Evaluation of Awareness and Attitude of Telemedicine among Primary Healthcare Workers in Deprived Area Health Centers

Background. Telemedicine has the potential to make healthcare more efficient, organized, and available and is a more beneficial technology that can ease preventive treatment and improve long-term health management. This is especially essential for those who face financial or regional reasons to get quality treatment. Telemedicine in Iran is a new medical field and a noble way to access medical facilities for populations living in deprived areas, and the primary healthcare workers in these deprived medical centers are the implementers of telemedicine in those areas; we aimed to investigate the awareness and attitude towards telemedicine among all the healthcare workers in these centers. Method. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study at the Health Centers of Raz County in North Khorasan Province, Iran, and 149 healthcare workers were included. For collecting information, we used a questionnaire that consisted of two parts. The first part contains the demographic data of health care workers, and the second part includes the 5-point Likert scale questionnaire (questions on telemedicine awareness, attitude, and self-report readiness). Result. Most participants (51%) were male, and 69.8% were married. The most frequent sources of information about telemedicine are colleagues (40.3%), continuing education (24.7%), and social media and the internet (10.1%). Awareness did not significantly relate to gender, age, marital status, or work experience, but awareness of physicians and midwives is higher than other groups (p<0.05). The awareness of healthcare workers using continuing education, articles, workshops, or conferences was significantly higher (p<0.05). The attitude scores for most questions are above 3.4 and reflect a positive attitude about telemedicine. Attitudes did not show a significant relation to gender, age, marital status, or work experience. Conclusion. Using telemedicine in developing countries, rural or urban areas have a high potential to improve epidemiological investigations, disease control, and clinical case management. Providing healthcare professionals with more information about new technologies in healthcare, such as telemedicine, can help get a more realistic picture of their perceptions

The Kinematics Gait Pattern Analysis of Thin, Normal and Obese Children

Objective: Obesity is associated with numerous health problems such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, type II diabetes, cerebrovascular diseases, and coronary heart diseases. Gait as an effective factor in controlling obesity is very important in human motor development. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of obesity and slimming on the gait kinematics in children. Methods: Thirty student boys with the age of 7-9, based on weight &ndash;age percentile and body mass index were divided to three normal, thin and overweight groups. All the children were healthy and had no physical abnormality. The 3D motion analysis was used for measuring gait parameters such as walking speed, stride length, stride width, single support phase duration, double support and swing phase duration. ANOVA was run for the purpose of data analysis. Result: The findings indicated that there not significant differences between walking speed (0/056), stride length (0/164) and stride width (0/126) in normal, thin and obese children, but there were significant differences in swing phase (0/004), single support (0/001) and double support (0/008) phases duration, between normal, thin and obese children and that obesity can affect some of the spatiotemporal parameters in children&rsquo;s gait which can cause changes in obese children&rsquo;s gait patterns. Conclusion: The results of this study have shown that when the movement system is under pressure, some kinematics gait factors may change which can help better movement control

Equitable Risk Allocation in Construction Projects: Fuzzy Bargaining Game Approach

An equitable risk allocation between contracting parties plays a vital role in enhancing the performance of the project. This research presents a new quantitative risk allocation approach by integrating fuzzy logic and bargaining game theory. Owing to the imprecise and uncertain nature of players’ payoffs at different risk allocation strategies, fuzzy logic is implemented to determine the value of players’ payoffs based on the experience and subjective judgment of experts involved in the project. Having determined the players' payoffs, bargaining game theory is then applied to find the equitable risk allocation between the client and contractor. Four different methods including symmetric Nash, non-symmetric Nash, non-symmetric Kalai–Smorodinsky and non-symmetric area monotonic are implemented to determine the equitable risk allocation. To evaluate the performance of the proposed model, it is implemented in a pipeline project and the quantitative risk allocation is performed for the inflation risk as one of the most significant identified risks

Does the ketogenic diet improve neurological disorders by influencing gut microbiota? A systematic review

Abstract Background The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the changes in gut microbiota (GM) induced by the Ketogenic Diets (KD) as a potential underlying mechanism in the improvement of neurological diseases. Methods A comprehensive search was conducted on three electronic databases, including PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus until December 2022. The inclusion criteria were studies that described any changes in GM after consuming KD in neurological patients. Full text of studies such as clinical trials and cohorts were added. The quality assessment of cohort studies was conducted using the Newcastle–Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale and for the clinical trials using the Cochrane Collaboration tool. The search, screening, and data extraction were performed by two researchers independently. Results Thirteen studies examining the effects of the KD on the GM in neurological patients were included. Studies have shown that KD improves clinical outcomes by reducing disease severity and recurrence rates. An increase in Proteobacteria phylum, Escherichia, Bacteroides, Prevotella, Faecalibacterium, Lachnospira, Agaricus, and Mrakia genera and a reduction in Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria phyla, Eubacterium, Cronobacter, Saccharomyces, Claviceps, Akkermansia and Dialister genera were reported after KD. Studies showed a reduction in concentrations of fecal short-chain fatty acids and branched-chain fatty acids and an increase in beta Hydroxybutyrate, trimethylamine N-oxide, and N-acetylserotonin levels after KD. Conclusion The KD prescribed in neurological patients has effectively altered the GM composition and GM-derived metabolites

Optimum Production of Cellulose NanoCrystal from Cotton Stalk under Acidic Hydrolysis Condition

In the present study, preparation of cotton stalk (Sahel variety) as one of the common agricultural residues was studied through three stages as Soda-AQ chemical pulping, delignification and alkaline treatment, aiming for the production of cellulose nanocrystal. In order to identify the optimum condition for the preparation of cellulose nanocrystal, acidic hydrolysis of the produced alpha-cellulose was done using 64% sulfuric acid, 25, 35 and 45 minute as time and at 35, 45 and 55 degree centigrade as temperature. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-Ray Diffraction, and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) were used to identify the quantitative and qualitative properties of cellulose nanocrystals. AFM micrographs showed that more severe condition of the treatments decreased the thickness of the cellulose nanocrystals. XRD results also demonstrated that the preparation stages of alpha-cellulose as well as acidic hydrolysis treatments much effectively increased the degree of crystallinity. DLS results indicated that 98.7 percent of the produced nanocrystals under the condition of 55 degree centigrade and 45 minute were in the range of 18-95 ηm, whose highest abundance was in the range of 18-39 ηm. Thus, the mentioned condition were determined as the best and optimum condition for the production of cellulose nanocrystal from cotton stalk cellulose

Data_Sheet_1_How did lockdown and social distancing policies change the eating habits of diabetic patients during the COVID-19 pandemic? A systematic review.docx

BackgroundAfter the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments established national lockdowns and social distancing as an effective plan to control this disease. As a result of the lockdown policies, diabetic patients` access to food products, medication, and routine follow-ups is disrupted, making it difficult for them to control their disease.MethodsInternational databases, including PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus, were searched until April 2022. All observational studies included assessing the impact of lockdown and social distancing on eating habits (as primary outcome), and glycemic and anthropometric indices (as secondary outcomes) of diabetic patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Scale was used to assess the quality rating of the studies.ResultsOverall, 22 studies were included in this systematic review, the results of which varied in different communities. In most studies, consumption of grains, fruits, and vegetables was reported to increase. On the other hand, consumption of snacks and sweets was reported to increase in other surveys. During the COVID-19 lockdown, most diabetic patients preferred to cook meals at home, using less takeout, fast foods, and alcoholic drinks. Although the patients mostly improved their eating habits, the glycemic and anthropometric indices were contradictory in different studies. Studies showed that the eating habits of diabetic patients vary from country to country, even in some cases and studies done in the same country showed different results. For example, all the studies done in Japan showed an increase in the consumption of snacks and sweets, leading to weight gain in the patients. However, conflicting results in eating habits have been observed in studies conducted in India.ConclusionThe lockdown policies have led to a beneficial change in the eating habits of diabetic patients to consume more fruits and vegetables and reduce the consumption of animal protein products and alcoholic beverages. While some diabetic patients have increased consumption of snacks and sweets, leading to a disturbance in their glycemic and anthropometric indices control. Understanding the consequences of lockdown and social distancing of the diabetic patient during the COVID-19 pandemic can help public health authorities make better recommendations to improve glycemic control.</p