MicroRNA-183 Family in Inner Ear: Hair Cell Development and Deafness

Mohammad Reza Mahmoodian sani,Morteza Hashemzadeh Chaleshtori,Massoud Saidijam,Mohammad-Saeid Jami,Payam Ghasemi-Dehkordi 대한청각학회 2016 Journal of Audiology & Otology Vol.20 No.3

miRNAs are essential factors of an extensively conserved post-transcriptional process controlling gene expression at mRNA level. Varoius biological processes such as growth and differentiation are regulated by miRNAs. Web of Science and PubMed databases were searched using the Endnote software for the publications about the role miRNA-183 family in inner ear: hair cell development and deafness published from 2000 to 2016. A triplet of these miRNAs particularly the miR-183 family is highly expressed in vertebrate hair cells, as with some of the peripheral neurosensory cells. Point mutations in one member of this family, miR-96, underlie DFNA50 autosomal deafness in humans and lead to abnormal hair cell development and survival in mice. In zebrafish, overexpression of the miR-183 family induces extra and ectopic hair cells, while knockdown decreases the number of hair cell. The miR-183 family (miR-183, miR-96 and miR-182) is expressed abundantly in some types of sensory cell in the eye, nose and inner ear. In the inner ear, mechanosensory hair cells have a robust expression level. Despite much similarity of these miRs sequences, small differences lead to distinct targeting of messenger RNAs targets. In the near future, miRNAs are likely to be explored as potential therapeutic agents to repair or regenerate hair cells, cell reprogramming and regenerative medicine applications in animal models because they can simultaneously down-regulate dozens or even hundreds of transcripts.

Immune response and antioxidant status of broilers as influenced by oxidized vegetable oil and pomegranate peel

( Mohammad Ghasemi-Sadabadi ),( Yahya Ebrahimnezhad ),( Naser Maheri-Sis ),( Jamshid Ghiasi Ghalehkandi ),( Abdolahad Shaddel-Teli ) 한국축산학회 2021 한국축산학회지 Vol.63 No.5

The experiment was designed as a 3 × 3 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments, including (i) pomegranate peel (zero, 4%, and 8 percent), (ii) oxidized soybean oil (zero, 2%, and 4 percent), and (iii) alpha-tocopherol (zero and 200 mg/kg). Supplementation of 8% pomegranate peel in diets significantly decreased the growth performance of broiler chickens. The supplementation of 4% oxidized oil in diets significantly reduced body weight gain and Feed intake whole experimental period (p < 0.05). The results showed that supplementation of 4% pomegranate peel in the diet was associated with low aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase, and malondialdehyde (MDA). However, 4% pomegranate peel increased the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities. The supplemental 4% oxidized oil increased the serum AST, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and MDA concentrations. TAC, SOD, and Catalase (CAT) activities were affected by 4% oxidized oil and alpha-tocopherol. The use of oxidized oil and vitamin E decreased MDA concentration. The serum glucose and globulin concentrations were significantly lower in the 8% pomegranate peel. The results showed that supplementation with 4% pomegranate peel in diets reduced serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The inclusion of 4% oxidized oil in diets reduced serum glucose and increased the blood lipid concentration such as triglyceride, cholesterol and LDL. Vitamin E supplementation reduced the serum cholesterol and LDL concentrations. The use of 8% pomegranate peel reduced red blood cell (RBC), hemoglobin, and packed cell value (PCV). The results indicated that supplementation with 8% pomegranate peel and 4% oxidized oil in diets decreased the immunoglobulin concentration in broilers. In addition, it was found that the inclusion of 4% pomegranate peel in diets resulted in higher IgG, IgM and total immunoglobulin. Pomegranate peel supplementation significantly decreased meat MDA concentration. Supplementation of 4% oxidized oil increased MDA of meat (p < 0.05). Vitamin E supplementation (200 mg/kg) significantly decreased MDA of meat (p < 0.05). Consequently, the results of this experiment showed that supplementation with 4% pomegranate peel had beneficial effects on broiler chickens. It was also found that feeding 2% oxidized oil in diets had no adverse effect on broilers.

Soccer league optimization-based championship algorithm (SLOCA): A fast novel meta-heuristic technique for optimization problems

Ghasemi, Mohammad R.,Ghasri, Mehdi,Salarnia, Abdolhamid Techno-Press 2022 Advances in computational design Vol.7 No.4

Due to their natural and social revelation, also their ease and flexibility, human collective behavior and teamwork sports are inspired to introduce optimization algorithms to solve various engineering and scientific problems. Nowadays, meta-heuristic algorithms are becoming some striking methods for solving complex real-world problems. In that respect in the present study, the authors propose a novel meta-innovative algorithm based on soccer teamwork sport, suitable for optimization problems. The method may be referred to as the Soccer League Optimization-based Championship Algorithm, inspired by the Soccer league. This method consists of two main steps, including: 1. Qualifying competitions and 2. Main competitions. To evaluate the robustness of the proposed method, six different benchmark mathematical functions, and two engineering design problem was performed for optimization to assess its efficiency in achieving optimal solutions to various problems. The results show that the proposed algorithm may well explore better performance than some well-known algorithms in various aspects such as consistency through runs and a fast and steep convergence in all problems towards the global optimal fitness value.

Strategies for sustaining and enhancing nursing students’ engagement in academic and clinical settings: a narrative review

Mohammad Reza Ghasemi,Hossein Karimi Moonaghi,Abbas Heydari 한국의학교육학회 2020 Korean journal of medical education Vol.32 No.2

Students’ engagement in academic-related learning activities is one of the important determinants of students’ success. Identifying the best teaching strategies to sustain and promote nursing students’ engagement in academic and clinical settings has always been a challenge for nurse educators. Hence, it is essential to provide a set of strategies for maintaining and enhancing the academic engagement of nursing students. The purpose of this review was to explore and summarize the strategies that nurse educators use to sustain and promote nursing students’ engagement in academic and clinical settings. A narrative literature review was conducted. CINAHL (nursing content), ProQuest, Medline, the Cochrane, Google Scholar, and Scopus were searched. Of 1,185 retrieved articles, 32 teaching strategies were identified and extracted from the nursing literature. We used thematic analysis approach to organize these strategies into five main categories as follows: technology-based strategies (15 articles), collaborative strategies (10 articles), simulation-based strategies (two articles), research-based strategies (two articles), and miscellanea learning strategies (three articles). As a general comment, these strategies have the potential to promote nursing students’ engagement. Among the strategies discussed in this review, the use of technology, particularly the response system and online learning, was more common among nursing educators, which is in line with today’s advances in smart technologies. The collection presented in this review can be used as a starting point for future research to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention on the academic engagement of nursing students. Nevertheless, due to the lack of experimental studies, the optimal strategies remain to be elucidated through future high-quality experimental study.

In vitro Antibacterial Activity and Wound Healing Effects of Achillea millefolium Essential Oil in Rat

Ghasemi Mohammad Reza,Ranjbar Akram,Tamri Pari,Pourmoslemi Shabnam,Nourian Alireza,Dastan Dara 대한약침학회 2023 Journal of pharmacopuncture Vol.26 No.2

Objectives: In this study we aimed to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial activity and wound healing properties of Achillea millefolium essential oil (AMEO) in full-thickness wound model in rat. The antibacterial activity of AMEO was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using the broth dilution method. Methods: The 2 cm × 2 cm full-thickness excisional wounds were created on the back of animals. Topical therapy was applied twice a day using 1%, 2%, and 3% w/w AMEO ointments, and the measurement of the wounds area was carried out every 3 days, after that the wound closure percentage was calculated in these days. Hydroxyproline content and histopathological evaluation of wound tissue samples were carried out on day 7 and 14 post wounding. Eucerin was used for the treatment of vehicle control group and negative control group received no treatment. Results: Our results revealed the bacteriostatic activity of AMEO against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. Wound healing activity evaluation of AMEO showed the significant increase (p < 0.05) in the wound closure percentages in rats treated with AMEO 1% and 2% comparing to those of non-treatment group. In addition, hydroxyproline contents of tissue significantly (p < 0.01) increased in AMEO 1% and 2% comparing to non-treatment group. Histopathological evaluations of wound tissue samples on day 7 and 14 demonstrated higher accumulation of collagen fibers, reduction of edema and inflammation and also formation of tissue appendages in 1% and 2% AMEO treated groups in comparison with non-treatment group. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that AMEO has the potential to be used as a safe and effective wound healing agent.

Visual Servoing Using an Optimized Trajectory Planning Technique for a 4 DOFs Robotic Manipulator

Mohammad Keshmiri,Wen-Fang Xie,Ahmad Ghasemi 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2017 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.15 No.3

Although visual servoing has been considered as a solution to increase dexterity and intelligence ofthe robotic systems specially in unstructured environments, some prominent deficiencies are preventing it frompractical employment. Trajectory planning is a solution to overcome the shortcomings of visual servoing andmakes it practical for industrial applications. In this paper, a new trajectory planning technique is developed toperform image-based visual servoing (IBVS) tasks for a 4 DOFs robotic manipulator system. In this method, thecamera’s velocity screw is parameterized using time-based profiles. The parameters of the velocity profile are thendetermined such that the velocity profile takes the robot to its desired position. This is done by minimizing theerrors between the initial and desired features. A depth estimation technique is proposed to provide the trajectoryplanning algorithm with an accurate initial depth. This algorithm is tested and validated via the experiment on a4 DOFs Denso robot in an eye-in-hand configuration. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed methodprovides with a reliable visual servoing algorithm by overcoming the IBVS drawbacks such as surpassing the systemlimits and causing instability of the system in fulfilling the tasks which require a 180o rotation of the camera aboutits center.

The effect of carbon fiber length on the microstructure, selected mechanical, wear, and thermal conductivity of Cf/SiC composite fabricated via spark plasma sintering (SPS) method

Ghasemi Arman,Ramazani Mazaher,Bakhshi Saeed Reza,Al-Khafaji Ali Hussein Demin,Zahabi Saeed,Loghman Estarki Mohammad Reza,Zamani Abbas 한국세라믹학회 2023 한국세라믹학회지 Vol.60 No.4

This research aims to fabricate and develop a composite brake disc made of carbon/silicon carbide. For this purpose, the first silicon carbide nanoparticles were ultrasonicated with alumina sintering aid and carbon fi ber (between 10 and 20%) with different lengths of 3 mm, 10 mm, and 15 mm. Next, the fi nal Cf/SiC composite bulk was made-up via the spark plasma sintering (SPS) method. After that, the effect of different lengths of carbon fiber was explored on the porosity, coefficient of friction, fracture toughness, thermal conductivity, and microhardness of samples. The results showed that the density of sintered samples with a carbon fiber length of 10 mm was higher than that of samples with fiber lengths of 3 and 15 mm. Also, the hardness (25.79 GPa) and fracture toughness (5.72 MPa.m 1/2) of this sample were higher than those of the samples sintered with carbon fiber lengths of 3 and 15 mm. Further, this sample with the maximum density showed a coefficient of friction (COF) of 0.43. Since for aeroplane brake discs, the COF should be between 0.3 and 0.4, and the porosity of sam- ples should range within 3–5%, the samples sintered with the carbon fiber length of 10 mm had the nearby features to the preferred air brake disc indices.

Sulfur-Emission-Free Process of Molybdenum Carbide Synthesis by Lime-Enhanced Molybdenum Disulfide Reduction with Methane

Ghasemi, Samad,Abbasi, Mohammad Hasan,Saidi, Ali,Kim, Jae Yul,Lee, Jae Sung American Chemical Society 2011 INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH - Vol.50 No.23

<P>To investigate a sulfur-emission-free process of molybdenum carbide synthesis from molybdenite, the reaction pathways of MoS<SUB>2</SUB> reduction with methane in the presence of lime (CaO) have been studied. A mixture of MoS<SUB>2</SUB> + 2CaO was reduced isothermally with CH<SUB>4</SUB> in a microreactor, and the composition of effluent gases and the reduced fraction were determined as a function of reaction time. Analysis of the solid phase at different reaction times at 800 °C showed the formation of CaMoO<SUB>4</SUB> as an intermediate phase. Hence, the reaction pathways proposed for reduction of MoS<SUB>2</SUB> + CaO with CH<SUB>4</SUB> involves the direct reduction of MoS<SUB>2</SUB> with CH<SUB>4</SUB> to form Mo<SUB>2</SUB>C and sulfur-containing gases. The sulfur-containing gases are captured by CaO to form CaS, CO(g), CO<SUB>2</SUB>(g), and H<SUB>2</SUB>O(g). The unreacted MoS<SUB>2</SUB> is oxidized by CO<SUB>2</SUB>(g) and H<SUB>2</SUB>O(g) to form MoO<SUB>3</SUB>(g), which reacted with CaO to form CaMoO<SUB>4</SUB> on CaO particles. Finally, CaMoO<SUB>4</SUB> and remaining MoS<SUB>2</SUB> are further reduced with CH<SUB>4</SUB>. Characterization of solid samples was carried out by XRD, CHN, and FE-SEM equipped with EDS, providing results consistent with the proposed reaction pathways. Carbon content of solid sample increased with reduction time, and in fully reduced sample at 800 °C it was well above the stoichiometric amount indicating considerable excess carbon deposition due to CH<SUB>4</SUB> cracking.</P><P><B>Graphic Abstract</B> <IMG SRC='http://pubs.acs.org/appl/literatum/publisher/achs/journals/content/iecred/2011/iecred.2011.50.issue-23/ie201860h/production/images/medium/ie-2011-01860h_0010.gif'></P>

Damage detection using both energy and displacement damage index on the ASCE benchmark problem

Mohammad Javad Khosraviani,Omid Bahar,Seyed Hooman Ghasemi 국제구조공학회 2021 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.77 No.2

This paper aims to present a novelty damage detection method to identify damage locations by the simultaneous use of both the energy and displacement damage indices. Using this novelty method, the damaged location and even the damaged floor are accurately detected. As a first method, a combination of the instantaneous frequency energy index (EDI) and the structural acceleration responses are used. To evaluate the first method and also present a rapid assessment method, the Displacement Damage Index (DDI), which consists of the error reliability (β) and Normal Probability Density Function (NPDF) indices, are introduced. The innovation of this method is the simultaneous use of displacement-acceleration responses during one process, which is more effective in the rapid evaluation of damage patterns with velocity vectors. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, various damage scenarios of the ASCE benchmark problem, and the effects of measurement noise were studied numerically. Extensive analyses show that the rapid proposed method is capable of accurately detecting the location of sparse damages through the building. Finally, the proposed method was validated by experimental studies of a six‐story steel building structure with single and multiple damage cases.

Numerical and analytical study of aeroelastic characteristics of wind turbine composite blades

Ghasemi, Ahmad Reza,Jahanshir, Arezu,Tarighat, Mohammad Hassan Techno-Press 2014 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.18 No.2

Aeroelasticity is the main source of instability in structures which are subjected to aerodynamic forces. One of the major reasons of instability is the coupling of bending and torsional vibration of the flexible bodies, which is known as flutter. The presented investigation aims to study the aeroelastic stability of composite blades of wind turbine. Geometry, layup, and loading of the turbine blades made of laminated composites were calculated and evaluated. To study the flutter phenomenon of the blades, two numerical and analytical methods were selected. The finite element method (FEM), and JAR-23 standard were used to perform the numerical studies. In the analytical method, two degree freedom flutter and Lagrange's equations were employed to study the flutter phenomena analytically and estimate the flutter speed.