Exploring the nutritional beliefs of pregnant women in Yazd city

Introduction: During the pregnancy, a woman as a  healthy person grows another human being in her body and needs more cares due to  changes in psychological and physical needs. This study aimed to explore the nutritional beliefs of pregnant women in Yazd city. Methods: This was a qualitative study conducted with a conventional content analysis approach. A total of 12 participants were selected from women referred to the community health centers in Yazd, Iran, by the purposeful sampling method. Data were collected through recorded semi-structured interviews that were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by the Lundman and Granheim’s content analysis method. Results: In this study, after analyzing the data, 10 main categories and 26 subcategories were extracted. The codes were 446 cases with no overlap, which was reduced after careful review and integration of similar items. Topics of categories included: The concept of nutrition during pregnancy, Nutrition limitations during pregnancy, Myths about food during pregnancy, Doubts about nutrition during pregnancy, Pregnancy food style, Sources of nutritional information in pregnancy, Positive Consequences of Healthy Nutrition in Pregnancy, Consequences of inappropriate pregnancy nutrition, Religious Beliefs in Pregnancy Nutrition, social support. Conclusion: The results indicated that the women were committed to their own nutritional beliefs that derive from their culture and this study provided a clear picture of the cultural beliefs of Yazdi women regarding pregnancy nutrition. According to the results, it is necessary to design the education process based on the culture of the community in order for that process to be effective

A conventional PCR for differentiating common taeniid species of dogs based on in silico microsatellite analysis

Canine taeniids are among the major tapeworms with remarkable medical and economic significance. Reliable diagnosis and differentiation of dog taeniids using simple and sensitive tools are of paramount importance for establishing an efficient surveillance system. Microsatellites as abundant unique tandem repeats of short DNA motifs are useful genetic markers for molecular epidemiological studies. The purpose of the present study was to find a primer pair for rapid differentiation of major tapeworms of dogs, Taenia hydatigena, T. multiceps, T. ovis and Echinococcus granulosus, by screening existing nucleotide data. All the mitochondrial genome records as well as non-coding ITS1 sequences of Taeniidae species were downloaded from Nucleotide database from NCBI. For prediction and analysis of potential loci of STR/SSR in ITS1 as well as mitochondrial regions, we used ChloroMitoSSRDB 2.0 and GMATo v1.2. software. Different tapeworm species were categorized according to different motif sequences and type and size of each microsatellite locus. Three primer sets were designed and tested for differentiating taeniid species and evaluated in a conventional PCR system. Four taeniid species were successfully differentiated using a primer pair in a simple conventional PCR system. We predicted 2-19 and 1-4 microsatellite loci in ITS1 and mitochondrial genome, respectively. In ITS1, 41 Di and 21 Tri motifs were found in the taeniids while the majority of the motifs in the mitochondrial genome were Tetra (89) and Tri (70). It is documented that the number and diversity of microsatellite loci is higher in nuclear ITS1 region than mostly coding mitochondrial genome

Studying the Prevalence of Smokeless Tobacco Products and Related Factors among High School Students in Chabahar City

Smokeless tobacco consumption is one of the serious health-threatening factors in society, especially among adolescents. Due to the high usage of these products in the southeastern regions of Iran, this survey was conducted to investigate the prevalence of smokeless tobacco products and related factors among high school students in Chabahar city. This study was a cross-sectional (descriptive-analytical) study, in which 330 high school students were selected by a simple multi-stage random sampling method. Data were collected via a researcher-made questionnaire and was filled using an in-person method. Data were then analyzed using descriptive and analytical tests by SPSS v.21 software. In this study, the mean age of the students was 16.3±1.14 years. Results showed that the prevalence of smokeless tobacco products was 45.8% among students, 43.3% among close friends, and 38.8% in families, where the predominant form of smokeless tobacco products was Pan-Prague (62.2%). Furthermore, the results of logistic regression revealed that addiction of close friends (OR=3.8, p=0.001), addiction of family members (OR=2.1, p=0.03), addiction of males (OR=2.2, p=0.001), low awareness (OR=3.9, p=0.001), and low attitude (OR=2.7, p=0.001) can significantly increase the likelihood of smokeless tobacco usage in students. Altogether, the findings of this study showed that the prevalence of smokeless tobacco usage among high school students in Chabahar is high, and thus, appropriate, effective, and preventive interventions should be taken into account regarding the influential factors

The Confidence Database

Understanding how people rate their confidence is critical for the characterization of a wide range of perceptual, memory, motor and cognitive processes. To enable the continued exploration of these processes, we created a large database of confidence studies spanning a broad set of paradigms, participant populations and fields of study. The data from each study are structured in a common, easy-to-use format that can be easily imported and analysed using multiple software packages. Each dataset is accompanied by an explanation regarding the nature of the collected data. At the time of publication, the Confidence Database (which is available at https://osf.io/s46pr/) contained 145 datasets with data from more than 8,700 participants and almost 4 million trials. The database will remain open for new submissions indefinitely and is expected to continue to grow. Here we show the usefulness of this large collection of datasets in four different analyses that provide precise estimations of several foundational confidence-related effects

IMPACT OF CROWDING ON TRAVEL TIME PERCEPTION: A VIRTUAL REALITY STUDY

45 pagesCongestion inside a vehicle and travel time are two important influences on utility of a public transport trip. According to psychology literature, perceived time is a subjective measure of duration, which can be distorted by emotions. On the other hand, crowding can cause negative feelings in travelers. Accordingly, we hypothesize that the negative feelings induced by high passenger density can lengthen the perceived travel duration. We set up a novel behavioral experiment using Virtual Reality (VR) technology to address this hypothesis, by simulating short immersive subway trips with different density of virtual passengers. In a first task, retrospective time judgements were obtained after two consecutive trips. In a second task, prospective trip duration estimate, as well as subjective emotional valence of the trip were acquired after each of 5 trips with different passenger congestion levels. Results of the first task only showed an effect of trip order on estimated times. However, in the more comprehensive second task, as predicted, travel time was estimated significantly longer by an increase in passenger density. Further analysis confirmed that this effect is mediated by the negative feelings induced by crowding. Finally, preferences of participants in a Stated Choice (SC) task were compared with responses in the VR task. Results revealed that individuals who disutilize passenger density more negatively in the SC task, also feel more unpleasantly during higher density VR trips. This confirms the validity of hypothetical SC tasks in reflecting individuals’ actual feelings about crowding. This study demonstrates the applicability of VR technology for interdisciplinary research intersecting psychology and transportation. Future research about the implications of the observed interaction between crowding and perceived travel time, in route choice modeling is encouraged

Time Perception-Heart rate

Raw and processed data for a study on the relationship between heart rate and subsecond time perception

An Investigation on the Cyclic Temperature-Dependent Performance Behaviors of Ultrabright Air-Stable QLEDs

The aerobic and thermal stability of quantum-dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) is an important factor for the practical applications of these devices under harsh environmental conditions. In this paper, we demonstrate all-solution-processed amber QLEDs with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of >14% with almost negligible efficiency roll-off (droop) and a peak brightness of >600,000 cd/m2, unprecedented for QLEDs fabricated under ambient air conditions. We investigate the device efficiency and brightness level at a temperature range between -10 C to 85 C in a 5-step cooling/heating cycle. Unlike previous studies reported in the literature, we conducted the experiments at relatively high brightness levels, required for outdoor lighting applications. The results reveal that the device performance increases slightly at sub-zero temperatures (-10 C) and drops slightly at very high temperatures (85 C), proving acceptable thermal stability. Overall, the performance parameters do not change dramatically over the temperature range within the experimental uncertainty range. Interestingly, the device efficiency parameters recover to the initial values upon returning to room temperature. The variations in the performance are correlated with the modification of charge transport characteristics and induced radiative/non-radiative exciton relaxation dynamics at different temperatures. Being complementary to previous studies on the subject, the present work is expected to shed light on the potential feasibility of realizing aerobic-stable ultrabright droop-free QLEDs and encourage further research for solid-state lighting applications.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure

Crowding and Perceived Travel Time in Public Transit: Virtual Reality Compared With Stated Choice Surveys

In-vehicle crowding and travel time are two important factors that determine passenger transportation preferences in public transit. A widely used approach to obtain the relative magnitude of these preferences is the stated choice (SC) survey. However, such imaginary choice situations do not capture automatic cognitive biases during the immersive experience of trips. In a previous study, we used virtual reality (VR) technology to simulate short immersive virtual subway trips with different levels of crowding. We asked participants to indicate the level of pleasantness and estimate the duration of each trip. In this paper, we compare and contrast perceptions of participants in the VR task with preferences in a SC survey taken from the same participants. The SC task consisted of two-alternative choice scenarios, asking for preference between more crowded shorter trips and less crowded longer trips. Discrete choice modeling was used to analyze the SC results. There are two main findings. First, individuals who perceived passenger density more negatively in the SC task also felt more negatively during higher density VR trips. This confirms that hypothetical SC surveys can reflect feelings induced by crowding during more realistic experiences. Secondly, a more crowded VR trip was perceived as longer compared with a less crowded trip, whereas this effect was not reflected in the SC task. It therefore suggests that SC surveys may not be capable of capturing systematic temporal biases induced by crowding. Results shed light on potential caveats of the SC surveys and introduce an avenue for the use of VR in passenger preference research

Investigating the Relationship between Low-Back Pain and Physical Activity in Different Occupations: A Study of Fasa Cohort

Background & objective: Chronic low-back pain is one of the most common disorders associated with chronic pain and is one of the costliest health care problems. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between back pain and physical activity in different occupations. Materials & Methods: The research method was cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic and the statistical population of the study was the residents of Shashdeh in the city of Fasa in Fars province among whom 10,000 people were selected by census method. The instrument used was a national cohort questionnaire. To analyze the data, descriptive statistical tests, chi-square, independent t-test as well as logistic regression were used to model and estimate the odds ratio (OR) in SPSS-24 software. Results: The mean and standard deviation of age of the participants in the study was 48.64 (9.57) and 54.8% of the study population were women. There was a significant difference between gender and low-back pain (P <0.000). With increasing one year of age, the chance of low-back pain increases 1.025 times (CI = 1.019 / 1.019 / 1.01, OR = 1.025). and people with heavy work status were 1.52 times more likely to have low-back pain compared with housewives (CI = 1.255 / 1-253, OR = 1.52)   Conclusion: Based on the results, it is suggested that intervention measures be taken to prevent low-back pain so that these disorders can be controlled in the future. Also, by training all people to perform physical activity and the principles of ergonomics in the workplace, it helps to improve the physical and mental health of people and causes better performance