Investigating Cause and Effect Relationships and Prioritizing of GM Assessment Indexes based on Economic, Resources, Energy and Environmental Attributes and PSR Framework using Gray DEMATAL

Nowadays the role of green manufacturing (GM) in sustainable development is evident and irrefutable therefore organizations seek to introduce themselves green in order to maintain their image toward their community. The usual method of sustainability and greenness assessment of a system is making use of indicators and indexes which are classified into several groups based on their characteristics. An important type of index categorization is based on four sustainability attributes including economic, energy, environment and recourses as well as pressure-state-response model (PSR). Because of the research gap about interactions relationships on indexes and investigating their influence others and influence by others. Since, indexes in each group could be effective on other indexes and be overlapped to some extent, it is necessary to prioritize and evaluate cause and effect relations by use of an appropriate method. We consider the relationship and prioritize most important indexes to evaluate manufacturing' greenness based on aforementioned sustainability attributes and PSR model. Purpose data is gathered by survey GM experts questionnaires, including 41 indexes plus 4 mentioned attributes, totally as 45 factors in 13 groups. In order to data analysis, with respect to the non-certainty and insufficient information, Grey DEMATEL method is used.Atualmente, o papel da manufatura verde (GM, Green Manufacturing) no desenvolvimento sustentável é evidente e irrefutável, portanto, as organizações procuram se apresentar “verdes” para manter sua imagem em sua comunidade. O método usual de avaliação da sustentabilidade e do verdor de um sistema é o uso de indicadores e índices que são classificados em vários grupos com base em suas características. Um tipo importante de categorização de índices é baseado em quatro atributos de sustentabilidade, incluindo econômico, energia, meio ambiente e recursos, além do modelo pressão-resposta-estado (PSR, Pressure-State-Response). Tendo em vista a lacuna de pesquisa sobre as relações de interações em índices faz-se necessário investigar a influência de outros e quais são influenciados por outros. Como os índices em cada grupo podem ser efetivos em outros índices e serem sobrepostos em certa medida, assim é essencial priorizar e avaliar as relações de causa e efeito pelo uso de um método apropriado. Consideramos o relacionamento e priorizamos os índices mais importantes para avaliar o verdor da manufatura com base nos atributos de sustentabilidade e no modelo de PSR. Os dados são coletados por questionários especializados em GM, incluindo 41 índices mais os 4 atributos mencionados, totalizando 45 fatores em 13 grupos. A fim de analisar os dados, no que diz respeito às informações não seguras e insuficientes, é utilizado o método Gray DEMATEL

Survey of sleep status and its related factors among Hospitalized patients with heart failure

Background: Sleep disorders among heart failure (HF) patients negatively influence the quality of life. Awareness of sleep disturbances, as one of the disturbing factors of the quality of life among HF patients, and its related factors would help health care staff to provide more comprehensive care. Hence, this study was conducted to determine the quality of sleep and its related factors in hospitalized patients with HF. Methods: This cross-sectional survey study was conducted on 240 patients with HF hospitalized in one of the health centers of Guilan University of Medical Sciences between July and December 2013. Samples were selected by convenience sampling. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and a researcher-designed questionnaire on sleep disturbing factors were the instruments of this study. The correlation and relationship between sleep quality and variables related to personal, environmental, and disease factors were assessed. Results: The majority of the samples (91.2) had a poor sleep quality. A significant positive correlation was found between sleep quality and age (r = 0.322; p value < 0.001), body mass index (r = 0.212; p value < 0.001), number of comorbidities (r = 0.205; p value = 0.001), number of hospitalizations (r = 0.202; p value < 0.001), number of drugs consumed (r = 0.178; p value = 0.003), and length of stay in hospital (r = 0.149; p value = 0.011). Also, significant differences were seen between sleep quality and sex (p value = 0.014), smoking (p value = 0.038), educational level (p value = 0. 047), and hospital noise (p value = 0. 004). Conclusion: Age, sex, educational level, smoking, and obesity were the most significant factors affecting the sleep quality in our HF patients. © 2015 Tehran Heart Center. All rights reserved

Geotechnical behaviour of the carbonate sand-granulated tire mixture

149-155Carbonate sand-tire mixture is used in this research as a soil improvement method to address the environmental problems regarding the accumulation of scrap tires in coastal areas. The stress-strain behaviour, internal friction angle, and the particle breakage of the carbonate sand-tire mixture are studied, and the results are compared to that of pure carbonate sand. The results revealed that the addition of the granulated tires to the carbonate sand changed its behaviour. The addition of granulated tires resulted in a decrease of both the friction angle and the quantity of particle breakage

Improving ECG Classification Accuracy Using an Ensemble of Neural Network Modules

This paper illustrates the use of a combined neural network model based on Stacked Generalization method for classification of electrocardiogram (ECG) beats. In conventional Stacked Generalization method, the combiner learns to map the base classifiers' outputs to the target data. We claim adding the input pattern to the base classifiers' outputs helps the combiner to obtain knowledge about the input space and as the result, performs better on the same task. Experimental results support our claim that the additional knowledge according to the input space, improves the performance of the proposed method which is called Modified Stacked Generalization. In particular, for classification of 14966 ECG beats that were not previously seen during training phase, the Modified Stacked Generalization method reduced the error rate for 12.41% in comparison with the best of ten popular classifier fusion methods including Max, Min, Average, Product, Majority Voting, Borda Count, Decision Templates, Weighted Averaging based on Particle Swarm Optimization and Stacked Generalization

Ability of dental students in detection of proximal caries

Objective: Tooth decay is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. After pit and fissures, enamel of proximal surface is the second region prone to rot. Bitewing images are one of  the most important diagnostic tools for the detection of caries. Given the importance of accurate and timely detection of decay, the current study was aimed to evaluate the ability and skill of the final- year dental students to identify the presence and depth of proximal caries in dental bitewing radiography.Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study 208 inter proximal surfaces among the 13 dental bitewing radiographs were selected randomly. The radiographs were evaluated by two experienced dental specialists (a radiologist and a restorative specialist) to detect inter proximal decay between teeth. These diagnoses were considered as the gold standard. The radiographs were further assessed by fourteen final-year dental students. Finally, the collected data were analyzed by SPSS-17  software using Kappa coefficient of agreement and ICC. The sensitivity and specificity values were also determined.Results: The value of Kappa correlation coefficient to assess the similarity between students' responses and gold standards was obtained as 0.28 (p&lt;0.001). The Kappa correlation coefficient for evaluation of the precision of the data was 0.71. The sensitivity in the whole population was 0.43, while the specificity was 0.84.Conclusion: According to the results obtained in this study, the performance of final year dental students to identify the presence and depth of proximal caries from bitewing radiographs was not satisfactory. Moreover, the ability to detect normal surfaces was unacceptable

The effect of MDMA and pentoxifylline drug on bad/bcl-xl gene dosage expression changes on rat liver

        MDMA generally known as ecstasy, have deleterious effects on the serotonergic neurotransmitter system. Recent findings suggest that the liver and brain are major target organs of MDMA-related toxicities. Although most research is being dynamically performed on brain, however, the molecular mechanisms by which MDMA elicits adverse effects in both organs are poorly undrestood.The present study was performed to obtain evidence for molecular mechanism of apoptosis involved in MDMA-induced hepatotoxicity in rat liver after MDMAadministration. Moreover, the antagonistic effect of pentoxifylline was assessed on hepatotoxicity after MDMA administration. In this experimental study, sample size and power in each group were calculated as 10 rats with 95% confidence level and 5% confidence interval. In the study, four experimental groups were selected including Control Normal, MDMA, MDMA+PTX and PTX+MDMA. MDMA was dissolved in PBS and intraperitoneally injected three doses of 7.5mg/kg with two hours gap between doses. Pentoxyfilline also was injected as 100mg/kg, simultaneously with third dose of MDMA. After treatment, total RNA was isolated from liver tissue (5mg). Absorbance at 260nm, 280nm and 230nm were measured and immediately reverse transcription was performed. Included target genes were BAD and BCL-XL as pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic gene, respectively. After set up and validation, Real-Time PCR were performed and obtaining data were statistically analyzed to determine significantly differences between groups. Using Real-Time quantitative PCR results, BCL-XL gene expression ratio significantly increased in MDMA+PTX group. Moreover, BAD gene expression ratio increased and up-regulated in PTX+MDMA group (P-value &lt;0.001).Our study focused on molecular mechanism of MDMA in programmed cell death using gene expression quantification of a pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptoic gene in MDMA-induced hepatotoxocity. The results shown MDMA prompted apoptosis in liver and pentoxifylline protects hepatotoxicity after and befor taking MDMA.

Geotechnical behaviour of the carbonate sand-granulated tire mixture

Carbonate sand-tire mixture is used in this research as a soil improvement method to address the environmental problems regarding the accumulation of scrap tires in coastal areas. The stress-strain behaviour, internal friction angle, and the particle breakage of the carbonate sand-tire mixture are studied, and the results are compared to that of pure carbonate sand. The results revealed that the addition of the granulated tires to the carbonate sand changed its behaviour. The addition of granulated tires resulted in a decrease of both the friction angle and the quantity of particle breakage

The influence of freezing conditions on the organoleptic attributes of Iranian leafy vegetable foods

The edible leafy vegetables contain nutritional ingredients that are necessary for human health and it is important that nutrients protection be monitored during processing and storage. The aim of this study was to study some organoleptic attributes of a very popular Iranian meal named Coco-Sabzi, which was prepared with a mixture of edible grinded leafy vegetable pre-stored at different frozen conditions. So, by sensorial evaluation we can conclude about nutritional loss of products. The mixture of five edible grinded leafy vegetables including Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum, Lepidium sativum, M. spicata (M. sativa), Ocimum basilicum and Allium porrum were stored at -9, -12 and -18oC for 120, 150 and 180 days. The organoleptic attribute of the prepared Coco-Sabzi was compared with the above three different time-temperature combinations during the frozen storage period. Results indicated that the best colors were observed at -18, -12 and -9oC, respectively. Taste and overall acceptability at -18oC after 120 and 150 days and also at -12oC after 180 days ranked 1st (P&lt; 0.05). Data analysis showed that the color, taste and overall acceptability of samples were not statistically different at three different time-temperature combinations during the frozen storage period. As a result, organoleptic attribute during six months of frozen storage was affected by freezing temperature, not by frozen storage perio

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Decision-making for flexible manufacturing systems using DEMATEL and SAW

Flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is an important component of competitive strategy, which could be used for improving organizational performance, productivity, and profitability. The goal of this research is to use DEMATEL approach for finding the intensity of influence of selected criteria. Then, in order to evaluate flexible manufacturing systems, the results of DEMATEL are used in SAW method. A questionnaire was developed and ten professional experts working in various departments of Aluminum Composite Panel Industry are asked to answer its questions. The obtained results reveal that in this case, it is a better choice not to implement and develop FMS