mohammad reza abedini

Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) has undergone extensive modification to reduce complications. One of the recent advances in minimally invasive procedures is the advent of ultra-mini PCNL (UM-PCNL), which provides miniaturized access to the kidney. However, the specific instruments applied in UM-PCNL may not be found in centers with limited resources. This study evaluated the safety, feasibility, results, and short-term compli-cation rates of performing UM-PCNL using a semi-rigid ureteroscope in preschool children.

Between September 2013 and September 2021, a total of 68 patients, including 42 boys and 26 girls with a mean age of 3.2 ± 2.4 years, underwent UM-PCNL with a 4.5French tip ureteroscope instead of an ultra-mini nephroscope in children aged less than 7 years old. The procedure was done under general anesthesia in the prone position. The nephrostomy tract was dilated to 12F. Stones were fragmented using a pneumatic litho-tripter. Irrigation was done with normal saline.

The early stone-free rate (SFR) was 91%, and the short-term total SFR was 97%. No statistically signifi-cant difference was found in pre-operative and post-operative Hb, BUN, Cr, Na+, and K+. Fever (11 patients) and ileus (5 patients) constituted the majority of complications, and only one patient required a blood transfusion. None of the cases undergoing UM-PCNL with this method required a re-do PCNL.

Our experience shows that with sufficient experience in handling semi-rigid ureteroscopes, urologists practicing in centers with limited resources could perform UM-PCNL with relatively favorable outcomes.

Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a common condition in premature babies, with a prevalence rate of 30 - 60%, and often requires medical or surgical intervention.

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of 2 different brands of ibuprofen in PDA closure in preterm infants weighing less than 1500 g.

This single-blind clinical trial study was performed on 75 premature neonates with PDA in the pediatric ward of Vali-Asr Hospital in Birjand from March 2014 to March 2019. Patients were treated with two brands of ibuprofen at doses of 10 mg/kg for the first day and 5 mg/kg for the second and third days (24 and 48 hours afterward). Before and three days after the last dose, the children were examined by pediatric cardiologist echocardiography. The data were input into SPSS version 23 and analyzed using descriptive statistics, such as mean and SD. Inferential statistics, such as the chi-square test, were also employed with a significance level of P-value < 0.05.

There was a significant difference between the rate of PDA closure, 78.8% in the Pedea group vs. 54.8% in the Ibuprofen group (P = 0.03). In the Ibuprofen group, there was no difference in drug efficacy in PDA closure between male and female neonates (P = 0.663). Also, in the Pedea group, there was a significant difference in terms of efficacy between male and female neonates (P = 0.049). No significant difference was observed in PDA closure between the two medications based on their sizes (P = 0.616 in small size, P = 0.266 in medium size, and P = 0.175 in large size).

Pedea is more effective than Ibuprofen. It reduces complications and the need for surgery. However, there was no significant relationship between the two drugs based on the PDA sizes. Therefore, it seems logical to use the Iranian brand of ibuprofen, considering the benefits equal to the foreign one.

Civilization can be considered as a social order, as a result of its existence, cultural creativity becomes possible and flows. Arbaeen, as the biggest gathering of the Shia world, includes many opportunities to display the new Islamic civilization and practice how to achieve this lofty goal. Also, different challenges may keep the flow of Arbaeen away from achieving its ultimate goal. The present study aims to present a civilizational analysis of the opportunities and challenges in the course of Arbaeen by using the analytical descriptive method and using library resources. Opportunities such as the powerful media of the modern Islamic civilization, the progressive and productive culture, humanity's need for a universal culture, creating an introduction to the thought of Mahdism as the crystallization point of the modern Islamic civilization, and creating a framework for the era of the emergence of Hazrat Hojjat bin Al-Hassan, may God bless him and grant him peace, in this Rasta has been identified and analyzed. Neglect of deep truths, superstition, individualism, moralism, emphasis on expressing love, weakness in hostility, dimming of the world view, mistaking the authority of local servants, moving away from simple life, and losing the title of pilgrim and imam are challenges. There are those who may affect the cultural flow of Arbaeen.

Effect of zeolite in preparturient diet on production, and reproduction traits in a completely randomized design with repeated measurements in time was studied. Diets included: 1) Control group (without zeolite), 2) Control+0.75% Zeolite, and 3) Control+1.5% zeolite. Dietary Ca was based of NRC recommended. The diets were fed to the animals during the last 15 days of gestation. After calving, all animals were fed with the same diet and their performance was evaluated. The control group had better raw milk production, and dry matter and energy intakes, but feed efficiency was higher in zeolite-consuming cows (P≤0.01). Protein, NDF and ADF intakes and corrected milk production (4%) were not significantly different among the groups. The milk fat percentage of zeolite-consuming cows were higher than the control (P≤0.01), but the percentages of protein, lactose and SNF were not significantly different. Plasma concentrations of total Ca, Ca++ and their ratio were similar during calving, but higher in zeolite-consuming cows at 6, 12 and 24 h postpartum (P≤0.01). The frequency of hypocalcaemia and postpartum disorders were higher in the control group than the other two groups (P≤0.01). Body condition score and colostrum quality of zeolite-consuming cows were higher than the control (P≤0.01). According to the results of this research, the use of zeolite at the level of 1.5% DM of preparturient diet is recommended and compared to the level of 0.75% DM and control group, it has a better effect on controlling blood Ca concentration and improving the production and reproductive traits of cows.

Obesity is one of the most public health challenges in the 21st century, which has increased in most countries during the last decade. This study aimed to determine factors affecting the prevalence of obesity, overweight, and central obesity among urban adults referred to Birjand health centers in 2017.

In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the data of all individuals who were registered in the Integrated health application system of Birjand (SIB) from April 2016 until March 2017 by census method. A checklist was designed to include the participants’ demographic characteristics, weight, height, and waist circumference. After coordinating with the health department of Birjand University of Medical Sciences, the authors logged in to the SIB system, collected and entered the data into the checklist. Then, the authors analyzed data using chi-square, independent sample T-test, and ANOVA tests by SPSS-22 software.

In the present study, 10,000 people participated. Their average age was of 44.3±11.8 years. The majority were females 7190 (71.9%) out of which 4827 (48.3%)were in the age group of 30 to 40 years old. The prevalence of overweight, obesity, and central obesity in urban adults who registered in the SIB system in Birjand was 3539 (35.4%), 1968 (19.7%), and 4847 (48.5%), respectively. These features for women were significantly higher than men in all age groups.

These findings revealed that obesity and abdominal obesity were high in urban adults in Birjand, which requires immediate intervention to improve the obesity status.

This study was conducted to evaluate the use of different sources in the extruded flaxseed production and its impact on the performance of laying hens and the quality of egg trays.In this experiment LSL laying hens in a completely randomized design with 9 treatments, 5 replicates and 10 hens in each replicate at the age of 34 to 42 wk-old. Experimental control treatment standard diet based on corn and soybean, treatments flaxseed full fat with 7.5 and 15% ration levels, treatments flaxseed full fat and soybean meal with 7.5 and 15% diet ration, treatments flaxseed full fat and sunflower meal with 7.5 and 15% diet ratios, treatments flaxseed full fat and corn gluten 7.5 and 15% diet rations. The results showed that using 7.5 and 15% full-fat flaxseed and corn gluten and 15% full-fat flaxseed and soybean meal improved the units (P<0.05). The highest shell weight was observed in treatments containing full-grain flaxseed and corn gluten, the difference was significant (P>0.05). Blood metabolites analysis showed that the number of white blood cells in the treatments containing full fat flaxseed and corn gluten significantly was different from the other treatments (P<0.05). But there was no significant difference in the number of heterophiles, monocytes and eosinophils (P>0.05). The results of this study showed that the use of 7.5 and 15% of extruded flax and corn gluten increases the yield and improves the quality of eggs.

Applying low-calcium to control milk fever have many problems in practice. Dietary Ca levels should be reduced by quantitative and qualitative methods such as limiting feed intake, which negatively affects the milk production and health of the cows. Anionic salts are also expensive and should be consumed before calving for a long period. It is also difficult to produce a homogeneous diet for selected cows in special section of a farm. In addition, add these salts to cows' diets reduces the palatability of the diet, decrease dry matter intake, conversely, increase negative energy balance and the concentration of non-esterified plasma fatty acids. Therefore, as an important goal of this research, it seems vital to introduce a method that solves the problems and have many advantages to improve productive traits and health related factors of fresh cows during a hot full stressed summer.

Study was performed by 60 Holstein cows near calving in 3 experimental groups using a completely randomized statistical design with repeated measurements in time. Study was done in summer season, adaptation and experimental period were 15 and 45 days from -15 to +30 after calving time, respectively. Experimental diets including: 1) Low-Ca or control diet (Ca=0.44%), 2) Anionic diet (Ca=1%), 3) Control +enriched Zeolite diet. From second week after calving the cows were fed with a fresh milking diet The DCAD of diets were +100, -100, +100 mEq/kg DM respectively. The Anionic and Zeolite supplementation were used at level of 2.8 and 1.5% based on daily DMI of cows. Experimental traits were included milk production and compositions, total and ionized plasma calcium and some reproductive disorders.

According to the results, consumption of DM and energy between diets were significantly different. Fat percentage of zeolite diet was higher than others but raw and corrected milk yield of anionic diet was the highest (P≤0.01). Plasma and ionized Ca concentration of zeolite diet were the same with two other diets at calving time but at 6, 12 and 24 hours after that were significantly higher than others (P≤0.01). The frequency of severe and subclinical hypocalcaemia was higher in control diet and older cows, but in zeolite diet was lower than others (P≤0.01). The highest BCS was for zeolite (2.98) and the lowest (2.86) for control diet (P≤0.01). The frequency of postpartum disorders (calving difficulty, retained placenta, endometritis, and abomasum displacement) was significantly lower in zeolite and anionic diets than control (P≤0.01). Highest percent of ssuccessful pregnancy, inversely, lowest percent of culled cows from herd observed in zeolits and anionic diets (P≤0.01).

According to the results, improved dry matter and energy consumption was observed in zeolite diet compared to anionic which had a direct effect on milk productive traits. Improved total and ionized Ca plasma concentrations during calving and after that and better control on hypocalcaemia and related problems in the herd, with highest BCS and a significant reduction in the frequency of postpartum disorders are of the advantages of zeolite diet. So the proposed method of calcium restriction using zeolite supplement seems to be successful and can be used as an alternative for common methods.

Urinary tract stones are one of the most common diseases in the urinary tract. Lack of kidney stone treatment causes irreparable damages to the kidneys, which has many harmful effects. Date palm pits are recom - mended in traditional medicine as an effective drug in the treatment of kidney stones. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of aqueous extract of date palm pits on kidney stones induced by ethylene glycol in male rats.

In this study, 40 rats were classified into five groups (n = 8), including the healthy group receiving normal water, the negative control group, the therapeutic groups with doses of 150 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg, and the prevention group with a dose of 300 mg/kg. In order to induce kidney stones, ethylene glycolated water (1%) was used as drinking water in the studied groups. Blood and urine of rats were collected on days 14 and 28 of the study to assess urinary parameters of calcium, creatinine, uric acid and phosphorus, and serum parameters of blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, uric acid, calcium, and phosphorus. Also, the kidneys of rats were removed from the body on day 28 of the study and were given to a pathologist for examination.

Results of serum parameters show that the use of date palm pits extract in the treatment and prevention groups with a dose of 300 mg/kg significantly ( P < .05) has reduced the levels of blood urea nitrogen, uric acid, calcium, creatinine, and phosphorus. Also, the results of urinary parameters show that the use of the extract caused a significant decrease ( P < .05) in creatinine, uric acid, and calcium in the prevention group and a significant de - crease ( P < .05) in creatinine and uric acid in the therapeutic group with a dose of 300 mg/kg. Pathological results show a decrease in the number and size of calcium oxalate crystals in renal tubules in the treatment and prevention groups in a dose-dependent manner.

The results of this study showed that the use of aqueous extract of date palm pits has been effective in the treatment and prevention of kidney stones induced by ethylene glycol in rats.

Currently medical education in Iran consists of basic sciences, physiopathology and clinical stages. Medical students learn them separately and often are confused that how basic sciences materials would be helpful for the patient’s diagnosis and treatment. Integration of various related subjects during medical education is one the proposed strategy to overcome this problem.

The present study was conducted to assess the effect of an integrated teaching approach on medical students’ attitudes and knowledge about infection diseases.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted in the infectious disease ward of Valia-e-asr Hospital affiliated to Birjand University of Medical of Sciences, Birjand, Iran. A total of 60 medical students (stagers) were randomly selected and assigned to the control and intervention groups. The two groups were matched based on their grade point average (GPA), age, and gender. An integrated teaching approach was adopted in the intervention group by four epidemiology, microbiology, infectious diseases, and pharmacology professors. The students’ knowledge was assessed by a written exam, and their attitude was evaluated using a questionnaire. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 16 and using paired and independent samples t-test.

The analyses showed that 52% of the participants were male. The mean scores in the cognitive and emotional domains (the students’ points of view) were not correlated with students’ gender, and they were not significantly different before (p= 0.12) and after (p= 0.25) the intervention. The students’ final learning scores were significantly higher in the intervention group than that of the control group (16.16±1.17 vs 14.12±1.73; p=0.001).

The integration of basic and clinical subjects helps students to better understand the physiopathology of diseases and enhances their satisfaction.

Taking unnecessary or inappropriate prophylactic antibiotics can cause infections with resistant organisms. The present study aimed to investigate administration prophylactic antibiotics in surgery ward and its compliance with standard protocol in Imam Reza teaching hospital of Birjand, Iran.

This descriptive-analytical study was performed to evaluate the pattern of prophylactic antibiotics on patients who underwent surgical operations from October to December 2019. A checklist including demographic information, type of prophylactic antibiotics, dose and duration of using drug, type of surgery, and compliance with standard protocol was used. The validity and reliability of the checklist were evaluated and confirmed prior to the study. All eligible patients were enrolled and the information of the prescribed drugs in the surgical wards was compared with the Schwartz’s principles of surgery as standard protocol.

Out of a total of 300 patients, 187 (62.3%) were male. Among the patients, 155 (51.7%) cases underwent general surgery, 119 (39.6%) cases orthopedic surgery, and 26 (8.7%) cases neurosurgery. The most popular prescribed antibiotics were cefazolin (170 cases) and ceftriaxone + metronidazole (67 cases). Furthermore, the maximum antibiotic administrations were two days (127 cases) and one day (93 cases). More importantly, 67.7% and 92.3% of the patients were in compliance with the standard protocol in terms of the type and time of administration, respectively.

Our results showed that duration and route of administrating antibiotics were consistent with the standard protocol, but the type of drugs and indication did not match.

Cuscuta epithymum (CE) is one of the most popular medicinal plants in the world. However, detailed information about its toxicity is not available. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the safety profile of CE ethanolic extract in vitro and in vivo.

The extract's in vitro toxicity profile was investigated on normal fibroblast and cervical cancer cells by cytotoxicity test. In the next step, acute oral and intraperitoneal (i.p.) toxicity of the CE extract was evaluated in Wistar rats and BALB/c mice, respectively. Sub-acute oral toxicity was also examined by administering repeated oral doses of the CE extract (50, 200, and 500 mg/kg) to Wistar rats for 28 days.

The CE extract exhibited a significant cytotoxicity on both normal (IC50 0.82 mg/ml, p<0.001) and cancer cells (IC50 1.42 mg/ml, p<0.001). Acute oral administration of a single dose of CE extract (175-5000 mg/kg) did not cause mortality; however, its i.p. administration caused mortality at doses greater than 75 mg/kg (i.p. LD50 154.8 mg/kg). In the sub-acute toxicity test, no significant effects in terms of weight change, organ weights, blood chemistry, or kidney pathology were observed. However, at 200 and 500 mg/kg doses, the CE extract significantly increased liver pathological scores compared to the control group (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively).

CE exhibited toxicities in i.p. acute and repeated oral dose administrations. It showed identical cytotoxicity against normal and cancer cells. This herb must be prescribed cautiously by traditional medicine practitioners.

The long-term sequelae of methotrexate (MTX) remain the major cause of concern for both patients and therapists. Therefore, new approaches to decrease MTX side effects are needed. The study was carried out to evaluate the effects of Iris songarica Schrenk (IS) rhizome extract against MTX-induced hepatic and renal injuries in rats.

Forty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups (n=8) including control, MTX, IS50, IS150 and IS300. Control and MTX groups were only treated orally with saline; whereas, IS50, IS150 and IS300 groups were treated with IS extract at three different doses (50, 150, and 300 mg/kg, respectively). Besides, the MTX and experimental groups were received a single dose of MTX (20 mg/kg) intraperitoneally on day 4. On the ninth day, animals were sacrificed, blood transaminases, urea and creatinine were assessed and the concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) and the activity of super-oxide dismutase (SOD) were determined in both liver and kidney tissues. Moreover, hepatic and renal damages were evaluated histopathologically.

MTX by increasing oxidative stress (MDA) and decreasing antioxidant capacity (SOD) induced hepatic and renal damages as confirmed by biochemical and histological parameters analyses. However, treatment with IS caused significant improvements in hepatic and renal histological architectures and SOD activity (p<0.01) along with reducing liver enzymes, urea, creatinine and MDA (p<0.01).

The results of the present study showed that IS extract through antioxidant and probably anti-inflammatory activities, could effectively limit MTX-induced hepatic and renal injuries in rats.

The reappearance of Imam Mahdi (may Allah hasten his reappearance) and the establishment of his government will cause widespread changes in the human life. This great evolution has a general spirit that is the manifestation of monotheism with the dominance of the Name of Hidden (al- Bāṭin). Focusing on the narrations of the Ahlul-Bayt (P.B.U.T.), this paper seeks to show how the narrations related to the reappearance of Imam Mahdi (may Allah hasten his reappearance) signify the manifestation of the Name of (al- Bāṭin) at that time.

Anti-tumor effects of crocin have been investigated in different tumors; however, its precise molecular mechanism is not exactly elucidated.

In the present investigation, we have studied pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative properties of crocin and cisplatin combination on cervical cancer cells.

Cell viability and apoptosis assays were monitored by MTT, Hoechst 33258 staining methods, respectively. The expression levels of apoptotic related genes, including Bax, Bcl-2, p53 mRNA, and miR-365 were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Using Western blot, we have also assessed the protein expression of the above apoptotic genes.

The results of this study demonstrated that the combination treatment of cells with crocin and cisplatin significantly reduced the proliferation of cancer cells and induced apoptosis. Furthermore, the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and the mRNA level of p53 markedly increased in treated cells, whereas it decreased miR-365 expression, an upstream regulator of Bcl2 and Bax.

Accordingly, crocin could be a potential candidate for more evaluations such as in vivo studies, since it shows a proper in vitro anticancer effect. It is also suggested that a combination of crocin and cisplatin could be applied as an effective and promising chemotherapy strategy.

The role and place of pharmacists 'services as one of the main pillars of the patients' treatment chain is definitely unhelpful. Research in this area suggests that pharmacist counseling leads to positive therapeutic outcomes and improves the quality of life, awareness of drug use, and patient satisfaction. This study was conducted to investigate the activities of pharmacists counseling in southern Khorasan province in 2017. This is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study. The statistical population of the present study was two groups of pharmacies and patients. All 84 pharmacies operating in Southern Khorasan Province were included in this study. In this research, two main types of tools for recording counseling behaviors, views, and opinions were used. The first evaluation tool was taken by the patients at the pharmacy at each visit. The second tool was a questionnaire, which was adapted from a questionnaire made by Allajil and Al-Banemi in Saudi Arabia. In order to close the content of the questionnaire and obtain more accurate information, This questionnaire was first reviewed by the professors and consultants, and then it was adjusted and localized by two experienced pharmacists of South Khorasan,  Spearman, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Kruskal-Wallis and Manviteni tests. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between drug counseling and satisfaction rate of the patients in the 3rd and 4th scenario at level of .05. All the relationships between the amount of drug counseling and the patient's satisfaction with counseling were significant at each level of 0.05. There was an indirect relationshiop between scenarios one and two and direct linear relationship between scenarios three and four. Regarding the fact that the overall satisfaction of the patients from all scenarios is above 50%, it can be claimed that patients received a fairly good counseling.

Effects of stocking density and the type of material used as litter on production performance and economic parameters of broilers were investigated by using 2,016 day-old Ross-308 broiler chicks in a 3×2 factorial arrangement with three levels of birds placement density [PD; 10 (control), 14, and 18 birds per square meter], and two types of bedding material [BM; wood shavings (control), and cardboard roll] based on a randomized complete block design with six treatments and four replications. The results showed that feed intake and weight gain of broilers with 10 birds density were significantly higher compared to 18, and 14 birds/m2 (P < 0.05). The feed conversion ratio of the birds that were raised on wood shavings was lower significantly in comparison with the birds grown on cardboard roll (P < 0.05). The highest values of economic indicators (benefit to cost ratio, and profit margin) were observed in PD 14 and then 18 birds/m2, both of which indicated a significant difference with the density of 10 birds/m2 (P < 0.01). Based on the results of current study, PD 14 birds/m2 in comparison with other PDs, by reducing the fixed costs of production, as well as numerical improvement in feed conversion can provide broiler farmers with more profit; moreover, cardboard roll with regard to its negative effect on feed efficiency cannot be used as an appropriate alternative for wood shavings.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women. Since pluripotency genes are one of the main contributors of cancer, designing novel combinational therapies that target them would be helpful.
In this study we assayed the anticancer effects of crocin and cisplatin on cervical cancer cells through suppression of Sox2 and Nanog. OV2008 cells were treated with crocin and cisplatin, and the viability and apoptosis were assessed by the MTT and Flowcytometery respectively. The expression levels of mRNA of pluripotency genes were detected by Real-Time PCR analysis.
Our data showed that treatment of OV2008 cells with crocin and cisplatin decrease cell viability in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Also cell cycle analysis indicated that the percentage of apoptotic cells significantly increased after treatment. Moreover, this treatment led to down-regulation of Sox2 and Nanog genes.
So it would be proposed that crocin in combination with cisplatin could induce cytotoxicity in cervical cancer cells through inhibition of pluripotency genes.

The purpose of this study is to present the case of Depersonalization and Derealization induced by Zolpidem. symptoms of depersonalization may occur in individuals who suffer from additional mental disorders, various medical conditions, and/or have taken certain medications. The subject was a 24-year-old male patient who has consumed 20 mg of Zolpidem for the treatment of primary insomnia. He complained that he suffered from a strange feeling in his limbs and hands along with a feeling of change in the environment immediately after the medication. His symptoms ceased after treatment was stopped and recurred when he restarted the drug. Medications and medical as well as psychiatric conditions, which are associated with causing symptoms of depersonalization, are reported here and the postulated pathogenesis by which some of these drugs induced depersonalization symptoms is also discussed. Medication-associated with depersonalization symptoms are typically resolved once the inducing drug has been withdrawn. We performed research questions regarding the side effect of Zolpidem and etiology of derealization as well as depersonalization in all of the databases and citation indexes. There were no results relevant to the research question. Therefore, we should assess medications such as Zolpidem as well as psychiatric conditions that are associated with causing symptoms of depersonalization.

the present study aimed to analyze the situation of knowledge management among the faculty members in the four components, including creation, linking, organization and storage, and application.
this is a survey research and the results are presented descriptively and analytically. The study tool was a questionnaire of knowledge management with 84 questions (creation of knowledge, linking and sharing of knowledge, organization and storage of knowledge and application of knowledge) in Likert scale. The reliability and validity were 0.80 and CVI=0.93, respectively. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16.
the results of the study showed that the average scores of the four components of the faculty members were as follows: creation of knowledge (33±7.09), linking of knowledge (67±15.17), organization and storage of knowledge (47±9.33), and application of knowledge (28±6). Analyzing the relationship between knowledge management and its components with academic degree and the background of the results, it was shown that there is statistically significant difference in the component of the application of knowledge (p>0.05).
the status of the faculty members of Birjand University of Medical Sciences was not desirable in the components of linking knowledge, and organization and storage of knowledge. Consequently, it seems essential to take special measures in order to empower team-working and motivate the teachers to share knowledge, such as development of group evaluation processes, group incentive programs and teaching of organization and storage of knowledge.

Ziziphus Jujube (Jujube) plant has exhibited numerous medicinal and pharmacological properties including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. This study was carried out to investigate its anti-cancer and pro-apoptotic abilities in human cervical and breast cancer cells in vitro. The cervical OV2008 and breast MCF-7 cancer cells were incubated with different concentrations of Jujube aqueous extraction (0-3 mg/ml) for various times (0-72 h). Cell viability was assessed by Trypan Blue and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The expression of two apoptosis-related genes in treated cells evaluated by quantitative Real Time -PCR analysis. Jujube significantly inhibited cancer cell viability in a dose- and time- dependent manner. Herb-induced apoptosis was associated with enhanced expression of Bax and decreased Bcl2 gene leading eventually to a time-dependent six fold increase in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. These results indicated that Jujube may be a natural potential and promising agent to prevent or treat human cancers.

A robust attitude tracking control algorithm is suggested in this paper in the presence of environmental disturbances and fault occurrence in the actuators. For this, it is assumed that the moments of inertia and the upper bounds of disturbances are unknown. Also, there is no data about the fault type. The presented solution is a novel idea in which the unknown parameters and the constant or slow changing disturbances (including the environmental effects and the actuators faults) are obtained using the adaptive updating law. The variable part of disturbances is compensated by the sliding mode control. The suggested control algorithm is continuous and has no unwinding and singularity problems. Also, the unstable equilibrium point and the ambiguity problem in the display of attitude determination outputs (the quaternions) have been solved. To develop this methodology, a three stages scenario is presented to calculate the satellite moment of inertia, the disturbances and the fault detection thresholds. This algorithm can also determine the faulty actuator. Using this feature, the fault extent in the wheels are determined and based on, the suitable correction actions are selected. In this paper, the stability of all designed algorithms is proved. At the end, different simulations are conducted to validate the algorithms. The results of these simulations verify the expected performance.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of Progesterone and Melatonin hormones on ovulation synchronization and improvement of pregnancy rate of Zandi ewes. In this study out of breeding season, 156 ewes were selected and divided into four groups. The first group (control) received no hormone injections. On ear of second group (Melatonin) were implanted a piece of Regulin contained Melatonin hormone and after 35 days, the rams released into the ewes. The ewes of third group (Progesterone) were received cidr for 12 days and 600 IU eCG intramuscularly and 48 hours after cidr removal the rams were released into the ewes. The fourth group (Melatonin and Progesterone) at first received a piece of Regulin and after 22 days received 600 IU eCG intramuscularly and 48 hours after cidr removal the rams were released into the ewes. Reproductive parameters including parity rate, lambing rate, twinning rate, litter size, weight and number of lambs were investigated. The results of this study showed that using of cidr and eCG could improve reproductive parameters compared the other groups (P< 0.05).

Recently application of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasing in children worldwide. The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence, related factors, types, the sources of information and knowledge of mothers for the possible side effects. This descriptive and analytical study carried out within three months from April-June 2012 through oral interviews and questionnaires with 300 mothers of children referred to pediatric clinic in Vali-Asr Hospital, Birjand (center of South Khorasan province: East of Iran). 35.6% of mothers had used CAM as medication at least once for their children during the last year. There was a significant and direct correlation between using CAM for children with increased maternal age, decreased level of mother’s education, mother being as a housewife and having more than two children. Most (93.3%) common treatments included medicinal herbs, oil rub (26.6 %) and prayer therapy (25.7%). Relative (72%) and neighbors (50%) were the most sources for mother’s information while physicians consist only 2% of the information source. Only 1.3% of mothers knew that CAM may also exert some side effects. Considering the fact that about one third of mothers used CAM modalities, physicians were the least maternal source of CAM information, nearly all mothers were unaware of the side effects of CAM It is recommended that physicians should learn about the CAM to enable them for providing information to parents regarding its benefits and disadvantages. It is also highly recommended to enhance community knowledge about the proper use of different kinds of CAM.