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Objective(s): Enhancement of proliferation, pluripotency, and self-renewal capacity as the unique features of MSCs can improve their therapeutic potential to regenerate tissues. In this context, crocin and curcumin, carotenoid compounds with outstanding medicinal properties, could be promising for cell protection and growth. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of nanocurcumin and crocin on BM-MSCs proliferation and pluripotency in vitro.Materials and Methods: BM-MSC were isolated from the iliac crest of SCI patients who were candidates for stem cell therapy. The effect of crocin and nanocurcumin on MSC proliferation was evaluated using MTT and PDT assay. The percentage of apoptotic MSCs was measured by flow cytometry. Furthermore, mRNA and protein expression of OCT4 and SOX2 as the proliferation and self-renewal related genes were quantified by real-time PCR and western blotting, respectively.Results: Our findings demonstrated that only low concentrations of nanocurcumin (0.3 and 0.7 µM) and crocin (2.5 5 µM) significantly affected MSCs proliferation and protected them from apoptosis. Also, crocin and nanocurcumin at low doses caused an elevation in the mRNA and protein expression levels of OCT4 and SOX2 genes. In contrast, high concentrations decreased the survival of MSCs and led to increased apoptosis compared with the untreated group.Conclusion: Our results suggest that using nanocurcumin and crocin separately in culturing MSCs can be considered proliferative agents to prepare the more advantageous tool for cell therapies. However, more in vitro and preclinical research is needed in this area.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare deadly progressive neurological disease that primarily affects the upper and lower motor neurons with an annual incidence rate of 0.6 to 3.8 per 100,000 people. Weakening and gradual atrophy of the voluntary muscles are the first signs of the disease onset affecting all aspects of patients’ lives, including eating, speaking, moving, and even breathing. Only 5-10% of patients have a familial type of the disease and show an autosomal dominant pattern, but the cause of the disease is unknown in the remaining 90% of patients (Sporadic ALS). However, in both types of disease, the patient’s survival is 2 to 5 years from the disease onset. Some clinical and molecular biomarkers, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), blood or urine test, muscle biopsy, and genetic testing are complementary methods for disease diagnosis. Unfortunately, with the exception of Riluzole, the only medically approved drug for the management of this disease, there is still no definitive cure for it. In this regard, the use of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) for the treatment or management of the disease has been common in preclinical and clinical studies for many years. MSCs are multipotent cells having immunoregulatory, anti-inflammatory, and differentiation ability that makes them a good candidate for this purpose. This review article aims to discuss multiple aspects of ALS disease and focus on MSCs’ role in disease management based on performed clinical trials.

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable disease. There are vigorous attempts to develop treatments to reduce the effects of this disease, and among these treatments is the transplantation of stem cells. This study aimed to retrospectively evaluate a mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy cohort as a promising novel treatment modality by estimating some additional new parameters, such as immunological and biochemical factors. Methods: This study was designed as an open-label, one-arm cohort retrospective study to evaluate potential diagnostic biomarkers of repeated infusions of autologous-bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) in 15 confirmed patients with ALS, administered at a dose of 1 × 106 cells/kg BW with a one-month interval, in equal amounts in both an intravenous (IV) and intrathecal (IT) capacity simultaneously, via various biochemical (iron (Fe), ferritin, total-iron-binding capacity (TIBC), transferrin, and creatine kinase (CK)) and immunological parameters (tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), neurofilament light chain (NFL), and glial-cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) levels, evaluated during the three-month follow-up period in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Results: Our study indicated that, in the case of immunological biomarkers, TNF-α levels in the CSF showed a significant decrease at month three after transplantation compared with levels at month zero, and the p-value was p < 0.01. No statistically significant changes were observed for other immunological as well as biochemical parameters and a p-value of p > 0.05. Conclusions: These results can indicate the potential benefit of stem cell transfusion in patients with ALS and suggest some diagnostic biomarkers. Several studies are required to approve these results.

Stem cell-based treatments have emerged as potentially effective approaches to delay the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This study was designed as a single-center, prospective, and open-label study without a placebo control group to assess the safety and efficacy of concurrent intrathecal (IT) and intravenous (IV) administration of autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) in patients with ALS. Autologous BM-MSCs were isolated and expanded under standard conditions. Fifteen patients were neurologically examined before BM-MSCs transplantation (1 × 10 6 cells/kg BW) to evaluate the rate of pre-treatment disease progression. To assess the safety and efficacy, patients were examined at 1, 3, and 6 months following the treatment with BM-MSCs. Adverse reactions were assessed, and the clinical outcome was determined by the evaluation of the ALS functional rating scale-revised (ALSFRS-R) and forced vital capacity (FVC). No serious adverse reaction was observed after combined IT and IV administration of BM-MSCs. The mean ALSFRS-R and FVC values remained stable during the first 3 months of the treatment. However, a significant reduction in ALSFRS-R and FVC levels was observed in these patients 6 months after BM-MSCs administration. Our study revealed that the concurrent IT and IV application of BM-MSCs in patients with ALS is a safe procedure. Furthermore, our data indicate a temporary delay in the progression of ALS after a single combined IT and IV administration of BM-MSCs. Further studies are required to explore if the repeated applications of BM-MSCs could prolong survival and delay the progression of ALS.

Background. This research aimed at identifying the consequences of strategic entrepreneurship in sports business. Objectives. The objective of the research is to identify the consequences of deployment of strategic entrepreneurship in sports business. Method. A qualitative research approach was employed. Data collection was done through interview as well as research background. The population included the entrepreneurship experts and instructors, business managers, and sport entrepreneurs. Sampling method utilized was snowball and the theoretical framework was defined following 21 interviews. Data analysis was conducted through three coding levels of open, axial, and selective in ATLAS.ti 5.2. Results. The indexes are as follows : value creation, wealth creation, development of life quality, sustainable job creation, uncertainty reduction, infrastructure improvement, positive individual consequences, entrepreneurship institutionalization, increasing tendency to sport, innovation development, achievement continuum, occupational process development, enjoy the opportunity, improvement of occupational spirit, customer centric, and leverage of management skills. Conclusion. Strategic management and entrepreneurship make changes through opportunity discovery in uncertain environments of business. Therefore, strategic entrepreneurship creates positive consequences for business especially those in sports.

Background: The spinal cord congenital abnormalities may prevent normal cephalad movement of the conusmedullaris such as tethered cord. A child or even an adult with these abnormalities may develop progressiveneurological dysfunction due to traction on the cord or nerve roots. As the most problematic technicalconsideration in surgery for the release of the tethered cord is how to preserve functions of neural elementsand rebuild the dural sac to maintain normal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation; the priority is to treat thecondition through less invasive methods. Bioenergy economy (BEE) is an integrative healing model which triesto abstract healing modalities and integrate them into a psychosomatic health system. In contrast toreductionistic and pathology-based approach of biomedical treatment, bioenergy healing is a salutogenic,holistic and metadiagnostic approach which creates healing responses from a blueprint of healthy body.Case Report: We report the process of a bioenergy economy intervention in a 10-year-old boy withclinical signs of drop foot, urinary incontinence, urinary reflux, and low back pain who was candidate forsurgeries by neurosurgical and urological criteria. The clinical results indicated that after about two yearsof 12 healing sessions in a brief bioenergy economy package of biofield scanning, biofield attunement,and hand-on self-healing, the patient’s clinical signs remarkably improved to the extent that he returned tonormal activities of his age and followed an athletic lifestyle.Conclusion: From a biosemiotic viewpoint, it can be discussed that bioenergy economy, by focusing onenhancing the pathways of salutogenesis was effective to evoke healing response in the patient’s body.The effect of the bioenergy economy practice may be due to the healing images and intentions flowedthrough patient’s body and healer-healee biofields’ coupling and interactions.

This study, which is a strategic study with a mixed research approach aimed to identify obstacles facing the academies of Iranian Basketball Federation. The population comprises board of directors and committees responsible for Education and Talent Spotting Association, academy administrators, physical education instructors, qualified experts, professors, coaches, referees and heads of delegations who were asked via interviews and questionnaire (exploratory manner) to state internal and external obstacles facing basketball academies in following 8 components in order of importance utilizing the Delphi method: management and planning, training, human resources, financial resources, talent spotting, scientific and research and information technology, venues and infrastructures. Items were identified in 34 external and 49 internal factors. For weighting and prioritizing of items, the questionnaire was completed by 27 subjects employing AHP method based on pairwise comparisons. SPSS software version18 was utilized for descriptive statistics while AHP method in Expert Choice software was utilized for inferential statistics. At the end, a total of 11 executive strategies were proposed for removing the obstacles.

Because of reducing the number of spectators of football premier league, this study is seeking for identifying factors put the most impact on this decline. The statistical population consisted of all spectators in Iran football premier league in 2015-16, out of which 395 spectators were randomly selected as the research samples. The data were collected via a researcher-made questionnaire. The first part of the questionnaire included demographic information and the second part, at 6 aspects, includes 35 questions analyzing the reasons for reducing the number of spectators in Iran's football Premier League. For analyzing data, it was used from first and second order confirmatory factor analysis based on structural equations through using SPSS 20 and LISREL 8.8 software. The results of first order confirmatory factor analysis showed that the measurement model of factors affecting on reducing the number of spectators of football premier league is an appropriate model and model parameters are significant. All factors are approved as effective variables on reducing the number of spectators of football premier league. The results also showed that the second order measurement model of effective factors on reducing the number of spectators of football premier league are also appropriate, and economic, facilitative, administrative, technical, cultural-social, and personal-family respectively put the most effects on reducing the number of spectators of football premier league. It is suggested for the sport marketers to analyze identified factors in this research and develop applicable strategies and guidelines for them.

In the current competitive world, organizations can reach competitive advantage which support entrepreneurship by providing the required tools. One of the most important tools for developing entrepreneurship which was neglected in previous studies is organizational knowledge management. The present paper aims to shed light on the role and importance of knowledge management in sport entrepreneurship in sport organizations of Mazandaran Province. 250 managers and employees of sport organizations were selected as the sample. Two questionnaires were used for data collection; knowledge management questionnaire with 22 questions (including knowledge acquisition, knowledge creation, knowledge storage, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application) and entrepreneurship questionnaire with 35 questions (including idea creation, opportunity discovery, and idea exploitation). The results show that there is a significant relation between knowledge management and entrepreneurship process (r=0.068, p= 0.001) and also between knowledge management and entrepreneurship components (idea creation: r=0.33, p= 0.001; opportunity discovery: r= 0.53, p= 0.001; idea exploitation: r= 0.33, p= 0.001). According to the results, paying attention to knowledge management can systematically support the organizations in idea creation, opportunity discovery from created ideas, idea exploitation, and also entrepreneurship. Managers of sport organizations should assume that knowledge management is one of the empowerments of entrepreneurship or, in other words, knowledge management is one of the effective factors in the emergence of entrepreneurship. Hence, knowledge management should be regarded as one of main priorities and special planning must be done for it.

The purpose of this research was to compare block, random and randomized block training on the acquisition, retention and transfer of volleyball serves. For this purpose, 34 students of Shomal university were selected randomly and after primary rules of volleyball were explained and instructed and pretest was performed, they were divided into 3 groups (block, random and randomized block training). The subjects participated in 15 practice sessions (5 weeks, 3 sessions each week). After the training sessions, posttests including acquisition test (exactly at the end of the last session), retention and transfer tests (after one week) were performed. Kolmogorov – Smirnov (K-S) test, one-way ANOVA, and post hoc Tukey test were used to analyze the data. The results showed that in the acquisition stage, the block group significantly had better performance than the others. But in the retention test, there was no significant difference among groups. Meanwhile, the randomized-block group had significantly better performance in the transfer test.

Abstract BACKGROUND: Progressive stroke (PS) and Crescendo Transient Ischemic Attacks (CTIA) is a generally accepted although unproven, indication for urgent intravenous anticoagulation therapy. METHODS: Consecutive patients with PS and CTIA admitted in Ghaem hospital, Mashhad during 2007 - 2008 enrolled in a prospective clinical study. PS and CTIA patients underwent intravenous heparin therapy with 1000 units per hour without a bolus dose at least for 3 days. PS and CTIA patients who had a contraindication for intravenous hepain therapy, received 80 mg Aspirin per day. Early clinical course including improvement, stabilization, deterioration and development of residual stroke was evaluated in two therapeutic groups of PS and CTIA patients. RESULTS: 170 PS patients (103 males, 67 females) with mean age of 60.4 ± 12.3 years and 88 CTIA patients (50 males, 38 females) with mean age of 60.1 ± 6.8 years were assessed. 141 PS and 64 CTIA patients received short period intravenous heparinization. Distribution of subtypes of early clinical course between two therapeutic groups of PS and CTIA patients, was significantly different; X2 = 10.487, df = 2, p = 0.005 and X2 = 6.72, df = 2, p = 0.035 respectively. Distribution of residual stroke in two therapeutic groups of PS and CTIA patients,was not significantly different; X2 = 1.443, df = 1, p = 0.23, OR = 0.557 (0.212-1.462) and X2 = 1.01, df = 1, p = 0.315, OR = 0.617 (0.24-1.587) respectively. CONCLUSION: PS and CTIA patients who underwent short period intravenous heparin therapy have significantly more probability of improvement and less probability of deterioration in their early clinical course than PS and CTIA patients who received Aspirin therapy. Keywords: Progressive Stroke (PS) Crescendo TransientIschemic Attacks (CTIA), Intravenous anticoagulation therapy, Heparin therapy.

Helicobacter pylori is an important etiologic cause of chronic infection of gastric mucus, chronic gastritis, peptic ulcers and gastric cancer in human. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the dominant antigen of H.pylori, which is responsible for the humoral and cellular immune responses. Gastric biopsy of patients with gastric ulcers were sent to microbiology lab. First, samples were homogenized at sterile conditions, and then they were cultured in special medium and micro-aerophylic conditions. 25 colonies of H.pylori were removed from culture medium and the whole- cell lysates were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Immunoblots were performed using sera from H.pylori- infected persons . Specific H.pylori antibody responses in persons were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Two groups of bands appeared after staining of the SDS-PAGE with comassie blue. One group was within 55-97KD and the other were around 20-24 KD. Western - blotting analysis detected a band around 55-97 KD, which is dominant antigen and responsible for immune response against H.pylori. Using ammonium sulfate as a precipitant for sera would have valuable effects in the westernblot results. As it is shown in the results , an antigen with MW=97 KD is immunodominant and stimulate patient’s immune system to produce antibody and can be candidate as a subunit vaccine in future.