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Balance disorders are common in the elderly and are a major cause of falls. This study aimed to determine the effect of acupressure on dynamic balance in elderly women.This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 72 elderly women in Qazvin, Iran. The intervention group received rotary massage using the thumb at the pressure points for 4 weeks, 3 times a week for 20 minutes each session. Dynamic balance in both groups was measured before, 2 and 4 weeks after the intervention using timed up and go test and the step test. Data were analyzed using two way repeated measures ANOVA.The mean age of participants was 67.34 ± 6.30 with a range of 60 to 80 years old. The results showed statistically significant improvement in the dynamic balance quantified by timed up and go test (%Δ = 26.53) and step test for the right (%Δ = 35.22) and left (Δ% = 32.62) legs (The results support that acupressure therapy can be an effective, safe, and inexpensive method to improve the dynamic balance and maintain maximum autonomy of the elderly.

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of sonoelastography (SE), strain ratio (SR), elasticity to B- mode (E/B) ratio, and color Doppler ultrasonography (US) in suspected breast lesions. Materials and methods This prospective study was conducted on women referred to Alzahra university hospital of Tabriz for annual screening of breast cancer between May 2017 and December 2018. B-mode US, SE, and color Doppler imaging were conducted in females with suspected mammography reports. The lesions in B-mode were classified according to the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (B-RADS). The results of SE imaging were graded based on five-grade SE score. SR and E/B ratio of each lesion were also analyzed in SE images. Color Doppler findings were categorized from 0 (no visible vessel) to 2 (> two vessels) based on the vascularity of the tumor. Pathology results were used as the gold standard to measure the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of each modality. Results One-hundred and ten breast lesions of 104 women aged 42.05±10.33 years were included in the study. Seventy-seven of the lesions were benign and 3 were malignant. Sensitivity and specificity of 97.0% and 77.9% for B-mode US, 93.9% and 87.0% for SE score, 81.8% and 66.2% for color Doppler US, 72.7% and 77.6% for E/B ratio (cutoff: 1.05), and 77.3% and 79.6% for SR (cutoff: 1.90) were obtained, respectively. Addition of SE score to B-mode US increased the sensitivity to 93.9%, specificity to 93.5%, and AUC from 0.95 to 0.97. Cumulative color Doppler US with B-mode US did not enhance the diagnostic accuracy of B-mode US. Conclusion SE was more effective than color Doppler US for distinguishing malignant from benign breast lesion. Among the three different SE features, five-grade SE score was superior to E/B ratio and SR.

In this paper, we consider k out of n identical parallel unit systems experiencing deterioration due to random shocks in semi-Markov environments. It is assumed that the occurrence rate of random s...

We investigated solvent-solute effects using dye-doped nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) where three Sudan dyes of different concentrations were used as solutes doped into high- and low-polar NLCs as ...

We proposed an optical measurement method for determination of flexoelectric polarisation change in liquid crystals (LCs), which can be induced in highly distorted LC geometries. A hybrid-aligned nematic LC (NLC) mode was introduced to evaluate the direction and magnitude of the flexoelectric polarisation. We measured the DC offset amounts for equivalent brightness levels between forward and reverse bias vertical electric fields to estimate the sign and magnitude of es−eb of flexoelectric coefficients. Additionally, the optical incident angle (αmax) for the maximum effective birefringence was investigated to predict the depth distribution of the LC director affecting the magnitude of the flexoelectric polarisation. The relationship between the variations of the DC offset and αmax by the flexoelectric polarisation changes was examined using the NLC mixtures doped with three selected bent-core LCs.

The use of liquid crystals (LCs) as anisotropic solvents is desired for various potential applications and usually for other organic and inorganic compounds. In this work, solvent polarity parameters are obtained using a spectroscopic method for four LCs with a range of high and low dielectric anisotropy (∆e). Solvatochromic polarity parameters for these LCs were defined via Kamlet–Abboud–Taft polarity functions characterizing different temperatures and phases, isotropic and anisotropic, and using the Reichardt’s dye and 2,6-diphenyl-4-(2,4,6-triphenyl-1-pyridinio) phenolate standard probe. The investigated polarity parameters reveal the effects of LC media on the photo-physical behaviour of solute molecules in isotropic and anisotropic media. Subsequently, a new LC polarity parameter (Zo) is introduced as an overall matrix anisotropy polarity parameter to characterize variation between isotropic and anisotropic phases. The values of Zo are sorted from higher to lower dielectric anisotropies (∆e).

We studied the structural order in randomly perturbed nematic liquid crystals using a random anisotropic nematic-type lattice model. Simulations were carried out at zero temperature and at various other temperatures, for which we varied the concentration of impurities p, anchoring strength W and imposed external strength fields B at two different histories: temperature-quenched history (TQH) and field-quenched history. The Haller approximation method utilized the temperature dependence of the order parameter to determine the pseudo-critical exponent β at different values of p and W. Consequently, the values of β increased when p and W were increased. Additionally, applying an external field B for investigating the parameters revealed that the TQH established long-range order for high magnitudes of B at zero temperature (T* = 0) and T* = 0.5.

We have simulated lattice models of homogenous and randomly perturbed systems exhibiting continuous symmetry breaking, concentrating on domain sizes and configuration character. The system consists of rod-like objects within a cubic lattice interacting via a Lebwohl–Lasher-type interaction at temperature T, but including impurities at concentration p imposing a random anisotropy field-type disorder, coupled with anchoring strength W to neighboring host director molecules. An example of such systems represents nematic LC or nanotubes. We study molecular domain patterns as a function of p, W, T, and sample history. Histories are defined either by a temperature-quenched history (TQH), a field-quenched history (FQH) or from an annealed history (AH). Finite size-scaling is used to determine the nature of the orientational ordering correlations. We distinguish three different kinds of phase. Short ranged order (SRO) implies exponential decay of orientational correlations. Quasi-long-range order (QLRO) sustains ...

Objective: Seborrheic dermatitis (SD) is commonly treated with anti-inflammatory products, including topical corticosteroids. This study was undertaken to compare the efficiency of sertaconazole 2% cream with hydrocortisone 1% cream in the treatment of SD. Methods: In this clinical trial study, 60 SD patients were studied. Thirty patients received local sertaconazole 2% cream and were recommended to use the cream twice a day for 4 weeks. In the control group, 30 patients received hydrocortisone 1% cream and were recommended to use the cream twice a day for 4 weeks. At the start of the study and also 2 and 4 weeks after first visit, the patients were examined by a dermatologist for signs of improvement and control of clinical symptoms. Results: The mean age of the patients was 32.23 ± 12.09. The highest level of satisfaction (90%) was observed 28 days after using sertaconazole and the level of satisfaction was 83.3% in hydrocortisone group. Relapse of the disease one month after stopping treatment was not observed in both groups treated with sertaconazole 2% cream and hydrocortisone 1% cream. Conclusion: Topical sertaconazole therapy is a considerable advancement in the treatment of SD with corticosteroids. The cure rate was somewhat higher in the sertaconazole group and it can be considered as the nonsteroidal alternative to topical steroid therapy for SD.