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Introduction: Nosocomial infection with multi-drug resistance, particularly at ICU, is considered a significant socio-economic as well as medical complication all over the world. This can spread various infections in the community or cause longer hospitalizations and impose more expenses on the patients. The purpose of this study was to determine nosocomial infection in ICU patients admitted at Baqyiatallah hospital during a whole period of a year. Materials & methods: The study was conducted descriptive cross-sectionally during a period of 12 months from March to February 2005 at a university hospital in Tehran, Iran. All the ICU patients who were hospitalized with no signs and symptoms of infection before the first 48 hours of hospitalization and presenting signs and symptoms of infection after 48 hours of hospitalization were covered by this study. Bacterial strains were isolated from various clinical samples of the patients then identified by the conventional methods. Findings: The prevalence of nosocomial infection with multi-drug resistance all during this study was 3.4%. The most prevalent organism was Staphylococcus aureus (38.1%) followed by Pseudomonas auroginosa (31%). The most nosocomial microorganisms were isolated from samples obtained from lower respiratory tract (74.8%) and wounds (16.9%). Conclusion: The most prevalence of nosocomial infections were observed in patients of over 50 years old. There is a need to study more about the causes of nosocomial infections and development of preventative strategies in order to prevent the spread of such infectious diseases.

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Introduction: The genus of Torilis from Umbelliferae family comprises of 10-15 species which have been distributed in Europe, north of Africa and south-west of Asia. Nine species of this genus are found in Iran. Phytochemical investi-gation of different species of Torilis ha-ve shown that they contain comarins, flavonoid and sesquiterpenes compou-nds. The genus of Thecocarpus which also belongs to Umbelliferae family has only one species in Iran.There is no any report on the phytochmistry of this ge-nus in literature. Materials & Methods: In the research, the essential oil of the aerial parts of Torilisleptophylla, collected from Ilam province, was obtained by hydro-distill-ation using a Clevenger-type apparatus for 3h. The essential oil of the aerial pa-rts of Thecocarpusmeifolius, collected from Shahr-e-Kourd city, was extracted by a microwave apparatus. Theessential oils were analysed by a GC/MS system. Findings: Inthe essential oil of the aerial parts of Torilisleptophylla 63 compoun-ds representing 92.14%, were identified in which spathulenol (15.74%), trans-α-bergamothene (9.37%) and germacrene D (8.94%) were the major constituents. 41 constituents representing 92.4% we-re identified in the essential oil of Thec-ocarpusmeifolius in which spathulenol (30.8%), caryophyllene oxide (8.9%) and germacrene D (6.0%) were the major ones. Antibacterial activity of both oils against the Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria was investiga-ted. Both oils showed inhibitor against Gram-positive bacteria. Discussion & Conclusion: Both oils sh-owed significant inhibitory effects agai-nst Gram positive bacteria.

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The heavy metal pollution has become one of the most important environmental problems. Heavy metals are the most important environmental pollutants, especially for human health and aquatic systems are a serious threat. Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology of yeast Saccharomyces carlsbergensis PTCC 5051, and received as a lyophilized culture YEDPA environment and then the proliferation of malt extract broth is used. The effects of pH, temperature, kinetics and isotherm of lead on metal uptake were evaluated by the SC. Absorption maximum at about pH 5 the optimum temperature was 25 degrees Celsius. A kinetic study showed that batch biosorption of lead to rapid removal by the biomass of Saccharomyces was the first test was done in less than 30 minutes. Method using FT-IR, surface functional groups of fungi were identified. With active and passive absorption of lead by Saccharomyces has revealed more attracted by the yeast is active. With yeast and control yeast on the autoclave, the pre-treated with sodium azide and 2 and 4 DNP nitro phenol showed that claims of capturing, respectively, 0/68, 0/12, 0/44 and 0/48 mmol g was obtained. Results showed that, even using the passive yeast are suitable for the absorption of lead

                                                                     . Keywords: Biosorption, lead, Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, 2, 4-Dinitrophenol, Sodium azide

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Introduction: Scabies is a common worldwide parasitic contagious skin disease especially in the warm and humid areas of the world. Due to climate variability and extent of our country as well as different statistics about the dispersion of this disease in Iran, this study was conducted to consider the prevalence, distribution and controlling methods of this infection. Materials & Methods: This descriptive study was undertaken through searching the relevant key words in internet, using scientific journals, and review of published articles by researchers in this field of study. Findings were presented as a review article. Results: Due to non-uniform distribution of scabies in Iran, diagnosis, treatment and controlling of the disease is an important challenge for health authorities regarding community health and economic loss. Discussion & Conclusion: Health maintenance of at risk population, the essential goal of the health organizations, could be achieved by regular monitoring and supervision of the disease spreading.

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Background and Objectives Chromium is a common contaminant in ground and surface water, soil and waste water. Chromium is of considerable because of toxicity and environmental and human health. The aim of this research were to synthesize magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4) and determining its efficiency in chromium removal from aqueous solutions. Materials and Methods: magnetite nanoparticles were synthesized and the effects of pH and contact time on cadmium removal efficiency were investigated in batch system. Then kinetics and isotherm models coefficients were determined based on optimum conditions. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), XRD were used to characterization of the synthesized magnetite nanoparticles. Results: SEM results showed that the diameter of the particles is 40-50 nm. Results showed that the optimum pH value for chromium adsorption was 2 and the equilibrium time was 60 min. The magnetite nanoparticles have advantages such as high removal efficiency and short reaction time and can be used as a method to remove cadmium from aqueous solutions. The adsorption kinetics fitted using the type1- pseudo second-order kinetic model and the adsorption isotherm could be described by the langmuer. The langmuer maximum adsorption capacity of magnetite nanoparticles for Cr(VI) was found to be 24 mgg-1. Conclusion: These results indicated that magnetite nanoparticles can be employed as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of chromium from contaminated water sources. The results also revealed that the magnetite nanoparticles supported have a better adsorption capacity, better magnetic properties and separation, and therefore, lower cost.

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Introduction: Using non-invasive techniques are necessary to reduce the premature infant pain. This study aimed to determine the effect of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) on premature newborns’ pain due to invasive procedures in neonatal intensive care unit. Materials & Methods: In a quasi-experimental study, 70 hospitalized preterm infants were selected and then randomly divided in two case and control groups. In case group, the physiological and behavioral signs of pain 15 minutes after KMC (minutes zero), during the invasive painful procedures (minutes 15) and 15 minutes after the re-establishment of KMC (minutes 30) and in control group, that signs in three same time zero (15 minutes after supine position of Infant in the incubator), 15 (during a painful procedure) and 30 (15 minutes after painful procedures) was observed and recorded by physiological & behavioral sign scale. Findings: According to results, there were significant differences between case and control group in heart rate, oxygen saturation, facial flushing and sweating from physiological signs (P<0/05). There were significant differences between case and control group in breathing pattern, the level of consciousness (P<0/05), positioning arms and legs (P<0/01) from behavioral signs. Discussion & Conclusion: KMC is an applicable and non-invasive method to relieve hospitalized premature newborns’ pain due to painful invasive procedures in neonatal intensive care unit.

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Introduction: Using aerated lagoons for the treatment of municipal wastewater in the areas with warm and cold climate is convenient if the enough and cheap land is existed. Because of the strict environmental regulations, water resources shortage and the necessity of effluent reuse, treatment of municipal wastewater by aerated lagoons is easily feasible. This study was investigated to evaluate the performance of aerated lagoons of Ilam city from September 2012 to May 2013. Materials & Methods: The sampling (eighteen samples) from inlet and outlet of the treatment plant was conducted during nine continuously months. The performance of the waste water treatment plant was carried out using indices such as BOD5, COD, TSS, TN, total coliform and fecal coliform in the influent and effluent. All the experiments were conducted according to the standard method for the examination of water and wastewater reference and the results were analyzed by Excel and SPSS (Pearson's correlation and T-test) softwares. Findings: The raw wastewater analysis was showed that it's pollution strength was in the range of intermediate wastewaters. The removal efficiency of the treatment plant for BOD5, COD, TSS, TN, total coliform and fecal coliform were 80.49%, 78.82%, 82.6%, 16.59%, 23.75% and 51.85%, respectively. Discussion & Conclusion: The results indicated that the treatment plant did not have convenient efficiency according to the environmental standards. Therefore, the appropriate measures are required to modify and upgrade of the treatment plant units capacity.

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Introduction: hospital as a firm has got a both income and cost. on other hand, health cost will take a great share of family expenditure. So, the hospitals are obliged to apply and use cost-benefit analysis to increase efficiency and productivity accordingly, these institution managers, have to be aware of hospital cost function. Material and methods: this research try to estimate the regression function of hospital cost based on econometrics method with the help of 14 main index which will affect hospital cost in 8 governmental hospitals of Ilam province during 2003-2013. It worth to mention that Translog function specification has been applied in the estimation. Findings: The results indicates that relative cost of Ilam hospital relates to labor -capital price and quantity of production positively during 200/-2013. Besides, since the coefficient are meaningful at a: .05 , so it shows that variables like the emergency rooms, equipments ,buildings ,bedridden time, releasing and mortality rates has reciprocal effect on hospital cost. 10 percent increase in quality of services leads to 34 percent increase in hospital cost. Discussion and Result: Since there is a direct relationship between quality of services, relative cost of labor and investment and hospital cost so, in order to decrease the hospital cost, one of the following two effective factors including labor force or investment should be decreased. labor force includes the number of nurses, And investment includes equipments, building, and so forth. production decrease has a direct relationship with decrease in number of visited, bedridden, and released patients, and decrease in none of them is acceptable. so the labor relative price decrease can be considered as the best solution for decrease in hospital relative cost which is obtainable via change in condition of labor engagement in hospitals, application of the lowest wage rule, and annual wage increase .

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Introduction: Nowadays, potential risks have been well known for human health which associated with toxic heavy metals in environment.Cadmium is one of the most important heavy metals that its presence in aquatic environment have created many concerns due to high toxicity at low concentrations and the ability to accumulate in living tissues. several methods have been studied to remove of heavy metals but, using low prices absorbents has been considered by researchers to remove these metals in recent years . in this research, we will study cadmium removal by natural clinoptilolite zeolite.
 Material s & methods: The experiments were conducted with natural zeolite discontinuous . To determine the characteristics of zeolite, Scanning Electroni Microscop (SEM) and X-ray diffraction Device (XRD) have been used . effect of some parameters have studied on efficency of cadmium elimination and adssorption isotherms, including: PH (2,4,6,8,10), contact time (30, 60, 90, 120, 150 min), adsorbant dosage (0.2,0.5,0.8,1,2 gr) and mtetal ion concentration (10, 50, 100 mg/L).
 Findings: According to absorption of cadmium process results, The optimum PH was equal 6 with removal efficencies of 83.3% and equiliberium time of 90 minuts with removal efficencies of 93.1%,. As expected, The amount of absorbed cadmium ereduced by increasing the concentration of cadmium. Between both models Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm, Langmuir model have described cadmium adsorption of cadmium on the adsorbent better than Freundlich.
Discussion & Conclusion: The results of current study have indicated that natural linoptilolite zeolite can be used as an efficient and I nexpensive absorbent to elemination of cadmium in aquatic environments.

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 Introduction: The burnout is a state of physical, emotional and mental fatigue that arise due to emotional unceasing and repeated pressure resulting from intensive and long term contact with clients. Burn out happen as a result of severe stress, constant and controlled and also when the demand of working environment is more than the personal abilities for adjustment or success. The aim of this article was to study effectiveness of burnout in emotional exhaustion, personal performance, depersonalization, and job involvement dimensions components of hardiness. Hardiness as a simultaneous personality construct has composed of three components (control, commitment and challenge). Kobasa et al believed that people who work harder than others they are active and targeted and their approach to life is with interest and excitement. The aim of this research is the effectiveness of hardiness components training on burnout.
 Materials & methods: 117 personnel participated in this quasi-experimentalis study. The population was consists of all Olympic national committee personnel of the Islamic Republic of Iran who employed in 2013-2014. 117 employees were selected by simple random sampling (including 15 males and 10 females). According to purpose of this study, Kobasa's hardiness and Meslesh's burnout questionnaire were used. SPSS 18 software was used and Data were analyzed by using dependent T-method and multivariate covariance analysis.
Findings: T-test analysis in level 5% showed that mean burnout of four factors including: emotional exhaustion, personal performance, depersonalization, and job involvement has changed before and after hardiness component training. Furthermore, The covariance analysis showed that regarding to mean of burnout components in final test with 99% confidence interval, we can say that hardiness have an influence on personnel burnout.
 Discussion & Conclusion: Results illustrated that the importance of hardiness training on reducing of stress and burnout in working environment.

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Introduction: Actually, food sanitation is a guarantee of proper food quality and it is an essential pillar in health promoting of community. The aim of this study was to study of knowledge and attitude among Ilam University of medical sciences students regarding to food sanitation and safety on 2013.
 Material and method: 430 Ilam University of medical sciences students was determined in present cross-sectional study by stratified random sampling. Data collected through a questionnaire consisting of three parts including personal information, knowledge and attitudes towards food sanitation and safety. The data were used by SPSS16 software and analyzed by Mann- Whitney and kruskal-wallis tests.
 Findings: overall, results showed that 3.5% of students had good attitude, 77.6% moderate attitude and 18.5% poor attitude. In the field of knowledge 18.5 % had adequate knowledge, 16.2% moderate knowledge and 2.4% poor knowledge about food sanitation. Results showed that there is a significant relation between students' attitudes regarding food sanitation and safety and their sex (p = .036), and also there isaa significant relation between knowledge (p = .000) and attitude (p = .048) of students and passing the food sanitation course.
Discussion&Conclusion: It is proposed that according to relation between knowledge, food sanitation and safety, educational programs to be held in the form of workshops or incorporate food sanitation courses for fields of medical science that does not pass this course.

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Introduction: Traditionally, the natural ingredients have been used for faster healing of wounds. In this study, the effects of topical application of propolis and aloe vera were studied on the healing of open skin wounds in male rats.
 Materials & methods: 32 male Wistar rats (300 - 350 g) were randomly divided into control and 3 experimental groups. After anesthesia, under sterile conditions round full-thickness wound with a diameter of 2.5 cm were created above the thigh of animals. In experimental groups, treatment of wound was performed with usage of ointment containing approximately 1gram of propolis or aloe vera or both of them, two times per day and continued for 20 days. During this period, the rate of wound healing was assessed by measuring the levels of wound in all groups. Also at the last day, under deep anesthesia, 1 mL of urine samples were taken from the bladder of all animals and its hydroxyproline concentration were measured. Data were analyzed using SPSS software with ANOVA and Dunnett test.
 Findings: Wound healing percentage showed no significant difference between control and experimental groups on 2 to 9 days, but in the 10 to 20 days interval, the treatment groups showed significant differences compared to control(P<0.05). The hydroxyproline content significantly increased in the combined aloe vera and propolis group compared to control (P<0.01).
 Discussion & Conclusion: The topical use of aloe vera or propolis accelerates healing of full thickness skin wounds and their combination is more effective.

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• Mono-aromatic Hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene are volatile, non-ionic and non-polar compounds that have been used in the vehicles fuel and as solvents in industrial activities. This study was conducted to investigate the performance of clay modified with cationic and non-ionic surfactants in the removal of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene from aqueous solutions.

Materials & methods: The experiments were carried outin batch system. The effect of various parameters including surfactant loading (0.2-4 times of clay CEC), contact time (0-24 hr), pH (4-12) and pollutant concentration (10-200 mg/l) was surveyed on the sorption.

                                       

• The results showed that the maximum BTEX adsorption occurred in the surfactant loading of two times of cation exchange capacity of the clay. The optimum contact time of the sorption occurred at 24 hr. The sorption capacity of TTAB-Mt and PEG-Mt for BTEX was 22.11 mg/g and 18.77 mg/g, respectively. The Freundlich isotherm and pseudo second-order kinetic models fitted the data better than other isotherm and kinetic models.

Discussion & Conclusion: The sorption capacity of both the sorbents was of no significant differences, but the toxicity and also the cost of non-ionic surfactant is less than cationic surfactant therefore, it is recommended that clay modified by non-ionic surfactant instead of cationic surfactant is used to remove BTEX from aqueous solutions.

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Introduction: Health care expenditure has been low over the years in developing regions of the world. World statistics show that high-income countries spend more money on health spending and they have better health indicators. The objectives of this study are to determine the effect of health care expenditure on population health status in Iran and to examine the effect by public and private expenditure sources.

Materials & methods: The study used time series data for the period from 1995 to 2012. The life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate and mortality rate are used as indicators of health status.

Findings: The results indicate that total health expenditures  has a positive effect  on  life expectancy at birth and crude mortality rate but it has a negative effect on infant mortality rate. Both public and private health care spending showed significant association with some health status even though public health care spending had relatively higher impact.

Discussion & Conclusion: The findings imply that health care expenditure remains a crucial component of health status improvement in Iran. Increasing health care expenditure will be a significant step in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Further, policy makers need to establish effective public-private partnership in allocating health care expenditures.

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Introduction: There are various methods for NO_x abatement from flue gas among which the catalytic methods are more conventional. SCR-NO_x (Selective catalytic reduction of NO_x) is one of the catalytic methods. In this research for the first time, natural clinoptilolite zeolite was used in order to the NO_x abatement using methane as reducing agent.

Materials & methods: The chemical modification of the zeolite is conducted by ion-exchange and calcination methods. The catalytic behavior of the sample was investigated using the integral fixed bed catalytic reactor in flow rate of 400 ml/min at temperature range of 200-500°C.

Findings: The protonated Iranian clinoptilolite zeolite showed a promising performance for NO_x reduction via selective catalytic reduction by Methane. The corresponding temperature of maximum activity (63% conversion of NO_x to N₂) was 450 °C at a low GHSV of 20,280 h^-1.

Discussion & Conclusion: The results showed that this zeolite and its preparation method is an effective method for NO_x abatement in comparison with other methods. 

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Introduction: Intense exercise is known to cause temporary impairments in immune function. Few studies, however, have investigated the effects of intense competitive sports on immunoendocrine variables in athletes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the effect of sport competition on responses of salivary immunoglobolin A (sIgA), cortisol and their relationships in adolescent karateka.

Materials & methods: Ten boys karateka with average ages of 13.1±.9 yr, weight: 58±9.7 kg, and body mass index: 20.3±2.4 kg/m2, that acceded to final competition of Ilam province were selected as subjects of this study. Unstimulated saliva samples were collected to measure sIgA and cortisol levels with ELISA method before, immediately and 2 hours after competition. In order to analyze the data, Shapiro-Wilk, analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measurements, Bonferroni and Pearson’s correlation tests at the significant level of p<0.05 were utilized. 

Findings: The sIgA level of adolescent karateka significantly decreased immediately in comparison with before competition (p=0.002), and increased significantly 2 hours after in comparison with immediately after competition (p=0.04). Also, the cortisol level of adolscent karateka increased significantly immediately (p=0.004), and 2 hours after in comparison with before the competition (p=0.038). In addition, there were no significant relationships between changes in sIgA and cortisol immediately (r=-0.47, p=0.16) and 2 hours (r=-0.36, p=0.22) after competition.

Discusion & Conclusions: This results indicated that, official karate competition maybe with stimulating the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis, causes increase in cortisol level and decrease of sIgA. It is concluded that, participant in karate competition suppressed mucousal immune system and enhanced possible risk of upper respiratory tract infection. Therefore, it could be necessary to take protective actions to minimize contact with pathogens or even reduce the training load for athletes.

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Introduction: Phagetherapy is the therapeutic use of bacteriophages to treat pathogenic bacterial infections as alternative to antibiotics for treatment of resistant bacteria. The aims of this study were to isolate, identify and evaluate effective bacteriophages active against antibiotic resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Materials & methods: Different Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from clinical specimens during 9 months (July 2013 to March 2014) in three Isfahan hospitals (AlZahra, Omid and Shahid Beheshti hospitals) and Kirby Bauer's disc diffusion method was used for determination of resistance profiles of these isolates using different antibiotics including Amikacin, Imipenem, Meropenem, Ciprofloxacin, Ceftazidime, Cefepime, Cefotaxime, Piperacillin-tazobactam. The resistant strains to all tested antibiotics were selected for finding their specific bacteriophages from waste water and hospital sewage. Presence of phage investigated by plaque formation and after enrichment and stained of samples, TEM microscope was used for determination of phage morphology and size.

Findings: Among 81 Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates, 38 isolates (47%) were resistant to all tested antibiotics and plaque due to phages was detected against 32 (84%) among these 38 isolates. Two phages belong to Cystoviridae and Leviviridae identified using TEM microscope.

Discussion & Conclusions: It seems that the mixture of two phages (cocktails phages) that has high bactericidal effect against resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa can be good candidates for use in phagetherapy.

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Introduction:Minimum data set(MDS) is the first important step in the development of healthcare information systems, becauseit makes a standard method for collecting key data elements .The aim of the current study was to determine the minimum data set forIranian children's healthcare records.

Materials & methods: This study is an applied and descriptive-comparative research carried out in 2015. Data collection was done through a researcher made check list of children's health care data which was modeled by observing Australia, Canada, United States and Iran and contained 242 items. The check list was subjected to debate in Delphi method by 20 experts in the field of Child Health and health information management.

Findings: Out of 242 elements of children's health care discussed, 146 and 86 agreed by more than %75 and by 50-75% of experts respectively while 10 elements were rejected by them. Out of 242 items,just two (contraceptive method and mother unsuccessful experience in previous lactation) showed significant differences between responses of alumni groups of pediatrician, midwifery, public health and health care management experts with medical record and information management professionals (P<0.05).

Discussion & Conclusions: This study showed that some of the essential data elements presented in other countries’MDS are required for Iranian organizations and health care providers. So, a complete list of a minimum set of data elements was created.

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Introduction: The dyestuff manufacturing and textile industries consume a high volume of water and produce a great amount of wastewater containing various toxic substances. This study was conducted to evaluate the possibility of using activated carbon prepared from milk vetch wood for removing methylene blue dye from synthetic wastewater.

Materials & methods: This research was carried out in laboratory scale with using of 100 ml volume of batch photoreactor and in chemistry laboratory of Ilam university of medical sciences (summer 2013). Activated carbon was prepared using chemical-thermal method. The effect of pH, contact time, dye concentration and adsorbent dosage on the adsorption of methylene blue dye as model organic dye was studied and kinetic and isotherm of the adsorption process was investigated. The dye concentrations were measured via spectrophotometer (665 nm wavelength). 

Findings: The results showed that activated carbon prepared from milk vetch has high potential to remove dye molecules. The MB absorption capacity rates were 38.66, 40 and 48.5 mg/g respectively at pH of 3, 7 and 11 for the initial dye concentration of 50 mg/L and 0.1 g/0.1L absorbent mass  at 30 minute. Also dye absorption rates were 40, 69.66, and 78.04 mg/g on absorbent respectively for 50, 100, and 150 mg/l dye concentration, at pH of 7, 1 g/0.1L absorbent mass, and 30 minutes time. Adsorption data followed Langmuir isotherm model (R²=0.99). 

Discussion & conclusion:  Based on the obtained results, activated carbon prepared from milk vetch can be considered as an efficient adsorbent for removing dye from aqueous phase.

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Introduction: It is well known that exposure to estrogenic compounds during critical and sensitive periods of lifespan could result in adverse effects on the development and function of reproductive system. In the present study, we examined the effects of neonatal mycoestrogens Zearalenone (Zen) and alpha-zearalenol (α-Zol) exposure on the onset of puberty and reproductive parameters such as estrous cycle and ovarian follicle pool in female mice.

Materials & methods: Pups were injected subcutaneously at postnatal days (PND) 1-5 with sesame oil, estradiol benzoate (EB, 20µg/kg bw), Zen (0.2, 1, 2mg/kg bw) and alpha-Zol(0.2, 1, 2mg/kg bw). The control group received no treatment. Vaginal opening and estrous cycle were monitored from PND 23 to 70. Animals were sacrificed at PND 70, and blood and ovary were collected.

Finding: Advanced vaginal opening, disrupted estrous cycles and decreased follicular pool were significantly observed in EB, 1 and 2 Zen and 1 and 2 α-Zol. Also, LH and estradiol levels impaired.

Discussion & conclusions: Neonatal exposure to mycoestrogens accelerated the onset of puberty but decreased reproductive parameters in female mice. These alterations could result from disruption anywhere within the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadalaxis in particular estrogen-sensitive neuronal populations of hypothalamus.