Causal Effect of Self-esteem on Cigarette Smoking Stages in Adolescents: Coarsened Exact Matching in a Longitudinal Study

Ahmad Khosravi,Asghar Mohammadpoorasl,Kourosh Holakouie-Naieni,Mahmood Mahmoodi,Ali Akbar Pouyan,Mohammad Ali Mansournia 질병관리본부 2016 Osong Public Health and Research Persptectives Vol.7 No.6

Objectives: Identification of the causal impact of self-esteem on smoking stages faces seemingly insurmountable problems in observational data, where self-esteem is not manipulable by the researcher and cannot be assigned randomly. The aim of this study was to find out if weaker self-esteem in adolescence is a risk factor of cigarette smoking in a longitudinal study in Iran. Methods: In this longitudinal study, 4,853 students (14-18 years) completed a self-administered multiple-choice anonym questionnaire. The students were evaluated twice, 12 months apart. Students were matched based on coarsened exact matching on pretreatment variables, including age, gender, smoking stages at the first wave of study, socioeconomic status, general risk-taking behavior, having a smoker in the family, having a smoker friend, attitude toward smoking, and self-injury, to ensure statistically equivalent comparison groups. Self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg 10-item questionnaire and were classified using a latent class analysis. After matching, the effect of self-esteem was evaluated using a multinomial logistic model. Results: In the causal fitted model, for adolescents with weaker self-esteem relative to those with stronger self-esteem, the relative risk for experimenters and regular smokers relative to nonsmokers would be expected to increase by a factor of 2.2 (1.9-2.6) and 2.0 (1.5-2.6), respectively. Conclusion: Using a causal approach, our study indicates that low self-esteem is consistently associated with progression in cigarette smoking stages.

Assessment of Future Changes in the Maximum Temperature at Selected Stations in Iran Based on HADCM3 and CGCM3 Models

Mohsen Abbasnia,Taghi Tavousi,Mahmood Khosravi 한국기상학회 2016 Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences Vol.52 No.4

Identification and assessment of climate change in the next decades with the aim of appropriate environmental planning in order to adapt and mitigate its effects are quite necessary. In this study, maximum temperature changes of Iran were comparatively examined in two future periods (2041-2070 and 2071-2099) and based on the two general circulation model outputs (CGCM3 and HADCM3) and under existing emission scenarios (A2, A1B, B1 and B2). For this purpose, after examining the ability of statistical downscaling method of SDSM in simulation of the observational period (1981-2010), the daily maximum temperature of future decades was downscaled by considering the uncertainty in seven synoptic stations as representatives of climate in Iran. In uncertainty analysis related to model-scenarios, it was found that CGCM3 model under scenario B1 had the best performance about the simulation of future maximum temperature among all of the examined scenario-models. The findings also showed that the maximum temperature at study stations will be increased between 1oC and 2oC in the middle and the end of 21st century. Also this maximum temperature changes is more severe in the HADCM3 model than the CGCM3 model.

Gene co-expression network reconstruction: a review on computational methods for inferring functional information from plant-based expression data

Abbasali Emamjomeh,Elham Saboori Robat,Javad Zahiri,Mahmood Solouki,Pegah Khosravi 한국식물생명공학회 2017 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.11 No.2

Reconstruction of gene co-expression networks is a powerful tool for better understanding of gene function, biological processes, and complex disease mechanisms. In essence, co-expression network analysis has been widely used for understanding which genes are highly co-expressed through special biological processes or differentially expressed in various conditions. Development of high-throughput experiments has provided a large amount of genomic and transcriptomic data for model and nonmodel organisms. The availability of genome-wide expression data has led to the development of in silico procedures for reconstruction of gene co-expression networks. Gene co-expression networks predict unknown genes’ functions; moreover, it has been successfully applied to understand important biological processes of living organisms such as plants. In this survey, we have reviewed the algorithms, databases, and tools of gene coexpression network reconstruction, which can lead to new landscapes for further research activities. Furthermore, we explain an application of some algorithms, databases, and tools that can significantly boost our current understanding of co-expression networks in Arabidopsis thaliana as a model plant using publicly available data. The presented example shows that using co-expression networks is an efficient way to detect genes, which may involve in various critical biological processes such as defense response.

Survival Rate of Breast Cancer in Iran: A Meta-Analysis

Abedi, Ghasem,Janbabai, Ghasem,Moosazadeh, Mahmood,Farshidi, Fereshte,Amiri, Mohammad,Khosravi, Ahmad Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2016 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.17 No.10

Background: There has not been a general estimation about survival rates of breast cancer cases in Iran. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess survival using a meta-analysis. Materials and Methods: International credible databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, Science direct and Google Scholar and Iranian databases such as Magiran, Irandoc and SID, from 1997 to 2015 were searched. All articles covering survival rate of breast cancer were entered into the study without any limits. Quality assessment of the articles and data extraction were performed by two researchers using the modified STROBE checklist, which includes 12 questions. Articles with scores greater than 8 were included in the analysis. A limitation of this meta-analysis was different methods for presenting of results in the papers surveyed. Results: A total of 21 articles with a sample of 12,195 people were analyzed. The one-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year survival rates of breast cancer in Iran were estimated to be 95.8% (94.6-97.0), 82.4% (79.0-85.8), 69.5% (64.5-74.5), 58.1% (39.6-76.6), respectively. The most important factors affecting survival of breast cancer were age, number of lymph nodes involved, size of the tumor and the stage of the disease. Conclusion: The five- and ten- year survival rates in Iran are lower than in developed countries. Conducting breast cancer screening plan support (including regular clinical examination, mammography), public training and raising awareness should be helpful in facilitating early diagnosis and increasing survival rates for Iranian women.

Electrochemical degradation of the Acid Orange 10 dye on a Ti/PbO2 anode assessed by response surface methodology

Afshin Ebrahimi,Gholamreza Bonyadinejad,Mansour Sarafraz,Mohsen Khosravi,Seyed Mahmood Taghavi-Shahri,Roya Nateghi,Sedighe Rastaghi 한국화학공학회 2016 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.33 No.1

The decolorization and degradation of the synthetic aqueous solution of the Acid Orange 10 (AO10) dye on Ti/PbO2 anode were investigated using the response surface methodology based on central composite design with three variables: current density, pH, and supporting electrolyte concentration. The Ti/PbO2 electrode was prepared by the electrochemical deposition method. The optimum conditions for AO10 decolorization in synthetic dye solution were electrolyte concentration of 117.04 mM, pH of 12.05, and current density of 73.64 mA cm−2. The results indicated that the most effective factor for AO10 degradation was current density. Furthermore, the color removal efficiency significantly increased with increasing current density. To measure AO10 mineralization under optimum conditions, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) removal were evaluated. Under these conditions, decolorization was completed and 63% removal was recorded for COD and 60% for TOC after 100 min of electrolysis.