cohort of Iranian Patients with Congenital Hyperinsulinism

Objective: Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) is the most frequent cause of severe and persistent hypoglycaemia from birth. Understanding the pathophysiology and genetic defects behind hyperinsulinism and its complications provides clues to timely diagnosis and management. The aim of this study was to evaluate the underlying genetic aetiology of a specific Iranian pediatric cohort with CHI. Methods: A total of 44 unrelated children, 20 girls and 24 boys, with an initial diagnosis or history of CHI from all regions of Iran were recruited between 2016 and 2019. Targeted next generation sequencing (tNGS) was performed for the genes found in about half of CHI patients. Results: Mutations were identified in 24 cases (55%). Patients with a confirmed genetic cause were mainly diagnosed below age of one year old (p=0.01), had fewer other syndromic features, excluding seizure, (p=0.03), were less diazoxide responsive (p=0.04) and were more diazoxide unresponsive leading to pancreatectomy (p=0.007) compared to those with no identified mutations. Among 24 patients with identified genetic mutations, 17 (71%) had a mutation in ABCC8, 3 (12%) in KCNJ11, 3 (12%) in HADH, and 1 patient had a mutation in KMT2D. These included five novel mutations in ABCC8, KCNJ11, and KMT2D. Conclusion: This is the biggest genetic study of CHI in Iran. A high frequency of recessive forms of CHI, especially HADH mutations, in our study could be due to a high rate of consanguineous marriage. We recommend tNGS to screen for all the CHI genes.Wellcome Trust [108101/Z/15/Z]; Diabetes UK RD Lawrence fellowship (grant: 17/0005594)

Study of some biological characteristics of golden grey mullet (Liza aurata) in Iranian Coastal waters of the Caspian Sea

During last 65 years the catch of mullets had increasing trends with some fluctuations in the Iranian coastal water of the Caspian Sea .In this period about 138 thousand tons of mullets have been caught. Mullet’s account for 35% of total catch annually .In recent years species composition of mullets has chanched in the Iranian coastal water of the Caspian Sea and catch composition of golden grey mullet increased from 76% in 1995 to 98% in 2006. In this survey some biological characteristics of golden grey mullet have been studied in Iranian coastal water of the Caspian Sea .Fish samples have been gathered from commercial catch of beach seine cooperatives monthly in Iranian coastal water of the Caspian Sea over 2006 and 2007. In the laboratory fishes have been measured biometrically and biological parameters have been calculated .Also catch statistics of mullets during 2006-2007 have been obtained and discussed. Results showed that the catch of mullets in beach seine cooperatives during 2006 and 2007 was 4181 and 3685 tons respectively that golden grey mullet contribute 99% and 98% of the catch composition of mullets respectively. Length range of golden grey mullet caught by beach seine cooperatives was 19-50.2 cm with mean length of 32.7 ± 6.4 (± SD) and weight range was 67-1475 gr with mean weight of 411 ± 255 gr. The age structure of this species was comprised 2-10 years old fish with mean age of 4.42 years old. In this survey totally the sex ratio of male: female of golden grey mullet was 356: 434 that was significant variation from equal sex ratio. Pick of the spawning in Guilan province was in October and in Mazandaran and Golestan provinces was in November. In October the proportion of spawning females declined from western area (Guilan province) towards eastern parts (Golestan province).The highest proportion of spawning females was in December in Golestan province. The highest GSI index value was observed in September and October and it was decreased in November and December and it was consistent during January till April. The mean absolute fecundity was 700881±429987 eggs with minimum and maximum fecundity of 200112 and 2282862 eggs respectively. The Lm 50% for female golden grey mullet was calculated as 33.6 cm

Diagnostic Performance of 64-Channel Multislice Computed Tomography in Assessment of Significant Coronary Artery Disease in Symptomatic Subjects

The recent development of 64-channel multislice computed tomography (MSCT) has resulted in noninvasive coronary artery imaging improvement. This study was conducted to determine the accuracy of 64-slice MSCT in a relatively unselected group of 143 patients with presentations suggestive of coronary artery disease, including those with unstable angina pectoris, who underwent both coronary computed tomographic angiography and invasive coronary angiography. No arrhythmia was considered an exclusion criterion except for atrial fibrillation or frequent extrasystoles. In patients with fast heart rates, a β blocker was administered orally. Data were obtained using electrocardiography gated 64-slice MSCT. Computed tomographic angiography and invasive coronary angiography findings of each coronary segment were compared to determine the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of MSCT in the detection of their normalcy or insignificant (<50 diameter decrease) stenosis versus significant (�50 diameter decrease) stenosis or total occlusion. In per-patient assessment, the calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of MSCT were 96, 67, 91, and 83, respectively. These values in per-artery evaluation were 94, 94, 87, and 97, and corresponding values in per-segment analysis were 92, 97, 77, and 99, respectively. In conclusion, computed tomographic angiography has high diagnostic performance in the assessment of significant coronary artery disease in most patients in a daily routine practice, including those presenting with unstable angina pectoris symptoms. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved