[Exposure rate of cardiovascular risk factors among clients of health-care clinics in Kashan, Autumn 2010]

Background and aim: Cardiovascular diseases are noncontiguous diseases which are caused by various factors. One of the most important of these factors is an unhealthy lifestyle. In Iran this disease has been one of the problems of this late decade and in other words, in comparison with the 10 main causes of death in 2009, it has been the most prevalent death factor in Kashan. The main purpose of this research, considering this problem, was investigating the encountering rate of cardiovascular risk factors in Kashan

Methods: This descriptive study was based on 336 clients who were selected through cluster sampling in health-care clinics in Kashan. The data was gathered through filling out questionnaires. These questionnaires consisted of five separate parts on information about: demographic, disease background, nutrition, smoking and physical activity. The research data was analyzed using Chi-square test

Results: BMI mean among the samples was 25.69. The common and main risk factor among these people include: consuming fried food [%97.9], low consumption of fish [%90.8], low consumption of grain [%79.8], low consumption of egg [%75.3], high consumption of meat [%69./3], high consumption of sweet or candy [%67.9], eating fatty food [%66.7] and with little physical activity [%66.4]. There are significant relationships between life style and gender [P=0.016] and education [P=0.019], also physical activity and job [P=0.013]

Conclusion: According to the obtained results in this study, the client's life styles were not in an appropriate condition. So there is a need to pay more attention to inform people to reduce the amount of fried food, meat, fatty food and sweet and increase the balanced amounts of fish, grain and cereal, egg, fruit, vegetable in their diets. It is also recommended that they should increase body activities and decrease smoking

[ frequency of osteoporosis in hip fracture following minor trauma and the resulting mortality rate and direct treatment costs in patients over 45 years old in Kashan Naghavi Hospital During 2005-2007]

Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease .In the recent decades due to the increase of population age, the prevalence of osteoporosis has been increased. The most important complication of osteoporosis is bone fracture, especially in the hip. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of osteoporosis, its mortality rate and direct treatment costs in patients over 45 years old referred to Kashan Naghavi hospital following hip fracture during 2005-2007. This cross-sectional study was done on 119 patients with hip fracture following minor trauma admitted during one year to Naghavi hospital in Kashan Iran. Demographic findings, types of fracture, costs of hospitalization, treatment and prosthesis were recorded in a questionnaire. BMD of lumbar spine and neck of femur was done with Osteocore II instrument by DXA method. Data analysis was done by SPSS 14. Mean age of patients was 71/6 +/- 9/35 years. From all, 72/3% were female and 27/7% was male and 67/8% had fracture of neck of femur and 23/2% had intertrocanter fracture. In whole, 65% had osteoporosis. In 51.3%, it was in lumbar and in 23.5% it was in femur. Mean hospitalization period was 7.92 +/- 3.66 days. Mortality rate was 17/2%. Mean cost of hospitalization and treatment was 277 $ and mean cost of prosthesis for each person was 1670$. Osteoporosis is a predisposing factor for hip fracture in old patients after minor trauma. Since Hip fracture places a high cost burden on the healthcare system, wise programming for prevention of hip fracture seems to be highly necessary

Evaluation of lyophilization effects on operational parameters and characteristics of activated sludge

Advances in microbial and biotechnology have given great impetus to the filed of pollution control. In some countries efforts are being focused on the application of biotechnology for wastewater treatment. Occurrence of microbial growth inhibitors in the biological reactor will affect their activity, which this in turn will lead to reduced performance of the system in pollutants removal. Restart up of the system, especially in the biological treatment of industrial wastewater, will require abundance time and cost. An effective solution to reduce these problems is to prepare and store dried concentrated sludge bearing the needed microorganisms to be used later. The most effective technique to produce such concentrated sludge is lyophilization in which a stabilized biological solid is produced through rapid freezing and then drying under high vacuum conditions. This study was carried out to investigate the lyophilization effect on the microbial quality of the activated sludge. In this regard, operational characteristics including OUR, SVI, soluble COD removal efficiency and predominant microorganisms species before and after lyophilization in a lab-scale experiment were used. The results showed that sludge lyophilization had no influence on microorganisms' performance and operational characteristics of the activated sludge. In addition, there was not a significant change in the sludge properties before and after lyophilization. Sludge microorganisms were viable after lyophilization. So, lyophilization was concluded to be a suitable technology for preparation and preservation of cells in activated sludge because of preserving viability, ease of h and ling and simplicity

Waste sludge characteristics of a wastewater treatment plant compared with environmental standards

Sludge production is an avoidable problem arising from the treatment of wastewater. The sludge remained after municipal wastewater treatment contains considerable amounts of various contaminants and if is not properly handled and disposed, it may produce extensive health hazards. On the other hand, this sludge has benefits for plants and soils. Thereupon, land application of sludge has received much attention over the traditional incineration and dump in sea. The comprehensive regulations of U.S.EPA title 40 CFR parts 503 include criteria and standards for land application of sludge. One of the most important wastewater treatment plants in Tehran, Iran is Shoosh Plant, which applies its waste sludge in agricultural lands after dewatering in drying beds. In this research, waste sludge from drying beds was examined according to 40 CFR parts 503. Results indicate that the dehydrated sludge has not the characteristics required for final discharge. If the dewatering process in the existing beds of the plant would be modified according to title 40 CFR part 503, the standard of Pathogen Reduction class B would be achieved. Waste sludge of drying bed must be applied in agricultural land with respect to the conditions of application method that is presented in vector attraction reduction. Concentration of this waste sludge is less than ceiling concentration limits identified by title 40 CFR parts 503