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Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths, emphasizing the importance of timely diagnosis for effective treatment. Machine learning models have shown promise in assisting with GC diagnosis. Objectives: This study aimed at comparing the performance of various feature selection methods in identifying influential factors related to GC based on lifestyle using machine learning models. The ultimate goal was to enhance early detection and treatment of the disease. Methods: The data of patients from Shahid Ayatollah Modarres Hospital and Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital between 2013 and 2021 were utilized. Three feature selection methods (filter, wrapper, and filter-wrapper) were employed. The k-fold method validated each model. Four classifiers k Nearest Neighbor (kNN), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), and Gradient-Boosted Decision Trees (GBDT) compared their outputs based on feature selection methods. Results: The filter-wrapper method outperformed others, achieving an area under the ROC curve and Fl score of 95.8% and 94.7%, respectively. GBDT also performed well. The wrapper and RF classifiers achieved an area under the ROC curve and Fl scores of 95.7% and 93.6%, respectively, after the filter-wrapper method. Without feature selection methods, the RF classifier had an area under the ROC curve and F1 scores of 95.6% and 91.7%, respectively, surpassing other classifiers. Conclusions: This study suggests that appropriate feature selection methods for identifying influential factors related to GC based on lifestyle can facilitate early diagnosis and treatment. The filter-wrapper method demonstrated the best performance in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) has become the gold-standard for treating patients with the larger renal stones and staghorn calculi. This study was designed to evaluate the outcomes of flank versus prone position in patients underwent ultrasonic-guided PCNL for treatment of large kidney stones. Methods: This prospective randomized clinical trial was conducted from September 2017 to September 2019 in the department of Urology, Labbafinejad University hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Two hundred patients with kidney stones larger than 2 cm underwent PCNLs in prone (n = 100) or flank position (n = 100). Success rate, operative time, access time, hemoglobin and creatinine changes, hospital stay, auxiliary procedure and surgical complications were compared between the two groups. Results: The two groups were similar in their baseline characteristics. The success rates in prone (87%) versus flank position (85%) were not significantly different at the first post-operative follow-up (p = 0.91). At the three-month follow-up, the overall stone free rates for the prone position PCNLs and flank position PCNLs were 94/100 (94%) and 90/100 (90%) (p = 0.96). There were no significant difference between the groups in operative time (p = 0.42), access time (p = 0.66), hemoglobin (p = 0.46) and creatinine (p = 0.22) changes, hospital stay (p = 0.05), auxiliary procedures (p = 0.75) and surgical complications. Conclusion: Overall, there is no significant difference between prone and flank positions in success rate and complications. More prospective studies must be carried out to identify patient populations who are most apt to benefit from one position over the other. Trial registration number: IRCT20200902048597N1 Date of registration: 2020-11-21, retrospectively registered [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hospitalization could be an unpleasant experience for patients with cardiovascular disease leading to some negative emotional reactions. These emotions can be managed by nursing empathy. There are different methods for improving empathy, but some evidence indicates a dramatic drop in nurses' empathy. In this study, we aim to provide a protocol for investigating the effect of knowledge brokering on nurses' empathy with patients receiving cardiac care.Methods: This study protocol is developed based on SPIRIT checklist with an experimental design. The study population are nurses working in cardiac wards of three educational hospitals in western Iran, Khorramabad. The quota sampling method is used. The sample size is 100 individuals. The samples will be assigned to two intervention and comparison groups using stratified random allocation method. Permuted block randomization is used in each stratum. To prevent contamination between participants; firstly, the measurements of the comparison group is done. Knowledge brokering intervention is performed in 7 stages based on Dobbins' knowledge translation framework 2009. Monica's Empathy Construct Self-Rating Scale is used for measuring empathy. Statistical analyses are performed using SPSS (SPPS Inc. Chicago, Il, version 21). P value below 0.05 is considered as statistically significant.Discussion: To our knowledge, there is no similar study using an experimental design to examine the efficacy of a knowledge brokering method to improve humanistic knowledge. It helps nurses to improve their empathy in caring relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Primary Sjögren syndrome (SS) is characterized by a focal lymphocytic infiltrate in exocrine glands. We describe patients who lacked this key feature.Methods: We evaluated patients with sicca in a comprehensive clinic at which medical, dental, and ophthalmological examinations were performed. All subjects underwent a minor salivary gland biopsy with focus score calculation. Extraglandular manifestations were also determined. We categorized subjects as high, intermediate, or low in terms of expression of interferon (IFN)-regulated genes.Results: About 20% (51 of 229, 22%) of those classified as having primary SS had a focus score of zero. Compared to those with anti-Ro positivity and a focus score > 1.0, the patients with focus score of zero (who by classification criteria must be anti-Ro-positive) were statistically less likely to have anti-La (or SSB) and elevated immunoglobulin, as well as less severe corneal staining. The focus score zero patients were less likely to have elevated expression of IFN-regulated genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells than anti-Ro-positive SS patients with a focal salivary infiltrate.Conclusion: There are only a few clinical differences between patients with primary SS with focus score zero and those with both anti-Ro and a focus score > 1.0. The small subset of focus score zero patients tested did not have elevated expression of IFN-regulated genes, but did have systemic disease. Thus, extraglandular manifestations are perhaps more related to the presence of anti-Ro than increased IFN. This may have relevance to pathogenesis of SS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many patients on maintenance hemodialysis experience sleep disorders. This problem is related to depression, anxiety, hospitalizations, chronic medical conditions, decreased quality of life, and increasing mortality rate in patients on maintenance hemodialysis. The objective of this research is to determine the impact of massage therapy by hot stone on quality of sleep in patients on maintenance hemodialysis. Materials and Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial conducted on 60 patients on maintenance hemodialysis. They were assigned via random allocation process into two groups of study: intervention group (n = 30), or control group (n = 30). Patients in the experimental group received massage therapy by hot basalt stone for 12 séances. During the massage therapy, each of five basalt stones were placed at the sites of the fifth, fourth, third, second, and first chakra. Control group received their treatment as usual without any massage therapy. Using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the global score and its components were computed in both groups of study, two times (before the intervention and 1 month after the intervention). Results: Although there were not any baseline differences between the two groups of study for the mean of global PSQI score (P = 0.92) before the study, the mean of global PSQI score in the intervention group, after the intervention decreased to 5.7 ± 3.06, but in the control group sleep quality increased to 10.7 ± 3.6. The difference between the mean of global score of PSQI among two groups of study after the massage therapy was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Applying massage therapy by hot stone in hemodialysis patients may contribute in enhancing their quality of sleep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resistance poets provide exquisite images of natural phenomena, personalities, and religious, historical, mythological, epic and national events. Selection and usage of these images as symbols of resistance in the poems depict the mood of fight as well as the other concepts to the reader. By implementing a comparative study on the resistance symbols in the poems discussed in this study. This article shows that natural symbols have high frequency and the similarity of the symbols in each of four categories (natural, religious, historical, epic and other symbols) are very low because of differences in ideas. Examining the content of the heavily used symbols by Arab poets suggest that they discourse to consciousness of the Arab nation. However, in the case of Iranian poets, they try to strengthen the spirit of struggle and resistance against a hostile force. The most important feature of the symbols of Arab poets is the use of self-made and private symbols to a very high extent, and this can be seen in the poets in Iran very low. Arab poets, in orientation to the West, have used in a large amount of mythological symbols outside their territory, especially Greece and Egypt that don't appear in Iranian poets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Evaluation of the effect of supportive expressive discussion groups on loneliness, hope and quality of life in breast cancer survivors.Methods: A randomized control trial including breast cancer patients who had completed chemotherapy and randomly allocated into two groups: intervention (n = 41) and control (n = 40). The intervention consisted of twelve weekly 90-min sessions for groups of six to eight breast cancer survivors. Data were obtained pre-to -post the intervention and at 8-week follow-up. The data were analyzed using a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA).Results: The findings revealed a significant reduction in loneliness scores (F = 69.85, p < 0.001), promotion in total hope (F = 20.8, p < 0.05) and enhancement in quality of life from pre- to post-intervention, and then over the 8-week follow-up period in the intervention group, while scores of control participants did not show this pattern during the study. The strongest effects were found for global quality of life (effect size) = 0.59), for future perspectives (effect size = 0.51), emotional functioning (effect size = 0.35) and social functioning (effect size = 0.31).Conclusion: The intervention was effective on loneliness, hope and quality of life in the intervention group. The intervention needs further evaluation in a larger study and with other cancer types. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To study the radiographic mean grey values after bone grafting and to clinically evaluate the intraoral alveolar ridge dimensional stability with anorganic bovine bone mineral (ABBM) particulate and a patented self-expanding composite graft (SECG) after 6 months of healing.Methods: A total of 20 single-rooted tooth-extraction sites grafted with either ABBM or SECG were evaluated radiographically and clinically after 6 months of healing, prior to dental implant placement. A multivariable mixed regression model was used.Results: Mean grey values at the coronal, midroot, and apex levels within the socket were compared. A significant difference was shown in the midroot and apex maxillary regions. For both of these regions, the estimated mean grey value of ABBM was significantly lower than that of SECG. No significant difference was noted in the ridge-width change patterns between the two materials.Conclusion: This study supports that suggestion that newer SECG is as efficacious in terms of mean grey value and alveolar ridge stability as the previously available ABBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately half of known human miRNAs are located in the introns of protein coding genes. Some of these intronic miRNAs are only expressed when their host gene is and, as such, their steady state expression levels are highly correlated with those of the host gene's mRNA. Recently host gene expression levels have been used to predict the targets of intronic miRNAs by identifying other mRNAs that they have consistent negative correlation with. This is a potentially powerful approach because it allows a large number of expression profiling studies to be used but needs refinement because mRNAs can be targeted by multiple miRNAs and not all intronic miRNAs are co-expressed with their host genes. Here we introduce InMiR, a new computational method that uses a linear-Gaussian model to predict the targets of intronic miRNAs based on the expression profiles of their host genes across a large number of datasets. Our method recovers nearly twice as many true positives at the same fixed false positive rate as a comparable method that only considers correlations. Through an analysis of 140 Affymetrix datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus, we build a network of 19,926 interactions among 57 intronic miRNAs and 3,864 targets. InMiR can also predict which host genes have expression profiles that are good surrogates for those of their intronic miRNAs. Host genes that InMiR predicts are bad surrogates contain significantly more miRNA target sites in their 39 UTRs and are significantly more likely to have predicted Pol II and Pol III promoters in their introns. We provide a dataset of 1,935 predicted mRNA targets for 22 intronic miRNAs. These prediction are supported both by sequence features and expression. By combining our results with previous reports, we distinguish three classes of intronic miRNAs: Those that are tightly regulated with their host gene; those that are likely to be expressed from the same promoter but whose host gene is highly regulated by miRNAs; and those likely to have independent promoters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydatid cysts are one of the most prevalent zoonotic diseases and cause major economic and health problems around the world. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the biochemical profiles of hydatid cyst fluid obtained from the lungs and liver of cattle, sheep and goats naturally infected with Echinococcus granulosus. In each species, 11 biochemical profiles of hydatid cyst fluid (calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, glucose, urea, uric acid, cholesterol, triglyceride, creatinine and total protein) were determined and compared between the lung and the liver. No significant differences in biochemical profiles were observed in cattle, sheep or goats ( P > 0.05) indicating that biochemical profiles of hydatid cyst fluids do not relate to cyst location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: The objective was to survey the results of RUT (rapid urease test) in children tonsillar tissues. Methods: In a prospective clinical study 285 children (4–14 years) tonsillar tissue tested with RUT (rapid urease test) and histopathologic biopsy and simultaneously serum IgG Helicobacter pylori level was measured for all patients. Results: One hundred and thirteen patients (39.6%) were positive to H. pylori in histopathologic examination. Forty patients (14%) had positive RUT and 15 patients had positive serum IgG anti-H. pylori level. In 40 patients the results in both histopathology and RUT were positive (P =0.000) although in 172 patients the results in both histopatologhic and RUT were negative (P =0.000). Conclusions: This study showed that H. pylori was present in tonsillar tissue and RUT is not sensitive enough for diagnosis of H. pylori in tonsillar tissue. Indicating that H. pylori has a possible role in reservoir of H. pylori in children. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Introduction: In 2009, the Oxford classification of immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy was proposed by the working group of the International IgA Nephropathy Network and Renal Pathology Society. It established specific pathologic features that predict the risk of progression of disease. This study aimed to evaluate the interobserver reproducibility of the Oxford classification of IgA nephropathy between Iranian nephropathologists.Materials and Methods: We included 100 patients with primary IgA nephropathy diagnosed between 2001 and 2011. Histologic slides were circulated among 4 pathologists. A score sheet was answered by each individual pathologist for each biopsy, according to the instruction of the Oxford classification. Reproducibility was determined for each variable, using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).Results: The ICC values calculated for each major category of the Oxford classification were as follows: the highest score of 0.94 for tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis; 0.8 for glomerular basement membrane duplication, extracapillary proliferation, and segmental endocapillary proliferation; and 0.1 to 0.3 for arterial lesions, especially for hyalinosis of arterioles and intimal thickening of arcuate vessels and interlobar arteries.Conclusions: The Oxford classification of IgA nephropathy is a useful tool and evidenced-based method with high interobserver reproducibility in pathology reporting. Our data suggest that Oxford classification may be used as a model for classification of other renal pathologies in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Our goal was to present our experience with ultrasound guided supine or prone percutaneous nephrolithotomy in three pregnant women under spinal anesthesia.Materials and Methods: Three pregnant women in the 16th, 20th and 28th weeks of pregnancy presented with symptomatic large renal stone in the first patient and multiple renal stones in the second and third patients which were unresponsive to conventional medical therapy. They requested a definitive stone treatment. The operations were done in November 2012, June 2014 and February 2015. Data was gathered prospectively. All steps of gaining access to the pyelocalyceal system including needle insertion, tract dilation, and Amplatz sheath placement were performed under ultrasonography guidance. Tract was dilated with a single shot technique. The first two procedures were performed in supine position and the third procedure was performed in lateral flank position.Results: Two patients were stone-free postoperatively and one patient had only an asymptomatic 4 mm residual stone. They were discharged on the 2nd postoperative day and had an uneventful postoperative course. No fever, bleeding or renal colic was noticed during postoperative hospitalization. All patients delivered their fetuses at term without any abnormality reported by the examining pediatric specialist after their birth.Conclusion: Ultrasonography can be used as an imaging modality guiding all steps of obtaining percutaneous access in pregnant women. Supine or flank ultrasound guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy can be offered to pregnant women in whom conservative measures fail to the patients' wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]