scholarly journals Evaluation of Noise Pollution in Sari’s Educational Hospitals in 2015-16

Author(s):  
Ahmad Alizadeh ◽  
Fatemeh Taghavi ◽  
Jamshid Yazdani Charati

Introduction: Noise is one of the most important pollutants in worksites. Hospitals are imposed to noise pollution.  Considering lack of research in Sari educational hospitals and applicability of noise control by engineering controls and education, we proposed this research to evaluate the sound pressure level (SPL) in three educational hospitals of Sari, Iran. Methods: In a descriptive-analytical study, the SPL of three hospitals was evaluated using sound level meter (model; CACELLA CELL-490, made in England). The evaluation was performed in 1.5 meter height, in three shifts, and in three days of the week. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic methods and SPSS software version 24.  For assessing the rate of effective factors, the GEE (Generalized estimating Equation) methods were used. Results: According to the results, the mean SPL was 63.30 ± 7.33 dB and a significant difference was observed between the mean SPL and the standard (35 dB) (p <0.001). Moreover, the highest mean of sound in hospitals was observed in Fatemeh Al-Zahra Hospital. Considering the week days, Saturday and among shifts, the night shift had the highest mean SPL. Conclusion: The findings showed that SPL was higher than the Iranian National Construction Regulations and World Health Organization (WHO) standards in all evaluated places. So, the noise control programs should be considered seriously.

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 434-445
Author(s):  
GODWIN JOHUEL BIRMA ◽  
E. E. UKPEBOR ◽  
B. R. ISSA

Environmental noise pollution affects not only the quality of life, but it poses a serious health and social problem. The Cirrus integrating averaging sound level instrument: model CR262A was employed to determine the noise levels at the twenty-two (22) selected sampling stations. The measurement of the noise was carried out during the morning, afternoon, and evening periods, to evaluate noise pollution within the twin city.Results indicated that there is no much difference (p>0.05) in the mean noise values within the different periods of the day at each sampling station, but there is significant variation (p<0.05) in the mean noise values at each period of the day over all the sampling stations. The results of the noise measurement showed that Enerhen Junction and NNPC Complex recorded the highest and lowest overall noise values of 84.84+5.39 dB(A) and 70 .90+2.98 dB(A) respectively. The results of this survey showed that the noise values at all the measurements points within Warri and Effurun metropolitan cities and at all the periods of the day is more than the Nigeria Federal Ministry of Environment (NFMEnv) and World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limit of 55dB daily noise level criteria for residential areas. The ssurvey requires the need to enact and enforce permissible noise levels/standards for residential neighbourhoods of 55dB by relevant environmental authorities both at Federal and state levels instead of applying 90dB standard meant for regulations in industrial settings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-128
Author(s):  
Zrinka Ivanisevic ◽  
Marko Matijevic ◽  
Zvonimir Uzarevic ◽  
Djordje Petrovic ◽  
Davor Jurlina ◽  
...  

Background/Aim. Oral health is an integral part of general health and an important factor in the overall quality of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of dental caries among the children from the SOS Children?s Village in Croatia. Methods. The dental examinations based on the World Health Organization criteria were performed on 88 children from SOS Children?s Village in Croatia. The teeth were clinically examined with standard dental instruments using the visual-tactile method under standard light. The clinical indexes of decayed, missed, and filled (dmft and DMFT, for primary and permantnt teeth, respectively) and decayed, missed, and filled surfaces (DMFS), as well as the significant caries index (SiC) were recorded. Results. Among the children from the SOS Children?s Village caries incidence were 57.94%. The mean dmft, DMFT and DMFS of all children was 1.82, 1.90 and 2.82, respectively. The highest mean dmft and DMFT score of 4.24 and 2.56 was found among 7?10 and 11?14 years old children, respectively. The highest mean DMFS score of 3.85 and 3.90 was found among 11?14 years old children and among the children from the SOS Children?s Village Lekenik, respectively. Among all children, the SiC index was 4.69. There was a significant difference between age groups and children?s place of residence in DMFT, DMFS and SiC. Conclusion. Prevalence of dental caries is low among the children from the SOS Children?s Village in Croatia compared to the children who lived with biological families.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohtasham Ghaffari ◽  
Yadollah Mehrabi ◽  
Sakineh Rakhshanderou ◽  
Ali Safari-Moradabadi ◽  
Seyyede Zenab Jafarian

Abstract Background: Food safety manual was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to train professionals to reduce the burden of foodborne diseases as a global strategy. The present pioneering research aimed to explore the effectiveness of an intervention based on the manual of five keys to safer food by WHO in enhancing the knowledge, attitude and behavior of Iranian health volunteers. Methods:In the present experimental research, health volunteers (n=125) were selected and assigned to two groups, an intervention and a control. A modified version of the questionnaire based on WHO manual was used to measure knowledge, attitude and behavior of the sample. The questionnaire was first completed at the outset of the study (pre-test) and then once again in two months of the intervention (post-test). Face and content validity of the questionnaire was tested and confirmed. Cronbach’s alpha was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire along with the test-retest method of testing reliability. The data entered SPSS16 for statistical analysis. To this aim, Chi-squared test, dependent and independent samples T-test, ANOVA and ANCOVA were run. Results:The two groups showed no statistically significant difference in the pretest (p>.05). In the post-test, the mean scores for all variables was higher in the intervention group than the control, and this difference between the two research groups was statistically significant (p<.001). When the volunteers were adjusted for age and experience in healthcare centers, the mean scores were significantly higher in the intervention group than the control (p<.001). Conclusion: It was revealed in the present study that the educational intervention based on five keys to food safety manual by WHO managed to improve participants’ knowledge, attitude and behavior. Translation of the target guideline in future can be a great help to researchers in prospective research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-418
Author(s):  
Svetlana A Novikova

Acoustic pollution is a type of negative impact on the environment. According to the World Health Organization, the increased noise level is the second largest after pollution of the atmospheric air by the environmental cause of health problems in the population of industrial and transport cities. The increase in the number of road transport in the cities of the Irkutsk region leads to an increase in noise levels, its penetration into residential, public and office buildings. The increase in noise is also associated with the construction of new highways, bridges and roundabouts in cities. The article assesses noise pollution in large cities of the Irkutsk region. Observations on the composition and intensity of traffic at major intersections, highways and residential areas were carried out. With help of the sound level meter, noise level measurements were made in the daytime and at night and noise maps of the levels of the urban road network were constructed. The legislative basis for noise regulation in the Russian Federation and the countries of the European Union has been studied. A set of measures is suggested that contributes to reducing the acoustic impact on residents of the cities of the Irkutsk region.


1993 ◽  
Vol 69 (01) ◽  
pp. 035-040 ◽  
Author(s):  
A M H P van den Besselaar ◽  
R M Bertina

SummaryFour thromboplastin reagents were tested by 18 laboratories in Europe, North-America, and Australasia, according to a detailed protocol. One thromboplastin was the International Reference Preparation for ox brain thromboplastin combined with adsorbed bovine plasma (coded OBT/79), and the second was a certified reference material for rabbit brain thromboplastin, plain (coded CRM 149R). The other two thromboplastin reagents were another rabbit plain brain thromboplastin (RP) with a lower ISI than CRM 149R and a rabbit brain thromboplastin combined with adsorbed bovine plasma (RC). Calibration of the latter two reagents was performed according to methods recommended by the World Health Organization (W. H. O.).The purpose of this study was to answer the following questions: 1) Is the calibration of the RC reagent more precise against the bovine/combined (OBT/79) than against the rabbit/plain reagent (CRM 149R)? 2) Is the precision of calibration influenced by the magnitude of the International Sensitivity Index (ISI)?The lowest inter-laboratory variation of ISI was observed in the calibration of the rabbit/plain reagent (RP) against the other rabbit/plain reagent (CRM 149R) (CV 1.6%). The highest interlaboratory variation was obtained in the calibration of rabbit/plain (RP) against bovine/combined (OBT/79) (CV 5.1%). In the calibration of the rabbit/combined (RC) reagent, there was no difference in precision between OBT/79 (CV 4.3%) and CRM 149R (CV 4.2%). Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the precision of the ISI of RC obtained with CRM 149R (ISI = 1.343) and the rabbit/plain (RP) reagent with ISI = 1.14. In conclusion, the calibration of RC could be performed with similar precision with either OBT/79 or CRM 149R, or RP.The mean ISI values calculated with OBT/79 and CRM 149R were practically identical, indicating that there is no bias in the ISI of these reference preparations and that these reference preparations have been stable since their original calibration studies in 1979 and 1987, respectively.International Normalized Ratio (INR) equivalents were calculated for a lyophilized control plasma derived from patients treated with oral anticoagulants. There were small but significant differences in the mean INR equivalents between the bovine and rabbit thromboplastins. There were no differences in the interlaboratory variation of the INR equivalents, when the four thromboplastins were compared.


2020 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
pp. 1010-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroaki Takei ◽  
Jun Shinoda ◽  
Soko Ikuta ◽  
Takashi Maruyama ◽  
Yoshihiro Muragaki ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVEPositron emission tomography (PET) is important in the noninvasive diagnostic imaging of gliomas. There are many PET studies on glioma diagnosis based on the 2007 WHO classification; however, there are no studies on glioma diagnosis using the new classification (the 2016 WHO classification). Here, the authors investigated the relationship between uptake of 11C-methionine (MET), 11C-choline (CHO), and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) on PET imaging and isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) status (wild-type [IDH-wt] or mutant [IDH-mut]) in astrocytic and oligodendroglial tumors according to the 2016 WHO classification.METHODSIn total, 105 patients with newly diagnosed cerebral gliomas (6 diffuse astrocytomas [DAs] with IDH-wt, 6 DAs with IDH-mut, 7 anaplastic astrocytomas [AAs] with IDH-wt, 24 AAs with IDH-mut, 26 glioblastomas [GBMs] with IDH-wt, 5 GBMs with IDH-mut, 19 oligodendrogliomas [ODs], and 12 anaplastic oligodendrogliomas [AOs]) were included. All OD and AO patients had both IDH-mut and 1p/19q codeletion. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUV) of the tumor/mean SUV of normal cortex (T/N) ratios for MET, CHO, and FDG were calculated, and the mean T/N ratios of DA, AA, and GBM with IDH-wt and IDH-mut were compared. The diagnostic accuracy for distinguishing gliomas with IDH-wt from those with IDH-mut was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of the mean T/N ratios for the 3 PET tracers.RESULTSThere were significant differences in the mean T/N ratios for all 3 PET tracers between the IDH-wt and IDH-mut groups of all histological classifications (p < 0.001). Among the 27 gliomas with mean T/N ratios higher than the cutoff values for all 3 PET tracers, 23 (85.2%) were classified into the IDH-wt group using ROC analysis. In DA, there were no significant differences in the T/N ratios for MET, CHO, and FDG between the IDH-wt and IDH-mut groups. In AA, the mean T/N ratios of all 3 PET tracers in the IDH-wt group were significantly higher than those in the IDH-mut group (p < 0.01). In GBM, the mean T/N ratio in the IDH-wt group was significantly higher than that in the IDH-mut group for both MET (p = 0.034) and CHO (p = 0.01). However, there was no significant difference in the ratio for FDG.CONCLUSIONSPET imaging using MET, CHO, and FDG was suggested to be informative for preoperatively differentiating gliomas according to the 2016 WHO classification, particularly for differentiating IDH-wt and IDH-mut tumors.


Author(s):  
Kirti Sundar Sahu ◽  
Arlene Oetomo ◽  
Niloofar Jalali ◽  
Plinio P. Morita

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To inhibit the spread of COVID-19, governments around the globe, including Canada, have implemented physical distancing and lockdown measures, including a work-from-home policy. Canada in 2020 has developed a 24-Hour Movement Guideline for all ages laying guidance on the ideal amount of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep (PASS) for an individual in a day. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes on the household and population-level in lifestyle behaviours (PASS) and time spent indoors at the household level, following the implementation of physical distancing protocols and stay-at-home guidelines. For this study, we used 2019 and 2020 data from ecobee, a Canadian smart Wi-Fi thermostat company, through the Donate Your Data (DYD) program. Using motion sensors data, we quantified the amount of sleep by using the absence of movement, and similarly, increased sensor activation to show a longer duration of household occupancy. The key findings of this study were; during the COVID-19 pandemic, overall household-level activity increased significantly compared to pre-pandemic times, there was no significant difference between household-level behaviours between weekdays and weekends during the pandemic, average sleep duration has not changed, but the pattern of sleep behaviour significantly changed, specifically, bedtime and wake up time delayed, indoor time spent has been increased and outdoor time significantly reduced. Our data analysis shows the feasibility of using big data to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the household and population-level behaviours and patterns of change.


Author(s):  
Katarzyna Dereń ◽  
Justyna Wyszyńska ◽  
Serhiy Nyankovskyy ◽  
Olena Nyankovska ◽  
Marta Yatsula ◽  
...  

Overweight and obesity, as well as underweight in children and adolescents, pose a significant public health issue. This study aimed to investigate the secular trend of the incidence of underweight, overweight, and obesity in children from Ukraine in 2013/2014 and 2018/2019. The studies were conducted in randomly selected primary and secondary schools in Ukraine. In total, 13,447 children (6468 boys and 6979 girls) participated in the study in 2013/2014 and 18,144 children (8717 boys and 9427 girls) participated in 2018/2019. Measurements of body weight and height were performed in triplicate. Underweight, overweight, and obesity were diagnosed according to the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO). In the group of girls, a significant difference between 2013/2014 and 2018/2019 measurements was found only among 7-year-olds. The percentage of girls at this age exceeding the body mass index (BMI) norm was lower in the 2018/2019 study. In boys, a significant difference was also found in 7-year-olds, and, as in girls, a lower share of overweight and obesity was found in 2018/2019. But for the ages of 12, 13, and 15, the significant differences had a different character—more overweight or obese boys were found in the 2018/2019 study. The proportion of underweight children was similar for the majority of age groups in both genders and did not differ in a statistically significant way.


Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 210
Author(s):  
Maria-Angeles Bonmati-Carrion ◽  
Antonia Tomas-Loba

Melatonin is one of the most phylogenetically conserved signals in biology. Although its original function was probably related to its antioxidant capacity, this indoleamine has been “adopted” by multicellular organisms as the “darkness signal” when secreted in a circadian manner and is acutely suppressed by light at night by the pineal gland. However, melatonin is also produced by other tissues, which constitute its extrapineal sources. Apart from its undisputed chronobiotic function, melatonin exerts antioxidant, immunomodulatory, pro-apoptotic, antiproliferative, and anti-angiogenic effects, with all these properties making it a powerful antitumor agent. Indeed, this activity has been demonstrated to be mediated by interfering with various cancer hallmarks, and different epidemiological studies have also linked light at night (melatonin suppression) with a higher incidence of different types of cancer. In 2007, the World Health Organization classified night shift work as a probable carcinogen due to circadian disruption, where melatonin plays a central role. Our aim is to review, from a global perspective, the role of melatonin both from pineal and extrapineal origin, as well as their possible interplay, as an intrinsic factor in the incidence, development, and progression of cancer. Particular emphasis will be placed not only on those mechanisms related to melatonin’s antioxidant nature but also on the recently described novel roles of melatonin in microbiota and epigenetic regulation.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 256
Author(s):  
Pedro Plans-Rubió

In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) established the Global Vaccine Action Plan with the objective to promote essential vaccinations in all countries and achieve at least 90% vaccination coverage for all routine vaccines by 2020. The study assessed the mean percentages of vaccination coverage in 2019 for 13 routine vaccines, vaccination coverage variation from 2015 to 2019, and herd immunity levels against measles and pertussis in 2019 in countries and regions of WHO. In 2019, the mean percentages of vaccination coverage were lower than 90% for 10 (78.9%) routine vaccines. The mean percentages of vaccination coverage also decreased from 2015 to 2019 for six (46.2%) routine vaccines. The prevalence of individuals with vaccine-induced measles immunity in the target measles vaccination population was 88.1%, and the prevalence of individuals with vaccine-induced pertussis immunity in the target pertussis vaccination population was 81.1%. Herd immunity against measles viruses with Ro = 18 was established in 63 (32.5%) countries but not established in any region. Herd immunity against pertussis agents was not established in any country and in any region of WHO. National immunization programs must be improved to achieve ≥90% vaccination coverage in all countries and regions. Likewise, it is necessary to achieve ≥95% vaccination coverage with two doses of measles vaccines and three doses of pertussis vaccines in all countries and regions.


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