Purpose: Pineal Gland (PG) is a midline brain structure and part of the epithalamus, a dorsal posterior segment of the diencephalon. Most findings on the role of this structure in brain function are relevant to melatonin secretion, and only a few reports are available on its involvement in brain cognition.

Materials and Methods: Due to some suggestions on the role of the diencephalon areas, including the PG, in the human memory system, we used data from two previous MRI studies on 32 and 295 healthy individuals, in order to identify first, if the PG shows activations in fMRI and during a memory retrieval task as well as showing functional connectivity with other brain structures, and second, if there are any associations between the PG volume and the memory scores of the individuals.

Results: Using a standard PG atlas, our results showed significant activations in PG during memory retrieval, with the strength of these activations increasing with the increment of the cognitive load of the task. Also, PG showed functional connectivity with other brain structures during fMRI, the pattern of which also changed with the cognitive load of the retrieval. Finally, the volume of the PG showed significant associations with the scores of the memory tests.

Conclusion: Our knowledge of the PG still needs improvement, and we hope our findings here could be a help for that as well as a help to better understand the mechanisms of memory storage and retrieval in humans.

Purpose: Endodontic success is mainly depends on the complete root canal system debridement, both mechanically and chemically. Maxillary first molar possesses a root canal system that is one of the most complex anatomy. The aim of this study was to map the root canal anatomy of maxillary first molar and its variations. Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) was used to determine the prevalence of the second mesiobuccal canal (MB2) and its possible relation to the gender of the patient among Iraqi population.

Materials and Methods: CBCT scan images from documented archives of 415 patients who had maxillofacial diagnosis or root canal treatment were used in this study. A total of 656 maxillary first molars (336 female and 320 male) were included. The configuration of the root canal, frequency of (MB2) and its bilateral symmetry was observed. The chi-square test was used to calculate the gender correlation. (p<0.05) was considered significant.

Results: In (61.1%) of the cases, the MB2 canal was discovered with high bilateral symmetry (73.6%). Genders did not show any statistically significant differences.

Conclusion: The presence of MB2 canal in the maxillary first molars is high and approximately more than the half of the cases. No relation was found between the existence of MB2 canal and the gender of the patient. CBCT is a clinically efficient method for the diagnosis and improvement of the root canal treatment.

Purpose: Zinc oxide nanoparticle (ZnO NPs) production has become more common because of the benefits of the green strategy, which include its ease of use, environmental friendliness, and cheap operating costs. In order to accomplish the goal of green chemistry, the green synthesis process also uses  safe solvents like water and ethanol. ZnO NPs are among the metal oxide-NPs used in antibacterial and bioremediation applications.

Materials and Methods: Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were used to analyze the green-produced ZnO.NPs.

Results: ZnO nanoparticles have an average size of 22.89 nm, which is corroborated by FESEM pictures, indicating that the particles are tiny. The excellent purity of ZnO-NPs has been confirmed by EDX data. The antibacterial activity of ZnO NPs was assessed against a few dangerous pathogens. Zinc oxide nanoparticles were shown to have an interesting antibacterial action against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria at micromolar concentrations because they exhibit the maximum diameter of inhibition zone at concentrations 100 mg/ml of  S. aureus, E. coli, K. pneumonia, Acintobacret spp, S. fecalis  reaching (27,19,18,17, and 14) mm, respectively while S. pneumonia were resistant.The ZnO NPs recorded at a concentration of 12.5 mg/ml lowest areas of the inhibition zone against the same isolates reaching (16, 11, 11, 12, and 10) mm while S. pneumonia were resistant, respectively, as well.

Conclusion: ZnO-NPs, since they have excellent antibacterial properties, and are biocompatible, they will open up a new line of inquiry for antibacterial agent research because they are stable, nontoxic, and harmless.

Purpose: Accurate detection of Atrial Fibrillation (AF) has great significance in the field of medical science which can reduce the rate of mortality and morbidity. The present study focuses on Electrocardiography (ECG) signal classification using dimensionality reduction techniques combined with R wave to R wave interval (RR interval) features.

Materials and Methods: In the first approach, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Independent Component Analysis (ICA), and Probabilistic Principal Component Analysis (PPCA) are performed independently on denoised ECG signal using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) for the classification of ECG signal. In the second approach, the dimensionality reduction techniques combined with RR interval features are used for the classification of ECG signal.

Results: Machine Learning (ML) algorithms such as Decision Tree (DT), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Deep Learning (DL) algorithms such as Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) and Bi-Directional LSTM (BiLSTM) are used for classification purposes.

Conclusion: The proposed methodology provided an overall accuracy of 93.65% with PCA and LSTM classifier and an overall accuracy of 99.45% with PCA combined with RR interval features and LSTM classifier. The developed technology has potential applications in many practical solutions.

Purpose: High-energy heavy ions generated by accelerators utilized in industrial and medical uses. Ar, C, and He heavy ions have been used in the treatment of cancer. In this research, it was tried to calculate the radioactive elements production in healthy tissues around tumors by heavy ions spallation process in the direct usage of high-energy ions for the treatment of cancerous tumors.

Materials and Methods: The radioactive elements production in body tissues irradiated with heavy ions was calculated by Monte Carlo N Particle X-version (MCNPX) code based on the Monte Carlo method. The F8 tally card with FT8 command was utilized to derive the activation and spallation data in the range of Z1 to Z2 atomic numbers.

Results: A wide range of radioactive elements was created in healthful tissues in Ne, C, Ar, and He heavy ions therapy. Results show that ¹⁰Be,¹⁴C, ²⁶Al, ³⁶Cl, ³⁹Ar, ⁴⁰K, 39Ar, ³²Si, ²²Na, and ³⁶Cl radioactive materials were produced for high-energy heavy ions spallation in healthy soft tissue.

Conclusion: The results of this research show that due to using directly high-energy ions to treat internal tumors, healthy soft tissue is activated. Also, by irradiated Ne, C, Ar, and He ions, the radioactive elements are produced with high gains and long half-lives. Therefore, in the therapy of cancerous tumors with high-energy ions, due to the production of radioactive agents, healthy tissues are at high risk.

Purpose: Right ventricle failure is a well-known complication following pulmonary thromboembolism. Although Computed Tomography Pulmonary Angiography (CTPA) findings are supposed to be a surrogate for patients’ outcome, investigations based on this issue is not still elucidated. Thus, in the current study, we assessed patients’ CTPA findings and compared the result with echocardiographic findings.

Materials and Methods: A total of 36 patients with proven pulmonary thromboembolism were enrolled and a comparison was made between indices in CTPA (interventricular septal deviation to the right side, inferior vena cava contrast reflux, and right ventricle diameter to left ventricle diameter ratio) and echocardiographic findings for detecting right ventricular failure. Also, the reliability of the aforementioned indices was sought for predicting mortality.

Results: No significant correlation was found between CTPA indices and echocardiographic findings. The highest sensitivity and positive predictive value in CT pulmonary angiography for detecting right ventricle dysfunction were revealed to be for Right Ventricle Diameter (RVD)/Left Ventricle Diameter (LVD)>1 (63.64%), abnormal septal deviation (75.00%), respectively.

Conclusion: Our results revealed that CTPA indices can reliably predict the upcoming mortality risk. On the other hand, these indices were not well-correlated with echocardiographic findings.

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to evaluate how different concentrations of TeO₂ filler particles influence the thermal conductivity, hardness, and surface roughness of room-temperature-vulcanizing VerSiltal 50 silicone elastomeric materials.

Materials and Methods: A total of 90 samples were prepared by varying the weight percentages of TeO₂ powder (0, 3, and 5 wt. %). Thirty samples from each group were used in the analysis. Two experimental groups with 3 and 5 wt. % of TeO₂ fillers were prepared and subjected to thermal conductivity, surface hardness, and surface roughness tests. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance with multiple comparison tests, and a P value <0.05 indicated significance.

Results: Thermal conductivity and hardness improved as the percentage of TeO₂ increased from 3 wt. % to 5 wt. %, compared with those in the control group, whereas surface roughness decreased.

Conclusion: The means for thermal conductivity and surface hardness of the 3 and 5 wt. % TeO₂ experimental groups increased significantly relative to those in the control group.

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are only one example of the kind of helpful medical information that is frequently accessible on social media platforms for healthcare, where people can share their own experiences with treatments on desktop computers and mobile devices. A growing number of researchers are interested in gathering this valuable medical data from social media. This research explores the effects of three aspects on the recognition of ADR mentions in social media for the medical field and proposes a deep neural network of long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks to do so. The texts from the dataset are pre-processed, and characteristics such as the semantic feature, text statics, and American Standard Code For Information Interchange (ASCII) array are extracted. Further, the features are converted into LSTM networks to perform the testing operation using the above features. This work was evaluated using two datasets, CODEC and ADR Corpus. Via extensive experiments, this work achieved 99.79 accuracies, 98.37 sensitivity, 97.63 specificities, 99.72 precision, and 98.39 recall 97.62 F1-score for the CODEC dataset. 98.16 for accuracy, 99.19 for sensitivity, 98.49 for specificity, 99.49 for precision, 96.72 for recall, and 93.16 for F1-score for ADE corpus, respectively.

Background. Gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) is the second most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Determining survival and its associated prognostic factors provides a basis for further interventions to prolong survival among patients with GAC. In this study, we aimed to perform a 5-year survival analysis among GAC patients in Kerman, Iran.

Methods. This retrospective multi-centric study was conducted on all patients with GAC who were referred to Afzalipour, Bahonar, and Shafa Hospitals in Kerman, Iran in 2009-2019. The 5-year survival rates were calculated based on prognostic factors, including age, histopathology, stage/grade of the tumor, metastatic status, and surgical procedures using the Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test.

Results: The 5-year survival rate of GAC patients with total gastrectomy was higher than those with subtotal gastrectomy (P=0.03). Also, the 5-year survival rate was substantially improved after lymph node dissection (P<0.001). Overall survival has not been significantly different in terms of age, sex, grade, histological type, clinical T stage, lymphovascular invasion, and perineural invasion.

Conclusion: Overall survival was different for the two surgical procedures and lymph node dissection. Therefore, total gastrectomy and lymph node dissection are significant independent prognostic factors for overall survival in patients with GAC.

Purpose: Restless legs syndrome is claimed to be associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases. Intima-media thickness has been reported to be the most valuable surrogate marker and predictor of atherosclerosis progression and upcoming cardiovascular diseases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between restless legs syndrome and intima-media thickness of the carotid artery.

Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, a total of 23 patients with restless legs syndrome without other known risk factors of cardiovascular diseases were evaluated with regard to the intima-media thickness of the carotid artery by employing a high-resolution B-mode ultrasound study. The findings of the ultrasound study between the case and the control group were compared and statistically analyzed.

Results: Intima-media thickness was revealed to be of a lower value in subjects with restless legs syndrome (0.79±0.10) compared to the control group (0.88±0.13). Also, our study showed that older age and the presence of hypertension directly correlates with intima-media thickness.

Conclusion: It can be concluded that restless legs syndrome is associated with a lower intima-media thickness.

Purpose: Nasal Septum Deviation (NSD), which is defined as a dislocated septum, is a prevalent condition that is mostly asymptomatic; however, it can cause difficulties such as nasal obstruction and rhinosinusitis symptoms. Other Paranasal Sinuses (PNS) disorders, e.g., Osteo Meatal Complex (OMC) obstruction, have been assumed to be correlated with NSD. This study investigates the possible correlation of specific radiological findings of PNS pathologies in patients with or without the existence and direction of NSD. We also discussed the different types of NSD and their incidence among different groups stored by age, gender, etc.

Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted at multiple imaging centers in Iran between July 2019 and February 2020 to estimate the prevalence of deviated nasal septum and correlate between NSD and other findings using paranasal sinus scans. All the individuals who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. NSD types have been classified based on Mladina's method.

Results: We prospectively reviewed PNS CT scans obtained from 254 cases (82 men and 172 women), aged 18 to 81 years (mean: 35.53), evaluated over seven months. Out of 254 cases, 135 (53 %) patients had NSD, without any direction predominance (right-sided vs. left-sided), and equally distributed between genders. The most common NSD types were type V with a frequency of 42.22% and type III with a frequency of 24.44%. Other PNS CT findings were also investigated in our patients, like OMC obstruction, pansinusitis, mucocele, air-fluid level, mucosal thickening, and concha bullosa. There was no statistically significant correlation between any of these pathologies and NSD (P-value >0.05).

Conclusion: Although NSD was observed in more than half of our cases' PNS CTs, there was no significant correlation between NSD and other findings in most subjects. This reveals that the effectiveness of septal repair surgeries in relieving patients' symptoms might not be as high as expected.

Background: This study aims to extract carotid wall vibrations non-invasively and evaluate changes in the carotid artery caused by age, BMI, and sex. Such evaluation can increase the possibility of detecting wall stiffness and atherosclerosis in the early stages and prevent heart attack and death.

Method: To extract small vibrations of the carotid wall, the image-tracking method, and optical flow with four different methods were used. The study involved twenty participants, comprising six females and fourteen males, with a mean age of 36.25 years, mean weight of 75.2 Kg, and mean BMI of 25. The posterior wall motion and vibration were extracted using ultrasound RF signals.

Result: 4 optical flow methods, Gunnar-Farneback, Horn- Schunk, Lucas-Kanade, and Lucas-Kanade derivative were used for all samples, and covariance, correlation, P-value, and R-squared were estimated. Results showed the differences in parameters such as age and BMI with carotid wall vibration. These values for age are ( , , , ) and for BMI are ( , , , ), respectively. For gender as a new parameter, a comparison between men’s and women’s vibrations was estimated.  The range of measured vibrations by optical flow methods is about  to  and the mean standard deviation is .

Conclusion: The results presented that gender affects the vibration of the vessel wall, which in men is more than in women. In addition, increasing age and BMI may increase the stiffness of the carotid wall and reduce vibrations that were evaluated previously. Using the Gunner-Farneback method as image tracking for small vibrations is the best way with the highest accuracy.

Purpose: The impact of various hip prosthesis materials on the amount of dose perturbation generated by 9 MeV electron and 18 MV photon beams during pelvic radiation therapy is analyzed in this research.

Materials and Methods: The Varian 2100 C/D LINAC head for the electron (9 MeV) and photon (18 MV) modes and a water phantom with a realistic hip prosthesis were modeled using the Monte Carlo (MC) code; MCNPX (Ver. 2.6.0) and were benchmarked for measurement. Four different materials, including Cobalt–Chromium–Molybdenum-alloy (CCM), Stainless Steel (SS), Titanium, and Titanium-alloy (Ti-alloy) were evaluated. The changes in electron and photon fluences and dose perturbations due to the presence of the hip prostheses were investigated.

Results: An increased dose of 13.29%, 13.77%, 6.16%, and 5.93% for 9 MeV and 30.43%, 33.05%, 10.89%, and 11.27% for 18 MV was calculated for Ti-alloy, Ti, CCM, and SS prosthesis, respectively. At 0.5 mm distance from the prosthesis, the Electron Backscatter Factor (EBF) of 1.31, 1.33, 1.15, and 1.14 for 9 MeV and 1.32, 1.34, 1.11, and 1.12 for 18 MV was calculated for Ti-alloy, Ti, CCM, and SS prosthesis, respectively. Dose perturbation is higher at a near distance from the prosthesis; by reducing the distance from the Ti-alloy prosthesis (1.5 to 0.5 mm), an increased dose of 7.70% and 5.54% resulted in 18 MV and 9 MeV, respectively. The dose decreases of up to 21% behind the hip prosthesis were calculated for 18 MV.

Conclusion: It is essential to consider the dose perturbation due to the presence of a hip prosthesis to achieve the optimal treatment planning in radiotherapy.

Purpose: The presence of a dental implant across the irradiation beam has the potential to perturb the dose distribution. In this study, the effect of different commercial dental implants on dose distribution was investigated in electron beam therapy.

Materials and Methods: The Varian 2100 C/D linear accelerator (Linac) head was modeled precisely with proper components for electron mode (6 and 9 MeV) by MCNPX 2.6.1 and was benchmarked according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) protocol, TRS -398. Dose distribution was calculated for Six different implant materials, including Titanium, Titanium alloy, Zirconia (Y-TZP), Zirconium oxide, Alumina, and PolyetherEtherKetone (PEEK), and for Four different scenarios.

Results: The highest and lowest increasing doses occurred for Y-TZP (114.44% and 108.69% for 6 and 9 MeV, respectively) and PEEK (104.85% and 98.84% for 6 and 9 MeV, respectively) directly in front of the implant, respectively. By removing an implant from the jaw, an increasing dose was not seen, but an increasing dose occurred behind its depths in the bone region (31.81 %).

Conclusion: The amount of dose perturbation due to the dental implant's presence depends on the beam energy, mass density, and atomic numbers of implants. Maximum and minimum increased doses were estimated for Y-TZP and PEEK implants, respectively. Considering the correction factors due to the presence of high density and atomic number dental implants are essential to estimate the accurate dose delivery in radiotherapy with electron beams.

Purpose: Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (¹⁸F-FDG PET) represents a valuable functional molecular imaging technique. Through non-invasive means, ¹⁸F-FDG PET allows for the assessment of glucose metabolic activity in living biological systems. Its utility in oncology is well established, with applications in tumor diagnosis, staging, and treatment monitoring.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review assessing the indicative value and effect on the clinical management of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT for various cancer types based on the current literature.

Materials and Methods: An inclusive search of the PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science Direct databases was performed to identify relevant studies published from 2022 to the present. Records were screened according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. A full-text review of the eligible studies was independently conducted by two reviewers.

Results: Twenty-one primary research articles met the inclusion criteria and encompassed several cancer types. Evidence demonstrates superior detection, characterization, and staging compared with anatomical imaging alone. Advantages have been substantiated for head/neck, lung, and brain cancers, as well as lymphomas. The significant associations between ¹⁸F-FDG uptake and clinical features validated the molecular profiling capacity.

Conclusion: ¹⁸F-FDG PET provides crucial metabolic tumor information, augmenting conventional approaches. Specific diagnostic values have been established for diverse oncological applications. While technical refinements are ongoing, ¹⁸F-FDG PET plays an expanding role in multimodal cancer algorithms according to guidelines. Continued investigation aims to further optimize these techniques and clarify their comparative effectiveness.

It is well explained and proven the kind of impact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has in the medical world. Especially in the field of diagnosis and prognosis AI has been found to be a very interesting tool. Diagnosis is the first and most important step as a part of the medical procedure. If the diagnosis is not accurate or not effective, the later stages of treatment are also impacted, and procedure becomes non-effective as an overall result. As far as the medical world is concerned, diagnosis majorly pertains to imaging modalities like Ultrasound, Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and X-RAY. With the extensive research happening in the medical world today, and with the use of AI tools, a diagnosis can be made faster and with more accuracy. AI is widely used in signal processing, image processing, automating systems and processes. It is also used for analysing large sets of data and others alike. Hence, out of all other domains where AI is applied and used nowadays, medical diagnostics is one of the frontrunners

Breast Cancer (BC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women and the most common cancer worldwide. It is classified based on its anatomical origin, the presence of Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER-2), and the presence of Estrogen Receptor (ER) and/or Progesterone Receptor (PR). Around 20% of breast cancers are HER-2 positive. While biopsy-based diagnoses are valuable in clinical settings, they have limitations in terms of sampling and interpretation. However, laboratory tests such as Immunohistochemistry (IHC) or Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) are also limited, including being time-consuming, expensive, and requiring specialized equipment. Ongoing research and technological advancements aim to address the challenges associated with biopsy-based diagnoses and laboratory tests to develop more accurate and efficient methods for assessing HER-2 status. To this end, various radioactively labeled proteins and small compounds, such as single-chain variable Fragments (scFv), F(ab')2, affibody, and nanobody, have been developed to target HER-2 using molecular array techniques. These smaller targeted compounds offer improved image quality, shorter circulating half-life, and reduced immunogenicity compared to their larger counterparts. This is due to their better biodistribution, clearance, and stability. This study investigates the current understanding and ongoing efforts in utilizing antibody fragments for molecular imaging. The specific objectives were to evaluate the advantages of antibody fragments over full-length antibodies regarding biodistribution, clearance, and stability. Additionally, this study aims to assess the current knowledge and ongoing research in utilizing antibody fragments for molecular imaging.

No Abstract.