The benefit of using stone columns in low strength soil has been proved as an efficient method to improve load-carrying characteristics of shallow footings. The stone column bearing capacity mainly ...depends on circumferential confinement providing by native soft soils. In this paper, some large body laboratory tests were performed on stone columns with diameters of 60, 80, and 100 mm and a length to diameter of 5. Both unreinforced and encased geotextile reinforced stone columns were tested. Vertical encased stone column (VESC) have been considered to investigate the effect of reinforcement on the footing load-carrying characteristics. The main objective of this research is to compare the effectiveness of vertical encapsulating of stone columns in the same conditions for various stone column diameters. In addition, tests on groups of stone columns with 60 mm diameter were carried out to investigate the effect of presence of neighboring columns on the reference loaded stone column. Results show that the stone column bearing capacity increases by using vertical reinforcing material. With increasing the length and strength of reinforcement in VESC, the stone column bearing capacity increases. In addition, the stress concentration ratio of columns also increases. Moreover, the lateral bulging decreases by using geotextiles. Numerical analysis based on finite element method (FEM) was also conducted to study scale effects on small stone columns tested and how to expand reinforcement effectiveness to large reinforced stone columns.
The prevalence of self-medication of antibiotics has been revealed in various studies. The main aim of this work is to investigate the frequency of self-medication in children under 6 years and the ...factors affecting it.
This is a population-based cross-sectional study conducted in the Arak metropolitan in the center of Iran from January 2019 to January 2020. We used stratified random sampling to determine recruitment criteria. As 1754 households were invited to the study that 1483 were approved to participate. Children's data were obtained by the interview with their mothers. In order to define self-medication consumption of antibiotics, it was adapted between annually maternal self-reported consumption of antibiotics among their children and history of received antibiotics registered in insurance services during the same time period. Logistic regression models were exploited to obtain odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals.
Mean age of mothers was 31.8 years (SD = 5.4), 52.1% of the children were boys. Annually self-medication of antibiotic consumption was estimated 61.6% (n = 914). Based on the logistic regression analysis, in the adjusted analysis, girls were associated with self-medication consumption of antibiotics lower than boys' children (p = 0.016). Older mothers were lower self-medication consumption of antibiotics than youngers (p = 0.001). Moreover, the permanent job of fathers was associated with lower self-medication consumption of antibiotics than temporarily and unemployment (p = .001). The odds of self-medication consumption of antibiotics were increasing with the increase in age of children (OR: 1.21, CI95%: 1.12, 1.31 and p = 0.001). The increase in parity has been a significant association with the self-medication consumption of antibiotics (OR: 1.64, CI95%: 1.38, 1.95and p = 0.001).
Results of this study show that some factors such as children's age, gender, mother's age, father's occupational status, and parity are the determinants that significantly impact the self-medication prevalence.
The spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has imposed high threats on global health, life and work style, and social and economic development. The current study aimed to extract ...knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to COVID-19 among the general population in the central area of Iran.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in Arak City between April and May 2020. Stratified random sampling was applied to select the study participants. Phone interview was applied to collect the data. Data were collected using a questionnaire that was constructed and validated in this study. The questionnaire included demographic variables and items about knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward COVID-19. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted in STATA software.
In total, 544 participants completed the questionnaire; 76% of the participants accounted COVID-19 as a high threat 1 month from the onset of COVID-19. From the maximum attainable scores of 1, 6, and 6, for COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices, means of 0.77 (0.13), 4.97 (0.63), and 5.35 (0.70) were obtained, respectively. Females had a higher practice score (5.4 ± 0.6). The participants with a family history of heart and respiratory diseases had significantly higher attitude and practice scores. SMS from the Ministry of Health had a significant impact on knowledge, attitude, and practice scores (
< 0.05).
Higher attention should be given to increase the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of men and the housewife group. COVID-19 preventive messaging from the Ministry of Health was among the most influential methods of increasing knowledge that attracted public attention.
In very soft soils, the bearing capacity of stone columns may not improve significantly due to very low confinement of the surrounding soil. Therefore, they may be reinforced with geosynthetics by ...using vertical encasement or horizontal layers. Very limited studies exist on horizontally reinforced stone columns (HRSCs). In this research, some large body laboratory tests have been performed on horizontally reinforced stone columns with diameters of 60, 80, and 100 mm and groups of stone columns with 60 mm diameter. Results show that the bearing capacity of stone columns increases by using horizontally reinforcing layers. Also, they reduce lateral bulging of stone columns by their frictional and interlocking effects with stone column aggregates. Finally, numerical analyses were carried out to study main affecting parameters on the bearing capacity of HRSCs. Numerical analysis results show that the bearing capacity increases considerably with increasing the number of horizontal layers and decreasing space between layers.
The clinical complications of congenital hypothyroidism such as brain disorders are very subtle and are not recognizable in infancy period. They are recognizable when it is too late for treatment or ...prevention. General screening of newborns is effective in diagnosing congenital hypothyroidism and initiating initial treatment. The aim of this study is to compare the physical and mental growth pattern of children with congenital hypothyroidism with healthy ones. This case-control study was performed on 34 patients and 68 healthy children who were matched in terms of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Children development screening test (ASQ), children development assessment test (Bayley), preschool Wechsler intelligence scale (WPPSI) and age and steps questionnaire of emotional social development (ASQ-SE) were completed by trained questioners. Data were analyzed using STATA software. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the mean of verbal (P = 0.77), non-verbal (P = 0.81) and general (P = 0.66) IQ in permanent and transient patients and healthy individuals. Also, there was no significant difference between the mean of different ranges of ASQ test (including communication, delicate and large movements, problem solving and social) at 12 months and 42 months (P < 0.05). According to Bayley test, there was no significant difference between the cases (permanent and transient) and controls in the cognitive (P = 0.42) and expressive (P = 0.38) categories. The difference was significant in the perceptual (P = 0.011), large (P = 0.03) and delicate (P = 0.04) movements categories. This study emphasized on the high effectiveness of neonate hypothyroidism screening program, so that the difference between 3.5 years old children with and without this disease has decreased significantly. Early diagnosis of the patients, while creating beneficial effects for patients and increasing quality of life, cause reduction in the long-term costs of the health system.
The monitoring of reproduction number over time provides feedback on the effectiveness of interventions and on the need to intensify control efforts. Hence, we aimed to compute basic (R
) and ...real-time (Rt) reproduction number and predict the trend and the size of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in the center of Iran.
We used the 887 confirmed cases of COVID-19 from February 20, 2020, to April 17, 2020 in the center of Iran. We considered three scenarios for serial intervals (SIs) with gamma distribution. R
was calculated by the sequential Bayesian and time-dependent methods. Based on a branching process using the Poisson distributed number of new cases per day, the daily incidence and cumulative incidence for the next 30 days were predicted. The analysis was applied in R packages 3.6.3 and STATA 12.0.
The model shows that the R
of COVID-19 has been decreasing since the onset of the epidemic. According to three scenarios based on different distributions of SIs in the past 58 days from the epidemic, R
has been 1.03 (0.94, 1.14), 1.05 (0.96, 1.15), and 1.08 (0.98, 1.18) and the cumulative incidence cases will be 360 (180, 603), 388 (238, 573), and 444 (249, 707) for the next 30 days, respectively.
Based on the real-time data extracted from the center of Iran, R
has been decreasing substantially since the beginning of the epidemic, and it is expected to remain almost constant or continue to decline slightly in the next 30 days, which is consequence of the schools and universities shutting down, reduction of working hours, mass screening, and social distancing.
Background: One of the challenges in medicine has been the exaggerated use of antibiotics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of antibiotic usage in children in Arak, Iran ...(2019-2020) to determine the factors related to antibiotic prescription and consumption in children. Methods: This was a population based, cross-sectional study conducted in Arak, the capital city of Markazi Province, Iran. Stratified random sampling was applied to recruit children who were up to five years old, and registered in the healthcare system between Jan. 2019 and Jan. 2020. A response rate of 85% was obtained from the subjects’ parents. Face-to-face interviews were used to collect the data from the children’s mothers. Univariate and adjusted linear regression analyses were applied to assess the determinants of antibiotic consumption in these children. Results: A total of 1483 children were enrolled in the study; most of them were boys with the mean age of 2.1±1.5 years old. The annual prevalence of antibiotic consumption in Arak was found to be 62.4% for at least one antibiotic. The most consumed antibiotic was azithromycin (24.2%). Among antibiotic groups, the most consumed group was macrolides (26.9%). Upon multiple logistic regression analyses, a lower consumption rate was observed among the younger children with older mothers, and children whose fathers had permanent jobs than other children groups. A higher consumption rate was observed among families with higher parity. Conclusion: The annual prevalence of antibiotic consumption in this study was very high, with the most consumed drug being azithromycin. We recommend that the use of antibiotics be reconsidered by drawing future healthcare policies, aiming at reducing the heavy antibiotics consumption in children.
Whole-wheat can have positive effect on blood parameters, such as blood sugar and fat profiles, in patients with diabetic. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of whole-wheat breads on ...hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and blood lipids in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The study population included men and women with T2D aged 30 years old and over in Arak, Iran. Using random sampling method, 60 patients with T2D were selected and randomly divided into control and intervention groups. After taking blood samples from the patients, the intervention group was administered 180 g of wholegrain wheat for 12 weeks. The participants were asked not to change their diets and amounts of physical activity during the study period. After 12 weeks, blood samples were taken and insulin resistance indexes, blood glucose levels, and lipid profiles were examined. The results indicated that consumption of whole-wheat bread for 12 weeks can significantly reduce body weight, and HbA1c, triglyceride, total cholesterol, and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) levels, and increase high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) levels (P<0.05). However, in the control group, changes in body weight, body mass index, HbA1c, total cholesterol, HDL-c, and LDL-c levels did not significantly differ before and after the intervention period (P>0.05). As consumption of whole-wheat bread has positive effects on control of various physical and biochemical indictors in patients with diabetes, its consumption should be included in educational programs at health centers across the country.
This study addresses the challenge of differentiating between bipolar disorder II (BD II) and borderline personality disorder (BPD), which is complicated by overlapping symptoms. To overcome this, a ...multimodal machine learning approach was employed, incorporating both electroencephalography (EEG) patterns and cognitive abnormalities for enhanced classification. Data were collected from 45 participants, including 20 with BD II and 25 with BPD. Analysis involved utilizing EEG signals and cognitive tests, specifically the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Integrated Cognitive Assessment. The k-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm achieved a balanced accuracy of 93%, with EEG features proving to be crucial, while cognitive features had a lesser impact. Despite the strengths, such as diverse model usage, it’s important to note limitations, including a small sample size and reliance on DSM diagnoses. The study suggests that future research should explore multimodal data integration and employ advanced techniques to improve classification accuracy and gain a better understanding of the neurobiological distinctions between BD II and BPD.
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