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Purpose Multidrug resistance (MDR) and the subsequent disease relapse are the major causes of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) related death. The Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway can contribute to cancer MDR. In the current study, Smoothened (Smo) was selected as the experimental target due to its importance in the Hh pathway in order to evaluate its probable role in pediatric B-ALL drug resistance. Patients and methods The study included 27 pediatric B-ALL and 16 control bone marrow samples. Quantitative RT-PCR was used to investigate the expression levels of Smo and miR-326 as the key players of the Hh pathway. Western blot analysis was performed. The presence of minimal residual disease was studied using PCR-SSCP. The association between Smo expression and drug resistance was analyzed statistically. Results Results showed a significant increase in the Smo expression levels in drug-resistant patients in comparison with drug-sensitive children with B-ALL (P=0.0128, AUC=0.82). A considerable negative association between miR-326 and Smo expression levels was identified (r=-0.624, P=0.002). A binomial test confirmed the regulatory role of miR-326 on the translational repression of Smo (P=0.031). Statistics showed no association between Smo and ABCA2 expression levels. However, a significant positive correlation was observed between the Smo and ABCA3 transcripts in the resistant ALL children (r=0.607, P=0.016). Conclusion Data revealed the possible oncogenic impact of Smo on leukemogenesis and drug resistance in pediatric B-ALL. Upregulation of Smo was introduced, for the first time, as a prognostic factor for drug resistance in childhood B-ALL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that shows a positive correlation between Smo and ABCA3 expression levels in pediatric B-ALL, explaining a possible mechanism for the development of drug resistance in this cancer. Moreover, the current project revealed a negative modulatory effect of miR-326 on the expression levels of Smo.

Background Sex estimation is a critical issue in forensic medicine. Since anthropologic evaluations on radiographs can contribute to more accurate sex estimation, this study measured the length and height, as well as area, of the maxillary sinus on lateral cephalometric radiography. Methods and materials In this descriptive-analytic study, 80 images obtained from 20 to 40-year-old individuals (40 males and 40 female) were selected. The height and anterior-posterior length of the maxillary sinus was performed using CATIA V5R20 (a software package for image analysis). Maxillary sinus area was determined using discriminant analysis in AutoCAD. Findings The mean maxillary sinus height was 40.48 mm in males and 38.7 mm in females. The mean maxillary sinus length was 40.31 mm in males and 37.31 mm in females. The area of the maxillary sinus was 1201.2 mm2 in males and 1043.4 mm2 in females. Two discriminant analysis models, one based on the height and length of the maxillary sinus and the other based on sinus area) were developed for sex estimation. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used for quality assessment of the fitted models and determination of their prediction ability. Conclusion The mean height, length and area of the maxillary sinus were significantly larger in males than in females (P

Introduction: Medical errors include treatments that do not match approved standards in medical science and cause harm to the patients. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of complaints relating to pediatric dentistry in Isfahan province. Materials and Methods: This research is a descriptive, prospective, and cross-sectional study. Among 688 cases of dental complaint, of which data and documents collected in the medical council of Isfahan Province in 2008-2018, 14 identified cases of complaints were in the pediatric dentistry field, which then provided the needed data for research. Results: The number of complaints in 2009-2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015 was one case, in 2012, 2016, two cases and in 2017 and 2018 were no reports. 5 were dental malpractices. 13 identified complainants were from patients' fathers, and 1 case was the mother among practitioners, were 50% men, 50% women, 29% pedodontists, and 50% general dentists. 2 of 4 complaints from pedodontists and 3 of 7 complaints from general dentists in the pediatric field recognized as malpractices. Conclusion: This study shows the number of pediatric malpractices is low in the Isfahan province. However, dentists must adhere to the medical oath and have good relationships with their patients. Supporting patients during treatment and considering their opinions and also treatment charges may lead to patients' satisfaction. Meanwhile, dentists should know about their abilities and their limits in practices. Also, they should refer complex cases to a specialist when they need to prevent further problems. Keywords: Forensic dentistry, Pediatric dentistry, Dentists.

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) is one major public health threat because of reduced treatment options available and the poor patients’ outcome. New antimicrobials and regimens have been developed in recent years, but their effectiveness has been hampered by the rise and spread of drug-resistant strains. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) has emerged as a tool able to revolutionize TB surveillance and clinical management of TB. This approach is now widely used by public health agencies in detecting outbreaks and transmission chains, thus supporting the formulation of evidence-based health policies. Moreover, WGS can predict the drug-susceptibility profile of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) strains, often in combination with phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination for the optimal clinical management of drug-resistant TB [1]. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of interest: Dr. Villa has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Tagliani has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Borroni has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Castellotti has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Ferrarese has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Ghodousi has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Lamberti has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Senatore has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Faccini has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Cirillo has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Codecasa has nothing to disclose.

Choosing an appropriate municipal waste management method is a very complicated environmental problem in cities. This research introduces an optimization model for waste management in the southwest region of Tehran province. It was developed by a metaheuristic algorithm that was used to minimize the economic and environmental costs. Incineration, composting, recycling and landfilling waste management methods were considered. Three scenarios were developed to determine the optimum allocation of waste to each method such to fulfill the objective of overall minimum of environmental burdens and costs. A multi-objective scenario selection model was implemented by the compromise programming method in MCAT software. Considering the budget limitation and available facilities on site, optimum allocations to recycling, composting, incineration and landfilling methods were obtained as 115,486, 132,094, 71,905 and 45,516 tons/year, respectively. The results of this study indicated that the metaheuristic algorithm in MCAT software was an efficient tool in decision making about waste management systems and thus, it was suggested to municipality managers and regional planning authorities.

This study aims to identify structural and functional craniofacial characteristics that correlate with higher incidence of 'probable' sleep bruxism in children.From March 2018 until March 2019, a cross-sectional clinical study was performed with ninety-six healthy children ages 6-12 years who presented for routine dental examination at the UCLA pediatric dental clinic. Variables of interest included: (1) assessment of probable bruxism based on parental awareness on the frequency of tooth grinding during sleep and clinical signs of bruxism based on tooth wear; (2) parental reports of mouth breathing while awake and asleep, snoring during sleep, difficulty breathing and/or gasping for air during sleep; (3) parental reports of psychosocial distress; (4) assessment of tonsil hypertrophy, tongue mobility, and nasal obstruction. Three pediatric dental residents were calibrated to perform the clinical data collection. All dental residents were graduated dentists with licensure and at least one year of experience examining children. The methodology to take the specific measurements administered in the manuscript were calibrated between the data-collectors under the supervision of a board-certified pediatric dentist and orthodontist (AY).The mean age of individuals was 8.9 (SD = 1.9) years with a gender distribution of 46 males and 50 females. There were 23 out of the 96 (24%) individuals who met the diagnostic criteria for probable sleep bruxism (PSB). Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC) scores were significantly elevated among children positive for PSB, indicating that they are at higher risk for sleep disturbances (PSB-positive: 45.1 ± 13.0, PSB-negative: 34.8 ± 5.5; p 0.0001). Impaired nasal breathing, parental reports of mouth breathing when awake or asleep, restricted tongue mobility, and tonsillar hypertrophy were found to be significant risk factors for PSB. Exploratory analysis further suggests a synergistic effect between tonsil hypertrophy, restricted tongue mobility, and nasal obstruction. The incidence of probable sleep bruxism among individuals without any of the exam findings of tonsillar hypertrophy, restricted tongue mobility, and nasal obstruction was 5/58 (8.6%), whereas the incidence of PSB among individuals with all three exam findings was 10/11 (90.9%), p 0.0001. Among the 23 individuals with PSB, however, there were n = 5 (21.7%) who did not have any of the three exam findings, suggesting an additional role of psychosocial distress, postural maladaptation, malocclusion, or other factors in the etiology of sleep bruxism.This study shows that tonsil hypertrophy, restricted tongue mobility, and nasal obstruction may have a synergistic association on the presentation of PSB. Dentists should evaluate for tonsillar hypertrophy, restricted tongue mobility, and nasal obstruction in the evaluation of PSB, as these exam findings are highly prevalent in the majority of cases.

In recent years, attention has been given to the construction and development of new educational centers, but their spatial distribution across the cities has received less attention. In this study, the Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and the optimized hot spot analysis methods have been used to determine the general spatial distribution of the schools. Also, in order to investigate the spatial distribution of the schools based on the substructure variables, which include the school building area, the results of the general and local Moran and Getis Ord analyses have been investigated. A differential Moran index was also used to study the spatial-temporal variations of the schools&rsquo, distribution patterns based on the net per capita variable, which is the amount of school building area per student. The results of the Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) analysis indicated that the general spatial patterns of the primary schools, the first high schools, and the secondary high schools in the years 2011, 2016, 2018, and 2021 are clustered. Applying the optimized hot spot analysis method also identified the southern areas and the suburbs as cold polygons with less-density. Also, the results of the differential Moran analysis showed the positive trend of the net per capita changes for the primary schools and first high schools. However, the result is different for the secondary high schools.

Altered metabolism of fatty acid synthesis is considered a hallmark characteristic of several malignancies, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). To evaluate the impact of fatty acid synthase (FASN) on drug resistant ALL, bone marrow samples were collected from 65 pediatric ALLs, including 40 de novo and 25 relapsed patients. 22 non-cancer individuals were chosen as controls. Quantitative RT-PCR showed increased expression levels of FASN in drug resistant patients compared with the therapy responders. Single and combined treatment of malignant cells were analyzed using Annexin-V/PI double staining and MTT assays. Incubation of resistant primary cells with ginger showed simultaneous increased apoptosis rates and reduced FASN expression levels. Furthermore, docking studies demonstrated high affinity bindings between ginger derivatives and FASN thioesterase and ketosynthase domains, compared with their known inhibitors, fenofibrate and morin, respectively. Finally, combined treatment of in-house multidrug resistant T-ALL subline with ginger and dexamethasone induced drug sensitivity and down regulation of FASN expression, accordingly. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that introduces FASN upregulation as a poor prognostic factor for drug resistant childhood ALL. Moreover, it was revealed that FASN inhibition may be applied by ginger phytochemicals and overcome dexamethasone resistance, subsequently.

Chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) originally were prescribed for prevention or treatment of malaria, but now successfully are used in several rheumatologic diseases. In addition, in recent decades considering their immunomodulatory effects, high tolerably, and low cost, they are evaluated for various viral infections from HIV to COVID-19.In this review, we tried to summarize all available studies on HCQ and CQ efficacy for management of viral infections and the probable mechanisms of action. The data were collected by searching 'Hydroxychloroquine,' 'Chloroquine,' 'Viral infection,' and names of various viral infections in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases from commencement to June 2020. Out of 95 search results, 74 most relevant works were gathered.HCQ/CQ showed acceptable efficacy in HIV especially as an adjuvant treatment beside routine HAART. However, for some viral infections such as ZIKA, EBOLA, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV, human studies are lacking. In the COVID-19 pandemic, in vitro and preliminary human studies showed encouraging findings. However, later well-designed trials and retrospective studies with large sample size not only reported non-significant efficacy but also showed more cardiac adverse reactions. Alkalinization of acid vesicles is the most important mechanism of action.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is considered as the major obstacle for treating pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non coding RNAs which may potentially regulate response to chemotherapy. In this study, total RNA was isolated from bone marrow samples of 46 children with de novo ALL and 16 controls. Quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used to investigate the expression profile of the predicted miRNAs; miR-326 and miR-200c, and their predicted targets ABCA2, and ABCA3 transporters. The presence of minimal residual disease was studied using PCR-SSCP (single-strand conformation polymorphism) 1 year after treatment. The association between the miRNA expression and drug resistance was analyzed statistically. Results showed a significant down-regulation of both miR-326 and miR-200c expressions in ALL patients compared with non-cancer controls (P = 0.0002, AUC = 0.813 and P = 0.035, AUC = 0.79, respectively). A considerable negative association between miR-326 expression and MDR was identified which could raise the risk of chemoresistance by 4.8- fold. The expression profiles of miR-326 and ABCA2 transporter were inversely correlated. Data revealed, a novel diagnostic role for miR-326 and miR-200c as potential biomarkers of pediatric ALL. Down-regulation of miR-326 was introduced, for the first time, as a prognostic factor for drug resistance in childhood ALL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that ABCA2 transporter is proposed as a target gene for miR-326, through which it can exert its impact on drug resistance. These data may provide novel approaches to new therapeutics and diagnostics.

Tooth development is widely used for age estimation and staging physical maturity. It is of great importance in dental age estimation in forensic dentistry, orthodontic treatment planning, and pediatric endocrinology. This study aimed to compare the accuracy of two age estimation methods, i.e., the London Atlas and Smith's method, using the panoramic view of developing teeth. In this descriptive-analytic study, panoramic radiographs of 339 healthy individuals, including 145 boys and 194 girls, were assessed. The participants aged between 5.00 and 15.99 years. Dental age of the subjects was determined by the London Atlas of Human Tooth Development and Eruption and Smith's method. The collected information was entered in the SPSS software (Ver.18). Differences and correlations between chronological and dental age were assessed by paired t tests and Pearson's correlation analysis. In all analyzes, the significance level was considered less than 0.05. The mean chronological age of the subjects was 10.13 ± 2.92 years. The mean ages estimated by the London Atlas and Smith's method were 10.29 ± 2.91 and 9.89 ± 2.84 years, respectively. Paired t test showed that the differences between the mean chronological age and mean estimated ages using the London Atlas and Smith's method were not significant (P = 0.15 and 0.16, respectively). Our findings showed that both methods had high accuracy for age estimation, but the London Atlas is easier to use.

Bedaquiline a novel anti TB drug for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1] and recently upgraded to Group A drugs as one of the three key drugs along with linezolid and fluoroquinolones to be included in all MDR-TB regimens. Based on this grouping of second line drugs, the extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB is redefined as MDR/RR-TB that is resistant to a fluoroquinolone and to either bedaquiline or linezolid or both. Moreover bedaquiline in combination with pretomanid and linezolid is a part of BPaL regimen recommended for treating adult pulmonary TB patients having pre-XDR TB or MDR-TB which is either non-responsive or -intolerant to recommended standard treatment [2]. However globally emerging resistance to bedaquiline threatens the effectiveness of novel treatment regimens for drug resistant TB. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of interest: Arash Ghodousi has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Alamdar Hussain Rizvi has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Faisal Masood Khanzada has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Nasim Akhtar has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Abdul Ghafoor has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Alberto Trovato has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Daniela Maria Cirillo has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Sabira Tahseen has nothing to disclose.

The purpose of this study is to extend a feature set with non-linear features to improve classification rate of guilty and innocent subjects. Non-linear features can provide extra information about phase space. The Event-Related Potential (ERP) signals were recorded from 49 subjects who participated in concealed face recognition test. For feature extraction, at first, several morphological characteristics, frequency bands, and wavelet coefficients (we call them basic-features) are extracted from each single-trial ERP. Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) measures are then computed as non-linear features from each single-trial. We apply Genetic Algorithm (GA) to select the best feature set and this feature set is used for classification of data using Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) classifier. Next, we use a new approach to improve classification results based on introducing an adaptive-threshold. Results indicate that our method is able to correctly detect 91.83% of subjects (45 correct detection of 49 subjects) using combination of basic and non-linear features, that is higher than 87.75% for basic and 79.59% for non-linear features. This shows that combination of non-linear and basic- features could improve classification rate.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are employed in a variety of applications. One of the key applications of WSNs, which gained much attention, is the target tracking. Directional sensor networks (DSNs) are a subset of WSNs with some unique characteristics. Since optimizing the tracking system under the energy and coverage constraints in DSNs is of paramount importance, in this paper, we introduce a reliable algorithm for tracking mobile targets using directional WSNs. First, by selecting a minimum set of boundary and borderline sensor nodes, we achieve the desired coverage for an incoming detection. Second, for both deterministic ordered and random node deployments, we propose an efficient mechanism for determining the minimal interior sensor nodes that should be activated. Doing so, the network lifetime can be maximized by the employment of much fewer sensor nodes. Third, we use a geometric method for collecting data using two active sensors at a time. Accordingly, target position is estimated using the extended Kalman filter (EKF). Finally, we compare the proposed algorithm with a genetic algorithm and present the comparative simulation results of the EKF and the random walk. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme in terms of the energy efficiency, coverage, and tracking accuracy.

Accurate and timely detection of drug resistance can minimize the risk of further resistance development and lead to effective treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the resistance to first/second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs in rifampicin/multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (RR/MDR-MTB) isolates. Molecular epidemiology of strains was determined using whole genome sequencing (WGS)-based genotyping. A total of 35 RR/MDR-MTB isolates were subjected to drug susceptibility testing against first/second-line drugs using 7H9 Middlebrook in broth microdilution method. Illumina technology was used for paired-end WGS applying a Maxwell 16 Cell DNA Purification kit and the NextSeq platform. Data analysis and single nucleotide polymorphism calling were performed using MTBseq pipeline. The genome-based resistance to each drug among the resistant phenotypes was as follows: rifampicin (97.1%), isoniazid (96.6%), ethambutol (100%), levofloxacin (83.3%), moxifloxacin (83.3%), amikacin (100%), kanamycin (100%), capreomycin (100%), prothionamide (100%), D-cycloserine (11.1%), clofazimine (20%), bedaquiline (0.0%), and delamanid (44.4%). There was no linezolid-resistant phenotype, and a bedaquiline-resistant strain was wild type for related genes. The Beijing, Euro-American, and Delhi-CAS were the most populated lineage/sublineages. Drug resistance-associated mutations were mostly linked to minimum inhibitory concentration results. However, the role of well-known drug-resistant genes for D-cycloserine, clofazimine, bedaquiline, and delamanid was found to be more controversial.

Biomarkers are biological molecules found in body fluids or tissues, which can be considered as indications of a normal or abnormal process, or of a condition or disease. There are various types of biomarkers based on their application and molecular alterations. Treatment-sensitivity or drug resistance biomarkers include prognostic and predictive molecules with utmost importance in selecting appropriate treatment protocols and improving survival rates. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most prevalent hematological malignancy diagnosed in children with nearly 80% cure rate. Despite the favorable survival rates of childhood ALL (chALL), resistance to chemotherapeutic agents and, as a consequence, a dismal prognosis develops in a significant number of patients. Therefore, there are urgent needs to have robust, sensitive, and disease-specific molecular prognostic and predictive biomarkers, which could allow better risk classification and then better clinical results. In this article, we review the currently known drug resistance biomarkers, including somatic or germ line nucleic acids, epigenetic alterations, protein expressions and metabolic variations. Moreover, biomarkers with potential clinical applications are discussed.

Background: The experience of having neonates in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a psychological crisis. It might cause many emotional problems for parents. Entire parental support is among the duties of the healthcare team. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the nursing support received by the mothers with Newborn Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) and the mothers of other neonates admitted to the NICU. Methods: The present cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was conducted in the selected hospitals in Kerman Province, Iran. In total, 62 mothers with NAS and 61 non-addicted mothers with neonates admitted to the NICU were selected through convenience sampling method. The inclusion criteria were neonates under the care of parents, neonate admitted to the NICU for at least 24 hours, opiate dependence in the case group mothers, and no substance dependence in the control group mothers. The amount of nursing support for mothers having neonates with NAS was compared with that of the control mothers. The study groups were homogenized in terms of the study variables (neonate age, gender, and the duration of hospitalization). The required data were collected by the Nurse-Parent Support Tool (NPST) and analyzed in SPSS. Results: The study results revealed that among the neonates of 123 mothers, 75(60.97%) were boys, and 58(39.02%) were girls. The majority of neonates in both groups were breastfed. The mean±SD age of the mothers in the case and control group were 31.93±7.25 and 28.99±4.36 years, respectively. The nursing support level was desirable in both groups, and no significant difference was found in this regard (P>0.05). Furthermore, the level of nursing support in emotional, information-communication, self-esteem, and quality caregiving support dimensions was desirable in both groups. Conclusion: The obtained results revealed that nurses’ support was desirable in both groups. The prevalence of maternal addiction and the impact of this social harm on neonates who were admitted are essential. Furthermore, families having neonates with NAS need more support from the healthcare staff and nurses, in comparison with healthy parents; thus, the importance of this issue should be addressed in training and briefing courses for nurses.

Violence against nurses is a serious problem that can affect negatively the quality of nursing care. The extent of violence against nurses in Iran and the factors leading to this violence have not been known. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate all forms of violence against nurses in Shahrekord hospitals in 2014. In this 2014 study, 100 nurses working in Shahrekord’s Hajar, Kashani, and Social Security branch hospitals were studied. Data were collected through standardized questionnaires on workplace violence, as well as demographic data, in health units on five types of violence, including physical and verbal violence, intimidation and bullying, ethnic violence, and violation of chastity. The analysis was done by SPSS (Version 19) software. All nurses indicated that during some period of their work, they had been subjected to at least one type of violence; the highest prevalence of mental violence was belonged to the subtype of intimidation and bullying (91%). The primary agents of violence against nurses were patients and their relatives. Factors such as gender, age, work experience, and nursing shifts played important roles in the distribution of violence. In ethnic violence, the only factor affecting nurses was race ( p < .05). The highest rate of violence against nurses was due to mental or psychological violence. To minimize violence in hospitals, authorities should consider appropriate preventive strategies, good management, proper protective measures, and public education.

Utilization of renewable energy technologies is one of the strate-gies of the governments in order to increase the level of energy security. One of the main renewable energy resources with fast utilization growth is wind power. However, development of wind power is highly de-pended on its related technologºies. Therefore, wind power technology forecasting is an indispensable requirement to understand how each of the wind energy domains will improve in the future. This research is to focus on the analysis of wind power technologies based on the technol-ogy life cycle approach. The contributions can help researchers, technol-ogy futurists, and policy makers to focus better on the related R&D and utilization policies.

A mutual interaction between citizens and government has become an important requirement for every successful urban decision making process. As cities develop, such interactions play a greater role in citizen satisfaction. Through these interactions, governments can recognize the needs of citizens and try to address their challenges. In these interactions, the role of the people is central; in fact, it is the people who express their needs to the service-providing organizations through different communication channels. A common channel that has been established in Iran is the ‘137 center,’ a municipal, phone-based request/response system. In this article, information from Municipal District 1 in the city of Bojnourd was gathered, analyzed to prioritize urban needs and assessed for citizen satisfaction. Forty-three citizen needs were identified and categorized based on K-means clustering, the Fuzzy Clustering Method (FCM) and the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA). The three algorithms were also evaluated. RFM (recency, frequency, monetary) analysis was performed for classification. The clustering methods were then assessed and compared using three parameters: execution time, accuracy and simplicity. The results of the FCM and ICA clustering were similar, however, the execution time for FCM was less than for ICA. Considering the similarity of the results and the flexibility of FCM, it was concluded that, if the execution time was of primary importance, then the use of FCM was more appropriate. In contrast, if accuracy was a priority, ICA was preferred. Our results also showed that if simplicity and speed were required, the K-means algorithm was the best choice. Finally, subjects such as the quality of the asphalt, garbage collection and park development were of primary importance to Bojnourd citizens, therefore the municipality should pay special attention to these subjects.

“Environmental issues” along with raising awareness of people about the value of ecological systems and the growth of environmentalism have affected businesses systems and models by introducing new concepts and models for business such as sustainable business model . European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model provides a clear path for a company to follow in order to achieve its planned results which can be called sustainable business. The purpose of this study is to explore whether the mentioned model is suitable for the businesses that are based on cleaner production and sustainable business models. The method used in this study is an explorative one based on the literature review and exploration of the adaptability of EFQM Excellence Model (2013), including its fundamental concepts and its criteria, to eight archetypes of sustainable business. The results showed that out of eight fundamental concepts of this model, four are aligned with sustainable business model and four need redefining. Moreover, it was found that environmentalism should be added to the five enablers of the model, and results criteria of it needed to be restructured and redefined. In conclusion, it was shown that despite adoptability of the fundamental concepts of EFQM Excellence Model, there were some lacking criteria for adapting them to sustainable business model. Having this in mind, a modified type of model with the new defined criteria was proposed in this study.

One of the important steps in the earthquake disaster management is the establishment of temporary relief centers, to provide the basic helps and support in short time. Finding optimum location for these centers with adequate covering of the urban areas is not a trivial problem. The meta-heuristic algorithms are promising methods, capable of solving such complex optimization problems. The goal of this research was to compare the performance of Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Bees Algorithm (BA) in finding the optimum location of relief centers and in allocating of the parcels to them. In order to limit the search space, GIS was used for selecting a few candidate sites that satisfy the initial conditions and criteria. Then, the two algorithms were used to select nine optimum sites among the candidates and to allocate the parcels to them, while minimizing the sum of all distances between centers and parcels. To calibrate the parameters of the algorithms, a simple simulated data set was used. Having proper values for those parameters, the algorithms were tested on the real data of the study area. The results showed that the convergence of the BA was rather gradual, while the trend for GA was relatively stepwise. Both algorithms showed high levels of repeatability. For both the simulated and real data, GA showed to be faster than BA. Simplicity and repeatability of the algorithm are the main factors from the user’s point of view. Therefore, considering these criteria, the GA is more favorable than the BA.

We report on the first six cases of acquired resistance to bedaquiline in Pakistan. Seventy sequential isolates from 30 drug-resistant-tuberculosis patients on bedaquiline-containing regimens were retrospectively tested for bedaquiline resistance by MIC testing and by the detection of mutations in relevant genes. We documented cases failing therapy that developed specific mutations in Rv0678 and had increased MICs associated with cross-resistance to clofazimine during treatment., We report on the first six cases of acquired resistance to bedaquiline in Pakistan. Seventy sequential isolates from 30 drug-resistant-tuberculosis patients on bedaquiline-containing regimens were retrospectively tested for bedaquiline resistance by MIC testing and by the detection of mutations in relevant genes. We documented cases failing therapy that developed specific mutations in Rv0678 and had increased MICs associated with cross-resistance to clofazimine during treatment. This study underlines the relevance of surveillance programs following the introduction of new drugs.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Background: Obesity is known as one of the major causes of epidemiologic diseases worldwide; therefore, the introduction of treatment strategies by medical professionals, such as the use of various medicines and exercise programs to reduce fat or prevent obesity, is on the rise. Recently, researchers have shown special interest in assessing the effect of lipolytic adenosine and vitamin D deficiency, as well as the effect of exercise, on decreasing body fat percentage. Objective: This study has been designed to examine the effect of adenosine and vitamin D3 injections, in conjunction with high-intensity interval training and isocaloric moderate-intensity training, on the metabolic parameters of obesity induced by a high-fat diet. Methods: This is an experimental study using 92 Wistar rats. At 6 weeks of age, the rats' weights will be recorded, after which they will have 1 week to adapt to their new environment before being divided into 12 groups. The rats will participate in a 2-stage experimental intervention, including a 13-week fattening diet phase followed by a 12-week exercise training phase consisting of an exercise program and the injection of adenosine and vitamin D3. Groups 1 and 2 will have a normal diet, and the other groups will have a diet of 40% fat, with free access to food and water up to the second half of the second stage of the study (end of the sixth week of training). After termination of the interventions, tissue collection and molecular assessments (blood for biochemical, tissues for gene expression analyses, and anthropometrical indexes) will be performed. Results: The project was initiated in April 2017 and completed in December 2017. Data analysis is under way, and the first results are expected to be submitted for publication in November 2018. Conclusions: We hypothesize that weight loss–induced molecular changes and upregulation will be observed in line with an increase in lipolysis and beta oxidation in muscle and fat tissue as a result of performing isocaloric training in drug-receiving rats and groups on a high-fat diet. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): RR1-10.2196/10753

Classifying different object categories is one of the most important aims of brain–computer interface researches. Recently, interactions between brain regions were studied using different methods, such as functional and effective connectivity techniques. Functional and effective connectivity techniques are applied to estimate human brain areas connectivity. The main purpose of this study is to compare classification accuracy of the most advanced functional and effective methods in order to classify 12 basic object categories using Electroencephalography (EEG) signals. In this paper, 19 channels EEG signals were collected from 10 healthy subjects; when they were visiting color images and instructed to select the target images among others. Correlation, magnitude square coherence, wavelet coherence (WC), phase synchronization and mutual information were applied to estimate functional cortical connectivity. On the other hand, directed transfer function, partial directed coherence, generalized partial directed coherence (GPDC) were used to obtain effective cortical connectivity. After feature extraction, the scalar feature selection methods including T-test and one-sided-anova were applied to rank and select the most informative features. The selected features were classified by a one-against-one support vector machine classifier. The results indicated that the use of different techniques led to different classifying accuracy and brain lobes analysis. WC and GPDC are the most accurate methods with performances of 80.15% and 64.43%, respectively.

Drug resistance is still the major threat to global tuberculosis (TB) control, and drug-resistant (DR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) strains have become the main challenge worldwide. Currently used antibiotics for treatment of DR-TB are often poorly tolerated and not sufficiently effective. Since the therapeutic options are still limited, the main strategy for treatment of DR-TB is to repurpose existing anti-mycobacterial agents. Clofazimine (CFZ) is one such drug that has recently attracted interest against DR-TB. CFZ is a hydrophobic riminophenazine that was initially synthesized as an anti-TB antibiotic. Although the mechanisms of action of CFZ are not yet entirely understood, it has been suggested that outer membrane is its primary action site, and the respiratory chain and ion transporters are the putative targets. In this review, we will discuss the anti-mycobacterial properties of CFZ, and provide new insights into the clinical use of this drug.

Sharp-crested weir and side-channel weirs can be considered among the control and flow-measuring structures which are greatly applicable in channels, dam spillways and other hydraulic structures. Discharge coefficient in these two types of weirs is affected by the structural geometry and the hydraulics of the flow. Suspended load is one of the main factors which may affect the hydraulics of the flow and consequently modify the flow discharge coefficient. Using different geometrical and hydraulic conditions, the discharge coefficient relation in sharp-crested and side channel weirs for the case of suspended load can be extracted. Flow3D numerical model is capable of precisely simulation the flow containing suspended and bed load in the main channel. The discharge coefficient equation is deduced and presented based on the Froude number, by numerical iterations. The numerical results reveal that the discharge coefficient in the two cases of clear water and the flow containing suspended load are totally different. At the same hydraulic load, the discharge coefficient in the case of existing suspended load is greater than the case of clear water; In addition, the discharge coefficient is reduced by increasing the Froude number in all cases with different load concentrations.

In technical systems like oil and gas drilling systems, an accident sequence starts with an Initiating Event (IE) and evolves over time through the interaction of barriers in terms of success or failure. As it has been dramatically demonstrated in a variety of cases, offshore oil rigs activities have severe consequences to people, asset, environment and reputation. A survey carried out on a leakage event in production phase. The barriers of the above IE are assessed by Event Tree Analysis (ETA) which evaluates the sequence of events in a potential accident scenario following the occurrence of an IE. In this research to calculate Failure Probability (FP) of barriers new approach is proposed. In this methodology, Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) are employed to quantify barriers FP. RBD is useful tool to quantify FP of barriers with logic diagram. FP of barriers with logic diagram is obtained by FTA. However it is often difficult to estimate precisely the FP of the components due to insufficient data. It has been reported that availability of the FP data pertaining to local conditions is surprisingly limited. In this study to overcome this problem using of expert judgment and then fuzzy logic is employed. Therefore, Fuzzy FTA (FFTA) is used to reduce uncertainty of expert judgment.

Whole genome sequencing can be adopted at national level as routine assay for diagnosis, universal drug susceptibility testing and epidemiological investigation of TB cases in low incidence countrieshttp://ow.ly/KA7I30jr0Wo

The water scarcity crises in the world and specifically in Iran, requires the proper management of this valuable resource. According to the official reports, around 90 percent of the water in Iran is used for agriculture. Therefore, the adequate management and usage of water in this section can help significantly to overcome the above crises. The most important aspect of agricultural water management is related to the irrigation planning, which is basically an allocation problem. The proper allocation of water to the farms is not a simple and trivial problem, because of the limited amount of available water, the effect of different parameters, nonlinear characteristics of the objective function, and the wideness of the solution space. Usually To solve such complex problems, a meta-heuristic method such as genetic algorithm could be a good candidate. In this paper, Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used for the allocation of different amount of water to a number of farms. In this model, the amount of water transferable using canals of level one, in one period of irrigation is specified. In addition, the amount of water required by each farm is calculated using crop type, stage of crop development, and other parameters. Using these, the water production function of each farm is determined. Then, using the water production function, farm areas, and the revenue and cost of each crop type, the objective function is calculated. This objective function is used by GA for the allocation of water to the farms. The objective function is defined such that the economical profit extracted from all farms is maximized. Moreover, the limitation related to the amount of available water is considered as a constraint. In general, the total amount of allocated water should be less than the finally available water (the water transferred trough the level one canals). Because of the intensive scarcity of water, the deficit irrigation method are considered. In this method, the planning is on the basis of the optimum and limited allocation of water, and not on the basis of the each crop water requirement. According to the available literature, in the condition of water scarcity, the implementation of deficit irrigation strategy results in higher economical income. The main difference of this research with others is the allocation of water to the farms. Whilst, most of similar researches concentrate on the allocation of water to different water consumption sections (such as agriculture, industry etc.), networks and crops. Using the GA for the optimization of the water allocation, proper solutions were generated that maximize the total economical income in the entire study area. In addition, although the search space was considerably wide, the results of the implementation showed an adequate convergence speed. The repeatability test of the algorithm also proved that the algorithm is reasonably stable. In general the usage of GA algorithm can be considered as an efficient and trustable method for such irrigation planning problems. By optimum allocation of the water to the farms with different areas and crop types, and considering the deficit irrigation method, the general income of the entire area can be improved substantially.

Fighting the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) requires a proper and personalized use of new antitubercular drugs. To achieve this goal, the sensitivity profile to antitubercular drug should be available in a short-time and results should be highly reliable be used for patient-care.

Citizen Relationship Management (CiRM) is one of the important matters in citizen-centric e-government. In fact, the most important purpose of e-government is to satisfy citizens. The &lsquo, 137 system&rsquo, is one of the most important ones based on the citizen-centric that is a municipality phone based request/response system. The aim of this research is a data-mining of a &lsquo, (citizens&rsquo, complaint system) of the first district of Bojnourd municipality in Iran, to prioritize the urban needs and to estimate citizens&rsquo, satisfaction. To reach this, the K-means and Bees Algorithms (BA) were used. Each of these two algorithms was executed using two different methods. In the first method, prioritization and estimation of satisfaction were done separately, whereas in the second method, prioritization and estimation of satisfaction were done simultaneously. To compare the clustering results in the two methods, an index was presented quantitatively. The results showed the superiority of the second method. The index of the second method for the first needs in K-means was 0.299 more than the first method and it was the same in two methods in BA. Also, the results of the BA clustering were better at it because of the S (silhouette) and CH (Calinski-Harabasz) indexes. Considering the final prioritization done by the two algorithms in two methods, the primary needs included asphalt, so specific schemes should be considered.

Background/Aims Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is common in children. Recurrent exposure to gastric acid in GERD may contribute to tooth erosion. Methods In this prospective study, 54 GERD patients qualified according to endoscopy, pH-metry, and the GERD questionnaire and 58 healthy controls qualified by the GERD questionnaire were assessed. Two groups underwent dental evaluations for the presence, severity, and patterns of erosion and for the stage of dentition using a Tooth Wear Index. The health care providers who performed the dental exams did not know which children had been diagnosed with GERD. Results A total of 112 children, 3 to 12 years old were enrolled in the study, and 53 of 54 (98.1%) GERD patients and 11 of 58 (19.0%) controls had dental erosions (p

The experts of the construction and civil engineering companies are responsible for selecting an appropriate supplier. Evaluation and selection of appropriate suppliers may decrease quality deficiency, cost overrun, environmental problems and etc. In this research a decision support system is developed to select appropriate supplier for construction and civil engineering companies. The effective criteria on the supplier selection process have been investigated and accommodated to internal structure of the Iranian construction and civil engineering companies by questionnaire survey. For this purpose, the current research carries out among logistics managers of the first grade Iranian construction and civil engineering companies or those with having ISO certification. After completion of questionnaires, the effectiveness of criteria is evaluated using t-student test. Five criteria are excluded, and 18 criteria are selected as effective criteria. To select appropriate supplier, the AHP and ANP approaches are utilized simultaneously. Since, these two methods use a limited number of criteria, it is essential to prioritize criteria. So, Friedman test is applied and finally five of the most important criteria have been employed. Unfortunately environmental issues are not attended by construction and civil engineering companies. To illustrate concept and performance of proposed decision support system three candidate suppliers are ranked using AHP and ANP models. Although the final results of AHP and ANP methods are the similar, the values of variation between suppliers are different. Therefore, it is recommended to employ the ANP method considering internal relations between criteria.

BACKGROUND: Nurses serve as the primary source of care for minor patients in intensive care units. Even though they support both patients and their relatives, these nurses may experience moral distress from their profession. While managing their daily relationships with their patients, nurses must also be able to control their actions to feel that they are from a social unit and feel their competence in association with others. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between professional autonomy and moral distress among nurses working in children's units and pediatric intensive care wards. METHODS: This descriptive/comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015 using 120 nurses as subjects. Subjects were selected using the census method. The research tools used to gain measurable data were the Pankratznursing questionnaire(PNQ) and Corley'sMoral distress scale (MDS). In order to analyze the collected data, descriptive statistic tests such as the relative frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation and the Pearson correlation test, T-test, ANOVA, and regression were used. The SPSSv.20 software was also used to analyze the data obtained. RESULTS: The relationship between professional autonomy and moral distress revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between professional autonomy and moral distress in the intensity (r = 0.39; P

Sustainability comprises three pillars of social, environmental, and economic aspects. Petrochemical industry has a great inter-related complex impact on social and economic development of societies and adverse impact on almost all environmental aspects and resource depletion in many countries, which make sustainability a crucial issue for petrochemical industries. This study was conducted to propose components of sustainability considerations in management of petrochemical industries. A combination of exploratory study—to prepare a preliminary list of components of sustainable business in petrochemical industries based on review of literature and Delphi—to obtain experts’ view on this preliminary list and provide a detailed list of components and sub-components that should be addressed to bring sustainability to petrochemical industries, were used. Two sets of components were provided. First general components, which include stakeholders (staffs, society, and environment) with four sub-components, financial resources with 11 sub-components, improvement of design and processes with nine sub-components, policy and strategy of cleaner production with seven sub-components and leadership with seven sub-components. The second operational components included raw material supply and preparation with five, synthesis with ten, product separation and refinement with nine, product handling and storage with five, emission abatement with eight, and improvement of technology and equipment with 16 sub-components.

Introduction Xpert Carba-R® (Cepheid®, USA) is a PCR-based assay for rapid (

The purpose of this study is to extend a feature set with non-linear features to improve classification rate of guilty and innocent subjects. Non-linear features can provide extra information about phase space. The Event-Related Potential (ERP) signals were recorded from 49 subjects who participated in concealed face recognition test. For feature extraction, at first, several morphological characteristics, frequency bands, and wavelet coefficients (we call them basic-features) are extracted from each single-trial ERP. Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) measures are then computed as non-linear features from each single-trial. We apply Genetic Algorithm (GA) to select the best feature set and this feature set is used for classification of data using Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) classifier. Next, we use a new approach to improve classification results based on introducing an adaptive-threshold. Results indicate that our method is able to correctly detect 91.83% of subjects (45 correct detection of 49 subjects) using combination of basic and non-linear features, that is higher than 87.75% for basic and 79.59% for non-linear features. This shows that combination of non-linear and basic- features could improve classification rate.

Introduction: Nosocomial pneumonia remains an important cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Surveillance programs play an important role in the identification of common etiologic agents and local patterns of antimicrobial resistance. Methodology: In this study we determined the frequency and antimicrobial susceptibility of pathogens isolated from patients with nosocomial pneumonia during 2009 to 2011. Results: A total of 642 bacteria were isolated from 516 suspected samples. Acinetobacter baumannii (21.1%, n = 136), was the commonest isolated pathogen followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (17.4%, n = 112) , Staphylococcus aureus (15.8%, n = 102) and enterococci (8.4% n = 54). The most effective therapeutic agents against A. baumannii were polymyxin B (95.5% susceptible), ceftriaxone/tazobactam (72% susceptible) and levofloxacin (52.9% susceptible) . Polymixin B (89.2% susceptible), ceftriaxone/tazobactam (89.2% susceptible) and piperacillin-tazobactam (80.3% susceptible) were found to be the most active agents against P. aeruginosa. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases were detected among isolates of K. pneumoniae (45.4%) and E. coli (20.3%). Overall, the prevalence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus and vancomycin resistant enterococci were 80.4% and 40.7% respectively. Linezolid was found to be the most active antibiotic against these pathogens. The etiology of 50% of the nosocomial infection cases was polymicrobial. Conclusions: The combination of ceftriaxone/tazobactam seems to be beneficial agent against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli isolated form respiratory tract infections. The results of our study can be used for guiding appropriate empiric therapy in this geographic region.

Background: this study aims to optimize nurse numbers in emergency department of a district hospital in Iran using linear programming.Material and methods: through observation and checklist data about average patient arrival, delivery time of care services needed for patients and number of nurses were obtained. Using linear programming optimum number of nurse needed for right delivery of services was calculated.Results: optimum number of nurses was calculated as 12 nurses, but because of some issues in 3rd shift, real number of nurses needed for a 24 hours period is equal to 16 (12+4) nurses (12 as minimum needed plus nurses who stay and don’t leave the 3rd shift till tomorrow morning).Conclusion: Using LP models can be useful for estimating optimum number of nurses for different wards of hospitals, so they can reduce their costs and reach more productivity.

Objective : Medication errors are the most common medical errors, which may result in some complications for patients. This study was carried out to investigate what influence medication errors by nurses from their viewpoint. Methods: In this descriptive study, 150 nurses who were working in Qazvin Medical University teaching hospitals were selected by proportional random sampling, and data were collected by means of a researcher-made questionnaire including demographic attributes (age, gender, working experience,…), and contributing factors in medication errors (in three categories including nurse-related, management-related, and environment-related factors). Findings : The mean age of the participant nurses was 30.7 ± 6.5 years. Most of them (87.1%) were female with a Bachelor of Sciences degree (86.7%) in nursing. The mean of their overtime working was 64.8 ± 38 h/month. The results showed that the nurse-related factors are the most effective factors (55.44 ± 9.14) while the factors related to the management system (52.84 ± 11.24) and the ward environment (44.0 ± 10.89) are respectively less effective. The difference between these three groups was significant ( P = 0.000). In each aforementioned category, the most effective factor on medication error (ranked from the most effective to the least effective) were as follow: The nurse's inadequate attention (98.7%), the errors occurring in the transfer of medication orders from the patient's file to kardex (96.6%) and the ward's heavy workload (86.7%). Conclusion : In this study nurse-related factors were the most effective factors on medication errors, but nurses are one of the members of health-care providing team, so their performance must be considered in the context of the health-care system like work force condition, rules and regulations, drug manufacturing that might impact nurses performance, so it could not be possible to prevent medication errors without paying attention to our health-care system in a holistic approach.

BACKGROUND: Drug abuse influences the quality of life significantly. Thus, the present study is designed to compare the quality of life of adolescents and young adults who have voluntarily referred to addiction treatment centers at different time slots of upon admission, and 1, 4, and 8 months after maintenance therapy. METHODS: The present paper is a longitudinal study on 141 of adolescents and young adults who had referred to various addiction treatment centers throughout Isfahan voluntarily. The population was selected through convenience sampling method and 137 of adolescents and young adults continued the research until the end. The results were analyzed using descriptive and analytic statistics (frequency, mean, standard deviation, repeated measure test, and post-hoc test) in SPSS 17. RESULTS: Results showed that the average of quality of life total score was sequential and not the same in the 4 times slots under study. The total quality of life score upon admission was significantly different from 1, 4, and 8 months after maintenance treatment. However, quality of life at 1-month was not significantly different to that at 4 and 8 months after the treatment; quality of life at 4 months after the treatment was not significantly different to that at 8 months after. DISCUSSION: According to the present study, it can be concluded that the quality of life of adolescents and young adults referring to addiction treatment centers increases 1-month after the treatment; nevertheless, it is worth to note that the degree of quality of life increase in 4 and 8 months after the treatment is not as much as that in 1-month after the treatment.

Objective: Acute paraquat (PQ) poisoning which is taken either to commit suicide or by mistake has become a social concern worldwide. The present study was conducted to determine the histo-pathological findings in deceased PQ poisoning patients and evaluate their relationship with age, gender, amounts of ingested PQ, time from ingestion to admission. Methodology: Forty-two patients of PQ poisoning with positive urinary dithionate test were included in the study. Deceased patients underwent autopsy and their histo-pathological findings were examined. Results: The mean age of men and women were 29.06 ±10.6 and 16.66 ± 4.6 years respectively. Hepatocellular damage (60%), Tubular nephritis (60%) and pulmonary edema (50%) were the main pathological lesions. Logistic regression analyses identified the following significant predictors for poisoning-related liver lesions: age more than 20 years [odds ratio (OR), 13.75; 95% Confidence Interval (CI), 1.48 – 127.47], and ingested paraquat amounts more than 30 mg /kg (OR, 16; 95% CI, 1.32 – 194.62). There was also a significant correlation between liver lesions and age (Correlation Coefficient, 0.50; P value, 0.024); gender (Correlation Coefficient, 0.57; P value, 0.008); amount of ingested PQ (Correlation Coefficient, 0.55; P value, 0.012). There were no correlations between lung and kidney histopathological lesions with different variables. Conclusion: Age, amount of ingested PQ, and gender are important parameters which may correlate with histopathological liver lesions in deceased PQ poisoning patients.

Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV) and the resulting acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) alter not only cellular immune regulation but also the bone metabolism. Since cellular immunity and bone metabolism are intimately intertwined in the osteoimmune network, it is to be expected that bone metabolism is also affected in patients with HIV/AIDS. The concerted evidence points convincingly toward impaired activity of osteoblasts and increased activity of osteoclasts in patients with HIV/AIDS, leading to a significant increase in the prevalence of osteoporosis. Research attributes these outcomes in part at least to the ART, PI, and HAART therapies endured by these patients. We review and discuss these lines of evidence from the perspective of translational clinically relevant complex systematic reviews for comparative effectiveness analysis and evidence-based intervention on a global scale.

In this paper a comprehensive equivalent model for a distribution system and statcom dynamics is proposed based on the state voltages and currents. Also a novel and efficient linear feedback control strategy based on utilizing quasi steady state solution, as reference signals, is represented. In order to design load and dc bus voltage transfer functions, a composite 'Lead Phase and Pole Placement' method is employed. The robustness and stability of the controller is examined using simulation results. Time domain simulations are carried out using MATLAB software. A comparison with a nonlinear controller recently introduced is also made.

Along with the increasing popularity of social web sites, users rely more on the trustworthiness informationfor many online activities among users.[24] However, such social network data often suffers from two problems,(1)severe data sparsity and are not able to provide users with enough information, (2)dataset’s is very large.Therefore, trust prediction has emerged as an important topic in social network research. In this paper weproposed a new approach by using collaborative filtering method and the concept of Pareto dominance. We usesPareto dominance to perform a pre-filtering process eliminating less representative users from the k-neighbourselection process while retaining the most promising ones. The results from experiments performed on FilmTrustdataset and Epinions dataset.