A review of incidence and mortality of colorectal, lung, liver, thyroid, and bladder cancers in Iran and compared to other countries

In Iran, a developing country in southwest Asia, an epidemiologic transition is underway from communicable to noncommunicable diseases. In Iran, cancer is the second largest group of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the third most common cause of death following heart disease, accidents and other natural phenomena. There are some studies reporting an increasing trend in the incidence and mortality rate of a variety of cancers in Iran. Therefore, controlling and preventive interventions pertaining to cancers must be a main priority for health policy and it is recommended that the high-risk population receive earlier screening. In this review, incidence and mortality of colorectal, lung, liver, thyroid, and bladder cancers in Iran are reported. © 2019 Termedia Publishing House Ltd. All Rights Reserved

QALY league table of Iran: a practical method for better resource allocation

Background: The limited health care resources cannot meet all the demands of the society. Thus, decision makers have to choose feasible interventions and reject the others. We aimed to collect and summarize the results of all cost utility analysis studies that were conducted in Iran and develop a Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) league table. Methods: A systematic mapping review was conducted to identify all cost utility analysis studies done in Iran and then map them in a table. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, Web of Science, as well as Iranian databases like Iran Medex, SID, Magiran, and Barakat Knowledge Network System were all searched for articles published from the inception of the databases to January 2020. Additionally, Cost per QALY or Incremental Cost Utility Ratio (ICUR) were collected from all studies. The Joanna Briggs checklist was used to assess quality appraisal. Results: In total, 51 cost-utility studies were included in the final analysis, out of which 14 studies were on cancer, six studies on coronary heart diseases. Two studies, each on hemophilia, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. The rest were on various other diseases. Markov model was the commonest one which has been applied to in 45 of the reviewed studies. Discount rates ranged from zero to 7.2. The cost per QALY ranged from 0.144 in radiography costs for patients with some orthopedic problems to 4,551,521 for immune tolerance induction (ITI) therapy in hemophilia patients. High heterogeneity was revealed; therefore, it would be biased to rank interventions based on reported cost per QALY or ICUR. Conclusions: However, it is instructive and informative to collect all economic evaluation studies and summarize them in a table. The information on the table would in turn be used to redirect resources for efficient allocation. in general, it was revealed that preventive programs are cost effective interventions from different perspectives in Iran. © 2021, The Author(s)

Identification of low oxygen-tolerating bacteria in prostate secretions of cancer patients and discussion of possible aetiological significance

MW was in receipt of Barts and The London Charity Equipment Grant for provision of MOLDI-TOF (Grant reference number 486/1193)

Experimental investigation on the heat transfer performance and pressure drop characteristics of γ-Al2O3/water nanofluid in a double tube counter flow heat exchanger

In this paper, overall heat transfer coefficient and friction factor of water based γ-Al2O3 nanofluid in a double tube counter flow heat exchanger have been measured experimentally under turbulent flow condition. For better dispersion of γ-Al2O3 nanoparticles in distilled water, magnetic stirrer and ultrasonic vibrator (with a power of 240 kW and frequency of 35 kHz) were implemented. The stabilized γ-Al2O3 /water nanofluid have been examined at the concentrations of 0.05 and 0.15 vol. % with variation of flow rates in the range of 7–9 l/min. Nanofluid enters the inner tube of the heat exchanger at different temperatures including 45, 55,and 65 °C. Results demonstrated that increasing the nanofluid flow rate, concentration and inlet temperature can improve the overall heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer rate. Also, the ratio of the overall heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid to that of pure water decreased with increasing the nanofluid flow rate. Meanwhile, the maximum enhancements of the overall heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer rate and friction factor compared with those of base fluid (distilled water) are respectively equal to 19.3%, 10% and 25% which is occurred at the concentration of 0.15 vol. %

Analysis of Cryogenic Ammonia System for Energy Conservation

There are several alternatives to enhance the efficiency of energy usage and to decrease energy losses. Pinch technology is the best method of approach to enhance energy efficiency. Heat exchangers network (HEN) of refrigeration unit of ammonia production process was analyzed to use pinch technology to decrease energy usage. The obtained results showed that pinch technology was unsuccessful for the shaft work targeting capabilities. In contrast, it is posed that for optimization of such systems, one should use the combined pinch and exergy analysis (CPEA) method. In this analysis CPEA method was used in the system. It was observed that the refrigeration system use cold streams for cooling the hot streams. Therefore, retrofitting the refrigeration cycle without changing the main process is impossible. Some suggestions were made for improving the refrigeration system, such as the use of economizer after cooler, multistage cycle and removal of the 111-FFD3 stream. It was also observed that the exchanger 128-E act as an intercooler and the flashed 110-F, 111-F and 112-F act as an economizer. In addition, ammonia refrigerant was used at three different temperatures of -33,-7 and 13.5 ˚C. Also, eliminated the 111-FFD3 stream bring about 2% reduction in exergy loss

A study of initial motion of soil aggregates in comparison with sand particles of various sizes

Critical shear stress and threshold stream power are two important soil characteristics controlling detachment of soil particles by runoff and have been used in process-based erosion models such as WEPP, GUEST and EUROSEM. In this research, laboratory experiments were conducted in a 20 × 350 cm flume to study the effects of particle size and density on initial motion. Two contrasting soil samples, a well-aggregated forest soil and non-cohesive fluvial sand, were used to provide particles with different densities. Each sample was divided into six size classes. Flow bed in the flume was roughed according to testing area for each size class using a plate which sand particles from each size class were glued on it. The initial motion of the particles was determined by two methods. In the first method, slope was increased gradually for a given constant discharge until particles start to move from every point of the testing area. In the second method, flume slope was set to a given steepness and discharge was gradually increased until particles start to move. Three different discharges and three slopes were tested in the first and second methods, respectively. Each test replicated two times. Analysis of the data showed that the particle size and density and also their interaction significantly affect (P < 0.001) critical shear stress and threshold stream power. The critical shear stress and threshold stream power increased with increasing particle size and density, but the impact of particle density is higher on the coarser particles than the finer ones. Threshold values measured for the sand particles were about 2.3 times of those measured for soil particles in the three coarser classes, this difference decreased to about 65% (1.65 times) in the three finer classes, and even the difference between the two types of particles was not significant for the finest class (0.125–0.053).Full Tex