Background and Aims: Overlapping of the proximal surfaces of posterior teeth in the panoramic radiography is a major concern. Therefore, an option has been developed in the panoramic unit of Planmeca Promax, namely improved interproximal mode. This mode causes lower horizental angle with the teeth contact region during the unit rotation decreasing overlapping of the panoramic images of the posterior teeth especially premolar teeth. The present study was done to compare the overlapping of posterior teeth using two techniques of improved interproximal panoramic program and standard panoramic.Materials and Methods: In this diagnostic study, 32 patients requiring panoramic radiographies at their posterior teeth during their routine diagnosis and treatment process with the mean age of 27.3 years were participated. No patients showed crowding of posterior teeth or missed and restored posterior teeth. The participants' panoramic radiographies were randomly taken by two techniques of improved interproximal panoramic and standard panoramic using Planmeca Promax device. The overlapping of the panoramic images was blindly assessed by an oral radiologist. The overlapping in both techniques was reported by frequency and percentage. The comparisons were done by Chi-square test between two techniques and the odds ratio of overlapping was estimated using regression analysis.Results: In standard panoramic techniques, 38.5% (148 contacts of 384 contacts) of the proximal surfaces overlapped while the overlapping of the proximal surfaces was observed in 18.8% (72 contacts of 384 overall contacts) in improved interproximal technique. Significant differences were noted between two techniques regarding overlapping (P<0.001). Also 66.4% and 39.1% of 4-5 teeth contacts overlapped in standard and improved techniques. The values were reported to be 39.1% and 12.5% in contacts of 5-6 teeth and 10.2% and 4.7% in the contacts of 6-7 teeth in both techniques, respectively. The overlapping odds ratio in improved technique as compared to standard techniques was 2.72 more. While the odds ratio of overlapping in the contact regions of 4-5 and 5-6 teeth was 16.4 and 4.61 as compared to the contact region of 6-7 teeth (all: P<0.001). The lower or upper jaw with the patients' mouth side did not significantly influence the overlapping of the proximal surfaces in both panoramic techniques.Conclusion: Under the limitations of this study, improved interproximal panoramic significantly reduced the overlapping of proximal surfaces in the panoramic radiographies of posterior teeth as compared to the standard panoramic technique. Therefore, it can be used to detect proximal caries in the posterior teeth as a diagnostic tool. Using this option may affect other part of panoramic image which should be investigated in other research.

Objective: The Parkinson's disease is a progressive phenomenon that effort for maintain of independence in functional and self care skills is considered as one of the most important aspects of their life. PASS (Performance Assessment of Self Care Skills) evaluates the activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and functional mobility (MOB) of the patients. Validity and reliability of this test has been evaluated in few disabilities and it has never been performed on patients with Parkinson's disease.The purpose of the present study was to assess the validity and reliability of PASS in evaluating the self care skills of patients with Parkinson's disease.Materials and methods: PASS was first translated into Persian and' after minor modifications, was given to 5 specialists (all were occupational therapists) along with a questionnaire especially designed for this purpose. For the purpose of testing the reliability50 patients with Parkinson's disease aging 45 -85 years were no randomly selected from 5 geographic region of Tehran. The test and retest was performed on 2 consecutive days using the PASS manual for evaluating the self care skills ofthe atients for 3 aspects of independence, safety, and outcome. Pearson correlation coefficient was measured between the results using SPSS 11package.Results: There was a significant agreement (P value = 95%) between the scores of 5 specialists in all 3 aspects of independence (X2= 5.83, DF = 4), safety (X2=5.44, DF = 4), and outcome (X2 =2.45, DF = 4). Pearson correlation coefficient for test-retest results was 93%, 91%, and 91% for independence, safety, and outcome respectively (P value = 0.01) which is indicative of very high reliability of PASS for evaluating self care skills of patients with Parkinson's disease.Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that PASS is highly valid and reliable in evaluating the self care skills of patients with Parkinson's disease. These results were not unexpected in the sense that' as long as the standards of test performance are observed, there should be no difference between the test - retest results of the same patient performed in 2 sessions. One other important aspect is patient education and familiarization with the test procedure. This aspect was tried to be effectively observed during the tests. It can be concluded from the results of this study that PASS is an appropriate tool for assessment of the self care skills of patients with Parkinson's disease by rehabilitation specialists including occupational therapists.

This paper assesses the extent to which the movements in exchange rate affect import, wholesale and consumer prices in Iran.The exchange rate pass through to import and domestic prices is an important link in the process of monetary policy transmition, in particular as Iran moves to an inflation targeting regime. The empirical model is a recursive VAR, suggested by McCarthy (2000), to investigate the impact of exchange rate movements on prices by analysing data from spring 1373 to winter 1383. Impulse response function and variance decomposition are used to measure the exchange rate pass through to import and domestic prices. The major findings of this paper are: the exchange rate movements have only a moderate effect on prices, i.e., exchange rate pass through is incomplete; it is more stronger in import price index relative to wholesale and consumer price indices, the exchange rate pass through to wholesale price index is more pronounced compared to the pass through to consumer price index. Variance decomposition indicates that exchange rate shocks explains some proportion of inflation variability.