Life Satisfaction in children and adolescents with beta thalassemia major in southwest Iran

Background: Beta thalassemia major has a considerable impact on quality of life. The purpose of this study was to determine the life satisfaction of beta-thalassemic children and adolescents compared to healthy controls. Methods: This research, conducted in 2009, was a controlled, cross-sectional study in which beta-thalassemic patients, who were being followed-up by the Thalassemic Center in Bushehr, a city in southern Iran, were compared with a healthy control group. The Multi-dimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS) was used to measure the participants’ quality of life in five domains. The chi-squared test, t-test, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation, and multiple regression analysis were used for the statistical analyses. Results: The unadjusted mean scores of three of the domains, i.e., school, friends, and living environment, and the total score of five domains, i.e., school, friends, living environment, family, and self, were significantly higher in thalassemic patients than in the control group (P < 0.05). These significant differences were persistent after adjusting the mean scores of the three domains and the total score of the five domains for age, gender, and educational level. Conclusion: The thalassemic patients were more satisfied with life than the healthy controls in Bushehr. Many factors may be responsible for this finding. The results of this study suggest that the attitude of parents and society concerning assigning responsibility to patients should be assessed. The assessment should include comparing the satisfaction with life of thalassemic patients with that of their healthy siblings and conducting national studies on the quality of life of thalassemic patients and their satisfaction with life

Inhibitive Factors on the Development of Critical Thinking in University Libraries: Students' Attitudes in Bushehr University of Medical Sciences and Persian Gulf University

Introduction: Critical thinking training is one of the most important missions of educational institutes. Hence, academic libraries as an inseparable operational unit of higher education must help their users to benefit from information resources and facilities providing them with the chance to develop and improve critical thinking capability. This study aimed to investigate significant barriers to and inhibitive factors on providing a suitable environment for developing and improving critical thinking in university libraries from the viewpoints of students in Bushehr University of Medical Sciences and Persian Gulf University. Methods: In this descriptive survey, the barriers to critical thinking development in academic libraries was investigated according to the viewpoint of 793 students from Bushehr University of Medical Sciences and Persian Gulf University in 2013-14 academic years. Students were selected by stratified proportional sampling. Data was collected through a valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaire categorized using 5-point Likert scale. The questionnaire was validated using experts’ viewpoints and its reliability was approved through estimation of Chronbach’s Alpha (0.84). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-sample t-test, Mann Whitney Test, and Kruskal-Wallis. Results: Mean scores in areas of linguistic barriers (weighted mean: 3.59), users’ inherent barriers (weighted mean: 3.49), users’ social and psychological barriers (weighted mean: 3.38), and logical barriers (weighted mean: 3.34) were higher than cut-off point of 3 and placed in the significant level of (p=0.0001). These barriers were identified as the most important ones from the viewpoints of students. Conclusion: By encouraging students to ask and seek and creating a suitable environment for sharing ideas, university libraries and librarians can help their users in improving their linguistic communication. Holding educational workshops to promote information literacy skills, the ability to seek, analyze, evaluate and judge the value and validity of information, as well as conducting educational tours on how to use library facilities could eliminate major factors in developing critical thinking that is lack of ability in determining informational needs and different levels of identification and utilization of retrieved information

Test and contact tracing: two wings to get rid of COVID-19 pandemic, until we get the vaccine

In tracing a positive person for COVID-19, we are more likely to come across one of these scenarios: a party, a gathering, a restaurant, a flight, and so on. By tracing people and identifying these critical transmission points, we can do active testing for COVID-19 RT-PCR, recommend the self-isolation or quarantine to all individuals at the gathering, or improve the ill-structured places they had contacted, to prevent these spread multipliers and their associated costs. According to the Washington D.C

Inhibitive Factors of the Development and Growth of Critical Thinking in Libraries

Aim: This study aimed at exploring the barriers to the development of critical thinking in libraries, since inspections to the educational institutions reveals signs of significant barriers to development of appropriate environments for the growth of critical thinking. Method: for the purpose of this study, researchers reviewed the literature by searching extensive number of books and databases, including Iran Doc, Scientific Information Database (SID), Ovid, Emerald, PubMed, Science Direct using keywords such as critical thinking in libraries, critical thinking barriers and critical thinking components. Findings: This review led to drawing a chart of critical thinking barriers in libraries. These barriers can be classified in four areas of users, librarians, resources and organization. Conclusion: Regarding the barriers introduced in this study, libraries and librarians should try to overcome them by holding educational workshops to enhance and optimize users’ skills in information seeking, formulation of search strategies and evaluation of information contents. In addition, library instruction tours can help users to enhance their self-esteem

CXC Ligand 5 cytokine serum level in women with polycystic ovary syndrome and normal body mass index: A case-control study

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disease and associated with insulin resistance. CXC Ligand 5 (CXCL5) is a new cytokine which is secreted from white adipose tissue during obesity and by blocking insulin signaling pathway inhibits the activity of insulin and promotes insulin resistance. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess serum level of CXCL5 in PCOS women with normal body mass index. Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, 30 PCOS women with normal body mass index as the case group and 30 non-PCOS women as the controls were enrolled. Serum levels of CXCL5, insulin and other hormones factors related with PCOS were measured by ELISA method, also the biochemical parameters were measured by autoanalyzer. Results: Significant increases in serum insulin concentration, homeostasis model assessments of insulin resistance, luteinizing hormone, luteinizing hormone/folliclestimulating hormone, fasting blood sugar, testosterone, and prolactin were observed in the case group compared to the controls. were in the serum level of CXCL5, cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, high-density lipoproteincholesterol, dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate, creatinine, and homeostasis model assessment of beta cell function between these two groups. Conclusion: In this study, no significant change was observed in serum concentrations of CXCL5 in PCOS women with normal BMI

Levofloxacin Resistance in Blood and Urine Culture Samples in Khalij Fars Hospital of Bushehr

Background: Due to the broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity of Levofloxacin, it has been used widely around the world. Recently, levofloxacin-resistance reports have been published. In this study, we investigated resistance to levofloxacin in positive urine and blood culture samples in Persian Gulf hospital in Bushehr, Iran, during 2015-16. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the selection criteria included all positive urine or blood culture samples in which the amount of the isolated pathogen colony counts were more than 105 . Culture samples were divided into three groups including sensitive, intermediate and resistant; based on bacterial growth around the discs. SPSS version 18.0 was used as the statistical analysis software, and a pvalue of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Culture samples consisted of samples of150 patients including 61 (%40.7) male and 89 (%59.3) female. Mean age of participants was 42.98 ± 29.25. Culture samples consisted of urine (% 50.7) and blood cultures (% 49.3). E.coli was the most common pathogen (% 46) and Klebsiella (% 16.7) was the second common pathogen in all cultures. Regarding the sensitivity to levofloxacin, 119 (% 79.3) samples were sensitive, 22 (% 14.7) cultures had intermediate sensitivity and 9 (%6) samples were resistant to levofloxacin. The only resistant pathogen was E.coli. Conclusion: This study showed that Levofloxacin has a reasonably high efficiency against most of the bacterial pathogens except for the E.coli that showed some resistance. Hence, this antibiotic can still be a considered as a good choice in the treatment of most infections except E.col

Comparison the Effect of Letrozole Versus Medroxy Progesterone Acetate on Premenopausal Patients With Endometrial Hyperplasia: An Randomized clinical trial

Objective: The assessing the effect of letrozole and medroxyprogesterone acetate on women with simple endometrial hyperplasia without atypia in reproductive age. Material and Methods: Eighty patients of Abolfazle clinic in Bushehr with abnormal uterine bleeding and simple endometrial hyperplasia enrolled in this study. The patients were randomized in 2 groups: group A included 40 patients who received 10 mg medroxyprogesterone acetate for 10 days in each month during 3 months and group B included 40 patient that received 2.5 mg letrozole for 3 months. Serial transvaginal sonography and estradiol were checked basically and repeated after 3 months of treatment. Main outcome measures were endometrial thickness and estradiol level in serum. Results: In 2 groups A & B, there were no significant differences in the base variables. The level of estradiol in groups A and B before treatment was similar in the 2 groups. Endometrial thickness in groups A and B was not statistically significant. The difference between these 2 groups from the endometrial thickness reduction viewpoint, is not significant (P value = 0.445). The level of decline estradiol in serum in the groups A&B was significant, Conclusion: Letrozole is an acceptable drug for treatment of simple endometrial hyperplasia especially in the patients who did not tolerate medroxyprogesterone

Dosage Optimization for Letrozole Treatment in Clomiphene-Resistant Patients with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Prospective Interventional Study

Objective. Dose adjustment for induction of ovulation is one of the most important problem. Methods. In a prospective interventional study, 44 clomiphene-resistant infertile patients (113 cycles) were selected from the Abolfazl Infertility Clinic of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences. Letrozole was given orally in a dose of 2.5 mg, 5 mg, and 7.5 mg, respectively. If the patient displayed no response, the dosage was increased. Results. In this patients ovulation occurred in 50 cycles (44.24%), clinical pregnancy rate according to number of cycles was 23.89% (27 of 113 cycles) and according to the number of patients was 61.36% (27 of 44 patients). In the 2.5, 5, and 7.5 groups, follicles occurred in 22.9%, 42.1%, and 85.18% of cycles, and pregnancy rate was 14.58%, 28.94% and, 33.33%, respectively. Conclusions. It is better to administer Letrozole at a lower dosage to prevent complications and increase the dose based on sonographic results antral follicular count, anti-Müllerian hormone, LH/FSH, and estradiol

Effect of fentanyl versus buprenorphine on the pupil size in phacoemulsification cataract surgery

Background: Despite several recent innovations in phacoemulsification surgery, importance of pupil diameter in this surgery is becoming more evident. Purpose: To compare the effect of opioid agonist (fentanyl) versus opioid agonist–antagonist (buprenorphine) on pupil diameter in cataract surgery and to choose the best opioid in high-risk phacoemulsification surgery. Methods: In this randomized double-blinded clinical trial, 60 patients who were candidates for elective phacoemulsification surgery were randomly divided into two equal groups: experimental (buprenorphine, 0.3 μg/kg) and control (fentanyl, 1 μg/kg). Pupil diameter was measured preinjection and at several times postinjection. Blood pressure was recorded at several intervals, as well as shivering, nausea and vomiting, and recovery time. Results: Mean (SD) recovery time was significantly less in the control group (19.46±5.43) than in the experimental group (33.23±10.75) (P<0.0001). The constriction effect (ie, pupillary diameter in mm) was significantly lower in the experimental group (0.53±0.45) than in the control group (1.06±0.52) (P=0.0001). The percentages of constriction effect in experimentaland control groups were 7.68% and 15.07%, respectively. The eye was two times more constricted in the control group in comparison with the experimental group after induction of anesthesia. Conclusion: Buprenorphine is a better solution to decrease pupil constriction in comparison with fentanylinhigh-risk phacoemulsification surgery

Dosage Optimization for Letrozole Treatment in Clomiphene-Resistant Patients with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Prospective Interventional Study

Objective. Dose adjustment for induction of ovulation is one of the most important problem. Methods. In a prospective interventional study, 44 clomiphene-resistant infertile patients (113 cycles) were selected from the Abolfazl Infertility Clinic of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences. Letrozole was given orally in a dose of 2.5 mg, 5 mg, and 7.5mg, respectively. If the patient displayed no response, the dosage was increased. Results. In this patients ovulation occurred in 50 cycles (44.24%), clinical pregnancy rate according to number of cycles was 23.89% (27 of 113 cycles) and according to the number of patients was 61.36% (27 of 44 patients). In the 2.5, 5, and 7.5 groups, follicles occurred in 22.9%, 42.1%, and 85.18% of cycles, and pregnancy rate was 14.58%, 28.94% and, 33.33%, respectively. Conclusions. It is better to administer Letrozole at a lower dosage to prevent complications and increase the dose based on sonographic results antral follicular count, anti-M¨ullerian hormone, LH/FSH, and estradiol