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Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of socioeconomic factors on the constructs of the modified Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in relation to reproductive health in adolescents.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 578 female students aged 12-16 years, recruited through a multistage random cluster sampling method, in Tehran, Iran. A self-administered TPB-based constructed questionnaire was designed and used for data gathering. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between family size, number of siblings, birth rank, and family closeness, source of information, and reproductive health behavior.
Findings: The mean age of the participants was 14.1 years. None of the participants obtained a perfect score in relation to reproductive health. In addition, they achieved average scores less than half the rates. Number of siblings, family size, birth rank, mother education and information source were factors associated with TPB the constructs (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The results of this study emphasize that Socioeconomic factors can have an effective role in students' sexual and reproductive health behaviors.

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Health Systems aim to improve health by delivering health care services. But sometimes in low-income countries, people become poor when they use these services. So, it is required to analyze the experience of health system financing in the selected countries and develop strategies to improve the efficiency of health system financing. The objective of the paper is to identify the main determinants of health care expenditures in 10 OECD countries over the period 1998-2004. The major determinants of health care expenditures which are theoretically identified comprise the total government revenue earned from health care system, social security expenditures on health, Out-of-pocket expenses on health, and the ratio of ex ante payments of private sector on health over the total health expenditures. The stylized facts of the study shows the principles of equity-base health policy planning are notification of financing mechanisms in health sector, identity of financing model according to the county socioeconomic conditions, financial capacity, infrastructure, capability of implementing selected policies, political responsibility and accountability for these policies.

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Aims: The identification of factors that affect health literacy in the elderly will aid in designing interventions aimed at promoting health literacy by focusing on these factors. Therefore, the present aimed to determine the relationship between health literacy and financial literacy among the elderly.
Instrument & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 295 elderly in Urmia, Iran, who were selected using a multi-stage cluster sampling method in 2022. The data collection tools included a demographic information form, the Health Literacy for Iranian Adults Questionnaire, and the Financial Literacy Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16, employing the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient.
Findings: The mean health literacy score of the elderly participants was 64.38 out of 100, indicating a not very sufficient level. Additionally, the mean financial literacy score was 47.84 out of 100, reflecting a low level of financial literacy. A positive and significant correlation was found between financial literacy and health literacy (p<0.001, r=0.60).
Conclusion: There are low levels of both financial literacy and health literacy among the elderly in Urmia, and financial literacy and health literacy are positively correlated.

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 The present research aimed to enhance the efficacy of alphacypermethrin and fipronil insecticides formulated as an emulsifiable concentrate (EC) by adding varying concentrations of the modified polytrisiloxane (QS-302) as an adjuvant alongside the emulsifier blend. The formulations were subjected to emulsion and thermal stability tests according to the methods used by both the FAO and WHO to determine qualified pesticides. Using the residual thin film technique, the acute toxicity of prepared formulations was also assessed against adult rice weevil Sitophilus oryzae (L.). Generally, alphacypermethrin demonstrated greater effectiveness than fipronil, with LC₅₀ values of 1.545 ppm for alphacypermethrin compared to 8.60 ppm for fipronil. When the QS 302 adjuvant was incorporated at a concentration of 7% into the EC formulations, the LC₅₀ for fipronil decreased from 8.60 ppm to 5.98 ppm. Also, at a 14% addition of QS 302, the LC₅₀ value dropped to 2.92 ppm. In contrast, the efficacy of alphacypermethrin against rice weevils diminished when QS 302 was mixed with the other components at the same concentration. This may be attributed to the enhanced pesticide penetration and distribution of fipronil, which was improved more than that of alphacypermethrin due to alterations in the hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance (HLB), ultimately affecting the solubilization and penetration of the insecticide through the rice weevil cuticle.


 

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Modal parameter identification of structures is of significant importance in many fields of civil and mechanical engineering. Output-only modal identification methods have gained great attention of civil engineers community in recent years. The algorithms estimating the dynamic parameters (natural frequencies, mode shape vectors and modal damping ratios) of structures just based on the output responses, became popular as operational modal analysis (OMA) or output-only modal analysis or ambient vibration analysis. In the context of OMA, the force acting on the structure should be stochastic, smooth and broadband and there is no need to measure it. Therefore, these methods are appropriate for identification of huge and complex civil structures. One of the most well-established and popular methods of OMA is frequency domain decomposition (FDD) proposed by Brincker et al. Estimation procedure of FDD is based on singular value decomposition of power spectral density matrix of structure responses. Then, the single degree of freedom spectral bell is obtained using modal assurance criteria (MAC) and transformed to correlation function of corresponded degree of freedom by inverse Fourier transform. Later, Brincker et al. presented the enhanced frequency domain decomposition (EFDD) method to estimate not only modal frequencies (with higher accuracy in the comparison with FDD) and mode shapes, but also modal damping ratios. Despite the high capability of EFDD in frequency and mode shape estimation, it still suffers from some limitations in identifying modal damping ratio. This paper first aims to investigate the modal parameters identification by EFDD and explains its merits and demerits and then proposes in-operation modal appropriation (INOPMA) algorithm for use with EFDD to improve the modal damping estimation. The key idea of INOPMA is to realize that the correlation sequence of the system output (subjected to random input) is the sum of decaying sinusoids with a certain phase shift and therefore it may be considered as an impulse response. The convolution of this correlation sequence with a pure sine wave allows the isolation of the mode at a characteristic frequency which depends on the modal damping ratio. By using a force in quadrature of phase with a sine wave, it is possible to estimate the damping ratio which in turn allows the estimation of the undamped natural frequency. In fact, modal damping ratios are first estimated by INOPMA and natural frequencies are then identified based on damping ratio values. By 70 times simulation of a four-story shear frame, capability of proposed method is validated for damping estimation through EFDD analysis. The results are then compared with the ones derived from the typical EFDD method. Regarding randomness of input force, different results are obtained by each new simulation run. So, the comparison process should be performed based on several numbers of simulations. The number of simulation was adopted in a way that the mean or variance of estimated modal damping ratios converges to a constant value. The relative error (the exact value minus the estimated value over the exact value) and variance of the set of the estimated modal dampings are regarded as comparison indexes. Finally, it is shown that by proposed method, the damping ratios are estimated with much less variance and error.

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In nowadays highly competitive markets, corporate managers are looking for new ways to make people aware of their products, and promote their brands. For this purpose, they use a variety of marketing techniques to attract more customers. One of the most effective techniques, based on communications between individuals, is electronic Word-of-Mouth (WOM) marketing. In recent years, the increase of Internet users in Iran has created a proper opportunity for companies to use this technique beside traditional marketing methods. Doing this, in addition to increase of their market share and raising their customer’s product awareness, they can improve the company's brand. So it is necessary for companies to pay more attention to the virtual spaces where WOM communications take place and even control them. This study is implemented on the basis of a qualitative research method known as Netnography. Using MAXQDA data analysis software, we tried to empirically explore one of these virtual internet spaces. For this purpose, some topics of an Iranian Internet forum discussing around home appliances were studied. So after identifying the constituent factors of the forum, some correlations between these factors were detected. 

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The sandwich panel is a combination of a soft core and two stiff, high-strength facesheets. In many cases, the connection between the facesheet and the core is considered as a critical point that can damages the integrity of the sandwich structure. In this study, the debonding toughness between the facesheet and the core in sandwich beams with grooved cores made of Kevlar 49/polyester facesheets and polyurethane foam core has been measured experimentally. The values ​​of the strain energy release rate obtained at the onset of crack growth for the tested specimens are in the range of 340 (J/Square meters) and increase with the crack growth up to 500 (J/Square meters). One of the innovations of the present study is to investigate the effect of grooving the core of the sandwich panel on the resistance of the structure to the growth of interfacial cracks. The results show that by placing the groove inside the core of the sandwich panel, the interfacial crack stops during growth by hitting each groove and requires higher force to restart its growth. This phenomenon increases the resistance of this type of structure against the growth of cracks in the face/core area. In this research, a model based on cohesive zone theory was used to simulate crack growth in the tested specimens. Comparison of load-displacement curves obtained from the analysis shows that the proposed model has a good ability to predict the behavior of the structure under similar loading conditions.