Chronic exposure to high fat diet exacerbates arsenic-induced lung damages in male mice: Possible role for oxidative stress

Arsenic is a common environmental and occupational contaminant worldwide which can influence the development of respiratory diseases. In recent years, alteration in the lifestyle as well as food habits have led to increased consumption of food containing high levels of fat. The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of chronic exposure to a high-fat diet (HFD) on arsenic-induced damages and oxidative stress in the lung tissue of mice. This is the first study to reveal the effect of diet-induced obesity on arsenic-induced lung damages. Seventy-two male Naval Medical Research Institute (NMRI) mice were divided into six groups and fed an HFD or standard diet (SD) while being exposed to 25 or 50 ppm of arsenic through drinking water for 20 weeks. At the end of the experiment, the lung weight to body weight ratio; oxidative stress markers, nitrite level, and hydroxyproline content in the lung tissue; and lung histology were evaluated. The results demonstrated that arsenic exposure leads to a significant decrease in the glutathione level and catalase enzyme activity, and significantly increased reactive oxygen species, malondialdehyde, and nitrite level, but it did not affect the superoxide dismutase activity and hydroxyproline content in the lung tissue. Consequently, all the parameters studied aggravated when HFD was consumed along with arsenic. These findings were confirmed by histological examination. Our study showed that HFD increased arsenic-induced lung damages through oxidative stress in mice. These findings could be important for clinical research to protect against arsenic-induced respiratory toxicity in humans

Circulating nesfatin-1 levels in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a prevalent endocrine disorder in females. Nesfatin-1 is a neuropeptide synthesized in the hypothalamus and other peripheral organs, and there are conflicting opinions about its correlation with PCOS. Objective: This study aims to investigate the correlation between nesfatin-1 and PCOS and evaluates the effectiveness of nesfatin-1 as a biomarker for the detection of PCOS in women. Materials and Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to identify pertinent articles from databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, EMBASE, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using a random effects model to compare group outcomes. Additionally, meta-regression and subgroup analysis were performed to elucidate sources of heterogeneity. Results: The meta-analysis involved 12 studies with 1222 participants, and the findings revealed a significant relationship between PCOS and nesfatin-1 levels. The pooled (SMD = 0.54; 95% CI: 0.00-1.07; p = 0.04) indicated a significant difference between the evaluated groups. Moreover, a subgroup analysis showed that there was a substantial difference in nesfatin-1 levels among women with PCOS and higher homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance ratio (SMD = 1.46; 95% CI: 0.92-2.00; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Our meta-analysis indicates an association between high nesfatin-1 levels and PCOS. This suggests a potential role of nesfatin-1 in the development of PCOS and proposes it as a potential diagnostic biomarker for the disease. However, further research is necessary to validate these findings. Key words: Polycystic ovary syndrome, Insulin resistance, Body mass index, Meta-analysis

Effect of a participatory intervention to reduce the number of unnecessary cesarean sections performed in Shahrekord, Iran

چکیده: زمینه و هدف: در سال های اخیر در کل جهان و از جمله ایران روند رو به رشد سزارین به چشم می خورد. در شهرکرد در سال 1380 سزارین 49 زایمان ها را به خود اختصاص داده است. در دنیا رویکرد جدیدی جهت کمک گرفتن از نیروهای مردمی در حل مشکلات سلامتی بوجود آمده است. در این تحقیق نقش مشارکت گروههای مردمی در کاهش میزان سزارین مورد بررسی قرار گرفته است. روش بررسی: در یک مطالعه میدانی (فیلد تریال) 171 زن باردار که سابقه قبلی سزارین نداشتند و کمتر از 3 بار زایمان داشته اند از زنان باردار به صورت تصادفی انتخاب شدند. ساختار یک گروه مردمی متشکل از پزشکان، ماماها، پرستاران علاقمند، زنان خانه دار، معلمین، رابطین بهداشتی، پرسنل بهداشت خانواده، خانم های فروشنده و نمایندگانی از سازمان های غیر دولتی فعال شهر شکل گرفت. این گروه، زنان باردار انتخاب شده را از طریق آموزش ترغیب به انجام زایمان طبیعی نمود. رضایت زنان باردار از آموزش ها و فراوانی سزارین قبل و بعد از مداخلات جمع آوری و با استفاده از آزمون های آماری t زوجی و مک نمار تجزیه و تحلیل گردید. یافته ها: در این مطالعه 70 زنان باردار از آموزش های ارائه شده راضی بودندو فراوانی سزارین از63 قبل از اجرای طرح به 52 بعد از انجام مداخلات کاهش داشت (05/0

Sociological Analysis of Tendency toward Residential Mobility in the Old Fabric of Khomeinishahr

Introduction Mobility has attained a considerable significance as a topic in social theory and research in recent years. The so-called âmobility turnâ or ânew mobilities paradigmâ (Sheller & Urry, 2006) is the clearest effort to bring together different types of movements into a single analysis, and to challenge tendency of social sciences to treat stability as normal and mobility as problematic. The main reason for paying attention to the issue of urban mobilities and residential preferences in the past few decades was its social, demographic, cultural and spatial consequences. On the other hand, intra-urban migration which is done mainly from the old valuable urban cores into the new and the middle areas, influences the socio-spatial structure of urban areas and increases the exhaustion of old textures of urban areas. Now the problem of old urban areas is a major issue in most cities. Many studies (Lee, 1966 Kahn, 2007 Baker, 2002, (Pourahmad et al, 2011 Sajjad and Dastjerdi, 2008 Tavallaei and Yari, 2011 Yosefi & Agajani, 2011) have been done about the causes of residential mobility and their mechanisms. One of the classic and most cited works on residential mobility is Rossiâs âWhy Families Moveâ (1965) which suggested the lifecycle changes of families as the primary reason of their movements. Like Rossi, Speare et al (1974) also emphasize the adjustment to dissatisfaction. According to their analysis, dissatisfaction ultimately results in moving behavior and is the direct result of changes in the needs of a household, changes in the social and physical amenities offered by a particular location, or a change in the standards used to evaluate these factors. Lee and others (2011) have concluded that a subjective assessment of neighborhood has a significant impact on the thought of movement, but has little effect on the real movement. Besides these factors, increasing social capital and cohesion in neighborhood will strengthen neighborhood stability by encouraging residents to prolong their residence time. In the theory of relative deprivation, it is claimed that migration is not accidental behavior, but is a response to elimination of poverty. In general, most research projects conducted on the residential mobility tend to focus on the demographic characteristics of the household. These studies sometimes reported inconsistent results. Quigley and Weinberg (1977) mentioned many of the inconsistencies that have arisen from definitional differences, differing analytical methods and non-parallel sampling procedures. Having said all that, the theoretical framework of this study is a combination of different models in which most of the variables have been selected from the theoretical literature. While not relying on any particular theoretical approach or model, the sociological approach has the main weigh in the selection of variables. Materials and Methods This research was conducted in survey method, with the unit of analysis being the individual and the level of analysis being micro. The population of the study consisted of 20-year-and-older citizens of Khomeinishahr, a city located in 12th km north-west of Isfahan and currently divided into old and new tissues. According to statistics of the 2011 General Census, this city has a population of 61,240 individuals over 20 years old. Using Cochran formula, sample size was calculated to include 240 subjects. Satisfaction of residence, social capital, religiosity, a sense of relative deprivation, and the importance of privacy constitute our independent variables and tendency toward moving to a new area is the dependent variable. Also variables such as age, gender, education and variables related to characteristics of housing such as type of housing, construction period and area where it is located were considered as control variables. Face validity was used to assess validity and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess reliability of the measurement scale. Discussion of Results & Conclusions Results indicate that the overall tendency of residents to movement is low to moderate (46.7 out of 100) and the mean of the behavioral dimension is higher than both dimensions of feelings and behavior. In addition, about 65% of subjects responded to the question of relocation, definitely. The overall mean of all items indicate that satisfaction rate of the facilities is moderate. About overall residential satisfaction, most of the respondents have moderate satisfaction from district facilities (mean 51 out of 100). However, the rate of satisfaction with life is moderate to low and most of them think the region and the local space in which they live is a good place to live in (mean 41.6 out of 100). The amount of social capital in neighborhood is moderate to low (42.9 out of 100) Findings indicate that respondents give great importance to the privacy and solitude and prefer to live more conveniently, untouched by informal controls. When it comes to the feeling of deprivation, most respondents believed that the status of welfare, income, education and housing in their neighborhood is not much different from new neighborhoods. The results show that more than 80% of respondents endorse religiosity of their family. Among the socio-demographic variables, only gender is significantly related to the tendency toward moving. This is consistent with the findings of the Kin (1961) whereas age, education, household size, and the old housing is not in a significant relationship with tendency towards moving. Also, results indicate that there is not a significant relationship between different income groups and tendency toward moving. However, the findings suggest that there is a negative correlation between religious beliefs and the tendency toward moving. Hierarchical regression analyzes indicate that among all independent variables entered into the model (satisfaction, social capital, religiosity, importance of privacy, relative deprivation) with the control of socio-demographic variables, only three variables, namely, privacy, satisfaction, and social capital were able to stay in the model and explain 39% of the variance of the tendency toward moving to new neighborhoods. Also, it is observed that among the socio-demographic variables, only gender is significant however, this has very little impact on the increasing adjusted R square coefficient so it can be ignored. Logistic regression analysis partially confirmed the results of the hierarchical regression

Sociological Analysis of Tendency toward Residential Mobility in the Old Fabric of Khomeinishahr

Introduction Mobility has attained a considerable significance as a topic in social theory and research in recent years. The so-called “mobility turn” or “new mobilities paradigm” (Sheller & Urry, 2006) is the clearest effort to bring together different types of movements into a single analysis, and to challenge tendency of social sciences to treat stability as normal and mobility as problematic. The main reason for paying attention to the issue of urban mobilities and residential preferences in the past few decades was its social, demographic, cultural and spatial consequences. On the other hand, intra-urban migration which is done mainly from the old valuable urban cores into the new and the middle areas, influences the socio-spatial structure of urban areas and increases the exhaustion of old textures of urban areas. Now the problem of old urban areas is a major issue in most cities. Many studies (Lee, 1966; Kahn, 2007; Baker, 2002, (Pourahmad et al, 2011; Sajjad and Dastjerdi, 2008; Tavallaei and Yari, 2011; Yosefi & Agajani, 2011) have been done about the causes of residential mobility and their mechanisms. One of the classic and most cited works on residential mobility is Rossi’s ‘Why Families Move’ (1965) which suggested the lifecycle changes of families as the primary reason of their movements. Like Rossi, Speare et al (1974) also emphasize the adjustment to dissatisfaction. According to their analysis, dissatisfaction ultimately results in moving behavior and is the direct result of changes in the needs of a household, changes in the social and physical amenities offered by a particular location, or a change in the standards used to evaluate these factors. Lee and others (2011) have concluded that a subjective assessment of neighborhood has a significant impact on the thought of movement, but has little effect on the real movement. Besides these factors, increasing social capital and cohesion in neighborhood will strengthen neighborhood stability by encouraging residents to prolong their residence time. In the theory of relative deprivation, it is claimed that migration is not accidental behavior, but is a response to elimination of poverty. In general, most research projects conducted on the residential mobility tend to focus on the demographic characteristics of the household. These studies sometimes reported inconsistent results. Quigley and Weinberg (1977) mentioned many of the inconsistencies that have arisen from definitional differences, differing analytical methods and non-parallel sampling procedures. Having said all that, the theoretical framework of this study is a combination of different models in which most of the variables have been selected from the theoretical literature. While not relying on any particular theoretical approach or model, the sociological approach has the main weigh in the selection of variables. Materials and Methods This research was conducted in survey method, with the unit of analysis being the individual and the level of analysis being micro. The population of the study consisted of 20-year-and-older citizens of Khomeinishahr, a city located in 12th km north-west of Isfahan and currently divided into old and new tissues. According to statistics of the 2011 General Census, this city has a population of 61,240 individuals over 20 years old. Using Cochran formula, sample size was calculated to include 240 subjects. Satisfaction of residence, social capital, religiosity, a sense of relative deprivation, and the importance of privacy constitute our independent variables and tendency toward moving to a new area is the dependent variable. Also variables such as age, gender, education and variables related to characteristics of housing such as type of housing, construction period and area where it is located were considered as control variables. Face validity was used to assess validity and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess reliability of the measurement scale. Discussion of Results & Conclusions Results indicate that the overall tendency of residents to movement is low to moderate (46.7 out of 100) and the mean of the behavioral dimension is higher than both dimensions of feelings and behavior. In addition, about 65% of subjects responded to the question of relocation, definitely. The overall mean of all items indicate that satisfaction rate of the facilities is moderate. About overall residential satisfaction, most of the respondents have moderate satisfaction from district facilities (mean 51 out of 100). However, the rate of satisfaction with life is moderate to low and most of them think the region and the local space in which they live is a good place to live in (mean 41.6 out of 100). The amount of social capital in neighborhood is moderate to low (42.9 out of 100) Findings indicate that respondents give great importance to the privacy and solitude and prefer to live more conveniently, untouched by informal controls. When it comes to the feeling of deprivation, most respondents believed that the status of welfare, income, education and housing in their neighborhood is not much different from new neighborhoods. The results show that more than 80% of respondents endorse religiosity of their family. Among the socio-demographic variables, only gender is significantly related to the tendency toward moving. This is consistent with the findings of the Kin (1961) whereas age, education, household size, and the old housing is not in a significant relationship with tendency towards moving. Also, results indicate that there is not a significant relationship between different income groups and tendency toward moving. However, the findings suggest that there is a negative correlation between religious beliefs and the tendency toward moving. Hierarchical regression analyzes indicate that among all independent variables entered into the model (satisfaction, social capital, religiosity, importance of privacy, relative deprivation) with the control of socio-demographic variables, only three variables, namely, privacy, satisfaction, and social capital were able to stay in the model and explain 39% of the variance of the tendency toward moving to new neighborhoods. Also, it is observed that among the socio-demographic variables, only gender is significant; however, this has very little impact on the increasing adjusted R square coefficient so it can be ignored. Logistic regression analysis partially confirmed the results of the hierarchical regression

Synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of cytotoxicity, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, and cutaneous wound healing effects of copper nanoparticles using the aqueous extract of Strawberry fruit and L-Ascorbic acid

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Fragaria ananassa, also known as “Strawberry” is a common species in Iran and widely used for its anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer, astringent, anti-allergic, antibacterial, antifungal, and antidiarrheal activities and also in the treatment of skin wounds. The purpose of the study was chemical characterization and assessment of cytotoxicity, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, and cutaneous wound healing properties of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) using the aqueous extract of Strawberry fruit and L-Ascorbic acid as reducing and stabilizing agents. These nanoparticles were characterized by FT-IR, UV–visible spectroscopy, EDS, FE-SEM, and TEM analysis. TEM images exhibited a uniform spherical morphology and diameters of 10–30 nm for the biosynthesized nanoparticles. DPPH free radical scavenging test revealed similar antioxidant properties for Strawberry, CuNPs, and butylated hydroxytoluene. The Strawberry and synthesized CuNPs had great cell viability dose-dependently against HUVEC cell line. In the microbiological part of this study, CuNPs showed higher antibacterial and antifungal properties than all standard antibiotics (p ≤ 0.01). Also, CuNPs prevented the growth of all bacteria at 2–8 mg/mL concentrations and destroyed them at 2–16 mg/mL concentrations (p ≤ 0.01). In the case of antifungal property of CuNPs, they inhibited the growth of all fungi at 2–4 mg/mL concentrations and destroyed them at 2–8 mg/mL concentrations (p ≤ 0.01). In vivo design, the use of CuNPs ointment in the treatment groups substantially remarkably raised (p ≤ 0.01) the wound contracture, hydroxyl proline, hexosamine, hexuronic acid, fibrocyte, and fibrocytes/fibroblast rate and reduced (p ≤ 0.01) the wound area, total cells, neutrophil, macrophage, and lymphocyte compared to Strawberry, CuSO4, tetracycline, Eucerin basal, and untreated control groups. In conclusion, the results of chemical characterization confirm that the Strawberry fruit can be consumed to produce copper nanoparticles with a remarkable amount of remedial effects without any cytotoxicity against HUVECs

The Necessity of Philosophy of Medicine Course for Medical Students

Background and Objectives: Philosophy of medicine as a field of study mainly concentrates on issues, such as ontology, epistemology, axiology, and logic. Although axiology has attracted more attention due to its position in medical ethics, especially in relation to modern medical ethical challenges, other topics of philosophy of medicine should be also considered important and necessary. Developing training courses at prestigious universities, publication of journals and books, holding conference meetings, are indicative of special attention to this relatively new field of knowledge. Some stipulated  goals of Iran medical education system, such as critical thinking and problem solving skills, have also made these issues important and necessary to be paid attention to. Addressing philosophy of medicine in medical education program, can lead to contemplation on critical thinking, nature of rational thinking, its governing rules, and its role in health care system, and this is while, medical education system has taken distance from combination of wisdom and medicine, which is the main feature of former and influential Iranian physicians. Graduates of medical education system and provider of health services need to know the principles of health anthropology and the nature of health and disease in order to consider humans to be more than a body and to possess special dignity, and apply their professional practices and behaviors according to this approach. It seems that presenting the mentioned issues as a course entitled "Introduction to Medical Philosophy" to the medical students, may changes the attitude of health care providers.   &nbsp

Background

effect of three different insoles on balance in people with functional ankle instabilit

Immobilized Ag NPs on chitosan-biguanidine coated magnetic nanoparticles for synthesis of propargylamines and treatment of human lung cancer

The magnetically isolable nanobiocomposites have significant impact as the modified new generation catalysts in recent days. This has persuaded us to design and synthesis of a novel Ag NPs decorated biguanidine-chitosan (Bigua-CS) dual biomolecular functionalized core-shell type magnetic nanocomposite (Ag/Bigua-CS@Fe3O4). Bigua-CS could be introducing polysaccharide materials as potential coating agent to immobilizing and stabilizing metal nanoparticles. The material was characterized using several advanced techniques like fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), atomic mapping, high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Towards the chemical applications of the material, we headed the multicomponent synthesis of diverse propargylamines by A(3) coupling in water, which ended up with excellent yields. Due to strong paramagnetism, the catalyst was easily isolable and reused in 9cycles without any leaching and considerable change in reactivity. In addition, the catalyst was engaged in biological assays like study of anti-oxidant properties by DPPH mediated free radical scavenging test using BHT as a reference molecule. Thereafter, on having a significant IC50 value in radical scavenging assay, we extended the bio-application of the catalyst in anticancer study of adenocarcinoma cells of human lungs. The three different cancer cell lines, PC-14, LC-2/ad and HLC-1 were used in this regard. The best result was achieved in the case of PC-14 cell line with strong IC50 values