The Prevalence of Helmet Use and Predictive Factors Among Motorcyclists in Shahrekord, Iran in 2018

  Background and aims: Motorcycle accidents are a major concern for countries. One of the most important risk factors for motorcyclists is the lack of helmet use. This study aimed to measure the rate of the helmet use and predictive factors in Shahrekord, Iran. Methods: Using simple random sampling method, this cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 with a sample size of 350 motorcyclists. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data, and the SPSS software version 24 was used to analyze the data. Results: The mean age of participants was 28.8 ± 10.1 years. Out of 350 participants, 15.1 and 1.4 of motorcyclists and their passengers used helmets. The most important predictors of helmet use were age more than 35 years, high education, and having a driving license. The most important reason for using the helmet was protection against injuries in accidents. Conclusion: According to our results, the rate of helmet use was low. Thus, more efforts should be made to intervene and train for the helmet use among community members with an emphasis on younger people, individuals with governmental jobs, and people with lower education level

Leanness assessment in automotive industry: Case study approach

The main objective of this study is to develop a framework to assess the leanness of companies in the automotive industry. Although lean manufacturing (LM) has been discussed in previous studies, leanness assessment is less investigated. Therefore, to fill this gap, this study is conducted to assess the leanness of three manufacturing companies with regard to different supply chain drivers. Principally, six drivers of facility, inventory, transportation, sourcing, pricing and information are selected as the major components of supply chains. The lean-related activities of each driver are identified and a benchmarked questionnaire is applied to assess the leanness of companies. Next, different leanness of each driver is calculated accordingly. An overall quantity of leanness is also provided for each company. Finally, some managerial insights and future research directions are recommended. According to the results, second case study has the highest degree of leanness in comparison to other two companies. In addition, this company has the best performance with regard to each supply chain driver

Observer-based sensor fault detectability: about robust positive invariance approach and residual sensitivity

© . This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This paper considers detectability of deviation of sensors from their nominal behavior for a class of linear time-invariant discrete-time systems in the presence of bounded additive uncertainties. Detectable sensor faults using interval observers are analyzed considering two distinct approaches: invariant-sets and classical fault-sensitivity method. It can be inferred from this analysis that both approaches derive distinct formulations for minimum detectable fault magnitude, though qualitatively similar. The core difference lies in the method of construction of the invariant set offline in the former method and the reachable approximation of the convergence set using forward iterative techniques in the latter. This paper also contributes in giving a formulation for minimum fault magnitudes with invariant sets using an observer-based approach. Finally, an illustrative example is used to compare both approaches.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Assessment of apical leakage of different endodontic sealers -In vitro study

Aim: The aim of this prospective study was to assess in vitro the comparison between apical leakage of Apexit Plus (calcium hydroxide based), Roth 801 (Zinc oxide eugenol based) and Perma Evolution (epoxy resin based) sealers in lateral condensation technique using linear dye leakage penetration method.Material and methods: In this study 70 freshly extracted maxillary central incisors and canines with straight root canals were used. Teeth were decoronated and step back root canal preparation using Gates Glidden drill and stainless steel hand K files was performed with size 45 being the master apical cone. After preparation, the teeth were randomly divided into 5 groups. Three groups with 20 teeth for experimental and two groups with 5 teeth as positive and negative control. Obturation was done with lateral condensation in three groups with Roth 801, Apexit plus and Perma Evolution sealers. The obturated specimens were then stored in 2% Basic fuchsin dye for 72 hours. After splitting the teeth longitudinally, each tooth has been placed on a standardized scaled paper under the microscope and digital images have been captured by this microscope. Then the digital images were processed by Analyzing Digital Image software.Results: The results showed that Roth 801 sealer leaked significantly higher than both Apexit plus and Perma Evolution sealers (p < 0.05) and no statically significant difference has been found between Apexit plus and Perma Evolution sealers (p > 0.05).Conclusion: According to the methodology proposed and based on the results of this study, it may be concluded that Roth 801 showed the most leakage but Perma Evolution and Apexit plus showed similar sealing ability. However, further in vivo studies requirement should be done to find the best root canal filling material

Prevalence of early childhood dental caries and some related factors among 3-6 year-old children in Marivan - 2016

Background and Aims: The early childhood caries has a high prevalence. Considering the importance of providing optimal solutions for increasing level of oral health and improving the health of children, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of early childhood caries and some related factors with it.  Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study in which the statistical population consisted of 3-6 years old children in kindergarten and preschools in Marivan city in 2016.Totally, 422 children were selected through multi-stage sampling. Two dental specialists were measured and recorded early childhood caries. A researcher-made checklist was also used for demographic and background variables. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and Logistic regression using the SPSS software (version 16). All stages of the study were conducted according to moral standards.Results: Based on the results, 306 children (75.2%) had Early Childhood Caries. The results of logistic regression showed that the Early Childhood Caries significantly associated with variables such as child age and parent's education level (diploma & collegiate vs. under the diploma) (P<0.05).   Conclusion: The prevalence of Early Childhood Caries was higher in children having father and mother with a subordinate level of education and children with higher age. Therefore, it is essential that these children pay more attention to the design of educational programs to maintain and promote the health of the teeth.  

Effects of pleasant olfactory mental imagery on the arterial oxygenation in patients with open heart surgery: A randomized controlled trial

This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (Oct 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyBackground and purpose Arterial hypoxemia is one of the most common respiratory complications following cardiac surgery. This study was intended to examine the effects of pleasant olfactory mental imagery on postoperative hypoxemia in patients undergoing open heart surgery. Materials and methods This is a randomized controlled clinical trial. The sample consisted of 80 patients who were randomly assigned to either practice olfactory mental imagery (experimental group) or receive routine care (control group). A card with the image of roses was given to patients and they were asked to look at the image, visualize the scent of roses in the mind, and then sniff as much as possible, hold their breath for 2 s and eventually exhale slowly through the nose. This procedure was consecutively repeated five times. After a fifteen-minute break, patients proceeded to practice olfactory mental imagery with other fruit images. The experimental group executed the olfactory mental imagery for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon on postoperative days 1 and 2. Results No statistically significant differences were observed between the experimental and control groups regarding sociodemographic characteristics, medical and surgical information. This study also demonstrated that the mean Spao2 was significantly higher in the experimental group (97.400 ± 1.70) than the control group (96.465 ± 1.70) (p = 0.015). Conclusion The results of this study suggest that olfactory mental imagery can improve arterial oxygenation in patients with cardiac surgery

Malicious UAV detection using integrated audio and visual features for public safety applications

RÉSUMÉ: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become popular in surveillance, security, and remote monitoring. However, they also pose serious security threats to public privacy. The timely detection of a malicious drone is currently an open research issue for security provisioning companies. Recently, the problem has been addressed by a plethora of schemes. However, each plan has a limitation, such as extreme weather conditions and huge dataset requirements. In this paper, we propose a novel framework consisting of the hybrid handcrafted and deep feature to detect and localize malicious drones from their sound and image information. The respective datasets include sounds and occluded images of birds, airplanes, and thunderstorms, with variations in resolution and illumination. Various kernels of the support vector machine (SVM) are applied to classify the features. Experimental results validate the improved performance of the proposed scheme compared to other related methods

Factor Structure of the Smoking Temptation Scale: Cross-Validation in Iranian men

Background: The transtheoretical model (TTM) is used as a framework to implement smoking cessation programs. This model has some subscales based on which the smoking temptation scale is proposed as stages movement factor. This study aimed to translate and validate the temptation subscales of the TTM questionnaire in the Iranian population. Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted on 387 smokers. The participants were selected using convenience sampling method. First, the smoking temptation scale designed by Velicer et al. was translated into Persian, and then, factorial validity of the hierarchical three-factor structure for this subscale was studied using factor analysis and measurement invariance (MI) methods. All analyses were performed using Mplus software. Findings: It was observed that the hierarchical three-factor structure model had a good fit to the data [confirmatory fit index (CFI) = 0.944, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.915, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.067, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.042]. This study showed that this factorial structure had an identical measurement and structural model in subgroups of the population such as rural and urban residence, highly educated and low educated, high income and low income, three stages of quitting, and across the three ethnicities. Conclusion: Given the validity and reliability of the hierarchical three-factor structure for smokingtemptation scale, this measure can be used in interventional programs for smoking cessation in the Iranian male population

The effect of pleasant olfactory mental imagery on the incidence and extent of atelectasis in patients after open heart surgery

This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (Nov 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyBackground and purpose Atelectasis is the most common pulmonary complication after open heart surgery. This study was intended to examine the effects of pleasant olfactory mental imagery on postoperative atelectasis in patients undergoing open heart surgery. Materials and methods This is a randomized controlled clinical trial. The sample consisted of 80 patients who were randomly assigned to either practice olfactory mental imagery (test group) or receive routine care (control group). A card with the image of roses was given to patients and they were asked to look at the image, visualize the scent of roses in the mind, and then sniff as much as possible, hold their breath for 2 s and eventually exhale slowly through the nose. This procedure was consecutively repeated five times. After a fifteen-minute break, patients proceeded to practice olfactory mental imagery with other fruit images (banana, apple, and lemon). The test group executed the olfactory mental imagery for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon on postoperative days 1 and 2. The control group received the routine ICU care. A questionnaire collected information on sociodemographic characteristics and clinical parameters. Chest radiographs were used to diagnose atelectasis, which were evaluated by the hospital radiologist. Results No statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups regarding sociodemographic, medical and surgical information. The incidence of atelectasis in the test group (40%, n = 16) was significantly lower than in the control group (67.5%, n = 27) on postoperative day 2 (p = 0.02). Conclusion Our findings suggest that olfactory mental imagery can improve respiratory function and reduce the risk of atelectasis in patients with cardiac surgery