Evaluation of bred fish and seawater fish in terms of nutritional value, and heavy metals

In many parts of the world consumption of fish and seafood comprises a key proportion of man's diet and health. Despite of having many benefits, eating fish can be dangerous for instance the existence of nonorganic material, especially heavy metals, in some fish is dangerous. There are numerous fish breeding pools across the Lorestan province of Iran and the majority of the people living in these areas consume these kinds of fish, so, we were impelled to carry out a study to compare the nutrients and also heavy metals existent in freshwater fish and seawater fish available to the public across Khorramabad city of Iran. In this cross-sectional study, 9 samples of each five species of freshwater and sea water fish were purchased and their total protein, fat, omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids and also their heavy metals content including mercury, lead and cadmium of them were measured. There were no significant differences between mean protein content of the two types of fish. The amount of total fat and omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids of freshwater fish was higher than of seawater fish (P>0.001). The levels of cadmium in seawater fish was significantly higher than freshwater fish (P>0.001), and as for the level of mercury and lead, no significant difference was observed between the two types of freshwater fish and seawater fish. According to the results, we recommend that people can secure a part of their protein and unsaturated fatty acids need by consuming freshwater fish

The most important Iranian medicinal plants with immunomodulatory property according to traditional medicine and modern research findings

nnate immunity is the body's first line of defense against different pathogenic agents. Macrophages and neutrophils are two main cells that contribute significantly to innate and acquired immune responses, and important effector cells to destroy harmful agents. Function of these cells can be modulated by natural and synthetic compounds. Nowadays, the immunomodulatory effects of herbal plants is a hot research issue worldwide as a good candidate to strengthen immune system. The aim of this review article is to report the most important medicinal plants of Iran with immunomodulatory effect. The search terms including immunomodulatory, medicinal plants, and Iran were used to search for relevant articles in some national databases such as Scientific Information Databases, and Google Scholar search engine. Thyme, Pennyroyal, Garlic, Echinaceae and Olive were found to be traditionally used to strengthen the immune system of the body. Aloe (Aloe barbadensis), Palm (Phoenix ductylifera), Fennel (Foeniculum Vulgare) and Cumin seed (Cuminum cyminum) have been reported to have immunomodulatory effects according to scientific research

Bi-fuel SI Engine Model for Analysis and Optimization

YesThe natural gas as an alternative fuel has economical and environmental benefits. Bi-fuel engines powered by gasoline and compressed natural gas (CNG) are an intermediate and alternative step to dedicated CNG engines. The conversion to bi-fuel CNG engine could be a short-term solution to air pollution problem in many developing countries. In this paper a mathematical model of a bi-fuel four-stroke spark ignition (SI) engine is presented for comparative studies and analysis. It is based on the two-zone combustion model, and it has the ability to simulate turbulent combustion. The model is capable of predicting the cylinder temperature and pressure, heat transfer, brake work , brake thermal and volumetric efficiency, brake torque, brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), brake mean effective pressure (BMEP), concentration of CO2, brake specific CO (BSCO) and brake specific NOx (BSNOx). The effect of engine speed, equivalence ratio and performance parameters using gasoline and CNG fuels are analysed. The model has been validated by experimental data using the results obtained from a bi-fuel engine. The results show the capability of the model in terms of engine performance optimization and minimization of the emissions. The engine used in this study is a typical example of a modified bi-fuel engine conversion, which could benefit the researchers in the field

Technical efficiency and resources allocation in university hospitals in Tehran, 2009-2012

Background: Assessment of hospitals' performance in achieving its goals is a basic necessity. Measuring the efficiency of hospitals in order to boost resource productivity in healthcare organizations is extremely important. The aim of this study was to measure technical efficiency and determining status of resource allocation in some university hospitals, in Tehran, Iran. Methods: This study was conducted in 2012; the research population consisted of all hospitals affiliated to Iran and Tehran medical sciences universities of. Required data, such as human and capital resources information and also production variables (hospital outputs) were collected from data centers of studied hospitals. Data were analyzed using data envelopment analysis (DEA) method, Deap2,1 software; and the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) method, Frontier 4,1 software. Results: According to DEA method, average of technical, management (pure) and scale efficiency of the studied hospitals during the study period were calculated 0.87, 0.971, and 0.907, respectively. All kinds of efficiency did not follow a fixed trend over the study time and were constantly changing. In the stochastic frontier's production function analysis, the technical efficiency of the studied industry during the study period was estimated to be 0.389. Conclusion: This study represented hospitals with the highest and lowest efficiency. Reference hospitals (more efficient states) were indicated for the inefficient centers. According to the findings, it was found that in the hospitals that do not operate efficiently, there is a capacity to improve the technical efficiency by removing excess inputs without changes in the level of outputs. However, by the optimal allocation of resources in most studied hospitals, very important economy of scale can be achieved

Patient safety culture in hospitals of Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Nowadays, for quality improvement, measuring patient safety culture (PSC) in healthcare organizations is being increasingly used. The aim of this study was to clarify PSC status in Iranian hospitals using a meta-analysis method. Methods: Six databases were searched: PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, Magiran, SID and IranMedex using the search terms including patient safety, patient safety culture, patient safety climate and combined with hospital (such as "hospital survey on patient safety culture"), measurement, assessment, survey and Iran. A total of 11 articles which conducted using Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) questionnaire initially were reviewed. To estimate overall PSC status and perform the meta-analyses, Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) software v. 2 was employed. Results: The overall PSC score based on the random model was 50.1. "Teamwork within hospital units" dimension received the highest score of PSC (67.4) and "Non-punitive response to error" the lowest score (32.4). About 41 of participants in reviewed articles evaluate their hospitals' performance in PSC as 'excellent/very good'. Approximately 52.7 of participants did not report any adverse event in the past 12 months. Conclusion: The results of this study show that Iranian hospitals' performances in PSC were poor. Among the 12 dimensions of HSOPSC questionnaire, the "Non-punitive response to error" achieved the lowest score and could be a priority for future interventions. In this regard, hospitals staff should be encouraged to report adverse event without fear of punitive action

IP modeling of the survivable hop constrained connected facility location problem

Abstract We consider a generalized version of the rooted connected facility location problem which occurs in planning of telecommunication networks with both survivability and hop-length constraints. Given a set of client nodes, a set of potential facility nodes including one predetermined root facility, a set of optional Steiner nodes, and the set of the potential connections among these nodes, that task is to decide which facilities to open, how to assign the clients to the open facilities, and how to interconnect the open facilities in such a way, that the resulting network contains at least λ edge-disjoint paths, each containing at most H edges, between the root and each open facility and that the total cost for opening facilities and installing connections is minimal. We study two IP models for this problem and present a branch-and-cut algorithm based on Benders decomposition for finding its solution. Finally, we report computational results

Inequity in household's capacity to pay and health payments in Tehran-Iran-2013

Background: Health inequality monitoring especially in Health care financing field is very important. Hence, this study tends to assess the inequality in household's capacity to pay and out-ofpocket health carepaymentsin Tehran metropolis. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in 2013.Thestudy population was selected by stratified cluster sampling, and they constitute the typical households living in Tehran (2200 households). The required data were collected through questionnaires and analyzed using Excel and Stata v.11. Concentration Index on inequality was used for measuring inequality status in capacity to pay and household payments for health care expenses; and also the concentration index for out-of-pocket payments and capacity to pay was used to determine the extent of inequality. The recall period for inpatient care was one year and 1 month for outpatient. Results: The average of out-of-pocket payments for receiving the outpatient services was determined to be 44.33US and for each inpatient1861.11 US. Concentration index for household's outof- pocket payments for inpatient health care, out-of-pocket payments for outpatient health care and health prepayments were calculated 0.13, -0.10 and -0.11, respectively. Also, concentration index in household's capacity to pay was estimated to be 0.11whichindicatedinequality to the benefit of the rich. The households used financing strategies like savings, borrowing or lending to pay their health care expenditures. Conclusion: According to this study, the poor spend a greater portion of their capacity to pay for outpatient and inpatient health care costs and prepayment, in comparison to the rich. Thus, supporting the vulnerable groups of the society to decrease out-of-pocket payments and increasing the household's capacity to pay through government support in order to improve the household economic potential, must be considered very important