Background:The goal of this research was to measure the age-sex standardized prevalence of pre-diabetes (pre-DM) and diabetes (DM), and the effectiveness of diabetes management (using HbA1C as the indicator) in an urban area in Iran. Methods: Using a randomized cluster household survey, we recruited 5900 individuals whose age ranged from 15 to 75 from Kerman for assessing coronary artery disease risk factors (KERCADRS) including diabetes. In 2010 and 2011, all of the participants were interviewed by trained staff for medical history and physical activities, and were then examined for blood pressure and anthropometric measures. Venus blood sample was also collected for fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c. Results: The age-sex standardized prevalence of pre-diabetes, diagnosed and undiagnosed was 18.7%, 6.3% and 2.7%, respectively. Diabetes increased by age (from 14.7% in the 15-24 years old group to 28.4% in the 65-75 years old group), particularly after 40 years. Occasional opium users had the highest prevalence of Pre-DM (34.6%). Seventy-nine percent of the depressed and 75.5% of the anxious participants with diagnosed-DM were identified as uncontrolled-DM. More than 60% of diagnosed diabetic cases had impaired HbA1c. Overweight and obesity (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.6) and low physical activity (AOR 1.5) were the most preventable risk factors associated with diabetes. Conclusion: Considerable prevalence of diabetes, susceptibility in progressing to diabetes and uncontrolled diabetes among individuals living in Kerman, suggested ineffective prevention and treatment of diabetes in urban areas in Iran. Successful experience regarding primary health-care in rural areas should be expanded to urban settings.

No abstract

No abstract

The current work deals with fabrication and validation of a new highly Fe3+ selective sensor based on benzo-18-crown-6 (b-18C6) using the potentiometric method. The proposed sensor revealed satisfactory performance for quantitative evaluation of Fe3+ trace amount in environmental samples. The ratio of membrane ingredients optimized and the membrane with the composition of 4:30:65.5:0.5 mg of b-18C6:PVC:o-NPOE:KTpClPB exhibited the desirable Nernstian slope of 19.51 ± 0.10 (mV per decade of activity) over the pH range from 2.5 to 5.7 with an acceptable dynamic concentration range of 1.0 × 10−6 M to 1.0 × 10−1 M and lower detection limit of 8.0 × 10−7 M. The proposed sensor demonstrated an appropriate reproducibility with a rapid response time of 12 s and the suitable lifetime of 10 weeks. To validate the accurate response of the proposed sensor, AAS technique applied for the determination of Fe3+ in real aqueous mediums such as drinking tap water and hospital wastewater sample after treatment by electrocoagulation process. Theoretical studies carried out using DFT/B3LYP computational level with 6-311G basis set to optimize the adsorption sites of Fe+3 cationic species by b-18C6. The obtained adsorption energy with large negative value confirmed the formation of a stable complex.

The present work deals with developing a highly selective membrane electrode based on p-isopropylcalix[6]arene for accurate determination of trace amounts of cesium cations.

Estrogens are one of the micro-pollutants in the wastewater which have detrimental effects on water living organisms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of ultrasound to reduce the estrogen (E1) and 17 beta-estradiol (E2) from municipal wastewater. Hence, a cylindrical batch reactor was designed. The effects of powers, frequency, exposure time and pH on reduction efficiency were investigated. The residual concentration of E1 and E2 hormones was measured in reactor effluent by electrochemiluminescence (ECL) method. The results showed that ultrasound removed 85–96% of both E1 and E2 hormones after 45 min while other parameters changes in the range of their operations. Also, the frequency and power of ultrasound had a significant effect on reduction efficiency of hormones while the exposure had no significant effect. Furthermore, the interaction of power and frequency reduced their efficacy to 64.3% (Pvalue = 0.005). The result also indicated that the ultrasound waves have high ability to reduce Steroid hormones from municipal wastewater. The proposed method can be considered as one of the significant strategies for reduction or destruction of hormones from wastewater due to the non-generation of dangerous by-products and the low energy consumption.

A green synthesis approach was conducted to prepare amine-functionalized bio-graphene (AFBG) as an efficient and low cost adsorbent that can be obtained from agricultural wastes. In this study, bio-graphene was successfully used to remove Ciprofloxacin (CIP) from synthetic solutions. The efficacy of adsorbent as a function of operating variables (i.e. pH, time, AFBG dose and CIP concentration) was described by a polynomial model. A optimal99.3% experimental removal was achieved by adjusting the mixing time, AFBG dose, pH and CIP concentration to 58.16, 0.99, 7.47, and 52.9, respectively. Kinetic model revealed that CIP diffusion into the internal layers of AFBG controls the rate of the process. Furthermore, the sorption process was in monolayer with a maximum monolayer capacity of 172.6 mg/g. Adsorption also found to be favored under higher CIP concentrations. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔG˚<0, ΔH˚>0, and ΔS˚>0) demonstrated that the process is endothermic and spontaneous in nature. The regeneration study showed that the AFBG could simply regenerated without significant lost in adsorption capacity.

No abstract