Supreme audit court of auditors' insights on operational audit challenges

Operational audit plays an important role on managing governmental budget. It helps control government spending and other important budgetary issues. This paper presents an empirical study to find out the possible barriers on implementing operational audit. The proposed study distributes some questionnaires among supreme audit court of auditors and analyzes the questions. The results indicate that many governmental organizations are not strongly committed to rules and regulations. There are not sufficient standards on auditing programs and many governmental agencies do not even use operational budgeting system since they are not aware of the benefits of such system. There are some of the most important challenges of having operational budgeting and paper suggests some guidelines for having better regulation on removing the main barriers

Clinical and Radiographic Alterations in Bilateral Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head Following Laser Acupuncture: A Case Report

Introduction: Avascular necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head is an increasingly common cause of musculoskeletal disability with unknown etiology. Traumatic and non-traumatic factors can be effective in its occurrence. About 50% of cases are bilateral. The underlying treatment is prosthetic replacement surgical procedure.Case Presentation: We report a case of bilateral AVN of femoral heads who was a candidate for prosthetic replacement surgery but improved significantly, using laser acupuncture. The patient was a 55-year-old woman with a diagnosis of bilateral osteonecrosis of the femoral head for five years. As the patient declined the surgical option, laser acupuncture was started for pain control. Regarding the signs of bilateral femoral head recovery (according to the MRI scan criteria), a total of 3 courses of laser acupuncture (each course was 20 sessions) with 2 months intervals was performed. Ten acupuncture points: Li4, Li11, St36, SP6, LIV3, GB4, GB5, GB6, GB13, GB14, GB20, GB30, GB31, GB34, were irradiated bilaterally using red 650 nm laser, 100 mW, 1505 Hz frequency, duty cycle 50 3 J/point and near infrared 810 nm laser, 100 mW, 1705 Hz frequency, duty cycle 50 3 J/point, for 2 minutes. The patient received 3 laser therapy courses. During the first-course, laser therapy was done every other day to reduce pain. For the second and third courses, according to pain decrease, therapy was done every week.Results: The results of the MRI scans and x-ray studies show progressive regeneration of the right femoral head from VI to B II and of the left from V to C II (based on the standard table of Pennsylvania).Conclusion: It seems that this procedure may be mentioned in future research projects, especially in cases with high risks of surgery

Applying GC-MS analysis to identify chemical composition of Iranian propolis prepared with different solvent and evaluation of its biological activity

Background: Propolis as a natural product has shown beneficial effects on human health. This study was aimed to investigate the chemical compositions and biological activity of three different extracts of propolis from two distinct geographic areas in Iran. Methods: The chemical composition of Iranian propolis extracts that were collected in the Spring of 2016 from two provinces in northern Iran: Ardabil and Polur in Mazandaran Province were measured through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) methods. In addition, antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity effect on HN5 and LNCaP cell lines were evaluated. The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and p<0.05 was considered as significant. Results: The GC-MS analysis identified the presence of compounds that belonged to the different groups such as aromatics acids and their related esters, flavonoid and flavonoid derivatives and terpenes. Flavanone was the most dominant compound of flavonoids. The maximum growth inhibition was observed against S. aureus of ethanolic extract of propolis (p<0.05). Moreover, cytotoxicity showed that ethanolic and dichloromethane extracts had more inhibitory effects on cell lines than the water extract. Conclusion: The results determined that extracts had the highest percentage of flavonoids. Therefore, it is expected that the synergistic effect of the main components of propolis is related to the increase of biological activity of propolis

Post-Transfusion Occult Hepatitis B (OBI): A Global Challenge for Blood Recipients and Health Authorities

Hepatitis B is one of the most frequent post-transfusion infections. Occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) is a form of hepatitis B infection in which, despite the presence of HBV-DNA in the serum and hepatocytes of the carrier, HBsAg is absent. In addition to the risk of transmission through the transfusion of infected blood, reactivation of hepatitis B in OBI patients and recipients of their blood can lead to cirrhosis, hepatic cancer, and reactivation of viral replication in the carrier. Therefore, effective assays to assess and screen for OBI in blood donors are of paramount importance and require urgent attention. Recently, several investigations in various regions of Iran have reported OBI in blood donors. In response, there has been a drive to apply more specific, sensitive, and accurate methods for the detection of HBV, which should become an obligatory screening process for all blood transfusion services. In this review, we address the progression of occult hepatitis B and the common problems associated with occult hepatitis B worldwide. Finally, we reflect on the research and screening that is being performed in Iran to deal with this problem