آتنا رفیعی پور

Obesity and overweight are major global health challenges. One of the bad effects of noise that has been recently expressed is the effect of noise on obesity. This study aimed to investigate the effect of high-frequency noise exposure on obesity, food intake, and abdominal visceral fat in adult male guinea pigs.

The animals in this study were 24 adult male guinea pigs randomly divided into 3 groups (control and two case groups). Each case group was separately exposed to high- frequency white noise with sound pressure levels in 65 dB and 85 dB for 5 days per week in 30 days. The food intake was measured daily. The weight of animals was measured at the start and on days 6, 12, 18, 24, and at the end of exposure period. The abdominal visceral fat was extracted and weighted at the end of the study period. The data were assessed using SPSS V.22 software.

ANOVA analysis showed that exposure to high-frequency noise at 65dB and 85dB had a significant effect on weight gain, food intake, and abdominal visceral fat weight (P-value< 0.05) which in the group exposed to the noise with 65 dB was more than other groups.

Based on this study, exposure to high-frequency noise may be an effective factor in obesity and increasing abdominal visceral fat. Further studies are needed to investigate the mechanism affecting weight status following noise exposure.

While the Health, Safety, and Environmental Management System may be successfully implemented, there is no guarantee of its performance quality. Therefore, the existence of a comprehensive performance evaluation system is essential for continuous improvement of these systems. This research aims to investigate the performance of the Health, Safety, and Environmental Management System using the Balanced Scorecard and its impact on system performance improvement.

it is a descriptive-analytical study conducted through a survey method. Initially, theoretical studies were conducted, and then the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model was implemented in the HSE system. Following that, a conceptual model was designed to assess the performance of the HSE management system using a Balanced Scorecard, and finally, the HSE management system’s performance was examined.

Based on the calculation of the importance coefficients for external and internal factors, the results indicate that when evaluating external factors, threats outweigh opportunities, and in evaluating internal factors, strengths dominate weaknesses. Therefore, the Municipality of Region 4, District 22 in Tehran is currently in a favorable position as it has very good strengths compared to internal weaknesses and can respond to external threats by leveraging opportunities. Additionally, the research shows that after implementing the BSC, the HSE management system places the highest importance on financial and customer indicators in terms of the balanced scorecard dimensions, while it has weaker performance in the internal process dimension compared to another strategic dimension. Therefore, attention to the internal process component and its enhancement in the HSE domain is essential.

The Result shows that implementing the BSC can lead to the improvement of the HSE management system's performance.

Shift working is a regular work pattern in some occupations that can expose workers to fatigue and health problems. It is very important to pay attention to the consequences of long shift work hours, especially in jobs such as railway driving that require a high level of awareness and precision agility. In the present study, the effect of shift work and its length were surveyed on the occurrence of health effects and sleepiness in the metro drivers of Tehran urban & suburban railway operation.

363 Tehran Metro drivers were selected using census method and divided into day work (8 hours) and shift workers (9 and 12 hours) groups. The information about mood and social effects, sleepiness, and health effects were collected by a Survey of Shift-workers questionnaire, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and Clinical Occupational Medicine checklist, respectively. The resulting data were analyzed with SPSS (v.19) software at a significance level of 5 % .

The results showed that shift work compared to day work was associated with negative effects on sleep quality, social life conditions, job satisfaction, and an increase in the rate of complaints of health problems. Increasing the shift working hours from 9 to 12 hours was associated with intensifying the consequences of shift work.

The shift work pattern in Tehran metro drivers is associated with an increase in the incidence of health disorders and a decrease in awareness during work, which requires reform in the planning of the shift work patterns and improvement of working conditions. Further studies are needed to obtain a more accurate picture of shift work effects and variables affecting it.

Particulate matter are effective factors in the spread of viruses, fungi and bacteria that can affect the prevalence of epidemics. In this study, we surveyed the effects of particulate matter on the number of COVID-19 patients in Iranian cities.

The levels of air pollution in different cities of Iran were evaluated based on the official report of Iranian Department of Environment. The relationship between air pollution and the prevalence of affected COVID-19 patients in different cities was reviewed and analyzed.

The results showed that COVID-19 were prevalent in cities with the highest level of air pollution in fourteen days before the observed rise in the number of affected cases.

The increase in the rate of COVID-19 patients in dusty cities in Iran emphasized that particulate matter may be effective in the increasing number of COVID-19 patients. Further studies on the effect of airborne pollutants on the prevalence of epidemics are thus recommended.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a toxic gas that has adverse effects on human health and equipment. One of the methods for eliminating of H2S gas is the use of adsorbent substrate. In this study, the effect of adding iron oxides including ferric (Fe2O3) and magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles to ZSM-5 zeolite substrate was investigated on the efficiency of H2S elimination from the air stream.

In this study, Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 nanoparticles were impregnated in ZSM-5 zeolite in two weight ratios of 3% and 5%. The structural properties of the substrate were studied using XRD, BET and SEM. Then, the efficiency of substrate in removing H2S from air was studied while H2S gas was injected in to a pilot setup, in concentrations of 30, 60, 90 and 120 ppm at three bed temperatures of 100, 200 and 300 o C.

The accuracy of combination and the morphology of inoculated zeolite was confirmed using XRD and SEM. The BET test also showed that the loading of iron oxide nanoparticles on the substrate educed the substrate surface area. The results revealed that increasing the percentage of nanoparticles and increasing the temperature from 100 ° C to 300 ° C increase the time of breakthrough point. The maximum adsorption capacity was obtained equal to 44.449 (mgH2S/g zeolite) for ZSM-5/Fe3O4-5% substrate at 120 ppm concentration.

Iron oxide  nanoparticles  inoculated  in  ZSM-5  zeolite  substrate  increase  the  capability of eliminating of H2S gas at high temperatures and therefore can be used as a suitable method for the elimination of similar pollutants.