Relationship Between Malnutrition Risk, Activities of Daily Living, and Adaptation to Chronic Diseases in Older People with Chest Diseases

Introduction. The increased risk of malnutrition in older people may have significant impacts on chronic disease management and quality of life. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between chronic diseases, activities of daily living (ADLs), and malnutrition risk. Methods. This cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted on 352 patients over 65 years old, who had a chronic disease for at least one year and were admitted to Dr. Suat Seren Chest Diseases and Chest Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. The data were collected using the Descriptive Information Form, Adaptation to Chronic Illness Scale (ACIS), Nutrition Risk Screening-2002 (NRS-2002), and Katz Activities of Daily Living (Katz ADL) scale. Results. The mean age of the participants was 70.65±4.18 years. All participants were at risk of malnutrition according to the NRS-2002 assessment, 29% were independent, and 35.8% were partially dependent based on the Katz ADL scale assessment. The ACIS score was 82.83±13.88. Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that age, disease duration, perceived disease knowledge, and interference from the disease with planned activities were significant positive predictors of ACIS, while hospitalization in the last 6 months, the number of meals per day, difficulty in meeting personal care needs, and NRS-2002 were significant negative predictors of ACIS (p<0.05). Conclusions. Despite the unexpected homogeneity in malnutrition risk, the NRS-2002 score emerged as a negative predictor of chronic disease adaptation. Furthermore, recent hospital admissions, daily meal consumption, and impairment in self-care were also found to have a negative influence, while age, disease duration (in years), appropriate disease knowledge, and the absence of interference from the disease with planned activities demonstrated a positive impact on chronic disease adaptation

Nutrient status in soil of Ski runs in the sub-alpine belt of Uludag mountain, Bursa, Turkey

Abstract: Large areas of land are disturbed in sensitive bio-diverse mountain environments by Ski runs. Restoration of vegetation on such disturbed mountain sites may be hampered by soil degradation but the severity and nature of the constraints is not well understood. This study was designed to compare the water holding and nutritional status of soil in three Ski runs which had different construction dates and disturbance levels, and the adjacent undisturbed site in the Abies bornmuelleriana forest community in the sub-alpine belt of Uludag Mountain (Bithynian Olympus). The values of soil parameters were depressed in proportion to the disturbance level. Water holding capacity (WHC), total nitrogen (N), organic carbon (C) and calcium (Ca 2+ ), magnesium (Mg 2+ ) and potassium (K + ) contents (mg kg -1 dry weight) of soils in the Ski run which had the highest disturbance level were lower than that of the undisturbed adjacent sites. However, the results indicated that the soil parameters were less degraded when secondary vegetation was growing on the disturbed areas

Clinical biochemistry laboratory rejection rates due to various types of preanalytical errors

Introduction: Preanalytical errors, along the process from the beginning of test requests to the admissions of the specimens to the laboratory, cause the rejection of samples. The aim of this study was to better explain the reasons of rejected samples, regarding to their rates in certain test groups in our laboratory. Materials and methods: This preliminary study was designed on the rejected samples in one-year period, based on the rates and types of inappropriateness. Test requests and blood samples of clinical chemistry, immunoassay, hematology, glycated hemoglobin, coagulation and erythrocyte sedimentation rate test units were evaluated. Types of inappropriateness were evaluated as follows: improperly labelled samples, hemolysed, clotted specimen, insufficient volume of specimen and total request errors. Results: A total of 5,183,582 test requests from 1,035,743 blood collection tubes were considered. The total rejection rate was 0.65 %. The rejection rate of coagulation group was significantly higher (2.28%) than the other test groups (P < 0.001) including insufficient volume of specimen error rate as 1.38%. Rejection rates of hemolysis, clotted specimen and insufficient volume of sample error were found to be 8%, 24% and 34%, respectively. Total request errors, particularly, for unintelligible requests were 32% of the total for inpatients. Conclusions: The errors were especially attributable to unintelligible requests of inappropriate test requests, improperly labelled samples for inpatients and blood drawing errors especially due to insufficient volume of specimens in a coagulation test group. Further studies should be performed after corrective and preventive actions to detect a possible decrease in rejecting sample

THE EFFECT OF SAFFRON (ITS ACTIVE CONSTITUENT, CROCIN) ON THE CARDIOVASCULAR COMPLICATION AND DYSLIPIDEMIA IN STREPTOZOTOCIN INDUCED DIABETIC RATS

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) causes serious complications such as coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, nephropathy, retinopathy and neuropathy. Materials and Methods: Rats were randomly divided into three groups each containing 10 rats; control group, DM group; DM+crocin group. Normal saline was administered in the control and DM groups, and crocin was administered in DM+crocin group at a dose of 20 mg/kg bw/day for 21 days. Trunk blood and the hearth tissue were collected for histopathological and biochemical examination. Results: DM led to increment of MDA levels (

Screen printing carbon nanotubes textiles antennas for smart wearables

Electronic textiles have become a dynamic research field in recent decades, attracting attention to smart wearables to develop and integrate electronic devices onto clothing. Combining traditional screen-printing techniques with novel nanocarbon-based inks offers seamless integration of flexible and conformal antenna patterns onto fabric substrates with a minimum weight penalty and haptic disruption. In this study, two different fabric-based antenna designs called PICA and LOOP were fabricated through a scalable screen-printing process by tuning the conductive ink formulations accompanied by cellulose nanocrystals. The printing process was controlled and monitored by revealing the relationship between the textiles’ nature and conducting nano-ink. The fabric prototypes were tested in dynamic environments mimicking complex real-life situations, such as being in proximity to a human body, and being affected by wrinkling, bending, and fabric care such as washing or ironing. Both computational and experimental on-and-off-body antenna gain results acknowledged the potential of tunable material systems complimenting traditional printing techniques for smart sensing technology as a plausible pathway for future wearables

The investigation of stearic acid treatments on the water absorption, cataplasm and pull off test of flax fiber/polyester composites

Flax fiber is a reinforcement material which is weak against water because it is one of the natural fibers. To improve this weakness, it was treated with stearic acid (SA) at different ratios (1, 2, 3 and 4 %). In addition, the effect of gelcoat and paint application on the performance of the sample was also examined. Flax fiber takes on a hydrophobic structure when treated with different ratios of stearic acid. When the test results were analyzed, the lowest water absorption results were obtained with 4 % SA treatment. It was observed that the water absorbing properties of the composite improved with the application of gelcoat and paint. In the cross-cut test performed after the cataplasm test (aging test), the adhesion performance of none of the specimens was adversely affected. There was no blister observed after aging test. According to the pull off test results, stearic acid application did not have a negative effect on the adhesion of the primer and paint applied to the surface. After the cataplasm test, the specimens were aged and curing was thus complete. For this reason, pull off test results were higher after cataplas

Determination The effects of black pepper and angelica oil on nicotine craving of students: a randomized controlled pilot trial

Objective This study was examined the effects of essential oils inhalation on smoking cessation. Methods This study is an experimental study conducted with the intervention and control groups (pretest/posttest). Fifty-eight students were randomly grouped into 1 of 3 groups: black pepper group (n:21), inhaled black pepper oil, angelica group (n:18) inhaled angelica oil, and control group (n:19), inhaled sunflower (placebo) oil for 2 min. when they felt the urge to smoke. Conclusion The study showed that the mean score of students applying black pepper oil and angelica oil in intra-group comparison decreased after aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is an effective and safe method on smoking cessation

Module symmetrically amenable Banach algebras

In this article, we develop the concept of symmetric amenability for a Banach algebra A to the case that there is an extra A-module structure on A. For every inverse semigroup S with the set E of idempotents, we find necessary and sufficient conditions for the l 1 (S) to be module symmetrically amenable (as a l 1 (E)-module). We also present some module symmetrically amenable semigroup algebras to show that this new notion of amenability is different from the classical case introduced by Johnson

A randomized controlled trial of the effects of nursing care based on Watson's Theory of Human Caring on distress, self-efficacy and adjustment in infertile women

Aims. To investigate the effects of nursing care based on the Theory of Human Caring on distress caused by infertility, perceived self-efficacy and adjustment levels