Survival Models in Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract Background: Breast cancer is the most prevalent malignancy among Iranian women. Five and ten year survival is one of the indicators used for evaluation of the quality of care after surgery. In this study, we used several survival models to determine risk factors, survival times and life expectancies of different types of surgery

Study of genotype, subtype and mutation in the S gene in hepatitis B patients co-infected with HIV in Iran

Background: Co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) is common due to shared routes of transmission, as reported approximately 10% of 33 million HIV-infected patients worldwide are chronically infected with HBV. Mutations of HBsAg especially within the “a” determinant could alter the antigenicity of the protein, causing failure of HBsAg neutralization and escaping from the host’s immune system. This results in active viral replication and liver disease. Objectives: The aim of the survey was to identify HBV genotype and subtype, and different mutations in HBV S gene in hepatitis B patients co-infected with HIV in Iran. Methods: PCR performance and HBV-DNA extraction from plasma of 124 samples obtained from treatment naive HIV/HBV coinfected participants were according to the protocol. Direct sequencing and alignment of surface gene were carried out using reference sequences from the Gene Bank database. Results: From 124 HIV/HBV ELISA positive samples, 40 were HBV DNA-positive. Themean age of patients was 33.88 years. 20% of them were female and 80% were male. All isolates belonged to the sub genotype D1/ayw2 and genotype D. There were 50 point mutations including 23 (46%) missense and 27 (54%) silent mutations in amino acid level. Twenty three amino acid mutations occurred in different immune epitopes such as 11 (47.82%) in B cell, 6 (26.08%) in T helper and 2 (%8.6) in CTL. The prevalence of mutations in both “a” determinant region and Major Hydrophilic Region (MHR) was 5 (21.73%). Conclusions: Our findings showed that P127T and A70P (Outside of MHR) were the most frequently occurring substitution mutations. P127T, P132T, G130R, and S136Y substitutions placed in the first loop of the “a” determinant and the other substitutions of P142T and D144N occurred in the second loop of “a” determinant. The results of our study showed that most of the mutations occurred in B cell epitopes. The mutation in a surface gene of HBV may be selected by immune pressure or anti-retroviral therapy

A Conditional Moment Closure Study of Chemical Reaction Source Terms in SCCI Combustion

The objective of this study is to evaluate conditional moment closure (CMC) approaches to model chemical reaction rates in compositionally stratified, autoigniting mixtures, in thermochemical conditions relevant to stratified charge compression ignition (SCCI) engines. First-order closure, second-order closure and double conditioning are evaluated and contrasted as options in comparison to a series of direct numerical simulations (DNSs). The two-dimensional (2D) DNS cases simulate ignitions in SCCI-like thermochemical conditions with compositionally stratified n-heptane/air mixtures in a constant volume. The cases feature two different levels of stratification with three mean temperatures in the negative-temperature coefficient (NTC) regime of ignition delay times. The first-order closure approach for reaction rates is first assessed using hybrid DNS-CMC a posteriori tests when implemented in an open source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package known as OpenFOAMⓇ. The hybrid DNS-CMC a posteriori tests are not a full CMC but a DNS-CMC hybrid in that they compute the scalar and velocity fields at the DNS resolution, thus isolating the first-order reaction rate closure model as the main source of modelling error (as opposed to turbulence model, scalar probability density function model, and scalar dissipation rate model). The hybrid DNS-CMC a posteriori test reveals an excellent agreement between the model and DNS for the cases with low levels of stratification, whereas deviations from the DNS are observed in cases which exhibit high level of stratifications. The a priori analysis reveals that the reason for disagreement is failure of the first-order closure hypothesis in the model due to the high level of conditional fluctuations. Second-order and double conditioning approaches are then evaluated in a priori tests to determine the most promising path forwards in addressing higher levels of stratification. The a priori tests use the DNS data to compute the model terms, thus directly evaluating the model assumptions. It is shown that in the cases with a high level of stratification, even the second-order estimation of the reaction rate source term cannot provide a reasonably accurate closure. Double conditioning using mixture-fraction and sensible enthalpy, however, provides an accurate first-order closure to the reaction rate source term

Automated whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology of neurons in vivo

Whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology of neurons is a gold-standard technique for high-fidelity analysis of the biophysical mechanisms of neural computation and pathology, but it requires great skill to perform. We have developed a robot that automatically performs patch clamping in vivo, algorithmically detecting cells by analyzing the temporal sequence of electrode impedance changes. We demonstrate good yield, throughput and quality of automated intracellular recording in mouse cortex and hippocampus.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH EUREKA Award program (1R01NS075421))National Institutes of Health (U.S.) ((NIH) Director′s New Innovator Award (DP2OD002002)National Science Foundation (U.S.) ((NSF) CAREER award (CBET 1053233))New York Stem Cell Foundation (Robertson Neuroscience Award)Dr. Gerald Burnett and Marjorie BurnettNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant CISE 1110947)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant EHR 0965945)American Heart Association (10GRNT4430029

Correction to: The emerging role of probiotics as a mitigation strategy against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID�19) (Archives of Virology, (2021), 166, 7, (1819-1840), 10.1007/s00705-021-05036-8)

Authors would like to correct the error in their publication. The original article has been corrected. 1. Reference 17 is incorrect. The correct one should be �The probiotic Bifidobacterium in the management of Coronavirus: A theoretical basis� https://doi.org/10.1177/2058738420961304. 2. The unnecessary symbol �??� found in text is deleted. © 2021, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature

Survey of both hepatitis B virus (HBsAg) and hepatitis C virus (HCV-Ab) coinfection among HIV positive patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>HIV, HBVand HCV is major public health concerns. Because of shared routes of transmission, HIV-HCV coinfection and HIV-HBV coinfection are common. HIV-positive individuals are at risk of coinfection with HBV and HCV infections. The prevalence rates of coinfection with HBV and HCV in HIV-patients have been variable worldwide depending on the geographic regions, and the type of exposure.</p> <p>Aim</p> <p>This study aimed to examine HBV and HCV coinfection serologically and determine the shared and significant factors in the coinfection of HIV-positive patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out on 391 HIV-positive patients including 358 males and 33 females in Lorestan province, west Iran, to survey coinfection with HBsAg and anti-HCV. The retrospective demographic data of the subjects was collected and the patients' serums were analyzed by ELISA kits including HBsAg and anti-HCV. The collected data was analyzed with SPSS software (15) and Chi-square. Fisher's exact test with 5% error intervals was used to measure the correlation of variables and infection rates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results of the study indicated that the prevalence of coinfection in HIV-positive patients with hepatitis viruses was 94.4% (370 in 391), out of whom 57 (14.5%) cases were HBsAg positive, 282 (72%) cases were anti-HCV positive, and 31 (7.9%) cases were both HBsAg and anti-HCV positive.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There was a significant correlation between coinfection with HCV and HBV and/or both among HIV-positive patients depending on different variables including sex, age, occupation, marital status, exposure to risk factors.(p < 0.001).</p

Synergistic effect of Carum copticum and Mentha piperita essential oils with ciprofloxacin, vancomycin, and gentamicin on Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria

Background: Infectious diseases have always been an important health issue in human communities. In the recent years, much research has been conducted on antimicrobial effects of nature-based compounds because of increased prevalence of antibiotic resistance. The present study was conducted to investigate synergistic effect of Carum copticum and Mentha piperita essential oils with ciprofloxacin, vancomycin, and gentamicin on Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, the synergistic effects of C. copticum and M. piperita essential oils with antibiotics on Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212), Escherichia coli (ATCC 8739), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 9027), Staphylococcus epidermidis (ATCC 14990), and Listeria monocytogenes (ATCC 7644) were studied according to broth microdilution and the MIC and fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) of these two essential oils determined. Results: C. copticum essential oil at 30 mu g/ml could inhibit S. aureus, and in combination with vancomycin, decreased MIC from 0.5 to 0.12 mu g/ml. Moreover, the FIC was derived 0.24 mu g/ml which represents a potent synergistic effect with vancomycin against S. aureus growth. C. copticum essential oil alone or combined with other antibiotics is effective in treating bacterial infections. Conclusions: In addition, C. copticum essential oil can strengthen the activities of certain antibiotics, which makes it possible to use this essential oil, especially in drug resistance or to lower dosage or toxicity of the drugs