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Background: Beef burgers made in Iran contain various compounds such as meat, cereals flour, as well as some spices which can be contaminated to Bacillus cereus, causing gastroenteritis in the consumer. This study is focused onoccurrence of B. cereus in beef burgers marketed in Tehran, capital of Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 80 samples of different types of beef burgers marketed in Tehran, Iran were randomly collected based on their percentage of meat content, including 30% (n=25), 60% (n=40) as well as 90% (n=15). The samples were analyzed microbiologically by routine culture assay and biochemical tests to find B. cereus. Data were analyzed statistically by Microsoft Office Excel 2010. Results: Twenty-five out of 80 (31.25%) beef burger samples were contaminated by B. cereus. Based on the percentage of meat content in the samples, the beef burger with 90% meat were significantly (p

Introduction: Stroke is one of the most important neurological diseases that annually causes death and long-term disability in patients in the world. The incidence of motor impairment in the upper extremity and hand as a result of stroke as compared to the lower extremity are more prevalent and less recovery. This pilot study was performed to Investigate of upper extremity and hand muscular power in patients with stroke. Materials and Methods: In a descriptive-analytical study, 36 patients with stroke were investigated, in internal medicine ward of Kowsar hospital in Semnan. Sampling method was easy, available, and purposeful. In the study, the section of upper extremity and hand assessment of Fugl-Meyer scale were used to measure the upper extremity motor function and also hand dynamometer were used to measure hand muscular power. Results: In this study, the mean score of affected upper extremity motor function in stroke patients was 8.2±8.73, mean score of affected hand motor function was 5.3±5.6, and mean of affected hand muscular power was 2.64±3.8. No significant relationship between demographic variables and affected upper extremity, hand motor function score and affected hand grip power of subjects were observed. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that upper extremity motor function and hand muscular power in patients with stroke was reduced considerably. Due to the high prevalence of this motor impairment after stroke and its consequences, health care personnel should design appropriate care and rehabilitation programs to more control these damages

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The graphene-based nanocomposites are considered as great candidates for enhancing electrical and mechanical properties of nonconductive scaffolds in cardiac tissue engineering. In this study, reduced graphene oxide-silver (rGO-Ag) nanocomposites (1 and 2 wt%) were synthesized and incorporated into polyurethane (PU) nanofibers via electrospinning technique. Next, the human cardiac progenitor cells (hCPCs) were seed on these scaffolds for in vitro studies. The rGO-Ag nanocomposites were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscope (TEM). After incorporation of rGO-Ag into PU nanofibers, the related characterizations were carried out including scanning electron microscope (SEM), TEM, water contact angle, and mechanical properties. Furthermore, PU and PU/nanocomposites scaffolds were used for in vitro studies, wherein hCPCs showed good cytocompatibility via 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and considerable attachment on the scaffold using SEM studies. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunostaining studies confirmed the upregulation of cardiac specific genes including GATA-4, T-box 18 (TBX 18), cardiac troponin T (cTnT), and alpha-myosin heavy chain (α-MHC) in the PU/rGO-Ag scaffolds in comparison with neat PU ones. Therefore, these nanofibrous rGO-Ag–reinforced PU scaffolds can be considered as suitable candidates in cardiac tissue engineering.

p28 and NRC peptides are two anticancer peptides with various mechanisms have shown to be effective against breast cancer. Therefore, it seems that construction of a chimeric protein containing the two peptides might cause synergistic cytotoxic effects. However, since the two peptides bear opposite charges, production of a chimeric protein in which the two moieties do not intervene each other is difficult. In this study, our goal was to find a suitable peptide linker for the new chimeric protein in a manner that none of the peptides intervene the other’s function. We selected some linkers with different characteristics and lengths and created a small library of the chimeric proteins harboring these linkers. Homology modeling and molecular dynamic simulation revealed that (PA)5P and (EAAAK)3 linkers can separate the p28 and NRC peptides effectively. Thus, the chimeric protein linked with (PA)5P or (EAAAK)3 linkers might show synergistic and stronger anticancer effects than the separate peptide moieties because they could exert their cytotoxic effects freely which is not influenced by the other part.

The European Doctoral Training Network “Smart Tomographic Sensors for Advanced Industrial Process Control (TOMOCON)” gathers academic and industrial partners from different sectors with the mission to develop new fundamentals and technological solutions of advanced industrial control by tomographic sensors. It has received funding by the EU under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie scheme as an Innovative Training Network. It runs from September 2018 to August 2022 with 15 Early Stage Researchers, who are working as PhD students in 10 different European academic institutions. Within their research projects the doctoral students receive an extensive training in various fields of engineering and natural sciences being carried out in the frame of so called secondments at different industrial and academic partners as well as via three dedicated Summer Schools. The network is further supported by an Advisory Board with members from leading institutions in the field of process tomography.

Objective: Type I diabetes is an immunologically-mediated devastation of insulin producing cells (IPCs) in the pancreatic islet. Stem cells that produce β-cells are a new promising tool. Adult stem cells such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are self renewing multi potent cells showing capabilities to differentiate into ectodermal, mesodermal and endodermal tissues. Pancreatic and duodenal homeobox factor 1 (PDX1) is a master regulator gene required for embryonic development of the pancreas and is crucial for normal pancreatic islets activities in adults. Materials and Methods: We induced the over-expression of the PDX1 gene in human bone marrow MSCs (BM-MSCs) by Lenti-PDX1 in order to generate IPCs. Next, we examine the ability of the cells by measuring insulin/c-peptide production and INSULIN and PDX1 gene expressions. Results: After transduction, MSCs changed their morphology at day 5 and gradually differentiated into IPCs. INSULIN and PDX1 expressions were confirmed by real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunostaining. IPC secreted insulin and C-peptide in the media that contained different glucose concentrations. Conclusion: MSCs differentiated into IPCs by genetic manipulation. Our result showed that lentiviral vectors could deliver PDX1 gene to MSCs and induce pancreatic differentiation.

Yersinia pestis which is the causative agent of pneumonic plague and distributed in all continents has led to many deaths during the history. Because of its high mortality rate, it must be diagnosed and treated at the earliest time post infection and therefore, rapid diagnostic tests are required. In the present study, we cloned the coding sequence of F1 capsular antigen of the bacteria in the pBAD/gIII plasmid for later expression and purification of the protein to produce poly and monoclonal antibodies against this antigen, and subsequently to develop rapid and efficient diagnostics tools for Y. pestis infections.

Background: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is used in the treatment of patients suffering from hematologic and non-hematologic disorders, but the application is limited by the identification of a suitable donor. Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is an alternative source of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation. Despite all advantages, the limited cell dose is one of the major obstacles. Ex-vivo expansion of HSC is an alternative way to overcome this problem. Materials and Methods: In this study, polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold coated with fibronectin (3D) is compared to routine cell culture system (two dimensional, 2D) used for cell culture.1×104 cord blood CD34+ cells isolated by MACS were seeded on PCL scaffold and allowed to expand for 10 days. Before and after this period, total cells, CD34+ cells, CFC assay and CXCR4 expression were evaluated. Results: Our findings demonstrated that 3D scaffold produced a 58-fold expansion of total cells compared to 2D cultures (38-fold expansion). Also CD34+ cells in 3D compare to 2D cell culture was 40-fold and 2.66 fold increased, respectively; this difference was statistically significant (p

Background: Nausea and vomiting is one of the most important complications in chemotherapy. Serotonin and dopamine are important neurotransmitters in nausea and vomiting. It seems that oxygen therapy and increase oxygen saturation can cause decrease these neurotransmitters. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) of patients and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Methods: A descriptive-analytical study was performed in Koosar Hospital in Semnan, Iran, from 19 September 2013 to 25 April. At first, SaO2 of 30 patients in three periods (pre, during and post chemotherapy) were measured. Severity of nausea and vomiting in three days after chemotherapy was measured with an index of nausea, vomiting and retching (Rhodes Index). Also during chemotherapy, anxiety and depression of patients was measured with Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results: In this study thirty patients were evaluated. Most of them were women (66%) with mean age of 55.07±11.9 years old. The most common cancer in patients was breast cancer (46.7%). Mean of SaO2 was 92.1%±3.4 that was not significant difference during the chemotherapy. Mean of nausea and vomiting severity in first day of chemotherapy was (3.27±5.5), in second day was (4.5±6.2) and in third day was (7.2±8.7). The Pearson correlation coefficient did not show the relationship between oxygen saturation with severity of nausea and vomiting (P>0.05). Although severity of anxiety of patients was significant relationship with nausea and vomiting in third day (P=0.03). Conclusion: In this study there was no significant relationship between oxygen saturation and severity of nausea and vomiting, but anxiety of patients was related to nausea and vomiting in third day. Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting was more common in third day and it seems that further research is needed for relationship between oxygen saturation and nausea and vomiting in third day of treatment.