A sham-controlled trial of acupressure on the quality of sleep and life in haemodialysis patients

Background Sleep disorder in haemodialysis patients can lead to disturbance in their psychosocial function and interpersonal relations, and reduced quality of life. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of acupressure on the quality of sleep of haemodialysis patients. Methods In a randomised controlled trial, 108 haemodialysis patients were randomly divided into three groups: true acupressure, placebo acupressure, and no treatment. The two acupressure groups received treatment three times a week for 4 weeks during dialysis. Routine care only was provided for the no treatment group. The main study outcome was sleep quality. Results The total Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score decreased significantly from 11.9±3.13 to 6.2±1.93 in the true acupressure group, from 11.3±3.69 to 10.6±3.82 in the sham acupressure group, and from 10.9±4.10 to 10.7±3.94 in the no treatment group. There was a significant difference between groups (p<0.001). Conclusions Acupressure seems to have a positive effect on the sleep quality in haemodialysis patients. Clinical trial registration IRCT201106145864N2

Gold nanoparticle and mean inactivation dose of human intestinal colon cancer HT-29 cells

Background: Mean inactivation dose is a useful radiobiological parameter for the comparison of human cell survival curves. Objectives: Given the importance and accuracy of these parameters, in the present study, the radio sensitivity enhancement of colon cancer (HT-29) cells in the presence of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were studied using the mean inactivation dose (MID). Materials and Methods: Naked-GNPs with 50 nm diameters were incubated with HT-29 cells. The cytotoxicity and uptake of these particles on HT-29 cells were assessed. After determining the optimum GNPs concentration, the cells were incubated with gold nanoparticle for 24 hours. The change in the MID value as well as the radio sensitization enhancement under irradiation with 9 MV X-ray beams in the presence of GNPs were evaluated by multiple (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium)MTS assay. Results: Cell survival in the presence of GNPs was more than 90% and the maximum uptake of GNPs was observed at 60 μM of gold nanoparticles. In contrast, in the presence of GNPs combined with radiation, cell survival and MID value significantly decreased, so that the radio sensitization enhancement was 1.4. Conclusions: Due to the significant reduction in the mean inactivation dose of colon cancer cells in the presence of gold nanoparticles, it seems that GNPs are suitable options to achieve a new approach in order to improve radiotherapy efficiency without increasing the prescribed radiation dose

Methods of Protection Against the Attraction and Recruitment of Terrorist Groups Through Social Media

This study aimed to identify the methods that can be used to protect Saudi women from being attracted and recruited by terrorist groups through social media from teaching staff members in Saudi universities. The study used an analytical descriptive methodology to collect data using questionnaires from 382 teaching staff members in Saudi universities. Findings revealed that entertainment, filling leisure time and the desire to know the news were the most dominant motivations among Saudi women for using social media websites. Moreover, the ability to access Saudi women and offer the ideas to them by various and attractive methods, and differentiating by interactive property were the methods used by terrorist groups for attracting and recruiting Saudi women. The study therefore, recommend to develop a comprehensive national strategy aimed at limiting the ability of terrorist groups and organizations to employ digital media in general and social media, especially in attracting and recruiting Saudi nationals

Acylated ghrelin, growth hormone and IGF-1 levels in the cord blood of small for gestational age newborns

Background: Ghrelin is a pleiotropic hormone that regulates feeding and energy balance and stimulates growth hormone release. Ghrelin also exerts developmental and organizational effects during prenatal life. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine ghrelin levels in cord blood of small for gestational age (SGA) infants and its association with GH (growth hormone) and IGF-1 levels (insulin-like growth factor-1). Methods: Cord blood sample was obtained from 31 SGA and 25 appropriate for gestational age (AGA) infants. Acylated ghrelin, GH, and IGF-1 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: No significant differences were observed in ghrelin and GH concentrations between SGA and AGA infants. However, IGF-1 levels were significantly lower in SGA infants. Cord blood ghrelin was negatively correlated with the infants' birth weight (r = -0.33, P = 0.013); on the other hand, IGF-1 level was positively correlated with birth weight (r = 0.43, P = 0.002). Conclusions: IGF-1 has the most significant effect on intrauterine growth. Acylated ghrelin is detectable in cord blood and correlated with birth weight, suggesting a role in intrauterine development, but its level is not affected by intrauterine growth retardation. © 2016, Iranian Society of Pediatrics

How and Why is An Answer (Still) Correct? Maintaining Provenance in Dynamic Knowledge Graphs

Knowledge graphs (KGs) have increasingly become the backbone of many critical knowledge-centric applications. Most large-scale KGs used in practice are automatically constructed based on an ensemble of extraction techniques applied over diverse data sources. Therefore, it is important to establish the provenance of results for a query to determine how these were computed. Provenance is shown to be useful for assigning confidence scores to the results, for debugging the KG generation itself, and for providing answer explanations. In many such applications, certain queries are registered as standing queries since their answers are needed often. However, KGs keep continuously changing due to reasons such as changes in the source data, improvements to the extraction techniques, refinement/enrichment of information, and so on. This brings us to the issue of efficiently maintaining the provenance polynomials of complex graph pattern queries for dynamic and large KGs instead of having to recompute them from scratch each time the KG is updated. Addressing these issues, we present HUKA which uses provenance polynomials for tracking the derivation of query results over knowledge graphs by encoding the edges involved in generating the answer. More importantly, HUKA also maintains these provenance polynomials in the face of updates---insertions as well as deletions of facts---to the underlying KG. Experimental results over large real-world KGs such as YAGO and DBpedia with various benchmark SPARQL query workloads reveals that HUKA can be almost 50 times faster than existing systems for provenance computation on dynamic KGs

Vesical schistosomiasis and squamous cell carcinoma associated with schistosoma haematobium: A re-emerging neglected tropical disease in Tehran, Iran

Hematobium species of this parasite tends to bladder and mesenteric arteries and it causes lesions in the bladder wall, urethra, and renal tubes. A 25-year-old man living in Tehran (a non-endemic and very rare area for schistosoma) suffers from symptoms such as hematuria with suprapubic pain, dysuria, fever, nausea and vomiting. Urine analysis showed a lot of red blood cells, after using cystoscopy of the area and receiving a bladder biopsy, a definitive diagnosis of schistosomiasis was made and after determining the extent of damage to the urinary tract, appropriate treatment with surgery and praziquantel (40 mg/kg) were prescribed. © 202

The Effect of Citrus Aurantium Aroma on Sleep Quality in the Elderly with Heart Failure

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Poor sleep quality is one of the most common problems in the elderly with heart failure, and hospitalization exacerbates this problem. In traditional Persian medicine, citrus aurantium has been recognized as a sedative and inducer of sleep. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of citrus aurantium on sleep quality in the elderly with heart failure. METHODS: This randomized clinical trial was performed on 80 elderly patients with heart failure admitted in selected teaching hospitals of Mazandaran province in two intervention and control groups. In the intervention group, aromatherapy with two drops of 10 citrus aurantium essential oil was performed on a cotton ball for twenty minutes for three consecutive nights and the control group received routine care. Sleep quality of the elderly was assessed before and after the intervention using the standard St. Mary's Hospital Sleep Questionnaire (SMHSQ) (which assesses the quality of previous night's sleep in hospitalized patients).&#160;&#160; FINDINS: The mean sleep disorder in the elderly before and after the intervention in the intervention group was 24.70&#177;3.67 and 21.05&#177;3.62, respectively, which was statistically significant (p=0.001). Mean sleep disorder in the elderly before and after the intervention in the control group was 24.37&#177;4.48 and 23.75&#177;4.71, respectively, which was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The results showed that using aromatherapy with citrus aurantium can improve sleep quality in the elderly with heart failure

A decision support system for boosting warfarin maintenance dose using fuzzy logic

Background: Warfarin is the most common oral anticoagulant. This drug is used for the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic patients. It is difficult for physician to predict the results of warfarin prescriptions because there is narrow boundary between therapeutic range and complications of warfarin. Therefore drug dose adjustment is normally performed by an expert physician. Decision support systems that use extracted knowledge from experts in the field of drug dose adjustment would be useful in reducing medical errors, especially in the clinics with limited access to experts. The aim of this study was to propose a method for boosting the maintenance dose of warfarin for a maximum period of three days to eliminate disruptions in International Normalized Ratio (INR). Methods: In a retrospective study, from December 2013 to February 2014 in Shahid Rajaee Heart Center, Tehran, Iran, 84 patients with International Normalized Ratio below (INR) the therapeutic range was selected who was undergone a boosting dose during three days. Patients with unstable maintenance dose were excluded from the study. In this study, data from 75 patients receiving warfarin therapy were used for developing and evaluation of the proposed model. The INR target range for 37 patients out of remaining 75 cases was between 2.5 and 3.5, while for 38 patients the intended INR range was between 2 and 3. A separate fuzzy model was designed for each of the above-mentioned therapeutic ranges. Results: The recommended dose for 37 patients having INR therapeutic range of 2.5 to 3.5 has mean absolute error and root mean squared error of 1.89 and 2.78 respectively for three days. These error rates are 1.97 and 2.88 respectively for 38 patients who are in therapeutic range 2 to 3. Conclusion: The results are promising and encourage one to consider this system for more study with the aim of possible use as a decision support system in the future. © 2015, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Formulation of Manufacturing Strategies Based on An Extended SWARA Method with Intuitionistic Fuzzy Numbers: An Automotive Industry Application

Applying any kind of manufacturing strategy requires evaluating the current situation of the system at the internal and external levels and providing strategies for improving the system performance. Hence, the study presents review and design the optimal manufacturing strategy for increasing the efficiency of the automotive industry. This article presents a three-step manufacturing strategy model using Miltenburg worksheet and extended the Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method into the intuitionistic fuzzy environment. It concentrates on five manufacturing objectives encompassing the production system, manufacturing outputs, manufacturing leverage, production capabilities, and competitive analysis. First,the basis of current production system is Product\Volume Layout\Flow Matrix (PV-LF) matrix. At the point, six manufacturing levers are analysed and assessed. The following step extends the SWARA method into the intuitionistic fuzzy environment. The research evaluates manufacturing outputs (delivery and cost, quality and performance) to define criteria of the optimal production system. Eventually, the study describes optimal strategies. Thus, the production system could change to the optimal policy. The results demonstrated that the case study production system is Equipment Paced Line Flow (EPL) and should vary from EPL to Just in Time (JIT). Furthermore, changing manufacturing levers is necessary to execute the proposed framework successfully