Can we improve the quality of medical news merely by increasing journalists' health knowledge?

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an educational intervention on the quality of health research- based news, given the sensitivity of disseminating incorrect information. Methods: An uncontrolled before-after study was conducted among health news producers in Tehran from November 2011 to March 2012. The intervention that included educational content in the form of a workshop was evaluated in advance. The outcome of measuring the scientific quality of news extracted from medical and health research results was considered for authenticity and accuracy. The health research-based news quality assessment tool was used. In this study, 32 individuals voluntarily entered the program, and their produced news was collected in 4 stages. To determine the effectiveness of the educational intervention, paired t- tests were used. SPSS version 17 was used for statistical analysis and p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean score (±SD) of the participants' produced news was 0.40 (±0.089) before and 0.61 '(±0.086) after the intervention, which increased by 0.21±0.09 (p < 0.001). Of the news collected from the participants as baseline data, 544 (65) articles aimed at increasing public knowledge and awareness. Almost all the news had been gathered from interviews, and only 41 (4.8) news articles were based on health research results. Conclusion: The educational intervention proved effective in promoting the quality of health research news. Only a few health journalists participated in this study, and thus the need to educate health news producers is felt. Since interviews with health researchers and experts were the largest source of news, interventions need to target other groups who affect the quality and accuracy of the news. © Iran University of Medical Sciences

Self-assessment of health promoting Hospital's activities in the largest heart Hospital of Northwest Iran

Background: Health Promoting Hospitals are among the major health promoters of the society. To acquire Health Promoting Hospital (HPH) status, a hospital must self-assess to know their inadequacies and then lay the foundation for improvements. This study has been performed with the aim of assessing readiness of the largest heart hospital of northwestern Iran regarding the HPH standards. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted through the participation of 270 administrative and clinical staff of the largest heart hospital of northwestern Iran. Data were gathered using self-assessment tool for health promoting hospitals including demographics and the HPH standards. HPH standards' dimensions were Management policy, Patient assessment, Patient information and intervention, Promoting a healthy workplace, and Continuity and cooperation. Analysis was performed by SPSS v. 16 with a significance level of 0.05. Results: The participants included clinical (67.4) and administrative (32.6) staff. Among the HPH standards, the lowest score belonged to the management policy (1.44 ± 0.53) and the highest one to the patient information and intervention (1.72 ± 0.47). The average score of compliance with the HPH standards was 1.60 ± 0.40 which shows moderate progress of the hospital towards the HPH standards. Conclusion: Regarding the moderate situation of the hospital in HPH standards and the low score of the management policy, the studied hospital should enforce the standards, especially in the management policy. Also, there is a need for health promotion programs in all three levels of prevention with the participation of the staff and the patients as much as possible. © 2018 The Author(s)

Aptamer-based field-effect biosensor for tenofovir detection

During medical treatment it is critical to maintain the circulatory concentration of drugs within their therapeutic range. A novel biosensor is presented in this work to address the lack of a reliable point-of-care drug monitoring system in the market. The biosensor incorporates high selectivity and sensitivity by integrating aptamers as the recognition element and field-effect transistors as the signal transducer. The drug tenofovir was used as a model small molecule. The biointerface of the sensor is a binary self-assembled monolayer of specific thiolated aptamer and 6-mercapto-1-hexanol (MCH), whose ratio was optimized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements to enhance the sensitivity towards the specific target. Surface plasmon resonance, performed under different buffer conditions, shows optimum specific and little non-specific binding in phosphate buffered saline. The dose-response behavior of the field-effect biosensor presents a linear range between 1 nM and 100 nM of tenofovir and a limit of detection of 1.2 nM. Two non-specific drugs and one non-specific aptamer, tested as stringent control candidates, caused negligible responses. The applications were successfully extended to the detection of the drug in human serum. As demonstrated by impedance measurements, the aptamer-based sensors can be used for real-time drug monitoring

Libya and Europe: imperialism, crisis and migration

This article examines the recent dynamics of European imperialism in Libya in the light of Marx’s theory of the global reserve army of labour. It analyses the limited advance of Western imperialism in Libya in the decade before the 2011 uprisings, the interactions between local, regional and international forces during and after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervention, and, finally, the evolving migratory patterns from Libya. In this light, the instability along the southern and eastern Mediterranean coastline – a product of the uprisings and the forms of political reactions they unleashed – is simultaneously a security threat and a channel of migratory movements to European capitalism

A study of MORT logical tree and Tripod Beta methods in event occurrence causality analysis using hierarchical model

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to compare MORT and Tripod Beta methods, using a hierarchical model, in order to choose the best technique to analyze an event in an organization.  .Material and Method: In this study, a critical event was selected and the causes of the event were identified, employing MORT and Tripod Beta capabilities. Following the identification of the event causes, the aforementioned techniques were weighted and compared considering selected criteria and AHP hierarchical method.  .Result: Relative weights of the selected criteria were calculated. The ability to identify the event causes with the weight of 0.315 had the greatest weight. The event analysis cost (0.24), required time to analyze the event (0.146), technical experts (0.125), training for implementation (0.24), and availability of the analytical software (0.07) had obtained the subsequent weights, respectively.  .Conclusion: Analytic hierarchy process is an efficient and practical method to prioritize the choices considering the study objectives and criteria. As scientific method, Analytic hierarchy process helps the experts in decision-making. Considering the selected criteria, findings in this study showed that Tripod Beta technique (with a weight of 0.563) is superior to MORT technique (with a weight of 0.437)

Effects of educational intervention based on PRECEDE model on self care behaviors and control in patients with type 2 diabetes in 2012

BACKGROUND: Diabetes is a chronic disease and its control requires essential change in patients' life style. The aim of this study was survey of effects of educational intervention based on PRECEDE Model on self care behaviors and control in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: This was a quasi-experimental study carried out in 78 patients with type 2 diabetes who have referred to Minoodasht clinic of diabetes. The educational program has been designed according to the PRECEDE Model. Prior to perform the educational intervention, the patients filled a questionnaire which was designed according to the structure of PRECEDE Model for type 2 diabetes patients. The diabetes education program was performed on three target groups (patients, their families and Health care personnel). After four weeks, the effects of the educational program have been evaluated through the same questionnaire. The findings were analyzed by SPSS version 16 and p-value less than 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 49 years, 87.2 were married and 19.2 was illiterate. The rate of income of 44.9 was low. 66 had a family history of diabetes and 64 had been afflicted with diabetes more than 5 years. The Chi-square test showed a significant relationship between formation of a file in diabetes clinic and on-time presence to receive services and participation in the educational classes with the marital status variable. The results also showed that there is a significant relationship between observing food diet and job. The mean scores of knowledge, attitude, practice, reinforcing factors and enabling factors has increased after educational intervention. The Chi-square test shows a significant difference before and after of education intervention in stages of the model. CONCLUSION: The obtained results based on PRECEDE Model would support the positive effect of the educational intervention and its major elements (predisposing, enabling and reinforcing factors) on diabetes self-care behaviors

Survey of Wife Abuse and Influencing Social Factors Incidence of Domestic Violence in Tehranian Families

Background & Aims: Violence against wives has been one of the things that are of interest to researchers, sociologists and psychologists. In all countries, despite the social and economic and cultural differences between them, Domestic violence occurs by husbands. It encompasses any behavior between them in close relationship. It causes physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Therefore this study is aimed to impact of social factors effective in the incidence of domestic violence in the Tehranian families who are referred to the parks. Materials and Methods: This study is a descriptive - analytical. The data collection tools are questionnaires. The questionnaires consist of 4 parts: Demographic data, physical, Sexual and psychological violence. Then 224 persons of married women referring to Tehran parks were completed these questionnaires, so data were analyzed by SPPS software (version 16) using descriptive, inferential statistics. Results: 33.6% of women participating in the study have experienced physical violence at least one during the last year, also between variables female age, remarried women, Gender of children, who Have adopted children, income, property, A separate bank account, type of married are significant relationship with violence. Conclusion: Economic problem, low education and type of job connected to Domestic violence. To combat of domestic violence as a global challenge, should be promoted the men's knowledge about women's rights and educated couple before marriage about their right and created an environment and support and counseling services and psychotherapy for individuals who are victims of violence

Development and Evaluation of Novel Aptamers Specific for Human PD1 Using Hybrid Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment Approach

Background: Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1; also known as CD279) is an inhibitory receptor on T lymphocytes interacting with PD1-ligand 1 and PD1-ligand 2 in the synapse of T cells and antigen presenting cells (APC) resulting in the suppression of T cell activity. Systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) is a method for generating aptamers which can bind specifically to the target of interest. PD-1 antagonistic aptamers could introduce an attractive alternative over the antibody-based treatments due to the distinguished advantages of aptamers including small size and efficient tissue penetration, low cost, lack of immunogenicity, and ease of manufacturing. Methods: Here, we developed single-stranded DNA aptamers which bind specifically to the human extracellular domain of PD-1. We performed hybrid SELEX, a combination of targeting of recombinant proteins and cell membrane expressed PD1 to select and identify specific aptamers and for the first time, homology of aptamer sequences selected from protein and cell SELEX pool have been evaluated in this study. Results: C42�aptamer, one of the selected aptamers, could specifically bind to human PD1 with dissociation constant in the nanomolar range. Although the developed aptamer inhibited binding of PD1 to PD-L1 but it was not able to restore the cell proliferation and cytokine production of the CD8+ CD279+ T cells. Conclusion: Further studies are required to assess the therapeutic potential of C42 aptamer and other aptamers developed in this study. The introduced PD1 specific aptamers can be used for specific detection of PD1 in diagnostic assay such as immunohistochemistry and targeted drug delivery to PD+ T cells. © 2020, © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Effect of school-based interventions to control childhood obesity: A review of reviews

Effectiveness of school-based interventions to prevent or control overweight and obesity among school children was reviewed for a 11-year period (January 2001 to December 2011). All English systematic reviews, meta-analyses, reviews of reviews, policy briefs and reports targeting children and adolescents which included interventional studies with a control group and aimed to prevent or control overweight and/or obesity in a school setting were searched. Four systematic reviews and four meta-analyses met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review. Results of the review indicated that implementation of multi-component interventions did not necessarily improve the anthropometric outcomes. Although intervention duration is a crucial determinant of effectiveness, studies to assess the length of time required are lacking. Due to existing differences between girls and boys in responding to the elements of the programs in tailoring of school-based interventions, the differences should be taken into consideration. While nontargeted interventions may have an impact on a large population, intervention specifically aiming at children will be more effective for at-risk ones. Intervention programs for children were required to report any unwanted psychological or physical adverse effects originating from the intervention. Body mass index was the most popular indicator used for evaluating the childhood obesity prevention or treatment trials; nonetheless, relying on it as the only indicator for adiposity outcomes could be misleading. Few studies mentioned the psychological theories of behavior change they applied. Recommendations for further studies on school-based interventions to prevent or control overweight/obesity are made at the end of this review. © 2015 Amini M