Differential mortality in Iran

Background: Among the available data provided by health information systems, data on mortality are commonly used not only as health indicators but also as socioeconomic development indices. Recognizing that in Iran accurate data on causes of death were not available, the Deputy of Health in the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOH&ME) established a new comprehensive system for death registration which started in one province (Bushehr) as a pilot in 1997, and was subsequently expanded to include all other provinces, except Tehran province. These data can be used to investigate the nature and extent of differences in mortality in Iran. The objective of this paper is to estimate provincial differences in the level of mortality using this death registration system. Methods: Data from the death registration system for 2004 for each province were evaluated for data completeness, and life tables were created for provinces after correction for under-enumeration of death registration. For those provinces where it was not possible to adjust the data on adult deaths by using the Brass Growth Balance method, adult mortality was predicted based on adult literacy using information from provinces with reliable data. Results: Child mortality (risk of a newborn dying before age 5, or q) in 2004 varied between 47 per 1000 live births for both sexes in Sistan and Baluchistan province, and 25 per 1000 live births in Tehran and Gilan provinces. For adults, provincial differences in mortality were much greater for males than females. Adult mortality (risk of dying between ages 15 and 60, or 45q15) for females varied between 0.133 in Kerman province and 0.117 in Tehran province; for males the range was from 0.218 in Kerman to 0.149 in Tehran province. Life expectancy for females was highest in Tehran province (73.8 years) and lowest in Sistan and Baluchistan (70.9 years). For males, life expectancy ranged from 65.7 years in Sistan and Baluchistan province to 70.9 years in Tehran. Conclusion: Substantial differences in survival exist among the provinces of Iran. While the completeness of the death registration system operated by the Iranian MOH&ME appears to be acceptable in the majority of provinces, further efforts are needed to improve the quality of data on mortality in Iran, and to expand death registration to Tehran province

Understanding metric-related pitfalls in image analysis validation

Validation metrics are key for the reliable tracking of scientific progress and for bridging the current chasm between artificial intelligence (AI) research and its translation into practice. However, increasing evidence shows that particularly in image analysis, metrics are often chosen inadequately in relation to the underlying research problem. This could be attributed to a lack of accessibility of metric-related knowledge: While taking into account the individual strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of validation metrics is a critical prerequisite to making educated choices, the relevant knowledge is currently scattered and poorly accessible to individual researchers. Based on a multi-stage Delphi process conducted by a multidisciplinary expert consortium as well as extensive community feedback, the present work provides the first reliable and comprehensive common point of access to information on pitfalls related to validation metrics in image analysis. Focusing on biomedical image analysis but with the potential of transfer to other fields, the addressed pitfalls generalize across application domains and are categorized according to a newly created, domain-agnostic taxonomy. To facilitate comprehension, illustrations and specific examples accompany each pitfall. As a structured body of information accessible to researchers of all levels of expertise, this work enhances global comprehension of a key topic in image analysis validation.Comment: Shared first authors: Annika Reinke, Minu D. Tizabi; shared senior authors: Paul F. J\"ager, Lena Maier-Hei

Sustaining Community under Empire: An Archaeological Investigation of Long-Term Agricultural Production and Imperial Interventions at Dhiban, Jordan, 1000 BCE - 1450 CE

Large, pre-modern complex agricultural societies faced signicant environmental and social challenges in sustaining and maintaining the intensication of agricultural production that facilitated wide-scale redistributive food systems. Yet how agricultural societies embedded in larger social and economic networks balanced the needs of non-local political entities and the necessities of everyday local life is not often explored for communities living on the margins of polities who utilized written language. The archaeological site of Dhiban in the contemporary Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has been occupied for at least 3,000 years by sedentary agricultural communities. Nevertheless, regional elites wrote little about the settlement. It is still unknown how successive communities managed to flourish despite the environmental challenges of inhabiting a semi-arid landscape with annual precipitation too low for reliable rain-fed farming. This dissertation focuses on the Byzantine (300 - 640 CE) and Mamluk (1260 - 1450 CE) empires, who oversaw two separate attempts to increase the production of agricultural goods within their respective political territories. The specific trajectories and economic prerogatives of those empires differed, and therefore provide insight into how varying political and ideological institutions affected local lifeways at Dhiban. Archaeological data derived from the excavation of the mounded archaeological site in 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013, and the high-resolution sampling, recovery, and analysis of paleoethnobotanical data, combine to explore empirically the local agricultural practices of historical farmers in Dhiban and their responses to state intervention via the agricultural economy. Contrary to perceptions of timeless and unchanging agricultural practices in southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean, the results of the project reveal that communities at Dhiban in these two periods exercised considerable agency in the choice of agricultural crops, the composition of agricultural fields, and the organization of agricultural labor and crop processing. Mamluk period archaeological deposits contain paleoethnobotanical evidence of an irrigated wheat and barley monocropping strategy with signicant crop-processing occurring on site, although there is also archaeological evidence of periodic site abandonment. Byzantine period deposits, in contrast, contain no evidence of abandonment, and little crop-processing occurring on site. Nevertheless new varieties of agricultural crops appear in Mamluk period deposits, such as plum and sorghum, as a result of trade or garden-plot cultivation. Therefore, although these communities faced environmental constraints in the range of crops that could be grown, and participated in the unique economic networks of each political intervention, they demonstrated choice in the kinds and proportions of agricultural goods produced. The theoretical contributions of this project thus apply both to the archaeological and general scientic community concerned with sustainability by providing a diachronic paleoethnobotanical data-set nuanced by the influence of human decision-making

Sustainably Managing Reservoir Storage: Ancient Roots of a Modern Challenge

Sedimentation is a major issue for water systems worldwide, but the need for sustainable sediment management is rarely addressed. This article surveys the problem of sedimentation in the contemporary sphere in addition to drawing on archaeological evidence of past unsustainable and sustainable sedimentation management practices. A compact characterization scheme is presented for identifying the scale of sedimentation management, both past and present. The results of the research illustrate that communities have grappled with issues of sedimentation for as long as water storage has existed. System failure from sedimentation is therefore not inevitable, but arises from a combination of social and biophysical factors

Applied archaeobotany of southwest Asia: a tribute to Naomi F. Miller

Please note: this work is permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for this item. To request private access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form.First author draft2030-01-0