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Background: Electromyography (EMG) signal processing and Muscle Onset Latency (MOL) are widely used in rehabilitation sciences and nerve conduction studies. The majority of existing software packages provided for estimating MOL via analyzing EMG signal are computerized, desktop based and not portable; therefore, experiments and signal analyzes using them should be completed locally. Moreover, a desktop or laptop is required to complete experiments using these packages, which costs. Objective: Develop a non-expensive and portable Android application (app) for estimating MOL via analyzing surface EMG. Material and Methods: A multi-layer architecture model was designed for implementing the MOL estimation app. Several Android-based algorithms for analyzing a recorded EMG signal and estimating MOL was implemented. A graphical user interface (GUI) that simplifies analyzing a given EMG signal using the presented app was developed too. Results: Evaluation results of the developed app using 10 EMG signals showed promising performance; the MOL values estimated using the presented app are statistically equal to those estimated using a commercial Windows-based surface EMG analysis software (MegaWin 3.0). For the majority of cases relative error

Background: Using appropriate coping strategies has a positive influence on moderating mental pressures caused by infertility and the stress during treatment. Using these strategies needs personal skills and they could be influenced by individual's inner psychological and environmental factors. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the attitude toward infertility and coping strategies considering the couple's social and financial situation. Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted on 133 volunteered couples undergoing assisted reproductive treatment. Coping strategies and the attitude toward infertility were assessed using a self-report questionnaire. Higher scores of attitude indicated positive attitudes. Data was analyzed using paired-samples t test and multiple regression model. Results: Independent from demographic information and causes of infertility, using self-blame and self-focused rumination coping strategies were negatively related to attitude toward infertility in both men and women (p

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Salivary gland tumors have low prevalence, and they are 3-6% of all tumors of the head and neck. Role and function of mast cells in tumoral lesions have conflicting results. Their role in salivary gland tumors is unknown and there are few studies about this. Thus the aim of this study was to evaluation and comparison of mast cells density in benign and malignant salivary glands tumors and their relation with grade in the malignancies.METHODS: In this descriptive analytic study, 33 paraffin blocks of pleomorphic adenoma (PA) and 30 paraffin blocks of malignant salivary glands tumors [14 cases mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC), 16 cases adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC)] were obtained from archived files of Amir Alam hospital in Tehran. Then, two sections were carried out on each block and then stained with hematoxyllin-eosin to confirm diagnosis and determination of the grade of MEC, and toluidine blue staining for recognizing mast cells. Mast cells density in benign tumors, low grade and high grade malignancies were statistically analyzed. FINDINGS: Mast cell density in PA was 3.12±3.03 and in low grade malignancies (MEC grade I) was 13.25±6.22 and in high grade malignancies (MEC grade III, ACC) was 1.47±2.74. There was no significant difference in mast cell density in benign and malignant salivary gland neoplasms (p=0.107). Mast cell density in low grade malignancies was significantly higher than benign tumors (p=0.001) and high grade malignancies (p=0.007). Also in MEC grade I was higher than MEC grade III (p=0.027).CONCLUSION: Mast cell density has relation with process of tumorigenesis and malignancy grade. Mast cell density increase in first steps of malignancy and decrease with progression of malignant salivary gland tumor.

Objective: Although, Literature shows the significant role of parents in children’s lives, there have not been any studies carried out on the parents’ occupational assessments of their children. Materials and Methods: A modified version of the Child Occupational Self Awareness (COSA) was created (Parents Assessment of Child Occupational, PACO) to assess the parents’ assessment of their child’s occupation. This feasibility study aimed at identifying the practical and potential issues of applying the COSA alongside PACO. As well as testing the value of identifying the similarity of discrepancies between parents (here mothers) and their children in assessing a child’s occupational life. For this purpose, a convenient sample of 30 primary students aged between 9-10 years old, and their mothers were chosen. Results: The content analysis of the COSA and PACO besides the supplementary information gathered by the interviewer showed factors which need to be considered in the main future study. Conclusion: The findings indicate how mothers and their children have different interpretations of a child’s competency and values in carrying out some aspects of occupation. There are some considerations with reference to the environment and related items of the tool, scoring, and administration which need to be addressed in planning for the main study.

Background : Evidences shows that menopause affects women's health, but women's knowledge of proper care and maintenance is insufficient. Objective: To determine knowledge of hormone therapy (HT), reproductive physiology, and menopause in a population of 40-60 year old women. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted through a cluster sampling among 330 women in Yazd, Islamic Republic of Iran, in 2010. Data was collected using a questionnaire containing questions about reproductive physiology related to menopause and HT by interviewing. Inferential and descriptive statistics via SPSS.15 software were used for data analysis. Results: Overall, 2.1% of women were current takers of HT, 13.4% had taken it in the past but had stopped and 84.5% had never taken hormone replacement therapy. Iranian women had low knowledge of HT, reproductive physiology, and menopause. Most of the women (85.5%) knew that hot flashes are common around menopause and only 77.2% knew decreasing estrogen production causes the menopause. They knew little about the effects of progestagens and the effects of HT on fertility. Logistic regression determined that age, educational level and BMI were the most important factors predicting use of HT after adjusting for other variables. Conclusion: Iranian women have a low HT usage rate and the majority of them are lacking of the knowledge about HT and menopause. Women need improved knowledge of the risks and benefits of HT as well as education about the reproductive system around menopause.

The existence of evolutionary rate variation has previously been demonstrated between different orders, different species and even between different regions of the same gene. To examine rate variation between closely related species of rodents we have sequenced the adenine phosphorybosyltransferase (APRT) gene from Mus spicilegus, Mus pahari, Mastomys hildebrandtii, Stochomys longicaudatus and Gerbillus campestris and compared these sequences with the previously published Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus and Mesocricetus auratus APRT sequences. The alignment of these eight rodent APRT sequences reveals two large insertions within the introns: an insertion with sequence similar to a B1 repetitive element is found within Mastomys and an insertion with sequence similar to a B2 repetitive element is found within M. pahari. A phylogeny for the rodent APRTs agrees with the previously published rodent phylogeny based on other molecular and morphological data. The relative rate test which is often used to test for variation in rates of evolution in different lineages is shown here to be sensitive to the choice of outgroup and therefore should be used with great caution. This sensitivity is detectable only with closely related species and results from the prevalence of homoplastic substitutions. Rate variation is demonstrated within the APRT exons and introns and between the rodent species (with the most significant difference being a rate difference in M. spicilegus). In addition, some third codon positions are shown to be more prone to substitution than others. This clearly demonstrates that even between very closely related species there is ample evidence of major differences in rates of evolution among species, among regions of the gene and among different positions within the gene. We also demonstrate that standard methods of analysis might not detect this variation.

Introduction: 90% of the tumors in the head and neck are squamous-cell carcinomas (HNSCC), which have overall 5- year survival rate between 50% -60%. CD44 has been shown to be associated with the prognosis. Materials and Methods: Biopsy specimens of 51 patients with oral tongue SCC were evaluated by Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for the CD44 antibody. Results: There was no significant correlation between CD44 and survival (P=0.77), age (P=0.4), CD44 and lymph node metastasis (P=0.87), sex (P=0.947), smoking (P=0.287) and tumor size (P=0.813). However, there was significant correlation between smoking and survival. Conclusion: There are widespread discrepancies among the findings in the literature regarding the prognosis of CD44 expression in OCSCC. Our study shows that the expression of CD44 is not a marker of aggressive behavior in oral tongue SCC. Consequently, CD44 cannot be considered as handy tool to establish the tumor behavior, prognosis and 5- year survival rate of these tumors.