Comprehensive assessment of COVID-19 case fatality rate and influential factors in Khuzestan Province, Iran: a two-year study.

Background: The emergence of a new pandemic SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) resulted in a high mortality rate across the world. This study sought to comprehensively analyze the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) associated with COVID-19 in the Khuzestan province of Iran". The primary objective was to discern patterns and determinants influencing CFR, shedding light on the evolving impact of the pandemic on morbidity and mortality.

Involvement of muscarinic acetylcholine receptor-mediated cholinergic neurotransmission in TMS-EEG responses.

The combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) is emerging as a valuable tool for investigating brain functions in health and disease. However, the detailed neural mechanisms underlying TMS-EEG responses, including TMS-evoked EEG potentials (TEPs) and TMS-induced EEG oscillations (TIOs), remain largely unknown. Combining TMS-EEG with pharmacological interventions provides a unique opportunity to elucidate the roles of specific receptor-mediated neurotransmissions in these responses.

The impact of vitamin D changes during pregnancy on the development of maternal adverse events: a random forest analysis.

Background: Maternal vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy has been associated with various maternal adverse events (MAE). However, the evidence regarding the effect of vitamin D supplementation on these outcomes is still inconclusive.

Methods: This secondary analysis utilized a case-control design.

Future climate-driven drought events across Lake Urmia, Iran.

Climate change has increased the vulnerability of arid and semi-arid regions to recurrent and prolonged meteorological droughts. In light of this, our study has sought to assess the nature of future meteorological drought in Lake Urmia basin, Iran, within the context of future climate projections. To achieve this, data from 54 general circulation models (GCMs) was calibrated against both in situ and Global Precipitation Climatology Centre datasets.

Evoked EEG Responses to TMS Targeting Regions Outside the Primary Motor Cortex and Their Test-Retest Reliability.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-evoked electroencephalography (EEG) potentials (TEPs) provide unique insights into cortical excitability and connectivity. However, confounding EEG signals from auditory and somatosensory co-stimulation complicate TEP interpretation. Our optimized sham procedure established with TMS of primary motor cortex (Gordon in JAMA 245:118708, 2021) differentiates direct cortical EEG responses to TMS from those caused by peripheral sensory inputs.

Maternal weight latent trajectories and associations with adverse pregnancy outcomes using a smoothing mixture model.

Class membership is a critical issue in health data sciences. Different types of statistical models have been widely applied to identify participants within a population with heterogeneous longitudinal trajectories. This study aims to identify latent longitudinal trajectories of maternal weight associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes using smoothing mixture model (SMM).

Mode of delivery and maternal vitamin D deficiency: an optimized intelligent Bayesian network algorithm analysis of a stratified randomized controlled field trial.

This study aimed to elucidate the algorithm of various influential factors relating to the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration at delivery and mode of delivery. The investigation constituted a secondary analysis using data collected as part of the Khuzestan Vitamin D Deficiency Screening Program in Pregnancy, which is a stratified randomized vitamin D supplementation-controlled trial comprising 1649 eligible pregnant women. The Bayesian Network (BN) method was utilized to determine the association algorithm between diverse influential factors associated with maternal vitamin D and mode of delivery.

Vigilance described by the time-on-task effect in EEG activity during a cued Go/NoGo task.

Vigilance refers to the ability to maintain attention and to remain alert to stimuli in prolonged and monotonous tasks. Vigilance decrement describes the decline in performance in the course of such sustained attention tasks. Time-related alterations in attention have been found to be associated with changes in EEG.

Recent advances in atezolizumab-based programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) blockade therapy for breast cancer.

Breast cancer, the most common cancer in women worldwide, is curable in ∼ 70-80 % of patients with early-stage, non-metastatic disorder. However, advanced breast cancer with distant organ metastases is incurable with available therapeutics. Thus, scientists have sought emerging strategies for treating metastatic breast cancers.

Factors Influencing Perceived Helpfulness and Participation in Innovative Research: A Pilot Study of Individuals with and without Mood Symptoms.

Little is known about how individuals with and without mood disorders perceive the inherent risks and helpfulness of participating in innovative psychiatric research, or about the factors that influence their willingness to participate. We conducted an online survey with 80 individuals (self-reported mood disorder [n = 25], self-reported good health [n = 55]) recruited via MTurk. We assessed respondents' perceptions of risk and helpfulness in study vignettes associated with two innovative research projects (intravenous ketamine therapy and wearable devices), as well as their willingness to participate in these projects.

Self-reported influences on willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines among physically ill, mentally ill, and healthy individuals.

Objective: Individuals with mental and physical disorders have been disproportionately affected by adverse health outcomes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet vaccine hesitancy persists despite clear evidence of health benefits. Therefore, our study explored factors influencing willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

Methods: Individuals with mental illness (n = 332), physical illness (n = 331), and no health issues (n = 328) were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Impact of methodological variability on EEG responses evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation: A meta-analysis.

Objective: This meta-analysis aimed to synthesize the existing literature on how different parameters of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electroencephalogram (EEG) modulate the amplitudes of TMS-evoked potentials (TEPs).

Methods: A comprehensive search was run in PubMed and completed by Google Scholar to find articles studying healthy participants who underwent single pulse TMS-EEG sessions over their left primary motor cortex (M1) or dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The amplitudes of the most commonly investigated TEP peaks for DLPFC stimulation (positives: 25, 60, 185 ms, negatives: 40, 100 ms) and M1 stimulation (positives: 30, 55,180 ms and negatives: 15, 45, 100, 280 ms) were extracted from studies.

Maternal Perceptions of Safeguards for Research Involving Children.

The vitality of clinical research and the health of the public relies on continued efforts to engage children in clinical research in a fully protected and ethically robust manner. Parents serve as proxy decision-makers assessing the risks and benefits of any given study in order to do what is in the best interest of their child. This study investigated maternal perceptions of research safeguards and mothers' willingness to enroll their children in clinical research studies.

Stakeholders' Perspectives regarding Participation in Neuromodulation-Based Dementia Intervention Research.

This study evaluated stakeholders' perspectives regarding participation in two hypothetical neuromodulation trials focused on individuals with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRDs). Stakeholders (i.e.

Relationship between vitamin D status in the first trimester of the pregnancy and gestational weight gain: a mediation analysis.

Purpose: To evaluate the total, and direct effects of vitamin D, measured by circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels, on GWG after adjustment for confounding variables, and then assess the indirect effects by demonstrating the role of gestational age at birth as a mediator in this association.

Methods: Data collected in "Khuzestan Vitamin D Deficiency Screening Program in Pregnancy" were used for the present study; it included the data of 900 pregnant women referred to the health centers of Shushtar (Khuzestan Province, Iran), whose vitamin D status during the third trimester of pregnancy was available. A mediation analysis was applied to detect the causal relationship between serum level of 25(OH)D, covariates (maternal age, parity, education level, and baseline maternal weight), mediator (gestational age), and outcome (GWG).

The optimal cut-off point of vitamin D for pregnancy outcomes using a generalized additive model.

Background & Aim: Several studies consider vitamin D deficiency as a modifiable risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, there is no specific cut-off point for the serum level of this prohormone to identify high-risk pregnant women. This study aimed to determine the thresholds for the circulating levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm labor, preeclampsia (PE), and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), using a generalized additive model.

6 Hz transcranial alternating current stimulation of mPFC improves sustained attention and modulates alpha phase synchronization and power in dorsal attention network.

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation tool appropriate to modulate cortical oscillations and activity via the application of weak currents. The major goal of this study was to investigate the effects of medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) stimulation on sustained attention task performance measured by Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVIP) task and the brain networks assumed to be critical to sustained attention. mPFC has been shown to be involved in sustained attention performance and as a main hub in default mode network (DMN).

Attitudes of Mothers Regarding Willingness to Enroll Their Children in Research.

This study assessed mothers' perspectives regarding research involvement by their children, factors that might affect perceptions of research risks, and attitudes regarding willingness to enroll children in research. Participants completed a survey on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Mothers were less inclined to enroll children in research involving procedures posing higher risk (regression coefficient = -0.

Safeguarding Participants in Psychiatric Genetic Research: Perspectives of Key Stakeholder Groups.

Public trust in research depends on implementation of research protections. Genetic and psychiatric research may elicit "exceptionalism," the belief that these types of research deserve special protections. Genetic information has been viewed as different from other health information.

Diastereoselective Synthesis of Potent Antimalarial -β-lactam Agents.

Fifteen novel β-lactams bearing N-ethyl tert-butyl carbamate group 5a-o and fifteen N-(2- aminoethyl) β-lactams were synthesized by [2+2] ketene-imine cycloaddition reaction (Staudinger). The cycloaddition reaction was found to be totally diastereoselective leading exclusively to theformation of -β-lactam derivatives. These newly synthesized β-lactams were evaluated for their antimalarial activity against K14 resistant strain and showed good to excellent EC50 values.

Perspectives of psychiatric investigators and IRB chairs regarding benefits of psychiatric genetics research.

There is hope that psychiatric genetics inquiry will provide important insights into the origins and treatment of mental illness given the burden of these conditions. We sought to examine perspectives of psychiatric genetic investigators regarding the potential benefits of genetic research in general and the potential benefits of genetic research for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses specifically. We compared investigator attitudes with those of chairs of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) entrusted with evaluating the benefits and risks of human research studies.

Effectiveness of Prenatal Vitamin D Deficiency Screening and Treatment Program: A Stratified Randomized Field Trial.

Context: Despite evidence on the association between hypovitaminosis D and adverse pregnancy outcomes and the positive impact of vitamin D supplementation, no evidence exists supporting a universal screening program in pregnancy as part of routine prenatal care.

Objective: We sought to determine the effectiveness of a prenatal screening program on optimizing 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels and preventing pregnancy complications. Also, to identify a safe regimen, we compared several regimens in a subgroup of vitamin D-deficient pregnant women.