Sharif Digital Repository

Introduction: Paranormal beliefs are defined as the belief in extrasensory perception, precognition, witchcraft, and telekinesis, magical thinking, psychokinesis, superstitions. Previous studies corroborate that executive brain functions underpin paranormal beliefs. To test this hypotheses, neurophysiological studies of brain activity are required. Methods: A sample of 20 students (10 girls, Mean±SD age: 22.50±4.07 years) were included in the current study. The absolute power of resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) was analyzed in intra-hemispheric and inter-hemispheric coherence with eyes open. The paranormal beliefs were determined based on the total score of the revised paranormal... 

Body weight is influenced by both food intake and energy expenditure. Acylated ghrelin enhances appetite, and its circulating level is suppressed by Growth Hormone. Data on the acylated ghrelin responses to exercise of different intensities in obese individuals are currently not available. This study examined the effects of an intermittent exercise protocol on acylated ghrelin levels and hunger ratings in obese people. Nine inactive male ran on the treadmill at 0900 with progressive intensities of 50, 60, 70, and 80% of VO2max for 10, 10, 5, and 2 min respectively. Blood samples were collected before the exercise at 0845 (-15 min as the resting values), after each workload (10, 23, 31, and... 

Pemphigus vulgaris is an autoimmune disease, in which the role of Th17 cytokines needs to be further explored. This study was performed to assess serum levels of three interleukins (IL) required for Th17 differentiation (IL-β, IL-6 and IL-23) and two specific Th17 cytokines (IL- 17 and IL-22) in a group of patients with pemphigus vulgaris, at baseline, 3 weeks and 6 months after of treatment. Correlations between anti-desmogleins and cytokines with disease severity as well as the influence of therapy on the above factors were assessed. Forty-three first-admitted pemphigus vulgaris patients with the active disease entered the study, but only 31 completed the study. Forty-five healthy... 

Aim: The aim of this study was to search for metabolic biomarkers of Crohn's disease (CD). Background: Crohn's disease (CD) is a type of inflammatory bowel disease that causes a wide variety of symptoms. CD can influence any part of the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus. CD is not easily diagnosed because monitoring tools are currently insufficient. Thus, the discovery of proper methods is needed for early diagnosis of CD. Patients and methods: We utilized metabolic profiling using proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1HNMR) to find the metabolites in serum. Classification of CD and healthy subject was done using partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA).... 

Although several studies have applied traditional linear measures to evaluate postural control of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), little is known about the nonlinear dynamics of this patient group. In this study, recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), a well documented nonlinear method, was used to compare the nonlinear dynamical structure of postural sway in two groups consisting of MS patients (. n=. 23) and healthy matched controls (. n=. 23). The study focuses on three levels of postural difficulty consisting of (1) standing on a rigid surface (force platform) with eyes open, (2) standing on a rigid surface with eyes closed, and (3) standing on a foam surface with eyes closed.... 

Aim: The aim of this study is to look for the proper methods that would be a major step towards untreated CD diagnosis and seek the metabolic biomarkers causes of CD and compare them to control group. Background: Celiac disease (CD) is a common autoimmune disorder that is not easily diagnosed using the clinical tests. Patients and methods: Thirty cases and 30 controls were entered into this study. Metabolic profiling was obtained using proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1HNMR) to seek metabolites that are helpful for the detection of CD. Classification of CD and healthy subject was done using random forest (RF). Results: The obtained classification model showed an 89% correct... 

A safe rehabilitation exercise for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries needs to be compatible with the normal knee arthrokinematics to avoid abnormal loading on the joint structures. The objective of this study was to measure the amount of the anterior tibial translation (ATT) of the ACL-deficient knees during selective open and closed kinetic chain exercises. The intact and injured knees of fourteen male subjects with unilateral ACL injury were imaged using uniplanar fluoroscopy, while the subjects performed forward lunge and unloaded/loaded open kinetic knee extension exercises. The ATTs were measured from fluoroscopic images, as the distance between the tibial and femoral reference... 

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... 

This study was designed to investigate the effect of changing the location of the center of mass (COM) of transfemoral prostheses on the spatiotemporal and kinematical characteristics of the amputee gait, while maintaining the prosthetic mass fixed. Ten men with unilateral traumatic transfemoral amputation participated in gait analysis, 2-min walk and subject preference tests. Weights were added to the original prosthetic legs in three conditions: 600. g added to the ankle, 600. g added at 10. cm distal to the prosthetic knee, and 300. g added to the ankle, and 300. g at 10. cm distal to the knee. For each prosthetic mass condition, the stride and step lengths, stepping speed, stance, swing... 

Aim. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a training program on body composition, GH, IGF-1 and insulin in overweight and obese female college students. Methods. The 17 overweight college student females divided into 2 groups: Experimental group (E) with 3 sessions per week, 6 weeks duration (N=9,Age=18.9 ± 1.3,BMI= 28.8 ± 2.6), and non-exercising control group (C) (N=8, Age=19.3 ± 1.8, BMI=26.3 ± 0.9). All measures included Vo2max, body composition, IGF-1, GH and insulin were done at baseline and following the protocol. Results. The calorie intake increased in both groups when compared to the baseline. The Vo2max increased statistically significant in E, and decreased in C.... 

Objectives: Previous research has shown inconsistent findings regarding muscle endurance in chronic low back pain (CLBP). Questions also remain about muscle endurance in patients with clinical instability. The aim of this study was to investigate trunk muscles strength and endurance in CLBP patients with and without clinical instability. Methods: 32 CLBP patients (15 with and 17 without clinical instability) and 39 matched healthy subjects participated in this study. The standing extension test was performed to assess the strength and endurance of the lumbar extensors while recording their electromyographic activity. The patients' disability was evaluated using the Oswestry and Roland-Morris... 

Background: Celiac disease (CD) is a disorder associated with body reaction to gluten. After the gluten intake, an immune reaction against the protein occurs and damages villi of small intestine in celiac patients gradually. Objectives: The OSC, a filtering method for minimization of inter- and intra-spectrom-eter variations that influence on data acquisition, was applied to biofluid NMR data of CD patients. Patients and Methods: In this study, metabolites of total 56 serum samples from 12 CD patients, 15 CD patients taking gluten-free diet (GFD), and 29 healthy cases were analyzed using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and associated theoretical analysis. Employ-ing ProMetab (version... 

Background: Body weight is regulated by both food intake and energy expenditure. Ghrelin, a hormone produced by the stomach and pancreas, enhances appetite. This study was undertaken to determine the effects of intermittent treadmill running on acylated ghrelin and appetite in individuals with obesity. Methods: Nine inactive male students, with a mean age of 20.56±0.48 yrs, a body mass index of 32.68±0.84 kg/m2 and a maximum oxygen uptake of 34.21±1.48 ml/kg/min, participated in the study in two trials (control and exercise) in a counterbalanced, randomized design. The protocol included intermittent running with a constant intensity at 65% of VO2 max on a treadmill. Blood samples were... 

Objective Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) are paroxysmal events that, in contrast to epileptic seizures, are related to psychological causes without the presence of epileptiform EEG changes. Recent models suggest a multifactorial basis for PNES. A potentially paramount, but currently poorly understood factor is the interplay between psychiatric features and a specific vulnerability of the brain leading to a clinical picture that resembles epilepsy. Hypothesising that functional cerebral network abnormalities may predispose to the clinical phenotype, the authors undertook a characterisation of the functional connectivity in PNES patients. Methods The authors analysed the whole-head... 

Background: Air pollutants have not been associated with ambulatory electrocardiographic evidence of ST-segment depression ≥ 1 mm (probable cardiac ischemia). We previously found that markers of primary (combustion-related) organic aerosols and gases were positively associated with circulating biomarkers of inflammation and ambulatory blood pressure in the present cohort panel study of elderly subjects with coronary artery disease. Objectives: We specifically aimed to evaluate whether exposure markers of primary organic aerosols and ultrafine particles were more strongly associated with ST-segment depression of ≥ 1 mm than were secondary organic aerosols or PM 2.5 (particulate matter with... 

There is ambiguity on the quantitative validity of the predictions revealed by musculoskeletal models for muscle forces. This study investigated the consistency between the predictions of a musculoskeletal model of the upper limb and the experimental data for a number of different subjects and functional tasks. Six normal subjects performed isokinetic eccentric or isotonic concentric contraction tests of the wrist muscles in well controlled conditions, using a robotic apparatus, and the net joint torque and angular velocities, as well as the surface electromyograms (EMG) signals of the muscles, were recorded. The experiments were then simulated using a parametric musculoskeletal model of... 

Knowledge about the non-linear dynamical pattern of postural sway may provide important insights into the adaptability (flexibility) of human postural control in response to everyday stresses imposed on the body. A commonly used non-linear tool, i.e. recurrence quantification analysis, was chosen to investigate the effect of prior anterior cruciate ligament injury on the deterministic pattern of postural sway under different conditions of postural and cognitive difficulty. In double leg stance, as postural difficulty increased from open-eyes to closed-eyes and rigid-surface to foam-surface, the centre of pressure regularity (%determinism) increased as well. In comparison to healthy... 

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of the various osteotomy parameters on the biomechanical aspects of the hip joint on a computerised model. The data of the radiographs and a three-dimensional (3D) CT scan of six patients with coverage deficient hip joint were used to construct a 3D computer model. Then Chiari type osteotomies were simulated using various heights, angles and fibrocartilage thicknesses. A new angle called the mid acetabular center edge (MACE) angle was defined in a mid coronal CT cut. The optimum displacement for obtaining the maximum coverage averaged 73%. The angle and height of the osteotomy had a significant effect on the MACE angle (P value∈<∈0. 01). Our... 

Recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), a nonlinear method of postural analysis, was used to explore the effects of dual-tasking on postural performance in people with nonspecific low back pain (LBP) compared with healthy participants. Postural performance was quantified by RQA % recurrence, % determinism, entropy and trend. People with nonspecific LBP (n = 22) and unimpaired individuals (n = 22) randomly performed quiet standing tasks with three levels of difficulty (rigid-surface eyes open, rigid-surface eyes closed and foam-surface eyes closed). These tasks were performed in isolation or concurrently with an easy or difficult cognitive task. Increasing postural difficulty was associated... 

Multiple joint interactions are critical to produce stable coordinated movements and can be influenced by low back pain and task conditions. Inter-segmental coordination pattern and variability were assessed in subjects with and without chronic nonspecific low back pain (CNSLBP). Kinematic data were collected from 22 CNSLBP and 22 healthy volunteers during repeated trunk flexion-extension in various conditions of symmetry, velocity, and loading; each at two levels. Sagittal plane angular data were time normalized and used to calculate continuous relative phase for each data point. Mean absolute relative phase (MARP) and deviation phase (DP) were derived to quantify lumbar-pelvis and...