Effectiveness of smart phone application use as continuing medical education method in pediatric oral health care: a randomized trial

Background Continuing education aims at assisting physicians to maintain competency and expose them to emerging issues in their field. Over the last decade, approaches to the delivery of educational content have changed dramatically as medical education at all levels is now benefitting from the use of web-based content and applications for mobile devices. The aim of the present study is to investigate through a randomized trial the effectiveness of a smart phone application to increase public health service physicians’ (PHS physicians) knowledge regarding pediatric oral health care. Method Five of all seven DHCs (District Health Center) in Tehran, which were under the supervision of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Iran University of Medical Sciences, were selected for our study. Physicians of one DHC had participated in a pilot study. All PHS physicians in the other four centers were invited to the current study on a voluntary basis (n = 107). They completed a self-administered questionnaire regarding their knowledge, attitudes, practice in pediatric dentistry, and background. PHS physicians were assigned randomly to intervention and control groups; those in the intervention group, received a newly designed evidence-based smartphone application, and those in the control group received a booklet, a CME seminar, and a pamphlet. A post-intervention survey was administered 4 months later and t-test and repeated measures ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) were performed to measure the difference in the PHS physicians’ knowledge, attitude and practice. Results In both groups, the mean knowledge scores were significantly higher (p-Value < 0.001) in post-intervention data compared to those at baseline. Similar results existed in attitude and practice scores. Although the scores in knowledge in the intervention group indicating potentially greater improvement when compared to those of the control group, the differences between the two groups were not statistically significant (dif: 0.84, 95% CI − 0.35 to 2.02). Conclusion In the light of the limitations of the present study, smart phone applications could improve knowledge, attitude and practice in physicians although this method was not superior to the conventional method of CME

The Deformation of Expanded Clay Syntactic Foams during Compression Characterized by Acoustic Emission

The deformation and failure mechanisms in syntactic foams with different metal matrices were investigated in this study. The syntactic foams were produced by the infiltration method using lightweight expanded clay particles (LECA) as a space holder and commercially pure Al or eutectic Al-12%Si alloy for the matrices. The samples were compressed at room temperature; simultaneously, the acoustic emission (AE) response and the surface deformation were monitored and collated with the deformation curves. In the case of the Al foam, ductile behavior with long plateau stress was observed. During this plateau regime, multiple active shear bands were detected. In contrast, the AlSi12 foam exhibited more brittle deformation behavior. At the end of the quasi-linear stage, the localization of the strain started within one large shear band, accompanied by a significant stress drop. The AE analysis revealed that the deformation was mostly governed by the fracture of LECA particles and the plastic deformation of the matrix material for both types of foams. After strain localization, in the case of the AlSi12 foam, the fracture of the matrix became significant, causing the deterioration of the sample. As for the Al foam, besides the fracture of the LECA particles, the plastic deformation of the matrix played an important role in preventing the foam from falling apart

Microfluidic analysis techniques for safety assessment of pharmaceutical nano- and microsystems

This chapter reviews the evolution of microfabrication methods and materials, applicable to manufacturing of micro total analysis systems (or lab‐on‐a‐chip), from a general perspective. It discusses the possibilities and limitations associated with microfluidic cell culturing, or so called organ‐on‐a‐chip technology, together with selected examples of their exploitation to characterization of pharmaceutical nano‐ and microsystems. Materials selection plays a pivotal role in terms of ensuring the cell adhesion and viability as well as defining the prevailing culture conditions inside the microfluidic channels. The chapter focuses on the hepatic safety assessment of nanoparticles and gives an overview of the development of microfluidic immobilized enzyme reactors that could facilitate examination of the hepatic effects of nanomedicines under physiologically relevant conditions. It also provides an overview of the future prospects regarding system‐level integration possibilities facilitated by microfabrication of miniaturized separation and sample preparation systems as integral parts of microfluidic in vitro models.Non peer reviewe

Boost Camp’, a universal school-based transdiagnostic prevention program targeting adolescent emotion regulation; evaluating the effectiveness by a clustered RCT : a protocol paper

Abstract Background The transition from childhood into adolescence can be considered as a critical developmental period. Moreover, adolescence is associated with a decreased use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies and an increased use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies increasing the risk of emotional problems. Targeting emotion regulation is therefore seen as an innovative prevention approach. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Boost camp, an innovative school-based prevention program targeting ER, on adolescents’ emotion regulation skills and emotional wellbeing. Also secondary outcomes and possible moderators will be included. Methods The aim is to reach 300 adolescents (16 class groups, 6 schools) in their first year of high school. A clustered Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) with two conditions, intervention (n = 150) and control (n = 150), will be set up. Adolescents in the intervention condition will receive 14 lessons over the course of 2 days, followed by Booster sessions, and will be compared with adolescents in a non-intervention control group. The outcomes will be measured by self-report questionnaires at baseline, immediately after Boost camp, and at three and 6 months follow-up. Discussion Data-collection is planned to be completed in May 2018. Data-analyses will be finished the end of 2018. The presented paper describes the Boost camp program and the clustered RCT design to evaluate its effectiveness. It is expected that Boost camp will have beneficial effects. If found effective, Boost camp will have the potential to increase adolescent’s ER and well-being, and reduce the risk to become adults in need. The trials is registered on the 13th of June 2017 in ISRCTN registry [ISRCTN68235634]

Effect of family presence during teaching rounds on patient's anxiety and satisfaction in cardiac intensive care unit: A double-blind randomized controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: The family members' presence during teaching rounds is introduced as a challenging issue. The outcomes of family presence during teaching rounds in adult care settings is an under investigate issue. The propose of this study was to determining the effect of family presence at teaching rounds on patient's anxiety and satisfaction in cardiac intensive care unit (CICU). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this double-blind randomized controlled trial, 60 patients who were hospitalized in CICU were selected based on inclusion criteria and then assigned into 2 groups (with and without family members presence during teaching round), equally by the random minimization method. The patient's anxiety score was measured before and after rounds on the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Furthermore, the patient's satisfaction about various clinical aspects of round was measured by a self-reported questionnaire. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Chi-square test, independent sample and paired sample t-test, at the significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: The study groups were similar in terms of demographic variables. In the family members presence group, the STAI score significantly decreased after intervention (P = 0.001). Furthermore, in this group, the after-intervention STAI score was significantly lower than family absence group (P = 0.011). The mean changes of patient's satisfaction about quality of round score in family member presence group were significantly higher than family absence group (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Family presence during teaching rounds led to patient's lower anxiety and higher satisfaction score. © 2020 Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Influence of Parameters of Quenching and Partitioning Process on Microstructure and Fraction of Retained Austenite

Certain amount of retained austenite can increase ductility of steels because of the TRIP phenomenon during plastic deformation. One method for achieving this is partitioning of carbon into austenite to stabilize it at room temperature. The quenching and partitioning (Q&P) heat treatment leads to a microstructure consisting of martensite and stabilized retained austenite between martensite plates, which provides a better combination of strength and ductility. In this study, the effect of parameters of Q&P process (quenching temperature, partitioning temperature and partitioning time) on the microstructure and retained austenite volume fraction of a low alloy medium carbon steel was investigated. The results showed that the high increase in partitioning time causes the disappearance of martensite blades and reduction of austenite volume fraction. However, increasing of partitioning temperature made the retained austenite films become thicker and its volume fraction increase. On the other hand, by increasing the quenching temperature, carbon content of retained austenite increased sharply

Resveratrol protects auditory hair cells from gentamicin toxicity

Resveratrol is a naturally occurring polyphenol that is synthesized by a variety of plant species. It is abundant in grapes and grape products (e.g., red wine). Resveratrol has demonstrated reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger activity, and it has been linked to nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) activity. We recently demonstrated that NF-kappaB is important to the survival of immature mammalian hair cells. Therefore, we undertook an in vitro experiment to determine if resveratrol is able to exert some protective influence against gentamicin-induced damage to and death of auditory hair cells. To accomplish this, we dissected the organ of Corti (OC) from newborn Sprague-Dawley rats and cultured the OCs in medium overnight for recovery. We treated two groups of OC explants with different concentrations of resveratrol plus gentamicin for 24 hours; for comparison and control purposes, we also treated a group of explants with gentamicin only and we left a group untreated. We found that resveratrol in both concentrations had a moderate but statistically significant protective effect against gentamicin-induced toxicity in vitro

Women Empowerment through Health Information Seeking: A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Today, women empowering is an important issue. Several methods have been introduced to empower women. Health information seeking is one of the most important activities in this regard. A wide range of capabilities have been reported as outcomes of health information seeking in several studies. As health information seeking is developed within personal-social interactions and also the health system context, it seems that the qualitative paradigm is appropriate to use in studies in this regard. This study aimed to explore how women's empowerment through health information seeking is done. METHODS: In this qualitative content analysis study, data collection was done with regard to inclusion criteria, through purposive sampling by semi-structured interviews with 17 women and using documentation and field notes until data saturation. Qualitative data analysis was done constantly and simultaneous with data collection. RESULTS: Four central themes were emerged to explain women's empowerment through health information seeking that included: a) Health concerns management with three subcategories of Better coping, Stress management, Control of situation, b) Collaborative care with two subcategories of Effective interaction with health professions and Participation in health decision making c) Individual development d) Self-protection with four sub- categories of Life style modification, Preventive behaviors promoting, Self-care promoting, and medication adherence. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate the importance of women empowerment through foraging their health information seeking rights and comprehensive health information management