Introduction:Audiology students should possess clinical competence and skills. To achieve this, their clinical skills must be properly assessed. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a standard and fair examination of clinical competence. The goal of this study is to devise a checklist of OSCE examination criteria and study their validity and reliability for assessing the clinical competence of Audiology students.Methods:Among the various procedures in which audiology students should possess demonstrated competence, 10 specific skills were selected and checklists were prepared. Faculty members of university’s Audiology Department were consulted to determine the validity of the checklists. Subsequently, the examination was administered to all 14 fourth-year audiology students in their final semester of study at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. The examination consisted of three question stations and seven procedure stations. Each station was managed by two examiners who independently used a checklist to score each student’s performance in a given procedure. To determine reliability, the Spearman test was used.Results:The correlation between each examiner’s scores of students at question stations was 0.908. The correlation between each examiner’s scores at procedure stations was 0.857 (p=0). The site of lesion test had the highest correlation (0.948) and immittance audiometry had the lowest correlation (0.585).Conclusion:The prepared checklists had good validity and reliability and can be used to evaluate the clinical competence of audiology students in their final semester of study.

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Objective: Melasma is an acquired hyperpigmentation disorder, and reactive oxygen species play important role in regulating melanin synthesis. Lycopene is one of the most effective oxygen neutralizers among tomato-derived carotenoids. Also, hydroquinone is a compound that has been used for the treatment of hyperpigmentation by mechanism of tyrosinase inhibition and can be found in wheat.Methods: An appropriate cream formulation containing 0.05% tomato lycopene and 3.45% wheat bran extract was prepared, and physicochemical characterization was performed. The prepared formulations were applied twice a day for three months in combination with SPF = 30 sunscreen by 22 patients diagnosed with melasma. MASI score in two groups was evaluated at weeks 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 and 1 month after the treatment. Results:The prepared formulation shows smooth and homogeneous appearance with suitable spreadability and viscosity. The MASI score of intervention group from the sixth week until the end of the treatment was significantly decreased compared to the onset of the treatment (P < .05), and the mean difference of the MASI score and the rate of skin discoloration in intervention group (0.53 ± 0.47 and 3.73 ± 1.90, respectively) were significantly higher than in placebo group (0.14 ± 0.20 and 0.91 ± 0.07, respectively; P < .05). Size of melasma during the study was decreased significantly from 6.59 ± 3.47 to 5.97 ± 3.83 (P < .05). Conclusion:The data of mean difference of the MASI score indicated skin improvement in intervention group. Meanwhile, no recurrence was observed one month after the end of the treatment. These data suggest that the prepared formulation containing lycopene and wheat bran extract is safe and could be promising as an efficacious cosmetic treatment.

Prevalence of diseases originated from air pollution such as asthma and allergies, can be attributed to the bioaerosols. Bacteria and fungi are the main sources of hospital infections, which cause most of the diseases and mortality. The aim of this study was to determine the ratio of indoor to outdoor fungi concentration, the effect of population and people density on fungi concentration and the relationship between indoor and outdoor environment. In this study, three stations were used: outdoor of the hospital, general indoor and ICU wards of the Ahvaz hospital. These locations were chosen for sampling of the airborne fungi from October to December 2010. The samples were collected in 2 min, flow rate of 28.3 L/min using quick take (SKC Inc., PA, USA), based on the Andersen method.The three dominant culturable fungi genera in sampling stations were Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Cladosporium. The average of total culturable fungi concentration before visiting time was 365.8 CFU m -3 and increased to 578CFU m -3 after visiting time. The indoor to outdoor ratios (I/O) in ICU and internal for fungi before visit were 0.36 and 0.68, respectively. However, these ratios in ICU and internal station for fungi after visit were 0.78 and 0.99, respectively. Following the visit of the visitors, the concentration of fungi available indoor was conspicuously higher (even in the wards in which no visitors were allowed; e.g. ICU, etc). Hence the amount of indoor fungi was affected by the concentration of outdoor fungi and visitors crowd.

Background: Type 2 diabetes has a high prevalence and a growing trend. The use of a proper diet treatment is one of the therapeutic approaches of patients. The use of the soy has shown the effective results in glycemic control of patients with type 2 diabetes; however, data are paradoxical. The present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of soy nuts on glycemic control, blood pressure and lipid profile and insulin-resistance of the diabetic patients. Methods: In this case-control study 69 type 2 diabetic patients were randomly divided into two groups: intervention (n = 35) and control (n = 34). The patients in the intervention group substituted 60 grams of soy nuts as a part of the daily protein requirement for eight weeks. In contrast, the patients in the control group received usual diet of diabetes (no soy). The drugs received by patients had not been changed during the intervention period. Before and at the end of the intervention, Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), serum insulin levels, insulin-resistance, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c) and total cholesterol, and triglycerides (TG) were measured in the patients. Insulin-resistance was calculated by Homeostatic model assessment-IR formula (HOMA-IR). Results: Soy consumption significantly lowered FPG (P = 0.03), HbA1c (P < 0.01), plasma insulin levels (P = 0.01), insulin-resistance (P = 0.01), total cholesterol (P < 0.01) and LDL-c (P = 0.01), but did not have any significant effect on systolic blood pressure (P = 0.4), diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.2), HDL-c (P = 0.4) and TG (P = 0.2). Conclusion: Consumption of soy nuts in type 2 diabetic patients * Corresponding author. A. Sedaghat et al. 2 can cause an improvement in the glycemic control and insulin-resistance, and the lipid profile does not have any significant effect on blood pressure.