Herbs with anti-lipid effects and their interactions with statins as a chemical anti- hyperlipidemia group drugs: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND The present systematic review aimed to express the clinical anti-lipid effects of different types of herbs, as well as described studied interactions between herbal remedies and prescribed drugs for hyperlipidemic patients which were based on in vitro experiments, animal studies, and empirical clinical experiences. METHODS For this systematic review, we explored 2183 published papers about herbal drugs interactions from November 1967 to August 2014, fulfilling eligibility criteria by searching in some databases such as Web of Science, Medline, Scopus, Embase, Cinahl, and the Cochrane database. The main keywords used for searching included: herbal medicine, herbs, statin, lipid, and herb-drug interaction. RESULTS Among published articles about herb-drug interactions, 185 papers met the initial search criteria and among them, 92 papers were potentially retrievable including a description of 17 herbs and medicinal plants. In first step and by reviewing all published manuscripts on beneficial effects of herbs on serum lipids level, 17 herbs were described to be effective on lipid profile as lowering serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol as well as increasing serum high-density lipoprotein level. Some herbs such as celery could even affect the hepatic triglyceride concentrations. The herbal reaction toward different types of statins is varied so that grapefruit or pomegranate was interacted with only some types of statins, but not with all statin types. In this context, administration of herbal materials can lead to decreased absorption of statins or decreased the plasma concentration of these drugs. CONCLUSION Various types of herbs can potentially reduce serum lipid profile with the different pathways; however, the herb-drug interactions may decrease pharmacological therapeutic effects of anti-hyperlipidemic drugs that should be considered when approved herbs are prescribed

The evaluation of tubule formation in breast cancer using fraction of fields showing tubular differentiation (FTD) method and compare it with conventional methods

چکیده: زمینه و هدف: درجه بندی هیستولوژیک یکی از مهمترین عوامل پیش آگهی سرطان پستان است. تاکنون روشی برای تخمین کمی میزان تمایز غددی ذکر نشده است. لذا این مطالعه با هدف بررسی روش تجربی متعارف و مقایسه تکرارپذیری این روش با روشهای کمی (مورفومتریک در بزرگنمائی 200 میکروسکوپی) و نیمه کمی دیگر انجام گردید. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه توصیفی - تحلیلی، 38 نمونه هیستولوژیک سرطان مهاجم مجرایی پستان (موجود در بایگانی بیمارستان الزهرا (س) اصفهان) جهت ارزیابی میزان تمایز غددی، توسط دو مشاهده‌گر مستقل و به سه روش مختلف ارزیابی شدند. روش اول (متعارف): میزان تمایز غددی یعنی سطحی از تومور که تشکیلات غددی بدخیم ایجاد کرده، نسبت به کل نمونه به صورت درصد بیان شد. روش دوم، کسری از میدانها با تمایز غددی: در این روش میزان تمایز بصورت کسری از میدانها که حاوی تشکیلات غددی است نسبت به کل میدانها محاسبه می‌گردید و در روش سوم: در هر میدان میکروسکپی، بطور جداگانه، میزان تمایز غددی بصورت نیمه کمی تخمین زده شده و سپس میانگین میزان تمایز غددی در میدانها محاسبه شد. برای مقایسه اختلاف بین سه روش از آزمون فریدمن و برای مقایسه تکرارپذیری هر روش در بین دو مشاهده‌گر، از آزمون کاپا استفاده گردید. یافته ها: نتایج این مطالعه نشان داد که در روش دوم دو مشاهده گر بیشترین توافق را در نمره دهی نمونه ها داشتند به طوری که ضریب کاپا در روش اول 4/0، در روش دوم 832/0 و در روش سوم 558/0 بود (001/0

Systematic review on safety and drug interaction of herbal therapy in hyperlipidemia: a guide for internist.

Because of reporting high side effects related to biosynthetic drugs, recent attention has been paid to the use of herbs instead of chemical drugs to balance serum lipids. The present systematic review aimed to evaluate the safety of herbal medicines and also to assess drug interaction in herbal therapy in treating hyperlipidemia. The international research databases including MEDLINE; Google scholar, Web of Science SciVerse Scopus (SCOPUS); EBSCO Academic Search; Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); and a Chinese database (China Network Knowledge Infrastructure [CNKI]) were searched from their respective inceptions up to September 2014 with the search terms of "hyperlipidemia", "herbal medicine", "medicine traditional", "extract plant", "Traditional Medicine" and "Chinese Herbal Medicine" without narrowing or limiting search elements. A total of 85 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) studies were finally assessed on human subjects. A notable number of herbal drugs that are commonly used as an anti-hyperlipidemia agent may be interacted with a variety of biosynthetic drugs. In this regard, the most common reported herb-drug reactions were related to anticoagulants, antidepressants, anti-epileptic, anti-inflammatory, and/or even antihypertension and anti-lipidemic drugs. Also, a considerable number of anti-lipidemic drugs of plants origin may be accompanied with metabolic disturbances and serious complications within pregnancy and breast feeding. The main fundamental principles for administration of these drugs include physicians' complete awareness of the effects and interactions of these drugs, educating people not taking these drugs arbitrarily, and closely monitoring the verification and distribution of the drugs in the society

Some Organophosphorous Pesticide (OPPs) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) along the Eastern Caspian Sea Coast, Mazandaran State, Iran

PAHs form one of the most important classes of persistent pollutants .Sediment samples were taken from the eastern Caspian Sea coast of Mazandaran state analyzed by (GCMS) for PAHs . Sediment samples were collected from eastern part of southern Caspian Sea in Mazandaran Province. Stations were Amirabad(10), Sari(5), Babolsar(5) and Noushahr (5) to determinate distribution and to source of PAHS. We analyzed 8 PAHs such as Benz[a]anthracene, Benz[a]pyrene, Fluoranthene, pyrene, Chrysene, Benz[e]pyrene, Benz[k] Fluoranthene and Benzo [ghi] perylene in this research. Result of this study showed that Concentrations of all PAHs except Pyr, B (a) A and B (a) P in Amirabad are below the concentration to elicit toxic effects in benthic organisms (Effects Range-Low). There was high spatial variability in the PAH concentrations that ranged from 12 to 453ng/g. To elucidate sources, two molecular indices (Pyr/Fluo, BaA/(BaA+Chr) ratios were used to determine the pyrogenic and petrogenic sources. Amirabad-Behshahr region receives input primarily from oil activity; therefore, it can be inferred that the main source of PAH could be petrogenic (Pyr/Fluo =1.07). The PAH source in Sari is pyrogenic for Neka power plant that uses fossil fuels (BaA/(BaA+Chr) =0.38). Water samples were collected from 20 wells during a period of 1 year. The average Concentrations of diazinon,chlorpyrfos,ethion and edifenphos in the ground waters were 0.018, 0.017, 0.014and 0.013 µg/l, respectively. This research found that the residues of pesticides are major threat to aquatic life of the regional ecosystem

Priprema nanokompozitnih filmova od polietilena niske gustoće i cinkovog oksida za produljenje trajnosti svježih jagoda

Strawberries have a very short post-harvest life mostly due to their relatively high water content, intense metabolic activity and susceptibility to microbial rot. Antimicrobial low-density polyethylene nanocomposite films containing ZnO nanoparticles at different mass fractions were prepared by melt mixing and followed by compression moulding using a hot press machine. Fresh strawberries were packed in nanocomposite films and stored at 4 °C. Their microbial stability, ascorbic acid content and titratable acidity were evaluated after 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16 days of storage. Microbial growth rate was significantly reduced up to 16 days as a result of the use of nanocomposite packaging material containing ZnO nanoparticles. By increasing the ZnO nanoparticle mass fraction to 5 %, the antimicrobial activity of the film increased. All packages containing the ZnO nanoparticles kept the microbial load of fresh strawberries below the level that affects shelf life (5 log CFU/g) up to 16 days. The lowest degradation of ascorbic acid content (6.55 mg per 100 g), and loss of acidity (0.68 %) were observed in packages containing 3 % of ZnO nanoparticles with 10 % polyethylene-grafted maleic anhydride.Jagode imaju vrlo kratak vijek trajanja zbog relativno velikog udjela vlage, pojačane metaboličke aktivnosti i podložnosti truljenju. Antimikrobni nanokompozitni filmovi pripremljeni su umješavanjem različitih masenih udjela nanočestica cinkovog oksida u polietilen niske gustoće te izravnim prešanjem u kalupu. Svježe su jagode pakirane u nanokompozitne filmove i uskladištene na 4 °C. Mikrobiološka stabilnost, udjel askorbinske kiseline i titracijska kiselost jagoda mjereni su na početku skladištenja te nakon 4, 8, 12 i 16 dana. U pakovinama od nanokompozitnog filma s česticama cinkovog oksida bitno je usporen rast mikroorganizama tijekom perioda skladištenja do 16 dana. Povećanjem masenog udjela nanočestica cinkovog oksida na 5 % povećao se i antimikrobni učinak filma. U svim pakovinama s nanočesticama cinkovog oksida broj je stanica mikroorganizama bio dovoljno malen (5 log CFU/g) da ne utječe na održivost jagoda tijekom 16 dana skladištenja. U pakovinama s 3 % nanočestica cinkovog oksida i 10 % polietilena modificiranog s maleinskim anhidridom najmanje se smanjio udjel askorbinske kiseline (za 6,55 mg u 100 g) te titracijska kiselost (za 0,68 %)

Edge-DIRECT: A Deep Reinforcement Learning-based Method for Solving Heterogeneous Electric Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Window Constraints

In response to carbon-neutral policies in developed countries, electric vehicles route optimization has gained importance for logistics companies. With the increasing focus on customer expectations and the shift towards more customer-oriented business models, the integration of delivery time-windows has become essential in logistics operations. Recognizing the critical nature of these developments, this article studies the heterogeneous electric vehicle routing problem with time-window constraints (HEVRPTW). To solve this variant of vehicle routing problem (VRP), we propose a DRL-based approach, named Edge-enhanced Dual attentIon encoderR and feature-EnhanCed dual aTtention decoder (Edge-DIRECT). Edge-DIRECT features an extra graph representation, the node connectivity of which is based on the overlap of customer time-windows. Edge-DIRECT's self-attention encoding mechanism is enhanced by exploiting the energy consumption and travel time between the locations. To effectively account for the heterogeneity of the EVs' fleet, a dual attention decoder has been introduced. Experimental results based on two real-world datasets reveal that Edge-DIRECT outperforms a state-of-the-art DRL-based method and a well-established heuristic approach in solution quality and execution time. Furthermore, it exhibits competitive performance when compared to another leading heuristic method

Numerical Analysis of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) Shear Walls and Steel Strips under Cyclic Loads Using Finite Element Method

Reinforced concrete shear walls are the main elements of resistance against lateral loads in reinforced concrete structures. These walls should not only provide sufficient resistance but also provide sufficient ductility in order to avoid brittle fracture, particularly under strong seismic loads. However, many reinforced concrete shear walls need to be stabilized and reinforced due to various reasons such as changes in requirements of seismic regulations, weaknesses in design and execution, passage of time, damaging environmental factors, patch of rebar in plastic hinges and in some cases failures and weaknesses caused by previous earthquakes or explosion loads. Recently, Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) components have been extensively and successfully used in seismic improvement. This study reinforces FRP reinforced concrete shear walls and steel strips. CFRP and steel strips are evaluated by different yield and ultimate strength. Numerical and experimental studies are done on walls with scale 1/2. These walls are exposed to cyclic loading. Hysteresis curves of force, drift and strain of FRP strips are reviewed in order to compare results of numerical work and laboratory results. Both numerical and laboratory results show that CFRP and steel strips increase resistance, capacity and ductility of the structure

First-principles study of hydrogen dynamics in monoclinic TiO

The existence of intrinsic vacancies in cubic (monoclinic) TiO suggests opportunity for hydrogen absorption, which was addressed in recent experiments. In the present work, based on first principle calculations, the preferences are studied for the hydrogen absorption sites and diffusion paths between them. The oxygen vacancies are found to be primary hydrogen traps with absorption energy of -2.87 eV. The plausible channels for hydrogen diffusion between adjacent vacancy sites (ordered in the monoclinic TiO structure) are compared with the help of calculations done with the nudge elastic band method. Several competitive channels are identified, with barrier heights varying from 2.87 to 3.71 eV, that is high enough to ensure relative stability of trapped hydrogen atoms at oxygen vacancy sites. Moreover, the possibility of adsorption of molecular hydrogen was tested and found improbable, in the sense that the H2 molecules penetrating the TiO crystal are easily dissociated (and released atoms tend to proceed towards oxygen vacancy sites). These results suggest that hydrogen may persist in oxygen vacancy sites up to high enough temperatures.Comment: updated and enlarged version, accepted for publication in Journal of Physical Chemistry C (June 2023

Meta-GCN: A Dynamically Weighted Loss Minimization Method for Dealing with the Data Imbalance in Graph Neural Networks

Although many real-world applications, such as disease prediction, and fault detection suffer from class imbalance, most existing graph-based classification methods ignore the skewness of the distribution of classes; therefore, tend to be biased towards the majority class(es). Conventional methods typically tackle this problem through the assignment of weights to each one of the class samples based on a function of their loss, which can lead to over-fitting on outliers. In this paper, we propose a meta-learning algorithm, named Meta-GCN, for adaptively learning the example weights by simultaneously minimizing the unbiased meta-data set loss and optimizing the model weights through the use of a small unbiased meta-data set. Through experiments, we have shown that Meta-GCN outperforms state-of-the-art frameworks and other baselines in terms of accuracy, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC-ROC) curve, and macro F1-Score for classification tasks on two different datasets