The prevalence of glaucoma in Tehran, Iran

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of glaucoma in adults 40 years of age or older in Tehran, Iran. Methods: This stratified random-sampling cross-sectional population survey was performed on residents of Tehran, the capital of Iran, aged 40 years and older in the year 2001. Refraction, best-corrected visual acuity, slitlamp biomicroscopy, Goldmann applanation tonometry, funduscopy, and gonioscopy were performed in all subjects. Automated perimetry was performed in selected cases. Results: Out of 4418 sampled subjects, 2184 individuals (49.4) participated in the survey. Eventually data from 2160 individuals including 814 (38) male and 1346 (62) female subjects with mean age of 55.1±10.2 (range 40-92) years were analyzed. The overall prevalence of glaucoma was 1.44 (95 confidence interval, 0.94-1.94) including primary open angle glaucoma 0.46, chronic angle closure glaucoma 0.33, normal tension glaucoma 0.28, pseudoexfoliation glaucoma 0.23, and other types of glaucoma 0.14. More than 80 of affected subjects were unaware of their condition. Conclusion: The prevalence of glaucoma in adults 40 years of age or older in Tehran is 1.44, which is in the lower range reported in other populations. The large majority of cases are unaware of their condition

Reduction of adverse effects from intravenous acetylcysteine treatment for paracetamol poisoning: a randomised controlled trial:a randomised controlled trial

Copyright © 2014 Bateman et al. Open Access article distributed under the terms of CC BY. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The trial was funded by Chief Scientist Office, Scotland (award CZB/4/722).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Continence technologies whitepaper: Informing new engineering science research

Advances in healthcare technology for continence have historically been limited compared to other areas of medicine, reflecting the complexities of the condition and social stigma which act as a barrier to participation. This whitepaper has been developed to inspire and direct the engineering science community towards research opportunities that exist for continence technologies that address unmet needs in diagnosis, treatment and long-term management. Our aim is to pinpoint key challenges and highlight related research opportunities for novel technological advances. To do so, we draw on experience and expertise from academics, clinicians, patients and patient groups linked to continence healthcare. This is presented in four areas of consideration: the clinical pathway, patient perspective, research challenges and effective innovation. In each we introduce seminal research, background information and demonstrative case-studies, before discussing their relevance to engineering science researchers who are interested in approaching this overlooked but vital area of healthcare

Ageing condition of tensile specimens: fracture behavior of notched Al2024 sheet under tensile loading

The effect of different (T6 and T8) heat treatments on tensile properties and fracture behavior of Al2024 in presence and absence of notch by means of microhardness, tensile tests and scanning electron microscopy were investigated. Tensile and hardness specimens were subjected to two different artificial ageing (T6 and T8 heat treatment) for various times. These included under ageing (UA), peak ageing (PA) and over ageing (OA). T8 heat treatment, which has a cold rolling between solutionizing and ageing in its steps, showed a higher value of hardness and yield strength in comparison with common artificial ageing of T6 heat treatment. In notched-tensile specimens, yield stress was found to increase up to the peak ageing condition with a simultaneously decrease in elongation at fracture. This behavior was converse at OA condition. Although introducing of notch increase the yield stress of samples under T6 and T8 conditions in comparison with un-notched samples, the notch strengthening phenomenon was observed only under T8 treatment. Despite of an enhancement in strengthening by applying notch on tensile samples, the elongation to failure was notably lessen in both notched-heat treated samples in comparison with un-notches ones. Also, it was confirmed that the toughness of notched samples of both heat treatments at PA condition were significantly lower than un-notched ones. Consequently, toughness decrement was considerably dominated by the role of deformability compared to strengthening factor, however, the presence of cold rolling in the process of heat treatment (T8) could reduce the harmful effects of notch by increasing the stress bearing capacity in contrary with T6 heat treatment. Moreover, inserting the mechanical properties of peak aged samples from the un-notched tensile test in Abaqus finite element software; the V-shaped notch tensile test was simulated and confirmed the experimental results. It was shown in SEM results that the presence of notch enhanced the contribution of cracked particles, compared to particle/matrix deboning and matrix deformation, therefore, the non-homogeneous distribution of fracture features confirmed the harmful effect of notch. In the following, the distribution of three fracture micro-mechanisms were homogeneous in un-notched samples, which demonstrated the superior values of toughness in smooth samples. The present finding sheds light on development of processing techniques to optimize the mechanical properties of Al 2024 alloy