Design a biomimetic disc using geometric features of the claws

This study presents a numerical investigation regarding the stress distribution on the new designed disc harrow using the ANSYS software. A conventional disc, notched disc, and a biomimetic design inspired by the claw of the leatherwing were analyzed in two conventional plowed and unplowed soils and three tillage depths (4, 7 and 10 cm). Stress analysis for all treatments showed that the highest stress was imposed at the disc-stem junction. Meanwhile the highest deformation occurred at the lowest and the most external part of the discs (land line). The results obtained in this study indicated that the maximum stress exerted from tilling soil to discs increases linearly with tillage depth in both plowed and unplowed soils. Given these results, the maximum stress also at the disc-stem junction changed linearly with tillage depth for all of the three geometric shapes. For the conventional examined harrow in unplowed soil at a depth of 10 cm, the highest maximum stress was 484 MPa and the maximum deformation was 1.84 mm. Using the new geometry for discs in plowed soil, the highest maximum stress and the maximum disc deformation were obtained equal to 130 MPa and 0.92 mm at the same tillage condition, respectively. For all treatments in plowed or unplowed soil, the lowest stress occurred with the biomimetic harrow. The soil- disc interaction stresses exerted on the notched harrow was lower than the conventional disc

Nephroprotective effect of Gallic acid against mercuric chloride (HgCl2) induced damage in rats

Introduction: Mercury has hematotoxic, hepatotoxic, neurotoxic, nephrotoxic and genotoxic effects. Tissue damage induced by mercuric chloride (HgCl2) is associated with the promotion of oxidative stress. In this study, Gallic acid (GA), as potent antioxidant compound, was examined against mercuric chloride (HgCl2)-induced kidney injury in Wistar rats. Methods and Results: In this experimental study, animals were divided into five groups (n=7). Groups 1 and 2 respectively received normal saline (2 ml/kg, orally.) and HgCl2 (0.4 mg/kg, orally) for 28 consecutive days. Group 3 only received GA (200 mg/kg, orally) for 28 consecutive days. Groups 4 and 5 received orally GA at doses of 50 and 200 mg/kg, respectively, one hour after administration of HgCl2 for 28 consecutive days. Then On the 29th day, the rats were sacrificed, and blood samples were collected to determine biochemical parameters such as serum creatinine (Cr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels. For oxidative stress evaluation, malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) levels and also catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity were evaluated in left kidney tissue. The right kidney was used for histological examination. The results obtained from our study showed a significant increase in the levels of MDA, Cr and BUN, and decrease of GSH, CAT and SOD after ingestion of HgCl2 (p<0.05). Pre-treatment with GA showed diminished in the levels of MDA, Cr and BUN and enhanced of GSH, CAT, GPx and SOD activity (p<0.05). Additionally the nephroprotective effect of the GA was established by the histological evaluation of the kidneys. Conclusions: Our results indicate that GA has protective effect against HgCl2-induced renal damage probably by scavenging free radicals, reducing the oxidative stress, and increasing the antioxidant defense mechanism

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of adverse events in one of the biggest western Iranian general hospitals: Short communication

Background: In developing and underdeveloped countries, medical error is often either not reported or reported improperly for various reasons. Root cause analysis (RCA) is a systematic method to determine how various factors contribute to the occurrence of medical errors.   Objectives: The current study analyzed the root cause of one of western Iran's biggest general hospitals.   Methods: This retrospective RCA was conducted through a qualitative approach in 2019 following the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) protocol in seven steps: Initialization of the process, collecting and mapping information, identifying issues related to care delivery problems (CDP) or service delivery problems (SDP), event analysis, identifying the involved factors in the event - root causes, providing solutions, implementing solutions, and submission of reports.   Results: According to the results of this study, 61 cases were examined, and committees accepted the errors in 11 cases. Here, 49 CDP and 13 SDP factors were identified. Care delivery problems factors were selected for all events based on the team's viewpoints. Overall, task-related causes (20 cases), individual causes (17 cases), management-related causes (14 cases), training-related causes (8 cases), and causes related to work environment and conditions (7 cases) were specified.   Conclusions: Accepting mistakes is the first step in the hope of improvement. In this hospital, only 11 cases of mistakes had been accepted by the authorities. In most cases, the proposed solutions to this issue included personnel training, monitoring system strengthening, and developing and standardizing processes. Overall, this study and other similar studies showed errors during service delivery and through service providers

Progress of Development in Generations of the National Hospital Accreditation Program in Iran

Background: Studies have often examined the challenges presented to the implementation of accreditation. Nonetheless, after developing and implementing four generations of accreditation over 25 years, multiple questions have been left unanswered regarding the number of resolved challenges, the emergence of new challenges and problems, as well as the mitigation of these problems by policymakers and managers for the next generations. Objectives: Therefore, the present study aims to explain the development progress of the last two generations of the National Hospital Accreditation Program (NHAP) with the previous versions in Iran. Methods: As a qualitative research, Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2020. Through purposive sampling, 20 hospital managers at different levels with experience in all four generations participated. Thematic analysis was used to analyze. Results: The themes included designing the measurement criteria, the supervisor's performance (university and ministry), the hospital's performance, the measurement process, as well as announcing the results and outcomes. Moreover, the status of the development of the national accreditation with previous versions was explained in categories, including improvable points, improved problems, and cases of deterioration. Conclusion: The revision process of the NHAP in Iran is indicative of an upward trend, and almost proper modifications have been made. Significant changes have been made since the third generation. Changes in performance-oriented and highlighted patient safety have been very helpful. Changing the assessment of universities affiliated to Ministerial, which is trying to become partly external evaluation. In addition, some positive changes have been achieved in the fourth generation, including a significant reduction in criteria, more professional evaluators, elimination of document uploads, and the definition of outpatient criteria. The improvable points were as follows: defining some measurement criteria, limitations of physicians' criteria, evaluating input instead of output, lack of medical guidelines, failure to pay attention to hospital-type criteria, lack of continuous monitoring of universities, and lack of motivation mechanisms for new criteria

Prevalence of Common Aeroallergens in Patients with Allergic Rhinitis in Gorgan, North of Iran, Based on Skin Prick Test Reactivity

Background Allergic rhinitis is one of the most common types of rhinitis. Allergen avoidance is the most important way of preventing this disease. The present study is carried out to determine the frequency of common aeroallergens in patients with allergic rhinitis in Gorgan city by skin prick test (SPT) reactivity. Materials and Methods  In this cross-sectional study 270 patients referring to the Asthma and Allergic Center in Gorgan city, Iran, were enrolled. Diagnosis of allergic rhinitis was confirmed by specialist asthma and allergy. A questionnaire containing demographic data and patient’s history was completed. Skin prick test containing standard allergen extracts, histamine, and physiologic serum was performed on patients. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version16.0. Results: In the present study, 270 patients (113 males and 157 females) had perennial allergic rhinitis (PAR), seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR), and mixed allergic rhinitis (MAR) (n=166, 54, 47, receptivity). Out of these patients, the most common aeroallergens was a house dust mite called Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (43.7%), other common allergen were: weeds (40.7%), Dermatophagoides farinae (40.4%), grasses (32.5%), beetles (30%), trees (22.5%), and molds (16.3%). There was a significant relationship between prevalence of allergy to grasses and gender (P=0.016), weeds and age (

Comparison of Knee and Hip Kinematics during Landing and Cutting between Elite Male Football and Futsal Players

To design an accurate sport injury prevention program, alterations in the knee and hip kinematic variables involved in injury mechanisms should be known. The main purpose of the current study was to compare knee and hip kinematic variables during landing and cutting among male football and futsal players, and to discuss them within an injury description frame. Twenty football (20.5 ± 2.1 years., 74.5 ± 6.9 kg and 1.79 ± 0.07 m) and twenty futsal players (20.3 ± 2.0 years., 73.5 ± 7.1 kg and 1.78 ± 0.07 m), with at least three years’ experience of playing in the Kerman Province League, participated in this study. Hip flexion, knee flexion and knee valgus angle during two main movements with risk of injury, such as landing and cutting, were measured using a motion capture system with passive markers at 120-Hz sampling frequency. Landing and cutting maneuvers were administered in as natural way as possible. Results showed significant differences in landing and cutting maneuvers between groups in hip flexion, knee flexion and knee valgus angle. Results indicated that footballers have less extension of hip and knee joints than futsal players in landing maneuvers, which may be due to the higher requirement of jumping−landing maneuvers when playing football. In cutting maneuvers, footballers showed less hip and knee flexion than futsal players, whereas the knee valgus angle in cutting maneuvers was lower in futsal players. More information on the injury mechanisms of landing and cutting in football and futsal are needed to improve the design of injury prevention programs

Bionomics and phylo-molecular analysis of Leishmania species isolated from human lesions using ITS1 genes in north-east of Iran

Leishmaniasis is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by Leishmania species. The identification of parasite species and the type of disease is beneficial for treatment and preventive modalities. Leishmania tropica and L. major have been reported as the main etiological agents of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Iran. The incidence of zoonotic CL has increased and different in distinct loci of Iran. Hence, we perused the Leishmania species and its genetic traits in the North East of Iran. The investigation was conducted on 200 positive smears prepared from patients’ lesions suffering from CL referred to the health care centers of northeastern provinces in Iran from 2013 to 2019. The obtained positive microscopy samples were divided to score the ranges from + 1 to + 6, of them 40 smears exhibited low-parasitemia. Leishmania species analyzed using PCR–RFLP, genetic diversity indices evaluation, phylogenetic analysis, and sequencing comparison with other species in the GeneBank based on ITS1 gene. The isolated L. major strains were similar to other Iranian isolates in this region. Pairwise fixation index (FST) index was statistically significant in different L. major populations and showed the genetic differences in pairwise population of different geographical locations of Iran. The current study confirmed an old pattern endemicity of zoonotic CL in North-east of Iran. Therefore, in order to assess the hybrid formation, more epidemiological, ecological, and gene polymorphism studies are needed to understand the pathogenic role of Leishmania species in Iran.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe