Association of IFN-γ and P2X7 Receptor Gene Polymorphisms in Susceptibility to Tuberculosis Among Iranian Patients

Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and P2X7 receptor are crucial for host defence against mycobacterial infections. Recent studies have indicated that IFN-γ, IFN-γ receptor 1 (IFN-γR1) andP2X7 gene polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). However, the relationship between IFN-γ and P2X7 polymorphism and TB susceptibility remains inconclusive in Iranian population. For this reason, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IFN-γ (G+2109A), IFN-γR1 (G-611A) and P2X7 genes (at –762, 1513 position) in patients (n = 100) were assessed using PCR-RFLP. Data were analysed with SPSS version 18. For the 2109 loci of IFN-γ gene, the frequency of mutant alleles between patients and controls were not statistically significant. However, there was a significant difference between the TB patient and controls for –611 alleles of IFN-γR1 (P = 0.01). Additionally, the frequency of P2X7 gene polymorphisms (SNP-762 and 1513) between patients and controls was statistically significant. In conclusions, our study revealed a significant association of IFN-γR1 and P2X7 genes polymorphisms with risk of developing TB in Iranian population

Pulmonary valve balloon valvuloplasty compared across three age groups of children

The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics and outcomes of treating pulmonary stenosis with percutaneous valvuloplasty, and to compare them among three childhood age groups. All children under 15 years of age who had undergone pulmonary valve balloon valvuloplasty in Madani Heart Center from 2005–2009 were enrolled in this study. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS software (SPSS, Inc, Chicago, IL). Mean (± standard deviation) age of patients was 55.5 ± 47.4 months. Two-thirds of the subjects had moderate pulmonary valve stenosis. Balloon valvuloplasty failed in nearly one-fifth of the treated patients. There were 17 failures and two cases of mortality, descriptively less frequent among children >5 years; however, the observed difference was not statistically significant. Mild pulmonary valve insufficiency was a common finding

Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in Iran: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Background and aims: The World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recommended executive breastfeeding for 6 months after birth. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of executive breastfeeding in Iran by a meta-analysis study to be used by policy-makers in order to health programmer plan in this field. Methods: In this meta-analysis study, the databases of ISI Web of Knowledge, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Google Scholar and domestic databases were searched between January 2007 and March 2015. Between the studies with regard to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 studies were selected. Data were analyzed using Stata 11 software. Results: Sever heterogeneity was observed among reported prevalence based on the results of Chi-square based on Q test and I2 statistics (Q=6132.55, P2=99.8 ) and consequently, random effect model was used for themeta-analysis. The overall estimated prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in Iran was 49.1 (95 CI: 33.4-64.9). Conclusions: In the present study, it was summarized the results of previous studies and showed that the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in Iran has been increased and currently is in a satisfactory level. The ongoing national programs for preservation and promoting of exclusive breastfeeding should continue

Solving an one-dimensional cutting stock problem by simulated annealing and tabu search

A cutting stock problem is one of the main and classical problems in operations research that is modeled as LP problem. Because of its NP-hard nature, finding an optimal solution in reasonable time is extremely difficult and at least non-economical. In this paper, two meta-heuristic algorithms, namely simulated annealing (SA) and tabu search (TS), are proposed and developed for this type of the complex and large-sized problem. To evaluate the efficiency of these proposed approaches, several problems are solved using SA and TS, and then the related results are compared. The results show that the proposed SA gives good results in terms of objective function values rather than TS

Pomegranate MR image analysis using fuzzy clustering algorithms

In this paper, the process of the pomegranate magnetic resonance (MR) images was studied.  Its internal structure is composed of tissue and seeds, which indicate the dependency between the maturity and internal quality.  The latter properties are important in pomegranate’s sorting and cannot be measured manually.  In this paper, an automatic algorithm was proposed to segment the internal structure of pomegranates.  Since the intensities of the calyx and stem of the pomegranate MR image are closely related to that of the soft tissue, their corresponding pixels are therefore labeled in the same class of the internal soft tissues.  In order to solve this problem, the exact shape of the pomegranate is first extracted from the background of the image using active contour models (ACMs).  Then, the stem and calyx are removed using morphological filters.  We have also proposed an improved version of the fuzzy c-means algorithm (FCM), the spatial FCM (SFCM), for segmentation of MR images of pomegranate.  SFCM is realized by incorporating the spatial neighborhood information into the standard FCM and modifying the membership weighting of each cluster.  SFCM employs spatial information of adjacent pixels leading to an improvement of the results.  It thus outperforms other techniques like FCM, even in the presence of Gaussian, salt and pepper, and speckle noises. Keywords: MRI, pomegranate, image segmentation, spatial fuzzy c-means, morphological filter&nbsp

Investigation of Strength Parameters of PVA Fiber-Reinforced Fly Ash-Soil Mixtures in Large-Scale Direct Shear Apparatus

Soil reinforcement is an old and still efficient technique in improving soil strength and stiffness properties. Current paper aims at quantifying the effects of different inclusions on mechanical behavior of fiber-reinforced cemented soil. An experimental program was conducted to study simultaneous effects of randomly oriented fiber inclusions and cement stabilization on the geotechnical characteristics of fly ash-soil mixtures. Chamkhaleh sand, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber, cement and fly ash with some water were mixed and compacted into large scale direct shear apparatus with three equal layers. PVA fibers were randomly distributed in three compacted layers at predetermined weight contents. Direct shear tests were carried out on fly ash-soil specimens prepared with different cement, fly ash and polyvinyl alcohol contents, and 7 different curing periods. Results show that cement increases the strength of the raw fly ash-soil specimens. The fiber inclusion further increases the strength of the cemented and uncemented soil specimens and transforms their brittle behavior to ductile behavior. The fiber reinforcement and distribution throughout the entire specimen results in a significant increase in the strength of fly ash -soil- cement mixtures

Investigating the relationship between dividend policy and dividend adjustment speed in Tehran Stock Exchange

The research was formed with the aim of knowing the relationship between the dividend policy and the dividend speed. This study examines the effect of the factors of investment ratio and dividend payment ratio on the dividend speed and it is done by relying on the financial information of the companies listed to the Tehran Stock Exchange. This research is descriptive, analytical and correlational in terms of its nature and method, which is an applied research in terms of its purpose. In this research, using a quantitative method to analyze the financial information collected from the companies listed to the Tehran stock exchange and the test of research hypotheses was discussed. The statistical sample consists of 112 companies between 2016 to 220, which investigated the research hypotheses by using the regression model and benefiting from Eviews 10, and in this way, the type of relationship and significance of the research variables was determined. The results and findings of the research indicate the existence of a positive and significant relationship between the investment ratio and the rate of dividend adjustment in the statistical sample and the absence of a relationship between the dividend payment ratio and the rate of dividend adjustment among the companies listed to the Tehran Stock Exchange. This issue shows that with a change in the investment approach of Iranian companies, their desire to provide domestic financial resources from the place of dividend will probably increase, and as a result, the level of dividend adjustment speed will also increase or decrease

Surgical Treatment versus Conservative Management of Splenic Rupture: Outcomes and Risk Factors

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the outcome and risk factors in operative and non-operativemanagement of splenic injury.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on patients with traumatic splenic injuries who werehospitalized in Kashani Hospital (Isfahan, Iran) from 2017 to 2019. The studied variables were extracted fromthe medical records of the enrolled participants. The outcomes such as mortality complications and risk factorswere compared based on treatment methods.Results: A total of 240 patients were investigated. The mean age of the patients was 29.8±12.2, with 180(77.5%) patients being men. 154 (64.2%) patients underwent operative treatment. The mortality rate was 18.9%and 4.6% among operative and non-operative groups (p<0.001). Complications were observed in 11.5% and46.1% of non-operative and operative groups, respectively (p<0.001). Operative treatment inversely correlatedwith mortality (p<0.001) and complications (p<0.05). Splenic injury severity was correlated positivelywith mortality (p<0.001) and negatively with complications (p<0.001). Unstable hemodynamic status waspositively correlated with complications (p<0.001). Age had a positive correlation with mortality (p<0.001)and complications (p<0.001). Male sex had a negative correlation with complications (p<0.001). GCS score andadmission were positively correlated with mortality (p<0.001). There was no statistically significant correlationbetween correlated injuries and outcomes (p≥0.05).Conclusion: Patients who received surgery had higher rates of mortality and complications. However, aftercontrolling for confounders, operative treatment was found to be inversely correlated with mortality andcomplications