BACKGROUND: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), a frequent nosocomial infection in the intensive care, is associated with considerable morbidity. Endotracheal suctioning is routinely performed in mechanically ventilated patients to clear secretions. This study assessed if there were advantages of closed endotracheal suctioning (CES) over open endotracheal suctioning (OES) with respect to cli...

The use of an ESI SC FAST autosampler coupled to a Perkin Elmer Optima 7300 DV ICP can dramatically improve productivity for the analysis of environmental samples using EPA SW-846 Method 6010C. Sample throughput, as determined by sample-to-sample run time can be improved by as much as 100% as compared to traditional sample introduction systems and autosampler configurations. Both sample analysi...

Oxford Elbow Score (OES) is a patient-reported questionnaire used to assess outcomes after elbow surgery. The aim of this study was to validate and adapt the OES into Persian language. After forward-backward translation of the OES into Persian, a total number of 92 patients after elbow surgeries completed the Persian OES along with the Persian DASH and SF-36. To assess test-retest reliability, ...

The aim of the study was to identify the causes underlying overgrowth of incisors in chinchillas through an analysis of selected plasma electrolyte concentrations, with particular consideration of minerals involved in the formation of osseous tissue, i.e., Ca, Mg, and P. The analysis involved 40 female standard chinchillas managed in a commercial farm system, aged 2 to 4 years, divided into two...

Diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharge (DCSBD) as the source of nonequilibrium plasma is widely used nowadays for surface modification of different materials. DCSBD plasma consists of many microdischarges which are moving along the planar dielectric plate and create a thin layer of macroscopically homogeneous plasma above dielectric. The influences of humidity in carrier gas at atmospheric ...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that the crystalline structure of cellulose is negatively correlated with enzymatic digestibility, therefore, pretreatment is required to break down the highly ordered crystalline structure in cellulose, and to increase the porosity of its surface. In the present study, an organic electrolyte solution (OES) composed of an ionic liquid (1-allyl-3-methylimid...

This paper investigates the mechanism of online escrow service (OES) in consumer-toconsumer (C2C) auctions on the Internet. We derive a discrete-event driven simulation model for the dynamics of OES adoption in electronic markets, which involves four types of agents: the strategic trader, the moral trader, the OES provider and the law-enforcement agent. By applying the Monte Carlo method in com...

increasing industrial activities lead to entrance of different pollutants into the environment, especially water resources. because of their persistency and non-biodegradation, metals can pose a threat to health of human and other organisms. sediment, fish (lucioperca stizostedion and cyprinus carpio), and common reed (phragmites australis) samples were collected from sattarkhan dam for investi...

The use of inert markers in broiler diets eliminates the need to quantitatively evaluate feed intake and excreta output to determine diet digestibility, and enables nutrient uptake at specific points along the gastrointestinal tract to be examined. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is commonly used for this purpose and measured using a UV-spectrophotometric assay. Two experiments were conducted to observ...

Through the use of serial computerized tomography (C-t) scans, two distinct developmental stages can be identified in mature teeth. C-t scans thus provide a non-destructive method for assessing growth within individual teeth, as well as for comparison of the development of modern and fossil teeth. The second deciduous molar (DM2) and first permanent molar (M1) resemble one another morphological...