Mentors' and Postgraduate Students' Perception about Characteristics of Effective Education, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Background & Objective: Little attention has been paid to generating systematic evidence-based qualitative approaches to effective education. This study aimed to explore postgraduate students' and mentors' view points, experiences and perceptions about effective education and its related factors in Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Methods: In this qualitative study, using content analysis method and purposive sampling, 32 postgraduate students and 7 mentors were recruited. An interview guide was used to collect data through focus groups via in-depth interviews. After obtaining verbal informed consent, data were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using content analysis method. To ensure validity of the data, the acceptability and confirmability criteria were utilized. Results: Two main themes were extracted from the viewpoint of postgraduate students and the mentors, the direct and indirect factors related to effective education. Direct factors included the factors related to student, mentor, educational environment and motivation. Indirect factors were national educational system, evaluation system for students and economic factors. Conclusion: Both postgraduate students and mentors believe that effective education is a complex issue and macro-factors such as educational system and micro-ones such as mentors, and students, characteristics are important. In addition, there is inconsistency in students' and the mentors' perception about the roles of the other one; mentors believe that this is the responsibility of the students to learn and be self-motivated, while the students mentione that this is mainly the mentor' responsibility. This is an important topic which should be considered for planning effective education. Key Words: Effective education, Perception, Postgraduate student

Estimating the Size and Age-gender Distribution of Women’s Active Social Networks

Background: Network Scale-up (NSU) method is an indirect method for the estimation of hidden behaviors. In NSU, respondents are asked about the number of members they know from a subpopulation of interest (e.g., injecting drug user) and assume that the prevalence of risky behavior in the networks of a random sample of respondents is similar to that of the population. However, first, we need to identify the total number of people each respondent knows [the social network size (C)]; Moreover, certain risky behaviors happen in particular age and gender groups. Our aim was to determine the size and age-gender distribution of female networks.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the city of Kerman, Iran. A total sample of 1275 women was recruited using multistage sampling. In this study, 25 first names were selected as reference groups. Participants were asked how many people they know with the selected names. The respondent’s answers were categorized into eight separate age-gender subgroups and C was estimated for each subgroup.Findings: The results of this study showed that, on average, each Kermanian woman knows about 234 people and about two-thirds of them are female (82 males and 152 females); moreover, participants were more likely to communicate with their peers. The majority of males (88%) known by Kermanian women were in young and middle age groups; in contrast the female young and middle age groups, who are at reproductive age, form only 45% of the female part of their networks.Conclusion: We have seen that the age-gender distribution of the networks is not the same as that of the general population. Our figures can be applied in NSU studies focusing on risky behaviors of particular age and gender groups

A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial, Evaluating the Efficacy of Commiphora Mukul Cream in Improving Breast Engorgement in Breastfeeding Women: Efficacy of Commiphora Mukul cream in improving breast engorgement

Breast engorgement is a common problem during breastfeeding that can lead to early discontinuation of breastfeeding. Commiphora Mukul (C. Mukul) is a medicinal plant with analgesic and anti-inflammatorycompounds. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of C. Mukul on improving breast engorgement in breastfeeding women. This study was a double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled trial conducted with 100 breastfeeding women, whose symptoms of breast engorgement were randomly allocated to C. Mukul cream group or placebo. Both groups were to rub one fingertip of cream on each breast after nursing 8 times a day for 2 days. The breast engorgement symptoms )severity index = erythema + tension + pain erew assessed by the validated breast engorgement checklist. The severity of breast engorgement before the intervention was not significantly different between the two drug and placebo groups (breast erythema (P=0.78),tension (P=0.85) and pain (P=0.06)), but two days after the intervention, 60% of women in the drug group and 22 % of them in the placebo group scored zero in breast engorgement checklist, though there was a significant difference between the groups (P<0.001). No side effects were observed or reported in either group. According to the findings, Commiphora Mukul cream can improve breast engorgement

Spatio-Temporal History of HIV-1 CRF35_AD in Afghanistan and Iran.

HIV-1 Circulating Recombinant Form 35_AD (CRF35_AD) has an important position in the epidemiological profile of Afghanistan and Iran. Despite the presence of this clade in Afghanistan and Iran for over a decade, our understanding of its origin and dissemination patterns is limited. In this study, we performed a Bayesian phylogeographic analysis to reconstruct the spatio-temporal dispersion pattern of this clade using eligible CRF35_AD gag and pol sequences available in the Los Alamos HIV database (432 sequences available from Iran, 16 sequences available from Afghanistan, and a single CRF35_AD-like pol sequence available from USA). Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm was implemented in BEAST v1.8.1. Between-country dispersion rates were tested with Bayesian stochastic search variable selection method and were considered significant where Bayes factor values were greater than three. The findings suggested that CRF35_AD sequences were genetically similar to parental sequences from Kenya and Uganda, and to a set of subtype A1 sequences available from Afghan refugees living in Pakistan. Our results also showed that across all phylogenies, Afghan and Iranian CRF35_AD sequences formed a monophyletic cluster (posterior clade credibility> 0.7). The divergence date of this cluster was estimated to be between 1990 and 1992. Within this cluster, a bidirectional dispersion of the virus was observed across Afghanistan and Iran. We could not clearly identify if Afghanistan or Iran first established or received this epidemic, as the root location of this cluster could not be robustly estimated. Three CRF35_AD sequences from Afghan refugees living in Pakistan nested among Afghan and Iranian CRF35_AD branches. However, the CRF35_AD-like sequence available from USA diverged independently from Kenyan subtype A1 sequences, suggesting it not to be a true CRF35_AD lineage. Potential factors contributing to viral exchange between Afghanistan and Iran could be injection drug networks and mass migration of Afghan refugees and labours to Iran, which calls for extensive preventive efforts

Time-scaled Bayesian MCC trees of the HIV-1 CRF35_AD.

<p><b>(a) <i>gag</i>_1; (b) <i>gag</i>_2; (c) <i>pol</i>_1; (d) <i>pol_2</i>.</b> Key nodes with a posterior clade credibility of 0.7 or greater are marked with black rectangles. Most probable location state and its Posterior State Probability (PSP) are indicated in front of the nodes, corresponding to between-country migration events of CRF35_AD. These nodes are highlighted in Yellow (for Iran → Afghanistan transmission), green (for Afghanistan → Iran transmission), and gray (for Kenya → USA transmission). A highly supported subtype A1 cluster indicating transmission from Afghan refugees to Native Pakistanis is highlighted in blue (Part b). Other parental A1 or D sequences are collapsed for visual clarity. To the upper left of all phylogenies is a bar chart indicating posterior probabilities for the location states of the root of the CRF35_AD_{Afghan-Iranian} cluster (node A). The color code is indicated in the legend, on the lower left corner. <b>PSP:</b> Posterior State Probability; <b>A1:</b> HIV-1 subtype A1; <b>D:</b> HIV-1 subtype D; <b>AF:</b> Afghanistan; <b>IR:</b> Iran; <b>AF refugees</b> _<b>PK</b><b>:</b> Afghan refugees living in Pakistan; <b>BJD:</b> Boroujerd; <b>HE:</b> Herat; <b>KB:</b> Kabul; <b>KE:</b> Kenya; <b>KSH:</b> Kermanshah; <b>MSH:</b> Mashhad; <b>PK:</b> Pakistan; <b>SDJ:</b> Sanandaj; <b>SHZ:</b> Shiraz; <b>TEH:</b> Tehran; <b>UG:</b> Uganda.</p

Evolutionary parameters and their 95% BCIs.

<p>Evolutionary parameters and their 95% BCIs.</p

Genome structure of HIV-1 CRF35_AD.

<p>In this recombinant lineage, subtype D fragments are found within the <i>gag</i>, <i>pol</i>, and <i>env</i> genomic regions, in a genomic background that matches subtype A1. We created four non-overlapping alignments, each of which belonged to one parental lineage of the CRF35_AD only. These alignments include <i>gag</i>_1, <i>gag</i>_2, <i>pol</i>_1, and <i>pol</i>_2. From the <i>pol</i>_1 alignment, which mainly covers parental D fragments, the A1 sections were removed, and the remaining D sections were concatenated. A similar approach was taken to remove parental D section from the <i>pol</i>_2 alignment, which mainly covers parental A1 fragments. Details of nucleotide positions related to these alignments can be found in the Methods.</p