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Gravitational particle production has been investigated by using Einstein's gravitational field equations in the presence of a cosmological constant. To study the mechanism of particle creation, the Universe has been considered as a thermodynamics system and non-equilibrium thermodynamics has been employed. In order to estimate the cosmological parameters with observational data, including SNe Ia, BAO, Planck 2015 and HST, we have chosen a phenomenological approach for the rate of particle creation. A non-zero particle production rate was obtained implying that the possibility of the particle production is consistent with recent cosmological observations. In the 1 sigma confidence interval, the ratio of Gamma/3H0 was obtained to be 0.0835., 16 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

"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: An increased risk for invasive infections with encapsulated bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae has been described in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) or in those on dialysis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibody response to pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide vaccine in CKD patients. "n"nMethods : Sixty-six patients with CKD and 40 healthy individuals were vaccinated with pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine. The serum antibody response (IgG and IgG2) to the Pneumovax antigens was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) prior to and four weeks after vaccination."n"nResults : Out of 66 vaccinated patients with CKD, 14 were found to be hyporesponsive to the vaccine (Group 1). Patients with normal specific antibody response were regarded as respondents and were assigned to Group 2 (n=52). The mean post-vaccination IgG titer to the pneumococcal antigens in Group 1 was significantly lower than those in Group 2 (P=0.012 for IgG and P=0.02 for IgG2). The increased anti-pneumococcal IgG titer was significantly lower in patients in Group 1 versus Group 2 (P=0.001) or the healthy control group (P=0.005). During the follow-up period of patients, patients in Group 1 developed higher episodes of pneumococcal infections than those in Group 2 (P=0.007). "n"nConclusion: A substantial proportion of patients with chronic kidney disease fail to mount an adequate antibody response to pneumococcal antigens and remain at significant risk for such infections. These patients should be offered other prophylactic measures to protect them against invasive pneumococcal diseases."n"nKeywords: Antibody response, chronic kidney disease, polysaccharide vaccine.

"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:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; 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: Based on the reports, high frequency of special alleles of HLA class II genes might be associated with susceptibility to or protective from a particular cancer. These alleles might vary depending on the geographical region. Here we investigate the association between alleles of HLA class II genes and breast cancer in Iranian women."n"nMethods: 100 patients with pathologically proved breast cancer who referred to Cancer Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran, were divided to two groups based on ages (40 years old and less/ or more than 40 years old) and were randomly selected and compared with a group of 80 healthy blood donor subjects. HLA class II alleles were determined by amplification of DNA with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method followed by HLA-typing using sequence-specific primer (SSP) for each allele."n"nResults: The most frequent alleles in the DR and DQ regions in group 1 (40 years old and less) in comparison with control group were HLA-DQA1*0301 (p=0.002) and HLA-DQB1*0302 (p>0.05). In contrast HLA-DQA1*0505 (p=0.004) had significantly lower frequency in this group compared with control group. Patients of group two (more than 40 years old) had a higher frequencies of HLA-DQA1*0301 (p=0.001) and HLA-DRB1*1303 (p=0.02) and a lower frequency of HLA-DQA1*0101 (p=0.002) compared to healthy control."n"nConclusion: These findings provide information of a positive and negative association between certain alleles of HLA class II and breast cancer in our population and also might support that the pattern of inheritance in the early and late onset of breast cancer differ substantially.

Fumonisins, a family of mycotoxins, are mainly toxic and carcinogenic. The present study was carried out to evaluate fumonisin B1 (FB1) effects on the production of inflammatory cytokines by gastric and colon cell lines. The study was performed on two cell lines under in vitro condition, including gastric epithelial cell line (AGS) and human colon adenocarcinoma cell line (SW742). Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used for inflammatory cytokine induction. The culture medium was supplemented with 4.5–72 mg/l of FB1 for 72 h before cell induction. The supernatants were harvested 24 h after the induction and measured for cytokines by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. FB1 induced a dose-dependent increase in the production of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β in both AGS and SW742 cell lines. This increase was statistically significant with concentration of FB1 between 9 and 72 mg/l (P < 0.05). FB1 also induced a dose- dependent decrease in interleukin-8 production. This decrease was seen in both cell lines and showed a statistical significance with FB1 concentration (P < 0.05). The results show that FB1 increases inflammatory cytokines production by various gastric and intestinal cells. This effect in the long run can possibly be the basis for the occurrence or development of inflammation and subsequent atrophy in the above-mentioned tissues.

Background: Remaining pharmaceutical compounds cause environmental pollution. Therefore, refining these compounds has become a major challenge. In this study, the function of eliminating Cefixime (CFX) using rice starch was evaluated under controlled conditions. Methods: Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to design, analyze, and optimize experiments, and the interaction between four variables including pH (3–9), rice starch dose (0–300 mg/L), CFX initial concentration (0–16 mg/L) and time (20–120 min) was investigated on CFX removal. Results: The optimum pH, starch dose, initial concentration and time were 4.5, 225 mg/L, 7.9 mg/L and 95 min, respectively. The maximum efficiency of CFX removal was 70.22%. According to RSM, this study follows a quadratic model (R2=0.954). Conclusion: Rice starch has been successful in removing CFX from the aqueous solution. Therefore, it is recommended to utilize this process to remove CFX from aqueous solutions.

Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common malignancy in childhood, characterized by excess lymphoblasts, and immature white blood cells that are continuously multiplying and overproducing in the bone marrow. The aim of this investigation was to measure the sensitivity of lymphocytes against gamma irradiation in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and also find out the effect of such irradiations in causing chromosomal abnormalities.Methods: In this investigation performed between April 2010 and July 2011, at the Department of Genetics, Cancer Institute of Iran, we studied the effects of gamma irradiation on the lymphocytes of 20 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The lymphocytes of 30 healthy donors were used to establish as a normal response to gamma irradiation and seven age-matched ataxia telangiectasia patients were recruited as positive control. The chromosomal radiosensitivity was assessed with the G2- and the G0-assay. We compared the mean number of chromosomal abnormalities such as chromosome and chromatid breakages, chromosome and chromatid gaps, and chromatid exchanges in one-hundred metaphases of patients and control groups.Results: The frequency of chromosomal aberrations was statistically higher among patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia than the normal controls (P

The performances of organometallic halide perovskite-based solar cells severely depend on the device architecture and the interface between each layer included in the device stack. In particular, the interface between the charge transporting layer and the perovskite film is crucial, since it represents both the substrate where the perovskite polycrystalline film grows, thus directly influencing the active layer morphology, and an important site for electrical charge extraction and/or recombination. Here, we focus on engineering the interface between a perovskite-polymer nanocomposite, recently developed by our group, and different commonly employed polymeric hole transporters, namely PEDOT: PSS [poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)], PEDOT, PTAA [poly(bis 4-phenyl}{2,4,6-trimethylphenyl}amine)], Poly-TPD [Poly(N,N&prime, bis(4-butylphenyl)-N,N&prime, bis(phenyl)-benzidine] Poly-TPD, in inverted planar perovskite solar cell architecture. The results show that when Poly-TPD is used as the hole transfer material, perovskite film morphology improved, suggesting an improvement in the interface between Poly-TPD and perovskite active layer. We additionally investigate the effect of the Molecular Weight (MW) of Poly-TPD on the performance of perovskite solar cells. By increasing the MW, the photovoltaic performances of the cells are enhanced, reaching power conversion efficiency as high as 16.3%.