Quality of life after cesarean and vaginal delivery

Objective: Cesarean rates in recent decades have been increasing and a number of studies have shown that cesarean increases maternal morbidities. The aim of this study is to compare the quality of life after cesarean and vaginal delivery. Methods: This prospective study was carried out on 356 pregnant women visiting urban health centers in Shahroud City, Northeast Iran, in 2011. The subjects completed the quality of life questionnaire in the third trimester of pregnancy and at 8 weeks postpartum. Results: In primiparas, the mean global QOL scores for the cesarean and vaginal delivery groups were 67.65±12.7 and 72.12±11.8, respectively. Also, the scores for the physical, psychological and social domains of QOL as well as the global score of QOL were higher in the vaginal delivery group than the cesarean group (p<0.05). In the case of primiparas, multiple regression analysis revealed that after adjusting for education, desirability of pregnancy and the General Health Questionnaire score, the delivery type remained as a predictor of the scores for the physical (R2=1.7%; B=-3.826; p=0.031; CI [-7.301, -.350]) and social (R2=2.5%; B=-5.708; p=0.017; CI [-10.392, -1.023]) domains of QOL and the global QOL score (R2=2.6%; B=-4.065; p=0.006; CI [-6.964, -1.164]). While multiparas, there was no relationship between QOL and type of delivery. Conclusion: In this sample of low-risk women, cesarean negatively affected the QOL of primiparas. More studies with larger sample sizes should be conducted to examine the effects of cesarean on QOL in both primiparas and multiparas within a shorter period after delivery. © OMSB, 2013

Validation of the World Health Organization-5 well-being index; assessment of maternal well-being and its associated factors

Objective: The aim of this study was to validate the World Health Organization-5 Well-Being Index (WHO-5) in a sample of pregnant Iranian women, to explore the changes in maternal well-being from pregnancy to postpartum, and to determine the factors associated with maternal well-being. Materials and Methods: This study included 341 pregnant women that presented to healthcare centers affiliated with Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Iran, in 2011. The participants completed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and Farsi version of WHO-5 during the third trimester of pregnancy and at 2 months postpartum. Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient for WHO-5 items was 0.85. The correlation coefficient between WHO-5 and GHQ-28 was -0.64 (P < 0.001). Exploratory factor analysis yielded 1 factor with an eigen value equal to 3.15, which explained 63.1% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the 1-factor structure. The area under ROC curve was 0.82. A WHO-5 cut-off score of <50 exhibited optimal sensitivity (0.84) and specificity (0.59) for identifying psychological symptoms (GHQ-28 score ≥24). There was a significant difference between third trimester (58.4 ± 22) and postpartum (64.1 ± 22.3) mean WHO-5 scores (P < 0.001). Maternal level of education (OR = 1.130; 95% CI: 1.307, 1.232) was the only predictor of maternal well-being during third trimester. Breastfeeding difficulty (OR = 0.923; 95% CI: 0.882, 0.965) and maternal well-being scores during third trimester (OR = 1.038; 95% CI: 1.019, 1.058) were predictors of maternal well-being during the postpartum period. Conclusions: The Farsi version of WHO-5 was observed to be a reliable and valid instrument for screening psychological symptoms in pregnant Iranian women. The present findings show that maternal well-being improved following childbirth

Prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus in Rafsanjan: A comparison of different criteria

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is common during pregnancy. This survey was designed based on the frequency of GDM among an urban population according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) criteria. Methods: We included all pregnant women who were admitted to a gynecology clinic from September 2012 until May 2013. The fasting blood sugar (FBS) was measured. Those having FBS� 126 mg/dl were excluded from the study. All women underwent a standard OGTT (oral glucose tolerance test) by ingesting 75g of glucose in the 24th to 32nd week of their pregnancy. Results: Two hundred ninety pregnant women with a mean±SD age of 27.72±5.091 years were included in the study. The mean±SD FBS, blood glucose one hour and two hours after ingesting 75g of glucose were 82.48±9.41, 146.86±34.22 and 114.21±27.79 mg/ dl, respectively. Based on the criteria of the ADA, 9.3 (n= 27) of the admitted patients suffered from GDM. For the IADPSG and the WHO, those numbers were 31 (n= 90) and 15.2 (n= 44), respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of GDM was 1.5-times and 3 times higher when the IADPSG based data were compared to those of the WHO or the ADA

SURFACE NORMAL RECONSTRUCTION USING POLARIZATION-UNET

Today, three-dimensional reconstruction of objects has many applications in various fields, and therefore, choosing a suitable method for high resolution three-dimensional reconstruction is an important issue and displaying high-level details in three-dimensional models is a serious challenge in this field. Until now, active methods have been used for high-resolution three-dimensional reconstruction. But the problem of active three-dimensional reconstruction methods is that they require a light source close to the object. Shape from polarization (SfP) is one of the best solutions for high-resolution three-dimensional reconstruction of objects, which is a passive method and does not have the drawbacks of active methods. The changes in polarization of the reflected light from an object can be analyzed by using a polarization camera or locating polarizing filter in front of the digital camera and rotating the filter. Using this information, the surface normal can be reconstructed with high accuracy, which will lead to local reconstruction of the surface details. In this paper, an end-to-end deep learning approach has been presented to produce the surface normal of objects. In this method a benchmark dataset has been used to train the neural network and evaluate the results. The results have been evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively by other methods and under different lighting conditions. The MAE value (Mean-Angular-Error) has been used for results evaluation. The evaluations showed that the proposed method could accurately reconstruct the surface normal of objects with the lowest MAE value which is equal to 18.06 degree on the whole dataset, in comparison to previous physics-based methods which are between 41.44 and 49.03 degree

Study of heavy metal accumulation (Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd) in feathers of great white heron (Egretta Alba) in Hara biosphere reserve in cool season

In recent years concerns about long term effects of heavy metals as environment polluters has aroused. Nowadays considerable quantities of heavy metals have been released into the environment by human activities. Heavy metal can be a serious threat for the stability of ecosystems. In this study we examine the levels of zinc‚ copper‚ lead and cadmium in the feathers of twenty Great White Heron (Egretta Alba) collected from Hara Biosphere during November and December in 2012. The results showed that the mean concentration of heavy metals in feathers of male significantly higher than female (p<0.05) ‚ Also‚ there was no significant difference in heavy metal concentration between adult and juvenile birds. We compared the mean concentrations of heavy metal with standards. The results showed that the levels of lead‚ copper and cadmium in feather was below toxicity level except zinc‚ but the high concentration of heavy metal in some samples indicate that birds are potentially pose at the risk of heavy metal in their habitat

Pruning Edge Research with Latency Shears

Edge computing has gained attention from both academia and industry by pursuing two significant challenges: 1) moving latency critical services closer to the users, 2) saving network bandwidth by aggregating large flows before sending them to the cloud. While the rationale appeared sound at its inception almost a decade ago, several current trends are impacting it. Clouds have spread geographically reducing end-user latency, mobile phones? computing capabilities are improving, and network bandwidth at the core keeps increasing. In this paper, we scrutinize edge computing, examining its outlook and future in the context of these trends. We perform extensive client-to-cloud measurements using RIPE Atlas, and show that latency reduction as motivation for edge is not as persuasive as once believed; for most applications the cloud is already 'close enough' for majority of the world's population. This implies that edge computing may only be applicable for certain application niches, as opposed to a general-purpose solution.Peer reviewe

Beyond Spheroids and Discs: Classifications of CANDELS Galaxy Structure at 1.4 < z < 2 via Principal Component Analysis

Important but rare and subtle processes driving galaxy morphology and star-formation may be missed by traditional spiral, elliptical, irregular or S\'ersic bulge/disk classifications. To overcome this limitation, we use a principal component analysis of non-parametric morphological indicators (concentration, asymmetry, Gini coefficient, $M_{20}$, multi-mode, intensity and deviation) measured at rest-frame $B$-band (corresponding to HST/WFC3 F125W at 1.4 $10^{10} M_{\odot}$) galaxy morphologies. Principal component analysis (PCA) quantifies the correlations between these morphological indicators and determines the relative importance of each. The first three principal components (PCs) capture $\sim$75 per cent of the variance inherent to our sample. We interpret the first principal component (PC) as bulge strength, the second PC as dominated by concentration and the third PC as dominated by asymmetry. Both PC1 and PC2 correlate with the visual appearance of a central bulge and predict galaxy quiescence. PC1 is a better predictor of quenching than stellar mass, as as good as other structural indicators (S\'ersic-n or compactness). We divide the PCA results into groups using an agglomerative hierarchical clustering method. Unlike S\'ersic, this classification scheme separates compact galaxies from larger, smooth proto-elliptical systems, and star-forming disk-dominated clumpy galaxies from star-forming bulge-dominated asymmetric galaxies. Distinguishing between these galaxy structural types in a quantitative manner is an important step towards understanding the connections between morphology, galaxy assembly and star-formation.Comment: 31 pages, 24 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Physicians' role in the development of inappropriate polypharmacy among older adults in Iran: A qualitative study

Objectives The use of unnecessary or excessive medications (inappropriate polypharmacy) is a major health challenge among older adults which is driven by several factors. This study aims to provide in-depth descriptions of the physician's role in the development of inappropriate polypharmacy among older adults in Iran. Design Qualitative content analysis of interviews, field notes and other relevant documents available (eg, medical records). Data collection and analyses were done concurrently to guide the sampling process. Setting Three purposively selected referral hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Participants A total of 7 physicians, 10 older adults, 3 caregivers and 3 pharmacists with a median age of 54 (IQR 23) years were recruited through convenience sampling. Results Emerged categories included misdiagnosis, inappropriate prescribing, insufficient patient education, poor communication, unprofessional behaviour and limited perspectives which highlight the role of physicians in the development of inappropriate polypharmacy among older adults in Iran under the main concept of poor medical practice. Conclusion This study provides valuable insight on the role of physicians in the development of inappropriate polypharmacy among the elderly in the healthcare setting in Iran by exploring the viewpoints of physicians, patients, caregivers and pharmacists. Physicians can be an influential factor in tackling this challenge through proper diagnosis, prescription, patient education and follow-up. In Iran, physicians' practice styles are affected by potentially adverse factors such as the novelty of geriatric medicine, lack of a referral system, patient unfamiliarity with the system and lack of a monitoring system for multiple prescriptions. Furthermore, clinics tend to be overcrowded and visit fees can be low; in this setting, lack of physician assistants leads to limited time allocation to each patient and physician dissatisfaction with their income. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ