An Epidemiological Study of Psychological Disorders in Chaharmohal & Bakhtiari Province, 2001

زمینه و هدف: برنامه‏ریزی برای ارایه خدمات اساسی بهداشت روان به افراد جامعه، نیازمند آگاهی از وضعیت موجود بیماری روانی در جامعه است. این مطالعه با هدف بررسی همه‏گیری‏شناسی اختلالات روانی در افراد 18 سال به بالاتر مناطق شهری و روستایی استان چهارمحال و بختیاری انجام گرفت. روش مطالعه: نمونه های مورد مطالعه با روش نمونه‏گیری تصادفی خوشه‏ای و سیستماتیک از بین خانوارهای موجود استان چهارمحال و بختیاری انتخاب گردیدند و از طریق تکمیل پرسشنامه اختلالات عاطفی و اسکیزوفرنیا (SADS=Schedale Affective Disorders Schizophrenia) توسط کارشناسان روانشناسی در استان، جمعاً 305 نفر مورد مطالعه قرار گرفتند. تشخیص‏گذاری اختلالات بر اساس معیارهای طبقه‏بندی DSM-IV است. نتایج: نتایج این بررسی نشان داد شیوع انواع اختلالات روانی در استان 42/16 می‏باشد که این شیوع در زنان 20 و در مردان 14/13 است. اختلالات اضطرابی و عصبی‌ شناختی به ترتیب با 52/9 و 28/3، شایع‏ترین اختلالات روانی در استان بودند. شیوع اختلالات پسیکوتیک در این مطالعه 33/0، اختلالات خلقی 63/2 و اختلالات تجزیه‏ای 66/0 بود. در گروه اختلالات خلقی، افسردگی اساسی با 30/2 و در گروه اختلالات اضطرابی، اختلال فوبی با 62/2 شیوع بیشتری داشتند. شیوع اختلالات روانی در استان در افراد گروه سنی 65-56 سال با 30، افراد همسر فوت شده با 25، افراد ساکن در مناطق شهری با 53/15، افراد بی‏سواد با 66/12 و افراد بیکار با 74/21 بیش از گروه‌های دیگر بود. نتیجه‌گیری: در این مطالعه 49/10 افراد مورد مطالعه دچار حداقل یک اختلال روانی بودند. لذا نتایج این تحقیق مسئولیت سیاستگذاران و برنامه‌ریزان بهداشتی استان چهارمحال و بختیاری و کشور در رابطه با تدوین برنامه‌های عملی و اجرایی بهداشت روان را بیش از پیش روشن می‌سازد

Methanol mass poisoning in Iran: Role of case finding in outbreak management

Background There are no guidelines addressing the public health aspects of methanol poisoning during larger outbreaks. The current study was done to discuss the role of active case finding and a national guideline that organizes all available resources according to a triage strategy in the successful management of a methanol mass poisoning in Rafsanjan, Iran, in May 2013. Methods A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed reviewing the outbreak Emergency Operation Center files. The objectives were to describe the characteristics, management and outcome of a methanol outbreak using Active Case Finding to trace the victims. Results A total of 694 patients presented to emergency departments in Rafsanjan after public announcement of the outbreak between 29th May and 3rd June 2013. The announcement was mainly performed via short message service (SMS) and local radio broadcasting. A total of 361 cases were observed and managed in Rafsanjan and 333 were transferred to other cities. Seventy-five and 100 patients underwent hemodialysis (HD), retrospectively. The main indication for HD was refractory metabolic acidosis. Eight patients expired due to the intoxication. Except for the deceased cases, no serum methanol level was available. Conclusion In developing countries, where diagnostic resources are limited, use of active case finding and developing national guidelines can help in the management of large outbreaks of methanol poisonings. © 2014 The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected]

Exploiting Pull-In/Pull-Out Hysteresis in Electrostatic MEMS Sensor Networks to Realize a Novel Sensing Continuous-Time Recurrent Neural Network

The goal of this paper is to provide a novel computing approach that can be used to reduce the power consumption, size, and cost of wearable electronics. To achieve this goal, the use of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors for simultaneous sensing and computing is introduced. Specifically, by enabling sensing and computing locally at the MEMS sensor node and utilizing the usually unwanted pull in/out hysteresis, we may eliminate the need for cloud computing and reduce the use of analog-to-digital converters, sampling circuits, and digital processors. As a proof of concept, we show that a simulation model of a network of three commercially available MEMS accelerometers can classify a train of square and triangular acceleration signals inherently using pull-in and release hysteresis. Furthermore, we develop and fabricate a network with finger arrays of parallel plate actuators to facilitate coupling between MEMS devices in the network using actuating assemblies and biasing assemblies, thus bypassing the previously reported coupling challenge in MEMS neural networks

Natural language analysis of online health forums

Despite advances in concept extraction from free text, finding meaningful health related information from online patient forums still poses a significant challenge. Here we demonstrate how structured information can be extracted from posts found in such online health related forums by forming relationships between a drug/treatment and a symptom or side effect, including the polarity/sentiment of the patient. In particular, a rule-based natural language processing (NLP) system is deployed, where information in sentences is linked together though anaphora resolution. Our NLP relationship extraction system provides a strong baseline, achieving an F1 score of over 80% in discovering the said relationships that are present in the posts we analysed

Analysis of the effect of sentiment analysis on extracting adverse drug reactions from tweets and forum posts

Objective: The abundance of text available in social media and health related forums along with the rich expression of public opinion have recently attracted the interest of the public health community to use these sources for pharmacovigilance. Based on the intuition that patients post about Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) expressing negative sentiments, we investigate the effect of sentiment analysis features in locating ADR mentions. Methods: We enrich the feature space of a state-of-the-art ADR identification method with sentiment analysis features. Using a corpus of posts from the DailyStrength forum and tweets annotated for ADR and indication mentions, we evaluate the extent to which sentiment analysis features help in locating ADR mentions and distinguishing them from indication mentions. Results: Evaluation results show that sentiment analysis features marginally improve ADR identification in tweets and health related forum posts. Adding sentiment analysis features achieved a statistically significant F-measure increase from 72.14% to 73.22% in the Twitter part of an existing corpus using its original train/test split. Using stratified 10 10-fold cross-validation, statistically significant F-measure increases were shown in the DailyStrength part of the corpus, from 79.57% to 80.14%, and in the Twitter part of the corpus, from 66.91% to 69.16%. Moreover, sentiment analysis features are shown to reduce the number of ADRs being recognized as indications. Conclusion: This study shows that adding sentiment analysis features can marginally improve the performance of even a state-of-the-art ADR identification method. This improvement can be of use to pharmacovigilance practice, due to the rapidly increasing popularity of social media and health forums

Unexpected Role of α-Fetoprotein in Spermatogenesis

BACKGROUND: Heat shock severely affects sperm production (spermatogenesis) and results in a rapid loss of haploid germ cells, or in other words, sperm formation (spermiogenesis) is inhibited. However, the mechanisms behind the effects of heat shock on spermatogenesis are obscure. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To identify the inhibitory factor of spermiogenesis, experimental cryptorchid (EC) mice were used in this study. Here we show that α-fetoprotein (AFP) is specifically expressed in the testes of EC mice by proteome analysis. AFP was also specifically localized spermatocytes by immunohistochemical analysis and was secreted into the circulation system of EC mice by immunoblot analysis. Since spermatogenesis of an advanced mammal cannot be reproduced with in vitro, we performed the microinjection of AFP into the seminiferous tubules of normal mice to determine whether AFP inhibits spermiogenesis in vivo. AFP was directly responsible for the block in spermiogenesis of normal mice. To investigate whether AFP inhibits cell differentiation in other models, using EC mice we performed a partial hepatectomy (PH) that triggers a rapid regenerative response in the remnant liver tissue. We also found that liver regeneration is inhibited in EC mice with PH. The result suggests that AFP released into the blood of EC mice regulates liver regeneration by inhibiting the cell division of hepatocytes. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: AFP is a well-known cancer-specific marker, but AFP has no known function in healthy human beings. Our findings indicate that AFP expressed under EC conditions plays a role as a regulatory factor in spermatogenesis and in hepatic generation

Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumours treated before and after the advent of c-kit immunostaining

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recently developed immunohistochemical markers have revolutionised the classification of gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) whilst tyrosine kinase inhibitors (imatinib) have had a significant impact on the treatment of advanced tumours. We review the clinicopathological features of previously resected mesenchymal tumours of the gastrointestinal tract in our institution to 1) reclassify the histological diagnosis of those stained prior to c-kit availability; 2) perform survival analysis to identify prognostic factors, and 3) to consider the implications for patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Clinicopathological records of patients with a diagnosis of mesenchymal tumours treated between May 1992 and April 2007 were reviewed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>82 patients were reviewed. 26 (32%) were reclassified as GISTs following c-kit immunostaining and a further 14 patients were treated for GIST up to April 2007 (Total: 40 patients; 21 males and 19 females, mean age 67, range 30-92 years). 36 (90%) underwent complete resection. 5-year survival of patients with GIST alone was 80%. Females had a better median survival (M: F 43 months: 73 months).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The availability of c-kit staining allowed 32% of previously diagnosed mesenchymal tumours to be reclassified as GISTs. This may have implications for the follow-up of patients diagnosed prior to the availability of this method.</p

Is the Clinical Risk Score for Patients with Colorectal Liver Metastases Still Useable in the Era of Effective Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy?

Background: Several clinical risk scores (CRSs) for the outcome of patients with colorectal liver metastases have been validated, but not in patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Therefore, this study evaluates the predictive value of these CRSs in this specific group. Methods: Between January 2000 and December 2008, all patients undergoing a metastasectomy were analyzed and divided into two groups: 193 patients did not receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy (group A), and 159 patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (group B). In group B, the CRSs were calculated before and after administration of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Results were evaluated by using the CRSs proposed by Nordlinger et al., Fong et al., Nagashima et al., and Konopke et al. Results: In groups A and B, the overall median survival was 43 and 47 months, respectively (P = 0.648). In group A, all CRSs used were of statistically significant predictive value. Before administration of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, only the Nordlinger score was of predictive value. After administration of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, all CRSs were of predictive value again, except for the Konopke score. Conclusions: Traditional CRSs are not a reliable prognostic tool when used in patients before treatment with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. However, CRSs assessed after the administration of neoadjuvant chemotherapy are useful to predict prognosis