Analysis of geographical accessibility to rural health houses using the geospatial information system, a case study: Khuzestan Province, south-west Iran

Background: The use of rural health houses is one of the important approaches for delivering health services but, inappropriate infrastructures and limited resources make it difficult to design and implement plans to enhance and improve health services in rural areas. The aim of this study was to analyze the accessibility to rural health care services in the province of Khuzestan Materials and methods: This applied research was conducted in Khuzestan Province, south-west Iran with a cross-sectional approach in 2014. The population of the study was the villages and rural health houses. All the villages and rural health houses were included in the study without sampling. Descriptive data collected with a checklist from the Statistical Centre of Iran, IT Department of the Management Deputy of the Governor's Office and Ahvaz Jundishapur and Dezful University of Medical Sciences and spatial data obtained from the national Cartographic Center. The validity of the checklist was confirmed by 5 Public Health experts and 3 senior experts of the GIS system. Data analyzed with Arc GIS 9.3 software. Results: Khuzestan Province has 3461 villages with inhabitants. Based on the geographical distance to the nearest health house, 358 villages (10.34) with inhabitants were outside the service provision area with a distance of more than 6 In order to measure the total petroleum hydrocarbon available in the soil, first, 1 gr of the pot soil was taken and 10 ml dichloromethane solvent added to it, then the mixture was stirred for 5 minutes, and the resulting mixture was centrifuged for 5 minutes at a speed of 3000 rpm. After being centrifuged, 1 ml of the centrifuged solution was transferred to vials that were weighed before, and the dichloromethane was permitted to evaporate in the air for 48 hours. Afterwards, the vials were weighed again, and the removal percentage of the petroleum hydrocarbons was calculated based on the weight difference between the vials (21).km. Based on the population covered by health houses, 11 villages with more than 1000 population had inappropriate access to health houses. Conclusions: The results showed that geographical conditions and developmental infrastructures of the rural areas were some major challenges of access to health houses in Khuzestan Province, which requires the cooperation of several governmental sectors. Collection and storage of accurate, up-to-date, and complete information are very important steps in delivering primary healthcare services and enhancing the rural population health

Apoptotic functions of microRNAs in pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of endometriosis

MicroRNAs or miRNAs are a component of the non-coding RNAs family which is engaged in many cellular functions such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, gene expression, signaling pathways, angiogenesis, and etc. Endometriosis is a malignant gynecologic disorder occurring in women before menopausal age. Pathogenesis of this illness is still a discussion subject between the scientists but in our knowledge, microRNAs can be one of the possible involved factors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of apoptotic activities of miRNAs in endometriosis. Accumulative evidence has demonstrated the role of cell proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion in the progression of these diseases. In this review, we looked into the specific role of apoptosis and its related genes and pathways in endometriosis and tied to present an explanation of how miRNAs can affect endometriosis by their apoptotic activities. What we found is that a great extent of miRNAs is involved in this illness and they are responsible for repressing apoptosis and progression of the disease. As a result, miRNAs have two different usages in endometriosis: biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets. In this review we gathered a great amount of evidence to inquire into the role of micro RNAs in inducing apoptosis and how this mechanism can be exerted for therapeutic purposes for endometriosis. © 2020 The Author(s)

The effects of clinical decision support system for prescribing medication on patient outcomes and physician practice performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSSs) for Prescribing are one of the innovations designed to improve physician practice performance and patient outcomes by reducing prescription errors. This study was therefore conducted to examine the effects of various CDSSs on physician practice performance and patient outcomes. Methods: This systematic review was carried out by searching PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane Library from 2005 to 2019. The studies were independently reviewed by two researchers. Any discrepancies in the eligibility of the studies between the two researchers were then resolved by consulting the third researcher. In the next step, we performed a meta-analysis based on medication subgroups, CDSS-type subgroups, and outcome categories. Also, we provided the narrative style of the findings. In the meantime, we used a random-effects model to estimate the effects of CDSS on patient outcomes and physician practice performance with a 95 confidence interval. Q statistics and I2 were then used to calculate heterogeneity. Results: On the basis of the inclusion criteria, 45 studies were qualified for analysis in this study. CDSS for prescription drugs/COPE has been used for various diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases, AIDS, appendicitis, kidney disease, malaria, high blood potassium, and mental diseases. In the meantime, other cases such as concurrent prescribing of multiple medications for patients and their effects on the above-mentioned results have been analyzed. The study shows that in some cases the use of CDSS has beneficial effects on patient outcomes and physician practice performance (std diff in means = 0.084, 95 CI 0.067 to 0.102). It was also statistically significant for outcome categories such as those demonstrating better results for physician practice performance and patient outcomes or both. However, there was no significant difference between some other cases and traditional approaches. We assume that this may be due to the disease type, the quantity, and the type of CDSS criteria that affected the comparison. Overall, the results of this study show positive effects on performance for all forms of CDSSs. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the positive effects of the CDSS can be due to factors such as user-friendliness, compliance with clinical guidelines, patient and physician cooperation, integration of electronic health records, CDSS, and pharmaceutical systems, consideration of the views of physicians in assessing the importance of CDSS alerts, and the real-time alerts in the prescription. © 2021, The Author(s)

Organization's quality maturity as a vehicle for EHR success

In health care industry, EHR has been advocated to improve care quality. The journey toward the development and adaptation of EHR should be holistic and integrate all the EHR's building blocks-health record management, business process improvement (BPI), collaboration and innovation, change management, user governance, etc.-that are intertwined together as like the links of a chain to improve quality of health care services. These cornerstones that shares common features with quality principles will pave the way for implementing EHR. To go along with quality features and take advantage of quality principles namely "quality maturity" builds a solid foundation for adaptation of EHR. Therefore, the recent theories of EHR success go far beyond technical rationales and focus on organizational and managerial factors in quality improvement. The milestone of quality concept in information system success is revealed in Delone and Mclean's model which launches system quality, information quality, service quality, as distinct elements of the IS success. EHR is a means to an end -to improve quality within enterprises- based on quality approaches. In this regards, more research should be conducted to investigate the relationship between of organization's quality maturity and EHR development success. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

The ontological basics of perfectionism in designing educational sites

Background and Objectives: The ultimate goal of education is the learner’s growth. Therefore, the main concern of the architects in this field is the educational environment design in accordance with the high goals of educational system. In this study, relying on the opinions of Islamic thinkers in Quranic sciences field, the teachings derived from the Holy Quran and basic components underlying the perfection has extracted. These components have proposed, as the main contents of design criteria and improving the quality of schools and educational places, in three areas of meaning, function and body to help the architects benefit from an efficient design. Materials and Methods: This study has considered as an effective fundamental research, using quantitative-qualitative methodology. The methodology, in beginning, is survey. Then, the validity of the researcher-made questionnaires and the reliability of the variables have been calculated and confirmed through Cronbach's alpha test with a coefficient of 0.764. In addition, Q factor analysis (extracting expert opinions) and R factor analysis (extracting users' interests) were also performed using spss19 software. The specialist’s statistical population includes 25 professors specialized in the fields of Islamic education, educational sciences and architecture. Next, 40 female trade school junior were selected, from Tehran trade schools, as a non-random environmental users sample. Finally, the illustrated questionnaires obtained from the views of the professors were prepared and analyzed. Findings: After 990 minutes of interviews with specialized professors of Shahid Rajaee University, Tehran University, Science and Technology University and Imam Khomeini international University of Qazvin, two-stage coding and extraction of effective categories were done to prepare a researcher-made questionnaire with 40 items. According to the results of the factor analysis, the following three factors have detected; 1- Physical characteristics of educational buildings as a factor of human spiritual excellence, 2- Introversion as an effective factor in human self-knowledge and self-construction, 3- Extroversion as a factor in regulating environmental conditions and natural areas of human perfection from the view of the specialists. Then, the users’ illustrated questionnaires in 9 different educational fields with 3 quality grades, have distributed among users. Conclusion:: The students’ identified needs, regarding the meaning and spiritual growth, "creating peace and security, a sense of satisfaction, increasing thinking power, fostering creativity and increasing responsibility." In the ​​function field, the following issues are supposed to have taken into account: "individualized places, observance of hierarchy, flexibility, social interactions, multifunctional spaces and the cultivation of sensory powers". In the body field, "observance of diversity, attention to details, scalability, beauty and connection with nature" should have given priority in designing the school and campus. Therefore, based on these identified variables, the obtained correlation model of the factors making students' spiritual excellence in school design is specified through: 1- body design with considering growth factor characteristics, 2- human self-knowledge and self-construction, 3- nature and environment. Therefore, considering the important role of the body and especially the characteristics of the school environment in the growth of students' talents, the optimal design of educational environments is clearly effective to make a suitable ground for their spiritual growth. ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS©2021 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers. ====================================================================================

COVID-19 and pregnancy: A Review of current knowledge

Background: Since December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a major health problem that is spreading all over the World. Several viral infections such as SARS, MERS, and influenza have been associated With adverse pregnancy outcomes. The question arises Whether pregnant Women are at greater risk of complications related to COVID-19 compared to other people What complications should We expect in the fetuses Whose mothers Were infected? Aims: This Review aims to provide a summary of studies on symptoms of COVID-19 and the possible risks of COVID-19 among pregnant Women, as Well as complications in fetuses and neonates Whose mothers Were infected With COVID-19. Methods: The included data Were provided from Web of Science, Cochrane, PubMed, and Scopus Which are extracted from the published studies in English until April 2nd, 2020 that contained data on the risk of COVID-19 in pregnancy. Results: The early symptoms of patients With COVID-19 Were fever, cough, dyspnea, myalgia, and fatigue; While production of sputum, headache, hemoptysis, and diarrhea Were other symptoms Which Were less common. There is no evidence of vertical maternal-fetal transmission in pregnant Women With COVID-19. Conclusions: The clinical findings in pregnant Women With COVID-19 are not significantly different compared to other patients, and pregnant Women With COVID-19 are not at a higher risk of developing critical pneumonia compared to non-pregnant Women. Although, there has been no sign of vertical infection in infants, but maternal infection can cause serious problems such as preterm labour and fetal distress. © 2020, EDIMES Edizioni Medico Scientifiche. All rights reserved

Functional activities of beta-glucans in the prevention or treatment of cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is the fourth-ranked cancer in the world and is associated with a large number of deaths annually. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are known as the common therapeutic approaches in the treatment of cervical cancer, but because of their side effects and toxicity, researchers are trying to discovery alternative therapies. Beta-glucans, a group of glucose polymers that are derived from the cell wall of fungi, bacteria, and etc. it has been showed that beta-glucans have some anti-cancer properties which due to their impacts on adaptive and innate immunity. Along to these impacts, these molecules could be used as drug carriers. In this regard, the application of beta-glucans is a promising therapeutic option for the cancer prevention and treatment especially for cervical cancer. Herein, we have summarized the therapeutic potential of beta-glucans alone or as adjuvant therapy in the treatment of cervical cancer. Moreover, we highlighted beta-glucans as drug carriers for preventive and therapeutic purposes. © 2020 The Author(s)

Apoptotic functions of microRNAs in pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of endometriosis

MicroRNAs or miRNAs are a component of the non-coding RNAs family which is engaged in many cellular functions such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, gene expression, signaling pathways, angiogenesis, and etc. Endometriosis is a malignant gynecologic disorder occurring in women before menopausal age. Pathogenesis of this illness is still a discussion subject between the scientists but in our knowledge, microRNAs can be one of the possible involved factors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of apoptotic activities of miRNAs in endometriosis. Accumulative evidence has demonstrated the role of cell proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion in the progression of these diseases. In this review, we looked into the specific role of apoptosis and its related genes and pathways in endometriosis and tied to present an explanation of how miRNAs can affect endometriosis by their apoptotic activities. What we found is that a great extent of miRNAs is involved in this illness and they are responsible for repressing apoptosis and progression of the disease. As a result, miRNAs have two different usages in endometriosis: biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets. In this review we gathered a great amount of evidence to inquire into the role of micro RNAs in inducing apoptosis and how this mechanism can be exerted for therapeutic purposes for endometriosis. © 2020 The Author(s)

Improving the Performance in Occupational Health and Safety Management in the Electric Sector: An Integrated Methodology Using Fuzzy Multicriteria Approach

The electric sector is fundamental for the economic and social development of society, impacting on essential aspects such as health, education, employment generation, industrial production, and the provision of various services. In addition to the above, the growing trend in energy consumption worldwide could increase, according to expert estimates, up to 40% by 2030, which in turn increases the efforts of the public and private sector to meet increasing demands and increase access to energy services under requirements of reliability and quality. However, the electricity sector presents challenges and complexities, one of which is the reduction of health and safety risks for workers, service users, and other stakeholders. In many countries, this sector is classified as high risk in occupational safety and health, due to its complexity and the impact of accidents and occupational diseases on the health of workers, in infrastructure, in operating costs and competitiveness of the energy sector. Worldwide, there are rigorous regulations for the electricity sector, from local and national government regulations to international standards to guarantee health and safety conditions. However, it is necessary to develop objective and comprehensive methodologies for evaluating occupational safety and health performance that provides solutions for the electricity sector, not only to comply with standards and regulations also as a continuous improvement tool that supports the decision-making processes given the complexity of the industry and the multiple criteria that are taken into account when evaluating and establishing improvement strategies. In scientific literature, different studies focus on the analysis of accident statistics, the factors that affect accidents and occupational diseases, and the risk assessment of the sector. Despite these considerations, studies that focus directly on the development of hybrid methodologies for the evaluation and improvement of performance in occupational safety and health in the electrical sector, under multiple criteria and uncertainty are mostly limited. Therefore, this document presents an integrated methodology for improving the performance in occupational health and safety in the electric sector through the application of two techniques of Multi-criteria Decision Methods (MCDM) uses in environments under uncertainly. First, the fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is applied to estimate the initial relative weights of criteria and sub-criteria. The fuzzy set theory is incorporated to represent the uncertainty of decision-makers’ preferences. Then, the Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) used for evaluating the interrelations and feedback among criteria and sub-criteria. FAHP and DEMATEL are later combined for calculating the final criteria and sub-criteria weights under vagueness and interdependence. Subsequently, we applied the proposed methodology in a company of the energy sector for diagnosis of performance in OHS to establish improvement proposals, the work path, and implementation costs. Finally, we evaluate the impact of the strategies applied in the improvement of the performance of the company

Enhanced optoelectronic quality of perovskite thin films with hypophosphorous acid for planar heterojunction solar cells

Solution-processed metal halide perovskite semiconductors, such as CH3NH3PbI3, have exhibited remarkable performance in solar cells, despite having non-negligible density of defect states. A likely candidate is halide vacancies within the perovskite crystals, or the presence of metallic lead, both generated due to the imbalanced I/Pb stoichiometry which could evolve during crystallization. Herein, we show that the addition of hypophosphorous acid (HPA) in the precursor solution can significantly improve the film quality, both electronically and topologically, and enhance the photoluminescence intensity, which leads to more efficient and reproducible photovoltaic devices. We demonstrate that the HPA can reduce the oxidized I2 back into I�, and our results indicate that this facilitates an improved stoichiometry in the perovskite crystal and a reduced density of metallic lead