How gender, majors, religion and mental health affect the justified death attitude?

Background: Death penalty and euthanasia are disputed practices in the world. However, they are considered "justified" by their proponents. We newly developed a scale for assessment of the attitude toward justified death, which determines "hot cognition" using a number of scenarios. Objectives: This study aimed at assessing the effects of the major demographic items including gender, major, religion, and mental health on the justified death attitude. Methods: A total of 481 participants including 419 university students and 62 seminarians participated in the study in Tehran, Iran. The Persian versions of the justified death attitude scale and the general health questionnaire-12 were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using the multivariate analysis of variance. Results: Capital punishment was suggested more frequently for rape and drug trafficking and less frequently for murder, and infrequently for adultery. Men and religious subjects showed a more positive attitude toward execution. Furthermore, most of the subjects did not agree with euthanasia; surprisingly, active euthanasia was more acceptable than passive euthanasia. Finally, death penalty and euthanasia did not show an association with mental health. Conclusions: Individual characteristics like gender, major, and religiosity could significantly affect the attitude of people toward justified death. Further studies including neuropsychological methods are suggested. © 2017, Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

The status of hepatitis C virus infection among people who inject drugs in the Middle East and North Africa.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: People who inject drugs (PWID) are a key population at high risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The aim of this study was to delineate the epidemiology of HCV in PWID in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). METHODS: Syntheses of data were conducted on the standardized and systematically assembled databases of the MENA HCV Epidemiology Synthesis Project, 1989-2018. Random-effects meta-analyses and meta-regressions were performed. Meta-regression variables included country, study site, year of data collection and year of publication [to assess trends in HCV antibody prevalence over time], sample size and sampling methodology. Numbers of chronically infected PWID across MENA were estimated. The Shannon Diversity Index was calculated to assess genotype diversity. RESULTS: Based on 118 HCV antibody prevalence measures, the pooled mean prevalence in PWID for all MENA was 49.3% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 44.4-54.1%]. The country-specific pooled mean ranged from 21.7% (95% CI = 4.9-38.6%) in Tunisia to 94.2% (95% CI = 90.8-96.7%) in Libya. An estimated 221 704 PWID were chronically infected, with the largest numbers found in Iran at 68 526 and in Pakistan at 46 554. There was no statistically significant evidence for a decline in HCV antibody prevalence over time. Genotype diversity was moderate (Shannon Diversity Index of 1.01 out of 1.95; 52.1%). The pooled mean percentage for each HCV genotype was highest in genotype 3 (42.7%) and in genotype 1 (35.9%). CONCLUSION: Half of people who inject drugs in the Middle East and North Africa appear to have ever been infected with hepatitis C virus, but there are large variations in antibody prevalence among countries. In addition to > 200 000 chronically infected current people who inject drugs, there is an unknown number of people who no longer inject drugs who may have acquired hepatitis C virus during past injecting drug use. Harm reduction services must be expanded, and innovative strategies need to be employed to ensure accessibility to hepatitis C virus testing and treatment

The influence of Dual N-Back training on fluid intelligence,working memory, and short-term memory in teenagers

Background: Susanne Jaeggi developed the Dual N-Back task in 2003 and proved that dual tasks can improve the activation of Prefrontal cortex as the centre of executive functions. However, Gray and Thompson suggested that this effect is not long-lasting. Objectives: Fluid intelligence, working memory, and short-term memory are very important factors in the achievement of educational objectives. Neuropsychological training concentrates on achievements instead of educational intervention. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of collective cognitive training in an interventional study because collective components of training have been ignored at schools. We selected dual n-back task because it is a computerized task and the efficiency of the task has been demonstrated in previous studies. Materials and Methods: It was a quasi-experimental study. We performed the study in a middle school in Hamadan in 2014. There were a total of 66 teenage participantswhowere assigned to one of the two control and experimental groups. All of them completed a series of tests, namely Wechsler's memory subtest and Raven's progressive Advanced Matrices (RAPM), in pre-test, and post-tests as well as follow-up. Thirty six participants were trained in twelve sessions of collective training during three months. Results: Our results indicated that fluid intelligence, working memory, and short-term memory in the intervention group improved significantly than the control group even in the follow-up stage (P < 0.01). However, the improvement of cognitive abilities did not have an influence on the general averages. Conclusions: Dual N-back task can improve working memory, short-term memory, and fluid intelligence, but the improvement of aforementioned cognitive skills does not promote educational achievement. © 2016, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences

Development and psychometric properties of the justified death attitude scale

Background: Both capital punishment and euthanasia are highly disputed practices that are considered justified by their proponents. Emotional component of attitude has been ignored in the scales developed to assess attitude on capital punishment and euthanasia. Objectives: This development study aimed to develop an assessment tool to evaluate emotional attitude (ignored by previous scales) toward capital punishment and euthanasia that are considered justified by their proponents in 2015. The scale, as defined by the authors, measures individuals' attitude revealing their sense of self or non-self, although lawis in no condition to tackle the exception either crime or euthanasia. After assessing face validity with two psychologists, a clinical psychologist and a psychometric expert at the school of behavioral sciences and mental health, a justified death attitude scale (JDAS) was performedon571 students of national universities of Tehran to evaluate construct validity of the scale. Data were analyzed using the exploratory factor analysis, chi-square, and multivariate analysis of variance. Materials and Methods: The justified death attitude scale included 59 items; other than the first 4 warm-up questions, each item included a scenario inwhicha decision should bemadeby the subjectonlife of the personage. Scenarios are related to rape, adultery, murder, drug trafficking, and active and passive euthanasia. The aforementioned scenarios and items are developed based on social interviews. Results: The justified death attitude scale showed an acceptable reliability and included eight factors that could explain 80.56 variance of the scale. A comparison with warm-up items and main items indicated that poll did not assess euthanasia attitude (P > 0 .05), but it could assess death penalty attitude (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The justified death attitude scale has acceptable validity and reliability in emotional attitude assessment of capital punishment and euthanasia. � 2016, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences

HIV-1 drug resistance mutations detection and HIV-1 subtype G report by using next-generation sequencing platform

Background: Based on world health organization (WHO) recommend, drug resistance assay should be performed in initial of treatment and after treatment for administering and monitoring of anti-retroviral regime in HIV-1 infected patients. Material and method: NGS analyses were performed on forty-one plasma samples from HIV-1 affected patients using the Sentosa SQ HIV genotyping assay (Vela-Diagnostics, Germany). This system comprises a semi-automated Ion torrent based platform and the sequencing results were analyzed based on ANRS, REGA and Stanford drug resistance algorithms. Phylogenetic analysis was analyzed based on https://comet.lih.lu database as well as MEGA5 Software. Results: Drug resistances were identified in thirty-three samples (80) out of forty-one samples. The Phylogenetic analysis results showed that CRF-35AD (94) and subtypes B (2.4) and G (2.4) were dominant subtypes in this study. NRTI and NNRTI associated dominant mutations were M184I/V and K103 N.High-level resistance to lamivudine (3 TC) and Emtricitabine (FTC) were detected in 34.3 of patients while 53.1 were resistant to Efavirenz (EFV) and Nevirapine (NVP). The Protease inhibitor (PI) minor and major mutations were not reported but more than 95 of samples had polymorphisms mutation in K20R, M36I, H69K, L89 M positions. These mutations are subtype dependent and completely are absent in subtype B virus. The secondary mutations were reported in positions of E157Q, S230 N, and T97A of integrase gene and four samples represent low-level resistance to integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI). Conclusions: This is the first preliminary evaluation of HIV-1 drug resistance mutation (DRM) by using the Sentosa SQ HIV Genotyping Assay in Iran. The NGS represent a promising tool for the accurate detection of DRMs of CRF-35AD that is dominant subtype in Iranian HIV-1 infected population and for the first time revealed HIV-1 subtype G in Iranian population. In the present study polymorphic mutation in the position of K20R, M36I, H69K, L89 M were properly reported in CRF35AD that is dominant in Iranian HIV patients. © 202