324 research outputs found
Relationship between spiritual understanding and meaningfullife with psychological distress in mothers of children exceptional
Birth of exceptional children not only the family but other family members are also affected. Spiritual understanding adaptive use of spiritual information with the aim of facilitating the daily problems and achieve the goal and meaningful life human attitudes to life depend. This study was correlational. The study sample consisted of all mothers of special needs students Andimeshk City and the sample consisted of 147 people mothers simple random sampling method was selected. Information required by the spiritual sense of the scale of King, meaningful life Battista and Almond and psychological distress and Lavebond Lavebond collection and Pearson correlation analysis and multivariate regression analysis, the method of entry were analyzed.The results showed that between spiritual understanding and the meaning of life with psychological distress (depression, anxiety and stress) mother of gifted children there is a significant negative correlation (p<0/001). This means that with spiritual understanding and meaningful life level of psychological distress (depression, anxiety and stress) mother of gifted children is also reduced. Analyses revealed spiritual understanding and meaningful life significantly psychological distress (depression, anxiety and stress) mother of gifted children it predicts. Based on the findings we can understand spiritual training and meaningful life as a way to reduce psychological distress mothers of children with exceptional proposed. © Medwell Journals, 2016
Social network sites as educational factors
Background: In this present era, the technology development has established certain type of communication. Nowadays education as the fundamental principle in transferring cognition to the learners has found various methods. Recently the concept that social networks could be effective tool in easing the achievement to the educational goals has been under attention. Therefore, this investigation is trying to find out whether, the social networks could play role on the process of education among students? Materials and Methods: This cross sectional descriptive study was performed on 1000 students from 7 medical universities in 2015. The data collection tool was questionnaire that was approved Cronbach's alpha was 0.85. Meanwhile its validity was confirmed too. The obtained data were analyzed by the descriptive statistic, ANOVA, Turkey and used X2 SPSS-19. Results: In this investigation, 940 subjects were under study. 85 used daily the social network. The highest usage was attributed to the Telegram. 52 preferred image suitable for transferring of information. Even though, 73 believed that these networks have significant effects on coordinating of students with in university charges. Conclusion: Considering the findings of the present study, it is proposed that the universities integrate the social networks in the education programs and recognize it as the awareness factor, therefore benefit it in the educational affairs. © 2016 Alireza Ebrahimpour, Farnaz Rajabali, Fatemeh Yazdanfar, Reza Azarbad, Majid Rezaei Nodeh, Hasan Siamian, Mohammad Vahedi
Effects of Resveratrol on Liver Function Tests in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Background. Some studies have shown that resveratrol may prevent, delay, or treat liver damage. This study aimed to provide up-to-date evidence regarding the effect of resveratrol on the liver enzymes (ALT & AST) in NAFLD patients. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of resveratrol on liver enzymes in patients with NAFLD by searching various databases for published RCTs.Methods. A systematic search in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science was performed up to September 2023. This systematic review and meta-analysis included all the RCT studies assessing resveratrol supplements on serum AST and/or ALT in NAFLD patients. The effect was presented as a mean difference and 95 % confidence interval (CI) in a random-effects model.Results. Finally, six eligible randomized controlled trials consisting of 256 patients were found. Resveratrol had no significant effect on serum ALT (Mean diff = 3.30 IU/L; 95 % CI: –2.34, 8.94; p = 0.25) and AST (Mean diff = 0.07 IU/L; 95 % CI: –2.96, 3.10; p = 0.96) concentrations. Moreover, subgroup analysis revealed that neither resveratrol dose nor intervention duration had any significant effect on the serum ALT and AST levels.Conclusion. The current evidence shows that resveratrol supplementation did not affect liver enzymes in NAFLD patients
Antibiotic resistance pattern and distribution of psla gene among biofilm producing pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from waste water of a burn center
Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is considered as a major cause of hospital-acquired infections due to its high antibacterial resistance. Biofilm formation is a well-known pathogenic mechanism in P. aeruginosa infections, since sessile bacteria are protected in an extracellular matrix of exopolysaccharide. The expression of polysaccharide synthesis locus (pslA gene) can be important for biofilm formation by P. aeruginosa. Objectives: The purpose of this research was to evaluate the antibiotic resistance pattern and distribution of the pslA gene among biofilm-producing P. aeruginosa isolates obtained from waste water of Burn Centre in Guilan, Iran. Materials and Methods: Fifty isolates of P. aeruginosa were obtained from waste water of a burn center. The P. aeruginosa isolates were identified using standard bacteriological procedures. Drug susceptibility test was performed by disk diffusion method for all the isolates against nine antimicrobial agents. Biofilm formation was measured by microtiter plate assay. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to identify the presence of the pslA gene among the isolates. Results: Biofilm formation was observed in 70 of the P. aeruginosa isolates. The potential formation of biofilm was significantly associated with resistance to gentamicin, imipenem, tobramycin and piperacillin. In addition, the pslA gene only existed in biofilm-producing isolates with a frequency of 42.9 (n = 15).Conclusions: The findings of the present study well demonstrated that the P. aeruginosa biofilm-producing isolates were more resistant to the tested antibiotics. Furthermore, because of wide distribution, it seems that the pslA gene is associated with biofilm formation. � 2015, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences
Isolated Persian/Arabic handwriting characters: Derivative projection profile features, implemented on GPUs
For many years, researchers have studied high accuracy methods for recognizing the handwriting and achieved many significant improvements. However, an issue that has rarely been studied is the speed of these methods. Considering the computer hardware limitations, it is necessary for these methods to run in high speed. One of the methods to increase the processing speed is to use the computer parallel processing power. This paper introduces one of the best feature extraction methods for the handwritten recognition, called DPP (Derivative Projection Profile), which is employed for isolated Persian handwritten recognition. In addition to achieving good results, this (computationally) light feature can easily be processed. Moreover, Hamming Neural Network is used to classify this system. To increase the speed, some part of the recognition method is executed on GPU (graphic processing unit) cores implemented by CUDA platform. HADAF database (Biggest isolated Persian character database) is utilized to evaluate the system. The results show 94.5% accuracy. We also achieved about 5.5 times speed-up using GPU
Anticonvulsant effects of hesperetin in animal model of pentylenetetrazole-induced-seizures
Background and objective: Hesperetin as the main flavonoid in citrus possesses various pharmacological properties including anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, the effects of hesperetin on seizures behavior and its function on total antioxidant capacity and lipid peroxidation has been investigated in pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced seizures model.
Materials and methods: In this experimental study, thirty-five mice were divided into 5 experimental groups as control, saline and hesperetin at doses of 10, 20 or 50 mg/kg. Animals received orally the related interventions for 7 days. On day 7, 30 minutes after oral gavage, convulsion was induced by single intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of PTZ at dose of 60 mg/kg. After recording of convulsion behaviors including latency to myoclonic jerks, latency and duration of generalized tonic-clonic seizures, time to death, measuring of Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) and Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) carried out in hippocampus tissues.
Findings: Pretreatment with hesperetin at dose of 50 mg/kg significantly increased the latency of myoclonic jerks (hesperetin 50: P=0.0323) and generalized tonic-clonic seizures (hesperetin 10: P= 0.0003, hesperetin 20: 0.0017, hesperetin 50: P=0.0040). Hesperetin application at dose of 10 mg/kg significantly reduced the levels of TBARS compared to control group. Any significant difference in FRAP levels was not observed between different experimental groups.
Conclusion: The results of study indicate that hesperetin might be effective as supplementary treatment in epilepsy disorder
Parallel Spatial Pyramid Match Kernel Algorithm for Object Recognition using a Cluster of Computers
This paper parallelizes the spatial pyramid match kernel (SPK) implementation. SPK is one of the most usable kernel methods, along with support vector machine classifier, with high accuracy in object recognition. MATLAB parallel computing toolbox has been used to parallelize SPK. In this implementation, MATLAB Message Passing Interface (MPI) functions and features included in the toolbox help us obtain good performance by two schemes of task-parallelization and dataparallelization models. Parallel SPK algorithm ran over a cluster of computers and achieved less run time. A speedup value equal to 13 is obtained for a configuration with up to 5 Quad processors
Evaluating cognitive load of multimedia learning by eye-tracking data analysis
Background and Objectives: Today, it is common to use multimedia in foreign language teaching. There are some principles for designing multimedia that would reduce task cognitive load. These principles are based on the cognitive load theory. The methods of cognitive load measurement are divided into two categories, namely the subjective and objective measurements. NASA-TLX is an example of the subjective measurements; methods such as electroencephalography and eye-tracking are among the objective measurements. Due to the advantages of objective measurements, using these methods is common in cognitive studies. Eye-tracking technology can record different eye-movements of humans such as pupil dilation, saccades, fixations, blinks and microsaccades with a high sampling rate. These measurements are being widely used in cognitive and mental workload studies. In this paper, the cognitive load in multimedia language learning has been evaluated, using eye-tracking data analysis. Methods: Two multimedia versions for teaching English were produced with the same narration and the length of 342s. In one version, the principles in designing multimedia were applied whereas in the other version, they were violated so that more cognitive load in comparison to the former version could be imposed. Ten subjects whose English listening comprehension was assessed with a simulation of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) participated in the experiment and were randomly divided into two equal groups of five. The two groups were homogeneous with respect to their listening proficiency. One group watched the multimedia without principles while the other group watched the multimedia with principles. Then, each individual answered 12 multiple choice questions about the concepts presented in the multimedia as a performance test. During watching the multimedia and taking the performance test, the participants’ eye movement data were recorded. Then, each person filled out the NASA-TLX Questionnaire. Based on the results of the performance test and the NASA-TLX, the difficulty level of the multimedia without principles as compared to its version with principles was evaluated. The collected data were divided into blocks of 30 seconds. Findings: Based on the NASA-TLX, the group who watched multimedia without principles experienced more cognitive load in comparison to the group who watched multimedia with principles, which approved our assumption about the higher load of the multimedia without principles. However, no significant difference was found in the results of the performance test between the two groups. According to statistical analyses, the pupil diameter, saccade length, saccade velocity, blink latency, and microsaccade amplitude in the multimedia blocks of both groups were significantly different. Nevertheless, no significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of the fixation time, the fixation rate, and the microsaccade rate. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, pupil dilation, saccade length, saccade velocity, blink latency, and microsaccade amplitude have a significant relationship with the amount of the load imposed by the instructional multimedia which corresponds to the literature review of the study. Based on the results of this study, along with the subjective methods, eye movement data can also be considered as an appropriate tool for assessing the cognitive load imposed by multimedia learning and qualifying the multimedia instructional content. A significant difference was also found between the two groups in the study in terms of their blinking rate. More investigation and different experiments are needed for examining other eye movement criteria that have been investigated in this study, including fixation time, fixation rate, and microsaccade rate so that a more definitive conclusion would be reached regarding a significant relationship between these parameters and the mental load imposed by the multimedia English teaching. ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS ©2021 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers. ====================================================================================
Management of spine trauma in COVID-19 pandemic: A preliminary report
Background: COVID-19 was first identified in Iran in February 2020 and since then it spread rapidly through all over the country and soon after that it was reported as a pandemic. The current study presents a preliminary report of spine trauma management during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross sectional study was designed to evaluate patients admitted for vertebral fractures with diagnosis of COVID-19 infection on February and March 2020. Analysis was made based on clinical and laboratory data along with the imaging findings from chest HRCT. Results: Seven patients with spine trauma including five males and two females ranging from 14 to 59 years were diagnosed for COVID-19 infection through CT-scan findings. Except one, all other patients were asymptomatic for COVID-19 at the time of admission. In three cases the COVID diagnosis was made the day after arrival and in others after 10, 14 and 35 days. Five patients were treated surgically among whom four were admitted to ICU soon after the surgery. The mean ICU stay for operated patients were eight days and the mean hospital stay was 22.6 days. Conclusion: Proper diagnosis of COVID-19 is the keystone to protect both patients and health care providers. During the pandemic all admitted patients should be screened for COVID-19 infection. Unnecessary procedures for spine trauma patients should be avoided in order to reduce complications related to surgery and to preserve ICU beds. © 2020 BY THE ARCHIVES OF BONE AND JOINT SURGERY
Leveraging machine learning in porous media
\ua9 2024 The Royal Society of Chemistry.The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and, more particularly, machine learning (ML), has had a significant impact on engineering and the fundamental sciences, resulting in advances in various fields. The use of ML has significantly enhanced data processing and analysis, eliciting the development of new and improved technologies. Specifically, ML is projected to play an increasingly significant role in helping researchers better understand and predict the behavior of porous media. Furthermore, ML models will be able to make use of sizable datasets, such as subsurface data and experiments, to produce accurate predictions and simulations of porous media systems. This capability could help optimize the design of porous materials for specific applications and improve the effectiveness of industrial processes. To this end, this review paper attempts to provide an overview of the present status quo in this context, i.e., the interface of ML and porous media in six different applications, namely, heat exchanger and storage, energy storage and combustion, electrochemical devices, hydrocarbon reservoirs, carbon capture and sequestration, and groundwater, stressing the advances made in the application of ML to porous media and offering insights into the challenges and opportunities for future research. Each section also entails a supplementary database of the literature as a spreadsheet, which includes the details of ML models, datasets, key findings, etc., and mentions relevant available online datasets that can be used to train ML models. Future research trends include employing hybrid models by combining ML models with physics-based models of porous media to improve predictions concerning accuracy and interpretability
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