Iranian Journal of Health Sciences
Volume:1 Issue: 3, Autumn 2013

Background and According to developments related to the relative autonomy of universities and acquired extensive powers by the board of trustees of universities of medical sciences and healthcare services in a twenty-year perspective of country and in the context of the fourth and fifth socio-economic cultural development of country, necessity of developing financial and transactional bylaw of universities of medical sciences has become increasingly clear throughout country. Grounded theory is the qualitative methodology used for this study in order to identify the threats and opportunities of new financial tax bylaw of universities and faculties of medical sciences and through the study of documents, surveys of experts and beneficiaries and elites by Delphi method. Releasing potential of public administration in order to control sources and uses, increasing management confidence in documented decision making, establishing organizational concentration on controlling costs, providing conditions of decision-making according to financial reports, independency in firing and hiring manpower by adopting specific provisions and creating independency in method of keeping accounts are among the most important opportunities. While poor organizational structure, lack of knowledge and skills in the existing structure, mental processes caused by reactions and incompatibility of staff, lack of criteria and rules in selection appointment and dismissal of managers and employees, lack of discipline and proper mechanisms in order to pursue the purposes, calculating financial burden and human resources required and finally, passing through traditional thinking and management system are among the most threats. Considering the mentioned threats and opportunities, financial and transactional bylaw of universities and faculties of medical sciences was basically revised and modified in January 2006, and then after the case reform in July 2009 it was announced in October 2011.

Background and In this study, the air quality index and concentration of particles such as PM10 and PM2.5 were investigated in Arak. To determine the concentration of PM10 and PM2.5, 60 samples were collected by laser TSI model 8520 in summer and winter 2012. The collection site was around Arak city center. during the sampling period, as a matter of PM10, the cleanest and the most polluted month were December and June with the average of 34.33 µg m-3 and 100.1 µg m-3, respectively. The concentration of PM2.5 was 12.93 and 53.17 µg m-3 for December and June, respectively. Meanwhile, in terms of air quality index (AQI), in 98.3% and 70% of cases, the concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5, respectively were less than normal (AQI100). The concentration of PM10 in the study period was less than Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2006 guideline. Meanwhile, the concentrations of PM2.5 in 30% of air samples were greater than EPA guideline. The average PM2.5/PM10 ratio during the sampling period was 0.41 compared to range 0.15 to 0.25 reported by EPA.

Background and Utilization of health care services and food influence the health status. The food and health care expenditure ratios determine the importance level of them in household''s consumption expenditures. We aimed to investigate the Iranian rural and urban food and health expenditure ratios inequality during 1998 to 2012. This is a descriptive longitudinal study, which conducted based on Iranian Statistics Centre and Central Bank annual surveys. Firstly we calculated the households food and health expenditure ratios. Then we calculated the Gini coefficients and Atkinson index by using STATA version 12. The mean of rural households food and health expenditure ratios were 0.53 and 0.37 respectively. Also these were 0.53 and 0.22 for urban households. All above inequality levels are based on Gini coefficients. There is a high level of inequality between Iranian rural and urban income deciles for health expenditure ratio, but the food expenditure ratio inequality were less and lower.

Background and Cadmium is hazardous and non-biodegradable material entering the food chain. In this paper, the removal of cadmium from aqueous solutions by sunflower powder (the natural biosorbent) was investigated. The experiments were performed in a batch system. The effect of parameters such as contact time, pH, cadmium concentration and adsorbent dose were evaluated. The results showed that increasing of pH, contact time and adsorbent dose caused increasing efficiency of removal cadmium from aqueous solutions. The results were modeled using biosorption kinetics and a neural network with four hidden neurons, including bias which was able to predict the concentration dependency of data very accurately. On the basis of the results, could be used from sunflower residues as a cost and efficient biosorbent for treatment of wastewater with Cadmium. The prediction of the artificial neural network model fit the experimental data very precisely.

Background and Health indices, regarding to their role in the development of society, are one of the most important indices at national level. Success of national development programs is largely dependent on the establishment of appropriate goals at the health sector, among which access to healthcare facilities is an essential requirement. The aim of this study was to examine the disparities in health services access across the Kerman province. This was a cross-sectional study. Study sample included the cities of Kerman province, ranked based on 15 health indices. Data was collected from statistical yearbook. The indices were weighted using Shannon entropy, then using the TOPSIS technique and the result were classified into three categories in terms of the level of development across towns. The findings showed distinct regional disparities in health services across Kerman province and the significant difference was observed between the cities in terms of development. Shannon entropy introduced the number of pharmacologist per 10 thousand people as the most important indicator and the number of rural active health center per 1000 people as the less important indicator. According to TOPSIS, Kerman town (0.719) and Fahraj (0.1151) ranked the first and last in terms of access to health services respectively. There are significant differences between cities of Kerman province in terms of access to health care facilities and services. Therefore, it is recommended that officials and policy-makers determine resource allocation priorities according to the degree of development for a balanced and equitable distribution of health care facilities.

Background and Highly consumption of antibiotics and their entrance into the environment has increased concerns all over the world. These compounds enter to the environment through an incomplete metabolism and a considerable amount of them cannot be removed using usual waste filtration systems. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using ultraviolet radiation (UV-A) to remove penicillin G (PENG) from aqueous phase and determining its removal efficiency. The experiments were carried out in the batch mode. The samples were assessed in a 2-liter reactor. In order to investigate the effect of UV-A radiation on the removal rate of antibiotic penicillin G (PENG), the following parameters were studied. Three concentration levels of PENG antibiotic (10,25,and 45 mg/l) were exposed to UV-A at three pH levels (3,7,11) and were evaluated at four reaction times (30,60,90, and 120 min). Antibiotic penicillin G (PENG) was determined using HPLC instrument (Waters YL9100,USA) and results analyzed using factorial design software. The finding demonstrated that antibiotic removal rate increased by decreasing pH and decreasing the initial concentration of antibiotic and increasing contact time. The maximum rate of penicillin G removal occurred in acidic pH (pH=3) is as much as 38%. All of the variables in the process have been statistically significant effect (p<0.001). Results showed that by reducing the pH, increasing contact time and reducing the antibiotic concentration, the removal rate increases. In conclusion, photodegradation process using UV-A may enhance the rate of penicillin G degradation in polluted water and could be used as a complementary step for other chemical and biological processes to remove penicillin G from the aqueous solution. Therefore, UV-A process in conjugate with the other processes is an appropriate method for reducing antibiotic penicillin G in polluted water resources.

Background and Due to the lack of accurate statistics on the amount of waste generated in the energy production sector in Zahedan, before any planning, one should identify all waste producing centers associated with the energy sector and also the quantity and quality of their waste in Zahedan. This research is a cross-sectional descriptive study. It examined the produced wastes in the electrical energy generation sector. A questionnaire was prepared and completed for each unit that possibility produces these wastes. Moreover, in the studied units, the weigh percent per unit was determined by separating production waste, and collecting and weighing them. In gas power plant of Zahedan, production of burned oil was approximately 480 liters and the annual consumption of turbine oil and compressor oil was 40 liters. In the diesel power plant, 2,200 liters of burned oil is produced for each generator after 1,500 hours of work. Concentration of heavy metals of Cr, Cd, Zn, Pb, Cu, and Ni in the burned oil sample of the gas power plant was 43.2, 0.01, 0.20, 1.3, 2.7, 0.2 mg/l, respectively; and in the diesel power plant were 36.3, 0.08, 0.09, 0.9, 4.7, 1.1 mg/l. In the studied samples, several cases of heavy metal pollution were identified. Therefore, proper planning for appropriate management of these units is necessary for any possible leakage and environmental pollution transport. Furthermore, in order to minimize the adverse impacts of hazardous wastes on the environment and people in Zahedan, integrated hazardous wastes management should be practices in electrical energy generation plants. Moreover, one must consider the measures required to exposure, transport, and safe maintenance before managing or eliminating this type of waste.

In many area of medical research, a relation analysis between one response variable and some explanatory variables is desirable. Regression is the most common tool in this situation. If we have some assumptions for such normality for response variable, we could use it. In this paper we propose a nonparametric regression that does not have normality assumption for response variable and we focus on longitudinal data. Consider nonparametric estimation in a varying coefficient model with repeated measurements (X tij Yij ij,, ), for i=1, …, n and j =1, …, ni where Xij=TXijo Xijk (,...,) and (X tij Yij ij, ,) denote the jth outcome, covariate and time design points, respectively, of the ith subject. The model considered here is Y (tij) i (tij) T Yij ij   , where ()  (0 (),..., ()), for k  0 T t k  t  t , are smooth nonparametric functions of interest and (t)  i is a zero-mean stochastic process. The measurements are assumed to be independent for different subjects but can be correlated at different time points within each subject. For evaluating this model, we use data of a cohort of 289 healthy infants born in Shiraz in 2007. The proposed nonparametric regression was fitted to them for obtaining effect rates of mother weight, mother arm circumference and maternal age at delivery time and maternal age at first menarche on boy’s arm circumference. proposed nonparametric regression showed the varied effect of each independent variable over the time but other models achieved constant effect over the time that is in controversy with the inherent property of these natural phenomena. This study shows that this model and the spline nonparametric estimator could be useful in different areas of medical and health studies.

Background and Fluoride is one of the drinking water contaminants regulated by EPA. This ion, in low doses in the mouth reduces tooth decay without health risk and at much higher doses causes health complications and can be toxic. The major sources of exposure to fluoride are drinking water, food, dental products, and pesticides. The biggest contributor to exposure for most people in Iran is drinking water. This study was carried out to determine groundwater fluoride concentration of Hamadan province located in the west of Iran in 2012. Ground water samples were collected from 192 sampling point, during dry and wet seasons. Fluoride concentration was determined in the water samples using UV-Spectrophotometry method (DR 5000) and SPADNS Fluoride Reagent Solution. The fluoride concentration of ground water of examined regions varied between 0 to 1.78 mg/l. Mean concentration of fluoride samples and standard deviation were 0.574 and 0.351 mg/l respectively. The results showed that 49% of fluoride concentration samples were less than the standard value according to National standards of IRAN and WHO guideline. According to low level of fluoride concentration in this province, fluoride supplements such as mouth washes, consumption of fluoride containing foods and water fluoridation are recommended to reduce caries development.

Background and Schools are the most appropriate and reliable places for training and educating students. If health principles are not observed in schools, students will be prone to different kinds of health problems. Thus the aim of this research is to study the environmental indices in primary schools in the Behshahr city in 2012. This is a cross sectional descriptive study. 20 private and governmental primary schools affiliated to ministry of education were selected using census method. Data were collected in the questionnaire prepared based on the environmental standard of the ministry of health. The questionnaire was filled during interviews with school principal and direct observation. The data were analyzed using, Excel, and SPSS softwares. The results of this search showed the hygienic statues of schools in water supplying (85%), waste water disposal (75%) and washbasins (70%), garbage disposal (100%) were favorable. But they were unfavorable for play ground 90%, green area 95%, lavatory with flash tank and ventilation 80% window without net 90% and fire extinguishing capsule 80%.The findings also showed a significant difference between the health statuses of different schools. Most (80%) schools had a pleasant situation or a relatively acceptable hygiene regarding the health instruction guide for schools'' environment. This requires more attention of the authorities towards the improvement and promotion of the hygienic status of schools.