f ebrahimzadeh

Changes in lifestyle have led to the gradual disconnection of children from nature and open spaces and schools are one of the most important spaces for re-establishing  this connection; because it is the second place where children spend a lot of time after home and most of the children's daily physical activities are done during the day. The present study was aimed  at explaining the characteristics of school outdoor spaces to improve the children’s relaxation and learning. Hence, after analyzing the information obtained from previous studies, the list of effective criteria to increase children’s sense of attachment to the open spaces of schools was proposed. The study of the research background and the compilation of theoretical foundations were done in two parts: At first, by combining different research  studies on the subject of place attachment, the dimensions of place attachment and the factors affecting it., the researchers have tried to deal with the relationship between these factors both with each other and with the  issue of architecture in order to  determine the effective factors in creating place attachment in the field of architecture.,  Afterwards, the background of research in the field of children and outdoor space was examined and the effective variables in creating place attachment were identified. Then, these initial criteria were checked on the basis of the perspective of the experts in architecture.

To achieve the research purpose and find the relationship between the effective factors in place attachment with the extracted variables, the qualitative-quantitative system,  the method of content analysis and Delphi technique were used.Therefore, in order to achieve a more comprehensive result and a combination of the quantitative and qualitative content, after searching for sources and collecting information, the content analysis method was used so that the raw data and the existing components can be categorized on an  orderly basis. Then, to confirm the framework and the variables extracted by a group of experts in the field of architecture, a questionnaire based on Likert scale was used. The data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed by factor analysis using the SPSS software. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The adequacy of the sample size was also assessed using the KMO statistic and Bartlett’s significance level.

The results showed that from the perspective of the experts, the independent variables can be classified into five groups of influential factors on the basis of the answers of the respondents. According to the definitions of attachment factors in the research background and the findings of the statistical test, the obtained variables were named. Hence, the variables such as the environmental mobility, space flexibility and cozy corners under (interactive factors), familiar environment, the study period, the child’s gender and culture-economic class (individual factors), dimensions of the open space, physical comfort of the environment, spatial diversity and spatial perception (physical factors), child participation, natural elements of the environment, safety and sense of security (socio-group factors) and playfulness, stimulation of the environment and its color and texture subset (activity factors) were classified.  

Based on the research findings, the most important criteria for increasing the child's sense of attachment to the open space of schools were classified into five main factors (interactive, individual, physical, socio-group and activity) and 17 variables.Moreover, strategies along with the above indicators in relation to school design have been proposed so that besides creating an environment that meets the demands of students, opportunities for children to participate can also be provided and, thus, the possibility. 

Aging often results in thoracic kyphosis and adverse postural changes. This may interfere with physiologic activity of paraspinal muscles. Few styles of spinal orthosis have been already used to reduce thoracic kyphosis. This paper describes the development of a novel orthosis, which is designed based on the anatomy of the back muscles. This novel orthosis may potentiate muscle activity and balance control among older hyper kyphotic subjects. The object of this study was to design and preliminary testing of a new orthosis to potentiate muscle activity and balance control among older hyper kyphotic subjects. In this quasi-experimental study, a new postural control orthosis with a textile band structure was designed to provide an additional support for spine and muscles of the back. The functional impact of this orthosis was evaluated in six older hyper-kyphotic subjects. According to the results, the paraspinal muscles activity and balance control were significantly improved. The RMS sEMG of the lumbar and thoracic erector spinae muscles reduced significantly (p<0.05), and a significant improvement (p<0.05) was observed in the balance test when patients put on the novel orthosis (p<0.05). The new orthosis can considerably improve the paraspinal muscles activity at both the upper and lower lumbar levels. It can also recover balance control among elderly subjects.

Computerized concept mapping is a useful tool for providing nursing care. Considering the availability of mobile for learners and the role of it in increasing the skills of nursing students, this paper aimed to investigate the effects of nursing process effectiveness with conceptual mapping via mobile phone on nursing students' self-efficacy in intensive care course. In this randomized clinical trial, 68 fourth grade nursing students from Lorestan University of Medical Sciences in second semester 2015-2016 were selected and by stratified block randomization classified into intervention and control groups. The intervention group received nursing process with concept map and software, and the control group received traditional teaching. The self-efficacy of learners was measured with clinical self-efficacy questionnaire consist of 4 dimensions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Fisher's exact test, chi square test, and Mann–Whitney through SPSS. The total score of self-efficacy of the subjects before the study did not differ significantly between the two groups, but after the intervention, the relative increase percentage of total self-efficacy score (p<0.001) and its dimensions included an assessment (p=0.005), diagnosis (p=0.002), implementation, (p=0.002) and evaluation (p<0.001) in intervention group were more than control group. The implementation of nursing process with concept map leads to increasing the self-efficacy of learners in clinical practice. Considering easy access to mobile, it is recommended to be used this method with mobile-based application in teaching nursing students.

  Academic failure is of paramount importance for medical students because it might lead to a decline in scientific level of the community of physicians in the future. This study was conducted to investigate the predictors of academic failure in medical students of Lorestan University of Medical Sciences using classification tree.

In this cohort study, academic records of all medical students of Lorestan University of Medical Sciences during the academic years of 1999-2008 were selected by census and were followed up until September 2016. Academic failure was defined as having at least one of the components of appropriate grade point average, prolonged graduation, academic probation, dropout, expulsion, and any failure in ccomprehensive exams and the CART classification tree was adopted using the SPSS 22 software to predict it.

The cumulative incidence of academic failure was 26.4% and the most prevalent components were prolonged graduation (21.7%) and academic probation (15.0%). The probability of academic failure was 0.449 in subjects taking guest courses, 0.220 in subjects with no history of guest courses admitted to courses with less than 40 students and admission quotas of zone 1 or 3, and 0.456 in subjects with no history of guest courses admitted to courses with more than 40 students and males.

With respect to identifying the predictors of academic failure, it is suggested that these students be referred to consulting centers of the university or educational supervisors’ moreover, the regulations of taking guest courses in other universities should be revised.

Disorders of height and weight growth are the most important health disorders affecting children younger than two in developing societies. Failure to treat these disorders can lead to the increased mortality and mental, emotional or physical disability. The objective of this study was to investigate the growth trends of children and the factors affecting it.

This retrospective cohort study was conducted on 2030 children younger than two in Khorramabad, Iran who were selected using stratified and cluster sampling. Based on household records, the weight growth trend was recorded as a four-level variable (decline, stagnation, slowness and desirable) and the the height growth trend was recorded as a three-level variable (stagnation, slowness and desirable); finally, the data were modeled using a longitudinal marginal model and the SAS software version 9.2.

The incidence of at least one decline in the weight growth curve and one stagnation in the height growth curve was 14.2% and 10.4%, respectively. The child’s age and the maternal educational level had a significant effect on the growth trends. However, the sex, parity and the exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months had no significant relationship with the growth trends.

Given the results and the relatively high prevalence of growth disorders among children, it seems that increasing the awareness of low literate women about feeding of the children is the most important approach to manage growth disorders. Additionally, health-care professionals should mostly focus on monitoring the growth of children older than 12 months.