Spinal Stabilization Exercise with and without Whole–Body Vibration: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Introduction: The present study aimed to compare the impacts of core stability exercises with and without Whole Body Vibration (WBV) training sessions lasting two weeks on trunk muscle endurance in patients with non-specific chronic low back. Methods and Materials: Thirty participants were randomly placed into either a WBV group or a spinal stabilization group at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, in 2013. The dependent variables manipulated included the abdominal and spinal muscular endurance, assessed prior to, midway through, and after two weeks and the WBV or spinal stabilization intervention program implemented using stabilizer pressure biofeedback unit and Biering Sorensen test. Results: Changes in transverse abdominal and internal oblique muscle endurance in prone position were statistically significant among the participants in both groups (P<0.05). However, changes in transverse abdominal muscle endurance in supine position and multifidus muscle endurance were not observed to be statistically significant in both groups. In addition, inter-group analysis showed that except for the percentage of changes of multifidus muscle endurance, the vibration group demonstrated significant improvement over the non-vibration group. Conclusion: As no significant difference was observed between the two treatment methods, none of treatment methods was more effective comparatively in terms of improving mid-term trunk muscle endurance.Keywords: Whole body vibration, Trunk muscle endurance, Non-specific chronic low back pain, Core stabilit

The effect of core stability training with and without whole body vibration in chronic low back pain patients

The subjective of this study was to explore and compare the effects of Whole Body Vibration (WBV) and conventional spinal stabilization exercises on persons with non-specific chronic low back pain (CLBP). Thirty patients with non-specific chronic low back pain randomly received 6 sessions of spinal stabilization therapy with and without whole body vibration over 2 weeks. The severity of pain, functional disability,  abdominal and lumbar multifidus muscle endurance were assessed prior to, midway and after two week  WBV or spinal stabilization intervention program sequentially by using VAS score, Oswestry disability index and stabilizer pressure biofeedback unit. Repeated measure ANOVA was used for data analysis. A p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Findings show that multifidus muscle endurance and general functionality  increase significantly over time in both groups (P <0/05). Both groups didn't show any statistically significant change in perception of pain, supine and prone time after the treatment period (P>0/05) .Neither of the two exercise interventions wasn't superior in producing more significant results except for multifidus and transverse abdominus muscles endurance where the vibration group showed significant improvement over the non-vibration group. Findings revealed that a slight difference existed in favor of the vibration training group, but not sufficient enough to conclude that it is more effective than core muscle exercises alone

Optimization of Water-Energy-Food Nexus considering CO2 emissions from cropland: A case study in northwest Iran

Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus and CO2 emissions for a farm in northwest Iran were analyzed to provide data support for decision-makers formulating national strategies in response to climate change. In the analysis, input–output energy in the production of seven crop species (alfalfa, barley, silage corn, potato, rapeseed, sugar beet, and wheat) was determined using six indicators, water, and energy consumption, mass productivity, and economic productivity. WEF Nexus index (WEFNI), calculated based on these indicators, showed the highest (best) value for silage corn and the lowest for potato. Nitrogen fertilizer and diesel fuel with an average of 36.8% and 30.6% of total input energy were the greatest contributors to energy demand. Because of the direct relationship between energy consumption and CO2 emissions, potato cropping, with the highest energy consumption, had the highest CO2 emissions with a value of 5166 kg CO2eq ha−1. A comparison of energy inputs and CO2 emissions revealed a direct relationship between input energy and global warming potential. A 1 MJ increase in input energy increased CO2 emissions by 0.047, 0.049, 0.047, 0.054, 0.046, 0.046, and 0.047 kg ha−1 for alfalfa, barley, silage corn, potato, rapeseed, sugar beet, and wheat, respectively. Optimization assessments to identify the optimal cultivation pattern, with emphasis on maximized WEFNI and minimized CO2 emissions, showed that barley, rapeseed, silage corn, and wheat performed best under the conditions studied.publishedVersio

Malignant Transformation in Leukoplakia and Its Associated Factors in Southern Iran: A Hospital Based Experience

We evaluated factors that affect malignant transformation of leukoplakia in a sample of the Iranian population. Methods: The records of patients with a clinical diagnosis of leukoplakia during a 20-year period from 1989-2009 referred to two of the largest referral centers in southern Iran were studied. Patients that developed malignant trans-formation were compared with patients that did not have malignant changes. Results: Of 522 patients, female patients, those over 50 yr old and with lesions located on the tongue had the highest rate of malignant changes. Female patients with malignant changes were mostly non-smokers (76.4%), while male pa-tients with malignant changes were mostly smokers (63.8% in non-smokers) (P<0.001). In our univariate analysis, male sex and smoking showed lower chances for malignant transformation (OR: 0.57; CI=0.397-0.822 and OR: 0.025; CI=0.141-0.299, respectively), while age above 50 was a risk factor for malignant transformation (OR: 3.57; CI=2.32-5.42). In the multivariate analysis, smoking (OR: 0.317; 95% CI=0.16–0.626) and morphological presentation as eryt-hroplakia (OR: 0.025; 95% CI=0.005-0.131) had low chances for developing malignant changes, while site of lesion on the tongue (OR: 774; 95% CI=60-9838) and morphological presentation as erythroleukoplakia (OR: 6.26; 95% CI=3.16-12.38) were a risk factor for developing malignant changes Conclusion: A follow-up program and further work-up should be considered for Iranian patients who have a leukop-lakia lesion that is flat and are white patch or plaques with red components, in addition for patients who have lesions located on the tongue and for nonsmokers who develops leukoplakia lesions

The relationship between emotional intelligence and happiness in medical students

Purpose Emotional intelligence is a factor affecting the health of individuals, and happiness is another factor affecting it. Medical students’ health can greatly affect a community’s health due to the important role of medical students in maintaining and improving it. Accordingly, we aimed to study the relationship between emotional intelligence and happiness among the students of the Shiraz Medical School. Methods This study is an analytical, cross-sectional study. The target population of this study was the medical students who began studying in the medical school and the international branch of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences from September 2014 to September 2017. The sample size was 300 students who were selected by a systematic sampling method. The instruments for collecting information in this study were Oxford Happiness Inventory and Siberia Schering’s Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. The significance level of the tests was set at 0.05. Results The mean age of 292 responded participants were 20.73 with standard deviation of ±1.81 emotional intelligence (p<0.001), level of stress (p<0.001), and grade (p=0.03) and type of personality (p<0.001) can explain the changes in the happiness level and they were significant effective factors in the regression modeling. Conclusion Emotional intelligence was a predictive factor for happiness in medical students. Students with higher emotional intelligence felt healthier. And happiness in extroverted students was higher than introverted ones. It is suggested that the results of this study should be confirmed with prospective studies

Seroprevalence and Trend of HBV, HCV, and HIV Infections among Blood Donors of Fars Province, Iran (2006-2018)

BACKGROUND: Blood transfusion is a life-saving procedure; millions of lives are saved each year. However, blood transfusions are associated with certain risks that can lead to adverse consequences. This study aimed to survey the prevalence and trend of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among blood donors of Fars province, Iran (2006-2018).METHODS: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted by reviewing the records of the blood transfusion organization of Fars province. A total of 1952478 blood units were screened for transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs). Then, data were entered into SPSS software (Negare. version 25). Chi-square test was used to compare the sof TTIs among blood donors. Chisquare test for trend was used to analyze the variations in trends of TTIs during this period. Finally, p-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. GraphPad Prism software was used for the depiction of the graphs.RESULTS: Among the 1952478 blood donations within the 13-years, 4479(0.229 %) of donors were HBsAg, HCV Ab, and HIV Ag-Ab positive. The seroprevalence of HBV, HCV, and HIV was 2684(0.137%), 1703(0.087 %), and 92(0.0047%), respectively.CONCLUSION: The current study showed that the overall prevalence of TTIs among blood donors was low and had a descending trend over the years of study

Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Properties of Hydro-Ethanolic Extract of Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) and its Application in Pasteurized Milk

Background & aim: Milk is a dairy product which is susceptible to contamination by pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms. One way to control the growth of pathogenic bacteria is to use preservatives and antimicrobial compounds. Due to the general concerns about the side effects of chemical preservatives, there is a tendency to consume products that use natural preservatives. Natural products provide unlimited opportunities for novel and suitable additives. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of hydro-ethanolic extract of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) against some gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria innocua) and gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and the next stage was to investigate the impact of hydro-ethanolic extract of this plant at 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75% (w/w) concentrations on the shelf life of pasteurized milk. Methods: The present experimental study was conducted in 2022 at Nahavand Higher Education Complex. The total phenolic content of the extract was measured by Folin-ciocalteau method. Antioxidant activity of different concentration of extract were assessed by diphenyl picrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging activity and compared with synthetic antioxidant butylated hydroxyl anisole (BHA). Antibacterial effects of resemary on pathogenic bacteria was determined by well diffusion agar, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) methods. Experimental data were analyzed using ANOVA by the SPSS version 20 software and mean comparison were done using Duncan's multiple range test. Results: The phenolic content of hydro-ethanolic extract weas 96.47±0.35 mg galic acid/g extract. Hydro-ethanolic extract of rosemary had the greatest effect on Staphylococcus aureus. The MIC of rosemary ethanolic extract ranged from 12.5 to 50 mg/ml, depending on the type of bacteria (gram positive or gram negative). Also, the treatments of pasteurized milk with 0.5%, acceptable sensory properties had a significantly lower total microbial count and longer shelf life compared to the control sample. Conclusion: Therefore, considering that the hydro-ethanolic extract of rosemary had a significant effect on preventing the growth of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms, as a result, this extract can be used as a natural antibiotic in milk

Directional channel modelling for millimetre wave communications in urban areas

© 2018, The Institution of Engineering and Technology. Integrating Kirchhoff approximation (KA) and a ray-tracing (RT) algorithm, this study develops a new directional threedimensional channel model for urban millimetre-wave small cells. The authors study the path loss, spatial correlation, coverage distance, and coherence length for line-of-sight (LOS), obstructed LOS, and non-LOS (NLOS) scenarios in urban areas. Exploiting physical optics and geometric optics solutions, closed-form expressions for spatial correlation are derived. It is deduced that LOS availability, frequency, and surface roughness scale highly impact spatial diversity. In addition, using antenna arrays of moderate gain at both sides of the link, even under NLOS conditions, a typical urban cell size of 200 m is achievable