Adaptation of the MacNew quality of life questionnaire after myocardial infarction in an Iranian population

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQL) assessment is an important measure of the impact of a wide range of disease process on an individual. To date, no HRQL tool has been evaluated in an Iranian population with cardiovascular disorders, specifically myocardial infarction, a major cause of mortality and morbidity. The MacNew Heart Disease Health-related Quality of Life instrument is a disease-specific HRQL questionnaire with satisfactory validity and reliability when applied cross-culturally. METHOD: A Persian version of MacNew was prepared by both forward and backward translation by bilinguals after which a feasibility test was performed. Consecutive patients (n = 51) admitted to a coronary care unit with acute myocardial infarction were recruited for measurement of their HRQL with retest one month after discharge in the follow-up clinic. Principal components analysis, intra-class correlation reliability, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability were assessed. RESULTS: Trivial rates of missing data confirmed the acceptability of the tool. Principal component analysis revealed that the three domains, emotional, social and physical, performed as well as in the original studies. Internal consistency was high and comparable to other studies, ranging from 0.92 for the emotional and physical domains, to 0.94 for the social domain, and to 0.95 for the Global score. Domain means of 5, 5.3 and 4.9 for emotional, physical and social respectively indicate that our Iranian population has similar emotional and physical but worse social HRQL scores. Test-retest analysis showed significant correlation in emotional and physical domains (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The Persian version of the MacNew questionnaire is comparable to the English version. It has high internal consistency and reasonable reproducibility, making it an appropriate specific quality of life tool for population-based studies and clinical practice in Iran in patients who have survived an acute myocardial infraction. Further studies are needed to confirm its validity in larger populations with cardiovascular diseas

Unital Design Based Sink Location Service for Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), providing source node with sink position is an essential principle for geographic routing protocols. Previous works have only focused on the problem of sink localization in a 2-D sensing field while that of 3-D WSNs has received little attention. Providing sink location service with low control overhead and energy consumption is a challenging issue in 3-D WSNs area. In this paper, we propose a unital design based sink location service (UDSL) for WSNs. In this scheme, sink location announcement (SLA) and sink location query (SLQ) packets are forwarded along two paths or blocks. The node located at the intersection of the two paths sends the sink position to the source. In the proposed method, SLA and SLQ messages are constructed using unital design blocks. For this purpose, a mapping from unital design to sink location service has been proposed. However, this basic mapping does not guarantee an intersection of paths,therefore, we propose an enhanced UDSL providing 100 probability of intersection. In order to analyze the proposed scheme's performance, extensive WSNs simulations and experiments have been conducted. The results indicate that UDSL provides reasonable performance in terms of hop counts, path length, and energy consumption for providing sink location service. © 2013 IEEE

Adaptation of the MacNew quality of life questionnaire after myocardial infarction in an Iranian population

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQL) assessment is an important measure of the impact of a wide range of disease process on an individual. To date, no HRQL tool has been evaluated in an Iranian population with cardiovascular disorders, specifically myocardial infarction, a major cause of mortality and morbidity. The MacNew Heart Disease Health-related Quality of Life instrument is a disease-specific HRQL questionnaire with satisfactory validity and reliability when applied cross-culturally. METHOD: A Persian version of MacNew was prepared by both forward and backward translation by bilinguals after which a feasibility test was performed. Consecutive patients (n = 51) admitted to a coronary care unit with acute myocardial infarction were recruited for measurement of their HRQL with retest one month after discharge in the follow-up clinic. Principal components analysis, intra-class correlation reliability, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability were assessed. RESULTS: Trivial rates of missing data confirmed the acceptability of the tool. Principal component analysis revealed that the three domains, emotional, social and physical, performed as well as in the original studies. Internal consistency was high and comparable to other studies, ranging from 0.92 for the emotional and physical domains, to 0.94 for the social domain, and to 0.95 for the Global score. Domain means of 5, 5.3 and 4.9 for emotional, physical and social respectively indicate that our Iranian population has similar emotional and physical but worse social HRQL scores. Test-retest analysis showed significant correlation in emotional and physical domains (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The Persian version of the MacNew questionnaire is comparable to the English version. It has high internal consistency and reasonable reproducibility, making it an appropriate specific quality of life tool for population-based studies and clinical practice in Iran in patients who have survived an acute myocardial infraction. Further studies are needed to confirm its validity in larger populations with cardiovascular diseas

Residual design of sink localization algorithms for wireless sensor networks

Geographic routing protocols in wireless sensor networks require providing location information of sinks to source nodes. Most studies have only focused on two-dimensional (2D) sensing field, but the real-world applications of sensor networks are in a three-dimensional (3D) environment. This paper presents a new scheme based on residual design principles for 3D networks. In this scheme, sink location announcement (SLA) and sink location query (SLQ) packets are forwarded along two blocks. The node located at the intersection of the two blocks sends the sink position to the source. In the proposed method, SLA and SLQ messages constructed using residual design blocks. For this purpose, the mapping from residual design to sink location service have been proposed. In order to analyze proposed algorithm's performance, a series of simulations have been conducted using the NS-2 network simulator. Simulation results indicate that proposed algorithm can significantly reduce the communication overhead and energy consumption. © 2019 - IOS Press and the authors

Evaluation of bone mineral density in premature ovarian failure

This study was performed to evaluate whether or not early menopause and premature ovarian failure can cause an increased risk of osteoporosis. The bone mineral density (BMD) of the 2nd and 4th lumbar spine as well as femoral neck in 29 cases with secondary amenorrhea were compared with a reference data using a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry on a bone densitometer: Serum levels of luteinizing hormone, follicular stimulating hormone, calcium and phosphorus were also measured. Both in 20-29 years and in 30-39 years, BMD were significantly lower than their normal range as compared with a reference data from a large study of the same population (P value<0.05). At lumbar vertebrae, 2 cases had osteopenia and 17 had osteoporosis while at the femoral neck, 17 cases had osteopenia and 4 osteoporosis. Only serum levels of phosphorus had positive relationship with femoral neck BMD (P value<0.05). It may be possible to decrease fracture incidence through the early diagnosis of individuals at risk by BMD. In conclusion, our study indicates that females with early onset of menopause and premature ovarian failure had lower value of BMD in both femoral neck and lumbar vertebrae implying the need for more bone health measures

Prevalence of refractive errors; The yazd eye study

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of refractive errors in Yazd, central Iran. Methods: This population-based study was performed in 2010-2011 and targeted adults aged 40 to 80 years. Multi-stage random cluster sampling was applied to select samples from urban and rural residents of Yazd. Manifest refraction, visual acuity measurement, retinoscopy and funduscopy were performed for all subjects. Myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and anisometropia were defined as spherical equivalent (SE) +0.50 D, cylindrical error >0.5 D and SE difference �1 D between fellow eyes, respectively. Results: From a total of 2,320 selected individuals, 2,098 subjects (90.4) participated out of which 198 subjects were excluded due to previous eye surgery. The prevalence (95 confidence interval) for myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, anisometropia, -6 D myopia or worse, and 4 D hyperopia or worse was 36.5 (33.6-39.4), 20.6 (17.9-23.3), 53.8 (51.3-56.3), 11.9 (10.4-13.4), 2.3 (1.6-2.9) and 1.2 (0.6-1.8), respectively. The prevalence of hyperopia, astigmatism and anisometropia increased with age. The prevalence of myopia was significantly higher in female subjects. The prevalence of with-the-rule, against-the-rule and oblique astigmatism was 35.7, 13.4 and 4.6, respectively. The prevalence of against-the-rule astigmatism increased with age (P<0.001); with-the-rule astigmatism was more common in women (P=0.038). Conclusion: More than half of the study population had refractive errors; the prevalence of myopia and astigmatism was higher than earlier studies in Iran. Since refractive errors are a major cause of avoidable visual impairment, their high prevalence in this survey is important from a public health perspective

The Upper Palaeozoic Godar&#8211;E-Siah Complex of Jandaq : Evidence and significance of a North Palaeotethyan succession In Central Iran

The Upper Palaeozoic Godar-e-Siah Complex of Jandaq, Central Iran, comprises three isolated, faultbounded outcrops exposing Palaeozoic fossiliferous carbonates, volcanics and siliciclastics, which are markedly distinct from the surrounding sedimentary successions. The three outcrops, that emerge below Cretaceous and younger sediments, are the Chah Rizab outcrop, the Godar-e-Siah northern outcrop, and the Godar-e-Siah central outcrop. Their sedimentary successions strongly differ from the typical passive margin successions of Gondwanan affinity that characterize the Yazd, Lut and Tabas blocks of Central Iran and the Alborz in North Iran. To understand the origin of these profound differences, we first calibrated the age of the Jandaq successions: U-Pb radiometric zircons ages, obtained from granitoid boulders in the conglomerates at Chah Rizab and in the Godar-e-Siah northern outcrop, gave a Late Devonian to Mississippian age. Biostratigraphic data from brachiopods and fusulinids from the Godar-e-Siah northern and central outcrops indicate a Pennsylvanian age. The age of the successions is thus post-Visean to Pennsylvanian. The petrographic composition of the siliciclastic deposits indicates the erosion of a magmatic arc. To understand where the Jandaq complex could have been located at that time, we have assessed the palaeobiogeographic affinity of the faunas. The collected brachiopods and fusulinids assemblages are mostly similar to coeval faunas from Spain, Donbass, Urals, and Yukon Territory (Canada) and have a North-Palaeotethyan affinity. The Godar-e-Siah Complex of Jandaq likely represents part of the southern active margin of Eurasia (northern margin of the Palaeotethys), in contrast to the surrounding Central and North Iran blocks, which were at that time located along the southern margin of the Neotethys. Our investigations confirm a complex palaeogeographic evolution for the studied outcrops, suggesting that they represent fragments of the southern Eurasian active margin - today preserved in NE Iran - displaced by crustal-scale wrench motions related to the opening and closure of the Sabzear Ocean and to the Cenozoic activity of the Great Kavir-Doruneh Fault and its possible precursors

The Eocimmerian history of Central Iran: the accretionary wedge of Anarak

The Anarak region of Central Iran is a key area for the understanding of the Late Palaeozoic to Triassic Cimmerian evolution of Iran. The Anarak Metamorphic Complex (AMC) forms an E-W trending mountain ridge, which separates the Triassic of Nakhlak to the north from a continuous non-metamorphic Palaeozoic to Mesozoic sedimentary succession to the south and was interpreted as an accretionary wedge active from Late Palaeozoic to Triassic times. The AMC is sharply cross-cut westward by the Upper Cretaceous "Coloured Melange", consisting of low- to medium- grade metamorphic rocks with tectonically intercalated slivers of serpentinite often associated to blue schists. The occurrence of this rock association in Central Iran poses several questions regarding its evolution and especially on the number of Cimmerian (Palaeotethys) sutures (single rather than multiple) between Eurasia and Iran. The AMC includes several subunits (Morghab, Chah Gorbeh, Patyar, Palhavand Gneiss, Lakh Marble and Doshak) which differ for composition and/or metamorphic evolution. Based on field observations, the Morghab and Chah Gorbeh units suggest a common deformation and a similar metamorphic history, characterised by three major folding events. The first two events developed pervasive axial plane foliations causing a complete transposition of the primary stratigraphic characters. Folding was accompanied by two main metamorphic events, the latter showing retrogression from possible medium to low grade conditions. During the third folding stage, large-scale plunging to vertical open folds were superposed on previous folds in the area north of the Kuh-e Chah Gorbeh, deforming the previous penetrative foliations. In this frame, the Palhavand Gneiss can be considered as part of the same metamorphic unit which escaped a more pervasive low grade retrogression. Concerning the Patyar unit, previous studies considered the Lakh Marble as the lagoonal sediments of an atoll. Field analyses indicate that the contact between the Lakh Marble and the Patyar unit is invariably tectonic. The Lakh Marble occupies the upper structural position and forms a huge nappe, extending for tens of kilometres across the area. Also, the strong deformation, low grade metamorphism and the occurrence of serpentinite tectonic slices in the footwall of this nappe, evidence that the emplacement of the Lakh nappe postdated the metamorphic event. The observed relationships between the Chah Gorbeh unit and the mafic/ultramafic rocks exposed in the Anarak mountain indicate that they were tectonically juxtaposed after reaching high pressure peak conditions. This is evidenced by the occurrence of blue schist mineral assemblages in metabasites which preserve pillow basalts. Geochemical analyses of these rocks indicate a relative depletion in HREE, different from the flat patterns of metabasites from Chah Gorbeh. Greenschist facies ductile shear zones evolving into discrete semi-brittle to brittle fault zones indicate different PT-paths. The occurrence of late Teriary sediments within the main thrust contacts suggest that the entire nappe pile was reactivated causing further complexity in the final tectonic structure. The results of our fieldwork carried out during the last years in Central Iran in the Anarak region add several new constraints on the evolution of the area which can be now directly compared with the history of the Palaeotethys suture zone in NE Iran