Factors inflencing the level of adoption in electronic commerce among SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute heavily to economic growth, social structure and employment as well as regional and local development. Consequently, they have become a significant sector of the economy. The lack of e-commerce (EC) research on SMEs in developing countries is challenging because the findings of previous EC studies on SMEs of developed countries cannot be freely generalized to the context of SMEs of developing countries. To help SMEs, in particular those in developing countries, with EC adoption, this research investigates the factors within the Technological Organizational Environmental (TOE) framework that affect the decision to adopt EC as well as the adoption and non-adoption of different EC tools. Furthermore the current research attempted to investigate the level of EC adoption in SMEs. A questionnaire-based survey using a quantitative approach is conducted. Two hundred thirty five manufacturing SMEs were selected as respondents in this work. The findings showed that seven out of ten factors have significant positive relationships with EC adoption, which were buyer/supplier pressure, support from technology vendors, perceived compatibility, CEO innovativeness, perceived relative advantage, competition and information intensity. Moreover, results showed that 57.02 percent of SMEs adopted EC

Examination of Behavioural Patterns of Psychological Distress and Evaluation of Related Factors: A latent class regression

Objectives: Psychological Distress (PD) is a unique and suffering emotional state in response to a stressor or specific need that leads to temporary or permanent impacts. Due to its negative effects on several features of life like the quality of life, health, performance, and productivity of individuals, PD and its consequences  are considered as a public health priority. In this study, we aim to identify the behavioral pattern of PD in the population of 18 to 65 years old in Mashhad using latent class regression and evaluate the related factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 425286 individuals aged 18 to 65, who were referred to health centers in Mashhad, northeastern Iran in the first half of 2018. The information required for this study including a checklist of demographic information and the Six Item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (k-6) was obtained from the Sina system. Results: Latent class regression identified three latent patterns of PD in answering the questions of the K-6 questionnaire, including severe PD (14%), low PD distress (40%), and no PD (46%). Statistical variables of this study due to the results are considered as the following; women, illiterate people, unemployed and divorced people, individuals aged between 50-59 years old, and people with low weight were more likely to be in severe PD class than no PD class. Conclusion: Although a small percentage of people were classified as severely disturbed, the findings showed a high rate of symptoms of distress and sadness even in the no PD class. Keywords: Cross-Sectional Studies, Psychological Distress, Latent Class Analysis, Ira

The comparison of the effectiveness of contingency management and trans-theoretical model on the risk of sexual behaviors in cocaine users: A short report study

BACKGROUND: A transtheoretical model (TTM) can be considered as a cognitive and motivational view, a component which plays a significant role in addiction. Further, the theoretical basis of contingency management (CM) treatment is the origin of behaviorism and relies on operant conditioning. The present study is performed aiming to determine the effectiveness of TTM and CM on cocaine use and sexual risk behaviors in cocaine users.METHODS: In this randomized clinical trial with 6-month follow-up, which was performed from 15 December 2014 to 20 November 2015, 75 male cocaine users were selected based on a respondent-driven sampling (RDS) method and were randomly divided into three groups by block randomization. The experimental group received a 12-week CM protocol and TTM and the control group was placed on the waiting list. Pre-test, post-test (after 12 weeks of training), and follow-up (six months) were administered. Data analysis was carried out using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), Scheffe’s post hoc test, and chi-square test through SPSS software.RESULTS: The mean age of the CM group, TTM group, and control group was estimated 26.12, 25.31, and 23.91, respectively. The primary outcome showed that CM and TTM had a significant effect on decreasing the sexual thoughts, sexual hyperactivity, and high risk behaviors. This effectiveness was stable until six months (P = 0.008), however there was not a significant difference between the two treatments (P = 0.200). The secondary outcome showed that in the changing stages, TTM (F-72%) and CM (F-60%) had a significant effectiveness which maintained until the follow-up stage.CONCLUSION: The findings more enhance the hope to integrate the theoretical approaches into the clinical interventions

Factors influencing the level of electronic commerce among central Iranian SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute heavily to economic growth,social structure and employment as well as regional and local development. Consequently, they have become a significant sector of the economy. Moving towards globalization and rapid technological changes, including the internet and e-commerce (EC), can offer new opportunities for SMEs. Researchers have recently discovered that information technology-related innovations such as EC are being used increasingly by SMEs because of their various benefits. The lack of EC research on SMEs of developing countries is challenging because the findings of previous EC studies on SMEs of developed countries cannot be freely generalized to the context of SMEs of developing countries. This lack of generalizability is due the fact that in most developing countries including Iran, and in addition to the innate limitation of SMEs, EC adoption by SMEs is also hindered by the quality, availability, and cost of accessing necessary infrastructure. Therefore, the recent literature recommends that studies should be strong enough to capture most, if not all, of the idiosyncrasies of EC adoption within SMEs of developing countries. To help SMEs, in particular those in developing countries, with EC adoption, this research investigates the factors within the Technological Organizational Environmental (TOE) framework that affect the decision to adopt EC as well as the adoption and nonadoption of different EC tools within two hundred thirty five manufacturing SMEs in central Iran. Furthermore the current research attempted to investigate the level of EC adoption in SMEs. In this research a questionnaire-based survey using a quantitative approach is conducted. The research model hypothesised ten adoption predictors within three contexts of TOE framework; relative advantage, cost, compatibility, business size, information intensity, support from technology vendors, pressure from suppliers/buyers,competition, CEO’s innovativeness, and CEO’s involvement. The findings showed that seven out of ten factors have significant positive relationships with EC adoption, which were buyer/supplier pressure, support from technology vendors, perceived compatibility,CEO innovativeness, perceived relative advantage, competition and information intensity. Moreover, results showed that 57.02 percent of SMEs adopted EC. In addition to this, there was an adoption rate of 48.50 percent for email, 29.10 percent for intranet,and 32.90 percent for extranet/VPN, 41.04 percent for web sites, 22.39 percent for EDI,13.43 percent for EFT and 11.19 percent for ESCM. However, the factors that appeared to be significant and the ones that appeared to be insignificant led to a conclusion the weakness of the EC adoption phenomenon in Iranian SMEs. This research has managerial implications for practitioners in Iran and internationally, and theoretical implications for researchers who are interested in EC adoption within SMEs

Middle Eastern-American Women, Media, and Empowerment

The American mainstream media have traditionally represented Middle Eastern women as powerless victims with no voice and no agency. While this is a relatively well-known problem, what sometimes gets less attention are the ways Middle Eastern-American women actually think and feel about these stereotypical and problematic representations, and how they struggle to counter these representations with their own media engagement, and possibly gaining empowerment on a variety of media platforms, including digital, alternative, and social media. This thesis presents a qualitative research on Middle Eastern-American women involved in the media through a series of interviews with the women themselves, in which the research outlines the structural challenges and cultural barriers they face in attaining empowerment and equal representation. This research concludes with the argument that although the digital media are seen to be useful in effecting social transformation, structural and cultural transformations within the mass media are critically crucial in regard to Middle Eastern-American women’s representation and empowerment

Ebola viral disease: a review literature

Ebola virus is transmitted to people as a result of direct contact with body fluids containing virus of an infected patient. The incubation period usually lasts 5 to 7 d and approximately 95% of the patients appear signs within 21 d after exposure. Typical features include fever, profound weakness, diarrhea, abdominal pain, cramping, nausea and vomiting for 3-5 days and maybe persisting for up to a week. Laboratory complications including elevated aminotransferase levels, marked lymphocytopenia, and thrombocytopenia may have occurred. Hemorrhagic fever occurs in less than half of patients and it takes place most commonly in the gastrointestinal tract. The symptoms progress over the time and patients suffer from dehydration, stupor, confusion, hypotension, multi-organ failure, leading to fulminant shock and eventually death. The most general assays used for antibody detection are direct IgG and IgM ELISAs and IgM capture ELISA. An IgM or rising IgG titer (four-fold) contributes to strong presumptive diagnosis. Currently neither a licensed vaccine nor an approved treatment is available for human use. Passive transfer of serum collected from survivors of Junin virus or Lassa virus, equine IgG product from horses hypervaccinated with Ebola virus, a “cocktail” of humanized-mouse antibodies (ZMapp), recombinant inhibitor of factor VIIa/tissue factor, activated protein C, RNA-polymerase inhibitors and small interfering RNA nano particles are among the therapies in development. Preclinical evaluation is also underway for various vaccine candidates. One is a chimpanzee adenovirus vector vaccine; other vaccines involve replication-defective adenovirus serotype 5 and recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus

The Clozapine-induced Toxicity via Induction of Oxidative Stress and Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Human Blood Lymphocytes and Protecting role of L-Carnitine: Clozapine-induced Toxicity on Lymphocytes

Clozapine is a useful antipsychotic drug but with serious, life threatening toxicity effects. The aim of this study is to assess the direct cytotoxicity effect of clozapine (CLZ) on human blood lymphocytes and investigate the protective effect of L‐carnitine (LC) against clozapine‐induced cytotoxicity. Clozapine at 70 μM concentration induced cytotoxicity following 12 h. The Clozapine induced cytotoxicity was associated with intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) collapse, lysosomal membrane injury, lipid peroxidation, and depletion of glutathione (GSH) and raising of oxidized glutathione (GSSG). We showed that LC (1 mM) has a beneficial cytoprotective effect against clozapine-induced toxicity. Summery, clozapine causes organelles damages and triggers oxidative stress in lymphocytes. These data suggest that using of L‐carnitine could be useful for prevention and treatment of clozapine toxicity. Finally, it could be concluded that LC exerts a beneficial antioxidant and mitochondrial protective effects against oxidative stress induced by CLZ

Genetic attributes of Iranian cystic fibrosis patients: the diagnostic efficiency of CFTR mutations in over a decade

Objectives: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most prevalent autosomal recessive disorder among Caucasians. Mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene cause this pathology. We, therefore, aimed to describe the CFTR mutations and their geographical distribution in Iran.Method: The mutation spectrum for 87 families from all Iranian ethnicities was collected using ARMS PCR, Sanger sequencing, and MLPA.Results: Mutations were identified in 95.8% of cases. This dataset revealed that the most frequent mutations in the Iranian population were F508del, c.1000C>T, c.1397C>G, c.1911delG, and c.1393-1G>A. In addition, we found weak evidence for Turkey being the possible geographical pathway for introducing CFTR mutations into Iran by mapping the frequency of CFTR mutations.Conclusion: Our descriptive results will facilitate the genetic detection and prenatal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis within the Iranian population