2-year follow-up of spirometric parameters in workers of a tile and ceramic industry, Yazd, southeastern Iran

Respiratory diseases cause a considerable amount of morbidity and mortality in the world. Pulmonary function tests are important measures for the diagnosis and management of respiratory disorders. Workers in tile and ceramic industry are exposed to high amounts of respiratory pollutants. To identify the changes in spirometric parameters in a 2-year period among tile and ceramic workers in Yazd and compare it with a control group. The study was conducted in 5 tile and ceramic factories selected by cluster sampling between 2009 and 2011 in Yazd, southeastern Iran. Demographic data and spirometric parameters of participants were recorded. Spirometric parameters were significantly reduced during the 2 years. The largest decrease was observed in FVC [=500 mL] in ball-mill and grinding after 2 years. Decrease in all spirometric parameters was significantly higher in industrial workers than office workers. Respiratory exposure in tile and ceramic industry can significantly affect pulmonary function tests

Removal of reactive blue 19 by adding polyaluminum chloride to sequencing batch reactor system

The main objective of this study was to evaluate Reactive Blue 19 dye removal efficiency in aerobic sequencing batch reactor [SBR] process by adding polyaluminum chloride [PAC1]. PAC1 was added to the reactors in concentrations of 0, 1, 5, 15 and 30 mg-Al/L [SBR[1] to SBR[5]] after filling periods. Initial dye concentrations were selected to be 40 mg/L for all reactors. The averages of dye removal efficiencies were more than 57% in all reactors. The maximum and minimum dye removal efficiencies were 71.7% +/- 13.6 and 57.7% +/- 34.3 in SBR3 and SBR4, respectively. According to the obtained results, PAC1 had not any significant effects on the COD removal efficiency. The MLSS and MLVSS concentration of SBRs had an increasing rate during whole operation time and reached from 2500 mg/L [1[st] day] to 4900 mg/L [39[th] day]. The maximum increasing rate was 50% in SBR[5]

Effect of sludge retention time on treating high load synthetic wastewater using aerobic equencing batch reactors

The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of sludge retention time on performance of aerobic synthetic batch reactor for treating a high load milk synthetic wastewater. For this purpose, four lab-scale sequencing batch reactors were operated under aerobic conditions with the same conditions at different sludge retention times [SRTs], feeding by high load milk synthetic wastewater. Operating volume, influent flow rate and influent organic loading rate for all reactors were adjusted to 5.5 L, 3.5 L/d and 1400 gCOD/m3d, respectively. The average effluent COD for reactor 1 to 4 with SRT of 5, 10, 15 and 20 d were 108, 97, 91 and 84 mg/L, respectively. COD removal was 94.99, 95.43, 95.86 and 96.16 percent respectively and slightly changed with SRT. However, the overall trend of COD removal vs. SRT showed an increasing rate with the correlation factor [R2] of 0.99. Reactor 2 with SRT of 10 d[SVI] had the maximum effluent TSSave [34mg/L] and turbidityave [5.89 mg/L] and the minimum sludge volume index [41mL/g]. All reactors had SVIave of lower than 75 mL/g and effluent turbidityave less than 6 NTU which was lower than Iranian national discharge standards [<50 NTU]. SRT had directly influenced the biomass concentration, as the MLSSave of reactor 1 to 4 were found to be 1824, 2694, 3210 and 3864 mg/L respectively. Best performance [minimum effluent COD, TSS and turbidity] was occurred in reactor 4 with SRT of 20 d

Neurobrucellosis: report of a rare disease in 20 Iranian patients referred to a tertiary hospital

We reviewed the clinical manifestations and outcome of 20 cases of neurobrucellosis out of 1375 patients with brucellosis admitted to the infectious diseases ward of a tertiary hospital in Hamedan, Islamic Republic of Iran. Of the 20 cases, 12 had meningitis [acute and subacute], 4 had meningoencephalitis, 2 had myelopathy, 1 had polyradiculopathy and 1 had meningovascular complications manifested by stroke. The most prevalent symptoms were headache [75%], vomiting and fever [50%] and unconsciousness [35%]. Among 20 neurobrucellosis patients, 1 died and the other 19 recovered; 14 fully recovered and 5 patients had residual neurological deficits. In endemic areas, the disease should be ruled out in all patients who develop unexplained neurological symptoms

Survey of antibiogram tests in cholera patients in the 2005 epidemic in Hamadan, Islamic Republic of Iran

An analytical cross-sectional study determined the serogroups and serotypes of Vibrio cholerae, and their antibiotic resistance rates, in the 2005 cholera epidemic in Hamadan. All 190 patients with positive stool cultures had V. cholerae serogroup O1, biotype El Tor and serotype Inaba positive. Of 60 cases selected randomly for antibiogram testing, sensitivity to norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, kanamycin, amikacin, tetracycline and doxycycline was 97%, 92%, 88%, 85%, 77% and 67% respectively. Resistance to furazolidone, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and erythromycin was 100%, 98% and 62% respectively. Comparison with the results of the 1998 epidemic suggests a worrying increase in the resistance of V. cholerae to erythromycin, doxycycline and ciprofloxacin

beast available technology for small electroplating plants applying analytical hierarchy process

In this study analytical hierarchy process approach which uses expert's knowledge, was applied for selection of the best wastewater treatment alternative for electroplating workshops, located in Tehran province, Iran. This method can be applied for complicated multi-criteria decision making to obtain scientific and reasonable results. Four wastewater treatment alternatives including reverse osmosis, nano filtration, ion exchange, and chemical precipitation were evaluated and ranked based on economical, technical, environmental/ social aspects. Each criterion includes different indices such as land area, capital cost, sludge disposal issues, operating and maintenance, local suppliers and warranty, system flexibility, required skilled and non skilled man power safety, and etc. The results showed that reverse osmosis achieved the maximum general profits and can be the best choice. Sensitivity analysis can shows the effect of inputs parameters change on the results. Sensitivity analysis was applied for each criterion. The results illustrated that for economic and technical criterion, chemical precipitation and for environment criterion, reverse osmosis were qualified

Thyroid tuberculosis presenting as a cystic nodule

Although tuberculosis involves every organ and has a wide range of clinical manifestation, however involvement of the thyroid gland is rare. We report a case of a 25-yr-old female with supraclavicular lymphadenitis that developed nodular swelling of the thyroid and had symptoms and sonographic features mimicking a nodule with a cystic component. The diagnosis was made by using fine needle aspiration [FNA]. We conclude that thyroid tuberculosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules and that FNA can be the main diagnostic procedure