Background: The international study of asthma and allergies in childhood (ISAAC) is used to define the prevalence and severity of asthma in different regions. In this study we followed the performance of the ISAAC video and written questionnaires (VQ and WQ) to classify asthma in 13-14 yr-old schoolchildren.Methods: The present study was carried out on 3540 schoolchildren 13 to 14-yrs-old using the VQ and WQ. The students were also asked to answer a separate question if they had ever been clinically diagnosed as asthmatic. The Kappa index was used to find degree of agreement between VQ and WQ regarding asthma symptoms. The sensitivity, specificity and Youden’s index of both questionnaires were also determined.Results: The most frequent asthma symptom was wheeze after exercise in both VQ (15%) and WQ (23%). Correlations between positive responses to the corresponding questions in the VQ and WQ were significant (P<0.001). The sensitivity of both questionnaires to the question of asthma diagnosis by physician ranged between 0.16 and 0.68. Except for wheeze limiting speech and current wheeze, the WQ had higher value of Youden’s index (0.25 - 0.46). The specificity of questions in VQ for asthma diagnosis by physician was ranged between 0.84 and 0.99.Conclusion: Both WQ and VQ had low sensitivity, but WQ showed higher value of Youden’s index and the VQ exhibited good specificity. Therefore, one may consider the WQ for prevalence and VQ for relative risk studies.

Background: This study is a part of the third phase of "International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood" (ISAAC) which was aimed to study the prevalence and severity of asthma symptoms among children and to compare the result with those of the first phase in Rasht city.Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was performed on 0-7 and 13-14 years old students of Rasht city during 2001- 2002. After performing statistical analysis, prevalence of asthma symptoms was evaluated in both sexes and the two age groups by using chi-square test.Results: A total of 6074 students participated in this study. History of wheezing during their life-time and history of recent wheezing were present in 23.3% and 15.4% of students, respectively. Prevalence of this symptom in both situations was significantly higher in male students compared to females. Three hundred forty-nine students (5.7%) were known cases of asthma. Number of asthmatic cases among 6-7 years old students was 1.5 times higher than the other group. Also, prevalence of asthma in boys was 1.6 times higher than girls. Over all, 522 students (8.6%) mentioned a history of wheezing during or after exercise in the past 12 months. This was 3 times higher among 13-14 years old students and 1.9 times higher in boys. Eight hundred thirty-five (13.7%) students had a history of dry cough during the last 12 months and its prevalence was higher in students in the 13-14 years old group and in boys as well.Conclusion: Compared to the results of phase I of this study, the prevalence of known cases of asthma has considerably increased in both age groups. Prevalence of asthma was higher in 6-7 years old boys. There is a wide range of risk factors for development of asthma and its exacerbation in children which requires further investigations to find factors responsible for increased prevalence of this disease in Rasht city.

We have conducted an optical monitoring survey of IC 10 dwarf irregular galaxy in the Local Group, using the ISAAC Newton Telescope (INT) with the wide- eld camera (WFC), to identify the Asymptotic Giant Branch stars (AGBs). AGBs are at the  nal stage of their evolution and can be implemented as powerful tools for  nding the star formation history and chemical evolution of galaxies. The stellar pop-ulations in IC 10 had not been previously identi ed in optical wavebands surveys. Our data set was obtained in the i􀀀 and V 􀀀 band with the WFC instrument. Photom-etry was obtained for 48578 stars within the area of 0: 07 deg2 (13: 5 kpc2), of which 10800 stars are detected as AGBs. Radial distribution histogram has been constructed in the image plane for populations of AGBs, RGBs (Red Giant Branch stars) and massive stars. We found that the RGBs population has the largest e ective radius among the three populations in the IC 10 image plane. Our data were matched to optical catalogues of Pan-STARRS (The Pan-STARRS release 1 (PS1) survey-DR1) catalogue, mid-infrared catalogue of good sources (DUSTiNGS Good Source Catalog (GSC)) from the Spitzer Space Telescope and near-IR catalogue of Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The number of 441 and 1927 were identi ed as C-type (carbon-rich) and M-type (oxygen-rich) stars respectively; using the matched stars between our catalogue and the HST catalogue.

Background: This study is a part of the third phase of the "International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood" (ISAAC) aiming to study the prevalence and severity of asthma symptoms among children of Rasht and Tehran.Materials and Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study assessed Rasht and Tehran students in two age groups (6-7 and 13-14 years) during 2001-2002. After performing statistical analysis, prevalence of asthma symptoms was compared between the students form the two cities and was evaluated in both sexes and age groups by using the Chi-square test.Result: A total of 12,214 students from both Rasht and Tehran participated in this study. History of wheezing and asthma were significantly higher among Rasht students. Prevalence of wheezing, speech limitation due to wheezing, wheezing during exercise and dry nocturnal cough were higher among 13-14 year olds in both cities. History of wheezing and exercise wheezing were higher in 6-7 year-old girls living in Tehran. However, prevalence of the aforementioned symptoms and prevalence of asthma were higher in total boys residing in Rasht. Also, prevalence of asthma, wheezing during exercise and dry nocturnal cough were higher in 13-14 year old boys in Rasht. No significant difference was found in this regard between Tehran girls and boys in this age group.Conclusion: Prevalence of asthma and some of its symptoms was significantly higher among Rasht students compared to those residing in Tehran.

Asthma is the most common chronic disorder of school-age children and youth, with rising prevalence in all over the world. By attention to the geographic area there is considerable difference in the prevalence of asthma. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), was founded to maximize the value of epidemiological research into asthma and allergic disease by establishing a standardized methodology and facilitating international collaboration. To determine the prevalence of asthma and related symptoms in Kermanshah (a city in west of IRAN) schoolchildren and also identifying the related variables that increased asthma risk using the ISAAC protocols. This descriptive analytic study was done by the ISAAC written questionnaire and additional questions about family number, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of two groups of first and second grade of primary and guidance schools (6-7 y, 13- 14 y). Suggested sample size were applied and selected randomly. Results were analyzed by SPSS soft ware by 95% confidence interval. The ISAAC-written questionnaire was completed by a total of 6236 (48.7% were 6-7 and 51/3% were 13-14 years old) schoolchildren.50.4% of students were girls and 49/6% were boys. The prevalence of diseases and symptoms were as follows: 20.6% had ever wheezing (27.4% in 13-14 years old and 13.4% in 6-7 years old children and it was 21.6% in girls and 19.5% in boys). Among which the estimated mean national 12-month prevalence of wheeze (current wheeze), speech limiting wheeze, exercise wheeze, night cough and physician diagnosed asthma (ever asthma) were respectively 30.1%, 5.4%, 9.4%, 7.3% and 3.3% for the 6–7 year age group and 44.2%, 13.5%, 28.9%, 17.4% and 2.1% for the 13–14 year age group. Current wheeze was higher in Childs and adolescents with family history of smoking and in higher family number. Comparing with regional study the results of this epidemiological survey of asthma in Kermanshah indicate that asthma is more common here, more prevalent in girls than boys and is higher in 13- 14 years old than 6-7 years old but sever asthma is much less common. The results may be due to better diagnosis and better control of disease.