Background assertiveness is one of the most important skills needed by nurses to reduce interpersonal conflict and build an effective teamwork in complex hospital environments. Objective The aim of this study was to determine the effect of an assertiveness training program on nurses’ aggressive and Adaptive assertiveness. Methods In this interventional study, participants were 64 nurses working in hospitals of Abhar city in Iran, randomly divided into two groups of intervention (n=32) and control (n=32). Assertive training program was presented as a two-day training workshop (10 hours) to the intervention group, while the control group received no training. Thompson and Burnham’ s Adaptive and Aggressive assertiveness Scale were completed by the participants in both groups at baseline, immediately, one and three months after the intervention. After collecting the data, Friedman, Mann– Whitney, Chi-squared, and Fisher tests were used for their analysis. Findings The mean of Adaptive assertiveness score was significantly different between the the two groups immediately (P=0. 002) and 1 month after the intervention (P=0. 025). The aggressive assertiveness scores were not significantly different immediately, 1 and 3 months after the intervention (P>0. 05), but the results of Friedman test showed a statistically significant decrease in the aggressive assertiveness scores compared to its baseline score (P=0. 002). Conclusion The assertiveness training program increased Adaptive assertiveness and decreased aggressive assertiveness in nurses. Relevant authorities can design continuous and useful assertiveness training programs to promot this valuable skill in nurses.

Background: Aggression and assertiveness are confused with each, while the rights of all respected in the assertiveness and it is an important aspect of social skills. assertiveness has been associated with neuroticism, depression, and anxiety. Although many assertiveness instruments have been developed for research and clinical purposes, one common shortcoming is a lack of discriminant validity with regard to aggression. Further, the wording of many instruments is outdated and discriminatory. The present research was to develop a more sensitive instrument measuring two distinguishable forms of assertiveness: Adaptive assertiveness and aggressive assertiveness.Objectives: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties Adaptive and Aggressive assertiveness Scales (AAA-S) (Thompson, & Berenbaum,) in Iran society.Method and Results: To pursue this aim 317 (167 female and 132 male) Shiraz university students were selected by multistage random cluster sampling method. Participants completed AAA-S. Principal Component factor analysis was used to evaluate the construct validity of the instrument. The results showed that two factors of Adaptive and Aggressive assertiveness could be extracted. Findings showed that there was a positive relationship between AAA-S and The Assertion Inventory which provided evidence to support the criteria convergent validity of the AAA-S. Also result showed that the aggressive assertiveness scale was associated with various forms of aggression. The AAA-S showed a good reliability as well as Cronbach alpha coefficient. The results indicated two subscales of AAA-S and it was the same with the source model. In general, the results revealed that AAA-S is a reliable and valid measure to be used for Iranian Students and it can be used for clinical and research purposes.Conclusion: To summarize, the results of the present research suggest that the AAA-S provides a valid means of assessing assertiveness for Iranian students. It has several advantages compared with alternative instruments. The wording of the AAA-S does not include heterosexist items and reflects terminology considered socially appropriate by present-day standards. Further, it allows the measurement of two separate forms of assertiveness, namely Adaptive and aggressive assertiveness. Because of this, the AAA-S allows researchers and clinicians to measure assertiveness in a way that does not confound assertiveness and aggression, and does not underestimate the tendency of women to engage in assertive behaviors.

Distance-based clustering methods categorize samples by optimizing a global criterion, finding ellipsoid clusters with roughly equal sizes. In contrast, density-based clustering techniques form clusters with arbitrary shapes and sizes by optimizing a local criterion. Most of these methods have several hyper-parameters, and their performance is highly dependent on the hyper-parameter setup. Recently, a Gaussian Density Distance (GDD) approach was proposed to optimize local criteria in terms of distance and density properties of samples. GDD can find clusters with different shapes and sizes without any free parameters. However, it may fail to discover the appropriate clusters due to the interfering of clustered samples in estimating the density and distance properties of remaining unclustered samples. Here, we introduce Adaptive GDD (AGDD), which eliminates the inappropriate effect of clustered samples by Adaptively updating the parameters during clustering. It is stable and can identify clusters with various shapes, sizes, and densities without adding extra parameters. The distance metrics calculating the dissimilarity between samples can affect the clustering performance. The effect of different distance measurements is also analyzed on the method. The experimental results conducted on several well-known datasets show the effectiveness of the proposed AGDD method compared to the other well-known clustering methods.

Background: assertiveness is one of the important components of determining the quality of human relationships and the management of anger. The main aim of this study was to examine the moderating role of assertiveness types in the relationship between anger and anger rumination in patients suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain. Methods: For this purpose, a sample of 109 patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain was selected by convenience sampling method. Adaptive and aggressive assertiveness scale, multidimensional anger inventory and anger rumination scale were used for collecting data. Data analysis was carried out using Pearson correlation coefficient and hierarchical regression analysis. Results: The results showed different assertiveness types have a moderating role in the relationship between anger and anger rumination in patients with musculoskeletal disorders. Adaptive assertiveness was a negative moderator in the relationship between anger and anger rumination, and with proper management of initial anger it reduces the intensity of anger rumination. On the contrary, aggressive assertiveness was a positive moderator in the relationship between anger and anger rumination, and by intensifying the initial anger, it increases anger rumination. Conclusion: In general, different assertiveness types exacerbate/intensify or weaken the chain of anger and anger rumination, and affect the severity of pain in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain disorder. . Therefore, Adaptive and aggressive assertiveness indirectly lead to a decrease or an increase in the severity of pain in patients with musculoskeletal disorders, respectively.

One of the issues of reliable performance in the power grid is the existence of electromechanical oscillations between interconnected generators. The number of generators participating in each electromechanical oscillation mode and the frequency oscillation depends on the structure and function of the power grid. In this paper, to improve the transient nature of the network and damping electromechanical fluctuations, a decentralized robust Adaptive control method based on dynamic programming has been used to design a stabilizing power system and a complementary static var compensator (SVC) controller. By applying a single line to ground fault in the network, the robustness of the designed control systems is demonstrated. Also, the simulation results of the method used in this paper are compared with controllers whose parameters are adjusted using the PSO algorithm. The simulation results show the superiority of the decentralized robust Adaptive control method based on dynamic programming for the stabilizing design of the power system and the complementary SVC controller. The performance of the control method is tested using the IEEE 16-machine, 68-bus, 5-area is verified with time domain simulation.

Introduction: assertiveness is an important skill for nurses in order to successfully communicate with patients, families and colleagues. assertiveness increases people's self-esteem and self-confidence, improves interpersonal communication, and leads to the development of personality and internal locus of control. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the assertiveness training program on nursing students’ assertiveness skills.Methods: Using a quasi-experimental design, two out of three nursing classrooms held for students entering fall 2011 (n=55), and one out of two for those entering spring 2012 (n=34) were randomly selected. The former as the control group was pre-tested and post-tested after two weeks. The latter as the experimental group was undertaken the assertiveness training program and was tested similarly to the control group. The Gambrill & Richey assertiveness questionnaire along with some demographic questions were used to collect data. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: The mean of assertiveness scores in the pre-tests in both groups did not show a significant difference (P=0.6). While no statistically significant change in the control group (P=0.09) was reported, a significant increase in the scores of the experimental group was shown after the training program (P=0.005).Conclusion: The assertiveness training program increased the students’ level of assertiveness. It is recommended to investigate the effect of improving self-esteem, problem-solving and social communication skills on nursing students’ level of assertiveness.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of a group assertiveness training on enhancing assertiveness and self-esteem in a group of submissive students. First, all male students of the first grade of high schools in "Ijrood" District of Zanjan Province were assessed based on Gambrill and Richy Assertion Inventory (1975). Consequently, thirty subjects with the lowest level of assertiveness were selected as submissive students. They were randomly assigned to two groups of experimental and control. The Coppersmith Self-esteem Inventory (1967) was also administered to assess these students' self-esteem. The research design was based on pretest and posttest method along with experimental and control groups by random assignment. Participants in the experimental group attended eight sessions of group assertiveness training program. Each intervention sessions lasted nearly ninety minutes. Data were collected before and after implementing the assertiveness training program and were analysed by using "t" test and covariance methods. The findings indicated positive significant improvement of assertiveness and self-esteem in submissive students in the experimental group. The possible explanation for the increase in assertive behavior of the submissive students and enhancing their self-esteem might be due to participation in the assertiveness training program which was helpful for such students.