Evaluating the effectiveness of empowerment-based education on empowerment and anxiety in nulliparous women

Background: Anxiety is the most common mental disorder during pregnancy which increases the risk of maternal postpartum depression and anxiety; According to investigations, pregnant women hypothesized that anxiety is a common factor that will improve spontaneously; they are not aware of its side effects on the fetus, baby, and pregnancy outcome, as a whole. Therefore, creating the opportunities of independence through interacting with environment and other people and gaining sustainable mental energy can empower this defect and turn pregnancy into something pleasant. As a result, present study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of empowerment-based education on empowerment and anxiety in nulliparous women. Methods: This clinical trial survey was performed on 70 nulliparous women of 20-24 weeks. Subjects were divided into two control and experimental groups of 35 members through random sampling. Both groups completed the demographic questionnaire, Pregnant Women Empowerment questionnaire, and Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) before intervention. Pregnant Women Empowerment questionnaire and Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was completed again immediately and eight weeks after intervention by both groups. Data were analyzed by t test and Fisher's exact test through SPSS version 16. Significance level of 0.05 was considered. Results: There were no significant differences between control and experimental groups, with whole demographic variables. The results showed that the mean and standard deviation of anxiety in two groups of experimental and control before intervention were 16.78±90.91 and 16.29±89.14 which implies no significant difference (P > 0.05); however, post-intervention data analysis immediately and eight weeks after intervention showed a significant difference between two groups (P 0.05); however, post-intervention data analysis immediately and eight weeks after intervention showed a significant difference between two groups. (P < 0001) Conclusion: Empowerment-based education reduces the level of anxiety and increases empowerment of women during pregnancy; since this method is cheap, simple, and risk-free, it is highly recommended for nulliparous women

A multi-center milestone study of clinical vertebral CT segmentation

A multiple center milestone study of clinical vertebra segmentation is presented in this paper. Vertebra segmentation is a fundamental step for spinal image analysis and intervention. The first half of the study was conducted in the spine segmentation challenge in 2014 International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Workshop on Computational Spine Imaging (CSI 2014). The objective was to evaluate the performance of several state-of-the-art vertebra segmentation algorithms on computed tomography (CT) scans using ten training and five testing dataset, all healthy cases; the second half of the study was conducted after the challenge, where additional 5 abnormal cases are used for testing to evaluate the performance under abnormal cases. Dice coefficients and absolute surface distances were used as evaluation metrics. Segmentation of each vertebra as a single geometric unit, as well as separate segmentation of vertebra substructures, was evaluated. Five teams participated in the comparative study. The top performers in the study achieved Dice coefficient of 0.93 in the upper thoracic, 0.95 in the lower thoracic and 0.96 in the lumbar spine for healthy cases, and 0.88 in the upper thoracic, 0.89 in the lower thoracic and 0.92 in the lumbar spine for osteoporotic and fractured cases. The strengths and weaknesses of each method as well as future suggestion for improvement are discussed. This is the first multi-center comparative study for vertebra segmentation methods, which will provide an up-to-date performance milestone for the fast growing spinal image analysis and intervention

Effects of Music Therapy on Pain and Anxiety in Patients Undergoing Bone Marrow Biopsy and Aspiration

Bone marrow biopsy and aspiration are commonly used for diagnosing, treating, and following up after treatment for blood disorders and solid tumors. For adults, the infiltration of local anesthesia at the biopsy site has been used as the principal form of analgesia for bone marrow biopsy and aspiration. Pain relief during these procedures is often incomplete, especially during aspiration of the bone marrow, and pain is likely to contribute to patient anxiety. Researchers at the Tabriz Hematology and Oncology Center in Iran conducted a study to quantify and evaluate the effectiveness of music therapy interventions on pain and anxiety control for 100 patients undergoing bone marrow biopsy and aspiration. Participants in the study were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group listened to music during the procedure, and the other did not. Patients completed the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory both before and after the procedure and reported pain severity by using a visual analog scale. Results showed that participants who listened to music had lower state anxiety and pain levels than those who did not listen to music

Effectiveness of meta-cognitive and cognitive-behavioral therapy in patients with major depressive disorder

Objective: The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy (MCT) and cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) in treating Iranian patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods: Thirty three outpatients meeting DSM-IV-TR criteria for MDD without any other axis I and II disorders were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions, i.e. MCT, CBT and pharmacotherapy. The Beck Depression Inventory-II-Second Edition (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Ruminative Response Scale (RRS) and Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) were administered for pre-treatment, posttreatment and follow-up. Data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: Based on repeated measures ANOVA, all the participants demonstrated improvement in depression, anxiety, dysfunctional attitude and ruminative response. Based on percentage results, all the patients in MCT and CBT groups showed significant improvement at post-treatment phase. Conclusions: MCT and CBT were more effective than pharmacotherapy alone In treatment of MDD

RETRACTION: Diagnostic investigations of canine prostatitis incidence together with benign prostate hyperplasia, prostate malignancies, and biochemical recurrence in high-risk prostate cancer as a model for human study (Retraction of Vol 36, Pg 2437, 2015)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of acute and chronic inflammation, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and cancer of the prostate glands in the canine as a human model in prostate disorders. The study was carried out on 12 cases of different male dogs of terrier (50 ), German shepherd (25 ) breeds, and Greden (25 ), and the age of the dogs ranged from 6 to 13 years (average age 7.8 +/- 3.6). The bodyweight ranged from 3.6 to 7.9 kg. Signalment, clinical signs, and diagnostic tools such as ultrasonography, urinary cytology, and histopathology are presented. Dysuria was the most common clinical sign in this study and occurred in 10/12 canine (83.3 ) included. Other clinical signs included lameness (5/12 canine, 41.6 ) and constipation (3/12 canine, 25 ). The range of duration of clinical signs was 5 days to 7 months. Moreover, in the present study, the urinary biochemical markers of different prostate lesions include blood, protein, and glucose and were detected in 11/12 cases (91.6 ), 5/12 cases (41.6 ), and 2/12 cases (16.6 ), respectively. Taken together, sonographic data were classified into four groups based on histological diagnosis. In 7/12 cases (58.4 ), the prostate appeared to have BPH lesions, and the remaining lesions included inflammation (3/12 cases, 25 ), abscess (1 case, 8.3 ), and adenocarcinoma (1 case, 8/3 ) on ultrasound. In all cases, prostate tissue had an irregular echotexture. None of the dogs had sonographic evidence of sublumbar lymph node enlargement. Histopathologically, we looked at the prevalence of inflammation (33.3 chronic and 8.3 acute) and BPH (58.4 ) in dogs of different ages and breeds, and also, we observed chronic inflammation in >20 of dogs, which was about 25 in 3 cases of the 12 cases referred. More chronic inflammation was associated with more BPH. The majority of the asymptomatic inflammation that is detected in the prostate is classified as chronic inflammation (i.e., as evidenced by the presence of monocytic and/or lymphoplasmacytic inflammatory cell infiltrates); however, acute inflammation is also observed to a lesser degree. Acute inflammation, as is typically evidenced by the infiltration of neutrophils, is classically an indicator of an infectious process. Finally, the patients included seven castrated, four castrated together with antibiotic therapy, and one castrated together with chemotherapy intact male dogs, which were treated with the mentioned cases. In conclusion, chronic prostatic inflammation could be a central mechanism in BPH progression, but the pathological features of tissue inflammation were different between BPH and prostate cancer (PCa). Nevertheless, the histological examination of prostate biopsies remains the only way to diagnose prostatic disorders