Search

Background: Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) accounts for 5%–10% of all thyroid cancers, but causes 13% of all thyroid cancer related deaths. MicroRNAs (miRs) have key functions in the development and progression of MTC. Altered expression of some miRs has been reported in many human cancers, including Thyroid cancer. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the expression of miR-154, miR-183 and miR-127 in MTC tumor tissues. Methods: In this case-control study, 15 MTC Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples and 15 adjacent normal thyroid FFPE tissues, as a control group, were collected from Taleghani, and Loghman Hakim Hospitals, Tehran, Iran since 2005 till 2015. After RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, the expression of miR127, miR-154 and miR-183 was measured by quantitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: Our data showed a significant increase in the expression of miR-127 in MTC samples in comparison with the control group (P

Accelerator design is expensive due to the effort required to understand an algorithm and optimize the design. Architects have embraced two technologies to reduce costs. High-level synthesis automatically generates hardware from code. Reconfigurable fabrics instantiate accelerators while avoiding fabrication costs for custom circuits. We further reduce design effort with statistical learning. We build an automated framework, called Prospector, that uses Bayesian techniques to optimize synthesis directives, reducing execution latency and resource usage in field-programmable gate arrays. We show in a certain amount of time that designs discovered by Prospector are closer to Pareto-efficient designs compared to prior approaches. Prospector permits new studies for heterogeneous accelerators.

Background: Calcium is a necessary mineral for life to keep the body and bones healthy. Various factors including hormones, diet, age, and gender affect serum calcium status. The aim of this sturdy was to assess the serum calcium level (SCL) of Tehran population, which has about 10 million multi-Ethnic populations and represents from the whole country. Methods: In this retrospective study, the measured SCL of 105,128 individuals referred to different laboratories of Tehran, Iran were evaluated and its relationship with the age, gender, seasons, and different years during 2009-2018, were analyzed. Results: After excluding outliers, 91,257samples remained, which 61162 (58.64%) and 30,095 (41.36%) were female and male, respectively. The mean SCL was 9.36 (9.35, 9.37) mg/dl (95%CI). The highest and lowest SCLs were 3.1 and 18.2mg/dl, respectively. From the total study population, 74127 (81.23%) had normal SCLs, 14110 (15.46%) had hypocalcemia, and 3020 (3.31%) had hypercalcemia. SCLs were normal in 83.6% of men and 79.66% of women. Women had a significantly higher frequency of hypocalcemia compared to men (17.2% vs. 12.83%, p

Achieving peak performance on sparse operations is challenging. The distribution of the non-zero elements and underlying hardware platform affect the execution efficiency. Given the diversity in workloads and architectures, no unique solution always wins. In this paper, we improve SpMM efficiency on GPUs. We propose several simple, but effective, sparse data permutations on the CSR data structure. Picking the right permutation over 1,688 datasets improves performance by 1.4×, on average, compared to plain CSR and 2.6× against NVIDIA cuSPARSE. Furthermore, we propose a set of novel features to describe sparsity patterns and their interactions with the kernel and hardware. Using these features, we develop a predictor to select the best permutation for each matrix. Predicted permutations' average gain achieves 96% of oracle gains.

Accelerator design is expensive due to the effort required to understand an algorithm and optimize the design. Architects have embraced two technologies to reduce costs. High-level synthesis automatically generates hardware from code. Reconfigurable fabrics instantiate accelerators while avoiding fabrication costs for custom circuits. We further reduce design effort with statistical learning. We build an automated framework, called Prospector, that uses Bayesian techniques to optimize synthesis directives, reducing execution latency and resource usage in field-programmable gate arrays. We show in a certain amount of time designs discovered by Prospector are closer to Pareto-efficient designs compared to prior approaches.

Background: Vitamin D is an essential substance for absorption of calcium and phosphorus from intestine so it is vital for muscles and skeletal development. Deficiency of this vitamin is pandemic. The vitamin D status depends on the different factors such as UV exposure, diet, and ecological features of living location, age and gender. The aim of this study was to describe the vitamin D level in different provinces of Iran and to investigate the association between vitamin D status and multiple variables. Methods: We collected the serum 25(OH)D (Vitamin D) level data of 308,005 people referred to different laboratories from 30 provinces of Iran and organized them by each province, year, age, gender, precipitation, latitude and longitude, and humidity over 10 yr (2009-2018). Data were analyzed to find out the correlation between age, gender, longitude and latitude, humidity and sum of precipitation. Results: West Azerbaijan had the highest level of vitamin D with a mean level of 33.24 and a standard deviation of 32.001, and North Khorasan had the lowest level with a mean level of 14.46 and a standard deviation of 8.980 among 30 provinces of Iran. The correlation between all studied variables (age, and gender, latitude and longitude, humidity, the sum of precipitation) was significant (P

Background and aim: Vibrio cholerae is a gram-negative bacterial pathogen that causes diarrheal disease. One of the most pathogenic factors of V. cholerae is toxin-coregulated pili. This pilus is required as the first factor in the colonization and bacterial persistence in the small intestine. Materials and Methods: In this study, V. cholerae toxin-coregulated pili A (TCPA) gene was amplified using PCR method. The above genes were purified and then expressed by being cloned into the pGEX4T-1 plasmid. Then the recombinant plasmid structure was introduced into the E. coli bacterium. Protein production was carried out by IPTG induction and optimization of culture conditions. The recombinant proteins were purified using Glutathione S-Transferase (GST) Assay Kit and western blot test was then carried out for confirmation of recombinant protein. Protein levels were measured using Bradford protein assay. Results: The results of the present study proved the successful expression of recombinant proteins in E. coli cells. The recombinant protein was purified by affinity chromatography. The reaction pattern between these proteins and their anti-antibodies showed that these proteins have antigenic properties. Conclusion: Since it was proved that these proteins have antigenic properties in this study, they may be used as an appropriate antigen for vaccination of V. cholera.

Background and Purpose: Shigella is a human shigellosis and its lipopolysaccharide is identified by 4TLR. The 4TLR is a family of pseudo-TOLL receptors and many immune routes are triggered by stimulating these receptors. Many studies show increasing of 4TLR expression in Mesenchyme stem cells under the influence of lipopolysaccharide. The main objective of this study was to identify the appropriate lipopolysaccharide of Shigella strains by stimulating the immune system for vaccine studies. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, the stem cell of human Mesenchymal derived from bone marrow was treated by three dilution of 0.1, 0.01, and 0.001 extract of Shigella strains (Flexneri, Dysentery and Sonnei) containing lipopolysaccharide. Then, the expression of 4TLR at RNA level was evaluated by RT-PCR and Q-PCR techniques. Cells treated with phosphate buffer saline were considered as control group. Findings: The expression of 4TLR was observed in all treatments groups except for treatment groups with relative concentration of 0.001 sonnei and dysentery as well as control group. Changes in 4TLR expression were dose-dependent on all treatment groups. The highest expression was related to the treatment with Shigella Flexneri extract and the smallest was related to Shigella sonnei. The use of pure lipopolysaccharide of Escherichia coli as a positive control showed that the lipopolysaccharide in Shigella extract is responsible for increasing the expression of 4TLR. Conclusion: given the increased expression of 4TLR by Shigella extract, this extract is recommended to increase the efficacy of the vaccine.

The Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a group of progressive disorders that affects the peripheral nerves and results in loss of sensation and atrophy of muscles in lower limbs. There are several types of Charcot-Marie-Tooth and multiple genes are associated with this disease. Distal spinal muscular atrophy is an extremely rare disorder characterized by progressive pure lower motor neuron involvement. A 24 yr old woman using wheelchair referred to Farhud Genetic Clinic, Tehran, Iran in 2019, with progressive muscular atrophy, pain and Electromyography test suggesting Charcot-Marie-tooth. Both feet and hands were involved. Whole exome sequencing was performed on extracted DNA from her blood sample. We report the first case of a patient with different types of CharcotMarie-Tooth and distal spinal muscular atrophy simultaneously, which are as a result of mutations in multiple genes; this case is very uncommon.