New Media and Peacemaking Diplomacy

A life full of peace has always been a dream for human societies. Peace is still considered as one of the main modern world concerns, because each nation deals with its own kind of violence and war. Therefore, peacemaking has turned into one of the governments' objectives. Peace has been affected by various factors in all over history. Media and communication technologies are two of the factors that influenced the peacemaking process in the past five decades. They play an important role in the efforts made towards peacemaking because they act as mediators amongst nations, governments, civilizations, organizations, and people. New media have turned into an important factor in the peacemaking process in terms of its widespread effects and extensive capacities. The new media’s importance is on a rise considering its presence in and effects on various aspects of our lives, like political, economic, and social dimensions at sub-national, national and international levels. It has also turned into an important instrument for performing the countries' foreign policies due to its features, along with earning a critical role in peacemaking diplomacy. The media could both be the harbinger of peace and the underlying cause of war with respect to its diverse functions. It could preach peace by sending peace messages inside and outside of the borders, and also by creating a peaceful notion in the people's minds

CLINICIANS¿ SATISFACTION WITH CLINICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS: A DISCONFIRMATION PARADIGM PERSPECTIVE

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Thematic analysis of big data in financial institutions using NLP techniques with a cloud computing perspective : a systematic literature review

This literature review explores the existing work and practices in applying thematic analysis natural language processing techniques to financial data in cloud environments. This work aims to improve two of the five Vs of the big data system. We used the PRISMA approach (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) for the review. We analyzed the research papers published over the last 10 years about the topic in question using a keywordbased search and bibliometric analysis. The systematic literature review was conducted in multiple phases, and filters were applied to exclude papers based on the title and abstract initially, then based on the methodology/conclusion, and, finally, after reading the full text. The remaining papers were then considered and are discussed here. We found that automated data discovery methods can be augmented by applying an NLP-based thematic analysis on the financial data in cloud environments. This can help identify the correct classification/categorization and measure data quality for a sentiment analysis

Recent advances in developing optical and electrochemical sensors for analysis of methamphetamine: A review

Recognition of misused stimulant drugs has always been a hot topic from a medical and judicial perspective. Methamphetamine (MAMP) is an addictive and illegal drug that profoundly affects the central nervous system. Like other illicit drugs, the detection of MAMP in biological and street samples is vital for several organizations such as forensic medicine, anti-drug headquarters and diagnostic clinics. By emerging nanotechnology and exploiting nanomaterials in sensing applications, a great deal of attention has been given to the design of analytical sensors in MAMP tracing. For the first time, this study has briefly reviewed all the optical and electrochemical sensors in MAMP detection from earlier so far. How various receptors with engineering nanomaterials allow developing novel approaches to measure MAMP have been studied. Fundamental concepts related to optical and electrochemical recognition assays in which nanomaterials have been used and relevant MAMP sensing applications have been comprehensively covered. Challenges, opportunities and future outlooks of this field have also been discussed at the end. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Organelle Isolation for Proteomics: Mitochondria from Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells

Mitochondria play key roles in many cell functions including energy production, fatty acid metabolism, pyrimidine biosynthesis, calcium homeostasis, and aging. They also regulate crucial signaling cascades such as apoptosis and oxidative stress. The proteome is often used to investigate the functional correlations on protein levels. Based upon the human, genome there is estimated 2000 to 2500 associated mitochondrial proteins, however, just over 600-800 have been identified at the protein level. For this reason, mitochondria contain a great number of proteins that have yet to be identified and characterized. The identification of these proteins can help in discovery of biological process. This protocol focuses on step-by-step procedure of mitochondrial proteome extraction from peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) mitochondria. The isolation and preparation procedures described here require 6 hours approximately

Sesame extraction gel as an agent for prevention of dental caries: An in-vitro study

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Sesame has a high content of calcium. Regarding to the lack of adequate data about its remineralizing potential, we conducted this study to evaluate the surface hardness of enamel exposed to sesame extraction gel in comparison to artificial saliva and fluoride. METHODS: After mounting and polishing twenty-four caries-free human premolars, the baseline microhardness was recorded. Subsequently, decalcification was accomplished by immersing into cola, after which the surface hardness was recorded again. Ultimately, the samples were divided into three groups, which were treated by either the sesame gel (SG), artificial saliva (AS) or the fluoride gel (FG). The final microhardness was assessed again. The repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed for comparison of baseline (B), decalcified (R) and remineralized (R) hardness while the one-way ANOVA followed by least significant difference test was used for comparison of different remineralizing agents. RESULTS: There was significant difference among the teeth at baseline, after decalcification and after treatment by experimental solutions (P < 0.001 and P = 0.002 for pair wise comparison of B/D and D/R, respectively). Moreover, after remineralizing treatment, there was no significance difference between the solutions (P = 0.350, P = 0.150 and P = 0.610 for pair-wise comparisons of SG-FG, SG-AS, FG-AS, respectively). However, the mean microhardness value was increasing in that order. CONCLUSION: Although treating the decalcified enamel by sesame extraction enhanced its microhardness, there was no significant difference between sesame, fluoride and artificial saliva when they were applied for just 15 min. KEYWORDS: Sesame; Dental Enamel; Hardnes

Age-dependent immune responses in COVID-19-mediated liver injury: focus on cytokines

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is potentially pathogenic and causes severe symptoms; in addition to respiratory syndromes, patients might experience other severe conditions such as digestive complications and liver complications injury. The abnormality in the liver is manifested by hepatobiliary dysfunction and enzymatic elevation, which is associated with morbidity and mortality. The direct cytopathic effect, immune dysfunction, cytokine storm, and adverse effects of therapeutic regimens have a crucial role in the severity of liver injury. According to aging and immune system alterations, cytokine patterns may also change in the elderly. Moreover, hyperproduction of cytokines in the inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2 can lead to multi-organ dysfunction. The mortality rate in elderly patients, particularly those with other comorbidities, is also higher than in adults. Although the pathogenic effect of SARS-CoV-2 on the liver has been widely studied, the impact of age and immune-mediated responses at different ages remain unclear. This review discusses the association between immune system responses in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients of different ages and liver injury, focusing on cytokine alterations

Tick Ectoparasites of Animals in Borderline of Iran-Iraq and Their Role on Disease Transmission

Background: Since ticks are potent vectors of various diseases, identification of these species are clinically important to protect the public health and control veterinary problems in the communities. We aimed to figure out the frequency of ticks on cows, goats, sheep, lambs, turtles and also obscure hosts in Kurdistan Province, bordered with Iraq June 2012 to May 2013. Methods: The hosts were selected randomly and examined individually for tick infestation. In case of infestation, ticks were collected using forceps and then preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol. All collected specimens were preserved in tubes and relative information was recorded and then identified based on morphological characteristics. Results: Totally, 1209 ticks were collected. The prevalence of ticks on cows, sheep, goats, lambs, turtles, poultry and obscure hosts was 11.33%, 55.41%, 6.53%, 5.95%, 0.9%, 8.02% and 11.82% respectively. The mean number of ticks on each animal was 1.6. Number of 5 genera, including Rhipicephalus, Argas, Ornithodoros, Hyalomma and Haem­aphysalis and 9 species; including R. sanguineus (60.05%), R. bursa (0.08), Hy. anatolicum (12.33), Hy. asiaticum (1.49), Hy. aegyptium (0.91), Hy. marginatum (0.08), Haemaphysalis parva (4.22), Hyalomma sp. (0.99), Orni­thodoros lahorensis (11.83), and Argas persicus (8.02) were identified. Conclusion: The most abundant species in this study area was Rh. sanguineus (60.05%). Due to high prevalence of tick specimens and a variety of collected species from sheep (55.41%), the vaccination of sheep and control of tick vectors are recommended

Removal of light petroleum hydrocarbons from water sources using polypropylene and titanium dioxide nano-composite

Background: Petroleum hydrocarbons are the most important pollutants which threat human health and aquatics. Adsorbents are one of the common equipment in water pollution management; however, their applications have been associated with limitations. Objective: To evaluate the potential of polypropylene/titanium dioxide Nano-composite in adsorption of light petroleum hydrocarbons from water sources. Methods: This experimental study was conducted at school of health, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in 2014-15. Activation of polypropylene fibers, with 1 cm length and 300 microns diameters, was achieved with wet heating. To synthesize of nano-composite the fibers were coated with nano-titanium dioxide with 20 nm diameter. The sonication was performed at 26 kHz and 100 W of power in 40ºc. The morphology of the fractured surfaces of impact specimens was examined by FESEM. The adsorption rate of petrol and gasoline, as surrogate of TPH, was evaluated in different retention time within polyamide mesh aperture diameter of 250 nm. Average of TPH adsorbing, per unit weight of adsorbent, were analyzed with analysis of variance and Scheffe post hoc tests. Findings: The FESEM micrographs showed that the dispersion of the nano-Tio2 particles was relatively good and only few aggregations exist. The maximum adsorption capacity of petrol and gasoline was obtained in 30 minute. The adsorption rate of gasoline was 6.49±0.10 g/g and oil was 7.01±0.13 g/g. Conclusion: According to the results and in comparison with commercial imported adsorbents, the synthesized Nano-composite had favorable performance. The results show that the polypropylene/Tio2 Nano-composite can be used effectively in light petroleum hydrocarbons removal from polluted water sources. Keywords: Water Pollution, Environment Sanitation, Nano-Composite, Adsorptio

Design, Modeling and Fabrication of an Active External Orthosis for Rehabilitation of Lower of Peolple with Disability

Today, with advancements of engineering sciences in the medical field, the use of robotic rehabilitation systems for treating motor disabilities has been widely considered. There are some robotic systems for mechanical rehabilitation and revival of motion pattern of stroke patients. In this research, the main purpose is to designing a new robotic system with one degree of freedom (DOF) to move lower legs of patient without any physiotherapist’s help during rehabilitation. For presented model of system, an optimal kinematic design according to the normal pattern of human motion has been performed. Also, the equations of motion for rehabilitation system have been extracted and the minimum torque of the actuator of the mechanism with solution of inverse dynamic problem has been obtained. In next step, the prototype of orthosis is fabricated and its function is tested on a healthy subject. The experiments show that the proposed device provides optimum simulated motion for the user. In addition, the results of test of heart beat indicate a significant reduction in heart rate and energy consumption of user during using orthosis system comparing to normal motion (without device)