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Problem Definition: What are the reasons for Saudi Arabia's conservative foreign policy shift to an aggressive approach after the Arab spring in Yemen? Purpose: Investigating and analyzing the causes of the Saudi military invasion of Yemen from two geopolitical and ideological aspects and its impact on Saudi Arabia's balancing policy with Iran. Methodology: The study was conducted using the descriptive-analytic method. Data collection method was library one using scientific and research papers and online sites. The theoretical framework of this paper was derived from the theory of balance of power, which emphasizes the (relative) equality of power between the two rival blocs, providing a useful theoretical framework for examining the shift in the conservative approach of Saudi foreign policy to the aggressive approach following the Arab spring developments in Yemen. Result: The findings of this article suggest that Ansarullah's full control over Yemen could change the balance of power for Iran's benefit by endangering Saudi security (provoking Shiites in the south and east as well as threatening oil transit through the strategic Bab al- Mandab Strait) and expand its sphere of influence in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has changed its conservative foreign policy approach to an aggressive foreign policy towards Yemen after changes in Islamic awakening for expanding its influence and maximizing its security on the one hand and to curb the expansion of Iranian influence in the region with the aim of weakening the axis of resistance and balancing strategy on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Dentistry is an important profession ensuring the health of body and soul, and has a special place in the scientific productions of medical disciplines. The purpose of this study was to analyze the co-citation and word co-occurrence of Iranian research papers in the field of dentistry based on indexed documents in Web of Science from 2014 to 2018. Materials and Methods: The present study follows the procedures related to quantitative research with a descriptive approach and a scientometric technique. Co-citation and cooccurrence analysis techniques were used. In this study, 1079 articles were reviewed from the Web of Science. Data analysis was performed Ucinet Software, and VOS viewer. Results: Iran has the highest level of international cooperation with the United States. The highest number of published articles in the Web of Science Database belongs to Vahid Derakhshani based on the highest degree of centrality, the Eigen centrality, and the Betweenness centrality. Naser Amin Abadi ranked first for the Closeness Centrality metric, and Massoud Peirokh with a citation weight of 20 had the highest citation. The field of surgery has received the most attention among dental and endodontics journal had the highest citation in the Iranian Dental Science Citation Network. Conclusion: The trend of publishing scientific articles in Iran in the field of dentistry has been increasing during the selected period. The keywords oral, dental, and pediatric surgery have the most effective and decisive role in the scientific network of dentistry. These keywords provided strong scientific communication amongst the dental scholars in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The extent of development of a country is determined by research indicators such as the number of published articles. Many factors can cause a lack of research. Objective: The present study aimed at identifying obstacles to the implementation of the research from the viewpoint of faculty members of Guilan University of Medical Sciences in 2018. Materials and Methods: In this combined research, the quantitative data were collected by the faculty members of the research pathology questionnaire. The appropriate statistical indices were used to describe the data. In the qualitative section, sampling was purposeful and continued until data saturation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and data analysis was carried out using a seven-step content analysis approach. The accuracy and accuracy of the data were also determined by Lincoln & Guba's proposed criteria. Results: In the quantitative part, the most important inhibitor factors include management factors (low communication between university and foreign universities), empowerment factors (lack of familiarity with relevant statistical techniques), administrative rules (length of paper publishing stages), and personal factors (teaching too much), social factors (inadequate intellectual incentives) and economic factors (inadequate research budget and lack of research facilities). In the qualitative section, the four main categories (individual challenges, dysfunctional infrastructure, Limited Research Partner, and discouragement of the research result) and fifteen sub-floors were extracted. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, in order to improve the quantitative and qualitative research among faculty members, it is suggested that the respective authorities consider such issues as strengthening the research motivation of faculty members taking advantage of research facilities and special privileges, and also equivalence of research tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the northeast of Iran, there are some outcrops of high-Mg ultramafic volcanic rocks. These rocks have been interpreted as an ideal ophiolite sequence related to the closure of Paleo-Tethys. According to detailed field observations, the komatiitic lava flows in Shandiz- Virani- Mashhad Complex (SVMC) and Fariman Complex (FC) are interlayered with the Upper Paleozoic submarine turbiditic sediments (Carboniferous- Permian). These rocks have a wide range of volcanic facies and according to the lithofacies characteristics, are divided into three groups of differentiated, undifferentiated lava flows and pillow lavas with a variety of volcanic textures and glass groundmass and with the main minerals of olivine, chromian spinel, clinopyroxene and amphibole. In this paper, the komatiitic nature of these rocks has been proven by explicit evidence from the field features petrography, internal stratigraphy and mineral chemistry. Also, the interaction of a mantle plume with the late Paleozoic (Permian) northeast subduction zone of Paleo-Tethys in NE Iran is considered as the suitable petrogenetic model involved in the genesis of the Komatiitic magma. This model can well justify and interpret the various geochemical characteristics of the studied rocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Scientometrics is used to identify existing study gaps, discover the future research directions, investigate fundamental trends and implement the necessary policies in a specific field of knowledge. Considering the key role of environmental factors in the health trends and the varyingburden of diseases in the country, this study was conducted with the aim of performing scientometric analysis of the role of environmental health in the prevention and control of diseases related to environmental factors in Iran. Materials and Methods: Bibliographic information related to scientific documents indexed in the Web of Science database until September 12, 2022, was analyzed and visualized using Citespace and Biblioshiny software. Results: A total of 1,212 documents were retrieved. These documents were published in 629 sources with the participation of 8,461 authors. The average publication year of the documents was 2010. The top three ranks of organizational affiliations were as follows: Tehran University of Medical Sciences (747 documents), Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (436 documents), and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (393 documents). Iran's cooperation network with other countries indicates substantial joint researchbetween Iran and the main countries in this network. Over time, the co-occurrence network of keywords has evolved from outcomes (such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, etc.) to environmental exposure factors, especially air pollutants, heavy metals, and foodborne pathogens factors. Risk assessment has also been a category of interest in recent years. Conclusion: Scientometric analysis showed that environmental health studies in prevention and control of diseases related to environmental factors in Iran are young and still progressing. In the early years, studies were mainly focused on diseases as an outcome, while in recent years, they have focused more on exposure factors or environmental pathogens. It is suggested that the future studies based on the retrieved keywords should be more mission-oriented and the priority of solving the problems of environmental pollutants affecting people's health in the country based on the extent and scope of the problems of each province should be considered by policy makers and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this study is to analyze Websites content quality in Iranian universities of technology. The method of this study is content analysis; one of the webometrics methods. Applied reaserch and content analysis method with analytical approach have been used in this paper. The research population is top ten Iranian technology universities selected according to their ISC latest version of university ranking. The required data for this paper was gathered based on keyword density and prominence, Meta tags, keyword & traffic organic, Text/HTML ratio, Unicode and duplicate content. All of these are indicators in content quality and used in this research for data extracting. Information of each website is extracted & analyzed on February 2018 by Webometrics tools and Excel software. The results showed that the content quality of Amir Kabir, Isfahan, Sharif University of Technology and University of Science and Technology are better than the other universities. Also, Malek Ashtar University of Technology and Kerman Graduate University of Advanced Technology have poor website content quality. The admins of Iranian university websites can use the results of this study for improving their websites’content quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaria is a dangerous disease that was considered one of the leading causes of mortality in Iran up to Pahlavi II period. The small and weak population of Iran could not enjoy favorable economic conditions because of the disease. Therefore, overcoming this social and economic weakness became a strong motivation for combatting malaria. These efforts became more concentrated by founding Planning Organization in 1948. The Organization for Combatting Malaria (the main executor of the plan) managed to achieve impressive results up to the end of the third construction project in 1967. They curbed malaria in some parts of the country and continued efforts despite the enormous obstacles in the path. Keeping malaria in check made improvement in public health to some extent and raised people’s hope that other health problems might be resolved. Mortality rate dropped and work force achieved recovery. This paper investigated combatting malaria from 1948 to 1967 and addressed its obstacles, approaches and achievements. Accordingly, research questions were answered through content analysis and deductive reasoning. The major sources used were reports released by the state, particularly the reports of Planning Organization and Ministry of Health, as well as old magazines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing tourists' photos' visual content proves to be an effective method for understanding their behaviors and preferences in tourism destinations. This approach can serve as a valuable tool for precision marketing of tourism destinations, including tourist villages. The present study employed a novel methodology by conducting visual analysis of data. The analysis considered the characteristics of the photos, describing the observable appearance of themes and specific features within the collection. Subsequently, the most significant items, their frequency, simultaneity, and categories were identified and the relevant items were coded. For this study, a sample of 548 uploaded photos of Iranian villages on Flickr was selected and analyzed. Through the photo analysis, 21 dominant scenes in villages were identified and further classified into 5 attractions and 9 types of tourism. ArcGIS was employed for spatial analysis to examine differences in tourists' perceptions and behaviors. The study findings revealed that attractions, such as landscapes, infrastructure, and scenes of rural houses had captured the interest of tourists visiting Iranian rural destinations. These attractions were perceived more frequently compared to others. Additionally, among the various types of tourism, rural tourism emerged as the predominant perception among tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, dust storms in the west of Iran have been investigated, which include days when the dust suspension brings the horizontal visibility to less than or equal to one kilometer in at least three meteorological stations. In order to extract synoptic patterns, the data were obtained on sea level pressure, geopotential height, temperature, zonal (u) and meridional (v) components of wind at different levels of the atmosphere related to ERA-Interim. Using the visual analysis of the maps, the maps were categorized based on the similarity between the pressure patterns. The analysis of synoptic patterns showed that the dynamic and thermal cyclone patterns are the most important patterns of the dust cycle in Iran. In the storms caused by a dynamic cyclone, according to the location of the cyclone in the region, the most dust rise was found to be from the western and southwestern cyclone in Iraq, so about 40% of these storms came from the central lakes and especially from Lake Tharthar. The storms caused by thermal cyclones in the region have lower intensity than those caused by dynamic cyclones. The sources located in the southern half of Iraq, northern Arabia, Kuwait and southwestern Iran have been more effective in the occurrence of dust than the other parts in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Domestic violence against women is one of the most serious social issues. This study aimed to identify predictors of help-seeking behavior among women exposed to spousal violence. Materials & Methods: The present study was a descriptive-analytical study conducted in 2022 among women attending comprehensive health service centers in Lorestan Province, Iran. A total of 525 participants were recruited using multi-stage sampling methods, including stratified, cluster, and simple random sampling. Data were collected through questionnaires on spousal violence and help-seeking behavior. Data analysis was performed using independent t-tests, ANOVA, and Stata 14 software. Results: The highest prevalence of physical and psychological violence dimensions were related to slapping (69.9%) and belittling (84.38%), respectively. In terms of sexual violence, non-consensual sexual intercourse (24.76%) was the most prevalent. The most common sources for seeking help were individual's family (70.48%), healthcare providers (56%), and spouse's family (53.90%). Help-seeking behavior for physical (p=0.02) and psychological violence (p=0.007) was higher in higher-income groups. Women whose spouses had university education exhibited higher help-seeking behavior for physical (p=0.015) and psychological violence (p=0.011) compared to others. Help-seeking behavior regarding physical violence (p<0.001) and sexual violence (p=0.004) was more frequent among individuals residing in Borujerd and Khorramabad cities compared to other cities in the province. Conclusion: Multiple factors associated with help-seeking behavior were identified, including spouse's education level, women experiencing physical violence, place of residence, and household wealth status. Policies and interventions should be developed to address these factors and improve women's health outcomes and prevent intimate partner violence (IPV). Considering the limited formal help-seeking behavior in Iran, governmental policies should focus on preventing IPV through various means, such as increasing demand for women's access to formal services (healthcare, legal, and social services) when experiencing IPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this descriptive research was to identify hot and emerging topics in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Iran and to map the intellectual structure of this field in a ten-year period. The intellectual structure of the field of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Iran was studied by analyzing co-occurrences of keywords and cited references. The research population of this study was all research and review papers of Iranian researchers published in journals indexed by the Web of Science database from 2008 to 2017. The collected data from Web of Science were analyzed by the Cite Space Software in order to map the intellectual structure of this field. The results showed that the keywords such as gene expression, protein, in vitro, oxidative stress, binding, apoptosis and cell were among the hot research topics in Iran and terms such as chitosan, nanocomposite, antibacterial activity, dynamics molecules, stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells and immobilization have been indicative of the emerging topics in Iranian research in the studied time period. Increasing publications in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology in Iran at the international level and its inclusion in the country’s research priorities led us to conduct a scientometric study of this research area. Therefore, due to the hot and emerging topics identified in this research, such studies can be used as a road map for the country’s large-scale scientific planning and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indians and Iranians, as the oldest Aryan groups, had a special worldview about the forces of good and evil and a special attitude toward the forces that surrounded man and influenced people's lives. Examining the religious attitude of these civilizations toward the power and ability of demons/asuras and their assistants and the influence of demons on human life is one of the important issues that we will address in this research. The main question of this research is: What different or similar attitudes did the ancient Iranians and Indians have toward the ability and performance of evil forces (whether it is possible to give importance and credit to human existence as a competitor or helper against harmful and evil beings)? The results of the present descriptive-analytical research, by analyzing important Indian and Iranian sources, showed that considering the different attitudes of Indians and Iranians toward the origin of demonic forces, there are differences in the belief in the power and ability of evil forces. In the meantime, because the Indians considered the Asuras and daevasto be of the same origin, the influence of the Indian Asuras and their control over humans was more legal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying homogeneous climatic zones plays an important role in the success of regional development programs. The climate system is composed of various elements, factors, and variables that together form the climatic components of a region. Multi-characteristic and multivariate methods can combine and overlap the types of elements and variables effective in constructing the climate with appropriate weights in the climatic zoning area. In the present study, climatic zoning of the Caspian region was performed using factor analysis and cluster analysis. For this purpose, a 30*30 matrix consisting of 30 meteorological stations and 30 climatic and environmental variables was formed. The results of factor analysis showed that the climate of the region is affected by 5 factors including precipitation-humidity, temperature, wind, sunlight, and environmental factors. These factors explained a total of 92.5% of the variance of the data. Then, cluster analysis was performed by the hierarchical integration method of Ward on the five mentioned factors. The results showed four climatic zones including humid, semi-humid, semi-arid, and arid in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The hospital autonomy plan, the biggest decentralization plan to reform the administration structure of public hospitals, has been implemented for about three decades in Iran. In this study, we aimed to examine the effects of the plan on the financial indicators of autonomous public hospitals. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study used revenue and cost data associated with all public hospitals affiliated to Bushehr University of Medical Sciences in 2021. The relevant data was extracted from two big databases including health information system (HIS) and accounting system, and after the data quality control, specific financial self-sufficiency balance (the ratio of specific income to the specific cost of the same hospital) and total financial balance (the ratio of specific income to the total cost of the same hospital) were calculated using Excel software. Results: Results demonstrated that the specific financial self-sufficiency balance and the total financial balance were 61% and 27%, respectively. The highest and the lowest values of the specific financial selfsufficiency index pertained to the Heart Hospital (the only single specialty heart hospital in the province) and Imam Hossein Hospital (a hospital with 29 active beds in Tangestan county with a population of 82502) as 74% and 45%, respectively. The gap index between the specific cost and revenue of each active bed showed that on average, the cost of each bed was nearly 215 million Tomans higher than its own income in 2021. Conclusion: The hospital autonomy plan had different effects on the financial indices of public hospitals studied in this research, denoting it is not possible to cover all hospital-specific expenses through its own earned revenues. Accordingly, government subsidies to autonomous hospitals are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The hospital autonomy plan, the biggest decentralization plan to reform the administration structure of public hospitals, has been implemented for about three decades in Iran. In this study, we aimed to examine the effects of the plan on the financial indicators of autonomous public hospitals. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study used revenue and cost data associated with all public hospitals affiliated to Bushehr University of Medical Sciences in 2021. The relevant data was extracted from two big databases including health information system (HIS) and accounting system, and after the data quality control, specific financial self-sufficiency balance (the ratio of specific income to the specific cost of the same hospital) and total financial balance (the ratio of specific income to the total cost of the same hospital) were calculated using Excel software. Results: Results demonstrated that the specific financial self-sufficiency balance and the total financial balance were 61% and 27%, respectively. The highest and the lowest values of the specific financial self-sufficiency index pertained to the Heart Hospital (the only single specialty heart hospital in the province) and Imam Hossein Hospital (a hospital with 29 active beds in Tangestan county with a population of 82502) as 74% and 45%, respectively. The gap index between the specific cost and revenue of each active bed showed that on average, the cost of each bed was nearly 215 million Tomans higher than its own income in 2021. Conclusion: The hospital autonomy plan had different effects on the financial indices of public hospitals studied in this research, denoting it is not possible to cover all hospital-specific expenses through its own earned revenues. Accordingly, government subsidies to autonomous hospitals are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Object: Healthy children achieve better educational outcomes, which in turn is associated with improved health later in life. Health promotion schools The World Health Organization is a comprehensive research to promote health and academic achievement in schools. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of education provided in health promotion schools on various aspects of students› health. Materials and Methods: The present study was a systematic review. Four international databases, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and domestic Magi ran and SID databases, as well as the Google Scholar search engine, were searched using various keywords related to health-promoting schools. The risk of bias was reduced with the participation of two authors who assessed the quality of the study and the eligibility of the articles included. Results: After searching the databases, a total of 1213 articles were found. The age of the students ranged from 5 to 18 years, all studies reported the age and sex of the participants. No studies had long-term follow-up (more than 24 months). Among the studies, 6 studies received positive and significant results from the educational interventions provided in health promotion schools, and 2 studies from the educational intervention did not receive their expected results. Conclusion: According to the results of this systematic review, studies in the field of health promotion schools do not have the necessary quantity and quality. Considering the importance of health promotion schools, it is necessary to conduct more quality studies and support measures from related organizations in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Muckbang discourse, as digital commensality, depicts the preparation of food (Cookbang) or eating food (Muckbang) by an influencer in the presence of other users. This trend is considered as a tool for spreading Korean food tradition as an essential part of the Hallyu or "Korean wave." Through indirect means as well as the interaction of influencers with social network users, the Korean wave of Hallyu has been recontextualized in Iran in its own particular way. In this connection, as it concerns Iranian brand values, discovering the implicit levels of meaningmaking in Muckbang or the Korean wave of Hallyu in Iran requires adopting and applying an interpretive multidisciplinary approach. The research corpus consists of all Muckbang-cookbangs that were purposefully selected by considering the meaning-making mechanisms of food culture system. Employing an integrated model for data analyses, the results indicated that the cultural codes of food in Iranian Muckbang-cookbang discourse represents the value of food brands through and in terms of the type of food, the style of eating and preparing. The results suggest that concerning food type, the Muckbang discourse of native Iranians particularly includes the consumption of unpleasant food, flavor-enhanced food, and crunchy and fresh food. Besides, Iranian Muckbang discourse also includes the consumption of some non-native foods such as squid, crabs, and calamari. The examination of written interactions revealed that some users and followers encouraged other users to accept the Hallyu wave by weakening the local cultural structures and enriching the elements of the global Hallyu wave. This is while another group of users avoided accepting this trend by maintaining and preserving the local traditional elements. In Muckbang discourse, the eating style often stimulates the senses of users with amplified sounds, challenging them to overeat, binging, and eating alone or in pairs. Depending on the type of eating, Iranian Muckbangs include eating with amplified sound, overeating, and fast eating challenges, often performed in person or in pairs. Finally, Cookbang discourse in Iran includes selecting and preparing food from foreign countries, especially East Asia, depending on their origins, communicating current and modern fast food in line with McDonald's global trends, and finally recontextualizing the recipes of traditional Iranian foods based on historical narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer in women and the second leading cause of cancer death in women. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different demographic, behavioral and clinical factors on breast cancer. Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, data collection forms were prepared from137 patients with breast cancer in Bushehr City and 137 women presenting to comprehensive health services centers as the control group. This form included demographic, behavioral and clinical characteristics. Mann-Whitney and Chi-square tests were used to measure the univariate relationship and logistic regression test to adjust the effect of different variables. Results: Univariate analysis revealed no significant relationship between breast cancer and occupation, night shift, menarche age, menopausal age, marriage age, number of pregnancies, tobacco use, consumption of meat, legumes, food rich in vitamin A, oral contraceptive pills and radioactive exposure. In univariate analysis, there was a significant relationship between breast cancer and family history, pregnancy history, age of first delivery, history of breastfeeding, physical activity, consumption of fish, dairy, hookah use, secondhand smoke and body mass index. Considering family history, high physical activity, consumption of high amounts of fish and low amounts of dairy products, there was a significant relationship between these factors and breast cancer even after adjusting the effect of other factors. Conclusion: Regarding significant relationships between family history, consumption of little amounts of dairy products and breast cancer, screening for breast cancer more regularly especially among those women with a family history of breast cancer and having a healthy lifestyle is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Researchers investigate and identify the gaps and frequency of studies related to specific knowledge by using scientometrics. The purpose of this study was to analyze the trend of scientific research in the field of climate change in Iran. Materials and Methods: All articles affiliated with Iran in the field of climate change have been cited in Scopus databases from 1991 to December 9, 2019, and were retrieved by using keywords like "climate change", "global warming", "global change", "climate variability", "greenhouse gas". The data were analyzed using R software. Results: The total number of documents was 2253. The trend of document production in the field of climate change in Iran follows an increasing exponential trend. Iran's collaboration with other countries in the field of climate change studies was significant so around 25% of scientific productions have been produced jointly with other countries. Keywords analysis showed a greater frequency for keywords including “downscaling”, “energy”, “global warming” and “uncertainty”. However, despite the importance of issues such as “adaptation” and “vulnerability” concerning climate change in Iran, the frequency of these keywords in climate change studies in Iran is low. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study and considering the importance of climate change and its effects on the country, also the importance of greenhouse gases including CO2, and the rank of Iran as the eighth country in the emission of these gases, it is recommended to pay more attention to issues such as “vulnerability”, “adaptability”, analysis of “greenhouse gases production”, “management of energy consumption” and the use of “renewable energies” in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the flow of scientific production in Iran during 2007 to 2011. The triple helix model was used to assess the relationship between universities, industries and the government on scientific production process. Iranian scientific products in the three ISI citation databases of Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Art and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) during the abovementioned period was collected as the research population and the authors addresses were reviewed carefully to be used in TH model. ISI.exe and SPSS software were used for this purpose. The Triple Helix collaboration of University, Industry and Government was measured by mutual information (transmission T) derived from the Shannon's formulas. The T-value here represented the uncertainty when the probability distributions were combined. Findings indicated that the number of papers written by Iranian authors increased steadily from 8796 in 2007 to 19876 in 2011. Among the three sectors, university researchers had the most participation Researchers from the industry sector had the lowest participation. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional collaborations were calculated too. The results showed that University-Government collaboration was much higher than the University-Industry or Industry-Government collaborations indicating that the gap between Industry and the two other sectors in Iran was significantly big. Government-University interactions had a better condition. This can be explained due to the supports that research organizations receive from the government. Unfortunately the T value is not high for the three dimensional collaboration of University, Industry and Government researchers. But by adding the foreign collaboration as the forth factor into the study, the results change a little and the collaborations between different sectors and foreign researchers increase in comparison with internal collaborations. It is clear that an ideal point in relations to different sectors of Triple Helix of university, industry and government is not possible overnight but requires a long- term strategic planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Cutaneous leishmaniases with two forms of rural and urban is the endemic diseases and as a health problem in our country. Identification of parasite species and type of disease is very important for treatment of disease as well as for planning of control program. The microscopic observations by Giemsa-stained smears is the most common laboratory test for the diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis, but the determination of parasite species is impossible and utilization of other ways such as biochemical and molecular methods is required. This study was carried out to determine the parasite species caused cutaneous Leishmaniasis by Nested PCR in Damghan, Iran. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was performed on 67 patients with dermal lesions that referred to Damghan health center laboratory in Iran during 2008. The patient's information were recorded in questionnaire. DNA of Giemsa-stained slides from patients was extracted and evaluated by specific primers of kinetoplast DNA using Nested PCR. Results: Leishmania parasites were observed in 57 patients under light microscope. The 10 patients were infected by other dermal diseases. The PCR result showed the parasite presence inlesions of 57 patients is Leismania major. 54% of patients were male and 46% were female. 72% of the patients were lived in rural areas. 50.9% of disease was observed in over 25 years old patients. Hands were the most common region of ulcer (44.7%). 48% of the patients had one ulcer and the other patients had two or more ulcers. High prevalence (31.6%) of disease was observed in October. Conclusion: This study showed that zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis to be prevalent in this area and Nested PCR method is a sensitive and accurate to leishmania species characterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: This study investigated the role of media consumption on physical activity based on health pattern in Iranian.The method of this research was descriptive correlation with Structural Equation Method. Materials and Methods: The statistical population of this study consisted of all students aged 11-19 years in the whole country that 384 students were selected as statistical sample by cluster random sampling method. Two media consumption and physical activity based on health pattern Pender Were used to collect the research data. The formal and content validity of the questionnaires were confirmed and their reliability was obtained using Cronbach's alpha method 0.934 and 0.834, respectively. For data analyzing by SPSS software and Amos software of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling were used. Results: The results showed that media consumption had a positive and significant effect (P = 0.001) on Physical Activity behaviour (Beta = 0.82), Exercise Benefits (Beta = 0.80) and Exercise self-efficacy (Beta= 0.74) and Exercise Barriers (Beta=- 0.61). Conclusion: Therefore, it can be said that media consumption improves the level of physical activity based on students' health patterns. So, it is recommended that the media, especially sports media, pay special attention to children in their programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, planning system has faced a change in the concept of development because of the intrinsic dynamics of human societies and the ineffectiveness of theories in solving problems. The Intellectual concept development has required assessment of the conceptual framework of planning theories in the rural development. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to investigate rural development policies of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan of Iran based on postmodernism theory. The research methodology is qualitative based on Meta-synthesis and content analysis. The method of collecting data is library-based and logical reasoning was used to understand the categories. The results showed that key principles of postmodernism theory are non-rationality. Evaluation of rural development policies revealed that these policies are relatively compliant with principles of postmodernism planning. In other words, programs derived from modernism are observed along with postmodernism planning policies that implies to eclecticism thoughts in provision of rural development policies of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Introduction: By advances in remote sensing techniques, it has been possible to better monitor environmental phenomena. Satellite data with appropriate temporal and spatial coverage along with high spatial resolutions are valuable resources in environmental studies. During the past two decades, many studies have been conducted to evaluate the temporal variations of accumulation and melting as well as the seasonal characteristics of snow covers using remote sensing data. For instance, Hall et al. (2015) used Landsat satellite data from 1972 to 2013 to study changes in snowmelt time in the Fremont Lake Basin in the United States. The results have shown that snow melting time in this region begins earlier in the 2000s than in the 1972-1999 periods and that increasing nighttime temperature in spring and autumn resulted in earlier melting of snow cover. In another study, Bi et al. (2015) used MODIS data for the period 2003–2013 to investigate the time of beginning and end of snow cover in the northeast Tibetan Plateau. Their findings showed that although during the study period, the timing of snow accumulation and ablation varied, the spatial distribution of the number of snow-covered days has shown a stable behavior. 2. Methodology In the present study, in order to investigate the trend of changes at the beginning of the snow cover accumulation season in Iran, the version six of MODIS Terra (MOD10A1) and MODIS Aqua (MYD10A1) for the time span from 1379/7/1 to 1397/6/31 (1999 to 2007) was used. One of the natural barriers to monitoring snow cover is the cloud issue problem. Cloud contamination causes snow cover to hide beneath the satellite's field of view. Various techniques have been suggested by researchers to reduce cloudiness and better observation of snow cover. In the present study, three techniques including the combination of two satellite and temporal and spatial filtering were applied to the raw data. The application of these three techniques resulted in a significant reduction of the cloud cover effect on the data. After the preparation and construction of the snow cover dataset, the first day of the snow cover reported by the MODIS (based on the first day of October) was computed and that day was defined as the start of the snow cover season, this process was carried out for all the 7541502 pixels in the country. This process was repeated over 18 years of available data and finally, the slope of the regression line was calculated on more than seven million pixels. 3. Discussion Calculations of the trend of spatial variations of the snow cover accumulation season showed that generally there was a significant increasing trend in the western parts of the country on the Zagros Mountains, it means that the first time that snow was accumulated during the snow cover season is advancing towards late fall and winter. In a clearer sense, it means that the first day of snow cover was occurring later in these areas. But in parts of central Zagros, the beginning of the snow cover season had a negative trend, meaning that the early days of the snow cover were occurring sooner than the long-term condition. The negative trend of the beginning of the snow cover accumulation season was also seen in the Alborz Mountains and the northwestern parts of the country. This negative trend appeared to be due to the earlier onset of autumn precipitation in the study period. Investigating temporal changes at the beginning of snow cover accumulation season in Iran, on each of the altitude belts in 50 meters, spatial steps showed that up to the altitude belt of 2750 meters, the beginning of snow accumulation season was advancing toward late fall and winter. However, from the altitudes of 2800 meters upwards, the onset of the snow cover season was turning backward. In a clearer sense, it was moving back toward the early autumn season. 4. Conclusion The purpose of the present study was to investigate the temporal and spatial variations of the beginning of snow cover accumulation season in Iran. For this purpose, MODIS Terra and MODIS Aqua data were obtained at the spatial resolution of 500 × 500 meters for the time interval from 1379/7/1 to 1397/6/31 (1999 to 2007). After the construction and preparation of the snow cover database in Iran, the trend of changes at the beginning of the snow cover accumulation season was calculated temporally and spatially. The beginning of the snow cover accumulation season means the first day that a pixel was covered by snow based on the first day of October. For each hydrological year, the beginning of the snow cover season was calculated for each of the MODIS pixels and finally, the regression slope of changes was then computed. The findings showed that snow cover accumulation season was advancing towards winter on the western and northeast highlands of the country while snow cover accumulation season on the north and northwest of the country was forwarding back to fall. The calculations also showed that up to 2750 meters the onset of the snow cover season was moving toward winter, while from the height of 2800 meters, the onset of snow cover season was forwarding back to the fall season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1- Introduction The increase in the global mean temperature during the twentieth century, in particular over the last 30 years, has provided a strong incentive for investigations of climate change. Climatic and weather hazards are amongst the most deadly and destructive natural disasters worldwide, resulting in loss of life, severe damage and large economic and societal losses (Nutter 1999 Su et al. 2006). Those natural and human effects are mainly triggered by shifts of frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions related to temperature, precipitation, or other aspects of climate, rather than changes of mean climate (Katz and Brown 1992 Plummer et al. 1999). Heat or cold waves are characterized by the occurrence of a sequence of days with high or low values of temperature. These waves have significant impacts in terms of their socioeconomic effects on health, agriculture, forest fires, and the production and consumption of energy (SIAM, 2002 García-Herrera et al., 2005 Pereira et al., 2005 Trigo et al., 2005). The aim of this study is investigation and recognition of cold wave and spatiotemporal analysis over Iran. Methodology In order to recognition of cold waves in Iran the interpolated minimum daily data of Asfezari Data base during 1/1/1962 to 31/12/2004. The data matrix with dimension15706 7187 has been created that located on the columns pixels and on the rows are days. In this study, by 6 indices that calculate the intensity, duration and frequency of cold waves, the characterizations of the cold waves in Iran has been investigated. The indices were based on the 10, 5 and 1 percentiles. The indices calculated for any pixels over Iran. Then the significant of trends of indices investigated by nonparametric Mann-Kendal method. The slope of trend on the pixels that have trend in 95% confidence level calculated by linear method. The programs of the calculation has been written in Matlab software environment and the maps has been drawn by Surfer software. Table1. Cold wave indices summary. The T1 value is defined as the 10, 5, 1th percentile value of minimum temperature based on the entire data record(1/1/1962-31/12/2004) No Index name Definition Unit 1 10,5 ,1P value The value of the 10, 5 and 1th percentile minimum temperature for each year °C 2 Number of runs The number of runs of consecutive days(1or more) over the T1 value per year Day 3 Average run length The average length of a run of consecutive days over the T1 value per year Day 4 Maximum run length The longest run of consecutive days over the T1value per year Day 5 Minimum temperature index The mean of the warmest three consecutive minimum temperatures per year °C 6 Cold Spell Duration Index Annual count of days with at least 6 consecutive days when Minimum temperature [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1- Introduction Precipitation is usually recognized as the most important and variable factor of climate which is considered from different aspects in environmental sciences especially meteorology and climatology. Because of precipitation temporal-spatial variability importance, and its role in communication and economical disasters, it has attracted much attention by many researchers (Rodriguez et al. 1998 Ochola and Kerkides 2003 Baigorria et al. 2007 Jianting et al. 2009 Nastos and Zerefos 2009). Spatially, the amount and characteristics of precipitation will change greatly, especially in the arid countries and middle-latitudes in distances less than one kilometer. In order to investigate the precipitation variability, various time scales are taken into account. Scales to study the precipitation element varies from different geological eras consisting of several thousands and millions year periods to month, hour, and minute (Livada and Asimakopoulos 2005). 2. Methodology The main data under study are 24-hour maxima precipitation frequency for each month of a year in the whole statistical period. We used 40 weather stations which spread out over the whole country along with a full statistical records and a statistical period of 40-years (1966-2005). Harmonic analysis is usually used to study the periodical changes, and includes oscillations or changes display in a time series obtained from sinus and cosines function set (Kirkyla and Hameed 1989 Wilks 2006). The first harmonic shows an annual cycle with the greatest amplitude as compared to other harmonics. The second harmonic indicates a semi-annual change, while the third one illustrates 4-months seasonal changes in details besides it is an index of inter-annual patterns of frequency. Eventually, the values of demonstrate the time motion of maxima frequency along the time axis. 3. Discussion 3.1 Harmonic Analysis In monthly data, 6 harmonics are required to explain the data variance. In the studies, also 3 harmonics are used to explain data variance. Of course, since the first two harmonics explain nearly 90% of the total variance, in some research only the first two harmonics are used to study the annual changes (Livada et al. 2008 Nastos and Zerefos 2010). According to the statements discussed above, first harmonic consists of more PVR1 and plays a significant role in variance distribution in central and southern stations. The amount of first harmonics role decreases in north-west stations. 3.1.1 The First Harmonic The 1st harmonic indicates annual changes and explains variance largely in most stations. The first harmonic which signifies an annual alternation in regions with regular precipitation has longer amplitude in comparison with other harmonics. Spatial distribution of the first harmonic demonstrates the following: 1. In northern coasts of Persian Gulf, this value consists of a high value of about 60-70%. 2. In the west, PVR1 values are approximately 80%. 3. The lowest value of PVR1 is seen in southeastern and northwestern of Iran. 3.1.2 The Second Harmonic The 2nd harmonic indicating oscillations with shorter time periods (six months) as compared to 1st harmonic in sections with more PVR1 consists of lower values. PVR2 values in the northwest of the country in Azerbaijan region, the values are remarkable (60%). Spatial distribution of T2 in this section has more complexity. 4. Conclusions Because PVR component indicates the role of each harmonic in explaining and interpretation of variance, in each section which consists of a high value, the higher the portions of changes, the higher the share of changes will be. 1. In many regions in Iran, the 1st harmonic plays a significant role in variance distribution. 2. The highest values of PVR1 for extreme precipitations were observed in Kashan. 3. After the 1st harmonic, the 2nd harmonic has a very important role in variance distribution. 4. Extreme precipitation has a more harmonious pattern in the central parts of Iran around Kashan, southern coasts of Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf's shores as compared to other parts. 5. In northwest and southeast sections, the PVR value of the 1st harmonic is less. On the contrary, PVR value of 2nd harmonic increases especially in the northwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: By measure of scientific publications, it is possible to present a real picture of scientific activities of a country. In this regard, based on joint work to achieve specific objectives that typically produce knowledge and scientific information, scientific and research cooperations are defined. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the scientific collaborations in Iranian dentistry articles in Scopus during 2010‐2014. Materials and Methods: The population was Iranian dental articles which were indexed in Scopus during 2010‐2014. Finally, the results were presented in the format of tables and diagrams. Results: The findings showed that scientific cooperations were increased in the field of dentistry during 2014- 2010 in the Scopus. Tehran University of Medical Sciences had the most publications. The rate of index, degree and coefficient of collaboration during 2010-2014, were 4.23, 0.97 and 0.71, respectively with relatively high values. Most of the articles during the 2010-2014 were four, three, and five authored articles were the first, second and finally the third position of occurrence rate. Our data suggested that the lowest number of articles were related to articles with 9 authors or more. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it can be concluded that the Iranian prosperity of scientific publication in the field of Dentistry is growing. Furthermore, the results showed that the Iranian authors and researchers have tendency to scientific collaboration with other researchers in groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: SLC26A4 gene mutations after GJB2 mutations are the second currently identifiable genetic cause of autosomal recessive non syndromic hearing loss (ARNSHL) which currently is used in molecular diagnosis of ARNSHL. Several potential STR markers related to this region have been reported .This study was carried out to identity the informativeness of D7S2456 CA repeat STR marker in SLC26A4 gene region in five ethnic groups of the Iranian population. Methods: In this descriptive study, The locus was genotyped in 165 unrelated healthy individuals of five different ethnics including Fars, Azari, Turkmen, Gilaki and Arabs ethnic groups using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and fluorescent capillary electrophoresis. Data was analyzed by Gene Marker HID Human STR Identity software, Gene Pop program and Microsatellite Tools software. Results: Analysis of the allelic frequency revealed the presence of 9 alleles for D7S2456 marker in the Iranian population, which allele 5 at the D7S2456 locus with 55% frequency was the most frequent. The most frequent heterozygosity with rate of 81.8% belongs to Azari ethnic group. Analysis of deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium demonstrated that all the ethnics except Fars were in equilibrium for D7S2456 locus. D7S2456 marker is a moderately informative marker in Iranian ethnic population (PIC value within 0.44 and 0.7). Conclusion: D7S2456 is a moderately informative marker in diagnosis of SLC26A4 based autosomal recessive non syndromic hearing loss in Iranian population by linkage analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: One of the main objectives of fifth program of economic, cultural and social development in Iran in health domain is the carrying out the family physician program and reference system. Nearly, 7 years after implementation of this big and widespread program in Iran, it is likely necessary to evaluate the efficiency of family physician program. For that, this research measured only the caregiver satisfaction in rural areas in Isfahan district. Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was carried on the population of rural areas in Isfahan district in those, family physician program has been implemented in 2011 Data was gathered by face to face interviewing with over 15-years old of age customers. Findings: The mean of caregiver satisfaction of family physician programs in rural area was 70.3 ± 10.5 percent. Nobody was completely unsatisfied from family physician services. But 15 people (3.8%) were unsatisfied of these services. 250 people (62.5%) were satisfied of family physician services and 135 (33.8%) were completely satisfied. Conclusion: Good satisfaction after implementing the family physician program in rural areas defines the successfulness of health sector reform in primary health care in order to improve some of the indeces of people satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was the evaluation of young couples' knowledge about the ways of transmission and prevention of influenza type A. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on young couples admitted to a private consulting center in Isfahan (Iran) in year 2010. Subjects were selected by systematic randomsampling method. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a standard questionnaire. Findings: In this study, 300 couples were evaluated. The mean age of our study population was 24.2 ± 6.3 years. Our recordings showed that 202 persons (67.3%) had a poor level, 67 participants (22.3%) had a moderate level, and 31 individuals (10.3%) had a good level of knowledge about Influenza. Considerably, the level of knowledge in women was higher than men. Age was not significantly related with the level of knowledge (P > 0.05), but had a significant association with education level (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that influenza education programs should be expanded substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ZCL) is a parasitic disease which caused by a protozoan belongs to the genus Leishmania. ZCL is of great public health importance in many countries and also in endemic parts of Iran. Leishmania major is the causative agent, Phlebotomus papatasi as the main vector and Rhombomys opimus is the most important reservoir of the disease. Species identification of Leishmania in a large scale of human samples is necessary to conduct a useful program for controlling the disease outspread. This study was done to identify the Leishmania using microscopic and molecular methods in suspected patients of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis by targeting ITS-rDNA gene, Golestan province, Iran. Materials and Methods: 121 smears collected from suspected patients of ZCL, in Eastern region of Golestan province, Iran during 2009-10, stained and examined under a light microscope. DNA of parasites extracted directly from smears and ITS-rDNA gene amplified. Positive samples digested with BsuRI restriction enzyme, according to RFLP method and subsequently the parasite was identified. After sequencing the ITS-rDNA gene, Molecular software was applied for verification of RFLP results. The achieved results were definitely approved by this procedure. Results: 113 out of 121 and 92 out of 121 samples detected as Leishmania positive using microscopic examination and molecular method respectively. All 92 molecular positive samples digested with BsuRI endonuclease and 90 individuals identified as Leishmania major . In order to final verification, 8 samples of Leishmania major sequenced and confirmed by molecular software analysis. Unfortunately, sequences of two samples which were not Leishmania major were not readable, and consequently, these could not be identified. Conclusion: Comparison of obtained sequences of current study with Gene Bank sequences confirmed L.major in human from Northern Iran. Other species of Leishmania were not identified in this investigation but detection of two other samples, which were not L.major , could indicate the role of other Leishmania species causing infection in human in Eastern region of Golestan province, northern Iran. These findings should be considered to improve the disease control programs, which can be led to increase the rate of public health in Golestan province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second cause of mortality in women. It is also the main cause of death among 45-55 year-old women. Several predictive and prognostic factors have been detected until now. Some of these factors, such as steroid hormone receptors and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and P53, have been proved. The aim of this study was to investigate these factors in women with breast cancer in Isfahan, Iran. Methods: During 1999-2009, this descriptive study was conducted on patients with pathologically confirmed breast cancer who referred to Seyed-Al-Shohada Cancer Clinic and doctors' offices in Isfahan. Data was extracted from patient files. The collected data was then entered into SPSS16 and analyzed using descriptive statistics like frequencies and mean values, and chi-square and nonparametric tests. Findings: In this study, 685 patients with breast cancer were investigated during 10 years. The mean age of patients was 47.39 ± 11.07 years. While 22 patients were in stage 1, 327, 60, and 38 subjects were in stages 2-4, respectively. In this study, the frequency of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptors, P53 protein, and HER2 was 39.4%, 36.9%, 49.9%, and 23.3%, respectively. Significant differences were detected between positive and negative estrogen receptor in stage 4, progesterone receptor in stages 2 and 4, P53 in all stages, and HER2 in stage 2. Stages of cancer were not significantly different in terms of frequency of these factors. A relation was found between estrogen and progesterone receptors and patients' age. However, such a relation could not be established in case of HER2 and P53. Conclusion: Assessments of hormone receptors and HER2 and P53 after the diagnosis of breast cancer seem necessary in identifying the best treatment choice. However, population differences should not be ignored in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Identification of disorders frequency in adolescence stage has implications for child and adolescence psychiatry. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of DSM-IV behavioral disorders among 12-17 years pupiles of Golestan province during 2010-11. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional descriptive study, 1500 pupiles (715 boys and 785 girls) from schools of Golestan State were selected through stratified random sampling method. Demographical questionnaire and DSM-IV based behavioral disorders of Achenbach youth selfreport scale (YSR) were recorded. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistic and nonparametric test of Chi-Square and calculation of Odd Ratio and 95%CI with PASW software. Results: Prevalence of behavioral disorders among the sample population 12-14 years, 15-17 years and as total were 5.47%, 5.05% and 5.27%, respectively. Prevalence of somatic disorders and anxiety were 5.8% and 4.7%, respectively. Moreover, the difference between prevalence of conduct and ADHD disorders in males and females were significant (P<0.05). Odd ratio for both genders in prediction of conduct disorder and ADHD and for the scholastic grade in prediction of affective and anxious disorders was significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: Total prevalence of behavioral disorders among the pupiles of Golestan province in Iran was 5.27%, which is approximately similar to the other studies in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: The prevalence of hepatitis B infection is increasing worldwide. The main way to prevent hepatitis B transmission to newborns can be through accurate detection of HBsAg positive pregnant women and implementation of standard protocol for their infants. Therefore, this study carried out to determine the frequency of HBsAg in pregnant women in Gorgan, Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was done on 1553 pregnant women whom attended to Dezyani hospital in Gorgan, North of Iran during 2008-09. Blood samples were taken and tested for HBsAg and HBeAg using ELISA method. Results: HBsAg was found positive in 15 (1%) pregnant women. However, HBeAg were negative in all cases. Seven of these cases (46.7%) were not diagnosed before admission to the hospital for delivery and therefore had not received any immunoprophylaxis or HBIG treatment for their newborns. In contrary, six mothers and their newborns received immunoprophylaxis due to falsely diagnosed HBsAg seropositive. Conclusion: This study showed that the current protocols for dealing with HBsAg seropositivity and case finding among pregnant women in this region should be thoroughly revised. Furthermore, it is suggested that pregnant women during third trimester should be screened for HBsAg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: vulnerable events could damage structural, non structural and functional components of hospitals that might lead to community crisis, accordingly. Risk assessment is the first step to develop of a hospital disaster plan. In this study, a primary phase of developing a local tool for Iran's hospital disaster risk assessment entitled "Hospital Safety Index (HSI)" was conducted by World Health Organization originally. Materials and Methods: First, the original index was translated into Farsi in five forms and 145 items. Then a group of four experts from the fields of medicine and engineering assessed the items oneby- one for their relevance and applicability. Revised edition tested three times at Shariati hospital in Tehran. An expert panel also evaluated the feature and content validity of the index. They also weighted the items as well. Results: Test-retest of the index by two independent research groups found 93% of agreement. Furthermore, 244 points were revised or added to the original edition. The most important changes included: Combining instruction parts with related items for increasing educational properties, completing the list of hazards, developing a plan to analysis, and to present a quantitative and graphic of the model and finally to prepare an educational package as well . Conclusion: Persian version of HSI, in response to needs of Iranian's health system, represents a rapid no-expensive tool for screening disaster risks at hospitals; based on an international template that was tested in several countries. Based on this study, the Farsi index would be evaluated in more hospitals around the country. The assessment results will provide Iranian's health system with evidence-based information for more effective allocated resources and interventions evaluating . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Hypertension is considered as a major public health problem in most countries due to its association with ischemic heart disease. The aim of this study was to determine people awareness of hypertension in Golestan province of Northern Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional population based study carried out on 2497 subjects (15-65 years old) including 1500 men and 1247 women in Golestan province- Northern Iran during 2006. The subjects were chosen by proportional-cluster sampling based on sex and age groups. The subjects were interviewed, antropometric indexes and serum biochemical factors were evaluated. Blood pressure was measured three times with 5 minutes interval and defined based on JNC-7 classification. Serum cholesterol and fast blood sugar (FBS) were determined using laboratory kits (enzymatic methods), and spectrophotometery technique. Data was analyzed by SPSS-16 software and Chi-Square test. Results: In general, the prevalence of hypertension in this region was 23.9%. with higher rate among women urban area by 3.3% and 5% respectively. Only 48.7% of hypertensive patients were aware of their disease and that was significantly more in women than men (P<0.001). Low physical activity, chronical age, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, general obesity, central obesity and illiteracy were the risk factor for hypertension morbidity (P<0.05). Conclusion: This study showed, in spite of prevalency of hypertension among 20% of subjects in this area only 48.7% of them were aware about their disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]