A Review on the Novel Coronavirus and Its Effects on Children

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of the new coronavirus was first reported in China and then spread to other parts of the world. The number of people infected with the virus is significantly increasing, making the disease an international concern. AIM: The present study aimed to investigate the coronavirus and its effects on children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the present study, search engines, and scientific databases of Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, Medline, and Cochrane were searched to examine the effect of coronavirus on children. To collect information, keywords were also searched in the databases. RESULTS: In spite of contradictory results, among the children, those under 5 years old are the high-risk group. CONCLUSION: Some researchers believe that the virus shows fewer symptoms in children. However, the immune system of infants under six months develops pneumonia in rare cases

Application of hierarchical method and fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS method for multi-criteria decision making in financing

Purpose: One way to make more profit in different companies is to choose the right method of financing. While the impact of financial structure on the economic structure is so important that today they believe that economic growth cannot be achieved without an efficient financial sector. The method of financing is financial. At first, in this study, the fuzzy Delphi method (Delphi) has been used in order to identify the factors and criteria of supply. Research methodology: The absorption of foreign capital has been identified as a method of financing. For this purpose, in this research, AHP hierarchical analysis method is used. Results: In this article, the application of fuzzy AHP - TOPSIS method for the problem of financing is investigated. The process of managing financial resources is one of the reasons for allocating its technical equipment to various applications in this company. Limitations: However, the results of our studies show that although a set of known values in this company, the financing process may not adhere strongly to these values. Emphasis on evaluation aspects - changes in various areas that indicate local values may also affect the supply trend. Contribution: Multi-criteria decision methods are useful in that they provide a basis for analyzing and transforming complex and complex problems into simpler ones; In that framework, the planner can easily evaluate the options with the help of criteria and sub-criteria. Using these methods can help a lot in choosing the best available solution. Other advantages of these methods include flexibility, simplicity of calculations and the possibility of the final ranking of options

A dual approach for positive T–S fuzzy controller design and its application to cancer treatment under immunotherapy and chemotherapy

This study proposes an effective positive control design strategy for cancer treatment by resorting to the combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy. The treatment objective is to transfer the initial number of tumor cells and immune–competent cells from the malignant region into the region of benign growth where the immune system can inhibit tumor growth. In order to achieve this goal, a new modeling strategy is used that is based on Takagi–Sugeno. A Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model is derived based on the Stepanova nonlinear model that enables a systematic design of the controller. Then, a positive Parallel Distributed Compensation controller is proposed based on a linear co-positive Lyapunov Function so that the tumor volume and administration of the chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic drugs is reduced, while the density of the immune-competent cells is reached to an acceptable level. Thanks to the proposed strategy, the entire control design is formulated as a Linear Programming problem. Finally, the simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control approach for the cancer treatment

The Credibility of Cephalogram Parameters in Gender Identification From Medico-Legal Relevance Among the Iranian Populatio

Background: Normal cephalogram parameters seem to be gender discriminative and thus applicable in forensic medicine. We assessed validity of cephalogram parameters in gender identification among the Iranian population.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 75 Iranian men and 75 Iranian women aged 25 to 54 years. On their first admission, the physicians requested for simple lateral skull X-ray for all participants.Results: Using area under the ROC curve, gonion-gonion index (AUC=0.741) and vertex- mention index (AUC=0.697) had a moderate value to discriminate male from female gender, while other parameters lacked enough power to differentiate gender. The best cut-off point in gonion-gonion index for discriminating male from female gender was 103.75 with a sensitivity of 74.7% and a specificity of 65.3%. Also, the best cut-off value for vertex-mention index to differentiate two genders was 244.75 with a sensitivity of 74.7% and a specificity of 62.7%. By considering two parameters of gonion-gonion and vertex-mention, it is possible to differentiate males from females with a sensitivity of 82.6% and a specificity of 71.8%.Conclusion: The two gonion-gonion and vertex-mention indices on cephalogram are applicable for gender discrimination

A Novel Stochastic Predictive Stabilizer for DC Microgrids Feeding CPLs

In this work, a novel nonlinear approach is proposed for the stabilization of microgrids (MGs) with constant power loads (CPLs). The proposed method is constructed based on the incorporation of a pseudo-extended Kalman filter (EKF) into stochastic nonlinear model predictive control (MPC). In order to achieve high-performance and optimal control in dc MGs, estimating the instantaneous power flow of the uncertain CPLs and the available power units is essential. Thus, by utilizing the advantages of the stochastic MPC and the pseudo-EKF, an effective control solution for the stabilization of dc islanded MGs with CPLs is established. This technique develops a constrained controller for practical application to handle the states and control input constraints explicitly; furthermore, as it estimates the current by using the pseudo-EKF, it is a current-senseless approach. As noisy measurements are taken into account for the state estimation, it leads to a less conservative control action rather than the classical robust MPC, whereas it guarantees the global asymptotic stability in the presence of noisy measurements and parameter uncertainty. To validate the performance of the proposed controller, the attained results are compared with state-of-the-art controllers. Furthermore, the implementability of the proposed method is validated using real-time simulations on dSPACE hardware

Effect of levamisole on treatment of recurrent aphthous stomatitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The aim of this study was to systematically analyze the effect of levamisole on treatment of recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS). METHODS: An electronic search was executed in PubMed, Cochrane, and Scopus after determining the research question using the appropriate Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) term covering the period from 1975 to 2015. Additional publications from hand searching and the reference section of each relevant article enriched the article list. Finally, 9 articles that have assessed the effect of levamisole on the treatment of RAS and had suitable qualifications for the accomplishment of systematic review and meta-analysis were included. RESULTS: The results showed that the chance of improvement in patients taking levamisole was 6 [odds ratio (OR) = 5.67, 95% confidence interval (CI)] times more than in patients not taking this drug. CONCLUSION: It appears that levamisole is an effective drug for the treatment of RAS, but further appropriate studies should carryout in this context. KEYWORDS: Levamisole; Treatment; Aphthous; Recurrent; Stomatiti

Adult emergency department performance in the largest teaching hospital in southern Iran: a 1.5-year cross-sectional study

Background: Emergency department (ED) is one of the most important hospital departments, with significant effects on public health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the adult ED's performance of the largest teaching hospital in southern Iran. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study (March 2017-August 2018), the registered data in the Hospital Information System (HIS) were collected, and the ED’s performance was assessed based on the Iranian emergency performance index. The slopes of the trend lines were calculated for each indicator. Moreover, 2 six-month periods were compared. Results: The data of 104,081 patients were analyzed. The mean (±standard deviation) of visited patients per-month was 5,782.28 (±1258.55). The slope of the trend line was negative for all indicators, except for discharge from ED with personal responsibility. The mean duration of waiting time for the first visit by physician in each triage level slightly decreased. Comparison of the two six-month periods showed a significant difference between the visited patient (P<0.0001). The percentage of patients disposed within six hours (P<0.0001), leaving ED within 12 hours (P<0.0001), as well as the percentage of successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation (P=0.014) in the six-month period of 2018 was significantly lower. The percentage of discharge with personal responsibility significantly increased (P=0.005). Conclusion: Although the number of patients visited in this ED decreased, all indicators had dropped. However, the percentage of discharge with personal responsibility was increased. Moreover, the mean duration of waiting time for the first visit by physician slightly decreased in each triage level