The Effect of Educational Intervention Based on the Health Belief Model on Medication Adherence among Patients with Diabetes Referred to a Diabetes Center in Zarand, Kerman

Background: Medication adherence in patients with diabetes is one of the main factors in diabetic patients care. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of educational intervention based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) on medication adherence in patients with diabetes referred to a diabetes center in Zarand, Iran, in 2014. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed on 100 patients with diabetes. The patients were divided into two groups (intervention and control). Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire including demographic variables, constructs of HBM, and the Morisky self-report questionnaire. The intervention group were divided into 5 groups including 8-12 patients, and according to the HBM, education was performed in four 60-90 minute sessions during one month. One month after the intervention, data were collected again and analyzed using descriptive statistics, linear regression, and Mann–Whitney U test. Results: There was a significant difference in mean score of knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, perceived efficacy, and cues to action between intervention and control groups after the intervention. Medication adherence was significantly related to the level of education (P=0.006). Among constructs of HBM, perceived self-efficiency was the strongest predicting factor (P=0.03). After the intervention, the mean scores of perceived sensitivity (P<0.001), perceived severity (P<0.001), perceived benefits (P<0.001), perceived barriers (P<0.001), perceived self-efficiency (P<0.0001), cue to action (P<0.0001), and medication adherence (P<0.0001) increased significantly. Conclusion: Education based on the HBM was effective in increasing adherence to medical instructions in patients with type 2 diabetes

Musculoskeletal symptoms and job satisfaction among office-workers: A Cross- sectional study from Iran

Objective. Office-work poses a high-risk for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), with consequences for workers, employers and society. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in a sample of Iranian office workers, to investigate the association between pain severity and job satisfaction and to investigate the association between MSDs and job satisfaction. Materials and methods. Iranian office workers from a university setting (n=91) were randomly selected and included in this cross-sectional study. The Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire plus visual analogue scale of pain, and the Brayfield-Rothe Job Satisfaction Index were used to study the prevalence of MSDs, pain intensity and job satisfaction, respectively. Descriptive analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and multiple regression analysis were performed for statistical assessment. Results. Eighty-nine percent of participants reported musculoskeletal symptoms during the past 12 months, most commonly in the neck (69.2 %), low back (58.2%), knees (41.8%), shoulders (35.2%), and upper back (34.1%). There was a significant negative correlation between pain intensity and job satisfaction. Pain intensity, low-back pain in the last week, wrist pain in the past 12 months and shoulder pain were significantly associated with job satisfaction (p<0.05). Conclusion. This study provides evidence that musculoskeletal symptoms are common in Iranian office workers, associated with low job satisfaction. These findings indicate the need for more attention to MSDs among office workers and designing effective preventive interventions

The expression analysis of IL-6, IL-18, IL-21, IL-23, and TGF-β mRNA in the nasal mucosa of patients with Allergic rhinitis

Background: The profile of inflammatory and suppressing cytokines is important to contribute to the disruption of TH1/ TH2 balance in Allergic rhinitis (AR). Objective: This study aimed to assess the expression levels of IL-6, IL-18, IL-21, IL-23, and TGF-beta in nasal biopsies in AR patients and evaluate its correlation with the severity of AR. Material and method: The study included 30 patients with mild persistent allergic rhinitis (MPAR), patients with moder- ate-to-severe (M/S) PAR, and 30 healthy individuals. The biopsies of nasal inferior turbinate mucosa were collected from each participant. The expression of IL-6, IL-18, IL-21, IL-23, and TGF-beta was evaluated by the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The degree of eosinophil infiltration into the nasal mucosa, blood eosinophils, and total serum IgE level were also measured. Result: The expression of IL-6, IL-18, and IL-23 in patients with AR significantly increased compared to the control group. Conversely, the gene expression of the TGF-beta declined in the M/S PAR group rather than the AR-group. The data did not show a significant difference in the expression of the IL-21 gene between AR+ and AR-groups. Conclusion: We suggested that inflammatory cytokines including IL-6, IL-18, and IL-23 may be involved in the severity of AR and associated with markers of inflammation

Prevalence of idiopathic osteosclerosis in an Iranian population

Aim: Idiopathic osteosclerosis (IO) is a localized radiopacity with no associated pain, bony expansion, symptom, or known etiology. The aim of this study was to assess its frequency and distribution according to its location and patient′s age and gender and internal structure using panoramic radiography. Subjects and Methods: In this retrospective study, 3975 panoramic radiographs (PRs) were used. Radiopaque regions which had no certain relationship to any known sources of hard tissue production were accepted as IO and characteristics such as shape, location, internal structure, and personal information were investigated. Statistical Analysis Used: The obtained data were evaluated using SPSS software and Chi-square test. Results: IO was found in 113 (2.84%) out of 3975 patients. The most frequent site was the posterior region of mandible. There was no significant difference in the incidence of IO between genders (P = 0.766). Conclusion: IO is an asymptomatic radiopaque mass commonly seen in PR, which was found mostly in the first molar region of mandible. Furthermore, its maximum frequency was in the second decade

Fast quadratic model predictive control based on sensitivity analysis and Wolfe method

Abstract This paper proposes a new algorithm based on sensitivity analysis and the Wolfe method to solve a sequence of parametric quadratic programming (QP) problems such as those that arise in quadratic model predictive control (QMPC). The Wolfe method, based on Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions, has been used to convert parametric QP problems to parametric linear programming (LP) problems, and then the sensitivity analysis is applied to solve the sequence of the parametric LP problems. This strategy obtains sensitivity analysis‐based QMPC (SA‐QMPC) algorithm. It is proved that the computational complexity of SA‐QMPC is O(Nn2) for a region of the initial conditions and O(N2n2) for sufficiently small sampling time and all initial conditions, where N and n are the horizon time and dimension of the state vector, respectively. Numerical results indicate the potential and properties of the proposed algorithm

Production of Mycelium-Based Papers from Carrot Pomace and Their Potential Applications for Dye Removal

The Current study aimed at valorizing carrot pomace (CP), an abundant waste from the juice industry. A water-soluble fraction of CP was separated from solid fraction of CP (SFCP) and employed as feedstock for producing fungal biomass (FB) in bench-scale bioreactors. FB combined with SFCP were used to develop mycelium-based papers (MBP) using the wet-laid method. The potential and capacity of FB, SFCP and MBP to remove dye (methylene blue) from wastewater was then investigated. The maximum achieved dye removal was 92% when using a mixture of SFCP and FB in their suspended forms. The MBP with the lowest density (549 kg/m3) reached 83% dye elimination. The findings of this study support the valorization of carrot pomace, through environmentally benign processes, to mycelium-based papers with potential application in wastewater treatment

The Smart Residential Complex Effect on Personality Formation of Children

The interaction between human beings and the environment has been a question of all times; however, the Industrial Revolution has begun to change its way. It can be seen that the human beings were a part of their environment in the past, but now with the advancement of knowledge and technology, the man can dominate in their environment. But today, the man’s needs should be well known about the interaction with the natural environment and with respect to the position of the residential complexes in the modern society, these buildings are designed to create the psychological comfort and the formation of the personality. The authors of this paper believe the mentioned event will be happening in the future generation of the buildings. These buildings will be equipped with smart automation system for all their activities. This research conducted by grounded theories about the explanation of the smart residential complexes equipped with the BMS, which can be effective for shaping the managerial character of the children in their future

The Effect of Cast Iron, Ceramic and Clay Baking Substrate on Thermal, Textural, Sensory Characteristics and the Heavy Metals in Bread

Baking bread is one of the most important stages of bread preparation. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of bread baking substrate to improve the quality of produced bread. In this research, the cast iron substrate was used as a reference surface and two ceramic and clay coatings were applied on the cast iron surface for comparison. In order to check the properties of coatings, microstructure, microhardness, hardness measurement, thickness measurement, and thermal shock tests were performed, and finally, the quality of the resulting bread was evaluated according to texture evaluation criteria, staleness test, measurement of heavy metals and sensory evaluation. To analyze the data, ANOVA was used to compare the mean and Duncan's test was used to group the treatments. Based on the conducted studies, it was found that the use of clay and ceramics as a coating on the cast iron substrate, with the protection mechanism of pollution transfer, reduces the transfer of chemical pollution of heavy metals to bread. The highest number of heavy metals including lead 0.565 µg/kg, cadmium 0.023 µg/kg and iron 4.470 mg/kg was obtained in bread produced in cast iron bed. The highest number of heavy metals was obtained in bread produced in cast iron bed and the lowest number of heavy metals was obtained in bread baked in ceramic bed. The samples baked on the cast iron bed had less hardness than the samples baked on the clay and ceramic bed. From the sensory point of view, the highest score for bread baked in a ceramic bed was 4.900 and the lowest score for bread baked in a clay bed was 3.126