Postlaminectomy lumbar pseudomeningocele with nerve root entrapment: a case report with review of literature

Pseudomeningocele is a rare but well-recognized complication of lumbar surgery. Most of the patients tolerate the presence of the cyst well, however, some present with back pain and spinal claudication, presumably due to neural compression. We report a case who presented with radicular symptoms and signs after disk surgery. The cause of his pain was nerve root herniation into large pseudomeningocele. The diagnosis was made by magnetic resonance imaging. The patient underwent surgery for the pseudomeningocele with reduction in the nerve root into the dural canal and primary closure of the dural defect. Postoperative results were gratifying

Finding assessment regimes in an instructional system

In order to be able to solve the problems faced by modern societies both educators and students must be proactive in seeking new methods in education which leads them to productive lives. In our system, the system used by Ariaian Young Innovative Minds Institute which is a student-centered learning environment, our students take responsibility for their own learning and they identify what they need to learn to have a better understanding of the problem by getting the necessary information from books, teachers, their team members, internet and several references. Educators and teachers also consider how to help them become independent learners while applying their knowledge to solve problems. So instead of memorizing formula without conceptual understanding, deep understanding by research projects helps develop their building capacities. Science Motivation by Discussion and Controversy (SMDC) model engages our students in classrooms to extend their abilities. Collaboration, discussion and constructive challenges are considered as a useful instructional strategy for obtaining the necessary intellectual commitment from students to generate a conceptual conflict and to require them to resolve it. Rather than using assessments which rely on pre-test and post-test with the main measure being Hake gain, our model uses interesting tournaments or conferences for students with a large spread of fields, with complexity of tasks and solutions which led to a complex scoring system to give a guide for real assessment. Our main contribution is a method, which results in more and more emphasis of independent study and research by students. For more accurate descriptions of its generalization and applicability, which is more complex and less common but nonetheless an important case, some interesting and rather different types of the selected tasks in our country and international tournaments, PYPT/ IYPT/ PYNT/ IYNT/ ICYS…, are published in our international journal as a full paper, Young Scientist Research Journal (http://journal.ayimi.org ). Since it is impossible to cover everything related to these papers, the focus here lies on some of the abstracts in our recent articles. The objective of this section is to explain some structure of possible scenarios to compare theory and experiments. To achieve this, various regimes have been identified and are discussed in this presentation, which provides an overview by the main academic author and includes examples from four high school students and one student from 3rd semester in medical science. Various numerical models and simulations also Tracker, MATLAB , or 3D are used to capture phenomena and solving problems which are discussed during tournaments such as: Finding frequency of the sound in a drum and the difference between the stretched and normal mode in its membrane; Terminal velocity of a washer with its spinning on a vertical steel rod and its maximum tilt; Physical and geometrical characteristics of a cylindrical dice and the best ratios in its structure; Unsinkable metal disk with a hole which may float on the surface of water in a container when a vertical water jet hits its centre; or a Looping pendulum in steady state and motion phase to find the coefficient of friction as an important parameter in the whole function of the system. REFERENCES Izadi, D. & Bultin, M. M., (2014). Active Learning by Innovation in Teaching (AlIT). Frontiers of Fundamental Physics and Physics Education Research, 529–536. http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-00297-2 Izadi, D., Mora Ley, C. E., & Ramírez Díaz, M. H. (2017). Science motivation by discussion and controversy (SMDC) model. IOP Publishing Ltd, Physics Education, 52(3). https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/aa617d Izadi, D. & Mora Ley, C. E. (2013). Active Learning by Innovation in Teaching (ALIT), Scientific Fight and Reviewing Model. Latin-American Journal of Physics Education, 7(2), 161-166

Monitoring of fisheries resources in artificial reefs in east of Kish Island waters

Artificial reefs are manmade materials deployed under water in order to improve environment and increase the exploitation of fishing area. Usage of artificial technic has developed due to increase of world population and need to supply of protein, aim to restoring of natural specially rehabilitation of demersal fishes. It has effected to increase the production in order sustainable exploitation. Coasts and Islands have destruction due to over harvesting from ecosystems and other activities by humans and natural, these caused many aquatic as demersal fishes has endangered in Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. The artificial reef is one way or method that can improve the environment and restore the aquatic. Iranian fisheries has established an artificial reefs area in west of Kish Island. This area has studied during one year, Data of assembled fishes and physical sampling were collected in seasonal during spring, summer, autumn and wintered. There were tow treatment for sampling as artificial reefs site and a control site. Collected data has analyzed and evaluated by SPSS and Exel. The results showed that there was significant difference between the sites and assembled fishes in artificial reefs were more than control site. Consequently the artificial reefs can be a tool and technic to improve the marine environment and increase the production of fishes, especially the demersal fishes

Verbal Autopsy: Reliability and Validity Estimates for Causes of Death in the Golestan Cohort Study in Iran

BACKGROUND: Verbal autopsy (VA) is one method to obtain valid estimates of causes of death in the absence of valid medical records. We tested the reliability and validity of a VA questionnaire developed for a cohort study in Golestan Province in northeastern Iran. METHOD: A modified version of the WHO adult verbal autopsy was used to assess the cause of death in the first 219 Golestan Cohort Study (GCS) subjects who died. The GCS cause of death was determined by two internists who independently reviewed all available medical records. Two other internists ("reviewers") independently reviewed only the VA answers and classified the cause of death into one of nine general categories; they repeated this evaluation one month later. The reliability of the VA was measured by calculating intra-reviewer and inter-reviewer kappa statistics. The validity of the VA was measured using the GCS cause of death as the gold standard. RESULTS: VA showed both good validity (sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV all above 0.81) and reliability (kappa>0.75) in determining the general cause of death independent of sex and place of residence. The overall multi-rater agreement across four reviews was 0.84 (95%CI: 0.78-0.89). The results for identifying specific cancer deaths were also promising, especially for upper GI cancers (kappa = 0.95). The multi-rater agreement in cancer subgroup was 0.93 (95%CI: 0.85-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: VA seems to have good reliability and validity for determining the cause of death in a large-scale adult follow up study in a predominantly rural area of a middle-income country

Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles (MISEV2023): From basic to advanced approaches

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), through their complex cargo, can reflect the state of their cell of origin and change the functions and phenotypes of other cells. These features indicate strong biomarker and therapeutic potential and have generated broad interest, as evidenced by the steady year-on-year increase in the numbers of scientific publications about EVs. Important advances have been made in EV metrology and in understanding and applying EV biology. However, hurdles remain to realising the potential of EVs in domains ranging from basic biology to clinical applications due to challenges in EV nomenclature, separation from non-vesicular extracellular particles, characterisation and functional studies. To address the challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving field, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) updates its 'Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles', which was first published in 2014 and then in 2018 as MISEV2014 and MISEV2018, respectively. The goal of the current document, MISEV2023, is to provide researchers with an updated snapshot of available approaches and their advantages and limitations for production, separation and characterisation of EVs from multiple sources, including cell culture, body fluids and solid tissues. In addition to presenting the latest state of the art in basic principles of EV research, this document also covers advanced techniques and approaches that are currently expanding the boundaries of the field. MISEV2023 also includes new sections on EV release and uptake and a brief discussion of in vivo approaches to study EVs. Compiling feedback from ISEV expert task forces and more than 1000 researchers, this document conveys the current state of EV research to facilitate robust scientific discoveries and move the field forward even more rapidly

A Review on Application of Phase Change Materials in Textiles Finishing

Fabric as the first and most common layer that is in permanent contact with human skin is a very good interface to provide coverage, as well as heat and cold insulation. Phase change materials (PCMs) are organic and inorganic compounds which have the capability of absorbing and releasing noticeable amounts of latent heat during phase transitions between solid and liquid phases at a low temperature range. PCMs come across phase changes (liquid-solid and solid-liquid transitions) during absorbing and releasing thermal heat; so, in order to use them for a long time, they should have been encapsulated in polymeric shells, so-called microcapsules. Microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation methods have been developed in order to reduce the reactivity of a PCM with outside environment, promoting the ease of handling, decreasing the diffusion and evaporation rates. Methods of incorporation of PCMs in textiles such as electrospinning and determining thermal properties had been summarized. Paraffin waxes catch a lot of attention due to their high thermal storage density, repeatability of phase change, thermal stability, small volume change during phase transition, chemical stability, non-toxicity, non-flammability, non-corrosive and low cost and they seem to play a key role in confronting with climate change and global warming. In this article, we aimed to review the researches concentrating on the characteristics of PCMs and new materials and methods of microencapsulation