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Audio-based classification techniques for body sounds have long been studied to aid in the diagnosis of respiratory diseases. While most research is centered on the use of coughs as the main acoustic biomarker, other body sounds also have the potential to detect respiratory diseases. Recent studies on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have suggested that breath and speech sounds, in addition to cough, correlate with the disease. Our study proposes fused audio instance and representation (FAIR) as a method for respiratory disease detection. FAIR relies on constructing a joint feature vector from various body sounds represented in waveform and spectrogram form. We conduct experiments on the use case of COVID-19 detection by combining waveform and spectrogram representation of body sounds. Our findings show that the use of self-attention to combine extracted features from cough, breath, and speech sounds leads to the best performance with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) score of 0.8658, a sensitivity of 0.8057, and a specificity of 0.7958. Compared to models trained solely on spectrograms or waveforms, the use of both representations results in an improved AUC score, demonstrating that combining spectrogram and waveform representation helps to enrich the extracted features and outperforms the models that use only one representation. While this study focuses on COVID-19, FAIR’s flexibility allows it to combine various multi-modal and multi-instance features in many other diagnostic applications, potentially leading to more accurate diagnoses across a wider range of diseases.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based image analysis has immense potential to support diagnostic histopathology, including cancer diagnostics. However, developing supervised AI methods requires large-scale annotated datasets. A potentially powerful solution is to augment training data with synthetic data. Latent diffusion models, which can generate high-quality, diverse synthetic images, are promising. However, the most common implementations rely on detailed textual descriptions, which are not generally available in this domain. This work proposes a method that constructs structured textual prompts from automatically extracted image features. We experiment with the PCam dataset, composed of tissue patches only loosely annotated as healthy or cancerous. We show that including image-derived features in the prompt, as opposed to only healthy and cancerous labels, improves the Fréchet Inception Distance (FID) by 88.6. We also show that pathologists find it challenging to detect synthetic images, with a median sensitivity/specificity of 0.55/0.55. Finally, we show that synthetic data effectively train AI models.

Since clitics interconnect different modules of the grammar and are hosted by various hosts from different categories, they have attracted the attention of many linguists. Besides, their interaction with their hosts and positioning in the second position seems interesting. Central Kurdish (CK) like some other Iranian languages such as Persian, Vafsi, among others have two sets of Person Agreement Markers (PAM), a Direct set and an Oblique set, sometimes also called Set1 and Set2, respectively. In Mukri Kurdish like other Iranian languages clitics can be found. Mukri clitics are very mobile and can appear in different domains. The previous scholarship on the clitic system of Kurdish have been done by different scholars. A review of the literature on CK reveals that the role of clitic PAMs has been surveyed along four major aspects: (i) the listing of clitic functions; (ii) the grammaticalization of clitic PAMs; (iii) the correlation between clitic PAMs and the nominal case system; (iv) the role of clitic PAMs in the alignment system. The present paper investigates the distribution of Mukri pronominal enclitics using Optimality Theory constraints in the VP. The constraints which play role in clitic placement are NonInitial (cli,VP), Integrity (VP) and LeftMost (cli, L,VP). The VPs under discussion can contain a preverbal, negative maker prefixes (ne-, na-), subjunctive and imperative prefix (bi-) or only a verb. The research method of this study is descriptive – analytic and fieldwork. Competition of the constraints which play role in placing Mukri pronominal clitics in the VP showed that the constraints NonInitial (cli,VP), Integrity (VP) in hierarchy of constraints dominate LeftMost (cli, L,VP) but none of constraints NonInitial (cli,VP), Integrity(VP) dominate each other. The analysis revealed that Mukri Kurdish pronominal clitics are placed in the second position in their VP.

Background: Due to the outbreak of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL), a disease caused by Leishmania major and mainly transmitted by Phlebotomus papatasi, in Damghan City, Semnan Province, the probable vectors of the disease were investigated in the city from 20 March 2016 to 20 January 2018. Methods: Sand flies were collected from indoors and outdoors biweekly by sticky traps in different parts of the city. The trapped sand flies were stored in 70% ethanol. They were identified and checked for Leishmania infections using nested-PCR method and specific primers; CSB1XR, CSB2XF, LiR, and 13Z. Results: Overall, 1862 phlebotomine sand flies of Ph. papatasi (48.8%), Ph. andrejevi (8.3%), Ph. caucasicus (7.7), Ph. mongolensis (2%), Ph. sergenti (1.2%), Ph. alexandri (0.7%), Sergentomyia murgabiensis sintoni (29.3%), and Se. sumbarica (2%) were collected indoors (31.1%) and outdoors (68.9%). The highest and lowest numbers of collected sand flies were belonging to Ph. papatasi (48.8%) and Ph. alexandri (0.7%) respectively. 2.2% of the examined sand flies were shown to be infected with L. major and all were belonging to Ph. papatasi. Conclusion: This study confirms the report of Ph. papatasi infection with L. major and also the existence of Ph. sergenti and Ph. alexandri, the potential vectors of L. tropica and L. infantum respectively, in Damghan City. According to the findings, it is necessary for health officials to plan and take action to prevent the occurrence of ZCL epidemic in the city as well as the occurrence of other forms of leishmaniasis.

Background: Mosquitoes are responsible for the transmission of many pathogens and parasites and consequently serious diseases in humans. Currently, application of plant derivatives has been suggested as an alternative bio-control technique for these medically important vectors. Methods: In this study the essential oil and methanol extract of Achilleawilhelmsii were tested against late-3rd or young-4th instar larvae stages of mosquito vector,Anopheles stephensi, under laboratory condition. The larval mortality was calculated after 24 h of the exposure period. Data were subjected to Probit analysis in order to estimate the lethal concentration for 50% and 90% of mortality values. Results: Results showed that the essential oil induced 100% larval mortality of An. stephensilarvae after 24 h with a dosage of 160 ppm, However, a dosage of 320 ppm of methanol extract was required to reach 100% larval mortality.Theessential oil methanol extract exerted significant larvicidal activity with LC50 values of 39.04 and 115.73 ppm, respectively. Conclusion: Our finding suggests that A. wilhelmsii oil is a potential source and has valuable larvicidal compounds for mosquito larval control.

Background: Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania major is endemic in 17 of 31 Iranian provinces. Various species of rodents have been introduced as the main reservoirs of the disease. This study was conducted to de­termine the natural infection of hedgehogs with Leishmania spp. in an endemic area of the disease, northern Iran. Methods: Fifteen long-eared hedgehogs were captured alive during 18 months study period, from Apr 2015 to Sep 2016, in Damghan City, Semnan Province, Iran. The animals were identified using apparent characteristics and to de­termine the Leishmania infection, impression smears were prepared from their ear lobes, hind feet, livers, and spleens. Micro­scopic examination and semi-nested PCR were applied to determine the infection and to identify the parasites species respectively. Results: All examined animals were identified as Hemiechinus auritus (Family: Erinaceidae). In microscopic examina­tion, 8 (53.3%) samples were shown to be infected with Leishmania parasites. The higher and lower rate of the infection was observed in the ears as well as the feet and in the liver specimens, 53.3%, and 33.3% respectively. Forty percent (6/ 15) of the samples were molecularly positive and all were identified as L. major parasites. All the examined animals in au­tumn and 50% of them in summer were shown to be infected with Leishmania parasites. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the natural infection of H. auritus with L. major for the first time in Damghan City and introduced these mammals as new potential reservoirs of ZCL in the study area.

Globalization as a process or a project brings inevitable effects in the international system. One of these effects of globalization will be globalized religion. What is the globalized religion? There are different opinions among experts in this field. There can be a core of consensus about this globalized religion which is a package of shared principles and values in universal religion. In this religious context the religion that is more complete and more comprehensive would have a greater share and this religion is Islam. Submission theology believes the process of globalization provides a space for understanding the true principles of religious beliefs which can lead to human salvation in this world and the other. The main question of this paper is: what is the impact of globalization on submission theology? The main hypothesis of this paper is that globalization provides possibilities and influences for submission theology in the area of religion to form a single and unifying discourse. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between submission theology and religious pluralism for achieving a single and unifying discourse of comprehensive religion in the process of globalization. The research method will be analytical and descriptive using library tools.

Introduction & Objective: Cutaneous Leishmaniasis is caused by obligatory intracellular parasite of genus Lieshmania. The disease is reported from more than half of Iran's provinces. Various species of sand flies are vector of the disease. Determination of vectors and gaining knowledge about them are important for devising of control program. Materials & Methods: This survey was performed as a cross-sectional study in order to determine the vector(s) of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Damghan district during 2008-2009. Sand flies were collected from indoors and outdoors by sticky traps twice in month from April to November. Head and last abdominal segments of the samples were removed and mounted in a drop of Puri’s medium and identified. The rest of the sand flies' bodies was subjected to DNA extraction for molecular detection of Leishmania parasite by Nested PCR using specific primers of minicircle kinetoplast DNA Results: Totally, 6110 sand flies in 8 species were collected. P. papatasi had high density (46.7%). Examination of 280 female sand flies by Nested PCR showed that 28 sand flies (10%) include 24 specimens P.papatasi (85.7%) and 4 specimens P.caucasicus(14.3%)were found naturally infected with L.major. The highest rate of infected sandflies were observed in rodents burrow (42.9%). Maximum rate of sand fly infection was in September (89.3%). Conclusion: With respect to high density of P.papatasi and isolation of L.major from it, this species was the main vector of the disease. Detection of L.major from P.caucasicus shows that this species was the secondary vector in rodent burrow. The highest rate of sand leis infected was in September, so personal protection in this month is very important and necessary. Regarding to the high density of vectors and high infection rate of them taking actions to decrease the sand fly abundance and prevention of human biting are suggested.

Introduction & Objective: Leishmaniasis is one of the most important infectious diseases in the world. This disease is reported from more than 15 provinces of Iran as a health problem. Identification of reservoirs and characterization of parasite species in patients is very important for identifying the epidemiological aspects of disease and planning for control program. Materials & Methods: This survey was performed as a descriptive study by PCR-RFLP method in Damghan district. Study was carried out on giemsa-stained smears from cases of leishmaniasis and rodents which collected in infected villages that leishmanal infection was confirmed by microscopic observations. DNA of giemsa-stained slides was extracted and followed by conventional PCR technique using specific primers of ITS1. PCR products were digested with a restriction enzyme (HaeIII). Results: Totally 25 smears from human skin lesions and 8 rodent ear scrapings were examined by PCR. Electrophoresis results showed that leishmania major was present in patients and rodents giemsa-stained slides. Conclusion: PCR-RFLP is an effective method to identify leishmania species from giemsa-stained smears which have been collected from humans and animal reservoirs. Using this method identification of causative species of leishmaniasis is possible without sequencing.