Nanodiamond landmarks for subcellular multimodal optical and electron imaging.

There is a growing need for biolabels that can be used in both optical and electron microscopies, are non-cytotoxic, and do not photobleach. Such biolabels could enable targeted nanoscale imaging of sub-cellular structures, and help to establish correlations between conjugation-delivered biomolecules and function. Here we demonstrate a sub-cellular multi-modal imaging methodology that enables localization of inert particulate probes, consisting of nanodiamonds having fluorescent nitrogen-vacancy centers. These are functionalized to target specific structures, and are observable by both optical and electron microscopies. Nanodiamonds targeted to the nuclear pore complex are rapidly localized in electron-microscopy diffraction mode to enable "zooming-in" to regions of interest for detailed structural investigations. Optical microscopies reveal nanodiamonds for in-vitro tracking or uptake-confirmation. The approach is general, works down to the single nanodiamond level, and can leverage the unique capabilities of nanodiamonds, such as biocompatibility, sensitive magnetometry, and gene and drug delivery

A retrospective analysis of the causes of postoperative ventral hernia recurrence

Considering the results of surgical treatment of postoperative ventral hernia, a significant number of recurrences of 4.3–46 % should be noted, and in case of large and giant postoperative ventral hernias reaches up to 80 %, which is associated with demographic imbalance that is an increase in the number of persons of old and senile age with comorbidity typical for them. Excessive obesity, especially in women, requires a revision of the main surgical approaches in the choice of methods of hernioplasty. Failure to take into account the present syndrome of undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia (UCTD) in the performance of hernioplasty and allohernioplasty in 60 % of cases leads to postoperative relapse.Objective. On the basis of the analysis of the performed surgical treatment of patients with ventral and postoperative ventral hernia, to study the main causes of the development of recurrent hernia, which would improve the results of surgical treatment of this category of patients.Materials and methods. The clinical section of the work is based on a retrospective analysis of the results of surgical treatment of 1419 patients who underwent surgery on the anterior abdominal wall for primary ventral and postoperative ventral hernias. The distribution of patients into groups was according to the periods of surgical treatment of patients: from 2001 to 2009 and from 2010 to2017. In the first period, 597 (42.07%) patients who made the comparison group were examined and operated. The main group (2010–2017) amounted to 822 (57.93 %) patients.To determine the localization, size and extent of hernial bulging in defects of the anterior abdominal wall, we used the classification of the European Association of Surgeons-Herniologists (EHS-classification, 2008).In the comparison group, R1 was observed in 123 (93.18 %) patients, R2 – in 6 (4.55 %), R3 – in 2 (1.51%), R4 and more – in 1 (0.76 %). In the main group: R1 was observed in 63 (71.59 %) patients, R2 – in 18 (20.45 %), R3 – in 5 (5.68 %), R4 and more – in 2 (2.28 %).Results. In 250 (17.62 %) patients, recurrent hernia developed after various types of surgery. The highest recurrence rate was observed in patients after own tissue hernioplasty, which was 36.07 % of all operated patients according to this procedure. In second place, by the frequency of relapse were patients after performed allohernioplasty using inlay technique – 19.63 %. The recurrence rate after allohernioplasty by the onlay technique is, according to our study, 10.58 %. After performing the sublay technique, the results obtained differ significantly with a low percentage of relapses compared to other methods of hernioplasty. Thus, the recurrence was only in 6.01 % of cases. The only method of surgical treatment of POVH with no recurrence was the method of hernioplasty with anatomic separation of the components of the anterior abdominal wall (CST), which was performed in two variants – without the use of polypropylene mesh (PPM) by Ramirez and combined one using PPM. Such data may be explained by the small number of completed surgery interventions (45 (3.17%)) and short observation periods (4 years).Conclusions. Analyzing the causes of recurrence, it can be argued that the main ones are the choice of inadequate method of hernioplasty to a specific clinical situation, incomplete revision of the musculo-aponeurotic layer of the anterior wall, especially in patients with postoperative ventral hernias and concomitant undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia and obesity, the presence of hidden (small in size and clinically intact) defects and weaknesses, incorrect choice of mesh implant type (“light” or “heavy” polypropylene mesh) and its size, choice of inappropriate material thickness

Studying three management skills among midwifery managers of Iranian universities of medical sciences in 2015

Introduction: Nowadays, for organizational success, managers should accept multiple roles that each requires trainings for specific skills. This issue especially is much more important in health care systems that are responsible for improving the health of the society. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine three managerial skills among midwifery managers Iranian Medical Sciences Universities.Method: This study was descriptive and data collection method was cross-sectional. The subjects in this study included members of the Board of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, bachelors of midwifery in the field of health care and members of midwifery faculty from eight Iranian universities of medical sciences. Collecting information was performed through demographic characteristics questionnaire and triple skills of management researcher-made questionnaire. Validity and reliability were determined through content validity and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of α = 0.88 and test results were evaluated and analyzed by inferential statistics (ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis test) which p < 0.05 was considered as the significant level.Results: The results of this study showed that in the field of knowledge, managers prioritized the skills as follows: the human-communicational skills (MR =69.05), technical skills (MR =50.31) and theoretical-cognitive skills (MR =47.57). Also prioritization of skills from the perspective of the study population in the field of importance was human-communicational skills (MR =82.23), technical skills (MR =76.57) and theoretical-cognitive skills (MR =75.47).Discussion: According to the results of this study, the importance of humancommunicational skills in all the hierarchy and categories of management is one of the essential tasks of managers for promoting organizations toward the achievement of their goals efficiently and effectively.Keywords: Managers, Management Skills, Human Skills, Midwive

Mental Health Changes and Its Predictors in Adolescents using the Path Analytic Model: A 7-Year Observational Study.

OBJECTIVE: This 7-year observational study examines the hours of TV-watching, phone conversation with friends, using the internet, and physical activity as predictors of mental health among adolescents in south of Iran. METHODS: At the baseline (in 2005), the participants were 2584 high school students in the 9th to 11th grade. At the baseline, 30% of the available participants (n = 775) were selected in the follow-up (2012) using convenience sampling method. This study used the path analysis to examine the predictors of mental health and to obtain direct, indirect and total effects of the independent variables. RESULTS: At the baseline (2005), female gender, internet use, maternal education, physical activity and father's education were associated with mental health (p<0.05). Baseline mental health, internet use and physical activity predicted mental health of the participants in the follow up (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The findings of the study revealed that better mental health in later life is associated with better mental health at baseline, male gender, higher physical activity and phone communication with friends, and less use of the internet and TV

A comparative study on managers', staffs' and clients' viewpoints about organizational and structural obstacles in family planning counseling in health-care centers in Isfahan in 2012

BACKGROUND: Organizational and structural obstacles are a group of major obstacles in achievement of appropriate family planning counseling. Detection of these obstacles from the viewpoint of managers, staffs and clients who are key members in health services providing system is a major step toward appropriate planning to modify or delete this group of obstacles. The present study was conducted with the goal of comparing managers', staffs' and clients' viewpoints about organizational and structural obstacles in family planning counseling in health-care centers in Isfahan in 2012. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional one-step three-group comparative descriptive study conducted on 295 subjects including 59 managers, 110 staffs and 126 clients in medical health-care centers in Isfahan in 2012. Managers and the staffs were selected by census sampling and the clients were recruited through convenient random sampling. The date collection tool was a researcher made questionnaire, which was designed in two sections of fertility and personal characteristics and viewpoint measurement. Descriptive and inferential statistical test were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The obtained results showed no significant difference between mean scores of viewpoints in three groups of managers, staffs and clients concerning organizational and structural obstacles in family planning counseling (P = 0.677). In addition, most of the managers, staffs and clients reported organizational and structural obstacles as the obstacles in the process of family planning in moderate level. CONCLUSION: The results showed the necessity of health services managers' planning to modify or delete organizational and structural obstacles especially the agreed obstacles from the viewpoint of managers, staffs and clients

Electrical transport and optical studies of ferromagnetic Cobalt doped ZnO nanoparticles exhibiting a metal-insulator transition

The observed correlation of oxygen vacancies and room temperature ferromagnetic ordering in Co doped ZnO1-o nanoparticles reported earlier (Naeem et al Nanotechnology 17, 2675-2680) has been further explored by transport and optical measurements. In these particles room temperature ferromagnetic ordering had been observed to occur only after annealing in forming gas. In the current work the optical properties have been studied by diffuse reflection spectroscopy in the UV-Vis region and the band gap of the Co doped compositions has been found to decrease with Co addition. Reflections minima are observed at the energies characteristic of Co+2 d-d (tethrahedral symmetry) crystal field transitions, further establishing the presence of Co in substitutional sites. Electrical transport measurements on palletized samples of the nanoparticles show that the effect of a forming gas is to strongly decrease the resistivity with increasing Co concentration. For the air annealed and non-ferromagnetic samples the variation in the resistivity as a function of Co content are opposite to those observed in the particles prepared in forming gas. The ferromagnetic samples exhibit an apparent change from insulator to metal with increasing temperatures for T>380K and this change becomes more pronounced with increasing Co content. The magnetic and resistive behaviors are correlated by considering the model by Calderon et al [M. J. Calderon and S. D. Sarma, Annals of Physics 2007 (Accepted doi: 10.1016/j.aop.2007.01.010] where the ferromagnetism changes from being mediated by polarons in the low temperature insulating region to being mediated by the carriers released from the weakly bound states in the higher temperature metallic region.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Excitation energy dependence of electron-phonon interaction in ZnO nanoparticles

Raman spectroscopic investigations are carried out on ZnO nanoparticles for various photon energies. Intensities of E1-LO and E2 modes exhibit large changes as the excitation energy varied from 2.41 to 3.815 eV, signifying substantially large contribution of Frohlich interaction to the Raman polarizability as compared to deformation potential close to the resonance. Relative strength of these two mechanisms is estimated for the first time in nanoparticles and compared with those in the bulk.Comment: 13 pages. 3 figures Journa

On the Temperature Dependence of the Rate Constant of the Bimolecular Reaction of Two Hydrated Electrons

It has been a longstanding issue in the radiation chemistry of water that, even though H2 is a molecular product, its “escape” yield g(H2) increases with increasing temperature. A main source of H2 is the bimolecular reaction of two hydrated electrons (e-aq). The temperature dependence of the rate constant of this reaction (k1), measured under alkaline conditions, reveals that the rate constant drops abruptly above ~150°C. Recently, it has been suggested that this temperature dependence should be regarded as being independent of pH and used in high-temperature modeling of near-neutral water radiolysis. However, when this drop in the e-aq self-reaction rate constant is included in low (isolated spurs) and high (cylindrical tracks) linear energy transfer (LET) modeling calculations, g(H2) shows a marked downward discontinuity at ~150°C which is not observed experimentally. The consequences of the presence of this discontinuity in g(H2) for both low and high LET radiation are briefly discussed in this communication. It is concluded that the applicability of the sudden drop in k1 observed at ~150°C in alkaline water to near-neutral water is questionable and that further measurements of the rate constant in pure water are highly desirable.Received:13 June 2013; Revised: 27 August 2013; Accepted: 28 August 201

Outreach obstetrics training in Western Australia improves neonatal outcome and decreases caesarean sections

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of a multi-professional outreach obstetric training programme on perinatal and neonatal outcomes. This was a retrospective comparison of 5-min low Apgar scores, stillbirth, perinatal death and moderate/severe hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy rates in 127,753 infants born in Western Australia before and after the introduction of training in rural and remote areas. Following the introduction of the training programme, there was a highly significant (p0.003) decrease in the rate of infants born with low 5-min Apgar scores (from 20.4 to 15.4/1,000 live births). While the changes in the other three outcomes were not significant, all three demonstrated a trend for improvement in the intervention area. This is the second study of an educational intervention in obstetrics to demonstrate improvement in neonatal outcome and the first to be associated with a decrease in caesarean sections