Safety-critical Policy Iteration Algorithm for Control under Model Uncertainty

Safety is an important aim in designing safe-critical systems. To design such systems, many policy iterative algorithms are introduced to find safe optimal controllers. Due to the fact that in most practical systems, finding accurate information from the system is rather impossible, a new online training method is presented in this paper to perform an iterative reinforcement learning based algorithm using real data instead of identifying system dynamics. Also, in this paper the impact of model uncertainty is examined on control Lyapunov functions (CLF) and control barrier functions (CBF) dynamic limitations. The Sum of Square program is used to iteratively find an optimal safe control solution. The simulation results which are applied on a quarter car model show the efficiency of the proposed method in the fields of optimality and robustness

Two cases of clear cell ovarian cancer in young patients

Background: Ovarian cancer is the most common cause of cancer death worldwide. Incidence of ovarian cancer is more common in postmenopausal women. Premenopausal onset is rare and the present study described two cases of ovarian clear cell tumors in young women. Case Presentation: The patients presented with pelvic mass which was confirmed by sonography and laparotomy and final diagnosis was made according to histologic examination. Both patients showed a solid mass with cystic components in adnexal areas and explorative laparotomy demonstrated extension of tumors to abdomen in both patients. The level of CA 125 increased in both patients. For both tumors, immunohistochemical stainings were positive for CK7 and CD15, but CK20 was negative. Conclusion: Although ovarian clear cell tumor is usually diagnosed in postmenopausal women but its diagnosis should be suspected in young women with pelvic mass

Project Supply Chain Risk Management in Gas Transfer Pipeline: Grounded Theory Approach

Regarding to the increasing importance of supply chain risk in the last decade in general and projects especially, in this research the dimensions and elements of supply chain risk of projects have been determined. Therefore, Fars Gas Transfer Pipeline projects were considered to discover codes and themes according to the phenomena by using Grounded Theory (Corbin and Strauss method). Based on final paradigm model, project supply chain risk management issue was categorized in 6 main dimensions, 19 sub-dimensions and 57 codes. The results show that supply chain risks as a core phenomenon, consists of environmental risks, organizational risks and network risks. To do this, we use theoretical sampling and interview with 10 experts from Gas state company and some suppliers. These interview was deep one because we employed open questionnaire. Then by using open encoding, axial encoding and selective encoding, paradigm model was extracted. The main phenomenon placed the center of model and other themes joined to tha

Circulation of Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus Strains among Hospitalized Children with Acute Lower Respiratory Infection in Malaysia

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major viral pathogen associated with acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRTIs) among hospitalized children. In this study, the genetic diversity of the RSV strains was investigated among nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPA) taken from children less than 5 years of age hospitalized with ALRTIs in Hospital Serdang, Malaysia. A total of 165 NPA samples were tested for the presence of RSV and other respiratory viruses from June until December 2009. RSV was found positive in 83 (50%) of the samples using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Further classification of 67 RSV strains showed that subgroups A and B comprised 11/67 (16.4%) and 56/67 (83.6%) of the strains, respectively. The second hypervariable region at the carboxyl-terminal of the G gene was amplified and sequenced in order to do phylogenetic study. The phylogenetic relationships of the samples were determined separately for subgroups A and B using neighbor joining (NJ), maximum parsimony (MP), and Bayesian inference (BI). Phylogenetic analysis of the 32 sequenced samples showed that all 9 RSV-A strains were clustered within NA1 genotype while the remaining 23 strains of the RSV-B subgroup could be grouped into a clade consisted of strains with 60-nucleotide duplication region. They were further classified into newly discovered BA10 and BA9 genotypes. The present finding suggests the emergence of RSV genotypes of NA1 and BA. This is the first documentation of the phylogenetic relationship and genetic diversity of RSV strains among hospitalized children diagnosed with ALRTI in Serdang, Malaysia

Comparison of Moral Intelligence of Student’s Basic Sciences and Medical Internship in Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2018

زمینه و هدف: هوش اخلاقی به عنوان اولین مؤلفه انطباق اخلاقی، پایه و اساس عمل اخلاقی است. دانشجویان پزشکی که در محیط‌های بالینی آموزش می‌بینند، علاوه بر شایستگی‌های فنی، بایستی از ارزش‌های اخلاقی مطلوب برخوردار باشند. این مطالعه با هدف مقایسه وضعیت هوش اخلاقی دانشجویان مقطع علوم پایه و کارورزی پزشکی دانشگاه علوم پزشکی تهران در سال 1397 انجام شده است. مواد و روش‌ها: این مطالعه مقطعی از نوع توصیفی ـ مقایسه‌ای بر روی 400 نفر از دانشجویان پزشکی در دو مقطع علوم پایه و کارورزی که به صورت تصادفی ساده انتخاب شده بودند و معیارهای ورود به مطالعه را داشتند، انجام شده است. برای جمع‌آوری داده‌ها از پرسشنامه 40 گویه‌ای هوش اخلاقی Keil و Lennick استفاده شد که دربرگیرنده چهار بعد و ده شاخص بود. برای تجزیه و تحلیل داده‌ها از نرم‌افزار SPSS 25 و آزمون‌های T-test، Chi-Square استفاده شد. یافته‌ها: میانگین نمره کل هوش اخلاقی در گروه کارورزی 78/7±13/72 و میانگین نمره کل هوش اخلاقی در گروه علوم پایه 28/8±11/72 بود. میانگین نمره کل هوش اخلاقی بیشتر کارورزان (7/62 درصد) و دانشجویان علوم پایه (7/60 درصد) در طبقه خوب به بالا بدست آمد. حدود 3/37 درصد از کارورزان و 3/39 درصد از علوم پایه دارای هوش اخلاقی ضعیف بودند. میانگین نمره کلی هوش اخلاقی در دانشجویان مقطع کارورزی نسبت به علوم پایه بالاتر بود، اما این اختلاف معنی‌دار نبود (026/0=P-Value). ملاحظات اخلاقی: این مقاله حاصل پایان‌نامه دکتری حرفه‌ای دانشگاه علوم پزشکی تهران است. در طول فرایند پژوهش سیاست‌های اخلاقی دانشگاه مطابق با اصول بیانیه هلسینکی، از جمله اخذ رضایت آگاهانه جهت شرکت در پژوهش رعایت شد. نتیجه‌گیری: شاخص‌های هوش اخلاقی در کارورزان نسبت به دانشجویان علوم پایه بیشتر نبوده است و این یافته‌ها نشانگر عدم موفقیت برنامه‌های آموزشی عمومی و اختصاصی در زمینه توسعه مهارت‌های اخلاقی در دانشجویان پزشکی است. بنابرین بازنگری کوریکولوم آموزش پزشکی با در نظرگرفتن مفاهیم اخلاقی پیشنهاد می‌شود.Background and Aim: Moral intelligence as the first component of moral compliance is the basis of moral action. Medical students trained in clinical settings, in addition to technical competencies, must have desirable moral values. The aim of this study was to compare the moral intelligence status of students of basic sciences and medical internships in Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2018. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-comparative cross-sectional study was performed on 400 medical students in both basic sciences and internships who were randomly selected and met the inclusion criteria. A 40-item Moral Intelligence and Keil Lennick Questionnaire was used to collect data, which included four dimensions and ten indicators. SPSS 25 software and Chi-square t-test were used to analyze the data. Findings: The average total score of moral intelligence in the internship group was 72.13±7.78 and the mean total score of moral intelligence in the basic sciences group was 72.11±8.28.The average total score of moral intelligence of most interns (62.7%) and basic science students (60.7%) was obtained in a good category. About 37.3% of interns and 39.3% of basic sciences had poor moral intelligence. The mean total score of moral intelligence in internship students was higher than basic sciences, but this difference was not significant (P=0.026). Ethical Considerations: This article is the result of a professional doctoral dissertation at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. During the research process, the university's ethical policies were observed in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration, including obtaining informed consent to participate in the research. Conclusion: Indicators of moral intelligence in interns were not higher than students of basic sciences and these findings indicate the failure of general and specific educational programs in the field of developing moral skills in medical students. Therefore, it is recommended to revise the medical education curriculum by considering ethical concepts.   Cite this article as: Hajibabaee F, Yazdani Moghaddam M, Namazi HR, Yaseri M, Ashrafizadeh H, Shojaee AA. Comparison of Moral Intelligence of Student’s Basic Sciences and Medical Internship in Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2018. Med Ethics J 2020; 14(45): e22