A Composite Buccal Flap for Alar Based Defect Reconstruction: A Technical Note

It is difficult to reconstruct an alar defect with cartilage involvement. Here in the authors report a case of traumatic alar loss during childhood in which an alar reconstruction was carried out with a composite auricular graft put over the pedicle buccal flap which was rotated and passed through the intraoral side. The lining skin and auricular cartilage for the flap was obtained from the auricular region which was acceptable for the patient. All procedures were performed under general anesthesia. One year follow up revealed satisfactory results with minimal contracture of the graft

Correlation between preeclampsia and season or some of its risk factor pregnant women

زمینه و هدف: پره اکلامپسی از عوارض عمده بارداری محسوب می شود و یکی از سه علل اصلی مرگ و میر مادران به شمار می رود. لذا این مطالعه با هدف بررسی رابطه پره اکلامپسی با فصل و عوامل خطر زای آن در زنان 45-15 ساله انجام شد. روش بررسی: نمونه های مورد مطالعه با بررسی پرونده های موجود در بایگانی زایشگاه قدس زاهدان طی سال های 1386-1383 تعداد 2488 زن باردار با تشخیص پره اکلامپسی که واجد شرایط پژوهش بودند (سن 45-15 سال و حاملگی اول الی سوم) انتخاب شدند. 2488 زن باردار نیز به عنوان گروه فاقد پره اکلامپسی (شاهد) انتخاب شدند که از نظر سن و تعداد حاملگی با گروه مبتلا همسان بودند. اطلاعات از طریق پرسشنامه جمع آوری و به کمک آزمون های کای دو تجزیه و تحلیل گردید. یافته ها: نتایج این مطالعه نشان داد ارتباط معنی داری بین پره اکلامپسی و فصل وجود دارد، به طوری که با شروع فصل بهار پره اکلامپسی به تدریج افزایش پیدا کرده و در پاییز به یک افزایش ناگهانی می رسد و در زمستان کاهش ناگهانی پیدا می کند (001/0

Antidiabetic potential of salvianolic acid B in multiple low-dose streptozotocin-induced diabetes

Context: Salvianolic acids are the most abundant water-soluble compounds extracted from the herb Salvia miltiorrhiza L. (Lamiaceae) with antioxidant and protective effects. Objective: This study evaluates the antidiabetic effect of salvianolic acid B (Sal B) in multiple low-dose streptozotocin (MLDS)-induced diabetes in rat. Materials and methods: Rats were divided into control, Sal B40-treated control, diabetic, Sal B20-, and Sal B40-treated diabetic groups. Sal B was daily administered at doses of 20 or 40 mg/kg (i.p.), started on third day post-STZ injection for 3 weeks. Serum glucose and insulin level and some oxidative stress markers in pancreas were measured in addition to the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), histological assessment, and apoptosis determination. Results: After 3 weeks, treatment of diabetic rats with Sal B20 and Sal B40 caused a significant decrease of the serum glucose (p<0.05-0.01) and improvement of OGTT. Meanwhile, serum insulin was significantly higher in Sal B20- and Sal B40-treated diabetics (p<0.01) and treatment of diabetics with Sal B40 significantly lowered malondialdehyde (MDA) (p<0.05), raised glutathione (GSH) (p<0.05), and activity of catalase (p<0.01) with no significant change of nitrite. Furthermore, the number of pancreatic islets (p<0.05) and their area (p<0.01) was significantly higher and apoptosis reactivity was significantly lower (p<0.05) in the Sal B40-treated diabetic group versus diabetics. Discussion and conclusion: Three-week treatment of diabetic rats with Sal B exhibited antidiabetic activity which is partly exerted via attenuation of oxidative stress and apoptosis and augmentation of antioxidant system. © 2015 Informa Healthcare USA, Inc

LSMR Iterative Method for General Coupled Matrix Equations

By extending the idea of LSMR method, we present an iterative method to solve the general coupled matrix equations ∑k=1qAikXkBik=Ci, i=1,2,…,p, (including the generalized (coupled) Lyapunov and Sylvester matrix equations as special cases) over some constrained matrix groups (X1,X2,…,Xq), such as symmetric, generalized bisymmetric, and (R,S)-symmetric matrix groups. By this iterative method, for any initial matrix group (X1(0),X2(0),…,Xq(0)), a solution group (X1*,X2*,…,Xq*) can be obtained within finite iteration steps in absence of round-off errors, and the minimum Frobenius norm solution or the minimum Frobenius norm least-squares solution group can be derived when an appropriate initial iterative matrix group is chosen. In addition, the optimal approximation solution group to a given matrix group (X¯1,X¯2,…,X¯q) in the Frobenius norm can be obtained by finding the least Frobenius norm solution group of new general coupled matrix equations. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented method

Evaluation of SD-208, a TGF-β-RI kinase inhibitor, as an anticancer agent in retinoblastoma

Retinoblastoma is the most common intraocular tumor in children resulting from genetic alterations and transformation of mature retinal cells. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of SD-208, TGF-β-RI kinase inhibitor, on the expression of some miRNAs including a miR-17/92 cluster in retinoblastoma cells. Prior to initiate this work, the cell proliferation was studied by Methyl Thiazolyl Tetrazolium (MTT) and bromo-2�-deoxyuridine (BrdU) assays. Then, the expression patterns of four miRNAs (18a, 20a, 22, and 34a) were investigated in the treated SD-208 (0.0, 1, 2 and 3 μM) and untreated Y-79 cells. A remarkable inhibition of the cell proliferation was found in Y-79 cells treated with SD-208 versus untreated cells. Also, the expression changes were observed in miRNAs 18a, 20a, 22 and 34a in response to SD-208 treatment (P<0.05). The findings of the present study suggest that the anti-cancer effect of SD-208 may be exerted due to the regulation of specific miRNAs, at least in this particular retinoblastoma cell line. To the best of the researchers� knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating that the SD-208 could alter the expression of tumor suppressive miRNAs as well as oncomiRs in vitro. In conclusion, the present data suggest that SD-208 could be an alternative agent in retinoblastoma treatment. © 2016 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

A Layer-Wise Information Reinforcement Approach to Improve Learning in Deep Belief Networks

With the advent of deep learning, the number of works proposing new methods or improving existent ones has grown exponentially in the last years. In this scenario, "very deep" models were emerging, once they were expected to extract more intrinsic and abstract features while supporting a better performance. However, such models suffer from the gradient vanishing problem, i.e., backpropagation values become too close to zero in their shallower layers, ultimately causing learning to stagnate. Such an issue was overcome in the context of convolution neural networks by creating "shortcut connections" between layers, in a so-called deep residual learning framework. Nonetheless, a very popular deep learning technique called Deep Belief Network still suffers from gradient vanishing when dealing with discriminative tasks. Therefore, this paper proposes the Residual Deep Belief Network, which considers the information reinforcement layer-by-layer to improve the feature extraction and knowledge retaining, that support better discriminative performance. Experiments conducted over three public datasets demonstrate its robustness concerning the task of binary image classification

Membrane attack complex inhibitor CD59a protects against focal cerebral ischemia in mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The complement system is a crucial mediator of inflammation and cell lysis after cerebral ischemia. However, there is little information about the exact contribution of the membrane attack complex (MAC) and its inhibitor-protein CD59.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Transient focal cerebral ischemia was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in young male and female CD59a knockout and wild-type mice. Two models of MCAO were applied: 60 min MCAO and 48 h reperfusion, as well as 30 min MCAO and 72 h reperfusion. CD59a knockout animals were compared to wild-type animals in terms of infarct size, edema, neurological deficit, and cell death.</p> <p>Results and Discussion</p> <p>CD59a-deficiency in male mice caused significantly increased infarct volumes and brain swelling when compared to wild-type mice at 72 h after 30 min-occlusion time, whereas no significant difference was observed after 1 h-MCAO. Moreover, CD59a-deficient mice had impaired neurological function when compared to wild-type mice after 30 min MCAO.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that CD59a protects against ischemic brain damage, but depending on the gender and the stroke model used.</p

Effect of berberine chloride on caspase-3 dependent apoptosis and antioxidant capacity in the hippocampus of the chronic cerebral hypoperfusion rat model

Objective(s): The main goal of the current research was to examine the effects of Berberine (BBR) on apoptotic signaling and hippocampal oxidative stress induced by common carotid artery occlusion. Materials and Methods: Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (CCH) model was created by occluding the two common carotid arteries (two-vessel occlusion 2VO) permanently. BBR (50 and 100 mg/kg/daily) was intra-gastrically administered to ischemic rats. Neuronal survival was evaluated by Nissl staining. The levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and antioxidant enzymes, including catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), along with the activities of caspase 3 were estimated in the hippocampus 2 month after treating the rats with 2VO. Results: According to findings of the present research, the BBR therapy inhibited the neurodegeneration of hippocampus. BBR also significantly decreased the amount of MDA and activity of caspase 3 in the hippocampus. Furthermore, the administration of BBR alleviated the lowered activities of SOD and CAT after 2VO surgery. Conclusion: The antioxidant and antiapoptotic properties of BBR might play important roles in improving functional outcomes and might have significant neuroprotective effects on the CCH damage. © 2019, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved