Towards revitalizing urban life through urban regeneration in historical context : case study inner core of Kermanshah city in Iran

Since the recent decades, Historic Urban Quarters have emerged as a focus of many regeneration efforts. Clearly these important areas of city have their specific identity and character but mostly they lost their viability. Like other countries, many big cities in Iran have a historical and traditional background and their old tissues are valuable. The problems of these sites, based on different angles of urban life, could be summarized as disorder of the built environment, natural environment and socio-economic environment. In this regard, the main goal of this survey is to propose design policies for Inner core of Kermanshah City as the case study through a new strategic framework. Therefore, in this paper, firstly, we will study concepts and definitions of urban regeneration and proposed principles of urban task force group in order to have more liveable design. Then by applying SWOT technique we will analyze the existing situation of the case.Peer Reviewe

The effect of reminiscence therapy on elderly quality of life

Background and aim: Increasing of life span affects on the life quality and the ability of each individual to live independently with requirement of others supporting and thus, use of adequate programming to encounter the situation in aging seems to be necessary. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the effect of reminiscence therapy on elderly life quality. Methods: In this interventional study, a total of 64 elderly referred to retirement center in Shahrekord city during 1358 were selected using random sampling and were divided randomly in two groups of case and control groups. Subsequently, each of the two groups were divided into 8-individual groups. Reminiscence meetings and group meetings were run for experimental and control group, respectively for eight sessions (one hour and a half, each). Quality of life of the individuals before and after the intervention was evaluated using lipid life quality questionnaires. Data were analyzed using Chi-square and paired t tests.. Results: There was no significant difference in educational level, marriage, age, income and life quality dimension between the two groups. Mean of life quality in the case group, pre and post intervention, was 48.26±1.01 and 62.07±1.02, respectively (p<0.05). Also, in this group, mean of post intervention (compared with pre intervention) life quality in the cases of physical activity, depression and anxiety, cognitive activity, social and life satisfaction dimension was increased (p<0/05). However, pre and post intervention, there was no significant difference in the cases of self care dimension in experimental group and in total life quality dimension in control group. Conclusion: Based on the results, group reminiscence is effective on elderly life quality. Therefore, this technique can be used easily and inexpensively at home or elderly nursing homes

Exploring Married Iranian Women’s Perception of the Meaning of Sexual Marital Activity: A Qualitative Study

Sexual relationship is not limited to a merely biological process; it is an experience that is formed in a joint intrapersonal, interpersonal and cultural context. This study aimed to explore married Iranian women’s interpretation of sexual activity. The researchers conducted this qualitative study on 65 eligible married women aged 16-60 years attending prenatal care, family planning, and gynecology clinics in an educational hospital during 2012-2013. We collected data through 9 focus group discussions. We also used purposive sampling method with maximum variation for selecting study Participants. All interviews were continued until data saturation was achieved. Researchers used a conventional content analysis approach for data analyzing. Four main categories were extracted from the data. The main categories included: “Sex and response to individual’s feelings,” “Sex and intra and interpersonal challenges,” “Sex and informational challenges (the known and unknown),” and “Sex and self-sacrifice (duty-oriented sexual activity).” The participants expressed a dynamic meaning of sexual marital activity that was influenced by many basic emotional, psychological, physical, social, economic, and cultural factors. Most participants placed strong emphasis on the duty-oriented aspect of marital sexual activities, and showed a preference for their husband’s sexual needs and satisfaction

A case report of a rare Shwachman-Diamond syndrome with liver involvement

زمینه و هدف: سندرم شواخمن (SDS) یک بیماری نادر ارثی است که در سنین کودکی با علایم گرفتاری چند ارگان از جمله پانکراس اگزوکرین و مغز استخوان و نیز با علایم اختلال رشد تظاهر می کند. درگیری کبدی از تظاهرات کمتر شایع در این بیماران بوده و کمتر به آن توجه می شود. در این مقاله یک مورد شیرخوار مبتلا به سندرم شواخمن با گرفتاری کبد معرفی می گردد. معرفی بیمار: بیمار شیرخوار پسر 11 ماهه با اسهال حاد، دهیدراتاسیون، اختلال وزن گیری پس از 4 ماهگی و گزارش دفع مدفوع چرب مراجعه و به علت بزرگی کبد و افزایش آنزیم های کبدی مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. با توجه به چرب بودن مدفوع، استئوپنی، قیافه خاص در بیمار، مشاهده نوتروپنی و منتفی شدن تشخیص بیماری سیستیک فیبروزیس (CF) منجر به تشخیص نهایی سندرم شواخمن گردید. نتیجه گیری: معرفی بیمار حاضر ضمن یادآوری تشخیص این بیماری نادر در موارد اختلالات رشد کودکان توجه به درگیری کبد را یادآور می شود که ممکن است در بعضی مواقع به صورت تظاهر اولیه بیمار با اختلاف رشد باشد

The modernization of an Iranian city : the case study of Kermanshah

The notion of the Islamic city evoked in comparison with European cities and their modernization process and often criticized for its Eurocentric nature, acknowledges the characteristics’ existence that are shared by traditional cities across the extensive geography, where Islam is the predominant religion. It is not unusual, therefore, to attribute these peculiarities to the shared religious framework, although said framework officially didn’t experience serious modification until twenty centuries, despite the modernization of these cities. Consequently, this study suggests an indirect approach through the study of the modernization process of cities in the Islamic world. The emphasis, thus, no longer rests on specific religious qualities and falls instead on the urban practices and the cultural frameworks in which they are inscribed, resulting from the crystallization of practices and from environmental, social and cultural equilibria in the long-term. Before 1920, Iranian cities were characterized by a set of features which were common in other traditional Islamic cities in the world. As those traditional Islamic cities have been much more studied than the twentieth century changes that have transformed them, we need more holistic and integrated understanding about the changes derived from the modernization process. To explore the broad and wide-spread of their metamorphosis, it is more enlightening if we study second order cities, rather than studying the transformations of major capitals such as Cairo, Istanbul or Tehran, where interventions are more exceptional and more rhetorical. Therefore, this research examines the Kermanshah city, to understand the link between urban and social transformations due to the modernization process. Tracing city, historically, from its traditional form, as prototypical of the so-called Islamic city, to the Pahlavi dynasty (1925-1979) and after the Islamic revolution in 1979. We will focus, particularly, on studying the stages of urban transformation and changes of urban morphology as well as conflicts and differences between traditional urban features with the modern ones. In other words, we are interested in understanding how traditional morphology and structure of the city, like residential and commercial zone, are affected by symbols of development ambition in the each era, like the opening of new and wide boulevards, intensification of land use, disciplining space, embellishing the city and etc. Moreover, we want to trace how these changes influence social structure over the time.La noción de ciudad islámica evocada en comparación con las ciudades europeas y su proceso de modernización y, a menudo, criticada por su naturaleza eurocéntrica, reconoce la existencia de características que comparten las ciudades tradicionales a lo largo de la extensa geografía, donde el Islam es la religión predominante. No es inusual, por lo tanto, atribuir estas peculiaridades al marco religioso compartido, aunque dicho marco oficialmente no experimentó modificaciones serias hasta veinte siglos, a pesar de la modernización de estas ciudades. En consecuencia, este estudio sugiere un enfoque indirecto a través del estudio del proceso de modernización de las ciudades en el mundo islámico. El énfasis, por lo tanto, ya no se basa en cualidades religiosas específicas y cae en cambio en las prácticas urbanas y los marcos culturales en los que están inscritos, como resultado de la cristalización de las prácticas y de los equilibrios ambientales, sociales y culturales en el largo plazo. Antes de 1920, las ciudades iraníes se caracterizaban por un conjunto de características que eran comunes en otras ciudades islámicas tradicionales del mundo. Como esas ciudades islámicas tradicionales han sido mucho más estudiadas que los cambios del siglo XX que las han transformado, necesitamos una comprensión más integral e integrada de los cambios derivados del proceso de modernización. Para explorar la amplia y amplia difusión de su metamorfosis, es más esclarecedor si estudiamos ciudades de segundo orden, en lugar de estudiar las transformaciones de grandes capitales como El Cairo, Estambul o Teherán, donde las intervenciones son más excepcionales y más retóricas. Por lo tanto, esta investigación examina la ciudad de Kermanshah, para entender el vínculo entre las transformaciones urbanas y sociales debido al proceso de modernización. Trazando la ciudad, históricamente, desde su forma tradicional, como prototipo de la llamada ciudad islámica, hasta la dinastía Pahlavi (1925-1979) y después de la revolución islámica en 1979. Nos enfocaremos, particularmente, en estudiar las etapas de la transformación urbana y los cambios de la morfología urbana, así como los conflictos y diferencias entre las características urbanas tradicionales y las modernas. En otras palabras, nos interesa comprender cómo la morfología y la estructura tradicionales de la ciudad, como la zona residencial y comercial, se ven afectadas por símbolos de ambición de desarrollo en cada época, como la apertura de nuevos y amplios bulevares, la intensificación del uso de la tierra, disciplinar el espacio, embellecer la ciudad, etc. Además, queremos rastrear cómo estos cambios influyen en la estructura social a lo largo del tiempo

Investigation of the effect of education on nutritional knowledge, attitude and performance of primary school students in Ilam - 2015

Background and objective: Nutritional habits are formed in childhood and will remain until the end of life. Proper nutrition in childhood leads to the promotion of growth and development of child and reduces the risk of chronic diseases during adulthood. This study aimed to assess the effect of education about nutrition on nutritional knowledge, attitude and performance of students in primary schools. Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study which is conducted in 2015. 180 students from primary school in Ilam city were selected randomly and assigned into case (90 people) and control (90 people) groups. Before initiation of educations, a pretest was held in both groups. Then for the case group, a nutritional education was performed during 5 sessions of 45 minutes. After 2 weeks of finishing the educational sessions, posttest was performed by giving a questionnaire of knowledge, attitude and performance to case and control groups. Eventually, two groups were compared with each other in terms of nutritional knowledge, attitude and performance. In order to analyze the collected data, SPSS 21 software was used. The significance level of tests was 5% and descriptive statistics including tables and numeric indices and also inferential tests including paired t-Test, independent t-Test and Chi-square were used. Results: Findings of this study showed that in the case group, there was a statistically significant difference between the mean score of knowledge, attitude and performance of students before and after education (P 0.05). There was also a significant difference between case and control groups after education (P< 0.05). Conclusion: Nutritional education may lead to the improvement of nutritional knowledge, attitude and performance of primary school students. Considering the importance and role of students and also low cost of preventive measures in comparison with therapeutic measures, it looks necessary to expand this type of educational program

Cigarette smoking and gastric cancer in the stomach cancer pooling (StoP) project

Tobacco smoking is a known cause of gastric cancer, but several aspects of the association remain imprecisely quantified. We examined the relation between cigarette smoking and the risk of gastric cancer using a uniquely large dataset of 23 epidemiological studies within the ‘Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) Project’, including 10 290 cases and 26 145 controls. We estimated summary odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) by pooling study-specific ORs using random-effects models. Compared with never smokers, the ORs were 1.20 (95% CI: 1.09–1.32) for ever, 1.12 (95% CI: 0.99–1.27) for former, and 1.25 (95% CI: 1.11–1.40) for current cigarette smokers. Among current smokers, the risk increased with number of cigarettes per day to reach an OR of 1.32 (95% CI: 1.10–1.58) for smokers of more than 20 cigarettes per day. The risk increased with duration of smoking, to reach an OR of 1.33 (95% CI: 1.14–1.54) for more than 40 years of smoking and decreased with increasing time since stopping cigarette smoking (P for trend&lt;0.01) and became similar to that of never smokers 10 years after stopping. Risks were somewhat higher for cardia than noncardia gastric cancer. Risks were similar when considering only studies with information on Helicobacter pylori infection and comparing all cases to H. pylori+ controls only. This study provides the most precise estimate of the detrimental effect of cigarette smoking on the risk of gastric cancer on the basis of individual data, including the relationship with dose and duration, and the decrease in risk following stopping smoking