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Ali Reza Sobhani,1 Hossein Farshidi,2 Fariba Azarkish,3 Mahdiya Eslami,2 Ebrahim Eftekhar,4 Mansoor Keshavarz,5 Nepton Soltani6 1Clinical Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran; 2Cardiovascular Research Center, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran; 3Molecular Medicine Research Center, Hormozgan Health Institute, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran; 4Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran; 5Physiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 6Physiology Department, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, IranCorrespondence: Nepton SoltaniPhysiology Department, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, IranTel +98 9133251067Fax +98 36688597Email neptun.soltani@med.mui.ac.irPurpose: Given the beneficial effect of MgSO4 on the cardiovascular system, this study was designed to investigate the effect of MgSO4 administration on suppressing some atherosclerotic risk factors in moderate coronary artery disease patients with one or two atherosclerotic vessels.Patients and Methods: In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial study, 64 patients with moderate coronary artery disease (55– 69% stenosis) were selected according to angiography findings. Patients were divided into four groups including patients with one or two atherosclerotic vessels treated with MgSO4 (Mg-treated-VR1, Mg-treated-VR2, respectively), placebo treated patients with one or two atherosclerotic vessels (Control-VR1, Control-VR2, respectively). The patients received either placebo or MgSO4 supplement capsule containing 300 mg MgSO4 for six months on a daily basis. ESR, Ca/Mg ratio, urine Mg level, serum Mg, fibrinogen, homocysteine, uric acid, Na, K, Ca, CRP, T3, T4, TSH, BUN, and Cr concentrations were measured at baseline and every three months.Results: Serum T3, Ca, K, homocysteine, CRP, and Mg concentrations were significantly improved in Mg-treated groups compared to placebo groups.Conclusion: The results of this study showed that despite the slight change in serum magnesium level, oral administration of MgSO4for six months could slightly reduce the serum levels of some inflammatory and vascular factors in moderate coronary artery disease patients.Keywords: atherosclerosis, MgSO4, fibrinogen, CRP, homocysteine, thyroid hormones

Telomere length and stability is a biomarker of aging, stress, and cancer. Shortening of telomeres and high level of DNA damages are known to be associated with aging. Telomere shortening normally occurs during cell division in most cells and when telomeres reach a critically short length, DNA damage signaling and cellular senescence can be triggered. The induction of an adaptive response by space radiation was first documented in 2003. Telomere length alterations are among the most fascinating observations in astronauts and residents of high background radiation areas. While study of the chronic exposure to high levels of background ionizing radiation in Kerala, India failed to show a significant influence on telomere length, limited data about the NASA astronaut Scott Kelly show that exposure to space radiation can induce telomeres to regain length. Interestingly, his telomeres shortened again only a couple of days after returning to Earth. The difference between these situations may be due to the differences in radiation dose, dose-rate, and/or type of radiation. Moreover, Scott Kelly’s spacewalks (EVA) could have significantly increased his cumulative radiation dose. It is worth noting that the spacewalks not only confer a higher dose activity but are also characterized by a different radiation spectrum than inside the space craft since the primary particles would not interact with the vehicle shell to generate secondary radiation. Generally, these differences can possibly indicate the necessity of a minimum dose/dose-rate for induction of adaptive response (the so called Window effect). Citation: Welsh J, Bevelacqua J. J, Keshavarz M, Mortazavi S. A. R, Mortazavi S. M. J. Is Telomere Length a Biomarker of Adaptive Response in Space? Curious Findings from NASA and Residents of High Background Radiation Areas. J Biomed Phys Eng. 2019;9(3):381-388. https://doi.org/10.31661/jbpe.v9i3Jun.1151.

The Return of the Native presents a world in which “doing means marrying". Thomas Hardy shows how the dominant discourse of the Victorian society defines an individual’s whole life through the conformity to the social code of marriage. This paper clarifies how Hardy’s satirical tone implicitly reflects the voice of the minority, which is not able or eager to follow this conformity code of the majority. Through a detailed analysis of the significance of marriage in defining one’s social identity, family relations, economic ambitions, and individual ideals, the paper focuses on a hermaphrodite character who cannot adapt to the majority’s code because of his physical condition. Such an individual, as the paper presents, is marginalized by the majority and suffers from problems that might lead to psychological disorders. It is Hardy’s implicit satirical tone, which encourages the readers to change their mental set about the role of marriage in defining one’s identity.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of injection parameters on a heavy duty diesel engine performance and emission characteristics. In order to analyze the injection and spray characteristics of diesel fuel with employing high-pressure common-rail injection system, the injection characteristics such as injection delay, injection duration, and injection rate and number of nozzle holes were investigated by using a quasi-dimensional model. In the present work, the variety of injection rate is performed at various injection parameters where as performance and emission of the engine will be simulated subsequently. Finally the best injection system for a high efficiency and low NOx emission heavy duty diesel engine was investigated. Le but de cette étude est d’étudier l’effet des paramètres d’injection sur les caractéristiques de performance et d’émissions d’un moteur Diesel industriel. Afin d’analyser les caractéristiques d’injection et de pulvérisation du gazole assurées par un système d’injection “common-rail” haute pression, les paramètres d’injection tels que le calage de l’injection, la durée de l’injection, le taux d’injection et le nombre de trous de l’injecteur ont été étudiés en utilisant un modèle quasi-dimensionnel. Dans l’étude présentée, les performances et les émissions du moteur sont simulées à différents taux d’injection en faisant varier des paramètres d’injection. Enfin, la meilleure définition du système d’injection a été recherchée pour obtenir un moteur Diesel industriel avec un haut rendement et de basses émissions de NOx.

"n Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Background: Many studies have demonstrated that pre-term neonates gained more weight over the 10 days stimulation period. This research has been conducted to determine the effects of five days Tactile- Kinesthetic stimulation (TKS) on weight gaining of pre-term infants hospitalized in Fatemiye neonatal intensive care unit."n"n Methods: Fifty one babies who graduated from the NICU to the intermediate care nursery were randomly allocated into test and control groups (24 and 27 neonate respectively). TKS was provided for three 20 minute periods per day for five consecutive days to the test group, with the massages consisting of moderate pressure strokes in left and right lateral position and kinesthetic exercises consisting of flexion and extension of the limbs. They were observed for changes in physiologic parameters and weight gaining during five days stimulation in hospital."n"n Results: Over the five days TKS an increase in weight was seen in the test group (p=0.018, 43.1 vs 5.4). Infants in both the test and control groups were matched for mean weight before study and days in which they received antibiotics and photo therapy. Mean temperature and O² saturation had no meaningful difference, but an increase in respiratory rate (p=0.047, 32.9 vs 32.5) and heart rate (p

"nBackground: The typical features of eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage are delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and prolonged loss of muscle strength. It has been shown that passive warmth is effective in reducing muscle injury. Due to the interaction of different systems in vivo, we used isolated perfused medial gastrocnemius skeletal muscle to study the direct effect of temperature on the eccentric contraction-induced force loss. "nMethods: After femoral artery cannulation of a rat, the left medial gastrocnemius muscle was separated and then the entire lower limb was transferred into a prewarmed (35oC) chamber. With the chamber temperature at 31, 35 and 39oC before and during eccentric contraction. Isometric force loss was measured after 15 eccentric contractions (N=7-9). "nResults: Maximum contraction force reduction has been used as an index for eccentric contraction-induced force loss. In this study eccentric contraction caused a significant reduction in maximum isometric tension (p

Background: This study have conducted in order to determine of direct or indirect effective factors on mortality of neonates with low birth weight by path analysis.Methods: In this cohort study 445 paired mothers and their neonates were participated in Tehran city. The data were gathered through an answer sheet contain mother age, gestational age, apgar score, pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) and birth weight. Sampling was convenience and neonates of women were included in this study who were referred to 15 government and private hospitals in Tehran city. Live being status of neonates was determined until 24 hours after delivery.Results: The most changes in mortality rate is related to birth weight and its negative score means that increasing in weight leads to increase chance of live being. Second score is related to apgar sore and its negative score means that increasing in apgar score leads to decrease chance of neonate death. Third score is gestational age and its negative score means that increasing in weight leads to increase chance of live being. The less changes in mortality rate is due to hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.Conclusion: The methodology has been used could be adopted in other investigations to distinguish and measuring effect of predictive factors on the risk of an outcome.

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a common metabolic disorder accompanied with structural and functional changes in central and peripheral nervous system. Researches showed, memory disturbance were occurred in the course of diabetes. On the other hand, magnesium deficit has been described in diabetic patients. Some researches were showed that, appropriate magnesium supplementation can play a positive role in diabetic control.Methods: Locally produced male rats were used. Diabetes was induced with intravenous injection of 40 mg/kg streptozotosin. In treatment groups, the animals were received magnesium sulfate via drinking water (10 g/l). Eight weeks after diabetes confirmation, the animals were assessed on Morris Water Maze.Results: A significant decrease in time of platform finding (latency) and distance of swimming in all four experimental days were seen in all groups. Mean latency in diabetic group was significantly higher than the other. This weak response was almost completely prevented by magnesium sulfate administration.Conclusion: It seems that after eight weeks magnesium sulfate administration (10g/l), spatial memory of the animals was improved in comparison to diabetic group that can suggest role of magnesium in recovery of diabetic animal memory.

Background: An outlier is an observation that lies an abnormal distance from other values in a random sample from a population. Outliers sometimes deal with to abnormality in obtained results from collected data and information. known outlier data by researchers, physicians and other persons that work in medical fields and sciences is important and they must control data before getting result about outlier data, effect of them in information bias and how to remove & control to obtain minimum bias and exact data .in this paper we had trying by known technique and tests to control them and minimized the errors related to them.Methods: This paper has been done on 30 student's height in Tarbiat Modares University that measured by meter in smoothing area. We applied some methods such as; Z-test, Grub test and graphical methods to determine outliers. In this paper the advantage and disadvantage of methods were evaluated and finally compares with each other.Results: The above tests showed that the data values 153, 110 among collected data were outliers. All of the methods showed that the above data were outliers. Calculation quartiles and intermediate quartiles showed that the observations under 125 and upper 141 were mind outliers and if the observation under 119 and upper 147 is the sever outliers. According to upper situations the amounts of 110 and 153 is the sever outliers and resulted from all methods.Conclusion: The results showed that all methods were useful in determine outlier data and between them Quartiles were important to known severe and mild outliers. Also Grub test with p-Value is very useful to report outliers.

In this study the effects of bromocriptine and apomorphine (dopamine receptor agonists) on electrical field induced twitch response of longitudinal muscle of guinea-pig illeum was investigated. Bromocriptine and apomorphine dose dependently inhibited illeal contraction. IC50 for this inhibitory effects were 6.22±0.645×10^-7 M and 5.48±0.647×10^-6 M, respectively. sulpiride (a specific D2 dopamine receptor antagonist) with concentration of 10^-5 M inhibited the effects of these agonists. Yohimbine (an ?2 adrenergic receptor antagonist) only blocked the inhibitory effect of bromocriptine but failed to block apomorphine inhibitory effects. L-NAME (nitric oxide synthetase inhibitor) with concentration of 10^-3 M blocked the effects of bromocriptine and apomorphine. These data suggest that there is inhibitory presynaptic dopamine receptors in cholinergic terminals of guinea-pig ileum and its function is related to formation of nitric oxide.

The paper presents a study on erodibility of soil above the groundwater level where the water is in tension. Such soils particularly clays are very sensitive to moisture and temperature changes and can be eroded significantly by water flow. The erosion of clay and sand samples from the US National Geotechnical Experimentation Site at Texas A&M University is studied. Two sets of experiments are done with the clay and the sand. The first set was performed on sample collected in November 2014 and the second set on samples from June 2014. The depth of the samples varied from 0.6 to 3.6 m where water content and density changes. A series of erosion tests was performed in the Erosion Function apparatus (EFA) with the intact clay and then with the sand reconstructed to the field density and field water content. The erosion tests are performed at different flow velocities varying from 0.5 m/s to 5.5 m/s. The erodibility is quantified by the relationship between the erosion rate and the water velocity called the erosion function. Some relationships between the critical velocity and common soil properties are discussed. The collapse of the clay structure when inundated (soaking) is studied.

A well-designed Agricultural Extension System (AES) can facilitate transitions towards sustainable agriculture. However, in most developing countries, AES has failed to promote sustainable agricultural development. The New Agricultural Extension System (NAES) was initiated to facilitate agricultural development in Iran. However, there is still no definite reflection on the influences of NAES on agricultural development. Therefore, this research aimed to evaluate the performance of NAES. To ensure an integrative and holistic analysis of the NAES's performance, the Complexity Theory (CT) and Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) approaches were used. To gather data, survey research was conducted in Fars Province, southern Iran. A multi-stage random sampling was used to identify the designated extension agents. The findings indicated that effective implementation of the NAES needs facilitated interaction through network mediation (X = 71.6), creation of an enabling context for the delivery of extension services (X = 66.6), improved communication and marketing infrastructures (X = 72), development of a value chain (X = 71.4), acceptance of self-organization (X = 67.8) and adoption of complexity-aware management (X = 66). The results also identified the hindering effects of demographic, structural and psychological factors on the practical application of CT and AIS principles. Some recommendations and implications are offered to improve the effectiveness of NAES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is an essential instrument for development, poverty alleviation, and food security in developing countries, such as Iran. The agricultural sector of Iran is dominated by small-scale farming, and the yield of most crops is low. A well-designed and well-functioning agricultural extension system can facilitate the transition toward productive, profitable, and sustainable agriculture. However, the top- down agricultural extension system of Iran has left most smallholder and resource-poor farmers with no access to advisory services, and their problems have remained unresolved. The new agricultural extension system (NAES) was initiated in 2014 to better respond to the problems of smallholder farmers. However, there is still no definite reflection on the influences of the NAES on agricultural development. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the performance of the NAES. Also, it purposed to identify the blocking mechanisms hindering the NAES’ function. In this regard, qualitative research was planned and conducted in Fars Province, Southern Iran. The findings revealed that NAES has managed to enhance the availability of extension services for smallholder farmers, improve the productivity and profitability of agriculture, and reduce livelihood vulnerability. However, it has failed in facilitating access to remunerative markets, mobilizing sustainable financial and human resources, and being entirely demand-driven because of financial, physical, institutional, market, natural, informational, capability, and psychological constraints. Some recommendations and implications are offered to improve the effectiveness of the NAES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]