Presenting a Model Regarding the Effect of Ethical Sensitivity and Its Associated Components on the Quality of Research among Academic Personnel

Background and Objective: Ethical sensitivity is one of the criteria regarding the professional competence of researchers, which affects the ethical performance of the researcher. Since compliance with the principles and rules of ethics is an effective factor in providing high quality research results, the present study was conducted to investigate the ethical sensitivity and its associated components on the quality of research among academic personnel of universities of medical sciences in metropolitan area No. 1 in Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 320 academic personnel of universities of medical sciences in metropolitan area No. 1 (Guilan, Mazandaran, Golestan, Babol, Shahrud, and Semnan) who were selected by stratified random sampling. Data were collected using ethical sensitivity and research quality questionnaires. The ethical sensitivity questionnaire includes 50 questions and two dimensions of "functional and individual", each of which includes 4 fields. The researcher-made questionnaire of research quality includes 31 questions and 4 fields. The questionnaires were rated from 1 to 5 according to Likert scale. Ethical sensitivity was compared between researchers based on work experience, academic degree and gender. Then, the effect of each component of ethical sensitivity on the quality of the research was evaluated. Findings: Out of 320 studied samples, 223 were male (69.7%) and 97 were female (30.3%). In people with experience of less than 10 years, the mean score of honesty was 15.74±3.21, ethical behavior was 30.50±5.74, accountability was 33.81±5.64, decision-making was 23.62±4.28, and interpersonal communication was 18.66±3.56, indicating higher values compared to people with an experience of more than 10 years (p<0.01). Among the dimensions of ethical sensitivity, the dimensions of honesty and discipline showed positive and significant effects on the quality of research. However, the effect of respect for the client, ethical behavior, professional knowledge, accountability, decision-making and interpersonal communication was not statistically significant despite the effect on the quality of the research. Discipline had the greatest effect on research quality (β=0.293). The R2 value (0.489) shows that about 49% of the variance of the research quality score is explained by the dimensions of ethical sensitivity. Ethical sensitivity with a standard coefficient of 7.758 had an effect on the quality of research. Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that ethical sensitivity, especially the dimensions of honesty and discipline, has an effect on the quality of research

Pedestrian Detection in Infrared Outdoor Images Based on Atmospheric Situation Estimation

Observation in absolute darkness and daytime under every atmospheric situation is one of the advantages of thermal imaging systems. In spite of increasing trend of using these systems, there are still lots of difficulties in analysing thermal images due to the variable features of pedestrians and atmospheric situations. In this paper an efficient method is proposed for detecting pedestrians in outdoor thermal images that adapts to variable atmospheric situations. In the first step, the type of atmospheric situation is estimated based on the global features of the thermal image. Then, for each situation, a relevant algorithm is performed for pedestrian detection. To do this, thermal images are divided into three classes of atmospheric situations: a) fine such as sunny weather, b) bad such as rainy and hazy weather, c) hot such as hot summer days where pedestrians are darker than background. Then 2-Dimensional Double Density Dual Tree Discrete Wavelet Transform (2D DD DT DWT) in three levels is acquired from input images and the energy of low frequency coefficients in third level is calculated as the discriminating feature for atmospheric situation identification. Feed-forward neural network (FFNN) classifier is trained by this feature vector to determine the category of atmospheric situation. Finally, a predetermined algorithm that is relevant to the category of atmospheric situation is applied for pedestrian detection. The proposed method in pedestrian detection has high performance so that the accuracy of pedestrian detection in two popular databases is more than 99%

Presenting a Model Regarding the Effect of Ethical Sensitivity and Its Associated Components on the Quality of Research among Academic Personnel

Background and Objective: Ethical sensitivity is one of the criteria regarding the professional competence of researchers, which affects the ethical performance of the researcher. Since compliance with the principles and rules of ethics is an effective factor in providing high quality research results, the present study was conducted to investigate the ethical sensitivity and its associated components on the quality of research among academic personnel of universities of medical sciences in metropolitan area No. 1 in Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 320 academic personnel of universities of medical sciences in metropolitan area No. 1 (Guilan, Mazandaran, Golestan, Babol, Shahrud, and Semnan) who were selected by stratified random sampling. Data were collected using ethical sensitivity and research quality questionnaires. The ethical sensitivity questionnaire includes 50 questions and two dimensions of "functional and individual", each of which includes 4 fields. The researcher-made questionnaire of research quality includes 31 questions and 4 fields. The questionnaires were rated from 1 to 5 according to Likert scale. Ethical sensitivity was compared between researchers based on work experience, academic degree and gender. Then, the effect of each component of ethical sensitivity on the quality of the research was evaluated. Findings: Out of 320 studied samples, 223 were male (69.7%) and 97 were female (30.3%). In people with experience of less than 10 years, the mean score of honesty was 15.74±3.21, ethical behavior was 30.50±5.74, accountability was 33.81±5.64, decision-making was 23.62±4.28, and interpersonal communication was 18.66±3.56, indicating higher values compared to people with an experience of more than 10 years (p<0.01). Among the dimensions of ethical sensitivity, the dimensions of honesty and discipline showed positive and significant effects on the quality of research. However, the effect of respect for the client, ethical behavior, professional knowledge, accountability, decision-making and interpersonal communication was not statistically significant despite the effect on the quality of the research. Discipline had the greatest effect on research quality (β=0.293). The R2 value (0.489) shows that about 49% of the variance of the research quality score is explained by the dimensions of ethical sensitivity. Ethical sensitivity with a standard coefficient of 7.758 had an effect on the quality of research. Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that ethical sensitivity, especially the dimensions of honesty and discipline, has an effect on the quality of research

Association between time of neonatal discharge with mode of delivery

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Early discharge requires the close follow-up of outpatients in the clinic or at home within 48 hours after discharge. Given the importance of follow-up after early discharge of infants and also lack of accurate statistics on the rate of early discharge in our country, this study aimed to determine the rate of early discharge of newborns in Babol-Clinic Hospital  from March 2013 to March 2014. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on all the neonates born in Babol Clinic Hospital in Mazandaran, Iran in 2013. Newborns were selected via census sampling. In addition, a questionnaire was used to collect the data on the length of hospital stay, mode of delivery, gender, birth weight, Apgar scores, gestational age, method of anesthesia, need for resuscitation, and maternal diseases for each infant. Early discharge and very early discharge were defined in newborns released before 48 and 24 hours after birth, respectively. Data analysis was performed in SPSS V.20 using T-test, Chi-square, Fisher's exact test, and Cox regression analysis, and P value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. FINDINGS: In total, 2,562 infants born in Babol Clinic Hospital were enrolled in this study, 2,451 of whom (96%) were discharged before 48 hours, and 1,829 newborns (71.5%) were discharged before 24 hours after birth. In normal delivery method groups, 9 (4.25%) neonates routine discharged, 36 (16.98%) neonates early discharged and 167 (78.77%) neonates were very early discharged. Elective and emergency cesarean group, 68 (3.9%) neonates and 34 (5.62%) neonates normal discharge, 428 (24.53%) neonates and 158 (26.12%) neonates early discharged and 1 249 (71.58) neonates and 413(68.26%)  neonates were very early discharged respectively (p=0.02). 92% of deliveries were by Caesarean section and  8% were the normal vaginal delivery. CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, almost all the neonates born in Babol Clinic Hospital had early or very early discharge, and only a few cases (4%) were hospitalized for more than 48 hours. Therefore implement of close follow-up or home visitis recommended

A Study of the Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Effects of Ethanolic Extract of Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill) Seeds

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Synthetic additives are used in food industry to prevent contamination of food and reduction of microbial growth, while special attention have been paid to the use of natural anti-bacterial products because of higher food safety. Since plants are potential sources of anti-infective agents, the present study was conducted to study the antioxidant and antimicrobial effects of ethanolic extract of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill) seeds. METHODS: In this experimental study, the ethanolic extract was prepared after obtaining the fennel seeds. To analyze the antimicrobial effect of the extract, the Micro dilution method was used based on 9 concentrations of 100, 50, 25, 12.5, 6.25, 3.12, 1.56, 0.78 and 0.39% on food isolates (kept in microbial bank) and standard strains of Escherichia coli 1270 PTCC, Salmonella enterica 1709PTCC, Bacillus cereus 11778ATCC and Staphylococcus aureus 1112PTCC. To change the antioxidant effect of the ethanolic extract of fennel, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method was used in 7 concentrations of 1000, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100 and 50 ppm. FINDINGS: Salmonella enterica food isolates showed highest level of resistance (2.3 of isolates grew at concentrations above 12.5%) while Staphylococcus aureus isolates showed highest level of sensitivity (without growth at concentrations above 12.5%) against ethanolic extract of fennel (p>0.05). In all the examined concentrations, the antioxidant effect of the ethanolic extract of fennel seed was reported to be less than synthetic antioxidants BHA (Bytalyted Hydroxy Toluene) (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, the ethanolic extract of fennel seed benefits from appropriate antibacterial and antioxidant properties and thus can be used in combination with other preservatives to preserve food against various oxidative systems and microorganisms that cause infection and intoxication

An observer-based controller design for nonlinear discrete-time switched systems with time-delay and affine parametric uncertainty

This paper proposes a design procedure for observer-based controllers of discrete-time switched systems, in the presence of state’s time-delay, nonlinear terms, arbitrary switching signals, and affine parametric uncertainties. The proposed switched observer and the state-feedback controller are designed simultaneously using a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs).The stability analysis is performed based on an appropriate Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional with one switched expression, and in the meantime, the sufficient conditions for observer-based stabilization are developed. These conditions are formulated in the form of a feasibility test of a proposed bilinear matrix inequality (BMI) which is a non-convex problem. To make the problem easy to solve, the BMI is transformed into a set of LMIs using the singular value decomposition of output matrices. An important advantage of the proposed method is that the established sufficient conditions depend only on the upper bound of uncertain parameters. Furthermore, in the proposed method, an admissible upper bound for unknown nonlinear terms of the switched system may be calculated using a simple search algorithm. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed controller and the validity of the theoretical results are illustrated through a simulation example

Umbilical Cord Bilirubin Level as a Predictive Indicator of Neonatal ‎Jaundice

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Neonatal jaundice is a major problem among infants in the first weeks of life. Research on several indicators of severe neonatal jaundice including alpha-fetoprotein  and umbilical cord bilirubin level has indicated contradictory results. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the significance of umbilical cord bilirubin level as a predictive indicator of severe neonatal jaundice. METHODS: This prospective, cross-sectional study was performed on 102 healthy infants, born to healthy mothers at Babol Clinic Hospital, Babol, Iran. After birth, 2 cc blood samples were obtained from the umbilical cord and the bilirubin level was measured in the hospital laboratory. The infants were followed-up after hospital discharge in terms of jaundice presentations. In case jaundice was diagnosed in infants, they were compared in treated and untreated groups. FINDINGS: Clinical jaundice was not detected in 54 cases (52.94%). Overall, 48 neonates (47.05%) suffered from clinical jaundice and 10 cases (8.9%) presented with severe jaundice, requiring treatment based on the criteria proposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The mean umbilical cord bilirubin level was 1.82±0.42 mg/dl in the untreated group and 2.36±0.56 mg/dl in the treated group (P=0.000). The area under the ROC curve for umbilical cord bilirubin level was 0.722 in the treated group, based on the AAP criteria. The cut-off point of 2 mg/dl showed 80% sensitivity and 73% specificity in predicting severe jaundice (requiring treatment), based on the AAP criteria. CONCLUSION: As the results indicated, measurement of umbilical cord bilirubin level and determination of a suitable cut-off point could be valuable in predicting severe jaundice in newborns