Journal of Health Scope
Volume:4 Issue: 1, Feb 2015

Epilepsy is a chronic disease that affects the behavior and cognitive performance of children. In many cases, the emotional impacts of epilepsy on the family are neglected. Besides the emotional distress, recurrent seizures may lead to irreversible effects on family members, especially parents. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of anxiety, stress and depressive disorders among mothers of children with epilepsy.Patients and This cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 mothers of children with epilepsy. Depression, stress, and anxiety were evaluated using the depression anxiety stress scales (DASS). Data were analyzed by SPSS version 17 and the statistical test of ANOVA. In this study, 14%, 33%, 8% and 20% of the mothers had mild, moderate, severe and very severe levels of anxiety, respectively. As far as the stress is concerned, 8%, 26%, 7% and 11% of the mothers had mild, moderate, severe and very severe levels of stress, respectively. Regarding the depression, 7%, 42%, and 1% of them had mild, moderate and severe level of depression, respectively. The results of the present study showed a significant correlation between mother’s education with stress and depression. However, no significant correlation was observed between the three aforementioned problems and children’s personal and familial specifications.

Knowledge management is an attempt to discover the hidden treasure of knowledge in the minds of people and turn this treasure to organizational assets so that people who are involved in the decision making of the organization can use it. Besides, the application of knowledge management, as an organizational improvement technique, is required to assess the quality of working life (QWL). This study aimed to determine the association between knowledge management and dimensions of QWL in nurses working in Zahedan teaching hospitals. In this cross-sectional study, all nursing personnel of six teaching hospitals in Zahedan, 2014, were selected using the stratified random sampling. Data were collected using two standardized Likert-style questionnaires. Data were then entered into SPSS 17.0 software and analyzed using Pearson, t test and the one-way ANOVA test. Knowledge management score in single and younger participants was higher compared to other participants and it was lower in the larger hospitals. Quality of working life score in the smaller hospitals was higher than the larger hospitals (P = 0.002). There was a strong correlation between knowledge management and all dimensions of QWL in teaching hospitals (P = 0.001). Knowledge management can improve the QWL in nursing personnel in Zahedan teaching hospitals. Based on the findings of the study, hospital managers, especially head nurses, could play a crucial role in improving QWL by institutionalization of knowledge management in nursing personnel and sharing and developing knowledge to advance the practice.

Cadmium is a toxic metal that occurs naturally in the environment and is considered as a pollutant emanating from industrial and agricultural sources. Biosorption is a very simple and cheap technique for removal of metal pollutants from aqueous samples. In this study, removal of cadmium from aqueous solutions using C. colocynthis fruit powder was studied. The effect of three parameters such as pH, initial concentration of cadmium and adsorbent dosage were optimized. For investigation of these parameters and exemption of optimal conditions the Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used. The best results for percentage extraction of cadmium by C. colocynthis with BBD design was obtained at pH = 4.5, initial cadmium concentration of 31.22 and adsorbent dosage of 3.75 g/L. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and R2 = 0.98 showed that the model was able to predict the removal of cadmium by C. colocynthis fruit powder. Results of this research imply that the adsorption of cadmium was enhanced, by increasing the cadmium concentration and contact time. Based on the ANOVA results, the models report high R2 value of 99% for cadmium removal, which is very high and advocates a high correlation between the observed values and the predicted values.

In the present era, the concentration of heavy metals in the environment is increasing. Due to the deleterious effects of these metals on human health as well as their dangerous consequences on ecosystem, special attention should be paid to remove them from the environment. The purpose of this study was to assess the ecological risk of heavy metals including lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr) in surface soils of an Amir-Abad Area in Birjand City, Iran. Soil Samples were collected from a depth of 0-20 cm at 16 stations with different users. The samples were passed through a 2-mm sieve after air drying. To determine the concentration of heavy metals, the samples were extracted by acid chloride and nitric acid and total concentrations of toxic elements were read using the atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The pollution index and ecological risk assessments were calculated for each element. The results showed that the ecological risk of surface soil for the users of the road-residential was high (1370.72) and notable (505.04), and the agricultural land use and livestock had the moderate ecological risk and dairy farm had low ecological risk. When the results of this study were compared to world standards, it was suggested that the areas with the road-residential areas were considered to be dangerous to health; this was directly related to developments of technology and pollution. It can be concluded that residential-road land uses show the considerable pollution index and ecological risk.

Chromium is one of the most commonly used heavy metals in industry. It is known as a pollutant that its discharge into the environment needs special care. The current study aimed to evaluate the functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (f-MWCNTs) as a novel adsorbent of chromium in aqueous solutions. The virgin MWCNT was protonated using sulfuric acid as a strong oxidant. The operating conditions such as initial chromium concentration, contact time, adsorbent dosage and pH were evaluated in the adsorption process. A systematic model for chromium adsorption was presented based on the experimental design. Response surface method (RSM), as a mathematical technique, was used for modeling and optimizing considerable parameters. All experiments were performed according to the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. According to the statistical analysis, R2 (0.998), adjusted R2 (0.996), prediction R2 (0.906), coefficient of variation (1.38%), and the mean removal efficiency (54.76%) were calculated. The f-MWCNTs can be applied as an adsorbent with excellent properties in the adsorption process. The Efficiency of 61.75% was predicted by the model in the optimum conditions. In the experimental condition an adsorption percentage of 59.44% was obtained.

The chemical and physical quality of water used for dialysis fluid is a vital factor in the patients overall care who receive dialysis. Therefore, the water used for this purpose must be treated with advanced methods before being used for dialysis. The current study aimed to determine the chemical and physical quality of dialysis machines input water and compare it to the standards of Association for the advancement of medical instrumentation (AAMI) and European Pharmacopeia (EPh) in Yazd educational hospitals, i.e. Shahid Sadoughi and Shahid Dr. Rahnamoon. This cross-sectional study is performed in three months (October to December) in 2013. This research was conducted on 24 samples of dialysis machines input water. The samples were tested by titrimetric method, turbid metric method, flame photometer, pH meter, and EC meter. The SPSS V16.0 software was used for statistical analyses. Based on results of the research, except chloride that its mean concentration was higher than the EPh standard, mean concentrations of cations and other compounds were significantly less than the standards (P < 0.01). Also there was a significant difference between the measured parameters in the dialysis machines input water in two educational hospitals with 99% confidence. The evaluation of hemodialysis water quality showed that these hospitals were not significantly polluted and the water quality complied with AAMI and EPh standard limits.

Due to burgeoning population, solid waste site selection is one of the most crucial issues in waste management system. Regarding the complexity of waste management systems, the convenient solid waste site selection involves considering multiple alternative solutions and assessing different criteria. The current study, aimed to select the fuzzy logic method as one of the most popular approaches in multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to find a new sanitary landfill site through considering various criteria in Bardaskan city, Iran. Nine types of criteria divided into two main groups of ecological and economical criteria were involved to select the most convenient landfill site. A model based on the multi criteria evaluation techniques and combination of geographical information systems (GIS) with fuzzy logic was employed. The ESRI Arc GIS 10 term system was utilized to manipulate and present spatial data. The fuzzy AND operator was used to overlay all standardized maps. The results of the current research proposed five locations with the fuzzy membership value of more than 0.9 as the best landfill sites in the study area. The sites were located in the North and North East of Bardaskan city. The study demonstrated that 51.97 % of the study area was not suitable for landfill location whilst only 7.8 % was highly suitable for landfill siting. About 1956.61 hectares of the studied area was suitable for territorial landfill siting. The study results guided the municipality authorities to select the best landfill site among the candidate ones, and due to the broad spectrum of classifications, the output results can enable decision makers to make appropriate decisions to reduce the costs both in economical and bioenvironmental criteria.

The heat strain is one of the consequences of heat exposure in the work place. Different factors such as dry, wet, and radiant temperature, the intensity of physical activity, the kind of clothing, and the percentage of body covering affect the heat strain. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between the wet bulb globe temperature and the physiological strain index in Muslim women in hot-dry condition in the climate chamber.Patients and This experimental study was performed on 30 healthy Muslim women with wearing Islamic clothing in two hot-dry climatic conditions with wet bulb globe temperature index (WBGT) of 32℃ ± 0.1℃ and 30℃ ± 0.1℃ respectively in sitting and light workload. The WBGT, oral temperature, and heart rate (HR) were measured. The data were analyzed based on descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation tests. The results showed that the average HR at resting, sitting (32℃ ± 0.1℃), and light workload (30℃ ± 0.1℃) were 78.52 ± 12.10, 69.74 ± 11.98, and 110.78 ± 17.91 beat/min, respectively. The average of ear canal temperature was estimated at 36.70℃ ± 0.36℃ for sitting workload and at 36.71℃ ± 0.27℃ light workload. The findings of this study illustrated that the average HR and the core temperature measured in both sitting and light workload in hot-dry climatic condition were less than the threshold limit values established by the national institute for occupational safety and health(NIOSH) and American conference of governmental industrial hygienists (ACGIH). Comparing different HR and core temperatures during rest and activity showed a significant increase in the incidence of heat strain.

Nowadays, the reduction of sludge production in the activated sludge process as well as disposal restrictions have drawn much attention. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using ultrasound treatment in increasing the degradation of organic matter in sewage sludge from Shiraz Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant and also to assess its effect on sludge dewatering. The samples were collected from the anaerobic digester of the Shiraz Wastewater Treatment Plant. The present study was conducted at the bench-scale method. The influence of different pH (3-9) and the effect of contact time (10-120 min) at the constant ultrasonic treatment (37 kHz) on degradation of organic matter were investigated. Since ultrasound is a cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of the human hearing range, this limit is approximately 20 kilohertz (20,000 hertz). In addition, the effect of ultrasonic treatment on the total solids (TS), volatile solids (VS), sludge volume index (SVI) and specific resistance to filtration (SRF) were determined. The results of this study showed that the release of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) in the supernatant and SRF were in the range of 127.9-831 mg/L and 12.48-36.55 m/kg at 10 to 120 min ultrasonic contact time, respectively. In addition, TS and VS decreased from 57.98 and 56.31 to 52.69 and 49.87 mg/L, respectively. Despite the significant reduction in the solids, there was no considerable variation in SVI. This method can be used as a pretreatment method for the treatment of the sewage sludge. Moreover, a complementary treatment is necessary to reach the standard limit.

There are different types of aflatoxins, including aflatoxin M1, M2, G1, G2, B1 and B2 produced in the food chain, especially when the food is infected with fungi and can directly be consumed by humans. Considering that our country is located in the subtropical geographic region where temperature and humidity ecological factors are among determining factors in contamination with AFM1 and aflatoxin, contamination of milk products, as carcinogens, is a serious risk to the community''s health. The main goal of the present study was to measure M1 aflatoxin in distributed traditional and pasteurized cheese in South Khorasan. In this cross-sectional and analytical study, 43 samples of traditional cheese and 59 samples of pasteurized cheese in three cities and 59 samples of pasteurized milk were randomly selected and their M1 aflatoxin was measured by means of the ELISA method. The obtained data was analyzed using the SPSS software (version 15). Amongst the collected samples, 34.3% had measurable levels of aflatoxin; 32.6% of traditional cheese and 35.6% of pasteurized cheese and 94.9% of pasteurized milk had positive test results. Mean concentration of mycotoxin in the traditional cheese, pasteurized cheese and milk was 29.902 ± 4.77, 48.104 ± 8.92 and 22.394 ± 4.77 ng/L, respectively. Aflatoxin contamination levels in 12 samples of traditional cheese and 15 samples of pasteurized cheese were more than standard levels. The high incidence of aflatoxin contamination in traditional and pasteurized cheese is worrying. Therefore, preventive measures that stop the entrance of the precursor of this poison (aflatoxin B1) into the food of lactating cattle are necessary.