Advanced Biomedical Research
Volume:10 Issue: 1, Jan 2020

The incidence of overweight and obesity in children has increased in recent decades. Physical activity (PA), which is a multidimensional behavior, has an important role in preventing and decreasing obesity. The aim of the study is to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and exercise habits of middle school students and also explore the differences regarding demographic variables in Isfahan, Iran.

One thousand seven hundred and forty-one middle school students were studied in this cross-sectional study, in 2015, Isfahan. Knowledge, attitude, and pattern of PA were evaluated by a questionnaire. Data were described using central tendency and dispersion values, as well as t-test, Chi-square, ANOVA, and linear regression tests for further analysis.

Students living in Khour and Biabanak and Tiran got the highest and lowest scores in knowledge (mean ± standard deviation: 9 ± 1.32 and 6.7 ± 2.19, respectively). Education of the father is the only variable which was associated with the knowledge about PA after adjusting for other factors. About 62.5% of the students mentioned a good attitude toward PA. About 50% of the students said that they always and often do exercise. The most favorable exercise for all the students was walking.

We provide the pattern of PA among middle school students of Isfahan province, which can be used to design evidence-informed policies and interventions that aim to increase PA in students.

In most countries, the age of addiction is declining, and the prevalence of adolescent addiction is increasing. Many factors can affect the addiction tendency; one of them can be a sense of responsibility. This study was designed to evaluate the probable relation between addiction tendency and responsibility.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in Isfahan in 2018. A total of 496 high school students aged from 15 to 18 years were selected by a multistage cluster and systematic random sampling method. Students' responsibility and adolescents' addiction tendency questionnaire were used. The collected data were analyzed by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20 using Chi-square test, independent t-test, multivariate analysis of variance, and linear regression.

The mean age of participants was 16.50 ± 1.12. The results showed that boys' out-of-home activities were more than girls (P < 0.001), but there was no significant difference between girls and boys regarding indoor activities. Furthermore, it was found that girls were more responsible than boys (P = 0.004) and addiction tendency was higher in boys (P = 0.001). Social responsibility and addiction tendency had a significant negative relationship in this research (P < 0.001). In addition, parents' education, the feeling of belonging, and the sense of security had an effect on the addiction tendency (P < 0.001 for all).

This study showed that social responsibility could affect the addiction tendency.

We conducted a study to evaluate the relationship between aura types and postoperative outcomes in patients with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) to predict the prognosis of patients, accordingly.

In this cross-sectional study, 99 patients with MTS-temporal lobe epilepsy were enrolled based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The types of aura were evaluated, and the outcomes were categorized according to theEngel scale. Preoperative and postoperative results of patients were compared and analyzed with the Kruskal–Wallis test.

About 73.7% of patients had seizure-free after their surgeries. The most of patients (n = 81)were in Class I of Evaluating Engel criteria. About 36.3% had not experienced any aura before their seizures, and among those with aura, the most prevalent aura was abdominal aura in 29 patients (29.3%) followed by other types of aura and affective aura. Most of the patients in Class I, II, III, and IV of Engel scale had an abdominal aura, without aura, effective aura, and abdominal aura, respectively, but this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.691).

According to this study, the type of aura cannot predict postoperative outcomes in MTS patients. More studies are needed to evaluate this relation in better-planned studies with greater sample size.

Dermatomycoses contain superficial fungal infections of keratinized layers of the body such as skin, hair, and nail that affect more than 20%–25% of people and animals worldwide. Some fungi can cause superficial infections in animals after accidental penetration and colonization on injured skin and can be transmitted to humans by exposure. The infection caused mainly by dermatophyte species and may also be caused rarely by yeasts and nondermatophytic molds.

Eighty-two skin scrapings and hair samples were collected from animals (sheep, cow, cat, camel, calf, goat, horse, and dog) in three specialized pet clinics and three livestock and slaughterhouses. The isolates were identified using direct microscopy, culture, and polymerase chain reaction-sequencing of ITS1-5.8SrDNA-ITS2 region.

Thirteen mold strains out of 82 clinical samples (15.8%) were isolated from animal lesions. Acremonium exuviarum (n = 4; 30.7%), Sarocladium implicatum (n = 2; 15.4%), Arthroderma otae (n = 2; 15.4%), Chaetomium iranianum (n = 1; 7.7%), Trichothecium roseum (n = 1; 7.7%), Lichtheimia ramosa (n = 1; 7.7%), Penicillium chrysogenum (n = 1; 7.7%), and Microsporum equinum (n = 1; 7.7%) were isolated from clinical specimens.

Since opportunistic fungi are increasing as etiological agents of dermatomycoses, isolation of these molds from wounds can be a warning to veterinarians, and daily cleaning of wounds with a proper disinfectant is recommended for the prevention of fungal colonization.

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a protozoan parasite that infects a wide range of warm-blooded animals and humans. The conventional anti-Toxoplasma treatments cause significant toxicity. Brassicaceae family contains several medicinal plants with anti-inflammatory, chemopreventive, insecticide, antibacterial, antiviral, and antiparasitic effects. In this study, the hydroalcoholic extract of some Brassicaceae species was investigated against T. gondii in vitro.

Seeds of Alyssum homolocarpum, Lepidium perfoliatum, Lepidium sativum, and aerial parts of Nasturtium officinale and Capsella bursa-pastoris were extracted by maceration method using 80% ethanol. Vero cells were treated with different concentrations (5–600 μg/mL) of the extracts and pyrimethamine (as positive control), and the cellular viability was verified. Next, Vero cells were infected by T. gondii tachyzoites (RH strain), and the viability of the infected cells was measured by a colorimetric 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay.

The 50% inhibitory concentration values were 5.1, 14.67, 32.49, 37.31, 71.35, and 2.63 μg/mL, and the selectivity indices were 8.06, 2.59, 0.74, 0.78, 0.65 (P < 0.05 compared with positive control), and 3.03 for L. sativum, L. perfoliatum, N. officinale, A. homolocarpum, C. bursa-pastoris, and pyrimethamine, respectively.

The results of this study demonstrated that the hydroalcoholic extracts of L. sativum and L. perfoliatum have the promising anti-Toxoplasma activity by growth inhibition of T. gondii tachyzoites in infected cells.