Determination of Tetanus Antibody Levels in Trauma Patients Referred To Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Kashan, Iran, 2014

Background: There is a noticeable difference in serologic immune status against tetanus among different age and social groups in various countries due to different national vaccination policies and methods. Objectives: Considering that the immunization status of trauma patients against tetanus is not-known or uncertain and they may need to receive the vaccine and tetabulin, this study was conducted to determine the tetanus antibody levels in patients referred to the trauma emergency ward of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Kashan City, Iran. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 204 trauma patients referred to the trauma emergency ward of Shahid Beheshti hospital in Kashan City, Iran, in 2014. After obtaining a written informed consent from the patients, a questionnaire consisted of demographic information and tetanus vaccination record was completed by the patients. Afterwards, a 4 - 5 mL venous blood sample was taken from each patient and the tetanus antibody level (IgG) was measured using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. The tetanus antibody levels equal or more than 0.1 IU/mL were considered protective. Data were analyzed using chi-square test, independent t-test and one-way ANOVA with SPSS software version 16. Results: From a total of 204 patients, 35 cases (16.7%) were females and 169 (83.2%) were males with the mean age of 40.9 ± 3.7 years. There was no statistically significant difference in the tetanus antibody levels between both sexes (P = 0.09). Moreover, there was no significant difference in immunization status between the patients who had a history of tetanus vaccination and those who had not received the vaccine before (P = 0.67). The antibody levels were significantly reduced with the passage of time since the last vaccination (P < 0.001). Also, 87.3% of the patients had the high protective level of immunity to tetanus. Conclusions: The findings of the present study show a high level of tetanus antibody among trauma patients in this hospital; so, taking the tetanus vaccine history can be misleading. It is suggested that further studies be performed in different regions of our country and with larger sample sizes and detection of the immunization status of patients by measuring anti-tetanus antibody levels among trauma patients is recommended to make suitable policy for a national vaccine protocol in the future

A high-order fully coupled electro-fluid-dynamics solver for multiphase flow simulations

A high-order discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element solver is developed for solving electro-fluid-dynamics problems. The solver is employed to perform numerical simulations of deformation of a droplet suspended in another immiscible liquid by applying steady and oscillatory electric fields. The level set method is adopted to represent the common interface of the droplet and surrounding medium. Electrostatics equation with a jump in the dielectric property at the interface is solved to find the electric field distribution. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations including the surface tension force are solved to find the flow field. The Electrostatics and Navier-Stokes equations are coupled through changes in the geometry because of the deformation of the droplet and the dielectrophoretic body force, which is present at the interface

Evaluating high risks in large-scale projects using an extended VIKOR method under a fuzzy environment

The complexity of large-scale projects has led to numerous risks in their life cycle. This paper presents a new risk evaluation approach in order to rank the high risks in large-scale projects and improve the performance of these projects. It is based on the fuzzy set theory that is an effective tool to handle uncertainty. It is also based on an extended VIKOR method that is one of the well-known multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. The proposed decision-making approach integrates knowledge and experience acquired from professional experts, since they perform the risk identification and also the subjective judgments of the performance rating for high risks in terms of conflicting criteria, including probability, impact, quickness of reaction toward risk, event measure quantity and event capability criteria. The most notable difference of the proposed VIKOR method with its traditional version is just the use of fuzzy decision-matrix data to calculate the ranking index without the need to ask the experts. Finally, the proposed approach is illustrated with a real-case study in an Iranian power plant project, and the associated results are compared with two well-known decision-making methods under a fuzzy environment

The Effect of Organic Loading on Propylene Glycol Removal Using Fixed Bed Activated Sludge Hybrid Reactor

Propylene glycol is discharged to the surface and underground waters and vicinity soils via industrial wastewater effluents, posing many health and environmental risks. The main goal of this study was to remove propylene glycol from synthetic wastewater in a fixed bed activated sludge reactor. To observe the effects of organic loading on bioreactor performance, the organic loading was increased by two sequencing stages: first by hydraulic retention time (HRT) depletion and second via propylene glycol concentration increase. Propylene glycol removal efficiency in HRTs of 8, 6, 4 and 2 h was 95.86, 95.12, 93.96 and 79.08 % respectively. A constant HRT of 6 h was selected for the second stage; propylene glycol concentrations of 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 mg L–1 were used. The removal efficiency for these concentrations was 95.12, 95.95, 88.54, 75.95 and 35.69 % respectively. Thus, the integrated fixed bed activated sludge reactor is an efficient, viable and promising technology for treating wastewaters containing propylene glycol

Factors affecting the outcome of community-acquired pneumonia among the patients hospitalized in Beheshti hospital (Kashan-Iran)

Background: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a common infectious disease with high morbidity and mortality. The goal of this study was to evaluate the factors affecting the outcome of pneumonia among the Beheshti hospital patients. Materials and Methods: This cohort study was done on pneumonia patients (n=140) in Kashan Beheshti hospital during 2014-2015. A questionnaire consisting the demographic, clinical and paraclinical findings and outcomes was filled-out. Results: Eighty three (59.3) out of 140 patients were male and 57(40.7) women. The majority of cases were &ge;50 years old (mean age 60.02&plusmn;1.70) .There was a history of diabetes in 54(38.6) .The most common signs and symptoms were coughing and the lung rales. The ninty-one and 9 of the cases were improved and complicated condition, respectively. The complication were: pleural effusion (77), empiyema (15) and abscess (8).There was positive CRP (100); increased ESR (82) and leukocytosis (80). While, there was no statistical association between the sex, age and clinical symptoms with the disease complication and outcome, there was a significant correlation between the first BS, HbA1C, CRP, duration of hospitalization, radiographic pattern and diabetes with disease outcome. Conclusion: Considering the association between the diabetes in one side and some factors (outcome of pneumonia, duration of hospitalization, history of pneumonia, times of admission, BS at admission, HbA1c, bilateral involvement, leukocytosis, increased ESR, CRP and CURB 65, the diabetes should be considered as an important factor affecting the pneumonia outcome. The managed control of diabetes can improve the pneumonia outcome

Intestinal digestive enzyme activity under the influence of different dietary supplements methionine and lysine in the diet of Sparidentex hasta

This study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary methionine and lysine supplementation on digestive enzymes activity in juvenile Sobaity, Sparidentex hasta. For this purpose, 180 juvenile fish with an initial average weight of 31.38 ± 1.4 g were distributed randomly in eighteen (300 L) polyethylene tanks. 6 experimental diets were prepared with different levels of methionine and lysine including control diet (without dietary methionine and lysine), Diet 1: 100% methionine; Diet 2: 75% methionine and 25% lysine; Diet 3: 50% methionine and 50% lysine; Diet 4: 25% methionine and 75% lysine; Diet 5: 100% lysine. During the experimental period, fish were fed to satiation thrice daily (8:00, 13:00 and 18:00 hours) for 8 weeks. At the end of the experiment, digestive enzymes (trypsin, chymotrypsin, alkaline phosphatase, amylase, lipase and total protease were affected by different dietary levels of methionine and lysine supplementations (P<0/05). Also, the activity of trypsin and chymotrypsin had shown an increasing trend with an increased amount of diet lysine while enzyme activity of alkaline phosphatase was higher in treatments contains the maximum amount of methionine supplementation. According to results, the increasing of lysine in diet reduced enzyme activity of lipase. The results, showed no significant differences between experimental treatments in amylase and total protease (P<0/05). Based on the results of evaluation digestive enzymes, amino acids supplements of lysine and methionine were changed the activity of digestive enzymes in juvenile Sobaity, (S. hasta). Finally, Diet 2 with 75% methionine and 25% lysine was suggested for used by Sobaity, as to the balance of dietary methionine and lysine supplementation

Community composition and diversity of zooplankton in the northwest Persian Gulf

Survey on zooplankton composition was studied during June 2015 to March 2016, by selecting six stations along the coastal waters of Bushehr (the Northwest Persian Gulf). Twenty four zooplankton taxa were identified, and the different zooplankton groups represented twenty-one families. Copepoda was recorded with the most abundance (53.30 %) followed by Malacostraca (32.87 %), which in turn was followed by Sagittoidea (7.44 %) and Appendicularia (6.39%). A major peak of 189.34 N/m3 was observed in February-2016 with 53.25% contribution from Copepoda. Among Copepoda, Labidocera sp. was the major contributor to this peak. Appendicularia was the comparatively less represented group, being chiefly represented by Oikopleura dioica. Labidocera sp., Oithona plumifera which were common in most of the stations. This common distribution were observed for Malacostraca, namely Lucifer hanseni (mysis I), Upogebia sp. (zoea I), Parthenope sp., Ilyoplax frater( zoea VI), for Sagittoidea, namely Sagitta enflata, Sagitta neglecta and for Appendicularia, namely Oikopleura dioica. The mean Shannon's diversity index (H') and evenness were 1.36±0.43 and, 0.68±1.17, respectively. The highest Margalef's index was recorded in station-6 (2.72±1.32) and the lowest in station-2 (1.98±0.89). According to non-significant differences between temporal and spatial zooplankton density and Shannon’s index, from an ecological point of view, it seems the study area is unique and the zooplankton composition is homogenous