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This study aimed to investigate the estimated burden attributed to lead exposure (LE), at the national and subnational levels from 1990 to 2019 in Iran. The burden attributed to LE was determined through the estimation of deaths, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), years of life lost (YLLs) and years lived with disability (YLDs) using the comparative risk assessment method of Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study presenting as age-standardized per 100,000 person year (PY) with 95% uncertainty intervals (95% UI). Furthermore, the burden of each disease were recorded independently. Eventually, the age-standardized YLLs, DALYs, deaths and YLDs rates attributed to LE demonstrated a decrease of 50.7%, 48.9%, 38.0%, and 36.4%, respectively, from 1990 to 2019. The most important causes of LE burden are divided into two acute and chronic categories: acute, mainly causes mental disorders (DALYs rate of 36.0 in 2019), and chronic, results in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) (DALYs rate of 391.8) and chronic kidney diseases (CKDs) (DALYs rate of 26.6), with CVDs bearing the most significant burden. At the sub-national level, a decrease in burden was evident in most provinces; moreover, low and low-middle SDI provinces born the highest burden. The burden increased mainly by ageing and was higher in males than females. It was concluded that although the overall decrease in the burden; still it is high, especially in low and low-middle SDI provinces, in advanced ages and in males. Among IDID, CKDs and CVDs that are the most important causes of LE-attributed burden in Iran; CVDs bear the highest burden., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

A combination of wearable sensors' data and Machine Learning (ML) techniques has been used in many studies to predict specific joint angles and moments. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of four different non-linear regression ML models to estimate lower-limb joints' kinematics, kinetics, and muscle forces using Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) and electromyographys' (EMGs) data. Seventeen healthy volunteers (9F, 28 ± 5 years) were asked to walk over-ground for a minimum of 16 trials. For each trial, marker trajectories and three force-plates data were recorded to calculate pelvis, hip, knee, and ankle kinematics and kinetics, and muscle forces (the targets), as well as 7 IMUs and 16 EMGs. The features from sensors' data were extracted using the Tsfresh python package and fed into 4 ML models; Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine, and Multivariate Adaptive Regression Spline for targets' prediction. The RF and CNN models outperformed the other ML models by providing lower prediction errors in all intended targets with a lower computational cost. This study suggested that a combination of wearable sensors' data with an RF or a CNN model is a promising tool to overcome the limitations of traditional optical motion capture for 3D gait analysis., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Bilayer borophene has recently attracted much interest due to its outstanding mechanical and electronic properties. The interlayer interactions of these bilayers are reported differently in theoretical and experimental studies. Herein, we design and investigate bilayer [Formula: see text] borophene, by first-principles calculations. Our results show that the interlayer distance of the relaxed AA-stacked bilayer is about 2.5 Å, suggesting a van der Waals interlayer interaction. However, this is not supported by previous experiments, therefore by constraining the interlayer distance, we propose a preferred model which is close to experimental records. This preferred model has one covalent interlayer bond in every unit cell (single-pillar). Further, we argue that the preferred model is nothing but the relaxed model under a 2% compression. Additionally, we designed three substrate-supported bilayers on the Ag, Al, and Au substrates, which lead to double-pillar structures. Afterward, we investigate the AB stacking, which forms covalent bonds in the relaxed form, without the need for compression or substrate. Moreover, phonon dispersion shows that, unlike the AA stacking, the AB stacking is stable in freestanding form. Subsequently, we calculate the mechanical properties of the AA and AB stackings. The ultimate strengths of the AA and the AB stackings are 29.72 N/m at 12% strain and 23.18 N/m at 8% strain, respectively. Moreover, the calculated Young's moduli are 419 N/m and 356 N/m for the AA and the AB stackings, respectively. These results show the superiority of bilayer borophene over bilayer [Formula: see text] in terms of stiffness and compliance. Our results can pave the way of future studies on bilayer borophene structures., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Ever since global warming emerged as a serious issue, the development of promising thermoelectric materials has been one of the main hot topics of material science. In this work, we provide an in-depth understanding of the thermoelectric properties of X[Formula: see text]YH[Formula: see text] monolayers (X=Si, Ge; Y=P, As, Sb, Bi) using the density functional theory combined with the Boltzmann transport equation. The results indicate that the monolayers have very low lattice thermal conductivities in the range of 0.09-0.27 Wm[Formula: see text]K[Formula: see text] at room temperature, which are correlated with the atomic masses of primitive cells. Ge[Formula: see text]PH[Formula: see text] and Si[Formula: see text]SbH[Formula: see text] possess the highest mobilities for hole (1894 cm[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text]s[Formula: see text]) and electron (1629 cm[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text]s[Formula: see text]), respectively. Si[Formula: see text]BiH[Formula: see text] shows the largest room-temperature figure of merit, [Formula: see text] in the n-type doping ( [Formula: see text] cm[Formula: see text]), which is predicted to reach 3.49 at 800 K. Additionally, Si[Formula: see text]SbH[Formula: see text] and Si[Formula: see text]AsH[Formula: see text] are found to have considerable ZT values above 2 at room temperature. Our findings suggest that the mentioned monolayers are more efficient than the traditional thermoelectric materials such as Bi[Formula: see text]Te[Formula: see text] and stimulate experimental efforts for novel syntheses and applications., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Background/objectives: Weight loss through a low-calorie diet (LCD) could improve low-grade inflammation evident in the obese state. Few studies have evaluated the effect of the mixed nuts consumption in the context of a LCD on inflammatory biomarkers. This study compared the effects of a nut-enriched LCD (NELCD) with a nut-free LCD (NFLCD) on body weight and inflammatory markers in overweight or obese coronary artery disease (CAD) patients., Subjects/method: In this randomized controlled parallel trial, patients with stable CAD of both genders were randomly allocated to 8-week NELCD or NFLCD. Body weight, plasma C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin 10 (IL-10), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP-1) were assessed at baseline and 8 weeks., Results: Overall, 67 patients (aged 58.8 ± 7.4 years; BMI 30.9 ± 3.9 kg/m 2 ) completed the study. Participants in both groups lost weight to a comparable extent. Patients in the NELCD group showed a decrease in ICAM-1 (p = 0.04) and IL-6 (p = 0.02) concentrations compared to NFLCD group. No significant difference in concentrations of MCP-1, IL-10, or CRP was observed between diet groups., Conclusions: Nuts are healthy energy-dense foods that if included in controlled amounts in a weight management program can still result in weight reduction and may improve some plasma concentration of inflammatory factors, such as ICAM-1 and IL-6.

Very recently, a novel phase of hydrogenated borophene, namely [Formula: see text]-4H, has been synthesized in a free-standing form. Unlike pure borophenes, this phase shows very good stability in the air environment and possesses semiconducting characteristics. Because of the interesting stiffness and flexibility of borophenes, herein, we systematically studied the mechanical properties of this novel hydrogenated phase. Our results show that the monolayer is stiffer (Y[Formula: see text] = [Formula: see text]195 N/m) than group IV and V 2D materials and even than MoS[Formula: see text], while it is softer than graphene. Moreover, similar to other phases of borophene, the inherent anisotropy of the pure monolayer increases with hydrogenation. The monolayer can bear biaxial, armchair, and zigzag strains up to 16, 10, and 14% with ideal strengths of approximately 14, 9, and 12 N/m, respectively. More interestingly, it can remain semiconductor under this range of tension. These outstanding results suggest that the [Formula: see text]-4H is a promising candidate for flexible nanoelectronics.

Group IV and V monolayers are very crucial 2D materials for their high carrier mobilities, tunable band gaps, and optical linear dichroism. Very recently, a novel group IV-V binary compound, [Formula: see text], has been synthesized on silicon substrate, and has shown very interesting electronic properties. Further investigations have revealed that the monolayer would be stable in freestanding form by hydrogenation. Inspired by this, by means of first-principles calculations, we systematically predict and investigate eight counterparts of [Formula: see text], namely [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text]. The cohesive energies, phonon dispersions, and AIMD calculations show that, similar to [Formula: see text], all of these freestanding monolayers are stable in hydrogenated form. These hydrogenated monolayers are semiconductors with wide band gaps, which are favorable for opto-electronic purposes. The [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] structures possess indirect and direct band gaps, respectively. They represent very interesting optical characteristics, such as good absorption in the visible region and linear dichroism, which are crucial for solar cell and beam-splitting devices, respectively. Finally, the [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] monolayers have suitable band gaps and band edge positions for photocatalytic water splitting. Summarily, our investigations offer very interesting and promising properties for this family of binary compounds. We hope that our predictions open ways to new experimental studies and fabrication of suitable 2D materials for next generation opto-electronic and photocatalytic devices.