Archives of Advances in Biosciences

Myelin basic protein (MBP) is one of the most important constituents of the CNS myelin sheaths. It is supposed that an autoimmune response directed against MBP is crucial in the demyelination process in patients with multiple sclerosis. Studies have proved that free anti-MBP level in CSF of MS patients is declined when the patient entered into clinical remission. Some researchers evaluate the changes in serum or CSF level of this antibody during immunomodulatory therapy; the results are different and the relation between the changes in this antibody and response to treatment is poorly investigated. The objective of this study was to assess the relation between the changes in serum level of anti-MBP and clinical remission in patients during treatment with fingolimod. 37 MS patients that were non responder to interferon and glatiramer acetate and were candidates to receive fingolimod were nominated for this study.  In this study, the serum level of anti-MBP was evaluated before and after 3 and 6 months of therapy and clinical remission was assessed by changes in Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores. The result of this study showed that MS patients, after treatment with interferon, have lower serum anti-MBP level than healthy control group and this difference is statistically significant (p =0.03).  The present study demonstrated that the serum anti-MBP level in MS patient during 6 months of treatment with fingolimod significantly decreased (p<0.001). However, there was no significant difference in EDSS of MS patients during 6 months of treatment with fingolimod ( p < 0.001).

     Nowadays people are seeking health information to raise their awareness. They use many ways to get this information. This study examines the health information channels used by users of public libraries. The population of the present survey  consisted of 461 users of public libraries throughout the country, randomly selected in a two-stage cluster sampling method. The questionnaire data were analyzed using SPSS. Cronbach's alpha value was obtained as 0.89. Friedman test showed that there is a significant difference between the preferred channels of women and men for getting health information. Most health information was obtained through TV and the Internet channels. Most of the health knowledge was gained by users through parents, family members and self-study. Libraries played a second role after parents, schools, experiences of visiting doctors and self-study. Users preferred printed materials in the libraries to get health information. Television and the Internet were the most-used information channels. The public library as one of the channels of getting health information can provide reliable updated information to the users. Strengthening the print resources in the health field and introducing and evaluating scientific updated databases must be performed.

The aim of this study was to propose a method for improving the power of recognition and classification of thromboembolic syndrome based on the analysis of ‎ gene expression data using artificial neural networks. The studied method was performed on a dataset which contained data about 117 patients admitted to a hospital in Durham in 2009. Of all the studied patients, 66 patients were suffering from thromboembolic syndrome and 51 people were enrolled in the study as the control group. The gene expression level of 22277 was measured for all the samples and was entered into the model as the main variable. Due to the high number of variables, principal components analysis and auto-encoder neural network methods were used in order to reduce the dimension of data. The results showed that when using auto-encoder networks, the classification accuracy was 93.12. When using the PCA method to reduce the size of the data, the obtained accuracy was 78.26, and hence a significant difference in the accuracy of classification was observed. If auto-encoder network method is used, the sensitivity and specificity will be 92.58 and 93.68 and when PCA method is used, they will be 0.77 and 0.78 respectively. The results suggested that auto-encoder networks, compared with the PCA method, had a higher level of accuracy for the classification of thromboembolic syndrome status.

     One of the most important parameters describing the liposomal formulation of hydroquinone is encapsulation efficacy. For the efficacy evaluation of hydroquinone trapped in liposomal structure, there is a need to first separate liposome from the matrix surrounding it. There are various separation techniques; however, in this study, the three techniques of centrifuges with and without washing and dialysis were used. From among the laboratory techniques, an appropriate method is the one that offers responses with a high repeatability. The statistical calculations revealed that encapsulation efficacy with a direct method resulted from a separation via the techniques of dialysis and centrifuge without washing had the highest dispersion with SDs of 6.1 and 8.7, respectively, while the SD value in the technique of centrifuge with washing was 5.2. Through an indirect method, hydroquinone encapsulation efficacy showed the best repeatability with SD values of 2.8 and 2.1 by using the two techniques of centrifuge and centrifuge filtration, respectively. It seems that the treatments leading to the dilution of hydroquinone formulation would result in hydroquinone leakage and a reduction of encapsulation efficacy. It seems that measurement of hydroquinone encapsulation efficacy with an indirect method is a better choice; therefore,  a centrifuge technique was utilized to report the mentioned efficacy at a speed of 45000 rcf and duration of 30 min due to having a reasonable price and ease of access.

Notating the criteria of an expert teacher based on the  students’ viewpoints and using them in teaching process has a prominent role in enhancing the education quality. This study aims at identifying those characteristics in occupational health students' opinions. In this cross-sectional study in 2012, using random sampling method, 200 of occupational health students in Tehran University of Medical Sciences were selected. Requirement data collection was using a questionnaire with α= 0.85. The questions were designed in two domains, demographic and expert teacher criteria. Finally, data analysis was carried out through SPSS software version 16. Results showed that before, after and current education of four domains ability, features such as analysis method and text selection (81.4%), accurate and comprehensive examination in final (80.2%), dominance over the scientific subjects (91%) and in general, abilities, educational discipline and manual (86.4%) were respectively recognized as important factors for experted teacher. Moreover, no significant relationship was found among gender and field of study and the above mentioned four domains (p> 0/05). In this study, teaching ability was the most important factor in students’ viewpont; hence, it is recommended that the mentioned points should be taken inro more consideration in this domain for enhanced teachers’ operation.

Primary and widely in use Computed Tomography (CT) dose descriptor is a volumetric CT Dose Index (CTDIv) that is usually measured by a pencil ionization chamber with active length of 100mm and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) phantom. CTDIv depends on scan parameters such as mAs, kV, collimation, tube rotation time but is independent of patient’s size and shape. For the purpose of a good estimation of dose received by the patients, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) published the conversion factors for both 16 and 32cm (head and body phantoms respectively); through this, users can extract conversion factors according to lateral (LAT) and/or anterior-posterior (AP) sizes and calculate real CTDIv. Since this procedure is time consuming, we designed MATLAB-based software to reduce such calculations. To design the software, GUI toolbar of MATLAB software was used. To test the software, scan parameters of two patients for head and pelvis scan were read from PACS and lateral (LAT) and anterior-posterior (AP) sizes were measured. Finally, SSDEs were calculated for two patients by the software. The software can be measured based on AP and/or LAT measures and/or in special cases (under the age of 18) through patients' age.

Tissue engineering based on the adipose derived stem cells  promote a strong strategy to propagation of bone, cartilage and fat tissues in the three-dimensional scaffolds, fabricated by combining biological materials with suitable and appropriate growth factors.  In this study, a PEO scaffold was used to show that mesenchymal stem cells can attach well; the aim of this study was the investigation of dexamethasone (Dex) effect on the proliferation of adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (AT-MSCs). At first, the Mesenchymal stem cells were isolated from adipose tissue. After culturing the cells and having a good density of the  population, the cells were transferred to the scaffold. MTT, DAPI and SEM assays were used for evaluation of biocompatibility of PEO scaffolds, cell survival and also cell alignment of cells cultured on the PEO scaffold in comparison with the PEO-Dex. According to the MTT results, MSCs cell viability on PEO-Dex scaffold showed the significant increase compared with PEO scaffold. SEM result also showed that mesenchymal stem cells were more proliferate and grown on the PEO-Dex scaffolds and were more confluent in comparison with PEO scaffold. Evaluation of DAPI staining indicated significantly significant cell  nucleus increase in PEO-Dex compared with PEO group. The results manifested that PEO-Dex could be a suitable scaffold for growing mesenchymal stem cells and is a promising candidate for tissue engineering application.

Shigellosis is one of the important gastrointestinal bacterial infections, particularly among children of developing countries such as Iran. Antibiotic susceptibility pattern and genetic typing for epidemiological purposes are of significant issues in Shigella infectious control. The aim of this study was to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility and genetic relationship among Shigella strains isolated from children with shigellosis at paediatric hospital in Ahvaz, south west of Iran. This study included all Shigella strains isolated from paediatric patients with diarrhea admitted to Abuzar pediatric hospitals in Ahvaz, during January-June 2015. Shigella isolates were identified using standard microbiological and serological methods. Shigella spp strains also were studied by antimicrobial susceptibility testing and Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC) - PCR analysis. Total of 50 Shigella strains were isolated from children with dysentery diarrhea. In total, 31 (62%) were identified as Shigella flexneri, 16(32%) and 3 (6%) were Shigella sonnei and Shigella boydii respectively. High level resistance were detected against ampicillin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and cephalotine. All isolates were sensitive to ceftriaxone, imipenem gentamicin and amikacin. The results of ERIC-PCR data analysis showed 11 different types of Shigella with four closely-related patterns. S. flexneri was the predominant serogroup of Shigella spp. in children in the referral pediatric hospital in Ahvaz. Ampicillin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole is no longer recommended for shigellosis empirical treatment and should be replaced by other antibiotics such as ceftriaxone or ciprofloxcacin. Diverse but genetically close strains of shigella were responsible for shigellosis in paediatric patients in Ahvaz, south west of Iran.