Fetal ECG Extraction from Maternal ECG using Attention-based CycleGAN

Non-invasive fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) is used to monitor the electrical pulse of the fetal heart. Decomposing the FECG signal from maternal ECG (MECG) is a blind source separation problem, which is hard due to the low amplitude of FECG, the overlap of R waves, and the potential exposure to noise from different sources. Traditional decomposition techniques, such as adaptive filters, require tuning, alignment, or pre-configuration, such as modeling the noise or desired signal. to map MECG to FECG efficiently. The high correlation between maternal and fetal ECG parts decreases the performance of convolution layers. Therefore, the masking region of interest using the attention mechanism is performed for improving signal generators' precision. The sine activation function is also used since it could retain more details when converting two signal domains. Three available datasets from the Physionet, including A&D FECG, NI-FECG, and NI-FECG challenge, and one synthetic dataset using FECGSYN toolbox, are used to evaluate the performance. The proposed method could map abdominal MECG to scalp FECG with an average 98% R-Square [CI 95%: 97%, 99%] as the goodness of fit on A&D FECG dataset. Moreover, it achieved 99.7 % F1-score [CI 95%: 97.8-99.9], 99.6% F1-score [CI 95%: 98.2%, 99.9%] and 99.3% F1-score [CI 95%: 95.3%, 99.9%] for fetal QRS detection on, A&D FECG, NI-FECG and NI-FECG challenge datasets, respectively. These results are comparable to the state-of-the-art; thus, the proposed algorithm has the potential of being used for high-performance signal-to-signal conversion

Dynamic Analysis of the Fuel Substitution in the Selected Iranian Fossil Fuel Power Plants

The increasing demand of fossil fuels alongside its environmental pollution necessitates the optimal consumption of the fuels. In cold seasons, natural gas consumption increases and power plants of the country need to substitute their consumed fuel in order to supply electricity. This paper evaluated the substitution between consumable fuels in electricity production in six selected regional electricity companies during the years 1389-1386. Cost share equations of conventional fuels in electricity generation were estimated using the seemingly unrelated regression equations (SURE) estimator. Using the results of the estimation, equations of the own-and cross-price elasticities of the substitution of different fuels were calculated. According to the results of calculations, all the own price elasticities were negative and cross price elasticities were positive. The substitute elasticity between natural gas and gasoil was 1.56 and between natural gas and mazut was 1.3. Also, using the calculated elasticities, the substitution of fuels was applied with the aim of reducing CO2 emissions. The application results showed that the substitution of mazut with natural gas would reduce CO2 emissions, but the substitution of gasoil with natural gas would increase CO2 emissions

Assessing the Efficacy of Citrus Aurantifolia Extract on Smear Layer Removal with Scanning Electron Microscope

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of citrus aurantifolia (CA) extract on smear layer removal in different parts of root canals. Materials and Methods: Thirty-nine single-rooted human teeth were randomly divided into three experimental (n=12) and one control (n=3) groups. Teeth were instrumented using MTwo rotary instruments. Root canals were irrigated with NaOCl during instrumentation. The canals in each group were irrigated with one of the following: completed mixture of citrus aurantifolia extracts, 17% EDTA, and alcoholic extract of CA. Distilled water was used for the control group. The irrigants were left within the canal for 20 minutes, and then rinsed with normal saline solution. Teeth were subsequently split longitudinally into 2 halves, and the canals were examined by a scanning electron-microscope. Cleanliness was evaluated using a five point scoring system. Results: Statistical significant difference was found between groups (P<0.05). The smear layer was more effectively removed with 17% EDTA compared to alcoholic CA extract. However, they were both able to remove the smear layer in the coronal segment. Completed CA extract removed more smear layer in coronal and middle parts compared with the alcoholic extract (P=0.001); however, there was no significant difference in the apical part. Conclusion: Both of the alcoholic and completed mixtures of citrus aurantifolia extracts were not able to effectively remove smear layer compared with 17% EDTA during root canal therapy

بررسی میزان آگاهی کادر درمان بیمارستان های دانشگاه علوم پزشکی سبزوار نسبت به CPR بیماران COVID-19

Introduction: the emergence of pandemic of COVID19 raised many concerns in medical approaches. One of these issues was whether medical staffs are able to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) safely regarding the transmission of the infection. So the aim of this study was to evaluate&nbsp; knowledge of &nbsp;the medical experts in Sabzevar University of &nbsp;Medical Sciences about CPR of COVID-19 patients. Methods: In this study, 129 people working in the hospital of Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, including nurses, physicians, operating room experts and medical emergencies were assessed. The checklist consists of 21 questions that assess the knowledge of the medical experts about CPR of &nbsp;COVID19 patients and the content validity of this checklist was confirmed by 10 specialist physicians. Also information on demographic variables are measured including age, sex, work experience by year, history of participation in CPR workshops for COVID19 patients, number of attendance at the workshop, hospital of work, field of study and degree. The association between these variables and the score of each person in the test has been assessed. Results: The study showed that the Score of answering the questions was directly related to the workshops held on resuscitation of COVID19 patients, age and work experience. And questions that were not answered correctly by most participants were related to ventilation and intubation of COVID19. &nbsp;Vaseei and Emdadi hospitals received higher scores than other hospitals. Conclusion: The role of participating in the workshop is directly related to the level of knowledge of the treatment experts and getting a better score. Mobini and Heshmatiyeh hospitals, which had lower scores than other hospitals and should pay more attention to the issue of training and workshops.مقدمه: ظهور همه گیری COVID19 نگرانی های زیادی را در رویکردهای پزشکی ایجاد کرده است. یکی از این مسائل این بود که تا چه میزان کادر پزشکی قادر به احیای قلبی ریوی ایمن با وجود این سطح بالای انتقال عفونت می باشند. بنابراین هدف از این مطالعه بررسی میزان آگاهی کادر درمان دانشگاه علوم پزشکی سبزوار در مورد CPR بیماران کووید -19 می باشد. روش کار:در این مطالعه 129 نفر از افراد شاغل در بیمارستان های دانشگاه علوم پزشکی سبزوار اعم از پرستار، پزشک، کارشناس اتاق عمل و فوریت های پزشکی با پرسشنامه تحت آزمون قرار گرفتند. پرسشنامه شامل 21 سوال میباشد که میزان آگاهی کادر درمان را &nbsp;مورد سنجش قرار داده است و روایی محتوایی این چک لیست توسط 10 پزشک متخصص تایید گردیده است. همچنین چند معیار دموگرافیک شامل سن، جنس، سابقه کار بر حسب سال، سابقه شرکت در کارگاه های CPR بیماران COVID19، تعداد دفعات حضور در کارگاه، بیمارستان محل کار، رشته تحصیلی و مقطع تحصیلی نیز در مطالعه می باشد که ارتباط این متغیر ها را با نمره هر فرد در آزمون ارزیابی شده است. یافته ها: مطالعه ی انجام شده نشان داده است که میزان پاسخدهی به سوالات با کارگاه های برگزار شده در خصوص احیای قلبی ریوی بیماران COVID19 ،سن و سابقه کار ارتباط مستقیم داشته است. همچنین سوالاتی که توسط اکثر شرکت کننده ها به درستی پاسخ داده نشده اند مربوط به ونتیلاسیون و انتوباسیون بیماران COVID19&nbsp; می باشد. بررسی ها نشان داده که کارکنان بیمارستان های واسعی و امدادی نسبت به سایر بیمارستان ها نمرات بالاتری کسب کرده بودند. نتیجه گیری: شرکت در کارگاه ارتباط مستقیمی با نمره ی کسب شده ی بهتر کارکنان دارد و این درحالی است که بیمارستان های مبینی و حشمتیه نمرات پایین تری نسبت به سایر بیمارستان ها داشته اند و باید به مسئله آموزش و همچنین برگزاری کارگاه&nbsp;ها اهمیت بیشتری را اختصاص دهند

An 18-Month Epidemiologic Survey of 3364 Deceased COVID-19 Cases; a Retrospective Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has been considered an international problem. This study aimed to survey the demographic and clinical characteristics of the deceased COVID-19 patients. METHODS: The present cross-sectional study was performed on all deceased COVID-19 patients who died in Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad, Iran, from March 20, 2020, to September 23, 2021. Their data, including age, gender, complaints, and clinical symptoms at the time of admission, as well as information at the time of death (hour, shift, holiday/non-holiday) were analyzed and reported. RESULTS: 3364 deaths due to COVID-19 have been registered during the study period (60.46% male). The patients' mean age was 66.99±16.97 (range: 1-101) years (92.7% of them were Iranian). The mortality at night shifts was less than day shifts (1643 vs. 1721). The average amount of deaths/day on holidays and workdays was (5.63 vs. 6.24). The number of deaths varied during the various hours of the day and night. Diabetes and cardiovascular diseases were the most common confounding factors, which were observed in 22.44% and 15.36% of the cases, respectively. CONCLUSION: Based on the findings of this series, COVID-19 mortality was frequently observed in male patients, those with the mean age of 66.99 years, morning shifts, and workdays