Novel insights into transfer processes in the reaction 16O+208Pb at sub-barrier energies

The collision of the doubly-magic nuclei $^{16}$O+$^{208}$Pb is a benchmark in nuclear reaction studies. Our new measurements of back-scattered projectile-like fragments at sub-barrier energies show show that transfer of 2 protons ($2p$) is much more probable than $\alpha$-particle transfer. $2p$ transfer probabilities are strongly enhanced compared to expectations for the sequential transfer of two uncorrelated protons; at energies around the fusion barrier absolute probabilities for two proton transfer are similar to those for one proton transfer. This strong enhancement indicates strong $2p$ pairing correlations in $^{16}$O, and suggests evidence for the occurrence of a nuclear supercurrent of two-proton Cooper pairs in this reaction, already at energies well below the fusion barrier.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Religious attitudes and spiritual health among elderly inpatient adults in Shahrekord hospitals

Background and Objectives: Human is a multidimensional creature and spiritual domain is the central dimension which has an undeniable effect on gaining health. The most important part of nursing care with family based approach is to help people in achieving optimal level of health. On the other hand, religious attitudes and spiritual health is an important domain of life in ageing period. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the religious attitudes and spiritual health among elderly inpatients in Shahrekord hospitals. Methods: This descriptive correlational study was conducted in 1392 in Shahrekord hospitals. A total of 308 geriatric patients who were admitted to a surgical ward, were recruited through random sampling. Two sets of questionnaires regarding religious and spiritual health were used as the instruments. After collecting the data, descriptive (frequency, mean, variance, standard deviation) and analytical (independent t test, Pearson correlation) statistics were used by SPSS statistical software. Results: The results showed that 68.8% of patients possessed large religious attitude with an average of 140.68 ±30.14. Spiritual health in 51.3 percent of samples was described to be low while the obtained average score was 86.18 ± 16.61. However, Pearson test showed that there is a positive significant correlation between religious attitudes and spiritual health (r =0.83, P =0.05). Conclusions: The present study revealed that there is a significant relationship between religious attitudes and spiritual health and people with high religious attitudes have high spiritual health

Occupational Health Services Integrated in Primary Health Care in Iran

Introduction A healthy workforce is vital for maintaining social and economic development on a global, national and local level. Around half of the world's people are economically active and spend at least one third of their time in their place of work while only 15 of workers have access to basic occupational health services. According to WHO report, since the early 1980s, health indicators in Iran have consistently improved, to the extent that it is comparable with those in developed countries. In this paper it was tried to briefly describe about Health care system and occupational Health Services as part of Primary Health care in Iran. Methods To describe the health care system in the country and the status of occupational health services to the workers and employers, its integration into Primary Health Care (PHC) and outlining the challenges in provision of occupational health services to the all working population. Findings Iran has fairly good health indicators. More than 85 percent of the population in rural and deprived regions, for instance, have access to primary healthcare services. The PHC centers provide essential healthcare and public-health services for the community. Providing, maintaining and improving of the workers' health are the main goals of occupational health services in Iran that are presented by different approaches and mostly through Workers' Houses in the PHC system. Conclusions Iran has developed an extensive network of PHC facilities with good coverage in most rural areas, but there are still few remote areas that might suffer from inadequate services. It seems that there is still no transparent policy to collaborate with the private sector, train managers or provide a sustainable mechanism for improving the quality of services. Finally, strengthening national policies for health at work, promotion of healthy work and work environment, sharing healthy work practices, developing updated training curricula to improve human resource knowledge including occupational health professionals are recommended. © 2015 The Authors

CXCL-10: a new candidate for melanoma therapy?

Background: Melanoma is a malignancy that stems from melanocytes and is defined as the most dangerous skin malignancy in terms of metastasis and mortality rates. CXC motif chemokine 10 (CXCL10), also known as interferon gamma-induced protein-10 (IP-10), is a small cytokine-like protein secreted by a wide variety of cell types. CXCL10 is a ligand of the CXC chemokine receptor-3 (CXCR3) and is predominantly expressed by T helper cells (Th cells), cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), dendritic cells, macrophages, natural killer cells (NKs), as well as some epithelial and cancer cells. Similar to other chemokines, CXCL10 plays a role in immunomodulation, inflammation, hematopoiesis, chemotaxis and leukocyte trafficking. Conclusions: Recent studies indicate that the CXCL10/CXCR3 axis may act as a double-edged sword in terms of pro- and anti-cancer activities in a variety of tissues and cells, especially in melanoma cells and their microenvironments. Most of these activities arise from the CXCR3 splice variants CXCR3-A, CXCR3-B and CXCR3-Alt. In this review, we discuss the pro- and anti-cancer properties of CXCL10 in various types of tissues and cells, particularly melanoma cells, including its potential as a therapeutic target. © 2020, International Society for Cellular Oncology

Constructing living buildings: a review of relevant technologies for a novel application of biohybrid robotics

Biohybrid robotics takes an engineering approach to the expansion and exploitation of biological behaviours for application to automated tasks. Here, we identify the construction of living buildings and infrastructure as a high-potential application domain for biohybrid robotics, and review technological advances relevant to its future development. Construction, civil infrastructure maintenance and building occupancy in the last decades have comprised a major portion of economic production, energy consumption and carbon emissions. Integrating biological organisms into automated construction tasks and permanent building components therefore has high potential for impact. Live materials can provide several advantages over standard synthetic construction materials, including self-repair of damage, increase rather than degradation of structural performance over time, resilience to corrosive environments, support of biodiversity, and mitigation of urban heat islands. Here, we review relevant technologies, which are currently disparate. They span robotics, self-organizing systems, artificial life, construction automation, structural engineering, architecture, bioengineering, biomaterials, and molecular and cellular biology. In these disciplines, developments relevant to biohybrid construction and living buildings are in the early stages, and typically are not exchanged between disciplines. We, therefore, consider this review useful to the future development of biohybrid engineering for this highly interdisciplinary application.publishe

Validity and reliability of Persian smell identification test

Introduction: Smell Identification Tests (SIT) are routinely utilized for the clinical evaluation of olfactory function. Since Iran consists of various ethnic subgroups, the reliability and validity of this test as a national SIT are required to be evaluated across the country. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study evaluated the cultural adaptation of SIT administered to 420 healthy volunteers from 6 various ethnic subgroups (i.e., Fars, Turk, Kurd, Lor, Baluch, and Arab) living in 7 cities (one city for each subgroup, and Tehran capital of Iran with mixed ethnicities). The SIT consists of pens pre-filled with 24 odorants. The correct identification response rate was evaluated in all and each subgroup. The test was performed twice on 60 participants with a 2-week interval to assess its reliability. The SIT was further administered to 150 cases with documented abnormal olfactory function to evaluate its validity. Results: The correct identification response rate was estimated at 70% for all odorants in all and each subgroup. The mean odor identification score was 21.41±1.37 (score range: 17- 24) with no significant difference among various subgroups. Moreover, the test-retest correlation coefficient was obtained at 0.77. The mean odor identification score in patients with olfactory impairment was 10.69±3.76, which was significantly different from that in healthy participants (P<0.001). The best cut-point for the beginning of olfactory impairment was 17.5 (95% CI: 9-100, Sensitivity=99, Specificity=81). Females obtained higher scores of odor identification, compared to males (P=0.025). Conclusion: The results indicated the reliability and validity of the SIT, which can be used nationally for the assessment of olfactory function in various ethnic subgroups across the country. © 2020 Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Proposed host galaxies of repeating fast radio burst sources detected by CHIME/FRB

We present a search for host galaxy associations for the third set of repeating fast radio burst (FRB) sources discovered by the CHIME/FRB Collaboration. Using the ~1 arcmin CHIME/FRB baseband localizations and probabilistic methods. We identify potential host galaxies of two FRBs, 20200223B and 20190110C at redshifts of 0.06024(2) and 0.12244(6), respectively. We also discuss the properties of a third marginal candidate host galaxy association for FRB 20191106C with a host redshift of 0.10775(1). The three putative host galaxies are all relatively massive, fall on the standard mass-metallicity relationship for nearby galaxies, and show evidence of ongoing star formation. They also all show signatures of being in a transitional regime, falling in the "green valley" which is between the bulk of star-forming and quiescent galaxies. The plausible host galaxies identified by our analysis are consistent with the overall population of repeating and non-repeating FRB hosts while increasing the fraction of massive and bright galaxies. Coupled with these previous host associations, we identify a possible excess of FRB repeaters whose host galaxies have M_u - M_r colors redder than the bulk of star-forming galaxies. Additional precise localizations are required to confirm this trend.Comment: 11 pages, submitted to AAS journal