extended abstract 1. introduction considering the rapid growth of the world population, it is predicted that in the future the majority of this vast population will be concentrated in cities, particularly cities of developing countries. according to united nations’ prediction in 2000, the world population will surpass 2.06 billion by 2030. this population growth will be specifically more eviden...

Background: Determining the gap in the quality of educational services, followed by the adoption of appropriate strategies for eliminating or reducing the existing obstacles, is considered the first basic step in developing quality improvement programs for universities. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the quality of educational services of Iranian medical universities.Methods: T...

With the recent emergence of open source course management systems, learning support infrastructures have received increased attention. More and more organisations adopt these systems to provide their educational services. Often, existing, locally developed learning support software – ranging from delivery support to multimedia content – have to be integrated into these new systems. We will rep...

, Mention of a proprietary product does not constitute endorsement by the USDA-ARS SUMMARY Four experiments were conducted to examine factors that influence the expression of hygienic and non-hygienic behaviour in honey bees, Apis mel/itera, and to examine the correlation between this behaviour and resistance to chalkbrood, Ascosphaera apis. Colonies were headed by instrumentally inseminated qu...

        This paper proposes a new forecasting model for investigating relationship between the price of crude oil, as an important energy source and GDP of the US, as the largest oil consumer, and the UK, as the oil producer. GMDH neural network and MLFF neural network approaches, which are both non-linear models, are employed to forecast GDP responses to the oil price changes. The resul...

Objective To assess the diagnostic status, the sociodemographic and health profiles for students with special educational needs (SEN) in a public educational system, and to map their use of educational/social services. Methods The sample comprised 1,202 SEN students from a total of 59,344 students. Results Only 792 students of the 1,202 had an established diagnosis. The most prevalent SEN c...

Medical education institutions usually adapt industrial quality management models that measure the quality of the process of a program but not the quality of the product. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of industrial quality management models on medical education and students, and to highlight the importance of introducing a proper educational quality management model. Indust...

BACKGROUND Approximately 18 million South Africans do not have access to adequate sanitation. This problem is not unique to South Africa but is a challenge to many developing countries. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain insight and understanding of factors that could motivate people to adopt safe hygienic practices. METHODS A non-probability purposive sample of 12...