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Purpose In this study we aim to estimate the change in metabolic syndrome (MetS) prevalence among New York City (NYC) adults between 2004 and 2013–2014 and identify key subgroups at risk. Methods We analyzed data from NYC Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. MetS was defined as having at least three of the following: abdominal obesity, low HDL, elevated triglycerides, glucose dysregulation, and elevated blood pressure. We calculated age-standardized MetS prevalence, change in prevalence over time, and prevalence ratios by gender and race/ethnicity groups. We also tested for additive interaction. Results In 2013–2014 MetS prevalence among NYC adults was 24.4% (95% CI, 21.4–27.6). Adults 65+ years and Asian adults had the highest prevalence (45.6% and 33.8%, respectively). Abdominal obesity was the most prevalent MetS component in 2004 and 2013–2014 (50.7% each time). Between 2004 and 2013–2014, MetS decreased by 18.2% (P = .04) among women. The decrease paralleled similar declines in elevated triglycerides and glucose dysregulation. In 2013–14, non-Latino Black women had higher risk of MetS than non-Latino Black men and non-Latino White adults. Conclusion Age and racial/ethnic disparities in MetS prevalence in NYC were persistent from 2004 to 2013–2014, with Asian adults and non-Latino Black women at particularly high risk.

In this study, we deposited phosphorous containing functional coatings on the surface of polypropylene (PP) substrate by cold atmospheric plasma assisted polymerization using low temperature plasma jet. Triisopropyl phosphate (TIP) was used as precursor while the coating process was carried out as a function of deposition potential and monomer flow rate. The influence of various plasma polymerization operating parameters on the surface properties of functional coatings are examined by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS). The reactive species involved during the in-situ polymerization were studied by optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The variation in hydrophilic properties of the surface coated film was investigated by measuring contact angle. Furthermore, the stability of post-plasma polymerized films was evaluated by measuring contact angle values 15 days after storing in various ambient conditions (air and distilled water). The characterization results clearly exhibited that phosphorus containing functional films could be successfully deposited on the surface of PP films and the retention of the functional groups could be tuned within the framework of the operating parameters.

Most simulation algorithms based on Multiple-Point Statistics (MPS) deploy training images that are usually constructed from conceptual 2D or 3D spatial distribution of the reservoir parameters by means of a similarity measure such as Bayesian likelihood probability or pattern-based matching methods to map complicated geological structures and heterogeneities inherent to most petroleum reservoirs. The recent pattern-based MPS algorithms employ common techniques in the course of unconditional simulation. However, there is no guarantee to ensure that the desired targets in the training patterns could have been even captured by a specified search template. That is, the number of training patterns produced by any search template size is always limited, while the data events formed during simulation could potentially show any unexpected patterns. This is where previous algorithms encounter some difficulties in finding actual patterns even if they are equipped with precise pattern recognition measures. To address this issue and avoid extra complexity in the course of simulation, we have proposed a new unconditional pattern-based simulation procedure which deploys the edge-similarity and morphological image processing concepts. In the course of our proposed algorithm, each pattern is temporarily substituted with its edge features followed by performing a k-means classification of their similarity measures using Manhattan distance function for primary infilling of optimum patterns in the simulation grid. Next, through using a combination of morphological operations with automatically determined or user-defined specifications, the algorithm named as MORPHSIM in this context would effectively improves pattern reproduction and structural continuity. Results have shown the strength and flexibility of MORPHSIM in reproducing patterns for unconditional simulations, even when the input training image is poorly constructed and includes just a simple non-stationary structure. The algorithm is not only computationally effective in terms of simulation run time and memory usage relative to FILTERSIM but also can overcome the imperfection of training image by applying morphological image processing filters.

In this study, chitosan (CS)/polyethylene oxide (PEO) nanofibrous mats (O: 166 ± 43 nm) were fabricated by electrospinning and subsequently surface-modified by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) sustained in argon, ammonia/helium or nitrogen. The surface properties of the CS/PEO nanofibers (NFs) before and after plasma treatment were characterized using contact angle measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Additionally, the mechanical properties and PEO leaching in aqueous conditions of the different NFs under study were examined by tensile tests and nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy respectively. Finally, cell behavior and cell morphology of human foreskin fibroblasts (HFFs) on the CS/PEO NFs were evaluated via live/dead fluorescence microscopy, MTT assays and SEM. The obtained results revealed that the surface free energy of the CS/PEO NFs was significantly increased after plasma modification, which was correlated to an enrichment in surface oxygen (Ar, N2, NH3/He) and nitrogen (N2, NH3/He) functional groups. All performed plasma treatments also led to an increase in ultimate tensile strength, most likely due to an increased fiber-to-fiber friction. Additionally, it was also observed that N2 plasma treatment resulted in a decrease in PEO release, which could be attributed to more pronounced surface cross-linking. Cellular interactions on the CS/PEO NFs also significantly increased due to the performed plasma treatments. The best cellular response was noted for the Ar plasma modification although the surface hydrophilicity was the lowest in this case. These observations thus suggest that not only the wettability characteristics but also the presence of distinct functional groups on plasma-treated CS/PEO NFs have a significant influence on the observed enhanced cellular interactions.

Orexins are produced in the restricted regions of the lateral hypothalamus (LH). However, orexinergic receptors and projections are localized in wide regions like nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area, periaqueductal gray area and spinal cord which are involved in the pain modulation. This study was carried out to investigate the effects of intrathecal administration of orexin-1 receptor antagonist (SB-334867) in the spinal antinociception induced by intra-LH administration of carbachol (cholinergic receptor agonist) in both early and late phases of pain related behaviors in formalin test. In this study, pain-related behaviors (pain scores) were evaluated using the formalin test during 5-min block intervals for a 60-min period in seventy male Wistar rats were given SB-334867 (3, 10, 30 and 100 μM/10 μl) or vehicle (DMSO 12%; 10 μl) intrathecally following intra-LH administration of carbachol (250 nM/rat). Our data showed that intra-LH injection of carbachol attenuated the formalin-induced biphasic pain responses, and intrathecal administration of SB-334867 dose-dependently decreased LH stimulation-induced antinociceptive responses during both phases. Moreover, administration of different doses of SB-334867 during the early phase were more effective than those during the late phase. The antinociceptive role of orexinergic system in the formalin test through a neural pathway from the LH to the spinal cord provides evidence that orexins can be useful in therapeutic targets for pain relief.

Nanoparticles (NPs) have been considerably noticed in the oil and gas industries and mainly in the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. They actually enhance the reservoir characteristics by their unique properties. In this research, the Fe3O4@Chitosan nanocomposites were synthesized in the laboratory and investigated for potential EOR effects for the first time. For this purpose, various static and dynamic experiments, including contact angle, zeta potential, absorbance spectroscopy, oil viscosity, interfacial tension (IFT), and carbonate sand pack flooding were conducted for different concentrations of nanocomposites in the seawater. The zeta potential and absorbance measurements indicate a good stability condition for the synthesized nanocomposite in the seawater during dynamic experiments. The results on contact angle measurements indicate a reduction of 42–53 degrees for 0.01, 0.02, and 0.03 wt.% nanocomposites in the seawater at ambient conditions, which results from the accumulation of the nanocomposites in the vicinity of rock surface and overcoming the available adhesion force between crude oil drop and rock surface. Based on the results from IFT measurements, the reduction of IFT between seawater and crude oil with the increase in temperature and concentration of nanocomposites is clear, which results from asphaltene adsorption onto the surface of the synthesized nanocomposites. What’s more, the addition of the synthesized nanocomposite into the crude oil led to the viscosity reduction by 103 cp, which is the key factor in the diminution in the oil viscous forces, improved mobility ratio, and hence the enhanced oil recovery. In the end, an increase of 10.8% improved oil recovery for 0.03 wt.% of nanocomposites was observed in the flooding experiments, compared to the seawater injection, which actually results from a series of EOR mechanisms have been revealed for the synthesized nanocomposite discussed above.

The goal of this study was the exclusive deposition of phosphorus-containing coatings via the non-thermal plasma polymerization of triisopropyl phosphate (TIPP) on 3D-printed poly-e-caprolactone (PCL) scaffolds intended for bone tissue engineering. Given the difficulty of implementing a homogeneous surface treatment throughout porous scaffolds, a novel and appropriate atmospheric pressure plasma jet was used. In-situ analysis of the reactive species involved in the polymerization process using optical emission spectroscopy (OES) revealed the presence of P(II) and P(I) ions, CH, C2, O and CO species. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was carried out at pre-determined locations on the top and throughout the cross-section of the scaffolds, which showed the uniform incorporation of O- and P-containing groups on the whole construct. This resulted in enhanced surface wettability and slightly enhanced surface roughness as perceived by water contact angle (WCA), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. The in vivo ability of the scaffolds to promote apatite growth was evaluated via their biomimetic immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF). Interestingly, apatite deposits were successfully formed on the surface of the P-rich coating covering the scaffolds. Overall, one can conclude that this novel plasma-assisted deposition of homogeneous P-containing coatings on complex porous 3D structures enhances their osteo-bioactivity and thus, supporting bone tissue regeneration.

One of the common methods to determine commercial blocks productivity (CBP) in reserves of dimension stone is through the study of the discontinuities' network. However, this determination remains a difficult task due to geographical heterogeneity and lack of access to all reserves' formations. This study presents a new method based on various geomechanical tests performed on intact rocks that assessed the CBP of a dimension stones' rock mass. Assuming that a dimension stone's rock mass comprised a large block of an intact rock, due to tectonics, the geomechanical properties of this block had direct effects on the discontinuities created within it. Therefore, the geomechanical properties of the intact rock may be related to the CBP of a stone reserve. Based on this factor, this study explored the relationship among some geomechanical properties, including failure angle, uniaxial compressive strength, and modulus of elasticity, and CBP by using data acquired from 21 dimension stone quarries consisting of travertine, marble, and onyx groups. According to the results obtained from the analysis of the Isfahan province's Iranian quarries, failure angle was not highly related to the reserve's CBP. In marble quarries, CBP may decrease, if the compressive strength of an intact rock exceeds 60 MPa. Among the studied parameters, the saturated-to-dry ratio's modulus of elasticity had the greatest relationship to the CBP. Generally, the presented diagrams displayed that the correlation between geomechanical properties and the CBP were an appropriate guide in determining the potential cost-effectiveness of a accessing a particular rock reserve during the early exploration phase.

Extracting a set of meaningful spectral features could enhance the classification performance. This is particularly important in hyperspectral images where the dataset are very large and time consuming to process. Wavelet transform as a powerful decomposition tool in both low and high frequency components could play an essential role in extracting spectral features of target minerals. Selecting the optimum base wavelet is an important step in wavelet transform. In this research, two criteria to select optimum base wavelet were implemented on three wavelet series including Daubechie (db), symlet (sym) and coiflet (coif). Energy criterion involves entropy factor and energy-to-Shannon entropy ratio while matching shape criterion operates according to correlation coefficients. High ranking base wavelets in both energy and shape criteria, coif1, db3 and db7, are recommended to be utilized in hyperspectral image classification. Neural Network technique was used for classification and trained by means of mineral spectral features related to typical porphyry copper deposits. Non-Linear wavelet feature extraction was employed to select the efficient features as input data. The study area covered by Hyperion data contains two well-known porphyry copper deposits, Darrehzar and Sarcheshmeh, located in the Iranian copper belt. Based on classification error matrix, it is concluded that db7 through 12 selected features exhibits the maximum consistency with the field measured data and can be recommended as an appropriate base wavelet for detecting porphyry copper deposits.

In this paper, the photocatalytic activity of plasma-functionalized Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) and the oxidization process of atmospheric pressure plasma jet were combined for the degradation of reactive red-198 (RR-198) in aqueous solution. The first part of the study was thus devoted to subject Cu-‒TiO2 NPs synthetized by the sol-gel method to various plasma treatments operating in air, argon, oxygen and nitrogen to improve their degradation efficiency. The physicochemical properties of the NPs were then assessed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements. XRD results indicated the predominant presence of the anatase phase which is the most photoactive form of TiO2. The XPS analysis revealed that the different plasma treatments triggered the formation of oxygen vacancies, Ti3+ oxidation state and Cu2+ oxidation state on the surface of Cu-‒TiO2 NPs. These changes, known to prevent the recombination of electron-hole pair, have led to a reduction in the bandgap that was more pronounced for the N2 plasma-treated NPs. The second part of the paper explored the actual degradation of RR-198 in aqueous solution by an Ar plasma treatment alone or combined with the plasma pre-treated Cu-‒TiO2 NPs. Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and spectrophotometric analyses showed that the synergetic effect of Ar plasma and N2 plasma-treated NPs produced the highest concentration of OH• radicals and H2O2 species which led to the highest RR-198 degradation efficiency. This was further confirmed by pH, electrical conductivity and total organic carbon (TOC) removal measurements. The degradation of RR-198 was determined using UV-Vis spectroscopy and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Overall, it can be concluded that plasma-assisted processes illustrated by a combination of a direct plasma treatment with plasma-functionalized Cu-‒TiO2 NPs can be used in various textile and pharmaceutical industries as a highly effective treatment of their effluents before discharging.

Dichloroacetate (DCA) as a mitochondria-targeting small molecule, through inhibition of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinases (PDK1-4), promotes mitochondria-regulated apoptosis and hence, inhibits tumour growth and reduces its proliferation. In this study, a series of novel N-aryl-2,2-dichloroacetamide and aryl-2,2-dichloroacetate derivatives were designed and synthesized. Their cytotoxic activities against various human cancer cell lines including A549, HCA-7, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, KB and SKOV3 were evaluated. These compounds showed satisfactory potencies with much higher anticancer activity than the parent compound DCA, against the studied cancer cell lines. Molecular docking studies were also done to find their binding site and types of their interactions with PDKs isoenzymes. Among the synthesized compounds, 2,2-dichloro-N-(9,10-dioxo-9,10-dihydroanthracen-1-yl)acetamide (f1) can also induce A549 cells apoptosis. Therefore, compound f1 might have a potential value for further study in drug development. QSAR studies of this class of compounds were also explored using a collection of chemometrics methods.

Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), as a serological test, can be a beneficial tool for epidemiological studies by screening blood donors and diagnosis of specific antibodies from Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) infected cases. Since P. vivax cannot easily be acquired in vitro, ELISA assays using total or semi-purified antigens are seldom used. On the basis of this restriction, we examined whether recombinant protein 42 kDa related to C-terminal region of the merozoite surface antigen-1 of P. vivax (MSA-1(42)) could be suitable for serological detection of vivax malaria infection. Purified recombinant protein produced in Escherichia coli (E. coli) (GST-MSA-1(42)) was examined for its ability to bind to IgG antibodies of individuals with patent P. vivax infection. The method was tested with 262 serum samples collected from individuals living in the south and southeastern regions of Iran where malaria is endemic. Samples exposed to Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) infection and patients with other infectious disease (toxoplasmosis, Leishmania infantum infection, echinococcosis and FUO (fever with unknown origin)) except for P. falciparum were residing in non- malaria endemic areas in Iran. Generally, the sensitivity of ELISA evaluated with sera from naturally infected individuals was 86.9%. The specificity value of the ELISA determined with sera from healthy individuals and from individuals with other infectious diseases was 94.05%. The positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) provided, and the diagnostic efficiency of anti-rPvMSA-1(42) antibody using indirect ELISA were determined 93.58, 87.77 and 91.06% respectively. Our study demonstrated that, because MSA-1(42) kDa contains both the 33 and 19 kDa fragments in its structure, it can serve as the basis for the development of a sensitive serological test which can be used for epidemiological studies, screening blood donors and diagnosis of P. vivax malaria.

Serological assays for the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis mostly rely on the tachyzoite specific antigens of Toxoplasma gondii, which are difficult to produce by conventional methods. The aim of this study was to clone and express of GRA7 protein of T. gondii and evaluate its potential for immunodiagnosis of toxoplasmosis in cancer patients. As well as validate the results using a new molecular assay, LAMP technique. The GRA7 gene was successfully cloned, expressed and purified by affinity chromatography and the production was evaluated by SDS PAGE, dot blot and western blot analyses. The rGRA7 was used for developing an ELISA based on the rGRA7 using sera from patients with toxoplasmosis and healthy controls. Furthermore, 50 serum samples from leukemic children infected with toxoplasmosis and 50 seronegative controls were included to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of rGRA7 based ELISA. Finally, the LAMP technique was used to assess the accuracy and validity of the results obtained by rGRA7 based ELISA. The consistency of the results of two tests was determined by using the Kappa coefficient of agreement. The rGRA7 showed higher and optimum immunoreactivity with 1:100 dilution of serum from Toxoplasma infected patients. The sensitivity and specificity of test were calculated as 92 and 94%, respectively. According to the Kappa coefficient of agreement, there was a significant conformance between the results obtained by ELISA based on the rGRA7 and the results of LAMP technique (≈96%, P