Comparison of success rate and onset time of two different anesthesia techniques

Background: Using local anesthetic is common to control the pain through blocking the nerve reversibly in dental procedures. Gow-Gates (GG) technique has a high success rate but less common. This study aimed to compare the onset time and success rate in GG and standard technique of inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB). Material and Methods: This descriptive, single blind study was consisted of 136 patients (59 males and 77 females) who were randomly received GG or IANB for extraction of mandibular molar teeth. Comparisons between the successes of two anesthetic injection techniques were analyzed with Chi-square test. Incidence of pulpal anesthesia and soft tissue anesthesia were analyzed with Kaplan-Meier method. Mean onset times of pulpal anesthesia, soft tissue and lip numbness were analyzed with Log-Rank test. Comparisons were considered significant at P ≤0.05 by using SPSS software ver.15. Results: The incidence of pulpal anesthesia in the IANB group (canine 49.3%, premolar 60.3%) were not significantly different from the GG group (canine 41.3%, premolar 74.6%) ( P =0.200 and P =0.723). The success rate in the IANB group (80.82%) was not significantly different from the GG group (92.02%) ( P =0.123). Furthermore, onset time of lip and buccal soft tissue numbness in GG group (3.25, 4.96 minutes) was quite similar to IANB group (3.22, 4.89 minutes) (all P values >0.05). Conclusions: Although this study demonstrated higher clinical success rate for GG than IANB technique, no significant differences in success rates and onset time were observed between two techniques

Studying Malnutrition-Related Factors in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer Following Surgery

Background: Nutritional dysfunction with or without aspiration is a common complication following head and neck cancer (HNC) surgery and patients frequently present with weight loss secondary to dysphagia and malnutrition.Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of weight loss and malnutrition in patients with HNC following surgery through the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) scale.Methods: A total of 28 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of head and neck cancer mainly of the oral cavity referring for surgery for the first time were enrolled. A researcher-designed questionnaire was used for data collection. Further, a single nutritionist evaluated each patient’s nutritional status before and 6-8 weeks' post-surgery according to MUST to measure the level of malnutrition. Significance level was set at p<0.05.Results: Among the subjects, 57% were younger than 70 years; 61% were in stage II of cancer while the rest were in stage III. Weight, body mass index (BMI), serum hemoglobin, and albumin levels showed a significant reduction following surgery (p<0.05). Specifically, 18% had less than 5%, 36% had 5-10%, and 46% had >10% weight loss. According to MUST scale, 18% of Patients with HNC had low, 25% had moderate, and 57% had high risk of malnutrition. A significant relationship was found between severe malnutrition and patients older than 70 years of age.Conclusion: In head and neck cancer patients, weight loss increases the morbidity and mortality, therefore nutritional interventions should be initiated before cancer treatment begins and these interventions need to be ongoing after completion of treatment to ensure optimal outcome

Burn-induced Oxidative Stress and Serum Glutathione Depletion; a Cross Sectional Study

Introduction: Several studies have shown the role of oxidative stress in pathophysiology of burn injuries. This study aimed to evaluate the changes of oxidant-antioxidant levels during the week following burn injuries and its correlation with grade of burn. Methods: In this prospective cross-sectional study, changes of total glutathione, reduced glutathione (GSH), oxidized GSH (GSSG), GSH/GSSG ratio, as well as Pro-oxidant-antioxidant balance (PAB) were investigated on the 1st, 2nd and 7th days of admission in patients with > 15 % burns.Results: 40 patients with the mean age of 21.1 ± 14.5 were studied (47.5% male). More than 50% of patients were in the 18 – 55 years age range and over 70% had 20% – 60% grade of burn. Total serum glutathione level and GSH had significant decreasing trends (P < 0.001) and GSSG and GSH/GSSG ratio had increasing trends (p < 0.001). No significant correlation was observed between serum GSH level and the total body surface area (TBSA) of burn injury (r = 0.047; p = 0.779). The evaluation of PAB and its correlation with TBSA showed a significant and direct association between them on the 1st (coefficient = 0.516; p = 0.001), 2nd (coefficient = 0.62; p <0.001), and 3rd (coefficient = 0.471; p = 0.002) day of follow up.Conclusion: According to this study, the redox perturbation occurred in burn injury which was measured and proved by decreased GSH/GSSG ratio as well as the shift of PAB in favour of oxidants. Besides, since PAB positively correlated with the severity of dermal damage, it might suggest the application of antioxidants as a part of therapeutic protocol for which the dosage should be proportionate to the surface area of the damaged skin.

Serum high sensitive C reactive protein is associated with dietary intakes in diabetic patients with and without hypertension: a cross-sectional study

Background: Serum C reactive protein (CRP) concentrations independently predict the development of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. However, the impact of dietary factors on serum CRP concentrations in diabetic patients has received limited attention. We aimed to investigate the association between dietary factors and serum CRP, measured using a high sensitivity (hs-)assay, among diabetic patients with and without hypertension and healthy subjects. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, diabetics with (n=325) and without hypertension (n=599) and healthy individuals (n=1220) were recruited in Mashhad, Iran. Dietary intake was assessed by 24-hour recall. Biochemical parameters including serum hs-CRP were measured using standard protocols. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to predict whether serum hs-CRP concentration was associated with dietary constituents. Results: hs-CRP was significantly higher among hypertensive and non-hypertensive diabetic patients compared to healthy subjects (p<0.001). The dietary intake of zinc +6.4% and calcium -3.4%, and BMI +3.9% explained approximately 13.7% of the variation in serum hs-CRP among diabetic hypertensive patients. Approximately, 9.7% of the variation in serum hs-CRP in diabetic non-hypertensive patients could be explained by BMI, and intake of sodium, iron and cholesterol. In the healthy subjects approximately 4.4% of the total variation in serum hs-CRP concentration could be explained by cholesterol consumption and waist circumference. Conclusion: Serum hs-CRP concentrations were found to be a significant predictor for hypertensive and non-hypertensive diabetic subjects. There was a significant association between dietary factors include zinc, iron, sodium and cholesterol and serum hs-CRP whilst there was an inverse association between dietary calcium and serum hs-CRP in diabetic hypertensive individuals

Gasification of Woody Biomasses and Forestry Residues: Simulation, Performance Analysis, and Environmental Impact

Wood and forestry residues are usually processed as wastes, but they can be recovered to produce electrical and thermal energy through processes of thermochemical conversion of gasification. This study proposes an equilibrium simulation model developed by ASPEN Plus to investigate the performance of 28 woody biomass and forestry residues’ (WB&FR) gasification in a downdraft gasifier linked with a power generation unit. The case study assesses power generation in Iceland from one ton of each feedstock. The results for the WB&FR alternatives show that the net power generated from one ton of input feedstock to the system is in intervals of 0 to 400 kW/ton, that more that 50% of the systems are located in the range of 100 to 200 kW/ton, and that, among them, the gasification system derived by tamarack bark significantly outranks all other systems by producing 363 kW/ton. Moreover, the environmental impact of these systems is assessed based on the impact categories of global warming (GWP), acidification (AP), and eutrophication (EP) potentials and normalizes the environmental impact. The results show that electricity generation from WB&FR gasification is environmentally friendly for 75% of the studied systems (confirmed by a normalized environmental impact [NEI] less than 10) and that the systems fed by tamarack bark and birch bark, with an NEI lower than 5, significantly outrank all other systems owing to the favorable results obtained in the environmental sector.This paper was a part of the project funded by Icelandic Research Fund (IRF), (in Icelandic: Rannsoknasjodur) and the grant number is 196458-051Peer Reviewe

Modeling of Hydrogen Production by Applying Biomass Gasification: Artificial Neural Network Modeling Approach

In order to accurately anticipate the proficiency of downdraft biomass gasification linked with a water–gas shift unit to produce biohydrogen, a model based on an artificial neural network (ANN) approach is established to estimate the specific mass flow rate of the biohydrogen output of the plant based on different types of biomasses and diverse operating parameters. The factors considered as inputs to the models are elemental and proximate analysis compositions as well as the operating parameters. The model structure includes one layer for input, a hidden layer and output layer. One thousand eight hundred samples derived from the simulation of 50 various feedstocks in different operating situations were utilized to train the developed ANN model. The established ANN in the case of product biohydrogen presents satisfactory agreement with input data: absolute fraction of variance (R2) is more than 0.999 and root mean square error (RMSE) is lower than 0.25. In addition, the relative impact of biomass properties and operating parameters on output are studied. At the end, to have a comprehensive evaluation, variations of the inputs regarding hydrogencontent are compared and evaluated together. The results show that almost all of the inputs show a significant impact on the smhydrogen output. Significantly, gasifier temperature, SBR, moisture content and hydrogen have the highest impacts on the smhydrogen with contributions of 19.96, 17.18, 15.3 and 10.48%, respectively. In addition, other variables in feed properties, like C, O, S and N present a range of 1.28–8.6% and proximate components like VM, FC and A present a range of 3.14–7.67% of impact on smhydrogen.This paper was a part of the project funded by Icelandic Research Fund (IRF), (in Icelandic: Rannsoknasjodur) and the grant number is 196458-051

Patient Satisfaction with Hospital Food in the Hospitals Affiliated to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Introduction: Food quality in hospitals plays a key role in the integrated program for the improvement of nutritional care in hospitals. Providing appropriate nutrition programs in the hospital setting is particularly challenging due to the diverse dietary needs of patients. The present study aimed to determine the influential factors in the satisfaction of patients with the food service in the hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 265 patients in five wards of two major teaching hospitals affiliated to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Mashhad, Iran. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire about hospital meals upon the discharge of the patients. The first assessment was conducted in Ghaem Hospital in 2010, and the next evaluation was performed in Ghaem Hospital and Imam Reza Hospital in 2016. The median length of hospital stay in the patients admitted in Ghaem Hospital and Imam Reza Hospital was 3.4 days. The questionnaire was completed by dieticians upon the discharge of the patients, and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was estimated at 0.78. Results: Overall patient satisfaction with hospital food services was significantly correlated with food temperature, quantity, taste, appearance, replacement meal, and diet compatibility. The rate of patient satisfaction was 60.8%, and the quality of food services in the selected hospitals was good or excellent. Conclusion: Patient satisfaction with hospital food services plays a key role in evaluating the efficacy of the applied strategies. The results of this study could help dieticians focus on specific indicators in order to improve the food catering services and maximize patient satisfaction with hospital foods

Advancement in electrochemical DNA-biosensors for GMOs detection: A review

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are plants or animals whose genetic make-up has been transformed by recombinant DNA technology, which has new features such as resistance to herbicides, virus and insect. Recently, genetic modification of food products has increased in order to reduce world poverty and hunger and increase food production However, the impact of GMOs on the human health is a growing concern worldwide. Due to increased global production of GMOs, the presence of these in food products need to be monitored and has been attended by many researchers recently. The quick, simple, accurate and sensitive detection methods for these products have attracted the attention. Electrochemical DNA biosensors as one of these fast methods are highly studied by many researchers due to their high sensitivity, low cost, rapid reaction and the possibility of working in aqueous solutions. The present review will focus on several studies on the detection of GMO based on electrochemical biosensors

VEGF gene polymorphism interactions with dietary trace elements intake in determining the risk of metabolic syndrome

There is a complex interaction between genetic, metabolic, and environmental factors in determining the risk of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction between the dietary intake of iron, copper, zinc, manganese, selenium and iodine (assessed by 24 recall) with vascular endothelial growth factor variants (rs6921438, rs4416670, rs6993770, and rs10738760), on the risk of metabolic syndrome. Two hundred and forty eight individuals with MetS and 100 individuals without MetS recruited. Dietary intake and the daily average of energy and nutrients intake were obtained by questionnaire and quantified using Diet Plan 6 software. DNA was extracted from EDTA anticoagulated whole blood. The SNPs were assessed using using a Sequenom iPLEX Gold assay. Data analysis was undertaken using the Student’s t-test, χ2 test and logistic regression using SPSS 11.5 software. There was a significant interaction between low dietary iron intake with rs6993770 (β= 0.10, p<0.05), and a low dietary zinc and a high manganese intake with rs6921438 in relation to the presence of metabolic syndrome (β= -0.17, p<0.05, β= -0.30, p<0.05, respectively). Our data showed the association of rs6993770 with iron intake and rs6921438 with zinc and manganese intake, indicating further investigating in a larger population to evaluate their values