Introduction: The gold standard for diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is detecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by reverse transcription polymerase ...chain reaction (RT-PCR), which is expensive, time-consuming and may result in false-negative results. Serological tests can be employed for RT-PCR negative patients, contact tracing, determining the probability of protection against re-infection, and seroepidemiological studies.
Areas covered: The main methodologies of serology-based tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), chemiluminescent immunoassays (CLIAs) and lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) were reviewed and their diagnostic performances were compared. Herein, a literature review on the databases of PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020 based on the main serological methods for COVID-19 detection with the focus on comparative experiments was performed. The review was updated on December 31, 2020.
Expert opinion: Serology testing could be considered as a part of diagnostic panel two-week post symptom onset. Higher sensitivity for serology-based tests could be achieved by determining combined IgG/IgM titers. Furthermore, higher sensitive serological test detecting neutralization antibody could be developed by targeting spike (S) antigen. It was also demonstrated that the sensitivity of ELISA/CLIA-based methods are higher than LFIA devices.
Water soluble polymer flocculants are important constituents of solid–liquid separation units for the treatment of a variety of process‐affected effluents. The systematic development of a flocculant ...relies on a good understanding of flocculation process, polymer synthesis, polymer characterization, and, not the least, flocculation performance assessment as desired for a particular treatment process, all of which are essential to establish meaningful relationships between flocculant microstructure and flocculation efficiency. The aim of this article is to communicate the bigger picture of this research area to the readers. The recent advances in the application of bio/natural, synthetic, and stimuli‐responsive flocculants are reviewed. Then, the basic polymer reaction engineering tools to control the microstructure of flocculants are provided and the techniques for the quantification of flocculant microstructure are concisely discussed. This is followed by a review of the methods used for the characterization of particle‐polymer force measurement, and flocculation/dewatering assessment with attention to the characterization of aggregate structures.
Long chain water‐soluble polymers (flocculants) are used to separate small particles from water. The systematic development of a flocculant relies on a good understanding of flocculation process, polymer reaction engineering, polymer characterization, and flocculant performance assessment as desired for a treatment process. The aim of this article is to communicate the bigger picture of this research area to the readers.
Several meta-analyses reported berberine (BBR) supplementation improves glycemic parameters and inflammatory marker, but findings remain inconsistent. Therefore, this study was conducted.
We ...systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar to identify the relevant meta-analyses up to April 2023.
BBR supplementation was effective in reducing fasting blood glucose (FBG) (ESWMD: −0.77; 95% CI: −0.90 to −0.63, and ESSMD: −0.65; 95% CI: −0.83 to −0.47), hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) (ESWMD: −0.57; 95% CI: −0.68 to −0.46), homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (ESWMD: −1.04; 95% CI: −1.66 to −0.42, and ESSMD: −0.71; 95% CI: −0.97 to −0.46), insulin (ESWMD: −1.00; 95% CI: −1.70 to −0.30, and ESSMD: −0.63; 95% CI: −0.94 to −0.32), interleukin (IL)-6 (ESSMD: −1.23; 95% CI: −1.61 to −0.85), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) (ESSMD: −1.04; 95% CI: −1.28 to −0.79), and C-reactive protein (CRP) (ESWMD: −0.62; 95% CI: −0.74 to −0.50, and ESSMD: −1.70; 95% CI: −2.21 to −1.19).
The finding of our umbrella showed that the supplementation of BBR could be effective in improving glycemic parameters and inflammatory marker in adults.
Objective
Limited studies have been conducted on insulin index/load, with inconsistent results regarding the glycemic index/load in relation to cardiometabolic risk factors among people with ...diabetes. The present study aimed to reveal the association of dietary glycemic index and load and dietary insulin index and load with cardiometabolic risk factors among people with diabetes.
Method
This cross-sectional study was performed on 88 adults with diabetes who enrolled in the Cohort Study of Employees of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The scores of dietary glycemic index (DGI), dietary glycemic load (DGL), dietary insulin index (DII), and dietary insulin load (DIL) were measured using a 116-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Multivariate linear regressions were used to associate each dietary score with fasting blood glucose (FBG), triglyceride, total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
Results
DGI was significantly associated with serum FBG (β; 0.24, 95% CI; 0.02, 0.46) and triglyceride (β; 0.53, 95% CI; 0.002, 1.06) levels but not TC, HDL, LDL, or blood pressure after adjusting for age, sex, education, marital status, smoking, body mass index, energy intake, physical activity, having other diseases, and family history of diabetes. Neither DGL, DII, nor DIL was significantly associated with each of the cardiometabolic risk factors after controlling for the confounders.
Conclusion
A diet with a higher glycemic index accompanied by a higher serum FBG and triglyceride level. Further studies are needed to determine the association of DGL, DII, and DIL with cardiometabolic risk factors.
•Use of novel partially-hydrophobic graft polymer flocculant for mineral tailings treatment.•Grafts of PMA with different molecular weights and densities were attached to EPDM backbones.•Use of a ...central composite experimental design to assess the effect of polymer architecture on flocculation and dewatering performance.•The performance of the graft copolymers was quantified by initial settling rate (ISR), capillary suction time (CST), supernatant turbidity, and sediment solids content.
This work investigates the impact of the molecular weight and grafting density of partially hydrolyzed poly(methyl acrylate) grafted onto ethylene-propylene-diene copolymer backbones (EPDM-g-HPMA) on the flocculation and dewatering of oil sands mature fine tailings through a central composite experimental design by measuring initial settling rate, capillary suction time, supernatant turbidity, and sediment solids content. Flocculants with high molecular weight grafts and low grafting densities reduced the initial settling rates, decreased supernatant turbidities, and increased the solids content of the flocculated sediments. The capillary suction time, however, depended mostly on the charge density and on the hydrophobicity of the grafted copolymer. The effect of the EPDM backbone molecular weight was also investigated. Shorter backbones resulted in flocculants that dispersed more easily in water and settled the sediments faster. In addition, they decreased the supernatant turbidity and increased the solids content in the sediments. EPDM-g-HPMA flocculants with graft molecular weight of 179 kDa and grafting density of 13% are outstanding filtration aids, helping generate sediments with 43% solids content and outperforming a reference commercial polyacrylamide flocculant.
Curcumin is a bioactive ingredient found in the Rhizomes of Curcuma longa. Curcumin is well known for its chemopreventive and anti-cancer properties. Recent findings have demonstrated several ...pharmacological and biological impacts of curcumin, related to the control and the management of gastrointestinal cancers. Mechanistically, curcumin exerts its biological impacts via antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects through the interaction with various transcription factors and signaling molecules. Moreover, epigenetic modulators such as microRNAs (miRNAs) have been revealed as novel targets of curcumin. Curcumin was discovered to regulate the expression of numerous pathogenic miRNAs in gastric, colorectal, esophageal and liver cancers. The present systematic review was performed to identify miRNAs that are modulated by curcumin in gastrointestinal cancers.
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•Curcumin is a bioactive ingredient that found to be effective in management of cancer.•MiRNAs, play multiple cellular functions in cancer such as cell growth, proliferation and tissue development.•Several beneficial effect of curcumin in gastrointestinal cancers conducted through its effect on miRNAs.
Childhood malnutrition as a major public health problem among children in developing countries can affect physical and intellectual growth and is also considered as a main cause of child morbidity ...and mortality. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of under-nutrition and identify determinants of malnutrition among children under 6 years of age in Fars province, Iran.
This survey was conducted by house to house visit through multi-stage sampling in 30 cities of Fars province, during December 2012 to January 2013. A total of 15408 children, aged 0-6 years old, were studied for nutritional assessment in terms of underweight, stunting, and wasting. Also, socio-demographic measures were obtained from structured questionnaire. Backward stepwise logistic regression was used to relate underlying factors to the odds of under-nutrition indices.
The rates of stunting, underweight, and wasting were 9.53, 9.66, and 8.19%, respectively. Male children were more stunted compared to females (OR= 1.41, CI: 1.26-1.58). Also, stunting was significantly associated with lower family income (OR= 3.21, CI: 1.17-8.85) and lower maternal education (OR= 0.80, CI: 0.64-0.98). Living in urban areas, and poor water supply were identified as significant risk factors of all three types of childhood under-nutrition. Moreover, Khamse and Arab ethnic groups were more vulnerable to under-nutrition. There was a suggestion that non-access to health services were associated with wasting (OR= 1.87, CI: 1.39-2.52) and also large family size was related to underweight (OR= 1.35, CI: 1.10-1.65).
The prevalence of under-nutrition in the study population was categorized in low levels. However, planning the public preventive strategies can help to control childhood under-nutrition according to underlying factors of malnutrition in the study population including gender, settlement area, family size, ethnicity, family income, maternal education, health services, and also safe water supply.
Neutrosophic Graphs are graphs that follow three-valued logic. They may be considered a fuzzy graph, although in some cases, it is difficult to optimize and model them using fuzzy graphs. In this ...paper, the first and second Zagreb indices, the Harmonic index, the Randic' index and the Connectivity index for these graphs are investigated and some of the theorems related to these indices are discussed and proven. These indices are also calculated for some specific types of Neutrosophic Graphs, such as regular Neutrosophic Graphs and regular complete Neutrosophic Graphs. Keywords: Neutrosophic Graphs; Zagreb indices; Harmonic index; Randic' index; Connectivity index
Aim. Orofacial chronic neuropathic pain commonly occurs following trigeminal nerve injuries. We investigated whether swimming exercise can reduce trigeminal neuropathic pain through improving ...antioxidant capacity. Materials and Methods. Twenty-eight Wistar rats of either sex and 180–220 grams were divided into 4 groups as sham, neuropathy, neuropathy + single bout exercise, and neuropathy + 2 weeks of exercise. Trigeminal neuropathy was carried out through chronic constriction injury (CCI) of infraorbital nerve. Protocols of exercise were included a single bout session (45 minutes) and a 2-week (45 minutes/day/6 days a week) swimming exercise. Mechanical allodynia was detected using Von Frey filaments. The activity of the serum antioxidant enzymes glutathione peroxidase and superoxides dismutase was assayed using ELISA kits. Results. We found that CCI significantly reduced facial pain threshold in both sexes (P<0.05). Both swimming exercise protocols significantly reduced mechanical allodynia in female rats compared to the sham group; however, only 2 weeks of exercise were significantly effective in male rats. The activity of antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase significantly (P<0.05) decreased following CCI in female rats against that in the sham group and 2-week exercise significantly (P<0.05) increased it toward the control level. The levels of glutathione peroxidase in male rats and superoxidase dismutase in both sexes were not significantly different compared to their sham groups. Conclusion. Swimming exercise alleviates trigeminal neuropathic pain in both sexes. Oxidative stress as a possible mechanism was involved in the effect of exercise on female rat trigeminal neuropathy.
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