Comparing analgesic effects of a topical herbal mixed medicine with salicylate in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis is the most common cause of disability among people and it is a common disease of joints that can lead to cartilage damage. In this study the analgesic effects of a herbal ointment containing cinnamon, ginger, mastic (Saghez) and sesame oil is compared with Salicylate ointment in patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis. It was a double-blind randomized controlled trail study. Patients with diagnosed arthritis were involved in the study and they were divided in two groups via block randomization method. For six weeks, twice a day, intervention group applied herbal ointment and control group used Salicylate ointment. The severity of pain, morning stiffness and limited motion were measured using Visual Analog Pain Scale. In order to analyze the trends of these three indexes, repeated measurement test was used. Ninety two participates with the mean age of 52.2 (+/- 12.4) years and with the mean disease period of 30.45 (+/- 30.3) months were involved in the study. There was no significant difference between two groups regarding the distribution of sex, weight, height, BMI and the duration of illness. No statistical difference was observed between two groups regarding pain relief, morning stiffness and limited motion; nevertheless in repeated measurements during second, forth and sixth weeks in both groups the decreasing trend of these three indexes had been statistically significant (p < 0.0001). It seems that using this herbal combination is clinically effective for patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis in order to decrease their pain, morning stiffness and limited motion; its effect is comparable with Salicylate ointment.     

A new color index for vegetation segmentation and classification

Color vegetation indices enable various precision agriculture applications by transforming a 3D-color image into its 1D-grayscale counterpart, such that the color of vegetation pixels can be accentuated, while those of nonvegetation pixels are attenuated. The quality of the transformation is essential to the outcomes of computational analyses to follow. The objective of this article is to propose a new vegetation index, the Elliptical Color Index (ECI), which leverages the quadratic discriminant analysis of 3D-color images along a normalized red (r)—green (g) plane. The proposed index is defined as an ellipse function of r and g variables with a shape parameter. For comparison, the ECI’s performance was evaluated along with six other indices, by using 240 color images as a test sample captured from four vegetation species under different illumination and background conditions, together with the corresponding ground-truth patterns. For comparative analysis, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and the precision–recall (PR) curves helped quantify the overall performance of vegetation segmentation across all of the vegetation indices evaluated. For a practical appraisal of vegetation segmentation outcomes, this paper applied Gaussian filtering, and then the thresholding method of Otsu, to the grayscale images transformed by each of the indices. Overall, the test results confirmed that ECI outperforms the other indices, in terms of the area under the curves of ROC and PR, as well as other performance metrics, including total error, precision, and F-score.

     

Pre-treatment effect of different doses of soy isoflavones on spatial learning and memory in an ovariectomized animal model of Alzheimer's disease

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different doses of dietary soy meals (with or without isoflavone) on dementia in ovariectomized (OVX) animal model of Alzheimer's disease. Female Wistar's rats with the exception of intact group were ovariectomized at the first line of study. Animals were divided into 2 main groups: control (c) and pre-treatment groups. Animals in pre-treatment groups received one of five types of diet during four weeks prior Nucleus Basalis Magnocellularis (NBM) electrical lesion normal diet (0), 10 g soy with isoflavone (10), 20 g soy with isoflavone (20), 10 g soy without isoflavone (-10) and 20 g soy without isoflavone (-20) in 30 g daily diet. The spatial learning and memory were tested using Morris water maze after electrical lesion. Rats were trained in water maze to find a hidden escape Platform. Rats received 6 blocks that each block consisted of 3 trials. Following acquisition trials, one probe trial was conducted in which the platform was removed. Soy meal diet (with or without isoflavone) in ovariectomized rats with Alzheimer's disease caused improvement of performance across 18 trials of Acquisition. Our results suggest that soy meal is a potential alternative to estrogen in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.     

Shortening transplantation periods of potato plantlets by use of potassium humate and kadostim and their effects on mini-tuber production

Plantlets produced from meristem culture of six advanced cultivars (Agria, Advanced clone 397007-9, Marfona, Sante, Satina and Ceaser) propagated by single node cuttings arranged in a RCBD base factorial design with ten replications. Factor A was plantlets produced from meristem culture of advanced cultivars and factor B was seven treatments (four concentrations of potassium humate as 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 mL, one concentrations of kadostim as 1 mL, compound concentration of potassium humate and kadostim as 1 ml L(-1) MS media culture and without them as control). Produced plantlets transplanted into the planting beds of Pitmass (Biolan) with punce (1:1 v/v) in the greenhouse. Some of traits measured such as average weight and number of mini-tuber per plant after harvesting. Results of analysis of variances showed the significant differences between effects of kadostim and potassium humate on advanced cultivars, for transplantation into the greenhouse, stem solidity and rhizo-genesis characters. So transplantation days decreased from 30 to 13 days in MS media culture with compound of potassium humate + kadostim by concentration of 1 ml L(-1) MS media culture, also decreased to 15 days in MS media culture with kadostim by concentration of 1 ml L(-1) MS media culture and also decreased to 22 days in MS culture with potassium humate by concentration of 1 and 1.5 ml L(-1) MS media culture and plantlets had the highest stem solidity and better rhizo-genesis in all of treatments. Agria, Sante and Marfona transplanted earlier and Ceaser transplanted later than others to the greenhouse. Compound concentration of potassium humate and kadostim 1 ml L(-1) MS media culture had the highest number of mini-tubers per plant and potassium humate 0.5 ml L(-1) MS and Kadostim 1 ml L(-1) MS had the highest mini-tuber weight per plant and average of mini-tuber weight per plant. Agria had the highest number and average of weight of mini-tubers per plant. Potassium humate 0.5 ml L(-1) MS in satina, kadostim 1 ml L(-1) MS in marfona and potassium humate + kadostim 1 ml L(-1) MS in Agria had the highest number of mini-tubers per plant. Increasing rate of weight and number of mini-tubers per plant with potassium humate and kadostim in all of advanced cultivars were more than control.     

Epidemiological aspects of Pediculosis capitis and treatment evaluation in primary-school children in Iran

This study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of and epidemiological factors associated with, head lice infections in Iranian primary schools in 2006 and evaluate data on the therapeutic efficacy of lindane shampoo. A total of 40586 children (19774 boys (48.72%) and 20812 girls (51.28%)] from 198 Governmentprimary schools in Kerman, were screened for head lice between March and June 2006. The diagnosis of head lice infestation was confirmed by clinical inspection of scalp and hair for the presence of adult lice nymphal stage, or eggs (nit) by line-toothed head lice comb. All children infested with lice were treated with lindane shampoo (1% gamma benzene hexachloride). The overall prevalence of head lice infestation was 1.8%. The prevalence of infestation was significantly higher in girls (2.9%) than in boys (0.6%) (p = 0.000). The infestation rate was greater among pupils who were living in rural areas (4.6%) than in urban areas (1.5%). Of the 721 children with a positive examination result, 424 pupils (58.8%) were reported as having been infested with head lice in the previous 6 months. Mother's education level was a significant risk factor in this model (p < 0.05). At 2 weeks after the primary treatment, the success rates of treatment were 49%. Comprehensive survey in our work showed the better future of the disease and related factors. Education campaigns by health care officials, physicians and teachers are expected to be helpful for head lice control. It is essential that governments should be supported form cooperation between the school authorities and public health centers to successful control head lice infestation in primary school. Also there is an urgent need to identify safe, novel insecticides for proved efficacy.     

Effects of onion on serum uric acid levels and hepatic xanthine dehydrogenase/xanthine oxidase activities in hyperuricemic rats

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of onion on serum uric acid levels and hepatic Xanthine Dehydrogenase/Xanthine Oxidase activities in normal and hyperuricemic rats. Hyperuricemia was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 250 mg kg(-1) potassium oxonate in rats. Oral administration of onion at 3.5 and 7.0 mg kg(-1) day(-1) for 7 days was able to reduce serum uric acid levels in hyperuricemic rats with no significant effects on the level of this compound in the normal animals. In addition, onion when tested in vivo on rat liver homogeneities elicited significant inhibitory actions on the Xanthine Dehydrogenase (XDH) and Xanthine Oxidase (XO) activities. This effect resulted less potent than that of allopurinol. However, the hypouricemic effect observed in the experimental animal did not seem to parallel the change in XDH and XO activities, implying that the onion might be acting via other mechanisms apart from simple inhibition of enzyme activities. Such hypouricemic action and enzyme inhibitory activity of onion makes it a possible alternative for allopurinol, or at least in combination therapy to minimize the side-effects of allopurinol, in particular in long-term application.     

Hypocholesterolemic effects of dietary soybean vs. casein proteins in a crossed over diets in rat

To investigate the effects of dietary proteins on the level of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and high density lipoprotein (HDL), 32 male Wistar rats were randomly divided in control and 3 experimental groups (El, E2 and E3). The feeding regimes of rats were as follow: control, standard diet; E1, a cholesterol free diet containing 20% soybean protein; E2, a cholesterol free diet containing 20% casein and E3, a cholesterol free diet containing 10% soybean protein and 10% casein. The experimental period was 11 weeks but at the end of 7th week the diets of E1 and E2 groups were crossed over for the next 4 weeks. Blood samples were collected weekly, via the ophthalmic sinus and the serum levels TC, TG and HDL were measured. In comparison with control group, the results show that at the end of 7th week TC levels in E1 and E2 groups were significantly (p<0.05) increased while HDL level unchanged and the TC value of E2 was bigger (not significant) than E1. However by crossing over the diets, the TC level was significantly (p<0.05) diminished in E2 while TG value remarkably (p<0.05) increased. These results indicate that soybean protein may insert its hypocholesterolemic effect in hypercholestrolemic condition than in normolipidemic condition.     

Application of two way indicator species analysis in lowland plant types classification

A TWINSPAN classification of 60 sample plots from the Khanikan forest (North of Iran) is presented. Plant types were determined from field observations and sample plot data arranged and analyzed in association tables. The types were defined on the basis of species patterns of presence, absence and coverage values. Vegetation was sampled with randomized-systematic method. Vegetation data including density and cover percentage were estimated quantitatively within each quadrate and using the two-way indicator species analysis. The objectives of the study were to plant type's classification for Khanikan lowland forest in North of Iran, Identification of indicator species in plant types and increase our understanding in regarding to one of Multivariate analysis methods (TWINSPAN). Five plant types were produced for the study area by TWINSPAN, i.e., Menta aquatica, Oplismenus undulatifolius, Carex grioletia, Viola odarata and Rubus caesius. Therefore, at each step of the process, the program identifies indicator species that show strongly differential distributions between groups and so can severe to distinguish the groups. The final result, incorporating elements of classification can provide a compact and powerful summary of pattern in the data set.     

The use of principal component analysis in studying physical, chemical and biological soil properties in southern caspian forests (North of Iran)

This research was conducted in Khanikan forests located in lowland of Mazandaran province (North of Iran). Eighteen profiles were dug and several chemical, physical and biological soil properties were investigated. The soil properties evaluated were soil pH, bulk density, saturation moisture content, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, total nitrogen, cation exchangeable capacity, available phosphorous, soil texture, calcium carbonate content, number and biomass of earthworms, litter carbon and litter nitrogen. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify the variation of soil properties. PCA, a technique which reduces the dimensionality of multivariate data by removing Interco relations among variables, has a number of useful applications in forest researches. The results showed significant relationships between some soil factors with PC1 and PC2 axes, also, among different soil factors, the distribution of forest types was most strongly controlled with some soil characteristics such as acidity, bulk density, texture, phosphorous, organic carbon, total nitrogen and cation exchangeable capacity.     

Inotropic and chronotropic effects of 6-hydroxy-4-methylquinolin-2(1H)-one derivatives in isolated rat atria

Background: Selective phosphodiesterase (PDE3) inhibitors improve cardiac contractility and may use in congestive heart failure. However, their proarrhythmic potential is the most important side effect. Methods: In this research, we evaluated the potential cardiotonic activity of six new synthesized selective PDE3 inhibitors (6-hydroxy-4-methylquinolin-2(1H)-one derivatives) using the spontaneously beating atria model. In each experiment, atrium of reserpine-treated rat was isolated and the contractile and chronotropic effects of a synthesized compound were assessed. The 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine, a non-selective PDE inhibitor, was used for comparison. Results: The results showed that, among new compounds, the best pharmacological profile was obtained with the compound 6-[4-(4-methylpiperazine-1-yl)-4-oxobutoxy]-4-methylquinolin-2(1H)-one, C6, which displayed selectivity for increasing the force of contraction (168 +/- 5% change over the control) rather than the frequency rate (138 +/- 5% change over the control) at 300 muM. However, C6 at concentrations of 10 and 100 muM produced left and upward shift in the positive inotropic concentration-response curve of isoprenaline. The -log EC50 of isoprenaline was 8.843 +/- 0.171 in the absence, 9.448 +/- 0.138 and 9.456 +/- 0.107 in the presence of 10, 100 muM of C6, respectively (P<0.001, n = 6). Also, amrinone, a selective PDE3 inhibitor, shifted the isoprenaline concentration-response curve to the left and upward. The concentration of 10 and 100 muM amrinone decreased -log EC50 of isoprenaline to 9.527 +/- 0.287 and 9.423 +/- 0.243, respectively (P<0.001, n = 6). Moreover, the positive chronotropic effect of isoprenaline was not affected by amrinone or C6. Conclusion: This study provides functional evidence for the positive inotropic effect of C6. Considering the augmentation of isoprenaline positive inotropic concentration-response with C6 and amrinone, we conclude that C6 produces its effect via potentiation of cAMP-dependent signaling system and possibly by inhibition of PDE3 activity.