Job satisfaction amongst agricultural extension personnel in Kurdistan Province of Iran

Understanding behaviour of an individual in an organization requires knowing something about organization and some psychological factors as well as job satisfaction. Job satisfaction broadly is considered to be as attitude of a person reflecting the degree to which his/her important needs are satisfied by this job. To study the job satisfaction level and factors associated with job satisfaction of Extension personnel, a sample of 74 extension personnel from Kurdistan province of Iran were selected. To study the job satisfaction level among respondents, Bray Field and Rothe Job Satisfaction Index was used. A data form was used to collect information about selected personal variables. The reliability and validity of the Bray Field and Rothe Job Satisfaction Index were determined. Cronbach's alpha computed to measure reliability of the 20 items of scale was 0.82. The data were analyzed using statistical methods such as frequencies, percentage, mean score, standard deviation, and product moment correlation and regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the extension personnel (51.4%) belonged to high level of job satisfaction, followed by 35.1 and 13.5 percent belonging to medium and low level of job satisfaction, respectively. The index items most suggesting negative job satisfaction was unclear promotion policy in organization and low salary, respectively. According to regression analysis educational level, level of job diversity and salary were found to have contributed to the increase of job satisfaction among extension personnel. South African Journal of Agricultural Extension Vol. 35 (2) 2006: pp. 176-18

Innovation Models and Business Process Redesign

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a paradigm that is used by many organizations to survive in the competitive era. However, creative design of the business processes is a critical phase and the organization should prepare the ground for innovation in this phase. Innovation helps organizations to use the BPR concept efficiently. This paper reviews the BPR methodologies and innovation concepts and models and presents a business process redesign framework based on the innovation models using Dubin’s methodology. This brings innovation concepts to the world of business process reengineering. In the proposed framework, external and internal factors enforce the organization to accomplish a BPR project. Preparing an organization for innovation makes a new environment that drives employees to innovate and look forward to new processes. This is crucial for BPR projects where employees should make significant changes in jobs, workflows and IT, and increases the chance of BPR projects success. Key words: Innovation; Business process redesign framework; Dubin’s methodolog

Hyperglycemic diet and training alter insulin sensitivity, intramyocellular lipid content but not UCP3 protein expression in rat skeletal muscles

Intramyocellular lipids (IMCL) and mitochondrial uncoupling protein-3 (UCP3) have been implicated in the development of muscular insulin resistance. This study aimed to investigate the role of IMCL and UCP3 in the development of glucose intolerance and muscular insulin resistance during 12 weeks of an obesity-inducing 'cafeteria-style' diet alone (CAF), or in conjunction with exercise training from weeks 8-12 (CAFTR), in rats. At the end of the intervention period, gain in body weight was 20% higher in CAF (305+/-10 g) than controls (CON) (255+/-14 g; p<0.001) and CAFTR (253+/-7 g; p<0.001). Furthermore, compared with CON, the Matsuda insulin sensitivity index (ISI), assessed during a 2-h intravenous glucose tolerance test, was markedly lower in CAF (6.7+/-0.4) than in either CON (15.6+/-1.4; p<0.001) or CAFTR (11.2+/-1.1; p<0.001). Moreover, in CAF glucose transport at a submaximal insulin concentration (200 microU/ml) was reduced by approximately 60% (p<0.05) in both red and white gastrocnemius muscles, but not in m. soleus. However, glucose transport in CAFTR was similar to CON in red gastrocnemius. In CAF fiber-specific IMCL content determined in m. soleus and extensor digitorum longus (EDL), was higher than in CON (p<0.01) and CAFTR (p<0.001). Muscle UCP3 protein content was not changed by any of the interventions. Interestingly, within CAF and CAFTR, ISI closely negatively correlated with IMCL content in both type I (soleus, r=-0.93; EDL, r=-0.90; p<0.05) and IIa (EDL, r=-0.52, p<0.05) muscle fibers. These findings indicate that changes in IMCL content but not UCP3 content are implicated in short-term effects of cafeteria-style diet and exercise training on muscular insulin sensitivity in rats

Relationship between utrine cervical carcinoma and oral contraceptives

Background and Objective: The utrine cervical cancer is the third common cancer among women word-wide. Oral contraceptives (OCs) have characterized as one of the possible risk factors for cervical cancer which are daily used by millions of women. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between utrine cervical carcinoma and oral contraceptives. Materials and Methods: This case - control study was done on 128 patients with utrine cervical cancer as cases and 128 healthy women as controls in Tehran, Iran during 2008. The cases matched with controls according to age, history of abortion, number of deliveries, and social-economical status. Data were analyzed using SPSS-11, student’s t-test, Chi-Square, Pearson's correlation and Fisher’s exat tests. Results: Significant correlation was observed between utrine cervical cancer and the history of using and duration of oral contraceptives (P<0.05). Eighty-one (66.3%) and 46 (35.9%) of subjects in case and control groups used oral contraceptives, respectively. The possibility of utrine cervical cancer through oral contraceptives consumption was 3.072 (CI 95% 1.05-2.91) and this rate increased to 5.2 times after consuming the oral contraceptives for longer than 8 years. Conclusion: This study showed that the usage of oral contraceptives increase the possibility of utrine cervical cancer by 3 times