Numerical Analysis of Drivability of Non-Uniform Piles

This paper presents a numerical analysis of pile driving for tapered piles using FLAC software. The approach involves idealization of pile-soil system in pile drivability. The pile is assumed to be vertical and have elastic and linear behaviour. The soil is assumed to be elasto-plastic material which obeys the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. To allow slip between the pile and the soil in pile driving, interface elements are used at the pile-soil borders along the shaft and the toe. Quiet boundaries are considered in the lateral and vertical directions for the soil to absorb traveling waves. The obtained numerical results are compared with experimental results, leading to a satisfactory agreement. It will be shown that with increasing the angle of taper, the driving stresses decrease and the permanent pile toe settlement increases. These are interesting phenomena in pile driving and are on the safe side for driven piles

Improvement of Consumption of fruits and vegetables aimed at the prevention of obesity in girl students

Background: The intake of fruit and vegetables is considered an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Considering the importance of nutrition education especially Consumption of fruits and vegetables this study was performed to determine effect of health Education Based on Health Belief Model on the improvement of Consumption of fruits and vegetables aimed at the prevention of obesity in girl students in Shahr-e-kord. Methods: Students aged 13-14 years (n 154) were recruited from four high schools in Shahr-e-kord city and randomly allocated to a control group or intervention group. The setting for the interventions was schools. The intervention lasted for 6 weeks. The instruments for data collecting were questionnaire health belief model based and FFQ questionnaire. The HBM questionnaire was completed 3 times (before, immediately and 2 months after education) and FFQ questionnaire was completed 2 times (before and 2 months after education) by students. After pre-test, 6 educational session classes in experimental group were performed. Finally data collected and analyzed by SPSS16 computer software (T test, T-Paired, repeated measure ANOVA). Results: Two groups with no significant difference in terms of demographic variables. Before the intervention was not significant differences between the scores of different structures of this model in two groups (P>0/05), after the intervention was significant differences between experimental and control groups in the levels of knowledge, Perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and Consumption of fruits and vegetables (p<0.001). Conclusion: According to the results, intervention has positive impact on the improvement of Consumption of fruits and vegetables among students

Akutni diseminirani encefalomijelitis koji izgleda kao akutni meningoencefalitis

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that usually occurs following an antecedent infection or vaccination. Children and young adults are predominantly affected, but it has low incidence in children younger than 3 years. The disease manifests with a wide range of neurological abnormalities and a variable combination of fever, headache, meningism, convulsion and cranial nerve palsies, and there are no pathognomonic clinical or laboratory findings. So, establishment of definitive diagnosis is challenging in infants. This challenge may result in delayed diagnosis and consequently delayed treatment of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, which may cause permanent neurological disability. Herein, we report an infant with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, who mimicked the symptoms of meningoencephalitis and the correct diagnosis and treatment were delayed till the development of a severe phase of the disease.Akutni diseminirani encefalomijelitis je upalna demijelinizirajuća bolest središnjega živčanog sustava koja se najčešće javlja nakon prethodne infekcije ili cijepljenja. Uglavnom zahvaća djecu i mlađe odrasle osobe, ali ima nisku incidenciju u djece mlađe od tri godine. Bolest se očituje širokom lepezom neuroloških nenormalnosti i različitim kombinacijama groznice, glavobolje, meningizma, konvulzija i paralize kranijskih živaca, a nema nikakvih karakterističnih kliničkih ili laboratorijskih nalaza. Stoga je kod dojenčadi postavljanje konačne dijagnoze vrlo zahtjevno, što može dovesti do kašnjenja u dijagnozi i posljedično zakašnjelog liječenja, a to opet može uzrokovati trajne neurološke posljedice. Ovdje prikazujemo slučaj dojenčeta s akutnim diseminiranim encefalomijelitisom, kod kojega su simptomi bili slični simptomima meningoencefalitisa pa je zakašnjelo postavljanje točne dijagnoze, a time i liječenje dovelo do razvoja teže faze bolesti

Determination of health belief model structures and health-promoting nutritional behaviors in prevention of cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death and disabilities in the world. The purpose of the present study is to determine Health Belief Model structures and Health-Promoting nutritional behaviors In Prevention of cardiovascular disease. Methods: This study was a descriptive-analytic survey in 2010. A total number of 68 housewives were recruited in this study using a randomly sampling method. Data were collected using a self-made questionnaire and FFQ. Obtained data analyzed by SPSS16 software in two categories of descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Results indicated that the scores of HBM structures were low. Also Mean consumption of fruits in housewives was 130/24±57/72 and Mean consumption of vegetables in housewives was 220/73±112/85. There was a significant relation between all the HBM structures and consumption of fruit and vegetables (p<0.001). Conclusion: It seems necessary; using interventional and educational approaches appropriate for target group features can help us take effective steps towards health promotion and Prevention of cardiovascular disease

Relationship between serum anti-heat shock protein 27 antibody levels and obesity

Background Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) is an intracellular molecular chaperone that is expressed at high levels following the exposure of cells to environmental stressors such as heat, toxins, and free radicals. High levels of HSP antigens and antibody titers have been reported in several conditions including cardiovascular disease and cancers. We measured serum anti-HSP27 antibody levels in 993 subjects and assessed the associations between serum anti-HSP27 antibody levels and demographic characteristics including coronary risk factors. Methods A total of 993 subjects were recruited as part of the Mashhad Stroke and Heart Atherosclerotic Disorders (MASHAD) cohort study. Demographic, clinical, and biochemical parameters and serum anti-HSP27 antibody titers were determined in all the subjects. Results Serum anti-HSP27 antibody levels increased with increasing age in men. No significant differences in levels were detected between men and women. Serum anti-HSP27 antibody levels were significantly higher in obese subjects than in nonobese subjects (P = 0.046); however, no significant influence of smoking status was observed. Moreover, serum anti-HSP27 antibody titers were positively associated with age, body mass index, waist/hip ratio, the presence of diabetes mellitus, nonsmoking habit, serum triglycerides, cholesterol, and high-sensitivity c-reactive protein. Conclusion We have found that serum anti-HSP27 antibody titers are related to several cardiovascular risk factors, necessitating further studies on the value of this emerging marker for risk stratification

Investigation of the effect of education on nutritional knowledge, attitude and performance of primary school students in Ilam - 2015

Background and objective: Nutritional habits are formed in childhood and will remain until the end of life. Proper nutrition in childhood leads to the promotion of growth and development of child and reduces the risk of chronic diseases during adulthood. This study aimed to assess the effect of education about nutrition on nutritional knowledge, attitude and performance of students in primary schools. Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study which is conducted in 2015. 180 students from primary school in Ilam city were selected randomly and assigned into case (90 people) and control (90 people) groups. Before initiation of educations, a pretest was held in both groups. Then for the case group, a nutritional education was performed during 5 sessions of 45 minutes. After 2 weeks of finishing the educational sessions, posttest was performed by giving a questionnaire of knowledge, attitude and performance to case and control groups. Eventually, two groups were compared with each other in terms of nutritional knowledge, attitude and performance. In order to analyze the collected data, SPSS 21 software was used. The significance level of tests was 5% and descriptive statistics including tables and numeric indices and also inferential tests including paired t-Test, independent t-Test and Chi-square were used. Results: Findings of this study showed that in the case group, there was a statistically significant difference between the mean score of knowledge, attitude and performance of students before and after education (P 0.05). There was also a significant difference between case and control groups after education (P< 0.05). Conclusion: Nutritional education may lead to the improvement of nutritional knowledge, attitude and performance of primary school students. Considering the importance and role of students and also low cost of preventive measures in comparison with therapeutic measures, it looks necessary to expand this type of educational program

May Measurement Month 2018: a pragmatic global screening campaign to raise awareness of blood pressure by the International Society of Hypertension

Aims Raised blood pressure (BP) is the biggest contributor to mortality and disease burden worldwide and fewer than half of those with hypertension are aware of it. May Measurement Month (MMM) is a global campaign set up in 2017, to raise awareness of high BP and as a pragmatic solution to a lack of formal screening worldwide. The 2018 campaign was expanded, aiming to include more participants and countries. Methods and results Eighty-nine countries participated in MMM 2018. Volunteers (≥18 years) were recruited through opportunistic sampling at a variety of screening sites. Each participant had three BP measurements and completed a questionnaire on demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥90 mmHg, or taking antihypertensive medication. In total, 74.9% of screenees provided three BP readings. Multiple imputation using chained equations was used to impute missing readings. 1 504 963 individuals (mean age 45.3 years; 52.4% female) were screened. After multiple imputation, 502 079 (33.4%) individuals had hypertension, of whom 59.5% were aware of their diagnosis and 55.3% were taking antihypertensive medication. Of those on medication, 60.0% were controlled and of all hypertensives, 33.2% were controlled. We detected 224 285 individuals with untreated hypertension and 111 214 individuals with inadequately treated (systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg) hypertension. Conclusion May Measurement Month expanded significantly compared with 2017, including more participants in more countries. The campaign identified over 335 000 adults with untreated or inadequately treated hypertension. In the absence of systematic screening programmes, MMM was effective at raising awareness at least among these individuals at risk

Modelling passenger waiting time using large-scale automatic fare collection data: an Australian case study

Passenger waiting time at transit stops is an important component of overall travel time and is perceived to be less desirable than in-vehicle travel time or access time. Therefore, an accurate model to estimate waiting time is necessary to better plan for transit and to improve patronage. The majority of previous studies on waiting time have either made very limiting assumptions on the arrival distribution of passengers or lacked a large-scale and high-quality dataset. The smartcard fare collection system in South-East Queensland, Australia, has provided the opportunity of very large-scale and highly accurate data on passenger boarding and alighting times and locations. In this research, all 130,000 daily rail passengers in all 145 stations of a network are considered. First a methodology is developed to match each individual passenger with the most likely rail service he/she boarded. Then, a hazard-based duration modelling approach is adapted to model passenger waiting time as a function of a variety of factors that influence waiting time. Log-logistic accelerated failure time (AFT) models are inferred to be appropriate among the models tested. The results indicate that: (a) the waiting time can be predicted accurately at various confidence levels; (b) the waiting time at all network stations can be predicted with a single model; and (c) a wide range of influencing parameters are statistically significant in the model, which can be categorized to temporal, infrastructure and operation, demographics, and trip characteristics parameters. The results of this study can be used for demand estimation, operational analysis, transit scheduling, and network design through an understanding of the effects of influential variables on waiting time

Application of smart card data in validating a large-scale multi-modal transit assignment model

The accuracy of transit assignment plays an important role in the successful design and operation of a transit system. The majority of previous studies on validating transit assignment models has used limited survey data or has lacked a large-scale multimodal and high quality dataset. Considering the advantages of smart card [automatic fare collection (AFC)] systems, the aims of this study are to put forward a methodological framework to validate existing transit assignment models and to quantify the performance of these models. Our study combines data from three sources: the General Transit Feed Specification, an AFC system, and a strategic transport model from a large-scale multimodal public transport network, namely the South-East Queensland (SEQ) network in Australia. The AFC system in SEQ has provided a very large and highly accurate dataset on passenger boardings and alightings for the three transit modes of bus, rail and ferry. Following a data analysis, an origin–destination trip matrix is estimated for the AM peak period using AFC data as an input to the transit assignment model. Then, the results of the transit assignment model are compared with the actual passengers’ route choices over the same period, at different levels of aggregation. The model performance is quantified by each route (and direction), by each segment of each route (and direction), and by each stop. The results indicate that relatively tighter thresholds are required to validate the transit assignment at the segment level than at the stop level. Furthermore, the validation results indicate that the greatest error is realized for the bus mode, while the level of accuracy in the rail mode is the best. The results suggest a segment-level analysis should be used as the most useful level of aggregation for future calibration and validation of transit assignment models