zeinab babaei

Anxiety disorders (ADs) are a group of mental disorders characterized by feelings of tension, fear, and excessive worrying in the face of life experiences. Aberrant signaling of adenosine A2a receptor (ADORA2A) is believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of ADs. Polymorphisms in the ADORA2A gene were shown to be associated with some of the patterns presented by ADs. The results of these studies have been inconsistent, making it hard to draw definitive conclusions. Therefore, this study performed a systematic review to clarify the associations between ADORA2A gene polymorphisms and ADs susceptibility. PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus database using appropriate keywords, then screened for separation of suitable studies based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. Collectively, rs5751876 (1976T>C or previously 1083C>T) and rs35060421 (2592C>Tins) polymorphisms of ADORA2A were associated with an increased susceptibility to ADs. Moreover, rs2298383 TT genotype may be the causal regulatory factor, and ADORA2A T/C (rs2298383/rs3761422) haplotypes have significant susceptibility to ADs development. Additional research is needed to further define the role of ADORA2A gene polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of ADs.

The new plan of using molecular targeted agents in combination with cytotoxic drugs may represent a promising strategy to increase the efficacy of chemotherapy. Hence, we examined whether α2β1 integrin-specific inhibitor, BTT-3033, could modulate the susceptibility of OVCAR3 and SKOV3 ovarian cancer cells to paclitaxel (PTX).

Experimental approach: 

Ovarian cancer cell lines were treated with BTT-3033 and different concentrations of PTX. To determine the mechanisms involved in the PTX/BTT-3033 combination-induced cell death, cell viability, apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and caspase-3 activity were evaluated.

Both BTT-3033 (≥ 1 μM) and PTX (≥ 0.01 μM) suppressed the proliferation of OVCAR3 and SKOV3 cells in a concentration-related manner. Pretreatment with BTT-3033 (1 μM), followed by PTX-induced synergistic antiproliferative effects, decreased the IC50 values of PTX from 0.45 to 0.03 μM in OVCAR3 and 0.35 to 0.02 μM in SKOV3 cells. All of the coefficients of drug interaction for various PTX and BTT-3033 combinations were found to be less than 1. Moreover, PTX/BTT-3033 combination induced more apoptotic cells (from 4.2% to 87.0% in OVCAR3 and 2.4% to 88.5% in SKOV3) than PTX alone. Combination therapy also decreased MMP and increased the caspase-3 activity. Additionally, we found that the PTX/BTT-3033 combination enhanced ROS production in OVCAR3 and SKOV3 cells.

Conclusion and implications: 

BTT-3033 has demonstrated the ability to enhance the susceptibility of ovarian cancer cells to PTX by inducing MMP loss, ROS production, and mitochondrial apoptosis, therefore this combination therapy might represent a promising strategy for ovarian cancer treatment.

Transportation is one of the main aspects of urban life, and organizing transportation is one of the basic needs of a healthy city. Dealing with sustainable development in transportation is very important due to human's basic concerns in the field of loss of resources, environmental pollution, and dangerous phenomena such as global warming, greenhouse effect, and air inversion. In this regard, the present study was prepared with the aim of evaluating the sustainable management of intra-city transportation with the approach of environmental sustainability. The research method is analytical-descriptive and the data was collected through library and field studies. The components of the research include economic, social, environmental-ecological, and functional-physical, which have been operationalized in the form of a survey questionnaire. Descriptive statistics (frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, and dispersion coefficient) and inferential statistics (one-sample T-test) were used to analyze the data. The statistical population is the total population of the citizens of District 12 of Tehran municipality (240,720 people), and a sample of 400 people was randomly questioned. The average of the sustainable management variable of intra-city transportation is 2.96 with a stable level, the average of the economic component is 3.31 with a semi-stable level, the average of the social component is 3.01 with a semi-stable level, the average of the environmental-ecological component is 2.49 with an unstable level, and finally, the average of the physical component is 2.8 performance has been evaluated as a semi-stable level. Also, the results in the inferential part indicate that the sustainable management of intra-city transportation in the economic and physical-functional components is not in line with the sustainability of the urban environment and the social and environmental-ecological components are not in line with the sustainability of the urban environment. The sustainable management of transportation in the 12th district of the Tehran metropolis is not in line with the sustainability of the urban environment. In this regard, the suggestions presented in this research can be effective in the decision-making of urban transportation management to achieve environmentally sustainable transportation.

Available data suggest that obesity is related to changes in the several adipocyte?derived proteins levels, which are involved in cancer recurrence. The purpose of this work was to investigate the correlation  etween obesity with metalloproteinase?9 (MMP?9), adiponectin and adiponectin and AMP?activated protein kinase (AMPK) levels by comparing serum levels of MMP?9, AMPK in normal weight and obese breast cancer survivors.

In this cross?sectional study, 30 normal weight breast cancer survivors (body mass index [BMI] 18.5?25 kg/m2) and 30 obese breast cancer survivors (BMI ?30 kg/m2) were investigated.Anthropometric parameters and serum levels of MMP?9, adiponectin, and AMPK were compared between the two groups.

No differences were detected in the serum levels of MMP?9, adiponectin, and AMPK in obese patients and normal weight patients (P > 0.05). There were no correlations between MMP?9, adiponectin, and AMPK levels with anthropometric measurements in two groups (P > 0.05).

We found that there was a lack of correlation between obesity measures and serum levels of MMP?9, adiponectin, and AMPK. In breast cancer survivors, it seems that circulating levels of adiponectin, AMPK, and MMP?9 do not change in obesity state.

Moral education in individual and social domains is of importance today because saving societies from such crises as family dysfunction, suicide, and mental disorders is due to ethics and to reach to a moral society we need to develop moral people as fundamental units of society. The human evolution with the goal of being to near God will not be gained without moral education. Since the existing approaches are one-dimensional and not appropriate to Islamic culture of Iran the current research using content analysis seeks to explain factors and practices of moral education from the viewpoint of Morteza Motahhari to apply in counseling. Research findings showed that the goal of moral education is developing human being whose inner gifts (intellectual, religious, ethical, aesthetic) are developed soundly. A balanced human’s wisdom overcomes his ignorance, his chastity overcomes his lust, and his bravery overcomes his fears. In order to gain this goal, individual (moral insight, sentiment, and behavior), background (marriage, work, and Jehad), and environmental (improving familial affective setting, being a role modeling, accepting others role modeling) factors are in effect and developing intellectual gifts, self-awareness, self-regard, and making habits could be used.

Suicide occurs in all age groups and is among the causes of death in individuals, aged 15–29 years. Suicide is a complex and multi–causal behavior, i.e., among the preparations for suicide. Numerous attempts were made to identify the risk factors leading to suicidal ideation or suicide attempt for its understanding and prevention. Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a suitable option to treat depression based on the information processing theory, which assumes that cognitions (including thoughts, images, & the perceptions of events, assumptions, & beliefs) have a direct causal relationship with emotional and behavioral responses. Considering the relative success of CBT in treating depression and the prevalence and consequences of this disorder, it is of high importance to find newer treatment options, especially in suicidal adolescents. The current study aimed to evaluate the effects of CBT and Mindfulness Treatment (MT) on depressive symptoms in students with suicidal ideation.

This was a quasi–experimental study with a pretest–posttest and a control group design. The statistical population of this study included all students in Savojbolagh City, Iran, in 2019; among whom, 60 eligible volunteers were included in the study based on the cut–off point of Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (SSI; Beck et al., 1979) (cut off scores: 5–10). They were randomly divided into the experimental groups of CBT and MT, and a control group (n=20/group). The inclusion criteria of the study were obtaining a score higher than the cutoff point in the SSI, no diagnosis of bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and history of drug use, no concomitant use of psychological services, no chronic physical illness, including thyroid, diabetes, and cancer, and biopsychological defects. Exclusion criteria were absence from 2 training sessions. The study subjects completed Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961) at pretest and posttest. Moreover, 6 CBT sessions were performed based on Leahy’s intervention protocol (2017) and 6 MT sessions based on Burdick intervention protocol (2014); these sessions were held for 90 minutes for 2 experimental groups. No intervention was provided to the control group. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, & standard deviation) as well as inferential statistics, including Chi–squared test, Kruskal–Wallis test, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), and Bonferroni post hoc test were used to analyze the obtained data in SPSS at the significance level of 0.05.

The obtained results indicated that after removing the pretest effect for depression, there was a significant difference in the posttest between the study groups (p<0.001). Besides, CBT (p<0.001) and MT (p<0.001) for the experimental groups reduced depression, compared to the control group; however, there was no significant difference between the provided interventions (p=0.480).

According to the present study results, CBT and MT were effective in the treatment of depressive symptoms among students with suicidal ideation; there was no significant difference between these interventions.

Environmental pollution is the result of the rapid development of industry, which is a serious problem. In this research, first ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrothermal method and then added to the preparation solution of MnO2 nanoparticles by precipitation during reduction reaction. The particle size was studied by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The prepared ZnO/MnO2 nanocomposite was used as a solid phase adsorbent to separate and determine the heavy metal ions of lead and cadmium in water samples. The removal efficiency of heavy metal ions and desorption conditions were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. The effect of various parameters such as pH, amount of adsorbent, initial concentration of ions, shaking time, sample volume, and eluent type and concentration for elution of the retained heavy metal ions were evaluated and the optimum conditions were determined. The relative standard deviations for the determination of lead and cadmium ions were 4.6 -5.2% and 1.7-3.4%, respectively.