Investigating the level of moral distress and its related factors among nurses in mazandaran burn center

Background and purpose: Moral distress is a common phenomenon in nursing professional and burn nurses are constantly faced with making different moral decisions for patients who are in terrible conditions. Therefore, nurses in burn units experience moral distress as mental tension. This study was conducted to determine the severity of moral distress and the factors associated with that in burn nurses. Materials and methods: A descriptive- analytical study was conducted using census sampling on 172 nurses working in Mazandaran burn center, 2014. Data was collected through identifying demographic and occupational characteristics of the nurses (using relevant questionnaires) and Corley’s Moral Distress Scale. Data analysis was performed applying Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: The mean score for moral distress was 105.65±52.39 which indicates a moderate level experienced by nurses. Kruskal-Wallis test showed a significant positive correlation between educational level and level of moral distress (P=0.011). There was no significant association between moral distress and other individual and professional characteristics (P>0.05). Conclusion: Moral distress is accompanied by many complications that have direct effects on nurses’ professional practice. Therefore, nurse managers should consider this issue and plan for programs on appropriate coping strategies. © 2015, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Neuronal Correlates of Tactile Working Memory in Prefrontal and Vibrissal Somatosensory Cortex

Tactile working memory engages a broad network of cortical regions in primates. To assess whether the conclusions drawn from primates apply to rodents, we examined the vibrissal primary somatosensory cortex (vS1) and the prelimbic cortex (PL) in a delayed comparison task. Rats compared the speeds of two vibrissal vibrations, stimulus1 and stimulus2, separated by a delay of 2 s. Neuronal firing rates in vS1 and PL encode both stimuli in real time. Across the delay, the stimulus1 representation declines more precipitously in vS1 than in PL. Theta-band local field potential (LFP) coherence between vS1 and PL peaks at trial onset and remains elevated during the interstimulus interval; simultaneously, vS1 spikes become phase locked to PL LFP. Phase locking is stronger on correct (versus error) trials. Tactile working memory in rats appears to be mediated by a posterior (vS1) to anterior (PL) flow of information, with performance facilitated through coherent LFP oscillation

Simulation of Logging While Drilling Tools Based on Amorphous Si:H and LaBr3:Ce Detectors

Bore hole logging data represent the properties of rocks, such as porosity, density and constitutiveelements of formation, as a function of depth in a well. Properties of rocks are obtained from thermal neutron counting and gamma ray radiation due to neutron activation. Transport of neutrons, from an Am-Be source situated in a bore-hole tool, through rock media to detectors, has been simulated using a GEANT4 radiation transport code. The high precision GEANT4 cross section library was used to gain better analyses about well formation. In this paper we present the results of simulation of logging tools based on boron coated amorphous silicon detector for thermal neutron detection and LaBr3:Ce detector for gamma spectroscopy. Key words: Well logging; Spectroscopy; GEANT

A combined continuous and interval aerobic training improves metabolic syndrome risk factors in men.

Individuals with metabolic syndrome have significantly higher risk for cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes leading to premature death mortality. Metabolic syndrome has a complex aetiology, thus it may require a combined and multi-targeted aerobic exercise regimen to improve risk factors associated with the metabolic syndrome. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of combined continuous and interval aerobic training on patients with metabolic syndrome. Thirty adult male with metabolic syndrome (54±8 years) were randomly divided into two groups: Test Training Group (TTG; n=15) or Control Group (CG; n=15). Subjects in TTG group performed combined continuous and interval aerobic training using a motorised treadmill three times per week for 16 weeks. Subjects in CG group were advised to continue with their normal activities of life. Twenty-two men completed the study (11 men in each group). At the end of the study, in TTG group, there were significant (for all, P<0.05) reductions in total body weight (-3.2%), and waist circumference (-3.43 cm), blood pressure (BP; up to -12.7 mmHg), plasma insulin, glucose and triacylglycerides levels. Moreover, there were significant (for all, P<0.05) increases in VO2max (-15.3%) and isometric strength of thigh muscle (28.1%) and HDL in TTG group. None of the above indices were changed in CG group at the end of 16 week study period. Our study suggests that adoption of a 16 week combined continuous and interval aerobic training regimen in men with metabolic syndrome could significantly reduce cardiovascular risk factors in these patients

Modelling of temperature and strain rate dependent behaviour of pearlitic steel in block braked railway wheels

Block braked railway wheels are subjected to thermal and rolling contact loading. The thermal loading results in high temperatures and thermal stresses which cause slow time dependent processes such as creep, relaxation and static recovery of the wheel material. At the same time, the rolling contact loading implies a very fast mechanical load application. This paper is focused on material modeling of pearlitic steel for a wide range of loading rates at elevated temperatures. The starting point is a viscoplasticity model including nonlinear isotropic and kinematic hardening. The Delobelle overstress function is employed to capture strain rate dependent response of the material. The model also includes static recovery of the hardening to capture slower viscous (diffusion dominated) behaviour of the material. Experiments for the pearlitic wheel steel ER7 in terms of cyclic strain-controlled uniaxial tests with hold-time, uniaxial ratchetting tests including rapid cycles and biaxial cyclic tests with tension/compression and torsion are used to calibrate the material model. These experiments were performed under isothermal conditions at different temperatures. In the ratchetting tests, higher loading rates are obtained and these have been used to calibrate the high strain rate response of the viscoplasticity model. The paper is concluded with a numerical example of a block braked wheel where the importance of accounting for the viscoplasticity in modelling is highlighted

Incidence of self-reported interpersonal violence related physical injury in Iran

Background: Violence is the cause of death for 1.5 million people in a year. Objectives: Our study aimed to estimate the incidence rate of self-reported interpersonal violence related physical injury (VRPI) and its associated factors in Iran. Patients and Methods: The sample included people ranged from 15 to 64 years old who were residing in Iran. A total of 1525 clusters were selected from the whole country. Six families were selected from each cluster via a systematic random sampling method. Then, the residential units were identified and the interviewers contacted the inhabitants. In the next step, one of the family members was selected by using Kish grid method. The instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire and consisted of two sections; demographics and project related data. Face validity and content validity of our questionnaire were investigated based on expert opinions and the reliability was confirmed by a pilot study, as well. The inclusion criteria were considered for choosing the interviewers. An interviewer was assigned for each 42 participants (7 clusters). An educational seminar was held for the administrative managers (54 persons) and interviewers (230 persons) for a week. The field work was distributed among all 46 Medical Sciences universities in Iran. In each university, administrative issues were related to an executive director. Mann-Whitney U test and odds ratio were used to analyze the data with 95 confidence interval. α value was considered less than 5. Results: The frequency of VRPI among 7886 participants was 24 during the last three months. The incidence rate of interpersonal VRPI was estimated at 3.04 per 1000 population (95 CI: 2.66-3.42) during a three-month interval in Iran. The incidence was 4.72 per 1000 population (95 CI: 4.01-5.43) for males and 1.78 per 1000 population (95 CI: 1.39-2.17) for females during a three-month interval. The mean (SD) of age of the participants with and without a history of VRPI were 26.5 (7.21) and 33.05 (12.05) years, respectively (P = 0.008). Considering the participants� gender, 66.7 were males (OR = 2.66, 95 CI: 1.14-6.23). Khuzestan Province had the most VRPIs (25 of all VRPIs). Streets and roads were the places with the highest frequency of injury (50). The most frequent injured organ was the upper limb (54.17). The most prevalent type of injury was a superficial wound (50). Finally, the most common place of treatment was home (45.83). Conclusions: We determined the incidence rate of self-reported interpersonal VRPI for the first time in Iran based on a national survey. The injuries were more common among young men. We suggest consecutive national surveys with different data gathering methods and more sample sizes. © 2015, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

Assessing measurement error in surveys using latent class analysis: application to self-reported illicit drug use in data from the Iranian Mental Health Survey

Latent class analysis (LCA) is a method of assessing and correcting measurement error in surveys. The local independence assumption in LCA assumes that indicators are independent from each other condition on the latent variable. Violation of this assumption leads to unreliable results. We explored this issue by using LCA to estimate the prevalence of illicit drug use in the Iranian Mental Health Survey. The following three indicators were included in the LCA models: five or more instances of using any illicit drug in the past 12 months (indicator A), any use of any illicit drug in the past 12 months (indicator B), and the self-perceived need of treatment services or having received treatment for a substance use disorder in the past 12 months (indicator C). Gender was also used in all LCA models as a grouping variable. One LCA model using indicators A and B, as well as 10 different LCA models using indicators A, B, and C, were fitted to the data. The three models that had the best fit to the data included the following correlations between indicators: (AC and AB), (AC), and (AC, BC, and AB). The estimated prevalence of illicit drug use based on these three models was 28.9, 6.2 and 42.2, respectively. None of these models completely controlled for violation of the local independence assumption. In order to perform unbiased estimations using the LCA approach, the factors violating the local independence assumption (behaviorally correlated error, bivocality, and latent heterogeneity) should be completely taken into account in all models using well-known methods

Effects of electrical stimulation of dorsal raphe nucleus on neuronal response properties of barrel cortex layer IV neurons following long-term sensory deprivation

Abstract: Objective To evaluate the effect of electrical stimulation of dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) on response properties of layer IV barrel cortex neurons following long-term sensory deprivation. Methods: Male Wistar rats were divided into sensory-deprived (SD) and control (unplucked) groups. In SD group, all vibrissae except the D2 vibrissa were plucked on postnatal day one, and kept plucked for a period of 60 d. After that, whisker regrowth was allowed for 8-10 d. The D2 principal whisker (PW) and the D1 adjacent whisker (AW) were either deflected singly or both deflected in a serial order that the AW was deflected 20 ms before PW deflection for assessing lateral inhibition, and neuronal responses were recorded from layer IV of the D2 barrel cortex. DRN was electrically stimulated at inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) ranging from 0 to 800 ms before whisker deflection. Results: PW-evoked responses increased in the SD group with DRN electrical stimulation at ISIs of 50 ms and 100 ms, whereas AW-evoked responses increased at ISI of 800 ms in both groups. Whisker plucking before DRN stimulation could enhance the responsiveness of barrel cortex neurons to PW deflection and decrease the responsiveness to AW deflection. DRN electrical stimulation significantly reduced this difference only in PW-evoked responses between groups. Besides, no DRN stimulation-related changes in response latency were observed following PW or AW deflection in either group. Moreover, condition test (CT) ratio increased in SD rats, while DRN stimulation did not affect the CT ratio in either group. There was no obvious change in 5-HT2A receptor protein density in barrel cortex between SD and control groups. Conclusion: These results suggest that DRN electrical stimulation can modulate information processing in the SD barrel cortex

Telephone versus face-to-face administration of the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, for diagnosis of psychotic disorders

Objective: The current study aims to compare telephone vs face-to-face administration of the version of Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, (SCID) for diagnosis of any psychotic disorder in a clinical population in Iran. Method: The sample consisted of 72 subjects from 2 psychiatric outpatient services in Tehran, Iran. The subjects were interviewed using face-to-face SCID for the purpose of diagnosing psychotic disorders. A second independent telephone SCID was administered to the entire sample within 5 to 10 days, and the lifetime and 12-month diagnoses were compared. Results: The positive likelihood ratio of telephone-administered SCID for diagnosis of any lifetime psychotic disorder was 5.1 when compared with the face-to-face SCID. The value for the primary psychotic disorders in the past 12 months was lower (2.3). Conclusions: The data indicate that telephone administration of the SCID is an acceptable method to differentiate between subjects with lifetime psychotic disorders and those who have had no psychotic disorders and provides a less resource-demanding alternative to face-to-face assessments. © 2012 Elsevier Inc