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Cervical cancer (CC) is a major global health problem and leading cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide. Early detection through screening programs has reduced mortality; however, screening compliance remains low. Identifying non-invasive biomarkers through proteomics for diagnosis and monitoring response to treatment could improve patient outcomes. Here we review recent proteomics studies which have uncovered biomarkers and potential drug targets for CC. Additionally, we explore into the role of cervical cancer stem cells and their potential implications in driving CC progression and therapy resistance. Although challenges remain, proteomics has the potential to revolutionize the field of cervical cancer research and improve patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS‐CoV‐2 (coronavirus disease 2019; previously 2019‐nCoV), epicenter in Hubei Province (Wuhan), People's Republic of China, has spread too many other countries. The transmission of the corona virus occurs when people are in the incubation stage and do not have any symptoms. Therefore, the role of environmental factors such as temperature and wind speed becomes very important. The study of Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) indicates that there is a significant relationship between temperature and virus transmission and three important factors, namely temperature, humidity and wind speed, cause SARS transmission. Daily data on the incidence and mortality of Covid-19 disease were collected from World Health Organization (WHO) website and World Meter website (WMW) for several major cities in Iran and the world. Data were collected from February 2020 to September 2021. Meteorological data including temperature, air pressure, wind speed, dew point and air quality index (AQI) index are extracted from the website of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor. Statistical analysis carried out for significance relationships. The correlation coefficient between the number of infected people in one day and the environmental variables in the countries was different from each other. The relationship between AQI and number of infected was significant in all cities. In Canberra, Madrid and Paris, a significant inverse relationship was observed between the number of infected people in one day and wind speed. There is a significant positive relationship between the number of infected people in a day and the dew point in the cities of Canberra, Wellington and Washington. The relationship between the number of infected people in one day and Pressure was significantly reversed in Madrid and Washington, but positive in Canberra, Brasilia, Paris and Wuhan. There was significant relationship between Dew point and prevalence. Wind speed showed a significant relationship in USA, Madrid and Paris. AQI was strongly associated with the prevalence of covid19. The purpose of this study is to investigate some environmental factors in the transmission of the corona virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dutasteride was potentially proposed to control chronic pain by Toll-Like Receptor 4 (TLR4) inhibition through its effect on TLR4 expression, Myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88), Nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), secretory Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and nitric oxide (NO) in the Lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-stimulated U-87 MG cell line. Human astrocytoma U-87 MG cell line was cultured and incubated with 10 μg/mL of LPS for 24 hours to create a neuro-inflammation model, using two different treatment approaches. The first approach included LPS treatment for 24 hours, followed by dutasteride (20 μg/mL) incubation for the next 72 hours. In the second treatment approach, the cells were co-incubated with LPS and dutasteride for 72 hours. Expression of TLR4, MyD88, NF-κBp65, and secretory IL-1 was evaluated by Western blotting while expression of NO was assessed by NO assay. TLR4, MyD88, NF-κBp65, and secretory IL-1β levels increased in LPS-treated cells after 24 hours. Dutasteride significantly decreased the secretion of NO and also, the levels of TLR4, MyD88, and NF-κBp65 in both treatment approaches. No difference in IL-1β level was seen with the second treatment approach. Dutasteride has anti-inflammatory properties and probably analgesic effects, by mechanisms different from conventional analgesics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the third coronavirus epidemic that soon turned into a pandemic. This virus causes acute respiratory syndrome in infected people. The mortality rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection will probably rise unless efficient treatments or vaccines are developed. The global funding and medical communities have started performing more than five hundred clinical examinations on a broad spectrum of repurposed drugs to acquire effective treatments. Besides, other novel treatment approaches have also recently emerged, including cellular host-directed therapies. They counteract the unwanted responses of the host immune system that led to the severe pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. This brief review focuses on mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) principles in treating the COVID-19. The US clinical trials database and the world health organization database for clinical trials have reported 82 clinical trials (altogether) exploring the effects of MSCs in COVID-19 treatment. MSCs also had better be tried for treating other pathogens worldwide. MSC treatment may have the potential to end the high mortality rate of COVID-19. Besides, it also limits the long-term inability of survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer is a multifaceted global health issue and one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In recent years, medical science has achieved great advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Despite the numerous advantages of conventional cancer therapies, there are major drawbacks including severe side effects, toxicities, and drug resistance. Therefore, the urgency of developing new drugs with low cytotoxicity and treatment resistance is increasing. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have attracted attention as a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of various cancers, targeting tumor cells with less toxicity to normal tissues. In this review, we present the structure, biological function, and underlying mechanisms of AMPs. The recent experimental studies and clinical trials on anticancer peptides in different cancer types as well as the challenges of their clinical application have also been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 has raised a public health catastrophe in early 2020 worldwide. Despite several approved vaccines that have repressed the pandemic and decreased the mortality rate since then, attempts to discover an effective antiviral drug have not indicated reliable results. In this research, in silico studies (virtual screening and molecular docking) were performed based on quinoline structure to identify novel drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2 before laboratory evaluations. A chemical library consisting of 548 compounds was collected from literature mining of five databases to select the best ligands interacting with three target proteins of SARS-CoV-2, including the main protease, spike protein, and chimeric receptor-binding domain in a complex of human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. The top five compounds that presented suitable binding energy against each target protein are reported in detail for the first time. Notably, new compound N-4-(6-methyl-3-pyridinyl) phenyl)-9-acridinamine showed high affinity to all selected proteins. These identified compounds will help in speeding up the drug development against COVID-19. The emerging coronavirus disease (COVID-19) distributes promptly in the world wide. Virtual screening, molecular docking base on quinoline scaffold are able to be used to identify novel drugs candidate against COVID-19. Some new quinolone -based compounds with low energy binding were selected as the inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease site, spike protein, and RBD/ACE2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanofluids have been known as practical materials to ameliorate heat transfer within diverse industrial systems. The current work presents an empirical study on forced convection effects of Al2O3–water nanofluid within an annulus tube. A laminar flow regime has been considered to perform the experiment in high Reynolds number range using several concentrations of nanofluid. Also, the boundary conditions include a constant uniform heat flux applied on the outer shell and an adiabatic condition to the inner tube. Nanofluid particle is visualized with transmission electron microscopy to figure out the nanofluid particles. Additionally, the pressure drop is obtained by measuring the inlet and outlet pressure with respect to the ambient condition. The experimental results showed that adding nanoparticles to the base fluid will increase the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and average Nusselt number. In addition, by increasing viscosity effects at maximum Reynolds number of 1140 and increasing nanofluid concentration from 1% to 4% (maximum performance at 4%), HTC increases by 18%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidence indicates that toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) plays a critical role in promoting adaptive immune responses and are definitively involved in the expansion and maintenance of the neuropathic pain. Though the application of docking in virtual-screening in silico methods to drug discovery has some challenge, it allows directed and meaningful design of drugs for a target protein; which can lead to low costing approaches with shortcuts; resulting in evolution and discovery of promising new drugs. Nevertheless, in parallel with virtual screening methods, attendant developments in cell culture and in-vivo studies must be achieved. In the present paper, we aimed to discover new drugs that have the ability to bind and inhibit TLR4 functions. So, after using the Pathway studio to investigate the biological pathways and protein interaction maps between TLR4 and neuropathy, we reported the application of the affinity-based approach of different pharmaceuticals; these agents contained all of the approved drugs; which could bind to Toll-like receptor 4 in blind high-throughput in silico screening. Our results demonstrated that among the primary list of 1945 retrieved compounds, 39 approved compounds could be the right candidate to perform a biological test in different in-vivo and in-vitro conditions and as a lead for further neurophysiological and neuropathological studies and treatment of neuropathic pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanostructured ZnAPSO-34 catalyst was synthesized via hydrothermal method, and the effects of mixing rate at different rpms on catalytic properties and performances in methanol to olefins process were comprehensively investigated. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by x-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, particle size distribution (PSD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, energy dispersive x-ray, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy techniques. The results of x-ray diffraction patterns indicated beneficial effects of mixing rates on the crystallinity of the samples. They reflected that by increase of agitation rate, crystallinity of the synthesized catalysts has been considerably improved. Field emission scanning electron microscopy images confirmed effects of agitation rate on the morphology and particle size of the samples. It was found that the sample with higher mixing rate has the most uniform morphology with fine distribution of smaller particles. The outcome of Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis revealed remarkable surface area of ZnAPSO-34 with the highest mixing rate that provides great active phase for the MTO reactions. Catalytic performance tests of synthesized ZnAPSO-34 at different mixing rates toward methanol to light olefins reaction indicated higher methanol conversion and product selectivity. Considerable lifetime has been recorded for the nanostructured catalyst with the highest mixing rate of 900 rpm. © 2016 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Level of stress and its management affects the dimensions of psychosomatic patients' quality of life (QoL), which is an important psychological issue. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of cognitive behavioral stress management program on psychosomatic patients' QoL. In cognitive behavioral method, patients discover thought and behavioral mistakes and recover them. The criterion to evaluate the success of the present study was measurement of the patients' QoL and its notable improvement after intervention. Materials and Methods: This is a before-and-after clinical trial with a control group. The study participants comprised 70 psychosomatic patients referred to subspecial psychiatry clinic in Isfahan who were selected through convenient sampling and allocated to the study and control groups. Quality of Life Questionnaire (SF36) was adopted to collect the data. The questionnaire was completed by the participants in three stages of before-and-after up to a month after intervention. Cognitive behavioral stress management program was administrated in study group for eight straight sessions, two month, and a month after intervention. Along with this, conventional medical treatments were conducted for both the groups. Data were analyzed by ANOVA. The significance level was P < 0.001. Results: There was no significant difference in QoL mean scores between the two groups before intervention (44, 43.1), but mean scores of QoL were significantly higher in intervention G (55.7, 59.1), compared to control (39.8, 35.7), after intervention (P < 0.001) and one month after intervention (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Cognitive behavioral stress management, conducted in the present study, had a notable effect on QoL. Therefore, designing psychological interventions based on cognitive behavioral stress management is suggested as an efficient clinical intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a theoretical study is carried out to determine the scattering of a transient electromagnetics wave by a radially uniaxial dielectric sphere. This is achieved by inverse Laplace transformation of the frequency-domain scattering solution. To improve understanding of the scattering mechanism from a uniaxial dielectric sphere, two different frequency-domain solutions are employed. In the first approach, the impulse and step responses of a uniaxial dielectric sphere are evaluated by the Mie series solution. Following the high-frequency (HF) scattering solution of a large uniaxial sphere, the Mie series summation is split into high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency terms where the HF term is replaced by its asymptotic expression allowing a significant reduction in computation time of the numerical Bromwich integral. In the second approach, the generalized Debye series solution is introduced, and the generalized Mie series coefficients are replaced by their equivalent Debye series formulations. The results are then applied to evaluate the transient response of each individual Debye term allowing the identification of impulse returns in the transient response of a uniaxial sphere. The effect of variation in permittivity on the arrival time as well as amplitudes of each impulse return is studied, and the results are compared with those computed using the Mie series solution. The numerical results obtained from both methods are in complete agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ray tracing theory for a radially uniaxial dielectric sphere is presented in this communication. Reflection and transmission of the plane waves obliquely incident on the spherical interface between air and uniaxial are briefly examined and the general formulations for phase velocities as well as the refractive indices of the ordinary and extraordinary waves propagating in a radially uniaxial medium are investigated. The ray tracing method is implemented for both ordinary and extraordinary rays and the results are applied to evaluate the propagation paths and arrival times of the shortcut wave returns appearing in the transient backscattering response of a uniaxial dielectric sphere. The effect of the variation in relative permittivity on the arrival times of shortcut waves is studied. The results of the ray tracing method are compared with those computed using the Mie and Debye series solutions with good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Renal failure is a major public health problem in the world. These patients experience high levels of psychological tension, anxiety, and depression, which leads to their lowered quality of life, increased health care costs, and early mortality. Due to medication side effects in these patients, non‑medicational methods are more in demand now. This study aimed to investigate the effect of hope therapy on depression, anxiety, and stress among the patients undergoing hemodialysis. Materials and Methods: This is a clinical trial. Fifty patients undergoing hemodialysis were selected. Patients were assigned to two groups of hope therapy and placebo. Intervention of hope therapy was administered for 60-90 min during dialysis sessions once a week for eight sessions. In the placebo group, non‑specific intervention was administered with the same number of sessions. Depression, Anxiety, and Stress scale (DASS)‑21 questionnaire was completed at the end of the last session and 4 weeks later. Data were analyzed by paired t‑test, repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), and least significant difference (LSD) post hoc test through SPSS 18. Results: There was a significant difference in mean scores of depression, anxiety, and stress in hope therapy group before, immediately after, and 1 month after intervention (P < 0.05), while there was no significant difference in mean scores of depression, anxiety, and stress before and immediately after intervention in the placebo group. Changes in mean scores of depression, anxiety, and stress were significantly higher in hope therapy group compared to placebo (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The obtained results showed that hope therapy is effective on reduction of depression, anxiety, and stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dielectric filters can provide compact solutions for filter design problems. However, most dielectrics exhibit uniaxial properties, as well as, losses that will undoubtedly affect performance if not accounted for. This paper derives dispersion relations for lossy uniaxial media in dielectric waveguides and also accounts for lossy conducting walls. The waveguide discontinuity problem in the presence of lossy uniaxial media and finite conductivity waveguide walls, is calculated by mode matching technique and the results are applied to a Ka band filter. The design specifications for the proposed filter are a 32.5 GHz center frequency with 6%. Good agreement between simulated and measured results are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT A simple design procedure for a double ridge waveguide low-pass filter (LPF) is proposed in this article. The procedure follows similar steps involved in a stepped impedance microstrip LPF. The starting point is calculating lumped element low-pass prototypes and converting them to the double ridge waveguide sections. Step discontinuities are also studied and a lumped element model is proposed by comparing S parameters calculated by HFSS software. The results are then applied to design a six order maximally flat double ridge LPF with 4 GHz cutoff frequency. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:120-124, 2014 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Promotion and provision of individuals' health is one of the bases for development in societies. Students' mental health is very important in each society. Students of medical sciences universities, especially nursing students, are under various stresses in clinical environment, in addition to the stress they experience in theoretical education environment. With regard to the importance of nursing students' general health and considering the various existing strategies to promote general health components, use of complementary treatments is more considered because of their better public acceptance, low costs, and fewer complications. One of the new strategies in this regard is laughter Yoga. The present study was conducted with an aim to define the effect of laughter Yoga on general health among nursing students. Materials and Methods: This is a quasi-experimental two-group three-step study conducted on 38 male nursing students in the nursing and midwifery school of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2012. In the study group, eight 1 h sessions of laughter Yoga were held (two sessions a week), and in the control group, no intervention was conducted. The data of the present study were collected by Goldberg and Hiller's General Health Questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS version 12. Results: The findings showed a significant difference in the mean scores of general health before and after laughter Yoga intervention in the two groups of study and control. Conclusions: The findings showed that laughter Yoga had a positive effect on students' general health and improved the signs of physical and sleep disorders, lowered anxiety and depression, and promoted their social function. Therefore, laughter Yoga can be used as one of the effective strategies on students' general health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mood disorders related behaviors are imposed on family members and influence the family's mental atmosphere and level of quality of life. Therefore, the researchers decided to study the effect of group psycho-educational program on the quality of life in families of patients with mood disorders. Materials and Methods: This is a two-group interventional study conducted on 32 members of families of the patients with mood disorders selected through random sampling. A group psycho-educational program was conducted in ten 90-min sessions (twice a week) for the study group. (World Health Organization's Quality of Life-BREF WHOQOL-BREF ) questionnaire was adopted in the study and was filled before, immediately after, and 1 month after the intervention. Results: Independent t-test showed a significant difference in the scores of quality of life in the domains of mental health, social communications, and environmental health, immediately after and 1 month after intervention in the study group compared to the control group. Repeated measure analysis of variance showed a significant increase in the mean scores of quality of life in the study group. Conclusions: The results showed that the impact of group psycho-educational program is observed in the prevention of reduction in quality of life and its promotion in the families of patients with mood disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to describe attributors of family stressors which cause rehospitalizations in patients with psychotic disorders. Materials and methods: In a cross sectional study (during 2006-7) 203 randomly selected psychiatric readmitted patients with psychotic diagnosis and registered demographic and psychiatric clinical data were included. Family stressors as the possible cause of readmission were asked through a structured interview by the psychiatrist. Results: Family factors were reported as a cause in 132 (60.6%) cases. Poor family support (n=88; 43.3%) and family conflict (n=58; 28.6%) were the two most prevalent family stressors, respectively. Bivariate analysis showed that admission due to family issues was different among men and women (79.1% vs. 38.7%, respectively p<0.001) and according to job situation (p<0.001), and literacy (p=0.036). According to logistic regression, gender (men) was the only predictor of admission due to family issues (OR=5.989, CI=3.220-11.141, p<0.001). Conclusion: Family factors are prevalent causes of return to hospital in patients with psychotic disorders, and this is more prevalent in men. An approach to decrease the marital stressors is needed in patients with psychotic disorders. In this approach, increasing family support and decreasing family conflict are essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to assess, optimize and model the efficiencies of Fenton, photo-Fenton and ozonation/Fenton processes in formaldehyde elimination from water and wastewater using the response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN). A sensitivity analysis was used to determine the importance of the independent variables. The influences of different variables, including H2O2 concentration, initial formaldehyde concentration, Fe dosage, pH, contact time, UV and ozonation, on formaldehyde removal efficiency were studied. The optimized Fenton process demonstrated 75% formaldehyde removal from water. The best performance with 80% formaldehyde removal from wastewater was achieved using the combined ozonation/Fenton process. The developed ANN model demonstrated better adequacy and goodness of fit with a R2 of 0.9454 than the RSM model with a R2 of 0. 9186. The sensitivity analysis showed pH as the most important factor (31%) affecting the Fenton process, followed by the H2O2 concentration (23%), Fe dosage (21%), contact time (14%) and formaldehyde concentration (12%). The findings demonstrated that these treatment processes and models are important tools for formaldehyde elimination from wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]