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Aim: Many of the oral health problems start in childhood that may affect the way of speaking, eating and even the social manners of the individual. The aim of this study was to test the Trans-theoretical Model to gain an understanding of the inter-dental cleaning behavior change in mothers and their children in the city of Sanandaj. Methods: This study was a randomized controlled trial, conducted in 2011 in eight Health Centers in Kurdistan province, Iran. Using a cluster sampling, we conducted a prospective study. The participants were grouped into an intervention group including 25 couples of mother and child, and a control Group including another 25 couples of mother and child. The intervention program was designed based on Trans-theoretical Model. The Gingival index of mothers and their children were recorded before and after the intervention. The data were analyzed using SPSS-16 software and with paired T-test. Findings: Most of the mothers in the intervention group (64% vs. 96% in control group) did not use any of the tools (dental floss and tooth picks). After intervention, most of the mothers and their children were in action and preparation stages and the direction of change improved after the intervention. Significant statistical differences were found in self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and also Gingival index before and after the intervention between two groups (p= 0.03-0.001). Conclusions: There was a positive relationship between stages of behavior of inter-dental cleaning in mothers and their children. Qualitative research can be used to reveal underlying inter-dental cleaning perception and behaviors of mothers and children.

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  Abstract Background: Streptococcus mutans in the oral cavities sable to produce mutacin (bacteriocin-like substances) with antibiotic properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency and expression of genes encoding mutacins typeI, II, III and IV and also two of 8 genes in a cluster encoding the putative bacteriocins, the designated bsm 283, bsm 299, bsm 423, bsm 1889c, bsm 1892c, bsm 1896, bsm 1906c and bsm 1914, were also screened by PCR and specific primers for each type of mutacin biosynthesis gene and then mutacin activity against the indicator strains determined. Methods : In this study, dental clinic samples were collocated; Streptococcus mutans was detected using biochemical tests and molecular methods (PCR). Frequency of mutacin biosynthesis genes types I, II, III and IV, bsm299 and bsm1899 were measured by PCR, using specific primers for each type of mutacin biosynthesis gene. Furthermore, the antimicrobial spectra of Streptococcus mutans isolates against other indicators, including Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas, Escherichia coli were evaluated using well diffusion, disk diffusion and the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) methods. Results : Out of 56 samples collected from patients referred to Milad Hospital dental clinic on October 2011 and three private dental clinics on November 2011, 24 strains of Streptococcus mutans produced mutacins. 67.52% of the strains had a wide antimicrobial spectrum and 37.5% of 67.5% had a high frequency of genes with more inhibitory activity against, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis respectively that are more related to putative bacteriocins. The expression frequency of the bsm gene (putative bacteriocins) was higher than that of the characterized mutacins types (I–IV). The lowest dilution rate mutacin was found against Staphylococcus epidermidis (0.0625 unit/mL). Conclusion : These findings suggested that all putative bacteriocins may represent a large repertoire of inhibitory substances produced by Streptococcus mutans. Therefore, the high diversity of mutacin-producing phenotypes, associated with high frequency of expression of the biosynthesis genes screened and wide antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus epidermidis could be used as safe antimicrobial agents in treatment of superficial infections such as, removing the pimple caused by Staphylococcus epidermidis.

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Aim: By understanding women’s perceptions of the risk factors for osteoporosis, improved preventive programs can be designed to modify misconceptions and improve understanding of the condition. This study aimed to explore Kurdish-Iranian women’s perceptions of the risk factors for osteoporosis. Methods: Sixteen women with osteoporosis referred to osteoporosis screening units at the private and governmental centers were interviewed through purposeful sampling between January and July 2015. Inclusion criteria included a diagnosis of osteoporosis for at least six months, T-score below -2.5, age 50 years and over, and ability to attend and participate in the study. All focus groups and face-to-face semi-structured interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis. To confirm precision of the data, the following criteria were employed: credibility, conformability, dependability and transformability. Findings: Overall, the perceived risk factors were broadly classified into non-modifiable and modifiable factors. Non-modifiable factors included the sub-themes of genetic factors and hormonal changes. Modifiable factors comprised the sub-themes of limited legal and administrative systems, cultural-environmental and socio-economic factors, lack of understanding the disease and its treatment, and poor health priorities. Conclusion: The risk factors for osteoporosis from women's perceptions can be classified into non-modifiable and modifiable factors. These results can be useful to design a gender-specific risk assessment tool and develop strategies and intervention programs for preventing osteoporosis in women.

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Aim: Oral health plays a crucial role to general health, and influences individual’s quality of life. This study aimed to determine effective factors on dental health behaviors among Iranian students. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on high school students in the city of Sanandaj (western Iran) from November 2014 to July 2015. An instrument with 35 items was used for data collection. It included two sections: socio-demographic characteristics, and 7 domains related to dental health behaviors. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by using face, content and construct validity, and test-retest and Cronbach''s alpha, respectively. Simple random sampling and systematic random sampling techniques were used to select high school students. Plaque Index (PI) was recorded during the clinical dental examination. Finally, data were entered into the SPSS version 16.0 software and analyzed using ANOVA, Regression logistic, correlation coefficient tests, and independent t-test. Findings: There were statistically significant correlations between the role of school, fear of dental care, motivational beliefs, and value of teeth (P

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This study examines the relation between the level of informants' interlanguage and the frequency of two types of errors: intralinguals and interlinguals. A cognitive- contrastive approach has been suggested as an eclectic model to analyze the frequency of errors of Persian-speaking students in using Spanish verb-governed prepositions. This study is considered as an applied study based on research objectives, and a correlation from the point of view of method. The population is from Alame Tabatabaie University undergraduate Spanish students. First 75 students were selected according to the cluster sampling method. Then 67 of students were reselected and divided into the following three levels of interlanguage: basic, intermediate, and advanced. The level of interlanguage was determined by the students' answers to the questionnaire. Using descriptive statistics, the study shows that the frequency of intralingual errors has a positive correlation with the level of the interlanguage, and the frequency of interlingual errors has a negative correlation with the level of interlanguage.    

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The objective of this paper is to investigate the validity of Wagner’s law and the Keynesian view with regards to the relationship between the non-oil gross domestic product and the public sector size for the Iranian economy during the period of 1967-2007. Time series analysis techniques have been used which include unit root tests, cointegration tests and Hsiao causality test. The findings indicate that Wagner’s Law is confirmed in both the short-run and the long-run; whereas the Keynesian view is approved only in the short-run for Iran.

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Objective: Human CMV is the most causative agent of a very common viral infection contacted by most adults that have no noticeable or with only mild uncharacteristic symptoms. However when a pregnant women is infected with CMV as a primary infection, there is a risk for transmission of virus to the fetus as well as reactivation of virus in rare case. HCMV antibodies were already described in spontaneous abortion and fetal abnormalities cases. Also antibodies against HCMV in fetal abnormalities as well as abortion had been reported by several studies in different part of the world. Due to lack of published data about CMV epidemiology in Ilam, the aim of current study was to determine the seroprevalence of specific viral IgM and IgG in spontaneous abortion cases as well as the age and socioeconomic status in the studied population in Ilam. Materials and Methods: Sera sample from 42 patients in abortion process as well as 30 healthy pregnant and 30 healthy women as negative control were collected and quantitative serological test to assess IgM/IgG against HCMV was performed using a commercial ELISA assay. SPSS software was used to analysis the results and demographic information. Results: Among 42 patients in abortion process, IgG was found in 6 (14.28%) patients and IgM in 12(28.58%) cases. Based on demographical information, it was showed that IgG seropositivity correlate with the increase of age, but there is no correlation between IgM and age of patients. Conclusion: The results showed that there is a high seroPrevalence of HCMV IgM than IgG among pregnant women in the process of abortion in Ilam; correlation between Age and IgG anti body seroPrevalence was same as other reported. Based on the current studies, it seems that more sensitive and specific method such as NAT method is needed for determination of CMV and abortion procces.

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Objective: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is one of the most important progress in the field of molecular biology and diagnosis. Despite simplicity in concept, the reaction needs complex interaction between target sequence, primers, dNTPs and DNA polymerase for a successful amplification and diagnosis. For the detection of RNA viruses highly sensetive and specific technique is required. Hence amplification based on Nested PCR would improve sensitivity, and also use of one step reaction would decrease probable contaminations as reported previously in several studies. The aim of the current study was to develop a new, rapid and sensitive one step– one tube Nested PCR in a closed system, by using two novel coherent primers. Materials and Methods: In this study, a novel and special primer development method was used for one step– one tube reaction. After development and optimization, the assay was evaluated with known positive and negative controls. Results: The developed assay was performed on 50 HCV positive samples and 10 negative controls and 5 samples from each HIV, HBV, TTV (Torque Teno Virus) and GBV-C (Hepatitis G Virus: HGV). Based on the obtained results, sensitivity and specifity was calculated. 48 out of 50 HCV positive samples showed expected band while none of the negative controls gave any band. Conclusion: Based on the specific primer design system which has been used in the current study; the inner primer was synthesized as complementary of routine PCR primers and was bound to the outer primers. Therefore, there is no probability for false priming in the both rounds of the reaction, hence there would be no nonspecific amplifications. Other advantages of this assay system were prevention of contamination which was due to one step- one tube reaction, decrease in duration and the cost of the reaction.

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This study investigates the time-varying correlations among oil and coin prices, and exchange rate in Iran. Since investment is a key factor in economic growth and development, so the necessary funds should be provided and directed towards manufacturing and industrial sectors. In addition, understanding the relationships among financial variables allows to the investor to reduce overall portfolio risk without harming to the return on investment. In this paper we use monthly data of the oil and coin prices, and exchange rate in Iran over the period 1991:3 to 2011:2 and examine time-varying correlations using Dynamic Conditional Correlation - Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (DCC-GARCH) approach by G@RCH6 software. The analyses made in milieu of the world financial crisis (2008) show that the conditional correlations among assets are time-varying and world financial crisis causes significant changes in dynamic relationships among assets under study in Iran.

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Productivity improvement is considered as one of the important strategies for providing economic growth and raising firms’ competitiveness. In this study, using the Divisia method, first the total factor productivity has been calculated during 2003-2009 and then the effects of trade openness, energy consumption and human capital on the total factor productivity has been investigated within subsectors of Iran’s industry. The estimation results using panel data model indicate that the trade openness, energy consumption and human capital have positive and significant effects on the total factor productivity. Meanwhile, the effect of skilled and experienced workers on the total factor productivity is stronger than educated workers.

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One century has passed since the explanation of relationship between financial development and economic growth by Schumpeter. However, there are serious debates among economists in this regard. Especially, the causality relationship between economic growth and financial development, in most of the cases, the causality from economic growth to financial development is confirmed in different countries. One of the neglected issues in this field is to consider the infrastructures, which can play important roles in the effectiveness of financial development on economic growth. One pillar of the financial development is the quality of banking financial services, which to a great extent is influenced by ownership and intervention of government in banking system. This paper, by using VECM model, tests the tri-variate causality among economic growthand financial development in the presence of public ownership of banks index during 1980 to 2010. The results show that in contrast to the bi-variate causality tests, which indicate the adverse causality from economic growth to financial development, the tri-variate causality tests reject this claim except for the case of the commercial banks’ assets.  

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The government of Iran has faced with budget deficits during 1979 – 2010, which has been financed mainly through money creation. Theoretically, the impacts of budget deficit and inflationary tax on macroeconomy are very controversial, so that both decrease and increase in consumption, investment, net exports and total expenditure have been supported by empirical researches. Using structural cointegrating vector autoregressive, this paper investigates the impacts of inflationary finance on the demand side of Iran’s economy during mentioned period. Budget deficit is defined as the difference between operating budget deficit (minus net operating balance) and capital balance surplus, or net lending (net acquisition of nonfinancial assets). The results show that both operating budget deficit and net lending have positive impacts on consumption, investment and net imports in the short run. So changes in the demand side have not necessarily same orientation with increase or decrease in budget deficits, but the source of change in budget deficit determines its effects. Reducing budget deficits through positive shock to net lending and a policy of increasing operating budget deficit have similar effects. Furthermore, the results show that the operating budget deficit has no effect on demand components in the long run. The complementarity of inflationary tax and financial repression is confirmed in both short run and long run. In addition, the results indicate that an increase in operating budget deficit and/or net lending induce more inflationary tax and financial repression. Although the budget deficit has no effect on demand side in the long run, but its two outcomes -inflationary tax and financial repression- have opposite effects on the consumption, investment and net imports in both short run and long run.
 

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Bacterial leaf streak (BLS) caused by Xanthomonas translucens pv. cerealis (Xtc) is an important disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) worldwide. The management methods presently in practice are insufficient to meet current safety and/or efficacy standards. Therefore, use of resistant genotypes is the best approach to manage BLS. The present study was undertaken to identify possible sources of resistance to Xtc in cereal cultivars and germplasm. Twelve strains of Xtc were isolated from symptomatic leaves in several regions in Kerman province. Out of twelve, nine strains produced the expected Xtc-specific 120 bp fragment using PCR and the primer pairs PABr/PBf. Six strains produced water-soaked streaks covered with exudates on wheat cultivars, whereas the three remaining strains incited only chlorotic streaks with no water-soaking on leaves. A highly virulent strain that caused conspicuous water-soaking and necrosis was used for inoculation of 645 winter and spring wheat, barley, and rye accessions to identify possible sources of resistance to BLS. The fourth leaves of test plants were infiltrated with bacterial suspension and scored after seven to ten days. Among all the accessions evaluated, only two rye accessions, namely, 4538 and 4794, were resistant to BLS. These two rye accessions can potentially be used in breeding rye and triticale cultivars for resistance to BLS.

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The purpose of this study is to estimate a “hybrid” version of the optimal monetary policy rule in Iran using the optimal control theory. To do this, it is assumed that monetary authorities solve an optimization problem with regard to the constraints of economic structure, which includes five equations of aggregate supply, aggregate demand, exchange rate, demand for money and government expenditure. First, the structural equations’ parameters are estimated using ordinary least squares (OLS) and seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) methods during 1978-2016. Then, the preferences of the monetary authorities for stabilizing inflation and output, and smoothing liquidity growth are chosen with the aim of minimization of social welfare loss. The results indicate that the central bank should consider the deviation of monetary growth rate and the output gap. In addition, the optimal rule of monetary policy derived from the optimal preferences indicates that the central bank must react simultaneously to the changes in inflation, output gap and real exchange rate, in which the role of output gap is of great importance.
 

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Panel data constitutes a cornerstone for dynamic analysis, especially in poverty mobility studies. In developing countries such as Iran, household income and expenditure data are collected on a cross-sectional basis because of various reasons. As a result, households’ panel data are not available. Due to the concerns of policymakers in understanding the status of mobility of the poor, researchers have developed several approaches to study poverty mobility among countries using cross-sectional data. In 2013, the World Bank's Poverty Studies Group introduced a synthetic panel data method for poverty dynamics analysis, which provides relatively accurate estimates of poverty mobility. First, the present study calculates the absolute poverty line of urban areas of Iran in 2012, 2015 and 2016. Then, it uses the method of synthetic panel data in order to study the status of poverty mobility. The results show that there is a kind of status dependency in the urban poverty, so that the poor (non-poor) households in 2012/ 2015 were also poor (non-poor) in 2016 with a probability of more than 80 percent. Only with a probability of less than 20 percent, the poor (non-poor) households in 2012/2015 were non-poor (poor) in 2016.
 

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