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nullThe president and supreme leader of Islamic Republic of Iran are among the most identifiable figures of the Iranian regime, and represent two institutions highly consequential for Iranian policy-making. This work is an investigation of the development and interaction of these institutions from the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1979, as well as a comparison of the presidential tenures since 1989. It focuses on substantial effects on Iranian policy which result from formal changes to the institutions as well as their roles in Iranian politics.An examination of events shows that interaction between the two institutions do not have a significant impact on Iranian policy, which is singularly determined by the supreme leader, who is the most powerful actor in the regime. The president does, however have the ability to shape the country's economic, civil and cultural development, but this is highly dependent on the acquiescence of the Supreme Leader. Competition between the two institutions, when it occurs, is representative of factional struggles to determine the regime's survival strategy, which dictates its orientation between preservation of the establishment's interests on one side and change and development on the other

A Network Coding-Aware Directional Broadcast Routing Scheme for VANET

Recent technological advancements in wireless communications are fundamentally changing the manner by which devices communicates with one another. Modern wireless devices build networks on their own and aid each other in passing information to any device in the network. The aim of this research is to design and develop a robust routing protocol using network coding technique for Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). The purpose of the protocol is to disseminate vehicular traffic to the vehicles approaching the problem area, rather than those leaving the problem area. The designed protocol during the research will be more robust, reliable, and efficient with topology change. In this research, network coding and geographical routing models will be used to develop network coding based VANET routing protocol for alerting vehicles approaching the accident area and emergency message dissemination. The network coding model assumed will serve to increase throughput, in this sense reducing packet loss which will provide a robust broadcast routing protocol

A Network Coding-Aware Directional Broadcast Routing Scheme for VANET

Recent technological advancements in wireless communications are fundamentally changing the manner by which devices communicates with one another. Modern wireless devices build networks on their own and aid each other in passing information to any device in the network. The aim of this research is to design and develop a robust routing protocol using network coding technique for Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). The purpose of the protocol is to disseminate vehicular traffic to the vehicles approaching the problem area, rather than those leaving the problem area. The designed protocol during the research will be more robust, reliable, and efficient with topology change. In this research, network coding and geographical routing models will be used to develop network coding based VANET routing protocol for alerting vehicles approaching the accident area and emergency message dissemination. The network coding model assumed will serve to increase throughput, in this sense reducing packet loss which will provide a robust broadcast routing protocol

Thigh-length compression stockings and DVT after stroke

Controversy exists as to whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in patients with invasive bladder cancer, despite randomised controlled trials of more than 3000 patients. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of such treatment on survival in patients with this disease

Azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatory actions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once per day by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatment groups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment and were twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants and local study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to the outcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936. Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) were eligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was 65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomly allocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall, 561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median 10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, no significant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24). Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restricted to patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication. Funding UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research