Different sources of uncertainty exist in climate change impacts projection. This study aims to propose a framework to deal with the various sources of uncertainties involved in hydro-climate ...projections of Zayandeh-Rud River Basin with area of 26,917 km
2
in Central Iran. The Bayesian model averaging (BMA) was here used through two distinct approaches for weighting the hydrologic outputs (App. I) as well as the global climate models (GCMs) (App. II) based on their abilities to simulate the baseline period. The results showed that different GCMs have different abilities in estimating the hydro-climatic variables and the application of uncertainty analysis is necessary for climate change studies. Application of the BMA can significantly reduce the errors in historical runoff prediction. Although App. I showed a better performance of generating the stream flow time series during the baseline period, the App. II approach has an acceptable ability in different months. The findings of flow duration curves under both approaches revealed that App. II is more appropriate to deal with uncertainty of hydro-climate projection especially in arid and semi-arid regions.
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DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Introduction:
Critical care nurses work in a complex and stressful environment with diverse norms, values, interactions, and relationships. Therefore, they inevitably experience some levels of ...ethical conflict.
Aim:
The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship of ethical conflict with personal and organizational characteristics among critical care nurses.
Methods:
This descriptive-correlational study was conducted in 2017 on a random sample of 216 critical care nurses. Participants were recruited through stratified random sampling. Data collection tools were a demographic and professional characteristics questionnaire, the Ethical Conflict in Nursing Questionnaire-Critical Care Version, and the Organizational and Managerial Factors Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software (v. 22.0).
Ethical considerations:
All participants were informed about the study’s aim and were assured that participation in and withdrawal from the study would be voluntary.
Findings:
The mean score of exposure to ethical conflict was 201.91 ± 80.38. The highest-scored conflict-inducing clinical situation was “working with professionally incompetent nurses or nurse assistants.” Married nurses, nurses with official employment, nurses with master’s degree, and nurses with the history of attending ethics education programs had significantly higher exposure to ethical conflict than the other nurses (p < 0.05). The significant predictors of exposure to ethical conflict were marital status, educational status, reward system, organizational culture, manager’s conduct, and organizational structure and regulations (p < 0.05). These predictors accounted for 37.2% of the total variance of exposure to ethical conflict.
Conclusion:
Critical care nurses experience moderate levels of exposure to ethical conflict. A wide range of personal and organizational factors can contribute to such exposure, the most significant of which is the professional incompetence of nursing colleagues, nurse assistants, and physicians. Therefore, many improvements at personal and organizational levels are needed to reduce critical care nurses’ exposure to ethical conflict.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
HER2/neu is an immunogenic protein inducing both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. The antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are the main effector immune cells in the anti-tumor ...immunity. To induce an effective CTL specific response against P5+435 single peptide derived from rat HER2/neu oncogene, we used a liposome delivery vehicle. In vivo enhancement of liposome stability and intracytoplasmic delivery of peptides are the main strategies which elevate the liposome-mediated drug delivery. Liposomes containing high transition temperature phospholipids, such as DSPC, are stable with prolonged in vivo circulation and more accessibility to the immune system. Incorporation of DOPE phospholipid results in the effective delivery of peptide into the cytoplasm via the endocytotic pathway. To this end, the P5+435 peptide was linked to Maleimide-PEG2000-DSPE and coupled on the surface of nanoliposomes containing DSPC: DSPG: Cholesterol with/without DOPE. We observed that mice vaccinated with Lip-DOPE-P5+435 formulation had the highest number of IFN-γ- producing CTLs with the highest cytotoxic activity that consequently led to significantly smallest tumor size and prolonged survival rate in the TUBO mice model. In conclusion, our study indicated that the liposomal form of P5+435 peptide containing DOPE can be regarded as a promising prophylactic anti-cancer vaccine to generate potent antigen-specific immunity.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
A Bayesian nonparametric multi-sample test in any dimension Al-Labadi, Luai; Asl, Forough Fazeli; Saberi, Zahra
Advances in statistical analysis : AStA : a journal of the German Statistical Society,
06/2022, Volume:
106, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This paper considers a general Bayesian test for the multi-sample problem. Specifically, for
M
independent samples, the interest is to determine whether the
M
samples are generated from the same ...multivariate population. First,
M
Dirichlet processes are considered as priors for the true distributions generated the data. Then, the concentration of the distribution of the total distance between the
M
posterior processes is compared to the concentration of the distribution of the total distance between the
M
prior processes through the relative belief ratio. The total distance between processes is established based on the energy distance. Various interesting theoretical results of the approach are derived. Several examples covering the high dimensional case are considered to illustrate the approach.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic immune-mediated mucocutaneous disorder, with an unknown etiology. Since, both pain and discomfort are observed in patients with the erosive type, many drugs have ...been studied to alleviate pain and clinical symptoms. The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of systemic
on clinical indices of OLP.
In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 70 patients with erosive OLP were randomly divided into two groups, and each was treated with
tablets or placebo, 3 times a day, for 35 days. In addition, betamethasone lotion (0.1%) or nystatin (100,000 units) mouthwash were used by patients. The pain severity (visual analog scale VAS), lesion size, and the number of lesions were assessed at baseline and on days 10, 25, and 35 after study initiation. Finally, the obtained data were analyzed by statistical software, and Mann-Whitney test, Wilcoxon test, KaplanMeier, Chi-squared, and paired
-test.
The VAS scores in the
group were significantly reduced at each visit compared to the placebo group (
< 0.001). We observed a significant difference between the two groups (
< 0.01).
We showed that
is an effective and complementary therapy for OLP. Furthermore, in short-term usage,
is almost completely tolerable.
BackgroundOral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic oral mucosal disease. It can manifest as severe erosive/ulcerative oral lesions, causing pain and discomfort. Oral health-related quality of life ...(OHRQoL) may be deteriorated due to the patient's symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate OHRQoL and its relation to oral pain in erosive/ulcerative OLP patients. Materials and MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, patients with erosive/ulcerative OLP filled out Chronic oral mucosal disease questionnaire (COMDQ). Meanwhile, they recorded their oral pain through Visual analog scale (VAS). The Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to analyze the relationship between COMDQ score and VAS (IBM SPSS Statistics). P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. ResultsSixty patients participated in the present study; 51 (85%) were women and 9 (15%) were men. The mean age of participants was 50 ± 14.5 years. The mean score of COMDQ was 47.44 (±18.21). The mean VAS score was 4.5 (±2.4). COMDQ total and all domain scores were significantly correlated with VAS (P < 0.05), except for the "Patient support" domain (P = 0.63). ConclusionIn patients with erosive/ulcerative OLP, there was a significant correlation between oral pain and COMDQ total score, as well as its physical, social, and emotional domains. It seems that COMDQ can be a complementary tool for assessing treatment outcomes in OLP patients.
A novel Bayesian nonparametric test for assessing multivariate normal models is presented. Although there are extensive frequentist and graphical methods for testing multivariate normality, it is ...challenging to find Bayesian counterparts. The approach considered in this paper is based on the Dirichlet process and the squared radii of observations. Specifically, the squared radii are employed to transform the
-variate problem into a univariate problem by relying on the fact that if a random sample is coming from a multivariate normal distribution then the square radii follow a particular beta distribution. While the Dirichlet process is used as a prior on the distribution of the square radii, the concentration of the distribution of the Anderson–Darling distance between the posterior process and the beta distribution is compared to that between the prior process and beta distribution via a relative belief ratio. Key results of the approach are derived. The procedure is illustrated through several examples, in which it shows excellent performance.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Currently, there is no topical treatment available for any form of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in most of the endemic areas. The aim of the current study was to develop a topical nano-liposomal ...Amphotericin B (AmB) for the treatment of CL.
Liposomes containing 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4% AmB (Lip-AmB) were formulated and characterized for the size, entrapment efficiency, long term stability, and skin penetration properties using Franz diffusion cells. Liposomes diameters were around 100 nm with no change during more than 20 months’ storage either at 4 °C or at room temperature. Franz diffusion cells studies showed that almost 4% of the applied formulations penetrated across the skin and the highest skin retention (73.92%) observed with Lip-AmB 0.4%. The median effective doses (ED50), the doses of AmB required to kill 50% of L. major amastigotes were 0.151, 0.151, and 0.0856 (μg/mL) in Lip-AmB 0.1, 0.2, 0.4%, respectively. Lip-AmB 0.4% caused 80% reduction in fluorescence intensity of GFP+ L. tropica infected macrophages at 5 μg/mL of AmB concentration. Topical Lip-AmB was applied twice a day for 4 weeks to the skin of BALB/c mice to treat lesions caused by L. major. Results showed the superiority of Lip-AmB 0.4% compared to Lip-AmB 0.2 and 0.1%. The parasite was completely cleared from the skin site of infection and spleens at week 8 and 12 post-infection in mice treated with Lip-AmB 0.4%. The results suggest that topical Lip-AmB 0.4% may be a useful tool in the treatment of CL and merits further investigation.
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•Novel topical AmB liposome for treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis was formulated.•The formulation inhibits L. major promastigotes and amastigotes growth in vitro.•The formulation inhibits L. tropica amastigotes growth in vitro.•The formulation is able to treat lesions caused by L. major in BALB/c mice.•Lip-AmB 0.4 was stable at room temperature for more than 20 months.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The present study was aimed to develop an effective nanoliposomal vaccine delivery system with P435 HER2/neu-derived peptide conjugated to Maleimide-PEG2000-DSPE. The nanoliposome formulation ...composed of DSPC/DSPG/Chol/DOPE and monophosphoryl lipid A was used as an adjuvant. Liposomal formulations were prepared and their physical properties were characterized. Anti-tumoral efficacy of formulations was evaluated by immunization of tumor-bearing BALB/c mice and the generated immune response was studied by using ELISpot and flow cytometry analysis. The results of the study demonstrated Lip + DOPE + P535 formulation caused the lowest tumor size and the longest survival time in TUBO mice model and could make it a promising candidate in developing effective vaccines against HER2-positive breast cancers.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Background: Boswellia serrata oleo-gum-resin (frankincense; olibanum) has anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antimicrobial effects. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of ...frankincense extract in the treatment of oral aphthous ulcers. Materials and Methods: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, patients with aphthous ulcers were randomly assigned to either experimental (Frankincense extract) or placebo groups to use orally disintegrating tablets (ODT) of frankincense and placebo, respectively, four times a day for 3 days. The size of aphthous ulcers and the pain severity by visual analogue scale were recorded at days 0, 2, and 4 and compared between the groups. Results: Twenty-five patients in each group completed the study. Olibanum extract ODT significantly reduced the ulcer size on the second (P < 0.001) and fourth (P < 0.001) days as well as the pain score on the second (P = 0.002) and fourth (P < 0.001) days of the intervention compared to placebo. Furthermore, at the end of the intervention, the number of patients with complete ulcer healing and pain relief in the experimental group was significantly more than the placebo group (5 vs. 0, P = 0.02; and 11 vs. 0, P < 0.001, respectively). Conclusion: Taking olibanum extract ODTs reduces the ulcer size and pain severity and accelerates the healing process in the oral aphthous lesions.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
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