A Study of Domestic Violence against Women: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis

Background: Domestic violence is the most popular form of violence against women. Phenomenon of In the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women-1993 (DEVAW), was introduced as a barrier for reaching equality, development and peace. The objective of this research was to study individuals’ lived experiences, especially the experiences of women exposed to violence in Iran.Methods: This research is a descriptive research which employs a systemic review. The statistical population consists of all the qualitative studies conducted in Iran to consider the physical violence against women. To collect the data, Persian keywords for violence against women, domestic violence, wife abuse, violence against spouse and spouses who were beaten were searched in the Iranian online databases including SID, Irandocs, Iranmedex, Iranpsych, and Magiran. As the result of this search, 27 qualitative studies were selected which were exactly dedicated to the domestic violence from the viewpoints of men, women and experts. Then, the repetitions and the studies which were conducted before 2001 were excluded. After close reading of all the researches 10 of them were eventually selected.Results: The most reported items after studying the individuals’ lived experiences of physical violence against women in Iran included patriarchy, drug abuse, inappropriate sociability, lack of men’s mental stability, deficiency in communicative skills between the couples and ignorance of each other’s mental and sexual needs. The most reported strategies also encompass inactive and inefficient approaches such as keeping quiet but preoccupied with the problem, filing complaints, not being on speaking terms for a long while, revenge and deprivation of intercourse.Conclusion: This social issue should be also studied like all other social issues as a multi-dimensional phenomenon in the social context

CT texture analysis: a potential tool for prediction of survival in patients with metastatic clear cell carcinoma treated with sunitinib

BACKGROUND: To assess CT texture based quantitative imaging biomarkers in the prediction of progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma undergoing treatment with Sunitinib. METHODS: In this retrospective study, measurable lesions of 40 patients were selected based on RECIST criteria on standard contrast enhanced CT before and 2 months after treatment with Sunitinib. CT Texture analysis was performed using TexRAD research software (TexRAD Ltd, Cambridge, UK). Using a Cox regression model, correlation of texture parameters with measured time to progression and overall survival were assessed. Evaluation of combined International Metastatic Renal-Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium Model (IMDC) score with texture parameters was also performed. RESULTS: Size normalized standard deviation (nSD) alone at baseline and follow-up after treatment was a predictor of OS (Hazard ratio (HR) = 0.01 and 0.02; 95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.00 – 0.29 and 0.00 – 0.39; p = 0.01 and 0.01). Entropy following treatment and entropy change before and after treatment were both significant predictors of OS (HR = 2.68 and 87.77; 95% CI = 1.14 – 6.29 and 1.26 – 6115.69; p = 0.02 and p = 0.04). nSD was also a predictor of PFS at baseline and follow-up (HR = 0.01 and 0.01: 95% CI: 0.00 – 0.31 and 0.001 – 0.22; p = 0.01 and p = 0.003). When nSD at baseline or at follow-up was combined with IMDC, it improved the association with OS and PFS compared to IMDC alone. CONCLUSION: Size normalized standard deviation from CT at baseline and follow-up scans is correlated with OS and PFS in clear cell renal cell carcinoma treated with Sunitinib

Interactions between biochar and mycorrhizal fungi in a water-stressed agricultural soil

© 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Biochar may alleviate plant water stress in association with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi but research has not been conclusive. Therefore, a glasshouse experiment was conducted to understand how interactions between AM fungi and plants respond to biochar application under water-stressed conditions. A twin chamber pot system was used to determine whether a woody biochar increased root colonisation by a natural AM fungal population in a pasture soil (‘field’ chamber) and whether this was associated with increased growth of extraradical AM fungal hyphae detected by plants growing in an adjacent (‘bait’) chamber containing irradiated soil. The two chambers were separated by a mesh that excluded roots. Subterranean clover was grown with and without water stress and harvested after 35, 49 and 63 days from each chamber. When biochar was applied to the field chamber under water-stressed conditions, shoot mass increased in parallel with mycorrhizal colonisation, extraradical hyphal length and shoot phosphorus concentration. AM fungal colonisation of roots in the bait chamber indicated an increase in extraradical mycorrhizal hyphae in the field chamber. Biochar had little effect on AM fungi or plant growth under well-watered conditions. The biochar-induced increase in mycorrhizal colonisation was associated with increased growth of extraradical AM fungal hyphae in the pasture soil under water-stressed conditions