Synergy in the Iranian Innovation Systems at Regional and National Levels In the Triple-Helix Context

The synergies for the Iranian regional and national innovation systems among the geographical, technological and organizational distributions of firms were measured. Among the data of 87934 active industrial firms (December 2015), merely 46150 firms could be classified using NACE codes into high-tech, medium-tech and knowledge intensive sectors which in turn geographically divided into five regions. Accordingly, both the T0 and ΔTGTO of Iran at the national level had negative signs (-480.6 and -5.14 mbits, respectively), however all the ΔTGTOs in each separate region was highly positive denoting that national agglomeration significantly adds to the synergy in the system and a highly integrated national innovation system was proposed in Iran. Regions 1 (including Tehran as the capital) as well as region 4 (including Khuzestan which contains enormous oil and gas resources and industries) caused less disturbance to the national synergy compared with the other three regions (ΔTGTOs= +18.1 and +22.2 mbits, respectively). The decomposition of sectorial technologies showed that in contrast to many other countries, especially for west European countries, high-tech manufacturing and knowledge intensive services were the main drives of knowledge-based configuration in the regional economy of Iran, while medium-tech manufacturing tend to uncouple the economy from the regional configuratio

Universal Standards for the Concept of Fairness in Online Dispute Resolution in B2C E-Disputes

Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio

Global depression in Breast Cancer patients: systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Breast cancer is known as one of the most common diseases among women, the psychological consequences of which are common in women and affect various aspects of their lives, so this study aims to investigate the prevalence of depression among women with breast cancer globally. Method: The present meta-analysis was performed by searching for keywords related to breast cancer and depression in 4 main databases: PubMed, Embase, Web of Sciences and Scopus in the period of January 2000 to November 2021 and the results of the study using R and CMA software were analyzed. Results: A total of 71 studies were selected in English and the results of the analysis showed that the prevalence of depression in women with breast cancer is 30.2%, with Pakistan having the highest (83%) prevalence of depression and Taiwan having the lowest (8.3%). And in the WHO regions, EMRO region had the highest (49.7%) rate and SEARO region had the lowest (23%) prevalence of depression. Also, with increasing age, the prevalence of depression among women with breast cancer increases. Conclusion: Community and family support for women with breast cancer, holding psychology and psychotherapy courses, lifestyle modifications and training in this area can be effective in preventing the reduction of the prevalence of depression, and given the pivotal role of women in family affairs, this This can be in line with the work of health system policymakers

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Universal standards for the concepts of fairness, trust and security in online dispute resolution in B2C e-disputes

The Internet has created a global marketplace, where consumers can purchase goods and services. For online purchases, disputes can occur and are called electronic commerce disputes (e-disputes). The need for an appropriate jurisdiction for e-disputes has resulted in the development of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), a mechanism for resolving these disputes through the internet. Currently, there is no universal agreement about the concepts of procedural fairness, trust and security in ODR systems, although these issues have been widely discussed in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). This research aimed to develop a set of standards, so that e-commerce users have faith in the fairness, security, and trust of ODR systems

Universal Standards for the Concept of Fairness in Online Dispute Resolution in B2C E-Disputes

Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio

Bishop’s property (β) and weighted conditional type operators in k-quasi class A*n

An operator T is said to be k-quasi class A*n operator if T*ᵏ (|Tⁿ⁺¹|²/ⁿ⁺¹− |T*|² ) Tᵏ ≥ 0, for some positive integers n and k. In this paper, we prove that the k-quasi class A*n operators have Bishop, s property (β). Then, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for T ⊗S to be a k-quasi class A*n operator, whenever T and S are both non-zero operators. Moreover, it is shown that the Riesz idempotent for a non-zero isolated point λ0 of a k-quasi class A*n operator T say Rᵢ, is self-adjoint and ran(Rᵢ) = ker(T −λ₀) = ker(T −λ₀)*. Finally, as an application in the last section, a necessary and sufficient condition is given in such a way that the weighted conditional type operators on L² (Σ), defined by Tw,u(f) := wE(uf), belong to k-quasi- A*n class.Publisher's Versio

The Role of Personality Traits and Specific Life Narratives in Psychological Well-Being, Career Adaptability, Emotional Intelligence, and Generativity in 22 to 65-Year-Old Iranian Adults During the Years 2020-2021

Background: Redemptive self is a part of life narratives in which bad scenes are redeemed with good results or positive emotions. Personality traits in the big-5 model are: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between redemptive self and personality traits with some psychological characteristics including psychological well-being, career adaptability, generativity, and emotional intelligence. Methods: In this study, 57 Iranian adults in the age range of 22-65 years were selected by convenience sampling method and filled in the Life Story Questionnaire, NEO test, Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS), Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWB), Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS), and Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. Individuals' answers to the questionnaire questions were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression using SPSS software. Findings: Based on the results of the present study, the relationship between the redemptive self and personality traits with each of the psychological characteristics mentioned above was significant. Redemptive self and personality traits had a significant relationship with psychological well-being, career adaptability, generativity, and emotional intelligence and predicted them. Conclusion: Redemptive self and extraversion predicted generativity, neuroticism (negatively) and agreeableness predicted psychological well-being, extroversion predicted career adaptability, and agreeableness predicted emotional intelligence

SARS-CoV-2 and Stroke Characteristics: A Report From the Multinational COVID-19 Stroke Study Group

International audienceBackground and Purpose: Stroke is reported as a consequence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in several reports. However, data are sparse regarding the details of these patients in a multinational and large scale. Methods: We conducted a multinational observational study on features of consecutive acute ischemic stroke, intracranial hemorrhage, and cerebral venous or sinus thrombosis among SARS-CoV-2–infected patients. We further investigated the risk of large vessel occlusion, stroke severity as measured by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, and stroke subtype as measured by the TOAST (Trial of ORG 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment) criteria among patients with acute ischemic stroke. In addition, we explored the neuroimaging findings, features of patients who were asymptomatic for SARS-CoV-2 infection at stroke onset, and the impact of geographic regions and countries’ health expenditure on outcomes. Results: Among the 136 tertiary centers of 32 countries who participated in this study, 71 centers from 17 countries had at least 1 eligible stroke patient. Of 432 patients included, 323 (74.8%) had acute ischemic stroke, 91 (21.1%) intracranial hemorrhage, and 18 (4.2%) cerebral venous or sinus thrombosis. A total of 183 (42.4%) patients were women, 104 (24.1%) patients were <55 years of age, and 105 (24.4%) patients had no identifiable vascular risk factors. Among acute ischemic stroke patients, 44.5% (126 of 283 patients) had large vessel occlusion; 10% had small artery occlusion according to the TOAST criteria. We observed a lower median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (8 [3–17] versus 11 [5–17]; P =0.02) and higher rate of mechanical thrombectomy (12.4% versus 2%; P <0.001) in countries with middle-to-high health expenditure when compared with countries with lower health expenditure. Among 380 patients who had known interval onset of the SARS-CoV-2 and stroke, 144 (37.8%) were asymptomatic at the time of admission for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conclusions: We observed a considerably higher rate of large vessel occlusions, a much lower rate of small vessel occlusion and lacunar infarction, and a considerable number of young stroke when compared with the population studies before the pandemic. The rate of mechanical thrombectomy was significantly lower in countries with lower health expenditures