Assessment of Strain and Strain Rate in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease Before and After Percutaneous Intervention on Left Anterior Descending Coronary Artery

Introduction: Strain (S) and Strain Rate (SR) as echocardiography parameters are important in assessing changes in myocardial tissue and global and regional evaluation of systolic and diastolic functions and in detection of myocardial disorders as they change in early stages of myocardial ischemia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare changes of S and SR indices in systolic phase in patients with a significant stenosis of left anterior descending (LAD) before and after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).Methods: 48 patients candidate for PCI with significant lesion in LAD were enrolled in this study. Echocardiographic images taken one day before and a week after PCI. Echocardiographic scope of the LAD was defined as mid, basal, anteroseptal and mid-septal and apical segments then, S and SR parameters in all segments measured separately during systolic phase before and after PCI and compared together.Results: there was a significant increase after PCI only in two segments and SR values showed significant increase after PCI in four segments. In the analysis of sum of mean parameters, a significant increase was observed in SR values (10.12 to 11.30; P = 0.001), but not in S values (149.54 to 143.36; P = 0.1)Conclusions: The remedial effect of PCI on deformation values was observed in the first week. In early reperfusion period, S/SR indices have potential to be used as determinants of favorable response to revascularization therapy

The relationship between cellular adhesion and surface roughness in polystyrene modified by microwave plasma radiation

Esmaeil Biazar1, Majid Heidari2, Azadeh Asefnezhad2, Naser Montazeri11Department of Chemistry, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon Branch, Mazandaran; 2Department of Biomaterial Engineering, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, IranBackground: Surface modification of medical polymers can improve biocompatibility. Pure polystyrene is hydrophobic and cannot provide a suitable environment for cell cultures. The conventional method for surface modification of polystyrene is treatment with plasma. In this study, conventional polystyrene was exposed to microwave plasma treatment with oxygen and argon gases for 30, 60, and 180 seconds.Methods and results: Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectra investigations of irradiated samples indicated clearly the presence of functional groups. Atomic force microscopic images of samples irradiated with inert and active gases indicated nanometric surface topography. Samples irradiated with oxygen plasma showed more roughness (31 nm) compared with those irradiated with inert plasma (16 nm) at 180 seconds. Surface roughness increased with increasing duration of exposure, which could be due to reduction of the contact angle of samples irradiated with oxygen plasma. Contact angle analysis showed reduction in samples irradiated with inert plasma. Samples irradiated with oxygen plasma showed a lower contact angle compared with those irradiated by argon plasma.Conclusion: Cellular investigations with unrestricted somatic stem cells showed better adhesion, cell growth, and proliferation for samples radiated by oxygen plasma with increasing duration of exposure than those of normal samples.Keywords: surface topography, polystyrene, plasma treatment, argon, oxyge

A survey on critical factors influencing agricultural insurance

Agricultural business is a very high-risk job and an increase demand for agricultural products from one side and steady increase in production cost and weather changes, on the other side, have motivated many to use insurance for agricultural products. Insurance plays an important role in influencing crop production and insured satisfaction or farmers. The purpose of this research is to find critical components in agricultural insurance. Based on an exploration of the literature review and interviews, the proposed study of this paper extracts 24 variables and using factor analysis, we select the most important factors, which are grouped in seven categories. The implementation of our factor analysis has revealed uncertainty, moderator, market equilibrium, risky environment, empowering factor, education, training, structural hazards and natural ecosystems as the most important factors influencing agricultural industry

Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Reducing Impulsive Behaviors, Alexithymia, and Despair in Depressed Patients at Counseling Centers in Ahvaz

Background: Depression is one of the most prevalent mental disorders that severely affect activities and mental health. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) on reducing impulsive behaviors (IBs), alexithymia, and despair in depressed patients at counseling centers in Ahvaz. Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up design, and a control group. The study population comprised all patients with depression who were referred to the counseling centers of Ahvaz in 2019. The sample consisted of 30 patients with depression selected by convenience sampling and divided into experimental and control groups (n= 15 per group). The experimental group underwent twelve sessions (90-minutes sessions per week) of cognitive-behavioral therapy. The research instruments included the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and the Miller Hope Scale (MHS). The follow-up was performed after 30 days. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results: The results showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) reduced impulsive behaviors (IBs), alexithymia, and despair in the experimental group of depressed groups compared with the control group in the post-test and follow-up (Pvalue= 0.0001). Conclusions: CBT can be used at counseling centers for better treatment of IBs, alexithymia, and despair in depressed groups. Keywords: Cognitive-behavioral therapy, Impulsive behaviors, Alexithymia, Despair, Depression

The Effects of an Educational Program Based on Social Cognitive Theory in Adopting Behaviors to Prevent Excessive Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in Children: Application of Shad Social Network Software

Background: Excessive consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) is a health problem in most societies today, which has adverse consequences in health, social and economic areas. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the application of social cognitive theory (SCT) in the design and evaluation of an educational intervention in order to adopt behaviors to prevent excessive consumption of SSBs in students. Methods: The current research was a quasi-experimental study. Using multistage sampling, 100 Junior High-school students in Urmia, Iran in 2021 were selected and assigned to two groups, namely intervention (n=100) and control (n=100). To collect the study data, the researchers utilized a researcher-made questionnaire including items about demographic information and SCT constructs such as awareness, outcome expectations, self-regulation, self-efficacy, social support , barriers and Preventive behaviors, which was completed in two stages before and three months after the last training session; the data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 25.0. Results: The mean age of the participants in the intervention and control groups was 13.71 ± 0.71 and 13.84 ± 0.81, respectively. Before the intervention, the mean scores of social cognitive theory structures and desired behavior were not significantly different between the two groups. But three months after the intervention, the mean scores of knowledge constructs, outcome expectations, self-regulation, self-efficacy, social support, perceived barriers, and desirable student behavior showed a significant difference between the two groups (P<0.001). Conclusion: The results of the study revealed that social cognitive theory can be used as a theoretical basis for designing and evaluating interventions to encourage people to follow a proper diet and reduce the consumption of SSBs

Study of Fast Transient Pressure Drop in VVER-1000 Nuclear Reactor Using Acoustic Phenomenon

This article aims to simulate the sudden and fast pressure drop of VVER-1000 reactor core coolant, regarding acoustic phenomenon. It is used to acquire a more accurate method in order to simulate the various accidents of reactor core. Neutronic equations should be solved concurrently by means of DRAGON 4 and DONJON 4 coupling codes. The results of the developed package are compared with WIMS/CITATION and final safety analysis report of Bushehr VVER-1000 reactor (FSAR). Afterwards, time dependent thermal-hydraulic equations are answered by employing Single Heated Channel by Sectionalized Compressible Fluid method. Then, the obtained results were validated by the same transient simulation in a pressurized water reactor core. Then, thermal-hydraulic and neutronic modules are coupled concurrently by use of producing group constants regarding the thermal feedback effect. Results were compared to the mentioned transient simulation in RELAP5 computer code, which show that mass flux drop is sensed at the end of channel in several milliseconds which causes heat flux drop too. The thermal feedback resulted in production of some perturbations in the changes of these parameters. The achieved results for this very fast pressure drop represent accurate calculations of thermoneutronic parameters fast changes

The assessment of functional indices of left ventricular wall layers in cases with normal and high blood pressure by layer-specific strain methods

Introduction: The arterial hypertension leading to left ventricular remodeling induces accentuated ventricular wall thickness because of higher afterload. The several surveys about myocardial function in such cases were conducted by imaging studies for the evaluation of myocardial wall thickness without separating the different layers of each other. The aim of this investigation was the evaluation of the functional indices of each layer of the left ventricular myocardium by staining analysis of layers and demonstration of the relationship between ventricular structural remodeling and the functional changes of the ventricle myocardial layers in persons with normal and high blood pressure. Methods: 88 cases (46.6% normotensive and 53.4% hypertensive) were studied by two-dimensional echocardiography and longitudinal and circumferential strain indices. These differentiated variables of heart layers (epicardium, mid myocardium, endocardium) were evaluated. All of them had been analyzed and compared in terms of diastolic dysfunction were compared. Normal diastolic function was defined as: E/A=1 to 2 and deceleration time=150 to 200 ms. Results: Global longitudinal strain (GLS) and global circumferential strain (GCS) strains remarkably declined in epicardial and middle layers of myocardial in hypertensive cases with diastolic dysfunction, although this alternation did not reveal in cases without diastolic dysfunction. Conclusion: The decreasing of GLS and GCS indices of mid-myocardial and epicardial layers have been predicted in cases with high pressure, and the evidences of this situation had been observed in cases with ventricular diastolic dysfunction

Harvesting epithelial cell sheet based on thermo- sensitive hydrogel

Thermo-sensitive hydrogels were prepared by graft copolymerization of chitosan and N-Isopropylacrylamide via gamma radiation. Characterization of hydrogels such as 13C-NMR, DSC analysis and swelling test and cell assessments for harvesting living cell sheet were investigated. 13C-NMR and DSC analysis showed chitosan and NIPAAm monomer were grafted via gamma radiation successfully. Swelling ratio and curves results administrated hydrophilicity / hydrophobicity of hydrogel that this property is due to presence of PNIPAAm in different temperatures. The hydrogel was tested for harvesting epithelial cells after carrying out cell culture at 37 °C and incubating the confluent cells at 4°C for spontaneous detachment of cell sheet from hydrogel surface without enzyme treatment. Cell viability assay results and microscopic observations demonstrated that cells could attach to the hydrogel surface and maintain high viability and proliferation ability. Cell detachment efficiency from the hydrogel was high. These unique properties of the hydrogel would make it a promising support for epithelial cell grafting especially cornea regeneration

Types of neural guides and using nanotechnology for peripheral nerve reconstruction

Peripheral nerve injuries can lead to lifetime loss of function and permanent disfigurement. Different methods, such as conventional allograft procedures and use of biologic tubes present problems when used for damaged peripheral nerve reconstruction. Designed scaffolds comprised of natural and synthetic materials are now widely used in the reconstruction of damaged tissues. Utilization of absorbable and nonabsorbable synthetic and natural polymers with unique characteristics can be an appropriate solution to repair damaged nerve tissues. Polymeric nanofibrous scaffolds with properties similar to neural structures can be more effective in the reconstruction process. Better cell adhesion and migration, more guiding of axons, and structural features, such as porosity, provide a clearer role for nanofibers in the restoration of neural tissues. In this paper, basic concepts of peripheral nerve injury, types of artificial and natural guides, and methods to improve the performance of tubes, such as orientation, nanotechnology applications for nerve reconstruction, fibers and nanofibers, electrospinning methods, and their application in peripheral nerve reconstruction are reviewed