ABSTRACT
Introduction: communication skill [CS] has been regarded as one of the fundamental competencies for medical and other health care professionals. Student's attitude toward learning CS is a key factor in designing educational interventions. The original CSAS, as positive and negative subscales, was developed in the UK; however, there is no scale to measure these attitudes in Iran. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric characteristic of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale [CSAS], in an Iranian context and to understand if it is a valid tool to assess attitude toward learning communication skills among health care professionals
Methods: psychometric characteristics of the CSAS were assessed by using a cross-sectional design. In the current study, 410 medical students were selected using stratified sampling framework. The face validity of the scale was estimated through students and experts' opinion. Content validity of CSAS was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. Reliability was examined through two methods including Chronbach's alpha coefficient and Intra class Correlation of Coefficient [ICC]. Construct validity of CSAS was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis [CFA] and explanatory factor analysis [PCA] followed by varimax rotation. Convergent and discriminant validity of the scale was measured through Spearman correlation. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 19 and EQS, 6.1
Results: the internal consistency and reproducibility of the total CSAS score were 0.84 [Cronbach's alpha] and 0.81, which demonstrates an acceptable reliability of the questionnaire. The item-level content validity index [I CVI] and the scale-level content validity index [S-CVI/ Ave] demonstrated appropriate results: 0.97 and 0.94, respectively. An exploratory factor analysis [EFA] on the 25 items of the CSAS revealed 4-factor structure that all together explained %55 of the variance. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated an acceptable goodness-offit between the model and the observed data. [Chi 2/df=2.36, Comparative Fit Index [CFI]=0.95, the GFI=0.96, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA]=0.05]
Conclusion: the Persian version of CSAS is a multidimensional, valid and reliable tool for assessing attitudes towards communication skill among medical students
ABSTRACT
Male and female leaves and fruits of eleven different taxons of Iranian conifers [Cupressus sempervirens var. horizontalis, C. sempervirens var. sempervirens, C. sempervirens cv. Cereifeormis, Juniperus communis subsp. hemisphaerica, J. excelsa subsp. excelsa, J. excelsa subsp. polycarpos, J. foetidissima, J. oblonga, J. sabina, Platycladus orientalis and Taxus baccata] were collected from different localities of Iran, dried and extracted with methanol. The extracts were tested for their antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. The extracts were screened qualitatively using four different methods, the disc diffusion, hole plate, cylinder agar diffusion and agar dilution methods, whereas the minimum inhibitory concentrations [MIC] of each extract were determined by the agar dilution method. The best result was obtained by means of hole plate method in qualitative determination of antimicrobial activities of extracts and the greatest activity was found against S. aureus in all tested methods
ABSTRACT
Salvia chorassanica Bunge is one of the Iranian endemic species of Salvia. There is not any reported literature on S. chorassanica. This study was designed to examine the in-vitro anti- proliferative and proapoptotic effects of the methanol extract of S. chorassanica and its fractions on HeLa cell line. Cells were cultured in EX-CELL®, an animal free medium specially designed for HeLa cell line and incubated with different concentrations of plant extracts. Cell viability was quantified by MTS assay. Apoptotic cells were determined using propidium iodide [PI] staining of DNA fragmentation by flow cytometry [sub-G1 peak]. Activity of caspase -3, -8 and -9 was measured by the caspase colorimetric kit assay. S. chorassanica inhibited the growth of malignant cells and the CH[2]Cl[2] fraction was determined as the most cytotoxic fraction in comparison with other fractions. The calculated IC[50] values for methanol extract, n-hexane, and CH[2]Cl[2] and EtOAc fractions were 8.841, 5.45, 2.38, and 58.03 [micro]g/mL, respectively. S. chorassanica induced a sub-G1 peak in the flow cytometry histogram of treated cells compared to control cells indicating that the cytotoxic mechanism is characterized by apoptosis induction. The activity of caspase-3 and 8 proteins in treated HeLa cells was significantly higher than that of the control while caspase-9 activity did not change significantly. Based on the result obtained from our study, the apoptosis pathway involved in S. chorassanica-induced cell death may be through the extrinsic pathway and it can be a novel promising candidate in the treatment of cancer