Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to Predict Patterns of Marijuana Use among Young Iranian Adults

Background; : Marijuana use is increasing among adolescents and young adults. Long-term marijuana use magnifies the risk of a wide variety of behavioral, cognitive-emotional, and neurological problems, and can be a gateway to use of other drugs. In the present study, we investigated the cognitive-emotional and behavioral predictors of marijuana use. To this end, young Iranian adults answered questions based on an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and related it to marijuana use. We hypothesized that cognitive-emotional and behavioral factors would predict intention to use marijuana, and that this, in turn, would predict actual consumption.; Methods; : A total of 166 young Iranian adults (mean age: 20.51 years; 15.7% females) attending a walk-in center for drug use took part in this cross-sectional study. Participants completed questionnaires covering sociodemographic information, frequency of marijuana use per week, along with questionnaires assessing the following dimensions of the TPB: attitude towards marijuana use, subjective norms, self-efficacy to resist marijuana use, environmental constraints, problem-solving skills, and behavioral intention for marijuana use.; Results; : Mean marijuana use was found to be 4.6 times/week. Attitude towards marijuana use, subjective norms, environmental constraints, and behavioral intention to use marijuana were positively correlated to each other and with marijuana use/week. In contrast, higher self-efficacy and problem-solving skills were associated with lower marijuana use/week. The multiple regression analysis showed that a positive attitude to marijuana use, lower self-efficacy in resisting its use, higher behavioral intention, and poorer problem-solving skills predicted actual use.; Conclusion; : The pattern of results suggests that dimensions of TPB can explain marijuana use among young Iranian adults self-admitted to a walk-in center for drug use. Specifically, poor problem-solving skills, low self-efficacy in resisting marijuana use, and positive labelling of its use appeared to be the best predictors of actual use. It follows that prevention programs aimed at improving problem-solving skills and raising self-efficacy, along with educational interventions aimed at highlighting the negative effects of marijuana might decrease the risk of its use among young adults in Iran

Seroepidemiology of Toxocariasis in Children (5-15 yr Old) Referred to the Pediatric Clinic of Imam Hossein Hospital, Isfahan, Iran.

BACKGROUND: Human toxocariasis, a helminthozoonosis, is due to the migration of Toxocara species larvae into human organisms. Humans, especially children become infected by ingesting of embryonated eggs from soil, dirty hands, and raw vegetables. Seroprevalence of this infection is high in developed countries, especially in rural areas. The aim of this study was to investigate the seroepidemiology of Toxocariasis in children referred to the pediatric clinic of Imam Hossein hospital, Isfahan, Iran. METHODS: In this cross sectional study the sera of children aged 5 to 15 years old, admitted to Imam Hossein Pediatric Hospital were collected during 2013-14. Then the sera were examined for anti Toxocara canis antibodies using commercial ELISA kit. RESULTS: From 427 children, 196 (45.9%) were female and 231(54.1%) were male. 107(25.1%) were from rural and 320 (74.9%) were from urban area. Of them 129 (30.2%) were contacted with dog. One child (0.2%) had hypereosinophilia, 33 (7.7%) eosinophlia, and 6 (1.39%) were positive for T. canis IgG (two male and four female). Four of infected children with T. canis were from urban (1.25%) and two from rural areas (1.9%). There was no significant correlation between education of parents, gender, age, place of living and contact with dog with ELISA results test. CONCLUSION: Toxocariasis is prevalent in the children of Isfahan region. Results suggest a low Toxocara exposure in children in this area. Therefore, more risk factors associated with Toxocara exposure should be identified in the further investigatio

Evaluation of the association between KIR polymorphisms and systemic sclerosis : a meta-analysis

Background: The results of investigations on the association between killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) gene polymorphisms and the risk of systemic sclerosis (SSc) are inconsistent. To comprehensively evaluate the influence of KIR polymorphisms on the risk of SSc, this meta-analysis was performed. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed in electronic databases including Scopus and PubMed/ MEDLINE to find all available studies involving KIR gene family polymorphisms and SSc risk prior to July 2019. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were measured to detect associations between KIR gene family polymorphisms and SSc risk. Results: Five articles, comprising 571 patients and 796 healthy participants, evaluating the KIR gene family polymorphisms were included in the final meta-analysis according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and 16 KIR genes were assessed. None of the KIR genes were significantly associated with the risk of SSc. Conclusions: The current meta-analysis provides evidence that KIR genes might not be potential risk factors for SSc risk

Downregulation of Autophagy-related Genes in Macrophages from Patients with Behcet's Disease

Objective: Overwhelming inflammatory chemokines and cytokines characterize the immunological profile and inflammatory settings of Behcet disease (BD). The connection between autophagy-related genes (ATGs) and various perspectives of innate and adaptive immunobiology such as antigen presentation, immune tolerance, lymphocyte development and differentiation, cytokine signaling, and inflammation have been implicated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mRNA expression profile of ATGs in macrophages of patients with BD. Materials and Methods: Whole blood samples were obtained from 10 BD patients and 10 healthy controls. Monocytes were isolated from the blood samples and then differentiated to macrophages using macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF). After total RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, quantitative analysis of ATGs including ATG5, ATG7, ATG12, LC3b, mTOR, RAPTOR, and RICTOR was conducted by SYBR Green master mix and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: mRNA expression of all ATGs was downregulated in macrophages of BD patients compared with healthy controls. It is worth to note that the downregulation of ATG12 and LC3b mRNAs in macrophages of BD patients was statistically significant in comparison to that of healthy control group (P = 0.007 and 0.021, respectively). Conclusion: Considering the role of autophagy in initiation of immune responses and then clearance of dead cells as well as its participation in the development and differentiation of immune cells, downregulation of ATGs in macrophages of BD patients may be involved in uncontrolled immune response and overproduction of inflammatory cytokines

The Effect of Cervical Pessary on Increasing Gestational Age at Delivery in Twin Pregnancies With Asymptomatic Short Cervix: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

OBJECTIVE: The incidence of preterm delivery is much higher in twin pregnancies than in singletons and even higher if a short cervical length is detected in the second trimester. Studies are contradictory regarding the efficacy of a cervical pessary to decrease preterm birth in twin pregnancies and short cervical length. To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the efficacy of cervical pessary in prolonging gestation, preventing preterm birth, and reducing adverse neonatal outcomes in twin pregnancies with an asymptomatic short cervix. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrials.org were searched for randomized controlled trials from inception to June 2023. STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: In this study, randomized controlled trials comparing the cervical pessary to expectant management in the pregnant population with twin gestations and asymptomatic short cervix were included. METHODS: The Cochrane risk-of-bias-2 tool for randomized controlled trials was used for the evaluation of the risk of bias in included studies. A meta-analysis was performed by calculating risk ratio and mean difference with their 95% confidence interval using the random effects model or fixed effect model on the basis of heterogeneity and accounting for potential covariates among the included randomized controlled trials. RESULTS: A total of 6 randomized controlled trials were included in the analysis. Cervical pessary did not significantly increase the gestational age at delivery in twin pregnancies with asymptomatic patients (mean difference, 0.36 weeks [-0.27 to 0.99]; CONCLUSION: The use of cervical pessary in twin pregnancies with asymptomatic short cervix does not seem to be effective in increasing the gestational age at delivery, preventing preterm birth, or reducing adverse neonatal outcomes. This indicates that alternative interventions should be sought for the management of this patient population

Differential privacy preserved federated transfer learning for multi-institutional 68Ga-PET image artefact detection and disentanglement.

PURPOSE Image artefacts continue to pose challenges in clinical molecular imaging, resulting in misdiagnoses, additional radiation doses to patients and financial costs. Mismatch and halo artefacts occur frequently in gallium-68 (68Ga)-labelled compounds whole-body PET/CT imaging. Correcting for these artefacts is not straightforward and requires algorithmic developments, given that conventional techniques have failed to address them adequately. In the current study, we employed differential privacy-preserving federated transfer learning (FTL) to manage clinical data sharing and tackle privacy issues for building centre-specific models that detect and correct artefacts present in PET images. METHODS Altogether, 1413 patients with 68Ga prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)/DOTA-TATE (TOC) PET/CT scans from 3 countries, including 8 different centres, were enrolled in this study. CT-based attenuation and scatter correction (CT-ASC) was used in all centres for quantitative PET reconstruction. Prior to model training, an experienced nuclear medicine physician reviewed all images to ensure the use of high-quality, artefact-free PET images (421 patients' images). A deep neural network (modified U2Net) was trained on 80% of the artefact-free PET images to utilize centre-based (CeBa), centralized (CeZe) and the proposed differential privacy FTL frameworks. Quantitative analysis was performed in 20% of the clean data (with no artefacts) in each centre. A panel of two nuclear medicine physicians conducted qualitative assessment of image quality, diagnostic confidence and image artefacts in 128 patients with artefacts (256 images for CT-ASC and FTL-ASC). RESULTS The three approaches investigated in this study for 68Ga-PET imaging (CeBa, CeZe and FTL) resulted in a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.42 ± 0.21 (CI 95%: 0.38 to 0.47), 0.32 ± 0.23 (CI 95%: 0.27 to 0.37) and 0.28 ± 0.15 (CI 95%: 0.25 to 0.31), respectively. Statistical analysis using the Wilcoxon test revealed significant differences between the three approaches, with FTL outperforming CeBa and CeZe (p-value < 0.05) in the clean test set. The qualitative assessment demonstrated that FTL-ASC significantly improved image quality and diagnostic confidence and decreased image artefacts, compared to CT-ASC in 68Ga-PET imaging. In addition, mismatch and halo artefacts were successfully detected and disentangled in the chest, abdomen and pelvic regions in 68Ga-PET imaging. CONCLUSION The proposed approach benefits from using large datasets from multiple centres while preserving patient privacy. Qualitative assessment by nuclear medicine physicians showed that the proposed model correctly addressed two main challenging artefacts in 68Ga-PET imaging. This technique could be integrated in the clinic for 68Ga-PET imaging artefact detection and disentanglement using multicentric heterogeneous datasets

Association study between KIR polymorphisms and rheumatoid arthritis disease: an updated meta-analysis

Abstract Background Currently published studies investigating association between the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) gene polymorphisms and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) reported inconsistent and contradictory results. Hence, we aim to carry out this comprehensive meta-analysis of all eligible studies meeting the inclusion criteria to achieve precise and comprehensive relationships between genetic variations in KIR gene cluster and risk of RA. Methods Databases of Medline/PubMed and Scopus were searched to investigate case-control studies prior to May 2018. The associations between KIR gene polymorphisms and RA susceptibility were analyzed by computing the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for each study. Results A total of 11 comparative case-control studies involving 1847 RA patients and 2409 healthy individuals were included in this meta-analysis. Four significant associations of 2DL3 (OR = 0.591, 95% CI = 0.351–0.994; P = 0.047), 2DL5 (OR = 0.716, 95% CI = 0.601–0.853; P < 0.001), 2DS5 (OR = 0.623, 95% CI = 0.393–0.988; P = 0.045), and 3DL3 (OR = 0.324, 95% CI = 0.129–0.814; P = 0.016) genes with decreased RA risk were discovered in this meta-analysis. Although, other KIR receptors including 2DL1, 2DL2, 2DL4, 3DL1, 3DL2, 3DS1, 2DS1-2DS4, and two pseudo gens of 2DP1 and 3DP1 displayed no significant association with predisposition to RA. Conclusions These findings provide reliable evidence that 2DL3, 2DL5, 3DL3, and 2DS5 might have a potential protective role for RA

The study on the knowledge, attitude and practice of Tehran citizens about Health and Disease in 2011 (KAP): overview of methodology and primary results

Background: The study of their knowledge, attitude, and behavior toward health is an essential step for health planning. In the urban area, there are several concerns about environmental pollution, health status, the dangers of insecurity, and bad dietary habits. The aim of the study was the determination of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of Tehran citizens in order to plan better municipal services. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 13000 participants between 15-84 years in 22 districts of Tehran, Iran University of Medical Sciences, in August and September of 2011. Cluster sampling and self-administered reliable and valid questionnaire were used for data gathering. The inclusion criteria are all of citizens of Tehran. Age, sex, marital and job status, obesity, physical activity, hypertension, myocardial infarction, accidents, diabetes, nutrition, stroke, psychological behavior, smoking, addiction and drugs, musculoskeletal, sexual behavior, anemia, physical environment, fat blood, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dietary habits and socioeconomic status were measured under standard protocols and by using calibrated instruments.&nbsp; Results: From 13000 participants in the study, 11753 (90%) was fulfilled the questioners. Nonresponse rate from 11753 participants was 8.6%. The proportion of obesity/overweight was 50% and 29.5% of people had appropriate physical exercise, 37.6% reported a tobacco consumer in their family and 4.5% reported an experience of substance misuse. Also, 29.2% and 24.8% from these had anomalistic consuming of salt and soft drink, respectively. Of the participants, 44.8%, 89.1% had a good knowledge and attitude, respectively. Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.82 and 0.79 for knowledge, attitude and behavior, respectively. In additional, the correlation coefficient between test and re-test questions was 0.91.&nbsp; Conclusion: This study was a comprehensive study to measure the knowledge, attitude and practice of Tehran citizens using reliable and valid questionnaires about general health status. A considerable percentage of Tehran citizens suffering from overweight, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, high blood lipids and smoking consuming and using anomalistic from TV and computer. The results can be used as a framework and guide to prioritize problems and planning health education interventions in Tehra

Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma Histopathological Subtype Phenotyping using High-Dimensional Multinomial Multiclass CT Radiomics Signature

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the most important features and assess their discriminative power in the classification of the subtypes of NSCLC. Methods: This study involved 354 pathologically proven NSCLC patients including 134 squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), 110 large cell carcinoma (LCC), 62 not other specified (NOS), and 48 adenocarcinoma (ADC). In total, 1433 radiomics features were extracted from 3D volumes of interest drawn on the malignant lesion identified on CT images. Wrapper algorithm and multivariate adaptive regression splines were implemented to identify the most relevant/discriminative features. A multivariable multinomial logistic regression was employed with 1000 bootstrapping samples based on the selected features to classify four main subtypes of NSCLC. Results: The results revealed that the texture features, specifically gray level size zone matrix features (GLSZM), were the significant indicators of NSCLC subtypes. The optimized classifier achieved an average precision, recall, F1-score, and accuracy of 0.710, 0.703, 0.706, and 0.865, respectively, based on the selected features by the wrapper algorithm. Conclusions: Our CT radiomics approach demonstrated impressive potential for the classification of the four main histological subtypes of NSCLC, It is anticipated that CT radiomics could be useful in treatment planning and precision medicine

The most important variables associated with death due to COVID‐19 disease, based on three data mining models Decision Tree, AdaBoost, and Support Vector Machine: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract Introduction Death due to covid‐19 is one of the biggest health challenges in the world. There are many models that can predict death due to COVID‐19. This study aimed to fit and compare Decision Tree (DT), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and AdaBoost models to predict death due to COVID‐19. Methods To describe the variables, mean (SD) and frequency (%) were reported. To determine the relationship between the variables and the death caused by COVID‐19, chi‐square test was performed with a significance level of 0.05. To compare DT, SVM and AdaBoost models for predicting death due to COVID‐19 from sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and the area under the rock curve under R software using psych, caTools, random over‐sampling examples, rpart, rpartplot packages was done. Results Out of the total of 23,054 patients studied, 10,935 cases (46.5%) were women, and 12,569 cases (53.5%) were men. Additionally, the mean age of the patients was 54.9 ± 21.0 years. There is a statistically significant relationship between gender, fever, cough, muscle pain, smell and taste, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, dizziness, chest pain, intubation, cancer, diabetes, chronic blood disease, Violation of immunity, pregnancy, Dialysis, chronic lung disease with the death of covid‐19 patients showed (p < 0.05). The results showed that the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were respectively 0.60, 0.68, 0.71, and 0.75 in the DT model, 0.54, 0.62, 0.63, and 0.71 in the SVM model, and 0.59, 0.65, 0.69 and 0.74 in the AdaBoost model. Conclusion The results showed that DT had a high predictive power compared to other data mining models. Therefore, it is suggested to researchers in different fields to use DT to predict the studied variables. Also, it is suggested to use other approaches such as random forest or XGBoost to improve the accuracy in future studies