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Background Accumulating evidence indicates that vitamin D deficiency has been increased globally over the last two decades. However, the majority of these studies are concerned with cities and there is scant information regarding the prevalence of vitamin D in rural areas. The main aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its associated risk factors among the rural population in Bushehr province which shares the longest border with the Persian Gulf. Methods The rural inhabitants of more than 25 years old from three mountainous, plain, and seashore areas of Bushehr province were selected through a stratified multi-cluster random sampling method. After obtaining the participants’ demographic and anthropometric data and their past medical history, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] was measured using ELISA. Results A total of 1806 (means ±SD, 46± 14years old) rural subjects (35 % males and 65 % females) participated in this study. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, insufficiency, and sufficiency were 28 %, 50 %, and 22 %, respectively. The deficiency of vitamin D in women was higher than in men (OR=1.27, 95 % CI: 1.05 to 1.54, P=0.04). There was a positive significant correlation between age and serum vitamin D levels. Men with vitamin D deficiency had higher BMI (P=0.008); this association was not observed among women (P=0.7). There was no significant difference between the food item’s consumption frequencies, and vitamin D status (P>0.05). The mountainous, and plain areas had the highest and lowest vitamin D levels, respectively. Conclusions Although, Bushehr province is located in a sunny part of Iran, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was high among its rural population. The shift of their lifestyle patterns and rapid industrialization in these rural areas may be responsible. Therefore, the enrichment of dietary sources with vitamin D and the use of vitamin D supplements are recommended to tackle the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the rural population of the northern part of the Persian Gulf.

Abstract. Wound healing consists of a series of highly orderly overlapping processes characterized by hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. Prolongation or interruption in each phase can lead to delayed wound healing or a non-healing chronic wound. Vitamin A is a crucial nutrient that is most beneficial for the health of the skin. The present study was undertaken to determine the effect of vitamin A on regeneration, angiogenesis, and inflammation characteristics in an in vitro model system during wound healing. For this purpose, mouse skin normal fibroblast (L929), human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC), and monocyte/macrophage-like cell line (RAW 264.7) were considered to evaluate proliferation, angiogenesis, and anti-inflammatory responses, respectively. Vitamin A (0.1–5 μM) increased cellular proliferation of L929 and HUVEC (p

It is so important to consider the passive defense problem in any places there have been attacks by varies kinds of military threats and terrorists. It is certain that social security is related to overcoming on these perils and protection from country. Vital facilities are one of examples that should be protected. Vital facilities include roads, bridges, transmission lines, and telecom and media network. With attention to the intense dependent to export and transmit of oil and gas and with consideration of this point that many places are full of gas and oil resource, the protection of these lines is very important. In recent years, occurrence of varies kinds of terrorist accidents in relation to important structures in all the world causes that the explosion loads have special attention. Explosion can generate much damage with vibration in vast soil media. Thus, it is important to predict the dynamic impact load and its treatment response. With attention to regardable development of numerical methods in recent decades, it is possible to investigate the explosion effects on surface and underground structures. In this research, the newest applied method modeling of the explosion phenomenon has been investigated and comprehensive information has been earned. In this investigation, problem of explosion wave’s propagation effects on buried pipes simulated by ABAQUS/CAE 6.10-1 was studied based on the finite element method. Surface explosion effects on gas buried pipe lines and their dynamic response have been investigated depending on properties and their characteristics. The variation of buried pipe depth effects and variation effects in soil properties around pipe in different cases has been considered, and the results are here. The results showed that in buried pipes under surface explosions, displacements, major stresses, and strains decrease in clay, dense, and loose sands with increase of buried depth. These results obtain that because of increase of closuring of pipes in soil when internal friction angle increases for a kind of soil, the stress on pipe rim will decrease also. It was also observed that the pipe performance in clay and loose sands is better than that in compacted sand, respectively.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) can alter intra-cardiac flow and cardiac output that subsequently affects aortic flow circulation. These changes may become more significant where they occur concomitantly with ageing. Aortic ageing is accompanied with morphological changes such as dilation, lengthening, and arch unfolding. While the recognition of AF mechanism has been the subject of numerous studies, less focus has been devoted to the aortic circulation during the AF and there is a lack of such investigation at different ages. The current work aims to address the present gap. First, we analyse aortic flow distribution in three configurations, which attribute to young, middle and old people, using geometries constructed via clinical data. We then introduce two transient inlet flow conditions representative of key AF-associated defects. Results demonstrate that both AF and ageing negatively affect flow circulation. The main consequence of concomitant occurrence is enhancement of endothelial cell activation potential (ECAP) throughout the vascular domain, mainly at aortic arch and descending thoracic aorta, which is consistent with some clinical observations. The outcome of the current study suggests that AF exacerbates the vascular defects occurred due to the ageing, which increases the possibility of cardiovascular diseases per se. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at (10.1007/s10439-021-02744-9).

With the aim towards lighter and more efficient electrical systems in future aircraft, design of DC/DC converters with high efficiency, power density and improved thermal management becomes necessary. This paper investigates the detailed design of isolated bidirectional DC/DC converters for more electric aircraft (MEA). Use of wide bandgap (WBG) devices to enhance system efficiency is considered. A transformer optimization technique based on switching frequency for different converter topologies is investigated. The control strategy of the discussed configurations are verified in the PLECS simulation environment. Dual active bridge (DAB), input-series output-parallel (ISOP), neutral point clamped (NPC) and active neutral point clamped (ANPC) converters are considered to exploit benefits offered by WBG devices for MEA. A comparison is performed in terms of efficiency, thermal management, power density and electromagnetic interference (EMI). The results indicate that the ANPC converter is better for efficiency, thermal management and power density. The DAB converter showed similar results to the ISOP with the DAB yielding higher efficiency. The NPC and ANPC configurations resulted in the best EMI performance. The NPC converter proved to be the least effective solution with regard to efficiency, thermal management and power density.

Manipulation and secure transportation of loads by robotic manipulators along predetermined paths is still an open challenge in the robotics field. In this article, the problem of pushing and driving an object on a surface employing a robot to reach a specific destination is considered under a-priori unknown friction conditions. For this purpose, the equations of motion are derived according to the limit surface conceptualization of friction force. Although friction parameters may be considered locally constant, nonetheless they gradually vary over large surfaces. The friction term is thus faced with a slowly time-varying indeterminacy and needs an online estimation scheme. By defining a mission consisting of pushing an object via a robot to find a path among obstacles, an optimum path is firstly planned then a non-linear model predictive controller is used to track the desired path. In order to alleviate the indeterminacy due to friction, the corresponding terms in the equations of motion are set as a disturbance which is estimated by a purposely designed observer and then eliminated in a feedforward manner. There is also no need to perform preliminary offline tests.

Ultrasonic wavefield imaging with a non-contact technology can provide detailed information about the health status of an inspected structure. However, high spatial resolution, often necessary for accurate damage quantification, typically demands a long scanning time. In this work, we investigate a novel methodology to acquire high-resolution wavefields with a reduced number of measurement points to minimize the acquisition time. Such methodology is based on the combination of compressive sensing and convolutional neural networks to recover high spatial frequency information from low-resolution images. A data set was built from 652 wavefield images acquired with a laser Doppler vibrometer describing guided ultrasonic wave propagation in eight different structures, with and without various simulated defects. Out of those 652 images, 326 cases without defect and 326 cases with defect were used as a training database for the convolutional neural network. In addition, 273 wavefield images were used as a testing database to validate the proposed methodology. For quantitative evaluation, two image quality metrics were calculated and compared to those achieved with different recovery methods or by training the convolutional neural network with non-wavefield images data set. The results demonstrate the capability of the technique for enhancing image resolution and quality, as well as similarity to the wavefield acquired on the full high-resolution grid of scan points, while reducing the number of measurement points down to 10% of the number of scan points for a full grid.

Tobacco smoke is known for releasing metals in indoor air of waterpipe/cigarette cafes. However, the worker exposure to metals, and its association with oxidative stress in these cafes are still unclear. To this end, 54 workers and 38 customers from waterpipe/cigarette cafes (the exposed group), 30 workers from non-smoking cafes (the control group 1 (CG_1)) and 32 individuals from the general population (the control group 2 (CG_2)) were selected and toenails samples were then taken from them. Our findings revealed a significant difference in terms of toenail-bounded metal levels between the exposure and control groups (CG_1 and CG_2) (Mann–Whitney U test, Pvalue

This paper presents a series of electromagnetic field measurements performed on the campus of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in order to assess the compliance of radiation levels of cellular base stations and WiFi access points with international guidelines. A calibrated, broadband and isotropic probe is used and recommendations of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) are followed up throughout measurements. More than 300 outdoor and indoor locations have been systematically chosen for measurements. The recorded data are post-processed and compared with the guideline of International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Measured power densities of WiFi access points are low and do not exceed 1% of the level allowed by ICNIRP. For cellular base stations, measured power density is usually low outdoors, but reaches up to 16% of the allowed radiation level in publicly accessible indoor locations. Comprehensive exposure assessment, as recommended by ITU, has been performed to estimate the maximum possible radiation of one indoor base station. It is concluded that precautionary actions have to be taken by university authorities to limit the presence of students in close proximity to specific indoor antennas. Moreover, comprehensive exposure assessment is more likely necessary for indoor base stations whereas such assessment is not usually required outdoors.

Purpose This computational fluid dynamics study investigates the necessity of incorporating heart failure severity in the preoperative planning of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) configurations, as it is often omitted from studies on LVAD performance. Methods A parametric study was conducted examining a common range of LVAD to aortic root flow ratios (LVAD/AR-FR). A normal aortic root waveform was scaled by 5–30% in increments of 5% to represent the common range of flow pumped by the left ventricle for different levels of heart failure. A constant flow rate from the cannula compensated for the severity of heart failure in order to maintain normal total aortic flow rate. Results The results show that LVAD/AR-FR can have a significant but irregular impact on the perfusion and shear stress-related haemodynamic parameters of the subclavian and carotid arteries. Furthermore, it is found that a larger portion of the flow is directed towards the thoracic aorta at the expense of the carotid and subclavian arteries, regardless of LVAD/AR-FR. Conclusion The irregular behaviour found in the subclavian and carotid arteries highlights the necessity of including the LVAD/AR-FR in the preoperative planning of an LVAD configuration, in order to accurately improve the effects on the cardiovascular system post implantation.

Objectives This study aimed to explore Swedish physicians' perceptions regarding physician-patient communication in an Iranian context and to obtain a deeper understanding of their lived experience when encountering Middle Eastern and Swedish patients in their daily work. Methods This is a multi-method study, including conventional content analysis in combination with phenomenological methodology. A triangulation approach to data collection and analysis was used. Serving the purpose of the study, twelve Swedish physicians with previous experience of Middle Eastern patients were purposely selected to participate in the study. They watched a video showing simulated patient encounter in an Iranian context. The video served as a trigger. Semi-structured interviews were conducted focusing on the participants' perceptions of the video and their lived experiences. Constant comparative analysis was used for a deep understanding of the data. Results The core themes were cultural diversity, doctor-centeredness, and patient-centeredness. Cultural diversity was a convergent theme and included trust, interpersonal interaction, context, and doctor dominancy. Patient-centeredness and doctor-centeredness were divergent themes and included doctors' authority, equity, the experience of illness, and accountability. Conclusions The participants confirmed large cultural differences in doctor-patient communication when encountering Iranian and Swedish patients. Inter-cultural and cross-cultural competencies were made visible. To be able to appreciate other cultures' health values, beliefs, and behaviors, increased cultural competence in health care is of importance.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to quantify the influence of medial open wedge high tibial osteotomy on patellar kinematics using optical computer navigation, as anterior knee pain infrequently occurs postoperatively and the reason is still being unknown. Methods Ten medial open wedge high tibial osteotomies at supratuberosity level in 5 full body specimens were performed. The effect of the surgical procedure on patellar kinematics, measured at 5 and 10 degrees of leg alignment correction angle, was analyzed and compared to native patellar kinematics during passive motion—regarding patella shift, tilt, epicondylar distance and rotation. Linear mixed models were used for statistical analysis, a two‐sided p value of ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Tilt behavior, medial shift and epicondylar distance did not show a significant difference regarding natural patellar kinematics at both osteotomy levels. Both osteotomy correction angles showed a significant less external rotation of the patella (p Conclusions Except less external rotation of the patella, medial open wedge high tibial osteotomy does not seem to relevantly alter patellar alignment during passive motion. Future clinical studies have to prove the effect of MOWHTO on patellar kinematics measured in this experimental setup, especially regarding its influence on anterior knee pain.

Purpose of review With an aging population with heart failure, there is a growing need for end-of-life care in this population, including a focus on symptom management and quality-of-life considerations. Recent findings Targeted therapies focusing on symptom control and improving quality of life is the cornerstone of providing care in patients with heart failure near the end of life. Such therapies, including the use of inotropes for palliative purposes, have been shown to improve symptoms without an increase in mortality. In addition, recent evidence shows that implementing certain strategies in planning for end of life, including advance care planning and palliative care involvement, can significantly improve symptoms and quality of life, reduce hospitalizations, and ensure care respects patient values and preferences. Summary Shifting focus from prolonging life to enhancing quality of life in heart failure patients approaching the end of life can be achieved by recognizing and managing end-stage heart failure-related symptoms, advanced care planning, and a multidisciplinary care approach.

In recent years, lutetium-177 (177Lu)-labeled prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-617 has become a promising new therapeutic agent in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). In this study, we report on an early experience of177Lu-PSMA therapy with an evaluation of its efficacy and safety in mCRPC patients. Twenty-one mCRPC patients with a mean age of 70.3 ± 9.6 (54–88)-year-old were treated with one to four therapy cycles (median two cycles) and administered activity of 3.7–29.6 GBq (mean of 15.4 GBq). A prostate-specific antigen (PSA) decline ≥ 50% was considered to be a biochemical response (BCR). To evaluate the clinical response, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) status was used. Within 2 weeks before and 1 and 2 months after each therapy cycle, hematology, renal function, liver status, alkaline phosphatase, and PSA were checked. The Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events was used for grading adverse events induced by 177Lu-PSMA. Furthermore, overall survival (OS) was calculated and analyzed. During the treatment, a BCR was seen in 62% of patients; 19% of patients showed progression and 19% of patients showed stable disease. ECOG status was improved after treatment, and OS was 62.7 weeks. After the treatment, two patients showed Grade II toxicity of white blood cells, Grade I thrombocytopenia was observed in two patients, one patient showed Grade II toxicity in serum creatinine and transient Grade I toxicity in creatinine was seen in two patients. In total, our initial experience demonstrates that 177Lu-PSMA therapy has the potential to positively affect the development and maturation of radioligand practices in selected mCRPC patients, even in resource limited, developing country environments. However, some challenges, such as practitioner training, poor initial acceptance by colleagues and financial concerns, particularly in developing nations, still exist.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of arrhythmia, which undermines cardiac function. Atrial fibrillation is a multi-facet malady and it may occur as a result of other diseases or it may trigger other problems. One of the main complications of AF is stroke due to the possibility of clot formation inside the atrium. However, the possibility of stroke occurrence due to the AF and the location from which an embolus dispatches are subject of debate. Another hypothesis about the embolus formation during AF is thrombus formation in aorta and carotid arteries, embolus detachment and its movement. To investigate the possibility of the latter postulation, the current work suggests a parametric study to quantify the sensitivity of aortic flow to four common AF traits including lack of atrial kick, atrial remodelling, left ventricle systolic dysfunction, and high frequency fibrillation. The simulation was carried out by coupling several in-house codes and ANSYS-CFX module. The results reveal that AF traits lower flow rate at left ventricular outflow tract, which in general lowers blood perfusion to systemic, cerebral and coronary circulations. Consequently, it leads to endothelial cell activation potential (ECAP) increase and variation of flow structure that both suggest predisposed areas to atherogenesis and thrombus formation in different regions in ascending aorta, aortic arch and descending thoracic aorta. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10439-020-02448-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Endothelial erosion of atherosclerotic plaques is the underlying cause of approximately 30% of acute coronary syndromes (ACS). As the vascular endothelium is profoundly affected by the haemodynamic environment to which it is exposed, we employed computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis of the luminal geometry from 17 patients with optical coherence tomography (OCT)-defined plaque erosion, to determine the flow environment permissive for plaque erosion. Our results demonstrate that 15 of the 17 cases analysed occurred on stenotic plaques with median 31% diameter stenosis (interquartile range 28–52%), where all but one of the adherent thrombi located proximal to, or within the region of maximum stenosis. Consequently, all flow metrics related to elevated flow were significantly increased (time averaged wall shear stress, maximum wall shear stress, time averaged wall shear stress gradient) with a reduction in relative residence time, compared to a non-diseased reference segment. We also identified two cases that did not exhibit an elevation of flow, but occurred in a region exposed to elevated oscillatory flow. Our study demonstrates that the majority of OCT-defined erosions occur where the endothelium is exposed to elevated flow, a haemodynamic environment known to evoke a distinctive phenotypic response in endothelial cells.

The process of implementing a systematic and integrated evaluation program for the faculty members of universities needs svarious resources and methods. In this regard, a portfolio has been introduced as a tool that reflects the performance of the faculty members, and represents the activities and developments of teachers through the evaluation of educational documents. In recent years, the use of electronic portfolios has been considered in the medical universities an example of which is Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Accordingly, the document/electronic portfolio of the faculty members was developed which aimed at registration and evaluation process in determining duties of teachers at this University. The electronic educational portfolio was designed electronically which includes panels on teaching quantity, quality of educational performance, evaluation of documentation, research and technology, and executive-managerial activities. The results of the project can be used in the process of annual promotion, achieving grants, rewards and presenting performance and management report.

Objectives Congestive hepatopathy as a result of advanced heart failure correlates with poor outcomes. Thus, risk-scoring systems have been established to assess the risks for cardiac surgery and hearttransplant, although these systems were originally designed to measure mortality risk in patients with end-stage liver disease. We compared the scores for the Child-Pugh criteria andstandardandmodifiedModels for End-Stage LiverDisease to evaluate the effect of preoperative liver dysfunction on postoperative outcomes inpatients with heart failure who underwent heart transplant. Materials and methods Data of 60 consecutive patients who underwent orthotopic heart transplant were analyzed from a historical cohort study from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2018. We calculated the scores for Child-Pugh criteria and the standard and modified Models for End-Stage Liver Disease. Results Of the 60 total patients, 48 were male patients, with a median age of 43 years (range, 13-69 years). Twenty patients died before the end of the study. The causes of death were cardiac, liver, and renal diseases. The mortality risk increased 25% (interquartile range, 0.05-0.51) for the patients with 1 point higher score compared with the patients with 1 point lower score based on a modified Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (P = .01). Conclusions Preoperative liver dysfunction has a significant effect on patient survival. The modified Modelfor End-Stage LiverDisease scoring system could be an effective predictor of perioperative risk stratification for patients with congestive hepatopathy who are undergoing cardiac transplant.

BACKGROUND: An interprofessional community-based education provides proper situations that learners can be prepared to play their professional responsibilities and team duties in the community. This study aims to assess the effect of interprofessional community-based education on attitudes and performances of learners toward interprofessional collaboration and their readiness for interprofessional learning. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study is a quasi-experimental design. The learners in six different disciplines, including medicine, pharmacy, nursing, midwifery, public health, and nutrition (n=122) at Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences were participated in the present study. in the present study, interprofessional education intervention was conducted in two steps. First, the interprofessional learning situation brought learners the familiarity with the concepts of interprofessional collaboration, teamwork, and educational medical content, such as backache, fatty liver, diabetes, and HIV. Second, learners from different disciplines participated in interprofessional teams in community settings. These learners taught people about health-related topics, such as backache, fatty liver, and HIV. Participants filled out the questionnaires before and after interventions. Data were analyzed by Student's t-test and one-way ANOVA in SPSS 16.0 software (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). RESULTS: The present results showed that the scores of learners in readiness for interprofessional learning 3.82 (0.35) versus 4.60 (0.29) (P = 0.001) (P = 0.0001), attitudes to interprofessional teamwork 3.83 (0.40) versus 4.18 (0.30) (P = 0.0001) (P = 0.0001), interprofessional collaboration 7.46 (0.70) versus 8.35 (0.43) (P = 0.001) improved significantly before and after the educational interventions. CONCLUSION: The present results showed that interprofessional community-based education has improved the readiness of the learners for interprofessional learning. Besides, attitude toward teamwork and interprofessional collaboration performance have also been improved from participants' viewpoints.

BackgroundThe knowledge and attitude of health care providers are important and influential factors in providing care services to the elderly and need to be considered during the training course. Simulation in geriatric nursing education can be an opportunity for learners to experience the restrictions of the elderly. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of training through simulation on the attitude and knowledge of nursing students in elderly care.MethodsThis study was quasi-experimental with two experimental and control groups of pre and post-test, which was conducted on 70 nursing students of the 5th semester (two groups of 35 people). For the experimental group, the elderly simulation suit was worn for two hours, which was designed by the researcher and created sensory, physical, and motor restrictions similar to the elderly for students. Before and after the study, Kogan’s attitudes toward older people scale and Palmore’s “facts on aging quiz” were completed by students. The data were analyzed using an independent t-test and paired t-test using SPSS version 16 software.ResultsThe mean scores of students’ knowledge in the experimental and control groups had no significant difference at the beginning of the study (p p = 0.0001). The mean scores of students’ attitudes in the experimental and control groups had no significant difference at the beginning of the study (p p = 0.0001).ConclusionsBased on the findings, the experience of aging restrictions through simulation has improved the knowledge and attitude of nursing students towards the elderly. Nursing education requires the growth of attitudinal skills, individuals’ beliefs, and creating empathy among them, so creating simulation opportunities can assist nursing students in the educational processes.

Unmanned aerial systems are quickly growing in both military and civilian applications. The exponential growth unmanned aerial systems have provided many new opportunities such as urban air mobility. With the imminent entrance of unmanned aerial systems to the national airspace aircraft will be flying at lower heights over people and properties and will be landing in spatially constraint landing fields. This paper introduces cognitive autolanding algorithms, where the standard landing stages of flare, glideslope, and approach, are employed to land the aircraft safely and within time, spatial, and aircraft dynamic constraints. The use of Dubins paths during the approach stage is explored and employed in this work showing how the algorithms can be used to direct the aircraft towards any landing field from adverse initial headings and positions. The autolanding generated path is then flown in a six-degrees-of-freedom simulation environment. The robustness of this cognitive autolanding algorithm is validated through Monte Carlo analysis.

Aim and background: The aim of present study was to assess the effect of faculty development courses as educational scholar program (ESP) in viewpoints of faculty members.Materials and methods: The study is a mixed method concurrent embedded design. Faculty members participated in the ESP from different faculties (n=15). ESP is designed as a long empowerment course in two phases of training and scholarship. Data collection about faculty members’ satisfaction and experiences were conducted through a 9-items questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, respectively. In the first phases, data was analyzed by descriptive tests (mean, SD). The inductive content analysis approach was used for data analysis in qualitative phase. Inductive analysis approach was conducted by open coding, category, and main categories.Results: In the study, faculty members from different faculties including dentistry (n=8), public health (n=2), medicine (n=1), pharmacy (n=2), nursing and midwifery (n=2). 10 women (66.66%) and 5 men (33.33%) were participated in ESP. 15 educational scholarship projects developed by faculty members in the student assessment (n=9), teaching and learning (n=3), curriculum development (n=3) domains. The results showed the satisfaction score of participants was 4.8(0.14). The experience of participants in ESP was divided into four main categories including, motivator for change, experiential learning practice, change leadership capabilities, and executive difficulties.Conclusion: The results showed that the experience of empowerment courses based on experiential learning cycle helped participants acquire the key capabilities to design and execute scholarship projects. Although individual-motivational factors can be effective in the success of participants in implementing scholarship projects, resource development and system support are also required.

Weight-bearing long-leg radiographs are commonly used in orthopaedic surgery. Measured parameters, however, change when radiographs are conducted in different rotational positions of the leg. It was hypothesized that rotational errors are regularly present in long-leg radiographs resulting in wrong measurements. In 100 consecutive long-leg radiographs conducted according to the method of Paley, rotation was assessed by fibular overlap. Angular parameters in radiographs (mechanical lateral proximal femoral angle (mLPFA), mechanical lateral distal femoral angle (mLDFA), angle between the anatomical and mechanical femoral axis (AMA), mechanical medial proximal tibia angle (mMPTA), mechanical lateral distal tibial angle (mLDTA), and the mechanical femoral and tibial axis (mFA–mTA) were measured and deviations related to malrotation calculated. An average internal rotation of 8 degrees was found in lower limbs showing a range between 29 degrees of internal and 22 degrees of external rotation. As a result, mean differences before and after rotational correction for measured parameters (mLPFA, mLDFA, AMA, mMPTA, mLDTA, mFA–mTA) ranged between 0.4 and 1.7 degrees (−2.1; 5.6 95% confidence interval [CI]). In conclusion, malrotation of lower limbs is regularly present in long-leg radiographs. As all measured parameters are influenced by malrotation, correct lower limb rotation needs to be verified.

Trochlear dysplasia is one of the most important pathomorphologies predisposing to patellofemoral instability. The development of the trochlea groove is not well understood so far. We hypothesized that the underlying pathology of trochlear dysplasia is a medial hypoplasia. 110 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from adult knees, 55 with and 55 without trochlear dysplasia were analyzed. On the axial and sagittal T2 MRI sequences, the height (h), width (w) and depth (d) of the medial (MC) and lateral femoral condyle (LC) as well as the depth of the trochlea groove (dTG) were measured using a three-dimensional measuring algorithm. For all calculated values of the lateral femoral condyle, the comparison of both groups showed no significant difference (p = 0.95, p = 0.11, p = 0.07). The depth of the trochlear groove (dTG) showed significant lower values in the study group (p

Background: Early mortality rate due to acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is approximately 30%, and half of these deaths occur before reaching a hospital. The prevention and early detection play a key role in reducing mortality in AMI. Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF), Interleukin 6 (IL-6), and Tumor Necrosis Factor α (TNF-α) are most recent prognostic biomarkers for AMI. The present study was aimed to evaluate the level of these cytokines in AMI. Methods: In this case control study, 39 patients with AMI were compared with 30 healthy subjects. Age, sex and other possible confounding factors were matched. AMI diagnosis was confirmed by typical symptoms, electrocardiogram changes and serum concentration of troponin I and creatine kinase-MB. The levels of TNF-α, IL-6 an HGF at baseline and 3 and 7 days later were measured using ELISA method. Results: Levels of IL-6, TNF-α and HGF increased over time after AMI with ST-segment elevation in study group. The baseline IL-6 levels in AMI group were significantly higher than control group (P

The influence of different implantation techniques in TKA on tibiofemoral kinematics was analysed in few investigations so far. However, the influence on patellar kinematics remain unclear. The aim of the present investigation was to compare patellar kinematics of the natural knee with those of knees after both kinematically and mechanically aligned TKAs. Patellar kinematics of ten cadaveric knees before and after TKAs implanted using both a kinematic and mechanic alignment technique were investigated and compared using a commercial optical computer navigation system. There was a statistically significant difference between natural patellar kinematics and both implantation techniques analysing mediolateral shift. Patellar lateral tilt showed significant better results in the kinematically compared to the mechanically aligned TKAs. In terms of patella rotation, the patella of both mechanically and kinematically aligned TKAs showed significant higher values for external rotation compared to the natural knee. Regarding epicondylar distance again a significant better restoration of natural kinematics could be found in the kinematically aligned TKAs. Kinematically aligned TKAs showed a better overall restoration of patellar kinematics compared to a conventional mechanical alignment technique. In terms of clinical usefulness, the present study highlights the potential benefit for clinical outcome using a kinematically aligned implantation technique in TKA to achieve a better restoration of natural patellofemoral kinematics.

This paper presents the free vibration analysis of a non-uniform cone beam with nonlinearly varying axial functionally graded material (FGM) properties. Based on the Adomian decomposition method and a proposed modified mathematical procedure, the vibration mode shapes and natural frequencies of a nonlinearly tapered FGM beam are analytically derived. Several vibration analyses for uniform and non-uniform FGM structures are presented and the results are compared with the existing ones to prove the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed methodology. Additionally, vibration analysis of exponentially and trigonometrically tapered beams with nonlinearly axial varying FGM properties considering different geometry and material taper ratios was studied and presented. Based on this analytical model, ideal structural design can be efficiently achieved for many engineering applications, such as stability enhancement and energy harvesting.

Aim: The present study seeks to provide insight into the management of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) infected with COVID-19.Material and methods: Patients with COVID-19 were included in the study if they met the inclusion criteria. 78 eligible patients were divided into four groups. After reviewing clinical charts, nursing records, laboratory findings, radiological reports and other medical records of CKD patients with COVID-19 confirmed infection, clinical presentation, laboratory data, radiology findings, and results were extracted from documented medical records using data collection forms. laboratory tests were performed again before discharge. Independent t-test, paired t-test, and chi-square were used to compare the clinical features of patients with COVID-19. A P< 0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. All the statistical analyses were performed by the SPSS. v 26.0.Results: Hypertension (72.5%), diabetes (63.8%), and Cardiovascular disease (38.2%) were the most common among patients, respectively. Among all participants, 40 (52.6%) patients died. The most common symptom was dyspnea (56.6%), followed by dry cough (38.7%). Comparison of blood, inflammatory, biochemical, and clinical indices between the four groups in patients show that LDH (P=0.022), AST (P=0.038), and ALT (P= 0.004) indices were significantly different between groups of patients. According to the results in Table 3, Unilateral ground-glass opacity (GGO) in the radiological findings of the Non-dialysis CKD group was significantly (P=0.50) higher than the other groups.Conclusion: It can be concluded that CKD is an important factor that can cause poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients.

Background Patellar instability has a high incidence and occurs particularly in young and female patients. If the patella dislocates for the first time, treatment is usually conservative. However, this cautious approach carries the risk of recurrence and of secondary pathologies such as osteochondral fractures. Moreover, there is also risk of continuous symptoms apparent, as recurrent patella dislocation is related to patellofemoral osteoarthritis as well. An initial surgical treatment could possibly avoid these consequences of recurrent patella dislocation. Methods A prospective, randomized-controlled trial design is applied. Patients with unilateral first-time patella dislocation will be considered for participation. Study participants will be randomized to either conservative treatment or to a tailored patella stabilizing treatment. In the conservative group, patients will use a knee brace and will be prescribed outpatient physical therapy. The surgical treatment will be performed in a tailored manner, addressing the pathologic anatomy that predisposes to patella dislocation. The Banff Patellofemoral Instability-Instrument 2.0, recurrence rate, apprehension test, joint degeneration, and the Patella Instability Severity Score will serve as outcome parameters. The main analysis will focus on the difference in change of the scores between the two groups within a 2-year follow-up. Statistical analysis will use linear mixed models. Power analysis was done for the comparison of the two study arms at 2-year follow-up with regard to the BPII Score. A sample size of N = 64 per study arm (128 overall) provides 80% power (alpha = 0.05, two-tailed) to detect a difference of 0.5 standard deviations in a t-test for independent samples. Discussion Although several studies have already dealt with this issue, there is still no consensus on the ideal treatment concept for primary patellar dislocation. Moreover, most of these studies show a unified surgical group, which means that all patients were treated with the same surgical procedure. This is regarded as a major limitation as surgical treatment of patella dislocation should depend on the patient’s anatomic pathologies leading to patellar instability. To our knowledge, this is the first study investigating whether patients with primary patella dislocation are better treated conservatively or operatively with tailored surgery to stabilize the patella. Trial registration The study will be prospectively registered in the publicly accessible database www.ClinicalTrials.gov.

Purpose This pilot study tested the principle that 177Lu-DOTATATE may be applied to patients with high-grade gliomas (HGGs) that are either inoperable or refractory to the standard conventional treatments and also assessed whether this approach could be a viable therapeutic plan in this dilemma. Methods In this prospective study, 16 subjects experiencing HGGs that were either inoperable or refractory to the standard conventional treatments were included. All the patients checked for somatostatin receptor expression on the tumors. The patients were treated with 1 to 4 cycles of IV 177Lu-DOTATATE. The primary end point was radiological response after peptide receptor radionuclide therapy, and the secondary end point was improved quality of life using Karnofsky Performance Score and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group score. Results In total, 16 subjects (10 males and 6 females) with a mean age of 55.68 ± 13.17 years (26-73 years) participated in the study. Of them, 8 patients were new HGG cases, and 8 patients had recurrent tumors. The participants' responses to treatments were complete remission in 12.5% of (n = 2), partial remission in 31.25% (n = 5), disease stability in 18.7% (n = 3), and disease progression in 37.5% (n = 6). In total, pretreatment and posttreatment Karnofsky Performance Score and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group scores did not improved (P > 0.05). The patients were followed up from 1 month to 26 months (median, 3 months). Conclusions This preliminary result suggests that peptide receptor radionuclide therapy using 177Lu-DOTATATE may be associated with positive effects in patients with HGGs (grade III-IV). However, this approach should be evaluated in a more homogeneous group of patients with more favorable performance status.

Background There are some data showing that repurposed drugs used for the Coronavirus disease‐19 (COVID‐19) have potential to increase the risk of QTc prolongation and torsade de pointes (TdP), and these arrhythmic side effects have not been adequately addressed in COVID‐19 patients treated with these repurposed medications. Methods This is the prospective study of 2403 patients hospitalised at 13 hospitals within the COVID‐19 epicentres of the Iran. These patients were treated with chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir, atazanavir/ritonavir, oseltamivir, favipiravir and remdesivir alone or in combination with azithromycin. The primary outcome of the study was incidence of critical QTc prolongation, and secondary outcomes were incidences of TdP and death. Results Of the 2403 patients, 2365 met inclusion criteria. The primary outcome of QTc ≥ 500 ms and ∆QTc ≥ 60 ms was observed in 11.2% and 17.6% of the patients, respectively. The secondary outcomes of TdP and death were reported in 0.38% and 9.8% of the patients, respectively. The risk of critical QT prolongation increased in the presence of female gender, history of heart failure, treatment with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin combination therapy, simultaneous furosemide or beta‐blocker therapy and acute renal or hepatic dysfunction. However, the risk of TdP was predicted by treatment with lopinavir‐ritonavir, simultaneous amiodarone or furosemide administration and hypokalaemia during treatment. Conclusion This cohort showed significant QTc prolongation with all COVID‐19 medications studied, however, life‐threatening arrhythmia of TdP occurred rarely. Among the repurposed drugs studied, hydroxychloroquine or lopinavir‐ritonavir alone or in combination with azithromycin clearly demonstrated to increase the risk of critical QT prolongation and/or TdP.

Due to a rapid increase in urbanisation, accurate wind microclimate assessment is of crucial importance. Evaluating wind flows around buildings is part of the planning application process in the design of new developments. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are carried out for a case study, representing the East Village in the London Olympic Park. Following a validation test against experimental data for a simpler urban configuration, the key input parameters, including appropriate boundary conditions, mesh setting and type of turbulence model, are selected for the Olympic Park model. All the simulations are conducted using the commercial code STARCCM+ under steady-state conditions with the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) method. The turbulence is modelled using different common variants of eddy-viscosity models (EVMs) including standard k-ε, realizable k-ε and standard and shear stress transport (SST) k-ω. The results demonstrate that standard and realisable k-ε models correlate very well with the experimental data, while some discrepancies are found with standard and SST k-ω. Following the determination of areas of high velocity, appropriate tree planting is proposed to overcome the effect of corner and downwash acceleration. With the optimised arrangement of trees and using specific types of tree (e.g., birch), wind speeds at the pedestrian level are reduced by 3.5, 25 and 66% in three main regions of interest. Moreover, we investigate the effects of tree heights. The obtained results illustrate that the wind velocity reduces when the crowns of the trees are located closer to the buildings and the ground. Our high-resolution CFD simulation and results offer a quantitative tool for wind microclimate assessment and optimised design and arrangement of trees around buildings to improve pedestrian comfort.

The purpose of this study was to quantify the influence of medial open wedge high tibial osteotomy on patellar kinematics using optical computer navigation, as anterior knee pain infrequently occurs postoperatively and the reason is still being unknown.Ten medial open wedge high tibial osteotomies at supratuberosity level in 5 full body specimens were performed. The effect of the surgical procedure on patellar kinematics, measured at 5 and 10 degrees of leg alignment correction angle, was analyzed and compared to native patellar kinematics during passive motion-regarding patella shift, tilt, epicondylar distance and rotation. Linear mixed models were used for statistical analysis, a two-sided p value of ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Tilt behavior, medial shift and epicondylar distance did not show a significant difference regarding natural patellar kinematics at both osteotomy levels. Both osteotomy correction angles showed a significant less external rotation of the patella (p 0.001, respectively) compared to natural kinematics.Except less external rotation of the patella, medial open wedge high tibial osteotomy does not seem to relevantly alter patellar alignment during passive motion. Future clinical studies have to prove the effect of MOWHTO on patellar kinematics measured in this experimental setup, especially regarding its influence on anterior knee pain.

Aim: To investigate clinical, laboratory and imaging features of COVID-19 patients in Bushehr, a southern province of Iran. Materials & methods: A total of 148 COVID-19 patients were enrolled. The patients were categorized into four groups including inpatients, outpatients, elderly and nonelderly. Clinical, laboratory and computed tomography characteristics were analyzed and compared. Results: Levels of erythrocyte sedimentation rate, CRP, lactate dehydrogenase and aspartate aminotransferas among inpatients were higher than outpatients. There were significant differences in the levels of creatinine and blood urine nitrogen between elderly and nonelderly patients. The incidence of ground-glass opacities in inpatients was significantly higher than in outpatients. Conclusion: COVID-19 is associated with more severe renal failure in elderly patients. Elderly patients with underlying conditions are at increased risk of severe progression of COVID-19.

Due to a rapid increase in urbanization, wind microclimate assessment is drawing attention. Evaluating wind flows around buildings is part of the planning applications in design of new developments. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are carried out for a case study, representing the east village in London Olympic Park. Following a validation test against an experimental data for a simpler urban configuration for the Olympic Park model, the key input parameters including appropriate boundary conditions, mesh setting and type of turbulence model are selected for the Olympic Park model. All the simulations are conducted by the commercial code, STAR-CCM+ under steady-state condition with Reynolds average Navier–Stokes (RANS) method. The turbulence is modelled using different common variants of eddy viscosity models (EVM) including standard k-e, realizable k-e, standard k-ω and k-ω-SST. The results including velocity contours are analysed at the pedestrian level of 2 m. The results demonstrated that standard and realizable k-e models correlate very well with the experimental data, while some discrepancies were found with k-ω-SST

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can present with acute kidney injury (AKI). Although the rate of AKI among these patients is not high, their outcome could be much worse than the other patients. Serum creatinine rise along with other laboratory findings may help as a clinical predictor of COVID-19 disease prognosis. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the incidence and possible predictors of AKI occurrence and its outcome during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients and Methods: In a retrospective observational study of 946 hospital-admitted patients with confirmed COVID-19 between March 20, 2020 and May 9, 2020, we described AKI incidence and its stages along with their association with demographic data, comorbidities, habitual and past-medical history, and laboratory findings using STATA version 14. Results: The mean age of participants was 55.6 (±18.7) years of which 60.4% were male. The most and least frequent underlying diseases were hypertension and chronic liver disease, 20.1% and 1.5%, respectively. Among patients with AKI, 45.9% had a higher age mean and female sex was more prevalent. In addition, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, diabetes, and chronic renal disease were more common in patients with AKI compared to patients without AKI. Moreover, AKI patients had lower oxygen saturation and mean levels of lymphocytes and higher mean levels of LDH and CKMB in comparison with no AKI group on admission. Overall, 80% of the patients were discharged (i.e. alive), of which 63.7% were non-severe patients and 19.4% of the patients expired during hospitalization. Conclusion: Comorbidities were more prevalent among AKI groups. Female and older patients were more prone to AKI during COVID-19 progression. The level of CK-MB was also higher in AKI group, suggesting probable cardiac injury. Lymphopenia and leukocytosis may be poor-prognostic factors for both AKI and COVID-19.

Objectives: The present study seeks to provide insight into managing patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) infected with COVID-19.Methods: Patients with COVID-19 with CKD were included in the study. The eligible patients were divided into four groups: 1) patients who were not on dialysis, 2) patients on maintenance dialysis, 3) patients who underwent dialysis following COVID-19, 4) patients with a history of a kidney transplant. After reviewing clinical charts, nursing records, laboratory findings, radiological reports, and other medical records of CKD patients with COVID-19 confirmed infection, clinical presentation, laboratory data, radiology findings, and results were extracted from documented medical records. The epidemiological, clinical, laboratory and outcome characteristics of the subgroups were evaluated and compared.Results: Seventy-eight patients were included into the study. Hypertension (50 cases, 72.5%), diabetes (44 cases, 63.8%), and Cardiovascular disease (26 cases, 38.2%) were the most common risk factors in the studied patients. Among all participants, 40 (52.6%) patients died. The most common symptom was dyspnea (56.6%), followed by dry cough (38.7%). Comparison of blood, inflammatory, biochemical, and clinical indices among the patients' groups show that LDH (P=0.022), AST (P=0.038), and ALT (P= 0.004) indices were significantly different between groups of patients. According to the results in Table 3, Unilateral ground-glass opacity (GGO) in the radiological findings of the Non-dialysis CKD group was significantly (P=0.50) higher than the other groups.Conclusion: It can be concluded that CKD is one of the critical factors that can cause poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2021; 11(3):152-158.

Background: Massive hemoptysis which is presented in advanced lung diseases is a life-threatening condition. Bronchial artery embolization as a minimally invasive procedure is the treatment of choice either in first or recurrent hemoptysis. This study aimed to assess the early and late efficacy of bronchial angioembolization (BAE) without microcatheter.Methods: In this prospective cohort study, all patients with hemoptysis who had undergone BAE from August 2018 to March 2019 were included. Angiographic patterns including bleeding sources, number of involved vessels, the underlying etiology, and recurrence rate were evaluated in a one-year follow-up.Results: 153 patients were included with mean age of 55 ±16 years. 68% of them were male and 58% had life-threatening massive hemoptysis. Three distinct angiographic patterns were recognized. The culprit bleeding vessel was bronchial in 126 (92%), intercostal in 4 (3%), and both vessels in 7 (5%) of cases (P

Use of heterogeneous biosensors in microfluidic channels for diagnostic and detection of diseases in early stages is a novel, relatively cheap and applicable solution for saving lives and health purposes. It has attracted great interest in experimental field and a lot of works are being done in order to reach better biosensors with reliable results and fast detection. A comprehensive numerical model of Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism would help speeding up the process of design and analysis of biosensors. For this means we have developed a code in Fortran to simulate flow inside a microfluidic channel combined with Langmuir-Hinshelwood reactions on the surface of the biosensor. Control-volume based finite-element method (CVFEM) with high order discretisation has been used to solve full Navier-Stokes equations with chemical reactions on the biosensor. Results has been validated with existing experimental data from literature. The influence of target concentration as well as the inlet velocity (flow rate replica) on the biosensor saturation time, moreover, investigated in this study. The results show that as the inlet velocity and concentration increases the time that concentration on the surface of biosensor reaches its asymptotic value decreases, although increase in inlet velocity does not have any effect on dissociation stage of binding cycle.

Background:The operative therapy of patellofemoral arthritis requires an individual approach depending on the underlying injury. However, the literature lacks recommendations for its course of action.Purpose:To generate an expert recommendation of therapy for different patellofemoral abnormalities in patients suffering from isolated patellofemoral arthritis.Study Design:Consensus statement.Methods:To generate recommendations, the AGA Patellofemoral Committee performed a consensus process using the Delphi method based on the available literature on isolated patellofemoral arthritis.Results:In most statements and recommendations, a high percentage of consensus could be found. However, also in the expert group of the AGA Patellofemoral Committee, some controversies on the treatment of patellofemoral arthritis exist.Conclusion:The operative therapy of isolated patellofemoral arthritis is a challenging topic that leads to controversial discussions, even in an expert group. With this consensus statement of the AGA Patellofemoral Committee, recommendations on different operative treatment options were able to be generated, which should be considered in clinical practice.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been identified as the most crucial threat of the century. Due to severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the SARS-CoV-2 can cause shortness of breath, hypoxemia, and the need to mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit (ICU) management, and eventual death. We have tried to use a non-invasive approach to prevent patient from needing respiratory support with invasive ventilation (IV). Here, for the first time, improvement of oxygen delivery and oxygen saturation levels were observed in a COVID-19 patient using packed red blood cells (PRBCs) transfusion.Case presentation: A 63-year-old man with a history of smoking and addiction who came to our hospital facility with fever, shortness of breath and decreased blood oxygen saturation. High-resolution chest CT revealed bilateral and multifocal ground-glass opacities consistent with COVID-19. Subsequently, the COVID-19 infection was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay of the upper respiratory tract. Conclusions: Oxygen delivery and oxygen saturation improvement were observed in the COVID-19 patient, after PRBCs transfusions.

AimTo investigate clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, and imaging features of patients confirmed with COVID-19 in Bushehr, a southern province of Iran.MethodDuring April 29th to May 30th 2020, a total of 148 patients confirmed with COVID-19 infection were admitted to three hospitals in Bushehr province, assigned by the Iranian Ministry of Health.ResultsThe most common coexisting disease was type 2 diabetes. Levels of ESR, CRP, LDH, and AST among inpatients were higher than the outpatients (PPConclusionPatients with comorbidities and elderly patients are at increased risk of severe progression of COVID-19.

As alternative entropy estimators, multiscale entropy (MSE) and permutation entropy (PE) are utilized for quantification of the brain function and its signal variability. In this context, their applications are primarily focused on two specific domains: (1) the effect of brain pathology on its function (2) the study of altered states of consciousness. As a result, there is a paucity of research on applicability of these measures in more naturalistic scenarios. In addition, the utility of these measures for quantification of the brain function and with respect to its signal entropy is not well studied. These shortcomings limit the interpretability of the measures when used for quantification of the brain signal entropy. The present study addresses these limitations by comparing MSE and PE with entropy of human subjects&rsquo, EEG recordings, who watched short movie clips with negative, neutral, and positive content. The contribution of the present study is threefold. First, it identifies a significant anti-correlation between MSE and entropy. In this regard, it also verifies that such an anti-correlation is stronger in the case of negative rather than positive or neutral affects. Second, it finds that MSE significantly differentiates between these three affective states. Third, it observes that the use of PE does not warrant such significant differences. These results highlight the level of association between brain&rsquo, s entropy in response to affective stimuli on the one hand and its quantification in terms of MSE and PE on the other hand. This, in turn, allows for more informed conclusions on the utility of MSE and PE for the study and analysis of the brain signal variability in naturalistic scenarios.

Recent advances in guiding and localizing light at the nanoscale exposed the enormous potential of ultrascaled plasmonic devices. In this context, the decay of surface plasmons to hot carriers triggers a variety of applications in boosting the efficiency of energy-harvesting, photocatalysis, and photodetection. However, a detailed understanding of plasmonic hot carrier generation and, particularly, the transfer at metal-semiconductor interfaces is still elusive. In this paper, we introduce a monolithic metal-semiconductor (Al-Ge) heterostructure device, providing a platform to examine surface plasmon decay and hot electron transfer at an atomically sharp Schottky nanojunction. The gated metal-semiconductor heterojunction device features electrostatic control of the Schottky barrier height at the Al-Ge interface, enabling hot electron filtering. The ability of momentum matching and to control the energy distribution of plasmon-driven hot electron injection is demonstrated by controlling the interband electron transfer in Ge, leading to negative differential resistance.

Introduction: Non-clinical cardiovascular drug safety assessment is the main step in the progress of new pharmaceutical products. Cardiac drug safety testing focuses on a delayed rectifier potassium channel block and QT interval prolongation, whereas optogenetics is a powerful technology for modulating the electrophysiological properties of excitable cells.Methods: For this purpose, the blue light-gated ion channel, channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), has been introduced into isolated primary neonatal cardiomyocytes via a lentiviral vector. After being subjected to optical stimulation, transmembrane potential and intracellular calcium were assessed.Results: Here, we generated cardiomyocytes expressing ChR2 (light-sensitive protein), that upon optical stimulation, the cardiomyocytes depolarized result from alterations of membrane voltage and intracellular calcium.Conclusion: This cell model was easily adapted to a cell culture system in a laboratory, making this method very attractive for therapeutic research on cardiac optogenetics. DOI: 10.34172/jlms.2021.32

International audience; Investigating group-IV-based photonic components is a very active area of research with extensive interest in developing complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible light sources. However, due to the indirect band gap of these materials, effective light-emitting diodes and lasers based on pure Ge or Si cannot be realized. In this context, there is considerable interest in developing group-IV based Raman lasers. Nevertheless, the low quantum yield of stimulated Raman scattering in Si and Ge requires large device footprints and high lasing thresholds. Consequently, the fabrication of integrated, energy-efficient Raman lasers is challenging. Here, we report the systematic investigation of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in Ge nanowires (NWs) and axial Al-Ge-Al NW heterostructures with Ge segments that come into contact with self-aligned Al leads with abrupt metal–semiconductor interfaces. Depending on their geometry, these quasi-one-dimensional (1D) heterostructures can reassemble into Ge nanowires, Ge nanodots, or Ge nanodiscs, which are monolithically integrated within monocrystalline Al (c-Al) mirrors that promote both optical confinement and effective heat dissipation. Optical mode resonances in these nanocavities support in SRS thresholds as low as 60 kW/cm$^2$. Most notably, our findings provide a platform for elucidating the high potential of future monolithically integrated, nanoscale low-power group-IV-based Raman lasers.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect globally and coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is one of the commoner CHD conditions, affecting around 1/1800 live births. CoA is considered a CHD of critical severity. Unfortunately, the prognosis for a child born in a low and lower-middle income country (LLMICs) with CoA is far worse than in a high-income country. Reduced diagnostic and interventional capacities of specialists in these regions lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment, which in turn lead to more cases presenting at an advanced stage. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an important tool in this context since it can provide additional diagnostic data in the form of hemodynamic parameters. It also provides an in silico framework, both to test potential procedures and to assess the risk of further complications arising post-repair. Although this concept is already in practice in high income countries, the clinical infrastructure in LLMICs can be sparse, and access to advanced imaging modalities such as phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) is limited, if not impossible. In this study, a pipeline was developed in conjunction with clinicians at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, Cape Town and was applied to perform a patient-specific CFD study of CoA. The pipeline uses data acquired from CT angiography and Doppler transthoracic echocardiography (both much more clinically available than MRI in LLMICs), while segmentation is conducted via SimVascular and simulation is realized using OpenFOAM. The reduction in cost through use of open-source software and the use of broadly available imaging modalities makes the methodology clinically feasible and repeatable within resource-constrained environments. The project identifies the key role of Doppler echocardiography, despite its disadvantages, as an intrinsic component of the pipeline if it is to be used routinely in LLMICs.

The presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the fetal environment is a high-priority concern due to the fetus being more sensitive than adults to these ubiquitous xenobiotics. The aim of the present study was to compare the maternal and fetal serum levels of ΣPAHs and their effects on fetal growth in an industrial and an urban area in Southwest Iran. The industrial area was the petrochemical and gas area (PGA) of the Central District of Asaluyeh County and the urban area (UA) was the Central District of Bushehr County, Ninety-nine maternal serum (MS) and 99 cord serum (CS) samples from the PGA and 100 MS and 100 CS samples from the UA were collected during May 2018 to February 2019. The mean concentrations of ΣPAHs were significantly (p 0.05) higher in the PGA than the UA in both MS (157.71 vs. 93.56 μg/L) and CS (155.28 vs. 93.19 μg/L) samples. Naphthalene (NAP) was the predominant PAH detected in all the studied samples. Significant negative associations were found between birth weight and anthracene (ANT) level in MS (β = -22.917, p = 0.032; weight decrement = 22.917 g for a 1 μg/L increase in ANT); head circumference and chrysene (CHR) level in MS (β = -0.206, p = 0.023; head circumference decrement = 0.206 cm for a 1 μg/L increase in CHR); and birth height and NAP level in CS (β = -0.20, p = 0.005; height decrement = 0.20 cm for a 1 μg/L increase in NAP). Maternal diet had a significant effect on the serum levels of PAHs. The results of this study showed that transmission of PAHs from mother to fetus through the cord blood is an important issue and mothers who live in industrial areas and consume PAH-containing foodstuffs, and their fetuses, are more at risk than those living in a non-industrial urban area.