Real-time Method for Resonant Frequency Detection and Excitation Frequency Tuning for Piezoelectric Ultrasonic Transducers

Estimating the resonance frequency of a piezoelectric transducer and adjusting the operating frequency accordingly are crucial issues when maximum energy conversion is targeted during real-time operation. This paper presents a real-time method to detect the resonance frequency of a piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer during its operation and tune the operational frequency accordingly in order to improve the transducer energy conversion performance

The Effect of Work-Family Conflict Mediation on the General Quality of Life and the Quality of Working Life in Employed Women

Background: General life quality and its impact on the quality of working life are among the most important and critical issues in today's organizations. Work-family conflict is an important phenomenon that affects both employees and employers. This study aims to determine the relationship between general life quality and the quality of working life in working women with the role of work-family conflict mediation. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 2017. The study population was 4266 women working in the health department of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. In this study, 351 samples were selected by stratified sampling method in 11 cities of 19 provinces of Mazandaran province. Data were collected using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) with 26 questions, Casio quality of work life questionnaire with 29 questions, and Carlson work-family conflict with18 questions. The results were analyzed using SPSS 24 and AMOS 22 softwares. Furthermore, Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, structural equation model, path analysis and standard coefficients, Chi-square, fit index, Bootstrap, and Sobel tests were utilized. Results: Demographic data included age, education, marital status, professional background, employment status, household size, job title, and income. The relationship between general quality of life and quality of working life in employed women was significant (P-value = 0.009). There was a significant and negative relationship between life quality and work-family conflict (P-value = 0.009). The effect of mediating variable of work conflict, between general quality of life and specific quality of working life was not statistically significant (P-value = 0.009). Conclusion: Since general quality of life has a direct effect on the quality of working life in employed women, proper planning and training courses on time management, life and problem solving skills for employees, especially women working in the health sector can improve general  life quality as well as  quality of working life and reduce their work conflicts

Comparison of Relationship between Quality of Public Life and Quality Dedicated to Working Life in the Presence of the Mediator role of Work Conflict: A Multi-Group Analysis

Background and purpose: The concepts of work and life have the strongest and most effective relationship with individuals and society, and making a balance between them can have a direct impact on the achievement of organizational goals. The purpose of this study was to compare the relationship between quality of public life and quality dedicated to working life in the presence of the mediator role of work conflict. Materials and Methods: This applied study was conducted by implementing a descriptive-analytical method in 2017. The study population consisted of 351 working women in the health sector of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, who were selected using stratified sampling method. The survey tool was a standard questionnaire which was used to collect the data, and then the collected data was analyzed by SPSS 24 and AMOS 22. Results: The relationship between quality of public life and quality dedicated to work life in the job groups of women’s healthcare providers (P=0.0009,t=3.592), nurses and midwives' job group (P=0.009,t=2.595), and women’s technician/health expert working in health sector was significant (P=0.002, t=3.104). Whereas, there was no significant difference between the average quality of public life (P=0.117, F=1.788) and the quality dedicated to working life among the employees with different job titles (P=0.592, F=0.742). At the same time, the average of work conflicts was significantly different among different occupations (p = 0.009, F=3.152). Conclusion: The results showed that the relationship between quality of public life and the quality dedicated to work life varies from one job group to another. As a result, with proper planning aiming at increasing the quality of public life, an increase in the quality dedicated to work life and a reduction in their work conflicts can be seen.   &nbsp

Relationship of Services Utility with Patients Tending to Hospitals

Background & purpose: In the health sector, in addition to the important consequence of treatment, health system should meet the expectations regarding the desirability of services. Expectations and perceptions of patients about the desirability of services play an important role in selecting hospitals, their loyalty to the organization & replanning to purchase. Thus the present study has been done with the aim to determine the relationship between services desirability and patients’ tendency to public or private hospitals in Sari. Materials & Methods: This study is a descriptive and analytical type done in 2012 in four private and public hospitals located in Sari. The study population consists of hospitalized patients that have been subjected to inquiry by using 361stratified random samples. The survey tool was questionnaire that its validity was judged and approved by the teachers and its reliability was obtained by alpha Cronbach as 0.972. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS software, independent t-test, t-sample test and descriptive statistics. Results: Findings show that in services cost indexes, there are not any significant differences between public and private hospitals while in the other services desirability indexes such as accessibility, availability, speed, quality, and complete package of services and …, there is a significant difference between public and private hospitals. Conclusion: In patients’ tendency to hospitals, utility service indicators satisfy a significant impact. So, codified planning to improve these indexes in order to absorb more patients by authorities is required

Medical Errors Management Before and After Implementation of Accreditation in Hospital

Background and purpose: This study aimed to manage medical errors before and after the implementation of accreditation in public, private, and social security hospitals of Mazandaran, Iran. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study has been done in 38 hospitals. Data were collected through documents reviewed relating to 2013 and 2014. The paired t-test and Friedman test were used by statistical software SPSS. Results: Results showed that the most and the least percent of reported errors, before accreditation, in sequence, were related to public clinical unit (55.9%) and operating rooms (0.6%), and after accreditation in public clinical unit (46.6%) and operating rooms (2.3%) in teaching centers. The most errors (before accreditation) occurred in the morning (62%) and the least, in the evening (8.3%) in teaching centers. Furthermore, after accreditation, the most errors occurred in the morning (64.8%) and the least, in the night (17.3%) in therapeutic hospitals. Paired t-test showed that there is no significant difference between medical errors before and after accreditation. Friedman test showed that structural/systemic errors reported were the most important medical errors in teaching centers after accreditation and therapeutic hospitals before accreditation (P < 0.05). Conclusion: There is no significant difference between the rate of reported errors before and after the implementation of accreditation. This illustrates that the role of management in controlling of medical errors has been poor, and stronger management should be applied in providing health care services

The Effect of Electronic Education of Healthy Lifestyle on the Elderly’s Awareness and Satisfaction

Abstract Background and purpose:The major motivation behind all human communities&rsquo; efforts and transformation is to promote and advance human beings health. This study aimed at to compare the effect of a healthy lifestyle electronic education on the knowledge and satisfaction of the elderly. Materials and Methods:This semi-experimental method has been done along with pre- and post-test for people 65 and older at Sari-based retirement Club in 2011. A total of 30 elderly people have been chosen through simple random sampling in two distinct 15 individual classes for women and men. The learners&rsquo; knowledge about nutrition has been assessed by using the standard questionnaire. The data have been described by SPSS software, using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Results:Mean score of elderly&rsquo;s awareness before electronic education was 1.72 with the standard deviation of 0.71 which increased to 2.37 for the mean and 0.90 for the standard deviation after the education. The correlated t-test with 3.20, the observed difference is significant at the error level of 0.05. The mean of elderly&rsquo;s awareness before education was 11.55 with the standard deviation of 1.56 that increased after education 6.38 and 1.48, respectively. The level of satisfaction in the elderly was 52.73 with the standard deviation of 5.16. Conclusion:The result showed that training through educational film has been more effective on the elderly people&rsquo;s nutritional knowledge and also the old people have been satisfied with the healthy lifestyle training through educational film. Thus, training via film and other educational means is recommended to promote the elderly&rsquo;s health as a more efficient and effective method

Effects of cover crops and weed management on corn yield

One of the most important replacement methods used instead of chemical herbicide and conventional tillage is cover and companion crops’ application which is a major factor in sustainable agriculture. In order to determine the best cover crop in controlling weeds of corn field and its further effects on corn yield, an experiment was carried out in a factorial arrangement based on RCB design with three replicates. The treatments of this experiment included companion crops (clover, hairy vetch, basil and dill) as first factor and time of sowing cover and medicinal plant (synchronic sowing with corn and sowing 15 days after corn sowing) as second factor. The results showed that ear weight, ear length, leaf weight, grain length and yield were significantly influenced by companion crops and sowing date. Whereas, weed biomass was influenced by cover crop type × sowing date interaction. Also, the results indicated that increasing biomass weed resulted in linear reduction of grain yield. The highest ear weight, ear length, leaf weight, grain length and yield were obtained for cultivation of clover with corn. Synchronic cultivation of companion crops with corn had higher grain length and yield compared with cultivation 15 days after corn. The lowest weed biomass was recorded for concurrent cultivation of corn with clover due to rapid growth and high competitive power of clover in the early stage of growth