The effects of group play therapy on self-concept among 7 to 11 year-old children suffering from thalassemia major

Background: Children suffering from thalassemia have higher levels of depression and lower levels of self-concept. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine if group play therapy could significantly increase self-concept among children with thalassemia major ages 7 to 11 years old in teaching hospitals of Golestan province, Iran, in 2012. Patients and Methods: In this randomized, controlled clinical trial, 60 children with thalassemia major were randomly assigned to intervention (30 children) and control (30 children) groups. The intervention included eight 45 to 60 minute sessions during four weeks, during which the intervention group received group play therapy. The control group received no interventions. Selfconcept was measured three times using the Piers-Harris children’s self-concept scale: before, immediately after, and a month after the intervention. Results: For the intervention group, results showed that the mean self-concept score was significantly higher at the second point in time compared to the baseline (P 0.05). Conclusions: The results showed that group play therapy improves self-concept in children suffering from thalassemia major. © 2016, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

Paleogene dinoflagellate cysts and thermal maturity from Pabdeh Formation ( Zagros basin, west of Iran)

Palynological investigation on 132 samples from the 428m thick outcrop section of Late Paleocene to Early  Oligocene of the Pabdeh Formation in southwestern Iran yielded 55 species of dinoflagellate cysts and allowed  establishment of seven biozones. Quantity of marine palynomorph elements indicate an open marine  environment at that time interval but, a slight increase in number of spore and pollen grains in some samples  indicate suitable conditions for forest development as a consequence of increase in climate humidity. The  species are common in various latitudes and most of them are cosmopolitan. Thermal maturity index  measurement indicates oil prone nature for majority of the samples.Keyword: Pabdeh Formation, Dinoflagellate cysts, Paleogene, Palynostratigraphy, Thermal maturit

Peak Forecasting for Battery-based Energy Optimizations in Campus Microgrids

Battery-based energy storage has emerged as an enabling technology for a variety of grid energy optimizations, such as peak shaving and cost arbitrage. A key component of battery-driven peak shaving optimizations is peak forecasting, which predicts the hours of the day that see the greatest demand. While there has been significant prior work on load forecasting, we argue that the problem of predicting periods where the demand peaks for individual consumers or micro-grids is more challenging than forecasting load at a grid scale. We propose a new model for peak forecasting, based on deep learning, that predicts the k hours of each day with the highest and lowest demand. We evaluate our approach using a two year trace from a real micro-grid of 156 buildings and show that it outperforms the state of the art load forecasting techniques adapted for peak predictions by 11-32%. When used for battery-based peak shaving, our model yields annual savings of $496,320 for a 4 MWhr battery for this micro-grid.Comment: 5 pages. 4 figures, This paper will appear in the Proceedings of ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems (e-Energy'20), June 202

Stochastic Analysis and Regeneration of Rough Surfaces

We investigate Markov property of rough surfaces. Using stochastic analysis we characterize the complexity of the surface roughness by means of a Fokker-Planck or Langevin equation. The obtained Langevin equation enables us to regenerate surfaces with similar statistical properties compared with the observed morphology by atomic force microscopy.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure