The impact of theory-based education on promoting urinary tract infection prevention behaviours among elderly diabetic women - experimental study.

Introduction: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a prevalent infection among the elderly population, often culminating in more severe and life-threatening complications. The prevalence of diabetes among elderly individuals is markedly on the rise, with UTI emerging as the most prevalent infectious ailment in this diabetic cohort. This study aims to ascertain the influence of theory-based education on promoting UTI prevention behaviours among elderly diabetic women. Material and methods: In this experimental study, 100 elderly women with diabetes who sought care at comprehensive health service centres in Miandoab City between January and May 2022 were assessed. Multistage random sampling was employed, and an educational intervention was designed according to the health belief model (HBM) constructs. Data collected before and one month after the educational intervention were analysed with a validated and reliable researcher-designed questionnaire. Results: The participants had a mean age of 62.30 ±7.63 years. There was significant disparity between the experimental and control groups concerning the mean scores for knowledge, HBM constructs, and behaviour, with adjustments made for baseline differences. In essence, the intervention had significant affects, resulting in heightened levels of knowledge, improvements in HBM constructs, and more favourable behavioural changes. The effect size was moderate for perceived benefits and severity, while it was large for other variables (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The research findings validate the effectiveness of an intervention grounded in HBM for fostering UTI prevention behaviours among elderly diabetic women. Consequently, such an approach is recommended for enhancing the overall health of elderly diabetic women.

Antibacterial and anti-Trichomonas Vaginalis effects of Rosa Damascena mill petal oil (a persian medicine product), aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts.

BACKGROUND: Oils in traditional medicine are important products and used routinely for therapeutic purposes. Rose oil (Rosa damascene Mill), a product of Persian medicine, is advised for the treatment of Infectious diseases related to the female genitourinary tract. In the present study, R. damascena petal oil, aqueous, and hydroalcoholic extracts were evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial and anti-Trichomonas vaginalis effects. METHODS: Anti-trichomonas activity evaluation of extracts and oil were assayed by the Homocytometery method. Their antibacterial effects against Escherichia coli, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and clinically isolated Group B Streptococcus were assayed by broth microdilution in 96-well plates. RESULTS: The MIC of hydroalcoholic and aqueous extracts ranged from 25-50 and 25-100 mg/ml, respectively. Rose oil at all administered doses failed to show any antibacterial activity. CONCLUSION: All extracts and oil concentrations showed some degree of growth inhibition activity on T. vaginalis; however, hydroalcoholic extract was more efficient.

Complex Coacervation of Milk Proteins with Sodium Alginate.

Beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) coacervate formation with sodium alginate (ALG) was investigated by turbidimetric analysis, zeta potential, particle size, viscosity, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and isothermal titration calorimetric (ITC) measurements as a function of pH (1.0-7.0) and protein/alginate mixing ratio (1:1, 1.5:1, 2:1, 1:0, and 0:1 wt.). Critical pH values of phase transitions for BSA-ALG complexes (pHC, pHφ1, and pHφφ2) representing the formation of soluble and insoluble complexes of a protein-ALG mixture (2:1) at pH 4.8, 4.2, and 1.8, respectively. In the case of BLG-ALG, critical pH values (pHC, pHφ1, and pHφ2) were found to be 4.8, 4.2, and 1.6, respectively. The pHopt values, expressed by the highest optical density, were pH 2.8 for BSA-ALG and 2.4 for BLG-ALG. TEM and zeta-potential results showed that maximum coacervate formation occurred at pH 4.2 for both protein-polysaccharide solutions. The interaction between BLG-ALG and BSA-ALG was spontaneously exothermic at pH 4.2 according to ITC measurements. The findings of this study provide insights to a thorough understanding about the nature of interactions between milk proteins and ALG and formulate new applications for food, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and cosmetics applications.

Effect of low-level laser therapy on fracture healing in rabbits.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) on radial bone fracture gap healing in a rabbit model. MATERIALS SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Thirty male white New Zealand rabbits under general anesthesia had a 3mm slice of radial bone surgically removed. Fifteen rabbits were treated by 830 nm laser at 4 J/cm2 and 15 were used as non-treated controls. Callus development was assessed by X-ray and radiographs every 7 days for 3 weeks. RESULTS: Significant radiologic changes were observed in both groups against time (P > 0.001) or from week to week (P > 0.05). However, there was no statistical difference in radiologic scores after week 2 (P = 0.087) or week 3 (P = 0.077) between control and laser treated bone. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that in this study, laser treatment did not enhance callus formation nor reduce repair time of complete fracture of the radius in rabbits.

Chitosan hydrogel formation using laccase activated phenolics as cross-linkers.

Chitosan hydrogels are gaining increasing interest for biomedical applications due to attractive properties such as biocompatibility. In order to replace toxic chemical cross-linkers for hydrogel formation, we investigated the cross-linking potential of laccase oxidized phenolics. HPLC-TOF-MS and ATR-FTIR demonstrated that phenolics were bond to glucosamine as chitosan model substrate. Phenolics concentrations required for hydrogel formation varied from 500µM for catechol to 5000µM for sinapic acid. The hydrogels showed different swelling and release properties assessed using methylene blue release as a model. Laccase oxidized caffeic acid and pyrogallol-chitosan hydrogels showed excellent behavior in up-taking water with a swelling of 208.7% for caffeic acid. Biocompatibility results did not show any significant inhibition of growth of HEK293 cell line when phenolics like catechol or eugenol were used. Therefore, this study demonstrates that laccase oxidized phenolics are potential cross-linking agents of chitosan as a novel green approach to synthesizing chitosan hydrogels.

Effect of pH on turbidity, size, viscosity and the shape of sodium caseinate aggregates with light scattering and rheometry.

The characterization of sodium caseinate solutions as a function of pH was determined using titration with HCL through turbidimetry in different concentrations (0.03 wt.%, 0.045 wt.%, 0.06 wt.%, 0.09 wt.%, 0.2 wt.%, and 0.3 wt.%). Additionally, the coupling of slow in situ acidification of the solution and rheometry was utilized to gain deeper insights into pH-induced structural transitions during the self assembly process and particle size distribution analysis have been used to determine the behavior of sodium caseinate solutions in different pHs. The formation of aggregates during the acidification process was clearly visualized using microscopy. Surprisingly the viscosity of sodium caseinate solution at pH 4.64 was maximum and decreased by lowering pH. Particle size analysis confirmed the onset of big aggregates on decreasing pH but further acidification led to formation of smaller aggregates. A small concentration effect on pI was seen where at sodium caseinate levels of 0.03 wt.% the pI occurred at 4.29, where at sodium caseinate levels of 0.30 wt.% pI value was 4.64.

Complexation of sodium caseinate with gum tragacanth: Effect of various species and rheology of coacervates.

We investigated complex coacervation of sodium caseinate/Astragalus rahensis (A.r) as a function of pH with light scattering, spectrophotometry, and viscosity measurements. Interestingly, sodium caseinate/A.r displayed five structural transitions; pH 7.00 to pH ∼5.40: no interaction occurred, pH ∼5.40 to pH ∼4.80: initiation of the formation of primary soluble complexes, pH ∼4.80 to ∼4.30: formation of interpolymer complexes, pH ∼4.30 to ∼4.02: optimum coacervation and pH ∼4.02 to ∼2.50: suppression of coacervation. In addition, rheological properties of sodium caseinate/A.r coacervates were studied at various pH values. A much higher storage modulus (G') than loss modulus (G″) for all sodium caseinate/A.r coacervates suggests the formation of highly interconnected gel-like network structures with mainly elastic behaviour. Moreover, sodium caseinate/A.r coacervates at all pH values exhibited a shear thinning behaviour across the entire shear rate range investigated. Effects of different species of gum tragacanth on the interactions with sodium caseinate have been scarcely studied. Our study showed that systems containing various species (A.r, soluble fraction of A.r and Astragalus gossypinus (A.g)) had different critical pH values and particle sizes during complex coacervation, which could be due to different ratio of soluble to insoluble fractions and uronic acid content of various species.

Influence of gum tragacanth on the physicochemical and rheological properties of kashk.

In this study, the physicochemical properties of a low-fat dried yogurt paste (kashk) were determined, and the effects of different concentrations (0, 0·1, 0·3 and 0·5% w/w) of gum tragacanth exudates from Astragalus gossypinus on the stability and texture of the samples were investigated by measuring amount of syneresis, turbidity, particle size distribution (PSD), flow behaviour and viscoelastic properties. The flow behaviour index was not very sensitive to the concentration of gum, while a remarkable concentration dependency of the power-law consistency coefficient and Herschel-Bulkley yield stress was observed. The initial increase in the gum concentration at 0·1 and 0·3% levels led to a higher degree of syneresis, which was related to the depletion flocculation mechanism. However, the reduced amount of syneresis in samples containing 0·5% gum tragacanth was attributed to the significant increase in viscosity of the continuous phase, which is also accompanied by trapping of the aggregated casein particles. The presence of 3% salt in the samples may have led to the neutralization of charges on the surface of gum tragacanth; consequently, the non-adsorbing behaviour of high-ionic-strength polysaccharides inhibited the formation of electrostatic protein-polysaccharide complexes. Furthermore, maximum values of polydispersity, syneresis and tan δ at high frequencies were found in samples containing 0·1% gum tragacanth.