Sound speed and its attenuation in the Persian Gulf

High quality of commercial and research uses of acoustical methods in fisheries need to have enough information about sound speed variations, Ray tracing and attenuation rate in the water. In this paper we focused on sound speed variation with depth versus physical properties of Bandar Dayer waters (NE of Farsi island and about 50 kilometers south of Delware; 28.2 N & 50.58 E) and calculation of attenuation rate. Importance of this area is for the Gulf currents, which cover this region. The results of this research show that up to 11 meters depth sound speed remain constant while depth increases and temperature decreases. After this depth sound speed decreases which is for decreasing in salinity and temperature. Sound attenuation profiles show that the most attenuation rate is at 17 to 27 meters depth

Developing national framework of monitoring and evaluation of non-communicable diseases control and prevention: an experience from Iran

Background: Islamic Republic of Iran, as a country has undergone dramatic and rapid demographical and economic transition leading to increase mortality and morbidity of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). Furthermore, the prevalence of risk factors of NCDs is at alarming range for the population. In response to this challenge, a number of different high level policies have been developed dealing with NCDs, directly or indirectly. However, the fragmentation of policies makes monitoring of NCDs control difficult. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to develop a comprehensive framework for monitoring and evaluating of NCDs control and prevention.  Methods: A qualitative approach with content analysis method was conducted. Components of NCDs monitoring and evaluation framework were extracted and adaptation of components based on requirements of Iran’s health system was made.    Results: Based on the proposed framework, the three main components of NCDs surveillance are as follows; 1) monitoring outcomes (morbidity and mortality); 2) monitoring risk factors; and 3) assessing health care system response, which includes national capacity to prevent NCDs.  Conclusion: The developed framework is a political tool to strengthen activities to control and prevention of NCD and making more effective inter-sectorial collaboration

Analysis of Cohesion and Coherence in Writing Performance of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

The main concern of this study was to identify Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ problems in cohesion and coherence of writing performance as well as the extent to which they utilized cohesion and coherence in their writing. It is important for EFL and ESL learners the ability to compose a piece of descriptive text. Despite its significance, there is a gap in the literature about how Iranian EFL learners write essays in this genre that this study intends to fill. The research design involved the utilization of mixed research method in addressing the research questions. The study addressed a corpus of 40 intermediate language learners’ descriptive essays, 10 experienced teachers that they were themselves at intermediate level as the questionnaire respondents and four interviewees’ answers from those volunteer experienced teachers. The results of the study revealed lack of cohesion and coherence in the participants’ essays and their writing performance in terms of these two variables was not acceptable. Therefore, the obtained findings, by implication, indicated that they had neither some aspects of cohesive and coherent writing, nor had enough support, practice and feedback on their written text in terms of cohesion and coherence. Some pedagogical implications of this study would be applicable to the language learners’ writing in terms of these two aforementioned variables as well as the results were expected to aid in setting the writing sections of classes for improvement of language learners’ written texts particularly in terms of cohesion and coherence

Osteosarcoma Models: From Cell Lines to Zebrafish

High-grade osteosarcoma is an aggressive tumor most commonly affecting adolescents. The early age of onset might suggest genetic predisposition; however, the vast majority of the tumors are sporadic. Early onset, most often lack of a predisposing condition or lesion, only infrequent (<2%) prevalence of inheritance, extensive genomic instability, and a wide histological heterogeneity are just few factors to mention that make osteosarcoma difficult to study. Therefore, it is sensible to design and use models representative of the human disease. Here we summarize multiple osteosarcoma models established in vitro and in vivo, comment on their utilities, and highlight newest achievements, such as the use of zebrafish embryos. We conclude that to gain a better understanding of osteosarcoma, simplification of this extremely complex tumor is needed. Therefore, we parse the osteosarcoma problem into parts and propose adequate models to study them each separately. A better understanding of osteosarcoma provides opportunities for discovering and assaying novel effective treatment strategies

The impact of flipped classroom on EFL learners’ development of reading comprehension

Background and ObjectiveS: The difference between students and their individual needs have been the focus of many pedagogues in recent decades. With the emergence and development of a variety of technologies and the expansion of access infrastructure to emerging technologies, the condition to access a variety of educational content has been met for a wide range of learners. The flipped classroom is one of the most ambitious ideas in education, which emerged in the last decade of the twentieth century with the aim of meeting the needs of learners and promoting learner-centered learning, using very simple technologies. The flipped class can affect the teacher's instructional practice and their interaction with students and even communication with parents. The main difference between the presentation method in the flipped classroom and the traditional classroom is that the teacher becomes a guide and facilitator of the learning process instead of the lecturer and controller of the teaching process. The flipped class gives students control over the teaching process by stopping and rewinding the teacher's teaching video. In this way, students with different levels of proficiency can listen to or see the teacher's teaching over and over again, without being accused of beingretarded by their classmates. Therefore, the students themselves take the main responsibility of planning for the lesson and learn the educational materials without any worries. This study investigated the impact of flipped classroom on the development of English reading comprehension. Methods:Two general English classes were selected based on convenience sampling and were assigned into control (n=25) and experimental (n=25) groups. The participants’ reading proficiency was assessed before and after the study by PET (Preliminary English Test). The scores of pre-test showed that the groups were homogeneous prior to the study. The experimental group received instruction based on flipped approach and the control group were taught based on conventional instruction. Findings: The result of MANOVA on post-test scores indicated that flipped classroom improved students’ reading comprehension significantly. Tests of between-subjects effects show that the groups’ means of posttest scores were significantly different in four parts of PET that focus on understanding the main idea and gist of meaning. The difference between the groups was not significant in Part 5 that assesses understanding the vocabulary and grammar in a short text. Conclusion: The results showed that the use of flipped instruction in general can improve learners' reading skills and comprehension. At the same time, this method has worked better in strengthening reading skills and comprehension of the general content and message of the texts than paying attention to smaller reading units such as vocabulary and grammar. This is logical given the theoretical underpinning of the flipped class in emphasizing higher-level cognitive skills and indicates the success of a model designed to teach GE. At the same time, it is necessary to help learners to strengthen low-level skills in the reading process by designing appropriate teaching aids and teaching learning strategies to them. Also, in order for this method to be successful in lower level cognitive activities, there is a need to continue using it and familiarizing learners with this method. In this study, due to the mediocre access of students to technology, advanced technologies (such as artificial intelligence, smart applications, etc.) were not used to prepare e-content. In addition, the flipped class was the first experience of the students participating in this study, and it is recommended to continued use of the flipped class (more than one semester) in other studies.   ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS  ©2020 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.  ====================================================================================

Optimizing diagnostic methods and stem cell transplantation outcomes in pediatric bone marrow failure: a 50-year single center experience

Peripheral blood cytopenia, a frequent presenting symptom in pediatric patients, can be caused by bone marrow failure (BMF). Timely identification of patients with non-reversible BMF is of crucial importance to reduce the risks of invasive infections and bleeding complications. Most pediatric patients with severe persistent cytopenia, independent of the underlying cause, are offered allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) as curative therapy. Here we report on our management guidelines and HSCT outcomes of pediatric BMF patients to pinpoint improvements and future challenges. We formulated recommendations based on this 50 years' experience, which were implemented at our center in 2017. By analysis of the HSCT cohort of 2017-2023, the 5-year outcome data is presented and compared to historical outcome data. In addition, outcomes of patients transplanted for identified inherited bone marrow failure syndromes (IBMFS) are compared to severe aplastic anemia (SAA) outcomes to underline the often multiorgan disease in IBMFS with implications for long-term survival. Survival of pediatric patients with irreversible BMF has improved tremendously. SAA patients transplanted after 2017 had a superior 5-year overall (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) of 97% and 85% compared to 68% and 59% in the cohort transplanted before 2017 (p = 0.0011 and p = 0.017). A similar trend was seen for BMF, with an OS and EFS of 89% for those transplanted after 2017 compared to 62% and 59% (p > 0.05). This improvement is mainly related to better survival in the first months after HSCT. The long-term survival after HSCT is lower in IBMFS patients as compared to SAA patients due to secondary malignancies and multiorgan toxicity.Conclusion: Unbiased protocolized in-depth diagnostic strategies are crucial to increase the frequency of identifiable causes within the heterogeneous group of pediatric BMF. A comprehensive approach to identify the cause of BMF can prevent treatment delay and be useful to tailor treatment and follow-up protocols.Transplantation and immunomodulatio

The cost of emission mitigation by legume crops in French agriculture

Transplantation and immunomodulatio

Late-onset sepsis due to urinary tract infection in very preterm neonates is not uncommon

Developmen

Automating outcome analysis after stem cell transplantation: the YORT tool

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a high-risk procedure. Auditing and yearly outcome reviews help keep optimal quality of care and come with increased survival, but also has significant recurring costs. When data has been entered in a standardized registry, outcome analyses can be automated, which reduces work and increases standardization of performed analyses. To achieve this, we created the Yearly Outcome Review Tool (YORT), an offline, graphical tool that gets data from a single center EBMT registry export, allows the user to define filters and groups, and performs standardized analyses for overall survival, event-free survival, engraftment, relapse rate and non-relapse mortality, complications including acute and chronic Graft vs Host Disease (GvHD), and data completeness. YORT allows users to export data as analyzed to allow you to check data and perform manual analyses. We show the use of this tool on a two-year single-center pediatric cohort, demonstrating how the results for both overall and event-free survival and engraftment can be visualized. The current work demonstrates that using registry data, standardized tools can be made to analyze this data, which allows users to perform outcome reviews for local and accreditation purposes graphically with minimal effort, and help perform detailed standardized analyses. The tool is extensible to be able to accommodate future changes in outcome review and center-specific extensions.Transplantation and immunomodulatio

Predicting patient death after allogeneic stem cell transplantation for inborn errors using machine learning (PREPAD): a European society for blood and marrow transplantation inborn errors working party study

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a curative treatment for many inborn errors of immunity, metabolism, and hematopoiesis. No predictive models are available for these disorders. We created a machine learning model using XGBoost to predict survival after HSCT using European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplant registry data of 10,888 patients who underwent HSCT for inborn errors between 2006 and 2018, and compared it to a simple linear Cox model, an elastic net Cox model, and a random forest model. The XGBoost model had a cross-validated area under the curve value of .73 at 1 year, which was significantly superior to the other models, and it accurately predicted for countries excluded while training. It predicted close to 0% and >30% mortality more often than other models at 1 year, while maintaining good calibration. The 5-year survival was 94.7% in the 25% of patients at lowest risk and 62.3% in the 25% at highest risk. Within disease and donor subgroups, XGBoost outperformed the best univariate predictor. We visualized the effect of the main predictors-diagnosis, performance score, patient age and donor type-using the SHAP ML explainer and developed a stand-alone application, which can predict using the model and visualize predictions. The risk of mortality after HSCT for inborn errors can be accurately predicted using an explainable machine learning model. This exceeds the performance of models described in the literature. Doing so can help detect deviations from expected survival and improve risk stratification in trials.(c) 2023 The American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Transplantation and immunomodulatio