Search

Background: Forecasting methods are used in various fields including the health problems. This study aims to use the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method for predicting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Iran. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive, analytical, and comparative study to predict the time series of COVID-19 cases in Iran from May 2020 to May 2021. An ANN model was used for forecast ing, which had three Input, output, and intermediate layers. The network training was conducted by the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The forecasting accuracy was measured by calculating the mean absolute percentage error. Results: The mean absolute error of the designed ANN model was 6 and its accuracy was 94%. Conclusion: The ANN has high accuracy in forecasting the number of COVID-19 cases in Iran. The outputs of this model can be used as a basis for decisions in controlling the COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Safety plays a significant role in the oil & gas industries, where there are many risk factors that can cause accidents. This study aims to evaluate the level of safety culture among the employees of the operational units of South Zagros Oil & Gas Production Company (SZOGPC). Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, a standardized safety culture questionnaire with 50 items and five domains of education, workplace, safety priority, information exchange, and management commitment was used. All employees in the operational units of the SZOGPC were selected as samples (n=260). They answered the questions based on Five-point Likert scales. After collecting the data, their were entered into SPSS software, v. 23. Results: The mean safety culture score in Parsian operational unit was higher than in other operational units. The lowest level of safety culture was related to the operational unit of Sarkhun & South Gashu. The Mean±SD of total safety culture score was 19.03±0.248. Among the safety culture domains, safety priority had the highest score, while the workplace had the lowest score. Conclusion: The safety culture among the employees of the operational units of the SZOGPC is at moderate level. The managers of this company should improve the safety culture among their employees; a positive and high safety culture among employees can facilitate the organization's movement to achieve higher safety standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The safety climate shows the attitude and general perception of the organization's management regarding safety. This study investigates the impact of safety training on the safety climate of operational employees working in the West Oil and Gas Company. Materials and Methods: This study is quasi-experimental interventional research, which was conducted in the first half of 2019 in West Oil and Gas Production Company with a pretest- posttest design. The study population included all workers in the operational departments of The West Oil and Gas Production Company. The sampling was done randomly with 240 people. The study questionnaire included a demographic information questionnaire and the safety climate questionnaire of "the safety organization of England." The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by safety professors, and its reliability was obtained at 0.84 using the Cronbach α coefficient. Results: The mean score of safety climate components before the intervention was 2.65, and after the educational intervention reached 3.66. The safety improvement had the highest score among the components of the safety climate. Also, the lowest mean score of the component before the intervention was related to the violation of safety rules, which had the lowest mean score after the intervention of the licensing system. Conclusion: Educational intervention improved the safety climate in West Oil and Gas Production Company, so safety training plays a vital role in increasing the safety climate in the oil and gas industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Road accidents are among the most important causes of death and severe personal and financial injuries. Also, its profound social, cultural, and economic effects threaten human societies. This study aimed to estimate the trend of traffic accident victims in Yazd Province, Iran, to predict the number of traffic accident victims in this province. Materials and Methods: Based on traffic casualty statistics referred to forensic medicine in Yazd Province within April 1989 and March 2017 referred to Forensic Medicine of Yazd Province and using an artificial neural network to predict the number of injured for 12 months ending in 2020 has been paid. The neural network used in this study had 12 inputs, one output, and 5 hidden layers. The network predicts the relationship between data after training and learning. The network is considered the MSE benchmark. Results: The number of injured in traffic accidents in Yazd Province in 2020 was equal to 7052 people, with the highest number in December with 832 people and the lowest in June with 414 people. The exact method of use was equal to 92 cases. Conclusion: The trend of traffic accident casualties in Yazd Province in 2020 will be declining. For future research, the exact method designed in this study can be examined with other methods for the best response level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To achieve a safe and healthy environment for human beings and the dynamic industry as a critical factor in sustainable development, it is necessary to deal with accidents and eliminate their underlying causes radically. Safety climate shows the attitude and general perception of an organization and its management towards safety. This study aimed to investigate the effect of safety training on the safety climate of employees working in Kermanshah Province (Iran) Oil Refining Company. Materials and Methods: The present study was quasi-experimental interventional research conducted in 2019 in Kermanshah Province, Iran Oil Refining Company, with a pre-test, posttest design. The study population included all employees working in different departments of Kermanshah Oil Refining Company. Sampling was done randomly with 240 people. The questionnaire used in the present study had the demographic information questionnaire. To assess the workers' climate safety, the safety climate questionnaire of the British Safety Organization was used. The level of reliability was 0.84. Information coding was performed in SPSS V. 23, and the Mean±SD of demographic information and atmosphere scores were determined. To investigate the effect of interventions on the safety climate before and one month after educational and technical interventions, a pairwise comparison was used. Results: The comparison of the mean scores of the safety climate components before the intervention was equal to 2.61 and after the educational intervention reached 3.72. All components of the safety climate increased after the intervention. The highest mean increase was related to the component of "safety communications" with 1.74 units. The lowest increase was associated with the component of "employee intervention in safety" with 0.68 units. Before and after the intervention, "safety enhancement" had the highest score among the safety climate components. Before the intervention, the lowest mean score was related to the "safety violations" component, which after the intervention, the "licensing system" had the lowest mean score. Conclusion: The educational intervention improved the safety climate in Kermanshah Oil Refining Company. Therefore, safety training plays an essential role in increasing the oil and gas industry's safety climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Every year many people are killed or injured in road accidents. The first step in planning to reduce accidents is to identify the causes of accidents. This study aimed to investigate and identify the causes and factors affecting the incidence and the severity of road accidents as a major issue in Ilam Province, Iran. Materials and Methods: This research is a descriptive study with an analytical approach. Descriptive and inferential statistics indices were used for statistical analysis. A researchermade questionnaire as fieldwork was used to investigate the factors affecting accidents. Friedman test was used in the analytical study of the data obtained from the questionnaires. The study population included all drivers of the public suburban fleet, including taxis, minibusses, and buses on the Ilam Province. Out of 190 drivers, a sample size of 127 was selected using a Cochran formula. Results: From the drivers' point of view, the main causes of public fleet accidents on the roads of Ilam Province are the quality and technical issues of the roads. Interviewees believed that dangerous turns, low width, poor road quality, and inadequate traffic signs are the main causes of accidents. After that, human factors are in the second place, including high speed and overturning, left-sway, and unmanageable rush, emphasizing the two factors of high speed and overtaking. The technical and qualitative factors of the vessels are in third place. Finally, the environmental and natural factors are in fourth place. Conclusion: Because the drivers consider the quality and technical issues of the roads as the main causes of traffic accidents in the transportation axes of Ilam Province, it is necessary to review and repair these transportation axes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Road accidents are one of the most important causes of death and severe bodily injuries and financial damages, and its social, cultural, and economic consequences have severely threatened human societies. The purpose of this study was to use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the efficiency of provincial traffic police in reducing accidents in 2018 and determining the amount of optimal input resources of each provincial unit. Materials and Methods: The model used in this research had three inputs, including the level of equipment at the disposal, the level of the approved provincial budget, and the level of manpower at the disposal. It also had two outputs, including the score of reduction of casualties and the score of reduction of deaths in traffic accidents. The "returns to scale" was considered as a variable model, and the input model was an axial-type model. The DEAP software was used for data analysis. Results: The highest decrease in deaths in traffic accidents (in 2018) was related to Fars Province with 119 people, and the highest decrease in the number of injured cases was related to Khorasan Razavi Province with 1495 people. The RAHVAR Police (Traffic Police of Iran) in Tehran Province had the highest level of input resources, including manpower, equipment, and approved budget. Performance measurement for 2018 showed that out of 31 provinces studied, 10 provinces had a good performance and 21 provinces had acted inefficiently. The research results showed that the proper allocation of resources could push all units to the brink of efficiency. Conclusion: The trend of accidents in Iran is declining. Most of the RAHVAR Police units operate at an inefficient level, which by increasing their efficiency, the number of accidents can be reduced with a greater slope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hospitals, as the first and most important treatment centers for injured people, should be prepared before the crisis to provide health care services in the best possible manner, with appropriate and prompt action. The current study aimed at investigating the accident and disaster preparedness of hospitals affiliated to Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in Ahvaz, Iran. Materials and Methods: The statistical population of the current descriptive, cross sectional study was all hospitals affiliated to Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in 2017. The main tool to collect information in the study was the checklist of preparedness for disasters designed by Hojjat et al. A group of 20 faculty members of the Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences evaluated the checklist and confirmed its validity. Also, the reliability of the instrument was evaluated using a test-retest method on one of the research units based on Kappa test with a value of 0.8 in acceptable range. Data were collected and coded with SPSS software version 19. Results: The highest level of disaster preparedness at Jundishapur University of medical sciences in Ahvaz belonged to human inferiority with an average score of 67.66±8; 16 of 100, and the lowest belonged to the emergency areas with an average score of 3.75±0.77 or 43 of 100. Imam Khomeini Hospital was in a better status than the other hospitals in terms of emergency, reception, discharging and transferring, traffic, and communication. In terms of education, Abuzar Hospital had the highest level of preparedness; and regarding support and management of health care practices, Salamat Hospital had the highest level for disaster preparedness. Conclusion: The preparedness of hospitals affiliated to Jondishapour University was in moderate status and Imam Khomeini Hospital had the highest level of accident and disaster preparedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Educational planning and managing critical situations of accidents and disasters are among the most important issues. Triage, which means the classification of patients and injuries based on specific situations and needs, is one of the important tasks of hospitals at times of disasters. In this study, triage knowledge and practice of nurses working in hospitals affiliated to Ilam University of Medical Sciences are evaluated. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional and analytic study conducted in 2017. The statistical population comprised all nurses working in Ilam Medical Sciences hospitals. Using Cochran's formula, 174 people were sampled and 160 of them completed the study questionnaires and returned them. The main tool of collecting data was a researcher-made questionnaire based on Canadian triage scale. Validity of the questionnaire was assessed by 10 members of the Ilam University of Medical Sciences. The reliability of the questionnaire was between 0.83 and 0.89 using Cronbach α coefficient. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS. Results: The Mean±SD duration of nurses' working in the emergency department was 5.2±3.4 years, of which 46.2% had an experience of using triage. The Mean±SD score of nurses' knowledge and practice of triage were respectively 10.44±2.11 and 9.22±2.14 out of 15. There was no significant relationship between work experience, gender and age with knowledge and practice of triage, but there was a significant relationship between knowledge and practice of nurses about triage with nursing educational degree. Conclusion: The level of nurses' knowledge and practice of triage in hospitals of Ilam University of Medical Sciences is moderate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]