Ricci cubic gravity in d dimensions, gravitons and SAdS/Lifshitz black holes

A special class of higher curvature theories of gravity, Ricci Cubic Gravity (RCG), in general d dimensional space-time has been investigated in this paper. We have used two different approaches, the linearized equations of motion and auxiliary field formalism to study the massive and massless graviton propagating modes of the AdS background. Using the auxiliary field formalism, we have found the renormalized boundary stress tensor to compute the mass of Schwarzschild AdS and Lifshitz black holes in RCG theory.Comment: 35 pages. Published versio

EFFECT OF ONE CIRCULAR RESISTANCE SESSION ON PLASMA MYOGENIN AND MYOSTATIN OF YOUNG FEMALE VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of one circular resistance training session on circular surface and plasma myostatin of young female volleyball players. This article was semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design. The statistical population of this study included club female volleyball players of Zahedan city. In this study, a sample size of 24 was used, who were divided into two groups of 12. Age of subjects was between 23.9 and 24.5. Sampling was done using purposive sampling method from among qualified subjects. Measurement tools included a demographic questionnaire and consent form, digital scales, height gauge, stopwatch, syringes and blood samplers, free weights and training machine weights, laboratory kits, freezers and centrifuges, and microplate reader. To analyze the data, the descriptive statistics were used, including mean and standard deviation and for comparison between pre-test and post-test variables, paired t-test (dependent t) were used and independent t-test was used to compare the mean differences between the studied groups. All analysis operations were done at the significance level of p ≥ 0.05 and statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20. In this study, the following results were obtained: (1) a circular resistance training session had significant effect on increasing plasma concentrations in female volleyball players. 2. A circular resistance training session had no significant effect on plasma myostatin concentration in female volleyball players. The results showed for the first time that circular resistance training is a strong stimulus to increase plasma myogenin. So, this kind of activity can be a stimulus for muscle hypertrophy.  Article visualizations

Cost effectiveness analysis of Avonex and CinnoVex in Relapsing Remitting MS

INTRODUCTION: Multiple sclerosis is a chronic and degenerative neurological disease characterized by loss of myelin sheath of some neurons in brain and spinal cord. It is associated with high economic burden due to premature deaths and high occurrence of disabilities. The aim of the current study was to determine cost effectiveness of two major products of interferon 1a in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. METHOD AND MATERIALS: Altogether, 140 patients who have consumed Avonex and CinnoVex in Relapsing Remitting MS for at least two years were randomly selected (70 patients in each group). Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed using the adopted MSQoL-54 instrument. Costs were measured and valued from Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) perspective. Two-way sensitivity analysis was used to check robustness of the results. RESULTS: Patients in CinnoVex group reported significantly higher scores in both physical (69.5 vs. 50.9, P<0.001) and mental (63.3 vs. 56.6, P=0.03) aspects of HRQoL than Avonex group. On the other hand, annual cost of CinnoVex and Avonex were 2410 US and 4515US per patient, respectively (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that CinnoVex was dominant option over the study period. It is suggested that results of the current study should be considered in allocating resources to MS treatments in Iran. Of course, our findings should be interpreted with caution duo to short term horizon and lack of HRQoL scores at baseline (before the intervention)

Investigating Two Aspects of Teachers' Contribution to Classroom Discourse across Proficiency Levels: Corrective Feedback and Use of L1

In EFL contexts where the language learners' input, output, and interactions are primarily provided within the four walls of the classroom, the success of learning depends to a large extent on the righteousness and adequacy of classroom discourse to which the teachers' contribution has a decisive role. Drawing upon this assumption, the present study aimed at investigating teachers' contribution to classroom discourse at two levels of proficiency, namely low intermediate and high intermediate levels, based on two of the five categories proposed by Ellis (2008). In so doing, the discourse of eight English classes at the aforementioned levels taught by four male and female teachers (two classes per teacher, one low intermediate and one high intermediate) was audio-recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to determine whether the teachers intentionally and professionally modified their contributions to classroom discourse according to the learners' proficiency levels. The analysis of the results revealed that there was no marked and intentional adjustment on the part of participating teachers to the classroom discourse when interacting with the learners at those levels. At the end, the implications of the present study for classroom teachers, teacher trainers, supervisors, and observers were discussed

Dental Students’ Perceptions on Restorative Dentistry Education in Shahid Beheshti Dental School

Objective: Numerous studies have emphasized on the importance of developing an ideal educational system for high-quality dental education. The present study sought to assess the perception of dental students on operative dentistry education in Department of Restorative Dentistry, Shahid Beheshti Dental School, Tehran, Iran.Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 220 students were selected and given a questionnaire including demographic , grades in operative dentistry clinical and didactic courses, the efficacy of preclinical courses in preparing students for clinical practice, ways to improve competency and expertise of students for clinical setting, student’s opinion on relating the  assessment tests with the taught topics, required instructional resources for assessment of students’ proficiency in restorative dentistry and satisfaction rate of students with clinical courses offered in the current curriculum.  Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (SPSS 18).Results: The Clinical Operative Dentistry 3 and Preclinical Dental Anatomy received a mean satisfaction score of 3.31 and 2.74, respectively. Furthermore, 57.3% of students highly emphasized the necessity of studying textbooks of restorative dentistry. 50.5% of students believe that lectures  by instructors along with active participation of students were the best method for didactic operative dentistry courses. In addition, 60.5% were in favor of using a combination of textbooks, lectures, and class notes for the assessment of students’ learning.Conclusion: The present study revealed that Department of Restorative Dentistry in Shahid Beheshti Dental School is successful in its teaching and achieving students’ satisfaction. However, some revisions need to be made in educational methods and contents and active participation of students in class discussions should be encouraged as well

Evaluation of Study Approaches and Skills among the Students of Payame Noor University

The main purpose of the study was to examine the approaches and skills of study among the students of Payame Nour University. The statistical society included 2857 girl and boy students of Khalkhal Payame Nour University in 2013 school year that 160 persons of them were selected as the sample through classical sampling method and by Morgan table. To examine the research, “the study approaches and skills of students of Pask” with 52 questions of five option Likert Scalehas been used which refers to three approaches of deep, strategic and surfaced. The research data was analyzed by using of descriptive statistical methods (Pearson correlation coefficient) and inferential statistics (T test and the analysis of single factor variance). The research findings indicated that in examine of the relation between the age and the study skills, the meaningful level of the test was less than the standardlimit of 0/05 and this shows that there is a meaningful relation between them. This means that as the students’ age goes higher, the boy students tend to the deep and strategic approaches and the girl students tend to the surface approaches more.The meaningful levels of the test in deep and strategic skills are orderly 0/004 and 0/003 less than the standard limit of 0/05. Therefore, there is a relation between the age and the deep and strategic skills. But there is not a relation between the age and the surface skills because of the large meaningful level of 0/18. In addition, in examining of the study approaches and skills, all of the items were less than the standard limit of 0/05 and they were 0/000, and their correlation coefficient calculated between 0/59 and 1 which indicate a meaningful relation among three study approaches. Keywords: The study approaches, deep, strategic, surfaced, learnin

Multiscale design of nonlinear materials using a shape optimization scheme based on an interface-enriched GFEM

Motivated by key advances in manufacturing techniques, the tailoring of materials with specific macroscopic properties has been the focus of active research in mechanical engineering and materials science over the past decade. The key challenge in this line of work is how to optimize the material microstructure to achieve a desired macroscopic constitutive response. The overwhelming majority of this type of inverse design work relies on topology optimization based, primarily, on linear theory. In this work, we develop and implement a method to design particulate composites at the mesoscale using a shape optimization scheme to minimize or maximize a nonlinear cost function at the macroscale while satisfying a set of constraints associated, for example, with the volume fraction of inclusions or with the manufacturing technique. The optimization method relies on three key ‘modules’: multiscale modeling, sensitivity analysis, and optimization. The multiscale modeling is based on a nonlinear finite element solver, which combines a classical homogenization scheme with a NURBS-based Interface-enriched Generalized Finite Element Method (NIGFEM) used to capture accurately and efficiently the displacement field in a heterogeneous material with a finite element discretization that does not conform to the material interfaces. Damage evolution is captured using a three-parameter isotropic damage model able to simulate a wide range of failure responses. The proposed gradient-based shape optimization scheme relies on the stationary nature of the non-conforming meshes used to discretize the periodic unit cell, thereby avoiding mesh distortion issues that plague conventional finite-element-based shape optimization studies. In the current approach, the finite element approximation space used in the NIGFEM is augmented with NURBS to allow for the accurate capture of the weak discontinuity present along complex, curvilinear material interfaces. NURBS are also used to parameterize the design geometry precisely and compactly by a small number of design variables. To compute the derivatives of the cost and constraint functions with respect to the design variables, we also formulate an analytic nonlinear sensitivity, which is simplified by the fact that only the enrichment control points on material interfaces move, appear or disappear during the shape optimization process. The derivations uncover subtle but important new terms involved in the sensitivity of shape functions and their spatial derivatives. Our analytic nonlinear shape sensitivity avoids the technical difficulties encountered in the finite difference or semi-analytical schemes when the boundary intersects an element very close to a node in a non-conforming mesh. In these situations, the boundary may move to another element during the design perturbation step, resulting in changes of the mesh topology, making the differentiation of the stiffness matrix and load vector problematic. We apply the NIGFEM shape optimization scheme to several 2D and 3D structural problems including some benchmark and application examples to demonstrate the performance and accuracy of the method. Based on the multiscale approach, we also design the microstructure of a periodic particulate composite to optimize the volume fraction and distribution of the inclusions for a desired macroscopic nonlinear stress-strain curve

Quality of life in people with diabetes: a systematic review of studies in Iran.

Evaluation of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among people with diabetes has been growing in Iran over the last decade. The main aim of the current study was to systematically review the characteristics of these studies and examine quality of their findings. Persian (SID, Magiran) and English (Pubmed, Medline, Web of Science, CINAHL, Scopus, PsycINFO and ERIC) databases were systematically searched using the search terms: "diabetes" AND "quality of life" AND "Iran". The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. A total of 46 studies passed the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The included studies were conducted in 20 out of 30 provinces of the country. Most studies investigated HRQoL among people with type 2 diabetes. The Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and WHO quality of life instruments (WHOQOL) were the main instruments used in these studies. Studies showed that people with diabetes had lower HRQoL than people without diabetes. Better socioeconomic status and better control of cardiovascular risk factors were associated with better HRQoL among the patients with diabetes. In general, the predictors of HRQoL among Iranian patients were similar to their international counterparts implying that diabetes patients share many common features. The reviewed studies suffer from major methodological and reporting flaws which limit validity and generalizability of their findings

Teachers’ self-evaluation of application of moral education principles (case study: Elementary school teachers in Isfahan, Iran.)

The present research has been done with the aim of analyzing elementary school teachers’ self-evaluation of application of moral education principles in Isfahan. The statistical population of the research included all teachers, teaching at elementary schools in Isfahan in academic year of 2012-2013, being 3922 teachers in number. Among whom, a number of 340 individuals were selected using Chocran’s sample volume formula and simple random sampling method. The research method was descriptive as well as survey type, and the data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire, containing several questions about elementary school teachers’ self-evaluation of application of moral education principles in Isfahan, including 25 forced-choice questions based on Lickert’s 5-rate spectrum, its components being as follow: the intertwined nature of moral education and religious training, illumination of appearance and soul, developing a  feeling of moral intellection together with succumbing to reason and revelation, gradual elevation and permanent caring and opposition to egotistical desire Chronbach Alpha coefficient for the questionnaire was obtained 0.93, being considered as possessing sufficient reliability. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by related specialists. The data were analyzed using scientific modeling method of structural equations and SPSS 16 &amp; Amos 18 statistical software. The results showed that the mean of all self-evaluation components was above average. Thus, there were no positive and significant relationships among all self-evaluation components. Also, self-evaluation had no significant relationship with none of demographic characteristics. Keywords: elementary school teachers, self-evaluation, moral education, educational system, educational performanc