Trajectory of human movement during sit to stand: a new modeling approach based on movement decomposition and multi-phase cost function

The ability to predict accurately the weights of objects is essential for skilled and dexterous manipulation. A potentially important source of information about object weight is through the observation of other people lifting objects. Here, we tested the hypothesis that when watching an actor lift an object, people naturally learn the object’s weight and use this information to scale forces when they subsequently lift the object themselves. Participants repeatedly lifted an object in turn with an actor. Object weight unpredictably changed between 2 and 7 N every 5th to 9th of the actor’s lifts, and the weight lifted by the participant always matched that previously lifted by the actor. Even though the participants were uninformed about the structure of the experiment, they appropriately adapted their lifting force in the first trial after a weight change. Thus, participants updated their internal representation about the object’s weight, for use in action, when watching a single lift performed by the actor. This ability presumably involves the comparison of predicted and actual sensory information related to actor’s actions, a comparison process that is also fundamental in action.     

Dietary supplement use among Iranian adults: a study in northern Iran

This study aimed to investigate dietary supplement use among Iranian adults in northern Iran. A cross-sectional study was undertaken on randomly selected men and women in Guilan province, northern Iran. The study population was parents of children and adolescents studying in schools. Totally, 1,425 women and 676 men were studied and data on age, body weight, height, educational level, and supplement use was gathered using a self-administrated questionnaire. These data showed that supplement use was related to sex, body mass index, and educational levels in both sexes. Most common supplements used in this population were Iron, calcium, multivitamin/multiminerals and fish oils. These results showed that 13.3, 3.4, 2.2, and 1.1 % of the study men used iron, calcium, multivitamin/multimineral, and fish oil, respectively. In women, 27.1, 10.7, 5.1, and 5.5 % used Iron, calcium, multivitamin/multimineral, and fish oil, respectively. More educated men and women and those with more healthy weight were more likely to use any dietary supplement than the less educated and overweight/obese men and women. This study showed that iron was the most common dietary supplement in this study middle aged Iranians. Using the other supplements was mostly related to age, educational level, and body weight status in this population. These data indicated that dietary supplement use was inversely related to some health-related behaviors and socioeconomic factors.     

Nurses' attitudes of a web patient portal prior to its implementation in home health care nursing

ObjectivesEffective communication is essential in home health care nursing in order to meet the needs of both the patients and the caregivers. Given the key role of nursing staff inpatient training through the patient portal; nursing staffs' attitudes toward the use of this technology thus need to be further evaluated. The present study evaluated Iranian nurses' attitudes before the web-based patient portal implementation in home health care nursing.MethodsThis study was conducted on 600 nursing staff working in health care organizations affiliated to Semnan University of Medical Sciences in Iran. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the nurses’ attitudes.ResultsThe study subjects' attitudes scores were 3.06±0.71 on "patient education", 3.02±0.78 on "health care plan" and 2.95±0.82 on the cost of nursing services, based on the 5-point Likert scale (1-5: completely disagree to completely agree). There was a statistically significant relationship between nurses' attitudes and computer skill (B=0.07, SE=0.03, P=0.021) and nurses' acceptance of IT (B=0.085, SE=0.039, P=0.030), and sex (B=0.176, SE=0.058, P=0.003).ConclusionThe nurses agreed that the use of this self-management tool can ease patient education, easily implement a health care plan for patients and reduce the cost of nursing services. The nurses also agreed that changes are required at the minor and major levels of in-home health care institutions to support the implementation and meaningful use of this portal for home health care nursing.Public interest (lay) summaryHome health care is one of the alternative solutions to continue hospital care that is performed by nursing staff. The nursing staff in-home care should effectually cooperate to render secure and high-quality patient care. The web-based patient portals have confirmed effectiveness to improve patient gratification, engagement, and health outcomes, improve the quality and efficacy of the healthcare settings, decrease emergency unit appointments and ease patient-centered care. Nurses agree the implementation of the patient portal in home health care nursing depends on organizational and individual preparation in healthcare organizations and this technology should be also adopted by the nursing staff to meaningful use of the patient portal to attain significant improvements in home health care nursing.     

Pistachio Allergy-Prevalence and In vitro Cross-Reactivity with Other Nuts

BackgroundTree nut allergy is characterized by a high frequency of life-threatening reactions and is typically lifelong persistent. Some people with a pistachio nut allergy, which is common in the pistachio rich area of Iran, develop a hypersensitivity to other tree nuts as well. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of pistachio nut allergy in Iran, the major pistachio cultivation region in the world. The study also addressed the presence of allergenic cross-reactivity between pistachio and other nuts, including almond, peanut, and cashew in pistachio allergic patients.MethodsA survey was conducted to determine whether the prevalence of pistachio allergy is affected by exposure to this nut in pistachio cultivation regions, as well as possible cross-reactivity between pistachio and other nuts including cashew, almond, and peanut. Inhibition Western blot and inhibition ELISA studies were conducted to assess the presence of allergenic cross-reactivity between pistachio and the other tree nuts.ResultsOur results revealed that the prevalence of pistachio allergy is twice as much in pistachio cultivation regions than other areas. Western blotting and inhibition ELISA presented high percentages of inhibition with pistachio and cashew, followed by almond and, to some degree, peanut which indicates different levels of aller- genic cross-reactivity.ConclusionsThe results indicate that exposure of people to pistachio significantly affects the prevalence of its allergic reactions. In addition, it was observed that, among pistachio allergic subjects, such exposure may affect the co-sensitivities with other nuts, including cashew and almond. The plant taxonomic classification of pistachio and other tree nuts does appear to predict allergenic cross-reactivity.