Neuroendocrine tumors in the Iran Cancer Institute: Predictive Factors of Patient Survival

Sadighi, Sanambar,Roshanaee, Ghodratollah,Vahedi, Saba,Jahanzad, Easa,Mohagheghi, Mohammad Ali,Mousavi-Jarahi, Alireza Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.18

Background: Neuroendocrine tumors have widespread and different clinical presentations and prognoses. This study was conducted to assess their survival time and prognostic factors in Iran. Materials and Methods: In a retrospective cohort study, 189 patients diagnosed of having neuroendocrine carcinoma were chosen. The tumor and clinical characteristics of the patients were modeled with a Cox proportional hazard approach. Survival was assessed using Kaplan-Meyer curves. Results: Crude median survival time was 30 months. Women survived longer than men (the median survival time for women was 40 and for men was 24 months). Age (<60 vs >60 years old with hazard ratio (HR) of 2.43, 95% CI 1.3-4.5), primary pathology report (carcinoid vs. others with HR 5.85 cm, 95% CI 2.4-14.3), tumor size cm (for 5-10, HR of 3.1, 95% CI 1.6 and for >10 HR of 8.2, 95% with 95% CI 3.1-21.9), and chemotherapy with single drug (taking vs. not taking with a HR 2.2, 95% CI 1.1-4.8) had significant effects on overall survival of patients. Conclusions: Survival time in patients with neuroendocrine carcinomas is related to demographics, clinical characteristics, tumor histology, and subtype specific treatment.

Lack of Metformin Effects on Different Molecular Subtypes of Breast Cancer under Normoglycemic Conditions: An in vitro Study

Sadighi, Sanambar,Amanpour, Saeid,Behrouzi, Bita,Khorgami, Zhinoos,Muhammadnejad, Samad Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.5

Background: In the past few years, a considerable number of preclinical studies have been proposed metformin as a potential anticancer agent, but some of these studies suffer from a number of methodological limitations such as assessment of cytotoxicity in the presence of supraphysiological glucose concentrations or applying suprapharmacological levels of the drug. These objections have limited the translation of published preclinical data to the clinical setting. The present study aimed to investigate direct anticancer effects of metformin on different molecular subtypes of breast cancer with pharmacological concentrations and under normoglycemic conditions in vitro. Materials and Methods: Breast cancer cell lines from luminal A, luminal B, ErbB2 and triple-negative molecular subtypes were treated with a pharmacological concentration of metformin (2mM) at a glucose concentration of 5.5mM. Time-dependant cell viability was assessed by dye exclusion assay. MTTbased cytotoxicity assays were also performed with metformin alone or in combination with paclitaxel. Results: Metformin did not show any growth inhibitory effects or time-dependant cytotoxicity on breast cancer cell lines in the presence of normal glucose concentrations at the therapeutic plasma level. No augmentation of the antineoplastic properties of paclitaxel was apparent under the tested conditions. Conclusions: Metformin is probably unable to exert cytotoxic or cytostatic effects on breast cancer subtypes at pharmacological concentrations and normal plasma glucose levels. These results highlight the importance of establishing a higher steady-state plasma concentration of metformin in the clinical setting for assessment of anticancer effects in normoglycemic patients.

A two-dimensional discrete lumped model for a trickle-bed vacuum gas oil hydrocracking reactor

Sepehr Sadighi 한국화학공학회 2016 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.33 No.9

A two-dimensional (2D) computational fluid dynamics model based on discrete lumping approach was used to predict the product yields of a pilot scale vacuum gas oil (VGO) hydrocracking reactor. This model was developed by solving mass conservation equations in conjunction with the continuity and momentum balances in the z-r cylindrical plane. The kinetic parameters of the model were estimated from the experimental data, and validated by using actual values. Results show that the proposed model can appreciably improve the accuracy of the yield prediction in comparison to the predicted value using the 1D model. Moreover, it is confirmed that the order of magnitude of the radial liquid velocity against the axial one is considerably low, and there is no significant pressure drop along the r-direction. Additionally, results show that two-dimensional model is a reliable tool for evaluating the catalyst performance and also for designing commercial reactors.

4-Lump kinetic model for vacuum gas oil hydrocracker involving hydrogen consumption

Sepehr Sadighi,Arshad Ahmad,Mehdi Rashidzadeh 한국화학공학회 2010 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.27 No.4

A 4-lump kinetic model including hydrogen consumption for hydrocracking of vacuum gas oil in a pilot scale reactor is proposed. The advantage of this work over the previous ones is consideration of hydrogen consumption,imposed by converting vacuum gas oil to light products, which is implemented in the kinetic model by a quadratic expression as similar as response surface modeling. This approach considers vacuum gas oil (VGO) and unconverted oil as one lump whilst others are distillate, naphtha and gas. The pilot reactor bed is divided into hydrotreating and hydrocracking sections which are loaded with different types of catalysts. The aim of this paper is modeling the hydrocracking section, but the effect of hydrotreating is considered on the boundary condition of the hydrocracking part. The hydrocracking bed is considered as a plug flow reactor and it is modeled by the cellular network approach. Initially,a kinetic network with twelve coefficients and six paths is considered. But following evaluation using measured data and order of magnitude analysis, the three route passes and one activation energy coefficient are omitted; thus the number of coefficients is reduced to five. This approach improves the average absolute deviation of prediction from 7.2%to 5.92%. Furthermore, the model can predict the hydrogen consumption for hydrocracking with average absolute deviation about 8.59% in comparison to those calculated from experimental data.

Synthesis of Nano-Structured La0.8Ba0.2MnO3 Perovskite via a Mechano-Thermal Route

Zoya Sadighi,Abolghasem Ataie,Mohammad Reza Barati 대한금속·재료학회 2014 METALS AND MATERIALS International Vol.20 No.1

In this study, barium-doped lanthanum manganite, La0.8Ba0.2MnO3, was synthesized via a mechano-thermalroute employing high energy ball milling and subsequent heat treatment. The structural evolution, morphol-ogy and thermal behaviour of the powders were evaluated using XRD, FESEM, and DTA/TGA, respectively. DTA/TGA results showed that the calcination temperature of the carbonates significantly decreased byincreasing the milling time. The results revealed that single phase perovskite was formed at 900 °C in amilled sample for 2 h and this temperature decreased to 600 °C by increasing the milling time to 30 h. Themean crystallite size also decreased from 32 to 20 nm by increasing the milling time from 2 to 30 h. Thereaction sequence of La0.8Ba0.2MnO3 formation via the mechano-thermal route is proposed using XRD andDTA/TGA results. FESEM micrographs showed that the mean particle size of the perovskite phase isincreased slightly from 30 to 40 nm by increasing the heat treatment temperature from 600 to 900 °C.

On the Cultural Schema and Iranian EFL Learners` Reading Performance: A Case of Local and Global Items

( Farzaneh Dehghan ),( Firooz Sadighi ) 범태평양응용언어학회 2011 범태평양응용언어학회지 Vol.15 No.2

Reading skill has taken on an important role in most EFL teaching situations. While linguistic knowledge is only one aspect of this skill, background knowledge including culture can also play an important role (Alptekin, 2006; Johnson, 1981; Pritchard, 1990; Steffensen, Chitra, & Anderson, 1979). This study investigated the effect of cultural background or cultural schema on the performance of Iranian EFL students on local (bottom-up) and global (top-down) processes. Sixty-six female pre-university students took part in the study. They read five texts with familiar cultural themes and five texts with culturally unfamiliar topics (total=10). The multiple-choice items were designed in a way to test both bottom-up processing (word recognition, literal comprehension and finding referents of pronouns) and top-down processing (making inferences, skimming, scanning, etc). The findings showed that our students performed significantly better on local items compared with global items both for (un)familiar texts. It was also observed that their overall performance was mostly influenced by text familiarity. Their higher scores on local items can be explained by the fact that these items are totally easier to process due to the linguistic context available. In contrast, the difficulty of the global items can be explained because our EFL learners need extra linguistic knowledge to process such items. Also, this difference could be attributed to the teaching situation in which language teachers do not teach students how to read at all and learners are not familiar with higher-level, global processes being important in reading comprehension.

An Account of Null-Prep Constructions in the Interlanguage Grammar of EFL Learners

( M. Saadat ),( F. Sadighi ) 범태평양응용언어학회 2006 범태평양응용언어학회지 Vol.10 No.1

Investigating the Cold Plasma Surface Modification of Kaolin- and Attapulgite-Bound Zeolite A

Mahboobeh Ejtemaei,Sepehr Sadighi,Mehdi Rashidzadeh,Sirous Khorram,Jan O. Back,Simon Penner,Michael F. Noisternig,Dariush Salari,Aligholi Niaei 한국공업화학회 2022 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.106 No.-

Hydrophilic zeolites with low catalytic activity are considered as suitable adsorbents for drying gasstreams containing olefinic compounds. In this contribution, the surface treatment of kaolin and attapulgite/zeolite A extrudates is investigated using argon glow discharge plasma. The zeolite is synthesizedfrom kaolin using the hydrothermal method. Surface and bulk characterization is performed using X-raydiffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N2 physisorption, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR)spectroscopy, temperature-programmed-desorption (TPD) of NH3 and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) techniques. Plasma treatment increases surface area and pore volume, but it decreasesthe weak acidic site density of the extrudates. The obtained results show that attapulgite/zeolite extrudatesare more affected by plasma treatment than kaolin/zeolite extrudates. The catalytic activity ofuntreated and plasma-treated extrudates are compared with respect to coke formation resulting from1-butene and 1,3-butadiene. The plasma-treated sample is more resistant to coke formation (35%decrease compared to untreated one). The potassium contents of extrudates decreased as a result of sputteringloosely bound potassium cations on the crystal surface by argon ions, which led to a decrease inwater sorption capacity (by 15% of the initial sorption capacity).

A proposed framework for holding intensive 3Rs workshops in laboratory animal science

Siavash Ahmadi-Noorbakhsh,Jila Sadighi,Zahra Hatami,Ehsan Shamsi Gooshki 한국실험동물학회 2022 Laboratory Animal Research Vol.38 No.1

Principles of 3Rs are the backbone of today’s animal research. Applying 3Rs in practice requires proper education and training. Although this could be achieved via long-term courses ranging from several weeks to years, in some circumstances a short-term course may be the only viable option. In this paper we define scientific and ethical objectives for running short-term 3Rs workshops. To meet these objectives, we propose a 2-day workshop curriculum and an ethical framework. The curriculum comprises theoretical and practical sessions and covers Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement strategies. The ethical framework defines the responsibilities of lecturers and attendees, and proposes the animals and facilities requirements to run the proposed workshop curriculum. The attendees will be assessed at the end of the workshop and they receive certificates for working under supervision until they are deemed competent at their intended functions. The proposed curriculum and framework are not subscriptive, instead they share the experience gained through running more than 60 laboratory animal 3Rs workshops.

Chomsky’s Universal Grammar and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics: An Appraisal and a Compromise

( Mohammad Bavali ),( Firooz Sadighi ) 범태평양 응용언어학회 2008 범태평양응용언어학회지 Vol.12 No.1

Recent developments in theories of language (grammars) seem to share a number of tenets which mark a drastic shift from traditional disentangled descriptions of language: emphasis on a big number of discrete grammatical rules or a corpus of structure patterns has given way to a more unitary, explanatory powerful description of language informed by a sound theory of language acquisition, on the one hand, and verified/refuted by observations on samples of language use, on the other. Two widely welcome of such theories are Chomsky’s Universal Grammar and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics. These two theories have been initiated and developed almost independently and each has been successful in accounting for aspects of language from a particular perspective. However, they seem to stand more in a complementary position with respect to each other than in a confronting stance against one another. This article aims at providing evidence for such a claim to support the argue that not only aren’t these two theories mutually exclusive but they are rather mutually dependent; there is a sense in which each needs to internalize and incorporate aspects of the other if a fully-fledged account of language is to be achieved.