فهرست مطالب hamid soltani zangbar

Cognitive flexibility, a vital component of executive function, entails the utilization of extended brain networks. Olfactory stimulation has been shown to influence various brain functions, particularly cognitive performance.

To investigate aroma inhalation's effects on brain activity dynamics associated with cognitive flexibility, 20 healthy adults were recruited to complete a set-shifting task during two experimental conditions: no aroma stimuli vs. lavender essential oil inhalation. Using Thomson's multitaper approach, the normalized power spectral density (NPSD) was assessed for five frequency bands.

Findings confirm that aroma inhalation significantly affects behavioral indices (i.e., reaction time (RT) and response accuracy) and electroencephalogram (EEG) signatures, especially in the frontal lobe. Participants showed a tremendous increase in theta and alpha NPSD, associated with relaxation, along with beta NPSD, associated with clear and fast thinking after inhaling the aroma. NPSD of the delta band, an indicator of the unconscious mind, significantly decreased when stimulated with lavender essential oil. Further, participants exhibited shorter RT and more accurate responses following aroma inhalation.

Our findings revealed significant changes in oscillatory power and behavioral performance after aroma inhalation, providing neural evidence that olfactory stimulation with lavender essential oil may facilitate cognitive flexibility.

 Spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that resulted in irreversible neuronal loss, glial scar formation and axonal injury. Herein, we used the human amniotic fluid mesenchymal stem cells (hAF-MSCs) and their conditioned medium (CM), to investigate their ability in neuroblast and astrocyte production as well as functional recovery following SCI.

 Fifty-four adult rats were randomly divided into nine groups (n=6), included: Control, SCI, (SCI+DMEM), (SCI+CM), (SCI+MSCs), (SCI+Astrocyte), (SCI+Astrocyte+DMEM), (SCI+Astrocyte+CM) and (SCI+Astrocyte+MSCs). Following laminectomy and SCI induction, DMEM, CM, MSCs, and astrocytes were injected. Western blot was performed to explore the levels of the Sox2 protein in the MSCs-CM. The immunofluorescence staining against doublecortin (DCX) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was done. Finally, Basso-Beattie-Brenham (BBB) locomotor test was conducted to assess the neurological outcomes.

 Our results showed that the MSCs increased the number of endogenous DCX-positive cells and decreased the number of GFAP-positive cells by mediating juxtacrine and paracrine mechanisms (P<0.001). Transplanted human astrocytes were converted to neuroblasts rather than astrocytes under influence of MSCs and CM in the SCI. Moreover, functional recovery indexes were promoted in those groups that received MSCs and CM.

 Taken together, our data indicate the MSCs via juxtacrine and paracrine pathways could direct the spinal cord endogenous neural stem cells (NSCs) to the neuroblasts lineage which indicates the capability of the MSCs in the increasing of the number of DCX-positive cells and astrocytes decline.

The patient is a 23-year-old Caucasian male farmer who, after topical eye contact with an insecticide, developed accommodative spasm and blurred vision in one eye. He was treated with frequent doses of 2% homatropine drop and recovered within a week.

Designing and conducting residency exams have been the province of type I universities since 2005, based on the plans of the Medical Education Council. This study compared emergency medical residency pre-board and board exam results among the universities of medical sciences in Iran.

This cross-sectional descriptive study consisted of 600 questions from residency preboard exams and 150 questions from board exams in 2013-2014, as well as 600 questions from residency promotion exams and 150 questions from the board exam in 2013-2014 and 2014- 2015 at the Tabriz, Shahid Beheshti, Mashhad, and Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences. All questions were at the level I through III by Bloom’s taxonomy. Structural principles were evaluated using Millman’s checklist. All data were analyzed using SPSS 18 with chi-square tests.

The mean percent of more contextualized questions of the questions at Bloom’s taxonomy levels II and III in residency pre-board exam questions was 76.6% in 2013-2014 and 86.6% in 2014-2015 among the four universities. In terms of structural principles, the percentage of board exam questions that aligned with Millman’s structural principles was 100.0% and 99.3% in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, respectively. For the residency pre-board exam in 2014- 2015, the mean discrimination index was 0.14 (low), and the mean of the difficulty factor was 0.64 (appropriate).

Questions at Bloom’s taxonomy levels II and III were higher in 2014-2015 in comparison to those in 2013-2014, and the percentage of the correctly-structured questions was high and did not significantly change from 2013-2014 in comparison to that of 2014-2015.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a condition which can lead to permanent loss of neurons, glial and precursor cells. According to the positive influences of electrical stimulation in the neurogenesis, we hypothesized that sub-threshold electrical stimulation in the presence of exogenous astrocyte may trigger the differential regulation of wingless-type3 (Wnt-3) and eukaryotic initiation factor-2α (eIF2α) mediators in spinal cord injured rats.

Forty male Wistar rats (weighing 250-280g) were randomly divided into four groups: sham, SCI, SCI+astrocyte and SCI+astrocyte which followed by electrical stimulation. We evaluated the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), doublecortin, Wnt-3 and eIF2α proteins by immunofluorescence and immunoblotting techniques.

The results show that expression of Wnt-3 and eIF2α proteins significantly enhanced after 14 days in the electrical stimulation+ SCI+astrocyte group in comparison with SCI and SCI+astrocyte groups. Also, the expression of GFAP cells was significantly increased after 14 days by electrical stimulation compared with other groups. Electrical stimulation had no effect on expression of doublecortin after 14 days.

This survey demonstrates that sub-threshold electrical stimulation up-regulates Wnt-3 and eIF2α mediators. Also, GFAP marker expression has been increased in animals subjected to electrical stimulation. But there are no evidences based on doublecortin expression as a neurogenesis biomarker.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging global disease that severely affects a patient's respiratory system and requires respiratory supports through mechanical ventilation in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The disease has also had effects on the pediatric community, even though its symptoms are found to be milder in children. In this study, an 8-year-old child's health management report, infected with COVID-19, is presented. The patient had a critically ill condition without a previous history of respiratory disease and underwent mechanical ventilation in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). After performing the treatment protocols, the patient was discharged from the intensive care unit after 12 days with a good condition, without any side effects.

As dementia progresses in the course of life, one's functions may be reduced regarding to fulfill the activities of daily living. One of the most important factor to diagnose and determine the severity of dementia is to assess activities of daily living.

one the most important factor in determining the severity of dementia in the area of activities of daily living is disability assessment for dementia (DAD) scale, which is not available in Persian and there is no validity and reliability report for it in Iranian community. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide a Persian version of the valid and reliable DAD scale to assess functional disability in patients with dementia of Alzheimer type within the scope of everyday living activities.

After the permission from the developer of the original scale, we translated the English version to Persian according to the international quality of life assessment (IQOLA) approach. To review the clarity and the necessity of the items translated, content validity index (CVI) and content validity ratio (CVR) methods were applied. Also, to assess the reliability of the scale, test-retest and inter-rater reliability techniques were used. The internal consistency of the items was also measured using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.

Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was very good for the scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.78) and the inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability were excellent (intraclass correlation/ICC = 0.99, ICC = 0.99). The clarity and necessity of the translated items based on the scores of CVI and CVR were also acceptable.

The Persian version of DAD, during the study, had a very good validity and reliability and can serve as a useful scale in clinical assessment of functional disability in patients with Alzheimer’s in the area of activities of daily living