Waterpipe smoking among health sciences university students in Iran: perceptions, practices and patterns of use

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In recent years waterpipe smoking has become a popular practice amongst young adults in eastern Mediterranean countries, including Iran. The aim of this study was to assess waterpipe smoking perceptions and practices among first-year health sciences university students in Iran and to identify factors associated with the initiation and maintenance of waterpipe use in this population.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 371 first-year health sciences students surveyed, 358 eight students completed a self-administered questionnaire in the classrooms describing their use and perceptions towards waterpipe smoking. Two hundred and ninety six responders met study inclusion criteria. Waterpipe smoking was common among first-year health sciences university students, with 51% of students indicating they were current waterpipe smokers. Women were smoking waterpipes almost as frequently as men (48% versus 52%, respectively). The majority of waterpipe smokers (75.5%) indicated that the fun and social aspect of waterpipe use was the main motivating factor for them to continue smoking. Of waterpipe smokers, 55.3% were occasional smokers, using waterpipes once a month or less, while 44.7% were frequent smokers, using waterpipes more than once a month. A large number of frequent waterpipe smokers perceived that waterpipe smoking was a healthier way to use tobacco (40.6%) while only 20.6% thought it was addictive. Compared to occasional smokers, significantly more frequent smokers reported waterpipe smoking was relaxing (62.5% vs. 26.2%, <it>p </it>= 0.002), energizing (48.5% vs. 11.4%, <it>p </it>= 0.001), a part of their culture (58.8% vs. 34.1%, <it>p </it>= 0.04), and the healthiest way to use tobacco (40.6% vs. 11.1%, <it>p </it>= 0.005).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Social and recreational use of waterpipes is widespread among first-year health sciences university students in Iran. Women and men were almost equally likely to be current waterpipe users. Public health initiatives to combat the increasing use of waterpipes among university students in Iran must consider the equal gender distribution and its perception by many waterpipe smokers as being a healthier and non-addictive way to use tobacco.</p

Co-chaperones are limiting in a depleted chaperone network

To probe the limiting nodes in the chaperoning network which maintains cellular proteostasis, we expressed a dominant negative mutant of heat shock factor 1 (dnHSF1), the regulator of the cytoplasmic proteotoxic stress response. Microarray analysis of non-stressed dnHSF1 cells showed a two- or more fold decrease in the transcript level of 10 genes, amongst which are the (co-)chaperone genes HSP90AA1, HSPA6, DNAJB1 and HSPB1. Glucocorticoid signaling, which requires the Hsp70 and the Hsp90 folding machines, was severely impaired by dnHSF1, but fully rescued by expression of DNAJA1 or DNAJB1, and partially by ST13. Expression of DNAJB6, DNAJB8, HSPA1A, HSPB1, HSPB8, or STIP1 had no effect while HSP90AA1 even inhibited. PTGES3 (p23) inhibited only in control cells. Our results suggest that the DNAJ co-chaperones in particular become limiting in a depleted chaperoning network. Our results also suggest a difference between the transcriptomes of cells lacking HSF1 and cells expressing dnHSF1

Hawking Radiation from Higher-Dimensional Black Holes

We review the quantum field theory description of Hawking radiation from evaporating black holes and summarize what is known about Hawking radiation from black holes in more than four space-time dimensions. In the context of the Large Extra Dimensions scenario, we present the theoretical formalism for all types of emitted fields and a selection of results on the radiation spectra. A detailed analysis of the Hawking fluxes in this case is essential for modelling the evaporation of higher-dimensional black holes at the LHC, whose creation is predicted by low-energy models of quantum gravity. We discuss the status of the quest for black-hole solutions in the context of the Randall-Sundrum brane-world model and, in the absence of an exact metric, we review what is known about Hawking radiation from such black holes

Analyzing Heidegger’s Existentialism from the Perspective of Aristotle’s Practical Philosophy A New Approach towards Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

The present paper is an attempt to illustrate the point that the basic issues in Aristotle’s practical philosophy in analyzing Heidegger’s existentialism are conceived of as the matter of ontology. Comportment of men in reference to beings (Verhaltenweisen) mentioned in Book Six of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics turns into comportment of constitution (Seinweise) in the new approach to Heidegger’s Being and Time (Sein und Zeit). What is of great significance for Heidegger is reviving the hidden ontological power present in the three fundamental modes of activity in Aristotle’s theory in which praxis is preferred to two other modes of activity drawn from being, i.e. theorie and poíésis. Heidegger diagnosed some proper definitions and descriptions regarding human life in Aristotle’s transcendental idealism which are not known in modern philosophy as in Husserl’s philosophy. If we reconsider existentialism under the shadow of Aristotle’s phenomenology and specially Nicomachean Ethics, we may find ways to better interpret Heidegger’s philosophy

A description of gender differences in angiographic findings in a single-center Iranian hospital

Coronary angiography is one of the most common hospital procedures, though there is limited information on the location and extent of coronary artery blockages other than for predominately White patients. This study examined the location and magnitude of coronary artery blockages in patients admitted to a leading tertiary heart hospital in Iran with symptoms of coronary artery disease (CAD). This retrospective descriptive study aimed to review angiography records of all patients with symptoms of CAD undergone diagnostic coronary angiography between February 2002 and September 2004. A total of 94 consecutive angiographic records were analyzed to determine the culprit coronary arteries and the severity of CAD. The findings of the study showed that double- vessel disease was the commonest type of CAD. The left anterior descending (LAD) artery was the most common culprit artery (84%), followed by RCA (64%), CX (37%), OM (13%) and LMS (3%). Our study showed a relatively high angiographic prevalence of LAD blockages. The results of this study provide additional support for the significance of ethnicity in the extent of coronary artery blockages. Crown Copyright © 2010

Breast and cervical cancer-screening uptake among females in Ardabil, northwest Iran: a community-based study

Esmaeil Farzaneh,1 Heshmatolah Heydari,2 Ali Akbar Shekarchi,3 Aziz Kamran4 1Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Ardabil, Iran; 2Department of Nursing, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran; 3Department of Pathology, 4Department of Public Health, Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Ardabil, Iran Purpose: Breast and cervical cancers are the most commonly diagnosed type of cancer and cause of cancer-related deaths in Iranian females. In contrast to previous studies, this study was carried out with a large sample size for assessment of breast self-examination (BSE)-, clinical breast examination (CBE)-, mammography-, and Pap smear-uptake rates and determination of associations among these screening behaviors with sociodemographic and cognitive variables in Azeri females. Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional, community-based study that was carried out among 1,134 females 20&ndash;60 years old during March&ndash;June 2016. Data-collection variables included sociodemographic questions, screening behaviors for breast and&nbsp;cervical cancer, self-efficacy, beliefs, and barriers to breast and cervical cancer screening. Collected&nbsp;data were analyzed by SPSS version 13 using &chi;2, Mann&ndash;Whitney U, and logistic regression tests. Results: Among the 1,134 participants, 53.9%, 9.8%, and 28.1% had done BSE, CBE, and Pap smear tests, respectively, and among the 625 females aged &gt;40 years, 187 (29.9%) had done the mammography test. Moreover, 416 (36.7%), 103 (16.5%), and 64 (5.6%) females had done BSE, mammography, and CBE regularly, respectively. Beliefs, barriers, income, health insurance, number of children, and age were all important factors for BSE and regular BSE and mammography. Females who had high belief scores were more likely to undertake mammography (odds ratio [OR]: 1.2, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03&ndash;1.5), regular mammography (OR: 4.2, 95% CI: 1.9&ndash;9.3), regular CBE (OR: 1.25, 95% CI: 1.2&ndash;1.3), and Pap smears (OR: 1.2, 95% CI: 1.1&ndash;1.4). Also, females who had high self-efficacy scores were more likely to perform regular BSE (OR: 1.8, 95% CI: 1.4&ndash;2.5) and mammography (OR: 2.5, 95% CI: 1.4&ndash;4.6) than females with lower self-efficacy scores. Conclusion: The frequency of breast and cervical cancer screening was low in our study. The findings of this study indicated that beliefs, self-efficacy, and barriers were important predictive factors of cancer-screening behavior among the females studied. Keywords: breast cancer, cervical cancer, screening, female