Improvement in Activity of Daily Living and Fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis Patients: the Impact of Nutrition Education

Background: Fatigue is one of the most common complications of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). However, a few studies are available on the effect of nutrition education on fatigue and Activities of Daily Living (ADL) in patients with MS. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the effect of nutrition education on fatigue and ability to perform ADL in patients with MS. Methods: This quasi-experimental one group, pretest and posttest study was performed on 40 patients with MS, who were conveniently recruited among patients, registered at the Iranian MS Society. Data were collected through a demographic questionnaire, the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), a standard ADL scale, and a 24-hour food recall for two days. The instruments were completed at the start and two months after the intervention. Descriptive statistics and paired t test were used to analyze the data. Results: Sixty percent of the patients had severe fatigue before the intervention while, 90% of them reported mild fatigue after the intervention. The mean posttest ADL was increased by 12.45 units after the intervention when compared with the pretest value (P<0.001). Moreover, the daily intake of vitamin D and E, calcium and omega3 were lower than 75% of the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) in most of the patients. Conclusions: The present study showed the beneficial effects of nutritional training on fatigue and ADL in patients with MS. Therefore, nurses and dietitians should regularly assess the patients’ dietary pattern and train them and their families about appropriate diet

Comparison of the efficacy of NeoNiTi, ProTaper, and Reciproc files in the retreatment of curved root canals: a CBCT assessment

Objective: Effective tools and methods are applied during root canal retreatment to eliminate root canal obturation materials and preserve the initial root canal anatomy. The present study compared the efficacy of Reciproc, Neoniti, ProTaper, and Hedstrom files in the retreatment of curved root canals. Material and methods: In the present in vitro study, 100 root canals with 25‒45ºcurvatures were used. After the samples were initially prepared and examined by CBCT, the root canals were obturated with gutta-percha and randomly assigned to four groups (n=25). A retreatment was carried out in each group with NeoNiTi, ProTaper, Reciproc, and Hedstrom files. CBCT examinations were carried out again under the same conditions. The samples were evaluated at 3-, 6-, and 9-mm distances from the apex on the first and the second CBCT image for root canal transportation and remaining gutta-percha in the root canals. The time required for retreating each canal in each sample was recorded. One-way ANOVA and corresponding non-parametric tests were applied for data analysis. Results: The root canal transportation in the NeoNiTi group was lower than that in the other groups and significantly different from the ProTaper group (P&lt;0.05). There was a remaining gutta-percha after re-treatments in all the four groups, which was not statistically significant (P&gt;0.05). Conclusion: Despite the fact that the NeoNiTi file produced less transportation than other file systems evaluated in the retreatment of curved root canals, all the files were very effective at the clinically acceptable levels

Intensive care unit, cardiac care unit, and emergency department nurses' perceptions of medical device-related pressure injuries: a cross-sectional study

Background Nurses' perception of medical device-related pressure injuries (MDRPIs) may affect their performance, but there is a lack of studies in this area. Purpose The current study aimed to examine intensive care unit (ICU), cardiac care unit (CCU) and emergency department nurses' perception of proper prevention of MDRPIs and care for individuals with such injuries. Methods This descriptive study was conducted in 4 general hospitals in Iran in 2021. All nurses (N = 310) working in ICUs, CCUs and emergency departments of these facilities were invited to complete a researcher-made demographic checklist and an 11-item questionnaire to assess attitudes toward MDRPIs. The questionnaire item responses were scored from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) with the total score for the 11 items ranging from 11 to 55. A score of 11 to 25 was categorized as indicating a negative attitude toward proper prevention of MDRPIs and care for such patients; a score of 26 to 40 indicated a neutral attitude, and a score >40 indicated a positive attitude. Results A total of 260 nurses fulfilled the data collection tool. The response rate was 83.8%. The mean total score of attitude toward MDRPIs was 41.7. No significant relationship was observed between the total score of nurses' attitudes and their demographic variables. Of the 260 participants, 159 stated they had not received any trainings on MDRPIs at nursing schools during their education, 212 stated they had not participated in any scientific workshops on MDRPIs, and 167 described their knowledge about the prevention and care of MDRPIs as insufficient. Conclusion Among ICU, CCU, and emergency nurses in Iran, most had a positive attitude toward the prevention and care of MDRPIs, but steps should be taken to offer more opportunities for nurses to increase their knowledge in this area

Molecular survey of aminoglycoside-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from tertiary hospitals in Qazvin, Iran

Aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes (AMEs) and 16S rRNA methylases (16S RMTase) are two main resistance mechanisms against aminoglycosides. This study aimed to evaluate the frequency of AMEs and 16S rRNA methylase genes among aminoglycoside nonsusceptible Acinetobacter baumannii isolates and to assess their clonal relationship using repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR (rep-PCR). In this cross-sectional study, a total of 192 A. baumannii isolates were collected from the patients hospitalized in Qazvin, Iran (January 2016 to January 2018). Identification of isolates was performed by standard laboratory methods and API 20E strips. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by Kirby–Bauer method followed by examination of the genes encoding the AMEs and 16S RMTase by PCR and sequencing methods. The clonal relationship of isolates was carried out by rep-PCR. In total, 98.4% of isolates were nonsusceptible to aminoglycosides, 98.4%, 97.9% and 83.9% of isolates were found to be non-susceptible against gentamicin, tobramycin and amikacin, respectively. The frequencies of aph(30 )-VI, aac(60 )-Ib, aac(3)-II, aph(30 )-Ia and armA genes were 59.3%, 39.2%, 39.2%, 31.7% and 69.8%, respectively, either alone or in combination. Rep-PCR results showed that the aminoglycoside non-susceptible isolates belonged to three distinct clones: A (79.4%), B (17.5%) and C (3.2%). The findings of this study showed a high frequency for AMEs with the emergence of armA genes among the aminoglycoside non-susceptible A. baumannii isolates. Rational administration of aminoglycosides as well as using an appropriate infection control policy may reduce the presence of resistance to antibiotics in medical centres

A taste sensor device for unmasking admixing of rancid or winey-vinegary olive oil to extra virgin olive oil

Electrochemical sensor devices have gathered great attention in food analysis namely for olive oil evaluation. The adulteration of extra-virgin olive oil with lower-grade olive oil is a common worldwide fraudulent practice, which detection is a challenging task. The potentiometric fingerprints recorded by lipid polymeric sensor membranes of an electronic tongue, together with linear discriminant analysis and simulated annealing meta-heuristic algorithm, enabled the detection of extra-virgin olive oil adulterated with olive oil for which an intense sensory defect could be perceived, specifically rancid or winey-vinegary negative sensations. The homemade designed taste device allowed the identification of admixing of extra-virgin olive oil with more than 2.5% or 5% of rancid or winey-vinegary olive oil, respectively. Predictive mean sensitivities of 84±4% or 92±4% and specificities of 79±6% or 93±3% were obtained for rancid or winey-vinegary adulterations, respectively, regarding an internal-validation procedure based on a repeated K-fold cross-validation variant (4 folds×10 repeats, ensuring that the dataset was forty times randomly split into 4 folds, leaving 25% of the data for validation purposes). This performance was satisfactory since, according to the legal physicochemical and sensory analysis, the intentionally adulterated olive oil with percentages of 2.510%, could still be commercialized as virgin olive oil. It could also be concluded that at a 5% significance level, the trained panelists could not distinguish extra-virgin olive oil samples from those adulterated with 2.5% of rancid olive oil or up to 5% of winey-vinegary olive oil. Thus, the electronic tongue proposed in this study can be foreseen as a practical and powerful tool to detect this kind of worldwide common fraudulent practice of high quality olive oil.This work was financially supported by Project POCI-01–0145FEDER-006984 – Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM, Project UID/QUI/ 00616/2013 – CQ-VR, Project UID/BIO/04469/2013 – CEB and strategic project PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2014 – CIMO all funded by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) – and by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal. Nuno Rodrigues thanks FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for the Ph.D. Grant (SFRH/BD/104038/2014). Souheib Oueslati is also grateful for the support of the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Investigation of Durability of Self-Compacting Concretes Made of Different Aggregates under the Influence of Sulfate Environment using twist-off test

In many parts of Iran, especially in the southern regions of the country where concrete is exposed to seawater, sulfates are the main destructive factors of concrete. The main factors related to the durability of concrete are the type of materials, concrete structure, density, and curing. Inadequate compaction of concrete due to the lack of acceptable vibration in the limited parts between the formwork and rebars is one of the main factors of low structural reliability exposed to sulfates. Due to the lack of information related to the effect of aggregate strength on the performance of self-compacting concrete, in this paper, the effects of type and strength of aggregates on the durability of self-compacting concrete against sodium sulfate is presented. Granite, marble, andesite, rhyolite, travertine, lime, green tuff, crystalline green tuff, and basalt were used to make concrete. "Twist-off" and "Drilled core" tests were employed to measure the compressive strength of rocks. "Twist-off" test is an accurate method with a wide range of applications in determining the strength of materials both in the laboratory and on site and is considered as a fast, accurate and low-cost technique with minor failure in the field of semi-destructive testing. The attractiveness of this method is in accuracy, speed, simplicity, minor breakdown, and low cost of doing it, which makes it more comparable than other on-site tests. This test can be performed in horizontal, vertical, and generally on any smooth surface without the need for prior planning. The tools used in this test are very simple and accessible and performing the test does not require previous skills. The experiments were performed at ages 7, 14, and 28. The results show a direct relationship between the strength of the parent rock and the strength of self-compacting concrete made with of rock. At an early age, there is an increase in compressive strength of samples placed in sodium sulfate compared to samples treated in water. Also, a high correlation coefficient was obtained between the results of the "twist-off" test and the "Drilled core" test, which could be used to measure the compressive strength of rocks with the "twist-off" test with high confidence

Distributed Sensor Systems: Practice and Applications

This book focuses on the distinct but tightly inter-related areas of development for distributed sensing systems In this book, the authors discuss the technological developments lead by sensor technology, addressing viable new applications to inspire a technological evolution. Under the advanced and visionary approach of distributed intelligence, the authors focus on three distinct but tightly inter-related areas of developments for distributed sensing systems (DSS): firstly, the sensor technology embracing the conversion of the phenomena of interest into desirable form of signal such as electric, secondly, the interaction process between sensing points which requires immense intelligence loosely called networking, and finally, the adoption of useful maturing systems through potential applications for right impacts for a better life and a brighter economy. Furthermore, the book contains a number of case studies and typical applications illustrating the technical details, features and functions of the systems, as well as demonstrating their benefits and limitations. Key Features: Discusses the technological developments lead by sensor technology Addresses viable new applications Contains a number of case studies and typical applications illustrating the technical details, features and functions of the systems Demonstrates the benefits and limitations of distributed sensing Written by experts with vast experience in the field (both in academia and industry) This book will be an invaluable reference for postgraduates studying related courses (communication engineering, engineering management, computer systems, industrial process, automation, design, environmental, urban, surveillance), R&D engineers, system and application designers, researchers, industrial project managers and engineers, and technical and strategic managers planning new products