Rare case of bilateral vassal agenesis and AZFc microdeletion: A case report

Introduction: Bilateral vassal agenesis (CBAVD) is a rare cause of male infertility. Also one of the nonobstructive cause of azoospermia and infertility in men is microdeletion in long arm of Y chromosome. In this case report we have reported a rare case of CBAVD, LT renal agenesis and AZFc microdeletion.Patient Information:28 years old man, who was farmer with history of 6 years of infertility presented to our andrology clinic in Royan institute. In physical examination there was not any palpable vas deferens bilaterally, also The semen analysis was azoospermia. In sonographic evaluation, LT kidney wasn’t seen in its anatomic location. The patient candidate for diagnostic PESA and bilateral PESA were negative. After that, the patient candidate for bilateral TESE and fascinatingly TESE was negative too. After genetic evaluation microdeletion was detected in AZFc subregion of Y chromosome.Conclusion: In men with obstructive azoospermia mostly testicular spermatogenesis is normal but this is not the rule because seldom spermatogenic dysfunction maybe present like our patient. We emphasize about the importance of consideration of obstructive and nonobstructive azoospermia together in a patient for urologists.

Development of a Novel Linear Magnetostrictive Actuator

This dissertation presents the development of a novel linear magnetostrictive actuator. The magnetostrictive material used here is Terfenol-D, an alloy of the formula Tb0.3Dy0.7Fe1.92. In response to a traveling magnetic field inside the Terfenol-D element, it moves in the opposite direction with a peristaltic motion. The proposed design offers the flexibility to operate the actuator in various configurations including local and conventional three-phase excitation. The conceptual design of the linear magnetostrictive actuator was performed during which different configurations were analyzed. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was extensively used for magnetic circuit design and analysis in conceptual design. Eventually one of these designs was chosen based on which detailed design of linear magnetostrictive actuator was carried out. A new force transmission assembly incorporates spring washers to avoid the wear due to the sudden collision of Terfenol-D element with the force transmission assembly. All mechanical parts were then fabricated at the mechanical engineering machine shop. The power electronics to operate the motor in a local three-phase mode was designed and implemented. It was demonstrated that the power consumption can be reduced significantly by operating the magnetostrictive linear actuator in the local excitation mode. A finite-element model of the actuator was developed using ATILA and an empirical model was presented using the data gathered from numerous tests performed on the actuator. The closed-loop control system was implemented using relay control which resulted in an optimal closed-loop performance. The magnetostrictive actuator has demonstrated 410-N load capacity with a travel range of 45 mm, and the maximum speed is 9 mm/min. The maximum power consumption by the motor is 95 W. The sensorless control of the linear magnetostrictive actuator was successfully conducted using two different approaches. First, using a linear-approximation method, we achieved a position estimation capability with ±1 mm error. Then, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system was employed for estimating the position which resulted in a position estimation capability with only a ±0.5 mm error

Open reduction and internal fixation of the bilateral proximal humeral fracture dislocation with head splitting in an active young adult: a rare case

Proximal humeral fracture is a common injury particularly in elderly. A proper management of these fractures is very challenging, based on the various characteristics of patient, fracture anatomy, equipment and the surgeon experience. Bilateral PHF is a rare condition, which almost always caused by seizure, electric shock and trauma, respectively. An appropriate treatment of these patients needs especial attention to obtain a good clinical outcome. We report a 29-year-old patient who suffered from bilateral proximal humeral fracture with posterior dislocation and splitted humeral head due to the combined mechanism of injury including severe trauma after high voltage electric shock. We did not find similar case(s) reported before in the literature. The patient treated with bilateral open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF). He was able to do his daily activities after 6 month

Stabilization of Crude Oil Contaminated Soils with Alkali-Activated Slag

The high exposure of areas in the vicinity of oil plants and refineries to crude oil and oil product contaminations and the problems they cause for the physical expansion of these facilities underscore the importance of stabilization of oil-contaminated soils. Soil stabilization with cost-effective stabilizing agents is widely regarded as a simple and fast way of limiting the impacts of such contaminations. For decades, cement and lime have been the standard binders for soil remediation and stabilization applications, but with the increasing awareness about their environmental impact and the notion of sustainable development in general, there is now a growing interest in the use of cleaner alternatives based on new technologies for this purpose. In recent years, alkali-activated binders have been the subject of much interest because of their high strength and durability and limited environmental impacts. The soil treatment solution investigated in this study is the use of slag, which is a steel production byproduct mostly consisting of calcium and magnesium alumina silicates, in combination with two activators, namely sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate. Direct shear tests were performed on the crude oil contaminated soil specimens in order to determine the best alkali-activated designs and the effect of exposure time, slag content, and treatment time on the outcomes. The test results showed that adding 10% slag, 1.15% sodium silicate, and 1.61% sodium hydroxide (all by dry weight of soil) to the crude oil contaminated soil improved its cohesion and friction angle by 70% and 50% respectively

A Short Term Follow Up Comparison of Genu Varum Corrective Surgery Using Open and Closed Wedge High Tibial Osteotomy

INTRODUCTION: Knee deformity associated with osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common complications seen in patients referred to orthopaedic surgeons. High tibial osteotomy (HTO) is an accepted method for treatment of medial knee osteoarthritis with varus deformity. The aim of this study was to compare results of osteotomy methods in patients with genu varum (GV) deformity. METHODS: In this cohort study, the sample consisted of 32 patients with genu varum deformity (42 knees) who were divided into two groups and matched according to age and gender. The patients were treated with open or closed wedge osteotomy. After surgery, they were followed-up and compared for 6 months. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 25 women (87.2%) and 7 men (21.8%). Ten patients (31.2%) presented with bilateral deformity. The incidence of complications was the same for both procedures (12.5%); this included one peroneal nerve injury following closed wedge surgery. Overall, patient satisfaction was 87.5% and 75% for the open and closed wedge methods respectively. Operative time, days to full weight bearing, and days to return to routine activities were significantly shorter for patients treated with the open wedge method (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Open wedged HTO is associated with shorter operating time, shorter recovery time, higher patient satisfaction, and probable lower risk of neurological injur

The Genetic Causes of Male Infertility in Iranian Population; A systematic Review

Introduction: Infertility affects an estimated 15% of couples globally and in Iran, a quarter of couples experiences primary infertility. Males are found to be individually responsible for 20-30% of infertility cases and contribute to 50% of cases totally. When assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) are used to acquire pregnancy, a sufficient (epi) genetic diagnosis of male infertility (MI) is of main matter to consider if a genetic abnormality will be transmit-ted to offspring. Infertility centers together with Infertility research centers had been founded since 1994 in Iran and many articles from research projects have been published.Materials and Methods: This literature investigated the possible genetic causes mechanisms underlying Iranian male infertility by extensive article searches.  First, we reviewed available data from the Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, IranMedex, MEDLIB, IranDoc and Scientific Information Database were searched for articles published until 2018, using the MeSH terms for a variety of chromosome abnormalities, Y-chromosome microdeletions, gene mutations, expression and polymorphisms, Male infertility and/or Iranian, regional and international population, to provides the evidence- based and a comprehensive, up-to- date evaluation of the multifactorial factors involved in Iranian infertile men.  Results: According to the strategy adopted initially, 274 manuscripts were found. After reviewing the titles, abstracts and manuscripts entirely cited, the total of 139 articles were obtained and selected according to the eligibility criteria. The 139 studies were divided into four predetermined categories that mentioned above.  Studies have good methodological validity. The sample is quite heterogeneous, given the very different design of the studies.Conclusion: MI is a complex, multi-factorial disease and the underlying reasons frequently remain unknown. It seems that the first line of genetic diagnosis in Iranian male infertility is similar to Global One. In all investigations conducted in Iran, there are vacancies in studies such as epigenetic modification studies, RNA (lncRNA, miRNA and piRNA) abnormalities, mutation detection and polymorphism studies in other genes involved in the spermatogenesis process. At present, we have a little information for some polymorphisms (MTHFR, GST, ER, and DAZL) and mutations (mtDNA, CATSPER) which require more extensive studies. Such articles help to find a better insight into the causes of infertility in the Iranian men's community and will provide valuable visions into the development of targeted personalized treatments for patients and the ascertainment of the reasons of idiopathic infertility.

An Intelligent Approach to Detecting Novel Fault Classes for Centrifugal Pumps Based on Deep CNNs and Unsupervised Methods

Despite the recent success in data-driven fault diagnosis of rotating machines, there are still remaining challenges in this field. Among the issues to be addressed, is the lack of information about variety of faults the system may encounter in the field. In this paper, we assume a partial knowledge of the system faults and use the corresponding data to train a convolutional neural network. A combination of t-SNE method and clustering techniques is then employed to detect novel faults. Upon detection, the network is augmented using the new data. Finally, a test setup is used to validate this two-stage methodology on a centrifugal pump and experimental results show high accuracy in detecting novel faults.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figure

Quality of life in patients with advanced gastric cancer: a randomized trial comparing docetaxel, cisplatin, 5-FU (TCF) with epirubicin, cisplatin, 5-FU (ECF)

BACKGROUND: Health related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important outcome after treatment for upper gastrointestinal carcinoma. This study aimed to compare HRQOL in patients with advanced gastric cancer (GC) receiving either a standard or an experimental treatment. METHODS: Seventy-one patients have been treated in Cancer Institute (Tehran, Iran) with docetaxel, cisplatin, 5 FU (TCF) or epirubicin, cisplatin, 5-FU (ECF) and were followed from Jan 2002 to Jan 2005. End points were response rate, HRQOL and survival. HRQOL was assessed using the EORCT QLQ-C30 at baseline and after the third cycle of chemotherapy. RESULTS: The baseline HRQOL scores were comparable between two groups. After treatment improvement was seen in a number of items and domains except for cognitive functioning, and diarrhoea. Pain decreased and physical functioning improved in both groups. However, only the TCF group showed statistically and clinically meaningful improvement in global QOL (P = 0.001). Surgical and pathologic response was better with TCF but there was no difference in survival rate between two groups. CONCLUSION: Docetaxel based treatment (TCF) showed better palliation and improvement of global QOL as compared with epirubicin based treatment (ECF). However, it seems that regardless of treatment offered, effective chemotherapy was the most important factor affecting QOL in these patients

Operative Treatment of Acute Distal Femur Fractures: Review of literature

Fractures of the distal femur may be extra articular or have an intra articular component. Mismanagement of any of these fractures can result in abnormalities of alignment of the load-bearing axis of lower limb and/or rotational deformities. Essentially all supracondylar femur fractures require operative intervention because of the severe potential risks of prolonged bed rest. Yet, despite their proven track record and benefits over older implants, technical errors are common and must be overcome with proper preoperative planning and intra-operative attention to details. The goal of this study was&nbsp;&nbsp; to present an update on the management of these fracture

Modeling and Optimizing a Vacuum Gas Oil Hydrocracking Plant using an Artificial Neural Network

In this research, based on actual data gathered from an industrial scale vacuum gas oil (VGO) hydrocracker and artificial neural network (ANN) method, a model is proposed to simulate yields of products including light gases, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), light naphtha, heavy naphtha, kerosene, diesel and unconverted oil (off-test). The input layer of the ANN model consists of the catalyst, feed and recycle flow rates, and bed temperatures, while the output neurons are yields of those products. The results showed that the AAD% (average absolute deviation) of the developed ANN model for training, testing, and validating data are 0.445%, 1.131% and 0.755%, respectively. Then, by considering all operational constraints, the results confirmed that the decision variables (i.e., recycle rate and bed temperatures) generated by the optimization approach can enhance the gross profit of the hydrocracking process to more than $0.81 million annually, which is significant for the economy of the target refinery