Folate levels among various populations in central Iran

Serum folic acid levels (Lactobacillus casei assay) were determined in 467 subjects representing various socioeconomic classes from rural and urban central Iran. Of the subjects 170 were pregnant females in different trimesters. The mean serum folate levels of the various groups studied ranged from 7.5 to 11.1 ng/ml and are within the normal reported range of 5.9 to 21.0 ng/ml. Only two subjects had serum folate levels below 3.0 to 5.9 ng/ml. In anemic subjects (hematocrit is less than 37%), red blood cell folate levels were also determined and were significantly higher than nonanemic controls (558 +/- 56 versus 346 +/- 35 ng/ml of packed red blood cells, P is less than 0.01). This difference may be related to underutilization of folate in patients with iron deficiency (a common metal deficiency in this area). A probable explanation for the well maintained serum folate levels in late pregnancy as well as in other populations studied in this report may be the high dietary intake of Iranian bread made from wheat flour of high extraction rate.     

An efficient Markov energy predictor for software defined wireless sensor networks

Wireless Networks - Software-defined wireless sensor networks (SDWSNs) are a great step forward to centralize and facilitate the management of low-power networks. However, the continuous sending of...     

Structuring persistent chat conversations: experimental results of the chatsistance tool

This research targets persistency by introducing new features in ‘Chatsistance’, a persistent chat tool that employs speech act theory and an explicit referencing technique to structure the chat log, and by providing further options for retrieving information. Earlier theory is related to the linguistics and characteristics of user statements. The later technique shows the relation of artefacts in an interconnected context named ‘explicit referencing’. Although speech acts were previously used in the field of chat, it is the first time that this theory has been used for the purpose of enhancing persistency combined with an explicit referencing technique, which together provide a well-established structure that provides greater flexibility for the analysis of content. In this paper, we show how this structuring approach could be useful, by evaluating the results of previous experiments that have used Chatsistance.     

A novel double-gate SOI MOSFET to improve the floating body effect by dual SiGe trench

In short-channel silicon-on-insulator metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors (SOI MOSFETs) the high electric field near the drain increases the floating-body effect. The aim of this article is to introduce a novel structure that reduces the electric field near the drain, so improving the floating-body effect. In the proposed structure, a dual trench is created in the buried oxide exactly under the junctions of drain/source and channel and is filled with an n-type SiGe material. The dual trench regions absorb the electric field lines and hence, the electric characteristic significantly improve. The proposed structure is named as dual SiGe trench double gate SOI MOSFET. In addition, we observe a considerable improvement in self-heating effects due to the higher thermal conductivity of SiGe in comparison with silicon dioxide.