Scientific production of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Scopus between 2011-2014

Background: Scientometric evaluations are important part of research assessment which can help universities to visualize the effect of their achievements and assess the effect of policy changes and investments in the field knowledge development. Current study aimed to evaluate the scientific production of the faculty members affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Scopus database between 2011- 2014.Methods: Faculty members of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences participated in this cross sectional study. We had the names and affiliation of all faculty members based on university's Human Resources Management database. All the faculty members were recruited in the study. Total number of the articles, total article’s’ citations and H Index between 2011-2014 were used for evaluation of faculty members. Scopus online webpage was the source of extracting the indices.Results: there had been 1299 faculty members working at the university. Of all participants, 165 (12.7%) were professors, other academic degrees were associate professors 335 (25.8%), assistant professors 656 (50.5%), associate professors 335 (25.8%) and instructors 112 (8.7%)., respectively. The findings of current study showed that each faculty member was contributed in in a mean of 14 person- articles and there had been 95 citations to the articles in average. The mean H index for the university was 3.2 .Conclusion: Current study has illustrated a general image of the articles affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences which were indexed at Scopus database from 2011-2014. Results showed the universities scientific production had significant growth during these years.

Scientific production of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Web of Science between 2011-2014

Background: Along with the prospers of scientific production there is a need for measuring and evaluation of university’ s scientific productions by means of accepted international indices to make comparison between academic institutions. This study aims to evaluate the scientific production of faculty members affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMUS) in Web of Science from 2011 to 2014.Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Faculty members of Shahid Beheshti University of medical sciences from last updated list of faculty members based on human source management of the university was evaluated. The evaluation criteria was total number of the articles, total number of the articles between 2011-2014, total article’s citations, total article’s citations between 2011-2014 and H Index was extracted from the Web of Science webpage. Results:Totally 1300 faculty members had been evaluated in the study. Scientific productions had an increasing trend from 2011 to 2014. There had been 6445 articles and 41120 citations with a Mean (SD) of 4.96 (1.22) and 31.63 (122.5) respectively. Mean H Index of the university was 2.2. School of Pharmacy had the highest H Index score (4.9).Conclusion:There has been an increasing trend in scientific production of SBMUS in Web of Science data base. As Iran is between the first three high ranked countries in the Middle East in based scientometric indices, monitoring of scientific production by yearly intervals seems necessary.Keywords: Cross-Sectional Studies; Faculty; Universitie

Developing a scale for quality self assessment in pre-hospital emergency services

Establishing of total quality management in any organization including emergency medical services need to an appropriate tool to help developing, implementing and evaluating of quality programs. The objective of this study was to develop a valid and reliable tool for self assessing enabler criteria of Iran EMS centers according to European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model.The study was conducted using the Delphi method, and 43 participants as panelists were enrolled in 3 round modified Delphi technique. Initially, a rating scale was developed in response to main question of study; which items should be contained in self assessing tool of quality in Iran EMS area? This scale was judged by 5 experts primarily, and after some modification was entered in Delphi process. The comments of panelist were collected by E Mail and final scale was developed in the end of 3th rand.Pre-hospital Emergency Self assessing Rating Scale (PHESARS), Was main result of this study that developed in 190 items in 5 enabler criteria according to EFQM model including; Leadership (52), Policy & Strategy (21), staff (41), Resources& partnership (36) and Processes (40).Self assessing scale was developed by TQM and excellence perspective and because of experts' consensus in developing it, has content validity and can be used in self assessing of pre-hospital area and determining improvement opportunity and, can leads the Iran EMS centers to total quality management and organizational excellence

Lifestyle interventions and risk of Type 2 diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases in nearly all countries. It is difficult to treat and expensive to manage. The development of type 2 diabetes is strongly related to lifestyle factors, thus it might be a preventable disease. Observational studies and intervention trials have shown that physical activity, weight loss and dietary intake including whole grain, dietary fiber and dietary fat are important in delaying and preventing type 2 diabetes. The aim of this review is to gather current information from epidemiologic and clinical trial studies on dietary and lifestyle practices for reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. The review focuses on the macro and micronutrients, food items and dietary patterns which have been identified as significant in the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes. Also, the role of physical activity and weight loss are presented

The Efficacy of IPL in Periorbital Skin Rejuvenation: An Open-Label Study

Introduction: Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) is one of the effective methods used to treat the signs of facial aging. However, its efficacy in improving the appearance of periorbital wrinkles has always been evaluated in the context of whole-face rejuvenation and not studied in its own right. Therefore, in this study we sought to examine the effectiveness and side effects of IPL in periorbital skin rejuvenation.Methods: In this uncontrolled, open-label clinical trial, 38 patients referred to the Behrooz professional skin clinic for signs of periorbital skin aging were recruited. Patients underwent three treatment sessions with IPL, at one-month intervals, and were evaluated for treatment side effects after each session. Six months after the final IPL session, patients were examined to assess the level of symptom improvement. Patients were photographed at each treatment session and at the six-month follow-up visit. Before and after patient images were evaluated by two dermatologists unaffiliated with the study to determine the extent of improvement in the appearance of wrinkles and skin texture.Results: Six months post-treatment, excellent improvement was observed in 3 patients (9.1%), considerable improvement in 7 patients (21.2%), moderate improvement in 9 patients (27.3%), mild improvement in 9 patients (27.3%) and finally little or no improvement was observed in 5 patients (15.1%). Comparison of improvement scores based on Fitzpatrick skin phenotype did not show significant differences (p=0.674). 4 patients (12.1%) were dissatisfied with the treatment whilst 17 patients (51.5%) reported moderate to considerable satisfaction with IPL rejuvenation.Conclusion: During whole face rejuvenation, IPL can be used to improve periorbital skin aging.

Critical concentration of Glucose changes human serum albumin conformation: Circular Dichroism (CD)and UV Spectroscopyapproaches

HSA plays an important role in transporting metabolites and drugs throughout the vascular system.  In as much as its performance is very vital in the presents of different kinds of ligands at the specific body temperatures, its examination is crucial. This molecule can undergo increased glycation in diabetes. Therefore, glucose as the one of the most fundamental ligands dealing with albumin in human body is examined in this study at 100 mg/dl concentration in correspond to normal condition on human body, 175 mg/dl as a kidney glucose tolerance point and also 400 mg/dl as the critical point at the two most important temperatures in diabetic patients. Thermal conformational changes of (HSA) are important. These conformational alterations are accompanied by a mild alteration of secondary structures. For this reason, possible secondarystructural changes of HSA in presence of glucose has beeninvestigated by circular dichroism (CD) using Hepes bufferat the normal temperature 37˚C and 42˚C as a high fever condition.UV spectroscopystudies confirmed CD findings and indicate that critical concentration of glucoselead to generation of new structural feature of albumin similar to 42oC. However, as the temperature increases from 37˚C to 42˚C this process is no more capable of responding to glucose concentration changes.These results indicate that the native form of HSA is changed in the severe diabetic condition; likewise, same consequences can be achieved as the temperature arises from 37˚C to 42˚C

Frequency of cardiac involvement among patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Background and aims: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is an idiopathic chronic inflammatory disease mainly involves sacroiliac and axial joints; but it may also have extra-articular involvement. Accordingly, this study was designed to determine the frequency of cardiac involvement among patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Methods: This study was performed as a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional survey. In this study 50 consecutive patients with AS and 40 normal healthy subjects were enrolled and compared for cardiologic manifestations. Results: The frequency of cardiac involvement was similar between AS patients and normal subjects (P>0.05). However, there was significant difference between 2 groups in point of mitral valve prolapse and mitral regurgitation (P<0.05). Conclusions: Totally, according to the obtained results, it may be concluded that the frequency of cardiac involvement in AS patients and normal subjects were relatively similar

Effects of homogenization pressure and sequence on textural and microstructural properties of milk-based creamy dessert

Effects of homogenization sequence (before or after heating) and homogenization pressure (0, 50, or 150 bar) were studied on the certain textural properties of milk-based creamy dessert including hardness, surface tension and syneresis. Also, the microstructure of the treatments was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Homogenization at 50 bar after heating led to the highest hardness, whilst unhomogenized and homogenized treatments at 150 bar before heating resulted in the lowest hardness.  Using pressure of 50 and 150 bar after heating led to the highest and lowest surface tension, respectively. While the highest syneresis was observed when unhomogenized treatment applied, the lowest syneresis was obtained using primarily the treatments with homogenization after heating and then the treatments with homogenization before heating. Finally, good correlation was observed between the textural and rheological results and the micrographs of microstructure obtained from SEM metho

The effect of epidural morphine sponge in postoperative pain control after Microdiscectomy

Opiates such as morphine are one of the most effective classes of medication prescribed to treat both acute and chronic pain.They act to suppress pain through mu-receptor activation on primary afferent nerve fibers, dorsal horn neurons and supraspinal pain center neorons. When morphine is administered epidurally, it diffuses to the cord substance, producing analgesia [1],The aim of this study was to check the efficacy of this method for controling postoperative lumbar pain after microdiscectomy. In a randomized clinical trial, numbers of 100 patients were included into two equal groups due to low back radicular pain and underwent microdiscectomy. In study group, an absorbable gelatin sponge (Gelfoam) is contoured to the epidural space, placed in methylprednisolone acetate (40-80 mg), and then injected with 2 mg/ml morphine and control group received an absorbable gelatin, placed in methylprednisolone acetate (40-80 mg) and were injected with normal saline (5mL) as a placebo. The main outcome to be compared between trial and placebo groups were: Patient comfort rate in recovery room and ward, amount of analgesics used, postoperative ambulation time, post operative hospitalization days. The restlessness and agitation during recovery in study group was lower than control group. Mean systolic blood pressure increment was lower in morphine group. Only 6% of patients in study group compared to 98% in placebo group had either moderate or severe pain six hours after operation. Mean morphine dose used for study group was 10.75 mg compared to 21.4 mg among control group patients (P &lt; 0.0001). Mean ambulation time was 2 days among study group patients compared to 2.6 days in control group. Mean hospitalization length was 4.7 and 7 days in study and control group respectively. By means of the technique assigned to the patient (an epidural morphine sponge) during Lumbar microdiscectomy the results were: Better controlled postoperative pain, early ambulation of patients and decreased hospitalization length.