Sport injuries of karate during training: An epidemiologic study in Iran

Background: Karate is a public sport that has athletes in various age ranges and abundant active sport clubs in Iran. The pattern of injury in this sport in Iranian athletes seems diferent from other countries. Objectives: This study was performed with the purpose of considering the incidence and type of injury of karate athletes aged below 30 years from Tehran, Iran clubs. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 10 karate clubs were selected in Tehran. Clubs were selected based on a cluster method from 5 diferent geographical regions of Tehran. All injuries were collected based on athletes� or clubs� weekly report with a designed questionnaire. The injuries were classifed according to: low, medium and severe injury. Collected data was analyzed with SPSS software version 17. Results: 620 athletes were studied totally and incidence rate of injury per athletes was 16.1 and 20.2 per 100 athletes. Ninety percent of than 70 kg and lower sport experience (P � 0.05). The commonest locations for injury were head and neck followed by trunk, lower and injuries were during bout practice, 6 during ftness and 4 during kata. The rate of injury was more common in athletes with weight less upper limb, respectively. Just 2 cases needed surgical intervention and no one led to decreased level of consciousness. The most common type of injury was contusion, bruise and superfcial scratch (64). Conclusions: Severe injury was uncommon in this study and similar to other Iranian studies head and neck had the most injuries. Athletes with lower experience and lower weight were associated with higher injuries. © 2015, Sports Medicine Research Center

Effect of Magnesium Administration on Passive Avoidance Memory and Formalin-Induced Nociception in Diabetic Rats

Purpose: To investigate the effect of oral consumption of magnesium on the memory and pain sensation of diabetic rats.Methods: A total of 48 rats were divided into four groups - untreated control, untreated diabetic, magnesium-treated control and magnesium-treated diabetic. Plasma magnesium and glucose concentrations were measured after induction of diabetes with streptozotocin (STZ; 60 mg/kg). Four weeks after the administration of oral magnesium (10 g/L, MgSO4), the animals were subjected to passive avoidance test whereby latency time (LT) was assessed. This was followed by formalin test which entailed the determination of licking and flinching scoresResults: Increased level of glucose and decreased concentration of magnesium in untreated diabetic group compared to untreated control group (p < 0.001) were observed. There was also a significant reduction in mean LT of untreated diabetic group (p < 0.001) as indicated by the increased number of animals that entered the dark compartment. Plasma glucose and magnesium levels in magnesium treated diabetic rats returned to normal 4 weeks after oral magnesium consumption. There was no significant change in mean total pain score despite elevated licking in diabetic animals after oral magnesium consumption. Significant elevation of flinching scores of untreated diabetic rats was observed in the last 20 min of the 2nd chronic phase, compared with the untreated control group.Conclusion: It seems that magnesium treatment either restores rat memory performance that is impaired by diabetes or that it affects the aversive responses evoked by electrical shock.Keywords: Diabetes, Magnesium, Glucose, Passive avoidance memory, Formalin test

Experimental investigation of dielectric barrier impact on breakdown voltage enhancement of copper wire-plane electrode systems

Non-pressurized air is extensively used as basic insulation media in medium / high voltage equipments. An inherent property of air-insulated designs is that the systems tend to become physically large. Application of Dielectric barrier can increase the breakdown voltage and therefore decrease the size of the equipments. In this paper, the impact of dielectric barrier on breakdown voltage enhancement of a copper wire-plane system is investigated. For this purpose, the copper wire is covered with different dielectric materials. Depending on the air gap and dielectric strength of the barrier the breakdown can be initiated in the solid or gas dielectric. Theoretically, free charges are affected by the electric field between the electrodes and accumulated at the dielectric surface, this leads to the reduction of electric field in air gap and enhancement of the ifield in the dielectric layer. Therefore, with appropriate selection of the barrier thickness and material, it is possible to increase the breakdown voltage of the insulation system. The influence of different parameters like inter-electrode spacing, and dielectric material on the break-down voltage is investigated for applied 50 Hz AC and DC voltages. The results indicate that up to 240% increase of the breakdown voltage can be achieved

Effect of particle size of two Iranian diatomaceous earth deposits and a commercial product on Sitophilus granarius (Col.: Dryophthoridae)

Laboratory bioassays were carried out to study the insecticidal efficacy of two Iranian diatomaceous earths (DEs) and SilicoSec® formulation against Sitophilus granarius (L.). Four different particle sizes of DEs were applied at five concentrations. The mortality was counted 2, 5 and 7 days after exposure. The experiment was carried out at 27 ± 1°C and 55 ± 5% relative humidity in continuous darkness. For SilicoSec® and Mamaghan with less than 37 µm particle size, 500 ppm was sufficient to cause 100% mortality after 5 days of exposure. While in case of Maragheh deposit with the same particle size, complete mortality was recorded at 1000 ppm after 5 days. LC50 values indicated that SilicoSec® and Mamaghan with < 37 µm particle size were the most efficient DE samples against S. granarius. In most cases, the efficacy of DEs increased with decreasing particle size. The visual observation of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that SilicoSec® has more attachment to insectsâ body. However, the adhesiveness of DE particles cannot be the main indicative of their insecticidal effectiveness

Initial and delayed mortality of Rhyzopertha dominica (Col.: Bostrichidae) and Tribolium castaneum (Col.: Tenebrionidae) adults exposed to Silico-Sec® formulation of diatomaceous earth

Efficacy of temperature and exposure interval on the toxicity of Silico-Sec®, a diatomaceous earth formulation, was determined on 7-14 days old adults of Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) and Tribolium castaneum Herbst under laboratory conditions at 22, 27, 32 ºC and 65 ± 5% R.H. Insects were exposed for 8-72 hours to diatomaceous earth at the rate of 10 g/m2 on a filter paper inside plastic Petri dishes separately. Then the initial mortality was counted and, to determine delayed mortality, live individuals were held for a week in clean Petri dishes without food at the same conditions of previous experiment. LT50 values of initial mortality for R. dominica were 21, 12 and 9 hours at 22, 27, 32 ºC, respectively, and in the case of T. castaneum, they were 52, 27 and 18 hours at the same temperatures. The LT50 values indicated that R. dominica was more sensitive to Silico-Sec® than T. castaneum under identical conditions. Results indicated that the initial mortality of both species was significantly lower at 22 ºC in comparison with 27 and 32 ºC, and a direct relationship between temperature and exposure period was observed. Mortality percentage of both storage pests was higher after a week than initial mortality. Therefore, Silico-Sec® can be recommended as a structural treatment of stored grain facilities

A TWO-STAGE METHOD FOR DAMAGE DETECTION OF LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURES

ABSTRACT A novel two-stage algorithm for detection of damages in large-scale structures under static loads is presented. The technique utilizes the vector of response change (VRC) and sensitivities of responses with respect to the elemental damage parameters (RSEs). It is shown that VRC approximately lies in the subspace spanned by RSEs corresponding to the damaged elements. The property is leveraged in the first stage of the proposed method by seeking RSEs whose spanned subspace best contains the VRC. Consequently, the corresponding elements are regarded as damage candidates. To alleviate the exploration among RSEs, they are first partitioned into several clusters. Subsequently, discrete ant colony optimization (ACO) is utilized to find the clusters containing the RSEs of damaged elements. In the second stage of the algorithm, damage amounts for the restricted elements are determined using a continuous version of ACO. Two numerical examples are studied. The results illustrate that the method is both robust and efficient for detection of damages in large-scale structures

Association of plasma total testosterone level and metabolic syndrome in adult males

Introduction: Low testosterone level has strongly been correlated with body fat accumulation and abdominal obesity in men. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate testosterone level in men with and without metabolic syndrome to determine the relationship between testosterone and metabolic syndrome. Patients and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 172 cases of metabolic syndrome and 172 participants as a control group in Rasoul Akram hospital, Tehran, Iran. Demographic characteristics, fasting blood sugar (FBS), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), and testosterone levels were recorded. SPSS version 21.0 and SAS version 9.1 were used for statistical analysis. Level of significance was considered 0.05. Results: The mean age of the two groups were 45.1 ± 9.3 years and 41.5 ± 11.2 years, respectively. There was a significant difference in serum testosterone levels between both groups and low testosterone levels were associated with metabolic syndrome (P < 0.001). Serum testosterone levels showed a significant negative correlation with age in the metabolic syndrome group (r =-0.16, P = 0.02). The relationship between metabolic syndrome and total plasma testosterone level using logistic regression model showed that, by increasing the total plasma testosterone level, the odds ratio for metabolic syndrome was 0.076 (95 CI: 0.027-0.216; P < 0.001). Conclusion: According to the results, low level of testosterone was related to the presence of metabolic syndrome in adult males. Future studies can investigate diagnostic value of testosterone level in this syndrome. © 2020 The Author(s)

The dilemma of hyperoxia following positive pressure mechanical ventilation: role of iron and the benefit of iron chelation with deferasirox

Abstract. -Background and Objective: Increased oxidative stress in patients under treatment with high concentrations of oxygen (hyperoxia) is considered to be one of the major mechanisms of lung injury, which is thought among different mediators, transition metal ion, iron, by generation of very reactive free radicals which play an important role. Disruption of normal iron homeostasis has been reported in hyperoxic conditions. We hypothesized that chelation of iron can reduce hyperoxia-induced lung injury. Methods: Mechanically ventilated patients, who received oxygen with FiO 2 &gt;0.5 for at least 3 days, underwent bronchoscopy before and 72 hours after receiving &quot;Deferasirox&quot;. Oxidative injury index and iron homeostasis markers were measured in lavage fluid and plasma. Results: In 12 patients, the concentrations of 8-isoprostane (p=0.005), 8-oxoguanine (p=0.04), carbonyl proteins (p=0.04) -as markers of oxidative stress -decreased significantly in lavage fluid after intervention. Levels of iron-related proteins, ferritin (p=0.04) and transferrin (p=0.005) also decreased significantly in lavage fluid. Conclusion: Deferasirox -as an iron chelator -decrease oxidative injury index in hyperoxic condition and it could be consider safe and beneficial agent, along with other supportive measures in hyperoxia-induced lung injury for better toleration of oxygen therapy

Implantation phaeohyphomycosis caused by a non-sporulating Chaetomium species

We report the case of a 66-year-old Iranian woman with a phaeohyphomycotic cyst (approximately 3 × 2.5 cm in size) on the right lateral side of the neck. She had dysphagia and hoarseness, without any pain. She complained about discharge of black liquid on the skin and irritation. Histological examination of biopsy fragments from the lesions showed septate, branched brown hyphae. The fungus was cultured, but sporulation remained absent from 4- week-old cultures on Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA), malt extract agar (MEA), potato dextrose agar (PDA), and water agar with sterile filter paper. Identification with the genus Chaetomium was achieved by sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and the small subunit (SSU) domains of the rDNA gene and comparison with sequences held at GenBank and at the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS). Sequencing of the SSU rRNA gene reveals this strain as belonging to the genus Chaetomium. The sequence of ITS did not fully match with any sequence of available ex-type strains of Chaetomium, Thielavia, Madurella and Papulaspora and hence might belong to an undescribed species. However, without diagnostic morphological features the taxon cannot be introduced as a novel member of the genus Chaetomium. After local excision of the cyst and antifungal therapy with ketoconazole (200. mg twice a day), the lesion regressed and healed completely. © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS