The epidemiology of dietary supplements consumption in the athletes of Karaj Iran

Background and aims: Nutrition has a determinant role in success of professional athletes and dietary supplements can play an important role for supplying the nutritional needs for them in some situations. Consumption of Dietary Supplements (DS) was significantly increased in recent years. Based on this fact, assessing the amount, purposes and type of the supplements are all as prior as the affective factors on the choice and preparation of that. Therefore, we are going to evaluate the consumption of dietary supplement among athletes of Karaj, a big city near Tehran, capital of Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled 195 athletes that were randomly selected from 8 sport clubs of Karaj city between December 2014 and February 2015. A self-administered questionnaire containing 17 questions was used to evaluate the field of sport, history and reasons of consuming the supplements, source of information and providing centers. Validity and reliability of questionnaire determined through panel of experts and Cronbach’s alpha (N=25, α=0.85) respectively. Results: The mean age of the athletes was 24±7 years old. Thirty six percent of participants consumed the supplement during the study and 49 reported the previous use of it. The most important reasons of supplement’s consumption were empowering sport’s ability by 48. Also supplying needs of body by 39 and increasing muscle’s mass by 31 named the second and third reason of supplement use. For 64 of participants coach is the most important source of information and question about DS, and then nutritionists (24) and Internet (23) were after that in order. Sixty one percent of participants considered the coach as the most important source for buying supplements and then 51 of participants mentioned pharmacies as second main source for buying DS. Protein supplements, vitamins, creatine and glutamine were named as the most commonly used DS. Discussions: The results of this study indicate that dietary supplements usage is common among athletes. According to these results, coaches have a significant role in athlete information and supplying the required supplements of athletes. It is necessary to consider the appropriate policy to remove coaches from the supply chain of dietary supplements

An Investigation of Meta-linguistic Corrective Feedback in Writing Performance

AbstractDebate about the value of providing corrective feedback on L2 writing has been prominent in recent years. According to Chandler (2003) meta-linguistic corrective feedback operates as the provision of the correct form in the student's written texts by underlining the error and writing the target form above it and directing the written corrections at errors in a specific structure. By comparing traditional direct error feedback with meta-linguistic corrective feedback the present study attempts to find out, whether experimental group will be more accurate than the control group or not. After conducting the experiment and analyzing the results through t-test, it was revealed that the experimental group subjects who were assessed and instructed through implementing meta-linguistic code-correction outperformed the traditionally-instructed control group in their post test

Design of a high-speed germanium-tin absorption modulator at mid-infrared wavelengths

We propose a high-speed electro-absorption modulator based on a direct bandgap Ge0.875Sn0.125 alloy operating at mid-infrared wavelengths. Enhancement of the Franz-Keldysh-effect by confinement of the applied electric field to GeSn in a reverse-biased junction results in 3.2dB insertion losses, a 35GHz bandwidth and a 6dB extinction ratio for a 2Vpp drive signal

Survey of Anthropometric Indices Addicts due to the History of Addiction and Substance Abuse in Qom Province, 2014

Background: Substance abuse has significant impact on nutritional status. Due to the increased malnutrition during drug use and withdrawal, this study aimed at assessing the anthropometric indices in individuals referring to drug treatment centers in Qom. Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, 329 addicted individuals referring to addiction centers in Qom were randomly selected. A questionnaire was used with three parts including demographic characteristics, drug abuse history, and anthropometric indices including measurement of height, weight, waist circumference, arm circumference, and skinfold thickness in triceps and calf muscles. Results: The participants consisted of 328 men and only one woman, 29% of whom were in detoxification. The participants' mean age was 39.0 ± 7.1 years. The first and most-frequently used drug was opium. All anthropometric indices were associated with the consumption of opium substances and drug use was associated significantly with some parameters. With the exception of skinfold thickness in the calf, all the indices were affected by the type of consumed substances. The opium addicts had a higher body mass index compared with other drug users. Conclusions: Due to the importance of nutrition status in drug abusers' health and their lack of self-care, careful monitoring and evaluation of dietary intake, as well as nutrition status can play important roles in the rehabilitation of these individuals and help to prevent from reappearance of these habits