Journal of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences
Year:2017 | Volume:15 | Issue:12|Papers Count:8

Background and Objective: Chemical dyes used in the textile wastewater besides having harmful effect on the environment, have carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. Methylene blue has harmful effect on living organisms in short period of exposure. The goal of this study was optimization of the catalytic ozonation process by pumice modified by magnesium nitrate in removal of methylene blue dye based on Taguchi statistical model.Materials and Methods: In this experimental study ozonation process was in a batch ozonation reactor. The prepared pumice was crushed and pulverized by standard ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) sieves at range of 70 mesh، then modified by magnesium nitrate. Effective factors such as reaction time, initial dye concentration, sorbent dose, and initial pH at 4 different levels were considered using an L-16 Taguchi method. Residual concentration of contaminants was read using a spectrophotometer at a wavelength of 663 nm. Analysis of data was performed using one- way variance and calculation of S/N (signal- to- noise) rate.Results: The results showed best conditions for removal dye were at contact time of 15 min, pH of 10, dye concentration of 50 mg/l, and adsorbent dosage of 0.7 g/L and efficiency of dye removal was 98%. Analysis of variance results indicated that the reaction time was the most important variable influencing the dye removal percentage with the contribution value of 51.8% and pH was the least important variable influencing the dye removal with the contribution value of 3.8%.Conclusion: The results showed that ozonation process can be a selective method to reduce the concentration of pollutants in textile wastewater effluent.

Background and Objective: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) should be suspected in any patient presenting with chronic abdominal pain and diarrhea and with histological sampling for further diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to identify patients with inflammatory bowel disease by measuring fecal calprotectin.Materials and Methods: This case- control study was conducted in the Shahid Mohammadi, hospital, in Hormozgan in 2013-2014. One hundred and twenty patients were enrolled, of which 60 were with IBD and 60 patients with IBS. FCP, ESR, Hct and CRP variables were measured in all patients. In order to compare FCP in the understudy and multiple groups, Mann- Whitney and Kruskal- wallis tests were used and one- sample t- test and ANOVA were used to compare the other indexes.Results: According to the results of this study, there were significant differences between the two groups of IBD and IBS in terms of FCP (p<0.05), ESR (p<0.05), CPR (p<0.05), and Hct (p<0.05) variables. So that, the means of FCP, ESR, and CPR were significantly higher in IBD than IBS but the mean of Hct was higher in IBS. At a cut off value of 77.05 units, fecal calprotectin had a sensitivity of 96.7% and a specificity of 91.7%Conclusion: Currently endoscopy and sample- taking are used for the disease activity evaluation but fecal calprotectin measuring appears to be well related to the disease activity and can be a clinically useful non- invasive marker in differentiating IBD from IBS.

Background and Objective: Multi- dimensional measuring of attitudes toward people with disabilities leads to a better understanding of this concept and provides the foundation for design and implementation of appropriate interventions. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Scale of Attitudes towards People with Disabilities in 2015.Materials and Methods: This cross- sectional study aimed at validating the test. The study population consisted of all students who were educating at the University of Isfahan in the academic year of 2014-15. From this community, a sample of 150 students) 69 boys and 81 girls ( were selected. The multi-stage random cluster sampling method was used in such a way that three faculties of University of Isfahan were selected, and then 5 classes were randomly selected from among classes in each college. After that, students were asked to answer questionnaires. The research data collection instruments were the Multidimensional Scale of Attitudes towards People with Disabilities (MAS) and the questionnaire of demographic characteristics. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, factor analysis،and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).Results: The results obtained from specialists’ ideas indicated that the scale enjoys appropriate formal and content validity. Correlation coefficient of items with the total score in 23 items was significant and ranged from 0.48 to 0.53. The results of factor analysis indicated that the scale has been saturated with three factors (Affects، Cognitions & Behaviors) explaining totally 41.3% of the variance. Cronbach's alpha for the subscales ranged from 0.80 to 0.86 and the total alpha coefficient was equal to 0.83. Split- half alpha coefficient for the subscales ranged from 0.65 to 0.82 and 0.71 was the total alpha coefficient. Retest coefficients for the subscales ranged from 0.53 to 0.61 and the total alpha coefficient was equal to 0.65 and showed appropriate validity of the MAS in the Iranian population.Conclusion: According to the results obtained from the present study, it seems that the Persian version of the MAS enjoys acceptable psychometric properties and it can be used for assessing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components.

Background and Objective: Hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) is a highly toxic pollutant that isknown as a carcinogen and mutagen agent to humans. Photocatalytic reduction is one of the known ways to remove these contaminants. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the catalytic effect of green iron nanoparticles, as eco-friendly materials, on photocatalytic reduction of Cr (VI) from wastewater.Materials and Methods: This is a laboratory study that has been done using a batch reactor with a 400 ml useful volume and medium pressure UVC lamp. Iron nanoparticles were synthesized using barberry leaf extract and iron chloride, then their performanceswere investigated in photocatalytic reduction process of hexavalent chromium. In this study the effect of different parameters such as pH (2-10), catalyst dosage (0-0.375 g/l), reaction time (2-15 min), and initial Cr (VI) concentration (10-200 mg/l) were investigated. The size of the green iron nanoparticles were determined by Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) analysis. Data Analysis was performed by Excel software.Results: TEM analysis showed that the production of green nanoparticles of iron has been successful and their size was from 20 to 40 nm. The optimum pH equaled 2. The best conditions for the process obtained in initial chromium concentration of 50 mg/l, catalyst dose of 0.375 g/l, and contact time of 15 minutes and removal efficiency of 100% was reported in this condition. Photocatalytic reaction kinetics followed the second order kinetic equation.Conclusion: The results showed that green iron nanoparticles are efficient catalysts in the process of photocatalytic reduction of Cr (VI) from Synthetic wastewater.

Background and Objective: People who have features of fear of being laughed at, always worried that others ridicule them or laugh at them. This misinterpretation of others laughter have a negative impact on their social interaction. Therefore, it is necessary to assess these variables for research and treatment purposes. The present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the validity and reliability of the Fear of Being Laughed at Scale among students of University of Isfahan in 2015.Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional validation study. The population of the study included all students who studied in the academic year of 2014-2015 at University of Isfahan. Among these individuals, 150 participants (83 males and 67 females) were selected as the sample using multi- stage cluster sampling method. To investigate the validity of the scale, methods of content, convergent, and diagnostic validity, as well as item correlation with the total score and factor analysis were used. The reliability of the scale was investigated using methods of internal consistency and split– half reliability.Results: There was a positive significant correlation between the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNES-B) and the Fear of Being Laughed at Scale (r=0.49, p=0.01). The results of ttest indicated that this scale distinct well between students and siblings of children with autism. The correlation coefficients of items with the total score was significant in all cases and were at the range of 0.46 to 0.74. In addition, factor analysis indicates the existence of a factor. The internal consistency of the scale was calculated using chronbach’s alpha and was equal to 0.88. The split- half coefficient for the first half of the data was equal to 0.81 and for the second half of the data, it was 0.82. Furthermore, the correlation between the two halves was 0.65. There was no significant difference between the mean scores of females and males in the Fear of Being Laughed at Scale (p=0.142).Conclusion: The results obtained from the present research indicated that the fear of being laughed at scale enjoys appropriate reliability and validity and can be used to measure the fear of being laughed at for research and clinical use.

Background and Objective: Critical thinking is the type of thinking that follows evidence in order to achieve a reliable result. The present study aimed to assess the critical thinking among faculty members of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences in 2013 on the basis of age, gender, type of employment, academic rank, administrative activities, teaching experiences, number of courses, and type of faculty.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study، data were collected through a questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part included demographic variables and the second part was to measure critical thinking based on Ricketts Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CTDI).The questionnaire was distributed among 110 faculty members that 95 (86%) of them completed and returned it. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics including t-test and one way ANOVA.Results: The results highlighted that there was no significant difference between the mean scores of females (11.25) and males (11.10). The mean scores of subscale innovation had a significant relationship with academic ranks in which the instructors had the highest mean score (4.37) and the assistant professors had the lowest mean score (4.09). The mean scores of subscale innovation also had a significant relationship with the type of faculty in which the Nursing and Midwifery school had the highest mean score (4.37), whilst the Dentistry School had the lowest mean score (4.05).Conclusion: Based on our results, the mean score of critical thinking and its subscales are in a relative favorable position in faculty members of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences. However, there is a need to teach this type of thinking among faculty members especially dental school faculty members.

Background and Objective: Operation field in surgeries like sinus endoscopy, rhinoplasty, tympanoplasty, and mastoidectomy is limited and difficult to achieve. Bleeding in the field of these surgeries can opaque operation fields and ultimately affect surgery outcome. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between anesthesia depth and transparency of operation field in the first and second hours after limited surgery fields (ear, noise and sinus).Material and Methods: In this descriptive study bispectral index was used for monitoring anesthesia depth in limited surgical fields. Average anesthesia depth was obtained from 91 patients during first and second hours of surgery. Field transparency was defined via equipped eye (microscope) and amount of bleeding (bleeding in suction and number of small surgical gas) in three patterns as transparent, semi- transparent and opaque filed. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percent، mean and standard deviation) and chi-square test.Results: In this study, there was no relationship between anesthesia depth and field transparency in the first hour of the surgery (P=0.404), t this relationship in the second hour of operation was statistically significant (P=0.024). As a general result, the greatest frequency of anesthesia depth for transparent field via bispectral index was 40-50 percent in the first and second hours of surgery.Conclusion: Monitoring anesthesia depth and its adjustment in the range of 40-50 percent can help to make desirable transparent field and decrease need for using hypotensive drugs in the limited operation fields.

Background and Objective: Minimum Data Set (MDS) is an important tool for collecting standard data in the information system for management of operating room. This study was conducted to investigate the viewpoints of the operating rooms personnel in Kerman teaching hospitals about the designed MDS of information system for management of operating room.Materials and Methods: In this cross- sectional study the MDS of the system was designed through reviewing information systems, relevant documents, and studies. To finalize the primary MDS the viewpoints of supervisors and secretaries of the operating rooms in Kerman teaching hospitals were sought using questionnaires. After determining the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, data were analyzed using chi- square.Results: Overall, 94% of the research population in this study agreed with all determined MDSs. All participants agreed with MDSs concerning identification, admission, operation and anesthesia data of patients admitted to operating room. More than 85 percent of them agreed with other determined MDSs.Conclusion: The high rate of operating room personnel agreement with determined MDSs in this study indicates that a comprehensive information system with standard MDSs is necessary for collecting required data for management of operating room.