Hospitalization causes due to iron overload in beta-Thalassemia in Gorgan, Iran

Objective: To evaluate causes of hospitalization (due to complications of iron overload and other causes) in beta-Thalassemic patients. Methodology: This study was performed on 244 patients with major beta-Thalassemia admitted in Taleghani hospital of Gorgan between 2000 and 2007. Causes of hospitalization (due to complications of iron overload and other causes) were evaluated. Data were analyzed with SPSS software. Results: The most common causes of hospitalization due to iron overload were diabetes mellitus (31.6%) and heart failure (16.4%). The most common clinical findings were weakness and fatigue. Conclusion: We perceive increased frequency of diabetes mellitus in this center compared to other studies in Iran and abroad. Therefore glucose tolerance test and genotypic research for IVS II nt 745 are recommended in Thalassemic patient in this area

Hard tick species of livestock and their bioecology in Golestan Province, North of Iran

Background: A survey on tick species composition was carried out in Golestan Province Iran during year 2010- 2011.The aim was to determine tick species parasitizing domestic ruminants and their seasonal population dynamics. Methods: A total of 124 sheep, 92 goats, 84 cattle, 74 camels and 12 horses in several villages were inspected for tick infestation. The collected ticks preserved in 70% alcohol and then were identified. Results: The overall 1059 ticks (453 female, 606 male) were collected. The ticks occur on sheep, goats, cattle, camels and horses as 72.1%, 77.3%, 75.8%, 69.3%, and 50% respectively. The frequency of ticks in spring was more than other seasons and the least was observed in winter. In the spring and summer, infestation rate in domestic ruminants were calculated as 100%. Six genus and fourteen hard and soft tick species were identified including Rhipicephalus sanguineus, R. bursa, Ixodes ricinus, Haemaphysalis punctata, H. sulcata, H. erinacei, H. inermis, Hyalomma marginatum, Hy. asiaticum, Hy. dromedarii, Hy. excavatum, Hy. anatolicum, Hy. detritum, Boophilus annulatus and Argas persicus. Rhipicephalus sanguineus was the most abundant species in the study area. The largest number of ticks was collected from animal ears and tails. Haemaphysalis, Hyalomma, Rhipicephalus and Boophilus occurred in mountainous, forest and plateau areas of Golestan Province but Ixodes occurred only in mountainous and forest areas, whereas Rhipicephalus and Hyalomma were present in coastal areas of Golestan Province. Conclusion: The result of this study is a survey on tick species from domestic animals in Iran and implication of possible prevention measures for diseases transmitted by ticks

A Numerical Study of Fuel Stratification, Heat Transfer Loss, Combustion, and Emissions Characteristics of a Heavy- Duty RCCI Engine Fueled by E85/Diesel

Reactivity-controlled compression ignition is a new advanced combustion strategy developed to reach cleaner and more efficient combustion by controlling fuel stratification inside the engine cylin-der and reducing heat loss. While its potential to produce high efficiency and low emissions and to reach higher loads than other Low-Temperature Combustion strategies (LTC) has been confirmed numerous times, its operating range is still limited to moderate loads. One potential solution to in-crease the operating range is using E85 fuel as the premixed fuel due to the potential of providing a longer combustion duration. This work will focus on developing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for a reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) engine fueled by E85/diesel with a double step piston bowl geometry. The model is used to investigate the effects of four differ-ent design parameters, namely injection timing, boost pressure, initial temperature, and spray in-cluded angle, to identify their impact on all crucial parameters describing combustion i.e. the strati-fication level, heat loss, and emissions characteristics. It has been found that the start of injection affects the fuel stratification levels inside the cylinder, with the optimum location for efficiency lo-cated in the moderate stratified region. The boost pressure mainly influences the mean gas tem-perature, the start of combustion, combustion duration, and the recession time of the Heat Release Rate (HRR) curve. It is found that the boost pressure does not have an influence on the heat loss of the engine and the heat loss is more correlated to flame temperature than the average tempera-ture. It is also proven that the boost pressure could assist in the suppression of NOx, but when the intake pressure is too high, the thermal efficiency drops. Furthermore, the results show that the ini-tial temperature is preferred to be as low as possible but sufficiently high enough to burn all the in-troduced fuel. Intake temperature alters the HRR shape and combustion duration significantly. Last-ly, it is found that the combination of the spray included angle and piston bowl geometry can sub-stantially determine the way the flame is formed and its location. The study on the effect of spray angle provides essential insights on the origin of unburned hydrocarbon emission, HRR shape, and heat loss

Room temperature texturing of austenite/ferrite steel by electropulsing

The work reports an experimental observation on crystal rotation in a duplex (austenite + ferrite) steel induced by the electropulsing treatment at ambient temperature, while the temperature rising due to ohmic heating in the treatment was negligible. The results demonstrate that electric current pulses are able to dissolve the initial material’s texture that has been formed in prior thermomechanical processing and to produce an alternative texture. The results were explained in terms of the instability of an interface under perturbation during pulsed electromigation

An investigation of a Ɣ-type MTD Stirling engine prototype

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from UKACM via the link in this recordAlthough thermal efficiency of moderate temperature differential (MTD) Stirling engines is higher than low temperature (LTD) engines, the complexity of design of MTD engines has led to the lack of research in this field. In this work, a prototype of Ɣ-type moderate-temperature differential Stirling engine was manufactured, evaluated and structurally optimised. A mathematical evaluation was carried out based on a finite-dimension thermodynamics approach. The swept volume ratio was optimised based on the temperature difference of 450 . 0 . A computer program was thus written to simulate the Stirling engine performance under the assumed working conditions. Based on the mentioned temperature difference, the swept volume ratio of the engine was found to be 3. The engine dimensions were then adjusted to fulfil the computed swept volume ratio. The bore and stroke for power piston were chosen as 60 mm and 40 mm, respectively. For the displacer, they were selected as 90 mm and 60 mm, respectively based on the chosen swept volume ratio

The low abundance of CpG in the SARS-CoV-2 genome is not an evolutionarily signature of ZAP

The zinc finger antiviral protein (ZAP) is known to restrict viral replication by binding to the CpG rich regions of viral RNA, and subsequently inducing viral RNA degradation. This enzyme has recently been shown to be capable of restricting SARS-CoV-2. These data have led to the hypothesis that the low abundance of CpG in the SARS-CoV-2 genome is due to an evolutionary pressure exerted by the host ZAP. To investigate this hypothesis, we performed a detailed analysis of many coronavirus sequences and ZAP RNA binding preference data. Our analyses showed neither evidence for an evolutionary pressure acting specifically on CpG dinucleotides, nor a link between the activity of ZAP and the low CpG abundance of the SARS-CoV-2 genome

THE STIMULATORY EFFECTS OF TOPICAL APPLICATION OF RADIOACTIVE LANTERN MANTLE POWDER ON WOUND HEALING

Some people in different parts of Iran use burned mantles as a wound healing medicine. To perform surface area measurement, twenty rats were divided randomly into two groups of 10 animals each. The 1st group received topical burned radioactive lantern mantle powder at 1st-3rd day after making excision wounds. The 2nd group received nonradioactive lantern mantle powder. For histological study, 36 male rats randomly divided into two groups of 18 animals each. Full thickness excision wound (314±31.4 mm2) was made on the dorsal neck in all animals after inducing general anesthesia. For the first 3 days, cases received topical application of the radioactive lantern mantle powder. Finally, to measure the tensile strength, an incision was made on the dorsal neck of the rats. Surface area measurement of the wounds showed a progressive surface reduction in both groups. Histological study showed a significant statistically difference between cases and controls with respect to fibrinoid necrosis and neutrophilic exudate at the days 3 and 14. Considering the existence of granulation tissue, a significant difference was observed between case and control groups at days 3 and 7. Tensile strength study showed no significant difference between the cases and controls until 30 days after excision