Effects of supply chain transparency, alignment, adaptability, and agility on blockchain adoption in supply chain among SMEs

This study aims to investigate the extent to which the contributions of blockchain technology to supply chain parameters influence blockchain adoption among SMEs. Drawing on contingency theory, the study investigates the moderating effect of market turbulence. The data were collected from 204 SMEs in Malaysia\u27s manufacturing sector and analysed using the partial least squares technique. The results showed that the intention of SMEs’ managers to adopt blockchain is influenced by the contributions of blockchain to supply chain transparency and agility. Supply chain transparency, alignment, adaptability, and agility are interrelated. Market turbulence moderates positively the association between agility and intention to adopt blockchain. This study extends the literature by decomposing the concept of relative advantages and investigating the influences of blockchain benefits on blockchain adoption. The moderating effect of market turbulence indicates that the influence of blockchain on agility is more important for SMEs operating in a turbulent environment than the SMEs in a stable market. The findings help the policymakers and blockchain vendors in developing effective plans and strategies to speed up the adoption of blockchain among SMEs. Furthermore, the results give confidence to the managers and owners of SMEs that blockchain can be a valuable competitive advantage source

The Role of Iran Public Libraries in Development and Promoting of Tourism Services

People get to know and recognize the culture of nations with a help of tourism. At the same time, the revenue generated by the tourism industry is highly significant. Public libraries are knowledge-based organizations that could be effective in providing tourist attractions through their resources and services. This systematic review of tourism studies within the library sciences is an effort to identify the role of libraries in development of tourism services and identify the research gap for future studies. To this end, the related studies were searched and identified in 10 national and international databases (1999 to 2019), out of which nine most related studies were used. The results of our study indicate that libraries are capable of developing tourism services in field of cultural tourism and development of cultural identity and heritage, information literacy and tourism approach, collaboration and cooperation with other institutions, organizations and tourism approaches based on market orientation. We highlight the necessity to conduct more practical studies on libraries so that their final product could lead to promotion of quality tourism services and consequently, profit achievement and promotion of a nation’s cultural identity

Prevalence and Burden of Refractive Errors at National and Sub-national Levels in Iran

Purpose: To estimate the prevalence, burden of refractive errors and their associated trend from 1990 to 2018 and geographic inequalities in Iran. Methods: Data regarding the epidemiology of refractive errors was extracted from three different sources: systematic review of published literature, data from visual school screening programs, and data from Iran’s national health survey (NHS). The pool of all available data on refractive errors as well as demographic, location, and socioeconomic status covariates were fitted in spatio-temporal and Gaussian process regression models to predict the prevalence of refractive errors from the years 1990 to 2018 in 31 provinces grouped by age and sex in order to calculate years lived with disability (YLDs). Results: In 2018, the age-adjusted prevalence of refractive errors was 16.32% (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 12.44–21.48%) in both sexes, 17.98% (95% UI: 13.74– 23.61%) in women, and 14.66% (95% UI: 11.14–19.36%) in men. The prevalence of refractive errors reveals that it increases with age. Refractive errors contributed to 441.41 and 348.38 YLDs in men and women, respectively. The age-standardized prevalence growth was 31.30% in females and 24.32% in males from the years 1990 to 2018. Significant geographical heterogeneity was observed. The age-standardized YLDs rates of refractive errors represent an increasing trend of 28.9% increase from 1990 to 2018. Conclusion: Over 28 years, the prevalence of refractive errors increased significantly. Women tend to have higher rates of prevalence. The prevalence increased in older ages. Border provinces had the lowest prevalence. Age-standardized YLDs rates of refractive errors increased by about 30%

Designing a model to measure information intelligence based on the Indices and measures

Measuring information intelligence is especially important in information societies. The present study aimed to identify indices and measures effective and design a model for measuring information intelligence. The research used a mixed method to achieve objectives. Data collection tools included the study of scientific literature and interviews. The research population included related published literature related to scientific theories, information science experts, and psychology experts. Based on the research findings, 14 indices and 97 measures were identified as effective for measuring information intelligence in two dimensions of management and information retrieval. After weighing and prioritizing the indices, finally, a model is presented for measuring information intelligence. From the findings, it is concluded that in the information society, officials should first determine their information strategies and then address the strategic goals of the information society. One of these strategic goals can be to increase the level of information intelligence of individuals, organizations, and society. To do this, effective indices must be identified for measuring and strategies to increase the level of information intelligence of the target community. It is suggested that this be one of the priorities of an information society

A study on factors that drive variation in the levels of social capital among people living with HIV/AIDS in Iran

INTRODUCTION: Social capital is increasingly used in relation to health issues, particularly in sexually transmitted diseases/infections and health behaviors. Experiences indicated that social capital can contribute in changing HIV related risk behaviors and a decline of HIV infection through social groups and networking and make more effective use of HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment services. We aimed to assess social capital in these persons through a quantitative study. METHOD: This cross-sectional study was performed with a convenience sample of 300 people living HIV/AIDS referred to a counseling center of behavioral diseases, in Imam Khomeini Hospital, in Tehran, the capital of Iran, during September 2011 to May 2012. Data collection tools were a demographic questionnaire and World Bank Social Capital Questionnaire (SC-IQ). The analysis of data was performed by the SPSS statistic software version 18. To identify factors influencing social capital in participations, Pearson correlation coefficient, ANOVA, t-test, and a multiple regression were applied. The significant level was considered 0.05 in this study. RESULTS: 165 (55) were male and the rest female. The mean age of participants was 34.3 ± 7.5. The mean score of total social capital was 2.34 ± 0.5 in all participants. The domain of individual trust had the highest mean score (2.53 ± 0.66). The lowest mean score was related to the domain of social trust and associative relations (2.23 ± 0.62). Variables such as ethnicity, age, and middle economic status had a significant impact on the domain of individual trust so that the mean score of this component of social capital was lower among women (0.396) than men. Factors affecting total social capital were ethnicity and middle economic status. CONCLUSION: Finding emphasized on the role of economic status, ethnicity and gender in persons living with HIV/AIDS. Thus recommended that policy makers and program managers consider social groups and networks, especially in women in the design and delivery of intervention strategies to reduce HIV transmission

Study of antibacterial effect of total hydroalcoholic extract of Thymus daenensis and Lavandula officinalis on Listeria monocytogenes, an agent of food spoilage, using microdilution

Background: Listeria monocytogenes is an important bacterial agent of food spoilage and cause of listeriosis. Recently, plants have been increasingly considered as alternatives to chemical drugs for preserving foods. Therefore, it is highly important to study their antibacterial effects. This study was conducted to investigate the antibacterial effect of Thymus daenensis and Lavandula officinalis on L. monocytogenes. Extraction was done by maceration using ethanol and concentration performed by rotary concentrator. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was examined by broth micro-dilution according to McFarland Equivalence (CFU/mL 105). To determine minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), all the wells without opacity were cultured on Mueller-Hinton agar. Total hydroalcoholic extract of T. daenensis and L. officinalis had a positive effect on L. monocytogenes and, at certain concentrations, could inhibit the bacterial growth. The best inhibitory effect on bacterial growth was obtained for T. daenensis extract at 16 μg/mL. Furthermore, this extract had the highest bactericidal effect on L. monocytogenes. Regarding the findings of this study, the extracts of T. daenensis and L. officinalis could be used as antibacterial agents in food and pharmaceutical industries

Shigellosis phytotherapy: A review of the most important native medicinal plants in Iran effective on Shigella

Shigella is a gram-negative intracellular pathogen which causes bacillus diarrhea in humans. Besides clinical and gastrointestinal diseases, shigella causes food poisoning. In Iran, medicinal plants are used to treat infectious diseases. In this review article, the native medicinal plants to Iran that are effective on shigellosis were reported. For this purpose the key words Shigella, medicinal plants, essence, and extract were searched for in databases such as Scientific Information Database, Scopus, PubMed, Magiran, and Google Scholar and the related articles were retrieved and analyzed. Findings indicated that 18 medicinal plants native to Iran were effective on shigellosis, including Echinophora cinerea Boiss, Echinophora cinerea Boiss, Stachys lavandulifolia Vahl, Cuminum cyminum, Alliums stadium, Cymbopogon olivieri (Boiss), Salvia suffruticosa, Achillea wilhelmsii, Cleome iberica, Centaurea depressa, Teucrium polium L., Salvia mirzayanii, Haplophyllum canaliculatum, Geum coccineum, Mentha spicata L., Saliva aethiopis L., Salvia atropatana Bunge, Salvia oligophylla Auch. Ex Benth., Salvia macrosiphon Boiss. Identification of effective components of these plants could be a route to producing nature-based antibiotics for shigellosis

A review of analgesic medicinal plants in Iran

Pain and inflammation are the main problems associated with different diseases in human communities. The currently available drugs including opioids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are helpful for all patients because of complications and side effects. Therefore, there is still the need for suitable analgesics and researchers are still studying in this regard. Medicinal plants are rich sources of bioactive substances and antioxidant, and could have analgesic uses. In this review study, analgesic medicinal plants were searched for. Medicinal plants and analgesics were used as key words. The findings indicated that Thymus vulgaris, Mentha pulegium, Ziziphora tenuior, Origanum vulgarel L.Spp, Satureja hortensis Linn, Salvia sclarea, Gundelia tournefortii L., Datura stramonium L., Carum copticum, Pistacia vera L., Coriandrium sativum, Cinnamomum zeylanicum,Artemisia herba-alba,Cuminum cyminum L., Elaeagnus angustifolia, Glycyrrhiza glabra, etc. are the most frequently used analgesics

Dental-derived stem cells and biowaste biomaterials: What’s next in bone regenerative medicine applications

The human teeth and oral cavity harbor various populations of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), so called dental-derived stem cells (D-dSCs) with self-renewing and multilineage differentiation capabilities. D-dSCs properties involves a strong paracrine component resulting from the high levels of bioactive molecules they secrete in response to the local microenvironment. Altogether, this viewpoint develops a general picture of current innovative strategies to employ D-dSCs combined with biomaterials and bioactive factors for regenerative medicine purposes, and offers information regarding the available scientific data and possible applications