Character Design in Al-Inju School of Persian Miniature Painting in the Eighth Century (Study Samples: Shāhnāmeh 733 AH and Samak-e Ayyār Illustrated Manuscripts

Problem Definition: Among the schools of miniature paintings, those paintings left from the Shiraz school of the eighth century AH are significant and unique due to the preservation of the artistic traditions of ancient Iran and their expressive approach. Considering that the composition of the paintings based on the arrangement of the figures was one of the main features of the Shiraz school of miniature painting in the Al-Inju period, this study aimed to study and compare the method of characterization in the paintings of two illustrated manuscripts left from the Shiraz school, namely Samak-e Ayyār with 80 images and the Shāhnāmeh 733 AH with 52 images. In addition, it provides explanations about the characterization and design of the figures in Al-Inju miniature paintings and addresses the similarities and differences between the images of these two illustrated manuscripts.Objective: The present study aimed to identify and investigate the characterization of the Shiraz school of miniature painting through the visual analysis of the two illustrated manuscripts of Shāhnāmeh 733 (St. Petersburg) and Samak-e Ayyār (Oxford).Research Method: This research is qualitative in terms of the nature of data and is fundamental considering the purpose. Data collection is a library-based approach, and various instruments such as observation and checklist have been used in compiling the data and writing the research results.Results: The characters in the studied paintings can be divided into six groups based on their social status: kings, court women, non-court women, female Ayyār, servants, and warriors. The results of this study indicate that each of these six groups differs in following the visual conventions in terms of the type of costume and their physical placement mode in the paintings; the style and position of the characters in the two versions of paintings show their personality traits and social status in each story. In this way, the appearance and design of human characters are the same in both manuscripts, but the way the painter deals with the characters in each version is different. The painter of the Samak-e Ayyār illustrated manuscript has provided more painting space for high-ranking characters, including kings. He portrayed kings, both good and evil, sitting on thrones while the painter of Shāhnāmeh 733 AH manuscript has considered the throne as a place to show royal oppression; the kings were not depicted seated on the throne in Shāhnāmeh manuscript unless they were on the side of evil

HIV infection and hepatitis B seroprevalence among antenatal clinic attendees in Niger, West Africa

This transversal study was suggested in order to estimate the nationwide seroprevalences of HIV infection and hepatitis B among 495 pregnant women in Niger in 2008. The study detected anti-HIV antibodies with Genscreen® Plus HIV Ag/Ab Ultra Kit (Bio-Rad; Hercules, CA), Vironostika® HIV Uni-Form II Ag/Ab (bioMérieux; Marcy-l’Etoile, France), and ImmunoComb® II HIV 1 and 2 BiSpot (Orgenics; Yavne, Israel). HBsAg was detected by Monolisa® HBsAg Ultra (Bio-Rad) and ImmunoComb® II HBsAg (Orgenics). The rates obtained were 2.02% (95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.03%–3.81%) and 16.16% (95% CI: 13.09%–19.77%), respectively. There were no significant variations according to environment, region, age, marital status, educational level, antecedent of surgery and transfusion. But these data need a large sample, and periodic updates for a better planning of activities in the framework of a national reproductive health program, including prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission