Iranian and American Moral Judgments for Everyday Dilemmas Are Mostly Similar

Moral judgment is a complex cognitive process that partly depends upon social and individual cultural values. There have been various efforts to categorize different aspects of moral judgment, but most studies depend upon rare dilemmas. We recruited 25 subjects from Tehran, Iran, to rate 150 everyday moral scenarios developed by Knutson et al. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), we observed that the same moral dimensions (except socialness dimension) were driven by the same moral cognitive factors (norm violation, intention, and social affect) in Iranian vs. American studies. However, there were minor differences in the factor loadings between the two cultures. Furthermore, based on the EFA results, we developed a short form of the questionnaire by removing eleven of the fifteen scenarios from each of the ten categories. These results could be used in further studies to better understand the similarities and differences in moral judgment in everyday interactions across different cultures. © Copyright © 2021 Yazdanpanah, Soltani, Mirfazeli, Shariat, Jahanbakhshi, GhaffariHosseini, Alavi, Hosseinpour, Javadnia and Grafman

Assessing the serum levels of ferritin and selenium in three important infections of childhood, compared to a control group

The purpose of this study is to evaluate serum levels of selenium and ferritin in acute infections of childhood. Patients aged 2-15, hospitalized from autumn 2010-2011 in infectious ward of Rasoul-e-Akram hospital were recruited to the study. Patients with documented diagnosis of GI, RTI, UTI were case groups, who were compared to one control group, including patients hospitalized in the same hospital in surgery ward without any active infection. Blood samples were gathered from all patients and ferritin and selenium serum levels were measured in serum specimens. Diagnosis of the three infections was made by a unique infectious specialist. The mean and standard deviation of serum selenium concentration of GI, RTI, UTI and control groups were 64.70±21.43 μg/l, 61.60±19.25 μg/l, 66.37±22.11 μg/l and 62.20±22.08 μg/l, respectively without significant differences in serum selenium levels between these groups (P-value =0.608). The median of serum ferritin levels in GI, RTI, UTI and control groups were 60.05 (48.82-78.01), 62.00 (49.07- 79.35), 60.60 (51.78-79.52) and 58.75 (45.32-76.72), respectively. The difference in ferritin levels between these groups was statistically significant (P-value <0.001). Compared with the control, the RTI and GI groups had significantly higher levels (P<0.001); however, the UTI group was not statistically different from the control (P=0.098). None of the children had ferritin constrictions below 12. As far as selenium and ferritin deficiency is an important issue in developing countries, it would be valuable to assess the role of micronutrients in infectious diseases, as we may be able to prevent such fatal infections by micronutrient supplementations. © 2015 Bentham Science Publishers

Vitamin A, D & zinc serum levels in children with acute gastroentritis: A case control study: Tehran, Iran

Background and Objective: Diarrhea (as one of the main manifestations of parasitic or microbial infections in gastrointestinal tract) is still a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in children younger than 5 years old in developing countries such as Iran. Objective: Identify and compare the relationship between serum levels of zinc, vitamin A and D in children with acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and the control group to demonstrate that those who need hospitalization due to infection have lower levels of said elements. Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional study on 25 patients with AGE in pediatric ward of Rasul Akram hospital and Bahrami Hospital during a year (2011-2012), were compared to 40 other patients who were admitted to surgical wards for elective surgery. 72 of all the patients were male and 28 were female. All patients were older than 6 months years; mean age of cases was 2.17 years. Serum levels of vitamins A and D and zinc were measured using HPLC; Radioimmunoassay; atomic methods in 2 groups. Findings: Despite the lower levels of vitamins A in cases than controls, serum levels were not significantly different (p=0.5). Serum levels of zinc were considerably but not significantly lower in cases than the controls (p=0.06). However, serum levels of vitamin D were significantly lower in AGE cases (p=0.003). Conclusion: We found lower serum levels of vitamin D in AGE cases but no difference had found in serum levels of vitamin A and zinc between the two groups probably is the end result of various effects of vitamin A and zinc on diarrhea in different age groups and AGE. This trial emphasizes therapeutic effects of vitamin D supplementation on AGE in children especially in those with malnutrition and in developing countries. Therefore, other trials on a larger scale designed to investigate discriminating different etiologies for AGE and in different age groups is performed. © 2016 Bentham Science Publishers