Sharif Digital Repository

Several studies have investigated road traffic deaths, but few have compared by road user type. Iran, with an estimated 44 road traffic deaths per 100,000 population in 2002 had higher road traffic deaths than any other country for which reliable estimates can be made. So, the present study was conducted on road death data and identified fatal accident distribution by age, gender and head injury as well as the influences of age and gender on deaths at accident scenes for all road user groups. Data used in this study are on fatal road accidents recorded by forensic medicine experts of the Khorasan Razavi province in Mashhad, the capital of the province, the second largest city and the largest... 

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably affected human beings most of whom are healthcare workers (HCWs) combating the disease in the front line. Methods: This cross-sectional study aims to explore the effects of stress and anxiety caused by COVID-19 on the quality of sleep and life in HCWs, including physicians, nurses, and other healthcare staff. In this global study, we asked 1,210 HCWs (620 and 590 volunteers from Iran and European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, respectively), who age 21–70, to participate in the test. Several measures of COVID-related stress, anxiety, sleep, and life quality, including the 12-item General Health Questionnaire... 

This study was conducted to investigate the utility and efficacy of finger photoplethysmogram pulse amplitude (PPG-AC) in comparison with the standard Doppler ultrasound in assessing an endothelial function via flow-mediated dilation (FMD). High-resolution B-mode scanning of the right brachial artery (BA) of 31 healthy subjects aged 39.7 ± 11.3 (range 22-64) years and 52 risk subjects aged 47.7 ± 10.8 (range 30-65) years were performed before and after 4 min of upper arm occlusion. Concurrent with the ultrasound measurement (where color Doppler imaging was used to enhance arterial boundary detection), PPG signals were recorded from both index fingers for cross evaluation and comparison. Our... 

Ageing is one of the main contributing factors towards increasing arterial stiffness, leading to changes in peripheral pulses propagation. Therefore the characteristics of the photoplethysmogram (PPG) pulse, especially the rising edge and peak position, are greatly affected. In this study, the PPG pulse rising edge and corresponding peak position have been investigated non-invasively in human subjects as a function of age. Fifteen healthy subjects were selected and grouped in five age intervals, from 20 to 59 years, based on their comparable systolic-diastolic blood pressure and PPG amplitude. As expected, the peripheral pulse shows a steep rise and early peak in younger subjects. With age,... 

Scar tissue size following myocardial infarction is an independent predictor of cardiovascular outcomes, yet little is known about factors regulating scar size. We demonstrate that collagen V, a minor constituent of heart scars, regulates the size of heart scars after ischemic injury. Depletion of collagen V led to a paradoxical increase in post-infarction scar size with worsening of heart function. A systems genetics approach across 100 in-bred strains of mice demonstrated that collagen V is a critical driver of postinjury heart function. We show that collagen V deficiency alters the mechanical properties of scar tissue, and altered reciprocal feedback between matrix and cells induces... 

Early onset adjacent segment degeneration (ASD) can be found within six months after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). Deficits in deep paraspinal neck muscles may be related to early onset ASD. This study aimed to determine whether the morphometry of preoperative deep neck muscles (multifidus and semispinalis cervicis) predicted early onset ASD in patients with ACDF. Thirty-two cases of early onset ASD after a two-level ACDF and 30 matched non-ASD cases were identified from a large-scale cohort. The preoperative total cross-sectional area (CSA) of bilateral deep neck muscles and the lean muscle CSAs from C3 to C7 levels were measured manually on T2-weighted magnetic resonance... 

Background: Oral rehydration solution (ORS) is a form of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) for diarrhoea that has the potential to drastically reduce child mortality; yet, according to UNICEF estimates, less than half of children younger than 5 years with diarrhoea in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) received ORS in 2016. A variety of recommended home fluids (RHF) exist as alternative forms of ORT; however, it is unclear whether RHF prevent child mortality. Previous studies have shown considerable variation between countries in ORS and RHF use, but subnational variation is unknown. This study aims to produce high-resolution geospatial estimates of relative and absolute coverage of... 

Sit-to-stand (STS) is an important functional task affected by low back pain (LBP). It requires fundamental coordination among all segments of the body to control important performance variables such as body's center of mass (CM) and head positions. This study was conducted to determine whether LBPs could coordinate their multiple joints to achieve the task stability to the same extent as healthy controls. About 11 non-specific chronic LBP and 12 healthy control subjects performed STS task at three postural difficulty levels: rigid surface - open eyes (RO), rigid surface - closed eyes (RC) and narrow surface - closed eyes (NC). Motion variability of seven body segments, CM and head positions... 

Cervical cancer is the second-most-common cause of malignancies in women worldwide, and the oncogenic activity of the human papilloma virus types (HPV) E7 protein has a crucial role in anogenital tumors. In this study, we have designed a therapeutic vaccine based on chitosan nanodelivery systems to deliver HPV-16 E7 DNA vaccine, considered as a tumor specific antigen for immunotherapy of HPV-associated cervical cancer. We have developed a Nano-chitosan (NCS) as a carrier system for intramuscular administration using a recombinant DNA vaccine expressing HPV-16 E7 (NCS-DNA E7 vaccine). NCS were characterized in vitro for their gene transfection ability. Results: The transfection of CS-pEGFP... 

Recently graph theory and complex networks have been widely used as a mean to model functionality of the brain. Among different neuroimaging techniques available for constructing the brain functional networks, electroencephalography (EEG) with its high temporal resolution is a useful instrument of the analysis of functional interdependencies between different brain regions. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease, which leads to substantial cognitive decline, and eventually, dementia in aged people. To achieve a deeper insight into the behavior of functional cerebral networks in AD, here we study their synchronizability in 17 newly diagnosed AD patients compared to 17 healthy... 

Lung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of cancer mortality so, the analysis of exhaled human breath has great significance for early non-invasive diagnosis. Poor selectivity and strong humidity are two bottlenecks for the application of gas sensors to exhaled breath analysis. The development of novel extractive phases for the analysis of exhaled breath by chromatography is therefore a lucrative object. Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) are among the 3D porous materials whose unique properties make them promising coatings for solid-phase microextraction (SPME). Selective enrichment of polar or nonpolar targets depends on the pore size and functional groups on the POSSs. Herein, we... 

Objectives: The present experiment examined the role of age and fall history in upper body accelerations when walking on an even and on an uneven surface. Study design: An observational cross-sectional study. Main outcome measures: The magnitude (root mean square [RMS]), symmetry (harmonic ratio) and attenuation (attenuation coefficient) of upper body accelerations were quantified as primary outcomes; gait spatiotemporal parameters were measured as secondary outcomes. Methods: Twenty young adults (mean ± SD age: 29.00 ± 4.51 yrs), 20 older non-fallers (66.60 ± 5.43 yrs) and 20 older fallers (68.55 ± 4.86 yrs) walked on an even and on an uneven surface, while wearing four accelerometers...