Educational Ethics in Academic Environment: Medical Students' Perspectives

Background and Objective: Educational ethics imply values such as honesty, reliance on one's own personal effort, not to abuse the efforts of others, and respect the dignity and respect for others. Students are faced with different situations in which they show various moral and immoral behaviors. This study aimed to explore medical students' viewpoints and experiences at Golestan University of Medical Sciences about ethics in academic environment in 2013. Materials and Methods: In this qualitative study a purposive sampling was used with maximum variation and 12 medical students participated in the research. Data was gathered using semi-structured interviews. At least an open question "When I say ethics in education or educational environment, what comes to your mind" was repeated in all the interviews. The interviews recorded and transcribed line by line and then analyzed according to "conventional content analysis" method. Results: "Respecting teacher dignity", "preserving dignity of classroom", "respecting and maintaining dignity for classmates", "seeking for knowledge and sciences” emerged as the main themes of the current study. Conclusion: University students considered learning environment as a sacred place; conforming its expected rules and ethics would be mandatory. Abnormal behavior causes not only loss of students dignity but also could be harmful to the calmness of educational atmosphere and may evoke different unpleasant pessimistic ideas about such academic environment

New bounds on the signed total domination number of graphs

In this paper, we study the signed total domination number in graphs and present new sharp lower and upper bounds for this parameter. For example by making use of the classic theorem of Turan, we present a sharp lower bound on this parameter for graphs with no complete graph of order r+1 as a subgraph. Also, we prove that n-2(s-s') is an upper bound on the signed total domination number of any tree of order n with s support vertices and s' support vertives of degree two. Moreover, we characterize all trees attainig this bound.Comment: This paper contains 11 pages and one figur

Third ventricle neuropeptide-Y infusion effect on metabolic parameters under different energy levels in diets

The goal of this study was to determine whether neuropeptide-Y affects the mean plasma concentrations of metabolic parameters such as thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), growth hormone (GH), insulin, glucagon, glucose, fatty acid and urea in the goats fed different energy content in diets. 16 goats were randomly divided into four groups. Animals in groups 1 and 2 were fed 100% energy content in diet and animals in groups 3 and 4 were fed 50% energy content in diet for 20 days. After 20 days, animals in groups 1 and 3 received daily infusion of 1 μg neuropeptide-Y and groups 2 and 4 received daily infusion of 2 μg galanin into their third ventricle for 5 days. Blood samples were collected daily from the jugular veins before infusions on day 4 until 4 days after the last infusions of neuropeptide-Y. Samples were assayed for plasma T3, T4, GH, insulin and glucagon concentrations by double-antibody radioimmunoassay (RIA). Glucose, fatty acid and urea concentrations were also measured. Lower dietary energy intake and infusions of 1 and 2 μg neuropeptide-Y significantly (P<0.01) decreased the mean plasma concentrations of T3, T4, insulin and glucose and significantly (P<0.01) increased the mean plasma concentrations of GH, glucagon, fatty acid and urea of the animals in groups 3 and 4. Different dosages of the neuropeptide-Y infusions did not change the plasma concentrations of the metabolic parameters in the animals fed normal energy content in diets. The results of this experiment indicate that neuropeptide-Y may negatively affected T3, T4, insulin and glucose and increased GH, glucagon, fatty acid and urea in the goats with negative energy balance, but not in those with the positive energy balance.Keywords: Neuropeptide-Y, metabolic hormones, goat, energy balanceAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(13), pp. 1523-153

A mirrorless spinwave resonator

Optical resonance is central to a wide range of optical devices and techniques. In an optical cavity, the round-trip length and mirror reflectivity can be chosen to optimize the circulating optical power, linewidth, and free-spectral range (FSR) for a given application. In this paper we show how an atomic spinwave system, with no physical mirrors, can behave in a manner that is analogous to an optical cavity. We demonstrate this similarity by characterising the build-up and decay of the resonance in the time domain, and measuring the effective optical linewidth and FSR in the frequency domain. Our spinwave is generated in a 20 cm long Rb gas cell, yet it facilitates an effective FSR of 83 kHz, which would require a round-trip path of 3.6 km in a free-space optical cavity. Furthermore, the spinwave coupling is controllable enabling dynamic tuning of the effective cavity parameters.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Mejora del rendimiento del biodiesel a partir de aceite de oliva no comestible pre-esterificado mediante transesterificación asistida por microondas

In the present research, biodiesel production from olive oils with different initial free fatty acid concentrations (2.5, 5.0, and 10.0%) was evaluated. A two-stage acid-catalyzed esterification and alkaline-catalyzed transesterification (ACT) process using the microwave heating method was compared with the traditional heating method. Free fatty acid was reduced to less than 2.0% in the first stage. Although no significant difference was observed between microwave and traditional esterification methods in terms of fatty acid reduction, the microwave treatment significantly decreased reaction time by 92.5%. Comparing microwave ACT results with those of the traditional heating method showed that the microwave can significantly increase methyl ester yield and purity, and simultaneously decrease reaction time. Physical constants of methyl esters were also improved using the microwave heating method. Therefore, the microwave heating method can be regarded as an efficient method instead of the two-stage method for biodiesel production. This method is capable of using inedible olive oil with high concentrations of free fatty acids.En la presente investigación, se evaluó la producción de biodiesel a partir de aceites de oliva con diferentes concentraciones iniciales de ácidos grasos libres (2,5, 5,0 y 10,0%). Se comparó un proceso de esterificación en dos etapas catalizada con ácido y transesterificación catalizada alcalina (ACT) usando microondas con el método de calentamiento tradicional. Los ácidos grasos libres se redujeron a menos del 2,0% en la primera etapa. Aunque no se observaron diferencias significativas entre los métodos de esterificación, por microondas y tradicional, en términos de reducción de ácidos grasos, sin embargo, el microondas disminuyó significativamente el tiempo de reacción en un 92,5%. La comparación de los resultados de ACT de microondas con los del método de calentamiento tradicional mostró que el microondas puede aumentar significativamente el rendimiento y la pureza del éster metílico, y simultáneamente disminuir el tiempo de reacción. Las constantes físicas de los ésteres metílicos también se mejoraron usando el método de calentamiento por microondas. Por lo tanto, el método de calentamiento por microondas puede considerarse como un método eficiente en lugar de la producción de biodiésel en dos etapas. Este método es capaz de usar aceite de oliva no comestible con altas concentraciones de ácidos grasos libres

Comparison of Post-injection Site Pain Between Technetium Sulfur Colloid and Technetium Tilmanocept in Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy.

BackgroundNo prior studies have examined injection pain associated with Technetium-99m Tilmanocept (TcTM).MethodsThis was a randomized, double-blinded study comparing postinjection site pain between filtered Technetium Sulfur Colloid (fTcSC) and TcTM in breast cancer lymphoscintigraphy. Pain was evaluated with a visual analogue scale (VAS) (0-100 mm) and the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ). The primary endpoint was mean difference in VAS scores at 1-min postinjection between fTcSC and TcTM. Secondary endpoints included a comparison of SF-MPQ scores between the groups at 5 min postinjection and construction of a linear mixed effects model to evaluate the changes in pain during the 5-min postinjection period.ResultsFifty-two patients underwent injection (27-fTcSC, 25-TcTM). At 1-min postinjection, patients who received fTcSC experienced a mean change in pain of 16.8 mm (standard deviation (SD) 19.5) compared with 0.2 mm (SD 7.3) in TcTM (p = 0.0002). At 5 min postinjection, the mean total score on the SF-MPQ was 2.8 (SD 3.0) for fTcSC versus 2.1 (SD 2.5) for TcTM (p = 0.36). In the mixed effects model, injection agent (p < 0.001), time (p < 0.001) and their interaction (p < 0.001) were associated with change in pain during the 5-min postinjection period. The model found fTcSC resulted in significantly more pain of 15.2 mm (p < 0.001), 11.3 mm (p = 0.001), and 7.5 mm (p = 0.013) at 1, 2, and 3 min postinjection, respectively.ConclusionsInjection with fTcSC causes significantly more pain during the first 3 min postinjection compared with TcTM in women undergoing lymphoscintigraphy for breast cancer

Effect of TiO2 nanoparticle on wicking phenomenon in PAN nanofiber yarns

In this research, different concentrations of PAN polymeric solutions with various percentages of TiO2 nanoparticles were electrospun to investigate vertical wicking of PAN/TiO2 nanofiber yarns. Results showed by the presence of nanoparticles in the nanofiber structure, the capillary rise increased, although by increasing concentrations of polymeric solutions and nanoparticles, capillary rises were statistically insignificant

A late Pleistocene long pollen record from Lake Urmia, NW Iran

A palynological study based on two 100-m long cores from Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran provides a vegetation record spanning 200 ka, the longest pollen record for the continental interior of the Near East. During both penultimate and last glaciations, a steppe of Artemisia and Poaceae dominated the upland vegetation with a high proportion of Chenopodiaceae in both upland and lowland saline ecosystems. While Juniperus and deciduous Quercus trees were extremely rare and restricted to some refugia, Hippophaë rhamnoides constituted an important phanerophyte, particularly during the upper last glacial sediments. A pronounced expansion in Ephedra shrub-steppe occurred at the end of the penultimate late-glacial period but was followed by extreme aridity that favoured an Artemisia steppe. Very high lake levels, registered by both pollen and sedimentary markers, occurred during the middle of the last glaciation and upper part of the penultimate glaciation. The late-glacial to early Holocene transition is represented by a succession of Hippophaë, Ephedra, Betula, Pistacia and finally Juniperus and Quercus. The last interglacial period (Eemian), slightly warmer and moister than the Holocene, was followed by two interstadial phases similar in pattern to those recorded in the marine isotope record and southern European pollen sequences