Designing an Analytical Model for Determining Price Reasonableness in Contract Management: A Case Study of an ICT Company

Discovering the fair and reasonable price, is one of the critical subjects in purchasing process, especially in imperfect markets, in which, market mechanism cannot be applied to judge about proposed price. To cover this gap, in this paper, an analytical model for analyzing the price in non-competitive markets, has been developed and step by step procedure in order to decide about proposed price, is presented. For this reason, all factors affecting the price, have been collected and divided in “Market condition”, “Internal characteristics” and “Nature of product” categories. In next stage, effect of each factor on cost items has been clarified and accordingly, it becomes explicit that how these factors can be used to analyze the cost items and discover the reasonable price. Finally, the proposed model has been applied in a governmental agency in ICT industry. Keywords: Fair and reasonable price, Contract pricing, Cost and price analysis, Purchasing.

The UCLan Engagement and Service User Support (Comensus) project: Valuing authenticity making space for emergence.

Objective  To develop and evaluate service user, carer and community involvement in health and social care education. Background  Despite the high policy profile of involvement issues, there appear to be no published accounts of schemes that have used a systematic whole-faculty approach to community engagement in health and social care higher education. Focus of this paper  The set up and early development of a faculty-wide community engagement project. Setting and participants  Staff from the faculty of health in one University, local service users and carers and community group project workers and local National Health Service (NHS) and public sector staff. Design  Participatory action research including document review, field notes, questionnaires and interviews. Analysis  Thematic analysis. The emerging themes were tested by seeking disconfirming data, and through verification with stake-holders. Results  Prior to the study, there were examples of community engagement in the participating faculty, but they occurred in specific departments, and scored low on the ‘ladder of involvement’. Some previous attempts at engagement were perceived to have failed, resulting in resistance from staff and the community. Despite this, an advisory group was successfully formed, and project framing and development evolved with all stake-holders over the subsequent year. The four themes identified in this phase were: building accessibility; being ‘proper’ service users/carers;moving from suspicion to trust: mutually respectful partnerships as a basis for sustainable change; and responses to challenge and emergence. Conclusions  Successful and sustainable engagement requires authenticity. Many problems and solutions arising from authentic engagement are emergent, and potentially challenging to organizations

Service user involvement in practitioner education: movement politics and transformative change

This paper will attempt to both celebrate key developments and best practice involving the users of health and social care services in programmes of practitioner education in a UK context, and offer a critical appraisal of the extent to which such initiatives meet some of the more transformative objectives sought by service users activists for change. The approach is largely that of a discussion paper but we illustrate some of the themes relating to movement activism with selected data. These data relate to earlier research and two specially convened focus groups within the Comensus initiative at the University of Central Lancashire; itself constituted as piece of participatory action research. We conclude that universities represent paradoxical sites for the facilitation of debate and learning relevant to key issues of social justice and change. As such, they are places that can impede or support movement aims. Particular strategic responses might be more likely to engender progressive outcomes. These ought to include the presence of critically engaged academic staff operating within a scholarly culture that fosters forms of deliberative democratic decision making

The necessity for monitoring insurance companies and the reasons for developing Iranian accounting standard No. 28

Nowadays, it is essential for Iranian insurance companies to provide monthly online reports on the performance, including the issued insurance policies and paid losses to the Central Insurance. The purpose of sending reports is to ensure compliance with the approved rates from insurance companies as well as other relevant regulations (see tariff control). All insurance companies are required to use the approved rates issuing the insurance contracts based on tariff control. In these circumstances there will be no possibility of competition between insurance companies. To attract more customers, adjustment of rates to change the contents of the contract is not possible. On the other hand, as the increase in market size happens, the insurance regulatory body oversees tariff uses and it is not able to monitor individually the rates of the insurance companies. Therefore, it is forced to limit their monitoring to the insurance rates which are high. Therefore, the secret violations and errors of insurance companies grow. To address the above problem, the Audit Organization of Iran with the help of Central Insurance issued accounting standard No. 28in 2006. The standard financial control has been replaced by a tariff control. This paper attempts to review the literature related to the current control of the insurance industry. The Iranian Accounting Standard No. 28 will also be extensively analysed

Quantifying the Confidence in Models Outputted by Scan-to-BIM Processes

3D spatial data is increasingly employed to generate Building Information Models (BIMs) by extension digital twins for various applications in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector such as project monitoring, engineering analyses, retrofit planning, etc. The outputted models of Scan-to-BIM processes should satisfy pre-defined levels of quality. In the case of emerging automated Scan-to-BIM solutions, users however currently need to check all generated geometry manually, which is time-consuming. What would help users is if the automated systems could also provide a level of confidence in the detection and modelling of each element. In this paper three generic indicators are defined for analysing the reliability of the generated 3D models: Icoverage estimates the portion of the surface of the modelled element that can be explained by the input point cloud. Idistance defines the closeness of the generated element models to the input point cloud. The confidence of the generated 3D local models can be computed by combining the two forementioned indices. The proposed indicators are assessed using actual examples and comparisons are conducted between automatically generated 3D BIM models and 3D models generated manually by a BIM modeler

سمية مبيد ديكلورفوس على كبد وكلية ذكور الارانب المنزلية

Abstract Objective: The present study is aimed to assess hepatic and renal toxicity of dichlorvos in male domestic rabbits Materials and Methods: The oral LD50 of dichlorvos in male domestic rabbit was calculated from linear regression and found to be 11.6 mg/kg body weight. A daily dose of 1/10 LD50 of dichlorvos (1.2 mg/kg body weight) were given to the animals under experiment for six weeks. Control animals were given distilled water. Blood samples were collected weekly and analyzed. Results: The overall mortality rate was 6.3% in dichlorvos-treated rabbits compared to no mortalities in controls. Clinical signs included diarrhea, reduced food intake, weakness, disorientation, drowsiness and mild tremors. The growth rate was significantly decreased in dichlorvos-intoxicated rabbits. Serum glucose was significantly increased in response to dichlorvos administration recording a maximum percentage difference of 26.7% in the 4th week of the experiment. The activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were significantly higher in dichlorvos-fed rabbits compared to controls, registering maximum percentage differences of 29.4% and 38.6%, respectively during the 5th week of the experiment. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma glutamyl transferase (g-GT) were also significantly increased recording maximum percentages of 27.8% and 38.1 in the 4th and 6th weeks of the experiment, respectively. In contrast, serum cholinesterase (ChE) was progressively decreased recording a maximum percentage difference of 72.6% at the end of the experiment. Serum bilirubin was gradually increased to record a maximum percentage difference of 23.3% in the 5th week. Serum urea and creatinine concentrations were significantly elevated in response to dichlorvos intake displaying maximum percentage differences of 35.4% and 29.6% during the 6th and 5th weeks of the experiment, respectively. Serum total protein, albumin and globulin were significantly decreased upon dichlorvos intoxication exhibiting percentage differences of 31.2, 30.2 and 31.4% at 4th week of the experiment. Serum calcium was significantly increased in dichlorvos-treated rabbits with a maximum percentage difference of 24.3% at the 4th week whereas phosphorus was significantly decreased with a maximum percentage difference of 28.6% at the 6th week of the experiment. Conclusions: Dichlorvos caused hepatic and renal toxicity in rabbit through alterations of liver and kidney functions. Key words: Dichlorvos, toxicity, liver, kidney, rabbit.سمية مبيد ديكلورفوس على كبد وكلية ذكور الارانب المنزلية هدف الدراسة: تقييم سمية مبيد ديكلورفوس على كبد وكلية ذكور الارانب المنزلية . الخطوات: قد بينت الدراسة بعد التحليل الإحصائي قيمة الجرعة المميته لنصف العدد من العينة التجريبية LD50 في ذكور الأرانب بواسطة الفم 11.6 ملجرام/كجم من وزن الجسم.أعطيت الأرانب جرعة قيمتها 1.2ملجرام/كجم من وزن الجسم و تساوي 1/10 من الجرعة المميته لنصف العدد من العينة التجريبية يوميا لمدة ست أسابيع بينما المجموعة الضابطة تناولت الماء. عينات الدم كانت جمعت أسبوعيا وتم تحليلها. النتائج: كان معدل الوفيات 6,3٪ في الأرانب المعالجة بالديكلورفوس بينما الضابطة لم توجد بها وفيات . ظهرت علامات سريرية كالإسهال و الارتباك و النعاس و الرعاش الخفيف. وقد انخفض وزن الجسم بشكل كبير في ذكور الأرانب المعالجة بالديكلورفوس خلال الأسابيع الأخيرة. الجلوكوز في الدم زاد بشكل ملحوظ استجابة لمعاملة بالديكلورفوس حيث سجل أعلي نسبة مئوية للاختلاف .26.7 ٪ في الأسبوع الرابع من التجربة. نشاط الانزيم الناقل للالانين امين ALT)) زاد بشكل ملحوض في الارانب التي تناولت الديكلورفوس مقارنة مع المجموعة الضابطة مسجلة اعلى اختلاف بنسبة مئوية 29.4٪ خلال الاسبوع الخامس من التجربة, الانزيم الناقل للاسبرتيت امين (AST) زاد ليسجل اعلى نسبة مئوية للاختلاف 38.6٪ في الاسبوع الخامس , أنزيم الكالاين فوسفاتيز(ALP) ايضا زاد ليسجل اعلى نسبة للاختلاف 27.8٪ في الاسبوع الرابع وايضا الانزيم الناقل للجاما جلوتاميت ( (g-GT زاد ليسجل اعلى نسبة اختلاف 38.1٪ في الاسبوع السادس .في المقابل انزيم كولين استريز في مصل الدم نقص بشكل ملحوظ مسجل اعلى نسبة للاختلاف 72.6٪ خلال الاسبوع السادس من التجربة , البليروبين في مصل الدم زاد تدريجيا ليسجل اعلى نسبة اختلاف 23.3٪ في الاسبوع الخامس, تركيزات اليوريا والكرياتنين ارتفعت بشكل ملحوظ استجابة لتعاطي الديكلورفوس مسجلة اعلى نسبة مئوية للاختلاف 35,4٪ و 29,6٪خلال الاسبوع السادس والخامس من التجربة على التوالي , البروتين الكلي والالبومين والجلوبيولين في مصل الدم انخفظوا بشكل ملحوظ في نتيجة للديكلورفوس ليسجلوا نسبة اختلاف 31,2 و30,2 وكذلك 31,4٪ في الاسبوع الرابع والرابع والرابع على التوالي , الكالسيوم ارتفع بشكل ملحوظ في مصل دم الارانب المعاملة بالديكلورفوس باعلى نسبة اختلاف 24,3٪ في الاسبوع الرابع بينما الفوسفور انخفض يشكل ملحوظ مع اعلى نسبة اختلاف 28,6٪ في الاسبوع السادس من التجربة الخاتمة: إن تناول مبيد ديكلورفوس عن طريق الفم يوميا بجرعة 1/10 LD50قد أدي الي انخفاض كبير في وزن الجسم و كذلك أنزيمات الكبد و الكلية مثل الكولين أستريز (ChE) و البروتين الكلي و الألبومين و الجلوبيولين و الفوسفور في حين زاد معدل سكر الجلوكوز والانزيم الناقل للانين امين (ALT) و الانزيم الناقل للاسبارتيت امين (AST) وأنزيم الكالاين فوسفاتيز(ALP) والانزيم الناقل لجاما جلوتاميت ((g-GT والالبومين و اليوريا و الكرياتينين و الكالسيوم في مصل الدم. الكلمات المفتاحية : الديكلورفوس– سمية – الكبد – الكلية – الأرن

Nutritional status and quality of life in patients with acute leukemia prior to and after induction chemotherapy in three hospitals in Tehran, Iran: a prospective study

BACKGROUND: The primary objective of the present study was to assess changes in the nutritional status and quality of life in acute leukaemia patients, aged ≥15 years, who had undergone induction chemotherapy. METHODS: A preliminary and post-induction chemotherapy assessment of patients' nutritional status, quality of life, sociodemographic status and medical characteristics was conducted using the Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life (QOL-C30, version 3) questionnaires. The PG-SGA is a clinical nutrition assessment tool used to evaluate oncology patients. Patients with newly-diagnosed acute leukaemia, aged ≥15 years, at three hospitals in Tehran (from May 2009 to March 2010), were recruited for the present study. RESULTS: Sixty-three acute leukaemia patients [65% men and 35% women with a mean (SD) age of 33 (15.4) years] participated in the present study. A total of 19.4% were found to be malnourished prior to chemotherapy. After chemotherapy, 76.1% of patients were considered moderately malnourished, whereas 6.3% were severely malnourished. After induction chemotherapy, both the nutritional status and quality of life deteriorated in the majority of patients, as demonstrated by a paired t-test. CONCLUSIONS: A deteriorated nutritional status and quality of life was the result of the side effects posed by induction chemotherapy in the patients investigated in the present study. These findings highlight the need for an appropriate nutritional support programme to improve the nutritional status and quality of life in patients with leukaemia undergoing chemotherapy

Investigating the Effect of two Methods of Dialectic Behavioral Therapies and Metacognitive Therapy on the Body Mass Index and Emotional Eating Behavior in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Background: Diabetes is one of the chronic multifactorial metabolic diseases that in addition to affecting the clinical condition of the individual, incurs many costs to different communities around the world and also in Iran. This study aimed to investigate the effect of dialectical behavior therapy and metacognitive psychotherapy on the body mass index and emotional eating behavior in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: This study was an applied and controlled clinical trial one with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group and random assignment and quarterly follow-up. The participants were selected from among patients referring to Mashhad diabetes research center. The patients were randomly divided into two experimental (n=40) and control group (n=20). The experimental groups received weekly sessions for 2 months (8 sessions), while the control group did not receive any intervention. To collect the data, in addition to the demographic questionnaire, the standard Dutch Eating Behavior questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analyzed and examined by SPSS 21 and statistical tests. Significant level was set at 0.05. Results: Based on the study, it was found that there was a significant difference between the mean of intervention and control groups (Pvalue<0.05). In other words, dialectical behavior therapy and metacognitive psychotherapy significantly reduced the body mass index and emotional eating behavior in patients with type 2 diabetes. Conclusions: According to the results, it seems that dialectical behavior therapy and metacognitive psychotherapy can be used as effective psychological interventions to reduce body mass index and emotional eating behavior in patients, which requires further investigation. Keywords: Diabetes, Dialectic behavioral therapies, Metacognitive therapy