Design of Adiabatic MTJ-CMOS Hybrid Circuits

Low-power designs are a necessity with the increasing demand of portable devices which are battery operated. In many of such devices the operational speed is not as important as battery life. Logic-in-memory structures using nano-devices and adiabatic designs are two methods to reduce the static and dynamic power consumption respectively. Magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) is an emerging technology which has many advantages when used in logic-in-memory structures in conjunction with CMOS. In this paper, we introduce a novel adiabatic hybrid MTJ/CMOS structure which is used to design AND/NAND, XOR/XNOR and 1-bit full adder circuits. We simulate the designs using HSPICE with 32nm CMOS technology and compared it with a non-adiabatic hybrid MTJ/CMOS circuits. The proposed adiabatic MTJ/CMOS full adder design has more than 7 times lower power consumtion compared to the previous MTJ/CMOS full adder

Predictors of Postpartum Depression in an Iranian Population, 2006

Background: Postpartum depression has serious complications. There are various risk factors for postpartum depression and in some cases these are controversial. Objectives: This study tested the prevalence of postpartum depression and its related factors in Kashan, Iran, in 2006. Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 460 women referred to Kashan’s health centers, during the second and third months after childbirth, were enrolled. The Beck Depression Inventory was used to make a diagnosis of depression. Other variables such as; type of delivery, satisfaction with husband, and demographic features were also assessed. Data were analyzed by chi-square, independent t-test and regression analysis, using SPSS 16 software. Results: The prevalence of severe and moderate depression was 28.9%. Our findings did not reveal any significant relationship between; type of delivery, unwanted pregnancy, gender of neonate, duration of marriage and gravidity with postpartum depression (P > 0.05). The stepwise regression analysis showed that depression made a significant model with; satisfaction with husband, age and education of mother. Conclusions: Satisfaction with husband, age and education of mother are the important risk factors for postpartum depression

Changes of Available Phosphorus and phosphatase activity in the rhizosphere of some field and vegetation crops in the fast growth stage

A large proportion of P is found in organic forms. Phosphatase, plays an essential role in the mineralization of organic phosphorus. Agronomy species can affect phosphatase activity in rhizosphere. The aim ofour study was to determine the effects of some agronomy species (Gramineae, Leguminose, Solanaceae, Labiatae, Cruciferae, Umbellifera, Alliaceae) on phosphatase activity in their rhizosphere. The agronomy species were planted in a semiarid soil in the pots under greenhouse condition. Phosphatase activity in the rhizosphere of any species was studied at middle of their growth. Phosphatase activity was greatly enhanced in the rhizosphere of all species. Alkaline phosphatase activity increased 102-325% and acid phosphatase activity increased 205-455% in the rhizosphere soil compared to the non-rhizosphere soil. This suggests that agronomy species actively promote rhizosphere phosphatase activity either directly by secretion or indirectly by stimulation of microbial activity and/or by depletion of Pi. There were significant differences between phosphatase activities in rhizosphere of plant species. The highest and lowest means of alkaline phosphatase activity were found in rhizosphere of Trifolium repens andOcimum basilicum respectively. The highest and lowest means of acid phosphatase activity were found in rhizosphere of Triticum aestium and Cicer arietinum respectively

Effect of interleukin-22 on immunogenicity of DNA vaccine encoding TSA gene of leishmania major in BALB/c mice

Background and purpose: Previous Research shows the use of plasmids containing genes TSA to be useful as vaccines for Leishmania major. Recently, the role of interleukin-22 (IL-22) in tissue repair has been demonstrated. In this research, the effect of IL-22 on encoding TSA gene of Leishmania major in BALB/c mice was assessed

Cloning and expression of NS3 helicase fragment of hepatitis C virus and the study of its immunoreactivity in HCV infected patients

Objective(s): Hepatitis C is a major cause of liver failure worldwide. Current therapies applied for this disease are not fully effective and produce side effects in most cases. Non-structural protein 3 helicase (NS3) of HCV is one of the key enzymes in viral replication and infection. Therefore, this region is a promising target to design new drugs and therapies against HCV infection. The aim of this study was cloning and expression of HCV NS3 helicase fragment in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) using pET102/D-TOPO expression vector and studying immunoreactivity of the expressed antigen in Iranian infected with hepatitis C. Materials and Methods: The viral RNA was extracted from the serum of HCV infected patient. The NS3 helicase region was amplified by RT-PCR. The PCR product was directionally cloned into the expression vector pET102/D-TOPO and transformed into the BL21 strain of E. coli (DE3). The transformed bacteria were then induced by adding 1mM isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) into the culture medium to enhance the protein expression. SDS-PAGE and western blotting were carried out to identify the protein under investigation, and finally purified recombinant fusion protein was used as the antigen for ELISA method. Results: The insertion of the DNA fragment of the NS3 region into the expression vector was further confirmed by PCR and sequencing. SDS-PAGE analysis showed the successful expression of the recombinant protein of interest. Furthermore, immunoreactivity of fusion NS3 helicase was confirmed by ELISA and western blotting. Conclusion: It seems that this recombinant protein could be a useful source of antigen for future studies on HCV diagnosis and therapy. © 2015, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

DNA vaccination with a plasmid encoding LACK-TSA fusion against Leishmania major infection in BALB/c mice

Vaccination would be the most important strategy for the prevention and elimination of leishmaniasis. The aim of the present study was to compare the immune responses induced following DNA vaccination with LACK (Leishmania analogue of the receptor kinase C), TSA (Thiol-specific-antioxidant) genes alone or LACK-TSA fusion against cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Cellular and humoral immune responses were evaluated before and after challenge with Leishmania major (L. major). In addition, the mean lesion size was also measured from 3th week post-infection. All immunized mice showed a partial immunity characterized by higher interferon (IFN)-gamma and Immunoglobulin G (IgG2a) levels compared to control groups (p< 0.05). IFN-gamma/Interleukin (IL)-4 and IgG2a/IgG1 ratios demonstrated the highest IFN-gamma and IgG2a levels in the group receiving LACK-TSA fusion. Mean lesion sizes reduced significantly in all immunized mice compared with control groups at 7th week post-infection (p< 0.05). In addition, there was a significant reduction in mean lesion size of LACK-TSA and TSA groups than LACK group after challenge (p< 0.05). In the present study, DNA immunization promoted Th1 immune response and confirmed the previous observations on immunogenicity of LACK and TSA antigens against CL. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that a bivalent vaccine can induce stronger immune responses and protection against infectious challenge with L. major