A randomized controlled clinical trial evaluating quality of life when using a simple acupressure protocol in women with primary dysmenorrhea

Objective: To evaluate a simple acupressure protocol in LIV3 and LI4 acupoints in women with primary dysmenorrhea. Methods: This paper reports a randomized, single blinded clinical trial. 90 young women with dysmenorrhea were recruited to three groups to receive 20 minutes acupressure every day in either LIV3 or LI4, or placebo points. Acupressure was timed five days before menstruation for three successive menstrual cycles. On menstruation, each participant completed the Wong Baker faces pain scale, and the quality of life short form -12 (QOL SF-12). Results: Intensity and duration of pain between the three groups in the second and third cycles during the intervention (p<0.05) differed significantly. Significant differences were seen in all domains of QOL except for mental health (p=0.4), general health (p=0.7) and mental subscale component (p=0.12) in the second cycle, and mental health (p=0.9), and mental subscale component (p=0.14) in the third cycle. Conclusion: Performing the simple acupressure protocol is an effective method to decrease the intensity and duration of dysmenorrhea, and improve the QOL. Key words: Dysmenorrhea, acupressure, quality of life Registration ID in IRCT: IRCT2016052428038N

Effect of Crumb Rubber on Mechanical Properties of Crushed Recycled Pavement Materials

Due to the increase of construction wastes and end-of-life tyres, recycling of the waste concrete and scrape tyre have become an important issue around the world. Therefore, the aim of this research is to study the effect of crumb rubber on strength properties of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) as base/subbase pavement layers. In this study, crumb rubber with particle size of 10-15 mm was added to 20 mm RCA at 0.5, 1 and 2% by weight percentages of the RCA, and the strength properties of the samples were examined by unconfined compression strength as well as resilient modulus tests. It was concluded that addition of crumb rubber resulted in decreasing the UCS and resilient modulus, and increasing the toughness in terms of failure strain and deformability index

Iterative Decoding and Estimation for Digital Audio Watermarking

In this paper, a novel blind audio watermarking method is investigated. In this approach, the watermarking message is embedded into the low frequency components of the host signal in a novel transformation named Point to Point Graph (PPG). This watermarking scheme does not make significant high frequency components, and leads to a suitable blind dewatermarking procedure based on nonuniform sampling and iterative reconstruction. The convergence of the iterative method and the distortion caused by this watermarking approach are investigated analytically. Finally, the robustness of the method is examined against different common attacks such as AWGN, echo, low pass, MP3, etc using STIMARK software

Effect of curing, capillary action, and groundwater level increment on geotechnical properties of lime concrete: Experimental and prediction studies

Lime concrete and lime treatment are two attractive techniques for geotechnical engineers. However, researches have rarely been carried out to study the effects of moisture and capillary action due to increasing groundwater level on geotechnical properties of lime concrete. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of curing time and degree of saturation on some of geotechnical properties of lime concrete such as unconfined compressive strength (UCS), secant modulus (Es), failure strain, brittleness index (IB), and deformability index (ID) using unconfined compression tests. First of all, geotechnical and chemical properties of used materials were determined. After curing times of 14 d, 28 d, 45 d, and 60 d in laboratory condition, the specimens were exposed to saturation levels ranging from 0 to 100%. The results showed that the moisture and curing time have significant effects on the properties of lime concrete. Based on the results of scanning electron micrograph (SEM) test, it was observed that the specimen was characterized by a rather well-structured matrix since both the filling of a large proportion of the coarse-grained soil voids by clay and the pozzolanic activity of lime led to retaining less pore water in the specimen, increasing the UCS and Es, and consequently resisting against swelling and shrinkage of the clay soil. Moreover, due to the pozzolanic reactions and reduction of water, by increasing the curing time and decreasing the degrees of saturation, UCS, Es, and IB increased, and ID decreased. Based on the experimental results, a phenomenological model was used to develop equations for predicting the properties in relation to the ratio of degree of saturation/curing time. The results showed that there was a good correlation (almost R2 &gt; 90%) between the measured parameters and the estimated ones given by the predicted equations

Doped and un-doped cerium oxide nanoparticles: Biosynthesis, characterization, and cytotoxic study

Using a simple and environmentally friendly method, un-doped and 1 and 5 cadmium doped cerium oxide nanoparticles (Cd doped CeO2 NPs) were prepared through Salvadora persica aqueous extract in the present study. The synthesized nanoparticles were confirmed by Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), Ultraviolet�Visible (UV�Vis), and Raman methods. Due to the results of PXRD, EDX, and UV�Vis, cadmium is well doped in cerium oxide structure. The results of FESEM showed that the synthesized nanoparticles are spherical and have an average size of 10�20 nm. The toxicity effect of synthesized un-doped and Cd doped CeO2 NPs on breast cancer (MCF-7) cell line was investigated using WST-1 test. Compared to doxorubicin as control, the results showed that the un-doped cerium oxide nanoparticles had more cytotoxicity compared with those of the doped nanoparticles and doxorubicin. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l

Experimental study of the effects of curing time on geotechnical properties of stabilized clay with lime and geogrid

Lime treatment is extensively used to improve the properties of soft and weak soils. One of the most important reasons for using lime is to reduce the swelling behaviour of the clay soil. The reaction of quicklime (CaO) with water, forms hydrated (slaked) lime (Ca(OH)2) and therefore properties of clay are improved by the creation of extra bonds. Increasing the brittleness of lime stabilised clay is the major shortcoming of using lime. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effects of curing time on geotechnical properties of stabilised kaolinitic clay with lime and geogrids. At first, different percentages of lime (3, 5, 8%) were mixed with the soil to study unconfined compressive strength (UCS), secant modulus (Es), failure strain (εf), deformability indexes (ID), brittleness index (IB), bulk modulus (K), shear modulus (G) and resilient modulus (Mr) of specimens using unconfined compression test after different curing times (i.e. 7 and 28 days). Moreover, to alleviate the brittleness, geogrid was added to the lime-stabilised-clay in four layers at constant intervals and the geotechnical properties were also observed after the curing times. Based on the results the geotechnical properties of clay were improved significantly by adding lime and geogrid, however, by increasing the percentages of lime, the brittleness index increased and the deformability index decreased. According to SEM test, the addition of lime reduced voids and therefore improved the geotechnical properties of the soil. A phenomenological model was used based on the test results to develop the equations for predicting the properties. The results showed that there was a good correlation between the estimated values given by the predicted equations and the measured values