On the Influence of Structural Connectivity on the Correlation Patterns and Network Synchronization

Since brain structural connectivity is the foundation of its functionality, in order to understand brain abilities, studying the relation between structural and functional connectivity is essential. Several approaches have been applied to measure the role of the structural connectivity in the emergent correlation/synchronization patterns. In this study, we investigates the cross-correlation and synchronization sensitivity to coupling strength between neural regions for different topological networks. We model the neural populations by a neural mass model that express an oscillatory dynamic. The results highlight that coupling between neural ensembles leads to various cross-correlation patterns and local synchrony even on an ordered network. Moreover, as the network departs from an ordered organization to a small-world architecture, correlation patterns, and synchronization dynamics change. Interestingly, at a certain range of the synaptic strength, by fixing the structural conditions, different organized patterns are seen at the different input signals. This variety switches to a bifurcation region by increasing the synaptic strength. We show that topological variations is a major factor of synchronization behavior and lead to alterations in correlated local clusters. We found the coupling strength (between cortical areas) to be especially important at conversions of correlation and synchronization states. Since correlation patterns generate functional connections and transitions of functional connectivity have been related to cognitive operations, these diverse correlation patterns may be considered as different dynamical states corresponding to various cognitive tasks

Comparing the Effect of Mefenamic Acid and Vitex Agnus on Intrauterine Device Induced Bleeding

Introduction: Increased bleeding is the most common cause of intrauterine device (IUD) removal. The use of alternative therapies to treat bleeding has increased due to the complications of medications. But most alternative therapies are not accepted by women. Therefore, conducting studies to find the right treatment with fewer complications and being acceptable is necessary. This study aimed to compare the effect of mefenamic acid and vitex agnus castus on IUD induced bleeding.Methods: This was a double blinded randomized controlled clinical trial. It was conducted on 84 women with random allocation in to two groups of 42 treated with mefenamic acid and vitex agnus capsules taking three times a day during menstruation for four months. Data were collected by demographic questionnaire and Higham 5 stage chart (1 month before the treatment and 4 months during the treatment)., Paired t-test, independent t-test, chi-square test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measurements, and SPSS software were used to determine the results.Results: Mefenamic acid and vitex agnus significantly decreased bleeding. This decrease in month 4 was 52% in the mefenamic acid group and 47.6% in the vitex agnus group. The mean bleeding score changes was statistically significant between the two groups in the first three months and before the intervention. In the mefenamic acid group, the decreased bleeding was significantly more than the vitex agnus group. However, during the 4th month, the mean change was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Mefenamic acid and vitex agnus were both effective on IUD induced bleeding; however, mefenamic acid was more effective

Association of Helicobacter pylori infection with the risk of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance : an updated systematic review and meta-analysis

Funding This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Eosinophilic Mucin Rhinosinusitis in Iranian Patients Undergoing Endoscopic Sinus Surgery

Introduction:  Eosinophilic mucin rhinosinusitis is a type of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Diagnosis and treatment of this condition play a significant role in reducing the patients’ clinical symptoms. This type of rhinosinusitis has a higher relapse rate, compared to the other types. This disease is more resistant to treatment and more dependent on corticosteroid therapy, compared to the other types of rhinosinusitis. Regarding this, the present study was designed to evaluate the frequency of eosinophilic mucin rhinosinusitis in patients undergoing sinus surgery in a tertiary referral center and examine some clinical and laboratory characteristics regarding this type of rhinosinusitis.   Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was performed on patients over the age of 16 years, who were diagnosed with CRS in the otolaryngology clinic of a referral tertiary-level hospital, and were candidates for endoscopic sinus surgery. Based on the detection of eosinophilic mucin, the subjects were divided into two groups of eosinophilic mucin and non-eosinophilic mucin rhinosinusitis (controls). The groups were compared in terms of sino-nasal outcome test (SNOT-22) scores, Lund-Mackay staging scores, osteitis status, immunoglobulin E (IgE) level, and eosinophilia.   Results: In this study, 46 subjects participated, 29 (63%) cases of whom had eosinophilic mucin. The SNOT-22 score and serum IgE level were significantly higher in the eosinophilic mucin group, compared to those in the control group. Osteitis and Lund-Mackay scores were also higher in the eosinophilic mucin group than those in the control group; however, this difference was not statistically significant.    Conclusion: Patients with eosinophilic mucin rhinosinusitis showed a more severe clinical involvement. Seemingly, the Iranian patients have a lower and higher frequency of eosinophilic mucin rhinosinusitis, compared to the patients from the Western countries and East Asia, respectively

Silicene and graphene nano materials in gas sensing mechanism

Silicene, the Si analogue of graphene, has recently extended the short list of existing two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystals. There are many remarkable electrical properties as well as unique thermal conductivities associated with graphene and silicene making them perfect materials that possess great potential to replace and provide an even better performance than silicon in future generation semiconductor devices. It is expected that novel devices developed with these will be much faster and smaller in size than their contemporary counterparts. Although graphene and silicene display different electrical conductivity behavior, their carrier concentration has similar behavior. The current-voltage characteristics of silicene/graphene field effect transistors (FETs) have been demonstrated at different operating temperatures under the flow of different NH3 gas concentrations. It was found that in similar conditions, the suggested model for a gas sensor based on graphene shows higher electrical conductivity compared to silicen

Global, regional, and national cancer incidence, mortality, years of life lost, years lived with disability, and disability-Adjusted life-years for 29 cancer groups, 1990 to 2017 : A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study

Importance: Cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are now widely recognized as a threat to global development. The latest United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs reaffirmed this observation and also highlighted the slow progress in meeting the 2011 Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the third Sustainable Development Goal. Lack of situational analyses, priority setting, and budgeting have been identified as major obstacles in achieving these goals. All of these have in common that they require information on the local cancer epidemiology. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study is uniquely poised to provide these crucial data. Objective: To describe cancer burden for 29 cancer groups in 195 countries from 1990 through 2017 to provide data needed for cancer control planning. Evidence Review: We used the GBD study estimation methods to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-Adjusted life-years (DALYs). Results are presented at the national level as well as by Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income, educational attainment, and total fertility rate. We also analyzed the influence of the epidemiological vs the demographic transition on cancer incidence. Findings: In 2017, there were 24.5 million incident cancer cases worldwide (16.8 million without nonmelanoma skin cancer [NMSC]) and 9.6 million cancer deaths. The majority of cancer DALYs came from years of life lost (97%), and only 3% came from years lived with disability. The odds of developing cancer were the lowest in the low SDI quintile (1 in 7) and the highest in the high SDI quintile (1 in 2) for both sexes. In 2017, the most common incident cancers in men were NMSC (4.3 million incident cases); tracheal, bronchus, and lung (TBL) cancer (1.5 million incident cases); and prostate cancer (1.3 million incident cases). The most common causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for men were TBL cancer (1.3 million deaths and 28.4 million DALYs), liver cancer (572000 deaths and 15.2 million DALYs), and stomach cancer (542000 deaths and 12.2 million DALYs). For women in 2017, the most common incident cancers were NMSC (3.3 million incident cases), breast cancer (1.9 million incident cases), and colorectal cancer (819000 incident cases). The leading causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for women were breast cancer (601000 deaths and 17.4 million DALYs), TBL cancer (596000 deaths and 12.6 million DALYs), and colorectal cancer (414000 deaths and 8.3 million DALYs). Conclusions and Relevance: The national epidemiological profiles of cancer burden in the GBD study show large heterogeneities, which are a reflection of different exposures to risk factors, economic settings, lifestyles, and access to care and screening. The GBD study can be used by policy makers and other stakeholders to develop and improve national and local cancer control in order to achieve the global targets and improve equity in cancer care. © 2019 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Global age-sex-specific fertility, mortality, healthy life expectancy (HALE), and population estimates in 204 countries and territories, 1950-2019 : a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Accurate and up-to-date assessment of demographic metrics is crucial for understanding a wide range of social, economic, and public health issues that affect populations worldwide. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 produced updated and comprehensive demographic assessments of the key indicators of fertility, mortality, migration, and population for 204 countries and territories and selected subnational locations from 1950 to 2019. Methods: 8078 country-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 938 surveys, 349 censuses, and 238 other sources were identified and used to estimate age-specific fertility. Spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) was used to generate age-specific fertility rates for 5-year age groups between ages 15 and 49 years. With extensions to age groups 10–14 and 50–54 years, the total fertility rate (TFR) was then aggregated using the estimated age-specific fertility between ages 10 and 54 years. 7417 sources were used for under-5 mortality estimation and 7355 for adult mortality. ST-GPR was used to synthesise data sources after correction for known biases. Adult mortality was measured as the probability of death between ages 15 and 60 years based on vital registration, sample registration, and sibling histories, and was also estimated using ST-GPR. HIV-free life tables were then estimated using estimates of under-5 and adult mortality rates using a relational model life table system created for GBD, which closely tracks observed age-specific mortality rates from complete vital registration when available. Independent estimates of HIV-specific mortality generated by an epidemiological analysis of HIV prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance and other sources were incorporated into the estimates in countries with large epidemics. Annual and single-year age estimates of net migration and population for each country and territory were generated using a Bayesian hierarchical cohort component model that analysed estimated age-specific fertility and mortality rates along with 1250 censuses and 747 population registry years. We classified location-years into seven categories on the basis of the natural rate of increase in population (calculated by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate) and the net migration rate. We computed healthy life expectancy (HALE) using years lived with disability (YLDs) per capita, life tables, and standard demographic methods. Uncertainty was propagated throughout the demographic estimation process, including fertility, mortality, and population, with 1000 draw-level estimates produced for each metric. Findings: The global TFR decreased from 2·72 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 2·66–2·79) in 2000 to 2·31 (2·17–2·46) in 2019. Global annual livebirths increased from 134·5 million (131·5–137·8) in 2000 to a peak of 139·6 million (133·0–146·9) in 2016. Global livebirths then declined to 135·3 million (127·2–144·1) in 2019. Of the 204 countries and territories included in this study, in 2019, 102 had a TFR lower than 2·1, which is considered a good approximation of replacement-level fertility. All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had TFRs above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27·1% (95% UI 26·4–27·8) of global livebirths. Global life expectancy at birth increased from 67·2 years (95% UI 66·8–67·6) in 2000 to 73·5 years (72·8–74·3) in 2019. The total number of deaths increased from 50·7 million (49·5–51·9) in 2000 to 56·5 million (53·7–59·2) in 2019. Under-5 deaths declined from 9·6 million (9·1–10·3) in 2000 to 5·0 million (4·3–6·0) in 2019. Global population increased by 25·7%, from 6·2 billion (6·0–6·3) in 2000 to 7·7 billion (7·5–8·0) in 2019. In 2019, 34 countries had negative natural rates of increase; in 17 of these, the population declined because immigration was not sufficient to counteract the negative rate of decline. Globally, HALE increased from 58·6 years (56·1–60·8) in 2000 to 63·5 years (60·8–66·1) in 2019. HALE increased in 202 of 204 countries and territories between 2000 and 2019