220 research outputs found

    1938 revisited? Should doors open wider to Syrian refugees?

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    Does it seem that every time the world watches refugees flee violence and persecution while politicians claim their country can\u27t possibly take in asylum seekers, we lamentingly claim that the world will never again turn its back on these people. And yet the next time we seem people streaming out of a war zone with nothing but their families and the shirts on their back we forget the promise we made the last time this happened? For a world that promised \u27Never Again\u27 after World War II, how much have we actually learned from the handling of refugee crises of the past? Are we making the same mistakes over and over again? Do you see echoes of the treatment of Jews fleeing the Holocaust in government rhetoric about refugees from Syria and Iraq? And if so, what explains this short-sightedness? Guests Dai Le, Founder of DAWN (Diverse Australasian Women’s Network) Professor Klaus Neumann, Historian at Swinburne University and author of Across the Seas: Australia\u27s Response to Refugees: A History Akram Azimi, Sociologist at the University of Western Australia and 2013 Young Australian of the Yea

    Expression analysis of protein inhibitor of activated STAT (PIAS) genes in IFNβ-treated multiple sclerosis patients [Corrigendum]

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    Taheri M, Azimi G, Sayad A, et al. J Inflamm Res. 2018;11:457–463.On page 457, Author list and Correspondence, the last author’s name was misspelt. The correct name is Soudeh Ghafouri-Fard.Read the original articl

    Isolation of resonance in acoustic backscatter from elastic targets using adaptive estimation schemes

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    The problem of underwater target detection and classification from acoustic backscatter is the central focus of this paper. It has been shown that at certain frequencies the acoustic backscatter from elastic targets exhibits certain resonance behavior which closely relates to the physical properties of the target such as dimension, thickness, and composition. Several techniques in both the time domain and frequency domain have been developed to characterize the resonance phenomena in acoustic backscatter from spherical or cylindrical thin shells. The purpose of this paper is to develop an automated approach for identifying the presence of resonance in the acoustic backscatter from an unknown target by isolating the resonance part from the specular contribution. An adaptive transversal filter structure is used to estimate the specular part of the backscatter and consequently the error signal would provide an estimate of the resonance part. An important aspect of this scheme lies in the fact that it does not require an underlying model for the elastic return. The adaptation rule is based upon fast Recursive Least Squares (RLS) learning. The approach taken in this paper is general in the sense that it can be applied to targets of unknown geometry and thickness and, further, does not require any a priori information about the target and/or the environment. Test results on acoustic data are presented which indicate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.The work of M. R. Azimi-Sadjadi was supported by the ASEE-ONR program under the High Area Rate Recon. Project. The work of J. Wilbur and G. J. Dobeck was supported by the ONR

    Antimicrobial effects of chlorhexidine, matrica drop mouthwash (chamomile extract), and normal saline on hospitalized patients with endotracheal tubes

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    Background: The functions and use of mouthwashes are variable depending on their type. Oral care in patients with endotracheal tubes is important to prevent side effects such as pneumonia. The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial effects of chlorhexidine, drop of Matrica mouthwash (chamomile extract), and normal saline on hospitalized patients with endotracheal tube in an intensive care unit (ICU). Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial, 39 patients admitted to the ICU were selected by convenience sampling, were matched based on age and sex, and randomly assigned to three groups (chlorhexidine, Matrica, saline). Mouth washing was performed every 8 to 48 hours. The samples were taken at time zero (before the intervention) and 48 hours after the intervention for bacterial culture. Antibacterial activity of each mouthwash on microorganisms was measured based on the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, Pneumococcal, Enterococcus, Pseudomonas, and Escherichia coli. The obtained data were then analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher′s exact tests with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Package version 18. Results: Chlorhexidine mouthwash was more effective in preventing colonization of bacteria in the mouth (point probability = 0.06) in comparison with chamomile and saline mouthwashes. Nevertheless, none of the tested mouthwashes were able to remove pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, and Acinetobacter. Conclusions: 0.2% chlorhexidine mouthwash has a significant effect on the bacterial colonization rate in comparison with Matrica and normal saline mouthwashes in ICU hospitalized patients with endotracheal tube

    Wave-Induced Currents Within Mangrove Forest

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    Mangroves are tidal trees commonly observed along the sheltered shorelines of most tropical (from equator to 23.5° North and South latitude) and few subtropical (23.5° to 40° North and South latitude) countries. These plants are adapted to loose wet soils, saline habitats and periodic tidal submergence. With more attention paid into the approach of building with nature, natural coastal defence strategies are gaining more importance as an asset in addressing the coastal squeeze that is prevalent not only in urban areas, but also in agriculture and industrial areas that are located along the coastline. Mangroves are receiving more attention due to their coastal protective role against wave and hydrodynamic forcings as well as their ability to adapt to sea level rise. Mangrove vegetation attenuates and damps the hydrodynamics forcings by providing obstacles to the flows and creating drag. To date and to the knowledge of the author, no study has been conducted on interaction of the wave-induced currents with mangrove vegetation. This lack of relevant studies may be due to the fact that mangrove forests and the foreshore in front of the mangroves are usually of very gently sloping bed (varying in order of 1:300 to 1:1500). This means that in order to conduct physical model experiments to study wave-induced current within a mangrove forest, a very large wave basin is required in order to conduct modelling without using a very large scale factor difference between prototype and model. This is to ensure that the relevant processes are representing prototype as closely as possible, as well as to be measureable. Numerical modelling of the interaction of wave-induced current with mangrove vegetation is yet to be conducted due to the lack of measured data for validation, both field as well as experimental measurements. An experiment by Hulsbergen (1973) was selected as validation data for current study. The main objective of the study is to understand the difference of nearshore processes for (stationary) tidal gradient-driven and oblique wave-driven current for both with and without mimic mangrove vegetation. The scope of the study involves desktop analysis of the main validation data and other relevant and similar experiments, assessment of reliability of Delft3D for the study, validation against measured data, and simulation of various hydraulic conditions for condition with mangrove forest. Among questions answered in this study are the extent of wave-induced longshore current damping within mangrove forest, the significance of wave-induced longshore current within mangrove forest, the effects of bed slope and mangrove density on wave-induced current and the extent of model’s reliability for current study. It was shown that the damping of wave-induced longshore current is more than 80% and the contribution of waveinduced current to the total velocity can be more than 70%. Of course, both of the above was specific to the bathymetry, mangrove properties and hydraulic conditions specified within current study. Furthermore, it was shown that bed slope and mangrove density affect wave-induced longshore current within the mangrove forest. It was also found that current model setup has its limitations.Civil Engineering | Hydraulic Engineering | Coastal Engineerin

    Change in Attitude in Renal Function in Major Beta Thalassemia

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    Thalassemia is a multisystemic disease in the field of hemolysis and chronic anemia caused by the erythropoietic disorder. The severe effects of iron overload from continuous blood transfusion iron chelators side effects, and involvement of multiple organs in thalassemias such as heart failure, liver, and endocrine dysfunction can all affect kidney function. Although there has been much debate about changes in renal function in thalassemia for many years, the presence of hyperfiltration and ultimately, decreased renal function in almost all studies. It seems for the researchers to look beyond kidney function in a thalassemia perspective, because of secretory biomarkers of proximal tubular renal cells that are sensitive to pathologic agents, which may be a good indicator of the courses of treatment and prognosis of patients. Future studies will be sooner or later. *Corresponding Author: Malihe Najafpour; Email: [email protected] Please cite this article as: Malaki M, Najafpour M, Talebi M, Azimi A. Change in Attitude in Renal Function in Major Beta Thalassemia. Arch Med Lab Sci. 2020;6:1-5 (e24). https://doi.org/10.22037/amls.v6.3305

    On the classes of hereditarily p\ell_p Banach spaces

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    summary:Let XX denote a specific space of the class of Xα,pX_{\alpha ,p} Banach sequence spaces which were constructed by Hagler and the first named author as classes of hereditarily p\ell _p Banach spaces. We show that for p>1p>1 the Banach space XX contains asymptotically isometric copies of p\ell _{p}. It is known that any member of the class is a dual space. We show that the predual of XX contains isometric copies of q\ell _q where 1p+1q=1\frac{1}{p}+\frac{1}{q}=1. For p=1p=1 it is known that the predual of the Banach space XX contains asymptotically isometric copies of c0c_0. Here we give a direct proof of the known result that XX contains asymptotically isometric copies of 1\ell _1

    Continuous Immiscible Nitrogen and WAG Injection into Bentheimer Sandstone

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    A series of core-flood tests were performed to evaluate the EOR potential of some immiscible N2 injection schemes. Injections were conducted either in a (1) continuous mode or (2) water-alternating-gas (WAG) mode into Bentheimer sandstone cores previously saturated with model synthetic oil. Furthermore, CT imaging has been utilized in some tests to visualize the flow and to obtain the saturation profile. The CT-obtained saturation profile was consistent with the volumetric measurements. Injection strategies resulted in considerable oil recovery factors relative to oil initially in place (OIIP), but the values were different in each scheme. Three of the continuous N2 injections in a secondary mode, starting after the primary drainage stage, led to the recoveries of 48.7 %, 49.6 % and 50.8 % for 16.5 injected PV. The aforementioned tests differed in back pressures with higher back pressures resulting in higher recoveries. Test 4, water flooding followed by N2 flooding resulted in an ultimate recovery of 52.6 %, 17.1 % of which was due to gas injection. Test 5, N2 WAG with a WAG ratio of nearly 1:6 yielded the highest recovery among all concluding with an ultimate recovery of 59.0 %. Mechanism for to oil recovery by gas injection is elaborated in view of the obtained experimental results and based on the concepts of two- and three-phase flow. Implications of the different injection schemes are discussed.Civil Engineering and GeosciencesGeoscience & EngineeringPetroleum EngineeringC24B7

    Phenotypic and molecular detection of metallo-β-lactamase-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from patients with burns in Tehran, Iran

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    Abstract INTRODUCTION: Health care-associated infections caused by metallo-β-lactamase (MBL)-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa are a significant growing concern in patients with burns worldwide. The aims of this study were to determine the antibiotic susceptibility of and detect the presence of MBLs among P. aeruginosa isolates and assess their clonal relationship using enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR. METHODS: Non-duplicated clinical isolates (160) of P. aeruginosa were collected from patients with burns at the Motahari Hospital in Tehran, Iran. All isolates were identified using standard laboratory methods and further characterized for antimicrobial susceptibility. Any carbapenem-resistant isolates were then examined for MBL production by the E-test and MBL-encoding genes were detected by PCR. The clonal relatedness of MBL-producing isolates was assessed by ERIC-PCR. RESULTS: For multidrug-resistant isolates, the highest rates of susceptibility were observed for colistin 160 (100%), polymyxin B 160 (100%), and ceftazidime 32 (20%). In total, 69 (43.7%) isolates were identified as MBL producers. Twenty-eight (17.5%) isolates were positive for the bla VIM-1 gene followed by the bla IMP-1 (15.6%) and bla SPM-1 (5.6%) genes. ERIC-PCR revealed three separate genotypes, where type A (76.8%) was the most prevalent, followed by B (20.3%), and then C (2.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Our present study found that the bla IMP-1 and bla VIM-1 genes were present at a significant frequency and also detected the bla SPM-1 gene in P. aeruginosa isolates for the first time, highlighting the need for establishing suitable infection control measures to successfully treat patients and prevent further spread of these resistant organisms among patients with burns

    Determining the Pattern of Impact of Structural Empowerment on Employees' Voice Behavior

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    This study determined the effect pattern of structural empowerment on employees' voice of behavior in the organization, according to the mediating role of bullying in the workplace and psychological well-being. The current research is a kind of descriptive field of study to collect information A total of 280 nurses in Tehran Taleghani's Hospital were aimed as the reaearch statistical society, and based on the simple random sampling method a collection of 162 nurses were selected as the research statistical sample. Reaeach data collection was implemented by using questionnaires, that thier reliability was calculated by Cronbach's alpha. Also Data was analyzed by using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques in the PLS sofwere. The results showed that structural empowerment through a negative impact on voice of behavior in the organization and employees' psychological well-being has positive impact on increasing the voice of behavior in the organization
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