ahmad sohrabi

It is essential to constantly review the risk factors and treatment outcomes of tuberculosis (TB). This study evaluated some important risk factors of TB over five years.

Between 2013 and 2018, all available information and possible risk factors related to TB patients were analyzed from the TB registry program of the health district of Gorgan, Iran.

Among 349 TB patients, 194 (55.59%) were males and 167 (47.85%) had at least a comorbidity. The death rate was higher in the age group more than 65 years (p < 0.001), the low-educated group (P = 0.012), and patients with underlying diseases, especially diabetes (p < 0.001). In total, univariate and multivariate statistical analyzes showed that having comorbidity (OR = 4.34; 95% CI 1.49 – 13.49), as well as, being jobless (OR = 3.07; 95% CI 1.19 – 8.59) were the main factors influencing the adverse events.

According to the study, aging, underlying diseases, and cultural poverty include a higher share of the main risk factors for active TB and/or treatment outcomes. By considering these risk factors and training the medical staff continually, we can reduce the time of TB diagnosis, and prevent it from spreading.

Cognitive control plays a role in human behavior and mental processes and affects paranormal beliefs. This study aims to investigate the role of cognitive control in paranormal beliefs using the go/no-go task.

A total of 92 people were selected based on low, middle, and high scores in the revised paranormal belief scale (R-PBS) and assigned to 3 groups. The groups included 30 severe paranormal believers (13 females with a mean age of 25.3 years), 31 mild paranormal believers (14 females with a mean age of 26.4 years), and 31 skeptics (16 females with a mean age of 25.8 years). All participants were tested on the go/no-go task. A multivariate analysis of variance was conducted with the given groups (severe paranormal believers, mild paranormal believers, and skeptics) as the independent variable and the go/no-go subscales scores as dependent variables.

The findings showed a significant difference between the mean scores in errors of go (F(2, 89)=7.20, P=0.01), errors of no-go (F(2, 89)=11.81, P=0.01), and reaction time (F(2, 89)=21.46, P=0.01) between the groups.

The severe and mild paranormal believers had lower accuracy and slower reaction times than the skeptics group. Therefore, severe paranormal believers and mild paranormal believers had a weakness in all go/no-go subscale scores. This finding suggests that paranormal beliefs may be related to poor cognitive control.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of the educational program based on the hope of learning on the academic persistence and emotional intelligence of the twelfth grade students.

In terms of methodology, the current research is part of the semi-experimental designs of pre-test, post-test and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of the research was all 12th grade female high school students in Hamedan city who were studying in the academic year 2008-2019. 30 students with low academic tenacity were selected from this population using the purposeful sampling method and randomly replaced in two groups of 15 people, experimental and control. The experimental group was taught 10 90-minute sessions of the program based on hope for education. The members of both groups completed the pre-test, post-test and follow-up questionnaires of Benishek and Lopez's academic tenacity in all three stages. The data were also analyzed by mixed variance analysis.

The findings showed that the mean scores of the academic tenacity variable in the experimental group compared to the control group increased significantly in the post-test and follow-up phase.

Therefore, the educational program based on the hope of learning has been effective in increasing the academic tenacity of students.

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent types of cancer in Iranian women and the second cause of death in women worldwide. Gene mutations are the key determinants of the disease; therefore, the genetic study of this disease is of paramount importance. One of the genetic evaluation methods of this disease is microarray technology, which allows the examination of the simultaneous expression of thousands of genes. Clustering is the method for analyzing high-dimension data, which we used in the present research for collecting similar genes in separated clusters. A descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was carried out to evaluate unsupervised learning models of gene expression analysis and five bi-clustering methods (including PLAID (PL), Fabia, Bimax, Cheng & Church (CC), and Xmotif) were compared. For this purpose, we obtained the microarray gene expression data for lapatinib-resistant breast cancer cell lines from previously published research. The enrichment efficacy of the clusters was evaluated with gene ontology, and the results of these five models were compared with the Jaccard index, variance stability, least-square error, and goodness of fit indices. Furthermore, the results of the best model were assessed for building a genes sets network with Bayesian networks. After preprocessing, clustering was performed on the data with the dimension (4710 × 18) of the genes. Four models, except for CC, successfully found bi-clusters in the data set. The data evaluation revealed that the results of the models were almost the same, but the PL model performed better than the others, finding 11 bi-clusters; this model was used to build the network of gene sets. According to the results, the PL method was suitable for clustering the data. Accordingly, it could be recommended for data analysis. In addition, the gene sets network formed on gene expression data was incompetent.

Considering the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we aimed to report the clinical features of 427 patients with COVID-19 and the outcomes after one-month admission to major teaching hospitals in the northeast of Iran. Data of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 from 20 February 2020 to 20 April 2020 was analyzed using the R software. The cases and their outcomes were monitored up to one month following their admission. Among 427 patients with a median age of 53 years (50.8% male), 81 (19%) were directly admitted to the ICU ward, and 68 (16%) died during the study. The mean (SD) lengths of hospital stay were significantly higher in the non-survivors (6 (9) days) than survivors (4 (5) days) (P = 0.018). Ventilation need was reported in 67.6% of the non-survivors and 0.8% of the survivors (P < 0.001). Cough (72.8%), fever (69.3%), and dyspnea (64.0%) were the most common symptoms. There were more comorbidities in the severe cases (73.5%) and non-survivor (77.5%). Liver and kidney damage were significantly more common in non-survivors. Ninety percent of the patients had at least one abnormal chest CT scan finding, including crazy paving and consolidation patterns (27.1%), followed by the ground-glass opacity (24.7%). Results showed that the patients’ age, underlying comorbidities, levels of SpO2, and laboratory findings at the time of admission may predict the progress of the disease and can be considered mortality-related factors.

Paranormal beliefs are defined as believing in extrasensory perception, precognition, witchcraft, and telekinesis, magical thinking, psychokinesis, superstitions. Previous studies corroborate that executive brain functions underpin paranormal beliefs. To test causal hypotheses, neurophysiological studies of brain activity are required.

A sample of 20 students (10 females, age: 22.50 ± 4.07 years) were included for the current study. The absolute power of resting-state EEG in intrahemispheric and interhemispheric coherence was analyzed with eyes opened. The paranormal beliefs were determined based on the total score of the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS).

The results of this study demonstrated that there was a significant negative relationship between paranormal beliefs and EEG resting state in alpha band activity in the frontal lobe (left hemisphere), EEG coherence of alpha and beta1, beta2, and gamma band activities in the frontal lobe (right hemisphere) and coherence of alpha and beta1, beta2 and gamma band activities between frontal regions (two hemispheres). In addition, the results showed that coherence of alpha, alpha1, beta, and beta2 band activities between frontal lobe (right hemispheres) and EEG coherence of delta, alpha1, and band activities in the frontal lobe (two hemispheres) predicted paranormal beliefs.

This study confirms connecting executive brain functions to paranormal beliefs, and determines that frontal brain functioning may contribute to paranormal beliefs.

Lymphadenitis is the most common complication following BCG vaccination observed in 0.1% to 1% of children.

The presence of immunodeficiency can increase the probability of lymphadenitis or contribute to its exacerbation, so the early detection of immunodeficiency in those developing lymphadenitis can help prevent its many catastrophic complications.

This study was performed on patients referred to Taleghani Hospital of Gorgan city in 1396. Forty children with lymphadenitis and 40 healthy children entered the study. Serum samples were taken to measure white blood cell counts and the antibodies, including IgE, IgG, IgM, and IgA. Purified protein derivative (PPD) test was done in both groups.

In this study, there were 40 patients with lymphadenitis, of whom 24 were boys (60%), and 16 were girls (40%), and in the control group were 22 boys (55%) and 18 girls (45%). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. Lymphadenitis was ipsilateral to the vaccine injection site in all 40 cases, and it was in the anterior axillary region in 82%. Abscess at the lymphadenitis site occurred in 25% of cases. The mean size of induration following PPD in the lymphadenitis group was larger than the control group (5.86 mm and 3.04 mm, respectively) (P = 0.004). There were five patients (12.5%) under one year of age with lymphopenia (lymphocyte count > 3,000), but no lymphopenia was observed in the control group. The mean average IgA and IgM levels were different between the case and control groups (P = 0.001), (P = 0.016), respectively. There was no statistical difference in IgG and IgE levels between both groups (P = 0.92 and P = 0.762, respectively).

This study shows that the size of indurations following PPD injection is higher in those with post-vaccination lymphadenitis. Although the probability of a primary immunodeficiency disorder in the cases of our study was low considering the normal immunoglobulin levels and CBC report, further studies with a larger sample size and more specific investigations, such as flow cytometry and specific antibody response, are needed.

The aim of this study was developing a causal model of academic hope based on motivational self-regulation and perceived teacher support of autonomy with the mediating role of students' cognitive emotion regulation strategies. The research method according to its purpose is practical and the method of implementation is descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of the study consisted of all 12th grade high school students in Hamadan in the 2019-2020 academic year. 500 students were selected using multi-stage cluster sampling method. The employed instruments were Kamari and Khormaee academic hope questionnaire, Walters's motivational self-regulation questionnaire, perceived teacher support as the social context of Belmont et al., and the Garnfsky and Craig's cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Data analysis was performed by SPSS and Amos software. The findings showed an indirect and significant effect of motivational self-regulation and perceived teacher autonomy support by mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies on the academic hope of students. The findings also showed that motivational self-regulation and perceived teacher autonomy support have a direct and significant effect on students' academic hope. The results of the present study showed that in general, motivational self-regulation and perception of teacher support for autonomy can be good predictors of students' hope for education through their cognitive emotion regulation strategies.

The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing in the northeast of Iran. Colorectal polyps are among the proposed risk factors noted, especially in the elder population. This study was designed to study the diagnosed cases of intestinal polyps detected from 2011 to 2016 in the northeast of Iran.

The population consisted of symptomatic candidates referred to the colonoscopy center in Gorgan city. Based on the available colonoscopy and pathology reports, 1706 cases were enrolled after the exclusion of cases without sufficient data.

Among 1709 (55.5% males and 44.5% females) cases, 1405 cases with 1912 polyps were detected. Among them, 345 (25%) aged less than 50 years. Tubular adenoma (N = 826, 43.2%) and hyperplastic polyps (N = 519, 27.1%) were the top two histological findings. Out of 1405 patients with polyps, 660 (39.6%) polyps were detected in proximal colon (15.6% in proximal and 24% in both proximal and distal). Malignancies were detected in 13.2% (0.8% malignant polyps and 12.4% malignant masses).

A considerable number of colorectal adenomas in proximal colon and in patients younger than 50 years old, suggesting to schedule colorectal cancer screening from at least 10 years younger and continuing colonoscopy up to the proximal area.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a major threat to all humans.

To assess the association between the patients’ clinical and laboratory records, CT findings, and epidemiological features of COVID-19 with the severity of the disease.

In this retrospective case-control study conducted on themedical records of confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia patients on admission, we investigated the CT manifestations and clinical and laboratory risk factors for progression to severe COVID-19 pneumonia. The medical records and radiological CT features of confirmed COVID-19 patients were reviewed in one public hospital and one respiratory clinic in Qom, Iran, from August 1 to September 30, 2020.

Of 236 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 62 were infected with moderate to severe COVID-19 and required hospital admission, and 174 were followed-up on an outpatient basis. A significant difference was found in the mean age of the outpatient and hospitalized groups. The incidence of bilateral lung involvement, consolidations, linear opacities, crazy-paving pattern, air bronchogram, and number of lobes involved were significantly higher in the hospitalized group compared to the outpatient group. However, the crazy-paving pattern was only significantly associated with an oxygen saturation (SpO2) level < 90% and, coughing. Our findings indicated that the crazy-paving pattern was significantly associated with the inflammatory phase. The presence of this pattern on admission, SpO2 < 90%, older age, and diabetes were independent risk factors for progression to severe COVID-19.

The crazy-paving pattern can predict the severity of COVID-19, which is of great importance in the management and follow-up of COVID-19 pneumonia patients. Clinical factors, such as aging, male gender, and diabetes, may be risk factors for the crazy-paving pattern. Severe cough is the most important clinical sign related to this pattern, along with an SpO2 < 90%, which is an important sign of COVID-19 severity

Cognitive control, which means the ability to control inappropriate behaviors or responses, and it is one of the main components of executive function that is impaired in paranormal believers. Therefore, this study seeks to determine whether the anodal stimulation of tDCS in the rDLPFC region is effective on the cognitive control function in paranormal believers or not?

The aim of this study was to improve the ability of cognitive control and inhibition through transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in paranormal believers.

The present study was a quasi-experimental post-test design with a control group(sham). The statistical population of this study was the students of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Tehran in 2019, of which 38 people were available through sampling and using the revised paranormal beliefs scale (Tobacyk,2004), which measures the sevirity of paranormal beliefs in individuals, Were screened and those with above-average scores were randomly assigned to the groups (experimental and sham). The Anodal Stimulation experimental Group received in the F4 region as well as the Cathodal Stimulus in the FP1 region (2-MA in 10-minute), and the Sham group received a fictitious stimulus. Participants were assessed in the anode stimulation position and quasi-stimulation conditions through the Go/No-Go test, which is used to measure inhibition.

The results showed that a significant difference between the mean scores related to the inhibitory error (p= 0/01) and the reaction time (p= 0/01) in the experimental and sham groups. Thus, the inhibitory error and reaction time of rDLPFC group are significantly less than the sham group.

The transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on rDLPFC of paranormal believers can improve cognitive control.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the most common viral infections and amongst the top health priorities worldwide. Due to frequent exposure, medical students are at high risk of developing HBV infection. This study was conducted to evaluate serum level of anti-HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) 18 years after HBV vaccination in students of the Golestan University of Medical Sciences (Gorgan, Iran).

In this cross-sectional study, 241 students (18-20 years old, 137 women) who had been vaccinated at infancy were enrolled. After recording demographic data, blood sample was taken to measure HBsAg, HBs anti-body (HBs-Ab) and HBc antibody (total HBcAb) using commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. Data were analyzed by the chi-square test using SPSS 16 and at significance of 0.05.

HBsAb titer of less than 10 mlU/ml was found in 167 (69.3%) participants (89 females and 78 males). Positive HBsAg and anti-HBcAb were not observed in the subjects. There was no significant relationship between antibody titer and sex, body mass index, place of residence and ethnicity (P>0.05).

The high number of medical students with seronegative antibody levels is a cause for concern. In this regard, more attention should be paid to high risk students in medical school of the Golestan Province.

Some Nontuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) can occasionally infect the human population and cause infections having symptoms similar to tuberculosis (TB). This study tried to provide updated data about the frequency and diversity of NTM species.

Suspicious samples of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) with both positive results in Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) staining and Löwenstein-Jensen medium culturing were evaluated during January 2016 and December 2018 in Gorgan, Iran. After determination of MTB isolates by the growth rate, pigmentation status, the niacin test, and the insertion sequence 6110 (IS6110) PCR assay, other unknown isolates (presumably NTM) were detected by the 16S rDNA sequencing method and drawing the phylogenetic tree. Based on the patients’ demographic information, their risk factors were also assessed.

Among 226 culture-positive samples, obtained from 2994 individuals with suspected symptoms of TB, the analyses found 12 (5.3%) NTM and three Mycobacterium caprae isolates. Mycobacterium simiae (6/12) was the most prevalent NTM species. The average nucleotide similarity value was 98.2% ± 3.7. In comparison to patients with MTB (211 confirmed cases), other mycobacterium infections were more common in patients over 65 years old (Odd ratio (95% convenience interval): 2.96 (0.69 - 12.59), P = 0.14).

Although the NTM species has a small portion in TB suspected patients, their prevalence has increased, mainly in elderly patients. Moreover, M. simiae was the most prevalent NTM species in our region. Therefore, identification of common species in each region is recommended and clinicians should pay more attention to them in each region.

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is one of the most suitable methods for long‑term nutritional support. In this study, the empowerment of intensive care nurses is examined by a simulation technique to control the short‑term complications of PEG.

A two‑group clinical trial study will be conducted on eighty intensive care nurses in a teaching hospital in Tehran. The study participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two control and intervention groups based on the inclusion criteria. A pretest will be given to both groups using a researcher‑made tool. Then, the empowerment package developed by the researcher will be provided to the intervention group in two stages. Next, a posttest will be administered. After this stage, patients’ complications with PEG will be observed using a researcher‑made checklist. Nurses’ performances in both control and intervention groups will be evaluated in terms of preventing and controlling short‑term complications up to 1 week after PEG insertion. All of the data collected in this research will be analyzed with statistic tests such as independent t‑test, standard deviation, T pair, ANOVA, and mean based on the SPSS 16 software.

At present, the research team is designing an empowerment package for nurses and tools needed to evaluate the nurses’ empowerment.

This study will attempt to design and evaluate the empowerment package of graduate nurses with a cognitive empowerment approach and using a simulation technique to care for patients with PEG and to control their short‑term complications.

Aim  The purpose of this study was to investigate the pattern of brain waves in paranormal beliefs using EEG in severe and mild groups. A convenient sample of 64 university students (18 females) were recruited for the experiment. they were divided into groups with severe and mildly paranormal beliefs using the Supernatural Beliefs Scale (Belkmore,1994). EEG of participants in both groups was recorded at rest. The result of MANOVA showed a significant difference between mild paranormal and paranormal beliefs in Delta (sig = 0.01) and Theta (sig = 0.03) waves, and alpha wave (sig = 0.08) in the meaningful boundary. Based on these findings, it can be said that the pattern of brain waves in paranormal beliefs is different.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy on marital intimacy and emotion regulation of couples. The method of this research is semi experimental that was carried out by using a pre-test-post-test design with the control group. The statistical population consisted of all married students referring to Sanandaj counseling centers that 20 couples (40 people) of them were selected using with Convenience Sampling. These couples were randomly assigned in 20-member groups to the experimental and control group. Data collected by the couples' intimacy questionare of Olia, Fatehizadeh, and Bahrami and the emotion regulation of Gratz & Roemer, and analyzed by covariance analysis. The data analysis showed that participate in sessions of compassion-focused therapy increased the marital intimacy (P <0.001 and F = 389.96) and the emotion regulation (P <0.001 and F = 19.140) in couples. It means there was a significant difference between scores of the experimental group that receiving the treatment and the control group that received no treatment. According to the results, using compassion focused therapy can improve intimacy and emotion regulation, and this can be an essential step toward reducing marital and divorce problems.

Although initially considered as a digestive tract disease, celiac disease (CD) can cause problems and complications in most other organs. Common serologic tests for the diagnosis of CD include anti-tissue transglutaminase (tTG) and anti-endomysial Ab (EMA). A more recent test includes anti-deamidated gliadin peptide.

This study aimed to compare the values of tissue transglutaminase and endomysial antibodies in A and G Immunoglobin subtypes in patients with a definitive diagnosis of CD.

Patients suspected of CD referring to a Gastrointestinal Pediatric Clinic were evaluated for CD using IgG and IgA for tissue transglutaminase and endomysial antibodies and total IgA. Endoscopy and biopsy were done based on the CD diagnosis protocol. The demographic data of children were recorded in a questionnaire and then analyzed.

Of the 54 patients diagnosed with CD, 29 were females and 25 were males. TTG-IgA had the highest positivity rate. Tests based on IgA were more positive than IgG tests. More than one test was positive in 81.5% of the patients. All four tests were positive in 16 patients. In 18.5 percent of patients, just one test was positive. In the latter group, TTG-IgA was positive in four patients. The coefficient of agreement between EMA-IgA and TTG-IgA was 0.435, which was statistically significant.

We suggest tissue transglutaminase and endomysial antibodies in A and G Immunoglobin subtypes for the diagnosis of CD. In this method, the diagnostic sensitivity of CD is high and in the next step, endoscopy and sampling can increase the specificity value. If the tests are not available, preferable tests are IgA subtype antibodies.

Brain lateralization is associated with human behavior. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the effects of brain lateralization on the scores of paranormal beliefs.

The study population included 180 students of Sanandaj universities, Sanandaj City, Iran who were selected with convenience sampling method (100 left-brained males, 6 left-brained females, 56 both left- and right-brained males and 22 both left- and right-brained females). The research tools were the paranormal belief scale developed by Blackmore (1994), as well as the brain lateralization questionnaire (1985). 

The obtained findings suggested a significant difference between the left-brain and right-brained people in terms of paranormal beliefs. A significant difference was also found between the left-brained males and both left- and right-brained females in terms of paranormal beliefs. 

The paranormal beliefs of the left-brained cases were different from both left- and right-brained subjects, which can be seen between the left-brained males and both left- and right-brained females.

 Eating disorders are characterized by persistent eating disorders or eating behaviors that leading to significant damage on physical and psychosocial function. This study aimed to examine the efficacy of compassion-focused therapy on improving symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress and weight self-efficacy in women with eating disorders (restrictive type).

In a quasi-experimental design pretest-posttest control group design, a total of 30 girls of University of Kurdistan at the year between 2014-2015 who had higher range at determined cut-off point in Revised Rigid Restraint Scale, after initial clinical assessment and qualifications of the study, purposive sampling method selected and randomly assigned to two experimental (Compassion-Focused Therapy, n = 15) and control groups (n = 15). Data collection tools were Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS), and Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Scale (WELS) that subjects before and after the intervention were assessed by this tool. In order to analyze the data, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used.

Outcome of the experimental group received 8 sessions focused therapy showed that treatment focused on compassion have effect on improving depression (F = 93.15, p<0.001), anxiety (F = 43.81, p<0.001), stress (F = 63.15, p<0.001), and weight self-efficacy (F = 72.94, p<0.001), in patients with eating disorder (restrictive type).

Compassion Focused therapy have efficacy on the psychological symptoms of eating disorder, and these results have practical implications for clinicians and health care providers involved in private and public health centers.

To determine whether it is possible to predict intravenous thrombolytic therapy (IVT) outcome after 3 months in acute ischemic stroke patients who are candidate to receive recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA), before rt-PA administration based on their risk factors and some available laboratory results.

We enrolled 118 ischemic stroke patients who were treated with standard dose of Alteplase in our hospital. Baseline characteristics, door-to-needle time (DTN), onset-to-treatment time (OTT), the National Institute Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), systolic and diastolic blood pressure on admission, history of diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease (CAD), previous ischemic stroke, atrial fibrillation (AF), laboratory results were retrospectively collected. The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was recorded after 3 months of admission and patients were divided into good (mRS£ 2) and poor (mRS>2) outcome groups. Chi-square test and t-test were used for categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Predictors for outcome after 3 months were studied by multivariable logistic regression.

Good outcome was seen in 60 (51%) patients and poor outcome was seen in 58 (49%) patients. Significant predictors for outcome at 3 months according to multivariable regression analysis were NIHSS score (odds ratio [OR], 0.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.498-0.750; p<0.001), SBP (OR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.925-0.991; P=0.01), AF (OR, 0.09; 95% CI, 0.013- 0.708; P=0.02), CAD (OR, 17.08; 95% CI, 0.013-0.708; p=0.003).

Higher NIHSS score, higher SBP on admission, AF and history of CAD could be the independent predictors of outcome after IVT in acute ischemic stroke patients.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, characterized by pervasive symptoms, as in DSM-V. It is identified and associated with a number of atypicalities, including difficulties in face memory, centralized interest, and abnormal body movements. Individuals high in ASD show problems in face processing, gaze, and expression that arise from inappropriate brain functioning in social behaviors and communication skills. When a sensory stimulus is repeated, the excited neural signal is always smaller than its first observation. This phenomenon has been observed for many sensory states and stimuli using different methods. The present study was conducted to investigate the repression of facial image reproduction with the mediating role of time in adults with low and high autism-like traits. This research was carried out with a quantitative method approach in the form of a descriptive design in two groups with low and high ASD. For this purpose, the autism spectrum quotient, cognitive task for suppressing repetitive face images, and EEG were used. The sample consisted of 30 male undergraduate and postgraduate students aged between 18 and 35. As a result, the research findings showed a significant statistical difference between the two groups with low and high ASD in terms of cognitive and EEG correlates in suppressing the repetition of facial images. Specifically, an interactive effect of time (short or long intervals), consistency of stimuli (repeated or not), and autism spectrum (high or low) was significant (F1, 28 = 4.53, p = 0.04). This was indexed by a lack of N2 and P3 in those with high compared to low ASD. The possible insensitivities to repetition might be due to unused extra neural resources in high ASD, close to brain areas involved in face processing.

Blood components are commonly used during surgical operations; however, limited sources are globally available in this regard. The present study aimed to assess blood product usage and wastage in Amir-Almomenin hospital, Zabol, Iran. A total of3883 ordered blood components were retrospectively analyzed in Amir-Almomenin hospital, Zabol, Iran (January) 2017-(July)2018. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software, version 18. The results demonstrated that the most frequent ordered blood products included packed red blood cells (PRBCs, 2097 units, 54%), followed by fresh frozen plasma (823 units, 21.2%), platelet concentrates (757 units, 19.5%), and cryoprecipitate (206 units, 5.2%), respectively. Intensive care unit department had the highest records of orders (34.2%) and the ratio of cross-matched blood to transfused blood (C/T) was 1.73. In addition, based on the results, the total amount of component wastage was 2.03% with the highest and lowest percentage for PRBCs (59.6%) and cryoprecipitate (4.35%), respectively. The highest rate of wastage was related to the delivery ward (8.23%). There was no return from pediatrics, dialysis, pediatric critical care unit, critical care unit, and gastroenterology wards. Further, a significant difference was observed between the returned rates of D-positive and D-negative blood components with higher rates belonging to D-negative products (P = 0.001). In general, due to the 2.03% wastage rate, there is an indispensable need regarding implementing sufficient supervision and assigning vigilant policies on the hospital-based transfusion policies in order to optimize the blood product management.

Due to the increasing prevalence of patients with hypertension in Iran and the world as well as the adverse impact of this disease on quality of life, there is an urgent need to develop effective and empirically supported psychological interventions in this population. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy on blood pressure and the quality of life in women with hypertension. This quasi-experimental study was of pretest-posttest control group design which included a total of 30 women with hyprtension. After initial clinical assessment, the patients who met the inclusion criteria were assigned into two groups of compassion-focused and control group (n=15) using non-probability sampling. In addition to medical treatment, the experimental group received 8 sessions of compassion-focused health care. However, the control group received only medication. The data were collected using a sphygmomanometer (digital type) and the World Health Organization's Quality of Life Questionnaire. In addition, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was utilized in order to analyze the data. The results showed the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy on lowering systolic hypertension and the quality of life in women who referred to the health centers. In other words, compassion-focused therapy reduced systolic blood pressure (0.018) and increased the quality of life (P<0.001) of patients with hypertension. However, compassion-focused therapy had no effect on reducing diastolic blood pressure (0.073). Hypertension affects quality of life of many women, and it is regarded one of the main causes of heart disease and stroke in this population unless it is treated. Blood pressure associated with vascular aging is expected to be a dominant phenotype in many countries, especially in Asia. The influence of compassion-focused therapy in reducing systolic blood pressure and increaseing the quality of life of patients with hypertension have practical implications for clinicians and health care providers working in health centers.

Many studies show that words learned early in life are read more easily than the ones learned later and are less vulnerable to brain damage. the first part of the current study, 25 primary school students in the 5th grade read the word groups learned initially during a previous grade. The words used in the experiments were 327 Farsi monosyllable words matched on the other factors involved in Farsi word naming.  The analysis of covariance (the consistency and frequency as covariates) showed that words learned in earlier grades were read more easily than the ones learned later, showing the known effect of the Age of Acquisition (AoA). In the second part of the study, it was tried to simulate AoA in word naming by a neural network model developed earlier based on connectionist approach. While previous studies used random patterns, in the current study words from primary school books were used. Likewise, words learned early by the model were read better than words learned later. However, there was a failure in replicating previous simulation of AoA in English reading by an algorithm called Quick prop for Farsi. In addition, the model was lesioned by removing some hidden units to see its effect on word reading. As a result, words learned earlier were less vulnerable to damage compared with the ones learned later. The findings showed that words learned earlier, compared to those learned later, were read better and were less vulnerable to damage. These effects are explained by considering the nature of learning in neural networks trained by error back-propagation.

The present study intended to examine the rate of reaction and bias in the perceptual processing associated to paranormal beliefs. Paranormal beliefs are strongly correlated to perceptual biases for detecting illusory patterns, for instance. Perceptual processing and biases are strongly influenced by prior expectations and learning experiences.
A convenient sample of 32 university students (23 male) were recruited for the experiment and were measured by a computerized face/house recognition task and Paranormal Belief Questionnaire (Blackmore & Moore, 1994).
The result of ANOVA showed a significant difference between groups with severe and moderain paranormal belief. Therefore, the results showed a significant difference between groups in perceptual-bias and reaction time in relation to paranormal belief.
Paranormal beliefs influence the reaction time and perceptual processing.