Building a Syllabic Analyzer for Persian Using Finite State Transducers

Persian follows a concatenative morphology, where new morphemes are generated by chaining different morphemes together to form a new compound word.  Whenever, two morphemes bind to form a new morpheme, there is a possibility that the syllables at the morpheme boundaries undergo structural change.  This study suggests that these syllabic alterations may be captured using a finite state approach.  It further argues that syllabification may be incorporated into the process of lexicon building.  This approach allows the syllabification rules to be encoded in the lexical knowledge, when a lexicon is built using the finite state methods.  The rules captured here can also assist the processing of syllabic alterations in word boundaries as well.  It is particularly useful to process meter in Persian poetry

Developing a Comprehensive Standard Persian Positional Tagset

One of the primary tools used in text processing tasks such as information retrieval, text extraction, and text mining, is a corpus that is enhnaced by linguistic tags.  In a corpus development effort, the role of a POS-tagger is to assign a linguistic tag to every textual token.  POS annotation relies heavily on a tagset based on a linguistic theory.  Text processing in Persian, too, follows this common practice.  Several tagsets have been introduced, so far, to annotate Persian corpora.  However, each tagset has followed a specific standard and linguistic theory.  The resulting tagsets contain a limited number of tags, which renders them inadequate for a larger scope of research.  This study is inspired by EAGLES, MULTEXT-East, positional tagset standards to produce a comprehensive standard positional tagset for Persian.  The proposed tagset is also informed by the existing Persian tagsets.  The proposed Persian Positional Tagset (PPT) is designed to be used for morphological, lexical, and syntactic annotations of Persian corpora.DOR: 98.1000/1726-8125.2018.16.165.0.1.68.11

Online Journals Influence amongst Iranian Universities

Ranking is one of the key measures for evaluating universities.  Progress of research at universities is often measured by the rate of its publications.  It is also common knowledge in the field of research that journal publications owe their success to their impact factor.  However, one of the contributing factors that affect a journal's impact factor is the accessibility and availability of its content.  The law of statistics suggests that publishing an electronic version of the journal content through online publications is likely to boost the visibility of a journal; hence, improving the impact factor.  The ability to publish electronically is often received favorably by the research community. Despite advances in electronic journal publishing, only recently, online journals have made their way into Iranian university journal publishing.  This paper evaluates and reports on the extent of online journal publications among Iranian universities.  For the purposes of this study, 653 journals published by 183 universities were studied.  The results reveal that 66.7% of all universities have online copies of their journals.  This study is carried out for three categories of universities; the Ministry of Health and medical Education universities, the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology universities(MSRT), and Islamic Azad University Branches(IAU)

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بررسی رابطه علیت بین سرمایه انسانی و رشد اقتصادی در کشورهای مختلف می تواند بیانگر این موضوع باشد که آیـا سـرمایه انسانی در یک کشور به عنوان یک کالای مصرفی و بدون تأثیر بر رشد اقتصادی محسوب می شـود یـا بـه عنـوان یـک کـالای سـرمایه ای محسوب شده و دارای تأثیر معناداری بر رشد اقتصادی است . این مسئله در کشورهای دارای فراوانی منابع و بویژه کشورهای نفـتخیـز از اهمیت بیشتری برخوردار است و مطالعات نشاندهنده وجود نگاه مصرفی به سرمایه انسانی در این کشورهاست. در این مقاله تلاش شده تا با استفاده از روش تصحیح خطای برداری به آزمون علیت گرنجری کوتاهمدت و بلندمدت بین سرمایه انسانی و رشد تولید ناخالص داخلی با نفت و بدون نفت در ایران در دوره سالهای 1340-1380پرداخته شود. نتایج نشان میدهد که یک رابطه دو طرفه بین سرمایه انسانی و رشد اقتصادی بدون نفت در کوتاهمدت و بلندمدت برقرار است و به بیان دیگر سرمایه انسانی در کوتاهمدت و بلندمدت به عنوان یک کالای سرمایهای در این بخش بوده است. این در حالی است که رابطه کوتاهمدتی بین رشد اقتصادی و سرمایه انسانی مشاهده نمیشود؛ اما این رابطه در بلندمدت به صورت دوطرفه برقرار است. به بیان دیگر سرمایه انسانی برای کل اقتصاد در کوتاهمدت کالایی مصرفی و در بلندمدت به کالایی سرمایهای تبدیل میشود

Evaluating performance of meta-heuristic algorithms and decision tree models in simulating water level variations of dams’ piezometers

Monitoring the seepage, particularly the piezometric water level in the dams, is of special importance in hydraulic engineering. In the present study, piezometric water levels in three observation piezometers at the left bank of Jiroft Dam structure (located in Kerman province, Iran) were simulated using soft computing techniques and then compared using the measured data. For this purpose, the input data, including inflow, evaporation, reservoir water level, sluice gate outflow, outflow, dam total outflow, and piezometric water level, were used. Modeling was performed using multiple linear regression method as well as soft computing methods including regression decision tree, classification decision tree, and three types of artificial neural networks (with Levenberg-Marquardt, particle swarm optimization, PSO, and harmony search learning algorithms, HS). The results of the present study indicated no absolute superiority for any of the methods over others. For the first piezometer the ANN-PSO indicates better performance (correlation coefficient, R=0.990). For the second piezometer ANN-PSO shows better results with R=0.945. For the third piezometers MLR with R=0.945 and ANN-HS with R=0.949 indicate better performance than other methods. Furthermore, Mann-Whitney statistical analysis at confidence levels of 95% and 99% indicated no significant difference in terms of the performance of the applied models used in this study

Experimental Study of Hydro-suction Dredging Blockage Depth Under Different Hydraulic Conditions

Hydro-suction is an appropriate and economical method for dredging deposited sediment at reservoirs. In this study, a physical model was made and some experiments were designed to analyze the ranges of blockage depth in different hydraulic conditions. In the model, 80 tests were conducted using three diameters (d), three water heads (H) and different diving depths of pipe inlet (Z) from the sediment level to the blockage depth. In general, the results indicated that the more increase in the diving depth, the higher hydro-suction efficiency. In some of the experiments, a vortex flow was observed under the pipe inlet. The results indicated that the formed vortex flow have a positive effect on the hydro-suction efficiency. The results associated to the blockage depth approved that hydro-suction systems with larger pipe diameter and more water head have a greater blockage depth (Zb). The Froude number (Fr) analysis indicated that an increase in Fr would cause increment efficiency and blockage depth of hydro-suction system. Subject to a constant pipe diameter, the results revealed that increasing the H/d ratio equal to 66.66 and 133.33%, would enhance the Zb/d ratio equal to 58.89 and 112.22%, respectively

Evaluation of squamous cell carcinoma antigen 1 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma (tumor cells and peritumoral T-lymphocytes) and verrucous carcinoma and comparison with normal oral mucosa

Background: Squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) is used as a prognostic marker for recurrence of squamous cell carcinoma in various sites, including head and neck. Studies suggest that its high serum levels are correlated to some clinical features, such as nodal metastasis. However, it is still unknown if high SCCA in patients with SCCA tissue expression in tumor cells are related to peripheral T-lymphocytes. Therefore, we did this study to evaluate SCCA expression in squamous cell carcinoma and verrucous carcinoma and to compare it with normal oral mucosa, also investigating the correlation between serum-based and tissue-based antigen levels. Methodology: In this study, the immunohistochemistry (IHC) technique was used to determine the SCCA1 expression pattern in 81 specimens divided into 3 groups, including oral squamous cell carcinoma, verrucous carcinoma, and normal oral mucosa. Serum-based and tissue-based antigen levels of 20 oral squamous cell carcinoma cases were compared by the western blot assay. SCCA expression was also evaluated and compared in both tumor cells and peripheral T-lymphocytes by the immunofluorescence assay. Results: Our results showed that the SCCA levels in SCC specimens were significantly lower than in verrucous carcinoma and normal and hyperplastic oral mucosa specimens. We found no correlation between the IHC expression of SCCA and serum levels. SCCA was well expressed in both tumor cells and peripheral T-lymphocytes. Conclusion: Decreasing SCCA in SCC specimens suggested that SCC tumor cells may affect more than the serum levels of SCCA in some patients. In addition, expression of SCCA in peripheral T-lymphocytes showed that both tumor cells and T-lymphocytes may cause serum SCCA.&nbsp

Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells-Derived Exosomes Can Alleviate the Proctitis Model Through TLR4/NF-Κb Pathway

Background: Proctitis is a significant concern of inflammatory bowel diseases, especially ulcerative colitis. Exosomes are a new method for treating many diseases by their immunosuppressive and tissue-repairing potential. Here, we tried Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-derived Exosomes for treating the proctitis model of rats. Materials and Methods: Rats were assigned into four groups: sham, control group, rectal, and intraperitoneal exosome injection. The proctitis model was induced by rectal administration of 4% acetic acid. The exosome was derived from human MSCs isolated from human umbilical cords. After seven days, rectum samples were assessed for histopathological, IHC, and PCR analysis. Results: The histopathologic scores, collagen deposition, and the expression of NF-κB, TLR4, TNFα, IL-6, and TGFβ were decreased in intraperitoneal exosome compared to controls. The result was not promising for the rectal administration of exosomes. Conclusion: Exosomes can suppress the inflammatory response in the proctitis model and improve the rectum's healing process. Exosomes can inhabit the NF-κB/TLR4 pathway and downstream pro-inflammatory cytokines. This study implicates the therapeutic benefits of exomes in treating proctitis

Adolescent transport and unintentional injuries: a systematic analysis using the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Globally, transport and unintentional injuries persist as leading preventable causes of mortality and morbidity for adolescents. We sought to report comprehensive trends in injury-related mortality and morbidity for adolescents aged 10–24 years during the past three decades. Methods: Using the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factors 2019 Study, we analysed mortality and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) attributed to transport and unintentional injuries for adolescents in 204 countries. Burden is reported in absolute numbers and age-standardised rates per 100 000 population by sex, age group (10–14, 15–19, and 20–24 years), and sociodemographic index (SDI) with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs). We report percentage changes in deaths and DALYs between 1990 and 2019. Findings: In 2019, 369 061 deaths (of which 214 337 [58%] were transport related) and 31·1 million DALYs (of which 16·2 million [52%] were transport related) among adolescents aged 10–24 years were caused by transport and unintentional injuries combined. If compared with other causes, transport and unintentional injuries combined accounted for 25% of deaths and 14% of DALYs in 2019, and showed little improvement from 1990 when such injuries accounted for 26% of adolescent deaths and 17% of adolescent DALYs. Throughout adolescence, transport and unintentional injury fatality rates increased by age group. The unintentional injury burden was higher among males than females for all injury types, except for injuries related to fire, heat, and hot substances, or to adverse effects of medical treatment. From 1990 to 2019, global mortality rates declined by 34·4% (from 17·5 to 11·5 per 100 000) for transport injuries, and by 47·7% (from 15·9 to 8·3 per 100 000) for unintentional injuries. However, in low-SDI nations the absolute number of deaths increased (by 80·5% to 42 774 for transport injuries and by 39·4% to 31 961 for unintentional injuries). In the high-SDI quintile in 2010–19, the rate per 100 000 of transport injury DALYs was reduced by 16·7%, from 838 in 2010 to 699 in 2019. This was a substantially slower pace of reduction compared with the 48·5% reduction between 1990 and 2010, from 1626 per 100 000 in 1990 to 838 per 100 000 in 2010. Between 2010 and 2019, the rate of unintentional injury DALYs per 100 000 also remained largely unchanged in high-SDI countries (555 in 2010 vs 554 in 2019; 0·2% reduction). The number and rate of adolescent deaths and DALYs owing to environmental heat and cold exposure increased for the high-SDI quintile during 2010–19. Interpretation: As other causes of mortality are addressed, inadequate progress in reducing transport and unintentional injury mortality as a proportion of adolescent deaths becomes apparent. The relative shift in the burden of injury from high-SDI countries to low and low–middle-SDI countries necessitates focused action, including global donor, government, and industry investment in injury prevention. The persisting burden of DALYs related to transport and unintentional injuries indicates a need to prioritise innovative measures for the primary prevention of adolescent injury. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation