Search results

Abstract
This paper compares two areas of Egypt and Khorāsān in post-Islamic era regarding the loss and maintenance of their mother tongues. While in Egypt, Coptic was gradually removed from both formal and colloquial usages, in Khorāsān, Persian (Farsi or Parsi Dari), though was out of official and governmental services for more than two centuries, was able to finally maintain its status. The most important reason found behind this difference can be attributed to the independence seeking movements in Khorāsān (e.g. Sho'ūbieh), leading to the establishment of the first post-Islamic independent Iranian governments who supported the revival of Iranian culture and the maintenance of Persian language. Secondly, the migration of Arab tribes and the Arabization of the conquered societies were more successful in Egypt compared to Eastern Iran, which changed the demographic composition of Egypt. Moreover, the role of Persian-speaking epic poets, the social class of dihgāns in Iranian society and the fact that Coptic was not as old a language as Persian are other important reasons. It is argued that language maintenance can happen better in cases where top–down governmental and institutional support exists.

AbstractThe Habermasian notion of the public sphere is an independent area free of government intervention. In the Iranian case, the ownership and management of radio and television is with the government. Therefore, no programme can harshly criticise basic government policies. There are news sections, news reports, political commentaries, and interviews with political experts, first, second, or third ranked politicians and government officials, or even interviews with the public in which administrative inefficiencies, commodity shortages and even people's complaints and grievances are discussed. However, television productions, whether political, economic or cultural, cannot be oppositional. To change national television from being (mostly) propagandistic in nature to more public sphere in orientation needs time and more economic and political changes. Unlike television, in Iran we do not categorize the function of newspapers as a monologtype or one-way communication. Reformist papers do present alternative political and economic views. Nonetheless, financial and political problems such as opposing expectations and demands from readers and the judiciary system, low readership figures, a limited advertising market, and the shortage of imported and domestically produced paper prevent them from functioning as an effective and influential part of the Iranian public sphere. Recently, however, there have been some changes in the broadcast policy of Iranian television in terms of more channels, more dialog-type content, and an apparently non-biased and neutral position regarding reformists and conservatives. To assess how this new policy may change national television from (mostly) a propaganda type to a public sphere type requires more time and reliable evidence still not available.

Objective Adequacy of the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation (RNLE) in maintaining lumbosacral (L5-S1) loads below their recommended action limits in stoop, full-squat, and semi-squat load-handling activities was investigated using a full-body musculoskeletal model. Background The NIOSH committee did not consider the lifting technique adapted by workers when estimating the recommended weight limit (RWL). It is currently unknown whether the lifting technique adapted by workers would affect the competence of the RNLE in keeping spine loads below their recommended limits. Method A full-body subject-specific musculoskeletal model (Anybody Modeling System, AMS) driven by a 10-camera Vicon motion capture system (Vicon Motion Systems Inc., Oxford, UK) was used to simulate different static stoop, semi-squat, and full-squat load-handling activities of ten normal-weight volunteers (mean of ∼70 kg corresponding to the 15th percentile of adult American males) with the task-specific NIOSH RWL held in hands. Results Two-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant effect of lifting technique on both the L5-S1 compression ( p = 0.003) and shear ( p = 0.004) loads with semi-squat technique resulting in significantly larger loads than both stoop and full-squat techniques ( p < 0.05). While mean of L5-S1 loads remained smaller than their recommended limits, it is much expected that they pass these limits for heavier individuals, that is, for the 50th percentile of adult American males. Conclusion Spinal loads are expected to pass their recommended limits for heavier individuals especially during semi-squat lifting as the most frequently adapted technique by workers. Application Caution is required for the assessment of semi-squat lifting activities by the RNLE.

Despite the high prevalence of sexual torture and its close link with gender, little work has been published on refugee torture survivors from Muslim-majority countries. The aim of this project was to introduce a gender-critical framework, that draws on post-modern and post-colonial feminism, to the study of sexual torture in terms of its operationalization and psychological impact in Iranian, Afghan, and Kurdish refugees in the United Kingdom (UK). This exploratory qualitative research was conducted in collaboration with two voluntary organizations in the UK. Mental healthcare providers (HCPs) were invited to participate through convenience sampling from amongst their staff as well as from community mental health services. Torture survivors were recruited through snowball sampling. The study consists of two parts: 1) semi-structured face-to-face interviews with a total of eight experts (doctors and therapists) and three torture survivors; followed by 2) a focus group with four experts to discuss the emerging results from the interviews and together reflect on the politics of gender and sexuality in the context of torture ('assisted sense-making'). A thematic gender-critical analysis was performed for the qualitative data. Our findings from interviews with (only Kurdish) torture survivors and HCPs suggest that gender mediates the impact of sexual torture at the intersection of gender, cultural norms, forms of social inequality, and body politics. The conclusions of the study will have implications for health services by deepening our understanding of variables that intersect in an entangled and unpredictable network.

Despite the high prevalence of sexual torture and its close link with gender, little work has been published on refugee torture survivors from Muslim-majority countries. The aim of this project was to introduce a gender-critical framework, that draws on post-modern and post-colonial feminism, to the study of sexual torture in terms of its operationalization and psychological impact in Iranian, Afghan, and Kurdish refugees in the United Kingdom (UK). This exploratory qualitative research was conducted in collaboration with two voluntary organizations in the UK. Mental healthcare providers (HCPs) were invited to participate through convenience sampling from amongst their staff as well as from community mental health services. Torture survivors were recruited through snowball sampling. The study consists of two parts: 1) semi-structured face-to-face interviews with a total of eight experts (doctors and therapists) and three torture survivors; followed by 2) a focus group with four experts to discuss the emerging results from the interviews and together reflect on the politics of gender and sexuality in the context of torture ('assisted sense-making'). A thematic gender-critical analysis was performed for the qualitative data. Our findings from interviews with (only Kurdish) torture survivors and HCPs suggest that gender mediates the impact of sexual torture at the intersection of gender, cultural norms, forms of social inequality, and body politics. The conclusions of the study will have implications for health services by deepening our understanding of variables that intersect in an entangled and unpredictable network.

Abstract
This article explores the strategic use of 'fake news' discourses in non-democratic contexts using a mixed-methods
approach grounded in social network analysis and discourse theory. In contexts such as Russia and Iran, where the opposition
generally does not have unrestricted access to the political public sphere, social media platforms serve to influence discourses.
Given the prevalence of fake news discourses, previous studies have already focused extensively on the political elite and their
use of this discourse within Western or Anglo-American contexts, and on the typologies of 'fake news'. Our findings address this
research gap and suggest that ordinary users in non-Western and non-democratic settings do not differentiate between 'fake news'
types. Rather, they employ the discourse as a means to strategically delegitimise and discredit their opponents.

Voluntary or compulsory immigration of people to other regions or countries for different reasons can lead to social, cultural, and economic problems. In recent years, especially the rate of forced migration has increased and it is sometimes chosen as a last resort for social mobilization. Scientists and governments who have gathered data on migration for years have recently realized that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) methods are important in analyzing this data and developing utility models and systems. It has been gradually understood that these new technologies are very important in recent years, but studies have either only been done in the field of social sciences or only in the field of engineering. In this study, a comprehensive interdisciplinary study covering both dimensions is prepared. In this study, a machine learning-based model is presented by making a multidisciplinary study and exemplifying the Lake Urmia case study. The proposed method can be used in the decision-making process in the migration management. In our study, is proposed a model using three different algorithms (Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN)). According to the results, the SVM-based model outperforms others in accuracy and validations. The trained model of SVM has a success rate on mean accuracy as near to 86% with 4,00E-02 standard deviation rate. SVM ranked first and this method was followed by RF and KNN methods, respectively. In this context, this model can make forward-looking predictions and, like an expert system, can guide the relevant researchers and even state or form ideas according to the results obtained from it.

AbstractCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), as a contagious disease, has negative externality and public policies are essential to control it. To provide control solutions, identifying the factors affecting the spread of COVID‐19 and its distribution dynamics are very important for policy‐makers. Although there have been many studies examining various factors affecting the spread of COVID‐19, there are research gaps on the distribution dynamics of COVID‐19, its future trend prediction with the current policies, and the effects of neighbours on the distribution dynamics of COVID‐19. Hence, this paper used the data published on the confirmed COVID‐19 cases (C‐COVID‐19) from 9 February 2020, to 27 July 2020, to investigate the spatial distribution dynamics of COVID‐19 and its prediction in 40 Asian countries. The Markov chain and the spatial Markov chain were used in this study. The results show that the COVID‐19 in Asia did not tend to zero with the current policies, and the neighbours had effects on the spread of COVID‐19. Therefore, policy‐makers should use co‐operative policies between countries instead of domestic monopoly policies.