Purpose: Several studies have reported that musculoskeletal disorders and discomforts experienced by children and adolescent students are closely related to the weight of bags or backpacks carried by them. Since students are at growth and spinal development age, attention to the pressures on their bodies is important. These pressures can cause musculoskeletal problems and various growth disorders. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Low Back Pain (LBP) and its relation with the backpack weight among students. Methods: This cross-sectional study with non-experimental design was conducted on 2000 elementary and secondary school students (1000 boys and 1000 girls) who were randomly selected from schools in 5 regions of Tehran City, Iran. Students with LBP for more than 6 weeks during the study or during the last 3 years at 3 intervals that each lasted for 1 week or more were listed in a group with LBP and others in a group with no LBP (the control group). The weight of their bags or backpacks was measured over a week, and the average was recorded as the weight of carrying load. The intensity of pain was measured using the Visual Analogue Scale. To examine the prevalence of LBP in students, absolute and relative frequency distribution tests, and for examining the correlation between LBP and weight of backpacks, Independent t test were employed. Furthermore, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between the weight of backpacks and the intensity of pain. In addition, logistic regression analysis was used to assess the predictability of LBP based on the backpack weight. Results: Based on the results, 26% of students had LBP (29.6% girls, and 21.8% boys). Mean±SD scores of LBP in girl and boy students were reported as 3.4±2.8 and 2.3±5.8, respectively. According to t test results, there was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of backpack weight both in girls and boys (P<0.05). The Pearson correlation test results showed a significant correlation between the weight of backpacks and intensity of LBP among boys (r=0.26, P=0.007) and girls (r=0.31, P<0.001). Furthermore, results of logistic regression analysis indicated that the variable of backpack weight can predict LBP (B=0.52, P=0.01). Conclusion: The weight of the bags or backpacks carried by children and adolescent students has a significant relationship with the prevalence and intensity of LBP in this age group.

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The focus of this study is the theme of Hamlet’s madness in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which as a play based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, provides a critique on this theme through the perspective of Ros and Guil, who, by means of a reversal of minor and major characters, have become the center of the spotlight in Stoppard’s play. The concept of madness in general is complicated, including many different aspects, among which the historical aspect is the most significant, as the definition of madness has evolved through different historical eras. By placing Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in a historical context, this essay aims to demonstrate that as a play written in the latter half of the twentieth century, Ros and Guil’s critique of Hamlet’s madness, with all the intricacies of its language, collapses the binary opposition of sanity and insanity in a twentieth century poststructuralist manner, and leads to no clear-cut answer to the question of Hamlet’s madness. However, as a play whose events unfold in the context of Hamlet, a Renaissance play, it carries some of the social and political aspects of Shakespeare’splay, as Ros and Guil’s evaluation of Hamlet’s condition is heavily under Claudius’s politically infused influence.

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