Validity of naked eye single tube red cell osmotic fragility test (NESTROFT) in screening of beta-thalassemia trait

زمینه و هدف: تالاسمی متداولترین اختلال تک ژنی است که رهایی از آن از طریق درمان قطعی ممکن نبوده و مستلزم پیشگیری از طریق به کارگیری یک روش قابل اعتماد و کم هزینه برای غربالگری ناقلین و در مرحله بعد ارایه آموزش، مشاوره ژنتیک، تشخیص قبل از تولد و خاتمه انتخابی به زندگی جنین های مبتلا به این اختلال است. هدف از این مطالعه ارزیابی تست اسموتیک تک لوله ای چشمی گلبول های قرمز (NESTROFT) به عنوان یک تست غربالگری در راستای کشف مبتلایان به بتاتالاسمی مینور بود. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه توصیفی- تحلیلی، تست NESTROFT بر روی 158 نفر متشکل از 51 نفر فرزندان والدینی که حداقل یکی از بچه های آنها دارای بتا تالاسمی ماژور بود، 51 فرد طبیعی و 56 فرد از مبتلایان به فقر آهن انجام شد. داده های حاصل به کمک آزمون های آماری آنالیز واریانس یک راهه و آزمون تعقیبی دانت تجزیه و تحلیل گردید. یافته ها: بر اساس نتایج، حساسیت و ارزش اخباری منفی تست NESTROFT 100 بوده و با توجه به 14 مورد نتیجه مثبت کاذب ناشی از فقر آهن، ویژگی آن 9/86 و ارزش اخباری مثبت تست 5/78 می باشد. نتیجه گیری: تست NESTROFTدر عین کم هزینه بودن و سهولت انجام، حساسیت بالایی برای کشف بتا تالاسمی مینور داشته و می توان از آن در کشورهای در حال توسعه با منابع اقتصادی و تکنیکی محدود از قبیل ایران در مقیاس وسیع جهت غربالگری توده ای استفاده نمود

The potential use of biogas producing microorganisms in radiation protection

Radiation induced injury is a limiting factor in radiation related approaches from earth to space. Inductions of a wide spectrum of damages in radiotherapy patients due to unwanted normal tissues irradiation and space radiation related diseases in astronauts have been caused many limitations in cancer treatment and space missions. There are many radiation protection/mitigation approaches including: physical, chemical, biological and physiological methods. Radiation protection using these methods is expensive and also has many problems including acute toxicities and difficulties in their targeting to normal tissues. Based on experimental and hypothetical data, showing that medical/biological gases have many protective effects such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and induction of radioresistance, we hypothesize that similar gases which have been produced by microorganisms (biogases) have those properties and may be used as radiation mitigators/protectors in radiation related approaches such as radiotherapy, radiation accidents and in space missions. Isolation microorganism in safe laboratory conditions in enough amounts, finding non-toxic dose of microorganisms that provide highest radioprotection percent, dose reduction factor (DRF) calculation to compare the radioprotective efficacy of the microorganisms, finding the best targeting techniques to deliver those microorganisms into normal tissues, genetically manipulations of microorganism to achieve the highest amount of biogases with lowest side effects can be done for testing the hypothesis. © 2015 Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Comparison of technetium-99m IgG with technetium-99m red blood cells labeling in cardiac blood-pool scintigraphy: A preliminary study

This first clinical prospective study was conducted to use of technetium-99m immunoglobulin G (99mTc-IgG) as compared with autologous 99mTc-red blood cells (RBC) in gated blood pool ventriculography. We studied 12 patients who referred to us for a possible diagnosis of liver hemangioma or infection. Six patients underwent gated planar blood pool (GPBP) acquisition using 99mTc-RBC and 6 GPBP acquisition using 99mTc-IgG. The use of 99mTc-IgG in cardiac blood pool studies provided comparable images to 99mTc-RBC. In conclusion, 99mTc-IgG, which is readily available and needs only a single injection, may be an attractive alternative to 99mTc-RBC for the estimation of various cardiac function parameters like left ventricular function

Comment on "Anderson transition in disordered graphene"

We comment on a recent letter by Amini et al. (EPL 87, 37002 (2009)) concerning the existence of a mobility edge in disordered graphene.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Quantum communication between trapped ions through a dissipative environment

We study two trapped ions coupled to the axial phonon modes of a one-dimensional Coulomb crystal. This system is formally equivalent to the "two spin-boson" model. We propose a scheme to dynamically generate a maximally entangled state of two ions within a decoherence-free subspace. Here the phononic environment of the trapped ions, whatever its temperature and number of modes, serves as the entangling bus. The efficient production of the pure singlet state can be exploited to perform short-ranged quantum communication which is essential in building up a large-scale quantum computer.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

The role of gated myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (GMPS) in myocarditis: A case report and review of the literature

Acute myocarditis is one of the most challenging diagnoses and treatments in cardiology. The acute viral myocarditis diagnosis is usually based on high suspicion, history taking, and physical examination. Likewise, the use of chest radiography, electrocardiography (ECG), and echocardiography is helpful in making a final diagnosis, but all are non-specific. In addition, in imaging query, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) depicts some degree of cardiac inflammation in the course of myocarditis. Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) has also been shown to be useful in diagnosis, and this noninvasive technique diminishes the need for myocardial biopsy. The current study presents the diagnostic and prognostic role of MPI in a 25-year-old patient with suspected myocarditis. The patient underwent gated-technetium-99m-lablled, methoxyisobutyl isonitrile, single photon emission computed tomography (Gated 99mTc-MIBI SPECT) that showed nonheterogeneous absorption with remarkable decreased radiotracer uptake in the myocardium in both stress and rest phases. In addition, the gated mode demonstrated decreased wall motion and thickening of the myocardium with a sum motion score (SMS) of 28, a sum thickening score (STS) of 15, and a measured LVEF of 34%. The study concludes that 99mTC-MIBI SPECT imaging is a useful modality in the preparation of supplementary diagnostic and prognostic information in viral myocarditis. Copyright © 2011 Via Medica

The potential of small mountain river systems for paleoenvironmental reconstructions in drylands - an example from the Binaloud Mountains in Northeastern Iran

Fluvial sediments are valuable paleoenvironmental archives of the Quaternary. Since besides environmental factors they are also affected by local tectonics or intrinsic processes, large instead of small catchments should be studied. In drylands covering ca. 45% of the global terrestrial surface large river systems are generally missing, and most river systems are small rivers originating from mountain ranges. Their sediments are potentially interesting paleoenvironmental archives, but are often affected by intensive tectonics. During this study, to obtain a robust regional paleoenvironmental signal a small river system in the southwestern Binaloud Mountains in semi-arid NE Iran was exemplarily studied with a combined approach that encompassed both alluvial fan and catchment. By using geomorphological mapping and numerical dating, fluvial aggradation followed by incision was independently identified in larger areas or in different parts of the river system ca. 95–88 ka, 40 ka, 20 ka, around/after the Pleistocene/Holocene transition and possibly ca. 2.6 ka. These could be linked with regional and over-regional paleoenvironmental data. Furthermore, large boulders on the alluvial fan suggest anthropogenic destabilisation of the catchment during the last decades. Despite strong local tectonics the fluvial dynamics was mostly controlled by paleoenvironmental changes and human activity. This indicates that despite their small size, such river systems form valuable paleoenvironmental archives in drylands where other archive types are largely missing

An evasion game model for duopoly competition

Based on the Bertrand and Cournot economic models, we develop an evasion game model for a duopoly market with two players competing on price and quantity. We show that if the total financial strength of first mover is greater than that of the second mover, and the first mover observes the second mover perfectly, our proposed optimal strategy can be followed by the first mover to remain the market leader ahead of all competition