Prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in Helicobacter pylori isolates from Iran

Helicobacter pylori, a gram negative bacterium is capable of being resistant to a wide spectrum of antimicrobial drugs. The prevalence of antibiotic resistance in H. pylori strains differs amongst distinct geographical areas and has increased worldwide. Therefore, information concerning the prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant H. pylori strains is important in predicting therapeutic response. In this study, drug susceptibility of H. pylori in patients was investigated in Laleh hospital, Tehran, Iran from 2007 - 2008. 104 antral biopsies of patients with non ulcer dyspepsia and peptic ulcer were cultured. Susceptibility patterns were determined by disk diffusion method. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was performed for resistant isolates of H. pylori. In our study, 51.5% of clinical isolates showed resistance to metronidazole. All of the isolates were sensitive to other antibiotic disks including clarithromycin, amoxicillin, tetracycline and furazolidone. MIC was determined as 16 μg/ml in 5.8% and 32 μg/ml in 94.1% of isolates for metronidazole resistance isolates. The results indicated that the major drug resisted by H. pylori is metronidazole and it should be considered when recommending drugs to patients in this region.Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, antimicrobial resistance, MICAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(36), pp. 5962-5965, 6 September, 201

The effect of slow-stroke back message on the anxiety levels of Iranian women on the first postpartum day

Background: Anxiety disorder is common during the postpartum period. Back massage relaxation techniques are one of the most important nonpharmacological interventions to prevent and control postpartum-related anxiety. Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of slow-stroke back massage on the anxiety levels of primiparous mothers in the first days after delivery. Materials and Methods: This single-blind controlled clinical trial consisted of 100 primiparous mothers with normal deliveries. The mothers were randomly allocated to interventional (n = 50) or control (n = 50) groups using binary blocks. Both groups were followed up just before, immediately after, and the morning after the intervention. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and Spielberger�s state anxiety inventory (STAI) questionnaire. Results: Themeanage of the mothers was 22 years. There were no significant between-group differences in age (P = 0.333), education (P = 0.427), and medication during labor and the postpartum period (P = 0.412). There was no statistically significant difference between the mean anxiety scores of the experimental (6.66±35.48) and control groups (9.05±37.42) before the intervention (P = 0.268). Immediately after the massage and the next morning, there was a significant between-group difference in the anxiety scores (P < 0.001). Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that slow-stroke back massage is a simple, inexpensive, noninvasive, and effective method to reduce the anxiety levels of primiparous women during the first postpartum day. © 2016, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

Unilateral interactions in granular packings: A model for the anisotropy modulus

Unilateral interparticle interactions have an effect on the elastic response of granular materials due to the opening and closing of contacts during quasi-static shear deformations. A simplified model is presented, for which constitutive relations can be derived. For biaxial deformations the elastic behavior in this model involves three independent elastic moduli: bulk, shear, and anisotropy modulus. The bulk and the shear modulus, when scaled by the contact density, are independent of the deformation. However, the magnitude of the anisotropy modulus is proportional to the ratio between shear and volumetric strain. Sufficiently far from the jamming transition, when corrections due to non-affine motion become weak, the theoretical predictions are qualitatively in agreement with simulation results.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Serological Survey of Avian Influenza (H9N2) in Commercial Ostrich Farms in Iran, 2015

The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of avian influenzaH9N2 subtype in the industrial ostrich farms and its geographical distribution. This cross-sectional study was conducted from January to June 2015. A total of 40 farms were selected from different provinces of Iran, from each of which 11 ostriches (n=440) were sampled. The sera samples were examined using 4 hemagglutination units of H9N2 antigens. A frequency distribution was used to describe the responses to the survey questions. The mean titers between provinces were compared using one-way analysis of variance. According to the results, 21 (47.5%) out of 40 farms and 108 (24.5%) out of 440 ostriches tested positive in the HI-H9N2 test. There were statistically significant differences between the mean titers of samples in different provinces (

Stress distribution and the fragility of supercooled melts

We formulate a minimal ansatz for local stress distribution in a solid that includes the possibility of strongly anharmonic short-length motions. We discover a broken-symmetry metastable phase that exhibits an aperiodic, frozen-in stress distribution. This aperiodic metastable phase is characterized by many distinct, nearly degenerate configurations. The activated transitions between the configurations are mapped onto the dynamics of a long range classical Heisenberg model with 6-component spins and anisotropic couplings. We argue the metastable phase corresponds to a deeply supercooled non-polymeric, non-metallic liquid, and further establish an order parameter for the glass-to-crystal transition. The spin model itself exhibits a continuous range of behaviors between two limits corresponding to frozen-in shear and uniform compression/dilation respectively. The two regimes are separated by a continuous transition controlled by the anisotropy in the spin-spin interaction, which is directly related to the Poisson ratio $\sigma$ of the material. The latter ratio and the ultra-violet cutoff of the theory determine the liquid configurational entropy. Our results suggest that liquid's fragility depends on the Poisson ratio in a non-monotonic way. The present ansatz provides a microscopic framework for computing the configurational entropy and relaxational spectrum of specific substances.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, Final version published in J Phys Chem

The closest elastic tensor of arbitrary symmetry to an elasticity tensor of lower symmetry

The closest tensors of higher symmetry classes are derived in explicit form for a given elasticity tensor of arbitrary symmetry. The mathematical problem is to minimize the elastic length or distance between the given tensor and the closest elasticity tensor of the specified symmetry. Solutions are presented for three distance functions, with particular attention to the Riemannian and log-Euclidean distances. These yield solutions that are invariant under inversion, i.e., the same whether elastic stiffness or compliance are considered. The Frobenius distance function, which corresponds to common notions of Euclidean length, is not invariant although it is simple to apply using projection operators. A complete description of the Euclidean projection method is presented. The three metrics are considered at a level of detail far greater than heretofore, as we develop the general framework to best fit a given set of moduli onto higher elastic symmetries. The procedures for finding the closest elasticity tensor are illustrated by application to a set of 21 moduli with no underlying symmetry.Comment: 48 pages, 1 figur

Sleep tracking of a commercially available smart ring and smartwatch against medical-grade actigraphy in everyday settings: instrument validation study

Background: Assessment of sleep quality is essential to address poor sleep quality and understand changes. Owing to the advances in the Internet of Things and wearable technologies, sleep monitoring under free-living conditions has become feasible and practicable. Smart rings and smartwatches can be employed to perform mid- or long-term home-based sleep monitoring. However, the validity of such wearables should be investigated in terms of sleep parameters. Sleep validation studies are mostly limited to short-term laboratory tests; there is a need for a study to assess the sleep attributes of wearables in everyday settings, where users engage in their daily routines.Objective: This study aims to evaluate the sleep parameters of the Oura ring along with the Samsung Gear Sport watch in comparison with a medically approved actigraphy device in a midterm everyday setting, where users engage in their daily routines.Methods: We conducted home-based sleep monitoring in which the sleep parameters of 45 healthy individuals (23 women and 22 men) were tracked for 7 days. Total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), and wake after sleep onset (WASO) of the ring and watch were assessed using paired t tests, Bland-Altman plots, and Pearson correlation. The parameters were also investigated considering the gender of the participants as a dependent variable.Results: We found significant correlations between the ring's and actigraphy's TST (r=0.86; PConclusions: In a sample population of healthy adults, the sleep parameters of both the Oura ring and Samsung watch have acceptable mean differences and indicate significant correlations with actigraphy, but the ring outperforms the watch in terms of the nonstaging sleep parameters.</p