mahnaz saremi

The main goal in cancer treatment is to eliminate tumor cells with minimal harm to healthy tissue. The immune system is ideal for this task as it can identify and eliminate abnormal cells while providing long-term defense against recurrence. Various immune-based cancer treatments activate the immune system or help cancer cells recognize and activate immune cells within the tumor. Immunoregulatory cytokines play a crucial role in treating immune disorders. They regulate macrophage degradation of antigens and promote cellular functions. Lymphocyte interactions can lead to immune cell maturation, while other products limit lymphocyte activation. Cytokines are categorized as interleukins, growth factors, interferons, and colony-stimulating factors. Soluble proteins known as cytokines are essential for mediating and regulating cell interactions in various parts of the body, including the nervous system, gut, and bone remodeling. The study of cytokines’ structure and function has proven incredibly beneficial for both immunology and commercial research. By understanding the different domains and analogues of cytokines, researchers have gained important knowledge about how these proteins bind to receptors. Moreover, identifying similarities between various cytokines has offered valuable insights into the workings of cytokine receptors. Understanding the mechanisms behind immunotherapy resistance is important to identify new therapeutic targets. By investigating these pathways, researchers can develop innovative strategies to overcome resistance and improve treatment outcomes. Combining therapeutic modalities to target multiple aspects of the tumor microenvironment simultaneously can overcome the limitations of individual treatments and improve antitumor response. Understanding resistance mechanisms to immunotherapies can lead to the development of tailored strategies to combat treatment resistance and maximize treatment response.

User engagement with digital technologies refers to the sense of belonging and individual satisfaction. Visual aesthetics, characterized by simplicity and diversity, plays a crucial role in the design of products and online sales strategies. This study investigates the relationship between visual aesthetics and user engagement with in a selected social network.

This correlational descriptive-analytical study examines the attractiveness of two pages with similar educational content but differing visual aesthetics criteria on one of the social networks. The first page (Researcher-made page) exhibits higher standards of attractiveness compared to the second page (Basic page). Data were collected through online questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS software.

The study involved 116 participants, of whom 91 (78.4%) were female, with an average age of 26.8 ± 2.54 years. The majority of participants held a bachelor's degree (57.8%). The average visual aesthetics scores for the content pages (Researcher-made page) and (Basic page) were 95/92 and 84/9, respectively, indicating that Researcher-made page had greater visual appeal. Furthermore, the user engagement scores for Researcher-made page and Basic page were 107/9 and 100/02, respectively. A significant positive correlation was found between visual appeal and user engagement on both pages (P<0.001), while no significant relationship was observed between gender or education level and these metrics (P>0.05).

This study demonstrates that the visual aesthetics of virtual content pages has a significant impact on user engagement. These findings underscore the importance of adhering to attractiveness criteria in content design, which can be beneficial for content creators, managers, and business owners.

Recent research has pinpointed cancer as the primary cause of death on a global scale. Various traditional medications and cytotoxic immunotherapies have been established and are now accessible on the market. Given the intricate nature of tumor activity and the multitude of genetic and cellular elements implicated in the development and spread of cancers, it is imperative to create a highly effective immunotherapy that can specifically target tumors at both the cellular and genetic levels. In the clinical context, cancer immunotherapy is growing more and more significant, particularly for tumors that are resistant to traditional chemotherapy and targeted treatments. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy is a new method of modifying T cells taken from a patient's blood in a laboratory setting. These modified T cells are created to express artificial receptors that specifically target a particular tumor antigen. These specifically recognize the tumor antigen without the participation of the major histocompatibility complex. The use of CAR therapy has the promise of providing a prompt and more secure treatment regimen for both non-solid and solid malignancies. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the benefits and progress made in CAR immunotherapy.

Strategic planning aligns organizations’ resources to achieve their mission and long-term objectives and goals. At the moment, a comprehensive strategic plan in the field of Ergonomics is one of the academic and industrial priorities in Iran to achieve a superior scientific position and ultimately meet the real needs of society. Therefore, this study was conducted to develop a strategic plan for Ergonomics from 2021 to 2025.

This study was conducted using a participatory action research strategy in 2021. In this regard, the strategic planning committee consisting of 18 professors, specialists, and Ph.D. students in the Ergonomics and occupational health engineering fields was formed. The committee evaluated the internal and external environment of the Ergonomics using a strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) matrix and a researcher-developed checklist through several regular weekly sessions. Then, general and specific goals, and possible measures to achieve the goals were identified.

According to SWOT analysis, Ergonomics major is in the “hold and maintain” position which consisted of organizational architecture, quality management, market management, and cost management. In the proposed action plan, a total of 57 specific goals in six areas were extracted including education, research, specialized services in ergonomics, improving faculty member/employees/students’ satisfaction, and improving community satisfaction with ergonomic services. To achieve these goals, 124 related actions were also predicted.

Achieving Ergonomics major perspective will be possible by using the goals identified in this study, the proper implementation of the predicted objective-specific measures, planning to reach the maximum use of the opportunities, and minimizing challenges due to the major weaknesses.

This study was conducted with the aim of determining the impact of engineering, organizational and individual ergonomic interventions on the indicators of the percentage of workers complaining of musculoskeletal problems, having an inappropriate work station, exposure to inappropriate manual handling, and also the percentage of sick leave in workers of a rubber industry.

Materials and methods:

This is a descriptive-analytical and retrospective study that was conducted in the production department of a rubber manufacturing industry. Ergonomic interventions that have been fully implemented in the industry and have been stable were included in the study, and data were extracted by examining the documentation related to ergonomic assessment tools before and after each intervention. Before and after comparison of indicators was done using paired t and Wellcoxon tests.

Results:

 Ergonomic interventions included 114 engineering interventions, 20 organizational interventions and 7 individual interventions. Engineering interventions had a significant effect on all indicators such as in reducing total musculoskeletal problems  )66%). Organizational interventions  has led to the improvement of the index of musculoskeletal problems (60%), inappropriate posture (55%) and  pain intensity (30%). Individual interventions also had a significant effect on musculoskeletal problems (85.71%), pain intensity (42.85%) and sickleaves (100%) (P<0.05).

All three types of ergonomic interventions in the production sector of the rubber industry have been effective in reducing musculoskeletal problems. Engineering interventions have had a significant impact on all the health indicators considered in this study. Engineering interventions in the rubber industry are more effective and it is better to be implemented together with organizational or individual interventions to complete the effectiveness.

Integrated health system (SIB) is a common electronic health records, widely used in Iranian healthcare centers. The present study aimed to investigate the usability of this system among selected users.

A descriptive-analytical study was designed and conducted in 2021 with participation of 196 healthcare workers. Usability of the system was tested by means of the System Usability Scale (SUS) and the IsoMetric Standard Questionnaire. Data analysis was applied using SPSS version 26 software.

SUS showed a marginal usability for the system. All the 7 dimensions of the isometric questionnaire were found to be within the relatively favorable range with an average score of 3.1 to 3.2. SIB system was unacceptable for 30.6% of users, marginaly acceptable for 45.4%, and acceptable for 23.9% of users. Results showed a significant but inverse relationship between usability of the system with the average time past on it during a working day (p<0.039). Women estimated this system as more usable compared to men (p = 0.007).

The present study emphasized that SIB system needs specific considerations to become more usabile, and compatible with ergonomic dialogue principles. The most effective modifications would be included eliminating complicated steps, harmonizing relevant process, reducing memory-based process, individualization, error tolerancy, and user-centered design.

Smartphones with many different applications help people organize their daily activities. As a result, the statistics indicate the increasing use of these phones. The aim of this study was to investigate the musculoskeletal and cognitive consequences of excessive use of smartphones among users in Tehran.

In this study, 541 smartphone users (60.2% female and 39.8% male) in Tehran with a mean age of 35.9 (±11.0) years participated. Four questionnaires including Smartphone Addiction Scale, Neck Disability Index, Cornell Hand Discomfort Questionnaire, and Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, which were sent to participants online via WhatsApp or Telegram, were used. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation by SPSS25 software. Ethical considerations were considered throughout all stages of the study.

The prevalence of smartphone addiction in the study population was 37.3% (35.2% in females and 42% in males). 20-30 years old participants had the greatest prevalence of smartphone addiction. There were positive and significant relationships between smartphone addiction and age, hands and neck musculoskeletal problems and cognitive failures in daily activities (P-value≤0.05).

The high prevalence of smartphone addiction besides its negative consequences necessitate proper planning to control the overuse of smartphones in Iranian users. Further studies are recommended to determine the mechanisms involved, especially in the relationship between smartphone addiction and age, cognitive impairment, performance, and human error.

In complex systems, human error has always been identified as an effective factor in most accidents. In the power plant industry, various accidents occur due to human error and while affecting the stability of the country's electricity network, it can cause financial and human losses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the human error of the personnel operating a V94.2 gas power plant using the fuzzy HEART technique.

This cross-sectional study was performed on gas plant operation personnel. In this study, the probability of human error was calculated using fuzzy logic in the HEART technique. Then, the technique was performed in 7 stages. The steps include identifying the system / process, then identifying the existing tasks, assigning the nominal probability of human error, identifying the error-increasing conditions, then estimating the impact ratio, quantifying the human error potential, and in the seventh stage control measures. Finally, the HEART method was improved using fuzzy logic.

In this study, a total of 13 tasks and 119 sub-tasks were obtained. The 24 tasks had a high probability of final human error (HEPF), which is 20% of the total tasks evaluated. The probability of final human error was calculated to be 7.213. Most tasks were in Group D (relatively simple task) general classification of HEART tasks. In more than 98% of the tasks, "insufficient checking" was considered as one of the error-enhancing conditions and had the highest repetition among the error-enhancing conditions. Among all the activities, "Checking the openness of the internal power supply's disconnector" had the highest probability of human error. In 22 tasks out of 24 tasks with a higher probability of human error, training and justification of the operator or shift engineer has been suggested as control solutions.

The results obtained in this study showed that training in performing tasks is necessary to reduce the possibility of human error. Also, for tasks with a high probability of human error, retraining and justification of operators and paying attention to work instructions and using work rotation tools can be considered as the most important measures to prevent human error.

One of the important indicators of patient safety and quality of hospital care is the patient’s fall. Patient falls are among the most crucial issues in the field of Never Events that will affect the health‑care systems, and it is necessary to be considered to improve the safety of hospitalized patients. The present study was conducted to investigate the reliability, sensitivity, and specificity of the Morse Fall Scale (MFS) in Iran.

In this prospective observational study, the reliability of the MFS was investigated through the inter‑rater reliability. The researcher as the first evaluator and an experienced nurse as the second evaluator screened 180 patients in two educational hospitals in Tehran, Iran, between March and May 2021, using the access method with a MFS. The percentage of agreement of the evaluators was assessed using the Cohen’s kappa coefficient, and sensitivity and specificity were assessed using the receiver operating characteristic curve.

The results showed that the percentages of agreement between the two assessors in the patient fall history index, in the index of secondary diagnoses, in the index of assistive devices, in the index of IV therapy and heparin lock, in the index of gait/transferring, and in the index of mental status were 0.869, 0.916, 0.871, 1.00, 0.898, and 0.815, respectively. The MFS reliability was obtained by an interclass correlation coefficient of 0.825, sensitivity of 66.7, and specificity of 81.6.

The reliability, sensitivity, and specificity of the Morse scale are relatively favorable. Therefore, it is suggested that a patient fall screening scale be designed to measure all dimensions related to the correct assessment of the patient in terms of clinical conditions and nonclinical factors related to patient fall.

Teaching is one of the world's most stressful jobs. Sources of stress in the teachers’ job are diverse and often specific. Due to the lack of an up-to-date and efficient questionnaire to assess the job stress of Persian-speaking teachers, the present study was designed to localize and assess the psychometric properties of job stress among Persian teachers.

This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in 2017 in Tehran. Totally, 575 teachers working in governmental primary schools were randomly selected to participate in the study. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used for face and content validity evaluation of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha was calculated to determine internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to test the reliability. SPSS (version 16) was used for statistical analysis. All stages of the present study were carried out according to ethical standards.

The overall CVI and CVR were calculated as 0.95 and 1, respectively. Cronbach's alpha was 0.93 and the ICC (intra-cluster similarity) was found to be 0.85. The final structure of the Persian teachers, job stress questionnaire included 24 items in 4 factors including workload, interpersonal relationships, technology-induced stress and professional recognition.

The Persian version of teachers, job stress questionnaire is recommended as a valid and reliable tool to assess and determine the level and sources of job stress among teachers.

We present a Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Grade IV patient, diagnosed at 46 years of age, with multiple relapse from the diagnosis and demonstrating a poor prognosis after 3 cycles of treatments. A clinical comprehensive genomic profile was performed with the goal of finding potential actionable molecular alterations. The patient showed significant symptomatic and laboratory improvement with a combination chemotherapy determined by the molecular profiling, which would otherwise not have been considered. The mentioned approach was conducted since no other targeted therapies seemed actionable for him.

Patient’s fall is one of the factors threatening a patient’s health in hospitals and medical centers, which in some cases can lead to disability or death. Therefore, this study was conducted to systematically examine the factors affecting the reduction of patient falls in the hospital.

This systematic review was conducted to identify the factors affecting the reduction of patient’s fall in the hospitals based on the Prisma protocol. On this basis, all English‑language articles published in this field from 1990 to the end of September 2019 were extracted during a search in four international databases and publishers including Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. Articles were searched and screened by three researchers independently and finally, the extracted articles were analyzed and classified through thematic content analysis.

According to the Prisma protocol, 6227 studies were extracted, of which 32 studies were finally included in the study process. Then, the thematic analysis of the studies showed that factors such as education, exercise, attention to physiological factors and treatment of the disease, environmental safety, use of fall detection device, and patient risk assessment were effective in reducing falls.

The findings show that existing approaches to reduce falls have a favorable role. It is necessary to use several methods of fall prevention at the same time, in order to control most aspects and factors affecting the fall and reduce the rate of fall.

Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cancer worldwide, and it ranks second leading cause of cancer deaths. Several studies have shown that FGL2 contributes to the pathogenesis of a number of infectious diseases. However, little is known about its biological functions in cancer development and metastasis. In this study, the association between FGL1 expression and prognosis was investigated in GC patients. Gastric cancer and adjacent normal tissues (n=20) were obtained from patients diagnosed with gastric cancer aged between 30 and 50. Total RNA was extracted, reverse transcription and qPCR were performed, and Relative expression level was calculated using the 2-∆∆Cq method. It was found that FGL1 expression in gastric cancer tissues was obviously higher than adjacent tissues at mRNA levels (P<0.003).

Musculoskeletal discomfort is one of the most important causes of occupational disabilities in many work communities which cause high costs for the economies of countries. Studies signifies the importance of implementation of programs to control these discomforts. In this regard, the ranking of occupational and work-related diseases provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that musculoskeletal disorders had second place after work-related respiratory diseases in 2013. Agricultural workers are at high risk of musculoskeletal disorders due to the nature of their intense physical activities and high level of manual labor. Indeed, farmers experience a variety of physical pressures due to repetitive lifting and carrying heavy loads, working with inappropriate tools, working in undesirable conditions with awkward postures (bended and/or deviated trunk, abducted arms, working at height higher than shoulders, etc). They usually work with vibrating tools and are exposed with other hazards such as falling or slipping. Many observational ergonomic assessment tools are designed for evaluating the postural risk of different job tasks. Some examples include the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), Quick Exposure Checklist (QEC), and so on. Agriculture is an occupation that depends highly on working methods and equipments. As a result, workers can adopt different postures as a function of their tasks and situations. It is assumed that their working postures would be more or less different from industrial workers. The majority of previous researchers applied typical existed methods to evaluate farmer’s working postures, since there was no specialized evaluation method. This lack of a proper agricultural evaluation method has recently been resolved by Kong et al. (2015), who introduced a methodology entitled “Agricultural Whole-Body Assessment” (AWBA) for this purpose. This approach covers a wide variety of body postures which are especially existed in agricultural tasks. Agricultural workers and their ergonomic conditions are rarely investigated in Iran. To our knowledge, no study has yet paid attention to the working posture of Iranian agricultures using AWBA. Considering the high number of workers in this section, and the lack of required information in order to decide appropriate interventions, the present study is conducted to assess the prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort and the evaluation of working postures among fruit picker in Iran. 

A total of 135 fruit picker working in Damavand apple gardens voluntarily participated in this study. The study was approved by the ethics committee of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and the written consent form was signed by each participant before starting. The inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study were having at least one year of working experience in the fruit picking job, and lack of any specific work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Also, individuals who experienced acute musculoskeletal injuries due to non-occupational reasons during the study, and those who declined to continue their participation for any reason were excluded from the study. In this study, only fruit pickers who picked fruit from short trees without needing to ladder were entered. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to identify the demographic and occupational characteristics of the employees. Accordingly, factors including age, sex, height, weight, and work experience were collected. The prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort was recorded by a body map questionnaire during the study period. The body map questionnaire attempts to identify body regions involved with musculoskeletal disorders. The body map questionnaire classifies whole human body into nine anatomical areas. Workers were asked to mark each area in which they feel discomfort. AWBA was used to evaluate working postures and to determine the ergonomic risk level. This tool provides the risk levels for the upper (AULA) and the lower (ALLA) limbs, taking into account the different postures of the body during the work as well as the working duration in each posture. Finally, using a 4x4 matrix, the overall risk level of the whole body is determined. The final risk levels can range from 1 (low) to 4 (extremely high).  Data was analyzed with SPSS software version 16, using t-test and Mann-Whitney test. 

The prevalence of musculoskeletal discomfort among the studied fruit pickers was 31.9%, 22.2%, 20.7% and 14.8% in lower back, knees, legs/foots and shoulders respectively. In total, 88 out of 135 workers (65.2%) experienced musculoskeletal discomfort in at least one region of ​​the body while 47 workers (34.8%) reported no discomfort. The age of participants ranged from 12 to 73 years (mean = 35.9 ± 15.7). The history of work ranged from 2 to 50 years with an average of 12.8 ± 11.4. Individual characteristics including age, height, weight, work experience and body mass index were not related with the presence of musculoskeletal discomfort among studied workers (P >0.05). According to the results obtained from the Agricultural Whole-Body Assessment method, the risk score of three was calculated for the upper limbs (AULA), lower limbs (ALLA) as well as whole body (AWBA); indicating high risk of musculoskeletal disorders in fruit pickers due to their excessive exposure to physical ergonomics hazards. 

Fruit pickers are at high risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Awkward working postures in manual fruit harvesting may be considered as the main cause for the incidence of MSDs in this working group. Although the lower limbs (foot, legs, knees) of fruit pickers seem more painful than other body parts, it is important to consider their whole body (including lower and upper limbs) in the case of designing any ergonomic improvements, since both lower and upper limbs are at high risk of MSDs in traditional apple harvesting. Therefore, appropriate yet prompt ergonomic interventions should be implemented. In this regard, moving to the mechanized agriculture seems to have the highest priority among all possible interventions. However, until it could be realized, other ergonomic improvements should be adopted. These include all changes resulting in reducing repetitive movements, modifying working postures (i.e. avoiding excessive bending, twisting, deviating, abducting arms, working over the shoulder height, reaching beyond the natural working zone envelope, etc), decreasing prolonged standing, and reducing exposure to the biomechanical risk factors such as force and prolonged working hours. It is also recommended to improve the traditional methods of fruit handling and carrying by designing ergonomic baskets dedicated for this purpose.

Hand strength is necessary for many daily, working and leisure activities. The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of handgrip and pinch strengths among Iranian young adults. A cross-sectional study was designed in which 716 young adults (354 males, 24.1 years ± 3.2; 362 females, 23.1 years ± 3.6) participated. Demographic characteristics, as well as the length of the hand, palm and forearm, the palm width, and the circumference of wrist and forearm, were measured. A tape meter (± 0.1cm), and a digital Caliper (± 0.1 mm) were used to measure anthropometric dimensions. Jamar hydraulic dynamometer and pinch gauge were used to measure Hand Grip Strength (HGS) as well as Tip (TP), Key (KP) and Palmar (PP) pinch strengths. Mean values of HGS, TP, KP and PP varied from 25.6 to 80, 4.1 to 8.7, 6.4 to 14.7 and 5.4 to 12.7Kg in men and from 14 to 39, 3.2 to 6.0, 4.7 to 8.1 and 3.4 to 9.3Kg in women, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed gender, age, height and BMI as the best predictors of hand strengths. The values of hand strengths are easily predictable using a few readily available individual attributes. Results may serve as a benchmark for job selection.

Firefighting is one of the occupations that require high physical and aerobic power due to the nature of the job and the physical demands of this profession. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship among Work ability index (WAI), mental workload, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and their effective factors in firefighters.

 This study was a cross-sectional study, which was carried out on 250 firefighters in Tehran. Data were collected using WAI, NASA-TLX and Body Discomfort Chart (BDC). Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics, linear regression, Pearson correlation and Spearman tests.

The mean and standard deviation of the total WAI score was 38.85±1.17. Also, the highest amount of mental workload was devoted to the physical load dimension (93.49±8.93). Meanwhile, the total mental load was also 70.07 ± 6.58. The results showed that the WAI is increased by 0.14 by augmentation of one unit at the academic level of firefighters (P = 0.03). The most common discomfort was reported in the lower (20%) and upper (16.8%) regions of the back. The total WAI relationship with total mental workload was positive and insignificant (P>0.05). There was a significant and reverse association between WAI and discomfort in wrist, leg and ankle.

Despite the low rate of MSDs, even mild symptoms of musculoskeletal pain should be considered. Given the high level of mental workload, improving physical, psychosocial and social working conditions is important in increasing the ability of employees and augmenting the ability of their occupational activity.