Online Specificity: Live Event Artworks and the Inner Continuity of the Network.

This practice-based research analyses the encounter of Net/Web artworks, their materiality and their space-time condition. I analyse a selection of online-specific artworks to examine their materiality and experiential features in an investigation into how they can offer a varied encounter atypical to offline artworks. The research suggests that these encounters have the potential to disturb a familiar linear or chronological sense of space-time. In line with this enquiry, the research explores qualities found in online-specific artworks that are analogous with the encounter of durée (i.e. duration). This concept was first theorised by Henri Bergson in 1886 as an experience of time with a heterogeneous nature that takes place in the inner self of human experience. I examine this theory to consider whether online-specific artworks are more capable of precipitating experiences associated with durée and its understanding of memory. In order to do so, I examine the materiality of these artworks (e.g. HTML/CSS) and their temporal existence in the network duration when online users establish a net connection to retrieve them (e.g. URL, HTTP). This research analyses the state of the network as a heterogeneous reality, as described by network theorist Tiziana Terranova (2004), in order to explore how such qualities impact the encounter of online-specific artworks as inherent assets of the network duration. The thesis proposes that the transitory reality of these time-based artworks are only operative in the live stream of the information flux that resides in the virtual state of the network. As a result, such encounters are analysed through a new notion of event described in the research as live events. From this perspective, the research explores similar experiential aspects that are shared between online-specific artworks and offline time-based artworks (e.g. Standing Wave (1920) by Naum Gabo) due to a live encounter during their temporal activation. Subsequently, this research analyses the materiality of telecommunication technology, especially within the protocol system (e.g. TCP/IP) operative in the architecture of the Net/Web to illustrate the transitory reality of online-specific artworks. Furthermore, through a genealogy of historical references the research selects a number of offline and online artworks to analyse their experiential aspect in relation to their time experience, materiality and method of realisation. The nature of web-based artworks and their encounter is recognised in the research through the iterative possibility of their ‘assets’ in the network and their potential capability to introduce new memory experiences specific to an online encounter

A Novel Scheme for Intelligent Recognition of Pornographic Images

Harmful contents are rising in internet day by day and this motivates the essence of more research in fast and reliable obscene and immoral material filtering. Pornographic image recognition is an important component in each filtering system. In this paper, a new approach for detecting pornographic images is introduced. In this approach, two new features are suggested. These two features in combination with other simple traditional features provide decent difference between porn and non-porn images. In addition, we applied fuzzy integral based information fusion to combine MLP (Multi-Layer Perceptron) and NF (Neuro-Fuzzy) outputs. To test the proposed method, performance of system was evaluated over 18354 download images from internet. The attained precision was 93% in TP and 8% in FP on training dataset, and 87% and 5.5% on test dataset. Achieved results verify the performance of proposed system versus other related works

Gentamicin-attenuated leishmania infantum vaccine: protection of dogs against canine visceral leishmaniosis in endemic area of southeast of Iran

An attenuated line of Leishmania infantum (L. infantum H-line) has been established by culturing promastigotes in vitro under gentamicin pressure. A vaccine trial was conducted using 103 naive dogs from a leishmaniosis non-endemic area (55 vaccinated and 48 unvaccinated) brought into an endemic area of southeast Iran. No local and/or general indications of disease were observed in the vaccinated dogs immediately after vaccination. The efficacy of the vaccine was evaluated after 24 months (4 sandfly transmission seasons) by serological, parasitological analyses and clinical examination. In western blot analysis of antibodies to L. infantum antigens, sera from 10 out of 31 (32.2%) unvaccinated dogs, but none of the sera from vaccinated dogs which were seropositive at >100, recognized the 21 kDa antigen of L. infantum wild-type (WT). Nine out of 31 (29%) unvaccinated dogs, but none of vaccinated dogs, were positive for the presence of Leishmania DNA. One out of 46 (2.2%) vaccinated dogs and 9 out of 31 (29%) unvaccinated dogs developed clinical signs of disease. These results suggest that gentamicin-attenuated L. infantum induced a significant and strong protective effect against canine visceral leishmaniosis in the endemic area

The Correlation between Serum Level of N-Terminal Pro-B-type Natriuretic Peptide and Gensini Score in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome

Introduction: N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) has emerged as an important biomarker for developing the diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases, as several studies have shown that serum levels of NT-proBNP elevate in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and coronary artery disease (CAD). We performed this study to find any possible correlation between serum levels of NT-proBNP and Gensini score in patients diagnosed with ACS.Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 100 consecutive patients with ACS who were candidates of angiography were recruited and their serum levels of NT-proBNP, Gensini scores, lipid profiles and troponin I levels were measured.Results: Sixty six male and 34 female patients with a mean age of 57.5 years, including 44 with unstable angina, 33 with ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and 23 with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction were enrolled. The mean serum NT-proBNP level and the Gensini score were 1987.16 pg/mL (17.9-8841) and 31.09 (6-92.5), respectively. The serum NT-proBNP levels and Gensini scores were significantly correlated with a Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.953 (P < 0.001). Serum levels of NT-proBNP were not different in patients with single-vessel disease, 2-vessel disease and 3-vessel disease (P = 0.257). NT-Pro-BNP levels were also correlated positively with troponin I levels (correlation coefficient = 0.779) and negatively with left ventricular ejection fraction (correlation coefficient = -0.55). Smoker patients had higher NT-proBNP levels (P = 0.047). Neither Gensini scores nor NT-Pro-BNP levels had significant correlation with lipid profile or blood sugar.Conclusions: NT-proBNP is directly correlated with Gensini score in patients with ACS and might be used as an important marker for risk stratification in those patients

Distributional limits of Riemannian manifolds and graphs with sublinear genus growth

Peer reviewe

Chronic Total Occlusion-Angioplasty with Antegrade Approach: A two-Year Experience in “Modarres Hospital”, A Tertiary University Hospital, Tehran, Iran

Introduction: New techniques for the percutaneous treatment of coronary chronic total occlusions (CTO) have had a high success rate since a few years ago, so the interest for this treatment has been increasing these days.Methods: The current observational study was performed in Modarres hospital as a tertiary referral center. All the patients with documented stable angina who had failed to response to full guideline-mediated medical therapy, referred to our hospital, were candidates for coronary angiography. Antegrade strategy was applied for all these patients. The length of the lesion, the fluoroscopy time of the CTO angioplasty, consumed contrast volume, the number of guide wires used, whether a corsair or tornus micro-catheter was used or not, and the success rate of the angioplasty were documented for further analysis.Results: A total of 47 patients with documented stable angina were finally included. The median age was 59 (45-78) and 70.2% were male. The mean length of the lesion was 34.0 ± 1.1 .The mean fluoroscopy time and contrast volume were 57.9 ± 3.2 minutes and 525.9 ± 20.9 mL, respectively. In average, 2.2 guide wires were used. Corsair and tornus micro-catheters were applied in 30 (63.8%) and 5 (10.6%) of the cases, respectively. Seven complications (all including coronary dissection) occurred. In-hospital major adverse cardiac events (MACE) rate was 10.6%, all of which were non-Q wave myocardial infarction. The success rate was 85.1%. The higher number of used wires, use of corsair, and tornus micro-catheter were not significantly concordant with success rate (P-value > 0.05); in addition, longer lesion was not concordant with unsuccessfulness rate (P-value > 0.05).Conclusions: Patient selection for CTO-angioplasty should be performed more carefully. Patients’ quality of life and risk of probable procedural complications and future cardiac events should be assessed to decide the best treatment approach. Radiation exposure, contrast consumption and fluoroscopy time are recommended to be monitored during the procedure and thresholds should be defined to enhance safety and efficacy

A Sociological Study of Domestic Violence Against Women in Iran:A Narrative Review

Background and Aim: Domestic violence against women has always been a social problem and has continued in the social history of Iran. A wide range of studies have examined the causes and contexts of this problem from different perspectives. This study aimed to achieve a comprehensive theoretical model of the causes and contexts of domestic violence against women in Iran. Methods and Data: The research method of this study was a narrative review, examining 95 studies in Persian published over 20 years from 2002 to 2021. The variables that had a significant effect or correlation with violence against women in previous studies were categorized and the relationships of new variables were determined. Findings: Findings indicated that patriarchal values and beliefs and differences in socioeconomic status and low social and cultural, and economic capital are the leading causes of domestic violence against women in Iran. Other variables shown in the final model were all affected by one of these two main variables. Conclusion: In this study, social and cultural factors are put together to provide a more complete picture of the factors and contexts explaining domestic violence against women in Iran. The final proposed model can be used as a theoretical framework in future studies.<br/