Jundishapur Journal of Health Sciences
Volume:15 Issue: 2, Apr 2023

It is important to diagnose coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 at an early stage and to monitor severely infected patients in order to reduce the lethality of the disease. In addition, there is a need for alternative methods with lower costs and faster results to determine the severity of the disease. In this context, routine blood values can be used to determine the diagnosis/prognosis and mortality of COVID-19. In this study, three optimized datasets were prepared to determine the features that affect the diagnosis, prognosis, and mortality of COVID-19. These datasets can be used by researchers to determine the diagnosis and severity of COVID-19 with various classifier machine learning models and artificial intelligence methods. It is hoped that studies on these datasets will reduce the negative pressures on the health system and provide important clinical guidance for decision-makers in the diagnosis and prognosis of COVID-19.

Context: 

Today, the growth of excessive energy consumption and concerns about the conservation of natural resources has led to the identification and exploitation of new energy sources. One of the new energy sources is the production of energy from biomass, where sludge forms a significant source of biomass.

 This study aims to review novel methods of sludge processing, such as dark fermentation, photofermentation, anaerobic digestion, and bioelectrochemical processes, in addition to their advantages and disadvantages.

Data Sources: 

A literature search was conducted on PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science databases between 2000 - 2022 to find related articles. A total of 315 records were identified, of which 80 studies were retained that met the review’s inclusion criteria. Search engines were searched using some keywords, including biohydrogen, sludge processing, dark fermentation, photofermentation, bioelectrochemical system, microbial fuel cell, anaerobic digestion, microbial electrolysis cell, bioplastic, and polyhydroxyalkanoates.

 The reviewed studies have shown that dark fermentation alone cannot produce high levels of biohydrogen. However, the level of biohydrogen production increases significantly when dark fermentation is coupled with anaerobic digestion, optical fermentation, or bioelectrochemical processes. The advantages of integrating dark fermentation with other processes can be mentioned as an increase in biohydrogen production, the use of dark fermentation end products in electricity generation by bioelectrochemical systems, and bioplastics production.

 With the development of biohydrogen production methods from renewable energy sources, dependence on fossil fuel systems will be reduced in the future. A review of various studies showed that combining the dark fermentation process with other processes also has disadvantages. Therefore, biohydrogen production strategies at an appropriate economic level need to be developed, and further research is required.

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Older age, male gender, chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, chronic kidney and liver disease, Immunocompromised conditions, malignancies, excessive obesity, disabilities, and pregnancy are risk factors for severe illness or death in COVID-19 patients.

This study aimed to evaluate the results of medical care and factors affecting the recovery and death of patients hospitalized in three hospitals affiliated with the Islamic Azad University of Tehran/Iran.

This is a retrospective study, and the information is obtained from the files in the medical records unit of the hospitals. The study was conducted on 1255 covid-19 patients hospitalized in 3 hospitals affiliated with the Islamic Azad University of Tehran Medical Sciences. In the retrospective study, information was obtained from the files in the medical records unit of the hospitals using the researcher's checklist. The checklist included demographic findings and variables related to the severity of the disease, immune status, underlying systemic diseases, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and variables related to the consequences of the disease. The data was analyzed using SPSS. Qualitative variables were analyzed using frequency and percentage. The chi-square test was used to examine the relationship between variables, and logistic regression was employed to assess this relationship.

In this study, the following items were significantly more prevalent in those who recovered: Compliance with home quarantine, dry cough, positive CRP, and presence of ground glass opacity images in CT scan. Moreover, the following items were more evident in those who died: High blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, headache, myalgia, arthralgia, weakness, fatigue, insomnia, hoarseness, purulent sputum, lobar pneumonia, low Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), seizures, anemia, high erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), increased prothrombin time (PT), decreased serum albumin, and the presence of crazy-paving on CT scan. In all of the above items, P-values were ≤ 0.05.

It is suggested that patients hospitalized with symptoms, signs, and conditions commonly seen in cases of dying patients should receive more frequent monitoring and care.

 Clinical education is known as an essential part of education in medicine and medical education. Beyond factors that can affect the quality of clinical education, academic satisfaction is a factor that can either affect or is affected by the quality of clinical education.

 The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between the quality of clinical education and academic satisfaction through medical students’ viewpoints at Birjand University of Medical Science, Birjand, Iran.

 In the present cross-sectional study, medical students in both the externship and internship courses of Birjand University of Medical Sciences were evaluated with a self-report questionnaire. The quality of clinical education was assessed by a specific scale developed by Rezaei. Academic satisfaction was evaluated by Motlagh et al.’s questionnaire.

 A total of 180 medical students were included in the study. The findings indicated that despite the poor quality of clinical education from the perspective of the studied medical students (P = 0.017), their academic satisfaction with the current situation was acceptable (P = 0.0001). Further correlational analysis revealed a significant relationship between the quality of clinical education and its subgroups with academic satisfaction (P < 0.01).

 It can be concluded that higher clinical education quality leads to higher levels of academic satisfaction among medical students. Therefore, this issue requires continuous revisions of the clinical education curriculum and adherence to improve its outcomes.

Context: 

Research in the United States has shown that nearly a third of transgender adults have engaged in suicidal thoughts or behaviors. The present research was designed to comprehensively estimate the prevalence of suicidal behaviors in transgender people.

 The current research is a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of suicidal behaviors in transgender people. The technique of reporting the current research was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) list. In September 2020, the investigators surveyed six international sites: EMBASE, Medline/PubMed, Google Scholar, ProQuest, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus.

 The prevalence of suicide attempts in transgender people was 26.34% (95% CI for 22.54 - 30.13), and that of suicide ideation in these individuals was 44.26% (95% CI for 33.79 - 54.74). The results of the meta-regression of suicide attempts in recent years have shown a declining trend; nevertheless, this result was not statistically significant (P = 0.446).

 The prevalence of suicide attempts and suicide ideation in transgender persons is higher than in the overall population. However, this study showed that the prevalence of suicide attempts has been decreasing in recent years, and suicide ideation are increasing, but these findings were not significant, and more studies are needed to prove this issue.