Nature, Nurture, or Both? Study of sex and gender and their effects on pain

As a pain researcher, in order to have a better understanding of pain, we should adopt a multidimensional view, such as the biopsychosocial (BPS) model and consider physical, psychological, and social elements altogether. The studies in this dissertation are part of the bigger project of SYMBIOME in which the aim is to help to create and develop a prognostic clinical phenotype in people post musculoskeletal (MSK) trauma. Chapter 2 presents a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) in order to assess the structural validity of the first section of the new Gender Pain and Expectation Scale (GPES). Our analysis indicated a 3-factor structure “Relationship-oriented,” “Emotive” and “Goal-oriented”. Its construct validity was also assessed. The subsequent study, chapter 3, explores the roles of sex-at-birth, GPES subscales and their interactions in explaining the variability of Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) Severity and Interference scores. It showed no sex differences in scores of BPI Pain Severity and BPI Pain Interference. GPES Relationship-oriented had a significant association with BPI pain severity (r=0.20) while GPES Emotive had a significant correlation with BPI Interference (r=0.24). Also, hierarchical multivariate linear regression suggested that GPES Emotive could partially explain the variances in pain-related interference. Chapter 4 presents correlations between sex-at-birth, hormones (Progesterone, DHEA-S, Estradiol, and Testosterone), GPES subscales and BPI scores. Also, as our second goal of this chapter, potential pathways between these variables have been tested through structural equation modelling. It has been shown that GPES Relationship-oriented had a significant correlation with progesterone (r=-0.21) and DHEA-S (r=-0.33), and GPES Emotive had a significant correlation with the DHEA-S (r=-0.20). The GPES Goal-oriented had a significant association with estradiol (r=-0.20). Our findings suggest that gender-related interpersonal-expressive characteristics could have mediator roles in relationships between sex-at-birth and pain, and also between the hormones and BPI pain ratings

Monitoring of fisheries resources in artificial reefs in east of Kish Island waters

Artificial reefs are manmade materials deployed under water in order to improve environment and increase the exploitation of fishing area. Usage of artificial technic has developed due to increase of world population and need to supply of protein, aim to restoring of natural specially rehabilitation of demersal fishes. It has effected to increase the production in order sustainable exploitation. Coasts and Islands have destruction due to over harvesting from ecosystems and other activities by humans and natural, these caused many aquatic as demersal fishes has endangered in Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. The artificial reef is one way or method that can improve the environment and restore the aquatic. Iranian fisheries has established an artificial reefs area in west of Kish Island. This area has studied during one year, Data of assembled fishes and physical sampling were collected in seasonal during spring, summer, autumn and wintered. There were tow treatment for sampling as artificial reefs site and a control site. Collected data has analyzed and evaluated by SPSS and Exel. The results showed that there was significant difference between the sites and assembled fishes in artificial reefs were more than control site. Consequently the artificial reefs can be a tool and technic to improve the marine environment and increase the production of fishes, especially the demersal fishes

BETWEEN THE VISUAL AND THE VERBAL: AN AESTHETIC OF OPEN WOUNDS IN POST-TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE OF THE IRAN-IRAQ WAR (1980-1988)

Trauma theory of the 1990s pioneered by Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman, and Geoffrey Hartman has been criticized by postcolonial scholars such as Irene Visser, Michael Balaev, and Stef Craps for being neglectful of the trauma of the colonial world in adopting a deconstructivist approach and psychologization of experiences of trauma. This antagonism between the traditional and postcolonial trauma theory has resulted in even deeper isolation of the human subject at the center of this argument. In my research, I highlight the reality and materiality of traumatic suffering in the shared realm of the human body to suggest a need for a more universal approach that places the emphasis on the significance of the suffering body in its social relations. I argue that a commixture of a pluralist/postcolonialist critique and deconstructivist psychoanalysis is exactly what is needed in non-Western theorizations and practices of representation, on the one hand, in order to address non-Western authoritarian regimes and incompetent governing systems, and, on the other, to recognize the compliance of Western and European colonial or imperial powers in perpetuating suffering. In the first chapter, my analysis of visual representations of the Iran-Iraq war interrogates the transition from complete ideological and revolutionary thought in Iranian Sacred Defense art toward the more troubled self in photography and film. The second chapter, which focuses on the novel Gunǧiškʹhā bihišt Rā mīfahmand [Sparrows Understand Heaven], exemplifies an era of transition, lingering between the romanticized narratives of war and its brutal reality, in those who have not experienced brutalities of war first-hand and struggle to find a balance between the concept of martyrdom and death. In Bagh-e-Boloor (Crystal Garden), examined in the third chapter, both the physical and psychological pressures of war time remain incommunicable by the characters and are thus narrated through a psychoanalytic social realist form in order to highlight the anxieties of the suffocating conditions for women and children at the home front when men die in the battle. In the fourth and last chapter, Ahmad Dehghan’s Man Ghatel-e-Pesaretan Hastam, (A Vital Killing) takes the reader to a whole new level of post-traumatic madness, a state of being where the body itself doesn’t remain immune from the ravages of psychic breakdown, nor does the psyche remain intact from the extremes of bodily wounds

Improvement in the Performance of Tunneling Carbon Nanotube Field Effects Transistor in Presence of Underlap

Underlap between gate and drain/source area is one of the important items non-ideal effects in the device manufacturing process in the nanometer scale. In this paper, for the first time, the effect of underlap between the gate and drain/source area for tunneling carbon nanotube field effects transistor is investigated. To simulate the device, self- consistent solution of Schrodinger and Poisson equations and Non-equilibrium Green’s Function method have been employed. The function of the device is evaluated in terms of the on-state current, off-state current, current ratio, sub-threshold swing, delay time, and the power delay product. The simulation results show that the underlap effect improves some of the device characteristics and has some adverse effects on other characteristics. In the case where the length of underlap area is optimally chosen, the device performance will be improved considerably. Simulation results indicate that underlap significantly reduces the off-state current and thus reduces band-to-band tunneling and ambipolar behavior of the device. Also, the underlap effect by improving the power delay product parameter is a suitable option for low power applications compared with the conventional structure

Comparison of the Dentin Bond Strength of two Self-Etch Adhesives after Prolonged Air-Drying and Additional Light-Curing

Objectives: It has been reported that the water, solvents, or the primer incorporated into adhesive resins decrease the polymerization, compromise the mechanical properties, reduce the bond strength, and lead to a poor bonding performance of self-etch adhesives. This article evaluated the effect of air-drying and light-curing duration of self-etch adhesives on the micro-shear bond strength between composite resin and dentin. Materials and Methods: A total of 120 extracted sound human third molars were randomly divided into twelve groups (n=10). The occlusal dentin in each tooth was exposed. Clearfil SE Bond (CSEB) and Clearfil S3 Bond (CS3B) were used according to the manufacturer’s instructions, followed by air-drying for 3 and 10 seconds in different groups. The adhesives were light-cured for 10, 20 and 40 seconds in different subgroups. Next, the composite resin (Clearfil AP-X) was placed on the dentin surface and was polymerized for 40 seconds. The micro-shear bond strength values were determined using a universal testing machine, and the results were statistically analyzed by three-way ANOVA and Tukey's post-hoc test (α=0.05). Results: CSEB exhibited a significantly higher dentin bond strength than CS3B. Increasing the curing time of CSEB resulted in an increase in the bond strength, whereas an increase in the air-drying time did not affect the bond strength of the two adhesives. Conclusions: Within the limitations of this study, an increase in the curing time improved the bond strength of CSEB, whereas the air-drying time did not affect the bond strength of the evaluated adhesives

Exploring the contributions of sex and traditionally genderized interpersonal-expressive traits to variability in post-trauma pain ratings

Objectives Multiple intra- and inter-individual variabilities sculpt the experience of pain. However, integration of sex and gender has been under-explored in explanatory models of pain. This study aimed to examine the role of sex and traditionally genderized interpersonal-expressive traits, and their interactions in explaining the variability of pain ratings. Methods Data from 113 participants following acute non-catastrophic musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries were included. Participants completed the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the Gender, Pain and Expectations Scale (GPES). An independent T-test was used to compare differences in BPI subscales between the sexes. Pearson correlations explored the associations between BPI and GPES subscale scores for the overall sample and also for the sample when disaggregated by sex. Multiple linear regression was used to investigate the interaction of sex and gender traits in explaining the BPI scores. Results No differences were found between the sexes in mean BPI Severity and Interference. Across sexes, Relationship-oriented was positively associated with greater BPI Severity (r = 0.20) and Emotive was positively associated with BPI Interference (r = 0.24). In sex-disaggregated analyses, these associations were significant in females only. Goal-oriented was associated with neither BPI Severity nor Interference. In multivariate regression, only Emotive was a significant predictor of BPI Interference. Discussion The findings suggest that variances in pain-related interference are partially explained by scores on a scale measuring self-perceptions of Emotive qualities. Sex was not predictive of either pain outcome in both bivariate and multivariate analyses. Researchers and clinicians are encouraged to consider both sex- and gender-based variables when interpreting patient pain reports

Accomplices of job burnout among employees of a medical university

Aim — Burnout is one of the major occupational hazards that precludes the efficiency and wastes human resources. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of job burnout and its related factors among the staff of a Medical University in Iran. Material and Methods — In this simple descriptive, Knowledge-Attitude-Practice educational cross-sectional study, 250 employees were enrolled randomly via non-purposive sampling technique in 2016. Standardized Maslach Job burnout Inventory (MBI) and organizational climate questionnaire were used as instruments. Data analysis was performed using Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-2 tests. P-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant. Results — Mild, moderate and severe levels of job burnout were revealed by 66.4%, 25.6% and 7.6% respectively; while 28 (11.2%), 56 (22.4%) and 166 (66.4%) endorsed weak, moderate and strong organizational climate scores. There was significant negative relation between job burnout and organizational climate level (p<0.001). There was no significant impact of gender (p=0.782), employment type (p=0.672), work experience (p=0.48), and work unit (p=0.222) on outcome variable. None of the demographic variables had significant impact on organizational climate scores. Conclusion — A positive and employee-friendly organizational climate is mandatory to diminish the prevalence and arrest the incidence of job burnout in every set-up. Affected employees must be identified and adequately managed

Effects of angiotensin II on expression of α3, αv and 3 integrin proteins in B16-F10 melanoma cells

Introduction: Several reports indicated the role of angiotensin II antagonists in suppression of different tumvors. Some of the recent studies point to the increasing effect of angiotensin II on expression of important factors regarding to the tumor growth. Also the role of integrins in growth and metastasis of tumoral cells is very important but the role of angiotensin II in the expression of integrins is not clear yet. Materials and Methods: Melanoma tumors were induced in C57 mice using S.C. injections of B16-F10 cells. Losartan was I.P. injected to C57 mice. Also B16-F10 cells were cultured and incubated with angiotensin II with or without losartan for two hours and the expression of α3, αv and 3 integrins were studied using western blotting.Results: Our results indicate the suppressing role of losartan on tumor growth (day17, P=0.013; day18: P=0.0015). In addition angiotensin II increased significantly the expression of studied integrins in B16-F10 cultured cells (integrin αV: P=0.049; Integrin α3: P= 0.016; integrin β3: P= 0.037), and losartan completely abolished this effect. Conclusion: The role of angiotensin II in tumor growth may be because of reasons including its role in elevating the expression levels of α3, αv and 3 integrins. In animal model of melanoma, losartan suppressed the tumor growth through AT1 receptors inhibition. The present study indicates the importance of the drugs such as losartan besides the standard therapeutic approach for tumor

Assessing the Effects of Acceptance-commitment and Psychodrama Therapies in Nurses With Social Anxiety Disorder

Objectives: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one the most prevalent psychiatric disorders and generates severe negative effects on patients' mental, individual, and social health. Decreased responsibility, absenteeism, and poor life quality can be the consequences of this disorder. Considering the effective empirical background of both therapeutic approaches in reducing social anxiety symptoms and the lack of research on combining both interventions to reduce anxiety, this study was performed to determine the effects of acceptance-commitment therapy (ACT) and psychodrama therapy on nurses' social anxiety. Methods: This randomized trial research was conducted at Torbat Heydarieh University of Medical Sciences in 2017 with a pre-test-post-test design. A total of 48 nurses with SAD who were referred to the university counseling center were chosen at random and entered into 4 equal groups (12 subjects) (an intervention group and 3 control groups). The intervention group received a combination of psychodrama and ACT therapies in twelve 90-minute treatment sessions (2 meetings every week). The control groups were provided with psychodrama therapy, ACT, and no treatment. The study data were collected by Connor's social anxiety questionnaire (2000). The collected data were analyzed by analyses of variance and covariance. Results: A decrease was observed in the social anxiety scores in the four groups of the study after psychological therapies. The Mean±SD of the social anxiety score in the treatment group based on psychodrama was 64.75±13.37 before the study period and 49.08±6.71 after that. While in the ACT group, it was 59.65±12.21 and 42.66±8.05 before and after the study, respectively, and in the group provided with a combination of both therapies, it was 62.75±13.49 before the study period and 35.75±7.19 after that. A lack of significant difference (P=0.86) could be detected in the mean anxiety score in the group of control. However, the social anxiety score of the group with a combination of both therapies significantly decreased (P<0.001) compared to other studied control groups.   Discussion: The data analysis showed that a combination of ACT and psychodrama therapies significantly reduced the social anxiety of nurses