Incorporating family function into chronic pain disability: the role of catastrophizing

Background. Observers' responses to pain are recently investigated to more comprehensively explain chronic pain (CP) and disability. However, the role of family context, defined as interference in roles, communication, and problem-solving, and how (i.e., through which mechanisms) these variables contribute to CP related disability have yet to be examined. Objectives. The aim of the present study is to examine family context in relationship to pain catastrophizing, fear of movement, and depression and its role in understanding CP disability. Three different models were examined. Methods. A total sample of 142 patients with musculoskeletal chronic pain was recruited to examine the role of fear of movement, pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, and depression in relationship to family functioning as predictors of disability. Results. Findings indicated that two models showed acceptable fit, but one of them revealed superior fit indices. Results of the model with superior fit indices indicated that family dysfunction may contribute to catastrophic thinking, which, in turn, contributes to patients' disability through increasing fear of movement and depression. Discussion. The current study provides further support for the notion that the impact of emotional and cognitive variables upon CP-related disability can be better understood when we consider the social context of pain patients and family function in particular

Abelian Higgs Hair for a Static Charged Black String

We study the problem of vortex solutions in the background of an electrically charged black string. We show numerically that the Abelian Higgs field equations in the background of a four-dimensional black string have vortex solutions. These solutions which have axial symmetry, show that the black string can support the Abelian Higgs field as hair. This situation holds also in the case of the extremal black string. We also consider the self-gravity of the Abelian Higgs field and show that the effect of the vortex is to induce a deficit angle in the metric under consideration.Comment: REVTEX4, 12 pages, 6 figures, The version to be appeared in Phys. Rev.

Evaluation of urinary iodine concentrations in pregnant women in Tehran

Background And Objective: Congenital hypothyroidism due to iodine deficiency is the most common cause of preventable mental retardation in the world. The lowest level of iodine deficiency during pregnancy could result in disorders such as miscarriage, premature delivery, intrauterine fetal death low birth IQ, mental retardation, hearing difficulty and speech impediments. This study aimed to evaluate urinary iodine concentrations during the first, second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 354 pregnant women referring to prenatal care clinic of Akbar Abadi Hospital in Tehran. Demographic questionnaires were completed by an expert, and random urine samples were obtained to measure urinary iodine concentrations. In addition, venous blood samples were provided to determine the levels of thyroxine (T4) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) during the first, second and third trimesters. Analysis of iodine status was based on the urinary iodine excretion in the patients. Urinary iodine deficiency was defined as concentrations of �100 micrograms/liter. FINDINGS: In this study, 285 patients (80.5) had urinary iodine levels of �100 µg/l with a mean of 62.35±67.7 µg/l. The mean urinary iodine concentrations during the first, second and third trimesters were 65.83±72.4, 50.34±41.5 and 62.67±68.3 µg/l, respectively. No significant difference was observed in the mean of urinary iodine between the first and second trimesters, second and third trimesters, and first and third trimesters. Moreover, no significant differences were observed between patients with urinary iodine levels of <100 µg/l and �100 µg/l in terms of the mean of maternal age, age at pregnancy and TSH level. CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, despite the consumption of iodized salt, urinary iodine concentrations were below the standard limits in the studied pregnant women. It could be inferred that use of iodized salt may not be a proper solution for iodine deficiency in pregnant women. Therefore, it is recommended that iodine supplements be used before and during pregnancy, and iodine content of salt be increased as well. © 2015, Babol University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Abelian Higgs Hair for Rotating and Charged Black Holes

We study the problem of vortex solutions in the background of rotating black holes in both asymptotically flat and asymptoticlly anti de Sitter spacetimes. We demonstrate the Abelian Higgs field equations in the background of four dimensional Kerr, Kerr-AdS and Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes have vortex line solutions. These solutions, which have axial symmetry, are generalization of the Nielsen-Olesen string. By numerically solving the field equations in each case, we find that these black holes can support an Abelian Higgs field as hair. This situation holds even in the extremal case, and no flux-expulsion occurs. We also compute the effect of the self gravity of the Abelian Higgs field show that the the vortex induces a deficit angle in the corresponding black hole metrics.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures, a section about the vortex self gravity on Kerr black hole added, extremal black holes considered, one figure changed, one reference adde

Lovelock Thin-Shell Wormholes

We construct the asymptotically flat charged thin-shell wormholes of Lovelock gravity in seven dimensions by cut-and-paste technique, and apply the generalized junction conditions in order to calculate the energy-momentum tensor of these wormholes on the shell. We find that for negative second order and positive third order Lovelock coefficients, there are thin-shell wormholes that respect the weak energy condition. In this case, the amount of normal matter decreases as the third order Lovelock coefficient increases. For positive second and third order Lovelock coefficients, the weak energy condition is violated and the amount of exotic matter decreases as the charge increases. Finally, we perform a linear stability analysis against a symmetry preserving perturbation, and find that the wormholes are stable provided the derivative of surface pressure density with respect to surface energy density is negative and the throat radius is chosen suitable.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

The Absorption of Nitrate and Phosphate from Urban Sewage by Blue-Green Algae (Spirolina Platensis) (An Alternative Medium) as Application for Removing the Pollution

The applications of blue green algae for the treatment of urban and industrial sewage have received more  attention during the recent years because they have the capacity to use nitrogenous compounds, ammonia and phosphates. In this study aimed to evaluate the ability of Spirolina platensis for absorption of nitrate and  phosphate from urban sewage. The experiment was conducted in 6 treatments as a growth medium. To test these predictions, we conducted a 15 days in indoor place under similar laboratory conditions at temperature (30ºC ± 2ºC), Light (2500 ± 500) Lux, pH between 8.0 and 11and with constant aeration. Regarding the culture media, a higher algal density was observed in the cultivation developed at treatment 5 (824 ±102 cell. mL-1). In our results showed higher efficiencies of phosphorus removal by S.platensis as compare to nitrate removal thus, S. platensis would be effective for nitrate removal only at relatively low concentrations and  phosphorus removal at high concentrations. Chlorophyll-a, content in treatment 3 was higher than other treatments. Kruscal-Wallis test showed a significant difference in treatments at the level of P&lt;0.05. Thus, we recommend here that Spirolina platensis to be better candidate for absorption phosphate more than nitrate and it could be used for the removal or biotransformation urban sewage. Keywords: Blue-Green Algae, Spirolina, Nitrate, Phosphate, Sewage, Pollutio

Magnetic Branes in Gauss-Bonnet Gravity

We present two new classes of magnetic brane solutions in Einstein-Maxwell-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with a negative cosmological constant. The first class of solutions yields an $(n+1)$-dimensional spacetime with a longitudinal magnetic field generated by a static magnetic brane. We also generalize this solution to the case of spinning magnetic branes with one or more rotation parameters. We find that these solutions have no curvature singularity and no horizons, but have a conic geometry. In these spacetimes, when all the rotation parameters are zero, the electric field vanishes, and therefore the brane has no net electric charge. For the spinning brane, when one or more rotation parameters are non zero, the brane has a net electric charge which is proportional to the magnitude of the rotation parameter. The second class of solutions yields a spacetime with an angular magnetic field. These solutions have no curvature singularity, no horizon, and no conical singularity. Again we find that the net electric charge of the branes in these spacetimes is proportional to the magnitude of the velocity of the brane. Finally, we use the counterterm method in the Gauss-Bonnet gravity and compute the conserved quantities of these spacetimes.Comment: 17 pages, No figure, The version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Asymptotically Flat Radiating Solutions in Third Order Lovelock Gravity

In this paper, we present an exact spherically symmetric solution of third order Lovelock gravity in $n$ dimensions which describes the gravitational collapse of a null dust fluid. This solution is asymptotically (anti-)de Sitter or flat depending on the choice of the cosmological constant. Using the asymptotically flat solution for $n \geq 7$ with a power-law form of the mass as a function of the null coordinate, we present a model for a gravitational collapse in which a null dust fluid radially injects into an initially flat and empty region. It is found that a naked singularity is inevitably formed whose strength is different for the $n = 7$ and $n \geq 8$ cases. In the $n=7$ case, the limiting focusing condition for the strength of curvature singularity is satisfied. But for $n \geq 8$, the strength of curvature singularity depends on the rate of increase of mass of the spacetime. These considerations show that the third order Lovelock term weakens the strength of the curvature singularity.Comment: 15 pages, no figure, references added, two appendix adde

Molecular investigation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus saprophyticus isolated in Shahrekord training hospitals

زمینه و هدف: استافیلوکوکوس های کوآگولاز منفی یکی از مهم ترین عوامل عفونت های بیمارستانی هستند. مقاومت به متی- سیلین در این گروه از باکتری ها مشاهده شده است. این مطالعه با هدف بررسی و مقایسه مقاومت به متی سیلین به دو روش فنوتیپی و ژنوتیپی در باکتری های استافیلوکوکوس اپیدرمیدیس و استافیلوکوکوس ساپروفیتیکوس جدا شده از نمونه های بیمارستان های آموزشی شهرکرد طراحی و اجرا گردید. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه توصیفی- تحلیلی تعداد 2900 نمونه مختلف شامل خون، ادرار و غیره از بیماران بستری در بیمارستان‌ های هاجر (س) و آیت الله کاشانی شهرکرد از آذر ماه سال 1391 تا مهر ماه سال 1392 جمع آوری شد؛ سپس با انجام آزمایشات میکروبیولوژی، تعداد 150 ایزوله استافیلوکوکوس های کوآگولاز منفی انتخاب شد. در مرحله بعد به طور همزمان مقاومت فنوتیپی به روش انتشار از دیسک (Disk diffusion) و مقاومت ژنوتیپی (ژن مقاومت به متی سیلین) با روش واکنش زنجیره ای پلیمراز بررسی گردید. یافته ها: از بین 150 ایزوله مورد بررسی، در بررسی فنوتیپی 70 ایزوله (66/46 درصد با فاصله اطمینان 95 درصد برابر با 98/54-49/38 درصد) و در بررسی ژنوتیپی 64 ایزوله (66/42 درصد با فاصله اطمینان 95 درصد برابر با 51-63/34 درصد) به متی سیلین مقاوم بودند. توزیع مقاومت فنوتیپی و مقاومت ژنوتیپی در دو بیمارستان مورد مطالعه برابر بود. نتیجه گیری: نتایج ژنوتیپی نشانگر حضور ژن مقاومت به متی سیلین می‌باشد. بررسی ژنوتیپی به کمک واکنش زنجیره پلیمراز مرکب، ابزاری مطمئن برای نشان دادن میزان مقاومت به متی سیلین در استافیلوکوکوس های اپیدرمیدیس و ساپروفیتیکوس می باشد