BACKGROUND: There are controversial evidences on the association between fingerprint traits and schizophrenia. We compared fingerprint traits of patients with schizophrenia and normal individuals in Iranian population.METHODS: Finger tip dermal RIDGE of 290 patients with schizophrenia and 290 normal subjects were studied for four dermal traits. Data was analyzed with Pearson correlation and student's tests.RESULTS: Finger print patterns and secondary creases were not significantly different between the two groups (p>0.05).Although mean RIDGE COUNTS of left and right index fingers of the case group were greater than the control group (p<0.05), these differences were not significant in females.CONCLUSIONS: Probably the left index RIDGE COUNTS and fluctuating asymmetry in schizophrenic patients are different from those of the normal population. This difference may serve as a diagnostic biological marker for screening people susceptible to schizophrenia. Further studies are needed to determine predictive value of fingerprint trait as a biomarker for the schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study was count the white blood cells following injection of technetium-99m in the cat. Radioactive materials can be used in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Technetium is used in most labeling and nuclear medicine diagnostic studies because of its favorable conditions in the body. In this study, injection of technetium-99m was used to evaluate the possible changes in the number of white blood cells because these cells are used in labeling and tracing of radioactive materials in the body and their alterations are important in many operations. In the present study, technetium was milked from Molybdenum to technetium generator and it was rapidly injected in 1.5 mCi into six cats through the femoral vein. A group of four other cats were used as controls after injection of saline. At 0, 30, 60 minutes, 24 and 48 hours after injection, blood samples were collected from all cats and the number of white blood cells were counted. This study did not show any significant changes in the amount of white blood cells in the two groups. Thus, the results of this study outlines the advantage of using technetium-99m as a radio-drug in treatment and diagnostic procedures.

This paper considers an extension of the linear mixed model, called semiparametric mixed effects model, for longitudinal data, when multicollinearity is present. To overcome this problem, a new mixed RIDGE estimator is proposed while the nonparametric function in the semiparametric model is approximated by the kernel method. The proposed approache integrates RIDGE method into the semiparametric mixed effects modeling framework in order to account for both the correlation induced by repeatedly measuring an outcome on each individual over time, as well as the potentially high degree of correlation among possible predictor variables. The asymptotic normality of the exhibited estimator is established. To improve efficiency, the estimation of the covariance function is accomplished using an iterative algorithm. Performance of the proposed estimator is compared through a simulation study and analysis of CD4 data.

Objective(s): Depression is one of the most common and debilitating mental disorders. Identifying predictors of depression is crucial for the prevention and treatment of this disorder. The variety and complexity of these predictors, along with the potential for multicollinearity, make conventional statistical analysis methods less effective in examining the relationships between these variables and depression. This study aimed to identify the predictors of depression among community Health Workers (RHWs) using the RIDGE-PLS method. Methods: This secondary study investigated a sample of 394 RHWs in East Azerbaijan province. Data were collected using a questionnaire designed to assess predictors of depression in RHWs based on the social-ecological model, comprising 24 questions on a 5-point Likert scale. Depression was diagnosed using the Beck Depression Inventory. The RIDGE-PLS statistical method was utilized for data analysis. Results: Among the 394 RHWs screened, 170 (43.2%) exhibited mild to severe depressive symptoms. According to the RIDGE-PLS method, the factors associated with depression can be categorized into two general areas: personal factors and environmental factors. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that the 24 items can be condensed into two dimensions: personal and environmental. Within the personal dimension, self-care can help mitigate the incidence of depression, while improvements in work and social conditions can further reduce depression rates in society.

The present study reports somatic chromosome numbers of 7 species belong to 6 families from Iran. The chromosome numbers of Epilobium palustre (2n=36), Geranium pyrenaicum (2n=26), Sium sisarum (2n=20), Veronica beccabunga (2n=18) were reported for the first time for the flora of Iran. Ferula persica (2n=22) and Tragopogon jesdianus (2n=12) are reported for the first time. The report for Bromus scoparius (2n=28) is the second count for the species in Iran. Ideograms are depicted for each species.

Process capability indices show the ability of a process to produce products according to the pre-specified requirements. Since final quality characteristics of a product are usually interrelated to its previous amounts in earlier workstations, one need to model and consider the relationship among them to assess the process capability properly. Hence, conducting process capability analysis in multivariate environment is inevitable; unfortunately, the analysis in multivariate environment is usually complex and requires extensive calculations. Sometimes it is preferable to simplify the analysis by assuming independency among quality characteristics and evaluating process performance with respect to each individual quality characteristic using univariate process capability indices such as CP, CPK, CPM, and CPMK. However, this simplification introduces some error in the analysis leading to under or overestimation of the process capability index. This paper models the interrelationship among quality characteristics that are produced in different workstations to provide an overall process capability index. RIDGE residual regression is used as a vehicle to evaluate process capability and helps quality engineers to provide a reasonable quality policy for controlling and reducing variation in quality characteristics.