Heart surgery waiting time: Assessing the effectiveness of an action

Background: Waiting time is an index assessing patient satisfaction, managerial effectiveness and horizontal equity in providing health care. Although heart surgery centers establishment is attractive for politicians. They are always faced with the question of to what extent they solve patient’s problems. Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate factors influencing waiting time in patients of heart surgery centers, and to make recommendations for health-care policy-makers for reducing waiting time and increasing the quality of services from this perspective. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in 2013. After searching articles on PubMed, Elsevier, Google Scholar, Ovid, Magiran, IranMedex, and SID, a list of several criteria, which relate to waiting time, was provided. Afterwards, the data on waiting time were collected by a researcher-structured checklist from 156 hospitalized patients. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16. The Kolmogorov Smirnov and Shapiro tests were used for determination of normality. Due to the non-normal distribution, non-parametric tests, such as Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney were chosen for reporting significance. Parametric tests also used reporting medians. Results: Among the studied variables, just economic status had a significant relation with waiting time (P = 0.37). Fifty percent of participants had diabetes, whereas this estimate was 43.58% for high blood pressure. As the cause of delay, 28.2% of patients reported financial problems, 18.6% personal problem and 13.5% a delay in providing equipment by the hospital. Conclusions: It seems the studied hospital should review its waiting time arrangements and detach them, as far as possible, from subjective and personal (specialists) decisions. On the other hand, ministries of health and insurance companies should consider more financial support. It is also recommend that hospitals should arrange preoperational psychiatric consultation for increasing patients’ emotionally readiness. © 2015, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

Glass Transition Temperature of Cross-Linked Epoxy Polymers: a Molecular Dynamics Study

Recently, epoxy polymers have been used in different applications and research fields due to their superior properties. In this study, the classical molecular dynamics (MD) was used to simulate formation of the epoxy polymer from cross linking of the EPON 828 with DETA curing agent, and calculate the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the material. A series of MD simulations were independently carried out on the cross-linked epoxy polymer in a range of temperatures from 600 K down to 250 K, and the density of the materials was calculated at the end of each run. Through the linear fitting between temperature and density above and below the glass transition temperature, Tg was estimated. The glass transition temperature of the pure DGEBA were also estimated through the same procedure and compared with those of the cross-linked polymer. Molecular simulations revealed significant increase in Tg of the cross-linked epoxy polymer as a result of newly created covalent bonds between individual chains. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3510

Animation du séminaire ESO, Axe Parcours de vie et expériences des espaces

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Nurses' Requirements for Relief and Casualty Support in Disasters: A Qualitative Study

Background: Nurses are among the most important groups engaged in casualty support, regardless of the cause, and they are one of the largest care groups involved in disasters. Consequently, these workers should gain proper support and skills to enable effective, timely, responsible and ethical emergency responses. Objectives: In this study, we investigated the needs of nurses for proper casualty support in disasters, to facilitate better planning for disaster management. Materials and Methods: This was a qualitative content analysis study. Interviews were performed with 23 nurses, at educational hospitals and the Faculty of Nursing at Kerman Medical University, who had a minimum of five years working experience and assisted in an earthquake disaster. Intensity and snowball sampling were performed. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed and coded into main themes and subthemes. Results: Four major themes emerged from the data; 1) psychological support, 2) appropriate clinical skills education, 3) appropriate disaster management, supervision and programming, and 4) the establishment of ready for action groups and emergency sites. The participants’ comments highlighted the necessity of training nurses for special skills including emotion management, triage and crush syndrome, and to support nurses' families, provide security, and act according to predefined programs in disasters. Conclusions: There are a wide range of requirements for disaster aid. Proper aid worker selection, frequent and continuous administration of workshops and drills, and cooperation and alignment of different governmental and private organizations are among the suggested initiatives

Dynamics and effects of Ligula intestinalis (L.) infection in the native fish Barbus callensis Valenciennes, 1842 in Algeria

The dynamics of the emergence, duration, and decline phases in epizootic cycles are well known for humans and some crops, but they are poorly understood for host–parasite systems in the wild. Parasites may be particularly insidious as they are often introduced unintentionally, simultaneously with their hosts, and later transferred to species in the new location. Here we investigate the epizootic dynamics of the tapeworm Ligula intestinalis in the Hamiz reservoir, Algeria, and explore its effects on the cyprinid fish Barbus callensis. Regular sampling was conducted from October 2005 to February 2008 with intermittent surveys carried out until 2010. Five percent of the 566 specimens of B. callensis that were caught were infected, with the maximum number of parasites found in spring. There was no obvious difference in weight between uninfected fish and infected ones, and infection did not affect fish condition. However, infected fish were significantly longer than uninfected fish and had inhibited gonad development. The proportion of infected fish caught was significantly higher in year 1 and by the second winter, infection collapsed to zero. The Ligula infection thus appeared to have minimal ecological effects and be of a temporary nature, thus exhibiting an epizootic cycle. Taken together, our data indicates that this infection declined or even failed during our study period. Failure may be due to the specific genetic strain of Ligula, but invasive carp may also have been influential in both the introduction and subsequent decline of this parasite.published_or_final_versio

Biologie de la reproduction du Cyprinidae, Barbus callensis dans le lac de barrage Hamiz (Algérie)

Reproductive Biology of the Cyprinidae, Barbus callensis in an Algerian Dam. The freshwater fish, Barbus callensis (Valenciennes, 1842) was studied from 2005 to 2007 for the first time in Hamiz dam. This species endemic of North African continent is widely spread in the rivers of Algeria. This reservoir is situated in Boumerdes 35 km southeast of Algiers. During these three years, the monthly sampling was carried out by trammel nets, fishing near the dike during one night. At the same time, the fry was captured with a transparent plastic bottle baited with breadcrumbs put down near the lakeshore. The monthly follow-up of the gonadosomatic ratio (RGS) reveals that the spawning period occurred between April and May. The evolution of the condition factor (K) shows low seasonal variations. However, a lower value appears in spring when the temperature increases and the breeding begins. The sex ratio is higher for the adult females (1:2.8, more than 26 cm). The first sexual maturity size (L50) is lower for males (19.6 cm) than for females (27.7 cm)

Modifiable risk of breast cancer in Northeast Iran: Hope for the future. a case-control study

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Its prevalence is increasing annually by 2. The determination of modifiable risk factors has been the subject of various studies. The aim of this study was to determine risk factors of breast cancer in women in Golestan Province. Patients and Methods: This case-control study was conducted among women with breast cancer recorded in the cancer registry system between 2004 and 2006 (n = 134), and their agematched healthy neighbors (n = 133). Data were statistically analyzed. Results: Age at marriage, menarche and pregnancy, breast feeding, positive family history, marital status, and educational level were not significantly correlated with risk of breast cancer, but age at menopause (< 46.6 years) was significantly correlated (95 confidence interval 1.15-7.37; p = 0.021). Live births, still births, and infant deaths were not significantly different between the 2 groups. For other variables, such as smoking history, no odds ratio was calculated. Conclusion: Results show that there is no significant correlation between variables and risk of breast cancer in our population, except for age at menopause. A large cohort study is recommended. © 2011 S. Karger GmbH, Freiburg

Accelerating Universe from an Evolving Lambda in Higher Dimension

We find exact solutions in five dimensional inhomogeneous matter dominated model with a varying cosmological constant. Adjusting arbitrary constants of integration one can also achieve acceleration in our model. Aside from an initial singularity our spacetime is regular everywhere including the centre of the inhomogeneous distribution. We also study the analogous homogeneous universe in (4+d) dimensions. Here an initially decelerating model is found to give late acceleration in conformity with the current observational demands. We also find that both anisotropy and number of dimensions have a role to play in determining the time of flip, in fact the flip is delayed in multidimensional models. Some astrophysical parameters like the age, luminosity distance etc are also calculated and the influence of extra dimensions is briefly discussed. Interestingly our model yields a larger age of the universe compared to many other quintessential models.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure