Effect of cardiac rehabilitation on physical and mental health components: A randomized controlled clinical trial

Background and Aim: Cardiovascular disease can affect physical and mental conditions. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of phase 1 and 2 of cardiac rehabilitation on physical and mental health components in the patients with acute coronary syndrome. Materials and methods: This clinical trial study included 50 patients with acute coronary syndrome admitted to the coronary care units of the hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences between 2013 and 2014. The participants were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. The experimental group performed cardiac rehabilitation program and the control group received routine care. QOL-sf36 questioner was used before and one month after intervention to assess physical and mental health components. Using SPSS18 software, data were analyzed by T- test. Results: There were no significant differences in the demographic variables and cardiovascular risk factors between the experimental and control groups. The mean scores of physical component and mental component after intervention, were 40.9± 9.9 and 37.7 ±10.4 in the control group and 46.9±8.6 and 45.3±10.6 in the experimental group respectively. The results of T-test showed that the mean scores of physical (p=0.02) and mental (p=0.01) health components in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that cardiac rehabilitation program can improve physical and mental health components in the patients with acute coronary syndrome. © 2016, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Graph-Based Subjective Matching of Trusted Strings and Blockchain-Based Filtering for Connected Vehicles

International audienceAdvances in technology have led to the creation of a connected world. Due to the increase in the number of smart and autonomous cars and the requirements regarding road safety and associated comfort has led to attempts to adapt conventional vehicular network access to the world of connected vehicles. Consolidating the cooperative safety and collected mobility management from different distributed devices are of the utmost importance. However, the prime objective of connected vehicles is not only to impose security and trust measures for individual vehicles but the strategy of connected vehicles should also concentrate on the cooperative and collective environment of fleets of vehicles. Therefore, keeping simple authentication and access control may not be efficient to evaluate trust and assurance for all the distributed stakeholders. Trust being an important entity for this entire system, the strategy for trust evaluation also becomes crucial. In this paper, we propose a broader content matching model of trusted strings and block chain based filtering for connected vehicles where a content and subject headings are first matched and then the outcome of that is consolidated by a distributed block chain consensus voting mechanism for any decision taken with respect to trust evaluation

An investigation on resistance of 19 common bean genotypes to two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae), in three regions of Iran

Two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, is one of the important pests of common bean that causes serious damage to agricultural crops. In this study, nineteen common bean genotypes were evaluated for resistance to the two-spotted spider mite. The trial was carried out at field conditions of Karaj, Brojerd and Khomein. One week after mite infestation, the total number of female and eggs were counted for two times. Also, mite damage feeding was evaluated with a 1-6 scale. Khomein had the fewest infested mean and relative resistance of many genotypes was failed in comparison to susceptible standard genotype (Akhtar) at Khomein. So they should be eliminated in alternative breeding programs. Nevertheless, only Ks41128 that had good relative resistance at other regions had the most relative resistance at Khomein. Subsequently, we propose Ks41128 as the most resistance and also the most stable genotypes

Validation of a Persian version of the OIDP index

BACKGROUND: Measuring the impacts of oral conditions on quality of life is an important part of oral health needs assessment. For this purpose a variety of oral health-related quality of life instruments have been developed. To use a scale in a new context or with a different groups of people, it is necessary to re-establish its psychometric properties. The objectives of this study are to develop and test the reliability and validity of the Persian version of Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (OIDP) index. METHODS: The Persian version of OIDP index was developed through a linguistic translation exercise. The psychometric properties of the Persian version of OIDP were evaluated in terms of face, content, construct and criterion validity in addition to internal and test-retest reliability. A convenience sample of 285 working adults aged 20–50 living in Mashad was recruited (91% response rate) to evaluate the Persian version. RESULTS: The Persian version of OIDP had excellent validity and reliability charactersitics. Weighted Kappa was 0.91. Cronbachs alpha coefficient was 0.79. The index showed significant associations with self-rated oral and general health status, as well as perceived dental treatment needs, satisfaction with mouth and prevalence of pain in mouth (P < 0.001). 64.9% of subjects had an oral impact on their daily performances. The most prevalent performance affected was eating, followed by major work or role and sleeping. CONCLUSION: The Persian version of OIDP index is a valid and reliable measure for use in 20 to 50 year old working Iranians

Sense of coherence predicts post-myocardial infarction trajectory of leisure time physical activity: a prospective cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physical activity confers a survival advantage after myocardial infarction (MI), yet the majority of post-MI patients are not regularly active. Since sense of coherence (SOC) has been associated with health outcomes and some health behaviours, we investigated whether it plays a role in post-MI physical activity.</p> <p>We examined the predictive role of SOC in the long-term trajectory of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) after MI using a prospective cohort design.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cohort of 643 patients aged ≤ 65 years admitted to hospital in central Israel with incident MI between February 1992 and February 1993 were followed up for 13 years. Socioeconomic, clinical and psychological factors, including SOC, were assessed at baseline, and LTPA was self-reported on 5 separate occasions during follow-up. The predictive role of SOC in long-term trajectory of LTPA was assessed using generalized estimating equations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>SOC was consistently associated with engagement in LTPA throughout follow-up. Patients in the lowest SOC tertile had almost twice the odds (odds ratio,1.99; 95% confidence interval,1.52-2.60) of decreasing their engagement in LTPA as those in the highest tertile. A strong association remained after controlling for disease severity, depression, sociodemographic and clinical factors.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our evidence suggests that SOC predicts LTPA trajectory post-MI. Assessment of SOC can help identify high-risk MI survivors, who may require additional help in following secondary prevention recommendations which can dramatically improve prognosis.</p

A blockchain based Buyer-seller Watermark Protocol with Trustless Third party

Background: With the development and innovation of digital information technologies and new-generation Internet information platforms, new types of information exchange methods have been spawned. It has broken the restriction of the traditional internet boundary, and integrated all round connections between people and objects. Methods: Based on the above progresses, digital multimedia contents distributed or published much more convenient on the internet than before and most of them without any copyright protection. The dishonest owner can easily copy and distribute the digital multimedia content without reducing any perceptual quality. According to the relative concerns, watermark protocol networks play a very important role on usage tracking and copyrights infringement authentication etc. However, most of the watermark protocols always require a “fully trusted third party”, which has a potential risk to suffer conspiracy attack. Results: Therefore, in this paper, we focus on designing a watermark protocol with trustless third party via blockchain for protecting copyrights of owners that they want to publish or distribute on the internet. The proposed watermark protocol includes three sub-protocols which covers the negotiation process, transaction process and identification processes. Conclusion: In addition, this paper also provides a fully detail analysis that describes the benefits and weaknesses of current solution

DNA damage by lipid peroxidation products: implications in cancer, inflammation and autoimmunity

Oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation (LPO) induced by inflammation, excess metal storage and excess caloric intake cause generalized DNA damage, producing genotoxic and mutagenic effects. The consequent deregulation of cell homeostasis is implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of malignancies and degenerative diseases. Reactive aldehydes produced by LPO, such as malondialdehyde, acrolein, crotonaldehyde and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, react with DNA bases, generating promutagenic exocyclic DNA adducts, which likely contribute to the mutagenic and carcinogenic effects associated with oxidative stress-induced LPO. However, reactive aldehydes, when added to tumor cells, can exert an anticancerous effect. They act, analogously to other chemotherapeutic drugs, by forming DNA adducts and, in this way, they drive the tumor cells toward apoptosis. The aldehyde-DNA adducts, which can be observed during inflammation, play an important role by inducing epigenetic changes which, in turn, can modulate the inflammatory process. The pathogenic role of the adducts formed by the products of LPO with biological macromolecules in the breaking of immunological tolerance to self antigens and in the development of autoimmunity has been supported by a wealth of evidence. The instrumental role of the adducts of reactive LPO products with self protein antigens in the sensitization of autoreactive cells to the respective unmodified proteins and in the intermolecular spreading of the autoimmune responses to aldehyde-modified and native DNA is well documented. In contrast, further investigation is required in order to establish whether the formation of adducts of LPO products with DNA might incite substantial immune responsivity and might be instrumental for the spreading of the immunological responses from aldehyde-modified DNA to native DNA and similarly modified, unmodified and/or structurally analogous self protein antigens, thus leading to autoimmunity

Outness in adolescence and well-being in three cohorts of sexual minority adults

For sexual minority (SM; e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer) youth, coming out, first disclosure of sexual minority identity is an important developmental milestone and is typically associated with positive well-being. However, coming out in adolescence may entail a higher risk of school-based victimization. Due to the increased risk of bullying, the implications of being out in adolescence and well-being later in adulthood remain unclear. Using data from the Generations Study, a national probability survey of 3 distinct cohorts (younger: 18-25; middle: 34-41, older: 52-59) of SM adults (N = 1507) in the United States, this study (a) examined how being out in adolescence affects global well-being in adulthood and (b) SM-specific well-being in adulthood, and (c) examined if these associations differ by cohort. Results from the path analyses demonstrated that being out in adolescence was not significantly associated with global well-being outcomes, but was significantly associated with higher rates of identity centrality and community connectedness, and lower rates of internalized homophobia. Multiple group analyses indicated no differences between cohorts. The findings from this nationally representative sample of SM adults provide novel insight into the positive implications of being out in adolescence for SM-specific well-being.Human Development and Family Science

Estimation of energy recovery potential and environmental impact of Tirana landfill gas

Due to a very high percentage of organic matter in municipal solid waste (47.36%) and in total percentage of biodegradable matter (62.3%), organic waste disposed is the main source of methane emissions into the air in Albania. Capture, collection and utilization of landfill gas in an energy project leads to economic, health and environmental benefits. Energy recovery potential and methane emissions from Tirana landfill have been studied. This site is scheduled to be closed after 6 or 7 years. The evaluation has been done using LandGEM Colombia Model, version 1.0, as an international LFG Modeling. The model predicted the time of peak production in 2019, one year after assumed site closure. The total annual peak of predicted methane recovery from landfill within the study time frame was estimated to be 2950 m3/h and a maximum of power plant capacity 8.3 MW