Designing the competency-based training model of Iranian medical tourism.

BACKGROUND: Despite the great comparative advantage of Iran in terms of infrastructure, technology, and human resources as well as the significance of medical tourism in the tourist industry, in practice, the quality of human resources has received less attention. Consequently, this study was conducted to design a model of competency-based training for Iranian medical tourism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was an exploratory mix, and the Delphi method and semi-structured interviews were used for the qualitative part of this study. In the second part, the analytical method was utilized for the quantitative part of this study. RESULTS: The results indicated the main components of medical tourism to be public interactions and private interactions and seven subcomponents. Medical Tourism's Competency includes three main components and seven subcomponents. CONCLUSION: Although some training separated and scattered is present in Iran's medical tourism. However, Iran requires a comprehensive training model of which its design was explained in this paper.

Competitive Ability Effects of Datura stramonium L. and Xanthium strumarium L. on the Development of Maize (Zea mays) Seeds.

The objective of this study was to explore the physical properties of maize seeds in competition with weeds. The basic and complex geometric characteristics of seeds from maize plants, competing with Datura stramonium L. (DS) or Xanthium strumarium (XS) at different weed densities, were studied. It was found that the basic and complex geometric characteristics of maize seeds, such as dimension, aspect ratio, equivalent diameter, sphericity, surface area and volume, were significantly affected by weed competition. The increase in weed density from 0 to 8 plants m2 resulted in an increase in the angle of repose from 27° to 29°, while increasing weed density from 8 to 16 plants m2 caused a diminution of the angle of repose down to 28°. Increasing the density of XS and DS to 16 plants m2 caused a reduction in the maximum 1000 seed weight of maize by 40.3% and 37.4%, respectively. These weed side effects must be considered in the design of industrial equipment for seed cleaning, grading and separation. To our knowledge, this is the first study to consider the effects of weed competition on maize traits, which are important in industrial processing such as seed aeration, sifting and drying.