Spatio-temporal Distribution of Suicide Risk in Iran: A Bayesian Hierarchical Analysis of Repeated Cross-sectional Data

Nazari, Seyed Saeed Hashemi,Mansori, Kamyar,Kangavari, Hajar Nazari,Shojaei, Ahmad,Arsang-Jang, Shahram The Korean Society for Preventive Medicine 2022 예방의학회지 Vol.55 No.2

Objectives: We aimed to estimate the space-time distribution of the risk of suicide mortality in Iran from 2006 to 2016. Methods: In this repeated cross-sectional study, the age-standardized risk of suicide mortality from 2006 to 2016 was determined. To estimate the cumulative and temporal risk, the Besag, York, and Mollié and Bernardinelli models were used. Results: The relative risk of suicide mortality was greater than 1 in 43.0% of Iran's provinces (posterior probability >0.8; range, 0.46 to 3.93). The spatio-temporal model indicated a high risk of suicide in 36.7% of Iran's provinces. In addition, significant upward temporal trends in suicide risk were observed in the provinces of Tehran, Fars, Kermanshah, and Gilan. A significantly decreasing pattern of risk was observed for men (β, -0.013; 95% credible interval [CrI], -0.010 to -0.007), and a stable pattern of risk was observed for women (β, -0.001; 95% CrI, -0.010 to 0.007). A decreasing pattern of suicide risk was observed for those aged 15-29 years (β, -0.006; 95% CrI, -0.010 to -0.0001) and 30-49 years (β, -0.001; 95% CrI, -0.018 to -0.002). The risk was stable for those aged >50 years. Conclusions: The highest risk of suicide mortality was observed in Iran's northwestern provinces and among Kurdish women. Although a low risk of suicide mortality was observed in the provinces of Tehran, Fars, and Gilan, the risk in these provinces is increasing rapidly compared to other regions.

Thematic Analysis for Classifying the E-Learning Challenges and the Suggested Solutions: The Unusual Era of the COVID-19

Nazari, Behzad,Hussin, AB Razak Bin Che,Niknejad, Naghmeh The Institute of Internet 2021 International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting an Vol.13 No.4

Electronic learning (e-learning) empowers the higher education in providing sustainable instruction during the infrequent circumstance when the wide-spreading disastrous challenge of the COVID-19 results in the closure of various sectors in the society. During this time, e-learning serves the levels of the education sector such as higher education well by delivering and receiving materials from distance with respect to movement restrictions imposed by the government, for example the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia. In this qualitative survey, the existing e-learning challenges and the recommended solutions to the problems from the senior lecturers' perspectives were collected through an online open-ended questionnaire. A number of five senior lecturers out of eight at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) answered the questionnaire. The UTM has been capable of providing e-learning courses for all of its lecturers and students during the closure of higher education institutions owing to the pernicious health conditions stemmed from the crisis of the COVID-19. The major existing challenges found in the e-learning program at the UTM and the suggested solutions to address them are listed and the main themes are illustrated in the word cloud format using the NVivo software. In the end, the conclusion is paragraphed and the future work is proposed. Overall, the purpose of this study is to address the e-learning challenges and to prepare a list of recommendations that can serve as solutions from the standpoint of the UTM senior lecturers during the MCO in Malaysia.

Fully Analog ECG Baseline Wander Tracking and Removal Circuitry using HPF Based R-peak Detection and Quadratic Interpolation

Nazari, Masoud,Rajeoni, Alireza Bagheri,Lee, Kye-Shin Korea Multimedia Society 2020 The journal of multimedia information system Vol.7 No.3

This work presents a fully analog baseline wander tracking and removal circuitry using high-pass filter (HPF) based R-peak detection and quadratic interpolation that does not require digital post processing, thus suitable for compact and low power long-term ECG monitoring devices. The proposed method can effectively track and remove baseline wander in ECG waveforms corrupted by various motion artifacts, whereas minimizing the loss of essential features including the QRS-Complex. The key component for tracking the baseline wander is down sampling the moving average of the corrupted ECG waveform followed by quadratic interpolation, where the R-peak samples that distort the baseline tracking are excluded from the moving average by using a HPF based approach. The proposed circuit is designed using CMOS 0.18-㎛ technology (1.8V supply) with power consumption of 19.1 ㎼ and estimated area of 15.5 ㎟ using a 4^th order HPF and quadratic interpolation. Results show SNR improvement of 10 dB after removing the baseline wander from the corrupted ECG waveform.

Enhanced optical transmission through a star-shaped bull's eye at dual resonant-bands in UV and the visible spectral range.

Nazari, Tavakol,Khazaeinezhad, Reza,Jung, Woohyun,Joo, Boram,Kong, Byung-Joo,Oh, Kyunghwan Optical Society of America 2015 Optics express Vol.23 No.14

<P>Dual resonant bands in UV and the visible range were simultaneously observed in the enhanced optical transmission (EOT) through star-shaped plasmonic structures. EOTs through four types of polygonal bull's eyes with a star aperture surrounded by the concentric star grooves were analyzed and compared for 3, 4, 5, and 6 corners, using finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. In contrast to plasmonic resonances in the visible range, the UV-band resonance intensity was found to scale with the number of corners, which is related with higher order multipole interactions. Spectral positions and relative intensities of the dual resonances were analyzed parametrically to find optimal conditions to maximize EOT in UV-visible dual bands.</P>

Upregulation of the RNF8 gene can predict the presence of sperm in azoospermic individuals

Nazari, Majid,Babakhanzadeh, Emad,Zarch, Mohsen Aghaei,Talebi, Mehrdad,Narimani, Nima,Dargahi, Mandana,Sabbaghian, Marjan,Ghasemi, Nasrin The Korean Society for Reproductive Medicine 2020 Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine Vol.47 No.1

Objective: In this study, specimens from testicular biopsies of men with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) were used to investigate whether RNF8 gene could serve as a biomarker to predict the presence of sperm in these patients. Methods: Testicular biopsy specimens from 47 patients were classified according to the presence of sperm (positive vs. negative groups) and investigated for the expression of RNF8. The level of RNF8 gene expression in the testes was compared between these groups using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results: The expression level of RNF8 was significantly higher in testicular samples from the positive group than in those from the negative group. Moreover, the area under the curve of RNF8 expression for the entire study population was 0.84, showing the discriminatory power of RNF8 expression in differentiating between the positive and negative groups of men with NOA. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that RNF8 expression had a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 84%, with a cutoff level of 1.76. Conclusion: This study points out a significant association between the expression of RNF8 and the presence of sperm in NOA patients, which suggests that quantified RNF8 expression in testicular biopsy samples may be a valuable biomarker for predicting the presence of spermatozoa in biopsy samples.

GAPDH, β-actin and β2-microglobulin, as three common reference genes, are not reliable for gene expression studies in equine adipose- and marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Nazari, Fatemeh,Parham, Abbas,Maleki, Adham Fani Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology 2015 한국축산학회지 Vol.57 No.5

Background: Quantitative real time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) is one of the most important techniques for gene-expression analysis in molecular based studies. Selecting a proper internal control gene for normalizing data is a crucial step in gene expression analysis via this method. The expression levels of reference genes should be remained constant among cells in different tissues. However, it seems that the location of cells in different tissues might influence their expression. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has any effect on expression level of three common reference genes (GAPDH, ${\beta}$-actin and ${\beta}2$-microglobulin) in equine marrow- and adipose-derived undifferentiated MSCs and consequently their reliability for comparative qRT-PCR. Materials and methods: Adipose tissue (AT) and bone marrow (BM) samples were harvested from 3 mares. MSCs were isolated and cultured until passage 3 (P3). Total RNA of P3 cells was extracted for cDNA synthesis. The generated cDNAs were analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. The PCR reactions were ended with a melting curve analysis to verify the specificity of amplicon. Results: The expression levels of GAPDH were significantly different between AT- and BM-derived MSCs (p < 0.05). Differences in expression level of ${\beta}$-actin (P < 0.001) and B2M (P < 0.006.) between MSCs derived from AT and BM were substantially higher than GAPDH. In addition, the fold change in expression levels of GAPDH, ${\beta}$-actin and B2M in AT-derived MSCs compared to BM-derived MSCs were 2.38, 6.76 and 7.76, respectively. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that GAPDH and especially ${\beta}$-actin and B2M express in different levels in equine AT- and BM-derived MSCs. Thus they cannot be considered as reliable reference genes for comparative quantitative gene expression analysis in MSCs derived from equine bone marrow and adipose tissue.

The Effects of Natural Zeolite on Vegetative growth, Flower and Physiological Characteristics of African Marigold (Tagetes erecta L. ‘Queen’)

Nazari Farzad,Khosh-Khui Morteza,Eshghi Saeid,Salehi Hassan 한국원예학회 2007 Horticulture, Environment, and Biotechnology Vol.48 No.4

This research was conducted to investigate the effects of natural zeolite on vegetative growth, flower and physiological characteristics of African marigold (Tagetes erecta L. 'Queen'). The experiment was performed as a completely randomized design with six treatments (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 g zeolite/kg soil mixture along with control) and 5 replications. Results indicated that zeolite decreased leaching of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium due to increase in cation exchange capacity (CEC) of soil mixture. Application of zeolite in the medium resulted in significant increase in photosynthetic rate, mesophyll efficiency, water use efficiency, chlorophyll content, fresh and dry weights of roots and shoots, leaf area and flower length, but did not significantly affect flower diameter and stomatal conductance. It was concluded that zeolite had a pronounced effect on vegetative growth, flower and physiological characteristics of African marigold. It my be recommended that zeolite being used, as an amendment to soil of ornamental plants such as African marigold to decrease nutrient leaching and irrigation interval.

News Consumption and Behavior of Young Adults and the Issue of Fake News

Nazari, Zeinab,Oruji, Mozhgan,Jamali, Hamid R. Korea Institute of Science and Technology Informat 2022 Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice Vol.10 No.2

This study aimed to understand young adults' attitudes concerning news and news resources they consumed, and how they encounter the fake news phenomenon. A qualitative approach was used with semi-structured interviews with 41 young adults (aged 20-30) in Tehran, Iran. Findings revealed that about half of the participants favored social media, and a smaller group used traditional media and only a few maintained that traditional and modern media should be used together. News quality was considered to be lower on social media than in traditional news sources. Furthermore, young adults usually followed the news related to the issues which had impact on their daily life, and they typically tended to share news. To detect fake news, they checked several media to compare the information; and profiteering and attracting audiences' attention were the most important reasons for the existence of fake news. This is the first qualitative study for understanding news consumption behavior of young adults in a politicized society.

Polarization dependent enhanced optical transmission through a sub-wavelength polygonal aperture surrounded by polygonal grooves.

Nazari, Tavakol,Khazaeinezhad, Reza,Kassani, Sahar Hosseinzadeh,Jung, Woohyun,Shin, Inchul,Kang, Dooeui,Oh, Kyunghwan Optical Society of America 2014 Optics express Vol.22 No.22

<P>Enhanced optical transmission (EOT) and its polarization extinction ratio (PER) of a sub-wavelength polygonal aperture surrounded by polygonal grooves are investigated numerically by finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. Effects of light polarization on EOT were analyzed and compared for four types of geometrical structures: triangle aperture surrounded by triangle grooves, square aperture surrounded by square grooves, rhombus aperture surrounded by rhombus grooves, and pentagon aperture surrounded by pentagon grooves. The effects of relative angles between the symmetry axes of polygons and the light polarization were thoroughly analyzed. Among these plasmonic polygonal bull's eye structures, the rhombus showed a maximum EOT several times larger than others. In contrast to the prior normal incident condition, we further analyzed the impacts of the incident angle and we found a wideband tunability of EOT wavelengths.</P>

Estimating the Fractional Order of Orthogonal Rational Functions Used in the Identification

Narges Nazari,Mohammad Haeri,Mohammad Saleh Tavazoei 제어로봇시스템학회 2008 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2008 No.10

This paper deals with the identification of fractional order systems via orthogonal rational functions. These functions have widely been used in system identification of classical integer order systems. It has been shown that due to some properties such as the presence of non-exponentional aperiodic multimodes in the fractional order systems, it is much better to use fractional orthogonal rational functions in approximation of these systems. One problem which arises in this area is the estimation of fractional order of these orthogonal rational functions. In the existing methods, these parameters have been found by trial and error which requires a large amount of calculations. To reduce the computational effort, a new strategy is suggested in the present work to estimate the fractional order. The proposed strategy is constructed based on pre-processing the step response of the system in hand.