Evaluation of he Impacts of Agricultural Indicators on Rural Development (Case Study: Sahneh Dehestan, Sahneh County)

The ten-thousand-year history of our country, Iran, indicates the interaction between the village and agriculture in different dimensions. Agriculture has a fundamental and decisive role in the destiny of the rural society of Iran and it cannot be expected to achieve sustainable development without having a stable and logical solution for agriculture. Due to existing challenges, it cannot have the possible effect on rural development. This article aims to organize the capabilities of the agricultural sector in order to have a greater impact on rural development in search of the most important agricultural factors affecting the rural development of the region. in this study, the research method is applied and based on its nature, is descriptive-analytical, and two documentary methods based on library studies and field method based on questionnaires were used to collect information, and for this purpose, 358 people from rural households and 234 people from the farmers of the village were randomly questioned. To determine the reliability of the first questionnaire, the number of 30 questionnaires among the villagers and farmers of Sahne District was calculated and its Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated and the result was about 0.85. Factor analysis and regression analysis methods have been used to analyze the data. As a result, 5 factors were identified as the explanatory factors of agriculture. Examining the relationship between the five factors and rural indicators showed that most of the factors extracted in the two sections are related

Evaluating the Challenges of Peasant Operators and its Effects on Rural Development with Structural Equations Approach (Case study: Zanjan Province, Iran)

The aim of the research, which was carried out with a combination of descriptive-analytical methods, is to investigate the challenges of peasant operators and the effects of these challenges on the rural development of Zanjan province. In addition to library studies, a survey method has been used to collect the required data. The statistical population of the research is 75831 farmers located in Zanjan province, using Cochran's formula, 340 people have been estimated as a statistical sample. And to analyze the collected data, relevant tests and SPSS, AMOSE and GIS software have been used. The results of the research showed that economic challenges are the most important problems of farmers in the province, and the average number of challenges faced by farmers is 3.79, which is significantly higher than the average. The results of the analysis of variance test showed that there is a statistically significant difference among the cities of the province in terms of the challenges faced by the operators, and the cities of Soltanieh, Ijroud and Mahenshan with an average rank of 3.967, 3.864 and 3.651 have the highest and Khodabande, Abhar and Zanjan with an average rating of 3.347, 3.429 and 3.481 have the lowest number of challenges in peasant operators. Also, the overall situation of rural development with an average of 2.26 is significantly lower than the base average, and among its indicators, two key indicators of rural development, management and economy, are in a worse condition. The results of the final model of the research regarding the effects of the challenges faced by peasant operators on rural development, whose fit was finally confirmed, showed that social and environmental challenges with coefficients of -0.67 and -0.26, respectively, have the highest and lowest have had a negative effect on rural development

Assessment of the belief and attitudes of Iranian healthcare personnel’s toward the influenza infection and influenza vaccination

Introduction: influenza is one of the main public health problems and Health Care Personnel's is one of the at-risk groups for this infection. So regarding this point, the goal of this research was to identify the beliefs and attitudes of the HCPs (Health Care Personnel) about influenza and the influenza vaccine. Methods: This cross-sectional study was planned in a general hospital in Tehran; Iran from January to June 2016.A total of 418 questionnaires was distributed among the HCPs. The entire data set was analyzed using the SPSS. We used the Chi2 test, linear regression and one-way ANOVA for data analysis. P-values less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant. Results: The influenza vaccination coverage was 57.7%; the highest vaccine rate belonged to the allied health professionals (68.2%). Two main causes for avoiding the influenza vaccination were; the “fear of vaccine adverse effects” and the “uncertainty about the vaccine effectiveness”. The linear regression analysis identified that the physicians had the highest belief score, followed by the nurses and the allied health professionals (p <0.001).  Conclusions: Educational planning on influenza and influenza vaccination is necessary to improve the vaccination coverage and to reduce the influenza mortality and morbidity in susceptible patient

A Comparative Study of Ishtar-Anahita Character in Iranian and Mesopotamian Myths with Aban Dokht in the Story of Samak-e Ayyar

One of the motifs in Iranian epic stories is the presence of mythological heroes and characters. Water goddesses and other goddesses are mythological figures that manifest in the form of well-known women in epics. Carefully examining the epic-heroic long story of Samak-e Ayyar, one can notice the function of such a belief in a female character in the story using a descriptive/comparative-analytical method and by citing the works of mythologists like Mehrdad Bahar and reflection on mythological hidden layers of Samak-e Ayyar's epic prose. Themes like love, beauty, underground imprisonment, being sentenced to death, freedom at the expense of losing the first beloved and finally rising to power for the female character of this epic story indicate that Abandokht in regard to her mythological arches can be a symbol of goddesses like Ishtar Mianroudi and Anahita. Based on this hypothesis, the authors have tried to conclude that the influence of Mianrouds and their liability to be influenced in Iranian myths led to the formation of common structures, one of which is the appearance of the similarities between the above-mentioned mythological goddess and Abandokht in the story of Samak-e Ayyar

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) therapy attenuates neurotoxicity of methanol-induced memory impairment and apoptosis in the hippocampus

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: The adolescent brain has a higher vulnerability to alcoholinduced neurotoxicity, compared to adult's brain. Most studies have investigated the effect of ethanol consumption on the body, however, methanol consumption, which peaked in the last years, is still poorly explored. METHOD: In this study, we investigated the effects of methanol neurotoxicity on memory function and pathological outcomes in the hippocampus of adolescent rats and examined the efficacy of Light- Emitting Diode (LED) therapy. Methanol induced neurotoxic rats showed a significant decrease in the latency period, in comparison to controls, which was significantly improved in LED treated rats at 7, 14 and 28 days, indicating recovery of memory function. In addition, methanol neurotoxicity in hippocampus caused a significant increase in cell death (caspase3+ cells) and cell edema at 7 and 28 days, which were significantly decreased by LED therapy. Furthermore, the number of glial fibrillary acid protein astrocytes was significantly lower in methanol rats, compared to controls, whereas LED treatment caused their significant increase. Finally, methanol neurotoxicity caused a significant decrease in the number of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF+) cells, but also circulating serum BDNF, at 7 and 28 days, compared to controls, which were significantly increased by LED therapy. Importantly, LED significantly increased the number of Ki-67+ cells and BDNF levels in the serum and hypothalamus in control-LED rats, compared to controls without LED therapy. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, chronic methanol administration caused severe memory impairments and several pathological outcomes in the hippocampus of adolescent rats which were improved by LED therapy

Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment: an analysis of 2315 eyes over a six-year period

Background: Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) is a form of retinal detachment caused by passage of fluid from the vitreous cavity into the space between the neurosensory retina and the retinal pigment epithelium via a retinal break or full-thickness defect. At our tertiary referral center, we evaluated the clinical and epidemiological features of RRD, and we herein report the frequency of related risk factors. Methods: In this retrospective study, we reviewed the records of patients with a final diagnosis of RRD at an academic ophthalmological referral center in Isfahan, Iran, over a six-year period. We retrieved and reviewed data from the medical records of all eligible participants, including sex, age, laterality, lens status, macular status, type of RRD, location and number of breaks, type of surgery, rate of re-operation during the first year after initial surgery, and documented clinical risk factors for RRD. Clinical risk factors were categorized as the presence of myopic refractive error, ocular trauma, history of cataract surgery, history of other ocular surgeries, history of uveitis, or undetermined. Results: We included 2315 eyes of 2229 patients with a mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of 51.1 (16.9) years and a male-to-female ratio of 1.8:1. The most common quadrants containing retinal breaks were the superotemporal quadrant (34.1%), inferotemporal quadrant (23.4%), and superonasal quadrant (10.7%). Macula-involved RRD was seen in 90% of eyes (n=2083 eyes). The most frequently identified risk factors were cataract surgery (32.9%) and myopia (22.3%) in adults, and myopia (35.0%) and ocular trauma (27.4%) in the pediatric group. Most eyes underwent pars plana vitrectomy (51.3%), whereas pneumatic retinopexy (0.7%) was the least commonly selected. Conclusions: Our results indicate that cataract surgery and myopia are the most common risk factors for RRD in adults. Myopia and ocular trauma are the most common risk factors in pediatric patients. As observed in many studies, the characteristics of the study population, including middle age, male sex, myopia, and ocular trauma, may be associated with RRD at different rates. Further population-based longitudinal studies with larger sample sizes are required to verify these preliminary observations

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries(1,2). However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world(3) and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health(4,5). However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol-which is a marker of cardiovascular riskchanged from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million-4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.Peer reviewe

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.Peer reviewe

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