Does body mass index distinguish motor proficiency, social and emotional maturity among adolescent girls?

BACKGROUND

The objective of this study was to investigate whether different body mass index (BMI) groups could serve as a distinguishing factor for assessing motor proficiency and social and emotional maturity in adolescent girls.

METHODS

140 girls ranging from 12 to 14.5 years old were selected from the schools of Tabriz city, Iran. After their height and weight were measured to calculate body mass index, they completed the following questionnaires: Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of motor proficiency, Second Edition,Vineland Social Maturity Scale, and Emotional Maturity scale.

RESULTS

normal-weight girls had a meaningful advantage against overweight and underweight participants in the gross motor factor of motor proficiency (p = 0.004), but there wasn't a meaningful difference in the fine motor p = 0.196) and coordination factors (p = 0.417). Also, social maturity showed an advantage of normal and underweight adolescent girls in the self-help dressing factor (p = 0.018), while the locomotion skills (p = 0.010) factor revealed a better performance of normal weight and overweight groups over underweight adolescents. No significant differences were observed in the emotional maturity subscales (p = 0.63) between the groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study demonstrates that BMI has a direct influence on adolescents' gross motor proficiency and social maturity.

A novel mathematical model for prioritization of individuals to receive vaccine considering governmental health protocols

Infectious diseases drive countries to provide vaccines to individuals. Due to the limited supply of vaccines, individuals prioritize receiving vaccinations worldwide. Although, priority groups are formed based on age groupings due to the restricted decision-making time. Governments usually ordain different health protocols such as lockdown policy, mandatory use of face masks, and vaccination during the pandemics. Therefore, this study considers the case of COVID-19 with a SEQIR (susceptible-exposed-quarantined-infected-recovered) epidemic model and presents a novel prioritization technique to minimize the social and economic impacts of the lockdown policy. We use retail units as one of the affected parts to demonstrate how a vaccination plan may be more effective if individuals such as retailers were prioritized and age groups. In addition, we estimate the total required vaccine doses to control the epidemic disease and compute the number of vaccine doses supplied by various suppliers. The vaccine doses are determined using optimal control theory in the solution technique. In addition, we consider the effect of the mask using policy in the number of vaccine doses allocated to each priority group. The model's performance is evaluated using an illustrative scenario based on a real case.

Non-Infectious Complications in B-Lymphopenic Common Variable Immunodeficiency

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is considered the most symptomatic type of inborn errors of immunity in humans. Along with infectious complications, which have numerous consequences, non-infectious complications are also a major challenge among CVID patients.

METHODS

All registered CVID patients in the national database were included in this retrospective cohort study. Patients were divided into two groups based on the presence of B-cell lymphopenia. Demographic characteristics, laboratory findings, non-infectious organ involvements, autoimmunity, and lymphoproliferative diseases were evaluated.

RESULTS

Among 387 enrolled patients, 66.4% were diagnosed with non-infectious complications; however, 33.6% had only infectious presentations. Enteropathy, autoimmunity, and lymphoproliferative disorders were reported in 35.1%, 24.3%, and 21.4% of patients, respectively. Some complications, including autoimmunity and hepatosplenomegaly, were reported to be significantly higher among patients with B-cell lymphopenia. Among organ involvement, dermatologic, endocrine and musculoskeletal systems were predominantly affected in CVID patients with B-cell lymphopenia. Among autoimmune manifestations, the frequency of rheumatologic, hematologic, and gastrointestinal autoimmunity was reported to be higher compared to other types of autoimmunity independent from the B cell-lymphopenia. Furthermore, hematological cancers, particularly lymphoma, were slightly introduced as the most common type of malignancy. Meanwhile, the mortality rate was 24.5%, and respiratory failure and malignancies were reported as the most common cause of death in our patients without significant differences between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Considering that some of the non-infectious complications might be associated with B-cell lymphopenia, therefore, regular patient monitoring and follow-up along with proper medications (besides immunoglobulins replacement therapy) are highly recommended to prevent further sequels and increase the patients' quality of life.

Sensitive and selective determination of trace amounts of mercury ions using a dimercaprol functionalized graphene quantum dot modified glassy carbon electrode

A novel nanomaterial is synthesized based on the functionalization of graphene quantum dot with dimercaprol (GQD-DMC). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are used to approve the successful synthesis of GQD-DMC. The synthesized nanomaterial is used as an electrode modifier for the sensitive and selective determination of mercury(ii) ions in real water samples. The method of evaluation is based on the pre-concentration of mercury ions on the GQD-DMC modified glassy carbon electrode, reduction of Hg(ii), and anodic stripping voltammetric measurement of these reduced ions in a buffer solution. The pre-concentration of mercury ions is driven by the affinity interaction between the surface containing functional groups of DMC and Hg(ii) ions. The GQD-DMC modified glassy carbon electrode (GQD-DMC/GCE) shows extra sensitivity and selectivity for mercury(ii) detection, which is assumed to be due to the increased surface area as well as the presence of sulfur-containing functional groups on the modified structure.

White lie during patient care: a qualitative study of nurses' perspectives

BACKGROUND

Keeping the patients well and fully informed about diagnosis, prognosis, and treatments is one of the patient's rights in any healthcare system. Although all healthcare providers have the same viewpoint about rendering the truth in treatment process, sometimes the truth is not told to the patients; that is why the healthcare staff tell "white lie" instead. This study aimed to explore the nurses' experience of white lies during patient care.

METHODS

This qualitative study was conducted from June to December 2018. Eighteen hospital nurses were recruited with maximum variation from ten state-run educational hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Purposeful sampling was used and data were collected by semi-structured interviews that were continued until data saturation. Data were classified and analyzed by content analysis approach.

RESULTS

The data analysis in this study resulted in four main categories and 11 subcategories. The main categories included hope crisis, bad news, cultural diversity, and nurses' limited professional competences.

CONCLUSION

Results of the present study showed that, white lie told by nurses during patient care may be due to a wide range of patient, nurse and/or organizational related factors. Communication was the main factor that influenced information rendering. Nurses' communication with patients should be based on mutual respect, trust and adequate cultural knowledge, and also nurses should provide precise information to patients, so that they can make accurate decisions regarding their health care.

Ultrasound-assisted leaching of spent lithium ion batteries by natural organic acids and H2O2

Ultrasound-assisted bioacid leaching was examined for the extraction of valuable metals from spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs). In this work, organic acids in lemon juice were used as the leaching agent together with H₂O₂. Three effective factors, namely solid/liquid (S/L) ratio, lemon juice percentage, and H₂O₂ volume percentage, were optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The optimal conditions were found to be 0.98% (w/v) S/L ratio, 57.8% (v/v) lemon juice and 8.07% (v/v) H₂O₂ in the leaching liquor, achieving recovery of 100% Li, 96% Co and 96% Ni. Furthermore, the individual effects of ultrasound, H₂O₂ and lemon juice on metal recovery were studied and the results showed that without H₂O₂ or lemon juice, the metal recovery rates decreased greatly while the absence of ultrasound reduced recovery rates to a much smaller extent, indicating that both H₂O₂ and lemon juice were essential in the leaching process. The effect of time on the metals recoveries was examined and results showed that Li and Co recovery reached 100% with the leaching time of 35 min. The modified shrinking core modeling results suggested that chemical reaction was the rate controlling step.

Development and investigating the effectiveness of an integrated school-based program for changing attitude toward substance abuse based on philosophy for children components and emotional intelligence

Background

Substance abuse in the youth is one of the major problems of any society. The research purpose was the development of a program for changing female adolescents’ attitude toward substance abuse and evaluating its effectiveness.

Methods

To develop the treatment, important variables influencing in shaping attitudes toward substance abuse were selected. Afterwards, structural equation modeling approach was conducted for examining the relationship among variables (emotional intelligence, critical thinking, caring thinking and reasoning) and identifying significant paths and variables. Based on these variables, a program developed for changing students’ attitudes. To evaluate effectiveness of programs a pretest-post test design with the control group was used. Random sampling was carried out for selecting 26 students attending senior high schools in district 2 of Tehran. Then, sample randomly assigned in experimental and control groups. Experimental group exposed to philosophy for children intervention in the form of community of inquiry. Control group didn’t receive the intervention. The data were collected from Nazari's questionnaire for attitude toward substance abuse.

Results

ANCOVA revealed that based on a composite score of attitude toward substance abuse (adjusting pretest effect), there is a significant difference between two groups at 0.99 significance level (partial = 0.329, P < 0.001, = 11.28).

Conclusions

It is recommended that the school based program should be used for developing and strengthen the students’ attitude based on exploring itself, rather than simply giving awareness about substance abuse. In this treatment, rather than highlighting accumulating knowledge, put emphasis on, thinking, decision-making, and management of emotions.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Pioglitazone significantly prevented decreased rate of neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells which was reduced by Pex11β knock-down

Peroxisomes constitute special cellular organelles which display a variety of metabolic functions including fatty acid oxidation and free radical elimination. Abundance of these flexible organelles varies in response to different environmental stimuli. It has been demonstrated that PEX11β, a peroxisomal membrane elongation factor, is involved in the regulation of size, shape and number of peroxisomes. To investigate the role of PEX11β in neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), we generated a stably transduced mESCs line that derives the expression of a short hairpin RNA against Pex11β gene following doxycycline (Dox) induction. Knock-down of Pex11β, during neural differentiation, significantly reduced the expression of neural progenitor cells and mature neuronal markers (p<0.05) indicating that decreased expression of PEX11β suppresses neuronal maturation. Additionally, mRNA levels of other peroxisome-related genes such as PMP70, Pex11α, Catalase, Pex19 and Pex5 were also significantly reduced by Pex11β knock-down (p<0.05). Interestingly, pretreatment of transduced mESCs with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ agonist (pioglitazone (Pio)) ameliorated the inhibitory effects of Pex11β knock down on neural differentiation. Pio also significantly (p<0.05) increased the expression of neural progenitor and mature neuronal markers besides the expression of peroxisomal genes in transduced mESC. Results elucidated the importance of Pex11β expression in neural differentiation of mESCs, thereby highlighting the essential role of peroxisomes in mammalian neural differentiation. The observation that Pio recovered peroxisomal function and improved neural differentiation of Pex11β knocked-down mESCs, proposes a potential new pharmacological implication of Pio for neurogenesis in patients with peroxisomal defects.

Preparation and Characterization of PES and PA Composite Membranes for Air Separation at Low Pressures

In this study poly(ether sulphone) (PES) asymmetric membranes and Polyamide (PA) composite membranes were used for gas separation at low pressures. The effect of PES concentration, contact time of sebacoyldichloride, addition of 1,6-hexaethylene diamine solution and PA active layer on the structures of PES support layer were studied. Changing the structure of PES membrane from channel-like to sponge form increased the selectivity in the gas separation process. However, this structural variation caused a considerable decline in gas permeability. The characteristics of top layer depend on the porosity and compactness of sub-layers structure. Active layer formation on the surface of support structure at PES concentrations of more than 25 %wt improved the oxygen selectivity considerably. The optimum conditions for preparation of PA active layer through interfacial polymerization process were elucidated in this paper. The PA composite membrane prepared at the PES concentration of 25 wt% and monomer concentration of 1 wt% provided the highest selectivity for oxygen enrichment process.

Multi vesicular osseous hydatid disease of the mandible- a case report

Hydatid disease is a common and major public health issue caused by parasite Echinococcus granulosus. The highest prevalence of the parasite can be found in different parts of world like Africa, Australia, and South America. This infection can occurs in almost any part of the body. Here we present clinical, radiological, histological features and treatment of a multi vesicular osseous hydatid disease of the mandible in an Afghan 5 year old boy with a firm swelling in the right side of mandible.

Bilateral intraosseous migration of mandibular second premolars in a patient with nine missing teeth

Intraosseous migration is an unusual developmental dental anomaly, which demonstrates horizontal movement of unerupted teeth only affecting the permanent dentition of the lower jaw. Mandibular second premolar is the most common impacted tooth after the third molars and maxillary canines. Distal migration of the second premolar is rare and early loss of the permanent first molar is one of the most important predisposing factors of intrabony migration of this tooth. Bilateral migration of the mandibular premolars is very rare compared to unilateral migration. Hereby, we present an 18-year-old man with bilateral intrabony migration of the mandibular second premolars to the mandibular angle (at the inferior and buccal side of the mandibular canal) in the presence of first molars. The patient also had nine congenitally missing teeth without any systemic complication or abnormality in the skeleton. The teeth were surgically extracted. The clinical and diagnostic features and treatment of this case are discussed.

MEFV mutations in Iranian Azeri Turkish patients with familial Mediterranean fever

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive autoinflammatory disorder with more than 60 disease-associated mutations in the responsible gene, MEFV. In the present study, we determined 15 MEFV mutations in Iranian Azeri Turkish FMF patients. Five hundred and twenty-four unrelated patients were tested for 15 known mutations in the MEFV gene using amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism methods. Thirty-five different genotypes were characterized among the studied patients. Of the alleles investigated, the most common mutation was p.M694V (42.4%), followed by p.V726A (17%), p.E148Q (16.2%), and p.M680I (c.2040G>C) (15.2%). The p.R761H mutation (4.7%) was found to be the most frequent among the rare mutations. The mutations p.M680I (c.2040G>A), p.I692del, p.M694del and p.K695R were not found in this cohort. The remaining mutations account for 7.7% of the identifiable mutations. Five different types of complex alleles were also identified. The results show the diversity and the frequency of the mutations in the Iranian Azeri Turkish FMF patients. The p.R761H mutation is rather prevalent in Azeri Turks; therefore, it should be included in the routine molecular diagnosis of FMF patients from this ethnic group.

Alternation of band gap and localization of excitons in InGaNAs nanostructures with low nitrogen content

Continuous wave photoluminescence (cw PL) spectroscopy has been used to study the optical properties of a set of InGaNAs epilayers and single quantum wells with nitrogen concentration less than a few per cent at different temperatures and different excitation powers. We found that nitrogen has a critical role on the emission light of InGaNAs nanostructures and the recombination mechanism. The incorporation of a few per cent of nitrogen leads to shrinkage of the InGaNAs band gap. The physical origin of such band gap reduction has been investigated both experimentally and theoretically by using a band anticrossing model. We have found that localization of excitons that have been caused by incorporation of a few per cent of nitrogen in these structures is the main explanation of such anomalous behavior observed in the low-temperature photoluminescence spectra of these nanostructures. The localization energies of carriers have been evaluated by studying the variation of the quantum well (QW) emission versus temperature, and it was found that the localization energy increases with increasing nitrogen composition. Our data also show that, with increasing excitation intensity, the PL peak position moves to higher energies (blue shift) due to the filling of localized states and capture centers for excitons by photo-generated carriers.

[Dermabrasion in two cases of tuberous sclerosis]

The authors made an attempt at treating tuberous sclerosis (Bourneville's disease) by means of dermabrasion. The technique and postoperative course are described. The immediate results were very encouraging, but in time returned to an appearance close to the initial one. In conclusion, dermabrasion is not an appropriate treatment for tuberous sclerosis.

Ascorbic acid decreases morphine self-administration and withdrawal symptoms in rats

Recent studies have indicated that the glutamatergic system is involved in the motivational aspects during the initiation of drug self-administration. Ascorbic acid (AA), an antioxidant vitamin, is released from glutamatergic neurons, and it modulates the synaptic action of dopamine and glutamate. In this study the AA effects on the self-administration of morphine and on the morphine withdrawal syndrome have been investigated. Wistar rats were allowed to self-administer morphine (1 mg/infusion) during 10 consecutive days for 2 h/session. The number of lever pressings was recorded. An intrapritoneal AA injection (500 mg/kg, i.p.), 30 min before morphine self-administration produced a significant decrease in the initiation of morphine self administration during all sessions. After the last test session morphine withdrawal symptom signs (MWS) were recorded after naloxone precipitation. Most of MWS (but not all) were decreased by AA application. In conclusion, AA may change the motivational processes underlying the morphine self-administration.