Acceptability and safety of the menstrual cups among Iranian women: a cross-sectional study

Background: Menstrual cup is one of the menstrual management products that is available throughout the world and can be effective in improving women's quality of life by empowering women in menstrual management. Although menstrual cups have recently entered the Iranian market, the use of this product is limited among women. The aim of this study was to determine the acceptability and safety of menstrual cups among Iranian women. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in 2020. Iranian women between the ages of 18 and 50 with regular menstrual periods who used the menstrual cup at least for three months were included. Participants were selected through continuous sampling, and they completed a web-based questionnaire including a demographic characteristics form as well as checklists on acceptability and safety through a link sent electronically via social media. Results: The mean score of the overall satisfaction with the cup was 6.54 ± 0.76, and the leakage had the lowest mean score among the satisfaction items (5.25 ± 1.63). About 83 of participants reported experiencing menstrual cup leakage. Among the reported health risks, the highest mean score was for vaginal pain during removal (23.9). Most participants (83.9) were familiar with the cup via social networks and 98.6 recommended this product to other women. Conclusions: The high level of acceptability and safety of the menstrual cup showed that this product is a suitable alternative for menstrual management in Iranian women. The results of the study help healthcare providers to learn more about the potential advantages and disadvantages of using cup and create trust in the menstrual cup use based on the results of local evidence-based research. © 2021, The Author(s)

A Dynamic Approach to Multi-Agent-Based Simulation in Urban Transportation Planning

Reviewing previous studies on using computational models for analyzing the effect of transport policies on transportation systems shows that agentbased models have not been used much in spite of their great potential for simulating dynamic aspects of policy instruments and travel behavior. The main reason can be the need for a lot of input data which is hard to prepare for the modeler. This has led to limited use of agent-based models in previous studies and even in those studies the scope of simulation is limited to only particular scenarios. In this thesis, I proposed a general-purpose agent-based simulation model for urban transportation that supports simulation of a wide range of policy instruments. The proposed model is designed in a way that a large part of the input data can be generated automatically using online web-services. The thesis also reports an empirical study on using our proposed generalpurpose model together with on-line travel planners in agent-based simulation for predicting the effect of different policy instruments on travel behavior. The results from our empirical study showed that our generalpurpose agent-based model predicts 72% of the real travel decisions correctly. Furthermore, the results of the simulation for various scenarios and combination of them seem to be acceptable. Finally, we found out that the use of on-line services for data collection increases the speed and flexibility of the system for defining and running new scenarios. However, the scalability of using on-line services in simulation is constrained by limitations of online service providers. The main contributions of this thesis are a general-purpose agentbased simulation model for urban transportation and a novel approach to automatically generate input data to the simulation using online travel planners and other web-services. This novel approach mitigates the challenge of agent-based simulation as a data-intensive method. This can lead to more widespread use for agent-based simulation in solving complex and realistic transportation scenarios. Another contribution of this thesis is on visualization of simulation output. One of the main challenges of using simulation systems by transport planners and decision makers as end-users is to understand the complex output of the simulation. In this thesis, I empirically demonstrated how the usability of a freight transport simulation system is improved by adding a visualization module that illustrates the results of the simulation for the end-users.Vid tidpunkten för disputationen var följande delarbete opublicerat: delarbete V (manuskript).At the time of the doctoral defence the following paper was unpublished: paper V (manuscript).</p

Visualization of data from transportation simulation systems

Nowadays by increasing importance of information in all sectors, illustrating data in a communicative format helps decision makers to understand and analyze effectively large amount of information in a short time. Information visualization, as a way of presenting different data types in a more understandable form, is growing increasingly in various areas. This thesis aims to investigate how information visualization could be used to increase readability and usability of transportation simulation data. Most of the previous studies in this area have focused on visualization of transportation infrastructures such as roads, bridges, etc.; while the main focus of this thesis is visualizing the outputs of transportation simulation systems. In order to study the role of information visualization in the transportation systems, we have investigated the visualization applications in a real implemented agent-based transportation simulator called TAPAS as case. In our case study, the visualization related requirements of users were analyzed, and the visualization tool was designed and developed based on the identified requirements

A survey on the use of computational models for ex ante analysis of urban transport policy instruments

This paper provides an analysis of the use of computational models for predicting the effects of different policy instruments on urban transport systems. We define a framework for describing and comparing current approaches that takes into account (i) what policy instruments are studied, (ii) what type of effects are predicted, (iii) which factors are modeled, (iv) the type of model used, and (v) what data sources are used. The main conclusions of the analysis are: (i) despite the recognized potential of agent-based modeling to study behavioural change of a population, it rarely has been used for ex-ante analysis of policy instruments using real-world data, (ii) some factors that influence travellers’ decisions, such as comfort and departure time, have not beenconsidered much in the modeling, (iii) ex-ante analysis of economic instruments constitute the majority of studies, but informative instruments have been recently considered due to the increasing use of information technology in transportation

Visualization of data from transportation simulation systems

Information visualization, as a way of presenting different data types in an understandable form, has the potential to support the analysis of transportation data. Visualization can often help decision makers to efficiently analyse large amount of information. One application area of information visualization is to support the analysis of the transportation data and thus facilitate the decision-making process. Most of the previous studies in this area have focused on visualization of transportation infrastructures such as roads, bridges in order to enhance the public awareness regarding upcoming projects which makes it easier to reach a consensus on the high-level decisions. However, the main focus of this article is on methods for visualization of data generated by transportation simulation systems to support analysis of the consequences of applying different transport policy measures, such as the introduction of road user charging or investment in new infrastructure. In this work, we investigate how visualization techniques could address the challenges of transportation simulation data analysis in order to facilitate the decision-making process. For this purpose, we have applied the visualization methods to a real implemented agent-based transportation simulator called TAPAS. In this case study, we have analysed the visualization related requirements of users using a user-centric approach and the visualization tool has been designed and developed based on the identified requirements

The Relationship Between Moral Sensitivity and Anxiety Sensitivity in Nursing Students of Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences

Background and Objectives: Moral sensitivity is the ability to recognize moral conflicts and consequences in decisions, and anxiety sensitivity is a structure of individual differences, in which a person fears physical symptoms associated with anxiety arousal. Anxiety sensitivity is vital in the persistence of anxiety disorders. This study was done to determine the relationship between moral sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity in nursing students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This research was descriptive-correlational. The samples included 336 nursing students in all grades at Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences in 2020. Sampling was performed continuously using virtual space. In this research, the demographic information form, Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire (MSQ), and Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 16 and analytical and descriptive tests, such as Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: The score of moral sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity was obtained as 81 and 31.4, respectively. The correlation coefficient between moral sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity was not statistically significant (r=0.065; P=0.238). Also, the two components of fear of physical concerns had a significant relationship with the dimensions of benevolence and honesty. Conclusion: Considering that the lack of interest in the nursing field increases anxiety sensitivity, it is suggested to activities be done to improve interest in nursing among students. Despite the lack of a significant relationship between these two components, the importance of these two components should not be neglected and it is better to carry out studies to better understand the factors affecting moral sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity and to improve these two components

On the use of on-line services in transport simulation

In this paper, we introduce a new approach for collecting data for transport simulation models that is using on-line services in order to outsource parts of the modeling and computation of simulation models. We describe our approach of using on-line services as part of a simulation model and we present our experiences of applying the approach to a case study using the ASIMUT model, where the travelers between two neighbour cities in Southern Sweden are modeled. The results from our case study shows that the use of on-line services for data collection in transport simulation can bring advantages to the simulation model, for example, in terms of reduced needs for modeling of the transport system as well as computation inside the simulation model and improved access to the most recent information. We also noticed some limitations, such as the inability to access to information regarding the future such as timetables and no control over data provided by third-party services. However, we argue that there are solutions for each of the identified limitations, and therefore we believe that the suggested approach might provide a unique opportunity for future transportation simulation models

A visualization toolkit for transportation simulation systems

In this work, we investigate how visualization techniques could address the challenges of transportation simulation data analysis in order to facilitate the decision-making process for transportation simulation users. For this purpose, we have applied the visualization methods in a real implemented agent-based transportation simulator called TAPAS as a case. We have analyzed the visualization related requirements of users using a user-centric approach and an interactive visualization toolkit has been designed and developed based on the identified requirements. This paper presents a description of the visualization toolkit which will be used to investigate how the actors in a transport chain are expected to act when different types of governmental control policies are applied, such as, fuel taxes, road tolls, vehicle taxes and requirements on vehicles

The Fourth Wave of Digitalization and Public Transport : Opportunities and Challenges

We investigate the opportunities and challenges of the forth wave of digitalization, also referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT), with respect to public transport and how it can support sustainable development of society. Environmental, economical, and social perspectives are considered through analysis of the existing literature and explorative studies. We conclude that there are great opportunities for both transport operators and planners, as well as for the travelers. We describe and analyze a number of concrete opportunities for each of these actors. However, in order to realize these opportunities, there are also a number of challenges that needs to be addressed. There are both technical challenges, such as data collection issues, interoperability, scalability and information security, and non-technical challenges such as business models, usability, privacy issues, and deployment

The global, regional and national epidemiology, incidence, mortality, and burden of ovarian cancer

Abstract Background Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate among gynecological malignancies and is associated with poor prognosis. Since the accurate assessment of the global burden along with the trend of cancers contributes to the development of policies, this study aimed to explain the incidence, mortality, and burden of ovarian cancer using the global burden of disease (GBD) 2019 study. Methods Epidemiological data have been collected from the study of the GBD 2019. Data were extracted globally for 204 countries and groups based on a socio‐demographic index (SDI), WHO regions, continents, World Bank regions, and 22 GBD regions. Results In 2019, a total of 294,422 new cases of ovarian cancer were reported. The highest age‐standardized incidence rate (ASIR) was reported in areas with higher SDI, World high‐income countries, continental Europe, and then America. In GBD regions, the highest age‐standardized incidence is in Central Europe. In 2019, a total of 198,412 deaths due to ovarian cancer were reported. The highest ASR death is related to countries with high SDI and the World Bank high‐income countries. In 2019, adjusted years of life with disabilities (DALYs) due to ovarian cancer were reported to be 5,359,737, of which 5,205,660 were related to lost years of life (YLLs), and 154,077 were related to years of life with disabilities (YLDs). Conclusions In 2019, the highest age‐standardized incidence of ovarian cancer, ASR death, and DALYs ASR belong to the high SDI countries. Designing interventions based on risk factors as well as providing preventive approaches to reduce the risk of this cancer, improving the treatment of ovarian cancer, and using appropriate and invasive treatments are recommended