Disrupted Network Topology in Patients with Stable and Progressive Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

Recent findings suggest that Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a disconnection syndrome characterized by abnormalities in large-scale networks. However, the alterations that occur in network topology during the prodromal stages of AD, particularly in patients with stable mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and those that show a slow or faster progression to dementia, are still poorly understood. In this study, we used graph theory to assess the organization of structural MRI networks in stable MCI (sMCI) subjects, late MCI converters (lMCIc), early MCI converters (eMCIc), and AD patients from 2 large multicenter cohorts: ADNI and AddNeuroMed. Our findings showed an abnormal global network organization in all patient groups, as reflected by an increased path length, reduced transitivity, and increased modularity compared with controls. In addition, lMCIc, eMCIc, and AD patients showed a decreased path length and mean clustering compared with the sMCI group. At the local level, there were nodal clustering decreases mostly in AD patients, while the nodal closeness centrality detected abnormalities across all patient groups, showing overlapping changes in the hippocampi and amygdala and nonoverlapping changes in parietal, entorhinal, and orbitofrontal regions. These findings suggest that the prodromal and clinical stages of AD are associated with an abnormal network topology. © 2016 Published by Oxford University Press

Application of health belief model to predict COVID-19-preventive behaviors among a sample of Iranian adult population

BACKGROUND: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected nearly 9.5 million people in 216 countries, areas, or territories in the world. The fight against the COVID-19 has become a very serious international challenge. The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of COVID-19-preventive behaviors using the health belief model (HBM). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted with the participation of 558 samples from the adult population of Iran. The online convenience sampling was conducted in this research. The online 68-item questionnaire link was published all over Iran through social networks including Telegram and WhatsApp, which are common in Iran. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 19. Descriptive statistics, bivariate Pearson's correlation test, and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 33.3 +/- 10.01 years. The participants were often female (61.3), married (57.9), and resident of the city (81.0) with university educational level (78.8). The results showed that the HBM structures predicted 29.3 of the preventive behaviors of COVID-19 in the subjects. The perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and self-efficacy significantly predicted the preventive behaviors, but the perceived susceptibility and perceived severity were not significant in the regression model. The internet and virtual social networks (49.8), broadcast (33.5), and healthcare providers (15.8) were the most important sources of information related with COVID-19. In response to COVID-19-related internal cues to action, 36.6 did not pay attention and 34.7 tried to self-medicate. Only 28.5 of the subjects referred to the hospital, healthcare center, or physician. CONCLUSION: Self-efficacy, perceived barriers, and perceived benefits were the key determinants of COVID-19-preventive behaviors in the subjects. It can be concluded that the HBM is a good tool to predict COVID-19-preventive behaviors in Iranian population

Virus-sampling technologies in different environments

Exposure to pathogenic microorganisms, especially viruses, can lead to various diseases, allergies, and hospital infections. The application of sampling procedure is still a challenge to sample viruses from different environments such as air, water, wastewater, etc. However, there are many procedures such as filtration, impactor, impinger, cyclone, electrostatic separator, and MD-8 airscan that are applied for sampling and measuring viruses from air. Among conventional filters, the gelatin type can be readily dissolved in a liquid for molecular counting or cell culture without significant changes in virus tissue. Liquid impingers are the most frequent devices that are applied for the collection of viral aerosols. Also, many methods including precipitation, ultracentrifugation, electronegative membrane, and ultrafiltration have been used to prepare samples of food, wastewater, feces, urine, and surfaces. In many studies, the aforementioned methods have been employed to sample the coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2 in various environments. Also, various PCR procedures have been commonly used to identify the virus from the environmental samples. © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Is it possible to preserve the blood supply of erectile organs by anastomosis using the hypogastric artery in kidney transplantation?

Afshar Zomorrodi,1 Farzad Kakaei,2 Sahar Zomorrodi,3 Amin Bagheri1 1Department of Urology and Kidney Transplantation, Emam Reza Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; 2Department of Surgery, Emam Reza Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; 3Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran Introduction: Three modalities for treating chronic kidney failure are peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis, and kidney transplantation. Among them kidney transplantation is cost-efficient and leads to a somewhat normal quality of life. In this approach, most often the external iliac artery is selected for anastomosis, but this could be disastrous if anastomosis leads to a complication. The traditional end-to-end approach for anastomosis of the kidney artery to the internal iliac artery leads to pelvic organ ischemia. However, if the end-to-end anastomosis is replaced by an end-to-side approach, it is safer. This report discusses some cases of end-to-side anastomosis using the internal iliac artery. Method: In ten cases of chronic kidney failure, we anastomosed the kidney artery to the internal iliac artery with an end-to-side approach. Results: After vessels were unclamped, all patients had diuresis. Their creatinine was in normal range and was blood flow in the internal iliac artery, based on color Doppler ultrasound. Conclusion: End-to-side anastomosis can be done in some chronic kidney failure patients if their internal iliac arteries are large enough. This approach is safer than anastomosis using the external iliac artery. Keywords: kidney transplant, internal iliac artery, anastomosi

Grain Yield, Its Components, Genetic Diversity and Heritability in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

The current research was carried out to investigate grain yield and components and their genetic diversity and heritability of some important agronomic traits, in 19 chickpea genotypes, based on a randomized complete block design with 3 replications in Research Field of Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran in 2011-2012 growing seasons. The ANOVA results showed that, there were highly significant differences (p < 0.01) among genotypes for the SPAD number, number of sub-branch per plant, pod number per plant, 100-kernel weight, grain yield, biological yield, and harvest index. The mean comparisons results indicated that the genotypes 14, 12, 4 and 19 (with 234.7, 240, 250.3 and 259.4 kilogram of grain yield per ha, respectively) and the genotypes 18, 8, 15, and 6 (with 151.01, 167.6, 167.8 and 189 kilogram of grain yield per ha, respectively) had the maximum and minimum economic yield, respectively. According to phonotypical correlation results, there were positive and significant (p < 0.01) correlations between grain yield and pod number per plant (0.623**), plant height (0.432**), harvest index (0.425**) and biomass (0.349**). Step-wise regression indicated that the pod number per plant, harvest index, biomass, number of sub-branch per plant, and plant height were the most effective traits on economic yield and they explained 84.68 percent of the variation in economic yield. Furthermore, harvest index and seed number per plant had the maximum and minimum heritability, respectively, indicating that they could be hired as sources of variation for improving the grain yield and selecting superior genotypes

Separation and quantification of diazinon in water samples using liquid-phase microextraction-based effervescent tablet-assisted switchable solvent method coupled to gas chromatography-flame ionization detection

This study used a liquid-phase microextraction-based effervescent tablet-assisted switchable solvent method coupled to gas chromatography-flame ionization detection as an eco-efficient, convenient-to-use, cost-effective, sensitive, rapid, and efficient method for extracting, preconcentrating, and quantifying trace amounts of diazinon in river water samples. As a switchable solvent, triethylamine (TEA) was used. In situ generation of CO(2) using effervescent tablet containing Na(2) CO(3) and citric acid changed the hydrophobic TEA to the hydrophilic protonated triethylamine carbonate (P-TEA-C). CO(2) removal from the specimen solution using NaOH caused P-TEA-C to be converted into TEA and led to phase separation, during which diazinon was extracted into the TEA phase. The salting-out process was helpful in enhancing extraction efficiency. In addition, a number of significant parameters that affect extraction recovery were examined. Under optimum conditions, the limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.06 and 0.2 ng/ml, respectively. The extraction recovery percentage and pre-concentration factor were obtained at 95 and 190, respectively, and the precision (inter- and intra-day, relative standard deviation , n = 5) was <5

Effect of COVID-19 on food security, hunger, and food crisis

COVID-19 affected the world’s socioeconomic and food security more than other infectious diseases. In many countries, food industries’ workers were moderated because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused food factories to reduce or slow down their production. Airline closures, national and international restrictions, and lockdowns have severely disrupted the food supply chain. These, along with structural weaknesses in the world food system such as production, distribution, access, and stability in the food chain, have exposed more people to the food crisis and acute hunger in the world. Therefore it is necessary to use proper planning by governmental organizations and charities in the field of food supply in critical situations. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

The effects of personal, environmental, and genetic factors on epidemic of coronavirus disease-19: A review of the current literature

Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 is a viral disease that broke out in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization has been forced to declare a public health emergency due to the global outbreak of COVID-19. The concerns about the COVID-19 disease are the rapid increase in the number of patients as well as the number of deaths compared with severe acute respiratory syndrome disease. Given that there is a remarkable variability amongst people for COVID-19 infection, there really is the possibility that there will be genetic and environmental effects, it is a need for their role to be fully clarified as soon as possible. Numerous studies have been performed on the on the stability of COVID-19 virus in different environmental conditions including temperature and humidity. In this study, we aimed to discuss in detail the benefits and effects of these factors on COVID-19. Some studies have confirmed the relationship between environmental conditions and disease transmission and others have rejected. Furthermore, not all COVID-19 exposed people are infected and not all infected patients develop severe respiratory complications. It is quite likely that these disparities are genetically mediated, in part. People who may be occupationally exposed to this virus may be due to different reasons, including lack of health, lack of knowledge and attitude, and working conditions. Reducing human-to-human contact by increasing the level of public health in the community as well as maintaining social distance plays a key role in prevention of COVID-19 disease. However, many aspects of COVID-19 are still unknown and require further and extensive studies. © 2020 Salar Bakhtiyari, Amin Mirzaei, Mohsen Jalilian, Sajad Mazlomi,

Surgical treatment of postintubation tracheal stenosis: Iranian experience of effect of previous tracheostomy

Shahryar Hashemzadeh1, Khosrow Hashemzadeh2, Farzad Kakaei3, Raheleh Aligholipour4, Kamyar Ghabili51Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Research Center, 2Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Shahid Madani Hospital, 3Department of General Surgery, 4Students Research Committee, 5Medical Philosophy and History Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IranBackground: Postintubation tracheal stenosis remains the most common indication for tracheal surgery. In the event of a rapid and progressive course of the disease after extubation, surgical approaches such as primary resection and anastomosis or various methods of tracheoplasty should be selected. We report our experience with surgical management of moderate to severe postintubation tracheal stenosis. We also compared intraoperative variables in postintubation tracheal stenosis between those with and without previous tracheostomy.Methods: Over a 5-year period from June 2005 to July 2010, 50 patients aged 14&amp;ndash;64 years with moderate (50%&amp;ndash;70% of the lumen) to severe (&amp;gt;70%) postintubation tracheal stenosis underwent resection and primary anastomosis. Patients were followed up to assess the surgical outcome. To study the effect of previous tracheostomy on treatment, surgical variables were compared between patients with previous tracheostomy (group A, n = 27) and those without previous tracheostomy (group B, n = 23).Results: Resection and primary anastomosis was performed via either cervical incision (45 patients) or right thoracotomy (five patients). In two patients with subglottic stenosis, complete resection of the tracheal lesion and anterior portion of cricoid cartilage was performed, and the remaining trachea was anastomosed to the thyroid cartilage using a Montgomery T-tube. There was only one perioperative death in a patient with a tracheo-innominate fistula. The length of the resected segment, number of resected rings, and subsequent duration of surgery were significantly greater in group A compared with group B (P &amp;lt; 0.05). Six months after surgery, the outcome was satisfactory to excellent in 47 (95.9%) patients.Conclusion: This surgical approach leads to highly successful results in the treatment of moderate to severe postintubation tracheal stenosis. In addition, previous tracheostomy might prolong the duration of surgery and increase the need for postoperative interventions due to an increase in the length and number of resected tracheal segments. Therefore, in the event of emergency tracheostomy in postintubation tracheal stenosis, insertion of the tracheostomy tube close to the stenotic segment is recommended.Keywords: trachea, tracheostomy, tracheal stenosis, intubation, tracheal resectio

Health Information Seeking Behaviors Related to COVID-19 Among Young People: An Online Survey

Background: COVID-19 is a communicable disease that is preventable by accessing valid health information. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate health information seeking behaviors (HISB) related to COVID-19 in young people. Materials andMethods: A total of 258 young people participated in this online study through a convenience sampling method who filled out the HISBC-19 questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 19 software by the chi-square test with considering α = 0.05 as the significance level. Results: Out of 258 participants,105 (40.7) had very good internet search skills, 77 (29.8) were good, and 76 (29.5) were poor. Besides, 194 (75.2) people started searching for health information from search engines and virtual social media. The highest use of health information sources was related to virtual social media. Also, 243 (94.2) people reported behavioral improvement after achieving health information. The chi-square test showed a significant difference between men and women in receiving information from visiting the physician or other treatment staff, asking questions from family members, watching satellite channels, and attending workshops and meetings on health (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The use of internet-based media is one of the most important sources of health information related to COVID-19. Planning to provide accurate health information through reliable sources plays an important role in improving health information in young people. © 2021. Author(s)