Background: In spite of many advantages in Lenke classification of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, the latest study of Richards et al showed that the King classification is better than had been reported recently and the Lenke classification system of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is less reliable than previously reported.Methods: In this study, we performed a multi-surgeon comparison of these two classification systems. After teaching and discussing all available data of these classification systems with four spine surgeons, a pilot classification was performed. Then, they independently evaluated preoperative radiographs (standing posteroanterior, lateral, and two supine side-bending views) of 99 patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. The results were determined by calculating the average percentage of intraobserver and interobserver agreement. reliability was quantified using kappa statistics.Findings: The King classification demonstrated good intraobserver and interobserver reliability, with an intraobserver agreement of 85.8% (kappa coefficient, 0.80). Interobserver percentage of agreement averaged 80.8% (kappa coefficient, 0.74). The complete Lenke classification, combining curve type, lumbar modifier, and sagittal thoracic modifier, demonstrated good reliability for both intraobserver and interobserver measurements. The intraobserver percentage of agreement averaged 85.8% (kappa coefficient, 0.82). The interobserver percentage of agreement averaged 80.8% (kappa coefficient, 0.77).Conclusion: In this study, with each investigator performing the radiographic measurements, the King and Lenke classifications were almost similar (the Lenke classification had slightly better results). Such better results might be due to more training of this complex classification system. So, because of greater coverage of idiopathic scoliosis curve and usefulness of Lenke classification system, we prefer using this classification system in our center.

The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is one of the most widely used personality questionnaires, but very few studies have been conducted on its psychometric properties in Iranian population. This study was carried out with the aim of studying the psychometric properties of the BFI questionnaire. For this purpose, 390 university students in Tehran (210 girls and 180 boys) with an age range of 18 to 56 years (M = 27.52; SD = 8.79) were selected using the convenience sampling method and completed BFI and NEO-FFI questionnaires. Cronbach's alpha, multitrait-multimethod matrix, and confirmatory factor analysis were used to estimate the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. The result of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that 15 of the 44 items did not have a strong factor loading (higher than 0.40) on the corresponding factors and were therefore removed from the questionnaire. The fit indices showed that the Persian version of 29 questions (BFI-29) with 5 factors has a good fit with the data. The reliability analysis also showed that the range of Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the factors is from 0.70 to 0.79. The lowest Cronbach's alpha coefficient was related to agreeableness factor and the highest was related to conscientiousness. The findings from the multitrait-multimethod matrix showed that the BFI-29 questionnaire has good convergent and divergent validity with the NEO-FFI questionnaire. In general, based on the results of the present study, it can be said that the BFI-29 questionnaire has desirable psychometric properties and whenever a short tool for personality measurement is needed, this questionnaire can be used.

Background: compliance with health-related behaviors is a dilemma among heart failure (HF) patients. The present study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of a Persian translation of the revised heart failure compliance questionnaire (RHFCQ) in Iranian HF sufferers. Methods: This methodological study was performed on outpatient HF individuals referred to a heart clinic in Isfahan, Iran. The forward-backward translation method was used for translation. Twenty subjects were invited to express their opinions on the provided items concerning simplicity and understandability. Twelve experts were invited to rate the items regarding the content validity index (CVI). Cronbach’, s α,was used to evaluate internal consistency. The patients were asked to complete the questionnaire for the second time after 2 weeks to investigate test-retest reliability using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results: There were no obvious difficulties during the translation and assessment of the simplicity and comprehensiveness of the questionnaire items. The CVI of the items ranged from 0. 833 to 1. 000. Totally, 150 patients (age: 64. 60±, 15. 00 y, males: 58. 0%) filled in the questionnaire twice with no missing data. The highest and lowest compliance rates were attributed to alcohol and exercise domains, respectively (83. 00±, 7. 70% and 45. 55±, 12. 00%, respectively). Cronbach’, s α,was 0. 629. After the omission of 3 items related to smoking and alcohol cessation, Cronbach’, s α,rose to 0. 655. The ICC showed an acceptable value of 0. 576 (95% CI, 0. 462 to 0. 673). Conclusion: The modified Persian RHFCQ is a simple and meaningful tool with acceptable moderate reliability and good validity for assessing compliance in Iranian HF patients.

In the process of designing a product or a physical system, reliability engineering is an important factor to be considered. Also, as an essential step in reliability evaluation during the design phase, it is necessary to allocate reliability to subsystems, in such a way that full system reliability is satisfied. Performing this process, which is called reliability allocation, creates a more reliable and competitive system, which, at the same time, is compatible with our limitations. The consequences of considering this phase in designing a product are improved design and manufacturing methods, and, as a result, it is possible to gain cheap and reliable products compatible with customer demand. Many parameters that exist in the process of reliability allocation have been generated based on research investigations. These techniques have different attitudes towards performing an allocation process. By analyzing these approaches, the researchers discovered remarkable disorders. These disorders are consequences of weaknesses, some of which all techniques share. One important aspect not considered in these techniques, and considered to be a great weakness, is the importance of subsystems, regarding their place in system configuration and their contribution to full system reliability. In this study, according to the importance and e effectiveness of reliability importance measures, we have utilized them as an approach to suggest a new and effective technique. In this process, we use the technique of reliability importance measures to propose a new way to overcome this weakness, and, in two examples, will show the effects of using these measures in the process of reliability allocation. Based on a comparison between the new technique and the two most applicable techniques in literature; ARINC and MAXIMAL ENTROPY, using one hypothetical and one real example, we have shown the preferable results of the new technique.

This article presents an efficient reliability-based optimization method for critical structural design, in which, the probability of failure (Pf) should remain in a small bound. Critical structures should be designed to be optimal and reliable. Despite significant progress in reliability and optimization techniques, their interaction, which is considered in reliability-based optimization (RBDO), is faced with several challenges, especially in reliability analysis of critical constraints (constraints with Pf less than 10-5). To address this issue, in this paper the cross-entropy method is intended for reliability analysis and is combined with Genetic Algorithm in a double-loop framework to implement RBDO. The cross-entropy method is based on Monte Carlo simulation, except that the variance of sampling is reduced, which leads to a faster and more accurate reliability analysis method. The proposed RBDO method is demonstrated on two structural design. The obtained results show a high capability in reliability-based optimization of critical structures. In addition, using the proposed method, in comparison with traditional safety factor method, provides a more substantial manner in reliability improvement.

Bayesian Networks (BNs) as a strong framework for handling probabilistic events have been successfully applied in a variety of real-world problems, but they have received little attention in the area of composite power systems reliability assessment. reliability assessment by BN provides some additional capabilities in comparison to conventional methods, both at the modeling and at the analysis levels. At the modeling level, several restrictive assumptions, implicit in the conventional methods, can be removed. At the analysis level, a variety of applicable reliability-based analysis which is hardly achievable in conventional methods, can be conveniently performed. This paper proposes a methodology based on Minimal Cutsets (MCs) to apply BNs to composite power system reliability modeling, reliability assessment and reliability-based analysis.To have a more accurate BN model, a new method of MC determination for composite power system is proposed. Bayesian structure is extracted, based on the determined MCs. Bayesian parameters are defined based on the logical relationships of nodes. To make the proposed method applicable to large composite power systems, virtual nodes are proposed and combined with Bayesian model. Also, a variety of reliability-based analyses are presented which are hardly achievable in conventional methods. The proposed method is validated by applying to RBTS and comparing the results with other reliability analysis methods. The proposed methodology is applied to the reliability Test System (RTS), to show its feasibility in large networks.