Evaluation of the FAS and FASL Gene changes in women with premature ovarian failure: A case-control study

Background: Premature ovarian failure (POF), is menopause occurring before the age of 40, affecting 1-3% of women worldwide. The risk of POF increases with altered immunological parameters such as FAS and FASL genes, which play a fundamental role in embryogenesis and cellular homeostasis. Objective: The study aimed to investigate the potential role of FAS and FASL genes in POF pathogenesis. Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, the polymorphisms of FAS-670A/G and FASLIVS2nt_124A/G apoptotic genes were analyzed in 51 Iranian women suffering from POF, and 61 healthy controls. Isolation of DNA was done using the salting-out method, and genotypic analysis was performed for all the subjects using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Results: Our results revealed that homozygous FAS-670A/A and G/G, and heterozygous FAS-670A/G are not significantly different between cases and controls (p = 0.99). Also, in different genotyping models of FASIVS2nt_124, polymorphisms were not related to POF risk (p = 0.23). Conclusion: There is no statistical association between these polymorphisms and POF risk in women referred to genetic counseling clinics. Key words: FAS, FASL, Polymorphism, Premature ovarian failure

Exploration of Factors Promoting and Inhibiting Fast Food Consumption among Adolescents

Introduction: In recent years, fast food consumption has increased among adolescents and it has become a concern, a health threat, and a major health problem. There are few studies and evidences about factors promoting and inhibiting the consumption of fast food. This study aimed to identify factors promoting or inhibiting the consumption of fast food among adolescents. Method: This qualitative study was conducted in Tehran. Using purposive sampling method, a total of 42 adolescents were enrolled in the study. Data were collected using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Results: According to the findings of this study, all factors inhibiting the consumption of fast food were classified into three main themes: personal views, social and family inhibiting factors. And promoting factors include: personal views, social and family promoting factors. Conclusion: This study identified the factors promoting and inhibiting the consumption of fast food among adolescents. According to the results, the factors promoting fast food consumption were stronger than the inhibiting factors. In other words, there are many factors promoting adolescents to consume fast foods. The findings of this study can be a valuable groundwork for designing interventions for reducing the consumption of fast food; however, more research is needed to investigate and understand effective strategies to reduce fast food consumption in adolescents

The Concurrent Validity of Using Simulated Patient and Real Patient in Communication Skills Assessment of Medical Students

Background & Objective: Communication skills assessment requires the use of valid instruments. The present study has done to investigate concurrent validity of the simulated patient meaning relationship between test results by the simulated or real patient and possibility to generalize the results by simulated patient and in simulated environment for real patient and in bedside. Methods: In this correlation study, 32 medical externships were enrolled by purposive sampling method. The students were divided randomly into two equal and homogeneous groups. Using crossover design, first group were assessed by real patient initially and then, simulated patient and second group, were measured conversely. Communication skills assessment was done using a checklist retrieved from Calgary-Cambridge interview skills checklist. The data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. Results: In first assessment, comparing scores by simulated and real patient in first group, second group and total students showed significant differences. In second assessment between two groups, the statistics results was not significant with very minor differences (P = 0.064). There were positive correlation between scores of total students by simulated and real patient (r = 0.63). Conclusion: According to the results, communication skills of each student in simulated position cannot be generalized to real situation and cannot be claimed that simulated patient can be used instead of real patient. Keywords Communication skills Assessment Concurrent validity Simulated patient Real patien

Health-related quality of life in infertile couples receiving IVF or ICSI treatment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Infertile couples might experience psychological distress and suffer from impaired health-related quality of life. This study aimed to examine health-related quality of life in infertile couples receiving either in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a cross-sectional study of quality of life in infertile couples attending to Vali-e-Asr Reproductive Health Research Center or Royan Institute for either IVF or ICSI treatment in Tehran, Iran. Health-related quality of life was assessed using the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). Patients' demographic and clinical characteristics were also recorded. Data were analyzed to compare quality of life in infertile women and men and to indicate what variables predict quality of life in infertile couples.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In all 514 women and 514 men (n = 1028) were studied. There were significant differences between women and men indicating that male patients had a better health-related quality of life. Also health-related quality of life was found to be better in infertility due to male factor. Performing logistic regression analysis it was found that female gender, and lower educational level were significant predictors of poorer physical health-related quality of life. For mental health-related quality of life in addition to female gender and lower educational level, younger age also was found to be a significant predictor of poorer condition. No significant results were observed for infertility duration or causes of infertility either for physical or mental health-related quality of life.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The findings suggest that infertility duration or causes of infertility do not have significant effects on health-related quality of life in infertile couples. However, infertile couples, especially less educated younger women, are at risk of a sub-optimal health-related quality of life and they should be provided help and support in order to improve their health-related quality of life.</p

Influenza vaccination coverage and obstacles in healthcare workers (HCWs) and the follow up of side effects: A multicenter investigation in Iran

Introduction. Influenza is a highly contagious acute respiratory illness. Due to the high exposure of hospital personnel, widespread vaccination of these high-risk groups seems to be a necessity in healthcare centers. To determine vaccination coverage in the personnel of four tertiary referral collegiate hospitals in 2019, and to further investigate individual obstacles for Influenza vaccination. Methods. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 637 personnel were selected randomly from distinctive hospitals in a list-wised. Ones vaccinated filled the side effects questionnaire and who not vaccinated filled the vaccination obstacles questionnaire. Results. The mean vaccination coverage was 29.4% and the coverage difference among centers was not statistically significant (p=0.192). The following items had the most impact on personnel decision: confidence about one’s immune system (p&lt;0.05), the experience of side effects from previous vaccinations (p=0.011), attitude about vaccination in colleagues (p=0.021) and work experience (p&lt;0.05). About 23% of vaccinated individuals reported side effects following vaccination and the most common side effect was mild cold symptoms with 12.3% prevalence. Conclusion. The results of the current study revealed that influenza vaccination coverage among HCWs is not satisfactory in Iran. Hospital authorities and infection control units should plan to remove the obstacles of influenza vaccination

Estimation of the Detonation Pressure of Co-crystal Explosives through a Novel, Simple and Reliable Model

The detonation properties of energetic co-crystals have a substantial role in the design of new co-crystals and it is necessary to know about them. In this study, a linear relationship is proposed between the detonation pressure of energetic co-crystals and their molecular structures via a quantitative structure property relationship (QSPR) method. This model assumes that the detonation pressure of an energetic co-crystal is a function of nN, Mw, nC/nH and nO/nH. The new model was obtained based on the calculated detonation pressures of 39 co-crystals as a training set. The R2 or determination coefficient of the acquired model was 0.9409. This novel correlation provided a proper assessment for a further 12 energetic co-crystals as a test set. Additionally, the root mean square and average absolute deviation of this newly presented correlation were found to be 2.249 and 1.716 GPa, respectively. As a consequence, the proposed correlation can also be utilized to design new energetic co-crystals

Evaluation of patient safety culture in medical students

Introducci&oacute;n: la seguridad del paciente es la prevenci&oacute;nde la prevenci&oacute;n y la mejora de resultados desfavorableso da&ntilde;os resultantes del proceso de atenci&oacute;n m&eacute;dica. Hoy,reducir y erradicar estos errores y ampliar la seguridad dela atenci&oacute;n se ha convertido en una prioridad mundial.El objetivo principal del presente estudio es investigar laspercepciones de los m&eacute;dicos internos de diferentes hospitalesde la Universidad de Ciencias M&eacute;dicas Shahid Beheshtisobre el tema de la cultura de seguridad del paciente.Materiales y m&eacute;todos: se seleccionaron 90 estudiantesde diferentes barrios. El cuestionario de cultura de seguridaddel paciente AHRQ se us&oacute; para recopilar los datos. Culturade seguridad del paciente en pasantes se estudi&oacute; en 7campos utilizando esta herramienta confiable y sostenible.pregunta de puntuaci&oacute;n relacionada con cualquier elementode 5 grados (1 a 5) usando Likert hecho. Las opciones incluyentotalmente en desacuerdo, en desacuerdo, neutral,de acuerdo y totalmente de acuerdo. Usando pruebas noparam&eacute;tricas, se evalu&oacute; la relaci&oacute;n de respuesta a cada &iacute;temy se analiz&oacute; la importancia de la diferencia de las razones.Resultados: Los resultados generales mostraron que lapuntuaci&oacute;n de los rendimientos medios de la unidad detrabajo (p = 0.00), los errores de replicaci&oacute;n (p = 0.00) yel hospital (p = 0.03) fueron significativamente m&aacute;s altosy las puntuaciones del grado de concesiones de seguridaddel paciente (p = 0.00) son significativamente m&aacute;s bajasque el promedio tambi&eacute;n en los campos de supervisi&oacute;n(p = 0.058) y las comunicaciones (p = 0.1) las medias nomostraron diferencias significativas con respecto al promedio.Se observ&oacute; el grado de seguridad del paciente ent&eacute;rminos de diferencia estad&iacute;sticamente significativa entrelas puntuaciones de hombres y mujeres (p = 0.00) y elhospital (p = 0.01), mientras que en otras &aacute;reas hay diferenciassignificativas entre los grupos.Conclusi&oacute;n: Los resultados de este estudio mostraronque, en general, en el campo de la cultura de seguridaddel paciente, es necesario adoptar una actitud integral, esla falta de una gesti&oacute;n integral y una reducci&oacute;n eficientede la seguridad del paciente en el hospital, seguido deun aumento de las lesiones a los pacientes y los sectoresde salud

Evaluation of patient safety culture in medical students

Introducci&oacute;n: la seguridad del paciente es la prevenci&oacute;nde la prevenci&oacute;n y la mejora de resultados desfavorableso da&ntilde;os resultantes del proceso de atenci&oacute;n m&eacute;dica. Hoy,reducir y erradicar estos errores y ampliar la seguridad dela atenci&oacute;n se ha convertido en una prioridad mundial.El objetivo principal del presente estudio es investigar laspercepciones de los m&eacute;dicos internos de diferentes hospitalesde la Universidad de Ciencias M&eacute;dicas Shahid Beheshtisobre el tema de la cultura de seguridad del paciente.Materiales y m&eacute;todos: se seleccionaron 90 estudiantesde diferentes barrios. El cuestionario de cultura de seguridaddel paciente AHRQ se us&oacute; para recopilar los datos. Culturade seguridad del paciente en pasantes se estudi&oacute; en 7campos utilizando esta herramienta confiable y sostenible.pregunta de puntuaci&oacute;n relacionada con cualquier elementode 5 grados (1 a 5) usando Likert hecho. Las opciones incluyentotalmente en desacuerdo, en desacuerdo, neutral,de acuerdo y totalmente de acuerdo. Usando pruebas noparam&eacute;tricas, se evalu&oacute; la relaci&oacute;n de respuesta a cada &iacute;temy se analiz&oacute; la importancia de la diferencia de las razones.Resultados: Los resultados generales mostraron que lapuntuaci&oacute;n de los rendimientos medios de la unidad detrabajo (p = 0.00), los errores de replicaci&oacute;n (p = 0.00) yel hospital (p = 0.03) fueron significativamente m&aacute;s altosy las puntuaciones del grado de concesiones de seguridaddel paciente (p = 0.00) son significativamente m&aacute;s bajasque el promedio tambi&eacute;n en los campos de supervisi&oacute;n(p = 0.058) y las comunicaciones (p = 0.1) las medias nomostraron diferencias significativas con respecto al promedio.Se observ&oacute; el grado de seguridad del paciente ent&eacute;rminos de diferencia estad&iacute;sticamente significativa entrelas puntuaciones de hombres y mujeres (p = 0.00) y elhospital (p = 0.01), mientras que en otras &aacute;reas hay diferenciassignificativas entre los grupos.Conclusi&oacute;n: Los resultados de este estudio mostraronque, en general, en el campo de la cultura de seguridaddel paciente, es necesario adoptar una actitud integral, esla falta de una gesti&oacute;n integral y una reducci&oacute;n eficientede la seguridad del paciente en el hospital, seguido deun aumento de las lesiones a los pacientes y los sectoresde salud

Enhancing developmental rate and quality of mouse single blastomeres into blastocysts using a microplatform

The present work reports the beneficial effects of using a microplatform on the development of mouse single blastomeres (SBs) to the blastocyst stage. Development of blastocysts from SBs separated from two‐ and four‐cell stage embryos (two‐ and four‐cell SBs) can provide a valuable supply both for couples who use fertility‐assisted techniques and farm animals. As a step forward, we introduce three chips that provide the possibility of culturing SBs separately, in groups, and in the vicinity of the intact embryo (co‐culture), while each well of the chips is assigned to an isolated SB. Two‐ and four‐cell SBs co‐cultured with intact embryos showed 97.1% and 76.6% developmental rates and up to 34.1% and 49.1% growth relative to the microdroplet method (control). We examined the quality of developed blastocysts by assessing the total cell number, the number of inner cell mass (ICM) according to the octamer‐binding transcription factor 4 marker (OCT4), and trophectoderm (TE). Co‐culture of SBs with an intact embryo in a chip with nanoscale culture medium volume also increased the cell population of the developed embryo. The ICM:TE ratio, which is the most important blastocyst quality parameter, also indicated that developed two‐cell SBs have a higher degree of similarity to intact embryos despite fewer numbers of total cells