Effective Approaches to Energy Planning and Classification of Energy Systems Models

A balance between energy supply and demand is one of the challenges faced by policy makers. In fact, the main objective of energy planning is to achieve this balance. Energy models can be used for supply and demand future planning of a country or region. In most situations, these methods focus on economic development, energy policy, selection of appropriate resources and technologies for the future and investing in these technologies. This paper discusses the definitions of energy planning and classifies models of energy systems according to various approaches. The paper concludes that overall energy planning requires a balance between supply and demand of energy. However, achieving this balance is possible with the coordination of all energy sectors, proper development and implementation of energy policies and finally guidance and help to the consumer to select the best sources. Keywords: Energy planning, Energy systems modeling, Energy management JEL Classifications: O13, Q

Effect of psychological training on self-esteem and intelligence quotient of children and youngsters

هدف اصلی این پژوهش افزایش عزت نفس فرزندان کارکنان بهداشتی با استفاده از آموزش های روانشناختی بود. ابتدا کلیه کارکنان واجد شرایط (دارای فرزندان 7 تا 15 ساله) شناسایی و سپس از بین 123 خانوار موجود بطور تصادفی 89 خانوار با مجموع 150 نفر از کودکان و نوجوانان انتخاب گردیدند این افراد بطور تصادفی به دو گروه تجربی و شاهد تقسیم شدند. بعد از ارائه آموزش های روانشناختی به مادران و فرزندان آنها در گروه تجربی، مجموعا 29 نفر (16 نفر گروه تجربی و 13 نفر گروه شاهد) به علت عدم مراجعه برای پس آزمون و شرکت در کلاس از مطالعه حذف شدند و 121 نفر (59 نفر گروه تجربی و 62 نفر گروه شاهد) مورد بررسی نهایی قرار گرفتند. در این پژوهش از آزمون هوشی ریون و آزمون عزت نفس آیزنک استفاده شد. بررسی نتایج پژوهش نشان داد که ارائه آموزش های روانشناختی به کودکان و نوجوانان و مادران آنها در افزایش عزت نفس کودکان و نوجوانان موثر است. همچنین همبستگی معنی داری بین نمره های عزت نفس و هوشبهر کودکان و نوجوانان بدست آمد. اما پس از ارائه آموزش های روانشناختی در هوشبهر کودکان و نوجوانان تفاوت معنی داری مشاهده نگردید. مقایسه هوشبهر کودکان و نوجوانان در دو گروه سنی 7 تا 10 ساله و 11 تا 15 ساله نشان داد که تفاوت معنی داری در هوشبهر دو گروه وجود دارد، اما در نمره های عزت نفس دو گروه تفاوت معنی داری مشاهده نگردید. نتایج این پژوهش نشان داد که ارائه آموزش های روانشناختی به کودکان و نوجوانان و مادران آنها بویژه در سنین دبستانی در رشد و شخصیت کودکان و بهداشت روانی خانواده موثر است

Viral Outbreaks of SARS-CoV1, SARS-CoV2, MERS-CoV, Influenza H1N1, and Ebola in 21st Century; A Comparative Review of the Pathogenesis and Clinical Characteristics

 Throughout the past twenty years, humankind had its fair share of challenges with viral epidemics. In late December 2019, a zoonotic member of the coronaviruses was responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak of viral pneumonia in Wuhan, China. As a worldwide crisis, meanwhile, conclusive prevention or therapy has yet to be discovered, the death toll of COVID-19 has exceeded 278000 by May 11th, 2020. Alike other members of Coronavirus family such as MERS and SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2 provokes influenza-like syndrome which might further progress to the severe state of acute respiratory disease in some patients. Comparably, in 2009 the H1N1 influenza outbreak affected countless people by manifestations of respiratory system involvement. Additionally, Ebolavirus, as a member of the Filoviridae family, had also made a global catastrophe by causing hemorrhagic diseases in the past twenty years.  The unknown intrinsic nature of SARS-CoV-2, as a great missing piece of this pandemic puzzle, has had physicians to empirically test the possibly efficacious agents of the former viral epidemics on the COVID-19 cases. Here, the current knowledge in SARS-CoV-2 clinical features, transmissibility, and pathogenicity are all summed up as against the other emerging viruses in the last two decades, and the data crucially required for a better management of the illness has been spotlighted

A Rare Case Report of Duodenal Adenocarcinoma Accompanied by Cerebellar Medulloblastoma

A case of a 6-year-old female with a diagnosis of Duodenal Adenocarcinoma is presented by the authors, in which 24 months subsequent to undergoing radiation therapy for a Cerebellar Medulloblastomas, the mentioned diagnosis has been confirmed. Although, the chance of a secondary malignancy has been recognized to be elevated in children formerly undergone radiation therapy, the incidence of duodenal adenocarcinoma is a highly infrequent condition. As a consideration, observing manifestations like weight loss, vomiting, and icterus in a pediatric patient who has been administered earlier on with radiation therapy, must alert physicians that the risk of a gastrointestinal malignancy exists

A karyomorphological comparison of seven species of Achillea L. from Kurdistan of Iran

We conducted the present study on seven important medicinal species of Achillea (in a total of 28 populations) in their natural habitats. The results indicated that the populations had a base number (x= 9) and the diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploidy levels were observed. In addition to the inter-species diversity, there was the intra-species genetic diversity as A. millefolium (4x, 6x), A. vermicularis (2x, 4x), A. tenuifolia (2x, 4x), A. Aleppica (2x), A. talagonica (2x), A. biebersteinii, and A. wilhelmsii (4x). Furthermore, studies also indicated that 11 out of 28 populations had 1A symmetry, 15 populations had 2B symmetry, a population had 2A, and another population had 2B. Cluster analysis of cytogenetic variables could differentiate only the species of A. aleppica, A. talagonica and A. wilhelmsii but others could not separate differences between species appropriately, probably due to the superiority of intra-species diversity of populations to inter-species diversity. Furthermore, we found %TF and DRL are useful parameters for differentiating intrachromosomal variation of species

Suicide and Repeated Suicide Attempt in Intoxicated Patients: An Epidemiological Survey in a Tertiary Center

Background: Suicide is one of the most important psychological emergencies and it is necessary to deal with it. The goal of this study was to evaluate the frequency of suicide attempts, suicide re-attempt, and guesstimated risk factors in suicidal patients in the poisoning ward of Loghman Hakim Hospital.Methods: This study was performed on suicidal patients in Loghman Hakim hospital in 2021 (January to August). The suicide attempt and the type of mental disorder were confirmed by a psychiatrist and the data sheets were completed. The sample size was 500 cases based on previous similar studies. Results: Three hundred fifteen cases attempted suicide for the first time and 185 had a history of suicide. In both groups, the numbers of women were significantly more than men. In addition, 196 cases of the first group and 121 cases of the second group were under 30 years old and 65.1% of cases with first-time suicides and 62.2% of cases with suicide re-attempts were unemployed. In both groups, the most common drug for suicide was benzodiazepines (30.5% and 21.6%). Unfortunately, two patients died. Also, 67.6% in the first-time suicide attempt group and 57.3% in the suicide re-attempt group had adjustment disorder. No significant differences were observed between both groups in terms of gender, age, marital status, education, chronic disease, drug and habit history, employment status, diagnosed mental disorder, and type of drug used for the current suicide.Conclusion: Young age, unemployment, mental disorders (especially adjustment disorder), and female gender are the most important risk factors for a suicide attempt and re-attempt

Modeling of cerebellar transcranial electrical stimulation effects on hand tremor in Parkinson’s disease

IntroductionParkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with different motor and neurocognitive symptoms. Tremor is a well-known symptom of this disease. Increasing evidence suggested that the cerebellum may substantially contribute to tremors as a clinical symptom of PD. However, the theoretical foundations behind these observations are not yet fully understood.MethodsIn this study, a computational model is proposed to consider the role of the cerebellum and to show the effectiveness of cerebellar transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) on the rest tremor in participants with PD. The proposed model consists of the cortex, cerebellum, spinal circuit-muscular system (SC-MS), and basal ganglia blocks as the most critical parts of the brain, which are involved in generating rest tremors. The cortex, cerebellum, and SC-MS blocks were modeled using Van der Pol oscillators that interacted through synchronization procedures. Basal ganglia are considered as a regulator of the coupling weights defined between oscillators. In order to evaluate the global behavior of the model, we applied tACS on the cerebellum of fifteen PD patients for 15 min at each patient’s peak frequency of their rest tremors. A tri-axial accelerometer recorded rest tremors before, during, and after the tACS.Results and DiscussionThe simulation of the model provides a suggestion for the possible role of the cerebellum on rest tremors and how cerebellar tACS can affect these tremors. Results of human experiments also showed that the online and offline effects of cerebellar tACS could lead to the reduction of rest tremors significantly by about %76 and %68, respectively. Our findings suggest that the cerebellar tACS could serve as a reliable, therapeutic technique to suppress the PD tremor

Therapeutic Options and Critical Care Strategies in COVID-19 Patients; Where Do We Stand in This Battle?

A pandemic of COVID-19 made an appearance in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019 and rapidly became a serious concern worldwide, with killing more than 238000 people until 3rd May 2020. Given the fact that a vaccine against the virus probably won’t be available anytime in the near future, the therapeutic strategies have become more prominent. Many supposedly effective drugs are under evaluation which may hinder the replication of SARS-CoV-2, and subsequently the infection. Lately on 1th may 2020, FDA authorized the use of experimental drug, Remdesivir for "emergency purpose" in COVID-19 cases. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, among the very first under-trial drugs, have been revealed to have promising impacts in treatment of SARS-CoV2. Broad-spectrum antivirals as well as HIV protease-inhibitors are still subject to assessment. Particularly angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) inhibitors are increasingly taken into consideration because of ACE2 being recognized as a host-cell receptor for COVID-19. Immune-Enhancement therapy by Interferons and Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) has been shown to be effective in some cases. Moreover, Convalescent Plasma Therapy and auxiliary blood purification were considered as the treatment of SARS-CoV2 infection. Among the critically ill patients, Oxygen-therapy, timely usage of inflammatory inhibitors, and controlling viral shedding by antivirals may reduce the mortality and morbidity of COVID-19

Effects of hazelnuts consumption on fasting blood sugar and lipoproteins in patients with type 2 diabetes

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that nuts consumption have beneficial effects on serum lipid profiles in hyperlipidemic or normolipidemic subjects. However, similar studies in diabetes field are quite rare. So, we aimed to investigate the effects of hazelnut consumption on fasting blood sugar (FBS) and lipid profiles in patients with type 2 Diabetes. Materials and Methods: An 8-week controlled randomized parallel study in patients with type 2 diabetes. Fifty eligible volunteers were assigned to either the control or intervention groups. 10% of total daily calorie intake was replaced with hazelnuts in intervention group. Blood samples were collected from fasting patients at the start and at the end of the study. Results: After 8 weeks, there were significant differences in high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations between two groups, using analyses of covariance (P = 0.009), which was due to the larger HDL-C reduction in control group (P = 0.003). Although, Hazelnut group achieved greater reduction in triglyceride (TG) concentrations than control group, these changes were not statistically significant. Neither between-group changes nor within-group changes were significant for FBS, total cholesterol (TC), TG, and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. Conclusion: Results of this study indicated that incorporation of hazelnuts into diet can prevent reduction of HDL-C concentrations in patients with type 2 diabetes, but had no effect on FBS or other lipid profile indices

Palladium nanoparticles supported on fluorine-doped tin oxide as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for Suzuki coupling and 4-nitrophenol reduction

Immobilization of palladium nanoparticles onto the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) as support Pd/FTO, resulted in a highly active heterogeneous catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions and 4-nitrophenol reduction. The Pd/FTO catalyst has been synthesized by immobilization of palladium nanoparticles onto FTO via a simple impregnation method. ICP-MS analysis confirmed that there is 0.11 mmol/g of palladium was loaded successfully on FTO support. The crystallinity, morphologies, compositions and surface properties of Pd/FTO were fully characterized by various techniques. It was further examined for its catalytic activity and robustness in Suzuki coupling reaction with different aryl halides and solvents. The yields obtained from Suzuki coupling reactions were basically over 80%. The prepared catalyst was also tested on mild reaction such as reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP). Pd/FTO catalyst exhibited high catalytic activity towards 4-NP reduction with a rate constant of 1.776 min(-1) and turnover frequency (TOF) value of 29.1 hr(-1). The findings revealed that Pd/FTO also maintained its high stability for five consecutive runs in Suzuki reactions and 4-NP reductions. The catalyst showed excellent catalytic activities by using a small amount of Pd/FTO for the Suzuki coupling reaction and 4-NP reduction