TLR3, TLR7, and TLR8 genes expression datasets in COVID-19 patients: Influences of the disease severity and gender.

The prognosis of COVID-19 could influence by innate immune sensors such as toll-like receptors (TLRs). The purpose of this data was to investigate TLR3, 7, and 8 expression levels in COVID-19 patients and their relationship to outcome of disease. 75 confirm COVID-19 were included sequentially and separated into three groups: mild, severe, and critical. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from the whole blood, and RNA was then extracted. The qRT-PCR technique was used to examine the expression of TLR3, TLR7, and TLR8 genes. The patients average ages were 52.69 ± 1.9 and 13 of the 25 individuals in each group were male. TLR3 (p < 0.001), TLR7 (p < 0.001), and TLR8 (p < 0.001) expression levels were considerably greater in COVID-19 patients compared to the control group. The findings also showed that individuals with critical and severe COVID-19 disease had significantly greater TLR7 and TLR8 gene expression levels than patients in mild stage of disease (p < 0.05). The data showed a significant difference (p = 0.01) in the TLR3 transcript levels between critical and mild COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, male severe (p = 0.02) and critical (p = 0.008) patients had significantly higher TLR8 expression levels than female patients in terms of gender. TLR3 (p = 0.2) and TLR7 (p = 0.08) transcripts were more elevated in males than females, but not significantly.

The effect of data fusion on improving the accuracy of olive oil quality measurement.

Olive oil is one of the healthiest and most nutritious edible oils, and it has a great potential to be adulterated. In this research, fraud samples of olive oil were detected with six different classification models by fusion of two methods of E-nose and ultrasound. The samples were prepared in six categories of adulteration. The E-nose system included eight various sensors. 2 MHz probes were used in through transmission ultrasound system. Principal Component Analysis method was used to reduce features and six classification models were used for classification. Feature with the greatest influence in the classification was "percentage of ultrasonic amplitude loss." It was found that the ultrasound system's data had worked more effectively than the E-nose system. Results showed that the ANN method was recognized as the most effective classifier with the highest accuracy (95.51%). The accuracy of classification in all the classification models significantly increased with data fusion.

Applications of ultrasound techniques in tandem with non-destructive approaches for the quality evaluation of edible oils.

Edible oils include triglycerides that are extracted from oil seeds or fruits such as sunflowers, palms, olives, soys, rapeseeds, cocoa and many others. They are the elementary origins of unsaturated fats and vitamins especially vitamin 'E' in people's diets. Edible oils are at risk of intentional (such as inadequate storage conditions) and unintentional adulteration, so it is necessary to pay attention to their safety, health and fraud. Generally, this evaluation can be destructive or non-destructive. There are numerous methods to evaluate quality of edible oils which include sensory analysis, chemical analysis, chromatography, ultrasound, etc. The Ultrasonic approach is a non-destructive way and also fast, accurate, inexpensive, repeatable, portable and simple. Combination of ultrasound with other techniques such as electronic nose, electronic tongue, visible spectroscopic fingerprints, chemical descriptors, Raman spectroscopy, mid-infrared and machine vision, will improve quality evaluation and detection accuracy. This review summarizes the ultrasound idea and the latest knowledge of its application with other techniques on evaluation of edible oils.

Investigating medical tourism development indicators in Yazd Reproductive Sciences Institute: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Payingspecial attention to the development indicators of medical tourism (MT) can lead to the further development of this industry and tourists' satisfaction. Objective: This study aimed to investigate MT development indicators in Yazd Reproductive Sciences Research Institute, Yazd, Iran in 2021. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 430 medical tourists referred to the Yazd Reproductive Sciences Institute, Yazd, Iran in 2021 were studied. A researcher-made questionnaire with 46 questions and 10 dimensions was used in both internal and external environments to collect data. The Spearman correlation coefficient was also used to assess the correlation between the quantitative factors. Results: The reliability and validity of the scale were confirmed. The mean ± SD of the advertising and marketing index scored was lower than the other internal environmental indices (15.05 ± 2.16). Also, the economic factors and tourism infrastructure were lower than the other external environmental factors (9.8 ± 1.99, 8.53 ± 2.11, respectively). Conclusion: Given the importance of MT, top managers and relevant authorities should pay close attention to the criteria of advertising, marketing, and tourism infrastructure. MT demand can be improved by increasing the importance of advertising, implementing realistic advertising strategies, and developing adequate urban infrastructure and services.

Fraud detection and quality assessment of olive oil using ultrasound.

Today, food safety is recognized as one of the most important human priorities, so effective and new policies have been implemented to improve and develop the position of effective laws in the food industry. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has many amazing benefits for human body's health. Due to the nutritional value and high price of EVOO, there is a lot of cheating in it. The ultrasound approach has many advantages in the food studies, and it is fast and nondestructive for quality evaluation. In this study, to fraud detection of EVOO four ultrasonic properties of oil in five levels of adulteration (5%, 10%, 20%, 35%, and 50%) were extracted. The 2 MHz ultrasonic probes were used in the DOI 1,000 STARMANS diagnostic ultrasonic device in a "probe holding mechanism." The four extracted ultrasonic features include the following: "percentage of amplitude reduction, time of flight (TOF), the difference between the first and second maximum amplitudes of the domain (in the time-amplitude diagram), and the ratio of the first and second maximum of amplitude." Seven classification algorithms including "Naïve Bayes, support vector machine, gradient boosting classifier, K-nearest neighbors, artificial neural network, logistic regression, and AdaBoost" were used to classify the preprocessed data. Results showed that the Naïve Bayes algorithm with 90.2% provided the highest accuracy among the others, and the support vector machine and gradient boosting classifier with 88.2% were in the next ranks.

Association of regional disparity of obstetrics and gynecologic services with children and infants mortality rates: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Equity in distribution of resources is considered as an important priority in health care systems. Equitable distribution of obstetrics and gynecology (Ob/Gyn) services in the country level is critical in maternal and neonatal health for qualitative promotion of maternal care in pregnancy, delivery, and post-delivery periods. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed at determining regional disparity of obstetrics and gynecology services and its association with children and infants mortality rates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a descriptive-analytical study conducted in 2015 to investigate distribution of Ob/Gyn services using three indicators of number of nursing and midwifery personnel, total Ob/Gyn specialists, and total delivery beds among 30 provinces of the country. Equity criteria in the present study included population, normal vaginal deliveries, cesarean sections, and total deliveries. Data were gathered using a researcher-made form and Stata 12 was used to calculate Gini coefficient. The association of Ob/Gyn services with children and infant mortality rates was investigated using SPSS package and linear regression test. RESULTS: The lowest Gini coefficient was observed in distribution of nursing and midwifery personnel in delivery wards in terms of vaginal delivery (0.38 from 1) and the highest value was related to distribution of Ob/Gyn specialists in terms of vaginal delivery (0.73 from 1). Infant mortality was significantly associated with number of nursing and midwifery personnel in delivery wards, and total number of Ob/Gyn specialists. CONCLUSION: Considering new population policies in Iran and increased fertility rate, it is recommended to facilitate accessibility of the required services for the women, particularly those of reproductive age.