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Abstract Introduction: Microscopic examination of semen is a mandatory procedure when conducting investigations on an infertile couple and the results of semen analysis influence the choice of treatment methodologically. Recent data indicate that sperm morphology assessed according to the Kruger criteria is classified according to the three predictive categories: excellent prognosis>14% normal morphology spermatozoa ,good prognosis 4-14% and poor prognosis <4%, which is an excellent biomarker of sperm dysfunction and in predicting the outcome of ICSI. On the contrary, some other studies have indicated that the outcome of ICSI does not depend on strict morphology. This study was carried out to investigate the relation of semen parameters (count, mobility and morphology) and sperm origin on the outcome of ICSI. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 500 medical records of infertile couples referred to the Mehr Infertility Treatment Institute ,under going ICSI procedure with non probability samplings. The research variables included age, cause and type of infertility, sperm parameters (count, mobility and morphology), sperm origin, numbers of retrieved ova, numbers of transferred embryos and embryo implantations and pregnancy rate(PR). After data collection, statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS.10 software and statistical test of T-test and 2. Findings: The results showed that overall PR achieved by ICSI procedure was 39%(195 out of 500 cycles).A significant relation was discovered between the average of the women and the outcome of ICSI (pregnant: 29.6±5.6 versus non pregnant: 31.6±5.5years).The relation between cause and duration of infertility, sperm parameters (count, mobility and morphology) and sperm origin with the outcome of ICSI was not statistically proved as significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: It seems that sperm parameters and sperm origins can’t be regarded as reliable prognostic factors in foretelling successful pregnancies through ICSI procedure.

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Introduction: Assessment of antimicrobial resistance patterns and plasmid profile of 100 uropathogeic E. coli isolated from outpatient with UTI in Ilam(western Iran) was designed as the goal of our research . Materials & Methods: Urinary samples isolated from symptomatic UTI cases were identified by routine methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method according to CLSI guidelines. Plasmid extraction kit was used for plasmid extraction. Findings: All the isolated samples proved sensitive to meropenem. The resistance rates of E.coli were as follows: 81% for amoxycillin, 64% for tetracycline,21% for ciprofloxacin, 16% for cefepime and ceftazidime, 15% for ceftriaxone, cotrimoxazole and tubramycin, 12% for gentamicin, 5% for nitrofurantoin, and 1% for amikacin. Plasmid profile investigations showed the isolated E.coli carried plasmid ranging from 21KD to 1/5KD in size. The number of plasmid in each of these isolates ranged from one to eight of different sizes. The E.coli isolates contained a common plasmid with a molecular weight of 21 KD which proved to enjoy resistance to, amoxicillin and possibilly tetracycline. Discussion & Conclusion: There are doubts as to the role of tetracycline and amoxicillin for empiric therapy of UTI. Meropenem amikacin, nitrofurantoin, gentamicyn and ciprofloxacin are active against the great majority of UTI associated E.coli. 1KD R-plasmid reservoir may contribute to the spread of amoxicillin and probablly tetracycline resistance in our region.

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Abstract Introduction: Toxoplasmosis is a one of the most world-wide spread zoonosis representing a very serious clinical and veterinary problem. Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular parasite that causes severe neurologic and ocular disease in immune compromised and congenitally infected individuals. The heavy incidence and severe or lethal damages of toxoplasmosis clearly indicate the need for the development of a more effective vaccine human vaccines are not available and current anti-toxoplasma treatment is disappointing. Immunization with plasmid DNA, a relatively novel technique, is a promising vaccination technique. To improve the immune response by DNA vaccination various is one of the key for the success of the vaccine in the field. One of the most efficient ways to control this disease is immunization. However, so far, there is no effective vaccine available against this pathogen. An important source of human contamination with T. gondii is the consumption of raw or undercooked meat products. Toxoplasma gondii are widely prevalent in humans and other animals which can cause severe or lethal toxoplasmosis. So, the development of a more effective vaccine is needed urgently .Therefore, we prepare gra5 plasmid to use as a vaccine. Materials & Methods: In this study, GRA5was cloned in pTZ57R afterwards, it was transformed into TOP10 strain of E.coli Bacteria. The recombined plasmid extracted from E.coli bacteria and amplified through PCR technique. Besides, pcDNA3 Plasmid for receiving and cloning of GRA5 segment was digested by Hind3 & EcoRI enzymes. GRA5 was sub-cloned into pcDNA3 and the reaction ligation product was transformed for the above bacteria. The bacteria grew in LB culture with ampicillin. Recombined pcGRA5 plasmids were purified from E.coli by Plasmid extraction kit. Finally, recombinant plasmid using cell culture method was expressed in Cho cell. Findings: The accuracy of the results was confirmed by using restriction enzymes and PCR methods. GRA5 was cloned into expression eukaryotic plasmid pcDNA3. After sequencing pcGRA5 plasmid for cell expression Western blot method was used. Discussion & Conclusion: The results showed that cloning and transformation of fragment GRA5 in pcDNA3 was done properly.

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Introduction: In recent years, chronic and persistent bacterial infections are introduced as predisposing factors of acute myocardial infarction (MI) that is a main cause of health problems, worldwide. In this study, the relationship between previous my-coplasma pneumonia infection and further myocardial infarction was investigated through seropositivity rate of mycoplasma pneumonia in patients with (MI) and control group. Materials & Methods: In this retrospective descriptive study, 374 sera of patients and 185 sera of control group were examined by a commercial quantitative specific myco-plasma pneumonia IgG-ELISA kit (EUR-OIMMUNE, Germany) simultanously. The results were analyzed by Qui square test in SPSS, Ver. 16 software. Findings: We found no significant rela-tionships between seropositivity to myco-plasma pneumonia (IgG) and sex (P=0.080), age (P=0.700), occupation (P=0.080), and living place (P=0.150), but the relationship between history of previous acute febrile diseases, infective chest disea-ses, hypertension and MI with mycoplasma pneumonia was significant (P=0.003, P=0.004, P=0.003, P=0.003 consequently). Discussion & Conclusion: Regarding the results of this study, it can be said that history of previous mycoplasma pneumonia infections can be considered one of the etiological agents in MI.

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Introduction: Immunity to Toxoplasma gondii infection is known to be a critical point for women during pregnancy. Non immune pregnant women may at risk to be infected with the parasite. The par-asite can be transmitted via placenta and causes adverse effects in fetus. The main objective of the present work was to study sero-epidemiology of Toxopla-sma infection in pregnant women refer-red to Al Zahra hospital in Tabriz. Materials & Methods: Totally 300 blood samples were collected from 18-35 years pregnant women referred to Al-Zahra hospital in Tabriz during one year. The sera were tested for IgG and IgM titration with ELISA kits. In addition, demographic cha-racteristics of the women were obtained through appropriate questionnaires. Findings: Positive IgG and IgM titers were identified in the sera of 26.33% and 0.33% of the pregnant women, res-pectively. The higher frequency of positive titers was associated with older age. In addition, 97.46% of the women with positive titer had a history of contact with cats. Discussion & Conclusion: Regarding the prevalence rate of 73.33% in non-imm-une pregnant women in Tabriz, the preventive measurements in nutrition and contact with cats should be cons-idered by the women. We recommend the sera of the pregnant women should be monitored for Toxoplasma infection at least once a year, particularly during the first trimesters of pregnancy.

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Introduction: Toxoplasmosis is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world and it caused by an intracellular protozoan called Toxoplasma gondii. This parasitic infection is usually asymptomatic in adults, but it become complicated if fetus infection occurred. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and incidence of toxoplasmosis in pregnant women in Babol, northern Iran. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study during the years 2012-2013, 175 pregnant women in the first trimester of their pregnancy participated. Two ml blood was obtained from each participant and serum was separated. Then, anti-Toxoplasma antibodies were measured using ELISA method. Participants' demographic information and the risk factors were collected by questionnaire. Anti-Toxoplasma antibodies were measured in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy for who attended to the study. Results: The mean of age was 27.4 ± 9.5 years. 106 cases (60.6 %) had anti- Toxoplasma gondii antibodies (IgG) and 64 women (36.6 % ) had no specific antibody. The prevalence of infection was different in relation with age and location, but the difference is not statistically significant (p >0.05). Also, a statistically significant difference between prevalence of infection and other risk factors, such as abortion was not demonstrated. No case of acute Toxoplasma infection in the mother or congenital toxoplasmosis was reported. Conclusion: This study showed that over fifty percent of Toxoplasma infection occurs in twenty-five years of age. Furthermore, it showed that 36.6% of the studied population (pregnant women) was seronegative. Therefore, Toxoplasma infection should be screened in pregnant women in the first trimester of pregnancy in order to perform preventative measure of congenital toxoplasmosis.

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Introduction: External radiotherapy is one of the treatments of cancer in which the risk of radiation exposure of organs is a continue concern. The goal of present study was to measure surface and depth doses in an anthropomorphic phantom and surface dose in patients suffering upper esophageal cancer undergoing radiotherapy. Materials and Methods: In this study, surface and depth doses and surface doses was measured in phantom and patients, respectively. The phantom had some places to insert thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLDs) in eye, parotid, submandibular glands, and thyroid, spine, sternum and trachea areas. As this treatment performs in two phases, the dosimetry was done in both phases. In phase I, treatment was performed using parallel opposed (AP-PA) technique with a dose of 2 Gy/ fraction and in phase II, treatment was done with three beam technique (an oblique and AP-PA) with a dose of 1.8 Gy/fraction in 5 fractions. Findings: In regions out of treatment field such as parotid and eye, measured doses were in the range of 1.36-7.5 cGy. Thyroid doses differ in two phases in phase I thyroid was in treatment field and its dose in the phantom was 30.84±0.88 cGy and in phase II it was in the outside of the treatment field and its dose was 5.04±0.11 cGy, whereas in patients in phase I the dose was 107.78±10.84 cGy and in phase II was 6.73±1.17 cGy. In other measurement points, there were no significant differences between measured and calculated values with TLDs and treatment planning system, respectively. Discussion & Conclusion: Comparing calculated doses obtained from treatment planning system and measured doses by TLDs, it was observed that these values have little differences in regions out of the treatment field which is due to scattered radiation. According to our results, given the critical role of thyroid and its high risk of radiation exposure, it is necessary to consider thyroid for defining radiation fields.

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Introduction: Radiotherapy plays an important role in treatment of CNS benign and malignant tumors. Radiotherapy in addition to killing cancer cells causes damages to normal healthy tissues. The goal of this study was to determine absorbed dose to chiasma, lens of eye, optic chiasm, retina, parotid, thyroid and submandibular glands in the radiotherapy of brain frontal lobe tumors. Materials & Methods: A head and neck phantom was constructed using human natural bone and paraffin wax with NaCl as soft tissue substitute. Six cylinders were made using phantom material in which places were embedded to insert TLDs. Treatment planning was done on the phantom and absorbed dose to each organ were obtained using dose volume histograms (DVH). The phantom was irradiated using linac and absorbed dose to each organ was obtained using TLDs, too. Findings: In both methods absorbed dose to all organs except one lens was in their tolerance dose levels. In all organs except thyroid and submandibular glands, the differences between calculated and measured doses on the phantom were less than 5%. The obtained results presents an estimation of radiotherapy induced complications in this region of brain. Besides, it is possible to validate treatment planning system using measured doses on the phantom. Discussion & Conclusion: Our results showed differences in the range of 1.1%-5% between treatment planning system and direct measurement in all organs except submandibular glands and thyroid which might be due to their large distance to primary radiation field TLD response in these regions although small, but differs from lower value obtained from treatment planning system which might be due to scattered radiation which is not well considered by the treatment planning system.

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Introduction: Herbal plants have been used for the treatment of different abnormalities such as spasm disorders. Some of these plants have gastro intestinal property. One of these herbs in iranian traditional medicine is Thymus migricus which used for antispasmodic activity and its effects present in essential oil. The present study was designed to find out the effects of Thymus migricusessence on mechanical activity of the isolated rat’s ileum.

Materials & methods: In this study, for evaluation of spasmolythic property of  essense, different doses of the solution were added to organ bath after acetylcholine (Ach) with concentration of 10-4 molar (M) and for assessment of its antispasmodic, different doses of the solution were added to the organ bath before Ach with concentration of 10-6upto 10-3 M, then isotonic contraction of  ileum were recorded in three groups of control, test and shamthrough an isolated tissue chamber in an organ bath by using isotonic transducer and oscillographic device.

Findings:The  results from  different concentration of Thymus migricusessence  on Ach 10-4 M  showed that concentration of 50 ng/ml  of essense and higher was reduced to 95% of Ach induced contraction which is significant (P< 0.05).

Discussion & Conclusions: Thymus migricusessence hasspasmolythic and antispasmodic property.these effects may be produced by Thymol which is present in its essence and reduced calcium activity and release by sarcoplasmic reticulum.

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Introduction: Toxoplasmosis is an infectious disease shared between humans and animals which occur as a result of infection with the intracellular parasite called toxoplasma Gondii. Toxoplasmosis in pregnant women, can lead to miscarriage or congenital abnormalities in the fetus. The congenital toxoplasmosis occurs when the mother is infected for the first time during pregnancy. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of serum anti-Toxoplasma antibodies in Iranian pregnant women.

Materials & methods: Required data were collected by searching Googlescholar, Irandoc, Magiran Pubmed, SID, Embase, Cochrane, and ISI databases without any time limitation. Then, 28 articles were selected among 112 collected articles and considered in the Meta-Analysis and their data were analyzed using Meta-Analysis and random effects model. Heterogeneity of the study was assessed using the I2 index. Also, data were analyzed using R and STATA(Ver11.2) software.

Findings: With a sample size of 12818, the overall prevalence of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies was calculated equal to 34.2% (CI 95%: 23-45.3), the prevalence of IgG antibody was 34.9% (CI 95%: 31.2-38.7), and the prevalence of IgM antibody was 5.7% (CI 95%: 3.6-7.8).

Discussion & conclusions: Our findings suggested that the prevalence of Toxoplasma infection among pregnant women in Iran is at an average level. Therefore, considering the high cost of serologic screening method, it is recommended to improve public and especially women awareness in the period before pregnancy through development and extension of health programs in order to prevent the infection in pregnant women or timely treatment of infected infants.

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Introduction: Association of PAI-1 polymorphisms with the increased risk of various malignancies has been shown in numerous studies. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to evaluate the prevalence of PAI-1 4G/5G polymorphism in patients with thyroid tumors from North West of Iran.

Materials & methods: Ninety patients with thyroid tumors and 180 healthy controls were selected from North West of Iran. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples and 4G/5G polymorphism of the PAI-1 gene was evaluated by polymerase chain reaction using specific primers.

Findings: Genotype distribution between patients was (4G/4G=13.33%, 4G/5G=63.33% and 5G/5G=23.33%) and controls (4G/4G=17.22%, 4G/5G=67.22% and 5G/5G=15.55%). Additionally, the frequencies of the 4G and 5G alleles between patients were (45% and 55%) and control group (50.83% and 49.16%).

Discussion & conclusions: Results indicate that the genotypic and allelic frequencies of PAI-1 4G/5G polymorphism showed no significant difference between patients with thyroid tumors and control individuals in this cohort.

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Introduction: Niemann Pick Disease (NPD) is a lipid storage disorder with an autosomal recessive inheritance. The disease occurs mainly due to defects in SMPD1 gene (11p15.4), encoding sphingomyelinase. Disruption of this enzyme leads to the accumulation of sphingomyelin in brain and liver resulting in dysfunction or damage of the brain tissues.
 
Polymorphic markers such as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) are used in molecular diagnosis of genetic disease through linkage analysis or homozygosity mapping. The allele frequency and degree of heterozygosity of the markers are usually population dependent. The aim of this study was to investigate the allele frequency and degree hetereozygosity of rs67992843 marker located in the SMPD1 gene region in the Iranian population.
 
Materials & methods: 113 unrelated individuals were selected for this study. The marker was genotyped using ARMS PCR with newly designed primers. The results were analyzed by Genepop database and Power Marker software to estimate allelic frequency, heterozygosity rate, presence of Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) and polymorphism information content (PIC).
 
Findings: The data showed 31.42% Minor Allele Frequency (MAF), 39.82% heterozygosity rate and PIC 0.338 for rs67992843 marker in the Iranian population.
 
Discussion & conclusions: The results of this study showed that rs67992843 marker could be suggested for linkage analysis and molecular diagnosis of SMPD1 gene in the Iranian population.
 

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Introduction: Muscle imbalance of the upper quadrant of the body is one of the problems in paraplegia spinal cord injury (SCI) patients using wheelchair. This increases the risk of developing deformities and exposes the person to upper cross syndrome (UCS). The use of NASM-based corrective exercises is one of the new ways of restoring muscle balance for preventing and correcting deformities. The aim of this study was investigating the effect of NASM-based training protocol on UCS in paraplegia SCI patients.
 
Materials & Methods: 22 male paraplegic spinal cord injury patients with forward head, round shoulder, and kyphosis deformities were selected and divided into two groups of training(n:12, age:38.68±9.81) and control(n:10, age:40.40±7.33). Training group performed NASM-based exercises for 12 weeks. Goniometer, double square, and flexible ruler were used to measure forward head, round shoulder, and kyphosis, respectively. The statistical analysis of variance for repeated data at the significance level of (P <0.05) was used to analyze the data.
 
Findings: Forward head, round shoulder, and kyphosis deformities had significant improvements in training group in comparison to control group from pre to post test(P <0.05).
 
Discussion & Conclusions: It is suggested that people with SCI who spend a lot of hours on the wheelchair should modify the position of the nose using the proposed NASM-based training exercises in this study on a regular basis in order to prevent muscle imbalance and developing the deformities in the upper quadrant of the body.

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Introduction: The nurses' perception of their social responsibilities protects the hospital against environmental dynamic changes since a part of this responsibility is related to timely responses to environmental issues called organizational agility. In case of no organization agility, some issues are emerged known as burnout in the field of organizational behavior. The creation of job enthusiasm among the employees is the antidote to occupational burnout which leads them to achieve organizational goals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between social responsibility and organizational agility with a moderating role of job enthusiasm among nurses working at Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ilam, Iran.
 
Materials & Methods: The study population includes nurses working at Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ilam, Iran. Out of 300 nurses, 169 cases were selected using Morgan table and simple random sampling. The data were collected using a standard questionnaire and the research hypotheses were tested using Smart-PLS software (Version 2).
 
Findings: The results showed a significant relationship between social responsibility and organizational agility (52.354) which is more than a 1.96 confidence level. Therefore, the first hypothesis of the research was confirmed (i.e., there is a relationship between social responsibility and organizational agility). Moreover, job enthusiasm with a significant coefficient of 7.242 (more than a confidence level of 1.96) moderated the relationship between social responsibility and organizational agility.
 
Discussion & Conclusions: Nowadays, the provision of good service cannot fulfill the satisfaction of the hospital stakeholders since by increasing the awareness of the people about the multiple tasks of hospitals in the social domains, responsibility towards the community is considered to be the least preference. Moreover, the mutual realization of organizational and social goals is the result of awareness and practice within the framework of social responsibility. Therefore, this critical issue depends on the agility of organizations to meet the growing expectations of stakeholders and create the groundwork for job aspirations to drive the individuals to achieve the identified organizational goals.
 

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Introduction: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among Iranian women. ELF5 gene as a transcription factor member of the ETS family could play a key role in breast cancer neoplasms, especially basal-like and endocrine-resistant subtypes. The changes in the gene promoter methylation pattern are considered proper targets in the therapeutic strategies. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of this epigenetic phenomenon and ELF5 gene expression as well as their association with pathologic and clinical characteristics of Iranian patients suffering from this cancer.
 
Materials & Methods: In order to investigate the ELF5 promoter methylation, 134 breast tissues were analyzed using methylation-specific PCR method. Moreover, 164 tumoral and 10 normal breast tissues retrieved from breast reduction surgery were assessed using Real-Time RT-PCR to analyze the gene expression.
Ethics code: 52d/4922, 6.10.2016
 
Findings: The data revealed that about 70% of the breast cancer tumoral specimens showed ELF5 promoter methylated pattern. Furthermore, the down-regulation of ELF5 gene expression was significantly associated with higher cancer stages, being triple-negative, and invasion.
 
Discussions & Conclusions: The results revealed that an increase in the ELF5 promoter methylation frequency in patients, compared to the control tissues, and its association with poor prognosis indicators may propose the ELF5 promoter methylation as a possible candidate in further studies to confirm the poor prognostic role of this biomarker in breast cancer.

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Introduction: Diabetes is the most prevalent endocrine disease. Apoptosis and necroptosis play a major role in the development of diabetes-related heart diseases; however, the effects of continuous and interval exercise on apoptosis and necroptosis of the heart cells in diabetics are unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effect of different intensities of aerobic exercise on apoptosis and necroptosis of the cardiac tissue of diabetic mice.
 
Materials & Methods: In total, 32 mature, male, and white Wistar rats (mean age of 12±2 weeks and weight of 175±15 g) were randomly divided into four groups of eight animals per group. The groups included a healthy control (C), diabetic control (D), diabetic with moderate-intensity continuous training (55 min with 26 m/min speed daily) (D+MICT), and diabetic with high-intensity interval training at the 85-90% of maximum speed (D+HIIT) (5 days/week for 8 weeks). Before the training protocol, the running speed was calculated to obtain the maximum oxygen consumption. Western blot analysis was utilized to evaluate the changes in the expression of the proteins associated with apoptosis and necroptotic death path in the diabetic heart muscle myocardium. Furthermore, the one-way analysis of variance was used to determine the differences among the study groups. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Ethics code: IAU.SARI.REC.1397.8
 
Findings: The results indicated that type 2 Diabetes Mellitus significantly increased both apoptotic and necroptotic cell death (P=0.001). However, both continuous and interval training moderated the apoptotic cell death (P≤0.05). Nonetheless, the effect of interval training was higher than that of the continuous one. It is worth mentioning that only interval training had a significant effect on reducing the necroptosis (P≤0.05).
 
Discussions & Conclusions: It seems that continuous and interval exercise affects apoptotic death; however, intense interval exercise is more effective in necroptotic death.
 

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Introduction: Assisted reproductive techniques and Preimplantation Genetic Test (PGT) are performed to detect aneuploidy to achieve a euploid baby's birth in infertile or low-fertility couples. miRNAs are single-stranded, non-coding RNA molecules and essential regulators of gene expression in various biological and physiological processes. The present study aimed to investigate some miRNAs damaged in the culture media of human embryos (as diagnostic biomarkers) and their relationship with the degree of aneuploidy of the embryo and assisted reproductive methods.
Material & Methods: The PGT cycles derived sperm intracytoplasmic injection (April 2021 to June 2021) were evaluated using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Following that, the culture medium of three euploids and three aneuploid embryos with an X sex chromosome (Turner) was collected and the expression of has-miR-199a-5p, has-miR-199b-3p has-miR-379-5p, has-miR-483-5p, has-miR-99a-5p, and has-miR-432-5p were investigated using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).
Findings: In the culture medium of euploid embryos, a significant increase was observed in the expression of three miRNAs, including hsa-miR-379-5p, hsa-miR-199a-5p, hsa-miR-199b-3p. Moreover, a decrease was detected in the expression of three miRNAs, including hsa-miR-432-5p, hsa -miR-483-5p, and hsa-miR-99a-5p, with a significant difference (P<0.0001). The expression of these miRNAs in the culture medium of Turner embryos with the model was the opposite.
Discussion & Conclusion: In examining the expression level of miRNAs investigated in this project, the increase in the expression of three miRNAs and the decrease in the expression of three other miRNAs in euploid embryos demonstrated the opposite expression pattern of the same miRNAs in Turner embryos. These results can be considered promising for using non-invasive methods instead of fetal biopsy in the diagnostic studies of the number of sex chromosomes.