Assessment of hospitals medical waste management in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province in Iran

The hospital wastes could threaten the surface waters, ground waters, soil, air environment and humans’ health. This study was intended to investigate the management of medical waste generated in hospitals of Charharmahal and Bakhtiari province, located in south west of Iran. The samples came from all 9 province’s hospitals with 1156 beds. The data forms and questionnaires were completed. The questionnaire contained questions about the generation of waste and practices related to separation, collection, storage, transport, treatment and final disposal, and training and awareness. The highest generation rate on a bed basis of 3.22±0.4 kg/bed/day was found in Shohada hospital, and the lowest rate was 1.37±0.2 kg/bed/day for Sina hospital. There was significant variation (P<0.05). The average general waste production rate was 2.12±0.37 kg/bed/day at all the surveyed hospitals. The highest percentage (63%) of total medical wastes were general, 36.05% were infectious wastes. About 44.44% of the hospitals have used autoclave to disinfect their infectious medical waste prior to disposal, while incineration is used in 33.33% of the hospitals. All hospitals (100%) indicated their needs and willingness to participate in future specialized training programs in medical waste management. It has been suggested that enhancing the education, awareness and promoting programs about medical waste management for cleaning workers, doctors, nurses, and technicians

Predictors for the severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection in patients with underlying liver disease: a retrospective analytical study in Iran

Risk factors for clinical outcomes of COVID-19 pneumonia have not yet been well established in patients with underlying liver diseases. Our study aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 infection among patients with underlying liver diseases and determine the risk factors for severe COVID-19 among them. In a retrospective analytical study, 1002 patients with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia were divided into two groups: patients with and without underlying liver diseases. The admission period was from 5 March to 14 May 2020. The prevalence of underlying conditions, Demographic data, clinical parameters, laboratory data, and participants' outcomes were evaluated. Logistic regression was used to estimate the predictive factors. Eighty-one (8) of patients had underlying liver diseases. The frequencies of gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting were significantly higher among patients with liver diseases (48 vs. 25 and 46.1 vs. 30 respectively, both P < 0.05). Moreover, ALT and AST were significantly higher among patients with liver diseases (54.5 ± 45.6 vs. 37.1 ± 28.4, P = 0.013 and 41.4 ± 27.2 vs. 29.2 ± 24.3, P = 0.028, respectively). Additionally, the mortality rate was significantly high in patients with liver disease (12.4 vs. 7, P = 0.018). We also observed that the parameters such as neutrophil to leukocyte ratio Odds Ratio Adjusted (ORAdj) 1.81, 95% CI 1.21�3.11, P = 0.011 and blood group A (ORAdj 1.59, 95% CI 1.15�2.11, P = 0.001) were associated with progression of symptoms of COVID-19. The presence of underlying liver diseases should be considered one of the poor prognostic factors for worse outcomes in patients with COVID-19. © 2021, The Author(s)

α:Non-α and Gγ:Aγ globin chain ratios in thalassemia intermedia patients treated with hydroxyurea

Objectives: To elucidate the possible ways by which hydroxyurea molecules affect globin chain (α or β-like) synthesis. Methods: A total of 23 thalassemia intermedia patients (13 male and 10 female) aged between 5 and 26 years were treated for five months with 15 mg/(kg-day) of hydroxyurea. Hemoglobins electrophoresis and globin chain electrophoresis was performed on each sample at different time points before and during the treatment. Results: Fetal hemoglobin increased significantly in most patients and average episodes of transfusion decreased. Both Gγ and Aγ-globin chains increased significantly and α-globin:Nonα-globin chain as well as Gγ-globin:Aγ globin chains ratios decreased. Conclusions: Improvement in α:non-α ratio and consequent decrease of free α-globin chain might be the cause of beneficial effects of hydroxyurea therapy. Two patients who felt better didn't show significant increase in their fetal hemoglobin level, and this is in contradiction with the hypothesis claiming that the HbF level increase is the cause of such therapeutic effect. In spite of the unclear mechanism of action of this drug, hydroxyurea therapy had noticeable impacts on thalassemia intermedia and also sickle cell disease and even patients suffering from thalassemia major. © 2014 by the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine

Keyboard Contamination in Intensive Care Unit: Is Cleaning Enough? Prospective Research of In Situ Effectiveness of a Tea Tree Oil (KTEO) Film

After the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, disinfection practices and microbial load reduction have become even more important and rigorous. To determine the contamination of keyboard surface and the relative risk to transfer healthcare-associated pathogens to susceptible patients, as it frequently happens in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a standard keyboard (SK), a cleanable keyless keyboard (KK) with smooth surface and a standard keyboard coated with a 3M Tegaderm film added with active essential oil (tea tree oil) (KTEO) were tested. S. aureus, including MRSA strains, were detected in ICU, with values ranging from 15% to 57%. Gram negative strains belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family were also found with values ranging from 14% to 71%. Similar Gram positive and Gram negative strains were found on all surfaces, but with low percentage, and only environmental bacteria were detected using the settling plates method. The Microbial Challenge Test performed on KTEO showed high rates of decrease for all the pathogens with statistical significance both at 24 and 48h (p=0.003* and p=0.040*, respectively). Our results suggest that the use of KTEO may be a feasible strategy for reducing the transmission of pathogens in health care setting and may be complementary to surface cleaning protocols

Search for low-mass dark matter via bremsstrahlung radiation and the Migdal effect in SuperCDMS

We present a new analysis of previously published SuperCDMS data using a profile likelihood framework to search for sub-GeV dark matter (DM) particles through two inelastic scattering channels: bremsstrahlung radiation and the Migdal effect. By considering these possible inelastic scattering channels, experimental sensitivity can be extended to DM masses that are undetectable through the DM-nucleon elastic scattering channel, given the energy threshold of current experiments. We exclude DM masses down to 220 MeV/c2 at 2.7×10-30 cm2 via the bremsstrahlung channel. The Migdal channel search provides overall considerably more stringent limits and excludes DM masses down to 30 MeV/c2 at 5.0×10-30 cm2

G4CMP: Condensed Matter Physics Simulation Using the Geant4 Toolkit

G4CMP simulates phonon and charge transport in cryogenic semiconductor crystals using the Geant4 toolkit. The transport code is capable of simulating the propagation of acoustic phonons as well as electron and hole charge carriers. Processes for anisotropic phonon propagation, oblique charge-carrier propagation, and phonon emission by accelerated charge carriers are included. The simulation reproduces theoretical predictions and experimental observations such as phonon caustics, heat-pulse propagation times, and mean charge-carrier drift velocities. In addition to presenting the physics and features supported by G4CMP, this report outlines example applications from the dark matter and quantum information science communities. These communities are applying G4CMP to model and design devices for which the energy transported by phonons and charge carriers is germane to the performance of superconducting instruments and circuits placed on silicon and germanium substrates. The G4CMP package is available to download from GitHub: github.com/kelseymh/G4CMP.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 10 table

Ionization yield measurement in a germanium CDMSlite detector using photo-neutron sources

Two photo-neutron sources, $^{88}$Y$^{9}$Be and $^{124}$Sb$^{9}$Be, have been used to investigate the ionization yield of nuclear recoils in the CDMSlite germanium detectors by the SuperCDMS collaboration. This work evaluates the yield for nuclear recoil energies between 1 keV and 7 keV at a temperature of $\sim$ 50 mK. We use a Geant4 simulation to model the neutron spectrum assuming a charge yield model that is a generalization of the standard Lindhard model and consists of two energy dependent parameters. We perform a likelihood analysis using the simulated neutron spectrum, modeled background, and experimental data to obtain the best fit values of the yield model. The ionization yield between recoil energies of 1 keV and 7 keV is shown to be significantly lower than predicted by the standard Lindhard model for germanium. There is a general lack of agreement among different experiments using a variety of techniques studying the low-energy range of the nuclear recoil yield, which is most critical for interpretation of direct dark matter searches. This suggests complexity in the physical process that many direct detection experiments use to model their primary signal detection mechanism and highlights the need for further studies to clarify underlying systematic effects that have not been well understood up to this point