Detection of HPV in cancerous and non-cancerous esophageal tissues from Turkmen-Sahra, Iran

The aim of this study were to assess the presence of HPV esophageal infection among Iranian Turkmen who live in an area located in the cancer belt in Asia. The specimens derived from 120 patients previously diagnosed for Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) non-cancerous tissue derived from esophagus. All specimens were examined for the presence of HPV DNA PCR was utilized to amplify a 150 bp segment of HPV L1 gene using the consensus primers. The amplified region was subsequently sequenced to identify the HPV genotypes. The HPV DNA was detected in 49.4% of patients with SCC, and 58% of non-cancerous tissue of esophagus. The positive samples included HPV-16 (46.6%), HPV-6 (24.6%), HPV-66 (8.2%), HPV-52 (4.1%), HPV-18 (2.7%); 14% of cases were positive for more than one type of HPV. The results confirm the presence of HPV in both esophageal cancerous and non-cancerous tissues. These results imply two different interpretations: 1) Due to non-significant difference between the rate of HPV positive in cancerous and non-cancerous tissues, HPV has no important role in esophageal cancers, which is less probable. 2). Because of a highly incidence of esophageal cancer in Turkmen-Sahra region, the HPV is a possible etiologic agent in esophageal carcinogenesis, most probably acting synergistically with physical, chemical, and/or nutritional factors that have previously been found to be related to this malignancy in Turkmen-Sahra. © 2006 Academic Journals Inc., USA

A Jini-Based Solution for Electronic Prescriptions

In most countries today, handwritten, paper-based medical prescriptions are the norm.While efforts have been made in the past and are being made at present to migrate toward electronic dispensation of prescriptions, these have generally omitted to incorporate ubiquitous computing technology in their proposed solutions. In this paper, we focus on this issue and describe a Jini-based prototypical solution for electronic prescriptions, which allows for their wireless transmission to in-range pharmacies and the augmentation of the service levels rendered to the user, with, for instance, information about queue lengths and estimated waiting times being provided to the patients. Clinical and user evaluation revealed that there were high levels of agreement as regards the prototype’s effectiveness, ease of use, and usefulness

Impurity transport in trapped electron mode driven turbulence

Trapped electron mode turbulence is studied by gyrokinetic simulations with the GYRO code and an analytical model including the effect of a poloidally varying electrostatic potential. Its impact on radial transport of high-Z trace impurities close to the core is thoroughly investigated and the dependence of the zero-flux impurity density gradient (peaking factor) on local plasma parameters is presented. Parameters such as ion-to-electron temperature ratio, electron temperature gradient and main species density gradient mainly affect the impurity peaking through their impact on mode characteristics. The poloidal asymmetry, the safety factor and magnetic shear have the strongest effect on impurity peaking, and it is shown that under certain scenarios where trapped electron modes are dominant, core accumulation of high-Z impurities can be avoided. We demonstrate that accounting for the momentum conservation property of the impurity-impurity collision operator can be important for an accurate evaluation of the impurity peaking factor.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figure

Quality of Care for Patients With Traction in Shahid Beheshti Hospital in 2012

Background: With increasing incidence of traumatic fractures, the use of orthopedic intervention such as traction has increased. Inappropriate traction care may cause substantial morbidity and delay the patient rehabilitation. Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the quality of care for patients with traction in the orthopedic unit of Kashan's Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Kashan, Iran. Patients and Methods: An observational study was conducted on patients with traumatic fractures of hip and femur bones who were admitted to Kashan's Shahid Beheshti Hospital during the first 6 months of 2012, and for whom skeletal or skin traction was performed. Data was collected using a checklist including questions about personal characteristics and 23 items related to care for patients with tractions. These items were in three domains including caring while establishing traction, recording care and patient’s education. Descriptive statistics were calculated and independent sample t test and Pearson correlation coefficient was used to analyze the data. Results: A total of 100 patients were examined, among them 66% were male. The mean age of patients was 51.16 ± 23.28 years. In total, 47% of the patients were treated via Skin traction and 53% by skeletal traction. Overall, mean score of quality of care was 10.20 ± 2.64. Quality of establishing traction was good in 55% of patients, but the quality of care was poor in the domains of recording care (88%) and patient education (96%). Total mean of quality of care was significantly different between male and female patients (P < 0.02). Conclusions: The quality of care of patients with traction was not optimal. Therefore it is necessary to improve measures in this area

Detection of human papillomavirus DNA in intraosseus ameloblastoma

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection has been shown as a risk factor in oral carcinogenesis. The association between HPV and benign and malignant neoplasm of oral mucosa, especially surface epithelium-derived tumors, is well established. The role of HPV in pathogenesis of odontogenic cysts and tumors has been published in few articles. The aim of this study was detection of HPV in Iranian patients with intrabony ameloblastoma and investigation of specific risk factors associated with ameloblastoma. One hundred intrabony ameloblastoma and 50 age-sex matched samples as controls were evaluated by polymerase chain reaction for the detection and typing of HPV. Fisher exact and chi square tests were used to assess the data. HPV DNA was detected in 32% of patients and 10% of controls. HPV-6 was the most prevalent genotype (31.6%) in infected cases. It was followed by HPV-11 (12.5%), HPV-16 (12.5%) and HPV-31 (3.1%). We found a significant association between presence of HPV and location of tumor (p = 0.02), traumatic history (p = 0.03) and ododontic therapy (p = 0.01). These findings indicated that HPV-6 probably is one of the most important etiologic agents in causing intraosseous ameloblastoma in Iranian population. © 2006 Academic Journals Inc., USA

Seismic behavior of conxl connections in concrete filled steel Tube Columns (CFT)

Steel box-shaped columns are suitable structural members for structures with moment frames in two directions, but plate connections have several construction problems, including inaccessibility of inside of columns, welding difficulties, etc. ConXL  connections are the new proposed details to reduce these problems. This connection consists of collar flange, collar corner, and collar web extension. In this paper, the seismic behavior of these types of connections is investigated using the numerical method. For this purpose, three samples of ConXL connections without concrete filler, with concrete filler and with concrete filler and stiffener plates inside the column were studied using Abaqus software. The results demonstrated that the ductility of the ConXL connection without concrete filler is more than the two other samples, while the strength of this connection is less than the strengths of the two other samples. It was observed that utilizing stiffener plate inside the column has no significant effect on the strength of the connection.Keywords: ConXL moment connection; collar; concrete filled steel tube (CFT); ductility; stiffener plate