A Clinical Survey Efficacy Of Frankincense In Acute Ischemic Stroke

Background &Aims: Ischemic stroke is the most common cause of stroke ,and paralysis and movement disorders are the most symptoms of stroke. Therefore, it is important to find a method for improving the disorders. This study aimed to examine the clinical efficacy of frankincense in patients with the acute ischemic stroke. Methods: In this clinical trial, 60 patients with ischemic stroke were randomly allocated into the treatment and control groups (n=30). In the treatment group, in addition to routine treatment of stroke, four capsules containing 500 mg powdered frankincense was given daily , but in the control group, was performed only the treatment of stroke (no frankincense). The treatment lasted for 1 month. The NIHSS scale (for assessment of speech and muscle strength) at the beginning, the seventh day and end of the study for each patient was completed. Statistical analysis was performed using independent t-test, chi-square, mann withney in SPSS software. Results: Results showed that only improvement of muscle strength in patients left limb increased significantly in stage II in the treatment group than the control group. Conclusion: Adding frankincense to treatment of patients with stroke can be effective on improvement muscle strength in patients with muscle weakness and non-dominant side in acute neurological disorders. While that is not effective on improving muscle strength of the right limb or speech

A Clinical Survey of Efficacy of Frankincense in Acute Ischemic Stroke

Introduction: Ischemic stroke is the most common cause of stroke, paralysis and movement disorders are the most symptoms of stroke. Therefore, it is important to find a method for improving the disorders. This study aimed to examine the clinical efficacy of frankincense in patients with the acute ischemic stroke. Materials & methods: In this clinical trial, 06 patients with ischemic stroke were randomly allocated into the treatment and control groups (n=06). In the treatment group, in addition to routine treatment of stroke, four capsules containing 522 mg powdered frankincense were given each day, but in the control group, were performed only the treatment of stroke (no frankincense) was performed. The treatment lasted for 1 month. The NIHSS scale (for assessment of speech and muscle strength) at the beginning, the seventh day and the end of the study for each patient was completed. Statistical analysis was performed using independent t-test, chisquare, and Mann withney in SPSS software. Findings: Results showed that only improvement of muscle strength in patients left limb increased significantly in stage II in the treatment group than the control group. Discussion & conclusions: Adding frankincense to treatment of patients with stroke can be effective on improvement muscle strength in patients with muscle weakness and non-dominant side in acute neurological disorders while that is not effective on improving muscle strength of the right limb or speech

Down Syndrome : Through The Eyes of The Parents

Sindroma Down merupakan salah satu kejadian kelainan kromosom tipe aneuploidi yang kerap ditemukan.  Kejadian Sindroma Down terkait erat dengan disabilitas intelektual dan stugma sosial yang melekat padanya.  Pandangan orang tua mengenai Sindroma Down yang tercerminkan melalui perilaku amat penting karena dukungan keluarga merupakan salah satu kunci utama untuk mengoptimalkan kualitas hidup penyandang Sindroma Down. Studi ini merupakan studi deskriptif pada orang tua penyandang Sindroma Down yang bersekolah di Sekolah Luar Biasa (SLB) di Palembang.  Perilaku orang tua diukur dengan menggunakan kuesioner HealthStyles©.  Sebagian besar orang tua penyandang Sindroma Down sepakat bahwa anak dengan Sindroma Down harus bersekolah di SLB (82,5%) karena mayoritas meyakini pencampuran penyandang Sindroma Down di sekolah biasa dapat mengganggu murid lain (60%).  Namun orang tua memiliki pandangan optimis bahwa anak penyandang Sindroma Down dapat bekerja jika telah dewasa (72,5%).  Mereka pun percaya bahwa penyandang Sindroma Down tidak lebih rentan mengalami kecelakaan kerja di tempat kerja (37,5%).  Dari studi ini terlihat bahwa orang tua penyandang Sindroma Down memiliki perilaku yang bervariasi tergantung dari aspek mana mereka memandang Sindroma Down

Acceleration of Large Margin Metric Learning for Nearest Neighbor Classification Using Triplet Mining and Stratified Sampling

Metric learning is one of the techniques in manifold learning with the goal of finding a projection subspace for increasing and decreasing the inter- and intra-class variances, respectively. Some of the metric learning methods are based on triplet learning with anchor-positive-negative triplets. Large margin metric learning for nearest neighbor classification is one of the fundamental methods to do this. Recently, Siamese networks have been introduced with the triplet loss. Many triplet mining methods have been developed for Siamese networks; however, these techniques have not been applied on the triplets of large margin metric learning for nearest neighbor classification. In this work, inspired by the mining methods for Siamese networks, we propose several triplet mining techniques for large margin metric learning. Moreover, a hierarchical approach is proposed, for acceleration and scalability of optimization, where triplets are selected by stratified sampling in hierarchical hyper-spheres. We analyze the proposed methods on three publicly available datasets, i.e., Fisher Iris, ORL faces, and MNIST datasets.Comment: The first two authors contributed equally to this wor

Characteristics of PVDF Membranes Irradiated by Electron Beam

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes were exposed vertically to a high energy electron beam (EB) in air, at room temperature. The chemical changes were examined by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The surface morphologies were studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and showed some changes in the pore size. Thermogravimetric (TGA) analysis represented an increase in the thermal stability of PVDF due to irradiation. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) showed the presence of free radicals in the irradiated PVDF. The effect of EB irradiation on the electrical properties of the membranes was analyzed in order to determine the dielectric constant, and an increase in the dielectric constant was found on increasing the dose. The surface hydrophilicity of the modified membrane was characterized by water contact angle measurement. The contact angle decreased compared to the original angle, indicating an improvement of surface hydrophilicity. Filtration results also showed that the pure water flux (PWF) of the modified membrane was lower than that of the unirradiated membrane

Sandwich-type double-layer piezoelectric nanogenerators based on one- and two-dimensional ZnO nanostructures with improved output performance

Abstract Piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) have attracted great interest owing to their broad range application in environmental mechanical energy harvesting to power small electronic devices. In this study, novel flexible and high-performance double-layer sandwich-type PENGs based on one-dimensional (1-D) and two-dimensional (2-D) zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures and Ni foam as the middle layer have been developed. The morphology and structure of 1- and 2-D ZnO nanostructures have been studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). To investigate the effect of structural design on the piezoelectric performance, single-layer PENGs were also fabricated. The piezoelectric output of all prepared PENGs were evaluated under different human impacts at various forces and frequencies. The double-layer designed PENGs showed a two times larger voltage output compared to the single-layer PENGs, and the use of Ni foam as middle-layer and of 2-D ZnO nanosheets (compared to 1-D nanorods) was also found to increase the performance of the designed PENGs. The working mechanism of the prepared PENGs is also discussed. The design of nanogenerators as double-layer sandwich structures instead of two integrated single-layer devices reduces the overall preparation time and processing steps and enhances their output performance, thus opening the gate for widening their practical applications

Concentration of cadmium, arsenic, and lead in rice (Oryza sativa) and probabilistic health risk assessment: A case study in Hormozgan province, Iran

Background: The presence of toxic heavy metals in cereal grains like rice is one of the main human and environmental health concerns. Their importance is because of their non-biodegradability nature, high half-time, and bioaccumulation ability in the human body. Among heavy metals, cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and arsenic (As) are most critical, so their concentrations in rice were evaluated in this study. Methods: In this study, the concentration of Cd and Pb was determined by graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrometer (GF-AAS), while the concentration of As was measured by atomic spectrum poll after acid digestion of the milled rice samples. The probabilistic health risk assessment of Cd, As, and Pb through consumption of different types of rice including local rice and two types imported from India (IND) and Pakistan (PAK), was estimated for the adults in Hormozgan province using Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) technique. Results: It was revealed that the concentrations of all Cd, As, and Pb in the local rice samples were lower than those in the PAK and IND samples. The average concentration of As, Pb, and Cd in the rice samples were 0.045, 0.057, and 0.022 mg/kg, respectively. The estimated total target hazard quotient (TTHQ) for this population was lower than 1, representing negligible non-carcinogenic risk through rice consumption. However, total carcinogenic risk (TCR) via As intake showed a considerable carcinogenic risk (TCR > 1E-4) for this population. Conclusion: According to the results, it is necessary to perform continuous monitoring for concentration of Cd, As, and Pb especially in the imported rice samples. Keywords: Heavy metal poisoning, Oryza, Environmental pollution, Monte Carlo metho

Successful Surgical Intervention in An Unusual Case of Aspergillus Endocarditis with Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Endocarditis due to Aspergillus infection is a rare complication in patients with hematological malignancies. Here, we present a case of aspergillus endocarditis in a patient with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) successfully treated with antifungal therapy and surgical treatment. The patient was a 51 years old male, a known case of AML who was admitted to our medical center for evacuating his valvular vegetations and repairing his atrial septal defect. He underwent an open heart surgery to relinquish his thromboses and also received an antifungal regimen. The patient tolerated the procedure well and eight months after his surgery, the patient remains asymptomatic. Successful treatment of this severe case of aspergillus endocarditis justifies a multidisciplinary method to be as a safe and effective approach to manage these patients