Investigating the effects of heavy metals in the waste leachate on the groundwater quality near the landfill (case study: Landfill of Saravan, Rasht)

The main and fundamental scientific reason of scientific community attention to the issue of leachate pollution and its treatment is the possible danger of contamination of water, soil and to some extent air. The reason is that the leachate of landfill in fact is acomplex waste withhigh pollution. Today, in our country, especially in northern areas due to high groundwater levels, the problem of waste disposal and the effects of their leachate entering alluvial groundwater and aquifer contamination downstream based on hydrodynamic thickness in the movement of water is highly regarded andentering a considerable amount of pollution (nitrates, heavy metals, etc.) to underground water sources used for drinking and agriculture, in the long term become a social problem. Saravan landfill is located on 15 km road Rasht of to Tehran is like a black spot in the in the green Hyrcanian forest and receives more than 500 tons of waste daily from provinces cities,particularly Rasht which with no environmental assessment for selected waste disposal, waste disposal is inadequate in Saravan and because of evaporation, fermentation and decomposition of the waste and leachate percolation into the soil and water resources it is associated with high pollution and unleashed leachate river in the heart of nature and based on the ranking of Index criteria it is unacceptable. In this study, sampling was conducted in 2 upstream wells, 3 downstream wells of Saravan landfill then the samples were analyzed by atomic absorption.  The results indicate the presence of heavy metals (chromium - lead – zinc -iron - manganese) in water of downstream wells of the landfill compared to upstream wells and the control wells or in other words, it was significantly more than the control and upstream wells and the average concentrations of Pb, Cr, MN, Fe higher than drinking water standards and the mean concentration of MN and Cr in the research water wells was more than standard water for irrigation and agricultural. It shows the leachate percolation into soil and ground water that has been polluted the nearby water of the landfill.Keywords: Groundwater, Landfill, Leachate, Heavy Metals, Sarava

A systematic review of study results reported for the evaluation of robotic rollators from the perspective of users

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness and perception of robotic rollators (RRs) from the perspective of users. Methods: Studies identified in a previous systematic review published on 2016 on the methodology of studies evaluating RRs by the user perspective were re-screened for eligibility based on the following inclusion criteria: evaluation of the human–robot interaction from the user perspective, use of standardized outcome measurements, and quantitative presentation of study results. Results: Seventeen studies were eligible for inclusion. Due to the clinical and methodological heterogeneity across studies, a narrative synthesis of study results was conducted. We found conflicting results concerning the effectiveness of the robotic functionalities of the RRs. Only a few studies reported superior user performance or reduced physical demands with the RRs compared to unassisted conditions or conventional assistive mobility devices; however, without providing statistical evidence. The user perception of the RRs was found to be generally positive. Conclusions: There is still no sufficient evidence on the effectiveness of RRs from the user perspective. More well-designed, high-quality studies with adequate study populations, larger sample sizes, appropriate assessment strategies with outcomes specifically tailored to the robotic functionalities, and statistical analyses of results are required to evaluate RRs at a higher level of evidence.Implications for Rehabilitation RRs cover intelligent functionalities that focus on gait assistance, obstacle avoidance, navigation assistance, sit-to-stand transfer, body weight support or fall prevention. The evaluation from the user perspective is essential to ensure that RRs effectively address users’ needs, requirements and preferences. The evidence on the effectiveness of RRs is severely hampered by the low methodological quality of most of the available studies. RRs seem generally to be perceived as positive by the users. There is very limited evidence on the effectiveness and benefits of RRs compared to conventional assistive mobility devices. Further research with high methodological quality needs to be conducted to reach more robust conclusions about the effectiveness of RRs

Evolution of hepatitis B virus surface gene and protein among Iranian chronic carriers from different provinces

Background and Objectives: Iranian chronic HBV carrier�s population has shown a unique pattern of genotype D distribution all around the country. The aim of this study was to explore more details of evolutionary history of carriers based on structural surface proteins from different provinces. Materials and Methods: Sera obtained from 360 isolates from 12 Different regions of country were used for amplification and sequencing of surface proteins. A detailed mutational analysis was undertaken. Results: The total ratio for Missense/Silent nucleotide substitutions was 0.96. Sistan and Kermanshah showed the lowest rate of evolution between provinces (P = 0.055). On the other hand, Khorasan Razavi and Khoozestan contained the highest ratio (P = 0.055). The rest of regions were laid between these two extremes. Azarbayjan and Guilan showed the highest proportion of immune epitope distribution (91.3 and 96, respectively). Conversely, Sistan and Tehran harbored the least percentage (66.6 and 68.8, respectively). Kermanshah province contained only 5.2, whereas Isfahan had 54.5 of B cell epitope distribution. In terms of T helper epitopes, all provinces showed a somehow homogeneity: 22.58 (Fars) to 46.6 (Khuzestan). On the other hand, distribution of substitutions within the CTL epitopes showed a wide range of variation between 6.6 (Khuzestan) and 63 (Kermanshah). Conclusion: Further to low selection pressure found in Iranian population, the variations between different regions designate random genetic drift within the surface proteins. These finding would have some applications in terms of specific antiviral regimen, design of more efficient vaccine and public health issues. © 2015, Tehran University of Medical Science. All rights reserved

Human sit-to-stand transfer modeling towards intuitive and biologically-inspired robot assistance

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Sit-to-stand (STS) transfers are a common human task which involves complex sensorimotor processes to control the highly nonlinear musculoskeletal system. In this paper, typical unassisted and assisted human STS transfers are formulated as optimal feedback control problem that finds a compromise between task end-point accuracy, human balance, energy consumption, smoothness of motion and control and takes further human biomechanical control constraints into account. Differential dynamic programming is employed, which allows taking the full, nonlinear human dynamics into consideration. The biomechanical dynamics of the human is modeled by a six link rigid body including leg, trunk and arm segments. Accuracy of the proposed modelling approach is evaluated for different human healthy and patient/elderly subjects by comparing simulations and experimentally collected data. Acceptable model accuracy is achieved with a generic set of constant weights that prioritize the different criteria. Finally, the proposed STS model is used to determine optimal assistive strategies suitable for either a person with specific body segment weakness or a more general weakness. These strategies are implemented on a robotic mobility assistant and are intensively evaluated by 33 elderlies, mostly not able to perform unassisted STS transfers. The validation results show a promising STS transfer success rate and overall user satisfaction

An Integrated Decision Making Approach for Adaptive Shared Control of Mobility Assistance Robots

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Mobility assistance robots provide support to elderly or patients during walking. The design of a safe and intuitive assistance behavior is one of the major challenges in this context. We present an integrated approach for the context-specific, on-line adaptation of the assistance level of a rollator-type mobility assistance robot by gain-scheduling of low-level robot control parameters. A human-inspired decision-making model, the drift-diffusion Model, is introduced as the key principle to gain-schedule parameters and with this to adapt the provided robot assistance in order to achieve a human-like assistive behavior. The mobility assistance robot is designed to provide (a) cognitive assistance to help the user following a desired path towards a predefined destination as well as (b) sensorial assistance to avoid collisions with obstacles while allowing for an intentional approach of them. Further, the robot observes the user long-term performance and fatigue to adapt the overall level of (c) physical assistance provided. For each type of assistance a decision-making problem is formulated that affects different low-level control parameters. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated in technical validation experiments. Moreover, the proposed approach is evaluated in a user study with 35 elderly persons. Obtained results indicate that the proposed gain-scheduling technique incorporating ideas of human decision-making models shows a general high potential for the application in adaptive shared control of mobility assistance robots

Hepatitis B virus genotype D is the only genotype circulating in Iranian chronic carriers, the unique pattern of genotypic homogeneity

Aim: To characterize the hepatitis B virus surface protein genotypes and sequence variations among HBsAg positive chronic Iranian patients from different ethnic groups. Method: The surface genes from 312 patients were amplified and directly sequenced. Results: All strains (100) belonged to genotype D and subtypes ayw2. The average nucleotide mutation frequency was 0.91 (dN/dS < 1.0), indicated negative selection. There was no significant correlation between HBV DNA and ALT levels and the occurrence of amino acid substitutions. However, in terms of HBeAg/Anti-HBe status, the association between both groups for silent nucleotide mutation was strong, indicating selection bias on missense mutations. A higher number of amino acid mutations was found in anti-HBe positive versus HBeAg positive patients.Conclusion: The uniqueness pattern of HBV genetics hemogeniety together with the low mutational frequency indicated that HBV has introduced to Iran recently and isolation of people in the absence of intermixing with other genotypes led to a homologous pattern. © 2014 ACT

Evaluating the sit-to-stand transfer assistance from a smart walker in older adults with motor impairments

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness and user satisfaction with the sit-to-stand (STS) assistance system of a smart walker (SW), and to identify factors associated with them in potential users. Methods: A total of 33 older adults (29 women, aged 6565 years) with motor impairments (habitual rollator use) and no severe cognitive impairment (Mini-Mental State Examination 6517 points) carried out a Five-Chair Stand Test without assistance and five STS transfers with the STS assistance system. Based on the number of successfully completed STS transfers, success rates were calculated for the Five-Chair Stand Test and the SW-assisted STS transfers, and compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. User satisfaction was assessed using the Tele-healthcare Satisfaction Questionnaire-Wearable Technology (0\u201380 points, higher score = higher satisfaction). Bivariate correlations and multiple linear regression analyses were used to identify participant characteristics associated with the success rate and user satisfaction with the STS assistance system. Results: The success rate for the SW-assisted STS transfers was significantly higher than for the Five-Chair Stand Test (93.3 \ub1 12.9% vs 54.5 \ub1 50.6%, P < 0.001). User satisfaction was high (Tele-healthcare Satisfaction Questionnaire-Wearable Technology 62.5 \ub1 11.2 points). The success rate with the STS assistance system was not significantly associated with any participant characteristics. Higher body mass index was a significant independent predictor of higher user satisfaction. Conclusions: The SW-integrated STS assistance system can provide effective STS support with high user satisfaction for a wide range of potential users. Our findings suggest the high potential of the STS assistance system for promoting mobility, independence and quality of life for older adults with motor impairments. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2020; 20: 312\u2013316

Human sit-to-stand transfer modeling for optimal control of assistive robots

Sit-to-stand (STS) transfers are a common human task which involves very complex sensorimotor processes to control the highly nonlinear musculoskeletal system. In this paper, typical unassisted and assisted human STS transfers are formulated as optimal feedback control problem that finds a compromise between task end-point accuracy, human balance, jerk, effort, and torque change and takes further human biomechanical control constraints into account. Differential dynamic programming is employed, which allows taking the full, nonlinear human dynamics into consideration. The biomechanical dynamics of the human is modeled by a six link rigid body including leg, trunk and arm segments. Accuracy of the proposed modelling approach is evaluated for different human healthy subjects by comparing simulations and experimentally collected data. Acceptable model accuracy is achieved with a generic set of constant weights that prioritize the different criteria. The proposed STS model is finally used to determine optimal assistive strategies to be performed by a robotic mobility assistant suitable for either a person with specific body segment weakness or a more general weakness

In vivo wound healing activity of a herbal ointment in rat

Background and objectives: The wounds are still the health tribulations at the present time. In the present research the effect of a new herbal ointment (Oppyheal) in treatment of rat’s wound has been investigated. The effectiveness of the ointment was compared with the Fibrinolysin/DNAse. Methods: Fifty four male Wistar rats were used. The wound was created on the back cervical skin of the animals under anesthesia in three different sizes. The animals in each size group were randomly divided into three groups. The control group did not receive the ointments. The reference group was given the Fibrinolysin/DNAse and the third group was treated with the Oppyheal. The products were topically used once per day until the wounds of one group were completely healed. The size of the wound area was measured in days 0-20 by a standard reference ruler. The reduction in size of the wound was calculated and analyzed. The recovered skin of all animals were examined histologically,

Evaluation von robotergestützten Rollatoren aus der Perspektive der Nutzer. Ein Systematisches Revies

Hintergrund: Robotergestützte Rollatoren sind mit technisch fortgeschrittenen Systemen zur physischen, kognitiven und sensorischen Unterstützung des Nutzers ausgestattet. Bei der Evaluation von „Altersgerechten Assistenzsystemen für ein selbstbestimmtes Leben“ ist nicht nur die Überprüfung der technischen Funktionsfähigkeit wichtig, sondern auch die der Benutzertauglichkeit, der Effektivität und der Sicherheit des Systems aus der Perspektive des Nutzers. Zielstellung: Ziel des systematischen Reviews war es, das methodische Vorgehen von Studien zur Evaluierung robotergestützter Rollatoren aus der Nutzerperspektive zusammenzufassen und Empfehlungen für zukünftige Evaluationsstudien zu geben. Methodik: Eine systematische Literaturrecherche wurde nach Cochrane-Standards in den elektronischen Datenbanken Pubmed und IEEE Xplore durchgeführt (bis 12/2014). Folgende Einschlusskriterien wurden definiert: Evaluationsstudien zur Interaktion zwischen einem robotergestützten Rollator und dem Nutzer, keine Einzelfallstudien, publiziert in Englisch. Ergebnisse: Insgesamt konnten 28 Studien identifiziert werden. Diese zeigten hinsichtlich der Zielgruppe, der Studienteilnehmer sowie der verwendeten Studiendesigns und Assessmentverfahren eine große Heterogenität. Eine generische Methodik zur Evaluierung von robotergestützten Rollatoren konnte nicht identifiziert werden. Methodische Mängel zeigten sich in der unzureichenden Stichprobenbeschreibung und -größe sowie im Fehlen von geeigneten, standardisierten und validierten Assessmentverfahren. Die langfristige Nutzung in der habituellen Umgebung der Nutzer wurde nicht evaluiert. Schlussfolgerung: Für zukünftige Evaluationsstudien können folgende Empfehlungen gegeben werden: klare Definition der Zielgruppe; adäquate Studienteilnehmer; Einschluss anderer Mobilitätshilfen als Vergleich; Evaluation habitueller Anwendung von fortgeschrittenen Prototypen; angemessene Assessmentstrategien mit standardisierten und validierten Methoden; statistische Überprüfung der Studienergebnisse. Die Assessmentstrategien sollten außerdem auf spezifische Funktionalitäten des robotergestützten Rollators ausgerichtet sein, um eine individuell zugeschnittene Bewertung der innovativen Funktionen zu ermöglichen und um deren Mehrwert dokumentieren zu können