Students' experiences of the consequences of social networks: A qualitative study

Introduction: With the advent of the internet, social networks also emerged. These networks have become an integral part of many students' lives and affect all aspects of their lives. The use of virtual social networks has adversely affected students’ lifestyles. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of determining the experiences of students of Islamic Azad University, Tuyserkan Branch, Iran, regarding the consequences of social networking. Method: This qualitative study was conducted using the conventional content analysis approach. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 11 students of Islamic Azad University, Tuyserkan Branch. The participants were selected from among both sexes using purposive sampling method. The participants consisted of students who used social networks for more than 4 hours daily. All interviews were simultaneously recorded and transcribed. Data were analyzed using content analysis method. Data strength was confirmed by participants and researchers. Results: Data analysis resulted in extraction of the three main themes of "change in family and social relationships", "change in physical, psychological, and academic conditions of individuals", and "replacing virtual network in life". These themes were determined by 10 subthemes in students. The subthemes consisted of being entertained by virtual networks, changes in relationships with family and friends, easy communication with others due to anonymity, unfamiliarity of close relatives with these networks, less speech communication and coming together, stress and anxiety, deterioration of academic status and inability to marry, ease of communication, and lower costs in comparison to other communications. Conclusion: The results of this study confirm the need for designing and providing education and interventions for guidance, correct use, and assisting students when using social networks, and appropriate replacements. Authorities can use the findings of this study in planning and appropriate interventions for this group. Keywords: Student, social networks, qualitative stud

Evaluating the Knowledge, Attitude and Safety Performance in the Prevention of Occupational Accidents among Workers in One of Iran Khodro's Piece Making Companies

Occupational accidents are one of important events in the world. Individual affecting factors on accidents are knowledge, attitude and perception of risk. So this study aimed to determine knowledge, attitude and safety performance in prevention of occupational accidents at one of Iran Khodro's piece making companies' workers. In this cross-sectional study, 212 workers from Mehrcam Pars Company selected by stratified random method at each working site in 2015. By simple random sampling, subjects were enrolled. Questionnaire was completed by workers through self-reporting. Questionnaire consisted of demographic and underlying information and questions about safety knowledge, attitude and performance in the workplace. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21 software. The average workers' age was 34.3 year with a standard deviation of 4.7%. 35.8% were not trained in terms of performing their job. 48.1% of participants had no history of injuries in site, but others reported suffers from mild to severe intensity. There was significant relationship between educational situation with attitude and safety performance. There was significant relationship between job experience with safety knowledge, attitude and performance. Age and workers' safety attitude was a predictive of safety performance. The results showed that there is significant relationship between safety knowledge, attitude and performance in the workplace with some variables. So in order to improve the overall situation of safety, some measures can be effective such as raising the knowledge of personnel, safety staff's participation management, balancing work and time

Natural gas-fueled multigeneration for reducing environmental effects of brine and increasing product diversity: thermodynamic and economic analyses

Water scarcity threatens human life and it is likely to be a main concern in the next century. In this work, a novel multigeneration system (MGS) is introduced and assessed with energy, exergy, and economic analyses. This MGS includes a gas cycle, multieffect distillation, an absorption refrigeration cycle, a heat recovery steam generator, and electrodialysis. Electrodialysis is integrated into this configuration to produce sodium hydroxide and hydrogen chloride from brine to prevent its release to the environment with harmful impacts. The other products are electricity, cooling, and demineralized water. For the evaluation of the proposed system, one computer code is provided in engineering equation solver software. For physical properties calculation, the library of this software is used. The MGS produces 614.7 GWh of electrical energy, 87.44 GWh of cooling, 12.47 million m3 of demineralized water, and 0.092 and 0.084 billion kg of sodium hydroxide and hydrogen chloride over a year. Energy and exergy evaluations demonstrate that the MGS energy and exergy efficiencies are 31.3% and 18.7%, respectively. The highest and lowest value of exergy destruction rate is associated with the combustion chamber and pump, respectively. The economic evaluation indicates that the net present value of this proposed system is 3.8 billion US$, while the internal rate of return and payback period, respectively, are 0.49 and 2.1 years.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The relationship between Work Engagement and Job Stress among Emergency Technicians of Markazi Province, Iran, in 2015

Several factors influence the efficiency and effectiveness of organizations, one of them is work engagement. Nowadays job stress has become one of the most costly and a common problem in the workplace. United Nations introduced job stress as wentieth-century disease. Emergency unit in hospitals is stressful environments with high working pressure. This study is a cross-sectional study to determine the most common stress factors and assess work engagement among emergency center technicians in Markazi Province in 2015. Data were collected by using three questionnaires containing demographic questionnaire, job stressors questionnaire and job engagement questionnaire (UWES-9 Scale. SPSS version 19 software was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the patient care stressor had the maximum mean stress score (3.63±0.59) and physical stressors had the lowest mean stress score (3.26± 0.77). A significant relationship was observed between individual stressors and all aspects of work engagement and interpersonal stressors and vigour (P≤0.05). The results of this study showed that work engagement can have aneffect on job stress or job pressure. There was a negative association between work engagement and job stress

Clinical and Epidemiological Aspects of Multiple Sclerosis in Children

How to Cite This Article: Nasehi MM, Sahraian MA, Naser Moghaddasi A, Ghofrani M, Ashtari F, Taghdiri MM, Tonekaboni SH, Karimzadeh P, Afshari M, Moosazadeh M. Clinical and Epidemiological Aspects of Multiple Sclerosis in Children. Iran J Child Neurol. Spring 2017; 11(2):37-43.AbstractObjectiveOverall, 2%-5% of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) experienced the first episode of disease before the age 18 years old. Since the age of onset among children is not similar to that in general population, clinicians often fail to early diagnose the disease. This study aimed to determine the epidemiological and clinical patterns of MS among Iranian children.Materials & Methods In this cross-sectional study carried out in Iran in 2014-2015, information was collected using a checklist with approved reliability and validity. Method sampling was consensus. Data were analyzed using frequency, mean and standard deviation indices by means of SPSS ver. 20 software.Results Totally, 177 MS children were investigated. 75.7% of them were female. Mean (SD), minimum and maximum age of subjects were 15.9 (2), 7 and 18 yr, respectively. The most reported symptoms were sensory (28.2%), motor (29.4%), diplopia (20.3%) and visual (32.8%). Primary MRI results showed 91.5% and 53.1% periventricular and spinal cord lesions, respectively.Conclusion MS is significantly more common among women. The most common age of onset is during the second decades. Sensory and motor problems are the most symptoms, while, periventricular and spinal cord lesions are the most MRI results. References 1. Ascherio A, Munger K. Epidemiology of multiple sclerosis: from risk factors to prevention. Semin Neurol 2008; 28(1): 17-28.2. Abedidni M, Habibi Saravi R, Zarvani A, Farahmand M. Epidemiologic study of multiple sclerosis in Mazandaran,Iran, 2007. J Mazandaran Univ Med Sci 2008; 18(66): 82-6.3. Taghdiri MM, Gofrani M, Barzegar M, Moayyedi A, Tonekaboni H. The survey of 20 cases of multiple sclerosis in children in mofid hospital of Tehran. J Rehabil, 2001; 4(6-7):61-67.4. Benito-Leon J, Martinez P. Health-related quality of life in multiple sclerosis. Neurologia 2003; 18: 207-10.5. Nedjat S, Montazeri A, Mohammad K, Majdzadeh R, Nabavi N, Nedjat F, et al . Quality of Life in Multiple Sclerosis Compared to the Healthy Population in Tehran. Iran J Epidemiol 2006; 2 (3 and 4) :19-24.6. Marrie RA. Environmental risk factors in multiple sclerosis aetiology. Lancet Neurol 2004; 3(12):709-18.7. Milo R, Kahana E. Multiple sclerosis:geoepidemiology, genetics and the environment. Autoimmun Rev 2010; 9(5): A387-A394.8. Banwell B, Ghezzi A, Bar-Or A, Mikaeloff Y. Multiple sclerosis in children: clinical diagnosis, therapeutic strategies, and future directions. The Lancet Neurol, 2007;6(10):887-902.9. Ebers GC. Environmental factors and multiple sclerosis. The Lancet Neurol, 2008;7(3):268-277.10. Noseworthy JH, Lucchinetti C, Rodriguez M, Weinshenker BG. Multiple Sclerosis. N Engl J Med 2000; 343(13):938-52.11. Rudick RA, Cohen JA, Weinstock-Guttman B, Kinkel RP, Ransohoff RM. Management of multiple sclerosis. N Engl J Med 1997: 337(22): 1604-11.12. Greer JM, McCombe PA. Role of gender in multiple sclerosis: clinical effects and potential molecular mechanisms. J Neuroimmunol 2011;234(1-2): 7-18.13. Boiko A, Vorobeychik G, Paty D, Devonshire V, Sadovnick D. Early onset multiple sclerosis A longitudinal study. Neurology 2002; 59(7):1006-1010.14. . Ashtari F, Shaygannejad V, Heidari F, Akbari M. Prevalence of Familial Multiple Sclerosis in Isfahan, Iran. Journal of Isfahan Medical School, 2011;29(138.2):555- 561.15. Mazaheri S, Fazlian M, Hossein Zadeh A. Clinical and Epidemiological Features of Early and Adult Onset Multiple Sclerosis in Hamedan, Iran, 2004–2005. Yafteh 2008; 9 (4) :39-44.16. Saman-Nezhad B, Rezaee T, Bostani A, Najafi F, Aghaei A. Epidemiological Characteristics of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis in Kermanshah, Iran in 2012. J Mazand Univ Med Sci 2013; 23(104): 97-101 (In Persian).17. Renoux C, Vukusic S, Mikaeloff Y, Edan G. Natural history of multiple sclerosis with childhood onset. N Engl J Med 2007. 356(25): p. 2603-2613.18. Ness JM, Chabas D, Sadovnick AD, Pohl D, Banwell B, Weinstock-Guttman B. Clinical features of children and adolescents with multiple sclerosis. Neurology 2007; 68(16 suppl 2):S37-S45.19. Etemadifar M, Janghorbani M,Shaygannejad V, Ashtari F . Prevalence of multiple sclerosis in Isfahan. Iran. Neuroepidemiology 2006; 27(1):39-44 (In Persian).20. Saadatnia M, Etemadifar M, Maghzi AH. Multiple sclerosis in Isfahan, Iran. Int Rev Neurobiol 2007; 79: 357-75.21. Nabavi SM, Poorfarzam S, Ghassemi H. Clinical Course and prognosis of 203 patients with MS in shahid Mostafa Khomeini Hospital, Tehran 2002, Tehran University Medical Journal, 200l 64( 7)6: 90-97

Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2—to end preventable child deaths by 2030—we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Here we quantified, for the period 2000–2017, the subnational variation in mortality rates and number of deaths of neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries using a geostatistical survival model. We estimated that 32% of children under 5 in these countries lived in districts that had attained rates of 25 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2017, and that 58% of child deaths between 2000 and 2017 in these countries could have been averted in the absence of geographical inequality. This study enables the identification of high-mortality clusters, patterns of progress and geographical inequalities to inform appropriate investments and implementations that will help to improve the health of all populations

Measuring progress from 1990 to 2017 and projecting attainment to 2030 of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals for 195 countries and territories: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for and threats to improving health by 2030. To fully deliver on the SDG aim of “leaving no one behind”, it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017), we measured progress on 41 of 52 health-related SDG indicators and estimated the health-related SDG index for 195 countries and territories for the period 1990–2017, projected indicators to 2030, and analysed global attainment. Methods We measured progress on 41 health-related SDG indicators from 1990 to 2017, an increase of four indicators since GBD 2016 (new indicators were health worker density, sexual violence by non-intimate partners, population census status, and prevalence of physical and sexual violence [reported separately]). We also improved the measurement of several previously reported indicators. We constructed national-level estimates and, for a subset of health-related SDGs, examined indicator-level differences by sex and Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile. We also did subnational assessments of performance for selected countries. To construct the health-related SDG index, we transformed the value for each indicator on a scale of 0–100, with 0 as the 2·5th percentile and 100 as the 97·5th percentile of 1000 draws calculated from 1990 to 2030, and took the geometric mean of the scaled indicators by target. To generate projections through 2030, we used a forecasting framework that drew estimates from the broader GBD study and used weighted averages of indicator-specific and country-specific annualised rates of change from 1990 to 2017 to inform future estimates. We assessed attainment of indicators with defined targets in two ways: first, using mean values projected for 2030, and then using the probability of attainment in 2030 calculated from 1000 draws. We also did a global attainment analysis of the feasibility of attaining SDG targets on the basis of past trends. Using 2015 global averages of indicators with defined SDG targets, we calculated the global annualised rates of change required from 2015 to 2030 to meet these targets, and then identified in what percentiles the required global annualised rates of change fell in the distribution of country-level rates of change from 1990 to 2015. We took the mean of these global percentile values across indicators and applied the past rate of change at this mean global percentile to all health-related SDG indicators, irrespective of target definition, to estimate the equivalent 2030 global average value and percentage change from 2015 to 2030 for each indicator.Background Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for and threats to improving health by 2030. To fully deliver on the SDG aim of “leaving no one behind”, it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017), we measured progress on 41 of 52 health-related SDG indicators and estimated the health-related SDG index for 195 countries and territories for the period 1990–2017, projected indicators to 2030, and analysed global attainment. Methods We measured progress on 41 health-related SDG indicators from 1990 to 2017, an increase of four indicators since GBD 2016 (new indicators were health worker density, sexual violence by non-intimate partners, population census status, and prevalence of physical and sexual violence [reported separately]). We also improved the measurement of several previously reported indicators. We constructed national-level estimates and, for a subset of health-related SDGs, examined indicator-level differences by sex and Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile. We also did subnational assessments of performance for selected countries. To construct the health-related SDG index, we transformed the value for each indicator on a scale of 0–100, with 0 as the 2·5th percentile and 100 as the 97·5th percentile of 1000 draws calculated from 1990 to 2030, and took the geometric mean of the scaled indicators by target. To generate projections through 2030, we used a forecasting framework that drew estimates from the broader GBD study and used weighted averages of indicator-specific and country-specific annualised rates of change from 1990 to 2017 to inform future estimates. We assessed attainment of indicators with defined targets in two ways: first, using mean values projected for 2030, and then using the probability of attainment in 2030 calculated from 1000 draws. We also did a global attainment analysis of the feasibility of attaining SDG targets on the basis of past trends. Using 2015 global averages of indicators with defined SDG targets, we calculated the global annualised rates of change required from 2015 to 2030 to meet these targets, and then identified in what percentiles the required global annualised rates of change fell in the distribution of country-level rates of change from 1990 to 2015. We took the mean of these global percentile values across indicators and applied the past rate of change at this mean global percentile to all health-related SDG indicators, irrespective of target definition, to estimate the equivalent 2030 global average value and percentage change from 2015 to 2030 for each indicator

Global, regional, and national cancer incidence, mortality, years of life lost, years lived with disability, and disability-Adjusted life-years for 29 cancer groups, 1990 to 2017 : A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study

Importance: Cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are now widely recognized as a threat to global development. The latest United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs reaffirmed this observation and also highlighted the slow progress in meeting the 2011 Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the third Sustainable Development Goal. Lack of situational analyses, priority setting, and budgeting have been identified as major obstacles in achieving these goals. All of these have in common that they require information on the local cancer epidemiology. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study is uniquely poised to provide these crucial data. Objective: To describe cancer burden for 29 cancer groups in 195 countries from 1990 through 2017 to provide data needed for cancer control planning. Evidence Review: We used the GBD study estimation methods to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-Adjusted life-years (DALYs). Results are presented at the national level as well as by Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income, educational attainment, and total fertility rate. We also analyzed the influence of the epidemiological vs the demographic transition on cancer incidence. Findings: In 2017, there were 24.5 million incident cancer cases worldwide (16.8 million without nonmelanoma skin cancer [NMSC]) and 9.6 million cancer deaths. The majority of cancer DALYs came from years of life lost (97%), and only 3% came from years lived with disability. The odds of developing cancer were the lowest in the low SDI quintile (1 in 7) and the highest in the high SDI quintile (1 in 2) for both sexes. In 2017, the most common incident cancers in men were NMSC (4.3 million incident cases); tracheal, bronchus, and lung (TBL) cancer (1.5 million incident cases); and prostate cancer (1.3 million incident cases). The most common causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for men were TBL cancer (1.3 million deaths and 28.4 million DALYs), liver cancer (572000 deaths and 15.2 million DALYs), and stomach cancer (542000 deaths and 12.2 million DALYs). For women in 2017, the most common incident cancers were NMSC (3.3 million incident cases), breast cancer (1.9 million incident cases), and colorectal cancer (819000 incident cases). The leading causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for women were breast cancer (601000 deaths and 17.4 million DALYs), TBL cancer (596000 deaths and 12.6 million DALYs), and colorectal cancer (414000 deaths and 8.3 million DALYs). Conclusions and Relevance: The national epidemiological profiles of cancer burden in the GBD study show large heterogeneities, which are a reflection of different exposures to risk factors, economic settings, lifestyles, and access to care and screening. The GBD study can be used by policy makers and other stakeholders to develop and improve national and local cancer control in order to achieve the global targets and improve equity in cancer care. © 2019 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe