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Background and Objectives: Painting workshops are part of the woodwork (carpentry) industry in which despite advances in technology, the work force fulfills most of the roles in the production process. Since such manual activities are often performed with awkward postures due to lack of workers’ awareness and inappropriate design of tools and working conditions, ergonomic assessment of work environment and working condition improvement seems essential. Designing evaluation checklist and calculating ergonomics indexes can be useful in this assessment. This study was conducted on workers of painting workshops of furniture industry with the objectives of a) evaluation of level of exposure to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) risk factors and b) determination of action category levels in the workshops.Methods: After conducting task analysis in the painting workshops, 47 workers were assessed by the designed ergonomic checklist and ergonomic indexes were calculated. Finally, the risk factors were determined. Ergonomics indexes were considered as the criteria to demonstrate the workshops ergonomic conditions and to determine action category for working condition improvement. Nordic musculoskeletal disorders questionnaire was also applied to determine prevalence rate of MSDs among workers. Data were analyzed using statistical tests including t-test and test of proportion.Results: Mean of age was 28.78 (range=17-58). The highest prevalence was reported in lower back (38.3%). Statistical analysis revealed that there were significant associations between occurrence of MSDs and calculated ergonomics indexes (P

AbstractBackground and Purpose: Various abnormalities of the immune system have been demonstrated in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Patients with CKD commonly present with abnormalities of immune function related with impaired kidney function and the accumulation of uremic toxins. Th1 and Th2 cells produce predominantly some cytokine profiles. The aim of the present study was the determination of the levels of IL-13 and IFN- in sera of end-stage renal disease. The correlations of IL-13 and IFN- levels with clinical presentation of the disease were assessed.Materials and Methods: In this case-control study the serum levels of IL-13 and IFN- were determined by a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 30 patients on hemodialysis (HD), 30 patients with chronic renal failure (CRF), and 60 healthy individuals . Renal function was evaluated by measuring serum levels of creatinin, albumin and urea.Results: The serum levels of IL-13 and IFN- were differed significantly between patients and healthy controls. The serum levels of IL-13 was significantly increased in the HD group than in the CRF and control groups (13.7± 3.9, 6.7± 3.4, 4.5±3.3 pg/ml, respectively) (P=0.001). On the other hand, the IFN- plasma levels were significantly higher in CRF patients than HD patients and controls (38.8±18.8, 17.4±8.78, 12.5±8.9 pg/ml, respectively).Conclusion: In the HD patients, low production of IFN- in line with upregulation of IL-13 indicates that Th1/Th2 balance may shift towards Th2 dominance. It is possible that this imbalance contributes to the abnormality of the immune system in HD patients.Key words: Chronic renal failure, IL-13 and IFN- , HeamodialysisJ Mazand Univ Med Sci 2008; 18(63): 37-45 (Persian)