War can harm intimacy: consequences for refugees who escaped Syria.

BackgroundSyrians seeking refuge have been exposed to atrocities and trauma beyond comprehension. This study examines how personal, interpersonal, displacement and war-related factors have impacted married refugees' intimate lives.MethodsData included 158 married Syrian refugee individuals who live in the host communities of Jordan. Refugees reported on their personal, interpersonal, current-displacement and past-war related experiences. Traumatic impacts were assessed using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), K6 screening scale for serious mental illness (SMI), The War Events Questionnaire (WEQ), and Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships (PAIR). Stepwise multiple regressions were used to determine the factors associated with refugees' intimacy-total score and its six dimensions.ResultsMost refugees (94.2%) experienced war events, and 34% screened positive on the PTSD-HTQ scale. Overall intimacy scores were low, scoring M (±standard deviation) = 2.4 (±1.1) of a possible five on average. Intimacy scores were lower for refugees who screened positive on the PTSD-HTQ (M = 1.95 ± 65) compared to the ones screening negative, respectively (M = 2.23 ± 66). Furthermore, the higher the PTSD symptoms reported, the lower the couples' intimacy. PTSD and forced marriage were the strongest factors to predict decreased total-intimacy scores (β = -0.23, P = 0.002; β = -0.32, P < 0.001), and decreased scores on four dimensions of intimacy (emotional, sexual, intellectual and recreational). Whereas gender was the second strongest factor associated with decreased total-intimacy scores (β = -0.29, P < 0.001), and decreased scores on three dimensions of intimacy (emotional, social and anger), meaning that women reported suffering more than men from deteriorated intimacy in their marital relationships. Other displacement and war-related factors associated with intimacy were: decreased sexual intimacy associated with having been raped; increased intellectual intimacy associated with escaped from Syria with one's spouse; decreased recreational intimacy associated with the number of family members lived with; decreased sexual, emotional and total-intimacy scores associated with number of children; and years of education as a seemingly personal protective factor associated with increased intellectual and recreational intimacy.ConclusionsAddressing Syrian refugees' intimacy issues in interventions is essential, as well as raising the awareness of stakeholders and community leaders to the negative impacts of PTSD, forced marriage, rape, and displacement difficulties endured by the already challenged and distressed married refugees

Trauma during humanitarian work: the effects on intimacy, wellbeing and PTSD-symptoms.

Background: Organizations assisting refugees are over burdened with the Syrian humanitarian catastrophe and encounter diverse difficulties facing the consequences of this massive displacement. Aid-workers experience the horrors of war through their efforts to alleviate suffering of Syrian refugees. Objective: This study of Syrian refugee aid-workers in Jordan examined work-stressors identified as secondary traumatic stress (STS), number of refugees assisted, worker feelings towards the organization, and their associations to PTSD-symptoms, wellbeing and intimacy. It also examined whether self-differentiation, physical health, and physical pain were associated with these variables. Method: Syrian refugee aid-workers (N = 317) in Jordans NGOs were surveyed. Univariate statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) were utilized to test study hypotheses. Results: Increased STS was associated with lower self-differentiation, decreased physical health and increased physical pain, as well as elevated PTSD-symptoms and decreased intimacy. Decreased connection to the NGO was associated with lower self-differentiation, decreased physical health, increased physical pain, and with decreased intimacy and wellbeing. Lower self-differentiation was associated with increased PTSD-symptoms, decreased wellbeing and intimacy. Elevated physical pain was associated with increased PTSD-symptoms, and decreased wellbeing. Diverse mediation effects of physical health, physical pain and self-differentiation were found among the studys variables. Conclusions: Aid-workers who assist refugees were at risk of physical and mental sequelae as well as suffering from degraded self-differentiation, intimacy and wellbeing. Organizations need to develop prevention policies and tailor interventions to better support their aid-workers while operating in such stressful fieldwork

Electromagnetic Simulation of Non-Invasive Approach for the Diagnosis of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Diabetic foot ulcers are systemic diseases that affect all blood vessels within the human body. From major blood vessels to microvasculature, hardening, thickening, and narrowing of blood vessels ultimately results to diminished blood flow to end organs. The detrimental effects of peripheral vascular disease are well recognized across medicine, particularly with regards to diabetic foot ulcers. Diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) are common across all fields of medicine, including but not limited to: orthopedics, vascular surgery, podiatry, general internal medicine, and infectious disease. As the population of the United States continues to grow in age and obesity, diabetes and DFU are becoming more and more prevalent in our medical society. Current approaches to diagnosing peripheral vascular disease ultimately result in some degree of invasiveness for the patient. Preliminary lab studies, such as the ankle-brachial index and Doppler ultrasound of peripheral arteries, provide efficient safe screening methods. However, these studies lack quantification of the degree of vascular stenosis and are unable to accurately assess the location of narrowing. In current practice, radiologists are called upon to for angiography of the blood vessels using contrast dye. This provides an additional risk for diabetic patients: a population inherently at risk for renal disease. In this study, we proposed utilizing electromagnetic simulation with boundary conditions set at various layers of human tissues. More specifically, the human foot was analyzed using COMSOL multi-physics software in attempt to visualize, analyze, and quantify the degree of peripheral vascular disease, which plays a pivotal role in the development of diabetic foot ulcers. The simulation was conducted for a patient’s foot, with bone, blood vessels, and surrounding fat layers to emulate the anatomy of a diabetic foot. A 2-D scan was obtained to assess and visualize the blood vessel’s narrowing, widening, vascular turbulence, or occlusion. The analysis was conducted at two frequencies, 2 GHz and 5 GHz, and compared to one another to assess the accuracy of clinical diagnosis. An electric field was generated throughout the 2D model at 20, 50, and 100 Joules, respectively. The simulation was able to adequately predict and stratify varying degrees of occlusion within peripheral vasculature. This study, though a simulation in nature, shows promise for being able to accurately diagnose the peripheral vasculature using electromagnetic parameters. This feasibility study proved successful for possible future implementation using MEMS/NEMS device systems to be designed to detect EM parameters to serve as a diagnostic tool for the early detection of peripheral vascular disease, and ultimately, diabetic foot ulcers

Health implications of fructose consumption: A review of recent data

This paper reviews evidence in the context of current research linking dietary fructose to health risk markers

The influence of air and liquid properties on airblast atomization

This thesis reports the results of a detailed programme of research on airblast atomization carried out using a specially designed atomizer in which the liquid is first spread into a thin sheet and then exposed on both sides to high velocity air. The primary aim of the investigation was to examine the influence of air and liquid properties on atomization quality. The work was divided into four main phases:- (1) The first phase was confined to the effects of liquid properties, namely viscosity, surface tension and density on mean drop size. Special liquids were produced to study the separate effect of each property on atomization quality. They presented a range of values of viscosity from 1.0 to 124 centipoise, while surface tension and density were varied between 26 and 73.5 dynes/cm and 0.8 and 1.8 gm/cm3 respectively. Atomizing air velocities covered the range of practical interest to the designers of continuous combustion systems and varied between 60 and 125 m/sec.(2) To obtain experimental data on the influence of air properties, notably air density, on mean drop size, the air temperature was varied between 23 and 151°C at atmospheric pressure in one series of experiments, while a separate study on the effect of air pressure on atomization quality was undertaken, where tests were conducted at constant levels of air velocity and temperature, using a range of liquid flows from 5 to 30 gm/sec, at various levels of air pressure between 1 and 8.5 atm. (3) In order to provide a comprehensive picture of airb1ast atomizer performance over a wide range of conditions the separate effects of varying air velocity, liquid flow rate, and hence atomizing air/liquid mass ratio on SMD were examined. This study enabled a better understanding of the effects of changes in operation on the atomizer's performance. (4) In all three phases above, velotities of both inner and outer atomizing air streams were kept equal. This last phase was aimed at studying the effect of varying the velocity between the inner and outer air streams. Best atomization quality was achieved when 65% of the total atomizing air was flowing through the outer stream. A detailed description of the light-scattering technique for drop size measurement is included. A discussion on the importance of the results obtained and their direct relevance to the design of airblast atomizers is given. A dimensional analysis and inspection of all the data obtained on the effects of air and liquid properties on atomization quality showed that over the following range of conditions: Liquid viscosity 1.0 to 44 centipoise Liquid surface tension 26 to 73.5 dynes/cm Liquid density 0.78 to 1.5 gm/cm³ Air velocity 70 to 125 m/sec Air temperature 20 to 151 °c Air pressure 1.0 to 8.5 kgf/cm² . Air/liquid ratio 2 to 6 Cont.........