360 research outputs found
An Investigation of the Casimir Energy for a Fermion Coupled to the Sine-Gordon Soliton with Parity Decomposition
We consider a fermion chirally coupled to a prescribed pseudoscalar field in
the form of the soliton of the sine-Gordon model and calculate and investigate
the Casimir energy and all of the relevant quantities for each parity channel,
separately. We present and use a simple prescription to construct the
simultaneous eigenstates of the Hamiltonian and parity in the continua from the
scattering states. We also use a prescription we had introduced earlier to
calculate unique expressions for the phase shifts and check their consistency
with both the weak and strong forms of the Levinson theorem. In the graphs of
the total and parity decomposed Casimir energies as a function of the
parameters of the pseudoscalar field distinctive deformations appear whenever a
fermionic bound state energy level with definite parity crosses the line of
zero energy. However, the latter graphs reveal some properties of the system
which cannot be seen from the graph of the total Casimir energy. Finally we
consider a system consisting of a valence fermion in the ground state and find
that the most energetically favorable configuration is the one with a soliton
of winding number one, and this conclusion does not hold for each parity,
separately.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Analysing multiple types of molecular profiles simultaneously: connecting the needles in the haystack
It has been shown that a random-effects framework can be used to test the
association between a gene's expression level and the number of DNA copies of a
set of genes. This gene-set modelling framework was later applied to find
associations between mRNA expression and microRNA expression, by defining the
gene sets using target prediction information.
Here, we extend the model introduced by Menezes et al (2009) to consider the
effect of not just copy number, but also of other molecular profiles such as
methylation changes and loss-of-heterozigosity (LOH), on gene expression
levels. We will consider again sets of measurements, to improve robustness of
results and increase the power to find associations. Our approach can be used
genome-wide to find associations, yields a test to help separate true
associations from noise and can include confounders.
We apply our method to colon and to breast cancer samples, for which
genome-wide copy number, methylation and gene expression profiles are
available. Our findings include interesting gene expression-regulating
mechanisms, which may involve only one of copy number or methylation, or both
for the same samples. We even are able to find effects due to different
molecular mechanisms in different samples.
Our method can equally well be applied to cases where other types of
molecular (high-dimensional) data are collected, such as LOH, SNP genotype and
microRNA expression data. Computationally efficient, it represents a flexible
and powerful tool to study associations between high-dimensional datasets. The
method is freely available via the SIM BioConductor package
Review Fake Narratives about Prophet Mohammad (Pbuh) in Mathnavi
The story of divine prophets' life in Quran has almost been told briefly and due to emphasizing on issues including edifications and lessons, there are not any details or marginal subjects in it. A brief review of many books written in this topic confirms this claim that many events and happenings related to divine prophets and key characters are being inspired from other sources than the Word of God, and many ornaments have been added to them in the passage of time. Due to the same reason, a great part of Israelites is related to the prophets' story of life. Rumi is among the poets who use the prophets' story of life in different parts of the Mathnavi either in a direct way or in a mysterious form and parable. But, this great book is not also saved from some fictitious stories of the prophet's life. In this research, Israelites about Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) are extracted from six books of Mathnavi and reviewed. The fictitious stories about Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) throughout the book are just three stories. These three stories include the story of Prophet's cleavage of chest, legend of the Gharanigh (satanic verses), and the story of Prophet's decision of committing suicide. The research method is descriptive analytical. Regarding the stories and the way of applications of these legends by Rumi, it can be understood that although the fictitious stories are limitedly found in Mathnavi, this limited number has been also used in order to teaching and expressing mystic thoughts and delicate issues of spiritual journeys. Keywords: Israelites, Mathnavi, Islam Prophet (pbuh), holly Quran, Rumi
Ameliorative effect of lycopene effect on cisplatin-induced nephropathy in patients
Background: Nephrotoxicity is one of the most important limitations of cisplatin-based chemotherapies which associated with many complications and high mortality rate. Objectives: To investigate the effect of lycopene on cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in patients with cancer. Patients and Methods: In this double-blind, randomized clinical trial, 120 patients were randomly assigned to two groups, case (treated with lycopene + standard regimen of kidney injury prevention) and control (treated with only the standard regimen of kidney injury prevention). Lycopene was orally taken from 24 hours before to 72 hours after cisplatin administration. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (Cr), and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) were measured and recorded. The data were analyzed using SPSS. Results: Changes in Cr were not significantly different between the two groups (P = 0.131). However, a significant decreasing trend was seen in GFR during the study, which was more marked in the control group (P = 0.004). BUN significantly decreased during the study (P = 0.002), and a significant decrease of BUN on the day three in both groups was seen (P = 0.001). However, BUN increased in the case group on the day 21 of treatment. The corresponding increase was less marked in the control group. Conclusions: Lycopene can be considered a useful adjuvant therapy to decrease the complications due to cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in patients with cancer
The Effectiveness of Quality of Life Therapy on Depression and Anxiety among Patients with Multiple Sclerosis
Introduction: Many patients with incurable disease, like multiple sclerosis (MS), experience depression and anxiety, therefore, this study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of quality of life therapy (QOLT) among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), depression and anxiety. Methods: The design of the study was semi-experimental with an experimental group and a control group, including three phases; a pre-test, a post-test and a follow-up test. Statistical population consisted of patients suffering from MS referring to health centers in Shiraz, Iran. 24 patients were selected using convenience-sampling method. They were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups (each 12 members). The experimental group received QOLT during eight 50minute weekly sessions. The control group received no treatment. All participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory–II and Beck Anxiety Inventory. The data were analyzed using the analysis of covariance method. Results: Comparison of the means of depression and anxiety scores of two groups in post-test phase showed that quality of life therapies had significant effects on reduction of depression (p<0.001) and anxiety (p<0.001) rates in MS patients. Comparing two groups in a follow-up phase showed that the effect of intervention was stable. Conclusion: This research showed that quality of life therapy has decreased depression and anxiety rate significantly in MS patients. It seems that using psychological intervention can improve the well-being of MS patients and they can benefit from the positive effects of a quality time program. Therefore, it is recommended that, in addition to prescription of medications, psychological interventions be done for these patients. Declaration of Interest: Non
The Human Host Defense Peptide LL-37 Overexpressed in Lung Cell Lines by Methanolic Extract of Valeriana officinalis
The present study investigated the effects of valerian methanolic extract and valerenic acid on the expression of LL-37 gene and protein in A549 and MRC5 line cells. After preparing Valerian seeds, sowing them in March 2020, and harvesting the rhizome in October 2020, the extract was prepared from the valerian rhizome by maceration method. Valerian acid content was determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Two cell lines (A549 and MRC-5) were used to study the effects of valerian extract, and the MTT test was used to evaluate cell viability. The expression of LL-37 mRNA and protein was assessed by Real-Time PCR and western blot, respectively. In vivo safety assessments and histopathological analysis were also conducted. Data was analyzed by Graphpad Prism 8 software. Valerian methanolic extract and valerenic acid upregulated the LL-37 mRNA and protein expression in both treated cell lines. Valerenic acid showed a greater effect on upregulating LL-37 expression than valerian methanolic extract. A549 cells were more sensitive to valerian methanolic extract compared to MRC5 cells, and its cell viability was reduced. Furthermore, liver and kidney-related safety assessments showed that valerian methanolic extract had no toxic effects. In general, it was concluded that the methanolic extract of valerian as well as the resulting valerenic acid as the most important component of the extract has the ability to upregulate LL-37expression. Therefore, methanolic extract of valerian and valerenic acid can be considered for improving the immune system
L-Ascorbic acid affect the DNA methytransferase expression in Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts
Introduction: Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be generated from different source of cells with different efficiencies. Two DNA methyltransferases DNMT1 and DNMT3A have been shown to regulate epigenetically the gene expression involved in cell viability and reprogramming. L-ascorbic acid (L-AA) is a chemical factor that can accelerate reprogramming. Here, we sought to investigate the effect of L-AA on DNMT1 and DNMT3A expressions. Materials and Methods: First, mouse embryonic fibroblasts at passage 3 were cultured in the presence of 10 µg/ml L-AA days for 5 days. Then, DNMT1 and DNMT3A expressions were determined using real-time PCR at days 3 and 5. Results: It was showed that L-AA could enhance DNMT-1 expression which involve in cell viability and decrease the DNMT3A which involve in cell differentiation. Conclusion: The results therefore suggest a new insight into L-AA mechanism impact on reprogramming process
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