A WORKFLOW MODEL TO SUPPORT LOCATION BASED PARTICIPATION TO POLICY MAKING PROCESSES

This paper aims to propose PMWF model, a new workflow model to automate ubiquitous policy making processes and facilitate citizen participation. While workflow technology has been widely adopted in public sector, the use of technology is mostly limited to supporting back-end administrative business processes. PMWF model targets front-end policy making processes that require active participation of large number of citizens. Automatic delivery of relevant policy issues into citizen’s life is expected to enhance their participation in policy formulation and implementation processes. PMWF model provides modelling constructs to link back-end admin tasks by policy makers to front-end opinion tasks whose main actors are citizens. The core constructs for linkage is opinion-tag which contains policy issues and is attached to geographical objects so that citizens can identify relevant policy issues in the middle of their every-day life patterns. The proposed model is applied to real world policy making processes in the UK and Turkey to show its generality

Co-authorship Networks of Iranian Researchers' Publications on the Field of Management during a Half-Century (1969-2018)

As one of the main bibliometric concepts, co-authorship has been thoughtfully considered in recent years. Despite many bibliometric studies on the co-authorship in different scientific fields and worldwide countries/regions, Iranian researchers' collaboration in the management field has not been studied. This study aimed to investigate the co-authorship networks in the management papers contributed by Iranian researchers indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) during the recent half-century (years, 1969-2018). Bibliometric data on 5414 papers were extracted from WoS and analyzed in Excel, UCINET, and VOSviewer to measure bibliometric indicators, the map needed co-authorship networks, and depict time-based maps and keyword clustering. Findings showed that co-authored papers increased from two items in 1973 to 721 items in 2018. Expert Systems with Applications, African Journal of Business Management, and International Journal of Production Research were ranked first to third in co-authored papers. Top 20 authors published about 17% of papers (946). Islamic Azad University, University of Tehran, and the Amirkabir University of Technology ranked first to third. Most co-authorship frequencies were made from 2012 to 2014. The first to third ranks of collaborating countries were the USA, Canada, and England. Six main keyword clusters were formed, including main topics in the field. In conclusion, Iranian researchers increasingly co-authored in management, especially during the last decade, and published in various journals that some top ones are prestigious journals. However, some gaps need to be bridged by the low contribution of research institutes and universities countrywide and the limited number of authors with high productivity and low collaboration with neighbor countries and influential universities worldwide.https://dorl.net/dor/ 20.1001.1.20088302.2022.20.1.19.

Social Media and Youth Participatory Politics: A Study of University Students

The present paper investigated the role of social media in youth participatory politics. A survey of university students was conducted in March, 2013. The findings of the present study indicated that a large number of the respondents participated in political activities through social media. Facebook provided the respondents with common platform to discuss issues confronting Pakistani society. Respondents’ engagement with discussion on national issues was significantly related with their participation in political campaigns and persuasion to vote in upcoming elections 2013. A small proportion of the respondents participated in traditional political activities. This finding underscored the need to enhance youth participation in institutional politics to cultivate civic minds.&nbsp

GUT SYMPTOMS LINKED WITH COVID-19 : A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

The most prevalent symptoms at the onset of COVID-19 are fever, cough, fatigue, myalgia, and dyspnea (shortness of breath). Initially, it was thought that the virus only causes respiratory distress in patients until the viral RNA has been detected in the patient's stool. Recently, several new studies have depicted that COVID-19 has impact on gut patients. We hypothesized that, there may have a link between gut symptoms and COVID-19. Therefore, the present study was reviewed to explore this study question; searches were conducted to identify the articles related to the association between gut symptoms and COVID-19, which were published between 2019 to 2020. Multiple searches were conducted in Google Scholar and ResearchGate using keywords. In this review, a total of 2639 cases of COVID-19 from 20 articles had been analyzed with special emphasize on gut symptoms. Among 20 studies, Diarrhea (highest 71.62% and lowest 2%) was the most prevalent symptoms, respectively, nausea (highest 17.1% and lowest 1%) & vomiting (highest 16.7% and lowest 1%), anorexia (highest 66.7% and lowest 17.9%), and abdominal pain (highest 8.8% and lowest 1.9%). Along with the main symptoms, we studied some commonly associated symptoms, such as, fever (highest 98.6% and lowest 55.6%) and coughing (highest 91.67% and lowest 35%) were heavily linked with COVID 19. Despite all the GI symptoms associated with COVID 19, there are currently no recommendations for a diagnostic approach in the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms associated with the corona virus, and there is no definitive knowledge of the role of COVID-19 in the gastrointestinal diseases. So, further studies are needed to identify the better relationship between gut symptoms and SARS-CoV-2 for suppressing the spread of COVID-19.Peer reviewe

Solitons in magneto-optic waveguides with Kudryashov’s law nonlinear refractive index for coupled system of generalized nonlinear Schrödinger’s equation using modified extended mapping method

In this work, we investigate the optical solitons and other waves through magneto-optic waveguides with Kudryashov’s law of nonlinear refractive index in the presence of chromatic dispersion and Hamiltonian-type perturbation factors using the modified extended mapping approach. Many classifications of solutions are established like bright solitons, dark solitons, singular solitons, singular periodic wave solutions, exponential wave solutions, rational wave, solutions, Weierstrass elliptic doubly periodic solutions, and Jacobi elliptic function solutions. Some of the extracted solutions are described graphically to provide their physical understanding of the acquired solutions

Characterization of Tomato Leaf Curl New Delhi Virus infecting cucurbits: Evidence for sap transmission in a host specific manner

Sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrica) is an economically important vegetable crop cultivated throughout India and this crop is severely affected by yellow mosaic disease caused by begomovirus. In this study, an attempt was made to transmit the begomovirus by sap. The causal agent was easily transmitted by sap to ridge gourd, sponge gourd and Nicotiana  benthamiana. Several factors affecting the efficient sap transmission of causal virus was identified. Use of two antioxidant (sodium sulphite and β-mercaptoethanol) and two abrasive (celite and corborundum) and application of inoculum on first true leaves and cotyledons by rubbing with cotton swab, dipped in inoculum resulted in significant higher rate of transmission. The sap inoculation protocol resulted in variable percentage of infected plants from different factors like buffer combinations, source of inoculum, age of inoculum, genotypes of test plants, and species of plants, temperature, seasons and organic materials. The most susceptible growth stage of ridge gourd plant to sap inoculation was seven days old seedlings that produced 100% infection. The sap transmission was confirmed by coat protein gene polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, cloning and sequencing from infected plants. Sap transmission of begomovirus infecting luffa has not been reported previously in India.Keywords: Sap transmission, begomovirus, Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV), cucurbitsAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(32), pp. 5000-500

Performance of the TIMI risk score in predicting mortality after primary percutaneous coronary intervention in elderly women: Results from a developing country

Background: Despite women undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) having a higher rate of adverse outcomes than men, data evaluating prognostic risk scores, especially in elderly women, remains scarce. This study was conducted to validate the predictive value of Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) risk score in elderly female patients. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of elderly (\u3e65 years) female patients who underwent PPCI for ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) from October 2016 to September 2018. Patients\u27 demographic details and elements of TIMI risk score including age, co-morbidities, Killip classification; weight, anterior MI and total ischemic time were extracted from hospital records. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality and post-discharge mortality reported on telephonic follow-up. Results: A total of 404 elderly women with a median age of 70 years were included. The mean TIMI score was 5.25±1.45 with 40.3% (163) patients of TIMI score \u3e 5. In-hospital mortality rate was 6.4% (26) and was found to be associated with TIMI score (p\u3c0.001). The in-hospital mortality rate increased from 3.1% at TIMI score of 0-4 to 34.6% at the score of 8. On follow-up (16.43±7.40 months) of 211 (55.8%) patients, the overall mortality rate was 20.3%, and this was also associated with TIMI score (p\u3c0.001). The mortality rate increased from 5.6% at the score of 0-4 to 54.5% at the score of 8. The predictive values (area under the curve) of TIMI risk score for in-hospital and post-discharge mortality were 0.709 (95% CI 0.591-0.827; p \u3c0.001) and 0.689 (95% CI 0.608-0.770; p \u3c0.001), respectively. Conclusion: Increased adverse outcomes were observed with higher TIMI risk score for in hospital and post-discharge follow-up. Therefore, the prognostic TIMI risk score is a robust tool in predicting both in-hospital as well as post-discharge mortality in elderly females

Hepatoprotective Effects of Silybum marianum

Oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, and transaminase reactions are some of the mechanisms that can lead to liver dysfunction. A time-dependent study was designed to evaluate the ability of silymarin (SLN) and glycyrrhizin (GLN) in different dosage regimens to lessen oxidative stress in the rats with hepatic injury caused by the hepatotoxin carbon tetrachloride. Wistar male albino rats (n = 60) were randomly assigned to six groups. Group A served as a positive control while groups B, C, D, E, and F received a dose of CCl4 (50% solution of CCl4 in liquid paraffin, 2 mL/kg, intraperitoneally) twice a week to induce hepatic injury. Additionally, the animals received SLN and GLN in different doses for a period of six weeks. CCl4 was found to induce hepatic injury by significantly increasing serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances while decreasing total protein and the activities of reduced glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and catalase. Treatment with various doses of SLN and GLN significantly reduced ALT, AST, ALP, and TBARS levels and increased GSH, SOD, and CAT levels. Our findings indicated that SLN and GLN have hepatoprotective effects against oxidative stress of the liver

Research priorities to reduce the impact of COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries

publishedVersio

Global, regional, and national sex-specific burden and control of the HIV epidemic, 1990-2019, for 204 countries and territories: the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2019

Background: The sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Understanding the current state of the HIV epidemic and its change over time is essential to this effort. This study assesses the current sex-specific HIV burden in 204 countries and territories and measures progress in the control of the epidemic. Methods: To estimate age-specific and sex-specific trends in 48 of 204 countries, we extended the Estimation and Projection Package Age-Sex Model to also implement the spectrum paediatric model. We used this model in cases where age and sex specific HIV-seroprevalence surveys and antenatal care-clinic sentinel surveillance data were available. For the remaining 156 of 204 locations, we developed a cohort-incidence bias adjustment to derive incidence as a function of cause-of-death data from vital registration systems. The incidence was input to a custom Spectrum model. To assess progress, we measured the percentage change in incident cases and deaths between 2010 and 2019 (threshold >75% decline), the ratio of incident cases to number of people living with HIV (incidence-to-prevalence ratio threshold <0·03), and the ratio of incident cases to deaths (incidence-to-mortality ratio threshold <1·0). Findings: In 2019, there were 36·8 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 35·1–38·9) people living with HIV worldwide. There were 0·84 males (95% UI 0·78–0·91) per female living with HIV in 2019, 0·99 male infections (0·91–1·10) for every female infection, and 1·02 male deaths (0·95–1·10) per female death. Global progress in incident cases and deaths between 2010 and 2019 was driven by sub-Saharan Africa (with a 28·52% decrease in incident cases, 95% UI 19·58–35·43, and a 39·66% decrease in deaths, 36·49–42·36). Elsewhere, the incidence remained stable or increased, whereas deaths generally decreased. In 2019, the global incidence-to-prevalence ratio was 0·05 (95% UI 0·05–0·06) and the global incidence-to-mortality ratio was 1·94 (1·76–2·12). No regions met suggested thresholds for progress. Interpretation: Sub-Saharan Africa had both the highest HIV burden and the greatest progress between 1990 and 2019. The number of incident cases and deaths in males and females approached parity in 2019, although there remained more females with HIV than males with HIV. Globally, the HIV epidemic is far from the UNAIDS benchmarks on progress metrics. Funding: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Institute on Aging of the NIH