In the present article, the historical impact of militarization on Iran's economic growth from 1973 to 1979 is examined based on the memories of Pahlavi government agents and staffs. The main ...question is how the Second Pahlavi military spending affect Iran's economic growth in a negative way. According to the research hypothesis and during the second construction Programme, the military expenditures, which in addition to insufficient oil revenues from foreign grants has decreased, caused a small waste of the country's financial resources. Military spending has devastated financial resources during the three subsequent development Programme with the improved oil revenues and these spending has negatively affected Iran's economic growth. The results of this research which is written in an analytical and descriptive method and has used the first-hand sources – Pahlavi staffer memories – show that militarism influenced on two components of economy, investment in human and financial asset caused deviation on economic growth which reached significantly in the decades od 40 and 50 and had a negative effect on the economic growth.
We introduce a novel hybrid microfluidic platform that utilizes hydrodynamic trapping and dielectrophoretic (DEP) forces to transfer cells and particles into semi-isolate microchambers. The ...electromicrofluidic chip is designed to form a high-throughput single-cell assay in a massively parallel manner. In the first operational phase, hydrodynamic forces transfer single particles into trap sites. Then, in the second phase, DEP forces transport them into adjacent low-shear microchambers. After assembling thousands of individual cells into an array of 10 000 microchambers, the chip adds single fluorescently labeled beads sensitive to the target proteins to study the cell protein secretion profiles at the single-cell level. To show this capability, we used this multiplexed on-chip immunoassay to analyze galectin-3 (Gal-3) and Gal-3 binding protein (Gal-3bp) secretion profiles in cancer (MCF-7) and normal (HEK-293T) cells. The ability to controllably add tens of required single beads sensitive to the target proteins in this high-throughput system is an answer to the challenges in previously introduced similar devices. The proposed biomedical microdevice has great potential for running fundamental long-term single-cell phenotypic and genotypic studies, with crucial applications in biology and medicine.
Reliable estimation of design rainfall in time and space can play a significant role in reducing flood-related losses. However, many parts of the world suffer from a lack of dense raingauge networks. ...Under this condition, the use of satellite-based data can be an alternative solution. In this research, using data from a dense ground-based raingauge network and Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) satellite-based precipitation product, the performance of a probability matching method for satellite-based extreme values has been investigated. The results indicate that the correction model, especially at shorter durations, is able to reduce the error of extreme values of raw satellite-based estimates, and its performance is not affected significantly by the density of the available raingauge network. In conclusion, implementation of the proposed method in poorly gauged regions can play an effective role in providing a reliable estimate of the design rainfall and eventually reducing the financial losses caused by floods.
Background
Sea cucumber is a natural resource rich in many important pharmacological compounds. this study aimed to investigate the effect of H. leucospilota extract on the induction of cell death ...and and Proapoptotic Activities.
Methods and Results
H. leucospilota was collected, the methanolic extract was prepared and in vitro cytotoxicity of H. leucospilota extract in the range of 12.5, 25, 50, 100, and 200 μg/mL concentrations for 48 hours on SK-BR-3 and MCR5 cells was determined. Analysis of apoptosis and cell cycle stages were performed using flow cytometry. the expressions of several apoptotic-related proteins in SK-BR-3 cells were evaluated using Western blot analysis. ROS formation and caspase activity were determined. GC-MS (involving a multistep temperature gradient and trimethylsilyl derivatives) and phytochemical analysis were used for identification of bioactive compounds. Methanolic extract inhibited the proliferation of the SK-BR-3 cell line in a dose- and time-dependent manner. As it was observed, exposure of the H. leucospilota extract triggered the apoptosis of the SK-BR-3 cells, induced DNA fragmentation, and arrested the cells in G2/M phase. treatment of the methanolic extract induced the downregulation of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 protein as well as the upregulation of Bax, caspase-3, caspase-7 proteins in SK-BR-3 cells. Methanolic extract-elicited apoptosis was accompanied with the elevated level of ROS. The GC-MS and phytochemical analysis revealed 30 compounds and the extract contained alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, terpenoids, phenols, and saponins.
Conclusions
The antiproliferative and proapoptotic activities of the tested extract suggested the pharmacologic potential of H. leucospilota. Correspondingly, further characterizations of the identified compounds are in progress.
Specific learning disability is one of the most common childhood disorders that in some cases, continues into adulthood and affects various aspects of their future lives. The higher prevalence of ...learning disability with reading impairment in the country's schools and the problems caused by it requires special attention. Children with this disorder, in addition to having difficulty reading, also have problems in other areas. The educational system is usually based on teaching materials and issues related to other areas such as special education and empowerment of the parents of these children have been neglected. While empowering parents can not only help improve the psychological issues that these children are struggling with because of the disorder, it can also be useful in improving the executive functions of these children. In this research, with a synthetic research approach and considering the seven-stage model of Sandlowski and Barso, we examined articles published in Iranian magazines and foreign research articles. Out of 104 articles appropriate to the purpose of the research, 29 articles with the desired conditions were selected and examined in depth. The concepts extracted from this study were summarized in the form of 168 codes and 91 sub-categories, and finally, 24 main categories were obtained. Then, according to the obtained results, the training package of 8 parenting sessions was designed in accordance with the special conditions and characteristics of children with a specific learning disability with reading impairment for the parents of these children.
Structurally, the study area belongs to the tectonic range of the Central Alborz. The rocks were analyzed to detect main elements as well as rare and rare earth elements. Based on microscopic ...studies, the rocks in the region include basalt, trachyandesite and basaltic andesite with alkaline geochemical properties. According to geochemical studies, the early magma was affected by Nb, Ti, Ta, Eu negative anomalies, the enrichment of Rhizosphere rocks of rare earth elements (LRRE), high LREE/HREE ratio and low K/Nb ratio and high ratios of Th/Nb, La/Nb, Ba/Nb, Zr/ Nb magmatic contamination. The early basaltic magma has been formed of a garnet lherzolite mantle with phlogopite/pargasite by metasomatism at a pressure of 2.5-5.3 GPa at depths of more than 80-150 km. Structural evidence suggests the formation of these volcanic rocks in intercontinental rift zones. The formation of these rocks can be attributed to the effects of intercontinental extensional phases in deep faults during Eocene Alpine orogeny phases.
Background & Aims: Diagnosis and treatment of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are very important. Hence, it is necessary to predict and diagnose these patients based on ...individual, demographic and clinical characteristics before starting treatment. This study aimed to predict MDR-TB in TB patients using the perceptron artificial neural networks (ANNs) model. Materials & Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted on 1,050 TB patients who have been treated in Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Tehran, Iran from 2005 to 2015. Data on personal and demographic information, as well as medical data such as drug therapy, final outcome of treatment, and the diagnosis of MDR-TB, were collected from the patients' medical records. Results: The results of this study indicated that the predictive power of MDR-TB for both training and testing groups was 85% and 80%, respectively. Also, the variables of marital status, education, drug use, being imprisoned, extrapulmonary TB, history of comorbidities, AIDS, patients' age, and family size were identified as very effective factors. However, variables of residence, smoking history, contact with a TB person, pulmonary TB, drug side effects, nationality, and diabetes were found as effective factors in predicting the development of MDR-TB. Conclusion: Application of the perceptron ANNs model in the study of MDR-TB is able to create new horizons in the diagnosis of these patients due to high predictive accuracy.
BackgroundCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a newly emerged disease with many unknown facets, so both the treatment and the cause of spreading this disease have remained mysterious so ...far.Materials and MethodsBased on the information of 4372 patients with COVID-19 referring to Dr. Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran, the time-dependent changes in COVID-19 severity were investigated in this study using correlation analysis.ResultsAccording to the results of this study, on average 154.80 patients were infected with mild to moderate COVID-19, and 39.06 were infected with severe COVID-19. The results of this study also indicated a descending trend in the number of patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 (r=-0.40, P-value=0.004) and an ascending trend in the number of patients with severe COVID-19 (r=0.43, P-value=0.003) overtime on a daily basis so that almost two patients were removed from those with mild to moderate COVID-19 and one was added to the patients with severe COVID-19 on average per day.ConclusionBased on the current study results, it is concluded that COVID-19 severity will not be constant over time, and there is a probability of COVID-19 becoming more aggressive. Therefore, by the lack of timely control of the disease over time, we will witness an increased number of patients with severe COVID-19 and an increased number of hospitalizations in the intensive care unit (ICU) ward.
Background & Aims: Nowadays, with the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, millions of people have been infected with the coronavirus, and most countries in the world have been unable to ...treat and control this condition. The aim of this study was to estimate and predict the COVID-19 prevalence rate based on multilayer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP-ANN) model. Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, based on the information of 4,372 patients with COVID-19 referred to Dr. Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran, the prevalence rate of this disease was estimated. In addition, considering the role of the health measures and social restrictions, the trend of this index based on the MLP-ANN model was predicted. Results: According to the results of this study, the prevalence of COVID-19 increased by an average of 7.05 per thousand people daily during the 48 days from the onset of the epidemic, and it reached about 341.96 per thousand people. Based on the MLP-ANN model with a lack of attention to the health measures by individuals in the community and failure to reduce social restrictions by the government, the COVID-19 prevalence increased by an average of 1.03 per thousand people per day. While in the case of attention to the health measures by the people and continued social restrictions by the state, the prevalence of this disease decreased by an average of 2.13 per thousand people, daily. Conclusion: The study on the prevalence of COVID-19 disease and prediction of the trend of this index provides researchers with useful information about the role of the health measures and social restrictions in controlling this disease.