Effects of nutrition education on levels of nutritional awareness of pregnant women in Western iran

BACKGROUND: Maternal nutritional health, before and during pregnancy, influences the health status of herself and her developing fetus. Pregnancy is an important condition for improving nutritional knowledge. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed at determining effects of nutrition education on levels of nutritional awareness of a representative group of pregnant women in Western Iran. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A quasi-experimental intervention was undertaken on a random sample of pregnant women (n = 100) attending urban health centers in Ilam city (western Iran) during the year 2011 for prenatal care. A nutritional education program containing two to four lessons was undertaken for small groups of between six to ten women. Nutritional knowledge was assessed before intervention (pretest) and followed by two posttests within three weeks interval. RESULTS: The awareness level of pregnant women about healthy nutrition was significantly increased from 3 before intervention to 31 after the nutritional education intervention (P < 0.001). This significant difference was independent from maternal characteristics of age and levels of literacy and in obese mothers in particular. CONCLUSIONS: A nutritional education intervention will have a positive effect on nutritional awareness of pregnant women

Functionally modified core-shell silica nanoparticles by one-pot synthesis

In this work functionally modified silica nanoparticles were synthesized in base-catalyzed reaction of the elementary molecules: TEOS and vinyltriethoxysilane (VTEOS) using ethanol as the solvent. The main feature of the developed method is the addition of the modifier molecule, VTEOS, after appearance of the first primary particles in the reaction mixture. A core-shell structure was detected for the final particles having carbon-rich phase in the shell and silicon-rich phase in the core. The effect of TEOS/VTEOS molar ratio, solvent, reaction temperature and time was investigated on the particle size and morphology of the particles. The results showed that TEOS/VTEOS molar ratio of 90/10 and, reaction temperature of 40 \u25e6 C using ethanol as the solvent yield the desired core-shell structure after 30 min of reaction time