Diet-related stomach cancer behavior among iranian college students: A text messaging intervention

Background: Stomach cancer is one of the five most common cancers in Iran. This study examined the effectiveness of a mobile telephone short-message service (SMS) based-education intervention using Health Belief Model (HBM) variables in improving dietary behavior in terms of stomach cancer prevention among a sample of Iranian female college students. Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 124 female college students in the dormitories of Yazd University, Yazd, Iran were randomly selected and assigned to either the intervention (n = 62) or the control group (n=62). Information (data) regarding HBM variables and dietary behavior related to stomach cancer prevention was collected by a self-administrated questionnaire. Forty eight messages were designed and sent to the participants' phones in the intervention group during the 48-day intervention period. Two groups were followed-up one month after the intervention delivered via SMS. Results: There were significant differences in HBM variables (except for the perceived severity) and the preventive dietary behaviors for stomach cancer in the intervention group compared to the comparison group following the education intervention delivered via SMS. Conclusions: SMS-delivered nutrition education intervention can be a practical strategy to improve dietary behavior related to stomach cancer prevention

Sun-protective practices in Iranian seafarers and its psychological predictors

Background: Given the long exposure of seafarers to sunlight and the necessity of recognising determinants of sun-protective practices along with developing educational efforts for the prevention of skin cancer, this study was designed to determine the psychological predictors of sun-protective practices among Iranian seafarers based on protection motivation theory (PMT) variables. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 300 seafarers who worked on Ports and Maritime Organisation of Bushehr Port, Iran were selected. PMT and demographic variables were assessed through a 63-item questionnaire. Multiple linear regression (forward method) was used to determine the predictors of adopting sun-protective practices based on PMT variables. Results: About 11.7% of the participants always wore a hat with a wide brim of more than 7.5 cm width, 20% wore sunglasses while outside under the sun and 12.7% gloves. Only 13.7% regularly had their skin checked by a doctor. Behavioural intention, perceived severity, response efficacy and response costs explained 41% of the variance of adopting sun-protective practices among the seafarers (R2 = 0.41, F = 11.89, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The finding explores factors affecting sun protective behaviours among Iranian seafarers. Seafarers with a high level of perceived severity, more response efficacy, more intention for performing behaviour, and fewer response costs were most likely to be regularly engaged in sun protective behaviours

Evaluating the Performance of Emergency Medical System in the US

New and exciting opportunities are emerging for operational researchers to create and use models that provide managers with solutions to enhance the quality of their services as the importance of the service sector grows in industrialized countries. The key to this process is the creation of time-dependent models that analyze complicated service systems and produce efficient staff schedules, allowing organizations to strike a balance between delivering high-quality services and avoiding unnecessary personnel costs. There is a need, particularly in the healthcare sector, to encourage effective management of an EMS, where the likelihood of survival is strongly correlated with the response time.Motivated by case studies investigating the operation of the Emergency Medical System (EMS), this dissertation aims to examine how operations research (OR) techniques can be developed to determine staff scheduling and maximize the ambulance to decrease service system delays. A capacity planning tool is developed that integrates a combination of queueing theory and optimization techniques to reduce the delay in the service system and maximize ambulance coverage. The research presented in this dissertation is novel in several ways. Primarily, the first section considers the Markovian models with sinusoidal arrival rates and state-dependency of service rate and uses a numerical method known as Stationary Independent Period by Period (SIPP) to determine the staff requirement of the service system. The final section considers the time dependency in locating an ambulance station across the network and allocating the ambulance to the patients to cover more 911 calls

Predictors of sun-protective practices among Iranian female college students: Application of protection motivation theory

Purpose: Given the importance of sun protection in the prevention of skin cancer, this study was designed to determine predictors of sun-protective practices among a sample of Iranian female college students based on protection motivation theory (PMT) variables. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 201 female college students in Iran University of Medical Sciences were selected. Demographic and PMT variables were assessed with a 67-item questionnaire. Multiple linear regression was used to identify demographic and PMT variables that were associated with sun-protective practices and intention. Results: one percent of participants always wore a hat with a brim, 3.5 gloves and 15.9 sunglasses while outdoors. Only 10.9 regularly had their skin checked by a doctor. Perceived rewards, response efficacy, fear, self-efficacy and marital status were the five variables which could predict 39 variance of participants intention to perform sun-protective practices. Also, intention and response cost explained 31 of the variance of sun-protective practices. Conclusions: These predictive variables may be used to develop theory-based education interventions to prevent skin cancer among college students

The determinants of anti-diabetic medication adherence based on the experiences of patients with type 2 diabetes

Background: The purpose of this study is to explain the experiences of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) about medication adherence. Method: A qualitative content analysis study was conducted at the Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism Research and Training Center of Firoozgar Academic Hospital, affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran during April-June 2017. Twenty-six semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with diabetic patients and their families. The participants were asked about their experiences of medication adherence. After the first round of the interviews, content analysis of data started and continued up to the data saturation. Results: Four main themes including perceived barriers (with 6 subthemes including inadequate knowledge, situational influences, inadequate perceived threat about diabetes, treatment characteristics, personality traits and medication cost), perceived social support (with 3 subthemes including family, doctor and community supports), medication beliefs (with 3 subthemes including belief in the effectiveness of treatment, belief in the more effectiveness of complementary therapies than medication use and prioritizing the use of the pills instead of the insulin injection) and cues to action (with 2 subthemes including internal and external cues to action) emerged as the experiences of the participants in terms of anti-diabetic medications adherence which should be considered in developing medication adherence interventions for the patients with T2DM. Conclusion: The patients with T2DM had more barriers for regular drugs consumption. They had incorrect beliefs about anti-diabetic drugs. In addition, they were in need of abroad support community, surroundings and also health professionals. Health systems should consider medication adherence training to be added to the treatment protocols of the diabetic patients. © 2019 The Author(s)

The Origins of Common Identity: Division, Homogenization Policies and Identity Formation in Alsace-Lorraine

We exploit the fact that disagreements in the German leadership after the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 led to a quasi-exogenous division of Alsace and Lorraine to provide rare evidence of group identity formation within historically homogeneous regions. In line with the rejection-identification hypothesis, people in the treated area which experienced a change in nation-status and were exposed to repressive homogenization policies express a stronger regional identity and support more regional autonomy today. On average, subjects with a stronger regional also express a stronger European identity, which we exploit in a regression discontinuity design at the municipal level to reveal whether these identity differences are causal. We find that support for the European Union is significantly stronger in two crucial referenda, a result that is robust across different specifications and bandwidths, and not driven by language differences, large agglomerations or distance to foreign countries. The effect seems to be the strongest for the first two age cohorts after World War II and diminishes for later generations

An Empirical Study About the Effectiveness of Lean Empowerment in Warehouses

Lean Management is well established in production environments. Some empirical evidences are available which suggest that in production systems lean management achieves positive results. For warehousing, some works have already been done, which deal with the application and adaption of lean tools for usage in warehousing. In order to answer the question, whether the application of lean tools leads to a better performance however, no study is available today. Therefore, an empirical study has been conducted, where the effectiveness of lean empowerment has been tested and compared to the performance of warehouse, who continued to work as before

An updated literature review of CO2e calculation in road freight transportation

In recent decades, increasing emphasis is being placed on sustainable freight transport. The aim of this study is to discern how detailed the calculation of CO2e emissions in road transport is. For this, the study conducted a sample review with 53 scientific sources and 121 annual reports. Only 14 out of the 53 scientific sources incorporated emissions that occur as a by-product of energy supply. Not more than 14 of the 121 companies included emissions from transportation activities of both the upstream and downstream processes. Therefore, the study highlights the necessity for new and validated models to support decision-making processes that sustainably reduce CO2e emissions

Measuring the Impact of Lean Techniques on Performance Indicators in Logistics Operations

Several in-depth studies have verified the positive impact of lean techniques on performance indicators in production environments. Studies performed on warehouse environments have partially confirmed this. This thesis helped to close the gap between the disparities in the level of evidence mentioned above. A study was conducted that included 16 warehouses in an observation group and 56 warehouses in a control group. These significant results help close the gap in the evidence

The Relationship between Faculty Members’ Perception of Organizational Culture Types and their Preferences for Instruction and Counselling in Iranian College of Education and Psychology

AbstractThe purpose of this research was to study the relationship between faculty members’ perception of organizational culture types and their preferences for instruction and counselling responsibilities in Shiraz, Tehran and Ahvaz both public and private Universities, Colleges of education and psychology. Statistical population of this study comprised of all Shiraz, Tehran and Ahvaz colleges of Education and Psychology faculty members. Using classified random sampling, 4 colleges were selected. In order to collect data two instruments were used in this study i.e. Counsellor Educator Task importance Instrument (CETII) (Orr, 2005) and Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) (Cameron & Quinn, 1999). Results indicated a significant effect of organizational culture types for scholarship and service responsibilities. Additionally, there was a significant organizational culture type×university type interaction effect for scholarship and teaching responsibilities. And a significant organizational culture types×Academic Rank interaction effect for teaching and service responsibilities as well. However, the results showed neither significant organizational culture type×university type interaction effect nor significant organizational culture type×years of service interaction effect for teachers’ counselling and instruction responsibilities