A mathematical model to investigate heat transfer in footwear during walking and jogging.

Foot temperature during activities of daily living affects the human performance and well-being. Footwear thermal characteristics affect the foot temperature inside the shoe during activities of daily living. The temperate at the sole of the foot (plantar temperature) is influenced by different thermal properties such as heat capacity, heat diffusivity, and thermal conductivity of the shoe sole in addition to its mechanical properties. Hence the purpose of this study was to propose a method to allow investigating the effect of footwear thermal characteristics on the foot temperature during activities of daily living, like walking or jogging. The transient heat transfer between the foot and the ground was studied to drive the governing equation for heat transfer modelling in footwear and to predict foot sole temperature during walking, and jogging. Different thermo-mechanical properties of shoe sole, as well as geometrical parameters, were investigated. The proposed model showed to be able to adequately predict the plantar temperature at the ball of the foot when compared to the results from experimental measurements. Finally, using the proposed method, the thermal behaviour of two different shoes with two different sole materials EVA08 and EVA12 were compared. It was shown that heat capacity as compared to the thermal conductivity of the shoe sole is more effective in reducing the plantar temperature increase in short term. The proposed method proved to be able to accurately predict the thermal behaviour of shoes and can provide a tool to predict footwear thermal comfort.

Neurological Complications associated with Pediatric Liver Transplant in Namazi Hospital: One-Year Follow-Up.

BACKGROUND: 13%-43% of liver transplant (LT) recipients experience severe neurologic events with increased morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the incidence of neurological complications after LT in pediatric patients in Namazi Hospital. METHODS: The medical records of 101 children aged between 1 and 18 years who underwent LT between May 2016 and May 2017 at Namazi Hospital were reviewed. Demographic data, the occurrence of neurological complications, and preoperative variables that may predict the complications and outcomes were evaluated. The mean±SD follow-up duration was 10.1±1.9 months. RESULTS: The mean±SD age of patients at the time of LT was 8.2±5.3 years; 51.5% were male. The most common cause of LT was biliary atresia (16.8%), progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (16.8%), and Wilson's disease (13.9%). The mean±SD PELD score was 18.2±1.1. After 1-year follow-up 74 73.3% patients were alive. 16 (15.8%) patients developed convulsion (2 had encephalopathy). 3 (3.0%) patients had signs of peripheral neuropathy, 3 (3.0%) complained from headache, and 1 developed dystonia. CONCLUSION: Compared to other centers, neurological complications were less common in our center. The major neurological manifestation after LT was convulsion. There was no correlation between age, sex and the underlying disease and development of neurological complications.

Intrathecal Autologous Bone Marrow-Derived Hematopoietic Stem Cell Therapy in Neurological Diseases.

BACKGROUND: Cellular transplantation is a promising treatment strategy for neurological diseases. OBJECTIVE: To report the results of intrathecal hematopoietic stem cell therapy in different neurological diseases in the past 6 years in a single center. METHODS: From October 2011 to September 2018, 220 patients with various neurological diseases were transplanted intrathecally by their bone marrow stem cells. To have a longer follow up, we only reported the first 80 patients, transplanted up to July 2015-10 patients had spinal cord injuries and paralysis, 12 had advanced Parkinson's disease, 28 had cerebral palsy, 7 had hypoxic brain damage, 2 had autism, 4 had multiple sclerosis, 5 had progressive cerebellar atrophy, and 12 had other neurological diseases. The patients were admitted to the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. On the first day, 50-200 (median 100) mL bone marrow was aspirated from the patients' posterior iliac crests, mixed with 120 mL culture media (RPMI), and 12 mL heparin. The samples were then transferred to immunology lab in cold box. Mononuclear cells (MNCs) were separated by a Ficoll-Hypaque gradient, washed, and suspended in ringers. Cell viability was assessed with trypan blue viability test. Transplantation was performed 3-4 hours after bone marrow collection. 5-10 mL of the cerebrospinal fluids were aspirated and about 20 mL MNCs (containing stem cells) in ringers were injected intrathecally (IT). The patients were laid down on their back for 4-5 hours. The median number of MNCs was 4×107 (range 1-450×107). The median viability of the cells was 90% (range 60%-98%). The patients received intravenous ceftriaxone every 12 hours and were discharged from the hospital few days after autologous stem cell therapy. RESULTS: We noted clinical improvements in 9 of 12 patients with Parkinson's disease, 20 of 28 patients with cerebral palsy, 6 of 7 patients with hypoxic brain damage, 2 of 4 patients with multiple sclerosis, and 4 of 5 patients with cerebellar atrophy. The improvements were noted after 2-4 weeks of cell therapy. There were no improvements in patients with spinal cord injury and complete paralysis and those with autism. There were variable improvements in other patients treated. CONCLUSION: Most patients with advanced Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, hypoxic brain damage, progressive cerebellar atrophy, and kernicterus neuropathy reported clinical effects of this safe intervention resulting in better functioning and an increased quality of life.

Crocin improves spatial learning and memory deficits in the Morris water maze via attenuating cortical oxidative damage in diabetic rats.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of crocin on improving spatial memory deficits and cerebral oxidative damage in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Crocin was administered intraperitoneally daily at doses of 15, 30 and 60mg/kg for 6 weeks. Spatial memory performance was measured in rats by the Morris water maze paradigm. Lipid peroxidation and total thiol levels as parameters of oxidative stress were assessed in the cerebral cortex at the end of week 6. Diabetic rats showed spatial learning and memory deficits in the Morris water maze which was accompanied by increased lipid peroxidation levels in the cerebral cortex. By contrast, chronic treatment with crocin (15, 30 and 60mg/kg, ip, 6 weeks) improved cognitive performance and lowered hyperglycaemia and oxidative stress in diabetic rats. In conclusion, the results suggest that beneficial effects of crocin on streptozotocin-induced memory dysfunction may be attributed to its antidiabetic and antioxidant activity, which could find clinical use in treating cognitive dysfunction in diabetics.

Methylentetrahydrofolatereductase (rs1801133) polymorphism and psoriasis: contribution to oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation and correlation with vascular adhesion protein 1, preliminary report.

BACKGROUND: Psoriatic patients are at greater risk of oxidative stress and inflammation which is associated with abnormal plasma lipid metabolism and lipid peroxidation.There is not any information about the clinical significance of relation between methylentetrahydrofolatereductase (MTHFR) 677-T allele with malondialdehyde (MDA), lipids, apolipoproteins and vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) partakes in the migration process of lymphocytes into sites of inflammation. OBJECTIVES: This study is the first investigation to examine the association of MTHFR (rs1801133) C677T polymorphism, serum level of MDA, VAP-1, lipid-lipoprotein and apolipoproteins with the risk of psoriasis. METHODS: The present case-control study consisted of 100 psoriatic patients and 100 gender- and age-matched unrelated healthy controls from west population of Iran. MTHFR-C677T (rs1801133) polymorphisms were detected by restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP), VAP-1 by ELISA, apolipoproteins by immunoprecipitation, lipid and apolipoproteins by spectrophotometery and MDA by HPLC. RESULTS: We found that dominant/recessive model (CC + CT/TT) and T allele of MTHFR-677 alleles significantly 7.45 and 1.76 times increased risk of psoriasis, respectively. The psoriasis patients with MTHFR-677-T (C/T + T/T) allele had significantly higher serum MDA, VAP-1 and apolipoproteinsAPOB concentrations and ratio of APOB/APOA1 than the control subjects.The MTHFR-677-T allele frequencies in psoriasis patients were significantly higher than that in control group (28.5% vs. 18.5%; P = 0.018).We found a significant positive correlation between VAP-1 with MDA (P = 0.047) and LP (a) (P = 0.025). CONCLUSION: In the present study, we demonstrated for the first time that the psoriasis patients with MTHFR-677-T (C/T + T/T) allele had higher serum levels of MDA, VAP-1, APOB and ratio of APOB/APOA1 and dominant/recessive model (CC+CT/TT) and T allele of MTHFR-677 are significantly more common in psoriasis and increased risk of psoriasis by 7.45 and 1.76 fold, respectively. These data suggest that psoriasis patients carrying of TT genotypes and T allele of MTHFR-677 may be more susceptible to cardiovascular disease and myocardial infarction.

Inhibitory effect of Crocus sativus (saffron) on histamine (H1) receptors of guinea pig tracheal chains.

The inhibitory effects of aqueous-ethanolic extracts of Crocus sativus (Iridaceae), on histamine (H1) receptors was examined on tracheal chains of guinea pigs. The effects of three concentrations of aqueous-ethanolic extract, 10 nM chlorpheniramine, and saline on histamine (H1) receptors were tested on three groups of guinea pig tracheal chains as follows; incubated trachea with: 1) indomethacin, 2) indomethacin, propranolol, and atropine and 3) indomethacin and propranolol. The EC50 (effective concentration of histamine causing 50% of maximum response) obtained in the presence of chlorpheniramine and all concentrations of the extract in all three groups were significantly greater than those of saline (p<0.05 to p<0.001) except low concentration of the extract in groups 1 and 3. The EC50 obtained in the presence of two higher concentrations of extract in group 2 were greater than group 1 and 3 (p<0.05 to p<0.001). Maximum response obtained in the presence of two higher concentrations of extract in group 2 were greater than those of group 1 and group 3 (p<0.001 for all cases). There were parallel right ward shift in concentration response curves obtained in the presence of only low and medium concentrations of the extract in group 2 compared to the those of saline. These results indicated an inhibitory effect of Crocus sativus at histamine H1 receptors.

The effect of seed extraction methods on seed quality of two cultivar's tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.).

In order to compare of different methods and identify the optimum condition for tomato seed extraction, factorial experiments with 3 replications was conducted. In the first experiment, pulp of two tomato cultivars (Faraon, Dominator) were fermented at two temperatures (25, 35 degrees C) and six periods (24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144 h). The germination of seeds in laboratory as well as seedling emergence and preliminary growth in greenhouse were studied and measured. The results showed that effect of cultivar on traits (except of seedling emergence) was significant. Also the effect of temperature of fermentation, duration of fermentation and also interaction effects of them on seed germination were significant. Totally seed quality decreased with increasing temperature and duration of fermentation and the fermentation duration from 24 to 48 h at temperature 25 degrees C, is recommended. In the second experiment, tomato seeds were extracted by HCL (pH was arranged to 1, 2, 3 for 10, 20, 30 min), H2SO4 (pH was arranged to 1, 2, for 15, 30 min), Sodium carbonate (5, 10% for 24 and 48 h) and fermentation. Percentage germination, germination rate, length of radicle and length of plumule were used for seed quality assessment. The results showed that interaction effect between pH and duration of HCL treatments was significant for seed germination (percentage and rate) and there was an interaction effect between concentration and duration for germination rate in alkali treatments. Different extraction methods had not detrimental effect on percentage germination, but acid treatments produce very bright clean seeds in compare to other treatments.

Development of theophylline floating microballoons using cellulose acetate butyrate and/or Eudragit RL 100 polymers with different permeability characteristics.

The objective of the present investigation was to design a sustained release floating microcapsules of theophylline using two polymers of different permeability characteristics; Eudragit RL 100 (Eu RL) and cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) using the oil-in-oil emulsion solvent evaporation method. Polymers were used separately and in combination to prepare different microcapsules. The effect of drug-polymer interaction was studied for each of the polymers and for their combination. Encapsulation efficiency, the yield, particle size, floating capability, morphology of microspheres, powder X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were evaluated. The in vitro release studies were performed in PH 1.2 and 7.4. The optimized drug to polymer ratios was found to be 4:1 (F(2)) and 0.75:1 (F'(2)) with Eu RL and CAB, respectively. The best drug to polymer ratio in mix formulation was 4:1:1 (theophylline: Eu RL: CAB ratio). Production yield, loading efficiencies, and particle size of F(2) and F'(2) were found to be 59.14% and 45.39%, 73.93% and 95.87%, 372 and 273 micron, respectively. Microsphere prepared with CAB showed the best floating ability (80.3 ± 4.02% buoyancy) in 0.1 M HCl for over 12 h. The XRD and DSC showed that theophylline in the drug loaded microspheres was stable and in crystaline form. Microparticles prepared using blend of Eu RL and CAB polymers indicated more sustained pattern than the commercial tablet (P<0.05). Drug loaded floating microballoons prepared of combination of Eu RL and CAB with 1:1 ratio were found to be a suitable delivery system for sustained release delivery of theophylline which contained lower amount of polymer contents in the microspheres.

Occupational lead poisoning in workers of traditional tile factories in Mashhad, Northeast of Iran.

BACKGROUND: Occupational lead poisoning is a health problem in Iran. It has not previously been studied in traditional tile makers. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of lead poisoning and its complications in traditional tile workers in Mashhad, Northwest of Iran. METHODS: We visited workers in two traditional tile factories and collected data by direct history taking and physical examination. Blood and urine lead concentrations were measured by heated graphite atomization technique. RESULTS: Overall, 108 men with mean±SD age of 37±7.8 years were studied. The mean±SD length of daily lead exposure was 9.8±6 years. The mean±SD blood lead concentration was 520.5±323.2 µg/L. The main objective clinical findings were the presence of lead line (64.8%), peripheral neuropathy of the upper extremities (37%), depressed deep tendon reflexes in the upper extremities (25.7%), tremor (23.3%), peripheral neuropathy of the lower extremities (17%) and abdominal tenderness (15.1%). The subjective findings were mainly attributed to the central nervous system and included loss of memory (57%), moodiness (56.1%), agitation (47.7%), drowsiness (36.4%) and headache (29.9%). There was no statistically significant correlation between the blood lead concentration and glomerular filtration rate. However, there were significant correlations between the blood lead concentration and each of the urine lead concentration (p<0.001), diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.04), serum triglyceride level (p = 0.043), high density lipoprotein level (p = 0.012), and basophilic stippling (p = 0.048). Blood lead level, however, did not have any significant correlation with the presence of lead line. CONCLUSION: In traditional tile workers, lead toxicity is not uncommon and the toxic effects of lead were found more often on the teeth (bone), central and peripheral nervous system, hematological and lipid profiles than on the renal function.

Use of random amplified polymorphic DNA markers to estimate heterosis and combining ability in tomato hybrids.

Random Amplified Polymorphic DNAs (RAPD) were used to estimate genetic distances and determine the correlation between genetic distance and hybrid performance of 29 tomato lines that were the parents in a diallel mating design. Among 97 observed bands, 69 showed polymorphism and were used for establishing genetic distances based on the Nei coefficient between parents. A UPGMA dendrogram and Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis based on Nei genetic distances clearly clustered each group, confirming the variation at a molecular level. Correlations between genetic distances of the parents and performances of hybrids were established for various quantitative traits. Significant correlations were found between RAPD markers estimated genetic distances and MPH, HPH, SCA for some traits. The low correlation between parental genetic distances and hybrid performances for some quantitative traits suggested that RAPD markers have low linkage to Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) or have inadequate genome coverage for these traits. The results indicated that RAPD markers can be used as a tool for determining the extent of genetic diversity among tomato lines, for allocating genotypes into different groups and also to aid in the choice of the superior crosses to be made among tomato lines, so reducing the number of crosses required under field evaluation.

Stimulatory effect of Crocus sativus (saffron) on beta2-adrenoceptors of guinea pig tracheal chains.

To study the mechanism(s) of the relaxant effects of Crocus sativus (Iridaceae), the stimulatory effect of aqueous-ethanolic extracts of this plant and one of its constituent, safranal was examined on beta-adrenoceptors in tracheal chains of guinea pigs. The beta(2)-adrenergic stimulatory was tested by performing the cumulative concentration-response curves of isoprenaline-induced relaxation of pre-contracted isolated guinea pig tracheal chains. The studied solutions were included two concentrations of aqueous-ethanolic extract from Crocus sativus (0.1 and 0.2g%), safranal (1.25 and 2.5 microg), 10nM propranolol, and saline. The study was done in two different conditions including: non-incubated (group 1, n=9) and incubated tissues with 1 microM chlorpheniramine (group 2, n=6). The results showed clear leftward shifts in isoprenaline curves obtained in the presence of only higher concentration of the extract in group 1 and its both concentrations in group 2 compared with that of saline. The EC(50) (the effective concentration of isoprenaline, causing 50% of maximum response) obtained in the presence of both concentrations of the extract (0.17+/-0.06 and 0.12+/-0.02) and safranal (0.22+/-0.05 and 0.22+/-0.05) in group 1 and only in the presence of two concentrations of the extract (1.16+/-0.31 and 0.68+/-0.21) in group 2 was significantly lower compared to saline (1.00+/-0.22 and 4.06+/-1.04 for groups 1 and 2, respectively) (p<0.05-0.001). The maximum responses obtained in the presence of both concentrations of the extract and safranal in group 1 were significantly lower than that of saline (p<0.005 for all cases). All values (CR-1=(EC(50) obtained in the presence of active substances/EC(50), obtained in the presence of saline)-1) obtained in the presence of higher concentrations of extract in group 1, its both concentrations and higher concentration of safranal in group 2 were negative and there were significant differences in this value between propranolol and those obtained in the presence of extract and safranal (p<0.05 to p<0.001). The results indicated a relatively potent stimulatory effect of the extract from Crocus sativus on beta(2)-adrenoceptors which is partially due to its constituent, safranal. A possible inhibitory effect of the plant on histamine (H(1)) receptors was also suggested.