Sexual Function in Breastfeeding Women in Family Health Centers of Tabriz, Iran, 2012

Introduction:There are conflicting evidences about the effects of breastfeeding on postpartum maternal sexual functioning. With regard to the methodological weaknesses of previous studies and cultural differences affecting their issue, the present study aims to evaluate sexual functions of lactating women and its components. Methods:This is a descriptive study in which 200 eligible postpartum women were selected from eight health centers of Tabriz (25 from each center). The eligible women were called and invited to attend the health center. The evaluation was performed using the Persian version of normalized questionnaire of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). The participants’ sexual function scores above 28 were considered desirable (regarding the cut-off point mentioned in the Persian version of the questionnaire). Results:Almost all of the lactating women suffered from sexual dysfunctions. Regarding the sexual performance’s components the lowest scores were for libido and sexual arousal. Conclusion:According to the findings of the studies, in order to prevent the effects of sexual dysfunction on lactating women and their family members it is necessary to develop sexual health programs in health centers

Using disturbance function for vibration analysis of a beam with an open edge crack

In this article, the model presented by Shen and Pierre to investigate the transverse vibration behavior of a simply supported beam has been revised. This is done by applying more realistic assumptions. The crack is modeled as a continuous disturbance and the disturbance function is provided based on fracture mechanics. Next, the natural frequencies corresponding to the model are extracted using the Galerkin method. The effect of crack parameters on the vibration behavior of the cracked beam is investigated. The obtained results show that the natural frequencies of the beam decrease with increasing crack depth. At the end, the obtained results are compared with the experimental results. The results show that the presented model is improved compared to previous models and predicts the vibration behavior of cracked beams with better accuracy for different crack parameters.Comment: in Persian language. 20th Annual International Conference of Iranian Society of Mechanical, Shiraz, Iran, 201

E2DNE: Energy Efficient Dynamic Network Embedding in Virtualized Wireless Sensor Networks

Efficient utilization of resources is an important challenge in traditional non-virtualized Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), as the applications are embedded in the sensors, precluding the sensor nodes from being re-used by other applications. Inefficient utilization of resources results in high deployment and maintenance costs. Virtualization is a promising technology that allows multiple sensing tasks from diverse applications to be executed on the same deployed WSNs concurrently. However, given that the WSN sensors are constrained with limited energy, the allocations of physical and virtual resources to the applications in an efficient manner becomes a challenge, especially for mission-critical, delay-sensitive applications. In this paper, we address the problem of virtual network embedding in virtualized WSNs, aiming at minimizing the overall energy consumption while considering the end-to-end latency and bandwidth consumption as the service level agreement (SLA) constraints. We propose our Dynamic Network Embedding (DNE) heuristic for large-scale problem instants. The results reveal that our proposed heuristic leads to close-to-optimal solutions with satisfactory execution time. Our results indicate that the proposed heuristic achieves up to an 18% optimality gap in energy consumption in the small-scale scenario, and outperforms the existing benchmark by up to 58% in the large-scale scenario

Designing a Questionnaire to Identify Factors Affecting Choices of Packed Foods and determining its validity and reliability among people visiting Ardabil health centers

Background: Any program and policy to prevent chronic diseases associated with dietary factors requires major changes in individuals' diet, knowledge, attitude and, consequently, changes in their dietary choices. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors influencing choice of packaged foods in those visiting Ardabil health centers. Methods: In this study, through a literature review, focused group discussions and interview with expert professors, a questionnaire based on the theory of logical action was designed. The validity of the questionnaire was determined by using methods to evaluate content validity, and face validity with a panel of 15 experts. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to determine reliability. Results: The first designed questionnaire consisted of 40 items, but after assessing its validity and reliability, the number of items in the final questionnaire decreased to 36 ones. Eleven items were in the nutritional attitude section, 7 in the subjective normative section, 9 questions in the behavioral intent and 9 questions in the nutritional behavior section. The mean validity score of the final questionnaire was 0.82 and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.79. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the designed questionnaire has acceptable validity and reliability and can be used to identify factors influencing the choice of packaged foods in the community. Keywords: Validity, Reliability, Questionnaire, Packed Food, Reasoned action theor

Designing Joint Precoding and Beamforming in a Multiple Gateway Multibeam Satellite System

This paper aims to design joint on-ground precoding and on-board beamforming of a multiple gateway multibeam satellite system in a hybrid space-ground mode where full frequency reuse pattern is considered among the beams. In such an architecture, each gateway serves a cluster of adjacent beams such that the adjacent clusters are served through a set of gateways that are located at different geographical areas. However, such a system brings in two challenges to overcome. First, the inter-beam interference is the bottleneck of the whole system and applying interference mitigation techniques becomes necessary. Second, as the data demand increases, the ground and space segments should employ extensive bandwidth resources in the feeder link accordingly. This entails embedding an extra number of gateways aiming to support a fair balance between the increasing demand and the corresponding required feeder link resources. To solve these problems, this study investigates the impact of employing a joint multiple gateway architecture and on-board beamforming scheme. It is shown that by properly designing the on-board beamforming scheme, the number of gateways can be kept affordable even if the data demand increases. Moreover, Zero Forcing (ZF) precoding technique is considered to cope with the inter-beam interference where each gateway constructs a part of block ZF precoding matrix. The conceived designs are evaluated with a close-to-real beam pattern and the latest broadband communication standard for satellite communications

Geospatial modeling to identify the effects of anthropogenic processes on landscape pattern change and biodiversity

This research used geospatial data to quantify biodiversity changes and landscape pattern change to track anthropogenic impacts of such changes at the Mouteh Wildlife Refuge (MWR), Isfahan, Iran. Satellite image duration of four decades, LandSat1-5, and IRS-P6 data were used to develop land cover classification maps for 1971, 1987, 1998, and 2011. The number and size of land cover patches, the degree of naturalness, and the diversity indices were calculated and compared for a 40-year period. The results showed an increasing concern with regard to unplanned human activities. Some improvements of the natural landscape also occurred in the core protected zone of the study area. The number and size of land cover patches, the degree of naturalness, and the diversity indices were calculated. Overall changes in natural land use between 1971 and 1998 at MWR showed that the number of patches for natural land use has increased, but it also showed a decrease in 2011. Similar changes were observed for seminatural land use. Within the artificial classes, the number and area of patches were higher and the largest patch occurred in 2011. The maximum variation of diversity is related to the year 2011. The results showed an increasing concern with regard to unplanned human activities. Some improvements of the natural landscape also occurred in the core protected zone of the study area. Remote sensing and geographic information system offers an important means of detecting and analyzing temporal changes occurring in our landscape

Recent Advances in Immunotherapeutic Approaches for Recurrent Reproductive Failure

Human reproduction is an insufficient process, disturbed by various factors, such as immunologic aberrations of mother. Immunologic abnormalities, including cellular and humoral immunity imbalance, cause dysregulated immune responses against embryo, fetus, and associated components and lack of maternal immunotolerance, which compromise the maintenance of pregnancy. Therefore, evaluation of immunologic parameters, including cellular and humoral immunity assessment (T and B lymphocyte, T helper subtypes, NK cells, cytokines, and autoantibodies), especially in women with a history of pregnancy loss or implantation failure, would help clinicians to manage the disorder and prevent next unfavorable pregnancy outcomes. Moreover, several immunomodulatory approaches have been introduced to modulate the abnormal immunologic responses in patients who experience reproduction failure, especially those diagnosed with immunologic basis. Anticoagulants, corticosteroids, intravenous immunoglobulin, immunosuppressive medications used in inhibition of graft rejection, such as calcineurin inhibitors, recombinant cytokines, and cell therapy approaches, are among these modalities. Here, we discuss the proposed mechanisms of immunologic abnormalities involved in the etiopathogenesis of reproduction disorders, besides the suggested immunologic tests and immunotherapeutic approaches which may be helpful in management of these disorders