IL-6 as a Biomarker for Therapeutic Resistance in Metastatic HR+, HER2- Breast Cancers

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Comparing road safety conditions in Iran with ten Southeast Asian countries using road safety index

Background and aims: Crashes and the related human and financial losses have been turned to be one of the challenges of human societies in a way that road death statistics shows a high number of 219172 in Iran from 2005 to 2014. Methods: In this research, using global and valid Road Safety Development Index (RSDI) that illustrates general roads safety condition and consists of nine effective parameters, roads safety in Iran and 10 countries of southeast of Asia was analyzed from March 2010 to March 2011. Considering the charechtristics of the parameters, two scaling methods entitle "Simple Average Weighting" and "Subjective Weighting" were used. Results: Iran's scores were 48.35 and 45.29 for Simple Average Weighting and Subjective Weighting respectively and was in middle level of safety also it ranked as the fourth country among 11 studied ones in 2011. Although some parameters got better, comparing three last years, in many of them especially number of death, crashes and drivers' behavior conditions were unacceptable. The important point is that Subjective Weighting method acts more accurate than Simple Average method, respects to considering change of weights according to importance and their role comparing. Conclusion: The research findings illustrated that Iran has moved toward middle level of road safety from lower levels in last years. However, regards to ranking and scores resulted from indexes it is not in desirable conditions. © 2018 Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Health Services. All rights reserved

Influence of spark plasma sintering and baghdadite powder on mechanical properties of hydroxyapatite

AbstractSince hydroxyapatite-based materials have similar composition and crystallinity as natural calcified tissues, can be used for bone/tissue engineering. In the present study a novel nanocomposite based on bioceramics such as Natural Hydroxyapatite (NHA) and Baghdadite (BAG), was sintered by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The prepared composite was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) techniques. The porosity of the samples was measured by Archimedes method. The cold crushing strength (CCS) test was applied to evaluate their mechanical properties. Our results demonstrated that NHA-30wt. %BAG nanocomposite specimens have the lower CCS in comparison with other examined composites. Consequently, NHA/BAG samples exhibited acceptable mechanical properties and could be suitable candidates for bone tissue engineering applications especially orthopaedic fields

Ergonomic assessment of posture risk factors among Iranian workers: An alternative to conventional methods

Objectives: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are a global problem which evolves at different workplaces such as industries, administrative, and agriculture sectors. In various studies, such disorders were assessed through multiple methods. It is necessary to evaluate different tools to use them in diverse communities. The aim of this study was to assess the validity of the new ergonomic evaluating method of Novel Ergonomic Postural Assessment (NERPA) method in Iran. Methods: The employees (n=455) of operational units of four companies (drug producers, printing and publishing houses, dairy, and drinks producers) were assessed in 2014. It was a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study. One of the researchers developed a questionnaire that was applied to collect demographic data. The NERPA, Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) methods were utilized to analyze posture risk factors. Spearman correlation and Kappa agreement were used to analyze the collected data through SPSS V22. Results: Findings indicated that printing company had the best and pharmaceutical industries had the worst state regarding RULA's results. The risk levels between NERPA and REBA were not statistically significant (P > 0.05), however, that was significant with RULA's outcome. Also, the results of NERPA and other two methods were correlated significantly (P < 0.05). Pain in the lumbar area was implied to be the most prevalent problem (35.1). Discussion: Data of the present study suggest that NERPA method was a valid tool compared to RULA. The NERPA method could be used to evaluate standing tasks among industrial workers. However, the concurrent validity of NERPA method compared with results of REBA, as a widely used method, were not verified

Ergonomic assessment of posture risk factors among Iranian workers: An alternative to conventional methods

Objectives: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are a global problem which evolves at different workplaces such as industries, administrative, and agriculture sectors. In various studies, such disorders were assessed through multiple methods. It is necessary to evaluate different tools to use them in diverse communities. The aim of this study was to assess the validity of the new ergonomic evaluating method of Novel Ergonomic Postural Assessment (NERPA) method in Iran. Methods: The employees (n=455) of operational units of four companies (drug producers, printing and publishing houses, dairy, and drinks producers) were assessed in 2014. It was a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study. One of the researchers developed a questionnaire that was applied to collect demographic data. The NERPA, Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) methods were utilized to analyze posture risk factors. Spearman correlation and Kappa agreement were used to analyze the collected data through SPSS V22. Results: Findings indicated that printing company had the best and pharmaceutical industries had the worst state regarding RULA's results. The risk levels between NERPA and REBA were not statistically significant (P > 0.05), however, that was significant with RULA's outcome. Also, the results of NERPA and other two methods were correlated significantly (P < 0.05). Pain in the lumbar area was implied to be the most prevalent problem (35.1). Discussion: Data of the present study suggest that NERPA method was a valid tool compared to RULA. The NERPA method could be used to evaluate standing tasks among industrial workers. However, the concurrent validity of NERPA method compared with results of REBA, as a widely used method, were not verified

Cytoplasmic cyclin E is an independent marker of aggressive tumor biology and breast cancer-specific mortality in women over 70 years of age

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Multi-cohort analysis demonstrated that cytoplasmic cyclin E expression in primary breast tumors predicts aggressive disease. However, compared to their younger counterparts, older patients have favorable tumor biology and are less likely to die of breast cancer. Biomarkers therefore require interpretation in this specific context. Here, we assess data on cytoplasmic cyclin E from a UK cohort of older women alongside a panel of >20 biomarkers. Between 1973 and 2010, 813 women ≥70 years of age underwent initial surgery for early breast cancer, from which a tissue microarray was constructed (n = 517). Biomarker expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Multivariate analysis of breast cancer-specific survival was performed using Cox’s proportional hazards. We found that cytoplasmic cyclin E was the only biological factor independently predictive of breast cancer-specific survival in this cohort of older women (hazard ratio (HR) = 6.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.93–20.14; p = 0.002). At ten years, 42% of older patients with cytoplasmic cyclin E-positive tumors had died of breast cancer versus 8% of negative cases (p < 0.0005). We conclude that cytoplasmic cyclin E is an exquisite marker of aggressive tumor biology in older women. Patients with cytoplasmic cyclin E-negative tumors are unlikely to die of breast cancer. These data have the potential to influence treatment strategy in older patients

Atypical PKCiota Contributes to Poor Prognosis Through Loss of Apical-basal Polarity and Cyclin E Overexpression in Ovarian Cancer

We show that atypical PKCι, which plays a critical role in the establishment and maintenance of epithelial cell polarity, is genomically amplified and overexpressed in serous epithelial ovarian cancers. Furthermore, PKCι protein is markedly increased or mislocalized in all serous ovarian cancers. An increased PKCι DNA copy number is associated with decreased progression-free survival in serous epithelial ovarian cancers. In a Drosophila in vivo epithelial tissue model, overexpression of persistently active atypical PKC results in defects in apical-basal polarity, increased Cyclin E protein expression, and increased proliferation. Similar to the Drosophila model, increased PKCι proteins levels are associated with increased Cyclin E protein expression and proliferation in ovarian cancers. In nonserous ovarian cancers, increased PKCι protein levels, particularly in the presence of Cyclin E, are associated with markedly decreased overall survival. These results implicate PKCι as a potential oncogene in ovarian cancer regulating epithelial cell polarity and proliferation and suggest that PKCι is a novel target for therapy

Low-molecular-weight cyclin E: the missing link between biology and clinical outcome

Cyclin E, a key mediator of transition during the G(1)/S cellular division phase, is deregulated in a wide variety of human cancers. Our group recently reported that overexpression and generation of low-molecular-weight (LMW) isoforms of cyclin E were associated with poor clinical outcome among breast cancer patients. However, the link between LMW cyclin E biology in mediating a tumorigenic phenotype and clinical outcome is unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, we assessed the role of LMW isoforms in breast cancer cells; we found that these forms of cyclin E induced genomic instability and resistance to p21, p27, and antiestrogens in breast cancer. These findings suggest that high levels of LMW isoforms of cyclin E not only can predict failure to endocrine therapy but also are true prognostic indicators because of their influence on cell proliferation and genetic instability

Analysis of composite plates through cell-based smoothed finite element and 4-noded mixed interpolation of tensorial components techniques

The static bending and the free vibration analysis of composite plates are performed with Carrera's Unified Formulation (CUF). We combine the cell-based smoothed finite element method (CSFEM) and the 4-noded mixed interpolation of tensorial components approach (MITC4). The smoothing method is used for the approximation of the bending strains, whilst the mixed interpolation allows the calculation of the shear transverse stress in a different manner. With a few numerical examples, the accuracy and the efficiency of the approach is demonstrated. The insensitiveness to shear locking is also demonstrated. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved