Gnuastro: simulating the exposure map of a pointing pattern

The pointing pattern is an integral part of designing one's observation strategy for a certain scientific goal. But accounting for the particular science case or instrument artifacts (like distortion, vignetting or large areas of bad pixels) can make it hard to predict how the exposure map of the final stack will be. To help address this problem, Gnuastro 0.21 includes a new executable program called astscript-pointing-simulate that is fully described in the Gnuastro manual and comes with a complete tutorial. The figures of this research note are reproducible with Maneage, on the Git commit 4176d29

Template for reproducible scientific datasets/papers

The increasing volume, diversity, and role of data in modern research has been very fruitful. However, these same factors, have also made it harder to describe (in sufficient detail) the processing behind a scientific result within the confines of a traditional paper. It is thus becoming harder and harder to reproduce (i.e., critically review by coauthors, referees or larger community) results that define scientific progress. In this talk, a working solution to this problem is proposed

Antibacterial effects of medicinal plant extracts against Lactococcus garvieae, the etiological agent of rainbow trout lactococcosis

Eight medicinal plants were assessed for antimicrobial activity against Lactococcus garvieae isolate obtained from diseased Oncorhynchus mykiss collected from rainbow trout fish farms in Iran. Lactococcus garvieae is among the major pathogens of a large number of fish species cultured in fresh and marine recirculating and net pen production systems. The antibacterial activity of the medicinal plants against L. garvieae was evaluated using disc diffusion, well diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration. Results showed that the extracts and essential oils had a relatively high antibacterial activity against L. garvieae. Of the plants studied, the most active extracts were those from the methanol extract of Peganum harmala, the essential oil of Satureja bachtiarica, the ethanol extract of Juglans regia and Trachyspermum copticum with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 105, 126, 510 and 453 μg/ml, respectively. Conversly, some of the extracts such as Quercus branti Lindley and Glycyrrhiza glabra L. had lower activity against L. garvieae with MIC values of 978 and 920 μg/ml respectively. Plant extracts as natural and environment- friendly compounds can be an important source of antibacterial agents against L. garvieae. They may be used for disinfection of instruments and rainbow trout raceways or treatment of the fish

The Effect of Intravenous Lidocaine on QTc Changes During Spinal Anesthesia in Elderly Patients

Prolonged QT interval may lead to serious arrhythmias and ventricular fibrillation, hence prevention of the QT-interval prolongation is crucial for physicians. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of intravenous lidocaine on the QTc interval resulting from spinal anesthesia with bupivacaine. In a randomized double blind trial, fifty male patients with mean age of 70.38 and ASA physical status ΙΙ, who underwent spinal anesthesia for elective orthopedic lower limb surgical procedures, were assessed. Our subjects were divided into two groups, patients randomly received intravenously either 1.5 mg/kg lidocaine 2% as test group (n=25), or 0.05 ml/kg isotonic sodium chloride as control group (n=25), just before inducing of spinal anesthesia. Spinal anesthesia was performed in the sitting position with 3 ml of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine. Values of the QTc interval, heart rate, and arterial blood pressure were measured before spinal anesthesia as well as 1, 5, 15, and 30 minutes after spinal anesthesia. With respect to the within-group values, statistically significant prolongation of the QTc interval as well as hemodynamic variability were detected in the measured times after blockade. There was no statistical difference between two groups according to hemodynamic parameters and the duration of the QTc interval before spinal anesthesia and times after spinal block with bupivacaine. Administration of intravenous lidocaine may not prevent the prolongation of the QTc interval and hemodynamic changes resulting from spinal anesthesia with hyperbaric bupivacaine, in elderly subject

Rhetorical Variation in Medical Article Abstracts Written in English and Persian

The present study aimed at finding structural variations in the translated abstracts from Persian into English and comparing them with abstracts originally written in English and published in international journals in the area of medical sciences. To do this, 64 medical article abstracts (32 in Iranian journals, 32 in international journals) were analyzed and compared on the basis of Swales’ model (1990). More detailed analysis was done in the Introduction unit regarding CARS model (Swales, 1990) and also language features of each unit were identified. The IMRC (Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion) sequence was considered as the structural conventions for the analysis. The results showed that in terms of structural units, there was a significant difference in using the Methods unit between the two groups of abstracts (p= 0.002). Some variations were observed in the Introduction unit and language features. The data revealed that the translated abstracts from Persian into English in research medical articles meet the determined criteria for scientific writing while the original ones often ignore the criteria, although they are linguistically superior to the original English one