MATERNAL ANXIETY DURING PREGNANCY: ITS RELATIONS TO BIRTH OUTCOMES AND TO OFFSPRING DEPRESSION DURING LATE CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE

There has been renewed interest in recent years in the short- and long-term effects of prenatal maternal anxiety (PMA) on offspring. Although relations between PMA and adverse birth outcomes have been established previously, the nature of these relations is not well-characterized. Furthermore, it is unknown whether the effects of PMA last into late childhood and adolescence to increase the offspring’s risk of depression. The goals of this dissertation were: 1) Characterize the relations between PMA and birth outcomes; 2) Determine the correlates of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) among offspring; 3) Determine whether PMA predicts depressive symptoms in offspring at 10 to 16 years. Women (n=829) of low socioeconomic status, recruited from a prenatal clinic, were assessed for trait anxiety (PMA) during their fourth and seventh gestational months, and at delivery, in a study of prenatal substance use. There were 763 live singleton births. At 10, 14, and 16 years post-partum, trait anxiety and depressive symptoms were measured in women and their offspring. Offspring were assessed at 16 years for MDD. Demographic, social, substance use, medical, psychological, and psychiatric status were controlled. It was demonstrated in the first paper that PMA predicted lower birth weight, shorter birth length, and shorter gestational length, controlling for confounders. Women who reported chronic, severe trait anxiety were at the highest risk of having shorter gestations and delivering smaller babies. The second paper established that female gender, a history of childhood maltreatment, and a maternal history of MDD independently increased the odds of MDD in the 16-year-olds. Daughters of women with a history of MDD were particularly vulnerable. The third paper found that PMA was related to level of depressive symptoms in late childhood and adolescence. These effects were significant, controlling for current maternal depression. Female gender and lower maternal education also predicted depressive symptoms in children ages 10-16 years. There was a significant interaction between gender and follow-up assessment. These findings have public health implications: maternal psychological health during pregnancy and throughout the child’s development should be monitored in order to improve birth outcomes and psychological health of children and adolescents

Molecular systematics of genus Bulbophyllum (Orchidaceae) in Peninsular Malaysia based on combined nuclear and plastid DNA sequences

Phylogenetic relationships were inferred for representative Bulbophyllum species of 13 sections from subtribe Bulbophyllinae (Epidendroideae, Orchidaceae) in Peninsular Malaysia. The combined data matrix consists of sequences from ITS nuclear gene region and trnL-F, matK, and rbcL plastid gene regions with 3114 characters. Molecular data were analysed using parsimony and Bayesian inference. The results show that several recognized sections are monophyletic. Section Hirtula with paraphyletic status must split up and section Desmosanthes contain misplaced elements. Furthermore, generic status of Cirrhopetalum and Epicrianthes cannot be supported, because they are deeply embedded within the genus Bulbophyllum. Section Desmosanthes is recognized as the closest group to section Cirrhopetalum; therefore, they can be merged in some aspects

Effect of nifedipine with and without sildenafil citrate for the management of preterm labor in pregnant women: A randomized clinical trial

Background: Preterm labor is one of the main causes of neonatal mortality and its treatment is still challenging. Objective: The study aimed to compare the effectiveness of nifedipine (Nif) with and without sildenafil citrate (SC) for the treatment of preterm labor in pregnant women. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial study, 126 pregnant women referred to the Fatemieh hospital, Hamadan, Iran with a complaint of preterm labor were evaluated. Participants were randomly divided into 2 groups of Nif 20 mg orally (single dose), then 10 mg every 6-hr, and at the same time vaginal SC 25 mg every 8 hr (Nif + SC) or Nif alone. Treatment was continued for 48-72 hr if uterine contractions did not resolve in both groups. Delivery rates at the time of hospitalization and neonatal outcome were compared between the 2 groups. Results: No statistically significant difference was observed between the 2 study groups in terms of mean age, gestational age, body mass index, and parity. 76.2% of Nif + SC participants in the first 72 hr of hospitalization and 57.2% of Nif participants remained without delivery (p = 0.02). The neonatal hospitalization rate of the Nif + SC group in the neonatal intensive care unit was 25.4% and in the Nif group was 42.9% (p = 0.03). Conclusion: Nif with SC is superior to Nif alone in women at risk of preterm labor due to increasing gestational age and better neonatal outcomes. Key words: Nifedipine, preterm labor, Sildenafil citrate, Randomized trial

An automated non-destructive prediction of peroxide value and free fatty acid level in mixed nut samples

This study aimed to develop an automated technique, which is rapid, non-destructive and inexpensive, to test for rancidity of nuts. A visible to near infrared benchtop hyperspectral camera was used to capture images from blanched canarium, unblanched canarium and macadamia samples. Support vector machine classification (SVC) and PLSR models were developed to segregate the pooled spectra of the nuts and predict their peroxide values (PV) and free fatty acid (FFA) concentrations. The SVC and PLSR models were then used in a hierarchical model to develop an automated system for predicting PV and FFA. The automated model was then tested using a test set providing classification accuracy of 87% and R2 between 0.60 and 0.76 and RPD between 1.6 and 2.7 for PV and FFA prediction. Overall, the automated system has the potential commercial application in nut processing to detect rancidity of mixed nut samples non-destructively and in real-time. It is suggested to train other machine learning models with more samples to improve the accuracy of predictions

Optic Neuropathy following Botulinum Toxin Injection into the Medial Rectus Muscle for Diplopia

Purpose: To report a case of optic neuropathy (ON) following botulinum toxin A (BTA) injection into the medial rectus muscle. Case Report: We describe a 37-year-old man with unilateral ON after a BTA injection into the left medial rectus for treatment of traumatic sixth nerve palsy. Oral prednisolone was prescribed for 14 days. After two weeks, his visual acuity returned to 20/20. Conclusion: Botulinum toxin-induced neuropathy is a rare and vision-threatening complication of BTA. In patients with recent injection of BTA who present with visual complaints, botulinum toxin-induced neuropathy should be considered

Efect of temperature increasing on Nanofluid structure.

Nanofluids which are known as new generation of thermal fluids have particular features which were affected on their behavior. One of these features is response of nanofluids to temperature changes. Ultrasonic mixer is used to prepare the nanofluid. Ultrasonic mixer sends out waves and the wave itself makes the heat. Numbers of encounters between nanoparticles also are increased by increasing the temperature. These collapses may lead to agglomeration or recrystallization of nanoparticles. In this work, the attempted made to study structural changes of nanofluid as increasing the temperature which is very important for engineering designs. Obtained results for nanofluids were illustrated that the temperature in nanofluid was increased in lower ranges than pure water. Water-copper oxide and also water-alumina nanofluids were used

Comparison of Hyperspectral Imaging and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy to Determine Nitrogen and Carbon Concentrations in Wheat

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is an emerging rapid and non-destructive technology that has promising application within feed mills and processing plants in poultry and other intensive animal industries. HSI may be advantageous over near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as it scans entire samples, which enables compositional gradients and sample heterogenicity to be visualised and analysed. This study was a preliminary investigation to compare the performance of HSI with that of NIRS for quality measurements of ground samples of Australian wheat and to identify the most important spectral regions for predicting carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations. In total, 69 samples were scanned using an NIRS (400–2500 nm), and two HSI cameras operated in 400–1000 nm (VNIR) and 1000–2500 nm (SWIR) spectral regions. Partial least square regression (PLSR) models were used to correlate C and N concentrations of 63 calibration samples with their spectral reflectance, with 6 additional samples used for testing the models. The accuracy of the HSI predictions (full spectra) were similar or slightly higher than those of NIRS (NIRS Rc2 for C = 0.90 and N = 0.96 vs. HSI Rc2 for C (VNIR) = 0.97 and N (SWIR) = 0.97). The most important spectral region for C prediction identified using HSI reflectance was 400–550 nm with R2 of 0.93 and RMSE of 0.17% in the calibration set and R2 of 0.86, RMSE of 0.21% and ratio of performance to deviation (RPD) of 2.03 in the test set. The most important spectral regions for predicting N concentrations in the feed samples included 1451–1600 nm, 1901–2050 nm and 2051–2200 nm, providing prediction with R2 ranging from 0.91 to 0.93, RMSE ranging from 0.06% to 0.07% in the calibration sets, R2 from 0.96 to 0.99, RMSE of 0.06% and RPD from 3.47 to 3.92 in the test sets. The prediction accuracy of HSI and NIRS were comparable possibly due to the larger statistical population (larger number of pixels) that HSI provided, despite the fact that HSI had smaller spectral range compared with that of NIRS. In addition, HSI enabled visualising the variability of C and N in the samples. Therefore, HSI is advantageous compared to NIRS as it is a multifunctional tool that poses many potential applications in data collection and quality assurance within feed mills and poultry processing plants. The ability to more accurately measure and visualise the properties of feed ingredients has potential economic benefits and therefore additional investigation and development of HSI in this application is warranted

Investigating the Relationship between Procalcitonin Serum Level and Response to Treatment in Urosepsis Patients

Background and Aim: Urinary tract infection is a common and painful disease in humans. Rapid and timely diagnosis of sepsis and its differentiation from non-infectious causes that manifest with similar symptoms is very important because timely antibiotic treatment onset in patients with sepsis is very vital in reducing mortality and improving the final outcome of patients. This study was performed aiming to investigate the relationship between procalcitonin serum level changes and response to treatment in patients in 2016. Materials and Methods: In this study 15 women and 15 men of the patients over 18 years of age who were admitted to Yasouj Shahid Beheshti Hospital were selected. Then, urine culture and blood sample were taken simultaneously from the patients on day 5 and day 10 and two weeks after the start of treatment, and in case of negative urine culture in each one of the cultures, the procalcitonin serum level was measured. To analyze the data SPSS software was used. Findings: The mean and standard deviation of procalcitonin serum level before and after treatment were 8.88 ± 1.24 and 0.05 ± 0.01, respectively (p = 0.001). The mean and standard deviation of procalcitonin serum level before and after treatment in patients with complicated and uncomplicated urinary tract infection were 10.97 ± 1.46 and 0.54 ± 0.08, respectively (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Procalcitonin biomarker can be used in patients with urinary tract infection to evaluate the response to treatment and the duration of admission in the hospital and the duration of antibiotic therapy

Distribution of genes encoding virulence factors and molecular analysis of Shigella spp. isolated from patients with diarrhea in Kerman, Iran

Shigella is one of the important causes of diarrhea worldwide. Shigella has several virulence factors contributing in colonization and invasion of epithelial cells and eventually death of host cells. The present study was performed in order to investigate the distribution of virulence factors genes in Shigella spp. isolated from patients with acute diarrhea in Kerman, Iran as well as the genetic relationship of these isolates. A total of 56 isolates including 31 S. flexneri, 18 S. sonnei and 7 S. boydii were evaluated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the presence of 11 virulence genes (ipaH, ial, set1A, set1B, sen, virF, invE, sat, sigA, pic and sepA). Then, the clonal relationship of these strains was analyzed by multilocus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) method. All isolates were positive for ipaH gene. The other genes include ial, invE and virF were found in 80.4%, 60.7% and 67.9% of the isolates, respectively. Both set1A and set1B were detected in 32.3% of S. flexneri isolates, whereas 66.1% of the isolates belonging to different serogroup carried sen gene. The sat gene was present in all S. flexneri isolates, but not in the S. sonnei and S. boydii isolates. The result showed, 30.4% of isolates were simultaneously positive and the rest of the isolates were negative for sepA and pic genes. The Shigella isolates were divided into 29 MLVA types. This study, for the first time, investigated distribution of 11 virulence genes in Shigella spp. Our results revealed heterogeneity of virulence genes in different Shigella serogroups. Furthermore, the strains belonging to the same species had little diversity

Molecular diagnosis and anti-microbial resistance patterns among Shigella spp. isolated from patients with diarrhea

Aim: This study aims to determine the serogroup distribution and molecular diagnosis, as well as antimicrobial resistance profiles among Shigella spp. isolated from patients with diarrhea in Kerman, southeast of Iran. Background: Shigella species are frequent cause of bacterial dysentery worldwide. Previous studies have been reported that S. sonnei and S. flexneri are the most prevalent serogroups in various parts of Iran. Patients and methods: A total of 624 stool samples were randomly collected from patients with diarrhea from June 2013 to August 2014. Biochemical and serological characterizations were performed for identifying Shigella spp. In addition, the multiplex PCR assay was carried out for the detection and differentiation of three pathogenic Shigella spp. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed according to the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Results: Fifty six (9%) Shigella strains were isolated from stool samples. The most common species were S. flexneri 31(55.4%), followed by S. sonnei 18(32.1%) and S. boydii 7(12.5%). S. dysentery was not detected in the present study. All the isolates that identified by serological test as Shigella spp. were confirmed by the multiplex PCR method. The highest rate of resistance was observed for ampicillin and trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole antibiotics with 52(92.9%) resistant, followed by tetracycline 44(78.6%) and cefotaxime 33(58.9%). All Shigella isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin. A significant relationship was found between the Shigella species and cefotaxime resistance (p<0.05). Conclusion: S. flexneri was found as the most prevalent serogroup causing shigellosis. The high rate of resistance to third-generation cephalosporins limits the treatment options available for the management of shigellosis in Kerman, Iran