Correlation between the concentration of air pollutants (CO, SO2 and NO2) and pulmonary function

زمینه و هدف: آلاینده های استنشاقی نقش مهمی در بیماری های ریوی دارند. این مطالعه با هدف بررسی سطح آلاینده های استنشاقی دی اکسید نیتروژن، دی اکسید گوگرد، منواکسید کربن در اراک (شهر صنعتی و آلوده) و خمین (غیر صنعتی و غیر آلوده) و تعیین چگونگی اثر آن بر عملکرد ریه در مقطع زمان اسپیرومتری انجام شد. روش بررسی: دو شهر اراک و خمین به ترتیب به ده و پنج منطقه تقسیم و آلاینده های استنشاقی دی اکسید نیتروژن، دی اکسید گوگرد و منواکسید کربن اندازه گیری شدند. همزمان به طور تصادفی در فصول مختلف سال 522 نفر از بالغ غیر سیگاری خمین و 547 نفر از اراک انتخاب و از آنان اسپیرومتری به عمل آمد و از شاخص کیفیت هوا (PSI=Poliution standard index) برای ارزیـــابی کیفیت هوا استفاده شد. میـانگین غلظت آلاینده ها و شاخص پراکندگی ظرفیت های ریوی با آزمون های آماری آنالیز رگرسیون مورد تجزیه و تحلیل قرار گرفتند. یافته ها: میانگینPSI اراک 54/14±83/101 و خمین 58/18±17/89 بود (05/0>P). حداکثر جریان بازدمی (PEF) و ظرفیت حیاتی فعال (FVC) در اراک به طور معنی داری کمتر از خمین بود (05/0

Misconceptional views about epilepsy exist across social class system of society

Epilepsy affects over 1% of population worldwide. Studies have shown that although our understanding about epilepsy has come a long way, misconceptions about its etiology and treatment exist in rural slums. However, no study has been conducted to see whether such misconceptions exist in middle and upper socio-economic class. This study aims to explore the existence of misconceptions and social stigma in the middle and upper socio-economic class. Materials and Methods: We conducted a survey-based study about epilepsy on 227 participants, belonging to middle and upper socio-economic class. Results: The symptoms of generalized tonic-clonic seizures were correctly described by participants. However, magic, superstition and ‘jin’ were considered as the etiology by some. Incorrect treatment options, like shoe sniffing and ‘taweez’ etc., were also mentioned. Social stigmas regarding sharing information about epilepsy and marrying epileptics also existed. Discussion: Our study shows that although the general understanding about epilepsy was correct in majority of participants belonging to the middle upper socio-economic class, it was restricted to generalized tonic clonic seizures. Key misconceptions regarding the etiology and treatment of epilepsy and social stigma associated with it did exist. These findings emphasize the need to educate all segments of the society about epileps

Investigating the role of tourism in economic growth: empirical evidence from Pakistan

Introduction. This study aims to explore the impact of tourism along with some other regressors, namely labor force, official development assistance, local investment, and inflation rate on the economic growth rate of the developing country of Pakistan. Material and Methods. We used annual time series data over the period from 1980 to 2018 for empirical analysis. Based on the order of integration of data, we employed an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. Results. Empirical results vindicated a positive relationship between tourism and growth. The official development assistance and inflation rate have shown significantly negative impacts on the economic growth of Pakistan, whereas domestic investment has shown an insignif-icantly positive impact on the economic growth. Conclusions. The empirical findings exhibit that tourism plays a key role in the process of economic growth and development of Pakistan. The study recommends that the management authorities should implement appropriate policies to attract more tourists to improve economic growth of Pakistan. Furthermore, sincere efforts are required to ensure macroeconomic stability through controlling inflation, avoiding reception of foreign aid, and encourag-ing global investment

Global declarations on electric vehicles, carbon life cycle and Nash equilibrium

Universal environmental policies adopt strategies that enhance and encourage the production and usage of electric vehicles (EVs). Universal cooperation is evident in the framework of agreements or protocols so as to successfully lead countries towards the predetermined goals. The question is whether this trend can reduce global warming or CO2 emissions worldwide. By adopting game theory, this study analyses electricity carbon life cycle in leading EV countries. Results show that although the spread of EVs in Europe and the USA can mitigate carbon emissions, the production and use of electric vehicles in some countries, such as China and India, become a new source of such emissions. This reverse effect is due to the emission of greenhouse gases from electricity sources in these countries. Game theory also suggests that countries with unclean electricity sources should reconsider their plans to produce and use EVs. This study confirms that although carbon emission and global warming are global problems, regional and local policies can be substituted with a single comprehensive approach for an effective means of CO2 emission reduction

Mother’s Characteristics, Knowledge and Practices about Children Burn Injury in Sulaimani City

Burn is described as one of the leading causes of injury throughout the world, and is one of the most frequent causes of hospitalization. The aim of this study was to determine mother’s characteristics, Knowledge and practices for burn injuries and burn infection prevention. A cross sectional descriptive study was undertaken in Sulaimani city, Iraq, from October 2015 to July 2016. Participants were evaluated using a structured questionnaire by face-to-face interview. Data were computerized and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22.0 software. A total of 126 mothers who had burn injury in their children and admitted to burning hospital during the study period, the mean score knowledge of mothers was (3.63), the mean score practice of mothers accounted (4.63), the respondent practice score ranged from (1-8). They had poor, intermediate, and good score knowledge about burns injury and burn infection 79.37%, 18.25%, and 2.38% respectively. In regard to mother’s related practice, there were 66.67% within poor practice level, 30.95% of an intermediate level, and 2.38% had a good practice level. The study shows that mother knowledge and practice in Sulaimani city in relation to burn injury and infection among their children was at a low level and the local health authority should incorporate health education for parents, especially mothers in the prevention of pediatric burn at home involving hot liquid and flames also other domestic hazardous as well as the important activities after burn or pre-hospital admission

Air-water two-phase flow modeling of turbulent surf and swash zone wave motions

Wave breaking and wave runup/rundown have a major influence on nearshore hydrodynamics, morphodynamics and beach evolution. In the case of wave breaking, there is significant mixing of air and water at the wave crest, along with relatively high kinetic energy, so prediction of the free surface is complicated. Most hydrodynamic studies of surf and swash zone are derived from single-phase flow, in which the role of air is ignored. Two-phase flow modeling, consisting of both phases of water and air, may be a good alternative numerical modeling approach for simulating nearshore hydrodynamics and, consequently, sediment transport. A two-phase flow tool can compute more realistically the shape of the free surface, while the effects of air are accounted for. This paper used models based on two-dimensional, two-phase Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations, the Volume-Of-Fluid surface capturing technique and different turbulence closure models, i.e., k-ε, k-ω and Re-Normalized Group (RNG). Our numerical results were compared with the available experimental data. Comparison of the employed method with a model not utilizing a two-phase flow modeling demonstrates that including the air phase leads to improvement in simulation of wave characteristics, especially in the vicinity of the breaking point. The numerical results revealed that the RNG turbulence model yielded better predictions of nearshore zone hydrodynamics, although the k-ε model also gave satisfactory predictions. The model provides new insights for the wave, turbulence and means flow structure in the surf and swash zones

Assessment of Knowledge and Practice of Various Eye Diseases in Sulaimani: A Descriptive Study

Knowledge and practice of public, especially patients about eye diseases are important to reduce magnitude of human blindness. Vision and sight are very essential because they allow us to connect to each other’s. In accordance to the recently published data; the estimation of 253 million people lives with vision impairment, 36 million are blind and 217 million suffer from moderate to severe vision impairment. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Shahid Dr. Aso Hospital in Sulaimani city-Iraq, from April to August 2017 by face-to-face interview through close ended questionnaire for data collecting. All data were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22.0 software. P-value of < 0.05 was considered as a statistically significant. A total of 430 patients were randomly chosen to participate in the study. They were 254 (59.1%) males and 176 (40.9%) females. 76.7% of respondents was worrying about vision loss, 0.7% was worrying about hair loss. Of the participants, 32.8% was with a good knowledge level and 40.5% was with a poor knowledge level, as well as 3.1% was in a good practice and 58.8% was in a poor practice level. Female knowledge mean score was 9.53±4.96 and male knowledge mean score was 8.42±5.45, the practice mean score of males was 4.33±1.96 and mean practice score of females was 4.13±1.93. The study data indicate the worrying of participates about vision loss is in the highest proportion and the awareness and practice of patients about eye diseases is unsatisfactory. Health education campaigns are needed to improve personal awareness about vision related problems and for better eye health

Attendance of Patients with ophthalmological problems about Eye Protection from UV/blue Light Radiation from Sun light and Electronic Devices in Sulaimani City

Ultraviolet (UV) and blue light are affecting eyes during the daily time and may cause many eye’s problems and diseases. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the awareness of patients with ophthalmological problems on UV/blue light protection measures and to evaluate their knowledge and protection measures about radiation that emits from sun light and other electronic devices. It comprised a cross-sectional survey on a representative target population with eye diseases who visited the Shahid Aso Eye Hospital at Sulaimani city (sample size = 500). A special designed cross-sectional questionnaire was performed on a random sampling for data collection from 9th September 2017 to 1st January 2018. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 22.0. There was an even distribution between male and female participants across the groups. The highest percentage of patients with light sensitivity was (79.6%) and the lowest percentage with eye injury was (7.8%). Most of participants had knowledge about the effects of UV/blue light on eye diseases by (52%), cataract (57.8%), glaucoma and red eye with percentage of (45.8%) and (43.4%) respectively. There was a significant difference for the males who were more game-player and using electronic devices like smartphone/tablet /iPad than females. There was a significant difference between male and female participants about the knowledge on harmful effects of radiation from electronic devices. Furthermore, only the patients with sun light sensitivity and cataract had a significant knowledge about harmful effects of radiation from electronic devices on human eyes. Finally, most of the patients with dry eyes, eye/lid infection and glaucoma and cataract had significantly more practices for taking visual breaks when using electronic devices. This study concluded that the patients with ophthalmological problems show a low level of knowledge and protection measurements on the harmful effects of UV/blue light on human eyes and radiation protection. Additionally, this study has discovered that sun protection measures are commonly inadequate among the participants and on a regular basis only a small portion of participants were used the sun protection requirements

The Outcome of Minimally Invasive Discectomy in Single Level Lumbar Disc Prolapse

Abstract Lumbar disc surgery in carefully selected patients who have failed conservative treatments can significantly improve quality of life. Minimally invasive treatment of lumbar disc herniation has been popularized in recent years. The aim of the study was to assess the outcome of minimal invasive (loupe) discectomy among lumbar disc prolapse patients in Sulaimani. A prospective study carried out in Shar and Sulaimani Teaching hospitals in Sulaimani city for period from 1 st of February, 2013 to end of June, 2014 on sample of 30 patients with single level lumbar disc prolapse admitted to orthopedic units. The data were collected by the researcher through direct interview and filling a prepared questionnaire. The outcome of surgery was evaluated by comparing the symptoms (back pain, leg pain, and leg parathesia) and the muscle power grading (EHL &amp; FHL) of the patients pre-and post-operatively. Mean age of studied patients was 39.1 ± 9.3 years. Males were more than females. Disc prolapse level was L4-L5 among 17 and L5-S1 among 13 patients. Studying the symptoms pre-and post-operatively, revealed significant decrease in leg pain, leg parathesia and back pain post-operatively (p &lt; 0.001). Studying EHL &amp; FHL power grading preand post-operatively, revealed significant increase in muscle power grades 4 and grade 5 postoperatively (p &lt; 0.001). We concluded that minimal invasive discectomy is good and safe treatment option for lumbar disc prolapse