Change in bone mineral density in post menopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction: Low bone mass is a serious complication of post menopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis. We determined the Change in Bone Mineral Density in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was carried out on consecutive postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis who were referred to the Azar 5th teaching hospital affiliated to Golestan University of Medical Sciences, North of Iran in 2009. The required data were gathered from the patients' medical records. The data were analyzed using SPSS software and statistical tests. Results: We studied 98 postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis. Mean number of years since menopause and mean duration of disease were 9.39 and 5.13 respectively. T Score mean in femoral neck and lumbar spines was -1.45±1.26 and -2.45±1.44 respectively. The overall prevalence of osteoporosis at both the lumbar spine and femoral neck was 13.3. We have found a significant correlation between age, duration of disease, duration of menopause and bone mineral density (P-Value<0.01). Conlusion: Our results indicate a negative effect of age, number of years since menopause and duration of disease on bone mineral density. So, BMD should be measured in high risk women prior to the implementation of any treatment or prevention program

Female gender and Helicobacter pylori infection, the most important predisposition factors in a cohort of gastric cancer: A longitudinal study

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common Cancers in the world and Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection is considered a causative factor. The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics and the associated factors of (GC) in a small cohort. Methods: Overall, 54 patients with diagnosed gastric cancer were followed-up at the Department of Gastroenterology&Hepatology at Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences. 37 (68.5) of them were positive for H pylori infection in histopathological evaluations. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to determine the associations of demographic features and HP infection status with GC characteristics and prognosis. Results: Univariate analysis showed female gender (odds ratio (OR): 6.53; 95 confidence interval (95CI): 1.59-26.8; P=0.008), and illiteracy (compared to intermediate education; OR: 5.9, 95CI: 1.37-25.43; p=0.05) were associated significantly with higher rate of HP infection. After a mean±SD follow-up duration of 254±329 months, only female gender was significantly associated with HP infection in GC (OR:4.56; 95 CI: 1.0-21.76; P=0.05). H pylori positive patients had significantly higher grade of GC (OR: 3.97; 95 CI: 1.0-16.16; P=0.05), and a trend toward greater GC stage (OR: 4.46, 95 CI: 9.39-21.23; p=0.06). There was no association between survival rate and H pylori infection. Conclusion: In the current study, we found a significant association of female gender with GN and an association of higher grade of GC with female gender. These findings may indicate a sex disparity in susceptibility to HP infection regarding GC future studies of larger populations are recommended

Assessment of the prevalence of occupational accidents and their influential actors in an electricity distribution company during a five-year period

BACKGROUND: Occupational accidents have been considered as one of the most important crippling factors contributing to disabilities and life-threatening situations in many countries. This study was conducted to survey the prevalence of occupational accidents and the factors of that lead to injuries in an Electricity Distribution Company during a five-year period. METHODS: In this descriptive study, the accident report form included items asking about the season of the year when the accident occurred, the ages and the average age of those injured, the type of employment, work experience, nature of the injuries that occurred, parts of the body affected, treatments that were applied, average number of days lost per accident, the levels of education of those involved, and their marital status. Data was analyzed using SPSS. RESULTS: A total of 66 Electricity Distribution Company workers were determined to be suffering from injuries due to accidents. The accidents mostly occurred in the summer (33). Most of the injured workers (16.7) belonged to the age groups of 25 to 29 and 40 to 44; there were no accidents reported for workers who were less than 20. About 48 of the accident victims had to be hospitalized. Furthermore, 35 of the accident victims were treated in outpatient clinics, and 7.4 of the accident victims died. We demonstrated that there were significant relationships between: 1) marital status and accidental injuries (P0.05) or work experience and the distribution of the accidents (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: This study indicated that most of the injuries in these accidents were related to the nature of employment, marital status, and level of education. The results showed the necessity for providing appropriate safety training for the workers

Uncertainty management in multiobjective hydro-thermal self-scheduling under emission considerations

In this paper, a stochastic multiobjective framework is proposed for a day-ahead short-term Hydro Thermal Self-Scheduling (HTSS) problem for joint energy and reserve markets. An efficient linear formulations are introduced in this paper to deal with the nonlinearity of original problem due to the dynamic ramp rate limits, prohibited operating zones, operating services of thermal plants, multi-head power discharge characteristics of hydro generating units and spillage of reservoirs. Besides, system uncertainties including the generating units\u27 contingencies and price uncertainty are explicitly considered in the stochastic market clearing scheme. For the stochastic modeling of probable multiobjective optimization scenarios, a lattice Monte Carlo simulation has been adopted to have a better coverage of the system uncertainty spectrum. Consequently, the resulting multiobjective optimization scenarios should concurrently optimize competing objective functions including GENeration COmpany\u27s (GENCO\u27s) profit maximization and thermal units\u27 emission minimization. Accordingly, the ε-constraint method is used to solve the multiobjective optimization problem and generate the Pareto set. Then, a fuzzy satisfying method is employed to choose the most preferred solution among all Pareto optimal solutions. The performance of the presented method is verified in different case studies. The results obtained from ε-constraint method is compared with those reported by weighted sum method, evolutionary programming-based interactive Fuzzy satisfying method, differential evolution, quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization and hybrid multi-objective cultural algorithm, verifying the superiority of the proposed approach

A suggested prototype for assessing bone health

Background- Osteoporosis is becoming a health concern worldwide. Considering the fact that prevention plays an important role in reducing the burden of this silent disease and in view of the limited resources available, many countries have adopted certain programs to fight osteoporosis through shifting their attention towards at-risk individuals. The Iranian Multicenter Osteoporosis Study (IMOS) is one of these programs. The program aims to assess bone health and the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in different parts of Iran with various altitudes, latitudes and lifestyle habits in a way that the results could be generalized to the country. Method- The present article presents the protocol used in the third phase of the study. It was designed based on the experiences gathered in the previous phases to overcome the shortcomings particularly subject loss. The questionnaire applied in this study was developed based on a thorough literature review of the risk factors and secondary causes of osteoporosis and was approved by an expert panel. It should be added that while the majority of the existing studies aim to study a certain aspect of osteoporosis, the present protocol provides the information needed for policy makers and researchers to study different osteoporosis-related issues. Conclusion- The authors believe the protocol, to be implemented with small modifications, can help policymakers in different parts of the world, particularly developing countries, gather accurate information on different aspects of bone health at the national level. © 2015, Academy of Medical Sciences of I.R. Iran. All rights reserved

Postoperative Blepharoptosis After Modern Phacoemulsification Procedure

Purpose: To investigate the frequency of transient (1 month) and persistent (at least 6 months) postoperative ptosis following clear corneal sutureless phacoemulsification and to analyze the factors affecting them. Design: Cohort study. Methods: Patients who underwent phacoemulsification cataract surgery from October 2016 to June 2018 in a tertiary center were enrolled. Margin reflex distance 1 (MRD1), MRD2, and levator function were measured and facial photography was taken before, 1 month, and at least 6 months after the surgery. Clinical ptosis was defined as any postoperative drop of MRD1 and clinically significant ptosis as MRD1 drop of �2 mm. Photo-based ptosis was assessed by a masked oculofacial plastic surgeon at the end of the study. Results: A total of 234 patients (313 eyelids) were included. The majority of surgeries were performed by senior residents (65.5, 205/313) and under topical anesthesia (78.0, 244/313). Persistent clinical, clinically significant, and photo-based ptosis were 25.4 (71/279), 3.2 (9/279), and 3.3 (9/276). Eyelids with persistent postoperative ptosis showed a significantly (P = .03) lower preoperative levator function (13.9 vs 15.8 mm). No other factor was significantly different between the eyelids with and without postoperative ptosis. Conclusion: Persistent clinically significant ptosis was observed in more than 3 of patients undergoing clear corneal sutureless phacoemulsification cataract surgery. It should be counseled preoperatively. Lower preoperative levator function was significantly associated with a higher frequency of postoperative ptosis. Duration of surgery, level of surgeons, and other variables did not have any significant effect on the frequency of postoperative ptosis. © 2020 Elsevier Inc

Tilapia culture in aquaponic system

Iran is one of ten disaster countries in terms of water crisis. Also, deficit of agricultural soil is a limiting agent for development of agronomy. Moreover, production of organic crops is very important for health nutrition. Tilapia is an important commercial fish because of its fast growth, tolerance to environmental conditions and diseases, possibility of intensive culture, low costs of production and marketable flavor. Production of aquatic and agricultural crops in an aquaponic system would ask these expectations. Aquaponic system that includes combination of hydroponics and water recycling systems was examined for modulated culture of tilapia and agricultural crops at the present study. Tilapia fries with 6.2g and 5.9g mean weight and stocking density of 40/m^3 were respectively stocked in two 2.5m^3 tanks at September 2013 for 9 months. Fish culture in the two tanks tended to 17.2kg/m^3 and 19kg/m^3 fish production with 658g and 596 mean final weigth, 98% and 100% survival and 1.4 and 1.6 food conversion rate (FCR), respectively. Plants were implanted using grow beds, floating rafts and nutrient film methods. Monthly production of mint, basil, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, pepper were 1.14, 0.5-0.8, 1.32, 2.7-4, 2.03-3.4 and 1.1 kg/m^2 crops, respectively

DMD: A Large-Scale Multi-Modal Driver Monitoring Dataset for Attention and Alertness Analysis

Vision is the richest and most cost-effective technology for Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS), especially after the recent success of Deep Learning (DL) methods. The lack of sufficiently large and comprehensive datasets is currently a bottleneck for the progress of DMS development, crucial for the transition of automated driving from SAE Level-2 to SAE Level-3. In this paper, we introduce the Driver Monitoring Dataset (DMD), an extensive dataset which includes real and simulated driving scenarios: distraction, gaze allocation, drowsiness, hands-wheel interaction and context data, in 41 hours of RGB, depth and IR videos from 3 cameras capturing face, body and hands of 37 drivers. A comparison with existing similar datasets is included, which shows the DMD is more extensive, diverse, and multi-purpose. The usage of the DMD is illustrated by extracting a subset of it, the dBehaviourMD dataset, containing 13 distraction activities, prepared to be used in DL training processes. Furthermore, we propose a robust and real-time driver behaviour recognition system targeting a real-world application that can run on cost-efficient CPU-only platforms, based on the dBehaviourMD. Its performance is evaluated with different types of fusion strategies, which all reach enhanced accuracy still providing real-time response.Comment: Accepted to ECCV 2020 workshop - Assistive Computer Vision and Robotic

Enhancing smart city operation management: integrating energy systems with a subway synergism hub

This paper is centered on establishing a secure framework for the optimal concurrent operation of a smart city, encompassing transportation, water, heat, electrical, and cooling energy systems. The studied smart city includes the microgrid, smart transportation system (STS), energy hub (EH) and smart grid. In this regard, a subway synergism hub (SSH) as a new non-energy system is added to the smart city with the aim of serving the subway's water, heat, electrical and cooling demands as well as diminishing the operation cost of the smart city. The EH within the SSH cooperated with a desalination unit is considered to supply the subway's stations water demand by using the sea water. The investigation of the optimal allocation of the SSH unit for reducing the cost of smart city operation is also conducted by introducing a novel intelligent priority selection (IPS) analytical algorithm. In comparison to common meta-heuristic algorithms for allocation problems, the accurate optimal solution can be found in low runtime by the IPS algorithm. To achieve an accurate model of the smart city, directed acyclic graph (DAG) based blockchain approach is provided which can enhance the data and energy exchanges security within the smart city. This research paper introduces a security framework deployed in a smart city setting to establish a secure platform for energy transactions. The findings validate the effectiveness of this model and highlight the value of the IPS method. The effectiveness of the suggested approach has been assessed using the smart city system is comprised of various sections, including EVs, smart grid, microgrid, and SSH, demonstrating the credibility and accuracy of this study