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Background: Microorganisms in hospitals are potential sources of infection to patients and staff. Bioaerosol exposure is associated with a vast range of adverse health effects including infectious diseases, acute toxic effects, allergy and cancer. This study aimed to survey the type and density of bioaerosols in ambient air of different parts of educational hospitals Gorgan 2012. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, different wards of Gorgan educational hospitals including dialysis, patient room and ICU were investigated. Totally, 81 air samples were taken based on NIOSH standard method. Saborad Dextrose agar and Nutrient agarculture medium was used passive method media. Samples collected were shipped to lab and incubated for 48 hours. Finally Concentration was determined in cfu/m2/hr. Results: The diversity and density of Bioaerosoles the highest and lowest densities were in dialysis (30.65%) and operating rooms (19.55%) wards of panjom azar hospital and surgical women (23.35%) and operating rooms(15.35%) wards of Sayyad Shirazi hospital. The most common fungi and bacteria isolated from air hospitals were Staphylococcus epidermisand (41%) and penicillium (23.45%). Conclusion: According to the results of the chi-square test for detection of bacterial contamination of surfaces and equipment in the hospitals studied did not show a significant statistical difference (p-value

Background: Lack of enough supervision, wrong and partial planning in the part of hospital residuals management cause high volume of production from variety of residuals which controlling them impose high costs to every society. In order to improve hospital wastes management, implementing a system of environmental management like ISO14001 can improve the environmental performance of organization and introduce the ways of solving problems to managers. The main objective of this study was to identify and prioritize the effective factors in the implementation of ISO 14001 and the benefits of its implementation in hospitals of Tehran. Methods: In this study, after the identification of success factors and benefits of ISO 14001 implementation in hospitals of Tehran, the method of analytical hierarchy process is used in order to understand the importance and relative priority of these successful important factors and their benefits. Results: Results show that the most important successful factors, based on the importance, are management commitment, education and training, communications and community relations and documentation and control. Also, the most important benefits, of ISO 14001 implementation, are cost reduction in waste management, increasing the awareness and commitment of staff, risk management practices improvement and work process and procedures improvement. Conclusion: Findings of the study indicate that which success factors of ISO 14001 requires more attention by managers and are in priority while implementing them.

Introduction: The ability of effective communication is the most important indicator of effective teaching that enhances the self-confidence and learning motivation in students. On the other hand, evaluation of teachers in view point of students is the most common method of determining success in achieving the goals of education, so this study was performed to determine the relationship between Communication skills of Academic members and their evaluation outcome in Alborz university of Medical Sciences 2013. Methods: This descriptive cross sectional study done in 2013 in in Alborz university of Medical Sciences. 81 academic members were selected by convenient sampling method. The data collection instrument was a demographic questionnaire and Queen Dom validated questionnaire, which has 34 items and 5 subscales, with the maximum score of 170. Analysis of the data took place on two levels of descriptive statistics [average and standard deviation] and inferential statistics [T-test and Pearson correlation coefficient] by SPSS 16. Results: Total mean of communication skills was 123.93±7.82. Mean of communication sub-skills including emotion control, message perception, decisiveness, listening to and showing recognition to message were 29.04±2.88, 33.9±2.70, 18.44±1.71, 25.54±2.45 and 17±2.13, respectively. There was a significant association between emotion control and ​​evaluation score and regulating emotions (p=0.02). Test results showed that there weren’t any significant association between total score of communication skills with evaluation score and demographic variables. Conclusion: The results indicate there is no relationship between teacher evaluation score and their communication skills.

Introduction In nearly all big cities around the world, the phenomenon of street children is one of the contemporary social issues. During past several decades, there is an increase in the volume of street children phenomenon around the world. The rising number of street children has many pathological and consequential negative impacts for children, youth, families, and the society at the whole . According to 2000 UN report, the number of street children is estimated between 100 to140 million people. According to this report, it is estimated that around 40 million people living in Latin America, 35 million in Asia, 10 million in Africa and remaining live in other countries including advanced industrial societies. There are not reliable data about the number of street children in Iran. According to the available reports there are around 20 thousand street children in Iran. Some preliminary studies show a trend towards the growth of street children phenomenon in several big cities of Iran. The pathological impact of street children phenomenon need appropriate policy-making based on scientific approach. Thus various scientific researchers should work for deeper understanding of factors associated with the formation and characteristics of street children to better social policy. Materials and Methods The present paper aims to examine the overall situation of street children concerning their life style, activities, experiences, family background, educational achievement and other behavioral characteristics. For this purpose, data collected through a survey administered in the face-to-face interview among 122 street children aged 6-14 which working in the street of Isfahan city in the spring of 2010. The measurement validity of the study obtained through face validity and the questionnaire has been revised based on the experts’ comments and suggestions. Also a pretest study conducted to examine questionnaire and based on the results of the pretest, questionnaire has been finalized. Data analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Discussion of Results and Conclusions Other characteristics of sample indicated that around 12 percents of street children was illiterate and about 58 percent of them leave their school before the completion of guidance school. Monthly income for 8.2 percent of respondents was below 150 thousand Tomans, 76.2 percent between 150 to 300 thousand Tomans and 14.7 was between 301 t0 500 thousand Tomans. The highest income had for those children who were selling drugs. Around two third of respondents give their income to their adult family member. Also around two third of children worked as peddler and around one-fifth had a deviant job. Findings also indicate that five-seventh of respondents were physically abused by their parents. 22% of respondents arrested by police and 5 percent went to prison and 7 percent have one to two years in a juvenile institution. Examining parental characteristics of street children show that over 90 percent of mothers and fathers of the respondents have had below elementary schooling. About 70 percent of fathers’ respondent and 24 percent of mothers’ respondent has been employed. About 72 percent of children have at least one or both parents who addicted. 15 percent have had parents who divorced and 25 percent has experienced orphanhood. In sum our research findings confirm that majority of street children under the study are boy, migrant, with low family income, having addicted parents, and usually have been physically abused by their parents and they are working as peddler. The findings also indicate that street children had deviant behavior in some case, was arrested by police, some of them even have gone to prison. Finally, research has shown that there are a significant relationship between parental drug addiction and the abuse of children by parents with the type of works that children are doing. Data shows that the kind of jobs that children do has a significant relationship with such variables as parental addiction, children abuse by parents, and parental imprisonment. Results also indicate that deviant job observed in the most cases among those children who have an addicted parent, employed in deviant job and abused by their parents. In sum, it can be concluded that various factor played an important role in the formation and the emergence of street children phenomenon. 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Background: Myocardial ischemia is one of several causes of prolonged QT dispersion. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect that percutaneous coronary intervention has on the depolarization and repolarization parameters of surface electrocardiography in patients with chronic stable angina.Methods: We assessed the effects of full revascularization in patients with chronic stable angina and single-vessel disease who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention. Twelve-lead electrocardiograms were recorded before intervention and 24 hours subsequently. We measured parameters including QRS duration, QT and corrected QT durations, and JT and corrected JT duration in both electrocardiograms and compared the values.Results: There were significant differences between the mean QRS interval (0.086 ± 0.01sec vs. 0.082 ± 0.01 second; p value = 0.01), mean corrected QT dispersion (0.080 ± 0.04 sec vs. 0.068 ± 0.04 sec; p value = 0.001), and mean corrected JT dispersion (0.074 ± 0.04 sec vs. 0.063 ± 0.04 sec; p value = 0.001) before and after percutaneous coronary intervention. No significant differences were found between the other ECG parameters.Conclusion: Our data indicate that the shortening of corrected QT dispersion and corrected JT dispersion in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention is prominent.

Background: Myocardial ischemia is one of several causes of prolonged QT dispersion. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect that percutaneous coronary intervention has on the depolarization and repolarization parameters of surface electrocardiography in patients with chronic stable angina. Methods: We assessed the effects of full revascularization in patients with chronic stable angina and single-vessel disease who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention. Twelve-lead electrocardiograms were recorded before intervention and 24 hours subsequently. We measured parameters including QRS duration, QT and corrected QT durations, and JT and corrected JT duration in both electrocardiograms and compared the values. Results: There were significant differences between the mean QRS interval (0.086 ± 0.01sec vs. 0.082 ± 0.01 second; p value = 0.01), mean corrected QT dispersion (0.080 ± 0.04 sec vs. 0.068 ± 0.04 sec; p value = 0.001), and mean corrected JT dispersion (0.074 ± 0.04 sec vs. 0.063 ± 0.04 sec; p value = 0.001) before and after percutaneous coronary intervention. No significant differences were found between the other ECG parameters. Conclusion: Our data indicate that the shortening of corrected QT dispersion and corrected JT dispersion in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention is prominent.

Background: Iron overload is connected with an expanded prevalence of thalassemia due to heart impairment. This considers pointing to survey changes in thalassemia's aortic elasticity due to iron deposition in the heart and liver of children. Methods: This case-control study was performed on 80 healthy and 160 thalassemia patients. The subjects gathered from educational pediatric hospital of Ali Asghar in Zahedan, Iran, from 2019 to 2021. Echocardiography parameters were measured. Ferritin, lipids profile, cardiac and liver MRI T2 * measured in patients only. Aortic elasticity parameters were aortic strain, aortic stiffness β index, aortic distensibility and pressure strain elastic modulus. Data analyzed by SPSS,p

Removal of Cr (III) was investigated using Phanerochaete chrysosporium-isolated living microorganism; pH, contact time, temperature and nutrients addition were examined. It was found that P. chrysosporium can tolerate up to 600 mg/L chromium solution. The optimal growth conditions of the biosorbent were found to be 35°C, 26 h contact time and pH= 5. In addition, a complex nitrogen substrate, yeast powder, was shown to be most efficient than a synthetic one, like di-hydrogen ammonium phosphate. High chromium removal (98%) was observed in these optimal growth conditions. Experimental data were found to follow a Langmuir isotherm model (r2 > 0.99). Maximum sorption capacity for the present biosorbent was 213 mg/g according to the Langmuir isotherm model, namely significantly higher than the values reported in the literature, even for activated carbon. The fitting of experimental data onto kinetic models showed the relevance of the pseudo-second-order model (r2 > 0.99) for Cr (III) sorption by P. chrysosporium. In addition, a real effluent was obtained from tanning factory and was treated to examine process feasibility on real effluents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic characteristics of an assumed isolated CFRP main cable are studied. The section area of the CFRP cable is determined for suspension bridge in different spans and sagspan ratios based on the principle of limit design at a given security coefficient. The Irvine parameter for suspension bridge with backstay and without backstay is calculated and a rule that Irvine parameter is linearly changed with span and sag ratio respectively is found. The analysis of frequency change with span shows that the first and third symmetric frequency is lager and less than the corresponding antisymmetric frequency respectively, but the second symmetric and antisymmetric frequencies are close to each other. The analysis on frequency and dimensionless frequency change with sag ratio show that for bridge with and without backstay the first and third order symmetric frequencies are larger and less than the corresponding antisymmetric frequencies respectively, but for a bridge without backstay the crossover phenomenon happens and the second symmetric mode changes from two to four internal nodes mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) is necessary for better management of COVID-19. The study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice about COVID-19 among parents or guardians of children who referred to the pediatric clinics, until March 16, 2020, in City of Zahedan City located at southeast of Iran. Methods: A researcher-made questionnaire was developed and given to the parents or guardians of illness children who referred to the Pediatric hospital of Ali Asghar to visit pediatricians. Demographic characteristics and KAP score was assessed. T-test and ANOVA tests were used for data analysis considering 0.05 as significant error. Results: Of 524 participants, 60.1% were female. The mean age of participants was 32.15 (SD = 7.69). There was positive correlation between knowledge and attitude (r = 0.308), knowledge and practice (r = 0.233), and attitude and practice (r = 0.207). Illiterate parents had lowest knowledge score compared to other educational level. Married participants had significantly higher score of knowledge and practice than divorce or widow participants. Conclusion: This study concluded that the participants had good knowledge, positive attitude and sufficient practice towards COVID-19. Knowledge was associated with educational level and marriage status of parents or guardians of patient children.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate quality of life among children with congenital heart defect (CHD) and to determine the associated factors based on parents' proxy-reports. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 263 children with CHD using inventory of PedsQoL 3.0. The PedsQoL 3.0 scores reported by parents of children. The association between quality of life and patients characteristics were assessed using multivariate linear regression method. Results: The mean score of total quality of life was 51.6 (SD=9.68). Re-hospitalization cost was high for the majority of families (46.8%). Heart problem scale of quality of life was significantly associated with mothers’ education and age. On treatment scale, only age had significant correlation. Physical appearances, was associated with number of household and type of diseases. Anxiety was significantly associated with age and re-hospitalization status. Cognition correlated with household numbers and age. Total quality of life was significantly associated with income, age and number of household. Conclusion: The study found some important predictors of quality of life in children with CHD. The results can be used for further educational and supportive programs for these patients.

Dexamethasone (DXM) is a broadly used drug, which is frequently identified in the water environments due to its improper disposal and incomplete removal in wastewater treatment plant. The inability of conventional treatment processes of wastewater causes that researchers pay a great attention to study and develop effective wastewater treatment systems. This work deals with the study of integrated electro-peroxone/granular activated carbon (EP/US/GAC) process in the degradation of dexamethasone (DXM) from a water environment and the remediation of real pharmaceutical wastewater. Two approaches of response surface methodology based on central composite design (RSM-CCD) and artificial neural network based on algorithm genetic (ANN-GA) were employed for modeling and optimization of the process. Both the models presented significant adequacy for modeling and prediction of the process according to statistical linear and nonlinear metrics (R 2 = 0.9998 and 0.9996 and RMSE = 0.2128 and 0.1784 for ANN-GA and RSM-CCD, respectively). The optimization study provided the same outcomes for both ANN-GA and RSM-CCD approaches, where approximately complete DEX oxidation was achieved at pH = 9.3, operating time = 10 min, US power = 300 W/L, applied current = 470 mA, and electrolyte concentration = 0.05 M. A synergistic study signified that the EP/US/GAC process made an 82% synergy index as compared to the individual US and EP processes. The calculated energy consumption for the integrated process was achieved to be 2.79 kW h/gCOD. Quenching test by tert-butanol and p -benzoquinone revealed that HO• radical possessed the largest contribution in DEX degradation. The efficiency of EP/US/GAC process in the remediation of real pharmaceutical wastewater showed a significant decline in COD content (92% removal after 180 min), and the ratio of initial BOD/COD ratio of 0.27 was elevated up to 0.7 after 100 min treatment time. The performance stability of EP/US/GAC system showed no remarkable drop in removal efficiency, and leakage of lead ions from the anode surface was negligible and below WHO guideline for drinking water. Generally, this research work manifested that the integrated EP/US/GAC system elevated the degradation efficiency and can be proposed as a pretreatment step before biological treatment processes for the remediation of recalcitrant wastewaters. [Display omitted] • Modeling and optimizing DEX removal by EP/US/GAC process using RSM-CCD and ANN-GA. • A significant synergistic effect of EP/US/GAC process compared to separate processes. • Less electrical consumption by EP/US/GAC process compared to separate processes. • Improvement of BOD 5 /COD ratio in real pharmaceutical wastewater. • Hydroxyl radical has a major contribution in DEX degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein complexes are one of the most important functional units for deriving biological processes within the cell. Experimental methods have provided valuable data to infer protein complexes. However, these methods have inherent limitations. Considering these limitations, many computational methods have been proposed to predict protein complexes, in the last decade. Almost all of these in-silico methods predict protein complexes from the ever-increasing protein–protein interaction (PPI) data. These computational approaches usually use the PPI data in the format of a huge protein–protein interaction network (PPIN) as input and output various sub-networks of the given PPIN as the predicted protein complexes. Some of these methods have already reached a promising efficiency in protein complex detection. Nonetheless, there are challenges in prediction of other types of protein complexes, specially sparse and small ones. New methods should further incorporate the knowledge of biological properties of proteins to improve the performance. Additionally, there are several challenges that should be considered more effectively in designing the new complex prediction algorithms in the future. This article not only reviews the history of computational protein complex prediction but also provides new insight for improvement of new methodologies. In this article, most important computational methods for protein complex prediction are evaluated and compared. In addition, some of the challenges in the reconstruction of the protein complexes are discussed. Finally, various tools for protein complex prediction and PPIN analysis as well as the current high-throughput databases are reviewed. Unlabelled Image [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is suggested that constipation could be due to celiac disease (CD); therefore, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of positive tissue transglutaminase (tTG) IgA test among children with functional constipation (FC). Methods: In this case-control study, 182 consecutive patients with FC who fulfilled the Rome III criteria as cases were compared with 240 healthy children as the control group in terms of suspicious CD by measuring the serum tTG IgA level. Results: There was a significant difference in favor of the case group in terms of serum tTG IgA levels (P = 0.000). The probability of having CD would change based on belonging to each group (case/control odds ratio [OR] = 0.222). Conclusion: With respect to these data, tTG IgA level was observed to be significantly higher in patients relative to healthy children; therefore, it is recommended that patients be screened for CD through the tTG IgA.

Congenital heart disorders (CHDs) encompass inborn defects of the heart compartments. Polymorphisms of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene have continuously been reported as a modulating factor for CHDs. In a case-control study, the association of A1298C polymorphism of MTHFR gene with ventricular septal defect (VSD) and Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), two common forms of CHDs, in the children of southeastern Iran was investigated. The presence of A1298C polymorphism was investigated using tetra-ARMS-PCR method, and statistical processes were carried out applying SPSS software (V:19). Males in the control group formed 40% and 60% (including 46.74% in VSD and 13.26% in in TOF). Although the association between gender and CHDs was not statistically significant, males had a higher risk of VSD (OR=1.7, 95% CI; 0.9-3.1, P=0.08). Overall frequency of AA, AC ,and CC genotypes of A1298C polymorphism were 55%, 43%, and 2% in CHDs patients respectively; while respective ratios were 50%, 48% and 2% in the controls (P>0.05). Patients with VSD were more commonly identified with AC+CC genotypes (52.8%) compared to TOF cases (23%, P=0.01). In stratified regression analysis, heterozygote genotype showed a significant protection against TOF (OR=0.3, 95% CI; 0.1-0.8, P=0.01). Frequency of variant allele was obtained 31.58% in CHD patients and 33.8% in the controls (P>0.05). Moreover, frequency of variant (C) allele was 35.2% in VSD compared to 18.8% in TOF (P>0.05). A1298C polymorphism of MTHFR gene seems to exert a significant protective effect against TOF.

Plasma electrolytic saturation (PES) is an atmospheric pressure plasma deposition which is used for fabrication of nanostructural coatings. This process starts with the appearance of some sparks on the surface and finally by the formation of plasma envelope around the sample, particles and free radicals bombard the surface and diffusion takes place into the work-piece. In this paper, the effect of frequency (500, 1000 and 10000 Hz) as pulse parameters on properties of nitrocarburized layers deposited on AISI 1045 steel were investigated. The analytical characteristics of the coating were assessed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The corrosion behavior of coatings was analyzed by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in 3.5% sodium chloride solution. Moreover, the microhardness and wear resistance of coated samples were also studied. The results indicated that applying nitrocarburized layer in all cases, improved the corrosion resistance, microhardness and also wear resistance of the substrate. The coatings treated at the frequency of 10000 Hz, had corrosion resistance about 2.4 and 1.4 times higher than those of the samples prepared at the frequency of 500 Hz and 1000 Hz. The surface hardness of 10000 Hz treated sample was about 1040 Vickers, which was more than those of the two other ones. An increase in frequency also caused wear resistance to increase.

Background: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCMP) is a myocardial disease characterized by dilated left ventricle or both ventricles and reduced contractility of the myocardium. In patients suffering from DCMP, the serum level of uric acid may increase. This research was designed to evaluate the effect of the serum level of uric acid on systolic and diastolic functions in patients with DCMP.Methods: This case-control study was performed on 30 patients with DCMP aged between 1 month and 12 years who were consistent with a control group in terms of age and gender. Patients suffering from congenital and acquired cardiac, renal, metabolic, endocrine, musculoskeletal, neurologic, vascular, and hematologic diseases were excluded. After physical examination, chest X-ray, and electrocardiography, systolic and diastolic parameters were measured via echocardiography, and fasting serum uric acid level was measured. The data were analyzed using the t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient.Results: The average age of the patients in the case and control groups was 7.28 and 7.13 years, respectively. There were 15 boys, and the rest were girls. The serum uric acid level in the case and control groups was 6.22 and 3.31 mg/dl, respectively; the difference was statistically significant (P value