A GIS-Based Spatiotemporal Impact Assessment of Droughts in the Hyper-Saline Urmia Lake Basin on the Hydro-Geochemical Quality of Nearby Aquifers

Urmia Lake is a hyper-saline lake in northwestern Iran that has been drying up since 2005. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the water quality in aquifers that are the main source of fresh water for the eastern plains Urmia Lake, which has been drying up due to intensive land use/cover changes and climate change. We evaluated hydro-geochemical data and factors contributing to aquifer pollution and quality variation for nine aquifers in the vicinity of Urmia Lake during the dry and wet seasons from 2000–2020. Our methodology was based on the analysis of 10 years of data from 356 deep and semi-deep wells using GIS spatial analysis, multivariate statistical analysis, and agglomerative hierarchical clustering. We developed a Water Quality Index (WQI) for spatiotemporal assessment of the status of the aquifers. In doing so, we highlighted the value of combining Principal Component Analysis (PCA), WQI, and GIS to determine the hydro-geochemical attributes of the aquifers. We found that the groundwater in central parts of the study area was unsuitable for potable supplies. Anthropogenic sources of contamination, such as chemical fertilizers, industrial waste, and untreated sewage water, might be the key factors causing excessive concentrations of contaminants affecting the water quality. The PCA results showed that over 80% of the total variance could be attributed to two principal factors for most aquifers and three principal factors for two of the aquifers. We employed GIS-based spatial analysis to map groundwater quality in the study area. Based on the WQI values, approximately 48% of groundwater samples were identified as poor to unsuitable for drinking purposes. Results of this study provide a better hydro-geochemical understanding of the multiple aquifers that require preventive action against groundwater damage. We conclude that the combined approach of using a multivariate statistical technique and spatial analysis is effective for determining the factors controlling groundwater quality.University of TabrizAlexander von Humboldt FoundationHumboldt-Universität zu BerlinPeer Reviewe

The Lived Experience of Iranian Caregivers of Comatose Patients

It was to examine the lived experience of caregivers of comatose patients. Van Manen's conception of hermeneutic phenomenology with convenience or purposeful sampling of nurses and family members of teaching hospitals was used in Tehran in 2011. The data were collected through interviews. The gathered data were analyzed using Van Manen's phenomenology. The participants were 5 males and 5 females and working in critical care units between 6 and 23 years. 19 essential subthemes were elicited, were classified into 2 themes: Holistic care and Caregiver's characteristics. Therefore, caring experience of comatose patient was scientifically defined: Caring for a Comatose Patient is a holistic care that depends on caregiver's Characteristics. The trustworthiness of sub themes and themes were achieved in our study. Conclusion: Our findings will enable nurses to know what patients have experienced in coma, to give greater insight to what is the issue of being faced by the caregiver, to enhance insight can lead to improved practice through more sensitive relationship with the patients and more focused assessment of their needs, to achieve and create an assessment tool based on the findings of our study; it seems that the results can be used in this regard. Shokati A M, Hasani P, Manoochehri H, Esmaili Vardanjani SA. The Lived Experience of Iranian Caregivers of Comatose Patients. Life Sci J 2012;9(3):1656-1662] (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 24

Predatory Journals: A Threat to Scholarly Publishing

Nowadays the world of scholarly publishing is in serious trouble because of the increasing number of predatory publishing. Besides, citation of articles from predatory journals is also unethical that undermines the quality of research papers. Because of ignorance of predatory publishing and/or compulsion of getting published in a limited time, scholars from Universities and young researchers become victim to predatory or hijacked journals. The purpose of this paper is to create awareness among authors, especially novice ones, about predatory publication. Research institutions should encourage their researchers to publish their articles in valuable journals indexed in Web of Science's Journal Citation Reports (JCR), Clarivate Analytics, formerly part of Thomson-Reuters) or other famous scientific databases such as Scopus, PubMed and MEDLINE. In this way, attention to the Thomson Reuters’ Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and Journal Ranking (JRK) and Scopus grade (Q1, Q2 and Q3) may be useful and necessary

Metabolic trafficking between astrocytes and neurons under hyperammonemia and manganism: Nitrogen- and Carbon metabolism

Hyperammonemia is defined as an elevated ammonia concentration, which is caused by an impairment of liver function. The increased ammonia concentrations in the brain exert toxic effects on neural cells.Despite of intensive investigations on the role and importance of ammonia in cerebral metabolism, the exact molecular mechanism could not be yet clarified. In the line of this thesis, the effects of extracellular ammonia and glutamine on cerebral metabolism were investigated. For this purpose, apart form multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, molecular biological methods, e.g. Western Blotting, and RT-PCR were used. The data of the present study clearly show that ammonia causes an increased glucose metabolism by stimulation of glycolytic- and TCA cycle-activity in both astrocytes and neurons. Furthermore, it could be shown that glutamine was utilized as an anaplerotic substrate. In addition, the nitrogen from glutamate was transferred to oxaloacetate and pyruvate by aminotransferase. This indicates to alternative ammonia detoxification processes in neurons, compared to glutamine synthesis in astrocytes. The results of the present study confirm the higher susceptibility of the energy-status in astrocytes to ammonia. To study the effect of extracellular glutamine on neural metabolism, primary astrocytes and neurons were incubated for 24 hours in a glutamine-containing medium. The data of the present study show that deprivation of extracellular glutamine leads to a disturbance in the neuronal TCA cycle, demonstrating a crucial role of glutamine on the normal, physiological metabolism in neurons Furthermore, the results prove that the glutamine-glutamate cycle is not stochiometric. Using Western blot analysis, it was shown that both ammonia and extracellular glutamine cause a remarkably increase of glutamine synthetase expression in astrocytes. This finding indicates to an important role of GS in the elimination of ammonia and the regulation of the glutamine-glutamate cycle

Dissimilar joining of Carbon/Carbon composites to Ti6Al4V and copper by reactive resistance spot welding

This study aims to develop an innovative and user-friendly method for dissimilar joining of the carbon/carbon (C/C) composites to Ti6Al4V and copper through reactive resistance spot welding to form the hybrid structures. The C/C composites used in this study were a 2D C/C composite with high porosity (low strength) and a 3D C/C composite with low porosity content (high strength). It was found that the infiltration of Ti into the C/C composite and formation of a continuous thin TiC layer at the interface of the joints are the dominant mechanisms of the joining. The 2D C/C composite with the flat surface was successfully joined to Ti6Al4V due to the infiltration of the melted Ti6Al4V into the porosity of the 2D C/C composite. On the other hand, it was required to drill the rectangular grooves on the surface of the 3D C/C composite to facilitate the infiltration of the melted Ti into the 3D C/C composite and consequently obtain high strength joints. The strength of 2D C/C composite-Ti6Al4V joints was 7 MPa due to failure of the joints within the low strength 2D C/C composite. By contrast, the maximum strength of the joints using the groove-patterned high-strength 3D C/C composite was 46.14 ± 3.92 MPa. In the case of joining between the 2D C/C composite and copper, the Ti thin sheet and Ti powder interlayers were used. Regarding the joints with the Ti sheet interlayer, some defects and cracks were formed at the interface of the joints, which decreased the strength of the joints, whereas in the case of using the Ti powder interlayer, defect-free joints were obtained

Prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in elementary school students in Hamadan

ABSTRACT Background and aims: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most prevalent disorder in children. Due to the importance of the disorder in children and its complications, this study aimed to assess the relation of the disorder with demographic factors in students of schools located in the Hamadan city, west of Iran. Methods: In this study, 1000 students were selected through randomized cluster sampling from Hamadan elementary schools in 2014. Data were gathered using Conners questionnaire. Conners questionnaire completed by teachers and parents. Results were analyzed using SPSS statistical software through Chi-square, Pierson correlation coefficient, and T-test. Results: The overall ADHD prevalence rate in this sample was determined to be 11.3. For boys, this prevalence rate of ADHD was 19.4 and had significant difference with girls (P<0.01). The prevalence of ADHD in families with 1-3 children was 8.7 while it was 15.8 in families with 4 children and more. The difference was statistically significant (P=0.003). There was also higher prevalence among children of parents with lower level of education. Conclusion: ADHD is prevalent in community of Iran. Results indicated that diagnosis must be based on exact and persistent psychological symptoms. It is necessary that schools authorities in region 1 and 2 of Hamadan city take steps to find the cases and manage them

Nursing errors and effect on health care: Perception of risk factors from view of nurse in Qazvin

Background and aims: In order to plan for preventing and decreasing the rate of nursing errors, understanding of nurse’s perception of nursing errors could be very helpful. This study was thus designed to examine the critical care nurses perception of nursing errors from view point of critical care nurses. Methods: This study was conducted in 9 hospitals in Qazvin province located in north of Iran. Using convenience sampling, all registered nurses who worked in critical care units were invited to participate in the study. Data were collected between January and March 2015 with using “predisposing factors of nursing errors questionnaire”. Results: Of 379 nurses participated in this study, 77.8 (N= 213) were women. The mean age of participants was 34±2.2 years and mean years of experience was 8.1±1.5 years. Totally, from view of nurses, most and lowest common cusecs of nursing errors were related to “management aspect” and “Team coordination” items respectively. Conclusion: Nursing educational systems should pay more attention to nurses’ perception to nursing errors and may consider their view during planning and education towards decreasing nursing errors in critical care setting

Incidence of pressure ulcer in patients who were admitted to open heart cardiac surgery intensive care unit

Background and aims: Cardiac surgery patients are at high risk of pressure ulcers. In the present study, we determined the incidence of pressure ulcer in patients who were admitted to open heart cardiac surgery intensive care unit and related risk factors. Methods: With using convenience sampling all the eligible patients who were admitted to Boali cardiac surgery during June to August 2015 were invited to participate in this study. Patients’ skins were assessed using pressure ulcer staging system developed by National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) and Braden scale before operation, after operation (in time of cardiac intensive care unit admission) and one times per day to patients discharge for sign of pressure ulcer development. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation test and independent t-test in SPSS 20.0 statistical software. Results: During 3 months, 70 patients who were eligible were admitted to cardiac intensive care unit. From all, in 32 (45.7%) patient’s pressure ulcer was seen. From those, 41.4% were in stage I and 4.3% were in stage II. Mean score of Braden score in time of ICU admission was 11.1±2.3 and 15.1±2.3 in patients with and without pressure ulcer development (P<0.001). Factors such as lower Braden Scale score (P=0.001), diabetes (P=0.01), hypertension (P=0.001), NPO time after surgery (P=0.006), mean time of surgery (P=0.007), mean time of need to mechanical ventilation after surgery (P=0.003), low ejection fraction (P=0.006) and lower level of hemoglobin after surgery (P=0.012) increased the risk of pressure ulcer development significantly. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that patients who were admitted to open heart cardiac surgery intensive care unit are at high risk of pressure ulcer development. Medical and care-giving teams in the cardiac intensive care unit need further education about risk factors of pressure ulcer development to prevent this

Nonlinear optical characterization of phosphate glasses based on ZnO using the Z-scan technique

The nonlinear optical properties of a phosphate vitreous system [(ZnO)x − (MgO)30−x − (P2O5)70], where x = 8, 10, 15, 18, and 20 mol% synthesized through the melt-quenching technique have been investigated by using the Z-scan technique. In the experiment, a continuous-wave laser with a wavelength of 405 nm was utilized to determine the sign and value of the nonlinear refractive (NLR) index and the absorption coefficient with closed and opened apertures of the Z-scan setup. The NLR index was found to increase with the ZnO concentration in the glass samples by an order of 10−10 cm2centerdotW−1. The real and imaginary parts of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility were calculated by referring to the NLR index (n2) and absorption coefficient (β) of the samples. The value of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility was presented by nonlinear refractive or absorptive behavior of phosphate glasses for proper utilization in nonlinear optical devices. Based on the measurement, the positive sign of the NLR index shows a self-focusing phenomenon. The figures of merit for each sample were calculated to judge the potential of phosphate glasses for application in optical switching