A survey on the attitudes of health educators towards clients’ education and their educational effectiveness: a cross-sectional study in health care centers in Ghaemshahr

Background and Aims: Health education is one of the important tasks of health care centers employees. The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of health educators towards clients’ education and their educational effectiveness in health care centers of Ghaemshahr.Materials and Method: Totally 190 employees of health care centers in Ghaemshahr city involved in health education were included in this study. The research was conducted in 2016. Data collection instruments entails two questionnaires including efficacy education questionnaire and a questionnaire on attitude towards education. Collected data were analyzed by descriptive indexes, correlation tests andmultivariate linear regression. Ethical issues were also considered in all stages of study.Results: Studied subjects had 38 ± 7.64 years of old. 78.4% of the subjects were female and the remaining 21.6% were male. Respectively, 45.3%, 42.1% and 12.6% of the subjects described their educational effectiveness as good, moderate and poor. About 97.9% of the health educator's had a positive attitudetowards education. Also, there was a significant positive correlation between the effectiveness of education and attitudes towards education (p<0.001).Conclusion: In this study, there was a statistically significant relationship between attitude toward education and educational effectiveness. The observed relationship between these two variables can be exploited to improve the level of effective teaching by health educators

Structural parameters effect on UVR transmission of weft knitted fabrics

Effects of knit structure, knit density, material type and presence of elastic yarn in weft knitted cotton/ polyester and polyester fabrics on UVR transmission have been investigated. According to the Taguchi method used for determining the combination of selected variables and their levels, 16 knitted samples have been produced on a single jersey circular knitting machine. After relaxation, samples have been kept in sunlight simulator and exposed to sun radiation. Finally, the amount of UV transmitted by every sample is measured by spectrophotometer. The results analyzed using Minitab software show that all the controllable variables have a significant effect on UV transmission. Also, according to the signal to noise analysis, the factor 'presence of elastic yarn' shows the strongest effect on UVR transmission. The second effective factor is found 'fabric structure' which is followed by the other two factors, viz. 'material type' and 'knit density' respectively

Effect of Valeriana officinalis hydroalcoholic extracton Giardia lamblia cysts

ntroduction: Giardia lamblia is an important and prevalent parasitic cause of diarrhea andgastroenteritis. Regarding the significance of giardiasis treatment particularly by medicinal plantsand G. lamblia resistance to chemical drugs, this study was conducted to study in vitro effect ofValeriana officinalis hydroalcoholic extract on G. lamblia cysts.Methods: In this experimental, laboratory study the hydroalcoholic extract of V. officinalis atconcentrations of 12.5, 25, 50, 100, and 200 mg/mL was applied on G. lamblia cysts. The findingswere compared with controls.Results: Mean results of the effect of V. officinalis hydroalcoholic extract at different concentrationson G. lamblia cysts after 1, 6 and 24 hours demonstrated that the extract at all concentrations causeda notable decrease in alive cysts, with more intensive effect at 100 and 200 mg/mL concentrationsand 100 fatality after 1 hour. As the extract concentration decreased, the speed of G. lamblia cystsinhibition declined.Conclusion: V. officinalis hydroalcoholic extract might be recommended as an effective compoundfor removing G. lamblia protozoan cysts, although further studies are needed to show this effect onhuman

Seroepidemiological study of Toxoplasma gondii infection of mentally retarded patients (Chahrmahal Va Bakhtiari Province, Iran)

Toxoplasmosis is a widespread zoonosis disease in the world. Although the infection by Toxoplasmo gondii is widely prevalent, the disease is not common and the most of acquired infections are asymptomatic. Whereas congenital Toxoplasmosis can occur with passing the trophozoite of the parasite from mother to child and the important aspect of this parasitic infection are the probable danger of congenital transmission and its severe effects of the fetus. In this case- control study, a total of 108 mentally-retarded cases inhabited in 3 rehabilitation centers and 50 apparently healthy donors as a control were screened to detect Toxoplasmosis antibodies. In this study serum of all participants (including mental retard & voluntary blood donors) were kept at - 20°C until laboratory examination. Samples were tested by commercial kit to detect anti Toxoplasma IgG and IgM antibodies. The survey showed that 35.2 of the mental retard group and 30 of control group had anti Toxoplasma IgG and IgM antibodies. From 31 cases in the group of mental retard who were positive for IgG antibody of Toxoplasmosis, 22 cases were male and 9 cases were female that indicated a positive relationship between presence of anti Toxoplasma IgG antibody and being male (P<0.05). Out of 50 volunteer blood donors 15 cases (30) had IgG and IgM antibodies of Toxoplasma gondii and statistic tests showed that there was no significant difference between cases and controls for IgG and IgM antibodies of Toxoplasma gondii. The rate of Toxoplasma infection in the mentally retarded group was approximately the same as in the normal control group that indicated Toxoplasmosis is not a serious problem in this individual group and played little or no role as a predisposing factor in the occurrence of congenital mental deficiency in this setting

Deciding the embedding nonlinear model dimensions and data size prior to daily reference evapotranspiration modeling

Evapotranspiration is an integral part of the hydrologic cycle and an important component in water resource development and management. It is difficult to obtain an accurate formula for ETO estimation that is suitable to encompass all environments, because evapotranspiration is an incidental, nonlinear, complex and unsteady process. Soft computing models are able to handle noisy data from a dynamic and nonlinear system such as the evapotranspiration process. But, they do not have the ability of pre-processing before model development. In this study, the Gamma Test (GT) technique is applied to find the best input combination and number of sufficient data points for evapotranspiration modeling under humid and arid conditions. It was found that the minimum required variables to construct a good nonlinear model under arid conditions are the minimum and maximum air temperature and wind speed data. For humid conditions the minimum and maximum air temperature, solar radiation and mean relative humidity are the most effective variables

Sublethal effect of nanosilver on the structure of gill of Caspian roach (Rutilus rutilus caspicus) fingerlings

Widespread use of nanosilver can be led the contamination of aquatic environment and impact on living organisms such as fishes. We investigated histopathological changes in the gills tissue of Caspian roach fingerlings after two weeks exposure to sublethal concentrations of nanosilver. Following one and two weeks exposure, necrosis, shortening of secondary lamellae, edema, destruction of epithelial lamella, shortening of secondary lamellae, epithelial lifting and curling of secondary lamellae were observed in gill tissues. This observation showed that exposure to sub-lethal concentrations of nanosilver is caused damages in the gill tissues of Caspian roach. The results demonstrated direct correlation of gill tissue damage and toxin exposure i.e. increasing nanosilver concentration is caused more tissue damage. Hence, histopathological changes of gill can considered as a proper indicator for nanosilver contamination of aquatic environments

Associated Factors of Suicidal Thoughts in HIV-Positive Individuals

Objective: As a first study, suicidal ideation and its correlates have been evaluated in Iranian HIV positive population . Methods: One hundred and fifty HIV-positive individuals were recruited in this cross-sectional study. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation (PANSI), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory (PSQI) and Somatization subscale of Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL 90) as self- reported questionnaires were used to assess the patients’ anxiety and depression status, suicidal thoughts, sleep quality and physiological factors, respectively . Results: Antiretroviral therapy and efavirenz intake did not show any significant effects on the patients’ suicidal ideation. Anxiety (p<0.001), depression (p<0.001), poor physical activity (P<0.001) and sleep quality (p<0.001) were significantly associated with the patients’ negative suicidal ideation. From the patients’ demographic data, unemployment (p = 0.04), living alone (p = 0.01), and lack of family support (p = 0.01) were correlated with the patients’ negative suicidal thoughts . Conclusion: Although hospitals are the main referral centers for providing care for HIV-positive individuals in Tehran, Iran, conducting a multi-center study with sufficient sample size from different areas of our country that include individuals with different behaviors and cultures is essential to confirm the results of this study

Generation of viable blastocysts from discarded human cleavage embryos

AbstractBackgroundWhile a relationship between embryo morphology, developmental ability, and genetic integrity exists, the selection of embryos with higher implantation potential remains a major challenge in assisted reproductive technology (ART). This study investigated blastocyst developmental competence and euploidy status in human embryos that had been classed as too poor quality to transfer (ET) or cryopreserve at the cleavage stage.Embryos were divided into three groups. Group 1 (n= 41) included good quality embryos from candidates of preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A). Groups II and III were the "rejected" supernumerary embryos, defined as suboptimal for ET or vitrification after morphological examination, with embryos randomly divided between the groups. Group II embryos (n= 31) were cultured up to the day 3 cleavage stage, when they were biopsied and fixed. Group III embryos (n= 27) were cultured up to the day 5 blastocyst stage, when they were evaluated for morphology and chromosomal status. Chromosomal status in all groups was assessed by multi-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X, and Y.ResultsEuploidy rates in groups I, II, and III were 56.1%, 38.7%, and 55.5 %, respectively. Among the blastocysts that developed from "rejected" embryos, 59.3% were classed as good quality. The most frequent chromosomal aneuploidy was related to the sex chromosome (22.2%). The mosaicism rate was not significantly different between the group II and III embryos (25.8% vs. 37.0%,p= 0.28).ConclusionIn conclusion, surplus poor-quality embryos rejected from clinical utilization at the cleavage stage may develop into viable blastocysts with normal chromosomal status for at least 5 chromosomes. Recovery of euploidy during poor-quality embryo transition from cleavage stage to blastocyst could provide an alternative choice for ET

Associated factors of sleep quality in HIV-positive individuals

Objective: In the present study, sleep quality and associated factors have been evaluated in HIV-positive individuals. Methods: 150 HIV-positive and 50 non-HIVpositive people were included. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, somatization subscale of Symptom Checklist-90 were used for evaluation of sleep quality, anxiety, depression and physiological factors respectively. Results: Statistically significant differences were found regarding sleep quality (p < 0.001) between the HIV-positive and control group. There was significant direct correlation between sleep quality and each of somatization subscale of Symptom Checklist-90, depression and anxiety scores in HIV-positive individuals. Conclusion: Depression, anxiety and physical morbidity were detected as main factors that affect sleep quality in the HIV-positive individuals