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Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is crucial in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Solid adsorbents, notable for their reusability and corrosion resistance, are gaining attention in CO 2 gas separation. This study uses Silica fume as an adsorbent and silica source for SiO 2 and MCM-41 silica-based adsorbents. Silica was extracted via an alkaline dissolution method, and adsorbents were synthesized using a CO 2 -induced precipitation method, chosen for its shorter synthesis time and CO 2 utilization. The effects of pore volume, average pore diameter, and specific surface area on amine loading and CO 2 adsorption capacity were investigated using CTAB surfactant in SiO 2 synthesis, resulting in MCM-41. The synthesized adsorbents were modified with TEPA and DEA amines due to their high affinity for CO 2 . After determining optimal amine loading, the impact of combining TEPA with DEA was examined. The highest CO 2 adsorption capacity under simulated flue gas conditions (15% volume CO 2 and 85% volume N 2 ) was 198 milligrams per gram of adsorbent for the SiO 2 adsorbent functionalized with 50% by weight amine (28% TEPA and 22% DEA). Variations in CO 2 adsorption over time, the influence of adsorbent quantity on adsorption capacity, the affinity of the adsorbent for N 2 adsorption, and the adsorption-desorption cycle were investigated. The 28%TEPA-22%DEA-SiO 2 adsorbent emerged as the optimal choice due to its large total volume and average pore diameter, absence of a template in its structure, excellent performance in CO 2 adsorption, lack of affinity for N 2 , and robust adsorption-desorption stability.

Background: Several studies show that optical coherence tomography (OCT) metrics e with cognition, disability, and brain structure in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). This review the correlation between OCT parameters and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements in PwMS., Methods: A comprehensive search of PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science was performed, including studies published in English up to November 29, 2024 to identify studies reporting quantitative data on the correlation between baseline OCT parameters and MRI measurements in PwMS. The meta-analysis was performed using R software version 4.4.0., Results: From 4931 studies, 68 studies on 6168 PwMS (67.4 % female) were included. The most significant correlations were found between peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) thickness and lower T1 lesion volume r = -0.42 (95 % CI: -0.52 to -0.31, p-value <0.001, I 2  = 24 %), greater thalamic volume r = 0.39 (95 % CI: 0.17 to 0.61, p-value <0.001, I 2  = 81 %), and lower T2 lesion volume r = -0.37 (95 % CI: -0.54 to -0.21, p-value <0.001, I 2  = 85 %), respectively. Additionally, lower macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (mGCIPL) thickness showed the most significant correlations with positive and lower thalamic volume r = 0.37 (95 % CI: 0.1 to 0.64, p-value = 0.008, I 2  = 88 %), and positive and lower grey matter volume (GMV) 0.33 (95 % CI: 0.15 to 0.52, p-value <0.001, I 2  = 81 %), respectively., Conclusion: pRNFL and mGCIPL thickness are correlated with MRI measurements, suggesting that OCT can serve as a non-invasive, cost-effective, and complementary tool to MRI for enhancing the exploring of brain structural changes in PwMS., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Omid Mirmosayyeb, Mohammad Yazdan Panah, Elham Moases Ghaffary, Saeed Vaheb, Farhad Mahmudi, Vahid Shaygannejad, Norah Lincoff, and Dejan Jakimovski have nothing to disclose. Bianca Weinstock-Guttman received honoraria as a speaker and/or as a consultant for Biogen Idec, Teva Pharmaceuticals, EMD Serono, Genzyme, Sanofi, Genentech, Novartis, Celgene/BMS, Janssen and Horizon Dr. Weinstock-Guttman received research funds from Biogen Idec, EMD Serono, Genzyme, Genentech, Sanofi, Novartis. Robert Zivadinov has received personal compensation from Bristol Myers Squibb, EMD Serono, Sanofi, Protembis, Janssen, 415 Capital, and Novartis for speaking and consultant fees. He received financial support for research activities from Sanofi, Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Octave, Mapi Pharma, CorEvitas, Protembis and V-WAVE Medical., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Alterations in structural connectivity of brain networks have been linked to complex cognitive functions in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). However, a definitive consensus on the optimal diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) markers as indicators of cognitive performance remains incomplete and inconclusive. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to explore the evidence on the correlation between DTI metrics and cognitive functions in PwMS., Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted across PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and the Web of Science up to March 2024 to identify studies reporting the correlation between DTI metrics and cognitive functions. Cognitive function was assessed using the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R). The pooled correlation coefficients were estimated using R software version 4.4.0 with the random effect model., Results: Out of 1952 studies, 38 studies on 2055 PwMS fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis indicated that the SDMT exhibited the greatest correlation with corpus callosum fractional anisotropy (FA) (r = 0.54, 95 % CI: 0.4 to 0.66, p-value < 0.001, I 2 = 34.1 %, p-heterogeneity = 0.19) and mean diffusivity (MD) (r = -0.48, 95 % CI: 0.61 to -0.33, p-value < 0.001, I 2 = 0 %, p-heterogeneity = 0.77), white matter FA (r = 0.39, 95 % CI: 0.24 to 0.52, p-value < 0.001, I 2 = 0 %, p-heterogeneity = 0.1), and fornix FA (r = 0.35, 95 % CI: 0.12 to 0.54, p-value = 0.003, I 2 = 50.7 %, p-heterogeneity = 0.18) and MD (r = -0.35, 95 % CI: 0.49 to -0.19, p-value < 0.001, I 2 = 0 %, p-heterogeneity = 0.5)., Conclusion: DTI measurements, including corpus callosum FA and MD, white matter FA, and fornix FA and MD, represent the indicators of cognitive performance in PwMS. Nonetheless, these findings warrant cautious interpretation due to the restricted kinds of cognitive tests and methodological variability across studies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Multiple sclerosis-related cognitive impairment (MSrCI) affects most patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), significantly contributing to disability and socioeconomic challenges. MSrCI manifests across all disease stages, mainly impacting working memory, information processing, and attention. To date, the underlying mechanisms of MSrCI remain unclear, with its pathogenesis considered multifactorial. While conventional MRI findings correlate with MSrCI, there is no consensus on reliable imaging metrics to detect or diagnose cognitive impairment (CI). Functional MRI (fMRI) has provided unique insights into the brain's neuroplasticity mechanisms, revealing evidence of compensatory mechanisms in response to tissue damage, both beneficial and maladaptive. This review summarizes the current literature on the application of resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) and task-based fMRI (tb-fMRI) in understanding neuroplasticity and its relationship with cognitive changes in people with MS (pwMS). Searches of databases, including PubMed/Medline, Embase, Scopus, and the Web of Science, were conducted for the most recent fMRI cognitive studies in pwMS. Key findings ifrom rs-fMRI studies reveal disruptions in brain connectivity and hub integration, leading to CI due to decreased network efficiency. tb-fMRI studies highlight abnormal brain activation patterns in pwMS, with evidence of increased fMRI activity in earlier disease stages as a beneficial compensatory response, followed by reduced activation correlating with increased lesion burden and cognitive decline as the disease progresses. This suggests a gradual exhaustion of compensatory mechanisms over time. These findings support fMRI not only as a diagnostic tool for MSrCI but also as a potential imaging biomarker to improve our understanding of disease progression., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Neuroimaging published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society of Neuroimaging.)

Background: Pilomatrixoma is an uncommon benign skin neoplasm originating from the hair follicle. Here, we report a rare case of giant and atypical proliferating pilomatrixoma affecting the eyelid., Case Presentation: A 47-year-old male presented with a solitary, giant mass on his left upper eyelid, which had recently shown progressive enlargement. The lesion appeared well-circumscribed with a firm consistency, and measuring 7 × 10 cm. Orbital computed tomography scan revealed no intraorbital extension. The lesion was surgically excised. Histopathological examination identified the mass as an atypical proliferating pilomatrixoma, characterized by a minimal infiltrating margin of the deep plane and focal cytological atypia of the basaloid cells. No recurrence was observed up to one year postoperatively., Conclusions: Pilomatrixoma is a rare periocular tumor with potential for malignant transformation, often mimicking other lesions in this region. Therefore, any enlarging masses in this area should be excised for histopathological evaluation to rule out malignancy., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Bacterial keratitis (BK) is a serious ocular infection that can lead to vision impairment or blindness if not treated promptly. Herein, we report the development of a versatile composite hydrogel consisting of silk fibroin and sodium alginate, reinforced by antibiotic-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) for the treatment of BK. The drug delivery system is constructed by incorporating vancomycin- and ceftazidime-loaded MSNs into the hydrogel network. The synthesized MSNs were found to be spherical in shape with an average size of about 95 nm. The loading capacities of both drugs were approximately 45% and 43%, for vancomycin and ceftazidime respectively. Moreover, the formulation exhibited a sustained release profile, with 92% of vancomycin and 90% of ceftazidime released over a 24 h period. The cytocompatibility of the drug carrier was also confirmed by MTT assay results. In addition, we performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to better reflect the drug-drug and drug-MSN interactions. The results obtained from RMSD, number of contacts, and MSD analyses perfectly corroborated the experimental findings. In brief, the designed drug-MSN@hydrogel could mark an intriguing new chapter in the treatment of BK., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.)

Background: The appearance of severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) initiated the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in millions of confirmed cases and numerous fatalities. In response, rapid vaccine development efforts were launched to mitigate the pandemic's impact. Despite the high efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, they are also associated with several common side effects/complications, some of them specific to the multiple sclerosis population. Our goal is to review various types of COVID-19 vaccines, assessing their efficacy, adverse events, their association with an MS relapse following vaccination, and the influence of disease modifying therapies (DMTs) on vaccines' efficacy., Methods: The review was based on a database search that included PubMed/Medline, Embase, Scopus, and the Web of Science conducted from January 2020 to July 2024 using the following MeSH terms: MS, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine side effects, and vaccine hesitancy., Results: Receiving any type of COVID-19 vaccine is a safer and more reliable approach to building immunity compared to becoming infected with the virus. Complications tend to be mild to moderate, occasionally severe. DMTs could affect the humoral response to the COVID-19 vaccine. Among all DMTs, a notable reduction in the humoral response has been observed in patients who received anti-CD20 and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator drugs after their COVID-19 vaccination., Conclusion: Despite certain drawbacks, the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine significantly outweigh the associated risks, making it a recommended course of action for people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). However, physicians need to be mindful of potential complications especially in patients undergoing anti CD20 and manage them appropriately., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (© 2024 The Authors. Health Science Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Immunomodulatory therapies are beneficial strategies for the improvement of immune system function. Today, due to the increasing prevalence of immune disorders, cancer, and new viral diseases, there is a greater need to introduce immunomodulatory compounds with more efficiency and fewer side effects. Microbial derivatives are fertile and attractive grounds for discovering lots of novel compounds with various medical properties. The discovery of many natural compounds derived from bacterial sources, such as secondary metabolites with promising immunomodulating activities, represents the importance of this topic in drug discovery and emphasizes the necessity for a coherent source of study in this area. Considering this need, in this review, we aim to focus on the current information about the immunomodulatory effects of bacterial secondary metabolites and natural immunomodulators derived from microorganisms., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Specific and reliable diagnostic methods are becoming increasingly essential to identify patients in light of the high transmission rate and the recent appearance of the new variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). For the specific detection of SARS-CoV-2, our quantitative reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-qLAMP) assay implementation demonstrates how flexible it can be with two readouts: visualized colorimetric and real-time fluorescence. Different factors were optimized to improve the reaction conditions, including temperature (60 °C), assay runtime (60 min), primers, MgSO 4 (6 mM), dNTPs (1 mM), LAMP Buffer (1.2 mM Tris-HCl), KCl (50 mM), pH (8), and phenol red (10 mM) concentrations. Regarding analytical sensitivity, the colorimetric RT-LAMP method detected samples with C t values up to 29, while the RT-qLAMP assay identified up to C t  = 31. RT-qLAMP was evaluated on 40 clinical samples (25 positives and 15 negatives) for viral RNA detection. All negative samples were found negative through fluorescent reading in RT-qLAMP and quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) assays. Twenty-three clinically positive samples demonstrated a positive RT-qLAMP reaction (up to C t  ≤ 31) with 92% clinical sensitivity, 100% clinical specificity, 100% positive predictive value (PPV), 88.24% negative predictive values (NPV), and 95% accuracy., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The use of nanotechnology in the field of acidizing, particularly in fracturing fluids, has garnered significant attention over the past decade. Viscoelastic surfactants (VESs) are utilized as one of the most effective fracturing fluids, possessing both elasticity and viscosity properties. These fluids are crucial additives in acidizing packages, enhancing their performance. However, various factors, such as salinity, temperature, pressure, and concentration, can sometimes weaken the efficacy of these fluids. To address this, the integration of nanoparticles has been explored to improve fluid retention in reservoirs and enhance the efficiency. This study focuses on investigating the impact of the main metallic-type nanoparticles on the rheological behavior of VES fluids. Iron oxide, magnesium oxide, and zinc oxide nanoparticles were utilized, and the microscopic-scale rheological behavior of the fluids was thoroughly evaluated. The highest performance for enhancing fluid gelation, stability, and rheological characteristics of VES fluids was found for Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles at an optimum concentration of 500 ppm. At this concentration and shear rate of 100 s -1 , the viscosity of the fluid reached 169.61 cP. For iron oxide nanoparticles at a concentration of 500 ppm, by increasing the temperature from 25 to 85 °C, the gelation state of the fluid increased from 7 h and 50 min to 17 h and 45 min. This improvement is attributed to their high surface area and the increased density of entanglement points within the micelles, leading to a more interconnected structure with enhanced viscoelastic properties. Furthermore, iron oxide nanoparticles significantly enhance gelation by physically connecting the micelles, thereby improving stability and structure. The absorption of surfactant molecules by the nanoparticles additionally contributes to micelle reconstruction and shape alteration. The presence of iron oxide nanoparticles helps maintain the gel structure even at elevated temperatures, preventing rapid viscosity decrease. Our findings may provide new insights for development of high-performance, economical, and environment-friendly fracturing fluids used in well stimulation operations., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Background: Smuggling health goods given the importance and critical nature of health services should be undeniably addressed and controlled by all countries. This issue is especially more widespread in developing countries with more damaging consequences. This paper therefore aims to identify and analyze the challenges of preventing smuggling of health goods in Iran., Method: Within this qualitative study, we conducted face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with 30 purposefully recruited key informants and stakeholders in the detection, prevention, and combating of health goods smuggling. Each interview was analyzed thematically, using an inductive approach to generate codes, then categorized and presented in the form of main themes and sub-themes. Maxqda 11 assisted in coding, analysis, and data management., Results: Three main themes emerged representing the challenges of prevention of smuggling in Iran in the areas of anti-smuggling policy development, including categories of inefficient policy and plan, and failure to reach agenda; policy implementation; categorized into actors, resources and instruments, and implementation guarantee; and finally monitoring and evaluation; including, procedures and practices, and the role of surveyors., Conclusion: Prevention of smuggling health goods proves to be a highly complex, challenging, and multi-faceted practice. Therefore, strengthening policy-making, regulatory frameworks, and facilitation functions about smuggling, counterfeiting, and corruption should be promoted in parallel., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Introduction: In recent years, smuggling of health goods has apparently increased in the country. Despite the preventive and regulatory measures taken to combat this problem, the outcomes seem to be undesirable. This study thus aims to identify and elucidate the role of economic barriers in the prevention of smuggling health goods in Iran., Method: We conducted semistructured interviews with 29 purposefully identified key informants in the detection, prevention and control of health goods smuggling in different organisations, between May 2021-January 2022. An inductive data-driven thematic analysis approach was further adopted to identify patterns of meaning, using MAXQDA 2020 software to facilitate data management., Results: We identified four main themes representing the economic barriers to prevent the smuggling of health goods in Iran; Monetary and financial policy, which includes subthemes of financial rules and procedures, market regulation, economic incentives and imbalanced development; Behavioural patterns, consisting of consumer behaviour, the opportunism of smugglers, the behaviour of statesmen and politicians; Economic diplomacy, categorised into international relations and interactions, relations and interactions in the national arena, interaction with non-governmental organisations and Health economic monitoring and evaluation including transparency of statistics and economic information and supervision., Conclusion: Smuggling health goods has become a concerning challenge in the health sector. It is, therefore, imperative to develop and implement appropriate policies and operations towards security and international cooperation, lobbying and coalition-building. Demonopolisation, creating competitive and dynamic markets, removal of rent-seeking layers at all levels, and the use of commercial diplomacy to reduce the burden of smuggling in the health sector of Iran, and perhaps beyond might be of sizeable use to combat such challenge., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objective: The low level of psychological well-being is one of the most common problems of the women who are the heads of households, and various educational programs have been conducted to improve the psychological well-being of such a group. The present study was conducted to outline the effectiveness of mindfulness-based educational intervention in the psychological well-being of women as the heads of households., Methods: This research as a semi-experimental study was done by pretest-posttest design and control group. The study statistical population included all women as the heads of households in Shiraz, who had a file in the Shiraz based welfare office and at the same time their children were studying in schools covered by the 2nd district educational department of Shiraz in 2022-2023. Out of the female heads of the households in the statistical community, 30 women were selected as Purposive sampling and then randomly divided into two 15-individual groups, including experimental group (training on mindfulness-based therapy) and control group. The research tool included Ryff's psychological well-being scale (Ryff, 1989). The experimental group was subjected to training on mindfulness-based therapy (Baer et al., 2006) during eight 90-min sessions. However, the control group did not receive any intervention., Result: After running the intervention, a significant difference was seen between the components of autonomy, personal growth, purpose in life, self-acceptance, positive relationship with others, and psychological well-being after running the educational intervention between the experimental and control groups (P < 0.05), while no meaningful difference popped up between the experimental and control groups in terms of environmental mastery as one of the aspects measured in psychological well-being scale after the educational intervention (P = 0.602)., Conclusion: According to the results, it seems that psychologists can benefit from the method of training on mindfulness-based therapy in order to increase the psychological well-being of women as the heads of households., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Studies have found that multiple sclerosis (MS) has an impact on the initiation or the course of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This review amied to investigate the prevalence and odds of asthma and COPD among people with MS (pwMS)., Method: PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science were systemically searched from inception to May 2023. R version 4.3.2 and random-effect model were used to calculate the pooled prevalence and odds ratio (OR), with their 95 % confidence interval (CI), in pwMS., Results: A total of 40 studies consisting of 287,702 pwMS were included. 37 studies indicated that the pooled prevalences of asthma and COPD among pwMS were 5.97 % (95 % CI: 4.62 %-7.69 %, I 2 =99 %) and 3.03 % (95 % CI: 1.82 %-5.00 %, I 2 =99 %), respectively. 24 studies on 236,469 pwMS and 85,328,673 healthy controls revealed that the overall odds of asthma and COPD in MS were 1.14 (95 % CI: 0.76-1.71, p-value=0.53, I 2 =97 %) and 1.28 (95 % CI: 1.11-1.47, p-value<0.01, I 2 =70 %), respectively., Conclusion: MS can increased the risk of developing COPD, while asthma does not exhibit a significant relationship with MS. Our study highlights the importance of identifying pwMS who face greater risks of respiratory issues to monitor efficiently and initiate suitable preventative actions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide, and marine creatures are the most abundant reservoir of anticancer medicines. Tachyplesin peptides have shown antibacterial capabilities, but their potential to inhibit cancer growth and trigger cancer cell death has not been investigated. A synthetic tachyplesin nucleotide sequence was generated and inserted into the pcDNA3.1( +) Mammalian Expression Vector. PCR analysis and enzyme digesting procedures were used to evaluate the vectors' accuracy. The transfection efficiency of MCF-7 and MCF10-A cells was 57% and 65%, respectively. The proliferation of MCF-7 cancer cells was markedly suppressed. Administration of plasmid DNA (pDNA) combined with tachyplesin to mice with tumors did not cause any discernible morbidity or mortality throughout treatment. The final body weight curves revealed a significant reduction in weight among mice treated with pDNA/tachyplesin and tachyplesin at a dose of 100 µg/ml (18.4 ± 0.24 gr, P < 0.05; 11.4 ± 0.24 gr P < 0.01) compared to the control group treated with PBS (22 ± 0.31 gr). Animals treated with pDNA/tachyplesin and tachyplesin exhibited a higher percentage of CD4 + Foxp3 + Tregs, CD8 + Foxp3 + Tregs, and CD4 + and CD8 + T cell populations expressing CTLA-4 in their lymph nodes and spleen compared to the PBS group. The groups that received pDNA/tachyplesin exhibited a substantial upregulation in the expression levels of caspase-3, caspase-8, BAX, PI3K, STAT3, and JAK genes. The results offer new possibilities for treating cancer by targeting malignancies using pDNA/tachyplesin and activating the mTOR and NFκB signaling pathways., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Microfluidics has emerged as a transformative force in the field of drug delivery, offering innovative avenues to produce a diverse range of nano drug delivery systems. Thanks to its precise manipulation of small fluid volumes and its exceptional command over the physicochemical characteristics of nanoparticles, this technology is notably able to enhance the pharmacokinetics of drugs. It has initiated a revolutionary phase in the domain of drug delivery, presenting a multitude of compelling advantages when it comes to developing nanocarriers tailored for the delivery of poorly soluble medications. These advantages represent a substantial departure from conventional drug delivery methodologies, marking a paradigm shift in pharmaceutical research and development. Furthermore, microfluidic platformsmay be strategically devised to facilitate targeted drug delivery with the objective of enhancing the localized bioavailability of pharmaceutical substances. In this paper, we have comprehensively investigated a range of significant microfluidic techniques used in the production of nanoscale drug delivery systems. This comprehensive review can serve as a valuable reference and offer insightful guidance for the development and optimization of numerous microfluidics-fabricated nanocarriers., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In this study, MoS 2 /NiFe 2 O 4 /MIL-101(Fe) nanocomposite was synthesized by hydrothermal method and used as an adsorbent for the elimination of organic dyes and some antibiotic drugs in aqueous solutions. The synthesized nanocomposite underwent characterization through different techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), zeta potential analysis, vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). These results demonstrated the successful insertion of MoS 2 within the cavities of MIL-101(Fe). The as-prepared magnetic nanocomposite was used as a new magnetic adsorbent for removing methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) organic dyes and tetracycline (TC) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) antibiotic drugs. For achieving the optimized conditions, the effects of initial pH, initial dye and drug concentration, temperature, and adsorbent dose on MB, TC, and CIP elimination were investigated. The results revealed that at a temperature of 25 °C, the highest adsorption capacities of MoS 2 /NiFe 2 O 4 /MIL-101(Fe) for MB, TC, and CIP were determined to be 999.1, 2991.3, and 1994.2 mg g -1 , respectively. The pseudo-second-order model and Freundlich model are considered suitable for explaining the adsorption behavior of the MoS 2 /NiFe 2 O 4 /MIL-101(Fe) nanocomposite. The magnetic nanocomposite was very stable and had good recycling capability without any change in its structure., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Objectives: Evaluation of spinal muscle morphology may be critical because of its impact on segmental stability and control of the lumbar spine in the subset of patients with clinical lumbar segmental instability (LSI). The purpose of this study was to compare lumbar muscle morphology in CNLBP patients with clinical LSI, CNLBP patients without clinical LSI., Methods: This case-control study included 30 patients with CNLBP (15 with clinical LSI and 15 without clinical LSI) and 15 subjects without LBP. Axial magnetic resonance images from the L2 to S1 lumbar levels were used to evaluate the morphology of the lumbar muscles., Results: A significant increase in the muscle-to-fat infiltration index and a significant decrease in the relative muscle cross-sectional area (rmCSA) of the multifidus muscle at the L3-L4 to L5-S1 levels were observed in both CNLBP groups compared to the control group (p<0.05). The mean erector spinae mean rmCSA was significantly greater in the clinical LSI group compared to the control group (SMD = 0.853, 95% CI = 0.105 to -1.6, P = 0.044) and also compared to the CNLBP without clinical LSI (SMD = 0.894, 95% CI = -1.645 to -0.144, P = 0.030) at the L4-L5 level., Conclusions: The atrophic changes of the multifidus muscle, in CNLBP patients with or without clinical LSI was observed. However, hypertrophic changes of the erector spinae muscle at the L4-L5 lumbar level were observed only in the clinical LSI group. Psaos major did not show significant atrophic or hypertrophic changes., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Mahmoudi Alami et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Chest x-ray is widely utilized for the evaluation of pulmonary conditions due to its technical simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and portability. However, as a two-dimensional (2-D) imaging modality, chest x-ray images depict limited anatomical details and are challenging to interpret., Purpose: To validate the feasibility of reconstructing three-dimensional (3-D) lungs from a single 2-D chest x-ray image via Vision Transformer (ViT)., Methods: We created a cohort of 2525 paired chest x-ray images (scout images) and computed tomography (CT) acquired on different subjects and we randomly partitioned them as follows: (1) 1800 - training set, (2) 200 - validation set, and (3) 525 - testing set. The 3-D lung volumes segmented from the chest CT scans were used as the ground truth for supervised learning. We developed a novel model termed XRayWizard that employed ViT blocks to encode the 2-D chest x-ray image. The aim is to capture global information and establish long-range relationships, thereby improving the performance of 3-D reconstruction. Additionally, a pooling layer at the end of each transformer block was introduced to extract feature information. To produce smoother and more realistic 3-D models, a set of patch discriminators was incorporated. We also devised a novel method to incorporate subject demographics as an auxiliary input to further improve the accuracy of 3-D lung reconstruction. Dice coefficient and mean volume error were used as performance metrics as the agreement between the computerized results and the ground truth., Results: In the absence of subject demographics, the mean Dice coefficient for the generated 3-D lung volumes achieved a value of 0.738 ± 0.091. When subject demographics were included as an auxiliary input, the mean Dice coefficient significantly improved to 0.769 ± 0.089 (p < 0.001), and the volume prediction error was reduced from 23.5 ± 2.7%. to 15.7 ± 2.9%., Conclusion: Our experiment demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing 3-D lung volumes from 2-D chest x-ray images, and the inclusion of subject demographics as additional inputs can significantly improve the accuracy of 3-D lung volume reconstruction., (© 2023 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.)

Background: Peripheral nerve injury is a common clinical disorder. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of cerium oxide nanoparticles on axonal regeneration and functional recovery of the sciatic nerve after a crush injury in the rat model., Method: A total of 40 adult male Wistar rats were divided into four groups. The animals underwent deep anesthesia. Afterward, the right sciatic nerve of rats was exposed and crushed. In two experimental groups, rats were treated intraperitoneally with cerium oxide nanoparticles at the dosage of 20 or 80 mg/kg daily for 1 week. The control group was given a vehicle. Then, during the nerve regeneration motor and sensory function recovery tests, histomorphometric evaluations, histological assessment of gastrocnemius muscle, and gastrocnemius muscle wet weights tests were performed., Results: Results demonstrated that the rate of nerve regeneration increased with the administration of cerium oxide nanoparticle in high doses. Also, the morphometric analysis showed that the number of myelinated fibers and myelin sheath thicknesses was significantly greater in the cerium oxide nanoparticle group versus the control group. Other parameters also improved in the cerium oxide nanoparticle treatment groups compared with the control group., Conclusion: These data indicate that this nanoparticle has therapeutic potential and can be considered as a new treatment for nervous system regeneration.

The effective detoxification of organophosphate (OP) nerve agents (OPNAs) is a challenging issue for scientists. The host-guest inclusion complexes of five V-type nerve agents (VE, VG, VM, VR and VX) with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) have been studied by combining quantum mechanical (QM) calculations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The frontier molecular orbital (FMO) and molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) have been analyzed to describe the reactivity parameters and electronic properties. The obtained results clearly reveal that stable complexes were formed in both vacuum and water media, and the complexation process occurred spontaneously. To understand non-covalent interactions, natural bond orbital (NBO) and quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) have been used. IR and Raman spectra have been calculated to confirm the formation of complexes and also thermodynamic parameters have been investigated. It was demonstrated that in addition to van der Waals interactions, the presence of intermolecular hydrogen bonds enhances the stability of these complexes. Furthermore, MD simulations were carried out to get a better insight into the inclusion process of the above complexes. From MD simulations, all simulated systems reached full equilibration at 1000 ps and the V-agent molecules consistently remained in the β-CD cavity and only had vibrational motion inside the cavity. More importantly, MD simulations support the findings of QM calculations and indicate that hydrogen bonding can help the leaving groups of V-agents to be released and them to be hydrolyzed. All results have shown that the VR agent formed the most stable complex with β-CD molecule than that of other agents.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Here, we present a case of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis that experienced petechiae and epistaxis following treatment with second dose of alemtuzumab. This study highlights such effects, emphasizing the need for vigilance as alemtuzumab usage increases. Timely recognition and management are vital for patient care., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (© 2023 The Authors. Clinical Case Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Purpose: Balance is an important performance aspect of all athletes. The aim of this study was to compare static and dynamic balance in soccer players in different positions., Methods: Forty youth and young adult professional soccer players were divided into four groups according to their playing positions: goalkeepers (GK), defenders (DF), midfielders (MF) and forwards (FW) (10 per position). Static and dynamic balance assessed on the dominant and non-dominant legs were measured using a force platform for 30s (static one-leg stand), and "Y Balance Test" (dynamic balance)., Results: GK exhibited greater ML static balance (less ML sway) compared with other players (p < 0.02-0.001). Moreover, results demonstrated better GK dynamic balance compared to DF and FW (p < 0.04-0.006). MF showed better dynamic balance than DF and FW (p < 0.019-0.007) and lower dynamic balance scores were found among DF and FW (p < 0.05)., Conclusion: In conclusion, these results affirm position-specific balance performance with greater static and dynamic balance of GK and dynamic balance with MF. It is suggested that evaluation of balance and postural control performance should be considered a relevant part of the position-specific functional evaluation of soccer players., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest with the contents of this manuscript., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Doxorubicin (DOX) is associated with numerous acute and chronic dose-related toxicities including hepatotoxicity. This adverse reaction may limit the use of other chemotherapeutic agents with hepatic excretion, and so, its prevention is an important issue. The aim of this study was to conduct a comprehensive review of in vitro, in vivo and human studies regarding the protective effects of synthetic and naturally-occurring compounds against DOX-induced liver injury. The search was conducted in Embase, PubMed, and Scopus databases using the following keywords: "doxorubicin," "Adriamycin," "hepatotoxicity," "liver injury," "liver damage," and "hepatoprotective," and all articles published in English were included without time restriction. Forty eligible studies to the end of May 2022 finally were reviewed. Our results demonstrated that all of these drugs, except acetylsalicylic acid, had considerable hepatoprotective effects against DOX. In addition, none of the studied compounds attenuated the antitumor efficacy of DOX treatment. Silymairn was the only compound which is assessed in human studies and showed promising preventive and therapeutic effects. Altogether, our results demonstrated that most of compounds with antioxidant, anti-apoptosis, and anti-inflammatory properties are efficacious against DOX-induced hepatotoxicity and may be considered as a potential adjuvant agent for prevention of hepatotoxicity in cancer patients, after fully been assessed in well-designed large clinical trials., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Histone deacetylases (HDAC) represent promising epigenetic targets for several diseases including different cancer types. The HDAC inhibitors approved to date are pan-HDAC inhibitors and most show a poor selectivity profile, side effects, and in particular hydroxamic-acid-based inhibitors lack good pharmacokinetic profiles. Therefore, the development of isoform-selective non-hydroxamic acid HDAC inhibitors is a highly regarded field in medicinal chemistry. In this study, we analyzed different ligand-based and structure-based drug design techniques to predict the binding mode and inhibitory activity of recently developed alkylhydrazide HDAC inhibitors. Alkylhydrazides have recently attracted more attention as they have shown promising effects in various cancer cell lines. In this work, pharmacophore models and atom-based quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models were generated and evaluated. The binding mode of the studied compounds was determined using molecular docking as well as molecular dynamics simulations and compared with known crystal structures. Calculated free energies of binding were also considered to generate QSAR models. The created models show a good explanation of in vitro data and were used to develop novel HDAC3 inhibitors.

Liver abscess causes substantial economic loss to the beef cattle industry through liver condemnation, reduced animal performance, and carcass yield. Continuous in-feed use of tylosin is the most effective and a commonly used practice in beef cattle production to prevent liver abscess. However, such mass medication can increase the level of antimicrobial resistant bacteria. We investigated the effect of continuous in-feed use of tylosin in feedlot cattle on (i) concentrations and prevalence of erythromycin-resistant (ERY r ) and tetracycline-resistant (TET r ) enterococci; (ii) associated antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) for resistance; (iii) species distribution; iv) macrolide and tetracycline resistance gene concentrations; and (v) tylosin concentration. A cohort of weaned calves were randomized to receive tylosin-medicated feed (Tylosin; n = 10) or nonmedicated feed (Control; n = 10) for a full feedlot cycle. Feces, feed and pen-surface samples were collected and processed by culture, droplet digital PCR, and liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy for bacterial enumeration, detection and characterization, ARG quantification, and tylosin concentration, respectively. Data were analyzed by mixed effects linear- or binary-regression models depending on the outcomes. Tylosin administration significantly increased fecal concentration (P < 0.001) and prevalence (P = 0.021) of ERY r enterococci and erm(B) gene concentration (P < 0.001), compared to the control group. Interestingly, tylosin administration significantly reduced (P = 0.037) fecal TET r enterococci concentration compared to the control group, with no significant effect (P = 0.758) on fecal tet(M) concentration. In both treatment groups, enterococci concentrations increased over time, peaking on 174 days in feed before returning to the baseline. ERY r enterococci concentration was significantly (P = 0.012) higher in tylosin medicated feeds, with no significant effect (P = 0.321) on TET r enterococci concentration. Pen-surface concentration of ermB was significantly (P = 0.024) higher in the tylosin group, with no significant effect (P > 0.05) on bacterial concentrations. Increased diversity and a shift in the composition of enterococcal species and ARGs were observed over time, although tylosin use did not significantly affect (P > 0.05) their prevalence. Tylosin concentration was significantly higher in the feces of tylosin administered cattle (P < 0.001) and medicated feed (P = 0.027), with numerically higher pen-surface concentration (P = 0.065) in the tylosin group. In conclusion, continuous in-feed use of tylosin in feedlot cattle increases macrolide resistant enterococci and its fecal excretion, while decreasing tetracycline resistance. Two medically important species, E. faecium and E. faecalis, were predominant regardless of resistance status or sample source. Risk-based approaches including label changes to limit tylosin use such as withdrawal period, and development of effective manure treatments are potential areas of research to reduce environmental and public health impacts., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a diverse collection of lipid bilayer-membrane-bound particles which are released from cells into the extracellular space and biologic fluids. In multicellular organisms, these vesicles facilitate the exchange of bioactive compounds such as RNA, DNA, proteins, various metabolites, and lipids between the cells. EVs are produced and released by almost all eukaryotic cells including immune cells and can have immunomodulating effects by either stimulation or suppression of their activities. This immune-modulating feature may provide a promising strategy for treating immune-mediated diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune disorders and graft-versus-host disease. Moreover, immune cell-derived EVs have received attention as potential biomarkers for being used as diagnostic tools and preventive strategies such as for developing vaccines. In this review, we focus on the EVs produced by different immune cell types, their effects on the immune system, and highlight their potential applications for immunotherapy., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Four sesquiterpene lactones, astrodaucanolide A - D (1: -4: ) with unique structures, toghether with two known phenylpropanoid esters (5: and 6: ) were isolated from a flower extract of Astrodaucus orientalis . The structures were established by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRESIMS), and the absolute configuration of 1: -4: was determined by electronic circular dichroism (ECD). Compounds 1: -4: novel architecture represents a new class of sesquiterpenes with new skeleton. A putative biosynthetic pathway for their scaffold is proposed with a germacryl cation as the precursor. The suggested biosynthesis pathway is similar to that of eudesmane sesquiterpenes with a different direction of protonation which then leads to the new skeleton, named astrodaucane by the 1,2-methyl migration., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Neutron contamination in radiation therapy is of concern in treatment with high-energy photons (> 10 MV). With the development of new radiotherapy modalities such as spatially fractionated grid radiation therapy (SFGRT) or briefly grid radiotherapy, more studies are required to evaluate the risks associated with neutron contamination. In 15 MV SFGRT, high-Z materials such as lead and cerrobend are used as the block on the tray of linear accelerator (linac) which can probably increase the photoneutron production. On the other hand, the high-dose fractions (10-20 Gy) used in SFGRT can induce high neutron contamination. The current study was devoted to addressing these concerns via compression of neutron fluence (Φn) and ambient dose equivalent ([Formula: see text]) at the patient table and inside the maze between SFGRT and conventional fractionated radiation therapy (CFRT). The main components of the 15 MV Siemens Primus equipped with different grids and located inside a typical radiotherapy bunker were simulated by the MCNPX® Monte Carlo code. Evidence showed that the material used for grid construction does not significantly increase neutron contamination inside the maze. However, at the end of the maze, neutron contamination in SFGRT is significantly higher than in CFRT. In this regard, a delay time of 15 minutes after SFGRT is recommended for all radiotherapy staff before entering the maze. It can be also concluded that [Formula: see text] at the patient table is at least 10 times more pronounced than inside the maze. Therefore, the patient is more at risk of neutrons compared to the staff. The [Formula: see text] at the isocenter in SFGRT with grids made of lead and cerrobend was nearly equal to CFRT. Nevertheless, it was dramatically lower than in CFRT by 30% if the brass grid is used. Accordingly, SFGRT with the brass grid is recommended, from radiation protection aspects., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Mahmoudi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Considering the huge volume of opinion texts published on various social networks, it is extremely difficult to peruse and use these texts. The automatic creation of summaries can be a significant help for the users of such texts. The current paper employs manifold learning to mitigate the challenges of the complexity and high dimensionality of opinion texts and the K-Means algorithm for clustering. Furthermore, summarization based on the concepts of the texts can improve the performance of the summarization system. The proposed method is unsupervised extractive, and summarization is performed based on the concepts of the texts using the multi-objective pruning approach. The main parameters utilized to perform multi-objective pruning include relevancy, redundancy, and coverage. The simulation results show that the proposed method outperformed the MOOTweetSumm method while providing an improvement of 11% in terms of the ROGUE-1 measure and an improvement of 9% in terms of the ROGUE-L measure., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare that there are no competing interests regarding the publication of this paper., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

Background: The process of steroidogenesis is crucial to the normal function of the ovaries. In individuals with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the activity of related enzymes in this process is disrupted. In the present study, the effect of trans-anethole was investigated on gene expression of steroidogenesis enzymes in PCOS model rats., Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, thirty female rats were divided into six groups (n=5 per group). Fifteen PCOS rats in three groups received intraperitoneal injections of distilled water, 50, and 80 mg/kg of trans-anethole, respectively. Also, 15 intact rats in three groups received intraperitoneal injections of distilled water, 50, and 80 mg/kg trans-anethole. The expression of steroidogenesis genes was determined using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction., Results: The mRNA level of Cyp19 significantly increased in intact rats receiving 80 mg/kg trans-anethole compared to the control group. The Cyp19 level in PCOS groups was significantly reduced compared to the control group. The mRNA level of Cyp19 in PCOS groups that resived 50 or 80 mg/kg trans-anethole increased compared to PCOS rats, but this increase was not statistically significant. The mRNA level of Cyp17 did not significantly change in intact and PCOS rats that received trans-anethole compared to the control group., Conclusion: Trans-anethole may improve PCOS complications due to its involvement in regulating steroidogenesis., Competing Interests: There was no conflict of interest., (Copyright© 2022, Galen Medical Journal.)

A series of novel 3-substituted-4-hydroxycoumarins 7 and 8 containing (5-aryl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)thio or (4-amino-5-aryl-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)thio moieties have been synthesized and evaluated as anticancer agents. The in vitro MTT assay of compounds against hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2), breast cancer (MCF7) cells, and a human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line with epithelial morphology (HT29) indicated that the HepG2 cells had more susceptibility to the tested compounds. Indeed, all compounds (with the exception of 7b, 7c, 7g, and 8g) were more potent than the standard drug doxorubicin against HepG2 cells (IC 50 values=1.65-3.83 μM). Although, the better result was obtained with the oxadiazole analog 7h against HepG2 (IC 50 =1.65 μM), the N-amino-triazole derivatives 8c, 8e, 8f and, 8h with IC 50 values of 1.78-6.34 μM showed potent activity against all tested cell lines. The good drug-like properties and in vitro potency and selectivity of 4-hydroxycoumarins 8 make them as good leads for the development of new anticancer agents., (© 2022 Wiley-VHCA AG, Zurich, Switzerland.)

Background Considering the importance of irrigation in dental root canal treatment, there is an urgent need to find a risk-free bioactive and antibacterial endodontic solution. Enterococcus faecalis , an anaerobic gram-positive coccus, has been identified as the main reason for endodontic infections. Several studies have been conducted on E. faecalis and periapical infection. Nowadays, plants used in traditional medicine play a role that is widely appreciated by researchers. One of these herbs is ginger which shows an acceptable antimicrobial effect on E. faecalis . Due to the highly crucial role that irrigation plays in the success of endodontic treatment, a comprehensive survey based on several criteria, namely, scientific, technical, and empirical, is required to address the goal of determining the best endodontic solution. Methodology The most important criteria are antibacterial activity, risks and hazards, cost, and availability. In this study, the analytical network process (ANP), which is a multi-criteria decision-making method, was applied to determine the best endodontic irrigant. Results Several alternatives were investigated using the ANP. In this study, 5.25% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and 2% chlorhexidine were at the top of the list. According to the sensitivity analysis, 10% ethanolic ginger extract showed comparable results to 2.5% NaOCl. Conclusions To carefully prioritize endodontic irrigants a wide range of standards and criteria should be considered. Considering the low risk, great wettability, and active compounds of ginger extract, it can be a promising viable risk-free solution for root canal treatments., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2022, Abdollahi-Mansoorkhani et al.)

In the recent years, perovskite oxides are gaining an increasing amount of attention owing to their unique traits such as tunable electronic structures, flexible composition, and eco-friendly properties. In contrast, their catalytic performance is not satisfactory, which hinders real wastewater remediation. To overcome this shortcoming, various strategies are developed to design new perovskite oxide-based materials to enhance their catalytic activities in advanced oxidation process (AOPs). This review article is to provide overview of basic principle and different methods of AOPs, while the strategies to design novel perovskite oxide-based composites for enhancing the catalytic activities in AOPs have been highlighted. Moreover, the recent progress of their synthesis and applications in wastewater remediation (pertaining to the period 2016-2022) was described, and the related mechanisms were thoroughly discussed. This review article helps scientists to have a clear outlook on the selection and design of new effective perovskite oxide-based materials for the application of AOPs. At the end of the review, perspective on the challenges and future research directions are discussed., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is among the deadliest cancers of the gastrointestinal tract worldwide and a growing global health concern., Aim: This study was aimed to evaluate the survival rate and prognostic factors of survival in patients with PC., Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, the records of 556 patients with PC registered in the hospital cancer registration system from September 2007 to September 2020 were evaluated. In this regard, demographic data, tumor characteristics, received treatments, and patients' final status were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier and Cox's regression were used for univariate and multivariate analyses, respectively., Results: The 5-year survival rate was found to be 4.3%. The median survival time was 12.4 ± 6.6 months. Univariate analysis showed that age, BMI (kg/m 2 ), blood transfusions, differentiation, tumor stage, tumor size, number of involved lymph nodes, lymph node ratio (LNR), and type of treatment received were significantly associated with patient survival (p < .05). Multivariate Cox regression indicated that the age ≥60 years [Hazard Ratio (HR) = 1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.03-1.49], BMI <18 (kg/m 2 ; HR = 1.56, 95% CI = 1.13-2.14), poor differentiation (HR = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.75-2.49), tumor size >2.5 cm (HR = 4.61, 95% CI = 3.30-6.78), metastasis presence (HR = 1.97, 95% CI = 1.49-2.60), more than two involved lymph nodes (HR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.31-1.77), LNR <0.2 (HR = 0.56, 95% CI = 0.36-0.77), and adjuvant therapy with surgery and chemotherapy (HR = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.28-0.61) are the most important prognostic factors of survival in patients with PC (p < .05)., Conclusions: This study showed that the survival rate of patients with pancreatic cancer varies based on the characteristics of the tumor and the type of treatment received., (© 2021 The Authors. Cancer Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

In this work, we synthesized and reported gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) with Eryngium thyrsoideum Boiss plant extract for first time. The plant extract has important effect as reducing and stabilizing agent for preparation of Au nanoparticles. The synthesized gold nanoparticles were characterized with FT-IR, UV-vis, XRD, SEM, and TEM analyses. All analyses confirmed successful synthesis of gold nanoparticles with high purity. The antidiabetic activity of synthesized Au NPs was investigated on type 2 diabetic rats by studying their influences on serum biochemical parameters and inflammatory markers. Obtained results revealed that hepatic enzymes, TNF-α, and interleukin-6 of diabetic rats receiving gold nanoparticles decreased in compare with healthy control rats. As inflammatory markers are main reasons for hyperglycemic-induced insulin resistance in diabetes, Au NPs have a possible option for management of the diabetes-related complication via their potent anti-inflammatory and hypoglycemic effects., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at the end of 2019 affected global health. Its infection agent was called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Wearing a mask, maintaining social distance, and vaccination are effective ways to prevent infection of SARS-CoV-2, but none of them help infected people. Targeting the enzymes of SARS-CoV-2 is an effective way to stop the replication of the virus in infected people and treat COVID-19 patients. SARS-CoV-2 main protease is a therapeutic target which the inhibition of its enzymatic activity prevents from the replication of SARS-CoV-2. A large database of molecules has been searched to identify new inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 main protease enzyme. At the first step, ligand screening based on similarity search was used to select similar compounds to known SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors. Then molecules with better predicted pharmacokinetic properties were selected. Structure-based virtual screening based on the application of molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation methods was used to select more effective inhibitors among selected molecules in previous step. Finally two compounds were considered as SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors.

Physical theories that depend on many parameters or are tested against data from many different experiments pose unique challenges to statistical inference. Many models in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology fall into one or both of these categories. These issues are often sidestepped with statistically unsound ad hoc methods, involving intersection of parameter intervals estimated by multiple experiments, and random or grid sampling of model parameters. Whilst these methods are easy to apply, they exhibit pathologies even in low-dimensional parameter spaces, and quickly become problematic to use and interpret in higher dimensions. In this article we give clear guidance for going beyond these procedures, suggesting where possible simple methods for performing statistically sound inference, and recommendations of readily-available software tools and standards that can assist in doing so. Our aim is to provide any physicists lacking comprehensive statistical training with recommendations for reaching correct scientific conclusions, with only a modest increase in analysis burden. Our examples can be reproduced with the code publicly available at Zenodo., (© 2022 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer in women and the second leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer. The purpose of this study is a targeted delivery toward in vitro (on MCF7 and 4T1 breast cancer cell lines) through niosomes-based nanocarriers. To this end, different bioactive molecules, including hyaluronic acid (HA), folic acid (FA), and polyethylene glycol (PEG), were used and compared for surface modification of niosomes to enhance endocytosis. FA-functionalized niosomes (Nio/5-FU/FA) were able to increase cell cytotoxicity and reduce cell migration and invasion compared to PEG-functionalized niosomes (Nio/5-FU/PEG), and HA-functionalized niosomes (Nio/5-FU/HA) groups in MCF-7 and 4T1 cell lines. Although the Nio/5-FU/PEG and Nio/5-FU/HA demonstrated MCF7 cell uptake, the Nio/5-FU/FA exhibited the most preponderant endocytosis in pH 5.4. Remarkably, in this study 5-FU loaded niosomes (nonionic surfactant-based vesicles) were decorated with various bioactive molecules (FA, PEG, or HA) to compare their ability for breast cancer therapy. The fabricated nanoformulations were readily taken up by breast cancer cells ( in vitro ) and demonstrated sustained drug release characteristics, inducing cell apoptosis. Overall, the comprehensive comparison between different bioactive molecules-decorated nanoniosomes exhibited promising results in finding the best nano formulated candidates for targeted delivery of drugs for breast cancer therapy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Rezaei, Rezaei, Karimifard, Mahmoudi Beram, Dakkali, Heydari, Afshari-Behbahanizadeh, Mostafavi, Bokov, Ansari, Farasati Far, Akbarzadeh and Chaiyasut.)

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are a family of 18 epigenetic modifiers that fall into 4 classes. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) are valid tools to assess HDAC functions. HDAC6 and HDAC10 belong to the class IIb subgroup of the HDAC family. The targets and biological functions of HDAC10 are ill-defined. This lack of knowledge is due to a lack of specific and potent HDAC10 inhibitors with cellular activity. Here, we have synthesized and characterized piperidine-4-acrylhydroxamates as potent and highly selective inhibitors of HDAC10. This was achieved by targeting the acidic gatekeeper residue Glu274 of HDAC10 with a basic piperidine moiety that mimics the interaction of the polyamine substrate of HDAC10. We have confirmed the binding modes of selected inhibitors using X-ray crystallography. Promising candidates were selected based on their specificity by in vitro profiling using recombinant HDACs. The most promising HDAC10 inhibitors 10c and 13b were tested for specificity in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells with the FLT3-ITD oncogene. By immunoblot experiments we assessed the hyperacetylation of histones and tubulin-α, which are class I and HDAC6 substrates, respectively. As validated test for HDAC10 inhibition we used flow cytometry assessing autolysosome formation in neuroblastoma and AML cells. We demonstrate that 10c and 13b inhibit HDAC10 with high specificity over HDAC6 and with no significant impact on class I HDACs. The accumulation of autolysosomes is not a consequence of apoptosis and 10c and 13b are not toxic for normal human kidney cells. These data show that 10c and 13b are nanomolar inhibitors of HDAC10 with high specificity. Thus, our new HDAC10 inhibitors are tools to identify the downstream targets and functions of HDAC10 in cells., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Background: The majority of research to understand the risk factors of nonsyndromic orofacial clefts (NSOFCs) has been conducted in high-income populations. Although patients with NSOFCs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at the highest risk of not receiving care, global health infrastructure allows innovative partnerships to explore the etiologic mechanisms of cleft and targets for prevention unique to these populations., Methods: The International Family Study (IFS) is an ongoing case-control study with supplemental parental trio data designed to examine genetic, environmental, lifestyle, and sociodemographic risk factors for NSOFCs in 8 LMICs (through August 2020). Interview and biological samples are collected for each family. The interview includes demographics, family history of cleft, diet and water sources, maternal pregnancy history, and other lifestyle and environmental factors., Results: Seven of 8 countries are currently summarized (2012-2017) for a total of 2955 case and 2774 control families with 11 946 unique biological samples from Vietnam, Philippines, Honduras, Madagascar, Morocco, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nicaragua. The phenotype distribution was 1641 (55.5%) cases with cleft lip and palate, 782 (26.5%) with cleft lip (CL), and 432 (14.6%) with cleft palate (CP)., Discussion: The International Family Study is the largest case set of NSOFCs with an associated biobank in LMICs currently assembled. The biobank, family, and case-control study now include samples from 8 LMICs where local health care infrastructure cannot address the surgical burden of cleft or investigate causal mechanisms. The International Family Study can be a source of information and may collaborate with local public health institutions regarding education and interventions to potentially prevent NSOFCs.

Increased demand for animal protein is met by increased food animal production resulting in large quantities of manure. Animal producers, therefore, need sustainable agricultural practices to protect environmental health. Large quantities of antimicrobials are used in commercial food animal production. Consequently, antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and the resistance genes emerge and are excreted through feces. Manure management is essential for the safe disposal of animal waste. Lagoons, with or without covers, and anaerobic digesters, with the primary purpose of methane production, and composting, with the primary purpose of producing organic fertilizer, are widely used methods of manure treatment. We reviewed manure management practices and their impact on tetracycline resistance genes. Lagoons are maintained at ambient temperatures; especially uncovered lagoons are the least effective in removing tetracycline resistance genes. However, some modifications can improve the performance of lagoons: sequential use of uncovered lagoons and the use of covered lagoons resulted in a one-log reduction, while post-treatments such as biofiltration following covered lagoon treatment resulted in 3.4 log reduction. Mesophilic digestion of animal manure did not have any significant effect; only a 0.7 log reduction in tet(A) was observed in one study. While thermophilic anaerobic digesters are effective, if properly operated, they are expensive for animal producers. Aerobic thermophilic composting is a promising technology if optimized with its economic benefits. Composting of raw animal manure can result in up to a 2.5 log reduction, and postdigestion composting can reduce tetracycline resistance gene concentration by >80%. In general, manure management was not designed to mitigate antimicrobial resistance; future research is needed to optimize the economic benefits of biogas or organic fertilizer on the one hand and for the mitigation of foodborne pathogens and antimicrobial resistance on the other.

The pathogenic roles of Interleukine-16 (IL-16), CCL27, tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), and B-cell activating factor (BAFF) has been shown in some autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. We aimed to correlate the circulatory changes of such factors with the severity of disease in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). This case-control study was conducted on 84 MS patients and 83 healthy controls. We measured the serum levels of IL-16, CCL27, TRAIL, and BAFF in all participants by enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay. Using the expanded disability status scale (EDSS), we evaluated the severity of MS. Finally, we assessed the correlation between serum levels of such factors with the severity of MS. We found increased serum levels of CCL27, IL-16, and BAFF in patients with MS compared to those in healthy subjects. However, no difference was found in serum levels of TRAIL between the patients and controls. In addition, a significant positive correlation between serum levels of CCL27, IL-16, TRAIL, and BAFF with disease severity according to EDSS score was determined. We showed higher serum levels of CCL27, BAFF, TRAIL, and IL-16 in MS patients with more severe disabilities than mild forms. Such finding may represent their contribution to the pathogenesis of MS. Blocking such molecules may yield new treatments for MS.

Aim: To see how thyroxine affects the sensory and motor function of a damaged sciatic nerve in male rats., Material and Methods: Forty adult male Wistar rats were allocated to four groups, 10 individuals each. Then, crush injury was done on the right sciatic nerve in all the groups using a vessel clamp. In thyroxine-treated groups and after the crush, the rats were given regular doses of thyroxine (5 and 10 ?g/kg) for one week intraperitoneally. Negative control group was treated intraperitoneally with distilled water as a vehicle. In sham operated group, only surgical procedures were performed without nerve crush. Then, behavioral, histological, and morphometric parameters were assessed at the regeneration time., Results: After one week of treatment with thyroxine, the motor function improved significantly following a sciatic nerve crush (P ? 0.05). Also, morphometric parameters and sensory restoration improved in thyroxine-treated groups., Conclusion: Findings of this study showed that neuro-protective effects of thyroxine can be due to the stimulatory effects of thyroxine in myelin sheath formation and increasing the expression of SCG10 protein which is required for the development of growth cones.

Purpose: Photoneutron production is a common concern when using 18-MV photon beams in radiation therapy. In Spatially Fractionated Grid Radiation Therapy (SFGRT), the grid block in the collimation system modifies the neutron production, photon scattering, and electron contamination in and out of the radiation field. Such an effect was studied with grids made of different high-Z materials by Monte Carlo simulations. The results were also used to evaluate the lifetime risk of fatal cancers., Methods: MCNPX® code (2.7.0 extensions) was employed to simulate an 18-MV LINAC (Varian 2100 C/D). Three types of grid made of brass, cerrobend, and lead were used to study the neutron and electron fluence. Output factors for each grid with different field sizes were calculated. A revised female MIRD phantom with an 8-cm spherical tumor inside the liver was used to estimate the dose to the tumor and the critical organs. A 20-Gy SFGRT plan with Anterior Posterior (AP) - Posterior Anterior (PA) grid beams was compared with a Conventional Fractionated Radiation Therapy (CFRT) plan which delivered 40-Gy to the tumor by AP-PA open beams. Neutron equivalent dose, photon equivalent dose, as well as lifetime risks of fatal cancer were calculated in the organs at risk., Results: The grid blocks reduced the fluence of contaminant electrons inside the treatment field by more than 50%. The neutron fluences per electron-history in SFGRT plans with brass, cerrobend and lead were on average 55%, 31% and 31% less than that of the CFRT plan, respectively. However, when converting to fluences per delivered dose (Gy), the cerrobend and lead grid may incur higher neutron dose for 20 × 20 cm 2 field size and above. The changes in neutron mean energy, as well as the correlated radiation weighting factors, were insignificant. The total risk due to the photoneutrons in the SFGRT plans was 87% or lower than that in the CFRT plans. In both SFGRT and CFRT plans, the contribution of the primary and scattered photons to the fatal cancer risk was 2 times or more than the photoneutrons. The total risks from photons in SFGRT with brass, cerrobend, and lead blocks were 1.733, 1.374, and 1.260%, respectively, which were less than 30% of the total photon-risk in CFRT (5.827%)., Conclusion: In the brass, cerrobend, and lead grids, the attenuation of photoneutrons outweighs its photoneutron production in 18-MV SFGRT. The total cancer risks from photons and photoneutrons in the SFGRT plans were 30% or less of the risks in the CFRT plans (5.911%). Using 18 MV photon beams with brass, cerrobend, and lead grid blocks is still a feasible option for SFGRT., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no conflicts to disclose., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Therapeutic advantages of Grid therapy have been demonstrated in several theoretical studies using the standard linear-quadratic (LQ) model. However, the suitability of the LQ model when describing cell killing at highly modulated radiation fields has been questioned. In this study, we have applied an extended LQ model to recalculate therapeutic parameters of Grid therapy. This study shows that incorporating the bystander effects in the radiobiological models would significantly change the theoretical predictions and conclusion of Grid therapy, especially at high dose gradient fields., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Diagnosis, treatment, and prediction of cancer progression require new targeting agents to specifically target cell surface receptors. Herein, we demonstrated fluorescent carbon quantum dots-molecularly imprinted polymer (CQD-MIP) for selective targeting and imaging of cancer cells. Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) were synthesized and characterized. The synthesized CQDs had average size of 1.5 nm and show intense fluorescence emission at wavelength of 450 nm with excitation at 370 nm. CQD-MIP nanoparticles imprinted with N-acetylneuraminic acid and glucuronic acid were prepared and characterized. CQD-MIPs were successfully applied for selective targeting and imaging of MCF-7, HepG-2, and NIH-3T3 cell lines. Non-imprinted polymer (NIP) showed no binding properties toward a target molecule. Non-imprinted polymer (NIP) and non-cancerous human cell lines were used for controlling the imprinting and targeting effects, respectively. Acceptable results were obtained with imprinted polymers on cancer cells.

In the present study, silver nanoparticles (1) were synthesized by green method using Eryngium campestre Boiss aqueous extract and silver nanoparticles (2) were synthesized with chemical method. The silver nanoparticles (1) and (2) were characterized with FT-IR, UV-Vis, XRD, EDX, SEM, and TEM analyses. The effects of silver nanoparticles (1) and (2) were investigated on glucose, hematology, and blood biochemical parameters in alloxan- induced diabetes type 1 model rats. Diabetic or intact rats received intraperitoneal injection of saline or 2.5 mg/kg of silver nanoparticles (1) and (2) for 14 consecutive days. Hematological parameters and serum concentration of FBS, HbA 1 C, ALT, AST, GGT, ALP, albumin, creatinine, and urea were determined. Interestingly, silver NPs (1) or (2) did not exert toxic influences on hematological parameters and liver and kidney function in intact rats. Both silver nanoparticles (1) and (2) exert hypoglycemic effects in diabetic rats. They did not alter urea, creatinine, and hematological parameters except white blood cell (WBC) count in diabetic rats. Silver nanoparticles (1) decreased significantly liver enzyme levels including ALT and AST of diabetic rats. However silver nanoparticles (2) could not suppress the increased levels of liver enzymes in diabetic rats. In comparison with silver nanoparticles (2), the silver nanoparticles (1) are more protective than the same dose of silver nanoparticles (2) in the regulation and improving the liver function in diabetic rats. Also, silver nanoparticles (1) may exert protective effects on liver damage of diabetic rats rather than kidney damage.

There is a renewed interest in the application of chitosan-based drug delivery systems over the last few years. In this study, the ionic gelation method was used to prepare chitosan-engaged tripolyphosphate ions, as the cross-linking molecule, (Chit-TPP) and concurrent loading of the biomolecules of the ethanolic extract of fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, seed (FEC@NBC). The samples were characterized by SEM, DLS, TGA, FTIR, XRD, GC-MS, and zeta potential, and their effects on the related hormonal and biochemical factors of the rats with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) were assessed. The estradiol valerate-induced PCOS in female rats was confirmed by vaginal smear test and subsequent histological screening. The PCOS-induced rats were treated by fennel seed extract (FSX), Chit-TPP, and FEC@NBC. The process of treatment was monitored by measuring the serum levels of testosterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, insulin, glucose, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, and total triglyceride after 16 days of treatment and compared with healthy control and untreated PCOS-control groups. The FEC@NBC administration contributed to the remarkable hormonal, glucose, and lipid profile regulation in the rats with PCOS. The significance of FEC@NBC performance in dealing with PCOS complications compared to that of the only extract could be resulted from the effective targeted delivery and stability of phytomolecules when encapsulated in Chit-TPP., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Serotonin and kisspeptin stimulates gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) release while ghrelin and adiponectin inhibit them. In the present experimental study, the effects of central injection of serotonin were investigated on LH concentration, KiSS1 , adiponectin , and ghrelin genes expression., Materials and Methods: Fifteen Wistar male rats in three groups received saline or serotonin hydrochloride via the third cerebral ventricle. Blood samples were collected via the tail vein. Serum LH concentration and relative gene expression were evaluated by radioimmunoassay and real-time polymerase chain reaction method, respectively., Results: Serotonin significantly increased the mean serum LH concentration and KiSS1 gene expression levels compared to the saline group. Serotonin significantly decreased the mean ghrelin and adiponectin genes expression levels compared to the saline group., Conclusion: The serotonergic pathway may have stimulatory effects on hypothalamic kisspeptin synthesis, partly via inhibiting hypothalamic ghrelin and adiponectin neural activity., (Copyright© 2020, Galen Medical Journal.)