On the Panoptical Eye of Self-Caring in Nabokov’s The Eye: A Foucauldian Analysis

Nabokov’s protagonist’s sufferings, suicide, and final happiness in The Eye (1930) can be analyzed through Foucault’s policy of the “care of the self” based on which an individual acts in a parrhesiastic relationship with himself to panoptically watch and discover himself. Smurov’s first-person I/eye sacrifices his former self to be reborn from the surveying eyes of his separated self. This Panopticon metaphor is bifurcated into the monopticon and the synopticon, the former letting Smurov externally watch over himself and the latter reflecting back to him others’ views of him. Thus, Smurov recognizes the true nature of his identity to be the sum of his concept of himself and his reflections in others’ minds. He recognizes that he is always being panoptically watched and created. His final happiness, therefore, emphasizes that identity stands in a symbiotic relationship with the surveillance of the self, without which the individual stays in darkness

The overlooked role of band-gap parameter in characterization of Landau levels in a gapped phase semi-Dirac system: the monolayer phosphorene case

Two-dimensional gapped semi-Dirac (GSD) materials are systems with a finite band gap that their charge carriers behave relativistically in one direction and Schr\"odinger-like in the other. In the present work, we show that besides the two well-known energy bands features (curvature and chirality), the band-gap parameter also play a crucial role in the index- and magnetic field-dependence of the Landau levels (LLs) in a GSD system. We take the monolayer phosphorene as a GSD representative example to explicitly provide physical insights into the role of this parameter in determining the index- and magnetic field-dependence of LLs. We derive an effective one-dimensional Schr\"odinger equation for charge carriers in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field and argue that the form of its effective potential is clearly sensitive to a dimensionless band-gap that is tunable by structural parameters. The theoretical magnitude of this effective gap and its interplay with oval shape $k$-space cyclotron orbits resolve the seeming contradiction in determining the type of the quantum Hall effect in the pristine monolayer phosphorene. Our results strongly confirm that the dependence of LLs on the magnetic field in this GSD material is as conventional two-dimensional semiconductor electron gases up to a very high field regime. Using the strain-induced gap modification scheme, we show the field dependence of the LLs continuously evolves into $B^{2/3}$ behavior, which holds for a gapless semi-Dirac system. The highlighted role of the band-gap parameter may affect the consequences of the band anisotropy in the physical properties of a GSD material, including magnetotransport, optical conductivity, dielectric function, and thermoelectric performance

Enabling informed policymaking for chronic kidney disease with a registry:Initiatory steps in Iran and the path forward

Objectives: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) registries have been used for more than half a century. Iran lacks a comprehensive registry to capture data of all CKD patients for an informed care planning and policy making. We aimed to identify the objectives and possible challenges for developing a CKD registry and also to define its minimum data set (MDS) in our healthcare context.Methods: This was a mixed-method study conducted in Iran from fall 2016 till summer 2017. The qualitative part included document analysis and 26 semi-structured interviews with 17 clinicians and managers involved in CKD care. This data was analyzed using the "grounded theory". Then, a modified Delphi survey was conducted. Percentages and mode values were used for analysis.Results: Our participants' leading interest in a CKD registry was centered on providing a coordinated, good-quality care for all CKD stages with particular emphasis to capture events and monitor trends for patients in earlier stages. They highlighted the required financial, technical and human resources as main challenges for a smooth registry implementation. Furthermore, a clinically oriented MDS comprising of 168 elements (with a majority having more than 90% agreement with mode 2) was extracted. It mainly collects demographics, medical history, encounter sessions, diagnostic examinations, medications, vaccinations and mortality data.Conclusions: We reported the initiatory steps taken to establish a CKD registry in an Iranian healthcare context. We focused on the information needs and priorities of our main stakeholders and based our intended registry on addressing those needs. We hope this approach will facilitate its endorsement and advance the efforts for a sustainable, good-quality CKD care. (C) 2018 Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The effects of Nigella sativa ethanolic extract on proliferation and apoptosis of renal cell carcinoma ACHN cell line

زمینه و هدف: سیاه دانه (Nigella sativa) گیاهی ازتیره آلاله٬ علفی، یک ساله یا پایا است. ترکیبات این گیاه دارای خواص ضد سرطانی هستند. این مطالعه با هدف بررسی اثر سایتوتوکسیک و آپوپتوتیک عصاره الکلی سیاهدانه بر روی رشد سلول های سرطانی کلیه انسان رده ACHN و سلول های غیر سرطانی سالم رده L929 انجام شد. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه تجربی غلظت های مختلف عصاره الکلی سیاهدانه در محیط کشت، روی سلول های ACHN و L929 اثر داده شد. پس از 24، 48 و 72 ساعت، تغییرات مورفولوژیک ایجاد شده با میکروسکوپ معکوس ارزیابی گردید. با آزمون MTT اثر غلظت های عصاره بر درصد سلول های زنده هر دو رده سلولی در زمان‌های مذکور، از نظر کمی بررسی شد. بررسی میزان آپوپتوز با کیت فسفاتیدیل سرین با استفاده ار دستگاه فلوسیتومتری مشخص گردید. داده ها با استفاده از آنالیز آماری واریانس یک طرفه و آزمون تعقیبی Tukeyآنالیز شد. یافته ها: نتایج آزمون MTT نشان داد که غلظت های µg/ml 750 و بالاتر عصاره بر سلول های رده ACHN و غلظت های µg/ml 1250 و بالاتر عصاره بر روی سلول های رده L929 موجب کاهش معنی دار تعداد سلول های زنده ACHN و L929 می گردد (05/0P(P. نتیجه گیری: با توجه به نتایج این پژوهش عصاره الکلی سیاهدانه دارای اثرات آپوپتوتیک و سایتوتوکسیک بر سلول های سرطانی رده ACHN در مقایسه با سلول های سالم L929 است. لذا می توان عصاره الکلی سیاهدانه را به عنوان ترکیبی با اثرات سایتوتوکسیک روی سلول های سرطانی در درمان سرطان کلیه پیشنهاد کرد

Enabling informed policymaking for chronic kidney disease with a registry:Initiatory steps in Iran and the path forward

Objectives: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) registries have been used for more than half a century. Iran lacks a comprehensive registry to capture data of all CKD patients for an informed care planning and policy making. We aimed to identify the objectives and possible challenges for developing a CKD registry and also to define its minimum data set (MDS) in our healthcare context.Methods: This was a mixed-method study conducted in Iran from fall 2016 till summer 2017. The qualitative part included document analysis and 26 semi-structured interviews with 17 clinicians and managers involved in CKD care. This data was analyzed using the "grounded theory". Then, a modified Delphi survey was conducted. Percentages and mode values were used for analysis.Results: Our participants' leading interest in a CKD registry was centered on providing a coordinated, good-quality care for all CKD stages with particular emphasis to capture events and monitor trends for patients in earlier stages. They highlighted the required financial, technical and human resources as main challenges for a smooth registry implementation. Furthermore, a clinically oriented MDS comprising of 168 elements (with a majority having more than 90% agreement with mode 2) was extracted. It mainly collects demographics, medical history, encounter sessions, diagnostic examinations, medications, vaccinations and mortality data.Conclusions: We reported the initiatory steps taken to establish a CKD registry in an Iranian healthcare context. We focused on the information needs and priorities of our main stakeholders and based our intended registry on addressing those needs. We hope this approach will facilitate its endorsement and advance the efforts for a sustainable, good-quality CKD care. (C) 2018 Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

An Efficient and One-pot Procedure for the Synthesis of Chiral Isoxazolidine via Catalytic Highly Enantioselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition

Abstract Synthesis of enantiomerically pure isoxazolidine via an asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrone with electron-deficient dipolarophile was described. The process occurs at room temperature in aqueous ethanol as a green solvent and in the presence of a bidendate bis(imine)-Cu(II)triflate complex as catalyst. The reaction mechanism is discussed on the basis of the assignment of the absolute configuration of the cycloadducts

Strong cosmic censorship conjecture at the dust black hole collapse

The cosmic censorship conjecture proposed by Penrose states that the singularity of a black hole is covered by the event horizon and is not naked. The first examples of violation of this conjecture are from the models of the spherical collapse of the perfect fluid black hole in the dust state. In this article, we examine an important class of LTB spherical dust collapse models in which there is a naked singularity. We will first show that the singularity of a black hole will be spacelike. We then show that the event horizon will be outside the singularity. We will also show that if the energy condition is met, the famous category of these models will not have a naked singularity. We will conclude that the strong cosmic censorship conjecture will be hel

The Evolution of Natural Law and its Impact on Construction of Electoral Rights

In spite of its being repetitive, the phrase "natural law" has been used with different meanings and notions. The new meaning of natural law has had important role in foundation of democratic societies in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and is relevant with election rights notion. Therefore the power of the idea of natural law is based upon the fact that it has been essential for the explanation of constitution of modern States and the performance of new political role of people. Hence its substantive trace can be observed in the constitutions of most democratic States and also in some statutes especially in election rights. In fact the democratic election rights in modern societies are based upon the modernized human natural rights and were guaranteed in a lot of constitutions. A lot of human rights categories such as liberty, equality and the right of political participation were used for the justification of democratic election rights and somehow it resulted in survival and dynamism of these notions in literature and legal order of modern age. واژة قانون طبیعی به‌رغم تکراری بودنش در دوره‎های مختلف، حامل معانی و مفاهیم متفاوتی بوده است. معنای نوین قانون طبیعی در قرون هفدهم و هجدهم میلادی در بسترسازی جوامع دموکراتیک نقش بسزایی داشته و با مقوله حقوق انتخابات مرتبط است. لذا قدرت اندیشه قانون طبیعی از این روست که در تبیین ایجاد دولت‎های مدرن و ایفای نقش جدید سیاسی مردم اهمیت بسیاری داشته است. بنابراین رد پای عمیقی از آن در قانون اساسی اغلب کشورهای دموکراتیک و همچنین در بعضی از حقوق موضوعه از جمله حقوق انتخاباتی دیده می‎شود. در واقع حقوق انتخابات دموکراتیک در جوامع مدرن بر مبنای حقوق طبیعی بشر که مدرنیزه شده بود، تحقق یافت و در بسیاری از قوانین اساسی تضمین گردید. بسیاری از مقولات حقوق بشری چون آزادی، برابری، حق مشارکت سیاسی در توجیه حقوق انتخابات دموکراتیک به کار گرفته شد و به نوعی منجر به بقا و پویایی این مفاهیم در ادبیات و نظم حقوقی عصر مدرن گردید