مسعود یوسفی

The aim of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial properties of silver nanoparticles synthesized using Lycium ruthenicum extract. In this experimental study, Escherichia coli (ATCC25922), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC27853), Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC9997), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC25923) and Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC29212) were studied. Aqueous extract of L. ruthenicum was prepared. silver nanoparticles were prepared in combination with L. ruthenicumextract. The MIC of silver nanoparticles was investigated alone and in combination with the L. ruthenicumplant using the broth microdilution method for Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis.: This study showed that the nanoparticle synthesized with the aqueous extract of the Lycium ruthenicum plant had a significant inhibitory effect on E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and S. aureus compared to the aqueous extract alone (P < 0.05). Also, the highest inhibitory activity of L. ruthenicum extract was for K.pneumoniae and E. faecalis with MIC 2.5 mg / ml. On the other hand, biosynthesized silver nanoparticles against E. coli with MIC 1.25 mg / ml showed the highest inhibitory activity. In general, silver nanoparticles synthesized with L. ruthenicum extract had significant antibacterial effects on the studied bacteria, in comparison with silver nanoparticles by chemical method as well as the plant L. ruthenicum alone. The results of the present study showed that silver nanoparticles synthesized with L. ruthenicumextract have significant antibacterial effects, which can be used as a suitable treatment option for antibiotics due to the side effects of antibiotics after further studies on animal models.

This study investigates the use of three refractory metals, their names are titanium (Ti), niobium (Nb) and zirconium (Zr), in combination with iron (Fe), chromium (Cr) and vanadium (V) to produce high entropy bioalloys. . Three high entropy alloy compositions, namely TiZrNbCrV, TiZrNbFeCr and TiZrNbFeV, were made using mechanical alloying technique and powder metallurgy method. Investigation about alloys was done through X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) studies. The present study has shown that gradual cooling after the sintering process leads to the creation of a small percentage of compact hexagonal phases (HCP) in each of the three investigated alloys. In addition, two of the investigated alloys showed the formation of intermetallic phases due to the same cooling process. The microstructure of manufactured alloys includes four regions for all alloys containing the main Body-centered cubic ) BCC(, partial HCP (and other phases), voids, and Nb-containing regions.

The increase in the incidence of antimicrobial resistance in pathogens has led researchers to identify new and effective antimicrobial agents. Green production of nanoparticles has received attention due to its compatibility with the environment and low cost. The present study sought to characterize and evaluate the antibacterial activities of silver nanoparticles synthesized with Plantago lanceolata seed extract.

In this study, after the synthesis of silver nanoparticles by chemical and green methods, the characteristics of silver nanoparticles synthesized with the P. lanceolata seed extract were evaluated by UV-Vis, DLS, XRD, FT-IR, and TEM methods. Thereafter, the optimal conditions for the synthesis of nanoparticles and the antibacterial activity of the P. lanceolata extract, chemical silver nanoparticles, and green silver nanoparticles against standard bacterial strains were investigated by determining the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) using the broth microdilution method.

Based on the absorption spectrum of green silver nanoparticles with UV-Vis, the optimal concentration of silver nitrate was 20 mM, the suitable synthesis temperature was 57 °C, and the best reaction time was reported as 30 sec. The results of XRD, FT-IR, and TEM analyses confirmed the synthesis of green silver nanoparticles with oval and spherical morphology with a size of 20-40 nm. The P. lanceolata extract and chemical silver nanoparticles had no significant antibacterial effect. Nonetheless, green silver nanoparticles had significant antibacterial activity on the studied bacteria, with the highest antibacterial effect against Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis (MIC=125 μg/mL).

As evidenced by the obtained results, P. lanceolata seed extract significantly increased the antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles. This research demonstrated the potential of environmentally friendly silver nanoparticles synthesized in the presence of P. lanceolata extract with significant antibacterial effects for various biomedical applications.

The health of milk and its products is of great importance due to its high nutritional value. This nutrient medium is contaminated by microbial agents. Brucellosis is considered one of the most important zoonotic diseases and is endemic in the Middle East countries and has been reported in human and livestock populations in different parts of Iran. Brucellosis is an infectious bacterial disease caused by a microorganism of the genus Brucella and transmitted through unpasteurized milk and dairy products. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of contamination of milk and traditional dairy products with Brucella bacteria by PCR method, Mamasani district, Fars province, south of Iran.

In the present cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in 2021, 200 samples of traditional dairy products including 50 samples of raw milk, 50 samples of yogurt, 50 samples of cheese and 50 samples of butter from livestock farms in rural areas and inner-city shops of Mamasani district were collected and transferred to the microbiology laboratory. In order to identify the possible type of Brucella bacteria in the samples, the culture medium containing the supplement was used to prevent the growth of other pathogens. DNA of samples was extracted by DNp kit. In order to optimize the PCR test, the DNA sample was extracted from the standard strain of bacteria by boiling method and (cat: DN 811530) DNG. In each reaction, template DNA, primers (Bru and Low Bru Up), magnesium chloride, dNT and Taq DNA polymerase enzyme were used according to the instructions. The second step reaction was optimized with the same values. In the second step, instead of template DNA, the product of the first round was used. Second stage primers include Bru Up, Bru In primers. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software and chi-square statistical test.

The results of the present study indicated that 1.86%, 2.8%, 0.3% and 0% of raw milk, cheese, yogurt and butter samples were infected with Brucella melitensis bacteria, respectively. The optimized PCR test had a very high specificity, as a result it did not react with any of the studied DNAs except Brucella DNA.

Although contact with animals and products infected with Brucella bacteria are known as the most important factors of brucellosis, but then again the climatic conditions and the type of animal farming and the eating behavior of the people in the way of using animal products as well as the pathogen species in each geographical area are the factors that determine the pattern of the disease. It displays the incidence of disease in different societies. The obtained results indicated that despite the measures taken to prevent Brucellosis disease, there was still a possibility of contamination of dairy products with Brucella bacteria.

The environment governing learning is one of the most important influencing factors in education. The outbreak of corona virus (COVID-19) has led to a special attention to E-learning as an aid to break the chain of virus transmission. This study was conducted to determine the status of the learning environment of virtual education of medical students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS) using DELES (The Distance Education Learning Environment Survey) questionnaire.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in the academic year of 2022 at MUMS. Sampling was a multi-stage method. In this way, at first students in different educational levels (basic science, physiopathology, externship and internship) were considered. For gathering data DELES questionnaire was used. Then the link of the tool was shared in internet groups of medical students .Data were analyzed by T-test , ANOVA, Pearson correlation test  through SPSS.  In all tests p-value was less than or equal to 0.05.

A total of 202 medical students with an average age of 22.88±2.48 years were included in the study. The Mean response of participants studied the courses during the semester in the virtual environment was 49.78 ±  27.76  . The participants in the study reported the education situation to be relatively favorable, so that their satisfaction was more in the area of student independence (Relatively favorable) and less in the area of professors' support (poor). The results of the one-way ANOVA test showed that the average satisfaction score of basic science students is significantly higher than that of externship and internship students (P<0.001, F=7.861). Also, the results of the T-Student test showed that there is no statistically significant difference between students in terms of gender and marital status, but non-native students were less satisfied than native students in terms of interactions between students and colleagues (P < 0.03).

The attitude of the students towards distance education during the covid-19 epidemic in medical students of MUMS was relatively favorable or relative satisfaction. Therefore, in order to improving the situation of distance education, it is recommended to implement methods to increase the support of professors and improve their communication with students in the virtual education environment.

Glass ionomer cement (GIC) is used in atraumatic restorative treatment, full crown cementation, and root lesion repair. Glass ionomer cement can prevent secondary infections if it has antibacterial properties. Therefore, in the current study, the antibacterial effects of GIC containing different antibiotics and the rate of antibiotic release were investigated.

In the in vitro study, GIC discs containing 1.5% metronidazole, ciprofloxacin, or penicillin V antibiotics were first made. Afterward, the amount of antibiotic release from different discs was analyzed by spectroscopic method at 24, 72, and 168 h. The antibacterial effects of GIC discs containing antibiotics were evaluated by the disc diffusion method against the standard bacterial strain of Streptococcus mutans and compared with standard antibiotic discs.

In the present study, antibiotic release from GIC discs containing penicillin could not be measured by spectroscopic method. Nevertheless, the rates of antibiotic release from GIC discs containing ciprofloxacin and metronidazole were about 41% and 66%, respectively in the first 24 h, and after 168 h, these release rates reached 53% and 75%, respectively. The results showed that GIC disc alone and GIC with metronidazole had no antibacterial effect on S. mutans. The mean scores of inhibition zone diameter of GIC discs containing penicillin and GIC containing ciprofloxacin were reported as 27.25±0.97 and 14.0±2.52 mm, respectively. Moreover, the GIC disc containing all three antibiotics had an inhibition zone diameter of 24.33±1.37 mm.

The inhibition zone diameter of penicillin was larger than that of the mixture of three antibiotics. Based on this observation, it can be concluded that the use of 1.5% penicillin is a more suitable choice for creating antibacterial properties in GIC compared to the mixture of three antibiotics.

Reptiles are important components of natural ecosystems but because of limited dispersal ability they are sensitive to habitat destruction, road development and climate change. However, very little is known about their diversity and distribution in protected areas of Iran. In this study, reptiles of Touran Biosphere Reserve were collected, photographed and identified from 2014 to 2021. Results showed that 36 reptile species including 20 lizards, 15 snakes and 1 tortoise are living in the Touran Biosphere Reserve. Families Agamidae and Gekkonidae where the most diverse families among the lizard species and family Colubridae was the most diverse family among the snake species. Testudo horsfieldii and Varanus griseus are species with conservation concern thus they need special conservation programs.

Snakebite is a global health problem and important conservation challenge. Knowing where snakebite risk is highest can help snakebite management. But climate change is altering snakebite risk pattern making its management more difficult and complicated.
In this study we used Echis carinatus’ habitat suitability as an indicator of snakebite risk, under current and future climatic conditions. We applied an ensemble of five distribution modelling methods (Generalized linear models (GLMs), Generalized additive models (GAMs), Generalized boosted models (GBMs), Maximum entropy modelling (Maxent) and Random Forest (RF)) to model the species habitat suitability. In addition, we identified villages that are at risk of envenoming form the species under current and future climate.
Results showed that the species suitable habitat will increase under climate change as consequence number of villages at risk will increase from 70247 to 82881 putting more human population at risk of envenoming.
High snakebite risk areas identified in this study are high priority target areas for awareness raising program and antivenom distribution. This study demonstrates usefulness of habitat suitability modeling in identifying high snakebite risk area in Iran.

Mammals are as one of the important species of arid environment and play a significant role in their stability and function in the ecosystem. Touran Biosphere Reserve is one of the representative reserves of cold winter deserts that has a high biodiversity of mammals. In this study, which lasted between 2018 and 2021, the mammal diversity and threats of Touran National Park, which is part of the Touran Biosphere Reserve, were investigated. According to the surveys, at least 29 mammal species are inhabiting the national park. Among the identified mammals, Asiatic Cheetah is critically endangered, Persian Wild Ass and Persian Leopard are endangered, Persian Goitered Gazelle, Wild Goat, and Urial Wild Sheep are vulnerable, and Sand Cat and Striped Hyaena are near threatened in the IUCN red list category. Four species of mammals in the national park, Persian Wild Ass, Asiatic Cheetah, Persian Leopard, and Caracal are in the Cites Appendix I, and Urial Wild Sheep, Wolf, Blanford’s Fox and Sand Cat are in the Cites Appendix II. According to the Department of the Environment laws, four mammals of Touran National Park are endangered and five species are protected. Touran National Park is one of the most important and few remaining habitats of Asiatic cheetah and Persian Wild Ass in the country, both of which are among the species with high conservation priority in the country due to their high evolutionary distinction. Therefore, more efforts are needed to study and protect this national park.

Today, global knowledge achievements of the world's universities easily is accessible by modern technology. In this article, we explore the situation of international scientific exchanges in the era of Islamic civilization.

This study was performed by reviewing the historical texts related to scientific/educational relationship during the era of Islamic civilization.

In the pre-Islamic period, Jundishapur Hospital played an important role in integrating medicine from Greece, Iran, Egypt and India. Due to the high reputation, students came to this university from other places around the world. In the era of Islamic civilization, the translators of the "House of Wisdom" translated Greek, Syriac, Pahlavi and Indian works into Arabic. In addition to the use of scientific texts, exchanges of scientists regardless of their nationality have also been recorded in this era.The inter-connected network of teaching hospitals, nezamiyehs (Nizamiyyah, in Arabic: النظامیه‎), and Jamia/Jamiea schools (in Arabic جامعه), transmitted discoveries and innovations throughout the vast area of the Islamic civilization.

Scientific exchanges have been occurred continuously in the days of Islamic civilization. Graduates of prestigious scientific centers such as Jundishapur or Nizamiyeh played a main role in such exchange with immigration to other main scientific centers. In addition, transfer of new discoveries through scientific publications of scientists could connect the west to the east of Islamic civilization. This was performed by a network between main educational hospitals.

 Despite significant progress in Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) treatment, the emergence of drug resistance mutations is a main challenging health threat. The data is lacking regarding circulation mutant strains in northeastern Iran; therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate HBV reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors drug resistance mutations in a group of treatment naïve patients in Mashhad, Iran.

 In this study, 25 patients were included. The genomic DNA was extracted from serum samples, and the RT gene of HBV was amplified using specific primers. The PCR products were then subjected to gel electrophoresis and were next sent for sequencing. Finally, the sequences were analyzed using the HBVseq database, mutation list analysis software supported by Stanford University (https://hivdb.stanford.edu).

The mean age of the patients was 42.7±16.5. Among the patients, 56% were men. Among 23 cases (92%), no resistance mutation was observed, while 2 cases showed mutations outside the YMDD motif of viral reverse transcriptase causing Lamivudine or Entecavir resistance. The detected mutations included: rt T184A, S202I, S202H, V180I, I169L, and V173L. All sequenced samples were identified as genotype D.

 Lamivudine/Entecavir resistant variants are circulating in a minority of treatment naïve patients, which may indicate transmission of mutated stains to these patients or may be due to prolonged replication of the virus. This finding might be considered an alarm for increasing circulating mutant variants.

Different parts of plants are rich sources of bioactive ingredients and have received much attention during recent decades.

The aim of this study was to assess the antibacterial properties of five common allergenic pollens extracts.

The aqueous and lipid extracts were prepared from allergenic plant pollens including Amaranthus retroflexus, Chenopodium album, Artemisia vulgaris, Cupressus arizonica, and Ailanthus altissima. Antibacterial activity of the extracts was determined using the broth microdilution method against ATCC bacteria strains.

Total protein content of aqueous extracts was form 453 to 2772 μg/ml, but for all lipid extracts it was less than 0.2 μg/ml. Aqueous pollen extracts of C. album, C. arizonica and A. altissima (MIC between 38.8 to 562 μg/ml), and the lipid pollen extracts of C. album, C. arizonica, A. altissima, A. retroflexus, and A. vulgaris (MIC between 0.89 to 21.9 μg/ml) had a significant antibacterial activity on E. faecalis. Moreover, the aqueous pollen extract of A. altissima (MIC = 8.7 μg/ml), and the lipid pollen extracts of C. arizonica, A. altissima, A. retroflexus, and A. vulgaris (MIC between 1.78 to 21.9 μg/ml) showed a significant antibacterial activity against S. aureus. The only extract with antibacterial effect on K. pneumoniae was the lipid pollen extract of A. vulgaris (MIC value of 3.72 μg/ml).

The results of this study showed the significant antibacterial activity of some plants pollen extracts. More studies are needed to further assess the active compounds in the pollen extracts and their cytotoxic effects.

Today, due to the high prevalence of infectious diseases and the risk of infection transmission in dental clinics, the control of infectious agents is critically important in dentistry. Given the importance of proper autoclave performance in dental processes, the aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of autoclave devices in the sterilization process using biological methods in dental clinics in Birjand. In this analytical cross-sectional study, all 65 dental clinics in Birjand were included. After collecting the questionnaire about equipment sterilization process and the characteristics of the autoclave, a vial containing spores of Geobacillus stearothermophilus was used for biological monitoring of autoclave devices. At the end of the autoclave cycle, the biological vials were incubated for 24-48 hours at 55 °C. Data were analyzed using Chi-Square or Fisher exact tests in SPSS 18 software. Among 46 clinics (71%) participating in this study, 36 clinics (83.7%) used class B autoclave. Out of 34 (77.3%) clinics that monitored the performance of the autoclave, 24 clinics (70.5%) used the chemical method, 6 clinics (17.5%) used the physical method and 4 clinics (12%) used biological methods. In the biological monitoring of the autoclave sterilization process in this study, the performance of one autoclave (2.2%) was reported to be inappropriate and this had a significant relationship with the number of autoclave uses. Despite the fact that biological monitoring of autoclave performance was not carried out in many dental clinics in Birjand, the results of this study showed that the autoclaves of a large number of dental clinics had good performance in the sterilization process. Given the importance of validating autoclave performance in dental processes, the quality control of autoclave devices in dental clinics can be taken into consideration.

Chlamydia trachomatis is the cause of chlamydial infection of the genital tract and trachoma and is the most common bacterial infection transmitted through sexual contact and the most important and costly non-viral sexually transmitted disease. This infection is a common cause of urethritis in men and cervicitis in women, and many complications such as infertility and ectopic pregnancy have been reported. This study was performed aimed to evaluate the frequency of anti-chlamydia antibodies in asymptomatic women of childbearing age referred to health centers in Mashhad.

This cross-sectional study was performed in 2016 on 93 women referring to the health care centers of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Anti-chlamydia IgG antibodies were tested in these samples by ELISA method. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16) and Fisher Freeman Halton Exact test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

A total of 93 women were evaluated. The mean serum level of antibody was 0.35±0.36 ng/dl and accordingly 6.5% (n=6) had a positive result. Also, the relationship between infection and age (p=0.209) and living area (p=0.239) of ​​these people was examined, but no significant relationship was found.

According to the results of the present study, the frequency of anti-chlamydia antibodies was considerable in women of reproductive age referred to the health centers in Mashhad. Due to this prevalence and high complications of this infection in case of no treatment, it is recommended that the Chlamydia Trachomatis screening program be performed routinely even for asymptomatic individuals.

The increasing growth of human population and the number of livestock and wasteful has led to a rise in the trend of land degradation in the last few decades. Identifying the factors of destruction and sustainability of Rangelands is one of the first steps in reforming the exploitation of these resources and rehabilitating them. hence This study was done on the necessity of analysis and evaluation of the destruction of vegetation cover in Fars province. Effective choices were determined by reviewing the research resources and were grouped into Four indicators including: Hydrology (H), plant production (P), soil (S) and Atherogenic (A). The reference group of 45 experts familiar with the field of research consisted of all local operators and Operators available and a number of researchers determined in snowball method. The Questionnaires were Designed separately and scored by the reference group according to the two methods of Boolean evaluation and Fuzzy Delphi. The mean values of the indices and options were ranked and analyzed in a comparison method. Reliability was investigated by Cronbach's alpha test 0.88) and confirmed the existence of fit between Components of the questionnaire. the convergence of the results of the two above methods confirms the validity of the two methods, given that the two Boolean and Fuzzy methods were evaluated. the evaluation of Sustainability indices in fuzzy method showed that the human and soil indices have the highest relative weight, respectively, with the weight of 0.480 and 0.330 respectively. plant and climate production indices and hydrology are less important in terms of relative weight of 0.134 and 0.056, respectively. the weight and the Computational importance of indicators in the Boolean method is much less than that, and it can be said that in Comparison of the Boolean and Fuzzy methods, the fuzzy method has more performance and helps with a diverse Range of responses to provide clearer and clearer results for the evaluation of sustainability.

To solve any problem, it is necessary to first recognize that problem and examine the factors affecting that issue; therefore, a detailed study of stressors can help us improve the quality of education and mental health of students.

This cross-sectional study was performed at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2020-2021. The participants were chosen from medical students studying in various grades using convenient sampling method. The instrument used was the standard MSSQ which consists of 20 questions including 6 different dimensions: Stress Related to Academic Issues, Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Stress, Teaching and Learning Stress, Social Stress, Desire Stress, Group Activity Stress.

A total of 463 people participated in this study out of whom 51.4% (236 people) were male. Overall, 49% of students were in high/severe condition. The highest level of stress among all dimensions belongs to the stressors related to academic issues (63.5%) and the least stressful factor for students was desire-related stress (8.20%). There was a significant relationship between total stress and gender (higher in women than men).

Considering that almost half of the students are in a high/severe state regarding stressful factors, effective training of students to manage stress and improve skills to reduce stress (e.g., by conducting workshops) would be promising.

In the field of medical services, a main topic for policymakers around the world is financial turnover. This article discusses the financial relationship between the hospital and the patients and explores financial supportive systems in the era of flourishing Islamic civilization.

This study reviewed the historical texts related to how hospitals financially survived during the era of Islamic civilization.

The establishment of the hospitals was done with the governmental budget provided by the ruler or the minister or the caliph. The costs of treatment, running costs  maintaining the hospital costs and salaries have been government-sponsored. In addition to governmental support, income was donated to hospitals from endowments. These endowments included bazars, baths, inns and warehouses, which had an annual income for the hospital, which was recorded in the hospital's revenue and expenditures..

Financial support systems existed in hospitals since the era of Islamic civilization. Endowment has been one of the main sources of long-term financing of hospitals, and paying attention to this Islamic advice may be considered in the financial turnover of hospitals in many Islamic societies in modern times.

Most studies that examine the difference between expectation and perceptions in educational systems evaluate this gap from the perspective of service recipients. However, the opinion of service providers (faculty members) should not be ignored because it can be provide the opportunity to design reformations in order to increase educational service quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the educational service quality from the perspective of faculty memebers of Mashhad Unievrsit of Medical Sciences in 2018.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 178 faculty members at different levels using a questionnaire to evaluate the quality of educational services based on the SERVQUAL model. The validity and reliability of this questionnaire has been proven in previous studies. Participants were selected by available sampling method and experessed their opinions in five dimensions of service quality, including confidence, assurance, accountability, empathy and physical in the two areas of present and desired status (Likert scale 1 to 4 ).

From the perspective of faculty members, there was a statistically significant difference between the present and the desired status in all five dimensions. Overall, the highest gap was in the accountability dimension (-0.59±0.50) and the lowest gap was in the confidence dimension (-0.21±0.56). The lowest reported gap was reported by associate professors (-0.25±0.29) and the highest gap was reported by professors (-0.52±0.39).

From the faculty memberschr('39') point of view, the quality of educational services is lower than expected, although this negative gap is not large. To make up for this small gap, it is advisable to review the statements made by faculty members in this report. This study can lead to the development of strategies to improve the quality of university education.

One of the common and growing perspectives on achieving sustainability is to formulate its indicators based on local data alongside with a guided and experimental approach. On this basis, designing and prioritization of rangeland sustainability indicators from the experts perspectives in the nomadic rangelands of Kham Namdan in Eghlid county, Robat Sarvestan and Dogush Naderi of Khanj county were done. These three regions were considered as the representatives of seasonal nomadic rangelands, cold, temperate and warm, of Fars province, respectively. In this study, multivariate decision-making methods, fuzzy Delphi, hierarchical analysis (AHP) and TOPSIS method were used. The questionnaire criteria were divided into four categoris: climate and meteorology, crop production, soil and anthropogenic. Analysis of the results at the level of indices showed that anthropogenic and soil indices with a weight of 0.480 and 0.330 were the highest, respectively, and crop production and climate and hydrological indices with relative weights of 0.134 and 0.056 were fallen in the next rank. At the level of options or criteria, all unapproved options were related to the anthropogenic index, while in the indicators of climate and hydrology, crop production and soil, all options were approved by experts. Paired comparison of the options also shows that the options of income and capital, ownership and types of visible soil erosion with relative weights of 0.16, 0.13 and 0.11 have the highest priority. On the contrary, for drought index, average annual temperature and access to alternative forage with relative weights less than 0.005 have the lowest priority. The results of TOPSIS method showed that options: finance (income, savings, loans and insurance), ownership (land, livestock, housing and car) and types of erosion are superior to other options.

Nosocomial infections have always been one of the major health problems, and it is becoming increasingly important and a challenge for the health system of different countries. In this study, the contamination in the environment and equipment of two hospitals of Mashhad were studied.

This cross-sectional study was performed in two academic hospitals. The sampling method was convenient based on policy of infection control committee of each hospital. Environmental samples were collected from water, sink, patient bed and incubators. Samples were cultured in bacterial culture media and phenotypically identified. .

Out of 323 samples, 272 (84.2%) were from Qaem Hospital and 51 (15.8%) from Imam Reza Hospital. Overall, 47.1% of samples of Imam Ghaem hospital (128 samples) and 33.3% of samples of Imam Reza hospital (17 samples) were positive (p = 0.071). Overall, the most prevalent organisms were Bacillus (54 samples, 16.7%) followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis (22 samples, 6.8%) and Staphylococcus saprophyticus (16 samples, 0.5%). Others were consisted of Acinetobacter, Enterobacter and pseudomonas spp.

Bacillus species have a high persistence in the environment due to Sporulation and their removal will be an indicator of proper environmental health. The presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria in the hospital environment reveals the importance of environmental health control and monitoring programs.

Birds provide important ecosystem services, but they face several threats like climate change, land-use change, and illegal hunting. Protected areas are important tools for the conservation of avian diversity however their avian diversity and distribution poorly studied in Iran. In this study, we present the result of our field observations of avifauna and breeding birds of Touran National Park, Semnan province between 2019 and 2021. We recorded 92 bird species in the national park and confirmed the breeding status of 33 species, some of which, namely Eastern Imperial Eagle, Asian Houbara Bustard, and European roller are threatened. Eastern Imperial Eagle and Asian Houbara Bustard are listed on Annex I of CITES and Eurasian Kestrel and Merlin are listed on Annex I of CITES. Diversity of bird of prey, breeding of the Persian Ground Jay and Houbara Bustard in the desert and semi-arid steppe ecosystems are some of the remarkable values of the Touran National Park. According to the field surveys, the presence of large numbers of domestic animals around the Park and the trampling of bird nests, the high number of domestic camels, and successive droughts are the most important avian threats in the Touran National Park.

Conservation of biodiversity under changing environment is a real challenge for conservation biologists. Previous studies have shown that climate change will have negative impacts on bat species. However very little is known about the potential impacts of climate change on bats of Iran. Pipistrellus pipistrellus is a small insectivore bat which live in vast area in Iran. Despite being widespread, the species ecology remains unknown. In the present study we predicted the impacts of climate change on the species distribution, identified future climate refugia for the species and assessed protected areas effectiveness in covering the species suitable habitats. We applied an ensemble approach using four distribution modeling methods (Generalized Linear Models, Generalized Additive Models, Maximum Entropy Modelling and Random Forest). then projected the ensemble model in to the future. We found that the species will lose 118551 km2 of its suitable habitats while gaining 59303 km2 new climatically suitable habitats. Results showed that 7.1 percent of the species suitable habitats covered by protected areas under current climatic condition but in the future suitable habitats will decrease to 6.7 and 6.2 percent under RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 respectively. Climatically stable habitats identified in this study can play important role in species survival under climate change thus they have high priority for conservation.

Students are the main recipients of educational services in universities. By investigating their expectations and perceptions of educational performance, we can provide the context for program developing to improve educational quality of services. In previous studies, the quality of services was reported from the perspective of undergraduate students. Since the expectations and the type of education are various in different stages, the current study investigates the quality of educational services based on the SERVQUAL model in postgraduate and graduate students. 

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 321 students at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (58 bachelor, 67 masters, 58 PhD and 134 residents) by a questionnaire to evaluate the quality of educational services based on SERVQUAL model in 2018. Participants were selected by convenient sampling method and by answering the questionnaire, their opinions in five dimensions of service quality (Reliability, Responsiveness, Empathy, Assurance, Tangibles with a score range from 1 to 4 and the gap between the current situation and the desired between -3 to +3) were determined. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 26, paired t-test, independent sample t-test and ANOVA.

The results of current study indicated that there was a negative gap between studentschr('39') expectations and perceptions in all five dimensions. ). In general, the largest gap was in the response dimension (-1.1 ± 0.76) and the lowest was in the confidence dimension (-0.78 ± 0.69). Among different levels of students, the largest gap is from the perspective of undergraduate students (-1.1 ± 0.7) and the smallest gap possess to the PhD students (-0.69 ± 0.57), and the total service gap from the viewpoint of the non-native students (-1.0 ± 0.6) was higher than native students (-0.85 ± 0.67). 

According to this study, the quality of services has been lower than studentschr('39') achievements in all dimensions. This requires specific planning in priority areas for quality improvement.

Effective cleaning of the canal is one of the most important biological goals of root canal treatment. Enterococcus faecalis is one of the most resistant bacteria following root canal treatment. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of EndoActivator and XP‐Endo Finisher File to the usual method in the cleaning of the infected canals with Enterococcus faecalis.

The present study was carried out on a total of 56 teeth. In order to induce infection, Enterococcus faecalis was cultured and incubated. The teeth were divided into four groups (with 14 teeth in each group). The XP‐Endo Finisher File, EndoActivator, 5.25% sodium hypochlorite, and normal saline were used in the first, second, third, and fourth groups, respectively. Finally, the number of grown colonies was counted and reported in the CFU/ml unit.

The mean number of colonies before using XP-Endo Finisher, EndoActivator, sodium hypochlorite, and normal saline were 169.7×104, 156.5×104, 193.2×104, and 215.9×104 CFU/ml, respectively, with no significant difference. After using XP-Endo Finisher, EndoAvactivator, sodium hypochlorite, and normal saline, the mean number of colonies were reported as 0.71×104, 4.78×104, 0.14×104, and 123.7×104 CFU/ml, respectively, indicating the clearance rates of 99.7%, 96.2%, 99.9%, and 42.9%, respectively. After the intervention, the studied groups were significantly different (p < /em><0.001) in terms of the contamination. The number of colonies in the XP-Endo Finisher group was significantly (p < /em>=0.04) lower than that of the EndoAvactivator group. These values were significantly (p < /em><0.001) lower in the three groups of EndoActivators, XP-Endo Finisher, and sodium hypochlorite than that of the normal saline group. There was no significant difference between the two groups of XP-Endo Finisher and sodium hypochlorite (p < /em>=0.608) and two groups of EndoActivator and sodium hypochlorite (p < /em>=0.507). The use of XP‐Endo Finisher, EndoActivator, and sodium hypochlorite resulted in significantly higher clearance than that reported for normal saline.

The highest rates of Enterococcus faecalis clearance were observed in the application of sodium hypochlorite, XP-Endo Finisher, and EndoActivator, respectively.

Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the main etiologies of meningitis, pneumonia, sinusitis, and middle ear infection associated with significant morbidity and mortality. This report aims to review and report the serotype distribution and antimicrobial resistance patterns and determine the frequency of S. pneumoniae in Iran.

A systematic literature review of the literature published from January 1990 to August 2020 was performed to identify articles that have been published in Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, SID, IranMedex, and Magiran databases that describe the serotype distribution, antimicrobial resistance patterns and frequency of S. pneumoniae in Iran. The search terms were "Streptococcus pneumoniae, Antibiotic resistance, Serotyping, Systematic review, and Iran". The exclusion criteria were review articles or case reports, reports only emphasizing on serogroups rather than serotypes, and having isolates fewer than 10.

Of 56 reports, 33 publications that met our inclusion criteria were selected for data extraction and analysis. The frequency of S. pneumoniae in patients and carriers was estimated at 1.5% and 20%, respectively. Highest levels of resistance were against co-trimoxazole followed by penicillin, and erythromycin. The most common serotypes were 23F followed by 19F, 6A/B, 19A, and 18C.

Based on the results of this study, the inappropriate use of antibiotics and the subsequent spread of resistant pneumococcal isolates in our country is worrisome.