Prevalence of vitamin d deficiency amongwomen of reproductive age: A multi centric study in tehran

Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of vitaminDdeficiency among Iranianwomenof reproductive age. Methods: In this multicentric cross-sectional study, 300 women aged 15 - 45 years referring to Tehran branch of Islamic Azad university hospitals from 2013 to 2015 were recruited. The collected data included the demographic characteristics of the participants, including age, body mass index (BMI), parity, and serum level of vitamin D. Serum levels of 25-dihydroxy vitamin D were measured by radioimmunoassay. Vitamin D was defined as deficient < 20 nmol/L, mild 25 nmol/L, moderate 12.5 - 25 nmol/L and severe12.5 nmol/L. Statistical analysis was performed, using Excel software. Results: Amongthe300patients, 257 caseshadvitaminDdeficiency;amongwhom,122 caseshadsevere, 96hadmoderateand38hadmild deficiency. Conclusions: According to the results of this study, only 14.8 of the study population had normal serum vitamin D levels, indicating that the majority of Iranian women in the reproductive age have vitamin D deficiency. © 2016, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

Five-Year Follow-Up of Parapapillary Atrophy: The Beijing Eye Study

Purpose: To assess longitudinal changes in parapapillary atrophy in the adult population of Greater Beijing. Methods: The population-based Beijing Eye Study 2006 included 3251 subjects who had participated in the Beijing Eye Study 2001 and returned for re-examination. The mean age was 60.4610.1 years. Using optic disc photographs, we measured parapapillary atrophy which was divided into alpha zone and beta zone. Results: Overall progression rate of alpha zone was seen in 0.660.1 % (95 % confidence interval (CI):0.3,0.9) of the subjects and of beta zone in 8.260.5 % (95%CI:7.2,9.1) of the subjects. In binary regression analysis, rate of progression of alpha zone was significantly associated higher age (P = 0.04) and the co-progression of zone Beta (P,0.001). Rate of progression of beta zone was significantly associated with higher age (P,0.001; odds ratio (OR):1.11;95%CI:1.10,1.14), higher intraocular pressure (P,0.001;OR:1.10;95%CI:1.05,1.14), higher myopic refractive error (P,0.001;OR:0.71; 95%CI:0.67,0.75), rural region of habitation (P = 0.002;OR: 0.58; 95%CI:0.41,0.82), presence of glaucomatous optic nerve damage (P,0.001;OR:2.89; 95%CI:1.62,5.14), co-progression of alpha zone (P,0.001;OR:7.13;95%CI:2.43,20.9), absence of arterial hypertension (P = 0.03;OR: 0.70; 95%CI:0.51,0.96), and thicker central corneal thickness (P = 0.02;OR:1.01;95%CI:1.00,1.01). Subjects with a non-glaucomatous optic nerve damage (n = 22) as compared to the remaining subjects did not vary in the progression rate of alpha zone (0.0 % versus 0.660.1%; P = 1.0) and beta zone (8.260.5 % versus 6.360.6%;P = 1.0)

Determining the Stress Intensity Factor in a Cracked Plate Under Tensile Stresses using the Finite Element Method

: Numerical methods, especially the Finite Element method, are increasingly being used for solving different problems. Due to fact that these methods are approximate, having a good understanding and judgment about the errors and their distribution is very important. Hence education of users of engineering analysis and design software is necessary and inattention to it may result in catastrophe.  As regards this issue, the problem of determining the stress intensity factor in a cracked plate under tensile stresses, by using the finite element method together with error estimation and adaptivity, is the subject of this article. For this purpose, an academic FORTRAN code has been developed which is able to estimate the finite element solution error by using the superconvergent patch stress recovery method. In addition, an adaptive solution with remeshings in each step is carried out to improve the quality of the employed finite element mesh. Comparing the obtained results with the analytical solution, as well as the ANSYS commercial software, it is observed that the employed algorithm for error estimation has a better performance and can be used for determination of the stress intensity factor in complex structures with arbitrary cracks

Hot Workability Investigation of an Fe Al Ta Alloy Using Deformation Processing Maps

Fe Al Ta alloys are expected to replace high alloyed steels in steam turbine blades. However, the mechanical properties of the forged blades are still not optimal due to limited grain refinement during hot forging and the coarse grained microstructure inherited from the as cast precursor. It is, therefore, essential to investigate the hot deformation behavior of the alloy to identify the optimum range for the deformation parameters leading to good hot workability with significant grain refinement. The hot deformation behavior and hot workability of an Fe 25Al 1.5Ta at. alloy were investigated in the present work using constitutive modeling and the concept of processing maps. Uniaxial compression tests were conducted in a strain rate range from 0.0013 s amp; 8722;1 to 1 s amp; 8722;1 and in a temperature range from 900 C to 1100 C, where a disordered A2 amp; 945; Fe, Al matrix phase along with a C14 Fe, Al 2Ta Laves phase were confirmed by X ray diffraction. The flow stress strain curves showed a broad maximum followed by a slight drop in stress until a steady state was reached. The optimum processing window for the studied alloy was located at 910 1060 C 0.0013 0.005 s amp; 8722;1, where the efficiency of the power dissipation amp; 951; and strain rate sensitivity m reached 50 and 0.33, respectively. The material underwent a combination of dynamic recovery and dynamic recrystallization over the whole tested deformation range. No flow instabilities were predicted based on Prasad s flow instability criterion when deformation was performed up to a true strain of 0.5 and 0.8, indicating a high degree of hot workability of the studied alloy over the entire deformation range tested. The current study reveals a well suited parameter range for the safe and efficient deformation of Fe Al Ta alloys, which may contribute to the optimization of the thermomechanical processing of this allo

Adsorbent materials based on a geopolymer paste for dye removal from aqueous solutions

Geopolymers are porous materials that can be used as basic dye adsorbents in wastewater treatment. In this work, a green geopolymer paste synthesized from industrial and agricultural waste materials was employed as an adsorbent to remove the basic dye methylene blue from aqueous solutions. The geopolymer sample was characterized by X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer Emmet Teller surface area measurements, and particle size techniques. The isotherms of dye adsorption by the geopolymer sample were considered by the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models. The removal efficiency increased with increasing geopolymer dosage, contact time and temperature. The Freundlich isotherm exhibited the best fit to the adsorption data