World AIDS Day Campaign in Iran: A Population-Based Study

"nBackground: This was a population-based study to examine whether the campaign for World AIDS Day 2005 in Iran was suc­cessful."nMethods: A random sample of the general population was asked whether they had seen the campaign and knew the mes­sage. They were also asked whether it was attractive; there was anything offensive, whether the campaign could raise aware­ness, and how they rated the campaign. In all 1215 individuals were approached and 1014 agreed to take part in the study."nResults:  Only 43% (n= 435) said that they had seen the campaign. Of those who had seen the campaign 79% knew the sub­ject and 24% acknowledged the main message correctly. Only 27% said it was very attention getting or eye-catching, 64% said the campaign could raise awareness but 75% said the message was unclear, and confusing. A few respondents (23%) rated that the campaign overall looked good or very good."nConclusion: The findings suggest that if the World AIDS Day is an opportunity to give visibility to the problem, then there is an urgent need to think seriously to choose other approaches for raising global awareness on the state of the epidemic in Iran and elsewhere

Assessing Hospital Performance by the Pabon Lasso Model

"nBackground: The Pabon Lasso model was  applied to assess the performance of six State-run hospitals in the province of Kohgilooyeh & Boyer-Ahmad, to produce information that used by policy makers in their attempt to make the health care sys­tem more productive."nMethods: This cross-sectional study involved all the six public hospitals in the province, with 607 registered beds. Data collec­tion accomplished by the use of two ad hoc questionnaires that dealt with both general information and admission data from various hospital wards. The statistical software SPSS-13 used to derive three basic performance indicators, namely aver­age length of stay, bed occupancy rate and bed turnover, which analyzed in Pabon Lasso model."nResults: The overall average length of stay, bed occupancy and bed turnover rates were 2.99 days, 62.78% and 76.73 respec­tively. Two hospitals were in Zone III of the model, indicating a satisfactory level of efficiency. Three hospitals demon­strated inefficiency and underutilization of resources by falling into Zone I. one hospital placed in Zone IV."nConclusion: The best approach to address the existing inefficiencies would lie in stopping the expansion of the current facili­ties (e.g. not adding any more beds). As any further expansion will only serve to make hospitals more inefficient. Fu­ture research should focus on why the performance is not at a desirable level and how the situation can be improved.&nbsp

Effect of moisture content on textural attributes of dried figs

Due to their soft texture consumers prefer moist figs, which has motivated fig processors to increase the production of this product. However, as water enhances the browning reaction rate, moisture content optimisation of moist figs is very im- portant. Processed figs must have suitable texture softness with browning kept to a minimum. The purpose of this study was to exa- mine the effect of moisture content on the textural attributes of dried figs. Hardness, compression energy, gradient, gumminess and chewiness of fig samples decreased with moisture content exponentially, whereas the trend of springiness and cohesiveness with change of moisture content was nearly constant. Moreover, in the texture profile analysis plot of rehydrated figs, the presence of negative area is an indication of adhesiveness which was zero in control dried figs. The results of the texture profile analysis tests proved the existence of a critical moisture content of about 18.4%, above which no significant effect of moisture content on textural parame- ters was found. The glass-rubber transition results from differential scanning calorimeter may explain the different texture profile analysis attributes of dried figs compared with rehydrated figs

Dosimetry of organ at risks in orthopantomography

Introduction: Orthopantomography is a common imaging technique of the jaw. Although in compare to other diagnostic radiology methods, the dose of radiation received by the patient is relatively low in orthopantomography, still is remained as the most common method in diagnostic radiology. Therefore, because of the commonalty of this method, it seemed rational to estimate the dose received by the Organ At Risks (OARs). Materials and Methods: This study has been designed to determine the surface dose received by the eyes, parotids, thyroid and submandibular salivary glands using Gafchromic films in 20 patients referred to imaging centers (digital and analog). To increase the repeatability of the technique, each measurement was triplicated and the results were presented as mean (SD). Results: The mean measured surface dose received by the submandibular glands (left, right and center), thyroid (left and right), parotid (left and right) and eye (left and right) for the digital system were 4.17, 4.65, 5.08 and 4.74 and for the analog system were 10.33, 10.12, 10.28 and 10.73, respectively. Conclusion: This study showed no difference in surface dose received by the left and right eyes, left and right thyroid, left and right parotid, left, right and center submandibular glands in any of the digital or analog systems studied (P �0.05). In addition, the surface dose received by the selected organs in digital system was significantly lower than that by the analog system (P �0.05). © 2015, Semnan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved