The impact of a 6-year comprehensive community trial on the awareness, treatment and control rates of hypertension in Iran: experiences from the Isfahan healthy heart program

Background

Acute mental stress may contribute to the cardiovascular disease progression via autonomic nervous system controlled negative effects on the endothelium. The joint effects of stress-induced sympathetic or parasympathetic activity and endothelial function on atherosclerosis development have not been investigated. The present study aims to examine the interactive effect of acute mental stress-induced cardiac reactivity/recovery and endothelial function on the prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis.

Methods

Participants were 81 healthy young adults aged 24-39 years. Preclinical atherosclerosis was assessed by carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and endothelial function was measured as flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) using ultrasound techniques. We also measured heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and pre-ejection period (PEP) in response to the mental arithmetic and speech tasks.

Results

We found a significant interaction of FMD and cardiac RSA recovery for IMT (p = 0.037), and a significant interaction of FMD and PEP recovery for IMT (p = 0.006). Among participants with low FMD, slower PEP recovery was related to higher IMT. Among individuals with high FMD, slow RSA recovery predicted higher IMT. No significant interactions of FMD and cardiac reactivity for IMT were found.

Conclusions

Cardiac recovery plays a role in atherosclerosis development in persons with high and low FMD. The role of sympathetically mediated cardiac activity seems to be more important in those with impaired FMD, and parasympathetically mediated in those with relatively high FMD. The development of endothelial dysfunction may be one possible mechanism linking slow cardiac recovery and atherosclerosis via autonomic nervous system mediated effect.     

Molecular typing and antimicrobial susceptibility of Clostridium perfringens from broiler chickens

Clostridium perfringens (Cp) causes necrotic enteritis disease in commercial poultry. Antimicrobials are used to control and treat this disease and sometimes clinical outbreaks do not respond well to certain treatments. This study was designed to isolate Cp from clinical cases, type these isolates by multiplex PCR, and determine their antimicrobial susceptibility by micro-dilution method. A total of 67 Cp isolates were obtained from 155 broiler chicken flocks. All isolates were classified as type A and non-enterotoxin producers. Lincomycin, erythromycins, and tilmicosin showed very high minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) 50 of ≥256 μg/ml. However, tylosin, amoxicillin, ampicillin, penicillin, florfenicol, danofloxacin, enrofloxacin, chlortetracycline, doxycycline, and oxytetracycline had variable MIC?? of 64, 0.5, 1, 1, 8, 4, 8, 4, 8, 0.5 μg/ml, respectively. It is recommended that Cp infections in Jordan be treated with either penicillins or tetracyclines especially amoxicillin and oxytetracycline.     

The impact of inherited thrombophilia on surgery: A factor to consider before transplantation?

This article mainly reviews hypercoagulability—and specifically inherited thrombophilia—in different types of surgery including kidney transplantation, simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplantation, orthopedic surgery, vascular surgery, cardiac surgery and other categories of surgical procedures, with a major focus on its associated complications and the need to screen or not. A search was conducted using Medline and cross-referencing for articles related to thrombophilia, screening for it, and its association with surgical complications post-op. Thrombosis associated predisposing entities like factor V Leiden, Prothrombin and Methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase gene mutations, in addition to Protein C and S deficiencies, are discussed. In addition, common and relatively uncommon complications of thrombophilia in the above mentioned surgeries will be covered in length, as well as the necessity to screen for thrombophilia prior to the surgical step. This topic is gaining more and more importance for both surgeons and internists (especially Hematologists) and we, herein, present a general review of the published literature as an update on the subject.     

A study on the positive ellipticity in the circular dichroism of ribonuclease A

The small positive elliplicity near 239 nm in the CD spectrum of RNase has been investigated as a function of pH. Theoretical calculations using CD parameters representing buried or exposed tyrosine residues have been carried out. A comparison of the theoretical calculations with experimental data suggests that the changes in the band's intensity, as a function of pH, arise mainly from electronic transitions associated with the tyrosine residues. The buried tyrosine residues are the major contributors to the ellipticity in this region at neutral pH. At higher pH contributions from exposed residurs are also observed.     

Surface energetics to assess biomass attachment onto immobilized metal-ion chromatography adsorbents in expanded beds

Cell-to-support interaction and cell-to-cell agglomeration phenomena have been studied in a model system composed of intact yeast cells and Chelating-Streamline™ adsorbents. Biomass components and beaded adsorbents were mainly characterized by contact angle determinations with three diagnostic liquids. Complementarily, zeta potential measurements were performed. These experimental values were employed to calculate free energy of interaction versus distance profiles in aqueous media. The effect of immobilized metal-ion type and buffer pH on the interaction energy was evaluated. Calculations indicated that moderate interaction between cell particles and adsorbent beads can develop due to the presence of Cu²⁺ ions onto the solid phase. The strength of interaction increased with buffer pH, within the range 6.0 to 8.3 e.g. secondary energy pockets increased from |15| to |60| kT. Cell-to-cell secondary energy minimum was ≥ |14| kT showing low-to-moderate tendencies to aggregate, particularly at pH ≥ 8. Extended DLVO predictions were generally confirmed by biomass deposition experiments. However, an exception was found when working with immobilized Cu²⁺ at pH 8 since yeast cells were able to sequestrate such immobilized ions. Therefore, lower-than-expected values for the depositions coefficient (α) were observed. Understanding biomass attachment onto Chelating supports can help in better design and operate expanded bed adsorption of bioproducts.     

Chromium Phytoaccumulation from Solution by Selected Hydrophytes

There is increasing interest in the role of wetland plants in the aquatic phytoremediation of toxic metals. In this experiment, we evaluate the Cr removal capacity of four hydrophyte species (Nasturtium officinale L., Veronica beccabunga L., Mentha longifolia L., R.Br., Cardamine uliginosa L.) under varying nutritional conditions (full-strength and half-strength solution cultures), and over a range of Cr concentration (0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 mg L^-1). The results indicate that Cr accumulation is affected by both initial Cr concentration and strength of the nutrient solution. Phytoaccumulation increased with initial Cr concentration and plants grown in the full-strength solution accumulated more Cr at the higher initial solution concentration. Cr was predominantly accumulated in the roots, with minimal shoot translocation, which limits the hazard of Cr entering the food chain through ingestion by animals. Accumulation was large and reached up to 6700 mg Cr Kg^-1 in the roots of Veronica beccabunga.     

Interferometric optical fiber sensor for optoacoustic endomicroscopy

Optical fiber sensors can offer robust and miniaturized detection of wideband ultrasound, yielding high sensitivity and immunity to electromagnetic interference. However, the lack of cost-effective manufacturing methods prevents the disseminated use of these sensors in biomedical applications. In this study, we developed and optimized a simple method to create optical cavities with high-quality mirrors for acoustic sensing based on micro-manipulation of UV-curable optical adhesives and electroless chemical silver deposition. This approach enables the manufacturing of ultrasound sensors based on Fabry-Pérot interferometers on optical fiber tips with minimal production costs. Characterization and high-resolution optoacoustic imaging experiments show that the manufacturing process yielded a fiber sensor with a small NEP () over a broad detection bandwidth (25 MHz), generally outperforming conventional piezoelectric based transducers. We discuss how the new manufacturing process leads to a high-performance acoustic detector that, due to low cost, can be used as a disposable sensor.     

Impact of magnetically treated water on the growth and development of tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum var. Turkish)

Magnetism is one of the physical methods affecting water properties. It is considered as an environmental factor that plays a role in the physiological and biochemical reactions. A hydroponic experiment was conducted using four types of treated water (distilled water, magnetically treated distilled water, magnetically treated tap water, and tap water). Tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum var. Turkish) were placed in a growth chamber for three weeks. Plants irrigated with magnetically treated distilled water had a significant increase in the physiological parameters including shoot height and root length (P < 0.0001). The same pattern was seen in the photosynthetic rate and protein content, but no significant differences in the stomatal conductance and transpiration rate (P < 0.5601). In contrast, a significant increase of total carbohydrate content was exhibited in plant irrigated with tap water (P < 0.0064). Electron micrographs showed deformed chloroplasts with damaged thylakoid membranes associated with plastoglobules in plants irrigated with tap water and magnetically treated tap water. Lastly, this study suggests that magnetically treated water is an excellent option to improve irrigation methods and thus obtains agricultural production with high efficiency.