Examining the Role of RFID Technology on SCM Effectiveness, Case: Food industry of Iran

Taking advantage of the new technology, supply chain has already created a chain of cooperation among its own Companies, and, in a larger scale, within a universal environment. Superior to these technologies is RFID which is an abbreviation for Radio Frequency Identification. RFID is one of the most advanced technologies in the contemporary world. Perishable products and hose with short time expiry particularly food products bring about many challenges and problems for the supply chain managers. Such challenges are mostly due to variety in the number of products, especial need for keeping track of the products during the supply chain process, their short term expiry; need to control their temperature during the supply chain process, and their high quantity. Using RFID is one of the best possible ways that can help managers deal with logistical problems of perishable products. In food industry, storage level is generally low because of a high possibility of expiry. Today, changes in methods of production, distribution, maintenance and sale of food products have led to some changes in the demand of consumers for higher quality as well as greater longevity of food products. In order for more confidence in desirable packing in supply chain of food products, such innovations as smart packaging or active packaging have achieved popularity

The psychometric properties of the Persian version of the contamination cognition scale (CCS)

Objective: In recent years, many researchers have been searching for effective cognitive factors in the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). One of the scales designed to measure this characteristic is the contamination cognition scale (CCS) that evaluates 2 dimensions: overestimating the likelihood and severity of contamination. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of CCS. Method: The study population of this descriptive psychometric study included students of Shahed University. A total of 490 students were selected via cluster sampling and completed the CCS. CCS was translated and back- translated before given to the students. The Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire (OBQ) and the Padua Inventory (PI) were used. To assess the evidence for the validity of the scale, the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used. The gathered data were analyzed by SPSS-22 and Amos-22 software. Results: The results of the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that one-factor model did not have adequate fitness (RMSEA > .05). Therefore, to explore the factors of this scale, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used, and it revealed 3 factors (public equipment, food, and restroom) for each of the dimensions (likelihood and severity). CFA by AMOS-22 confirmed the three-factor model (GFI, CFI, and NFI > .95; RMSEA < .05). Furthermore, the results supported criteria validity of CCS with the PI total score (0.56- 0.47, p < 0.001) and PI-contamination subscale (0.71-0.75, p < 0.001). Also, the correlation between CCS and responsibility/threat subscale of the OBQ was significant (0.47- 0.49, p < 0.001) The Cronbach's alpha for likelihood dimensions total was 0.93 and it was 0.94 for severity dimension total. The composite reliability was 0.95 for the likelihood dimension and 0.96 for severity dimension of CCS. Also, the test-retest reliability after a 4-week interval was confirmed (likelihood: r = 0.78; severity: r = 0.81, p < .001). Conclusion: The results indicated that one-factor model of CCS did not have adequate fitness, but three-factor model was confirmed in both dimensions (likelihood and severity). According to the results of the present study, the reliability and validity of the Persian version of CCS were acceptable. © 2018 Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Relationship between disgust propensity and contamination obsessive-compulsive symptoms: The mediating role of information processing bias

Background: Early studies showed that disgust contributes to developing the contamination obsessive-compulsive disorder (C-OCD) and fear of contamination. Despite considering disgust to explain the fear of contamination as a symptom of C-OCD, there are few studies on the mediating role of information processing bias (IPB) in the relationship between disgust propensity (DP) and the fear of contamination. Objectives: The current study aimed at exploring the mediating role of IPB between DP and fear of contamination. Methods: The current descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 386 students selected by cluster sampling method. The employed tools were disgust propensity and sensitivity scale-revised (DPSS-R), the Padua inventory (PI), obsessive beliefs questionnaire (OBQ), and spatial cueing task. Data were analyzed with Amos-22 software. Bootstrap methods were used to analyze the mediating role. Results: Results of the structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that the proposed model had a good fitness GFI (goodness of fit index), TLI (the Tucker-Lewis index), and CFI (comparative fit index) > 0.95 and RMSEA (root mean square error of approximation) = 0.03. The results showed that the relationship between DP and fear of contamination was mediated by IPB. Conclusions: Results indicated the impact of disgust propensity on fear of contamination through information processing. These findings emphasized that information processing is essential to explain C-OCD. © 2018, Author(s)

The risk factors and related hospitalizations for cases with positive and negative COVID-19 tests: A case-control study

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk factors for hospitalizations of cases with positive and negative COVID-19 tests. Methods: In this case-control study, the case and control groups consisted of 292 COVID-19 patients and 296 non-COVID-19 patients. Patients who referred to a reference laboratory in Tehran (Iran) in March 2020 were selected and interviewed. The patients were contacted by telephone and data were recorded through a questionnaire. Results: The sample of this study consisted of 588 patients (349 59% females, 239 41% males) with a mean age of 42 ± 15. The results of this study showed that comorbidities like diabetes (OR = 7.42), hypertension (OR = 4.85), asthma and respiratory diseases (OR = 5.64) in addition to symptoms including fever (OR = 6.67), chills (OR = 11.2), anorexia (OR = 11.3), dyspnea (OR = 4.8), weakness and lethargy (OR = 5.7) were the most predictive variables for hospitalization of non-COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, demographical variables like male gender (OR = 3.71), high age (>50; OR = 3.12), BMI (>25; OR = 2.37), travel (OR = 2.79), comorbidities including diabetes (OR = 5.26), hypertension (OR = 3.7) and underlying immunosuppressant patients receiving corticosteroid therapy (OR = 3.62) in addition to symptoms like anorexia OR = 2.55 and dyspnea (OR = 6.99) tend to increase the risk of hospital admission in COVID-19 patients, suggesting their predictive values for hospitalization of COVID-19 patients. Conclusion: Our results indicated that different factors tend to increase the odds of hospital admission in patients with positive and negative COVID-19 tests, suggesting their predictive values for hospitalization. © 202

XMIAR: X-ray medical image annotation and retrieval

The huge development of the digitized medical image has been steered to the enlargement and research of the Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems. Those systems retrieve and extract the images by their own low level features, like texture, shape and color. But those visual features did not aloe the users to request images by the semantic meanings. The image annotation or classification systems can be considered as the solution for the limitations of the CBIR, and to reduce the semantic gap, this has been aimed annotating or to make the classification of the image with few controlled keywords. In this paper, we suggest a new hierarchal classification for the X-ray medical image using the machine learning techniques, which are called the Support Vector Machine (SVM) and k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN). Hierarchy classification design was proposed based on the main body region. Evaluation was conducted based on ImageCLEF2005 database. The obtained results in this research were improved compared to the previous related studies

Diabetic retinopathy clinical practice guidelines: Customized for Iranian population

Purpose: To customize clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for management of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in the Iranian population. Methods: Three DR CPGs (The Royal College of Ophthalmologists 2013, American Academy of Ophthalmology Preferred Practice Pattern 2012, and Australian Diabetes Society 2008) were selected from the literature using the AGREE tool. Clinical questions were designed and summarized into four tables by the customization team. The components of the clinical questions along with pertinent recommendations extracted from the above-mentioned CPGs; details of the supporting articles and their levels of evidence; clinical recommendations considering clinical benefts, cost and side effects; and revised recommendations based on customization capability (applicability, acceptability, external validity) were recorded in 4 tables, respectively. Customized recommendations were sent to the faculty members of all universities across the country to score the recommendations from 1 to 9. Results: Agreed recommendations were accepted as the fnal recommendations while the non-agreed ones were approved after revision. Eventually, 29 customized recommendations under three major categories consisting of screening, diagnosis and treatment of DR were developed along with their sources and levels of evidence. Conclusion: This customized CPGs for management of DR can be used to standardize the referral pathway, diagnosis and treatment of patients with diabetic retinopathy. © 2016 Journal of Ophthalmic and Vision Research

IMPLANTATION OF AN IRANIAN MADE HYDROXYAPATITE IN RABIT"S ORBIT: DOES IT WORK EFFECTIVELY?

Introduction. Good results of foreign made Hydroxyapatite in human orbit, expensive American and Europian made hydroxyapatites, the possibility to make this material from coral by hydrothermal method and good source of coral in Persian Gulf made us start this study.&#13; Methods. The left eye of 21 male rabits weighing 200-270 grams were enucleated and implanted by 14mm coralline spheres being covered by preserved rabits sclera (11 with pure coral and 10 with Iranian made hydroxyapatite). The implants were removed for pathologic study after an average time of 79.4 days of clinical evaluation. The type of coral was acropora and the hydrothermal Ion exchange form carbonate to phosphate was performed in chemistry department of Isfahan University.&#13; Results. No evidence of extrusion was seen in implants. Exposure phenomena was seen 55 and 12 percent in coralline and hydroxyapatite implantation, respectively (P &lt; 0.05). Tissue inflammation was detect 89 and 25 percent of coralline and hydroxyapatite implantation, respectively (P &lt; 0.05).&#13; Discussion. The tissue tolerance of rabits orbit to Iranian made hydroxyapatite was almost fair and it"s use in human"s orbit could probably be tried safely. Orbital implantation of natural coral in rabits" orbit is accompanied by moderate to sever tissue inflammatory response and tissue necrosis, creating more clinical complications

Million visual analogue scale questionnaire: Validation of the persian version

Study Design Descriptive cross-sectional study. Purpose To validate the Persian version of the Million Visual Analogue Scale Questionnaire (MVAS), a self-administered low back pain (LBP) questionnaire. Overview of Literature The majority of LBP questionnaires translated into Persian evaluate the impact of LBP on daily living. The MVAS is one of the most commonly used self-administered LBP questionnaires, and was developed to assess a different direction and effect of activities of daily living on LBP intensity. Methods The questionnaire was translated into Persian with the forward-backward method and was administered to 150 patients randomly sampled from an occupational medicine clinic in Tehran in 2017. Results Cronbach’s alpha for all subscales ranged between 0.670 and 0.799. Confirmatory factor analysis showed adequate construct validity of the Persian version of the MVAS, with root mean square error of approximation 0.046, goodness of fit index 0.902, and comparative fit index 0.969. Other indexes were satisfactory. Conclusions The Persian MVAS is a valid and reliable instrument that can assess the effect of various daily activities on the intensity of LBP