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Soybean meal is more beneficial than canola meal (CM) due to the better balance of amino acids in the nutrition of broilers. Three experiments were conducted to assess the impact of replacing soybean meal with CM at different levels during the rearing stages of Ross 308 male broilers on performance, carcass traits, and liver enzyme concentrations. In the first experiment, 420 one-day-old chicks received starter diets with six graded levels of CM from 0 to 15% for 10 days. In the second experiment, 360 eleven-day-old chicks were fed six experimental grower diets varying in CM from 0 to 25% over 14 days. In the third experiment, three hundred 25-day-old chicks were subjected to six finisher diets ranging in CM from 0 to 40% over 18 days. The findings revealed that the inclusion of the CM at the examined levels had no adverse effects on broilers' performance, carcass traits, and liver enzymes in the first and second experiments (P>0.05). Dietary CM inclusion of more than 32% in the third experiment had significant adverse effects on the performance, European broiler index, and liver enzymes of broilers (P<0.05). In conclusion, the CM can be included in broiler diets at levels up to 15% during the starter and 20% during the grower periods without adversely affecting growth performance and carcass traits. Nonetheless, an inclusion level of CM exceeding 32% of the diet during the finisher period resulted in decreased weight gain and harmful effects on liver function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to evaluate public transport access distribution based on a framework of vertical equity principles. In this method, traffic analysis zones (TAZs) are analyzed by comparing the estimated transit demand with the existing geographical distribution of the network's benefits (e.g., accessibility and mobility). The framework deploys the concept of connectivity power to measure the distribution of a transit system's supply. On the other hand, demand is measured by an exhaustive index, the weighted average of four social indicators, namely the number of low-income people, the population, the households without vehicles, and the disabled in the TAZs. These weights can differ from city to city depending on culture, politics, social behavior, and costs of effective parameters such as fuel, parking, and tickets in that particular city. The framework was applied to the comprehensive transit network of Tehran, Iran. Finally, diagonal and radical lines linking the city's southwest to its northeast are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medication Error (ME) is a major patient safety concern in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Critical care nurses play a crucial role in the safe administration of medication. This study was conducted to comprehensively review the literature concerning the prevalence of ME and associated factors and outcomes in Iranian ICU nurses. Materials and Methods: An extensive search of the literature was carried in international databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, as well as Persian databases such as Magiran and Scientific Information Database (SID) using ME-related keywords and the Persian equivalent of these keywords, from the first article written in this field to artcles published on March 30, 2021. The appraisal tool (AXIS tool) was used to assess the quality of the included studies. Results: Fifteen studies were included in this systematic review. The prevalence of MEs made by ICU nurses was 53.34%. The most common types of MEs were wrong infusion rate (14.12%), unauthorized medication (11.76%), and wrong time (8.49%) errors, respectively. MEs occurred more frequently in morning work shifts (44.44%). MEs happened more frequently for heparin, vancomycin, ranitidine, and amikacin. The most important influential factor in the occurrence of MEs in ICUs was management and human factors. Conclusions: The prevalence of MEs made by Iranian ICU nurses is high. Therefore, nurse managers and policymakers should develop appropriate strategies, including training programs, to reduce the occurrence of MEs made by nurses in ICUs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although almost three years have passed since the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), this unprecedented situation is still not under control. Since COVID-19 has the potential to harm the human body, this systematic review aimed to evaluate the outbreak of post-traumatic stress disturbance (PTSD) during the COVID-19 epidemic. We used the search strategy of "novel coronavirus" OR "2019 novel coronavirus" OR "novel coronavirus pneumonia" OR "new coronavirus" OR "coronavirus disease 2019" OR "SARS2" OR "2019-n CoV" OR "SARS-CoV-2" OR "COVID-19" AND "PTSD" OR "PTS" OR "post-traumatic stress" OR "mental disorders". The exclusion criteria included: a) articles that were not in English or Persian language; b) articles whose full text was not available, c) articles that did not report the prevalence of PTSD, d) articles that were not specific to COVID-19 or included other diseases, e) duplicate publications; f) reviews, abstracts, case reports, case series, and g) studies with target groups other than healthcare workers (HCWs), patients with COVID-19 and general population. After reviewing the articles and checking the exclusion criteria, the full text of 27 articles was reviewed. The studies showed the prevalence of PTSD in the HCW, general population and COVID-19 patients varied from the lowest to the highest as 3.8% to 56.6%, 4.6% to 67.09% and 5.61% to 96.2%, respectively. Given the prevalence of PTSD associated to COVID-19 in the investigated groups, it is recommended to design and implement educational and interventional programs to manage stress and deal with stressful situations such as epidemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Immune checkpoint molecules have critical roles in directing immune responses into co-inhibitory and co-stimulatory signals. Herpes virus entry mediator (HVEM) is a receptor of tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily with unique features due to its interaction with both inhibitory and stimulatory ligands. The aim of this study was to measure the serum level of the soluble form of HVEM in patients with gastric, colorectal and breast cancers and evaluating its diagnostic and prognostic value. Methods: The concentration of the soluble HVEM (sHVEM) was determined in the serum of 36 patients with breast cancer, 50 patients with colorectal cancer and 59 patients with gastric cancer using ELISA method. Moreover, 50 healthy donors (HD) as well as 31 patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) were used as control groups. The patients’ samples were obtained from the Biobank of Cancer Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran. Results: The level of sHVEM was significantly higher in patients with gastric (P=0.001) and breast cancer (P=0.01) than in control groups (HD). The higher level of sHVEM was observed in colorectal cancer patients in comparison with HD group, although it was not significant. Moreover, the elevated level of sHVEM was shown to be higher significantly in stage III and IV compared to stage I and II in breast cancer (P=0.03). Similar finding was detected in gastric and colorectal cancers, but not to be statistically significant. Conclusion: The results of the present study suggest that the serum level of sHVEM may be considered as a promising indicator for diagnosis as well as evaluating the progression of cancers such as gastric, breast and colorectal cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the well-known benefits that autonomous technologies bring to supply chain and logistics, the adoption of such technologies remains a challenging task. This study seeks to investigate how firms that are associated with the generation of freight movements in Niagara Region (Canada) will respond to new autonomous technologies. Structural Equation Modeling was used to extract meaningful features from the dataset obtained from an extensive and in-depth survey. The survey was designed to help better understand firms' views regarding autonomous technologies. The results showed that firms with a higher percentage of e-commerce sales are more likely to adopt autonomous technologies. Results also showed that third-party logistics providers are likely to play an important role in facilitating a path to adoption. The number of product lines, the number of transportation assets, and the number of import countries are other important contributing factors that can affect firms' levels of interest in autonomous technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between thyroid cancer and 16C/A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in C-C motif chemokine 22 (CCL22) as well as 1014C/T SNP in C-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CCR4). Method: In this case-control study, polymerase chain reaction restriction-fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was performed for 113 thyroid cancer patients and 112 age-sex matched healthy controls to investigate the genotype distribution. Results: At position 16C/A in CCL22, 95 patients (84.3%) were found to have CC genotype, while 17 individuals (14.8%) inherited CA genotype and 1 (0.9%) had AA genotype. In the control group, 92 volunteers (82.1%) inherited CC genotype, 18 individuals (16.1%) had CA genotype, and 2 (1.8%) had AA genotype. The frequency of CC, CT, and TT genotypes of 1014C/T SNP in CCR4 gene was 60 (53.1%), 43 (38.1%), and 10 (8.8%) in the patients, and 57 (53.3%), 43 (40.2%), and 7 (6.5%) in the control group, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between the patients and controls in terms of 16C/A polymorphism in CCL22 (P = 0.816) and 1014C/T SNP in CCR4 1014C/T gene position (P = 0.801). Nevertheless, the study of their association indicated that inheriting the CC genotype of CCR4 was significantly associated with higher stages (stages 3 and 4) in thyroid cancer. Conclusion: 1014C/T genetic variation in CCR4 and 16C/A polymorphism in CCL22 were not found to have a role in genetic susceptibility to thyroid cancer. Inheriting CC genotype at 1014 locus in CCR4 may; however, affect cancer progression in patients with thyroid cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until now various surrogate safety measures (SSM) have been developed and research in this area is ongoing. However, it is unclear which indicators are able to reflect danger more accurately. This paper proposes a novel method of performance comparison by taking the advantage of statistical analyses of SSMs data. This analytical approach is inspired by the dominant behavior of drivers in car-following scenarios. Afterward, those indicators that previously identified as eligible are merged using a recently developed safety indicator, named collision probability (CP). The proposed method is applied to microscopic traffic data collected from the I-80 freeway in Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) project. The results indicated that the proposed framework helps screen SSMs and calculate the probability of rear-end collisions using a combination of the selected SSMs. The results might be helpful for improving the precision and accuracy of in-vehicle collision avoidance warning system and safety evaluations without crash data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women usually have more flexibility in time and mode choice and it might be easier to attract them to public transportation (PT) systems. In addition, in developing countries, there are limitations for women in using transportation systems. By specifying effective factors on the popularity of PT systems among women, we can pursue two objectives in developing societies. The first achievement is a decrease in traffic congestion, and the second one is reducing gender discriminations in using PT systems. This study utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) and a group of women, living in Tehran (Iran), were interviewed. Based on the results, women's characteristics have the greatest impact on the popularity of regular bus (RB). Especially, an increase in income, education, and availability of passenger cars can significantly reduce the popularity of RB systems. For Metro and BRT, women's characteristics, fare satisfaction, and waiting time have the greatest impact on their popularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drivers encounter a variety of outdoor advertising including fixed and wrap advertisement and large amounts of information and data in different locations, which can sometimes confuse the audience due to congestion, accumulation, and non-compliance with the standards and diversity of concepts. Fully understanding how small distractions can influence the ability to drive could prevent a serious accident. Despite the enormous amount of effort has been devoted to evaluating the impact of fix advertising on traffic safety, the importance of investing wrap advertisements seems to be disregarded. Therefore, the present study seeks firstly to compare the importance of distraction caused by wrap advertisement with other parameters affecting drivers' awareness, then to find out which aspects of wrap advertisement may distract drivers while driving. To address this objective, at first, a questionnaire-based accidents database was prepared regarding those occurred because of distraction, and then the weight of distraction caused by wrap advertisement was identified using AHP. Subsequently, accidents that occurred because of this specific issue were modeled using the discrete choice technique. The results showed that in contrast with the prevailing opinion of drivers, the probability of distraction while driving caused by wrap advertisement is relatively high which can be considered as an alarming issue. Moreover, according to the results of discrete choice modeling, drivers with different characteristics, such as age or gender can be affected by wrap advertisement in different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Host innate immunity can affect the clinical outcomes of Helicobacter pylori infection, including gastritis, gastric ulcer, gastric adenocarcinoma, and MALT lymphoma. Nucleotide binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-1 and -2 are two molecules of innate immunity which are involved in the host defense against H. pylori. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the expression level of NOD1 and NOD2 on the susceptibility to gastric cancer as well as peptic ulcer in individuals with with H. pylori infection. NOD1NOD2The gene expression levels of these molecules were compared in three groups of non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) as a control group (n=52); peptic ulcer disease (PUD), (n=53); and gastric cancer (GC), (n=39). Relative expression levels of NOD1 in patients with GCwere higher than those ofNUD and PUD (p<0.001 and P<0.001, respectively). Similarly in case of NOD1, PUD group showed higher level of expression than NUD group (p<0.01). However, there was no significant difference between H. pylori -positive and -negative patients in NUD, PUD, or GC groups. Moreover, the expression levels of NOD2 showed no significant difference among NUD, PUD, or GC groups, while among H. pylori-positive patients, it was higher in GC group than NUD and PUD groups (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively). In addition, positive correlation coefficients were attained between NOD1 and NOD2 expressions in patients with NUD (R² Linear=0.349, p<0.001), PUD (R2 Linear=0.695, p<0.001), and GC (R2 Linear=0.385, p<0.001). Collectively, the results suggest that the chronic activation of NOD1 and NOD2 receptors might play a role in the development of gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educating traffic knowledge and safe behaviours to children is an effective strategy for improving their traffic safety. However, due to the physical and cognitive limitations of children, implementing a proper and effective education and training programme can be complicated. It is thus vital to investigate how the effectiveness of such programmes can be improved. To this end, 200 children aged 6–9 years were asked to participate in this study. Different characteristics of the children and their parents were obtained using several forms and questionnaires. Structural equation modelling was then used to analyse the importance of contributing factors. The difference between the score of each child before and after completing the education programme was defined as their traffic educability. The results showed that children who do better in school, children who have older siblings and those who are more active have greater potential to learn traffic knowledge. Furthermore, with respect to parents, having a higher education level, driving frequently, trying to highlight the importance of traffic rules in front of children and being concerned about children's trip safety can increase children's ability in traffic education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]