The Harmful Impacts of Microplastics in the Marine Environment- A Review

Microplastics as emerging and unfamiliar contaminants have been considered by researchers during the last decades. These small particles and fragments, typically have a size less than 5 mm and could penetrate into the marine environments by different ways, threatening the environment and animal health. Therefore, in this study, according to the studies by different researchers, this pollutant is introduced and some of its effects are mentioned in marine environments. One impacts of microplastics on marine organisms, such as marine vertebrates and invertebrates, arise from direct ingestion of plastic fragmentS by the marine biota leading into internal injuries. They also can have negative effects on the distribution of certain species of marine organisms, which they oviposit on the surface of these contaminants. Chemical adsorption is the most important impact of microplastics in marine environments, which not only transfers pollution, but also increases environmental resistance of these contaminants. Recent research works on the effects of microplastics pollution in the marine environment emphesis that permanent and continous monitoring of these materials and discovery of the pollution hotspots is crucial in environmental issues

PV Maximum Power-Point Tracking by Using Artificial Neural Network

In this paper, using artificial neural network (ANN) for tracking of maximum power point is discussed. Error back propagation method is used in order to train neural network. Neural network has advantages of fast and precisely tracking of maximum power point. In this method neural network is used to specify the reference voltage of maximum power point under different atmospheric conditions. By properly controling of dc-dc boost converter, tracking of maximum power point is feasible. To verify theory analysis, simulation result is obtained by using MATLAB/SIMULINK

A Comparative Study of Three Standards of Data Security in Health Systems

Introduction: The increasing influence of ICT on health and changing information systems to electrical form makes using the information, data transmission, and also preparation printouts of information so easy that the importance of internal and external disclosure policy, data security, and confidentiality standards in these systems have been doubled. Method: At the beginning of research, all the combinations of key words were searched, then the history and importance of the health data security standards were studied. So the most prevalent and reliable standards were selected to perform the full text. For the next step the researchers extracted the properties which were used to be compared with the selected standards and finally the comparison was discussed. Results: PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and ISO-27799:2008 properties were classified in 8 groups and 25 subgroups. ISO-27799:2008 was attended to all properties in Encryption group, but HIPAA was just attended to Encryption in storage, and asymmetric key, and PCI-DSS was considered on Encryption in storage, using Hash algorithm and use of asymmetric key. Operation system security was considered only in HIPAA. Only PCI-DSS standard considered RFID and DNS security and cell phone security, and PCI-DSS as well as ISO-27799:2008 considered wireless networks security. Conclusion: One can use the standard that is stronger in context. So, it is recommended to use PCI-DSS for cell phone or PDA systems, and ISO-27799:2008 or PCI-DSS for wireless networks. It is better for security in operation systems to use HIPAA. Combined standard with all these three standards aspects can be used as the safest approach

Effect of topology on strength and energy absorption of PA12 non-auxetic strut-based lattice structures

With the increasing development of additive manufacturing (AM) technology, lattice structure (LS) emerged and expanded as a subset of cellular materials. LSs' mechanical properties mainly depend on the relative density, the unit cell topology, the manufacturing processes, and the base material. In this research, PA12 lattice structures with non-auxetic strut-based topologies, including BCC, FCC, FCCz, FBCC, FBCCz, FBCCxyz, and OT, were manufactured by selective laser sintering (SLS) and were tested under quasi-static compression. Data from the compression test was analyzed and investigated to achieve mechanical properties such as strength, elastic modulus, and absorbed energy. OT has the highest yield strength (4.07 MPa), ultimate strength (4.53 MPa), specific ultimate strength (10.11 MPa), elastic modulus (0.099 GPa), specific elastic modulus (0.221 GPa), and plateau stress (9.98 MPa) among the investigated sturt-based topologies. BCC has the lowest properties. The absorbed energy (W) for OT and FBCCxyz is higher than in other topologies. FBCCz has the highest volumetric energy absorption (WV) (0.284 MJ/m3) up to the strain of the UTS point, and FCCz has the lowest (0.152 MJ/m3). The finite element method (FEM)-based ABAQUS software was used to simulate the behavior of LSs under compression test. Also, SEM micrographs of struts' fractured surfaces in the CP lattice block were investigated. In most strut-based LSs, the failure mechanism is the layer-by-layer failure of rows. According to finite element modeling results, stress concentration occurred in the nodes and adjacent areas, making cracks, and fractography exhibited ductile fracture in these regions

Identifying and Determining the Requirements for Designing and Developing a Mobile-Based Self-Care Application to Control and Reduce Students\' Stress and Anxiety

Introduction: The increase in stress and anxiety among students has a negative effect on their physical and mental health and can prevent their efficient academic performance. Self-care applications can help control and reduce students' anxiety and depression. The aim of this study was to determine the necessary requirements related to the design and development of a mobile-based self-care application to control and reduce stress and anxiety in students. Method: This research is a cross-sectional study that was conducted in 2022. To conduct this study, 38 students of Varastegan Institute for Medical Sciences (Razavi Khorasan province, Mashhad city) were included in the study based on the inclusion criteria and answered the questions of the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS version 25. Results: Out of 91 informational-educational needs and capabilities, 67 items with a mean score of ≥3.75 were considered essential for application design. Information-educational needs and capabilities were categorized into eight axes: user profile, clinical records, lifestyle, disease management and control, sedation instructions, warnings and reminders, reporting and application capabilities. Conclusion: Identifying and determining the requirements related to the design of an application based on a mobile phone is one of the basic principles of developing an application that by involving users and obtaining their opinions can have an important role in their continue use of these applications. Therefore, application designers can design and develop an organized mobile-based self-care application to control and manage students' stress and anxiety by using the information-educational needs and capabilities presented in the present study

Segmented Coronary Artery Aneurysms and Kawasaki Disease

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute vasculitis syndrome of unknown etiology. It occurs in infants and young children,affecting mainly small and medium-sized arteries, particularly the coronary arteries. Generalized microvasculitis occurs in the first 10 days, and the inflammation persists in the walls of medium and small arteries, especially the coronary arteries, and changes to coronary artery aneurysms.We report the case of a 10-month-old girl referred to our center three months after the onset of disease due to the aneurysmsof the coronary arteries. During the acute phase of her illness, she received 2 gr/kg intravenous gamma globulin; and afterher referral to us, the patient was treated by antiaggregant doses of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) (5 mg/kg) and Warfarin (1 mg/daily). At three months’ follow-up, the aneurysms still persisted in the echocardiogram

Comparison of Prooxidant-antioxidant Balance between Patients with High Grade Gliomas (IV) and Control Group

Background & Aim: The most common primary brain tumors of the central nervous system are gliomas. Among a number of different biomolecular events, a strong relation between oxidative stress pathways and the development of this cancer has been proved. Oxidative stress (OS) is the consequence of an imbalance between pro-oxidants and antioxidants towards pro-oxidants. The pro-oxidants cause lipid peroxidation of cell membranes, protein, DNA oxidation and changes in brain cell growth. In this study, the pro-oxidant–antioxidant balance (PAB) was determined in patients with gliomas. Methods & Materials/Patients: Sera of 49 patients with high grade glioma (grade IV WHO) which is called glioblastoma multiform (GBM) and 49 healthy subjects were collected and PAB test was measured. Results: A significant increase of PAB value was observed in patients with GBM (158.10±85.71 HK unit) in comparison to control group (74.54±33.54 HK). Conclusion: The PAB assay showed the oxidative stress in glioblastoma. In further research, this easy elucidation of oxidative stress in these patients can be applied to evaluate the effectiveness of antioxidant therapies in patients with GBM.Keywords: Prooxidant-antioxidant; Balance; Hig

A retrospective cross-sectional survey on nosocomial bacterial infections and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in hospitalized patients in northwest of Iran

Objective: Nosocomial infections (NIs) are known as one of the remarkable problems in all countries. This study is aimed to estimate the prevalence rate of nosocomial bacterial agents with antimicrobial susceptibility pattern in hospitalized patients. This study was conducted from April 2017 to September 2018, on 4029 hospitalized patients. We set out to recognize the commonest bacterial infections and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of nosocomial infection. Results: Of the 4029 patients, 509 (12.6%) of them were culture positive. Of these Escherichia coli (E. coli) (98.3%) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) (37.5%) were the most abundant bacterial identifed in the urinary tract and bloodstream cultures respectively, Moreover, Acinetobacter spp. (100%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (22.2%) were the most abundant organisms detected in the respiratory system. According to susceptibility testing results, 370 (80.5%) and 264 (57.3%) in Gram-negatives and 44 (91.7%) and 35 (72.9%) in gram positives isolated strains were classifed as multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensive drug-resistant (XDR) strain respectively. On account of the high prevalence of MDR and XDR bacterial species, there is a pressing need for the expansion of new strategies on antibiotic supervision and infection control to introduce new guideline on empirical antibiotic therapy