Factors Associated With Body Weight Status of Iranian Postgraduate Students in University of Putra Malaysia

Background: Good nutrition, a balanced diet and regular physical activity are foundations of good health. Research has found that dietary patterns change dramatically following the arrival of students in a foreign country. However, nutritional status of Iranian students studying oversea has never been investigated. Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine factors associated with body weight status of Iranian postgraduate students in Universiti of Putra Malaysia (UPM). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the body weight status of 210 Iranian postgraduate students aged between 22 and 55 years in University of Putra Malaysia. The associations between body weight status and socio demographics factors and also lifestyle factors (smoking and physical activity) were assessed. Anthropometric factors (height, weight, BMI and waist and hip circumferences) were measured. Chi-square, Spearman Rho and Pearson tests were used for data analysis. Results: From a total of 210 postgraduate students 110 were females, and 100 males. No significant correlation was observed between smoking and BMI (P = 0.4). However, statistically significant correlations were observed between gender (P = 0.007), physical activity (P = 0.02), using protein (P = 0.005), carbohydrate (P = 0.002), fat (P = 0.001), fiber (P = 0.003), vitamin C (P = 0.04), calcium (P = 0.005), waist circumference (P = 0.02), hip circumference (P = 0.001), Waist to Hip Ratio (P = 0.002), and BMI. Conclusions: The nutritional behavior of university students was poor. Therefore, it is essential to encourage young people, including university students to enrich their diets with milk, beans, fruit, and vegetables to decrease the risks of nutrition related disorders

Evaluation of probabilistic models for word frequency and information retrieval

Volume 2 Issue 9 (September 2014

Sequence variation in mitochondrial cox1 and nad1 genes of ascaridoid nematodes in cats and dogs from Iran

The study was conducted to determine the sequence variation in two mitochondrial genes, namely cytochrome c oxidase 1 (pcox1) and NADH dehydrogenase 1 (pnad1) within and among isolates of Toxocara cati, Toxocara canis and Toxascaris leonina. Genomic DNA was extracted from 32 isolates of T. cati, 9 isolates of T. canis and 19 isolates of T. leonina collected from cats and dogs in different geographical areas of Iran. Mitochondrial genes were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced. Sequence data were aligned using the BioEdit software and compared with published sequences in GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods. Based on pairwise comparison, intra-species genetic diversity within Iranian isolates of T. cati, T. canis and T. leonina amounted to 0-2.3, 0-1.3 and 0-1.0 for pcox1 and 0-2.0, 0-1.7 and 0-2.6 for pnad1, respectively. Inter-species sequence variation among the three ascaridoid nematodes was significantly higher, being 9.5-16.6 for pcox1 and 11.9-26.7 for pnad1. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis of the pcox1 and pnad1 genes indicated that there is significant genetic diversity within and among isolates of T. cati, T. canis and T. leonina from different areas of Iran, and these genes can be used for studying genetic variation of ascaridoid nematodes. © Cambridge University Press 2014

Micelle-Mediated Extraction and Cloud Point Pre-concentration for the Spectrophotometric Determination of Phenol in Water Samples

In this paper, a cloud point extraction method for the determination of trace amounts of phenol by spectrophotometry is described. The method is based on the colour reaction of phenol with diazotized p-nitroanilinean alkaline media and the cloud point extraction of azo dye product using of nonionic surfactant Triton X-114. The effects of reaction and extraction parameters were studied and optimum parameters were established. The calibration graph was linear in the range of 2.0–400 ng mL–1 of phenol. Detection limit based on three times the standard deviation of the blank (3Sb) was 1.0 ng mL–1 and the relative standard deviation (RSD) for 50 ng mL–1 of phenol was 1.73 % (n=10). The proposed method was applied for the determination of phenolin water samples.Keywords: Pre-concentration, cloud point extraction, phenol, spectrophotometry, water sample

Using Machine Learning for Land Suitability Classification

Artificial intelligence and machine learning methods can be used to automate the land suitability classification. Multiple Classifier System (MCS) or ensemble methods are rapidly growing and receiving a lot of attention and proved to be more accurate and robust than an excellent single classifier in many fields. In this study a dataset based land suitability classification is addressed. It is done using a newly proposed ensemble classifier generation technique referred to as RotBoost, which is constructed by combining Rotation Forest and AdaBoost, and it is known to be the first time that RotBoost has been applied for suitability classification. The experiments conducted with the study area, Shavur plain, lies in the northern of Khuzestan province, southwest of Iran. It should be noted that suitability classes for the input data were calculated according to FAO method. This provides positive evidence for the utility of machine learning methods in land suitability classification especially MCS methods. The results demonstrate that RotBoost can generate ensemble classifiers with significantly higher prediction accuracy than either Rotation Forest or AdaBoost, which is about 99% and 88.5%, using two different performance evaluation measures

Analysis of geographical accessibility to rural health houses using the geospatial information system, a case study: Khuzestan Province, south-west Iran

Background: The use of rural health houses is one of the important approaches for delivering health services but, inappropriate infrastructures and limited resources make it difficult to design and implement plans to enhance and improve health services in rural areas. The aim of this study was to analyze the accessibility to rural health care services in the province of Khuzestan Materials and methods: This applied research was conducted in Khuzestan Province, south-west Iran with a cross-sectional approach in 2014. The population of the study was the villages and rural health houses. All the villages and rural health houses were included in the study without sampling. Descriptive data collected with a checklist from the Statistical Centre of Iran, IT Department of the Management Deputy of the Governor's Office and Ahvaz Jundishapur and Dezful University of Medical Sciences and spatial data obtained from the national Cartographic Center. The validity of the checklist was confirmed by 5 Public Health experts and 3 senior experts of the GIS system. Data analyzed with Arc GIS 9.3 software. Results: Khuzestan Province has 3461 villages with inhabitants. Based on the geographical distance to the nearest health house, 358 villages (10.34) with inhabitants were outside the service provision area with a distance of more than 6 In order to measure the total petroleum hydrocarbon available in the soil, first, 1 gr of the pot soil was taken and 10 ml dichloromethane solvent added to it, then the mixture was stirred for 5 minutes, and the resulting mixture was centrifuged for 5 minutes at a speed of 3000 rpm. After being centrifuged, 1 ml of the centrifuged solution was transferred to vials that were weighed before, and the dichloromethane was permitted to evaporate in the air for 48 hours. Afterwards, the vials were weighed again, and the removal percentage of the petroleum hydrocarbons was calculated based on the weight difference between the vials (21).km. Based on the population covered by health houses, 11 villages with more than 1000 population had inappropriate access to health houses. Conclusions: The results showed that geographical conditions and developmental infrastructures of the rural areas were some major challenges of access to health houses in Khuzestan Province, which requires the cooperation of several governmental sectors. Collection and storage of accurate, up-to-date, and complete information are very important steps in delivering primary healthcare services and enhancing the rural population health

Survey of behavioral problems and sensory processing in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Objectives: All individuals need to have the ability of appropriate sensory processing for proper functioning in the environment and participation in daily activities. Moreover, behavioral functions can be affected by sensory processing problems. This study aimed to determine the relationship between behavioral problems and sensory processing in 7 to 10 years old children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Methods: This descriptive (cross-sectional) study included 60 children with ADHD aged 7 to 10 years, who were referred to a comprehensive psychiatric center. Short Sensory Profile (SSP) and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) questionnaires were used for assessing the patterns of sensory processing and behavioral problems in the patients. Results: There was a negative correlation between internalizing behavioral problems (r=-0.426) and externalizing behavioral problems (r=-0.465), and the total score of sensory processing in ADHD children (P<0.05). Discussion: The findings of this study showed that some behaviors in children with ADHD could be due to certain defects in their sensory processing

Pullulan Production Using Molasses and Corn Steep Liquor as Agroindustrial Wastes: Physiochemical, Thermal and Rheological Properties

Background and Objective: Pullulan is a microbial exopolysaccharide with wide uses in various industries. The aim of this study was to investigate pullulan production from agro-industrial wastes and study of pH, molasses concentration and corn steep liquor concentration as independent variables and yield of pullulan as response. Material and Methods: Briefly, 5% (v v-1) of the inoculation media (yeast extract 3 g, malt extract 3 g, peptone 5 g and sucrose 10 g per liter of distilled water), including Aureobasidium pullulans were added into media, containing 100 ml of molasses (100, 150 and 200 g l-1) and various corn steep liquor concentrations (20, 40 and 60 ml l-1) at adjusted pH (4.5, 5.5 and 6.5). After extraction and separation of the biomass using centrifuge, two folds of the supernatant volume of cold ethanol were added to the samples and stored at 4 °C for 24 h. After centrifuging, pullulan was dried and analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis and rheological tests. Results and Conclusion: Findings revealed that the maximum production yield (18.29 g l- 1 ±0.10) was achieved under optimum fermentation conditions (pH of 5.3, molasses concen-tration of 165 g l-1 and corn steep liquor concentration of 43 ml l-1). Then, physiochemical and thermal properties of the pullulan under the highlighted conditions were investigated. Pullulan included 78.8% solubility with no hygroscopicity. Furthermore, structural analysis using Fou-rier transform infrared and X-ray diffraction verified presence of pullulan with an amorphous structure in the supernatant. The exopolysaccharide included acceptable thermal stability and gel-like behavior; in which, the elastic component was predominant based on the results of thermogravimetric analysis and rheological properties, respectively

Choosing the delivery and return method in purchases: the effect of situational factors in omni-channel contexts

Even though retailers have engaged in many efforts to offer and integrate new alternatives for delivering and returning consumers’ purchases, it is not clear what motivates consumers to choose one option or another. Although most consumers are already familiar with options such as home delivery or pick-up locations, situational factors determine their choice among the different alternatives; no study has, however, addressed this topic before. To fill this gap, this study identifies 15 different situational factors to examine their influence on the selection of delivery and return options and the effect of consumers’ demographic characteristics. The empirical analysis is based on an online questionnaire distributed to 650 respondents (266 valid responses). In addition, this study uses MANOVA and ANOVA to determine the relationship between each situational factor and consumer characteristics. The results show that 13 situational factors have a significant impact on consumer decisions, and among them time pressure, the distance to the store and channel spill-over are the most influential factors. The results also show that situational factors significantly rely on individual characteristics. For instance, getting help from an employee is significantly more important for consumers who are under 25 years of age. The study reveals some valuable implications for retailer