Change in bone mineral density in post menopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction: Low bone mass is a serious complication of post menopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis. We determined the Change in Bone Mineral Density in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was carried out on consecutive postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis who were referred to the Azar 5th teaching hospital affiliated to Golestan University of Medical Sciences, North of Iran in 2009. The required data were gathered from the patients' medical records. The data were analyzed using SPSS software and statistical tests. Results: We studied 98 postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis. Mean number of years since menopause and mean duration of disease were 9.39 and 5.13 respectively. T Score mean in femoral neck and lumbar spines was -1.45±1.26 and -2.45±1.44 respectively. The overall prevalence of osteoporosis at both the lumbar spine and femoral neck was 13.3. We have found a significant correlation between age, duration of disease, duration of menopause and bone mineral density (P-Value<0.01). Conlusion: Our results indicate a negative effect of age, number of years since menopause and duration of disease on bone mineral density. So, BMD should be measured in high risk women prior to the implementation of any treatment or prevention program

Length-weight frequency and sex ratio of crayfish, Astacus leptodactylus, in Aras Reservoir, west Azerbaijan, Iran

The length-weight frequency and sex ratio of crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus) in Aras Reservoir, was studied seasonally from spring 2008 to winter 2009. The total mean length and weight for the crayfish were 106.43±7.94mm and 35.81±10.86g, respectively. A measured 18.99% of the caught crayfish exceeded the standard commercial size (120mm) and only 16.43% of the catch weighed higher than the standard commercial weight 50 grams. The standards have been set forth by West Azerbaijan Fishery Office. Generally, the male crayfish dominated the samples. Comparisons of growth equations confirmed that the males are heavier than females with the same size. The results showed that crayfish Astacus leptodactylus has critical condition in Aras Reservoir

Developing the attenuation relation for damage spectrum in X-braced steel structures with neural network

Evaluating structural damage, caused by earthquakes, is very important in seismic risk management. Zoning maps of structural damage are directly used in evaluating damage of different zones as well as planning to retrofit structures. Attenuation relation is applied in preparing the acceleration zoning of regions. Similarly, damage attenuation relations which are used in analyzing probabilistic hazard and preparing damage zoning are obtained by structural damage spectrum. This spectrum is nonlinear and designed by considering nonlinear parameters of a series of one-degree-of-freedom structures and time history dynamic analysis. After gathering and modifying 778 records of the earthquakes happened in Iran, the damage spectrum was prepared for X-braced steel structures with different specifications (yield force, hysteresis curves, and ductility capacity). Damage attenuation relation was developed for the structures through regression analysis and the obtained results were compared with those of artificial neural network method. Damage of three samples with different specifications was calculated by the developed attenuation relation. The obtained results were compared with those of time history dynamic analysis. The developed relations were used for analyzing the probabilistic damage risk and preparing the damage zoning maps for city of Qazvin, as a seismic region in Iran

SYNTHESIS AND SPECTRA CHARACTERIZATION OF CoxZn1-xAl2O4 NANOSIZED PIGMENTS BY GEL COMBUSTION METHOD

Nano sized pigments with the general formula CoxZn1-xAl2O4 (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1) were synthesized using chlorides by gel combustion method at 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100°C. DTA/TG, XRD, UV-Vis. and SEM were used to characterize the samples. The DTA results revealed that the formation of the spinel phase occurred at 600 to 670°C. XRD results showed that all the samples, except those treated at 1000 and 1100°C, were constituted of only one phase. The ones treated at 1000 and 1100°C showed extra peaks related to Al2O3. The cobalt containing samples showed a low reflection in the range of 540 to 630 nm, corresponding to the absorption of the colors yellow and orange. Therefore, the cobalt containing samples demonstrated diverse blue colors. The results also revealed that by increasing the cobalt content, the crystallite size decreased from 32 to 9 nm, while by the rise in heat treatment temperature it decreased from 17 to 26. The SEM micrographs revealed the formation of nanosized pigments, with some degree of agglomeration

Epidemiological alteration in pathogens found in ground meat in Iran: unexpected predominance of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis

Colonization of the human and animal intestinal tract with potential pathogenic bacteria is correlated with the risk of contamination of food products. The current study analyzed the prevalence of Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli O157H7 in ground meat in Ilam, Iran. Both index organisms were identified following standard food microbiological methods. For E. faecalis, the susceptibility to vancomycin was tested, and PCR was used to check for the vanA gene. E. faecalis was present in all 24 ground meat samples, with no E. coli O157H7 detected in samples. The analysis showed the presence of the vanA gene in 5/24 vancomycin resistant enterococci. In conclusion, this study for the first time demonstrates the presence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in ground meat in Iran. This observation warrants further epidemiologic investigation and should be followed up in the future

Optimisation of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe urg1 expression system

The ability to study protein function in vivo often relies on systems that regulate the presence and absence of the protein of interest. Two limitations for previously described transcriptional control systems that are used to regulate protein expression in fission yeast are: the time taken for inducing conditions to initiate transcription and the ability to achieve very low basal transcription in the "OFF-state". In previous work, we described a Cre recombination-mediated system that allows the rapid and efficient regulation of any gene of interest by the urg1 promoter, which has a dynamic range of approximately 75-fold and which is induced within 30-60 minutes of uracil addition. In this report we describe easy-to-use and versatile modules that can be exploited to significantly tune down P urg1 "OFF-levels" while maintaining an equivalent dynamic range. We also provide plasmids and tools for combining P urg1 transcriptional control with the auxin degron tag to help maintain a null-like phenotype. We demonstrate the utility of this system by improved regulation of HO-dependent site-specific DSB formation, by the regulation Rtf1-dependent replication fork arrest and by controlling Rhp18(Rad18)-dependent post replication repair

Clustering Algorithms for Spatial Big Data

In our time people and devices constantly generate data. User activity generates data about needs and preferences as well as the quality of their experiences in different ways: i. e. streaming a video, looking at the news, searching for a restaurant or a an hotel, playing a game with others, making purchases, driving a car. Even when people put their devices in their pockets, the network is generating location and other data that keeps services running and ready to use. This rapid developments in the availability and access to data and in particular spatially referenced data in a different areas, has induced the need for better analysis techniques to understand the various phenomena. Spatial clustering algorithms, which groups similar spatial objects into classes, can be used for the identification of areas sharing common characteristics. The aim of this paper is to analyze the performance of three different clustering algorithms i.e. the Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise algorithm (DBSCAN), the Fast Search by Density Peak (FSDP) algorithm and the classic K-means algorithm (K-Means) as regards the analysis of spatial big data. We propose a modification of the FSDP algorithm in order to improve its efficiency in large databases. The applications concern both synthetic data sets and satellite images

An echocardiographic study of heart in a group of male adult elite athletes

Background: Severe and prolonged physical training is associated with morphological and physiological cardiac changes, often termed as the "athlete's heart". Echocardiographic features peculiar to elite Iranian athletes have not been previously described. The aim was to examine the echocardiographic characteristics of highly trained Iranian athletes involved in three different sports. Methods: We studied cardiac morphology and function as assessed by rest echocardiography in 50 elite adult male athletes referring to a university hospital in Tehran between February 2001 and March 2006 Resting ejection fraction, interventricular septal wall thickness (IVSWT), left ventricular posterior wall thickness (LVPWT), left ventricular internal end diastolic dimension (LVEdD), left ventricular internal systolic dimension (LVIsD), left ventricular (LV) mass, and relative wall thickness (R W7) were measured The control group consisted of 50 age- and weight-matched normal healthy men. Results. Of the athletes, 38 were engaged in predominantly dynamic (running and soccer) and 12 in predominantly static (weightlifting) sports. The overall mean LVEdD (5I.06±5.49mm) and IVSWT (10.24±1.43mm) were higher in the athletes than those in the normal subjects. The mean of IVSWT in the 38 endurance-trained athletes was significantly more than that of the 12 strength-trained athletes (11.1 mm vs. 10.3 mm, P<0.05). LVEdD was also greater in the endurance-trained athletes, but he difference was not statistically signficant (51.2 mm vs. 50.6 mm). Conclusion: Our results of higher LVEdD and IVSWT in Iranian male athletes are in line with previous reports. To generalize the results, we require more studies with larger sample sizes (with female athletes included)

Laboratories risks evaluation of Persian Gulf and Oman Sea Ecological Research Center

In this study, to assess and classify risks associated with working in the laboratories of Persian Gulf and Oman Sea Ecological Research Center, the method of "Failure Mode Effects Analysis" (FMEA) as well as some statistical methods were used. The results of the risk assessment in the 11 affiliated laboratories showed that the risk levels in all cases, except for benthos laboratory, could be evaluated as moderate or high and therefore appropriate corrective actions must be implemented. Based on the results of the Kruskal-Wallis tests both before and after the corrective actions, there were significant differences between the laboratories from the viewpoint of risk priority number (RPN). The post hoc tests showed the lowest risk levels for the benthose and histology laboratories, while the highest risks identified in the laboratory of instrumental analysis. The results of the classification of the laboratories using cluster analysis are largely similar to those of the posthoc tests. According to Mann-Whitney U test, only in the case of the samples preparation laboratory, significant differences between the values of the RPN before and after the corrective actions could be observed (p> 0.05), however, the risk levels still remained high. In general it can be concluded that FMEA is an effective method for risk assessment in the research laboratories and appropriate statistical methods can also be used for complementary analysis

The study of cyst formation in bisexual strains of A. urmiana, A. franciscana and parthenogenetic strians of A. pakistan, A. turkmenistan in laboratory conditions

The study was conducted to achieve growth, survival and reproductive characteristics of four Artemia populations (A.urmiana , A.franciscana , Pakistan strain and Turkmanestan strain). In this study, The strains were cultured under the same and static environment in laboratory condition. All cysts strains were hatched using the standard methods and the nauplii from the populations were cultured in laboratory condition using 80 g/L salinity, 25±1ºC with photoperiod (12L:12D) and Dunalliella tertiolecta were fed. The growth and survival of artemia were determined on days 8, 11, 14, 17 and 20 of culture. Randomly, The adult population were placed in 50 ml conical falcons and reproductive characteristics were determined. The results revealed that the survivorship A. franciscana had the highest survival (%99.8) and A. turkmanestan lowest survival (%92.1) The results revealed that the in growth rate while pakistanian strain had the highest growth rate(8554 micron). The results revealed that the reproductive characteristics in each population of species , the highest cyst production were observed in A. urmiana, A. franciscana and A. turkmanestan strains and the highest nauplii production was due to pakistanian strain. The highest production were observed in A. franciscana and lowest production were observed in turkmanestan strain