The Effectiveness of Group Logotherapy in Increasing Resilience and Decreasing Depression among Individuals Affected by Substance Abuse in Tehran

Introduction: Substance use disorder is one of the chronic and often recurrent disorders that predispose a person to serious problems, such as AIDS, hepatitis and other chronic disorders. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of group logotherapy in increasing resilience and decreasing depression among individuals with addiction in Tehran. Method: Semi-experimental research method with pre-test, post-test design and control group was utilized in this study. The statistical population of this study included all individuals affected by substance abuse referred to drug rehabilitation clinic in Tehran. The sample consisted of 36 individuals with substance abuse; whose depression and resilience scores were as much as two standard deviations lower than the mean. Subjects were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Beck Depression Inventory and Caner-Davidson’s Resilience Questionnaire were adopted. Ten 90-minute group logotherapy sessions were held for the experimental group. Data were analyzed using multivariate covariance method. Results: The findings of this study indicated that group logotherapy, increased resilience and decreased depression in the experimental group. Conclusion: Logotherapy can be considered as a new way of introducing purposefulness and meaningfulness in life. It increases the level of resilience and increase happiness for patients with substance abuse through assisting them in discovering their real self, selecting individual values, and finding the meaning of life. Declaration of Interest: None

Determinant Factors in Adopting Mobile Technology-based Services by Academic Librarians

Nowadays, mobile technology seems to become integral part of our life. People with different careers have begun to use it in their jobs. This research aims to identify influential factors in mobile technology adoption at library context. To this end, a conceptual model was presented based on an integrated model of technology acceptance model (TAM) and technology organization and environment (TOE) model. A researcher-made questionnaire was distributed among 120 academic librarians. Seven factors out of the integrated model of TAM and TOE were chosen to investigate their influence on mobile technology adoption. The results of the study suggest that the proposed model (integrated model of TAM and TOE) is a favorable one to identify the influential factors in mobile technology adoption at library context. In addition, regression analysis indicated that out of these seven factors, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, compatibility, relative advantage and organizational competency are determinant factors in adopting mobile technology-based library services among academic librarians

Treaty Regime of Ocean Fertilization: gaps and solutions

The international community has been trying to regulate ocean fertilization technology as a new geoengineering technique to deal with climate change for about a decade. During this period, some strategies have been proposed to govern such activities in the lack of a legal regime. These solutions have been mainly driven from the available treaties such as Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the London Dumping Regime. Although the availability of such solutions is so valuable, they do not fully represent the current situation. Such problem comes from ignoring the benefits of fertilization as one of the emerging technologies to deal with climate change, ambiguities existing in defining the critical concepts related to this technology, content inconsistency, and neglecting the position of private actors. Hence, in the present study, it is shown that the international community should attempt to set a specific document for the fertilization of the oceans, either partially or generally, to overcome such drawbacks. But, since such a process is so time-consuming, the capabilities of soft law can be used to regulate ocean fertilization activities. The application of soft law will be very helpful, especially in the current situation where the problems of ocean fertilization and their solutions are still unknown. Undoubtedly, the voluntary nature of soft law is highly likely to lead to more governments’ involvement. Furthermore, its flexibility allows non-state actors to participate. Accordingly, Data collection of this research is library method and the procedure is descriptive analytica

Investigation of Underwater Optical Wireless Communications with Turbulence

Turbulence is due to the random variations of the refractive index of the medium (in this case water), which leads to fluctuation or fading of the received light intensity. In wireless communications including underwater optical wireless communications the link performance is greatly affected. In this paper, we investigate the effect of turbulence on the probability density function (PDF) of the received light intensity. We show that lognormal and negative exponential distributions are fitted well with the PDFs of the received light intensity in weak-to-strong and saturated turbulence regimes. The goodness of fit test is performed to validate the conformity of these two distributions with the simulation results. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of the divergence angle of the Gaussian beam transmitter, the receiver’s aperture diameter and field of view on the scintillation index

Assessment of cost optimal solutions for high performance multi-family buildings in Iran

According to the international benchmarks proposed for the energy demand reduction, the Iranian government, for limiting domestic energy demand growth, has set some energy efficiency policies. In this regard, the present study proposes various solutions to investigate the feasibility of improving the performance of an existing typical multi-family building in Iranian context, to achieve a high performance one with proper cost-optimal levels of energy performance by using the global cost approach defined by EU legislation. Precisely 50 different packages of energy efficiency measures were analyzed in terms of economic and energy performance with consideration on the effects of different envelope thermal insulation, shading system, window types and highly efficient systems in addition to the solar renewable energy source. Then the impact of the selected measures on energy efficiency improvement and global cost were studied and revealed that obtaining high performance building simultaneously with the cost optimal levels can be fulfilled, just when the financial support from the government subsidies exist, otherwise there is still a long way from being economically feasible

Effect of Different Heparin Volumes on Blood Gas Analysis

AbstractBackground and Aim: Blood gas analysis is an important laboratory test for diagnosis and treatment of a variety of medical conditions in emergency rooms. Inaccurate sample collection is one of the reasons for errors in blood gas analysis. This study was conducted to evaluate different volumes of heparin in syringes and the effect of sample dilution on blood gas analysis as one of the main factors affecting the results of blood gas analysis.Methods: One hundred children (4 months to 12 years) who presented to Loghman Hakim Hospital, Tehran, Iran, were enrolled in this study. Two samples were taken from each patient. For the first sample, the syringes were filled with heparin sodium and then emptied completely to achieve a very thin layer anticoagulant coating. For the second sample, the syringes were filled with 0.1 mL of liquid heparin sodium 5000 U/mL (5%). The blood gas parameters including pH, PO2, PCO2, HCO3 and BE (base excess) were measured. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 18.Results: All parameter had lower levels in second samples (0.1 mL heparin 5%) except for PO2 compared to the first samples (P < 0.001).Conclusion: This study found that a small amount of heparin in the syringe changed the result of blood gas analysis. Keywords: Blood Gas Analysis; Heparin; pH; PCO2; HCO3

The effects of hydroalcoholic extract of leaves and onion of Allium paradoxum on Giardia lamblia in mice

زمینه و هدف: ژیاردیا یکی از شایعترین انگل های تک یاخته ای روده ای در انسان و پستانداران مختلف می باشد. با توجه به اینکه داروهای شیمیایی جهت درمان این بیماری دارای اثرات جانبی متعددی بوده و تأثیر آن ها قطعی نمی باشد؛ لذا یافتن دارویی با اثرات جانبی کمتر امری ضروری در درمان این بیماری انگلی به نظر می رسد. مطالعه حاضر با هدف بررسی تأثیر عصاره هیدروالکلی برگ و پیاز گیاه الزی (Allium paradoxum) بر روی انگل ژیاردیا لامبلیا در موش Balb/c انجام شد. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه تجربی، 50 سر موش Balb/cبه 10 گروه تقسیم و تعداد 105×2 کیست به همه گروه ها به جز کنترل منفی خورانده شد. پس از تأیید آلودگی، گروه های مورد آزمون به مدت 3 روز با عصاره هیدروالکلی برگ و پیاز گیاه الزی (غلظت های 20،50 و100 میلی گرم بر میلی لیتر) و داروی مترونیدازول به عنوان کنترل دارو مورد درمان قرار گرفتند. یافته ها: عصاره هیدروالکلی پیاز الزی در دوز mg/ml100 قادر به از بین بردن کیست ژیاردیا لامبلیا می باشد که این تأثیر نسبت به گروه کنترل مثبت و کنترل منفی معنی دار بود (05/0>P). همچنین مشخص شد برگ الزی تأثیر زیادی بر روی انگل ژیاردیا لامبلیا ندارد؛ ولی می تواند موجب افزایش تأثیر پیاز الزی شود، به عبارت دیگر اثر هم افزایی دارد. نتیجه گیری: با توجه به تأثیر مناسب گیاه الزی در شرایط In vivo بر روی انگل ژیاردیا لامبلیا و عوارض زیادی که از داروهای شیمیایی گزارش شده است، می توان گیاه الزی را به عنوان یک ترکیب طبیعی ضد ژیاردیایی معرفی کرد