The Modulatory Effects of Aqueous Extract of the Plant Biebersteinia Multifida on the Gastric Acid Level and Intestinal Cytokines in Ulcerative Colitis Model

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic disease of the gastrointestinal tract with unknown etiology, which includes crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (UC). Because an effective treatment has not been found so far, the present study was designed to investigate the effects of aqueous extracts of Biebersteinia multifida plant on inflammatory changes of the colon following acetic acid- induced ulcerative colitis in male rats. METHODS: In this experimental study, 32 male wistar rats weighing 200-250 g were used in vivo. Animals were randomly assigned into four groups (each group consisting of 8 rats): 1- Intact; 2- Acetic acid-induced ulcerative colitis; 3- Biebersteinia multifida aqueous extract (200 mg /Kg); 4- Sulfasalazine treatment group (500 Mg /kg). In each group, the amount of gastric acid and intestinal TNF-α and IL-10 cytokines were measured at 8 days after of ulcerative colitis induction. FINDINGS: The concentration of gastric acid in the induction group of colitis was 2/4533 ± 0.95 mEq / 15 min, which in the treatment group with Biebersteinia multifida extract decreased the level of gastric acid to 0.4400 ± 0.17 (p = 0.000). Also, TNF-α changes in the colitis and extract group were 279.68±42.71 and 160.35±28.79, respectively, which was significant (p=0.000). The concentration of IL-10 in the colitis group was 349.75±31.89, which increased to 353.75±66.46 after injection of the extract (p=0.015). CONCLUSION: The results showed that aqueous extract of Biebersteinia multifida in a dose of 200 mg / kg has an effect on colon inflammation and it can be improved

آشنایی و درک بیماری نوروفیبروماتوز: راهنمایی برای بیماران و والدین

باید از کجا شروع کرد؟ این اطلاعات برای ان دسته از خانواده هایی است که اخیرا به انها گفته شده که یکی از اعضای خانواده به نوروفیبروماتوز مبتلا است. وقتی خود شما نخستین شخصی بودید که این موضوع به او گفته شد در ابتدای امر فقط این واژه را شنیده بودید، همین و بس. همانطور که شوک ناشی از این خبر کمتر میشد می خواستید بیشتر از این اختلال یا اختلالات بدانید. به این دلیل که نوروفیبروماتوز در حقیقت تنها به دلیل یک اختلال نیست این کتابچه به شرح نوروفیبروماتوز و چگونگی علت ان می پردازد و اینکه خانواده شما باید در مورد ان چه اقداماتی انجام دهد و چه کسی به شما کمک خواهد کرد

Clinical and prognostic significances of cancer stem cell markers in gastric cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is considered one of the most lethal malignancies worldwide, which is accompanied by a poor prognosis. Although reports regarding the importance of cancer stem cell (CSC) markers in gastric cancer progression have rapidly developed over the last few decades, their clinicopathological and prognostic values in gastric cancer still remain inconclusive. Therefore, the current meta-analysis aimed to quantitatively re-evaluate the association of CSC markers expression, overall and individually, with GC patients� clinical and survival outcomes. Methods: Literature databases including PubMed, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, and Embase were searched to identify the eligible articles. Hazard ratios (HRs) or odds ratios (ORs) with 95 confidence intervals (CIs) were recorded or calculated to determine the relationships between CSC markers expression positivity and overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS)/relapse-free survival (RFS), disease-specific survival (DSS)/ cancer-specific survival (CSS), and clinicopathological features. Results: We initially retrieved 4,425 articles, of which a total of 66 articles with 89 studies were considered as eligible for this meta-analysis, comprising of 11,274 GC patients. Overall data analyses indicated that the overexpression of CSC markers is associated with TNM stage (OR = 2.19, 95 CI 1.84�2.61, P = 0.013), lymph node metastasis (OR = 1.76, 95 CI 1.54�2.02, P < 0.001), worse OS (HR = 1.65, 95 CI 1.54�1.77, P < 0.001), poor CSS/DSS (HR = 1.69, 95 CI 1.33�2.15, P < 0.001), and unfavorable DFS/RFS (HR = 2.35, 95 CI 1.90�2.89, P < 0.001) in GC patients. However, CSC markers expression was found to be slightly linked to tumor differentiation (OR = 1.25, 95 CI 1.01�1.55, P = 0.035). Sub-analysis demonstrated a significant positive relationship between most of the individual markers, specially Gli-1, Oct-4, CD44, CD44V6, and CD133, and clinical outcomes as well as the reduced survival, whereas overexpression of Lgr-5, Nanog, and sonic hedgehog (Shh) was not found to be related to the majority of clinical outcomes in GC patients. Conclusion: The expression of CSC markers is mostly associated with worse outcomes in patients with GC, both overall and individual. The detection of a combined panel of CSC markers might be appropriate as a prognostic stratification marker to predict tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis in patients with GC, which probably results in identifying novel potential targets for therapeutic approaches. © 2021, The Author(s)

Knowledge-Based Collaborative Lean Manufacturing Management (KBCLMM) system

The objective of this research paper is to demonstrate the application of hybrid Knowledge-Based System, Gauging Absences of Pre-Requisites (GAP), and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approaches for selecting the improvement programs for Collaborative Lean Manufacturing Management (CLMM) System.In this research, a generic Knowledge-Based System is developed to measure the level of CLMM adoption in automotive manufacturers compared to the ideal system. Using the embedded GAP and AHP technique, the key lean manufacturing improvement programs can be prioritised by using both qualitative and quantitative criteria.The analysis covers the planning stage of the KBCLMM. The utilisation of the approach is demonstrated with an illustrative example

Simultaneous Impact of the Presence of Foreign MNEs on Indigenous Firms’ Exports and Domestic Sales

YesIncorporating the global production network approach and competitor analysis, this paper establishes an analytical framework with two hypotheses for the role of foreign multinational enterprises (FMNEs) in indigenous firms’ exports and domestic sales. First, the presence of FMNEs as a whole is likely to have a negative impact on indigenous firms’ domestic sales but a simultaneous positive impact on their exports in an emerging economy like China. Second, the presence of MNEs from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (HMT MNEs) is more likely to generate this pattern of impact than MNEs from other countries (Other FMNEs). The FDI-led export strategy contributed to the dominance of the scenario described by the first hypothesis in China, while a higher degree of market commonality and resource similarity of HMT MNEs with that of indigenous Chinese firms than Other FMNEs leads to the second hypothesis. These novel hypotheses are tested and supported by a very large and recent firm-level panel dataset from Chinese manufacturing