Counting flags in triangle-free digraphs

Motivated by the Caccetta-Haggkvist Conjecture, we prove that every digraph on n vertices with minimum outdegree 0.3465n contains an oriented triangle. This improves the bound of 0.3532n of Hamburger, Haxell and Kostochka. The main new tool we use in our proof is the theory of flag algebras developed recently by Razborov.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures; this is the final version to appear in Combinatoric

Prevalence of Hepatitis B virus, Hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus infections among patients candidate for orthopedic trauma surgeries

Background: Infectious diseases are major public health problems, among which blood-borne ones are the most important infections. Patients who undergo orthopedic surgery are at higher risk of transmitting infectious diseases from and to others, due to repeated blood examinations and injection, drains secretion and receiving blood products. Accordingly, in this study we determined prevalence of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections in patients who underwent surgery in a general training hospital. Methods: In this cross-sectional study the prevalence of HBV, HCV, and HIV infections was determined among 320 patients under orthopedic trauma surgeries in a general training hospital in Tehran, Iran from 2009 to 2011. Associations of these rates with age, gender, marital status, residence location, substance abuse history, hospital admission history, previous surgery, blood transfusion, dentistry procedures, and previous medical history were also assessed. Results: A total of 320 patients (290 male, 30 female) were studied. Ten patients (3.2) had at least one of these three infections. Totally 10 patients (3.2), 2 subjects (0.6), and 8 patients (2.5) had HCV, HIV, and HBV infections, respectively. None of the evaluated variables had significant relationship with HCV, HBV, and HIV infections (p > 0.05). Conclusion: According to the obtained results, routine use of diagnostic tests for infectious disease such as HIV and viral hepatitis is recommended and should be considered before orthopedic operations

Risk of superior gluteal nerve injury after using ante-grade femoral nailing

Antegrade intramedullary femoral nailing (AIFN) is used as the preferred treatment for diaphyseal and subtrochanteric femur fractures. Nevertheless, clinically important complications associated with obtaining nail entry including loss of hip abductor strength, chronic hip pain, heterotopic ossification and femoral head osteonecrosis have been previously shown.This study was aimed to evaluate the risk of injury to the superior gluteal nerve when Ante-grade femoral nailing is used for insertion. In current study, 25 patients with femoral shaft fractures were included in this study that 21 were male with an average age of 25.40 years, Also 4 cases were female with an average age of 28.20 years. The patients were between the ages of 93 to 05 years. EMG-MCV was taken from all patients and were reported by neurologist. Plain radiographs were taken from all patients. Pain intensity of patients in the last month were identified from 4 to 944 according to the patients statements. The frequency of patients with subjective lameness separately with or no signs was determined. In terms of the pain score, its average among all patients was calculated to be 4.92, while the average of 4.75 among men was calculated. Among women, the average was 5.60. All patients had a mean duration of 3.64 months for using crutches, that the average duration of 3.80 months for men and 3 months for women were calculated.In terms of subjective limping, 15 patients (60) complained from limping, while 10 people were not affected (40 ), of which, 12 patients (80) was belonged to men group and 3 patients (20) were assigned in women group. 5 patients were diagnosed with atrophy of gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles that, 3 patients were male (60) and 2 cases (40) were women respectively. EMG-NCV indicated that the Superior gluteal nerve injury had occurred in 2 patients (8) and myogenic damage of gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles in 5 patients (20). Our study indicated that the superior gluteal nerve injury had occurred in 2 8 of patients and myogenic damage of gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles in 20

Effect of feeding and male presence on some biological characteristics of female Trichogramma brassicae (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)

Low prominence of natural enemies can cause suboptimal success in biological control programs. In present study, the effects of honey feeding and the availability of males were studied on the biological characteristics of Trichogramma brassicae Bezdenko. Four treatments were considered: male was available for female for merely 24 h, either with or without honey; male was continuously presented for females, either with or without honey. Twenty pairs (1 female à 1 male) of newly emerged parasitoids were placed in glass tubes and considered as the treatments. Mortality of females was recorded daily in order to indicate longevity. To determine fecundity, the emergence rate and female progeny percentage, 150 fresh Sitotroga cerealella Olivier eggs were provided for each female in the entire treatments on a daily basis. Results indicated that interaction between adult nutrition and male presence was insignificant (P > 0.01) and did not influence any of biological characteristics. Adult nutrition was more important than male presence. Honey-fed females lived 5-folds longer than the unfed females. Longevity was not significantly influenced by male presence. Fecundity of honey-fed females was 67 and 70.2 eggs; however, 18.4 and 19 eggs for unfed females. Continuous presence of male did not change fecundity. There were no significant differences in the emergence rate in all treatments and it was more than 90% for the entire treatments. Long-lived females produced more males. Percentage of female progeny was not influenced by period of male presence. Therefore, quality of parasitoids was more persuaded by diet provided rather than the period of male presence

Goiter frequency is more strongly associated with gastric adenocarcinoma than urine iodine level

Purpose: We designed our study to evaluate the hypothesis that gastric cancer is correlated with iodine deficiency or thyroid dysfunction. Materials and Methods: We investigated the total body iodine reserve, thyroid function status and autoimmune disorder in 40 recently diagnosed gastric adenocarcinoma cases versus 80 healthy controls. The participants came from a region with high gastric cancer rate but sufficient iodine supply due to salt iodination. The investigation included urine iodine level, thyroid gland clinical and ultrasonograph-ic examination, and thyroid function tests. Results: Goiter was detected more frequently in the case group (P=0.001); such a finding, however, was not true for lower than normal urine iodine levels. The free T3 mean level was significantly lower in the case group compared to the control group (P=0.005). Conclusions: The higher prevalence of goiter rather than low levels of urinary iodine in gastric adenocarcinoma cases suggests that goi-ter, perhaps due to protracted but currently adjusted iodine deficiency, is more likely to be associated with gastric adenocarcinoma com-pared to the existing iodine deficiency itself. © 2013 by The Korean Gastric Cancer Association

Pectin-Tannic Acid Nano-Complexes Promote the Delivery and Bioactivity of Drugs in Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Pancreatic cancer (PanCa) is a lethal disease. Conventional chemotherapies for PanCa offer severe systemic toxicities. Thus, the development of a successful nanomedicine-based therapeutic regimen with augmented therapeutic efficacy is highly sought. Naturally occurring pectin and modified pectin-based drug delivery systems exhibit remarkable self-targeting ability via galactose residues to various cancer cells. Herein, we developed and used an innovative approach of highly stable nanocomplexes based on modified pectin and tannic acid (MPT-NCs). The nanocomplex formation was enabled by strong intermolecular interactions between pectin and tannic acid under very mild conditions. These nanocomplexes were characterized by particle size and morphology (DLS, TEM, and SEM), FT-IR spectroscopy, and zeta potential measurements. Additionally, MPT-NCs were capable of encapsulating anticancer drugs (5-fluorouracil, gemcitabine, and irinotecan) through tannic acid binding. The in vitro bioactivity of these drug MPT-NCs were evaluated in pancreatic cancer adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cell lines (HPAF-II and PANC-1). A dose-dependent internalization of nanocomplexes was evident from microscopy and flow cytometry analysis. Both proliferation and colony formation assays indicated the anticancer potential of pectin drug nanocomplexes against PDAC cells compared to that of free drug treatments. Together, the pectin-based nanocomplexes could be a reliable and efficient drug delivery strategy for cancer therapy

Gambogic acid potentiates gemcitabine induced anticancer activity in non-small cell lung cancer

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most frequent type of lung cancer accounting up to 80-85% of all lung cancer (LC) cases. Gemcitabine (Gem), a pyrimidine nucleoside antimetabolite, is widely used chemotherapy offering several months survival benefit in patients with NSCLC. The emergence of Gem resistance is a main clinical concern in cancer treatment and thus a continuous demand for development of new therapeutic strategies to improve its antitumor activity. Hence, we report an adjuvant therapeutic regimen based on natural compound, gambogic acid (GA) which has been shown to enhanced Gem induced inhibition of cancer cell growth, arrest cell cycle, and induce apoptosis by enhanced accumulation of Gem. The in vitro cell viability, clonogenicity, invasion, and migration assays demonstrated a significant higher therapeutic effect of Gem when it was combined with GA in A549 and H1299 cells. A better access of internalization of drug molecules achieved in rhodamine 123 assay when GA was used as adjuvant treatment. Further, GA and Gem combination significantly reduced tubular formation of HUVEC cells indicates lowering angiogenesis potential. Microarray and Western blot studies confirm that GA + Gem co-treatment strategy promotes cancer cell death by downregulating anti-apoptotic proteins, chemoresistance-associated proteins, and upregulation of apoptosis proteins. More importantly, a significant higher therapeutic benefit was noticed for GA and Gem combination in A549 xenograft mice model. Together, these results offer a rationale to evaluate the clinical translational possibility of GA as adjuvant therapy to overcome Gem resistance. This combination regimen can be a new therapeutic concept to eradicate this devastating disease

Molecular characterization and similarity relationships among sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) inbred lines using some mapped simple sequence repeats

Information about the genetic diversity and relationships among breeding lines and varieties is not only useful for germplasm conservation and inbred line identification, but also for the selection of parental lines for quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping as well as hybrid breeding in crops, including sunflower. In order to develop mapping populations, genetic distances among twenty eight sunflower genotypes were evaluated using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. One hundred and two markers were generated by 38 SSR loci and the mean for the number of allele per locus was 2.32. Polymorphism information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.09 (locus ha3555) to 0.62 (locus ORS598) with an average of 0.41. Jaccard's coefficient similarity matrix for the studied sunflower  genotypes varied from 0.25 to 0.9 indicating a broad genetic base. The maximum similarity (0.9) was observed between genotypes RT931 and ENSAT-R5, while the lowest similarity (0.25) was between genotypes LC1064C and LR64. Based on unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering algorithm, the studied genotypes were clustered in four groups. However, some genotypes have the same specific characters that influence their clustering, and as a result, the results of the principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) largely corresponded to those obtained through cluster analysis.Key words: Cluster analysis, genetic diversity, principal coordinate analysis, sunflower, simple sequence repeat

A survey of alfalfa aphids and their natural enemies in Isfahan, Iran, and the effect of alfalfa strip-harvesting on their populations

During a two-year (2004-2005) survey of alfalfa aphids and their natural enemies in Isfahan, a total of four aphid species and 58 species of their natural enemies comprised of 45 predatory species, 11 parasitoid species and two species of parasitic mites were collected and identified. Moreover, five hyperparasitoid species were collected. On each sampling date, six 20-sweep samples were taken using a 38cm-diameter sweep-net and also six 20-stem were sampled. The results showed that the mean percent of Hippodamia variegata Goeze, Nabis spp., Deraeocoris spp., Orius spp., Geocoris spp. and aphid parasitoids in strip-harvested field were 38%, 95%, 119%, 57%, 100% and 122%, respectively; higher than those in conventionally-harvested field. In contrast, the mean percent of Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) and Therioaphis trifolii (Monell) forma maculata (Buckton) were 24% and 28%, respectively; lower in strip-harvested field than in conventionally-harvested field