The effect of Trans-cutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) on range of motion and morning stiffness of knee joint on patient with knee osteoarthritis

چکیده: زمینه و هدف: استئوآرتریت شایع ترین بیماری مفصلی است و شایع ترین مفصلی که در این بیماران درگیر می شود مفصل زانو است. شایع ترین علایم این بیماری کاهش دامنه حرکتی و خشکی صبحگاهی مفصل زانو است. هدف ما از این مطالعه تعیین تأثیر تحریک الکتریکی عصب از طریق پوست (TENS)، به عنوان یک روش غیر دارویی، بر دامنه حرکتی و خشکی صبحگاهی مفصل زانو در بیماران مبتلا به استئوآرتریت زانو می باشد. روش بررسی: بررسی حاضر یک مطالعه نیمه تجربی از نوع یک سوکور می باشد که تعداد 57 بیمار مبتلا به استئوآرتریت زانو (29 نفر گروه آزمون و 28 نفرگروه شاهد) به روش تخصیص تصادفی در سال 1384 در درمانگاه روماتولوژی بیمارستان امام خمینی تهران مورد مطالعه قرار گرفتند. طی چهار هفته، هر هفته سه جلسه، به گروه آزمون جریان الکتریکی 100 هرتز، به مدت 20 دقیقه با استفاده از دستگاه TENS داده شد، شدت جریان با توجه به آستانه حسی خود بیماران تنظیم می شد. گروه شاهد هم دارای همین شرایط بود ولی از دستگاه خاموش به عنوان پلاسبو برای آنها استفاده می‌شد. میزان خشکی صبحگاهی و دامنه حرکتی مفصل زانو در جلسه اول، ششم و دوازدهم در هر دو گروه اندازه گیری شد و داده ها با استفاده از آزمون آماری آنالیز واریانس با اندازه گیری مکرر، کروسکال والیس و t مستقل مورد تجزیه و تحلیل قرار گرفتند. یافته ها: میانگین دامنه حرکتی مفصل زانو در گروه آزمون از 26/2±2/82 قبل از مداخله، به 07/3±1/89 پس از شش جلسه مداخله، تغییر نموده و پس از اتمام مداخله این میزان به 52/4±117 افزایش یافت (001/0

Study effect of a group-based exercise program on the quality of life in older men and women in 2006-2007

Introduction: The proportion of older adults in the population continues to grow in the developing countries. In addition, persons at or over the age of 60 years have decreased quality of life in geriartrics because of several factors, such as low physical activity and impairment in mobility. This study was performed to assess the effect of group-based exercise program on physical functional independency in order to finally increase the quality of life in older adults. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in old women and men in 2005-2007. In this study, 50 elderly men and women were randomly divided into two groups experimental (25) and control (25).Group-based exercise program was administrated to the individuals of experimental group for 8 weeks (3 time a week) and subsequently using SF-36 questionnaire, the level of quality of life was measured in the two groups at the beginning and the end of the study. The data was analyzed using manvitni , chi-square and nonparametric tests. Results: Using group-based exercise program, increase in mean level of quality of life in different dimensions physical functional, role functional, pain, general health, emotional well-being, social functional , emotional functional and mental health was statistically significant(p0.01). Conclusion: Our study results showed that use of a regular and prolonged exercise program can increase the level of quality of life in older adults in different dimensions

Effect of Subliminal Auditory Stimulation on Components of Auditory Late Responses and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data in Adults with Normal Hearing

Background and Aim: The use of subliminal stimulation for unconscious effects on the target population is of great importance. while several studies have generated proper visual and auditory stimuli for subliminal stimulation, no study was found on the long-term effects of it. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the long-term effects of auditory subliminal presentation on the central nervous system structures using fMRI and Auditory Late Responses (ALRs). Methods: Participants were 26 students with a mean age of 24.03±2.32 years. There was four group in study. First, fMRI was done and ALRs were recorded for all of them. Then, music files containing words embedded in them was presented subliminally to participants in groups A and B for 10 days, group C received music file without any subliminal stimuli and group D was control group. It was repeated after 10 days. Results: The subliminal stimuli had significant effects on the amplitudes of P1, N1, P2, and P3 waves (F3=25.03, 25.41, 39.11, and 14.60; p<0.001). Between-group comparison showed significant changes in groups A and B compared to groups C and D (p<0.05). The difference in the recorded potential mean values showed the highest change for recording electrodes in the prefrontal, frontal, and central regions and the lowest change in parietal and occipital regions. There was no significant change for a latency component. Conclusion: Subliminal stimuli, presented appropriately and continuously, can leave longterm effects on the central nervous system structure causing extensive changes in the people’sattitude to a certain subject

Bolometric technique for high-resolution broadband microwave spectroscopy of ultra-low-loss samples

A novel low temperature bolometric method has been devised and implemented for high-precision measurements of the microwave surface resistance of small single-crystal platelet samples having very low absorption, as a continuous function of frequency. The key to the success of this non-resonant method is the in-situ use of a normal metal reference sample that calibrates the absolute rf field strength. The sample temperature can be controlled independently of the 1.2 K liquid helium bath, allowing for measurements of the temperature evolution of the absorption. However, the instrument's sensitivity decreases at higher temperatures, placing a limit on the useful temperature range. Using this method, the minimum detectable power at 1.3 K is 1.5 pW, corresponding to a surface resistance sensitivity of $\approx$1 $\mu\Omega$ for a typical 1 mm$\times$1 mm platelet sample.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Review of Scientific Instrument

Impact of linear dimensionality reduction methods on the performance of anomaly detection algorithms in hyperspectral images

Anomaly Detection (AD) has recently become an important application of hyperspectral images analysis. The goal of these algorithms is to find the objects in the image scene which are anomalous in comparison to their surrounding background. One way to improve the performance and runtime of these algorithms is to use Dimensionality Reduction (DR) techniques. This paper evaluates the effect of three popular linear dimensionality reduction methods on the performance of three benchmark anomaly detection algorithms. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) as DR methods, act as pre-processing step for AD algorithms. The assessed AD algorithms are Reed-Xiaoli (RX), Kernel-based versions of the RX (Kernel-RX) and Dual Window-Based Eigen Separation Transform (DWEST). The AD methods have been applied to two hyperspectral datasets acquired by both the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and Hyperspectral Mapper (HyMap) sensors. The evaluation of experiments has been done using Receiver Operation Characteristic (ROC) curve, visual investigation and runtime of the algorithms. Experimental results show that the DR methods can significantly improve the detection performance of the RX method. The detection performance of neither the Kernel-RX method nor the DWEST method changes when using the proposed methods. Moreover, these DR methods increase the runtime of the RX and DWEST significantly and make them suitable to be implemented in real time applications

Effect of public interventions through dialogue with officials and training of civil service personnel on improving the condition of collecting, transportation and rubbish repelling in Semnan (2004-2005)

زمینه و هدف: زباله اصطلاحاً به فضولات جامد، نیمه جامد یا مایعی گفته می شود که ظاهراً به درد نخور بوده و دور ریخته می شوند. زباله ها به سه دسته زباله های خانگی، بیمارستانی و صنعتی تقسیم می شوند که قسمت اعظم مواد زائد شهری را زباله های خانگی تشکیل می دهند. مدیریت حل مشکل زباله اصولاَ شامل سه قسمت جمع آوری، حمل و نقل و دفع زباله می باشد. چگونگی برنامه ریزی و مدیریت حل مشکل زباله های خانگی امروزه یکی از مسائل و معضلات مهم بهداشتی جوامع شهری می باشد. طی بررسی که توسط گروه مردمی آزاد پایگاه تحقیقات جمعیتی سمنان در سال 1383 از وضعیت مدیریت زباله های خانگی شهر سمنان به عمل آمد، متاسفانه هر سه مرحله جمع آوری، حمل و نقل و دفع زباله های خانگی از نظر رعایت نکات بهداشتی و استاندارد های مربوطه دچار مشکل بود. یافته های تحقیقات قبلی نشان داده است که این گونه مشکلات چند بعدی، بدون جلب مشارکت فعال تمامی طرفهای درگیر قابل حل نمی باشد. لذا با توجه به ساختار مناسب پایگاه های تحقیقات جمعیتی در انجام پژوهش های مشارکتی مبتنی بر جامعه، این مطالعه با هدف بهبود وضعیت زباله شهر سمنان از طریق گفتگو و تعامل با مسئولین مربوطه اجرا گردید. روش بررسی: برای انجام مداخلات مردمی در زمینه بهبود وضعیت زباله شهر سمنان، ابتدا با تشکیل جلسات گروهی مردمی، نیازهای مورد مداخله از طریق بحث متمرکز گروهی شناسائی گردید و نیز با کمک مردم از طریق مشاهده و جمع آوری مستندات محیطی ازقبیل تهیه فیلم و عکس از معضلات جمع آوری، حمل و نقل و دفع زباله شهری اقدام شد. سپس مطابق مشکلات موجود، مداخلات بر دو محور گفتگو و تعامل با مسئولین ذیربط و آموزش کارکنان خدمات شهری، طراحی و اجرا شد. در محور اول با دعوت از مسئولین سازمان های ذیربط طی جلسات متعدد، مشکلات موجود بصورت منطقی و مستدل با مشارکت جمعی (مردم، مسئولین، نیروهای دانشگاهی و افراد کارشناس و ذینفع) در محیطی دوستانه از طریق بحث متمرکز گروهی مورد بحث و بررسی قرار گرفت و تا رسیدن به نتایج ملموس تشکیل جلسات مورد پیگیری مستمر قرار گرفت. در محور دوم، نکات بهداشتی به تمامی کارکنان خدمات شهری سمنان آموزش داده شد. یافته ها: قبل از مداخلات، موارد جمع آوری، حمل و نقل و دفع زباله در شهر سمنان، از نظر بهداشتی مشکل داشت. پس از مداخلات، نتایج نشان داد رعایت نکات بهداشتی در حمل و نقل و دفع زباله تغییر و بهبود یافته است. نتیجه گیری: گفتگو و تعامل نیروهای مردمی با مسئولین شهری می تواند نتایج پر باری در بهبود وضعیت بهداشتی شهر و سلامت جامعه داشته باشد

Effect of varying experimental conditions on the viscosity of α-pinene derived secondary organic material

Knowledge of the viscosity of particles containing secondary organic material (SOM) is useful for predicting reaction rates and diffusion in SOM particles. In this study we investigate the viscosity of SOM particles as a function of relative humidity and SOM particle mass concentration, during SOM synthesis. The SOM was generated via the ozonolysis of α-pinene at < 5 % relative humidity (RH). Experiments were carried out using the poke-and-flow technique, which measures the experimental flow time (τexp, flow) of SOM after poking the material with a needle. In the first set of experiments, we show that τexp, flow increased by a factor of 3600 as the RH increased from < 0.5 RH to 50 % RH, for SOM with a production mass concentration of 121 µg m−3. Based on simulations, the viscosities of the particles were between 6  ×  105 and 5  ×  107 Pa s at < 0.5 % RH and between 3  ×  102 and 9  ×  103 Pa s at 50 % RH. In the second set of experiments we show that under dry conditions τexp, flow decreased by a factor of 45 as the production mass concentration increased from 121 to 14 000 µg m−3. From simulations of the poke-and-flow experiments, the viscosity of SOM with a production mass concentration of 14 000 µg m−3 was determined to be between 4  ×  104 and 1.5  ×  106 Pa s compared to between 6  ×  105 and 5  ×  107 Pa s for SOM with a production mass concentration of 121 µg m−3. The results can be rationalized by a dependence of the chemical composition of SOM on production conditions. These results emphasize the shifting characteristics of SOM, not just with RH and precursor type, but also with the production conditions, and suggest that production mass concentration and the RH at which the viscosity was determined should be considered both when comparing laboratory results and when extrapolating these results to the atmosphere