Comparative Analysis of the Impact of the Four Elements of Strategic Plan on Product and Market Development in Zinc Companies

Objective :This study was to analyze the impact of each of four elements of strategic plan (vision processing, analysis of external environment, inter- organization analysis and strategic control) on product and market development in zinc companies in Zanjan province.Methodology:Based on objective, this was a descriptive - explanatory study, while it could be defined a cross-sectional one based on time. According to the result, it was an applied research and a quantitative and qualitative based on variables. Finally, it was a surveying study according to data collection method. The target population members included 120 CEOs and business managers of companies active in the zinc industry in Zanjan Province, which were evaluated by census method. The data collection tool was a questionnaire and SPSS software was used for data statistical analysis. The hypotheses were also tested using single-sample t-test and ANOVA.Results : The "vision processing or building" does not affect the product and market development, but three factors of "external environment analysis, inter-organizational analysis and strategic control" affect the development of the market and the product of zinc companies. The most effective factor is "strategic control", and the least effective factor is "external environment analysis"

Effect of Magnesium Sulfate Added to Tincture of Opium and Buprenorphine on Pain and Quality of Life in Women with Dysmenorrhea: A Prospective, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial

Background: Adding magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) to opioid receptor agonists increases the opioid analgesiceffects via blocking this receptor. The current study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of adding MgSO4 totincture of opium (TOP) and buprenorphine (BUP) on pain and quality of life (QOL).Methods: In prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, one hundred andsixty-three women with secondary dysmenorrhea caused by endometriosis were selected using a respondentdriven sampling (RDS) and assigned into six groups using block randomization. Patients received 50 mg/kgMgSO4 in 100 ml saline by micro set in six monthly menstrual periods and completed the visual analoguescale (VAS) and QOL Questionnaire (QOLQ). Data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance(ANOVA) and hierarchical regression.Findings: The primary outcomes showed that pain scores in magnesium (MAG) + opium tincture (OT)[F = 5.7(1,162), P = 0.004] and MAG+ BUP [F = 4.5(1,162), P = 0.006] groups showed a significant decreasecompared with control group. Also, QOL scores in MAG + OT [F = 4.8(1,162), P = 0.005] and MAG + BUP[F = 5.9(1,162), P = 0.003] showed a significant increase. However, there was no significant differencebetween the two groups (P = 0.140) and the changes did not persist until follow-up (P = 0.810). Secondaryoutcomes indicated that the low scores of the two components of QOL including physical and psychologicalcomponents were predictors of pain (P = 0.011, Beta > 3.09).Conclusion: Simultaneous use of MAG with opioids is associated with pain reduction and the improvement ofQOL. However, this hypothesis requires careful handling in a randomized controlled tria

Electronic records management in small and medium enterprises

"The competitive atmosphere resulting from the globalization and technology, leads to the enterprises’ using the information effectively and accommodating themselves to the electronic applications.Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), starts to benefit from the applications of electronic commerce so as to survive in this competitive world and presents their productions globally. Efficaciously management of paper-based and electronic documents emerging from the commercial efficiency of SME becomes important. Besides, with the implementation of electronic signature, ensuring the security of commercial enterprise and documents has become a current issue. Systematic, planned and conscious movements of SME as regards electronic commerce, electronic management of documents and electronic signature is necessary for the increase in efficiency and accommodation to the present environment. In this research, small and medium enterprises in Ankara which has got 50-99 workers in terms of the applications of electronic commerce, electronic management of documents and electronic signature were examined. In the extent of the research, determination of how the SME provide the applications of electronic commerce, electronic management of documents and electronic signature has been aimed. In this research, descriptive method was used. The questionnaire, including 17 questions inquired to the enterprises in order to get data was used. The hypothesis of the research is as follows: “Realization of SME’s commercial applications in the electronic environment successfully and effectively depend on the mighty background of SME in terms of the applications of electronic commerce, electronic management of documents and electronic signature and their utilization of these applications.” As a result, it is determined that SME in Ankara, have not taken the approaches, standards and applications of electronic commerce, electronic management of documents and electronic signature into consideration and some suggestions have been asserted.

Offering Clinical Pharmacy Clerkship in Hospital for Pharmacy Student: A Successful Cooperation between Medical and Pharmacy Schools

Background: Pharmacy education has been changed in recent years. Pharmacy students need more practical and clinical skills which come from direct interaction with patients and other health care providers. To achieve this, students need more effective courses and clerkships. In this paper we describe our method to design and evaluate clinical pharmacy clerkship for the first time in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (AJUMS). Methods: To  determine  the  most  beneficial way  of  education  we  designed  a  pilot  study  in educational hospital of AJUMS. After analyzing the conclusions from pilot study, 40 fifth year pharmacy student divided in ten groups and each group had a six week rotation in three different wards under supervision of medical residents. Each student was asked to provide evaluations during six total weeks of three different rotation sites. Results and Discussion: Clinical pharmacy clerkship led to successfully improved clinical skills for students such as being familiar with different practice environments, direct communication whit patients and medical team and participation in direct patient care activities. All the students participate in the course could pass the final exam and 85% of students believed this would be a necessary education course in their clerkship programs. Although there were some problems but pharmacy students benefited from this course and it gives them advantages in clinical knowledge and professional communication skills

Effects of Three Mastic Gums on the Number of Mutans Streptococci, Lactobacilli and PH of the Saliva.

In the recent years, herbal oral hygiene products have gained increasing attention. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of three types of mastic gums on the level of Mutans streptococci, Lactobacilli and pH of the saliva.Forty-two students in the age range of 20-30 years were divided into three parallel groups; each of them separately used pure mastic gum, xylitol mastic gum and probiotic mastic gum for three weeks. Number of microorganisms and pH of the saliva were assessed before and after the intervention. The data were analyzed using Wilcoxon Signed Rank, paired-sample-t, Kruskal-Wallis and Tukey's post-hoc tests and Oneway ANOVA.Level of Mutans streptococci showed a significant reduction compared to its baseline value in all three groups (

Designing Objective Structured Clinical Examination in Basic Community Pharmacy Clerkship Course and Assessment of Its Relationship with Conventional Exam

Background: Over 90% of pharmacy students’ work in pharmacies after graduation which needs both knowledge and skill, thus one of the most essential courses of their education is pharmacy clerkship. An important part of an educational program is the evaluation of the trainees. Different studies show that conventional written exams are not successful in evaluating the skills of the students and can mostly evaluate their knowledge. Thus Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is used to evaluate the students in different aspects. Methods: An OSCE and a conventional test were given to a group of students at the end of basic community pharmacy clerkship course. The OSCE test consisted of six different stations (reading prescriptions, identifying drugs, pharmacist’s recommendation, patient education, drug information resources, and drug usage instructions). Two questions were asked at each station by different examiners. The scores and results of these tests were compared and analyzed. Results: There was no significant correlation between OSCE final scores and written test scores (P: = 0.217). No significant correlation between each station’s score and the written test score was found. Conclusion: The absence of significant correlation between OSCE and conventional exams shows that the skills evaluated by OSCE cannot be evaluated by the best possible written tests. This type of examination is not commonly used in Iran’s pharmacy schools but due to the findings of this study, it seems that this multiform method, despite being more difficult to arrange, can be a more suitable and relevant way to evaluate basic community pharmacy clerkship compared to conventional written tests

Comparison of Effects of a Herbal Toothpaste with Crest Complete Toothpaste on Streptococcus Mutans and Lactobacillus of Saliva and Plaque Index: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background and Aim: In recent years, beneficial effects of herbal hygienic products and toothpastes have significantly been emphasized. This study sought to assess the effects of Masdent toothpaste which contains Pistacia Lentiscus (PL) extract on plaque index and Streptococcus mutans(SM) and Lactobacillus (LB) count in saliva. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 60 students aged 18-20 years. Participants were asked to brush their teeth twice a day for four weeks with the assigned toothpaste, Masdent toothpaste which contains PL extract in the case group and Crest toothpaste in the control group. Plaque index was recorded at the onset and end of the study, and salivary samples were taken for SM and LB colony count. Mann-Whitney, independent t- and Wilcoxon tests were used for data analysis. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Number of SM and LB colonies significantly decreased in both groups(P<0.01) at the end of the study. However, the difference in SM and LB colonies between the two groups was not significant (PMutans=0.108, PLactobacili=0.796). The reduction in plaque index after using the toothpastes was significant in both groups (P<0.001). This reduction was not statistically different between two groups (P=0.85). Conclusion: Use of herbal toothpaste containing PL extract and Crest toothpaste had similar effects and both significantly decreased SM and LB salivary counts as well as the plaque index

Molecular Detection of ISAba2 among Carbapenem Hydrolyzing Class D β-Lactamasese Acinetobacter baumannii Strains Isolated from Patients in Tehran Hospitals

Background and Aims: Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen that has acquired a high rate of antibiotic resistance. Identification of the major elements increasing the expression of resistance genes while having a role in their transmission, can help us control the A. baumannii infections. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of ISAba2 in A. baumannii strains which include group D beta-lactamase genes among hospitalized patients. Materials and Methods: From August 2014 to April 2015, 105 A. baumannii strains were collected from different clinical samples of patients in 5 hospitals in Tehran. The confirmation of strains was done by phenotypical tests and existence of blaOXA-51-like gene. Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the isolates were performed by Disc Diffusion Test (DDT) and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) according to the CLSI. ESBL producing strains were recognized with Combined Disc Diffusion Test (CDDT) while the presence of OXA genes and ISAba1and ISAba2 were analyzed using PCR reactions. Results: The result of this study showed that the highest and lowest rates of antibiotic resistance belonged to cefotaxim (100%) and colistin (99.05%), respectively. A total of 55 isolates (54.5%) were capable of producing ESBL. Unlike the blaOXA-58-like gene, which was not found in any of the isolates, blaOXA-51-like- was present among all the isolates.. Prevalence of blaOXA-23-like and blaOXA-24-like genes were 103 (98.09%) and 68 (64.76%), respectively and the frequency of ISAba1 and ISAba2 were 105 (100%) and 97 (92.36%), respectively. Conclusions: The existence of additional elements as effective factors, can increase the expression of resistance genes and, therefore, help them to be mobile and transmitted between bacteria. Determination of these elements is, therefore, necessary for controlling infections

Association between Common Single- nucleotide Polymorphism of Reelin Gene, rs736707 (C/T) with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Iranian-Azeri Patients

Introduction Reelin gene (RELN) codes a large extracellular matrix glycoprotein with serine protease activity and is implicated in the modulation of neuronal signaling, synaptic transmission and plasticity. The reelin plays a fundamental and pivotal role in the development of laminar structures and may be one of the loci contributing to the positive linkage between chromosome 7q and autistic disorder. This study was performed to examine the association of a frequent genetic variation in reelin gene, rs736707 (C/T), with Autism risk among Iranian-Azeri population. Materials and Methods A case–control association study included 74 patients with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 86 healthy subjects. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples by salting-out method. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) genotyping was carried out by Polymerase chain reaction- restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. The collected data were analyzed through java stant online statistics software, using Chi-square, with a significance level of 0.05. Results Significant differences in the allele and genotype frequencies between cases and controls were not observed (P>0.05). The rs736707SNP was not associated with Autism predisposition in Iranian-Azeri children. Conclusion Based on our results, the rs736707 SNP could not be used as a useful molecular biomarker to predict genetic susceptibility for autism spectrum disorder in Iranian-Azeri patients