Goiter frequency is more strongly associated with gastric adenocarcinoma than urine iodine level

Purpose: We designed our study to evaluate the hypothesis that gastric cancer is correlated with iodine deficiency or thyroid dysfunction. Materials and Methods: We investigated the total body iodine reserve, thyroid function status and autoimmune disorder in 40 recently diagnosed gastric adenocarcinoma cases versus 80 healthy controls. The participants came from a region with high gastric cancer rate but sufficient iodine supply due to salt iodination. The investigation included urine iodine level, thyroid gland clinical and ultrasonograph-ic examination, and thyroid function tests. Results: Goiter was detected more frequently in the case group (P=0.001); such a finding, however, was not true for lower than normal urine iodine levels. The free T3 mean level was significantly lower in the case group compared to the control group (P=0.005). Conclusions: The higher prevalence of goiter rather than low levels of urinary iodine in gastric adenocarcinoma cases suggests that goi-ter, perhaps due to protracted but currently adjusted iodine deficiency, is more likely to be associated with gastric adenocarcinoma com-pared to the existing iodine deficiency itself. © 2013 by The Korean Gastric Cancer Association

Pricing in Social Networks with Negative Externalities

We study the problems of pricing an indivisible product to consumers who are embedded in a given social network. The goal is to maximize the revenue of the seller. We assume impatient consumers who buy the product as soon as the seller posts a price not greater than their values of the product. The product's value for a consumer is determined by two factors: a fixed consumer-specified intrinsic value and a variable externality that is exerted from the consumer's neighbors in a linear way. We study the scenario of negative externalities, which captures many interesting situations, but is much less understood in comparison with its positive externality counterpart. We assume complete information about the network, consumers' intrinsic values, and the negative externalities. The maximum revenue is in general achieved by iterative pricing, which offers impatient consumers a sequence of prices over time. We prove that it is NP-hard to find an optimal iterative pricing, even for unweighted tree networks with uniform intrinsic values. Complementary to the hardness result, we design a 2-approximation algorithm for finding iterative pricing in general weighted networks with (possibly) nonuniform intrinsic values. We show that, as an approximation to optimal iterative pricing, single pricing can work rather well for many interesting cases, but theoretically it can behave arbitrarily bad

β-Thalassemia : new therapeutic modalities, genetics, complications, and quality of life

Retinoic acid (RA) is a positive regulator of P19 cell differentiation. Silencing of pre-B cell leukemia transcription factors (PBXs) expression in P19 cells (AS cells) results in a failure of these cells to differentiate to endodermal cells upon RA treatment. Chicken Ovalbumin Upstream Promoter Transcription Factor I (COUP-TFI) is an orphan member of the steroid-thyroid hormone superfamily. RA treatment of wild type P19 cells results in a dramatic increase in the expression of COUP-TFI; however, COUP-TFI mRNA levels fail to be elevated upon RA treatment of AS cells indicating that PBX expression is required for elevation in COUP-TFI expression. To study the role of COUP-TFI during RA-dependent differentiation of P19 cells, AS cells that inducibly express various levels of COUP-TFI were prepared. Exogenous expression of COUP-TFI in AS cells, in a dose-dependent fashion, leads to growth inhibition, modest cell cycle disruption, and early apoptosis. Furthermore, AS cells can overcome the blockage in RA-dependent differentiation to endodermal cells when either pharmacological levels of COUP-TFI are expressed or a combination of both the expression of physiological levels of COUP-TFI and RA treatment. Additionally, the mRNA level of several pluripotency associated genes including OCT-4, DAX-1, and SF-1 in the COUP-TFI expressing AS cells are reduced. Moreover, analysis of the expression of primary RA response genes indicates that COUP-TFI is involved in the regulatory modulation of the expression of at least two genes, CYP26A1 and HoxA1. These studies demonstrate that COUP-TFI functions as a physiologically relevant regulator during RA-mediated endodermal differentiation of P19 cells

The Effect of Educating the Use of Developmental Positions of Premature Infants on the Clinical Performance of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Nurses

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: One of the early interventions in neurodevelopmental disorders in neonatal intensive care units is providing proper conditions for infants. Premature infants have lost their last three months of life in the uterus, and as a result, have not reached a collapsed status, which is a developmental position that indicates brain growth in the infant. Considering the importance of the neonatal position in developmental positions and achievement of better neural evolution, this study was conducted to implement educational intervention to improve the performance of nurses in order to properly implement the developmental positions of premature infants in neonatal intensive care unit. METHODS: This interventional study was carried out among 85 neonatal intensive care unit nurses in Shahid Akbar-Abadi and Ali Asghar Hospitals in Tehran in three stages. First, the nurses' performance was evaluated regarding the supportive developmental positions of the premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit through a neonatal assessment tool (IPAT with a maximum score of 12 and a minimum score of 3). Then, nurses were educated by slides and face to face and the performance of nurses was evaluated and compared after the first week after training and two months after the training. FINDINGS: Demographic data showed that the education level of most nurses (98.8%) was bachelor's degree and most nurses (48.2%) were older than 30 years of age. The highest work experience of nurses (42.4%) was in the range of 5–10 years. In addition, the nurses' performance score regarding the supportive developmental position of premature infants in the pre-training stage (5.84±0.03), the first week after training (8.35±1.42) and two months after training (8.71±1.16) had a significant difference (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this research, educating the use of developmental positions of premature infants has positive effects on the clinical performance of neonatal intensive care unit nurses

Elasto-Plastic Stress Analysis in Rotating Disks and Pressure Vessels Made of Functionally Graded Materials

Abstract A new elastio-plastic stress solution in axisymmetric problems (rotating disk, cylindrical and spherical vessel) is presented. The rotating disk (cylindrical and spherical vessel) was made of a ceramic/metal functionally graded material, i.e. a particle-reinforced composite. It was assumed that the material's plastic deformation follows an isotropic strain-hardening rule based on the von-Mises yield criterion. The mechanical properties of the graded material were modeled by the modified rule of mixtures. By assuming small strains, Hencky's stress-strain relation was used to obtain the governing differential equations for the plastic region. A numerical method for solving those differential equations was then proposed that enabled the prediction of stress state within the structure. Selected finite element results were also presented to establish supporting evidence for the validation of the proposed approach

Parameters of tissue iron overload and cardiac function in patients with thalassemia major and intermedia

Noninvasive T2∗ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessment can stratify the risk of subsequent cardiac dysfunction in β-thalassemia major (TM) and β-thalassemia intermedia (TI) patients. The normal level of N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptides (NT-proBNP) can rule out acute heart failure. We aim to investigate the relation of NT-proBNP level, T2∗ MRI, and echocardiographic findings in TM and TI patients. In this cross-sectional study, 41 TM patients, 41 TI patients, and 41 healthy individuals (HI) were enrolled. NT-proBNP level, T2∗ MRI, and two-dimensional echocardiography were assessed for all patients and controls. There was statistically significant correlation between NT-proBNP levels and mitral inflow late diastolic velocity (r = -0.538; p = 0.006) in TM group. There was statistically significant correlation between NT-proBNP levels and tricuspid annulus systolic velocity (r = -0.438; p = 0.028), systolic velocity of septum (r = -0.472; p = 0.020), and mitral inflow early-to-late diastolic wave ratio (r = 0.592; p = 0.002) in TM group. Early diagnosis and treatment of myocardial iron overload are likely to prevent the mortality in patients with established ventricular dysfunction. Since NT-proBNP levels were not significantly increased in documented left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction, this factor may not be sensitive for the detection of latent LV diastolic dysfunction in the early stages of disease progression

Study on rearing movine carps in the ponds of brackish water and freshwater

In this study, mono culture of Cyprinus carpio in fresh water and brackish water with 3500 specimens per hectare with 3 replication each carriedout from midel April to end the October 2010 and mide april to end the October 2011 recptively. Juline fish with 40 gr weight takeup from the sade voshmgir and after prepara tion of rearing ponds were introduced to pond according to appropriate and caluclate stocking density. Juline were fed by concentracted food(GFC). Feeding calculation based on percentage of body weight varied from 5 to 10 % of body weight. In fresh water Average weight and lenghth were in the stage time stocking 40 gr 14.68 cm and at the end of cultuivation period were 704.26 gr and 37.04 cm respectively. Inorder to comparecultivation of Cyprinus carpio in freshwater with breackish water another stocking 350 specimens per hactar with 3 replications also tookplace in this study. Junlin fish with average weight of 40gr and average length of 14.12cm were introduced to the ponds. At the end of rearing period average final weight was 700.26 with average length of 38.86cm.mean daily growth in fresh water treatment was 3.39. in brackish water replication the average daily . average condition factor in fresh water was 2.41. The average value CF in breackishwater was 1.39. in this research was survival rate in the fresh water and breackish water were more 77%

A family presenting with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2B: A case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Multiple endocrine neoplasia 2B, a rare autosomal dominant syndrome, is characterized by early onset of medullary thyroid carcinoma, pheochromocytoma, marfanoid habitus and mucosal neuromas of the tongue, lips, inner cheeks and inner eyelids. Gangliomatosis of the gastrointestinal tract and its complications may also occur in patients with this disease.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present the case of a 16-year-old Persian man diagnosed as having a non-invasive form of multiple endocrine neoplasia 2B (medullary thyroid cancer, mucosal neuroma of the tongue, lips and inner eyelids). Our patient, who had a positive family history of medullary thyroid cancer, was of normal height with no signs of marfanoid habitus.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Ophthalmological and oral manifestations of multiple endocrine neoplasia 2B, as in the case of our patient, are rare presentations of the disease; unfortunately in the case of our patient his condition had not been noted and acted upon until he presented to our department. The diagnosis in our patient's case was made only after his mother presented with the same condition. As a result, we emphasize that physicians should pay more attention to the oral and ocular signs of multiple endocrine neoplasia 2B in order to diagnose this fatal syndrome at an earlier phase.</p