t. rahimi

One of the global challenges regarding HIV patients is the increased sensitivity to intracellular pathogens such as tuberculosis. CD4+ cells are the main defense element against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but in these people, as their number decreases, the risk of tuberculosis increases, even antiretroviral treatments sometimes cause unknown manifestations of tuberculosis. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in patients with HIV by microscopic and molecular methods.

The present descriptive study was conducted on 100 cases of HIV-infected patients who had completed more than 6 months of antiretroviral treatment, by recording their demographic characteristics. First, three sputum samples were taken from the patients at certain times in accordance with the standard principles of laboratory and immunobiology in the open air, and they were stained by the following Nelson method and examined microscopically. Then, their blood samples were analyzed with cell counter and Real-Time PCR to measure CD4+ and determine the viral load, respectively. The collected data were analyzed using ANOVA, homogeneity of variance (LON) and LSD post hoc statistical tests.

The average CD4+ count and viral load in this community were determined as 722/8 and 177/5 respectively. Only two percent of the population (both women) had simultaneous HIV/TB infection. There was no significant relationship between infection and the variables of age, gender, marital status and education (p>0.1). There was a direct significant relationship between the variables of treatment length and CD4+ count (p<0/05) and between them with viral load. There was an inverse significant relationship (p<0/01).

Tuberculosis is the most common opportunistic infection in HIV infected patients. With the lack of a vaccine for HIV and the lack of an effective vaccine for TB, it is necessary to design strategies to deal with HIV-TB co-infection.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men and is one of the major causes of pain and cost in the health care system. Prostate cancer screening is a low-cost and easy way to detect cancer early. This study aimed to investigate the factors associated with prostate cancer screening in men over 50 years in Jiroft using the Protection Motivation Theory.

Instruments & Methods:

The present study is a cross-sectional study that was performed on 414 men over 50 years old. The sampling method was multi-stage. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire of 58 questions whose validity and reliability was measured. Data were analyzed by SPSS 18 software using one-way ANOVA, independent t-test, Pearson correlation, and linear regression.

53.9% of the participants were in the age group of 60-69 years. Only 8.2% had an annual prostate cancer screening. Perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, self-efficacy, response efficiency, and fear had a significant positive relationship, and response cost and perceived reward had a significant inverse relationship with prostate cancer screening behavior (p<0.05). Perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, self-efficacy, fear, and protection motivation constructs could explain 37% of the variance of prostate cancer screening behavior (p<0.05).

The constructs of perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, self-efficacy, fear, and protection motivation can explain 37% of prostate cancer screening behavior in Iranian Men, and protection motivation is a stronger predictor.

Pregnancy is recognized as an important period in women lives during which, the decisions made by mother about the maintenance and promotion of the health, either herself or the fetus, are important. The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of health-promoting behaviors in pregnant women who referred to Jiroft Ayatollah Kashani Hospital in 2019.

The present work is a cross-sectional study conducted in 2019 on pregnant women who referred to Ayatollah Kashani Hospital in Jiroft. In this study, 235 pregnant women participated that selection was done by convenience sampling method. Data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS software version 16 using ANOVA, independent t-test, Pearson correlation and linear regression.

The mean age of participants was 29.39 ± 6.88 years. Health-promoting behaviors had a direct and significant correlation with social support (r =0.28, p <0.001), education (r = 0.36, p <0.001), and the source of decision for health (r =0.15, p = 0.02). All three variables of social support, the source of decision-making for health and education were able to predict 23% of changes in health-promoting behaviors (R2 = 0.23, F = 23.76, p <0.001).

The results of this study indicate that social support, source of health decision making, and education could predict the performance of health-promoting behaviors in pregnancy. Promotion of womenchr('39')s education about pregnancy and strengthening strategies that help women to make decisions about their health and gain social support; can be used in designing educational interventions to increase womenchr('39')s commitment to health-promoting behaviors in pregnancy.

Japanese quail is considered as a beneficial bird because of its characteristics such as rapid growth, early maturity, high egg production, breeding times and short incubation period (Lotfipour and Shakeri, 2011). Additives such as probiotics and prebiotics are used as alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters today (Zare Shahneh et al. 2007). Primalac is a kind of commercial probiotics that contains Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium thermophilum, and Enterococcus faecium (Salehimanesh et al. 2016). Its characteristics include increasing the population of the gastrointestinal tract microbes, increasing livestock production, reducing drug use, reducing mortality and reducing diarrhea in the flock (Midilli et al. 2008). Fermacto (kind of commercial prebiotics) is the product of elemental fermentation of Aspergillus oryzae. Fermacto have effects of increasing the flock's uniformity, reducing the passage of foodstuffs, eliminating the competitive challenge, developing intestinal villi, increasing energy and protein absorption, increasing the absorption and storage of minerals especially calcium and phosphorus, enhancing the immune system, and improving weight gain on time of stress (Ghahri et al. 2013). An experiment was conducted as a completely randomized design using 400 day-old quail chicks (mixed sex) with four treatments, five replicates, and 20 quail chicks in each replicate from 1 to 42 days of age. Experimental treatments were included: (1) control group (basal diet without any feed additive), (2) basal diet contains 0.9 g/kg Primalac, (3) basal diet contains 2 g/kg Fermacto and (4) basal diet contains 0.9 g/kg Primalac + 2 g/kg Fermacto. Diets were formulated to meet or exceed the nutritional requirements of Japanese quail as indicated in the standard tables (NRC, 1994). Quails in each replicate were weighed weekly and feed intake was determined at the end of each week. From these data, average daily weight gain, average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio were calculated. On day 42 of experiment, two birds (one male and one female) from each replicate were selected, then weighed, were slaughtered and carcass yield and carcass components including breast, thighs, wings, abdominal fat, fat around neck, and bursa of Fabricius were weighed using a digital scale and their relative weight to body weight were calculated. The length of the various parts of the small intestine, including the duodenum, jejunum and ileum, was measured after the separation from the mesenteric with the ruler. To study the blood metabolites, blood samples were taken from the wing vein of two quails in each replicate (one male and one female) on day 42 and then, sera were separated to measure triglycerides, cholesterol, HDL, and LDL using enzymatic kits via colorimetric method. To determine ileal microbial population of quails, after opening the abdominal cavity, ileum region, between Meckel’s diverticulum and ileocecal junction, separated by a sterilized scissor, about two centimeters of the ileum were transferred into sterile microtubes and were stored at -20 ̊C until studying E.coli, lactobacillus and coliform microbial populations (Roostaei-Ali Mehr et al. 2014). Eosin methylene blue agar medium (Merck, Germany) was used to culture E.coli. MacConkey agar (Merck,
Germany) and MRS (Merck, Germany) were used to cultivate coliforms and Lactobacillus, respectively. The results indicated that 0.9 g/kg probiotic Primalac, 2 g/kg prebiotic Fermacto, and 0.9 g/kg probiotic Primalac + 2 g/kg prebiotic Fermacto in diet had no significant effect on daily feed intake, daily weight gain, and feed conversion ratio (P>0.05). It was reported that the use of probiotic (Primalac) to the diet of Japanese quail had no effect on daily weight gain and daily feed intake (Rezaeipour et al. 2015). Several factors can affect the consumption of bird feed, including the physiological and nutritional factors, health and the rate of production and type of bird (Blair, 2008). The results indicated that treatments did not affected on weight of carcass and internal organs (P>0.05; Table 3). It was reported that using probiotic to the diet of Japanese quail had no effect on weight of carcass and carcass traits (Sahin et al. 2011). It was reported that addition of probiotic (Primalac) and prebiotic (Fermacto) to the diet of broilers did not have any effect on growth performance and carcass quality, carcass weight, carcass traits, breast, heart, abdominal fat, spleen, and bursa of Fabricius (Shirmohammad et al. 2015). Treatments had no significant effect on relative length of the small intestine segments (duodenum, jejunum and ileum) (P>0.05). Shirmohammad et al. (2015) reported that intestinal traits of broilers were not affected by Primalac and Fermacto. Since the most important feature of probiotics is their ability to settle in the gastrointestinal tract, native microbial strains of gastrointestinal tract are usually prepared as probiotics, so probiotics produced for broilers may not be suitable for establishment or proliferation in the Japanese quail digestive system. Treatments had no significant effect on triglyceride, cholesterol, HDL, and LDL (P>0.05). It is reported that the supplementation of the Japanese quail diet with Primalac did not have any effect on serum triglycerides, cholesterol, LDL, and HDL of broilers (Rezaeipour et al. 2015). Sahin et al. (2008) reported that cholesterol, triglyceride and glucose levels were not affected by experimental treatments when using synbiotic (Saccharomyces cerevisiae + mannan oligosaccharide) in Japanese quail diets. The levels of serum cholesterol and triglycerides in birds affected by diet and other factors such as age, sex, and environmental conditions (Haddadin et al. 1996). Non-significant changes for intestinal microflora were observed (P>0.05; Table 6). Researchers reported that the consumption of probiotic (Protexin) in the diet of quail did not have any significant effect on bacterial populations (Nasehi et al. 2015). When using feed additives, consideration of points such as rate of consumption, temperature, humidity, water consumption and environmental health are necessary (Chiang and Hsieh, 1995). It could be concluded that 0.9 g/kg probiotic (Primalac), 2 g/kg prebiotic (Fermecto) and synbiotic (0.9 g/kg probiotic Primalac + 2 g/kg prebiotic Fermecto) had not any positive effect on growth performance, carcass traits, length of small intestine, serum lipids as well as the number of Lactobacillus bacteria, coliforms, and E.coli in Japanese quail.

Breakfast, considered to be the most important meal, is skipped more ferquently than other meals by children and adolescents. ‏This study aimed to determine breakfast consumption and its predictors among Qom school girl students based on the Pender`s health promotion model constructs.

This descriptive-analytical study was carried out on 100 secondary school girl students selected by classified random sampling from among secondary schools of the City of Qom, Iran. The Pender`s health promotion model (HPM) constructs were used as the theoretical framework. Data were collected using questionnaires. Statistical analysis of the data was performed by SPSS (version 17) software, the statistical tests being correlation and regression analysis.

The average number of breakfasts consumed per week was 3 (± 1.5). Body mass index, time of waking up in the morning, and interpersonal influences had no significant correlations with the average number of breakfasts consumed per week. On the basis of the Pender`s health promotion model constructs and personal factors having a potentially significant correlation with behavior, 69% of the variability in breakfast consumption by the girl students (R2 =0.69, F =12.68, p< 0.0001) was predicted by the folowing variables: prior related behaviors, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, and competing demands and preferences.

In designing nutritional interventions aiming at increasing breakfast consumption in school girl students, it is better to put more emphasis on strategies to promote self-efficacy and reduce perceived barriers. Also, paying due attention to prior related behavior and competing demands and preferences can be beneficial in designing effective interventions.