Quality of life in chemical warfare survivors with ophthalmologic injuries: the first results form Iran Chemical Warfare Victims Health Assessment Study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Iraq used chemical weapons extensively against the Iranians during the Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988). The aim of this study was to assess the health related quality of life (HRQOL) in people who had ophthalmologic complications due to the sulfur mustard gas exposure during the war.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Veterans and Martyrs Affair Foundation (VMAF) database indicated that there were 196 patients with severe ophthalmologic complications due to chemical weapons exposure. Of these, those who gave consent (n = 147) entered into the study. Quality of life was measured using the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and scores were compared to those of the general public. In addition logistic regression analysis was performed to indicate variables that contribute to physical and mental health related quality of life.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean age of the patients was 44.8 (SD = 8.7) ranging from 21 to 75 years. About one-third of the cases (n= 50) reported exposure to chemical weapons more than once. The mean exposure duration to sulfur mustard gas was 21.6 years (SD = 1.2). The lowest scores on the SF-36 subscales were found to be: the role physical and the general health. Quality of life in chemical warfare victims who had ophthalmologic problems was significantly lower than the general public (P < 0.001). The results obtained from logistic regression analysis indicated that those who did not participate in sport activities suffer from a poorer physical health (OR = 2.93, 95% CI = 1.36 to 6.30, P = 0.006). The analysis also showed that poor mental health was associated with longer time since exposure (OR = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.04 to 2.39, P = 0.03) and lower education (OR = 3.03, 95% CI = 1.21 to 7.56, P = 0.01).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The study findings suggest that chemical warfare victims with ophthalmologic complications suffer from poor health related quality of life. It seems that the need for provision of health and support for this population is urgent. In addition, further research is necessary to measure health related quality of life in victims with different types of disabilities in order to support and enhance quality of life among this population.</p

Tripartite quantum-memory-assisted entropic uncertainty relations for multiple measurements

It is possible to extend the bipartite quantum-memory-assisted entropic uncertainty relation (QMA-EUR) to the tripartite one in which the memory is split into two parts. The uncertainty relations are usually applied to two incompatible observables, however, many kinds of research have been made to generalize the uncertainty relations to more than two observables. Recently, although many relations have been obtained for bipartite QMA-EUR for multiple measurements, the case of tripartite remains unstudied. In this work, we obtain several tripartite QMA-EURs for multiple measurements and show that the lower bounds of these relations have three terms that depend on the complementarity of the observables, the conditional von-Neumann entropies, the Holevo quantities, and the mutual information. Moreover, it is revealed that one of the terms is related to the strong subadditivity inequality. These uncertainty relations are expected to be helpful in the foundations of quantum theory and quantum information processing.Comment: 14pages, 3 figure

Studying the effects of earthquakes near and far fault region on seismic behavior of dual frame equipped with viscous damper

The effects of strong earthquakes in the past years show that the acceleration of near fault earthquake, for having impact motion with long periods at the beginning of the record, “exerted” have significant differences with far-fault earthquakes. Adverse effects of such earthquakes increases by approaching the main time of period of structures to period of these earthquakes. Nowadays using energy dissipation systems, in order to reduce the vibrations of the structure has been very common. Such these energy dissipation systems can be noted viscose dampers that by having hysteresis loops of fat greatly increase energy loss in buildings. In this study, the number of dual-steel frames equipped with nonlinear viscous dampers and by applying records seismic near and far fault to the frames of 4, 6, 8 and 10 floors, behavior and response of these types of frames by nonlinear analysis and in Perform 3D software is evaluated

Quantification of Leghemoglobin Extracted from Roots of Five Different Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) Cultivars: An Experimental Study

Background: Leghemoglobin is an oxygen transporter and a hemoprotein found in nodule roots of nitrogen fixator plants from Leguminosae family. Leghemoglobin is produced in response to presence of bacteria belonging to Rhizobia family. Structurally, leghemoglobin is similar to hemoglobin and has a kind of heme iron structure.  Study of leghemoglobin as a heme iron containing agent can open up a new way for treatment and natural prevention of iron deficiency anemia and substitution with mineral iron salts. Methods: Five different cultivars of alfalfa plants including Esfahani, Bammi, Yazdy, Nik shahri, and Hamedani were cultivated in gardening farm of the faculty of agriculture in Shahid Chamran University in a linear form. Cultivation was done with biological fertilizer containing Sinorhizobium meliloti for test groups and without fertilizer for sham groups. After 60 days, the samples were harvested, and the amount of leghemoglobin produced in nodules was quantified using LaRue and Child fluorometric method. Results: The results from five cultivars of alfalfa planted with biological fertilizer showed a significant increase in viscosity of leghemoglobin in nodules of the test group in comparison with sham group (P<0.0001). Moreover, the high viscosity of leghemoglobin in nodules of Bammi cultivar indicated the capacity of this plant to produce leghemoglobin in Ahvaz. Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, Bammi cultivar of alfalfa is a good option for future studies and even production of high amounts of leghemoglobin in Khuzestan Province

DNA damage and repair proteins in cellular response to sulfur mustard in Iranian veterans more than two decades after exposure

Delayed effects of sulfur mustard (SM) exposure on the levels of five important damage/repair proteins were investigated in 40 SM-exposed veterans of Iran-Iraq war and 35 unexposed controls. A major DNA damage biomarker protein – phosphorylated H2AX – along with four DNA repair proteins in cell response to the genome damage MRE11, NBS1, RAD51, and XPA were evaluated in blood lymphocytes from the veterans and controls using western blotting. Mean levels of XPA, MRE11, RAD51 and NBS1 were lower in SM-exposed patients and the decrease in NBS1 was significant. Even though the raised level of phosphor-H2AX in SM-poisoned group compared to the controls was not significant it was consistent with DNA damage findings confirming the severity of damage to the DNA after exposure to SM. There were correlations between the values of RAD51 and NBS1 proteins as well as XPA and MRE11 proteins. More than two decades after exposure to SM, there is still evidences of DNA damage as well as impaired repair mechanisms in cells of exposed individuals. Such disorders in cellular level may contribute to long term health problems of the SM veterans

The Effect of Electrical Passive Cycling on Spasticity in War Veterans with Spinal Cord Injury

Introduction: Muscle atrophy, spasticity, and deformity are among long term complication of spinal cord injury (SCI) veterans. There are numerous studies evaluating effect of functional electrical stimulation on muscle properties of SCI people, but less research has focused on the benefits of passive cycling in the management of spasticity and improving ROM of lower limbs in individuals with SCI. Aims: To evaluate the effect of electrical passive cycling on passive range of movement spasticity and electrodiagnostic parameters in SCI veterans. Methods: Sixty-four SCI veterans referred to two clinical and research center in Tehran were recruited in this prospective clinical trial. The subjects were divided into two groups according to electrical passive cycling usage: (1) patients who did not use pedal exercise (control group), (2) patients used Electrical passive cycling up to optimal level (intervention group). Main outcome measures included hip, knee, and ankle range of motion, spasticity scale, and electrodiagnostic parameters including F-Wave Consistency, F-Wave Amplitude, H/M Ratio, F/M Ratio, H-Reflex Onset Latency, and H-Reflex Amplitude. Data were recorded at the time of receiving and 1 year after pedal exercise usage. Results: Sixty-four SCI patients including 95.3% male, 4.7% female with mean age 43 years old were included in this study. All patients except one suffered from complete SCI. The involved spinal levels were cervical (17.2%), upper thoracic (34.4%), lower thoracic (45.3%), and lumbar (3.1%). Spasticity scale decreased significantly after passive cycling in group 2. Also hip, knee, and ankle ROM in group 2 were significantly improved after pedal exercise. There was a significant difference in H max/M max (RT&LT) and F/M ratio after versus before electric passive cycling system in group 2. Conclusion: These findings suggest that passive rhythmic leg exercise can lead to decrease in spasticity, increase in passive ROM of lower limbs and improvement in electrodiagnostic parameters of spasticity in patients with SCI