Prevalence of oxaliplatin-induced chronic neuropathy and influencing factors in patients with colorectal cancer in Iran

Background: The chemotherapeutic agent oxaliplatin can cause acute and chronic forms of peripheral neuropathy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of chronic neuropathy and its risk factors in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients treated with FOLFOX or XELOX regimens in the Oncology Ward of Hazrat-e-Rasoul Hospital in Tehran. Materials and Methods: A total of 130 patients with CRC were entered into our study, aged over 18 years, without history of receiving other neurotoxic agents or other predisposing factors such as diabetes or neurologic diseases and kidney and liver dysfunction. For the FOLFOX regimen, patients received oxaliplatin, 85 mg/m2, every 2 weeks for 12 courses and with the XELOX regimen, oxaliplatin was 130mg/m2, every 3 weeks for 8 courses. Based on Common Toxicity Criteria (CTC or NCI-CTC v.3), the patients were divided into 5 groups (grades) based on the severity of their symptoms. Results: Fifty-seven patients (43.8) were male and 73(56.2) female. Some 19 patients (14.7) had BMI<20, 97(74.6) were between 20-25 and 14 (10.8) �25. In 105 patients (80.7) neuropathy was found. There was significant correlation between BMI, hypomagnesaemia and especially, severity of anemia in patients with neuropathy compared to those without. Conclusions: Oxaliplatin regimens can induce chronic neuropathy in CRC patients, with anemia, high BMI and hypomagnesaemia as risk factors that can predispose to this kind of neurotoxicity

One-loop approximation of Moller scattering in Krein-space quantization

It has been shown that the negative-norm states necessarily appear in a covariant quantization of the free minimally coupled scalar field in de Sitter spacetime [1,2]. In this processes ultraviolet and infrared divergences have been automatically eliminated [3]. A natural renormalization of the one-loop interacting quantum field in Minkowski spacetime ($\lambda\phi^4$) has been achieved through the consideration of the negative-norm states defined in Krein space. It has been shown that the combination of quantum field theory in Krein space together with consideration of quantum metric fluctuation, results in quantum field theory without any divergences [4]. Pursuing this approach, we express Wick's theorem and calculate M{\o}ller scattering in the one-loop approximation in Krein space. The mathematical consequence of this method is the disappearance of the ultraviolet divergence in the one-loop approximation.Comment: 10 page

Asymptomatic bacteriuria and pyuria in patients with chronic renal failure undergoing hemodialysis at dialysis centers in Kermanshah, Iran

Pyuria is the presence of increased numbers of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in the urine and is evidence of an inflammatory response in the Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). The aim of this study is determination asymptomatic bacteriuria and pyuria in patients undergoing hemodialysis with chronic renal failure. Out of 103 patients with renal failure undergoing hemodialysis who were able to produce urine with clean catch way, we received urine sample. All samples were examined by the Microbiologist in Central Laboratory of Kermanshah, Iran. The mean age for the patients at diagnosis was 42.4 years (range, 20-67 years). Sixty-four patients (62.5) were male and thirty-nine (37.5) were female. Results have been showed 39 cases were aged between 44-49 years and the highest number cases were middle-aged. Out of 31 patients with leukocytosis, 14 patients had age between 44-49 years and majority of them were male. Pyuria(>10 WBC/HPF or 10 WBC/HPF) developed colony count more than 105 colony-forming units per milliliter that indicating positive culture. Microorganisms didn�t grow in patients (10/19) with pyuria (10 WBC/HPF is a good marker for significant bacteriuria in these patients. © 2015 Academic Journals Inc

Toward Human-Like Social Robot Navigation: A Large-Scale, Multi-Modal, Social Human Navigation Dataset

Humans are well-adept at navigating public spaces shared with others, where current autonomous mobile robots still struggle: while safely and efficiently reaching their goals, humans communicate their intentions and conform to unwritten social norms on a daily basis; conversely, robots become clumsy in those daily social scenarios, getting stuck in dense crowds, surprising nearby pedestrians, or even causing collisions. While recent research on robot learning has shown promises in data-driven social robot navigation, good-quality training data is still difficult to acquire through either trial and error or expert demonstrations. In this work, we propose to utilize the body of rich, widely available, social human navigation data in many natural human-inhabited public spaces for robots to learn similar, human-like, socially compliant navigation behaviors. To be specific, we design an open-source egocentric data collection sensor suite wearable by walking humans to provide multi-modal robot perception data; we collect a large-scale (~50 km, 10 hours, 150 trials, 7 humans) dataset in a variety of public spaces which contain numerous natural social navigation interactions; we analyze our dataset, demonstrate its usability, and point out future research directions and use cases

Correlations between HER2 expression and other prognostic factors in breast cancer: Inverse relations with the Ki-67 index and P53 status

Background: Overexpression or amplification of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) is associated with grade of malignancy and a poor prognosis in breast cancer (BC). The aim of this study was to evaluate of value of HER2 as a prognostic marker, and to analyze associations with common histopathological parameters in BC cases. Materials and Methods: Between of 2007 to 2014, 260 patients with BC referred to Oncology Clinic provided cancer tissue samples which underwent immunohistochemistry (IHC) for markers. ER and PR positivity was defined as � 10 positive tumor cells with nuclear staining. HER2-positive was defined as either HER2 gene amplification by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) or scored as 3+ by IHC. For HER2 (2+), FISH was performed to determine HER2 positivity. Results: The mean age at diagnosis for the patients with HER2-negative was significantly higher than in HER2-positive cases. Also, there were significant correlations between histological grade, nuclear grade, lymph node metastasis, tumor size, ER status, PR status, p53 overexpression and Ki-67 index with HER2 expression. HER2-negative lesions were of higher grade and more likely to be ER-negative, PR-negative, p53-positive, lymph node metastasis, with a tumor size < 2cm and also Ki-67� 20 as compared to the HER2-positive group. Conclusions: Contrary to the results of other studies, HER2-positive tumors in our study had a lower Ki-67 index and were p53-positive. Also, Ki-67 proliferation index � 20 in more studies was associated with p53-positive. Therefore, tumors which are HER2-positive and have a Ki-67 � 20 had a more aggressive behavior compared to HER2-positive and Ki-67 < 20 lesions

Dynamics of porous and amorphous magnesium borohydride to understand solid state Mg-ion-conductors

Rechargeable solid-state magnesium batteries are considered for high energy density storage and usage in mobile applications as well as to store energy from intermittent energy sources, triggering intense research for suitable electrode and electrolyte materials. Recently, magnesium borohydride, Mg(BH$_{4}$)$_{2}$, was found to be an effective precursor for solid-state Mg-ion conductors. During the mechanochemical synthesis of these Mg-ion conductors, amorphous Mg(BH$_{4}$)$_{2}$ is typically formed and it was postulated that this amorphous phase promotes the conductivity. Here, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of as-received γ-Mg(BH$_{4}$)$_{2}$ and ball milled, amorphous Mg(BH$_{4}$)$_{2}$ confirmed that the conductivity of the latter is ~2 orders of magnitude higher than in as-received γ-Mg(BH$_{4}$)$_{2}$ at 353 K. Pair distribution function (PDF) analysis of the local structure shows striking similarities up to a length scale of 5.1 Å, suggesting similar conduction pathways in both the crystalline and amorphous sample. Up to 12.27 Å the PDF indicates that a 3D net of interpenetrating channels might still be present in the amorphous phase although less ordered compared to the as-received γ-phase. However, quasi elastic neutron scattering experiments (QENS) were used to study the rotational mobility of the [BH$_{4}$] units, revealing a much larger fraction of activated [BH$_{4}$] rotations in amorphous Mg(BH$_{4}$)$_{2}$. These findings suggest that the conduction process in amorphous Mg(BH$_{4}$)$_{2}$ is supported by stronger rotational mobility, which is proposed to be the so-called “paddle-wheel” mechanism

A review of the MSCA ITN ECOSTORE - Novel complex metal hydrides for efficient and compact storage of renewable energy as hydrogen and electricity

Hydrogen as an energy carrier is very versatile in energy storage applications. Developments in novel, sustainable technologies towards a CO2-free society are needed and the exploration of all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) as well as solid-state hydrogen storage applications based on metal hydrides can provide solutions for such technologies. However, there are still many technical challenges for both hydrogen storage material and ASSBs related to designing low-cost materials with low-environmental impact. The current materials considered for all-solid-state batteries should have high conductivities for Na+, Mg2+ and Ca2+, while Al3+-based compounds are often marginalised due to the lack of suitable electrode and electrolyte materials. In hydrogen storage materials, the sluggish kinetic behaviour of solid-state hydride materials is one of the key constraints that limit their practical uses. Therefore, it is necessary to overcome the kinetic issues of hydride materials before discussing and considering them on the system level. This review summarizes the achievements of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) innovative training network (ITN) ECOSTORE, the aim of which was the investigation of different aspects of (complex) metal hydride materials. Advances in battery and hydrogen storage materials for the efficient and compact storage of renewable energy production are discussed

Quality of Reasoning in International Criminal Tribunals

It is not unreasonable to say that international criminal law is, for the most part, a judge made law. For better or worse, given the diffused nature of its sources of law as well as the institutions built to enforce it, the rising case law gave the international criminal courts a chance and a burden to develop international criminal law into an expansive, and familiar, branch of international law. In this Chapter, I attempt to analyse and elaborate the main vehicle through which this transformation has taken place – the judgements of the courts – in terms of the quality of their reasoning. I will piece together some general rules of thumb that have been created in the branch of international criminal law to assess the quality of reasoning of the different International Criminal Courts. My focus will be the work of the International Criminal Court, although the work of the ICC rests to a large degree on the work of the previous ad hoc tribunals. As such, I will analyse the criticisms that have been levelled at the international criminal tribunals in terms of their interpretation and reasoning, highlight some of the continuing concerns and assess the ICC’s current practice