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BackgroundHeart surgery patients are more at risk of poor peripheral perfusion, and peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurement is regular care for continuous analysis of blood oxygen saturation in these patients. With regard to controversial studies on accuracy of the current pulse oximetry probes and lack of data related to patients undergoing heart surgery, the present study was conducted to determine accuracy of pulse oximetry probes of finger, toe, forehead and earlobe in detection of oxygen saturation in patients admitted to intensive care units for coronary artery bypass surgery.MethodsIn this clinical trial, 67 patients were recruited based on convenience sampling method among those admitted to intensive care units for coronary artery bypass surgery. The SpO2 value was measured using finger, toe, forehead and earlobe probes and then compared with the standard value of arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2). Data were entered into STATA-11 software and analyzed using descriptive, inferential and Bland-Altman statistical analyses.ResultsHighest and lowest correlational mean values of SpO2 and SaO2 were related to finger and earlobe probes, respectively. The highest and lowest agreement of SpO2 and SaO2 were related to forehead and earlobe probes.ConclusionThe SpO2 of earlobe probes due to lesser mean difference, more limited confidence level and higher agreement ration with SaO2 resulted by arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis had higher accuracy. Thus, it is suggested to use earlobe probes in patients admitted to the intensive care unit for coronary artery bypass surgery.Trial registrationRegistration of this trial protocol has been approved in Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials at 2018–03-19 with reference IRCT20100913004736N22. “Retrospectively registered.”

In the present study, the interpenetrated polymer networks (IPN) foams of polyurethane (PU) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) with different ratio of PU/PMMA (i.e. 85/15, 75/25 and 65/35) were prepared using the polymerisation process. The acoustical, damping and thermal properties of synthesised IPN foams with regard to different compositions were studied. As indicators of effective damping capability, viscoelastic parameters including loss factor (tan δ), glass transition temperature (T g ) and effective damping interval (tan δ > 0.3) were also determined. The results show that the T g shifted to higher temperature ranges, and the damping temperature range (tan δ > 0.3) increased when the IPN was formed. The sound absorption coefficient results show that because of the formation of IPN, the soundabsorbing capacity of prepared samples increased at a certain frequency, and the resonance frequency shifted to lower frequencies by increasing the PMMA content in IPN foams.

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BackgroundPatients suffering from non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP) can interpret their chest pain wrongly despite having received a correct diagnosis. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of the relaxation method with metaphor therapy for reducing irrational beliefs and pain severity in patients with NCCP.MethodsUsing a randomized controlled trial, 33 participants were randomly divided into a relaxation training group (n= 13), a metaphor therapy group (n = 10), and a control group (n = 10), and were studied for 4 weeks. The two tools used in this research were the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) index for determining the degree of pain and the short version of the Jones Irrational Belief Test. Metaphor therapy and a relaxation technique based on Öst's treatment were used as the interventions. The collected data were analyzed with a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), a Chi-square test, and the Bonferroni procedure of post-hoc analysis.ResultsThe relaxation training method was significantly more effective than both metaphor therapy and the lack of treatment in reducing the patients' beliefs of hopelessness in the face of changes and emotional irresponsibility, as well as the pain severity. Metaphor therapy was not effective on any of these factors. In fact, the results did not support the effectiveness of metaphor therapy.ConclusionsRegarding the effectiveness of the relaxation method as compared with metaphor therapy and the lack of treatment in the control group, this study suggests that relaxation should be paid greater attention as a method for improving the status of patients. In addition, more studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of metaphor therapy in this area.

Many workers in different occupational settings are occupationally exposed to health and safety hazards [1,2]. Biological contaminants in workplaces can cause adverse health effects in exposed workers [3,4]. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (an infectious disease) has spread very quickly and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. The outbreak of COVID-19 is considered as a global public health concern [5,6].The activities of some industries such as petrochemical plants, power plants, water treatment plants, food manufacturing plants, sanitary ware manufacturing plants, etc., cannot be stopped even during an outbreak of diseases and workers should be present in their workplaces and have to work to provide products/services. Also, the presence of healthcare staff, such as workers providing frontline care for COVID-19 in the hospitals, is essential. In such situations, it seems necessary to protect workers in workplace settings against coronavirus-induced diseases.

A tunable multiband folded printed quadrifilar helical antenna (FPQHA) is proposed. Creating slot on the arms of FPQHA is a simple approach for designing multiband helical antenna. Also varying width and length of the slot can cause to tune the interested frequency bands. The operating frequency ranges in L/S/C band that covers L1 GPS band and most of the commercial wireless communication systems, such as WLAN [IEEE 802.11 (2.4/3.6/5 GHz)], LTE and WiMAX (2.5/3.5 GHz).