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Paul Helm believes that there are good reasons that divine omniscience - which includes the future - with human freedom understood in an incompatibilist sense is logically inconsistent. But this tension should not lead us to a reduced theory of divine foreknowledge, just as it should not negate human freedom and responsibility. Helm has argued that a Christian theist may accept a compatibilist sense of human freedom; first, the Christian doctrine of "God's grace" is compatible only with the compatibilist version of human freedom. Second because God is omniscient, it must be omniscient in a strong sense, and this is the case only if compatibilism is true. We will say that Helm's first argument will lead to the denial of some other accepted doctrines of religions, including Christianity, and his second argument falls into affirming the consequences. But Helm's third reason is that necessarily, if God knows x in advance (which He does), then x will necessarily occur. To avoid problems, he emphasizes that what he means by "necessity" is a historical and not logical necessity. But this argument only works when we accept that God is in time. Therefore, those who consider divine knowledge timeless can claim that all events exist in the divine mind in a necessary way and His knowledge is not necessary because it is in the past. It seems that Helm himself also accepts this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In the current study, the effects of photobiomodulation (PBM) treatments were examined based on biomechanical and histological criteria and mRNA levels of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and NADPH oxidase (NOX) 1 and 4 in a postponed, ischemic, and infected wound repair model (DIIWHM) in rats with type 2 diabetes (DM2) during the inflammation (day 4) and proliferation (day 8) stages. Methods: To study ischemic wound repair in a diabetic rat model (DIIWHM), 24 rats with type-2 diabetes were randomly divided into four groups and infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The control groups consisted of CG4 (control group on day 4) and CG8 (control group on day 8), while the PBM groups comprised PBM4 (PBM treatment group on day 4) and PBM8 (PBM treatment group on day 8). These group assignments allowed for comparisons between the control groups and the PBM-treated groups at their respective time points during the study. Results: On days 4 and 8 of wound restoration, the PBM4 and PBM8 groups showed substantially modulated inflammatory responses and improved formation of fibroblast tissue compared with the CG groups (P < 0.05). Concurrently, the effects of PBM8 were significantly superior to those of PBM4 (P < 0.05). The antioxidant results on days 4 and 8 revealed substantial increases in CAT and SOD in the PBM groups compared with the CGs (P < 0.05). Substantial decreases were observed in the antioxidant agents NOX1 and NOX4 of the PBM4 and PBM8 groups compared with both CG groups (P < 0.05). Conclusion: PBM treatments significantly sped up the inflammatory and proliferating processes in a DHIIWM in DM2 animals by modifying the inflammatory reaction and boosting fibroblast proliferation. Overall, the current findings indicated substantially better results in the PBM groups than in the CG groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pistachio is one of the main crops in Iran. Pistachio green hull, as a by-product of this fruit, is obtained in large quantities after the processing of pistachios. This novel work was designed to examine the possible anti-cancer impact of the pistachio hull extract in the liposomal form (PHEL) on HepG2 cells. Methods and results: The thin-film hydration approach was used for preparing liposomes and the physicochemical features of the liposomes were subsequently characterized. Afterward, apoptosis and the expression of genes related to apoptosis were assessed using flow cytometry assay and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), respectively. According to the results, the size range of PHEL was between 198 and 201 nm with a negative surface charge of − 39.2 to − 42.9 mV. As revealed by the flow cytometry results, this liposomal extract exhibits good potential for the induction of apoptosis. Moreover, the qPCR results demonstrated the up-regulation of p53 and Bax expressions and the down-regulation of Bcl-2 expression with an associated Bax/Bcl-2 ratio up-regulation. Conclusion: The flow cytometry and real-time PCR results indicated the potential of this liposomal extract as an anti-cancer drug candidate for the treatment of liver cancer in the future, and the mitochondrial pathway involving the up-regulation of the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio can mediate its impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adipokine leptin plays a crucial role in metabolic and reproductive functions. Leptin receptor has a soluble form that binds to leptin, thus modulating its level in the circulation. It has been indicated that the levels of leptin and leptin receptor and also LEP rs7799039 and LEPR rs1137101 polymorphisms are associated with metabolic disorders. In the present study, we assessed the levels of leptin and soluble leptin receptor (sOB-R), and also the frequency of rs7799039 and rs1137101 polymorphisms in healthy fertile women and patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), inclusive of PCOS-infertile and PCOS-recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) subjects. Methods: A total of 324 PCOS patients- including 199 infertile cases and 125 patients with a history of RPL- and 144 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Biochemical parameters and plasma leptin and sOB-R levels were measured by ELISA and the genotypes of rs7799039 and rs1137101 polymorphisms were determined using PCR- RFLP. Results: Plasma leptin and sOB-R levels were significantly higher and lower in PCOS, PCOS-infertile and PCOS RPL groups, respectively. The GG genotype frequencies of rs7799039 and rs1137101 polymorphisms were significantly different between PCOS-infertile women and non-PCOS subjects (P = 0.043, OR = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.22–0.97, and P = 0.01, OR = 0.31, 95% CI = 0.12–0.75, respectively). Increased LEP levels were associated with the risk of PCOS and RPL in women with PCOS (P = 0.039, OR = 1.203, 95%CI = [1.009–1.435] and P = 0.012, OR = 1.267, 95% CI = [1.054–1.522], respectively). Conclusion: Polymorphisms rs7799039 and rs1137101 and circulating leptin and sOB-R levels were associated with infertility in Iranian women with PCOS. Further studies are needed to reveal the role of leptin in PCOS pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the diachronic evolution of doctoral dissertation writing in terms of interactive and interactional metadiscourse at three time intervals of 1966, 1986, and 2016 through examining the salient textual features and the pattern of change involved in the metadiscourse in question. One hundred and eighty authentic doctoral dissertations were retrieved from humanities and social sciences (HSS) and sciences and engineering (SE) which generated a 5.16 million words corpus. Findings show that metadiscourse has considerably increased for SE and drastically decreased for HSS. Therefore, it is claimed that academic writing tends to be moving toward more objective and audience responsible texts in HSS and less objective and more author responsible texts in SE. This suggests that the former is inclined to get less persuasive and reader-oriented while the latter appears to be more persuasive and reader-friendly. Based on the findings, a theoretical model of academic writing evolution is proposed which focuses on three writing aspects, namely, informality and subjectivity, reader-orientedness and persuasiveness in the hope of offering implications for better understanding and constructing academic writing across disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate dominant predictor components of moral intelligence (MI) based on the Lennick and Kiel's model in students of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMU). In this descriptive-analytical study, 322 students of SBMU were chosen through cluster sampling. To collect data, a 40-item questionnaire, whose validity and reliability was confirmed in previous studies, based on the Lennick and Kiel's model was used. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS 21 software using appropriate descriptive and analytical statistics. Of 322 participants, 180 and 142 were female and male, respectively. The mean age of the participants was 22.30±2.69 years. The study’s regression analysis revealed that the most and the least direct effects were related to the forgiveness (R2=0.320) and compassion (R2=0.284) components, respectively. Among the inspected components, the responsibility component with an overall effect of R2=0.655 was shown to be the strongest predictor component of MI. Universities play a significant role in students’ moral development and enhancement. The present study’s findings suggest that developing strategic plans and interventions can enhance MI level (e.g., incentive systems for individuals maintaining high moral responsibility). Since today’s students will be tomorrow’s medical and healthcare professionals, upgrading of MI level in students studying in various divisions of medical sciences enhances their moral responsibility through setting out strong ethics principles to follow and the quality of care that they will provide to patients, thereby improving health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between the organizational intelligence and the performance of Melli and Mehr Eghtesad banks managers in Ardabil. In the present study cross-correlation method was used. The population consisted of all managers and assistants of Melli and Mehr Eghtesad banks in Ardabil which were about 132 people. The main tools of data collection were a standardized questionnaire that assigned for organization intelligence and a researcher-made questionnaire measured the relationship between two variables. To test the hypothesis, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Spearman's Correlation coefficient, and Mann-Whitney U Test Statistics were used. The findings revealed that there was a significant relationship between the organizational intelligence variables and the performance of banks managers and there was no significant difference between the organizational intelligence of Melli and Mehr Eghtesad banks managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]