Psychometric properties of Persian version of the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ)

Background: Outstanding leadership is one of the important and vital concepts in management and educational leadership debates especially in educational organizations such as universities. Thus, effective educational leadership and adopting an appropriate tool to assess leadership in education are crucial in these institutions. The present study was conducted to develop an instrument for measuring the leadership style in faculty members. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, content and face validity of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was examined using the opinions of 10 experienced faculty members as a panel of experts. For construct validity, 210 questionnaires were administered to faculty members of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Confirmatory factor analysis was run using principal component analysis and Varimax rotation method. The reliability of the scale was measured through internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha formula. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the construct validity of the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS v.16 and LISREL software. Results: Factor analysis and expert opinion resulted in a questionnaire with 18 items across six subscales including idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, contingent reward, and management by exception. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was acceptable (0.90). Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the scale had appropriate goodness of fit. Conclusion: The 18-item Educational Leadership Questionnaire was found to have acceptable validity and reliability for measuring leadership style in the faculty. It is recommended that the questionnaire be administered to a larger sample

Relationship Between Quality of Life and Depression in Pregnant Women

Background: Quality of life differs for different people in different situations and is related to one's self-satisfaction with life. Quality of life is affected by health status. Objectives: The current study examined the relationship between quality of life and depression in pregnant women in Kashan city. Patients and Methods: A Case - control study was performed on 112 depressed pregnant women (Case Group) and 353 Non-depressed pregnant women (Control Group) who referred to the prenatal health care centers of Kashan University of Medical Sciences .They completed Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) to assess the quality of life and the Beck Depression Inventory to assess the level of depressive symptoms. T-test, chi-square and Pearson correlation coefficient statistical tests were used for data analysis. Results: The findings showed that there was an inverse relationship between quality of life and depression in pregnancy (P = 0.0001). Average scores in all eight domains of quality of life were significantly lower in depressed pregnant women compared to non- depressed women. The strongest relationship was observed between depression and vitality (r =-0.52, P = 0.0001), mental health (r = -0.50, P = 0.001) and social functioning (r =-0.38, P = 0.001). Conclusion: Depressed pregnant women had a lower quality of life. The proper management of depression during pregnancy can improve the quality of life in women. It is recommended that antenatal services integrate screening for depression into routine antenatal care

Mutational spectrum of autosomal recessive limb-girdle muscular dystrophies in a cohort of 112 Iranian patients and reporting of a possible founder effect

Background: Limb-girdle muscular dystrophies are a group of genetically heterogeneous diseases that are inherited in both autosomal dominant (LGMDD) and autosomal recessive forms (LGMDR), the latter is more common especially in populations with high consanguineous marriages like Iran. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the genetic basis of patients who are suspicious of being affected by LGMDR. DNA samples of 60 families suspected of LGMD were extracted from their whole blood. Four short tandem repeat (STR) markers for each candidate genes related to LGMD R1 (calpain3 related)- R6 (δ-sarcoglycan-related) were selected, and all these 24 STRs were applied in two sets of multiplex PCR. After autozygosity mapping, Sanger sequencing and variant analysis were done. Predicting identified variants' effect was performed using in-silico tools, and they were interpreted according to the American College of Medical Genomics and Genetics (ACMG) guideline. MLPA was used for those patients who had large deletions. Fresh muscle specimens were taken from subjects and were evaluated using the conventional panel of histochemical stains. Results: forty out of sixty families showed homozygote haplotypes in CAPN3, DYSF, SGCA, and SGCB genes. The exons and intron-exon boundaries of the relevant genes were sequenced and totally 38 mutations including CAPN3 (n = 15), DYSF (n = 9), SGCB (n = 11), and SGCA (n = 3) were identified. Five out of them were novel. The most prevalent form of LGMDs in our study was calpainopathy followed by sarcoglycanopathy in which beta-sarcoglycanopathy was the most common form amongst them. Exon 2 deletion in the SGCB gene was the most frequent mutation in this study. We also reported evidence of a possible founder effect in families with mutations in DYSF and SGCB genes. We also detected a large consanguineous family suffered from calpainopathy who showed allelic heterogeneity. Conclusions: This study can expand our knowledge about the genetic spectrum of LGMD in Iran, and also suggest the probable founder effects in some Iranian subpopulations which confirming it with more sample size can facilitate our genetic diagnosis and genetic counseling. © 2020 The Author(s)

Analysis of the content of Persian textbooks (teaching Persian language to non-Persian speakers) based on learners' age

Background and Objective Age is an important factor in language learning. Sociologically, members of a language community at different ages have different patterns of behavior that change throughout life and through different stages. Age-related linguistic features may be purely lexical or may be phonetic and grammatical. There are differences in the language behavior of different age groups in a language community. In this way, each age group tends to certain linguistic features. No progress will be made in language learning unless the characteristics of language learners are taken into account. We consider speech to depend on to whom we speak, where we speak, and when we speak. The importance of the sociology of language becomes clear where language is a means of communication and we must consider what we say and what we mean by that speech. If students discuss a topic of interest, they will certainly not simply forget the new sentences on that topic. For this reason, in learning a second language, the sociological skills of language, such as social class culture, age, etc., should be considered. The present study is a field study that analyzes the content of Persian textbooks (teaching Persian language to non-Persian speakers) to see to what extent they fit the age of students. Materials: The research sample includes 50 Persian language learners who have been selected by a researcher-made questionnaire. In this research, the following questions are raised: to what extent the selection of comprehension texts of the textbook of Persian language teaching to non-Persian speakers that is adapted to the age and interests of the learners can be effective in learning the vocabulary of Persian language to non-Persian speakers? What changes are proposed to make Persian language teaching books to non-Farsi speakers more relevant to the age of the learners? Findings:Findings of the research show that foreign language learners tend to have their own age preferences in proportion to their age, and are interested in certain texts. Therefore, in curriculum development, age and interests of the learners should be taken into account. In this way vocabulary of the texts is taught easily and effectively. The relevance of the text to the learner's age is important in learning the vocabulary of the text. Conclusion: From the point of view of teachers and experts, the content of textbooks for teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers ​​does not lead to the responsibility and participation of language learners in the desired level of learning activities. The content of textbooks does not have the desired variety of content, examples and illustrations. In this course, books should be designed and arranged in such a way that language learners have the necessary ability to write answers to book exercises, write summaries of textbooks, write sentences with correct spelling and observe written technical points, including marking, use of capital letters, and create the correct calligraphy. Learners should be familiar with the facts of the Persian language, the culture of Persian speakers, and develop critical thinking in learners. Since the concepts of Persian language for learners as a non-native and second language are far from the mind and not very understandable, the content of Persian language textbooks should be designed in such a way that they form interesting content and examples, use a variety of pictures to help learns better learn the content. Textbooks can be effective in cultivating the imagination, sense of beauty, personality of language learners compared to Persian.   ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS  ©2019 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.  ====================================================================================

Condition Monitoring Techniques of Power Transformers: A Review

Power transformers provide a vital link between the generation and distribution of produced energy. Such static equipment is subjected to abuse during operation in generation and distribution stations and leads to catastrophic failures. This paper reviewed the techniques in the field of condition monitoring of power transformers in recent years. Transformer monitoring and diagnosis are the effective techniques for preventing the eventual failures and contributing to ensure the plan’s reliability. This paper provided a survey on the existing techniques for monitoring, diagnosis, condition evaluation, maintenance, life assessment and possibility of extending the life of the existing assets of power transformers with be appropriate classifications. Thus, this survey could help researchers through providing better techniques for condition monitoring of power transformers

The suffix-free-prefix-free hash function construction and its indifferentiability security analysis

In this paper, we observe that in the seminal work on indifferentiability analysis of iterated hash functions by Coron et al. and in subsequent works, the initial value (IV) of hash functions is fixed. In addition, these indifferentiability results do not depend on the Merkle–Damgård (MD) strengthening in the padding functionality of the hash functions. We propose a generic n -bit-iterated hash function framework based on an n -bit compression function called suffix-free-prefix-free (SFPF) that works for arbitrary IV s and does not possess MD strengthening. We formally prove that SFPF is indifferentiable from a random oracle (RO) when the compression function is viewed as a fixed input-length random oracle (FIL-RO). We show that some hash function constructions proposed in the literature fit in the SFPF framework while others that do not fit in this framework are not indifferentiable from a RO. We also show that the SFPF hash function framework with the provision of MD strengthening generalizes any n -bit-iterated hash function based on an n -bit compression function and with an n -bit chaining value that is proven indifferentiable from a RO

Comparison of knowledge, attitude and practice of Urban and rural households toward iron deficiency anemia in three provinces of Iran

Background: Lack of nutritional knowledge is one of the most important reasons of nutritional problems and consequently improper practice, which can lead to several complications. This study has been designed in order to compare knowledge, attitude and practices of the urban and rural households regarding iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in Boushehr, Golestan and Sistan & Balouchestan provinces in 2004. Methods: The sampling method at household's level in each province was the single-stage cluster sampling with equal size clusters. The necessary data were gathered with a structured questionnaire and via the interviews between the questioners and the eligible people in each household. Comparison of frequency of variables between urban and rural areas were tested by chi square test. Results: A total of 2306 households were selected as overall sample size. In urban areas, people recognized iron food sources better than rural areas. Knowledge level of respondents about vulnerable group for IDA and the favorite attitude of households toward IDA were better in urban areas of Sistan & Blouchestan and Golestan provinces. In Sistan & Balouchestan and Golestan, rural households who drank tea immediately before or after meal was more than urban ones. The majority of pregnant and lactating mothers (except for rural areas of Bushehr) did not take iron supplement regularly. Less than 60 percent of children used iron drop regularly. Conclusion: Knowledge, attitude, and practice levels of households toward IDA were not acceptable. One of the best ways of improving nutritional practice is nutritional education with focus on applying available food resources

Content Analysis of Articles Published in Iranian Scientific Nursing Journals From 2009 Through 2011

Background: Little is known about the features of Iranian nursing journals, specifically the subject areas used in articles, study designs, sampling methods, international collaboration of Iranian nursing scholars, specialty and academic rank of authors, and the most frequently contributing academic institutions in articles. Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the content of the articles published in Iranian scientific nursing journals. Materials and Methods: Quantitative content analysis was implemented to study Iranian nursing journals, which were approved by the commission for accreditation and improvement of Iranian medical journals in 2011. Thus, 763 articles from six journals, published from 2009 through 2011, were investigated. Data were extracted from the abstracts and when necessary, from the full-text of articles by visiting the websites of these journals. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: The main subjects of published articles in Iranian scientific nursing journals were consecutively renal dialysis (n = 21), intensive care unit (n = 16), nursing education (n = 15), patient satisfaction (n = 13), quality of life (n = 12), health education (n = 11), patient education (n = 11), pain (n = 10), and education (n = 9). The majority of authors had nursing and midwifery specialty (52.59%) followed by epidemiology/biostatistics specialty (7.72%). Isfahan, Tehran, Shahid Beheshti, Iran, Baqiyatallah, and Urmia universities of medical sciences had consecutively the largest number of publications in the studied journals. Only three papers (0.39%) were published by the international collaboration. Conclusions: Iranian nursing journals should publish special issues in the neglected subject areas. These journals should encourage authors to publish research evidence with higher quality

Neutron spectroscopic study of crystal field excitations in Tb2Ti2O7 and Tb2Sn2O7

We present time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering measurements at low temperature on powder samples of the magnetic pyrochlore oxides Tb2Ti2O7 and Tb2Sn2O7. These two materials possess related, but different ground states, with Tb2Sn2O7 displaying "soft" spin ice order below Tn~0.87 K, while Tb2Ti2O7 enters a hybrid, glassy spin ice state below Tg~0.2 K. Our neutron measurements, performed at T=1.5 K and 30 K, probe the crystal field states associated with the J=6 states of Tb3+ within the appropriate Fd\bar{3}m pyrochlore environment. These crystal field states determine the size and anisotropy of the Tb3+ magnetic moment in each material's ground state, information that is an essential starting point for any description of the low-temperature phase behavior and spin dynamics in Tb2Ti2O7 and Tb2Sn2O7. While these two materials have much in common, the cubic stanate lattice is expanded compared to the cubic titanate lattice. As our measurements show, this translates into a factor of ~2 increase in the crystal field bandwidth of the 2J+1=13 states in Tb2Ti2O7 compared with Tb2Sn2O7. Our results are consistent with previous measurements on crystal field states in Tb2Sn2O7, wherein the ground state doublet corresponds primarily to m_J=|\pm 5> and the first excited state doublet to mJ=|\pm 4>. In contrast, our results on Tb2Ti2O7 differ markedly from earlier studies, showing that the ground state doublet corresponds to a significant mixture of mJ=|\pm 5>, |\mp 4>, and |\pm 2>, while the first excited state doublet corresponds to a mixture of mJ=|\pm 4>, |\mp 5>, and |\pm 1>. We discuss these results in the context of proposed mechanisms for the failure of Tb2Ti2O7 to develop conventional long-range order down to 50 mK.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Version is the same as the published one, except for figure placement on page