A study on measuring the quality of university website

During the past few years, many organizations try to provide some of their services through their websites. This would help them provide fast and reliable services to various people around the world. In this paper, we present an empirical survey to measure the relative performance of a university website in Iran using Parasuraman's technological readiness index. The proposed study uses a standard questionnaire and distributes it among 387 active website users and the results are analyzed using structural equation modeling. The proposed study of this paper considers the effects of four factors including efficiency, accessibility, achievement and security on customer loyalty via two variables of trust and satisfaction. The results demonstrate that three components of trust, efficiency and achievement play essential role on customer loyalty

Expression of an innate immune element (mouse hepcidin-1) in baculovirus expression system and the comparison of its function with synthetic human hepcidin-25

Hepcidin is an innate immune element which decreases the iron absorption from diet and iron releasing from macrophage cell. In contrast to the chemical iron chelators, there has been limited effort applied to the specific use of hepcidin as a new drug for decreasing the iron overload. Hepcidin is produced in different biological systems. For instance, E-coli is used for human hepcidin expression, however, post-translational modification is impaired. We have used a simple baculovirus expression system (BES) to improve the hepcidin folding and activity. Hepcidin Messenger Ribonucleic acid (mRNA) was isolated from mouse liver cells and its complementary Deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) was produced and amplified. PFastBac HTB vector was used for recombinant bacmid production. Recombinant baculovirus was produced using SF-9 cell line. The mouse hepcidin-1 protein was expressed in a large quantity and functional tests were performed for this recombinant peptide. The yield of hepcidin in BES was 20 μg/mL and anti-histidine (anti-His) tag antibody was used for the confirmation of hepcidin on western blot nitrocellulose paper. Functional tests showed that mouse hepcidin accumulates iron in the macrophage cell line J774A.1 up to 63%. In addition, our data showed that the mouse hepcidin-1 has less toxicity compared to the synthetic human hepcidin-25 (p = 0.000). © 2011 by School of Pharmacy

Comparison of efficacy and complication of classic and short palmar incision in the patients with carpal tunnel syndrome

چکیده: زمینه و هدف: معمولاً برای درمان جراحی بیماران مبتلا به سندرم تونل‌کارپال از روش برش کلاسیک جراحی باز استفاده می‌شود که منجر به ایجاد اسکار دردناک و عوارض بعد از جراحی و تاخیر در بازتوانی بیمار می‌شود. روش دیگر استفاده از برش کوتاه کف دستی است که به نظر می رسد خسارت وارده کمتری به بافت ها نسبت به روش کلاسیک داشته باشد. هدف از این مطالعه بررسی مقایسه اثربخشی و میزان عوارض این دو روش جراحی می‌باشد. روش‌ بررسی: در یک کارآزمایی بالینی بیماران کاندید عمل جراحی سندرم تونل کارپال بطور تصادفی در دو گروه 51 نفری قرار گرفتند. گروه شاهد به روش برش کلاسیک جراحی باز و گروه آزمون به روش برش کف‌دستی کوتاه تحت عمل جراحی قرار گرفتند. نتایج از نظر میزان عفونت، بروز اسکار جراحی، تندرنس و درد در محل برش جراحی، پارستزی و خواب‌رفتگی اندام، تست تینل (Tinnel) و فالن (Phalen) و بهبود علایم حسی بیمار در دو نوبت 3 هفته و 3 ماه بعد از جراحی ثبت و با استفاده از آزمونهای آماری فیشر، کای دو و t-student مقایسه شدند. یافته‌ها: از نظر بروز عفونت زخم، آسیب به عصب مدیان و شاخه کف‌دستی عصب مذکور، در دو روش موردی دیده نشد. در گروه آزمون و شاهد به ترتیب میزان تندرنس در محل برش جراحی در هفته سوم 8/7 و 8/58 و در ماه سوم 2 و 1/47 (05/0

Identified Determinants of the Conceptual HRM Framework

Employees have certain roles to play in an organization as well as they have certain rights from the organization. To blend these two is indeed a significant challenge for any organization and its leaders. In this paper, the determinants of that significant framework has been discussed which are found through some in-depth interviews with some of the practitioners of the real world

Sedative and hypnotic effects of Iranian traditional medicinal herbs used for treatment of insomnia

For tens of centuries, plants have been highly valued and regularly used as medicine amongst the masses. Insomnia, a loss of sleep, is mostly treated by synthetic sleeping tablets these days. However, questions have been raised about the safety of prolonged use of artificial sedatives due to their deleterious side effects such as physical dependence. In recent years, there has been an increasing propensity to preclude insomnia by herbal medicines throughout the world. Many herbs have a lengthy background in terms of insomnia treatment in Iran. This paper gives an account of previously published research on sedative and hypnotic effects of medicinal herbs used for treatment of insomnia in Iranian traditional medicine

Neuroprotective, antimicrobial, antioxidant, chemotherapeutic, and antidiabetic properties of Salvia Reuterana: A mini review

Objectives: Herbal medicine is known as a valid alternative treatment. Salvia Reuterana, which has been used in the Iranian traditional medicine, is mostly distributed in the central highlands of Iran. Salvia Reuterana is a medicinal herb with various therapeutic usages. The aim of the present review is to take account of pharmacological properties of Salvia Reuterana. Materials and Methods: The present review summarizes the literature with respect to various pharmacological properties of Salvia Reuterana. Results: Salvia Reuterana possesses neurological, antimicrobial, antioxidant, chemotherapeutic, and antidiabetic properties. Conclusions: Salvia Reuterana can be used as an alternative for treatment of several disorders

A comparative study pertaining to deleterious effects of diclofenac sodium and meloxicam on kidney tissue in rats

NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are a class of drugs with analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic effects. Diclofenac sodium is one of the world's most widely-prescribed NSAIDs. Meloxicam is another NSAID that was approved in the last several years. Treatment with NSAIDs may result in renal damage. Relatively, little is known about com-parative nephrotoxicity of NSAIDs. Therefore, the present study was designed to compare the adverse effects of diclofenac sodium and meloxicam on renal tissue in rats. Forty eight Wistar male rats were randomly assigned into 3 groups of 16 animals each. Group C served as normal control and received normal saline. Group D and M received diclofenac sodium (2.3 mg/kg/day) and meloxicam (2.3 mg/kg/day), respectively. After 17 days, all rats were scarified. Their kidneys were then harvested and processed for histological examination. In addition to cellular details, renal tubular count and diameter were assessed with the light microscope. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. We found that the mean number of renal tubules was significantly lower in group D, than in group C. Moreover, the mean renal tubular diameter was significantly higher in group D than in group C. The present study showed that a considerable degree of nephrotoxicity resulted from diclofenac sodium, compared to meloxicam. We suggest that diclofenac sodium can be replaced with meloxicam