Tannic Acid as a Green Cross-linker for Biomaterial Applications.

Plant-derived tannic acid as a green material can play an important role in improving the mechanical and physical properties of biomaterials. Tannic acid can be used as an antioxidant, antimicrobial, and cross-linking agent in biomaterial products due to its unique functional groups. Its active phenolic groups can react with biomaterial functional groups to form bonds that improve performance. In this review, the mechanism of effectiveness of tannic acid as a natural crosslinker in improving the properties of biomaterials for various applications, such as tissue engineering, tissue adhesives, drug delivery, wound healing, and toxicity studies, has been investigated. In general, tannic acid can be a suitable alternative to synthetic crosslinkers in biomaterial applications.

Lessons Learned From the Higher Risk Perception and the Efficient Flood Mitigation in Haji-Abad, Golestan Province, Iran, 2019.

OBJECTIVE: In the present study, the factors inducing the successful immediate mitigation measures and other activities at Haji-Abad village in Golestan Province, Iran, were scrutinized. METHODS: To find authentic data, information was gathered from a variety of sources, including mass media documents and interviews with the related Health House attendant (Behvarz) at Haji-Abad and the disaster liaison at the Rural-Urban Healthcare Center, both of whom were among the residents. A thematic analysis was performed on the transcriptions. RESULTS: The findings showed that apart from the favorable geographical location of the area, appropriate education as well as vast family kinship among the residents were the major causes that induced high-risk perception, adequate collaboration and coordination among the residents and between them and the local authorities, and the women's active participation; these major effects, in turn, helped provide all of the efficient mitigation measures leading to the flood control. CONCLUSION: It is recommended that opportunities for people's collaboration in preparedness, mitigation measures, and resilience during the occurrence of disasters be arranged by means of providing related inclusive operational education prior to the incidents. This can simultaneously generate risk perception and help people assume themselves as the owners of the disasters.

The challenges of Iranian health system preparedness before earthquakes based on the World Health Organization framework.

INTRODUCTION: The state of health-care disaster preparedness in Iran prior to the possible earthquakes is not well documented. This study identified the challenges of the Iranian health system before possible earthquakes in Tehran based on the World Health Organization (WHO) framework. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this qualitative study, in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted for 17 health experts and authorities, who were selected based on purposive sampling method. The questions were designed based on the proposed framework of the WHO in six areas including policies and planning, communication, collaboration and coordination, training, volunteers and the public, and surge capability. The data were analyzed by using framework analysis. RESULTS: The main themes included weak communication infrastructures, inappropriate assessment of specialized training courses and lack of a clear scenario, integrated urban commanding, extra-sectorial coordination, and data banks for public volunteers. CONCLUSION: Iran health-care disaster preparedness was tested by many earthquakes. This research showed that disaster preparedness in Iran faces several challenges.

Status, role, and performance of emergency medicine specialists in Iran: A qualitative study.

INTRODUCTION: The performance of the emergency department (ED) as one of the main parts of hospitals, have a great impact on the performance of the whole-hospital. In Iran, the official education program of this discipline was started in 2001 and has expanded in most medical universities. Given the unprecedentedness of emergency medicine (EM), there are limited studies about this specialty. Thus, this study aims to explore the status, role, and performance of Iranian EM specialists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted using content analysis of 19 semi-structured interviews with EM specialists and key informant. Purposive sampling was conducted, and some teaching and nonstate hospitals in different geographic regions of Tehran city were selected. Conducting interviews continued until reaching the data saturation. Thematic analysis was employed. Extracted themes were reviewed and confirmed by some of the participants. RESULTS: The study results were categorized within five main themes; included the role of ED from EM specialists' viewpoint, EM specialists' viewpoint on their discipline, performance of EM specialists (including medical, managerial, and economic performance), and role of EM specialists in patient satisfaction; and opportunities and challenges of EM specialists. CONCLUSION: Overall, the study findings highlighted the effectiveness and positive medical, managerial and economic impacts of EM in Iran, inside and beyond hospitals. However, the study addressed significant opportunities some solvable challenges in educational, professional and economic domains, and interdisciplinary relationships. Further studies are recommended for comprehensive exploring viewpoint of other disciplines and stakeholders.

Risk Factors for Suicidal Behaviours after Natural Disasters: A Systematic Review.

Natural disasters have multiple psychological effects including increased risk of suicide among victims. Reviews have shown that suicidal behaviours can be an aftermath of natural disasters. The present study attempted to identify the suicide-related risk factors after natural disasters. This study was a systematic review probing English language articles related to suicide and its risk factors after natural disasters and published between 1 January 1990 and 27 September 2018 in Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, ProQuest and Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases. After reviewing and screening the collected studies by means of specific criteria, only 30 studies were qualified to enter the survey. It was found that most of these studies had investigated suicide after earthquake. Gender, age, serious mental disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), loss of family members, low economic status, low social support, and injury to the person and the family/relatives were identified as the most important risk factors for suicide after natural disasters. Women, adolescents, elderly, people with depression and PTSD, those suffer from low social support and parentless people were found to be among the ones being highly vulnerable to suicide after natural disasters. There is, therefore, a need for providing psychosocial support for these people after such disasters.

Zahedan School Fire: Endless Fire Incidents in Iranian Schools.

Emergencies frequently happen and sometimes their victims are school students. School age children and adolescents may be more vulnerable to life events and require more attention than adults, depending on the stage of their growth. The private elementary school of Osveh Hasaneh in Zahedan, Iran, caught fire on December 18, 2018, at 9:00 AM, where 4 students were killed. This school fire is the highest rate of mortality in Iran in terms of the number of student deaths. Considering the repeated nature of such incidents in Iranian schools, it is necessary to increase the awareness of risk of fire in schools to promote a culture of fire prevention in society.

Individualism-Collectivism, Social Support, Resilience and Suicidal Ideation among Women with the Experience of the Death of a Young Person.

BACKGROUND: Grief involves a set of emotions, thoughts and behaviors that people experience when faced with a lack or threat of loss. This study was conducted to evaluate the suicidal ideation among women with experience of the death of a young person and assessed the predictive role of individualism-collectivism, social support, and resilience in suicidal ideation. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted from March to August 2016 through recruitment of 146 breaved women from Gilan-e gharb (the west part of Iran). Data gathering instruments included Individualism-Collectivism Questionnaire, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Connor-Davidson Resilience scale (CD-RISC), and Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS-22. RESULTS: The findings showed that among women, 48 percent had suicidal ideation (scores above 6). The results of Pearson correlation showed that there were significant negative relationships between suicidal ideation (P<0.05) and factors such as collectivism (r=-0.286), family support (r=-0.558), support from friends (r=-0.307), support from significant others (r=-0.617), social support (r=-0.561), and resilience (r=-0.457). The results showed that individualism - collectivism, social support, and resilience correctly predicted 73.5% of women with suicidal ideation and 83.3% of women without suicidal ideation. CONCLUSION: We concluded that higher collectivism, social support, and resilience in the bereaved women can lead to a reduction in suicidal ideation. Therefore, psychologists and counselors can provide the necessary background to strengthen supportive issues and the use of resilience-based interventions among bereaved women.

Chemical Constituents of Cymbocarpum erythraeum (DC.) Boiss., and Evaluation of Its Anti-Helicobacter pylori Activity.

OBJECTIVE: Cymbocarpum erythraeum (Apiaceae) is an endemic species in Iran. Up to now, there have been no phytochemical and biological investigations on this species. Therefore, isolation of the main secondary metabolites of the plant along with its anti-H. pylori activity have been considered in this paper. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The dried parts of the plant were extracted with different solvents using solvent percolation and the antibacterial activity of the extracts evaluated by the disk diffusion method. Four compounds were isolated using different column chromatography methods. RESULTS: The compounds were identified by proton nuclear magnetic resonance and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance as isoquercetin (1), rutin (2), ß-sitosterol (3) and 2-decenol (4). CONCLUSION: Anti-H. pylori evaluation of the extracts and isolated compounds against three clinical isolates of H. pylori revealed that hexane extract of the plant inhibited all H. pylori strains.

Survival of brain metastatic patients in Yazd, Iran.

BACKGROUND: Brain metastasis occurs when cancerous cells come from a known (or sometimes an unknown) primary tumor to the brain and implant and grow there. This event is potentially lethal and causes neurologic symptoms and signs. These patients are treated in order to decrease their neurologic problems, increase quality of life and overall survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study we evaluated clinical characteristics of 206 patients with brain metastases referred to our center from 2004 to 2011. RESULTS: The mean age was 53.6 years. The primary tumors were breast cancer (32%), lung cancer (24.8%), lymphoma (4.4%), sarcoma (3.9%), melanoma (2.9%), colorectal cancer (2.4%) and renal cell carcinoma (1.5%). In 16.5% of the patients, brain metastasis was the first presenting symptom and the primary site was unknown. Forty two (20.4%) patients had a single brain metastasis, 18 patients (8.7%) had two or three lesions, 87 (42.2%) patients had more than three lesions. Leptomeningeal involvement was seen in 49 (23.8%) patients. Thirty five (17%) had undergone surgical resection. Whole brain radiation therapy was performed for all of the patients. Overall survival was 10.1 months (95%CI; 8.65-11.63). One and two year survival was 27% and 12% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Overall survival of patients who were treated by combination of surgery and whole brain radiation therapy was significantly better than those who were treated with whole brain radiation therapy only [13.8 vs 9.3 months (p=0.03)]. Age, sex, primary site and the number of brain lesions did not show significant relationships with overall survival.