Status of Scientific production of University of Birjand in Web of Science during 2000-2018

The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the status of the scientific production of the University of Birjand on the Web of Science databases during the years 2000-2018. The method used in this study was descriptive which used scientometric technique. The findings showed that the researchers at the University of Birjand in WOS had the highest scientific collaboration with Ferdowsi University of Mashhad with 217 documents. Based on the findings of the research, the top 7 scientific clusters were extracted from the data obtained from the Web of Science database that the first to fourth clusters and sixth belonged to the field of chemistry and the fifth and seventh clusters belonged to geology. The results of the present study showed that the status of the University of Birjand in terms of scientific output among national and international universities is not very favorable. Since the production of science and its publication in internationally accredited journals is one of the key indicators in evaluating the national and international rankings of any university, it is necessary to monitor the status of the university\u27s scientific output on a continuous basis

Antibiotic susceptibility and high prevalence of extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing Escherichia coli in iranian broilers

Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producing Escherichia coli have rapidly spread worldwide and cause serious threats for public health. The study was conducted to determine the antibiotic resistance and characterization of ESBL producing E. coli strains isolated from broilers in Northern Iran. Antibiotic susceptibility test was done for a total of 100 isolates of E. coli, recovered from 240 broiler fecal samples at the slaughterhouse stage. ESBL production was screened using double-disc synergy test (DDST) and presence of four ESBL genes including blaPER, blaVEB, blaTEM and blaCTX-M was tested using PCR. Among 100 strains isolated from broilers, 53 were identified as ESBL-producing E. coli. All (100) ESBL positive isolates were typed according to the presence of one or two ESBL-associated genes. The most prevalent gene among ESBLs was CTX-M (60.3) and the PER gene was not present among isolates. All isolates in this study were resistant to colistin and nalidixic acid but were 100 sensitive to cefalexin and furazolidone. The results demonstrated the high prevalence of antibiotic resistant and ESBL producing E. coli among broilers which representing the risk of increasing these strains in human infections associated with food animals

Media-Based MIMO: A New Frontier in Wireless Communications

The idea of Media-based Modulation (MBM), is based on embedding information in the variations of the transmission media (channel state). This is in contrast to legacy wireless systems where data is embedded in a Radio Frequency (RF) source prior to the transmit antenna. MBM offers several advantages vs. legacy systems, including "additivity of information over multiple receive antennas", and "inherent diversity over a static fading channel". MBM is particularly suitable for transmitting high data rates using a single transmit and multiple receive antennas (Single Input-Multiple Output Media-Based Modulation, or SIMO-MBM). However, complexity issues limit the amount of data that can be embedded in the channel state using a single transmit unit. To address this shortcoming, the current article introduces the idea of Layered Multiple Input-Multiple Output Media-Based Modulation (LMIMO-MBM). Relying on a layered structure, LMIMO-MBM can significantly reduce both hardware and algorithmic complexities, as well as the training overhead, vs. SIMO-MBM. Simulation results show excellent performance in terms of Symbol Error Rate (SER) vs. Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). For example, a $4\times 16$ LMIMO-MBM is capable of transmitting $32$ bits of information per (complex) channel-use, with SER $\simeq 10^{-5}$ at $E_b/N_0\simeq -3.5$dB (or SER $\simeq 10^{-4}$ at $E_b/N_0=-4.5$dB). This performance is achieved using a single transmission and without adding any redundancy for Forward-Error-Correction (FEC). This means, in addition to its excellent SER vs. energy/rate performance, MBM relaxes the need for complex FEC structures, and thereby minimizes the transmission delay. Overall, LMIMO-MBM provides a promising alternative to MIMO and Massive MIMO for the realization of 5G wireless networks.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, additional examples are given to further explain the idea of Media-Based Modulation. Capacity figure adde

Multimodal Affective Feedback: Combining Thermal, Vibrotactile, Audio and Visual Signals

In this paper we describe a demonstration of our multimodal affective feedback designs, used in research to expand the emotional expressivity of interfaces. The feedback leverages inherent associations and reactions to thermal, vibrotactile, auditory and abstract visual designs to convey a range of affective states without any need for learning feedback encoding. All combinations of the different feedback channels can be utilised, depending on which combination best conveys a given state. All the signals are generated from a mobile phone augmented with thermal and vibrotactile stimulators, which will be available to conference visitors to see, touch, hear and, importantly, feel

Recent Advancements in Regenerative Dentistry: A Review

Although human mouth benefits from remarkable mechanical properties, it is very susceptible to traumatic damages, exposure to microbial attacks, and congenital maladies. Since the human dentition plays a crucial role in mastication, phonation and esthetics, finding promising and more efficient strategies to reestablish its functionality in the event of disruption has been important. Dating back to antiquity, conventional dentistry has been offering evacuation, restoration, and replacement of the diseased dental tissue. However, due to the limited ability and short lifespan of traditional restorative solutions, scientists have taken advantage of current advancements in medicine to create better solutions for the oral health field and have coined it “regenerative dentistry.” This new field takes advantage of the recent innovations in stem cell research, cellular and molecular biology, tissue engineering, and materials science etc. In this review, the recently known resources and approaches used for regeneration of dental and oral tissues were evaluated using the databases of Scopus and Web of Science. Scientists have used a wide range of biomaterials and scaffolds (artificial and natural), genes (with viral and non-viral vectors), stem cells (isolated from deciduous teeth, dental pulp, periodontal ligament, adipose tissue, salivary glands, and dental follicle) and growth factors (used for stimulating cell differentiation) in order to apply tissue engineering approaches to dentistry. Although they have been successful in preclinical and clinical partial regeneration of dental tissues, whole-tooth engineering still seems to be far-fetched, unless certain shortcomings are addressed