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Acute kidney injury is a frequent complication of liver transplant. Here, we assessed the rate and contributing factors of acute kidney injury and need for renal replacement therapy in patients undergoing liver transplant at a transplant center in Tehran, Iran.We identified all patients who underwent liver transplant at the Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex from March 2018 to March 2019 and who were followed for 3 months after transplant. Acute kidney injury was defined based on the Acute Kidney Injury Network criteria. We collected demographic and pretransplant, intraoperative, and posttransplant data. Univariable and multivariable models were applied to explore independent risk factors for acute kidney injury incidence and need for renal replacement therapy.Our study included 173 deceased donor liver transplant recipients. Rates of incidence of acute kidney injury and need for renal replacement therapy were 68.2% and 14.5%, respectively. The 3-month mortality rate among those with severe and mild or moderate acute kidney injury was 44.0% (14/25) and 9.7% (9/ 93), respectively (P.001). Multivariable analyses indicated that serum albumin (relative risk of 0.55; 95% confidence interval, 0.34-0.87; P = .021), baseline serum creatinine (relative risk of 2.11; 95% confidence interval, 1.56-2.90; P = .037), and intraoperative mean arterial pressure (relative risk of 0.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.63-0.82; P = .008) were independent factors for predicting posttransplant acute kidney injury. Independent risk factors for requiring renal replacement therapy were pretransplant serum creatinine (relative risk of 1.99; 95% confidence interval, 1.89-4.47; P = .044) and intraoperative vasopressor infusion (relative risk of 1.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.38-2.00; P = .021).We found a high incidence of acute kidney injury among liver transplant recipients in our center. There was a significant association between severity of acute kidney injury and 3-month and in-hospital mortality.

Introduction Peripheral blood leukocytes are a suitable cell model for science research. However, blood samples from healthy volunteers are limited in volume and difficult to obtain due to the complexity of volunteer recruitment. Objective Therefore, it is urgent to find an alternative source of peripheral blood leukocytes. Method One of the possibilities is the use of leukocyte reduction filters (LRFs) in blood banks that is used for preparation of leukoreduced blood products. More than 90% of the leukocytes are trapped in the leukofilters allowing the desired blood product to pass through. Results It has been reported that the biological function of leukocytes collected from the filters are no different from those isolated from buffy coats, leukapheresis products and whole blood (WB) cells. Moreover, LRFs are waste products that are discarded after leukoreduction. Conclusion Thus, leukofilters represent an economic source of human cell populations that can be used for a variety of investigative purposes, with no cost. In the present study, we reviewed the different usage of LRFs in the research, clinical and commercial applications.

Background Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder, which is caused by the CFTR protein defects. Along with CFTR dysfunction, inflammation plays a key role in the disease outcomes. Inflammation may develop due to the internal dysfunction of the CFTR protein or external factors. Curcumin affects the CFTR protein function primarily as a corrector and potentiator and secondary as an anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial agent. The present study aims to assess the impact of nano-curcumin on clinical and inflammatory markers in children with CF. Methods This prospective, double blind control trial will be conducted at the Akbar Children’s Hospital in Mashhad, Iran. Children with CF will be enrolled based on the eligibility criteria. Placebo and curcumin with the maximum dose of 80 mg considering the body surface of the patients will be administrated for 3 months. The primary outcome is to evaluate inflammation based on serum interleukin-6, interleukin-10, and hs-CRP, stool calprotectin, and neutrophil count of nasopharyngeal swab. The secondary outcome involved clinical assessment via spirometry, anthropometrics, and quality of life. They will be assessed before and after 3 months. Discussion Due to the multifarious effects of curcumin on CF disease, it could be proposed as a nutritional strategy in the treatment of cystic fibrosis. Trial registration Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials IRCT20200705048018N1. Registered on July 10, 2020.

Microwave split-ring resonators are utilized as sensors in a wide variety of applications due to their remarkable features, such as extremely low cost, high sensitivity, and relatively high quality factor. In this article, another application is enabled according to a recently demonstrated chipless tag-reader structure providing the possibility of simplifying the sensor structure from a “multilayer structure” consisting of a dielectric substrate sandwiched between two metallic layers to a single-layer structure formed from a conductive material. This capability is specifically important for strain sensing applications as it brings the possibility of utilizing low stiff conductive materials instead of copper (which is the primary material used in microwave application) while keeping the reader structure with high-quality microwave application-specified substrates intact. With the explained approach in this work, a low tensile silver–aluminum silicone elastomer conductive material is considered for the tag providing a very high tensile dynamic range. According to the whole sensing system structure, as high elongation range of as 20% and the high sensitivity in the range of 25 MHz/1% of strain is achieved. Multiple simulations and experimental results support the idea of the novel microwave strain sensor proposed in this work.

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 increasingly involves people worldwide. Probiotics can improve immune system functions via different mechanisms. We proposed that Synbiotic Lactocare? may also reduce SARS-Cov2 infection in high-risk medical staff working in COVID-19 hospital wards. Method: In a randomized, controlled trial, 60 hospital staff without any history of clinical or laboratory evidence of SARS-Cov2 infection were received either once-daily oral synbiotic capsule (Lactocare?) that contains 1 billion CFU/Cap of L. (Lactobacillus) casei, L. rhamnosus, Streptococcus thermophilus, Bifidobacterium breve, L. acidophilus, Bifidobacterium infantis, L. bulgaricus, and Fructooligosacharide (Zist Takhmir, Tehran, Iran) or placebo with the same appearance for 30 days. They were followed for two months. Result: During the two-month period of this study, SARS-COV-2 RT-PCR test results were positive in three participants (9.67%) in placebo group compared to zero positive tests in synbiotic group. The differences were not statistically significant (p = 0.238). During the study, two persons (7 %) of placebo group had respiratory complaints such as cough, rhinorrhea and/or dyspnea, compared with one in synbiotic group (p = 0.492). Conclusion: This study showed that overall frequency of SARS-COV2 infection in participants receiving synbiotic and those receiving placebo did not differ significantly. However, 3 hospital staff in placebo group compared to no one in synbiotic group had SARS-COV2 infection. Further studies with greater power and alternative probiotic strains and mixture are warranted to determine whether Synbiotic can prevent COVID-19 in at-risk hospital staff.

In this article, a new coupled structure based on microwave planar resonators is proposed to demonstrate the capability of ultrahigh quality factor performance using a chipless passive resonator. The platform is based on two passive split-ring resonators (SRRs), one as a reader, and the other one as the tag. The reader resonator is designed to operate at 2.6-GHz resonance frequency and is coupled to an active feedback loop with a microwave amplifier to compensate for the resonator’s loss and increase the loaded quality factor of the response. The bandwidth of the feedback amplifier is modified such that the amplifier’s gain is higher at the resonance frequency of the tag than that of the reader by adding a capacitor between emitter and collector of the bipolar junction transistor (BJT) amplifier. The tag is designed at 1.6 GHz and is located at a 2.5-mm vertical distance from the reader. As a result, the overall quality factor of about 75 000 is achieved for the tag performing the sensing. The presented technique provides a great practical solution for highly sensitive, noninvasive, and real-time sensing applications. The proposed sensing tag is integrated with a microfluidic chip to highlight its capability for small volume sensing and lab-on-a-chip applications. The sensitivity potential of the design is verified by detecting the concentration of acetone in deionized water. The average sensitivity of the presented sensor is more than 35 kHz/(1% of acetone concentration variation), which is offering extremely high sensitivity of the structure considering the very small volume of the exposed material under the test and the distance between the sensor and the sample.

Glycerol concentration measurement is one of the most important biomarkers for many diagnostic applications, such as indication of hyperglyceridaemia and coronary heart disease. A new distant microwave sensing platform to monitor the concentration of glycerol in a water and serum solution inside a microfluidic channel is presented. The sensor is based on a microstrip line reader with a defected ground plane coupled to a chipless microwave resonator tag. Due to the strong coupling between the reader and the tag, the distance between them can be increased up to 45 mm. The high level of sensitivity of the structure makes it suitable for nanolitre volume scale chemical sensing inside the microfluidic channel. The sensor demonstrates a frequency shift of 6 MHz when the volumetric percentage (V%) of glycerol in DI water changes from 70% to 0%. The proposed solution provides an opportunity to integrate the chipless passive tag with the microfluidic channel while the reader is distant from the microfluidic system.

Background The mission of medical schools is a sustainable commitment to orient education, research, and services based on the priorities and expectations of society. The most common complaints of patients from comprehensive health service centers (CHSCs) based on the data from electronic health records were assessed in order to determine primary health care (PHC) priorities for the educational planning of medical students in Iran. Methods A population-based national study was designed to assess clinical complaints of patients in all age groups who were referred to CHSCs at least once to be visited by physicians. All the data in the census were extracted from electronic health records in PHC system during 2015–2020, classified by the International Classification of Primary Care 2nd edition (ICPC-2e-English), and statistically analyzed. The total number of complaints that were recorded in the system was 17,430,139. Results 59% of the referring patients were women. The highest number of referrals was related to the age group of 18–59 years (56.9%), while the lowest belonged to the elderly people (13.3%). In all age and sex groups, the first ten complaints of patients with three top priorities in each category included process (follow-up, consultation, and results exam), digestive (toothache and gum complaint, abdominal pain, and diarrhea), respiratory (cough, sore throat, and runny nose), general (fever, pain, and weakness and fatigue), musculoskeletal (back pain, leg complaint, and knee injuries), endocrine and nutritional (weight gain, Feeding problem, and weight loss), cardiovascular (hypertension, palpitations, and Postural hypotension), neurological (headache, dizziness, and paralysis), sexual dysfunction (vaginal complaint, discharge, and irregular menstruation), and dermatological (pruritus, rash, and inflammation) problems. Conclusion High priorities in referring to PHC had a key role in assessing the country's health needs. Since this study was in line with the national pattern of complaints and patients' profile, the present findings can be helpful to amend policy-making, educational planning and curricula development in medical schools.

Background: Recent studies have shown that insufficient vitamin D supply is correlated with increase in COVID-19 cases and its mortality. Potentially, it may play an important role in controlling virus proliferation. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the association between serum vitamin D levels and clinical findings, and mortality rate in patients with COVID-19. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 COVID-19 patients referred or admitted to Loghman-e-Hakim Hospital of Tehran, Iran, from February to June 2020. After patient selection, demographic information of all patients was recorded. Eventually, the relationship between basic demographic and clinical findings with vitamin D levels in all patients was evaluated. Results: The mean Vit-D levels in intubated and non-intubated patients were 22.95 ± 22.23 ng/mL and 21.64 ± 29.20 ng/mL, respectively (P = 0.018). In most of the outpatients (46.7%), Vit-D levels were between 21 - 30 ng/mL, and 47.6% of admitted patients had Vit-D ≤ 20 ng/mL. The mean Vit-D level in survived patients was significantly higher than patients who died (28.2 ± 21.18 ng/mL vs. 19.91 ± 14.18 ng/mL, respectively; P = 0.021). While 34.2% (55 cases) of survived patients had Vit-D level ≥ 31 ng/mL, about 70% of death cases had Vit-D ≤ 20 ng/mL (P < 0.001). Conclusions: According to our results, vitamin D supplementation could be beneficial in COVID-19 patients. However, further comprehensive clinical trials are needed to confirm these findings.

s Background The widespread prevalence of COVID-19 has disrupted the social life, physical function, and daily activities of patients, leading to reduced quality of their lives. Because of the nature of this disease and its comprehensive impact on patients’ lives, a follow-up based on the conditions of these patients is necessary. This study was conducted to determine the impact of nurse education and telephone follow-up (telenursing) on the quality of life of COVID-19 patients. Methods This quasi-experimental study included 120 COVID-19 patients discharged from 22nd-Bahman Hospital in Khaf city and was conducted over 6 months from July 20, 2020, to December 20, 2020. The participants were selected by convenience sampling method and were assigned into two matching groups. The training was delivered through telenursing based on the quality of life criteria for 1 month in the intervention group. The controls did not receive any intervention. Both groups completed the 36-item SF health survey before and 1 month after the intervention. Results The two groups were not significantly different regarding the quality of life mean scores at baseline (p = 0.61). However, after the intervention, the mean and standard deviation of the total life quality score was significantly different between the control and intervention groups (63.62 ± 3.93 versus 72.62 ± 3.51, p Conclusions Telenursing improves the life quality of COVID-19 patients. Through appropriate policies, health managers may put on the agenda the implementation of telenursing for COVID-19 patients.

Although one of the serious manifestations of advanced malignancies is pericardial involvement, pericardial involvement of lymphoma is extremely rare. We present a case of a 6‐year‐old girl arriving at the hospital with dyspnea and pleuritic chest pain, which is eventually diagnosed with massive pericardial effusion due to mediastinal non‐Hodgkin lymphoma., Because non‐Hodgkin lymphomas with mediastinal disease at presentation have a natural tendency for rapid dissemination and worse prognosis when invading the pericardium; hence, minimal delay in diagnosis is essential.

Background Concentrations of plasma lipids levels during pregnancy clearly increases. According to some studies, dyslipidemia is effective in the incidence of preeclampsia and insulin resistance. Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationship between hyperlipidemia and maternal and neonatal outcomes in pregnant women. Materials and Methods This is a cross-sectional study which was conducted on two groups of pregnant women with hyperlipidemia and normal ones to assess maternal and neonatal outcomes. Maternal data including gestational age, mother's age, body mass index, and maternal weight gain during pregnancy, gestational diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia, cholestasis, and delivery method. Also, birth weight and Apgar score were gathered as the neonatal outcomes. Results The results showed that the prevalence of abnormal lipid parameters increased with increasing gestational age. In pregnant women with dyslipidemia in combination with increased triglyceride, cholesterol and Low-density lipoprotein, and decreased High-density lipoprotein, the incidence rates of gestational diabetes (p < 0.001), preeclampsia (p < 0.001), cholestasis (p = 0.041), fetal growth retardation (p < 0.001), and macrosomia (p < 0.001) were statistically higher. Conclusion Dyslipidemia was associated with some adverse effects of pregnancy and harmful fetal outcomes. Therefore, it seems that adding laboratory assessment of lipid profiles before and during pregnancy can be effective in early diagnosis of dyslipidemia.

A noninvasive contactless binary gas sensing system is enabled using coupled passive flexible tag integrated with porous adsorbent beads tower. The platform is based on two flexible passive tags coupled with a dual-reader resonator operating at 4.86 GHz, while the distance between passive reader and tags can be extended to 10 mm. The sensor demonstrates the capability of detecting and monitoring more than one gas simultaneously and independently from each other. Various concentrations of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and humidity have been detected distinctively by using a hyper cross-linked polymer as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and silica gel as humidity adsorbent beads. Selective accumulation of the gas molecules in the beads’ pores is monitored with less than 5% error and by separate coupled tags and their associated resonant frequencies. The proposed structure offers a low-cost conformal solution and has the potential for real-time contactless multiple gas sensing in environmental applications. The structure demonstrates the sensitivity of 0.18 MHz/ppm in VOC sensing and 0.19 MHz/ppm while performing selective binary sensing.

This research study reports on a new coupling structure to demonstrate a constant coupling strength for longer distances in planar microwave sensors. It is shown that there is a positive correlation between the gap size in a pair of gap-coupled transmission lines (GCTLs) and the effective distance of reader and sensing resonators in a planar microwave sensor. On the other hand, the coupling strength in a pair of GCTLs is negatively correlated to the gap size between the two lines, where the larger gap sizes result in weaker coupling strength or vice versa. A technique is introduced to make the coupling strength partially independent of the gap size in GCTLs. The technique enables a sensor designer to increase the gap size, and subsequently, the distance between the reader and sensing resonators of a sensor. Strong electromagnetic coupling is locally demonstrated between a pair of GCTLs using a new artificial perfect electromagnetic conductor (PEMC) boundary, which does not allow electromagnetic power reflect toward the source over larger gap sizes in GCTLs. The concept is experimentally verified with a gap size up to 10 mm between GCTLs with a constantly measured insertion loss of 0.9 dB. Moreover, the structure is employed to design distant microwave resonator for humidity sensing applications. The design has demonstrated the ability of sensing, while the sensing resonator is placed at 35-mm distance from the readout circuitry. The structure is reported to increase the sensing distance with a ratio of about 12 (36:3) compared to the conventional microwave sensors.

Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the waist circumference of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), had an impact on lung function. Methods There were 180 patients with COPD recruited into this prospective cross-sectional study. The age, weight, body mass index and waist circumference (WC) were measured. Spirometry parameters including forced vital capacity (FVC), and forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1), were measured and FEV1/FVC calculated. Results The mean FEV1/FVC in both normal weight and overweight patients, did not statistically significantly correlate with WC. The COPD assessment test, positively correlated with WC ( p = 0.031). A positive correlation with body mass index ( p < 0.001), smoking ( p = 0.027), and global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease score ( p = 0.009), were observed to positively associate with WC. WC, age, C-reactive protein, duration of disease, and gender (male), were observed to be statistically significant risk factors for the severity of COPD. Conclusion WC was not observed to impact upon lung function in this study but it was a predictive factor for COPD severity in patients.

There are different opinions about the quality and reputation of publications. Given that one of the ways to analyze the quality of journals and articles is citation indicators, the purpose of this paper is to compare the citation indicators of open access (OA), full subscription and hybrid journals and articles based on the Scopus in the field of library and information science (LIS) for a period of ten years (2004-2013).,The research population is all LIS journals and articles in LIS hybrid journals in Scopus. The data related to citation indicators (number of received citations, two years’ impact, Citescore [IPP] and H-index) were extracted from Scopus, Journal Metrics and SCImago and analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics with SPSS and Excel.,The findings indicate that number of OA journals and articles were less than that of full subscription and hybrid journals. The average rate of all citation indicators in hybrid journals were more than that of OA and full subscription journals. However, in the level of articles, the average number of citations received by OA articles (15.6) was more than that of non-OA articles (2.25).,Unlike journals, OA seems to be an advantage for articles in LIS. LIS hybrid journals receive more citations than OA and subscription journals. Thus, the authors’ approach to publishing in OA, hybrid or subscription journals and the publishers approach to the publication type may also be influenced by the findings of the present study.

Context: Climate change as a global threat has affected all aspects of society, including health. This study aimed to identify the role of climate change factors on cardiovascular diseases. Evidence Acquisition: The current narrative review study searched the databases including EMBASE, PubMed, Science Direct, Ovid, Cochrane Library, Magiran, and SID using Persian and English keywords such as ‘climate change’, ‘cold wave’, ‘heat wave’, ‘temperature decrease’, ‘temperature rise’, ‘heart disease’, ‘heart attack’, and ‘heart failure’ from the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2019. Results: Previous studies have shown that physical factors affect health and contribute to conditions such as cardiovascular disease and even death. Additionally, a relationship can be found between temperature decrease and heart diseases in the literature, while recent studies have shown that temperature rise is directly related to heart diseases. Conclusions: Due to increased greenhouse gas emissions and the increase in temperature, the world is witnessing a massive climate change. Considering the increase in the incidence and mortality rates due to heart diseases and the role of climate change in this increase, health policymakers need to focus on setting guidelines for reducing the complications of these diseases in high-risk groups based on the relevant studies.

Background:Exceptional children, like other children, have the right to be educated in a safe environment. Disasters are considered as serious issues regarding safety and security of educational environments. Following disasters, vulnerable groups, especially children with handicaps and disabilities are more likely to be seriously injured. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the safety and disaster risk assessment of exceptional schools in Tehran, Iran.Method:The cross-sectional study was conducted in exceptional schools in Tehran, 2018. First, 55 exceptional schools in all grades were selected based on census sampling method and evaluated by using a checklist designed by Tehran Disaster Mitigation and Management Organization (TDMMO) and Ministry of Education in 2015. The data were analyzed using Excel software and statistical descriptive tests.Result:Based on the results, school facilities are worn and have unsafe elevators (least safety: 7.69%), yards (least safety: 9.52%), laboratories (least safety: 16.67%), libraries (least safety: 24.24%), fire extinguishing systems (least safety: 28.99%), and storage rooms and kitchens (least safety: 33.33%) which require immediate considerations. In total, the safety of exceptional schools in this study was 70.13%, which suggests medium-risk level.Conclusion:The educational settings must be reconsidered, along with identifying the risk and safety at school. In addition, a standard should be established for evaluating safety, especially in exceptional schools.

Smart healthcare has promoted E-healthcare to a higher level in which healthcare and treatment services are ubiquitously and intelligently offered to users. Context-awareness is an important feature in smart healthcare systems that firstly deals with extracting current contextual information of users including patients, doctors, and nurses. Afterwards, by being aware of current context and situation of users, smart healthcare systems are able to provide autonomous and intelligent services to them. Due to the importance of this subject, several context-aware healthcare systems have been proposed in various aspects of healthcare and treatment; however, to our best knowledge not any survey paper has investigated and reviewed them. In this regards, this paper studies context-aware healthcare systems from four central viewpoints including environment, service type, context type and context source. The aim is to technically discuss and classify context-aware healthcare systems, to identify the advancements and shortcomings, and to illuminate the route for future research directions in this area.

Background: Delirium is a psychiatric syndrome observed among patients with critical psychiatric disorders. Haloperidol is now one of the first-line drugs for the treatment of delirium. However, quetiapine can be considered as an appropriate substitute in patients with a high risk of extrapyramidal symptoms or long QT syndrome. Objectives: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of intramuscular haloperidol and oral quetiapine to control delirium in patients in the emergency department and intensive care unit. Methods: This randomized clinical trial was performed during 2017-2018 on patients with delirium who were referred to the emergency department and intensive care unit of Imam Reza Hospital (referral center), Mashhad, Iran. Patients were divided into two groups of 100 patients per group through a random allocation technique . In this study, 5 mg of intramuscular haloperidol every 12 hours and 25 mg of oral quetiapine were prescribed daily for the patients in the control and intervention groups, respectively. The delirium severity score of each patient was evaluated before and three days after the intervention through Delirium Rating Scale-Revised-98. Results: In this study, the mean±SD age of participants was 60.2±14.1 years. The findings indicated that no significant difference was observed between haloperidol (22.7±1.9) and quetiapine (22.7±2.2) groups in terms of the baseline delirium severity score (P=0.95). The mean delirium severity scores of patients in haloperidol and quetiapine groups were 25.6±2.1 and 25.2±2.5, respectively. Based on the obtained results, the difference between the delirium severity scores of both groups was not statistically significant (P=0.24). Conclusion: Based on the results, oral quetiapine has a similar effect as intramuscular haloperidol and can be used as a substitute to this medicine for controlling the symptoms of patients with delirium.

In this paper, a novel high-resolution non-contact real-time method for glycerol concentration measurement has been proposed. Glycerol concentration is an important biomarker for many diagnostic applications, such as indication of hyperglyceridemia. The proposed sensing platform is based on a loss-compensated chipless tag that is coupled to the reader resonator and active feedback loop. The reader is designed at 2.6 GHz coupled to an active microwave amplifier to compensate and the tag is designed at 1.6 GHz which is located at 2.5 mm vertical distance from the reader. The high level of sensitivity of the highresolution tag resonance makes it suitable for low concentration and small variation chemical sensing. The proposed disposable sensor demonstrates a frequency shift of 36.4 kHz when the concentration of glycerol in deionized (DI) water changes from 122 mg.lit–1 to 0 mg.lit–1 which highlights the capability of glycerol concentration sensing in the human body range.

Background: Cystic fibrosis(CF) is a genetic disorder, which is caused by the CFTR protein defects. Along with CFTR dysfunction, inflammation plays a key role in the disease outcomes. Inflammation may develop due to the internal dysfunction of the CFTR protein or external factors. Curcumin affects the CFTR protein function primarily as a corrector and potentiator and secondary as an anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial agent. The present study aims to assess the impact of Nano-curcumin on clinical and inflammatory markers in children with CF.Methods: This prospective, double blind control trial will be conducted at Akbar Children's Hospital in Mashhad, Iran. children with CF will be enrolled based on the eligibility criteria. Placebo and curcumin with the maximum dose of 80 milligrams considering the body surface of the patients will be administrated for three months. The primary outcome is to evaluate inflammation based on serum interleukin-6, interleukin-10, and hs-CRP, stool calprotectin, and neutrophil count of nasopharyngeal swab. The secondary outcome involved clinical assessment via spirometry, anthropometrics, and quality of life. They will be assessed before and after three mounts.Discussion: Due to the multifarious effects of curcumin on CF disease, it can be used as a nutritional strategy in the treatment of cystic fibrosis.Trial registration: Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials, IRCT20200705048018N1, Registered on 2020-07-10, https://en.irct.ir/search/result?query=IRCT20200705048018N1

It is widely accepted that the high prevalence of leishmaniasis, demands the search for a tolerable effective treatment with the least side effects. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of treatment with clarithromycin on regression of lesions.This study was performed on 20 patients with leishmaniasis referred to dermatology clinic in 2017-2018. They were divided into two groups of intervention (500 mg oral clarithromycin twice a day) and control (20 mg/kg/day systematic glucantime). Induration size of lesions was recorded.We had 20 patients with acute cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) with 45 lesions in the control group and 49 lesions in the intervention group. In the control group, the mean number of lesions was 3 ± 2.8 and 5 ± 4.3 in each person in the control and intervention group (We concluded oral clarithromycin had therapeutic effects on acute CL similar to systematic glucantime and could be considered as a safe and effective treatment option.

A novel chemical sensor with zero power consumption is presented for real-time, non-contact, and noninvasive droplet characterization within the microchannel. The proposed microwave-microfluidic device demonstrates the capability of performing droplet detection as well as sensing of an individual droplet content. The platform is based on a chipless flexible microwave resonator tag coupled to a reader for introducing a technique to reduce the dependency of the coupling to the distance. The performance of the microwave-microfluidic sensor has been validated when mineral oil is used as the continuous phase. The sensor demonstrates highly selective identification results when deionized water and acetone are used to generate droplets required to be detected.

This paper reports a highly sensitive, non-invasive sensor for real-time glucose monitoring from interstitial fluid. The structure is comprised of a chip-less tag sensor which may be taped over the patient’s skin and a reader, that can be embedded in a smartwatch. The tag sensor is energized through the established electromagnetic coupling between the tag and the reader and its frequency response is reflected on the spectrum of the reader in the same manner. The tag sensor consumes zero power as there is no requirement for any active readout or communication circuitry on the tag side. When measuring changes in glucose concentrations within saline replicating interstitial fluid, the sensor was able to detect glucose with an accuracy of ~ 1 mM/l over a physiological range of glucose concentrations with 38 kHz of the resonance frequency shift. This high sensitivity is attained as a result of the proposed new design and extended field concentration on the tag. The impact of some of the possible interferences on the response of the sensor’s performance was also investigated. Variations in electrolyte concentrations within the test samples have a negligible effect on the response of the sensor unless these variations are supra-physiologically large.

Locus of control is a concept defined based on social learning theory, and focuses on individuals' beliefs regarding factors that influence their health status. Health Locus of Control (HLC) and its relationship with Quality of Life (QOL) in HIV positive patients in local population were studied. This was a cross-sectional study on 80 HIV-positive patients. Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) Scale and Medical Outcome Study Short-Form Health Survey (MOS-SF-36) used to measure patients' HLC and QOL, respectively. Internal, external, and chance HLC mean ± SD scores were 30.31±3.87, 24.17±5.03, and 32.01±4.49, respectively. Positive correlation was found between internal HLC scores and both physical (p

Over 10 years, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been considered as valuable and suitable cells for cell-based therapy applications, particularly in clinical trials. In any case, they are as yet not utilized routinely in clinics. At first, it was believed that MSCs play their roles, especially in regenerative medicine due to their differentiation and cell replacement properties. Interestingly, it is well-known that MSCs mainly exert their therapeutic effects through their vast bioactive factors. These findings turned scientists' consideration toward cell-free therapy concepts. From this point of view, MSCs can be considered as an arsenal of natural bioreactors in variety of therapeutic agents. MSCs inherently express various important therapeutic agents such as growth factors and cytokines that can be manufactured, handled and stored as a prepared-to-go biologic product. In this review, we provide a vision, highlight as well as discuss in order to introduce competitive natural robust bioreactor MSCs on the horizon.

Background: Struma ovarii (SO) is a rare phenomenon. In addition, it can be identified from the histological assessment and may show the characteristics of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in rare cases. In several cases, malignant stroma ovarii is found to produce hyperthyroidism while very few cases are reported with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. The present study reported SO co-incident with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. It should be mentioned that accurate monitoring of any signs of hypothyroidism is highly important after the surgery. Case Report: A 21-year-old patient with oligomenorrhea, hypogastric pain for the last year, dyspareunia and dysmenorrhea with a right adnexal cystic focus, and a bright echogenic focus referred to Al-Zahra hospital, Rasht. Histopathologic examination was compatible with the diagnosis of mature cystic teratoma containing SO co-incident with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis while the patient was in a good general appearance 2 days after the surgery. Regarding the subclinical hypothyroidism and due to her willingness to conceive, the clinician administered levothyroxine and thus the patient was in a stable state within 6 months. Conclusion: In general, it is recommended to consider SO in women with ovarian mass and impaired thyroid function.

Background: The responsibility of breaking bad news (BBN) to patients is one of the most difficult tasks of a medical profession. Aim: The current study aimed to investigate the preferences of mothers of children with cancer about BBN. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study was conducted in Mashhad during years of 2016, 62 mothers of children with cancer at Dr-Sheikh hospital were recruited by convenience sampling and completed a questionnaire including demographic data and 20 questions about the mothers' preferences to BBN. Data displayed as percent by SPSS V20 software. Results: Mothers preferred that BBN conducted by their child's doctor (93.5%), with an emotional and compassionate way (83.9%), and in a private setting (90.3%). Be told completely about the process of diagnosis (98.4%), meet people with similar conditions (83.9%), receive psychological (85.5%), and religious (79%) support after getting bad news, being in touch with a close relative (82.3%) and applying another term-like malignancy instead of cancer (95.5%). Conclusion: We tried providing helpful information for developing national guidelines about how to breaking news in Iran, by doing this study.

Single-layer capacitively coupled structure integrated with substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) is developed to design evanescent-mode bandpass filters. The planar gap-coupled structure is proposed as an alternative for the conventional inductive aperture-coupled one for filter excitation below the cutoff frequency of the SIW. The proposed planar capacitive excitation enables considerable miniaturization and resonates at a small fraction of a 3-D structure’s cutoff frequency. The proposed integration is analytically discussed using lumped-element equivalent circuit accompanied with experimental verification. Measured scattering parameters are compared to those of simulations, which demonstrate good agreement.

Smart tourism is one of the significant areas of smart cities. One of the important tasks of smart tourism systems is to intelligently and automatically extract a user's preferences. This paper investigates the automatic extraction of users' preferences in smart tourism. To this end, users' comments published in social networks are exploited as a rich data source that implicitly includes their preferences. The proposed method extracts users' preferences through semantic clustering the comments and sentiment analysis. Evaluation results indicate high values of precision, recall, and f-measure parameters in tourist preference extraction.

Moisture measurement is a key feature of future self-diagnostic smart home technology especially for wooden buildings. Having zero power consumption of the sensing part and capability of distant measurement empowers the presented chipless microwave split ring resonator moisture sensor making it an ideal option for the internet of things (IoT). The introduce sensor comprises of a flexible tag mounted inside the walls, as the sensing part, and a defected ground gap coupled transmission line as the reader. The chipless sensor is a metallic trace could be embedded in as many locations inside the house as required without any additional costs. Various simulation and experimental results throughout the paper verify the effectiveness of the proposed sensor for smart home applications and the sensor demonstrates the sensitivity of 6.5 MHz/W% around the resonance frequency of 800 MHz.

Background: Dyslipidemia is recognized as an important factor in the incidence of Preterm Birth (PTB). The early diagnosis of factors affecting PTB is important in the reduction of maternalneonatal complications; therefore, we aimed to evaluate the association between dyslipidemia and PTB in women from the Guilan province of Iran. Method: The current investigation was a prospective cohort study on 378 pregnant women in Rasht city (Guilan province), during 2018-2019. Samples were randomly selected among pregnant women who referred to Al-Zahra hospital. Association of the lipid profiles: Total Cholesterol (TC), High- Density Lipoprotein (HDLC), Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDLC), and Triglycerides (TG) with PTB was assessed using the Chi-square, Fisher tests and logistic regression analysis. Results: Our findings showed that of the evaluated lipid profiles, TG and TC had the highest predictive power with AUC =0.833 (95٪, CI: 0.736-0.930) and 0.772 (95%, CI: 0.676-0.867), respectively; also, their sensitivity and specificity were 83.3%, 70.2% and 83.3%, 66.1%, respectively. Moreover, abnormal LDL concentrations increase the risk of PTB by two folds (P < 0.05). Conclusion: It seems that by controlling the lipid profiles of pregnant women, the risk of PTB could be reduced.

INTRODUCTION: A limited number of risky behaviors cause most morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to determine the possible clustering of lifestyle behaviors, including transportation behaviors, diet, physical activity, and smoking in Shiraz, Iran. METHODS: There were 776 representative Shirazi adults who participated in this cross-sectional study. The questionnaires were completed via person-to-person interviews. The datasets were searched for any clustering patterns. Cluster analysis was used for statistical analysis, and the data were analyzed using SPSS version 11.5. RESULTS: Three distinct clusters were identified. Cluster 1 was named "Healthy," and it included non-smokers, safe drivers, appropriate or acceptable fruit, vegetable, and fast-food consumers, and physically-active people. Cluster 2, "Moderately Healthy," was relatively risky drivers who had appropriate behaviors on the rest of the health-related behaviors. Cluster 3, "Unhealthy," was smokers, risky drivers, inappropriate or unacceptable fruit, vegetable & fast-food consumers, and a sedentary lifestyle. CONCLUSIONS: It was obvious that health-related behaviors were clustered together and unhealthy behaviors were not established in isolation. Language: en

In this study, the upper bound analysis of barrel compression test is presented by using a new velocity field obtained from the finite element technique. The new velocity field is presented, with bulging of free cylindrical surface taken into consideration. Since the finite element method is known as the powerful technique for simulation of practical metal forming processes, the new velocity field has been found more realistic than the previous assumed velocity fields. The application of new velocity field also leads to obtain significant satisfaction with the final shape of deformed billet of perfect plastic material in a wide range of billet height reduction. Influence of strain hardening on metal flow and compression load is investigated, in order to calculate the required load compressing the cylindrical billet of work-hardening material. As a result, the new analysis is modified for work-hardening material which satisfies the experimental results very well.

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is one of the most suitable methods for long-term nutritional support. In this study, the empowerment of intensive care nurses is examined by a simulation technique to control the short-term complications of PEG. METHODS: A two-group clinical trial study will be conducted on eighty intensive care nurses in a teaching hospital in Tehran. The study participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two control and intervention groups based on the inclusion criteria. A pretest will be given to both groups using a researcher-made tool. Then, the empowerment package developed by the researcher will be provided to the intervention group in two stages. Next, a posttest will be administered. After this stage, patients’ complications with PEG will be observed using a researcher-made checklist. Nurses’ performances in both control and intervention groups will be evaluated in terms of preventing and controlling short-term complications up to 1 week after PEG insertion. All of the data collected in this research will be analyzed with statistic tests such as independent t-test, standard deviation, T pair, ANOVA, and mean based on the SPSS 16 software. RESULTS: At present, the research team is designing an empowerment package for nurses and tools needed to evaluate the nurses’ empowerment. CONCLUSION: This study will attempt to design and evaluate the empowerment package of graduate nurses with a cognitive empowerment approach and using a simulation technique to care for patients with PEG and to control their short-term complications.

Background: End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a worldwide growing public health concern. Hemodialysis (HD) is a treatment option for people experiencing ESRD. Because of limited therapeutic methods due to the vague pathogenesis, the control of pruritus is so difficult. Thus, we decided to carry out this study to examine the effect of acupuncture on pruritus. Methods: This multi-centered randomized clinical trial was conducted during 2015 - 2017 in the hemodialysis wards of teaching hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. 30 patients that met the inclusion criteria entered the study by a convenience sampling and were randomized into two groups: One group receiving acupuncture intervention and the other receiving sham acupuncture as the control group. We measured the visual analog scale (VAS) score of pruritus before and after the intervention in the two groups. Results: The mean age of the participants was 49.04 ± 14.93 with a minimum age of 23 years and a maximum age of 65 years. 17 (65.40%) patients were male, and nine (34.60%) were female. We had a significant difference between the scores of both groups before and after the intervention, but the difference of the scores was more significant in the intervention group than in the control group (5.94 versus 1.27, respectively). Our study also showed a significant difference between the two groups after the intervention (P value < 0.001). Conclusions: Our findings indicate that acupuncture, as a noninvasive, safe, and easy treatment, can be useful and effective for the management of Hemodialysis patients with pruritus. Identifying the pathophysiology of pruritus and neurobiological mechanism of acupuncture to reduce pruritus will remarkably improve the application of new therapies to decrease itching.

In this paper, a new microwave sensor is presented for contactless monitoring of humidity in dry air stream. The platform is based on a pair of passive ring resonators, which are magnetically coupled. The chip-less sensing tag is implemented on a flexible RF substrate and is coupled to the reader resonator, as a result, contactless and highly sensitive sensing has been enabled. The tag integrated within commercial silica gel adsorbent holders to monitor the humidity. The microwave sensor operates at 3.47 GHz including the coupled tag. The noncontact nature of the proposed structure enables humidity monitoring in harsh industrial environment.

In this paper, it is shown that contactless pH sensing is enabled using high-resolution ultra-high Q microwave sensor. The platform is based on a passive planar resonator, which operates at 2.6 GHz and is reinforced by a positive active feedback circuitry. The positive feedback loop compensates the power loss of the sensor and, as a result, provides an extremely high quality-factor and selectivity enabling noncontact sensing of small complex permittivity variation. Solutions with various pH levels in the range of 1 to 10 have been detected distinctively. The sensor demonstrates a frequency shift of 275 kHz when the pH of the liquid changes from neutral $\mathbf{pH}\ (\mathbf{pH}=\mathbf{7})$ to $\mathbf{pH}=\mathbf{1}$ .

Aim In medicine, honey is known for its various biological or pharmacological effects, from wound dressing to anticancero-genic and from anti-inflammatory to antibacterial activities. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of honey on healing of mandibular bone defects in a rat model. Materials and methods This animal study was performed on 24 wild-type Wistar rats. Following shaving, disinfection, and extraoral incision, a 2 × 2 mm defect was created at mandibular angle. In the experimental group, the defect was filled with sterile honey, while it was left unfilled in the control group. The rats were sacrificed after 2 and 4 weeks and defects were assessed histologically. The results were compared using Mann-Whitney U-test (α = 0.05). Results After 2 weeks, five samples of the experimental group were in mineralization phase, while all samples of the control group were in the vascularization phase (p = 0.015). After 4 weeks, the defects were filled in four samples of the experimental group, while all samples of the control group were in the mineralization stage (p = 0.002). Histomorphometric assessment revealed that the mean new bone formation in the experimental group was significantly more than the control group, both after 2 and 4 weeks (p = 0.041). Conclusion The results showed that honey could accentuate bone healing of mandibular small defects in rats. Clinical significance Honey might have potential in repair of human alveolar bone defects.

Human body acts as a heat engine and thermodynamically could be considered as an open system. The energy conversion and exergy analysis is obtained by applying the first and second laws of thermodynamic for this open system. The second law of thermodynamics introduces the useful concept of exergy. It enables the determination of the exergy consumption within the human body dependent on the human body parameters and environmental factors.

We investigated the effects of self-deflection on incoherent interaction between photovoltaic bright–bright soliton pairs in photorefractive crystals under steady-state condition in an unbiased series two-photon photorefractive crystal circuit in one dimension. The numerical schemes according to the Crank–Nicholson and Runge–Kutta methods are applied to simulate the propagation of incoherent interaction for studying self-deflection by considering the diffusion process with different normalized separation distances, different amplitude and different δ. We also offer some applications about this subject.

Introduction: Additional to improving health and ensuring equitable financing that are two predominant goals of health system, another important goal of health systems is responsiveness to people’s non-medical expectations. In this study we try to assess the health system’s responsiveness in academic and non-academic hospitals. Methods: This is a cross sectional study done in summer 2014 in Mashhad-Iran, we surveyed a total number of 403 inpatients by multi-stage sampling. A questionnaire of responsiveness and a check list included demographic variables and characteristics of hospitalization were completed by trained interviewers. Scales from 0 to 10 was applied for each questionnaire at the end of assessment of questions. Result: 403 participants Took part in this survey from 10 hospitals (6 academic and 4 non-academic hospitals). 124(30.8%) were from non-academic and 279(69.2%) from academic hospitals 140(34.7%) of patients were male and 263(65.3%) were female. mean age of participants was 36.77 ± 1.52 years. The mean total score of responsiveness was 7.12±1.31 in academic hospitals and 6.99±1.38 in non-academic hospitals, considered as good performance. There was no significant difference between total scores of these two groups (p=0.38). Health care responsiveness score was higher in private (8.35±0.95) than other kinds of hospitals and charity hospitals had the lowest score (5.98±0.51). Conclusion: Responsiveness of health care system at hospitals is an important parameter for measuring patients’ perception of quality of health care. Although responsiveness rate of our hospitals are good but some components such as: choice health care providers, respect to autonomy of individuals, clear communication and confidentiality received lower responsiveness scores, therefore they require more attention and these domains can be the more significant choices that should be considered while designing improvement programs.

Context: Sexual dysfunction is a health problem; but there is no comprehensive review on this subject in Iran. Objectives: By reviewing recent studies, this systematic review was performed to estimate the prevalence rate of sexual dysfunction in Iranian general population. Data Sources: By using related keywords, data were obtained by searching PubMed, Google scholar, Scopus, and 2 Persian databases (IranMedex and Scientific Information Database (SID)). Moreover, hand searching the key journals and reviewing the references of included articles were done. Study Selection: This study reviewed all available published data on the prevalence of different types of sexual disorders/dysfunctions among Iranian general population until June 2016. Data Extraction: Data were extracted independently by two observers using a researcher-made checklist. Results: 23 studies were finally evaluated. Most of the articles did not have acceptable standard quality. Most of the reviewed original articles were conducted in females. Besides, it was noted that there was a large diversity among the results of different studies that may be due to not using standard methodologies. The reported ranges of the prevalence rates for total sexual disorders, sexual desire disorder, sexual arousal disorder, and lubrication disorder were estimated to be 19.2 to 77%, 15.4 to 65.8%, 9.8 to 88.3%, and 11.9 to 71.4%, respectively. In addition, the reported prevalence rates for pain disorder, female orgasmic disorder, and sexual dissatisfaction were estimated between 9 to 95.9%, 10.5 to 76%, and 2.4 to 78.5%, respectively. Conclusions: Despite the large diversity in the findings of this review, it seems that the prevalence of sexual disorders is relatively high among Iranian populations. It is suggested that researchers pay more attention to the duration of evaluation in cross-sectional studies, reporting the response rates, utilizing reliable and valid measures, and applying appropriate sampling methods in order to improve the quality of future research. Educating general population by health professionals who are involved in the treatment of sexual disorders is highly recommended.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the most common health-threatening diseases in the world. There is still no effective medical treatment for AKI. Recently, Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy has been proposed for treatment of AKI. However, the microenvironment of damaged kidney tissue is not favorable for survival of MSCs which would be used for therapeutic intervention. In this study, we genetically manipulated MSCs to up-regulate lipocalin-2 (Lcn2) and investigated whether the engineered MSCs (MSC-Lcn2) could improve cisplatin-induced AKI in a rat model. Our results revealed that up-regulation of Lcn2 in MSCs efficiently enhanced renal function. MSC Lcn2 up-regulates expression of HGF, IGF, FGF and VEGF growth factors. In addition, they reduced molecular biomarkers of kidney injury such as KIM-1 and Cystatin C, while increased the markers of proximal tubular epithelium such as AQP-1 and CK18 following cisplatin-induced AKI. Overall, here we over-expressed Lcn2, a well-known cytoprotective factor against acute ischemic renal injury, in MSCs. This not only potentiated beneficial roles of MSCs for cell therapy purposes but also suggested a new modality for treatment of AKI.

In this paper, a new microwave contactless sensor is presented to monitor the level of volatile organic compound (VOC) in a dry gas stream. The platform is based on two passive ring resonators, which are magnetically coupled where the sensing tag is implemented on a flexible RF substrate. The wireless coupling between the reader and the tag, enables contactless as well as sensitive sensing. The microwave sensor operates at 4 GHz while the distance between the reader and the tag can be extended up to 1.5 cm. To increase the sensitivity of the sensor, VOC polymeric adsorbent beads (V503) are used inside a cylindrical quartz reactor and the tag monitors the adsorption on the V503 bed directly. Various concentrations of Methyl Ethyl Ke-tone (MEK) and Cyclohexane in the range of 250 to 1000 ppm are detected distinctively. The sensor demonstrates a sensitivity of 40 kHz/ppm for MEK and 2 kHz/ppm for Cyclohexane operating as a real-time detector.

Energy-efficient data center design and management has been a challenge of increasing importance in the past decade due to its potential to save billions of dollars in energy costs. However, the state of the art in design and evaluation of data centers require designers to be expertly familiar with a prohibitively large number of domain-specific design tools that necessitate user intervention in each step of the design process. This is due to the lack of a holistic data center design tool. To fill this gap, this article presents an iterative green data center design framework, the Green Data Center Simulator (GDCSim), for the design and development of energy-efficient data centers.

Background: The restless legs syndrome is a sensorimotor disorder that is very common in patients on hemodialysis. Due to pharmacological treatments which have their own side effects, nowadays, studies have turned to non-pharmacological treatments. Objectives: The present study aims to assess the effect of stretching exercises on the severity of restless legs syndrome in patients on hemodialysis. Patients and Methods: This clinical trial study was conducted on 33 patients who had been identified using diagnostic criteria from the hemodialysis ward of Hasheminejad Hospital in Tehran. Participants were randomly divided into the intervention group (n = 17) and control group (n = 16). Stretching exercises were performed on legs during the dialysis for half an hour, three times a week for 8 weeks in intervention group. Data were collected by using the international restless legs syndrome study group scale. Results: The results showed that the majority of participants were suffering from moderate restless legs syndrome. The symptom severity of this syndrome meaningfully changed eight weeks after intervention in the intervention group compared to the control group (P < 0.001). Conclusions: The results highlighted the significance of training and performing the stretching exercises during dialysis for the purpose of improving restless legs syndrome symptoms and the quality of care of hemodialysis patients.