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Aim: Regarding the high prevalence of breast cancer among the Iranian women and lack of attention to mammography screening, planning the behavior promotion interventions would be practicable through determining the barriers of conducting mammography screening behavior. The purpose of this study was determining the barriers of conducting breast cancer mammography screening among the women over 40 years. Methods: The participants of this crass-sectional study consisted of 294 over 40-years old women in Arak-Iran who completed the questionnaire of mammography barriers. The questionnaire used was based on Champion's revised Health Belief Model Scale (CHBMS). Sampling was based on the population. All hygiene officers of the Health and Cure Centers of Arak were asked to randomly select some samples among the women over 40 years. In this way, all the city's areas were covered. Inclusion criteria were women over 40 years, not already suffering from breast cancer, or having a family member (mother or sister) affected by the disease. Findings: The findings revealed that the high cost is the main barrier (20.1%) of mammography screening among the population. Among the other reasons, one may point to fear of discovering a cancer mass (9.5%), painful procedures of mammography (7.1%), not knowing the mammography centers (6.5%), and shame of undressing for mammography (5.1%). Comparing the mean scores of the barriers based on the individual characteristics showed that the barriers of mammography screening according to education level (p=0.0001), insurance status (p=0.02), and economic status (p=0.0001) have significant difference. Conclusions: Regarding the barriers of mammography screening among the Iranian women, it is necessary that authorities apply solutions to reduce costs, and promote women's knowledge about the importance of early diagnosis of breast diseases through screening plans, especially mammography screening.

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Aim: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in Iranian women. Clinical nurses and midwives are supposed to be at high risk of the disease. The present study aimed at comparing the knowledge and health beliefs of Iranian nurses and midwives about breast cancer screening using Health Belief Model (HBM). Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 100 nurses and 60 midwives working in teaching hospitals affiliated to Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences (Yazd, Iran) were selected via convenience sampling. Three questionnaires were used to collect data including a demographic questionnaire, the Breast Cancer Knowledge Test, and Champion’s Revised Health Belief Model Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS-11.0 for Windows. Findings: According to the independent t-test results, the mean knowledge scores of the two groups were significantly different (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in mean health belief scores between the two groups (p>0.05). Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient revealed a significant direct correlation between knowledge and health beliefs in both nurses and midwives (P=0.018; r=0.18). The same test suggested knowledge to have significant direct correlation with benefits of mammography (P=0.01; r=0.2), benefits of breast self-awareness (P<0.001; r=0.4), cues to action (P=0.001; r=0.2), and self-efficacy (P<0.001; r=0.3). Conclusion: There are some risk factors including unhealthy life-style behaviours, exposure to night light, and consequently, disruption in circadian rhythm, and that job stress can threaten the health of nurses and midwives. Thus, it is important to determine their perceived barriers of screening behaviours based on HBM.

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In several parts of the world, important yield losses are caused to Faba bean due to attack by the black bean aphid Aphis fabae Scopoli. Although resistance could be a good alternative to chemical control, its genetic basis is still largely unknown; and its phenotypic expression is still poorly described, making crucial the permanent evaluation of genetic resources available in different countries; together with using adequate agronomic parameters and statistical inference. In this study, two Faba bean collections provided by Faba bean breeding programs of Tunisia and Spain were evaluated for resistance to A. fabae during two consecutive years in the field, based on infestation rates and three yield parameters: number of grains (NG), weight of grains (WG) and weight of pods (WP). Principal components analysis (PCA) showed that the most effective parameters contributing to response variation were the weight of pods (WP) and the number of grains (NG). Genotypes were grouped based on clustering patterns inferred from PCA and UPGMA, both showing the existence of two distinct groups: a resistant group characterized by high WP; and in most cases high NG values; and a susceptible group characterized by a low WP; and in most cases a low NG + WG. Furthermore, tolerance to infestation was identified in one genotype from the Spanish collection. Our results demonstrate that WP is the most reliable parameter for resistance selection; and that the genotypes V1, V9 and V16 from the Tunisian collection and V2e and V7e from the Spanish one should be exploited for their resistance potential.

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Amides are toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds. Amidase-producing bacteria eliminate or convert these compounds to their correspond acid. This study was carried out to investigation the Benzamide degradation by Achromobacter strains, which isolated from the waste of the city of Kerman. These strains were enriched in MM1 medium with benzamide 1% . The best strains were selected in MM1 agar media sublimentated with benzamide (1%) and bromothymol blue, as pH indicator. In total of 7 benzamide hydrolysing bacteria two of them, AB37 and FA1, were identified as predominant strains. The medium optimization showed that glucose, peptone, Ca2+ and pH 7.0 enhanced enzyme production, compared to the control. Enzyme production was enhanced in the presence of glucose and calcium about 3.0 and 2.6 folds, respectively. Hydrolyzing potential of benzamide by AB37 strain showed that the maximum benzamide hydrolyzing was 1.79 after 15 h of incubation. Based on the biochemical and test 16S rRNA gene approaches these strains were identified as Achromobacter xylosoxidans and Achromobacter Spanius. Results showed that these isolates were able to produce amidase and also were able to degrade benzamide. Therefore, the evaluation of applied potential of these strains for bioremediation of industrial and agricultural wastewater is recommended.

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Aim: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women.The Health Education Campaign (HEC) is an important educational strategy for breast cancer screening. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the (HEC) based training on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of women, regarding breast cancer screening methods.
Materials & Methods: This was a pre- and post-quasi-experimental study conducted among 200 women over 20 years in Mazandaran Province. A self-made 34-item questionnaire was used to collect the data. A pretest was performed before the educational intervention and a posttest was conducted 12 weeks after the intervention. The data were analyzed by logistic regression, Pearson correlation coefficient, and one way ANOVA, using SPSS 22.
Findings: The mean age of the women was 35.16 years. Based on paired t-test, the difference in the mean scores of knowledge and attitudes regarding screening methods in the women was significant (p≤0.0001) before and after the intervention. Also, based on the macnemar test, the difference between the early detection of breast self-examination (BSE) and clinical breast examination (CBE) was significant in the women studied before and after the educational intervention.
Conclusion: According to the results of the study, the intervention had been able to change the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of women regarding breast cancer and early detection methods.
 

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Aims: COVID-19 has affected a worldwide population, causing more than a million deaths from the end of 2019 until now; so the aim of this study was to determine the symptoms of COVID-19 in the Iranian population through a teleconsultation-based service to better deal with it.
Instrument & Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study that included 12125 individuals calling for COVID-19 screening and consultation from 2 March 2020 to 19 April 2020 with the census method. A telephone number was assigned for consultation with more than 70 nurses responding to first-level questions and more than 30 medical doctors responding to second-level questions. For statistical analysis, a chi-squared test and univariate logistic regression with SPSS 25 were used.
Finding: Cough was the most common complaint (41.3%), followed by shortness of breath (32.8%), and fever (31.5%). Confusion was the least common complaint (1.6%). Binary logistic regression revealed that men were at a higher risk of COVID-19 compared to women (OR:1.31, 95% CI 1.10-1.55, p=0.002). In addition, older age was a risk factor for COVID-19 (OR:1.02, 95% CI 1.02-1.03, p<0.001). Also, significant positive correlations were found between fever, chills, sore throat, shortness of breath, cough, body ache, and gastrointestinal symptoms with COVID-19 even after adjustment for gender and age.
Conclusion: Fever, cough, and shortness of breath were the most common complaints in individuals calling for COVID-19 teleconsultation. It’s suggested that in times of crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, remote sensing can be done to raise public awareness and break the transmission chain.

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Aims: Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men and is one of the major causes of pain and cost in the health care system. Prostate cancer screening is a low-cost and easy way to detect cancer early. This study aimed to investigate the factors associated with prostate cancer screening in men over 50 years in Jiroft using the Protection Motivation Theory.
Instruments & Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional study that was performed on 414 men over 50 years old. The sampling method was multi-stage. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire of 58 questions whose validity and reliability was measured. Data were analyzed by SPSS 18 software using one-way ANOVA, independent t-test, Pearson correlation, and linear regression.
Findings: 53.9% of the participants were in the age group of 60-69 years. Only 8.2% had an annual prostate cancer screening. Perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, self-efficacy, response efficiency, and fear had a significant positive relationship, and response cost and perceived reward had a significant inverse relationship with prostate cancer screening behavior (p<0.05). Perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, self-efficacy, fear, and protection motivation constructs could explain 37% of the variance of prostate cancer screening behavior (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The constructs of perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, self-efficacy, fear, and protection motivation can explain 37% of prostate cancer screening behavior in Iranian Men, and protection motivation is a stronger predictor.
 

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Aims: Premarital screening is a procedure to assess health status before entering the marital stage. In Indonesia, this examination has not been fully optimized for controlling catastrophic diseases, including genetic diseases. This study aimed to determine the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and behavior toward premarital genetic screening in non-medical and health students.
Instruments & Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 400 non-healthcare students from the southern region of Central Java, who were selected using a simple random sampling method. The knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward premarital genetic screening were measured using questionnaires. The chi-square test was used to look for relationships between variables.
Findings: The knowledge level in 55.5% of respondents was sufficient, in 42.5% was poor, and in 2% was good. Most respondents (57.3%) had a positive attitude. The majority of the respondents exhibited a positive attitude toward all indicators, except for actively seeking information. 355 respondents (88.75%) displayed positive behavior toward premarital genetic screening, while the 45 respondents (11.25%) exhibited negative behavior. There was no significant relationship between knowledge with attitude and behavior (p>0.05), but a significant relationship was observed between attitude and behavior (p=0.021).
Conclusion: There is no relationship between knowledge and attitude. However, the study found a relationship between attitudes and behaviors toward premarital and genetic screening in non-health students.

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Aims: Indonesia is ranked as the 2^nd highest country with tuberculosis burden worldwide. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is among the top five causes of death in Indonesia. Patients with DM are facing an elevated risk of tuberculosis. Private primary care centers contribute only up to 0.6% of the reported tuberculosis cases. To enhance tuberculosis notification rates, we developed an electronic tuberculosis screening tool for DM patients within private primary care centers.
Instrument & Methods: The initial phase of this descriptive study employed a quantitative approach, utilizing secondary data analysis from the RISKESDAS database to discern tuberculosis prevalence in DM patients. The second phase adopted a qualitative approach, incorporating interviews with private primary care centers regarding the current tuberculosis reporting process. The third stage involved system development of the e-screening tool. The fourth stage was a pilot project to evaluate the effectiveness of the e-screening tool prototype in increasing tuberculosis notification rates among DM patients. Two private primary care centers served as a setting to conduct the pilot project.
Findings: There were 33 patients with a high risk for tuberculosis. These patients were referred to the nearest Puskesmas for further tests. Ultimately, two patients were diagnosed with tuberculosis in four weeks of e-screening trial tests.
Conclusion: This research led to the development of a TB e-screening tool for DM patients, intended to improve tuberculosis notification rates in private primary care centers.

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We can call “EFQM excellence model” as a transition from the great number of different models and approaches to unity in context of organizational improvement and excellence. Doing self-assessment to find areas for improvement (AFIs) is the most important application of this model. Those organizations which are on lower level of total quality management will encounter lots of AFIs. So finding key problems is an important challenge for them. Reviewing the literature shows that there is no specific and systematic model to solve this challenge. We intended to introduce a mathematical screening model in order to help organizations to find their key problems. The proposed model was designed in fuzzy context, because decision making situation of most of the organizations is in vague and ambiguity.

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Enzymes play an essential role in catalyzing the reactions for multiple industrial applications. One of these critical industries with a worldwide application is paper and pulp, which is cost-effective in increasing attention. Xylanases are potential enzymes that proved their abilities in a broad range of applications, specifically in the paper and pulp industry as a biobleaching agent and dye removal biocatalyst. In these decades, the production of novel enzymes from natural sources is conceivable, especially with applying the culture-independent method of metagenome. This practical approach provides the opportunity to identify the novel enzymes from uncultivable microbial diversities. Concerning the importance of the thermostable enzymes for industrial applications and their better action in harsh conditions, this study aimed to identify novel thermostable xylanase from metagenomic data of sheep rumen by applying the in-silico screening. The thermostable xylanase was extracted from the ruminal DNA and after cloning and expression named PersiXyn5. The enzymeschr('39') kinetic parameters, including Km, Vmax, and its specific activity, were examined. The enzyme was optimally active at 80  and pH 8 and could retain 58% of its maximum activity after 2h of incubation at 90 . The thermostable, alkali PersiXyn5 was an efficient enzyme in the paper industry and poultry feed and fuel applications.

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This paper proposes a Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision Making (FMCDM) approach for measuring supply chains capability with the main aim of customer satisfaction development. Drawing on the four measurement criterions of a Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model, this research first summarized the customer satisfaction and performance indexes synthesized from the literature relating to supply chains capability. Then, for screening, the indexes fit for supply chains capability in customer satisfaction development were selected through fuzzy screening. Furthermore, the relative weights of the chosen indexes were calculated by Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP). The MCDM analytical tool of TOPSIS was adopted to rank the supply chains performance and improve the gaps with three supply chains as an empirical example. The analysis results highlighted the critical aspects of evaluation criteria as well as the gaps to improve supply chains capability for achieving the aspired/desired level of customer satisfaction development. The results also showed that the proposed FMCDM measuring model using the SCOR framework can be a useful and effective assessment tool.

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In recent years, biocatalysts have widespread application in industry because they can do chemical reactions with the lowest energy and highest efficiency. Bacterial enzymes are more useful in this field due to simple cloning and expression process in the manipulated host. By considering specific role of endoglucanase enzymes in cellulose hydrolyzing reactions, these types of enzymes are more applicable in related industries. The produced glucose through enzymatic hydrolysis could be used in different industries such as biofuel and ethanol production and in the food industry as sweetener. Therefore, cloning and production of Endoglucanase in manipulated hosts has been developed in recent years. This study was performed to isolate, screen and identify native endoglucanase -producing strains from soil around the roots of the maple tree. Isolated strains were identified using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. After identifying of the bacteria (Enterobacter hormaechei), Endoglucanase enzyme gene was amplified using degenerate primers at first and then by specific primers with restriction enzymes sequences. DNA fragment and plasmid vector were treated by specific restriction enzymes and then ligated to each other. Then recombinant plasmid transferred to the E. coli BL-21 as expression host and kinetic properties of recombinant enzyme were evaluated. Expression of the target protein was done by stimulating the Lac operon by using 1 mM of IPTG and the kinetic features of the recombinant enzyme such as Vmax and Km evaluated as 45 µmol/min and 1.4 mg/ml respectively. The optimum conditions for enzyme activity tend to be 37°C at a pH of 7.

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 As the world’s second saltiest lake, Urmia Lake is the main source of halotolerant unicellular microalga, Dunaliella, in Iran. Recently, this lake and, consequently, its biodiversity are being threatened environmentally. Hence collecting, preserving, and identification of indigenous microorganisms of the lake are of great importance. The objective of the present study was the molecular screening of Dunaliella isolates in Urmia Lake. For this purpose, 32 samples were taken from different geographical regions of the lake. Then, their molecular pattern was examined based on 18S rDNA gene and intron-sizing method. Results based on conserved and species-specific primers of 18S rDNA illustrated that, depending on the various parts of the lake, the genetic variation of Dunaliella population differs. The amplified pattern for individual isolates was similar to that previously described for D. tertiolecta, D. bardawil and Dunaliella sp. ARIINW-M1/2. Also,18S rDNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of five index isolates showed that the isolates Dunaliella sp. ABRIINW-Ch5, -Sh6.3 and -U1/1 were grouped with different intron lacking species of Dunaliella, ABRIINW-Ch3.1 was clustered with Dunaliella sp. ABRIINW-M1/2, while the isolate Dunaliella sp. ABRIINW-S1.5 was clustered with intron-harboring species of D. bardawil, D. parva, and D. viridis. The results indicated that Urmia Lake is composed of isolates with different 18S rDNA profiles with various intron arrangement. 

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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and other types of small non-coding RNAs play a crucial role in the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes either by post-transcriptional degradation or attenuating translation of messenger RNAs. In the case of the chicken (Gallus gallus), knowledge regarding miRNAs is still limited. In the present study, a computational approach was employed to screen miRNAs from the Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) of the chicken. A total of 21,298 known miRNAs belonging to 114 metazoan species were searched for homology against more than 192,020 EST sequences of the chicken. Consequently, 60 potential miRNA candidates were identified according to a range of filtering criteria. As a result, four novel miRNAs were found among the identified miRNAs including gga-miR-92a, gga-miR-2438, gga-miR-2970-5p, and gga-miR-2970-3p belonging to miR-92, miR-2438 and miR-2970 families. To predict their targeted genes, a BLAST search was done against the chicken 3' UTR mRNA database. As a result, 678, 422, 171 and 110 targets were determined for gga-miR-92a, gga-miR-2438, gga-miR-2970-5p, and gga-miR-2970-3p, respectively. Most of the predicted target genes participate in multiple biological processes, including immune system, regulation of cAMP biosynthesis, regulation of cyclase activity and regulation of lyase activity. Finally, a phylogenetic analysis of gga-miR-2970 and gga-miR-92a sequences revealed a close relationship between the chicken and Taeniopygia guttata, while gga-miR-2438 shares maximum percentage sequence similarity with bta-miR-2438 in Bos taurus. The present study is the first attempt to screen microRNAs from ESTs originating from the chicken leading to the identification of novel miRNAs.
 

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Aril Browning (AB) is a physiological disorder in pomegranate fruit that critically decreases fruit quality and market acceptability. This experiment was carried out in order to explore the effective pomegranate fruit quality traits associated with the AB disorder and select the suitable resistant cultivar and genotypes. Pomegranate physico-chemical fruit quality attributes were assessed on 238 mature pomegranate genotypes and their correlations with the AB disorder were monitored. About 14.7% of the studied genotypes showed resistance to the AB disorder, but 68.14% showed moderate to severely susceptibility to the incidence. The intensity of the AB disorder symptoms in pomegranate genotypes was strongly correlated with physico-chemical fruit attributes. There was a negative significant correlation between the intensity of AB disorder and fruit size, fruit volume, fruit acidity, and total soluble solids (TSS) to titratable acidity (TA) content.. Among the studied fruit traits, stepwise regression analysis showed that fruit acidity (pH), aril color, fruit volume, and TA content were efficient traits for screening of pomegranate genotypes in relation to the AB disorder.

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Evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities exemplifies the decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. These evaluations mainly have been done in a complex and dynamic environment under true uncertainty. In contrast to risk and ambiguity, in true uncertainty not only all potential outcomes and their assigned probabilities are unknown, but also it is not possible easily to estimate the probabilities and acquire knowledge about the results. In these situations, entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities based on minimal and inaccurate information, which is described by fuzzy variables, i.e. linguistic variables that do not have any clear boundaries. Hence, adopting a fuzzy approach, the purpose of this paper is to propose a model for evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities under conditions of uncertainty. This study is the first using fuzzy screening to formulate opportunity evaluation as a Multi-Expert Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (ME-MCDM) problem and it is innovative in this research area. In doing so, first, through a systematic literature review and focus group the authors identified entrepreneurs’ current solutions for evaluating opportunities under true uncertainty. Then, a ME-MCDM model has been suggested to evaluate opportunities and select between them. The model is based on fuzzy screening method and evaluates 12 opportunities by 15 experts in a medium entrepreneurial firm. R software has been used to perform calculations. With regard to experts’ aggregate evaluations, findings show that O₆ and O₁₁ have higher rating (better evaluation) among opportunities and considered as appropriate candidates for pursuing.