Contribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Country’S H-Index

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development on country’s scientific ranking as measured by H-index. Moreover, this study applies ICT development sub-indices including ICT Use, ICT Access and ICT skill to find the distinct effect of these sub-indices on country’s H-index. To this purpose, required data for the panel of 14 Middle East countries over the period 1995 to 2009 is collected. Findings of the current study show that ICT development increases the H-index of the sample countries. The results also indicate that ICT Use and ICT Skill sub-indices positively contribute to higher H-index but the effect of ICT access on country’s H-index is not clear

Staging Romanticism and Dissidence in Howard Brenton’s Bloody Poetry

Staging history is an approach of historicism that is widely practiced by the post-1968 British playwrights. Historical playwriting not only helps to identify and unmask repressive power institutions, but also to question the conventional trends in writing history in general. One of these playwrights is Howard Brenton. By staging the history of romanticism in the early nineteenth century and the self-imposed exile of Romantic figures in his play Bloody Poetry (1984) Brenton attempts to achieve multiple purposes. By using literary analysis and historical reading, the researchers identify the causes of Shelley-Byron circle’s self-exile and the way in which a dissident discourse is formed as an opposition to the mechanism of disciplinary power and one of its powerful discourses which is journalism.  In addition to this, they explore Brenton’s main politics of representation of the role and function of poet-intellectual in public and how literature as a dissident discourse may function under the administration of Margaret Thatcher in the UK in the 1980s

Contribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Country’S H-Index

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development on country’s scientific ranking as measured by H-index. Moreover, this study applies ICT development sub-indices including ICT Use, ICT Access and ICT skill to find the distinct effect of these sub-indices on country’s H-index. To this purpose, required data for the panel of 14 Middle East countries over the period 1995 to 2009 is collected. Findings of the current study show that ICT development increases the H-index of the sample countries. The results also indicate that ICT Use and ICT Skill sub-indices positively contribute to higher H-index but the effect of ICT access on country’s H-index is not clear

Power & Surveillant Gaze in Howard Barker’s The Gaoler’s Ache

One of the goals of Howard Barker’s Theatre of Catastrophe is to challenge conventional view of historical events and writing of history. Barker’s historical approach is to first identify the repressive power institutions and their destructive effects on the lives of characters, then take up an uncompromising stance against the discourse of authority that tries to construct history according to its ends and attitudes. The Gaoler’s Ache (1998) is a play by which Barker represents the post-Revolutionary France and the exercise of disciplinary mechanism of power in a society that by means of surveillance and domination over the body, the revolutionaries cast off the monarchy and make the imprisoned queen an abject, an object of gaze and disgrace. Yet the abject queen by expressing her sexuality openly attempts to subvert the patriarchal and authoritarian society of the revolutionary State. In this respect the researchers, by using Foucauldian analysis and close reading, explore the way in which Barker makes use of the two notions of surveillance and abjection coined by the French thinkers Foucault and Kristeva respectively to stage how under the pressure of history and its constitutive discourses modes of resistance such as sexual self-making are anticipated

Prevalence rate of laboratory defined aspirin resistance in cardiovascular disease patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the first cause of mortality worldwide, with all the healthcare systems facing this very challenging issue. Aspirin continues to be the major gold-standard treatment worldwide in the prevention of thrombotic disease in patients with CVD, even though not all individuals respond to antiplatelet therapy in a similar way, being resistant to aspirin. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of laboratory defined aspirin resistance in CVD patients worldwide. Methods: Relevant articles were identified through searching EMBASE, PubMed/ MEDLINE, ISI /Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library, from January 2000 to February 2018. The methodological quality of the included studies was critically appraised using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. The pooled prevalence of laboratory defined aspirin resistance was computed using the Der Simonian-Laird random-effect model. Results: We included 65 studies, with a total of 10,729 patients. The overall prevalence of laboratory defined aspirin resistance in CVD patients was 24.7 (95%CI 21.4-28.4. Women were found to be at increased risk of laboratory defined aspirin resistance compared to men, with an odds ratio of 1.16 95%CI 0.87-1.54 Conclusion: Doctors and healthcare providers should pay special attention to aspirin resistance since lack of awareness could cause problems and increase mortality in these patients, if not properly treated with higher aspirin doses. © 2020 Caspian Journal of Internal Medicine. All rights reserved

The Use of Low-Level Laser Therapy to Reduce Postoperative Morbidity After Third Molar Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose Surgical removal of third molars carries morbidity and significantly affects patients' quality-of-life. This study aims to investigate whether administration of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) is effective in reducing postoperative morbidity in patients undergoing surgical removal of mandibular third molars compared with placebo. Material and Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis involving a comprehensive search strategy implemented across 5 electronic databases. This was supplemented by hand searching and contacting international experts and grey literature. Titles, abstracts, and full articles were scrutinized for studies meeting the inclusion criteria. All randomized controlled trials comparing treatment group of LLLT with a placebo control group were eligible for inclusion. The outcomes variables were postoperative pain, swelling, and trismus. Risk of bias and methodological quality assessment was carried out. We pooled data statistically, and meta-analyses were carried out using a random-effects model. Results Seventeen randomized controlled trials were included in this systematic review, all of which were considered to have a low risk of bias. Participants, aged 13 to 70 years, and 35% women, totaled 1064. Meta-analyses found significant reductions in standardized mean differences (SMDs) in swelling at day 2 and day 7 postoperatively (SMD, −0.611; 95% confidence interval, −0.968, −0.234 and SMD, −0.532; 95% confidence interval, −0.795, −0.269). There were nonsignificant reductions in SMD in pain and trismus at day 2 and day 7 postoperatively. Conclusions LLLT significantly reduces swelling after extraction of mandibular third molars compared with placebo. LLLT has not shown to reduce postoperative pain and trismus. LLLT does not cause adverse effects. There is currently insufficient evidence available, to promote the investment in LLLT vs the net clinical benefit. Randomized controlled trials with larger sample size and standardized study design and outcome measures are required, to make definitive recommendations to clinicians on its use on patients

Iranian Intellectuals and Class Conflict in Akbar Radi’s Melody of a Rainy City

In the plays of Akbar Radi, a prominent contemporary Iranian playwright, the concept of intellectual is of particular importance. Several of his dramas stage the intellectuals facing their internal and external problems, and the way in which they are understood in public. In his major play Melody of a Rainy City (2013), Radi represents Gramscian types of intellectuals, that is, traditional and organic, to re-consider them in Iranian context. His play staging the 1940s Iran under the occupation of Anglo-Soviet military forces deals with class warfare in Iranian society which finally resulted in the disappearance of feudalism and the development of bourgeois culture. Therefore, this study, by using social history of Iran and close reading of the text, explores intellectual discourse in Radi’s Melody of a Rainy City. The most important research finding is that Radi by uniting Gramscian intellectuals along with considering Iranian traditional background, aims to develop a new definition of domestic intellectuals seeking for effective participation in facilitating the development process, truly essential for implementation of modernization programs, in Iranian society

Power & Surveillant Gaze in Howard Barker’s The Gaoler’s Ache

One of the goals of Howard Barker’s Theatre of Catastrophe is to challenge conventional view of historical events and writing of history. Barker’s historical approach is to first identify the repressive power institutions and their destructive effects on the lives of characters, then take up an uncompromising stance against the discourse of authority that tries to construct history according to its ends and attitudes. The Gaoler’s Ache (1998) is a play by which Barker represents the post-Revolutionary France and the exercise of disciplinary mechanism of power in a society that by means of surveillance and domination over the body, the revolutionaries cast off the monarchy and make the imprisoned queen an abject, an object of gaze and disgrace. Yet the abject queen by expressing her sexuality openly attempts to subvert the patriarchal and authoritarian society of the revolutionary State. In this respect the researchers, by using Foucauldian analysis and close reading, explore the way in which Barker makes use of the two notions of surveillance and abjection coined by the French thinkers Foucault and Kristeva respectively to stage how under the pressure of history and its constitutive discourses modes of resistance such as sexual self-making are anticipated