The healing power of Aloe vera mucilage: induction of insulin-like growth factor gene expression and regeneration tissue in mouse damaged skin

زمینه و هدف: گیاه آلوئه ورا (Aloe barbadensis Miller) از جمله گیاهان استوایی بوده که به منظور ترمیم بسیاری از سوختگی ها و دیگر زخم ها کاربرد فراوان دارد؛ مطالعه حاضر با هدف بررسی اثرات موسیلاژ آلوئه ورا بر فرآیند ترمیم زخم در پوست آسیب دیده موش انجام شده است. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه تجربی 30 سر موش سوری نر نژادbalb/c در محدوده وزنی 2±22 گرم به پنج گروه بدون زخم (کنترل منفی)، زخم با تیمار سرم فیزیولوژیک به مدت 8 روز، زخم با تیمار سروم فیزیولوژیک به مدت 16 روز، زخم با تیمار موسیلاژ آلوئه ورا به مدت 8 روز و زخم با تیمار آلوئه ورا به مدت 16 روز تقسیم شدند. بر روی پشت هر موش دو زخم مساوی به قطر 2 ±10 میلی متر با برداشت ضخامت کامل پوست (Full-thickness) ایجاد گردید. پس از 8 و 16 روز از هر گروه نمونه برداری های به عمل آمدو از تکنیک RT-PCR جهت بررسی میزان بیان ژن فاکتور رشد شبه انسولینی (IGF) و در مطالعات بافت شناسی تغییرات بافتی مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. جهت بررسی آماری از آزمون آماری آنالیز واریانس یک طرفه (ANOVA) و آزمون تعقیبی توکی (Tukey) استفاده شد. یافته ها: تیمار با موسیلاژ آلوئه ورا سبب افزایش بیان ژن فاکتور رشد شبه انسولینی (IGF) در 8 و 16 روز پس از ایجاد زخم نسبت به گروه شم گردید (05/0

Очікування споживачів в ексклюзивній промисловості Ірану

У статті проведено дослідження та порівняння різних моделей оцінювання рівня задоволеності споживачів. У рамках дослідження була використана Європейська модель. Результати аналізу подані за трирічний період. Були вивчені такі змінні, як: якість продукції, якість обслуговування, якість гарантійних послуг, якість фінансових послуг, а також відносини зі споживачами, сприйманий імідж та лояльність. Для збору даних був використаний метод польових досліджень. Зібрані дані були проаналізовані з використанням програми SPSS. Метод Альфа Кронбаха був застосований для дослідження особливостей компаній-споживачів та рівеня їх задоволення за кожною із виділених змінних.В статье проведено исследование и сравнение разных моделей оценивания уровня удовлетворенности потребителей. В рамках исследования была использована Европейская модель. Результаты анализа поданы за трехлетний период. Были изучены такие переменные, как: качество продукции, качество обслуживания, качество гарантийных услуг, качество финансовых услуг, а также отношения с потребителями, воспринимаемый имидж и лояльность. Для сбора данных был использован метод полевых исследований. Собранные данные были проанализированы с помощью программы SPSS. Метод Альфа Кронбаха был использован для исследования особенностей компаний-потребителей и уровня их удовлетворенности по каждой из выделенных переменных.In this research, different types of modals for the evaluation of customers’ satisfaction have been studied and compared. European model has been selected for the evaluation of customers' satisfaction in the industry. This model was first localized and then implemented. The final results were investigated for three one-year period and ultimate changes were considered. In this research, variables such as product quality, service quality, warranty service quality, financial service quality, and value, relationship with customers, perceived image, and loyalty were studied. For data collection of this descriptive research, we made use of field method and also all the customers were considered. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS software and Cronbach’s Alpha method was used to investigate the features of companies' customers and the rate of their satisfaction in each of the indices and variables

From Expressive Discrepancy to Pervasive Similarity; A Comparative Study of the Meaning Muḥṣanāt in Shi’ite and Sunni Exegeses up to the Seventh Century A.H.

Received: 2021/9/3  |   Correction: 2022/4/7   |   Accepted: 2022/4/7The Qur’anic word muḥṣanāt (wedded women), which has occurred in (Q. 4:24) and elswhere, has various examples in both earlier Shi’ite and Sunni exegeses. Based on some needs and contexts, such as the tradition of Islamic narrations’ transmission, the variety of narrations concerning the behavior of the Prophet (PBUH) and Caliphs in dealing with war captives, as well as legitimizing and sanctifying the way of Caliphs, some former Sunni exegetes have meant the mentioned word as ‘captive married women’. However, the different doctrinal contexts in Shi’a led to the point that such a meaning was not being expressed in previous Shi’ite exegeses. In fact, the majority of Shi’ite exegetes have mostly considered the Qur’anic word muḥṣanāt to mean a bondwoman or free one. But after writing the early comprehensive exegeses, the suggested difference became almost disappeared. The mutual retelling of Shi’ite and Sunni exegetes from each other’s sources caused the first distinction between Shi’ites and Sunnis about the meaning of the word no longer being seen in these exegeses. Thus, as if the contexts that underlie the acceptance of an exegetical viewpoint in previous Muslim sources were not historically given much necessary attention in later periods. This point seems especially important when one heeds that the use of each other’s sources has not happened in a balanced situation between Shi’ites and Sunnis. As a matter of fact, the Shi’ite exegeses were more influenced by the Sunni ones and not vice versa. In particular, this consequence seems to be due to the acceptance of the previous Sunni exegetes’ viewpoints by Shaykh Ṭūsī (385-460/995-1067), and his character’s influence on later Shi’ite ones as well.Beheshti, N; Najafi, M.J. (2022) From Expressive Discrepancy to Pervasive Similarity; A Comparative Study of the Meaning Muḥṣanāt in Shi’ite and Sunni Exegeses up to the Seventh Century A.H.. Biannual Journal of Comparative Exegetical Researches, 8 (15) 37-64 Doi: 10.22091/PTT.2022.7383.2018

Evaluation of epidemiologic, clinical, and paraclinical features of children with brucellosis hospitalized in two teaching hospital related to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, during the years 2010-2016

BACKGROUND: The clinical manifestations of brucellosis are very diverse. This study was conducted to investigate the epidemiological, laboratory, and clinical characteristics in pediatrics patients with brucellosis.METHODS: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the population included patients under age of 18 years who were hospitalized with a diagnosis of brucellosis in Razi hospital, Qaemshahr City, and Bu-ali Sina hospital, Sari City, Iran, during the years 2010-2016. Twenty seven patients with a mean age of 12.5 years including 9 girls and 18 boys had inclusion criteria and entered to study. Most patients (70.3%) were in the age range of 12-18 years.RESULTS: Twenty one patients (77.8%) consumed unpasteurized dairy products and 10 patients (37%) had direct contact with livestock. Most of the initial complaints were fever in 13 cases (48.1%), joint pain in 12 cases (44.4%), and limbs pain in 5 cases (18.5%). The most common clinical findings were arthritis (14.8%) and splenomegaly (7.4%). In laboratory findings, 11.1% had leukopenia, 48.1% had anemia, 3.7% had thrombocytopenia, 29.6% had a moderate increase in erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), 25.9% had high increase in ESR, and 18.5% had leukocytosis. Clinical signs and laboratory parameters in the study included chills and fever, joints and limbs pain, arthritis, splenomegaly, increase in ESR, anemia, leukocytosis, and leukopenia.CONCLUSION: In patients with fever and skeletal or joints pain, brucellosis should be considered as a possible disease, and initial diagnostic measures should be taken, especially in children. Signs and symptoms of brucellosis are various and nonspecific. Educating the high risk families plays an important role in management of disease.

Assessment of Stress in General Dentists in Tehran City

Objectives: This study sought to assess the level of stress in general dentists in the 2nd district of Tehran city in 2014 to find out the stressors and suggest strategies to overcome them.Methods: This descriptive, analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted on 130 general dentists from the 2nd district of Tehran city selected via weighted randomization. Level of stress was assessed using Coudron stress questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 and Spearman’s correlation coefficient, Chi square test and ordinal logistic regression tests. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: All types of stress (occupational, life health, personal life and personality) were significantly correlated. Normal life health stress (compared to high stress) decreased occupational stress to approximately one third. Level of occupational stress was 2.5 times lower in subjects with normal level of stress in their personal life and 2 times lower in subjects with normal personality stress. Most dentists, irrespective of gender and marital status had high levels of occupational stress. Only 11.27% of those with a work experience of less than 10 years had normal life health stress. Personal life stress was significantly correlated with age, work place, and work experience (P<0.05).Conclusion: Most dentists, irrespective of gender (male: 67.3%, female: 73%) and marital status (married: 66.3%, single: 74.2%) had high levels of occupational stress. The effects of age, gender, marital status, work place and work experience were variable on occupational, life health, personal life and personality stresses and depended on the type of stress assessed

Evaluation of epidemiologic, clinical, and paraclinical features of children with brucellosis hospitalized in two teaching hospital related to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, during the years 2010-2016

BACKGROUND: The clinical manifestations of brucellosis are very diverse. This study was conducted to investigate the epidemiological, laboratory, and clinical characteristics in pediatrics patients with brucellosis. METHODS: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the population included patients under age of 18 years who were hospitalized with a diagnosis of brucellosis in Razi hospital, Qaemshahr City, and Bu-ali Sina hospital, Sari City, Iran, during the years 2010-2016. Twenty seven patients with a mean age of 12.5 years including 9 girls and 18 boys had inclusion criteria and entered to study. Most patients (70.3%) were in the age range of 12-18 years. RESULTS: Twenty one patients (77.8%) consumed unpasteurized dairy products and 10 patients (37%) had direct contact with livestock. Most of the initial complaints were fever in 13 cases (48.1%), joint pain in 12 cases (44.4%), and limbs pain in 5 cases (18.5%). The most common clinical findings were arthritis (14.8%) and splenomegaly (7.4%). In laboratory findings, 11.1% had leukopenia, 48.1% had anemia, 3.7% had thrombocytopenia, 29.6% had a moderate increase in erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), 25.9% had high increase in ESR, and 18.5% had leukocytosis. Clinical signs and laboratory parameters in the study included chills and fever, joints and limbs pain, arthritis, splenomegaly, increase in ESR, anemia, leukocytosis, and leukopenia. CONCLUSION: In patients with fever and skeletal or joints pain, brucellosis should be considered as a possible disease, and initial diagnostic measures should be taken, especially in children. Signs and symptoms of brucellosis are various and nonspecific. Educating the high risk families plays an important role in management of disease

The predictive value of C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin chemical biomarkers in the premature diagnosis of infection in brain ischemic stroke

BACKGROUND: The infections are common complications after the ischemic stroke. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anticipatory value of C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) biomarkers in diagnosis of stroke-induced infection.METHODS: In the current prospective study, 184 patients with cerebral ischemia were enrolled. Serum samples were obtained from patients. The CRP and PCT, white blood cells (WBCs) and monocytes, and final infections were evaluated.RESULTS: In the first 72 hours, the analysis for CRP revealed that the sensitivity was 41.60%, the specificity was 100%, positive predictive value (PPV) was 100%, and negative predictive value (NPV) was 82.90%. PCT showed that the sensitivity was 85.41%, the specificity was 98.54%, PPV was 95.34%, and NPV was 95%.CONCLUSION: According to our findings, the evaluation of CRP and PCT with simultaneous clinical observation could be considered as a good step in start of antibiotic therapy

Association between sleep duration and hypertension incidence: Systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies

Aim: Sleep duration has been suggested to be associated with hypertension (HTN). However, evidence of the nature of the relationship and its direction has been inconsistent. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to assess the relationship between sleep duration and risk of HTN incidence, and to distinguish more susceptible populations. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and ProQuest were searched from January 2000 to May 2023 for cohort studies comparing short and long sleep durations with 7–8 hours of sleep for the risk of HTN incidence. Random-effect model (the DerSimonian-Laird method) was applied to pool risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: We included sixteen studies ranging from 2.4 to 18 years of follow-up duration evaluating HTN incidence in 1,044,035 people. Short sleep duration was significantly associated with a higher risk of developing HTN (HR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.06–1.09). The association was stronger when the sleep duration was less than 5 hours (HR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.08–1.14). In contrast to males, females (HR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.04–1.09) were more vulnerable to developing HTN due to short sleep duration. No significant difference between different follow-up durations and age subgroups was observed. Long sleep duration was not associated with an increased incidence of HTN. Conclusion: Short sleep duration was associated with higher risk of HTN incidence, however, there was no association between long sleep duration and incidence of HTN. These findings highlight the importance of implementing target-specific preventive and interventional strategies for vulnerable populations with short sleep duration to reduce the risk of HTN

Bi-allelic ACBD6 variants lead to a neurodevelopmental syndrome with progressive and complex movement disorders

The acyl-CoA-binding domain-containing protein 6 (ACBD6) is ubiquitously expressed, plays a role in the acylation of lipids and proteins, and regulates the N-myristoylation of proteins via N-myristoyltransferase enzymes (NMTs). However, its precise function in cells is still unclear, as is the consequence of ACBD6 defects on human pathophysiology. Utilizing exome sequencing and extensive international data sharing efforts, we identified 45 affected individuals from 28 unrelated families (consanguinity 93%) with bi-allelic pathogenic, predominantly loss-of-function (18/20) variants in ACBD6. We generated zebrafish and Xenopus tropicalis acbd6 knockouts by CRISPR/Cas9 and characterized the role of ACBD6 on protein N-myristoylation with YnMyr chemical proteomics in the model organisms and human cells, with the latter also being subjected further to ACBD6 peroxisomal localization studies. The affected individuals (23 males and 22 females), with ages ranging from 1 to 50 years old, typically present with a complex and progressive disease involving moderate-to-severe global developmental delay/intellectual disability (100%) with significant expressive language impairment (98%), movement disorders (97%), facial dysmorphism (95%), and mild cerebellar ataxia (85%) associated with gait impairment (94%), limb spasticity/hypertonia (76%), oculomotor (71%) and behavioural abnormalities (65%), overweight (59%), microcephaly (39%) and epilepsy (33%). The most conspicuous and common movement disorder was dystonia (94%), frequently leading to early-onset progressive postural deformities (97%), limb dystonia (55%), and cervical dystonia (31%). A jerky tremor in the upper limbs (63%), a mild head tremor (59%), parkinsonism/hypokinesia developing with advancing age (32%), and simple motor and vocal tics were among other frequent movement disorders. Midline brain malformations including corpus callosum abnormalities (70%), hypoplasia/agenesis of the anterior commissure (66%), short midbrain and small inferior cerebellar vermis (38% each), as well as hypertrophy of the clava (24%) were common neuroimaging findings. acbd6-deficient zebrafish and Xenopus models effectively recapitulated many clinical phenotypes reported in patients including movement disorders, progressive neuromotor impairment, seizures, microcephaly, craniofacial dysmorphism, and midbrain defects accompanied by developmental delay with increased mortality over time. Unlike ACBD5, ACBD6 did not show a peroxisomal localisation and ACBD6-deficiency was not associated with altered peroxisomal parameters in patient fibroblasts. Significant differences in YnMyr-labelling were observed for 68 co- and 18 post-translationally N-myristoylated proteins in patient-derived fibroblasts. N-Myristoylation was similarly affected in acbd6-deficient zebrafish and Xenopus tropicalis models, including Fus, Marcks, and Chchd-related proteins implicated in neurological diseases. The present study provides evidence that bi-allelic pathogenic variants in ACBD6 lead to a distinct neurodevelopmental syndrome accompanied by complex and progressive cognitive and movement disorders