Remote optogenetic control of the enteric nervous system and brain-gut axis in freely-behaving mice enabled by a wireless, battery-free optoelectronic device.

Wireless activation of the enteric nervous system (ENS) in freely moving animals with implantable optogenetic devices offers a unique and exciting opportunity to selectively control gastrointestinal (GI) transit in vivo, including the gut-brain axis. Programmed delivery of light to targeted locations in the GI-tract, however, poses many challenges not encountered within the central nervous system (CNS). We report here the development of a fully implantable, battery-free wireless device specifically designed for optogenetic control of the GI-tract, capable of generating sufficient light over large areas to robustly activate the ENS, potently inducing colonic motility ex vivo and increased propulsion in vivo. Use in in vivo studies reveals unique stimulation patterns that increase expulsion of colonic content, likely mediated in part by activation of an extrinsic brain-gut motor pathway, via pelvic nerves. This technology overcomes major limitations of conventional wireless optogenetic hardware designed for the CNS, providing targeted control of specific neurochemical classes of neurons in the ENS and brain-gut axis, for direct modulation of GI-transit and associated behaviours in freely moving animals.

Coincidence of sustainable development indicators for the nekarood watershed with the United Nation's sustainable development goals.

The present study evaluated sustainable development indicators of the Nekarood Watershed in Iran using global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators. Identifying values and thresholds, justification of optimum values, ranking, and performance assessment of the associated SDGs' indicators were accordingly addressed. Moreover, due to a lack of complete information and ecological conditions, 77 indicators were selected based on compliance with the indicators of global SDGs. These indicators were used to evaluate the development situation of the study area. The indicators were then normalized, weighed, aggregated, and ranked into four categories from achieving to highly challenging. The results showed that among the SDGs, five goals performed above the mean of the global sustainable development goals. So, goals 3 and 1 had the highest performance of 69.82 and 57.97 %, respectively. Likewise, goals 7 and 16 showed the lowest performance beyond the global average of 51.08 and 54.62 %, respectively. SDG3-1-1, SDG3-1-2, SDG3-2-1, and SDG3-2-2 indicators with 100 % performance positively affected SDG3. SDG1-5-1 indicator with 100 % performance also had the most positive effect on SDG1. The performances of nine goals were also lower than the global mean. In this case, the lowest performance was assigned to goal 2, followed by goals 9, 17, 10, and 6, respectively, with 15.24, 19.71, 22.19, 24.98, and 45.78 %. SDG2-4-2, SDG2-4-1, and SDG2-3-1 indicators had the most negative effect on the performance of SDG2. SDG9-2-2 and SDG10-4-1 indicators also had the most negative effect on goals 9 and 10, respectively. The highest performance of the indicators was associated with the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and the lowest was related to the Ministries of Agriculture Jihad and the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade. The results of the present study verified an overall performance of 36.42 % for the Nekarood Watershed concerning the global SDGs, representing significantly challenging conditions.

An atypical presentation of hypothyroidism with extremely exaggerated functional impairment.

Key Clinical Message: Myopathy-related symptoms are rare manifestations of hypothyroidism. Clinicians should consider hypothyroid myopathy as one of the possible diagnoses for patients with proximal weaknesses. Abstract: Myopathy-related symptoms are rare manifestations of hypothyroidism. Clinicians should consider hypothyroid myopathy as one of the possible diagnoses for patients with proximal weaknesses. We report a 34-year-old woman, presenting with a new atypical musculoskeletal manifestation of hypothyroidism mimicking polymyositis.

Intestinal Ischemia Due to Mesenteric Vascular Thrombosis in a Patient with Positive SARS-Cov-2 RNA without Primary Pulmonary Symptom: A Case Report.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute respiratory illness caused by novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The clinical manifestations of this infection have a range and typically include impairment of smell, taste disturbance, cough, fever, and shortness of breath. Gastrointestinal manifestations have been reported in anywhere from 3% to 50% of patients with concomitant SARS-CoV-2 pulmonary infection. Abnormalities in coagulation markers have been reported in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. During this article, we will introduce a patient with COVID 19 but with the most manifestation of abdominal pain due to intestinal ischemia and mesenteric vascular thrombosis.

Social capital and fertility behaviors: a cross-sectional study in Iranian women health care workers.

BACKGROUND: Fertility, in addition to the biomedical aspect, is phenomena of social, economic and demographic changes. Social network were considered for understanding fertility behaviors and changes in the levels of fertility. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between social capital and childbirth behaviors in Iranian women employees. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 on 536 women health care workers who randomly selected from health care setting Babol/Iran. Data were collected using demographic, childbearing behavior and social capital questionnaires. The SPSS-21 software was employed to analysis the data at a significant level of 0.05. RESULTS: The results of the study showed that, there was significant relationship between number of pregnancy and social capital (P = 0.039). Furthermore, social capital has a significant relationship with the time of pregnancy (P = 0.043), the time of pregnancy in women with high social capital was observed to be relatively 30% shorter compare the women with low social capital. CONCLUSION: Social capital, as one of the important factors influencing childbirth behaviors, should be considered in population planning and policy making.

Relationship of social capital with overweight and obesity among female health care workers.

BACKGROUND: The epidemic of obesity has turned into a major global health challenge. Environmental and social factors such as social capital, can significantly affect obesity. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship of social capital with overweight and obesity among female health-care workers. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 on 680 female health-care workers who were randomly selected from healthcare settings affiliated to Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and the Workplace Social Capital (WSC) questionnaire. The SPSS Version 21 was employed to analyze the data through conducting the independent-sample t and the chi-square tests as well as the linear and the logistic regression analyses at a significance level of less than 0.05. RESULTS: Linear regression analysis revealed that age, marital status, satisfaction with economic status, and structural social capital were significant predictors of body mass index (P<0.05). Moreover, logistic regression analysis indicated that weak social capital increased the odds of overweight/ obesity by 1.3 times (OR=1.345; 95% CI: 0.643-2.812) and weak structural social capital significantly increased the odds of overweight /obesity by almost four times (OR=3.757; 95% CI: 1.628-8.671; P=0.002). CONCLUSION: Social capital, particularly structural social capital, is a significant predictor of body mass index and a protective factor against obesity among female health-care workers. Further studies are needed to determine the paths through which social capital affects obesity- and overweight-related behaviors.

Crustal Structure of the Collision-Subduction Zone in South of Iran Using Virtual Seismometers.

Improving the resolution of seismic tomography by adding virtual seismometers is an ambitious aim in regions with poor instrumental coverage. In this study, inter-event empirical Green's functions (EGFs) were retrieved using cross-correlation of the vertical component of 630 earthquakes with M ≥ 4 which occurred around the collision-subduction transition zone in south Iran. To extract reliable inter-event EGFs and obtain stable tomographic results, we used about 1300 event pairs with good signal-to-noise ratio, each pair well aligned to a seismic station. Our results show that the retrieved inter-event EGFs agree well with those obtained from earthquakes in similar paths. The inverted velocity model presents two main layers including upper crust (up to ~16 km) and middle crust (deeper than ~18 km) in both sides of the Minab-Zendan-Palami transition zone. The upper crust contains two main layers: sedimentary and basement layers with thicknesses ~6 and ~10 km, respectively. Moreover, the main faults cause lateral variations in these main layers. The difference between the average velocities of the middle crust, between the collision and subduction zones, is about 0.5 km/s, delimited by faults. Also, an area with a 30 km width along these faults can be defined as the collision-subduction transition zone.

Psychometric Properties of Persian Version of the Short-Form Workplace Social Capital Questionnaire for Female Health Workers.

BACKGROUND: The workplace social capital is one of the important features of clinical work environment that improves the productivity and quality of services and safety through trust and social participation. Evaluation of workplace social capital requires a valid and reliable scale. The short-form workplace social capital questionnaire developed by Kouvonen has long been used to evaluate the workplace social capital. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the questionnaire among a group of female Iranian health care workers. METHODS: The Persian version of the short-form questionnaire of workplace social capital was finalized after translation and back-translation. 500 female health care workers completed the questionnaire. Then, the content validity and the construct validity of the questionnaire were assessed. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by Cronbach's α, θ, and McDonald's Ω. The construct reliability and ICC were also evaluated. RESULTS: Based on the maximum likelihood exploratory factor analysis (n=250) and confirmatory factor analysis (n=250), two factors were identified. The factors could explain 65% of the total variance observed. The model had an acceptable fit: GFI=0.953, CFI=0.973, IFI=0.974, NFI=0.953, PNFI=0.522, RAMSEA=0.090, CMIN/DF=2.751, RMR=0.042. Convergent and divergent validity as well as internal consistency and construct reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed. CONCLUSION: The Persian version of Kouvonen workplace social capital has acceptable validity and reliability. The questionnaire can thus be used in future studies to assess the workplace social capital in Iranian health care workers.

Social capital and fertility behaviors among female workers in healthcare settings: study protocol of a sequential explanatory mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND: Fertility rate in Iran has decreased by more than 70% in the last three decades. Continuous decrease in fertility rate will create socioeconomic crises for the country in a near future. A significant factor behind fertility behaviors is women's attitudes towards maternal and spousal roles. Such attitudes are mainly determined by social capital. This study aims to determine and explore of relationship between social capital and fertility behavior among female healthcare workers. METHODS: This sequential explanatory mixed methods study will be conducted using the follow-up explanations model in two phases. In the first phase, a population-based cross-sectional survey will be conducted on 500 female workers recruited through multistage cluster sampling from healthcare settings located in Babol, Iran, and the relationship of social capital with fertility behaviors will be assessed. In the second phase, a qualitative study will be done to explain the findings of the first phase. Finally, the findings of the first phase will be explained using the findings of the second phase. DISCUSSION: Understanding the relationship of social capital with fertility behaviors is essential to effective planning for the management of population decline. The findings of the present study will provide population policy-makers with helpful information.

Fourier-based quantification of renal glomeruli size using Hough transform and shape descriptors.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Analysis of glomeruli geometry is important in histopathological evaluation of renal microscopic images. Due to the shape and size disparity of even glomeruli of same kidney, automatic detection of these renal objects is not an easy task. Although manual measurements are time consuming and at times are not very accurate, it is commonly used in medical centers. In this paper, a new method based on Fourier transform following usage of some shape descriptors is proposed to detect these objects and their geometrical parameters. METHODS: Reaching the goal, a database of 400 regions are selected randomly. 200 regions of which are part of glomeruli and the other 200 regions are not belong to renal corpuscles. ROC curve is used to decide which descriptor could classify two groups better. f_measure, which is a combination of both tpr (true positive rate) and fpr (false positive rate), is also proposed to select optimal threshold for descriptors. Combination of three parameters (solidity, eccentricity, and also mean squared error of fitted ellipse) provided better result in terms of f_measure to distinguish desired regions. Then, Fourier transform of outer edges is calculated to form a complete curve out of separated region(s). RESULTS: The generality of proposed model is verified by use of cross validation method, which resulted tpr of 94%, and fpr of 5%. Calculation of glomerulus' and Bowman's space with use of the algorithm are also compared with a non-automatic measurement done by a renal pathologist, and errors of 5.9%, 5.4%, and 6.26% are resulted in calculation of Capsule area, Bowman space, and glomeruli area, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Having tested different glomeruli with various shapes, the experimental consequences show robustness and reliability of our method. Therefore, it could be used to illustrate renal diseases and glomerular disorders by measuring the morphological changes accurately and expeditiously.

The road traffic crashes as a neglected public health concern; an observational study from Iranian population.

OBJECTIVE: Traffic crashes are multifactorial events caused by human factors, technical issues, and environmental conditions. The present study aimed to determine the role of human factors in traffic crashes in Iran using the proportional odds regression model. METHODS: The database of all traffic crashes in Iran in 2010 (n = 592, 168) registered through the "COM.114" police forms was investigated. Human risk factors leading to traffic crashes were determined and the odds ratio (OR) of each risk factor was estimated using an ordinal regression model and adjusted for potential confounding factors such as age, gender, and lighting status within and outside of cities. RESULTS: The drivers' mean age ± standard deviation was 34.1 ± 14.0 years. The most prevalent risk factors leading to death within cities were disregarding traffic rules and regulations (45%), driver rushing (31%), and alcohol consumption (12.3%). Using the proportional odds regression model, alcohol consumption was the most significant human risk factor in traffic crashes within cities (OR = 6.5, 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.88-8.65) and outside of cities (OR = 1.73, 95% CI, 1.22-3.29). CONCLUSIONS: Public health strategies and preventive policies should be focused on more common human risk factors such as disregarding traffic rules and regulations, drivers' rushing, and alcohol consumption due to their greater population attributable fraction and more intuitive impacts on society.

Pulmonary hypertension due to a pulmonary artery leiomyosarcoma: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Primary pulmonary artery sarcomas are very rare and their histologic type called leiomyosarcoma is even rarer. These tumors are frequently misdiagnosed as pulmonary thromboembolism in clinical settings. Many patients receive anticoagulant therapy without response, and many are diagnosed postmortem only. Most of the tumors reported in the literature have involved the right ventricular outflow tract and the main pulmonary trunk, often extending into the main pulmonary artery (MPA) branches. CASE REPORT: A 64-year-old woman presented with weakness, fatigue, malaise, dyspnea, and marked elevation of pulmonary artery pressure was admitted to our hospital. She was initially diagnosed with chronic pulmonary thromboembolism, and chest computed tomography (CT) scan revealed lobulated heterogeneous left hilar mass extended to precarinal and subcarinal space. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated a polypoid lesion at the trunk with extension to left MPA and its first branch. The patient was operated, and a yellowish-shiny solid mass in pulmonary trunk was seen intra-operation and pulmonary endarterectomy was performed. Her tumor was pathologically diagnosed as pulmonary artery leiomyosarcoma. CONCLUSION: Clinicians must consider pulmonary artery sarcoma when making the differential diagnosis for patients with pulmonary artery masses. The clinical prediction scores and the CT and MRI findings can help identifying patients with pulmonary artery sarcoma.

Pulmonary Hypertension due to a Pulmonary Artery Leiomyosarcoma: A Case Report.

Background. Primary pulmonary artery sarcomas are very rare and their histologic type, called leiomyosarcoma, is even rarer. Case Report. A 64-year-old woman presented with progressive weakness, fatigue, malaise, and dyspnea, and a marked elevation of pulmonary artery pressure was admitted. She was initially diagnosed with chronic pulmonary thromboembolism and chest computed tomography (CT) scan revealed that lobulated heterogeneous left hilar mass extended to precarinal and subcarinal space. MRI demonstrated a polypoid lesion at trunk with extension to left main pulmonary artery and its first branch. She was operated, a yellowish-shiny solid mass in pulmonary trunk was seen intraoperatively, and pulmonary endarterectomy was performed. Her tumor was pathologically diagnosed as pulmonary artery leiomyosarcoma. She died 3 months later after one chemotherapy course. Conclusion. Initially, the patient underwent surgery due to pulmonary embolism but, during the operation, the observed mass increased the probability of pulmonary artery neoplasm. Clinicians must consider pulmonary artery sarcoma when making the differential diagnosis for patients with pulmonary arteries masses. In addition to clinical prediction scores and CT and MRI findings to identify the patients with pulmonary artery sarcoma, PET scanning is the diagnosis of choice in differentiating embolism and neoplasm and is strongly recommended in these patients.

Comparison of surface functional groups and metal uptake efficiency of rice husk harvested from different climatic zones.

Rice husk (RH) is a very effective natural adsorbent for fast removal of heavy metal cations from water solutions. Application of RH for removal of some heavy metal ions, such as Ni, Zn, Mn, Co, Cu, Pb and Cd from water solutions has been studied and different maximum adsorption capacities and a variety of optimized conditions were reported in the literature. In this work, the efficiency of RH harvested from different climatic regions was studied. For this proposal, different RH samples were collected from three different climatic regions of Iran (nominated as RH1 to RH3); their removal efficiencies of heavy metal cations of Ni(2+), Cu(2+) and Cd(2+) were investigated and compared. The adsorption data at optimum conditions could be assessed well by both Langmuir and Freundlich models. Statistical analysis of the results of adsorption isotherms showed that different RH samples have different efficiencies in uptake of these heavy metal ions. The RH samples were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Boehm titration, which indicated that amounts of functional groups differed between RHs that are grown in different climatic conditions.

Absence of kl-vs variant of klotho gene in Iranian cardiac patients (comparison to the world populations).

OBJECTIVE: Klotho has an important role in development of coronary artery (CAD) disease. A functional variant of klotho gene (kl-vs) has been found as an independent risk factor for early-onset occult coronary artery disease (CAD) in previous studies. The Frequency of this variant was not known in Iranian population. We have examined the allele frequency of the kl-vs variant in a case-control study in an Iranian population. METHODS AND RESULTS: Genotyping for kl-vs variant was carried out in N=107 individuals including N=54 cases and N=53 control who all underwent coronary angiogram for CAD evaluation. Patients with >50% stenosis in vessels considered as case groups (or CAD^{+}) and patients with normal vessels (or CAD^{-}) as controls. The frequency of kl-vs variant was determined in these patients using PCR-RFLP technique. None of the individual was carrying the kl-vs mutation in our samples. The frequency of kl-vs mutation was significantly different from previous studies in different populations. CONCLUSION: The kl-vs variant seems to be scare found in the Iranian population in comparison to other populations reported previously. Klotho gene might be a candidate gene of atherosclerosis in some populations but not in Iranian population. Further studies are required to examine the frequency of kl-vs variant in other populations from the Middle East.

RANTES gene mRNA expression and its -403 G/A promoter polymorphism in coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVE: Increased RANTES expression has been described to have a role in atherosclerosis plaque formation. Functional polymorphisms within RANTES promoter region have shown association with increased risk of coronary atherosclerosis (CAD). The aim of this study was to examine the RANTES mRNA expression in patients with CAD compared to patients without CAD and its association with RANTES -403 G/A polymorphism in an Iranian population. METHODS: The study was performed on 319 patients who underwent coronary artery angiography and patients with >50% stenosis in vessels considered as case groups (CAD+) N=191 and normal vessels group as control (CAD-) N=128. In each group 20 patients were examined for RANTES mRNA expression. RANTES mRNA expression was examined using quantitative real-time PCR. Genotyping of -403 polymorphism was performed using PCR-RFLP technique. RESULTS: We found that RANTES mRNA expression was increased to 1.37 fold in CAD patients compared to the controls but the difference was not statistically significant. Also comparing the RANTES mRNA expression in patients with different RANTES -403 G/A polymorphism showed that in patients carrying AA genotype RANTES mRNA expression was increased to 1.74 fold compared to patients carrying GG genotype and to 1.51 fold compared to patients carrying GA genotype. No significant difference for allele and genotype frequencies of RANTES -403 polymorphism was found between cases and controls. CONCLUSION: More studies on larger number of samples are required to further evaluate role of RANTES in pathogenesis of CAD.

Speckle correlation photography for the study of water content and sap flow in plant leaves.

The speckle pattern fluctuation in the leaf of a plant is investigated by using speckle correlation photography. The speckle correlation method is used to extract the amount of speckle pattern fluctuations. The speckle pattern fluctuations are related to the water content of the sap, which is in the veinous structure of a leaf. The speed of sap flow in veins is obtained by this method.