Background:Snake bites are one of the significant health problems in the tropical and subtropical regions. Snake bite is a common medical emergency in Iran, and the epidemiological features and management of such cases vary from region to region.Objectives:This present research study was conducted to obtain new information about the epidemiology of snake bites in the region of Kashan, located in the central part of Iran.Patients and Methods:This research was a descriptive retrospective study. Data from 2004 to 2011 of snakebite cases were collected from case reports. Information included; age and sex of the victim, district, month of incident, mortality, and time of bite.Results:The results of this study showed that the majority of snake bite patients were male (96%). The age distribution of patients indicated that the greatest rate of snake bites occurred among the 15-24 year old group. Data collected in this study revealed that the highest incidence of snake bite cases took place in summer (60%) and the lowest number occurred in winter, with no snake bite cases being recorded. The peak number of snakebite cases was seen during June-September.Conclusions:It was concluded that snake bite cases in Kashan are similar to other areas in Iran from an epidemiological point of view, including; age distribution rates, gender and site of the bites. The existence of Macrov ipera lebetina, a dangerous venomous snake, can cause a range of clinical effects among residents in central parts of Iran, such as Kashan area.

IntroductionIt is essential to evaluate the impact of scientific publications through citation analysis in citation indexes. In addition, scientometric measures of social media also should be assessed. These measures include how many times the publications were read, viewed, and downloaded. The present study aimed to assess the scientific output of scholars at Kashan University of Medical Sciences by the end of March 2014 based on scientometric measures of Scopus, ResearchGate, and Mendeley.MethodsA survey method was used to study the articles published in Scopus journals by scholars at Kashan University of Medical Sciences by the end of March 2014. The required data were collected from Scopus, ResearchGate, and Mendeley. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Also, the Spearman correlation was used between the number of views of articles in ResearchGate with citation number of the articles in Scopus and reading frequency of the articles in Mendeley with citation number in Scopus were examined using the Spearman correlation in SPSS 16.ResultsFive-hundred and thirty-three articles were indexed in the Scopus Citation Database by the end of March 2014. Collectively, those articles were cited 1,315 times. The articles were covered by ResearchGate (74%) more than Mendeley (44%). In addition, 98% of the articles indexed in ResearchGate and 92% of the articles indexed in Mendeley were viewed at least once. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between the number of views of the articles in ResearchGate and Mendeley and the number of citations of the articles in Scopus.ConclusionCoverage and the number of visitors were higher in ResearchGate than in Mendeley. The increase in the number of views of articles in ResearchGate and Mendeley also increased the number of citations of the papers. Social networks, such as ResearchGate and Mendeley, also can be used as tools for the evaluation of academics and scholars based on the scientific research they have conducted.

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Abstract. Patients' viewpoints are commonly used to assess quality of care in diverse healthcare organizations. The purpose of the current study is to investigate quality gap of family health care through measuring differences between clients' perceptions and expectations at Kashan city health centers in Iran. A cross-sectional design was applied in 2013. The study sample was composed of 384 women clients of family health services randomly selected from Kashan city health centers. The SERVQUAL questionnaire was used for data collection. Service quality gap was measured by computing the difference between the rating respondents assign to expectations and perceptions statements. For pair wise comparison of the expectations and perceptions the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used. Internal consistency of the scale was confirmed with Cronbach's Alpha coefficients.In all dimensions of the services a significant (P<0.001) negative quality gap was observed. The maximum quality gap was in the tangibility (-0.60±0.37) and the minimum one was in the responsiveness (-0.41±0.31) dimension. The findings of the research demonstrated that there was negative gap between clients' expectations and perceptions in all dimensions of the services. Thus, family health care managers should apply improvements in all five dimensions of the services.

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Background: Noticeable amounts of pesticides are used in developing countries each year. However excessive application of these chemicals in the past few decades has breaded serious problems to both animals and humans. Although most studies have targeted acute poisoning, in the present study chronic poisoning as a new and important health problem has been studied due to application and storage of pesticides at homes. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was designed in Kashan, located in the dry central region of Iran in 2012. The data were collected by interviewing 500 home owners and filling questionnaires. The data were analyzed using abundance tables and SPSS software and statistic tests χ2 and fisher exact. Results:The results showed high availability and application of pesticides (97.2%). Citizens reported using pesticides once every six months. There was a positive relationship between the application of pesticides and the observed disorders (p<0.0001). Conclusion:Pesticides are available for most people in an uncontrolled way, which may be the cause of many health problems.

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