Agroterrorism; Iranian Criminal Policy

Background and Aim: This article presents some perspective on bioterrorism by focuses on Agroterrorism cases. This study focuses attention on the issue of Agroterrorismand discusses criminal response against it in Iranian Criminal law. Materials and Methods: A handful of studies and researches have been reviewed for preparing this study.Ethical Considerations:Honesty in the literature and citation analysis and reporting were considered.Findings: Agroterrorism attack may results in the agricultural and food industries, loss of confidence in government, and possibly human casualties. The fear of a bioterrorist attack in the world have changed public health in countries. Based on these facts, a sharp and quick response including criminal responses against this kind of terrorism to protect the safety of community as well as health policies is necessary.Conclusion: Agroterrorism is a new form of terrorism which falls in the realm of bioterrorism. This kind of offence against the community attracts policy makers’ high level of attentions. Iranian legislator amongst other policies prosecute offenders with article 286 of Penal Code: “Corruption on Earth”. This question that this title is appropriate to combat Agroterrorism depends on the extent of the behaviors results. This title belongs to situation that vast geographic area or huge number of populations was affected due to terroristic attacks. The punishment of offender(s) is capital punishment

Equity in Geographical Distribution of Medical Specialists in Iran

Background & Objectives: Fair distribution of healthcare personnel improves the society healthcare indicators. The aim of this study was to investigate the geographical distribution of medical specialists, based on their field of specialty, in Iran. Methods: The present research was a descriptive and cross- sectional study. Data related to the country population and the number of medical specialists working in hospitals affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education in each province were gathered from the reports of 2011 national census population and housing performed by Iran national statistics center. Data was analyzed through Excel software. Lorenz curve was drawn and Gini index was calculated. Results: There were 21.45 medical specialists per 100,000 population in Iran in 2011. Semnan had the highest (40.23) and North Khorasan had the lowest (11.7) medical specialists in the country. Gini index for medical specialists was calculated as 0.043. The greatest Gini index was observed for Neuropsychologists (0.080) and the smallest was seen for dermatologists (0.001). Conclusion: Although the ratio of medical specialists to the population differed in provinces of Iran, medical specialists were distributed fairly among provinces. It is recommended that in addition to distribution equity, policy makers pay more attention to the population medical needs in each region. Key¬words: Distribution equity, Gini index, Medical specialists, Lorenz curve ¬Citation: Mosadeghrad AM, Hashempour R, Veisy M. Equity in Geographical Distribution of Medical Specialists in Iran. Journal of Health Based Research 2017; 3(1): 25-37

Weighted Cumulative Past Extropy and Its Inference

This paper introduces and studies a new generalization of cumulative past extropy called weighted cumulative past extropy (WCPJ) for continuous random variables. We explore the following: if the WCPJs of the last order statistic are equal for two distributions, then these two distributions will be equal. We examine some properties of the WCPJ, and a number of inequalities involving bounds for WCPJ are obtained. Studies related to reliability theory are discussed. Finally, the empirical version of the WCPJ is considered, and a test statistic is proposed. The critical cutoff points of the test statistic are computed numerically. Then, the power of this test is compared to a number of alternative approaches. In some situations, its power is superior to the rest, and in some other settings, it is somewhat weaker than the others. The simulation study shows that the use of this test statistic can be satisfactory with due attention to its simple form and the rich information content behind it

Effect of Freezing Stress on Lipid Peroxidation and Antioxidant Enzyme Activities of Olive cvs. ‘Fishomi’ and ‘Roughani’

Changes in freezing injury percentage, lipid peroxidation (malonaldehyde formation), antioxidant enzymes activity and proline content were monitored in the leaves of olive cvs. ‘Fishomi’ and ‘Roughani’ under different freezing temperatures (-5, -10, -15 and -20°C for 10 h). The results showed that freezing injury (determined by electrolyte leakage analysis) and malonaldehyde (MDA) content of cv. ‘Fishomi’ were significantly lower than of cv. ‘Roughani’ ones. The activities of peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzymes of cv. ‘Fishomi’ were signifi cantly higher than those of cv. ‘Roughani’. However, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity of cv. ‘Roughani’ was higher than of cv. ‘Fishomi’. The proline accumulated in leaves of cv. ‘Fishomi’ was significantly higher than of cv. ‘Roughani’ during freezing stress. The results demonstrated that freezing injury percentage was positively correlated with ion leakage percentage and MDA content in both cultivars. In contrast, SOD, APX and CAT activities and also proline content were negatively correlated with freezing injury percentage. There was a significant negative correlation between PPO activity and freezing injury in cv. ‘Fishomi’. It can be concluded that the lower freezing injury percentage, ion leakage, and MDA content followed by the higher antioxidant enzyme activates as well as proline content in cv. ‘Fishomi’ is a consequence of more effective protective mechanisms

Conflict resolution in the multi-stakeholder stepped spillway design under uncertainty by machine learning techniques

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Inhibition of Polyphenol Oxidases and Peroxidase Activities in Green Table Olives by some Anti-browning Agents

Almost, all table olive cultivars are susceptible to the formation of brown spots due to mechanical damage during harvesting and processing. Therefore, application of some anti-browning agents might be an effective strategy to minimize unfavourable effects of enzymatic browning in green table olives. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of ascorbic acid (AA), citric acid (CA), oxalic acid (OA), 4-hexylresorcinol (HR) and sodium hexametaphosphate (NaHMP) on reducing enzymatic browning of four green table olive cultivars (\u27Mari\u27, \u27Shengeh\u27, \u27Manzanilla\u27 and \u27Zard\u27) fruit. The results showed that \u27Mari\u27 and ’Shengeh’ potentially had the highest browning index. AA could reduce peroxidase (POD) activity just in \u27Mari\u27, but NaHMP could beneficially suppress its activity in both cvs. \u27Manzanilla\u27 and \u27Mari\u27. In general, the monophenolase activity of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) was significantly higher than its diphenolase activity in all studied cultivars. The highest inhibitory effect on monophenolase activity was found in \u27Manzanilla\u27 fruit by CA and OA, while HR and NaHMP could suppress monophenolase activity of \u27Mari\u27 fruits. Diphenolase activity of PPO with pyrocatechol and dopamine HCl substrates was also dependent on olive cultivars. The minimum diphenolase activity of PPO for both substrates was found in \u27Zard\u27 fruit with the lowest browning index. The inhibitory effect of anti-browning agents on reducing diphenolase activity of PPO with dopamine hydrocholoride (DPOA) substrates was cultivar-dependend. Total phenolic content of treated fruits was higher than control. Overall, this result confirms that the potency of anti-browning agents on suppressing POD and PPOs enzymes that are involved in fruits browning was completely cultivar-dependend

Investigation of Polar and Nonpolar Cyclotides Separation from Violet Extract Through Microfluidic Chip

Cyclotides (CTs) as a cyclic peptide obtained from different groups of plants have been very attractable field of research for scientists because of their specific properties like their natural function as host defense agents. CTs are bioactive peptides from plants that characterized by their head-to-tail cyclic backbone and knotted arrangement of their three conserved disulfide bonds. Their natural function is thought to be as host defense agents and a single plant can express dozens to hundreds of CTs. CTs stand out as a family of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) because of their exceptional stability, structural plasticity, unique biochemical target, and Gram-negative selective antimicrobial action. These features together with recent advancements in the methods of production of CTs make them an intriguing prospect from a drug development perspective. To accomplish this aim, as part of a separation, detection and research of anti-cancer properties CTs study, we investigate the separation of cyclotides in violets into polar and non-polar groups by microfluidic chips

Global investments in pandemic preparedness and COVID-19: development assistance and domestic spending on health between 1990 and 2026

Background The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted gaps in health surveillance systems, disease prevention, and treatment globally. Among the many factors that might have led to these gaps is the issue of the financing of national health systems, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as a robust global system for pandemic preparedness. We aimed to provide a comparative assessment of global health spending at the onset of the pandemic; characterise the amount of development assistance for pandemic preparedness and response disbursed in the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic; and examine expectations for future health spending and put into context the expected need for investment in pandemic preparedness. Methods In this analysis of global health spending between 1990 and 2021, and prediction from 2021 to 2026, we estimated four sources of health spending: development assistance for health (DAH), government spending, out-of-pocket spending, and prepaid private spending across 204 countries and territories. We used the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s Creditor Reporting System (CRS) and the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database (GHED) to estimate spending. We estimated development assistance for general health, COVID-19 response, and pandemic preparedness and response using a keyword search. Health spending estimates were combined with estimates of resources needed for pandemic prevention and preparedness to analyse future health spending patterns, relative to need. Findings In 2019, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, US$9·2 trillion (95$7·3 trillion (95% UI 7·2–7·4) in 2019; 293·7 times the $24·8 billion (95$43·1 billion in development assistance was provided to maintain or improve health. The pandemic led to an unprecedented increase in development assistance targeted towards health; in 2020 and 2021, $1·8 billion in DAH contributions was provided towards pandemic preparedness in LMICs, and$37·8 billion was provided for the health-related COVID-19 response. Although the support for pandemic preparedness is 12·2% of the recommended target by the High-Level Independent Panel (HLIP), the support provided for the health-related COVID-19 response is 252·2% of the recommended target. Additionally, projected spending estimates suggest that between 2022 and 2026, governments in 17 (95% UI 11–21) of the 137 LMICs will observe an increase in national government health spending equivalent to an addition of 1% of GDP, as recommended by the HLIP. Interpretation There was an unprecedented scale-up in DAH in 2020 and 2021. We have a unique opportunity at this time to sustain funding for crucial global health functions, including pandemic preparedness. However, historical patterns of underfunding of pandemic preparedness suggest that deliberate effort must be made to ensure funding is maintained