When Classrooms Become Battlegrounds: The Assault on Iranian Science

This article is grounded on a large empirical study of bioethics and regulatory policy of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research in Shi'a Iran. This case study in five research and academic institutions used in-depth semi-structured interviews to explore the view of stem cell (SC) scientists and other stakeholders related to hESC research and governance in this Muslim country. In fact, Iran has one of the most permissive policies on hESC research among Muslim states, while the country's legislation drawing on the Islamic faith. This article illustrates how Iranian SC scientists and policy-makers perceive the moral status of human embryos in the research frame. To this aim, themes that appeared as turning points in interview discourses on the nature of embryos consist of (1) reflections on whether the embryo is “human”, “potentially human”, a “collection of cells” or a “living entity”; (2) the distinction between the embryo inside and outside the womb; (3) the distinction between the embryo before and after ensoulment; and (4) a comparison of the ethics of human dignity and of healing. Based on the empirical evidence, this work therefore expands and refines the theoretical ethical foundation or mutual interaction between science, biopolitics and society in Iran

The paper is based on a large qualitative study of ethics, policy and regulation of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) science in Iran. This case study in five academic research centres used semi-structured interviews to examine in depth the views of stem cell scientists, embryologists and ethics committee members on hESC research policy in this Shia Muslim country. Although Iran's policy approach has been considered 'intermediate', what is described here seems to be a 'more flexible' policy on hESC science. This article describes three arguments to explain why Iran has shaped such a policy. These are: (1) a flexibility of the Shia tradition has allowed for hESC science; (2) permissive policy related to other fields of biomedicine, such as new assisted reproductive technologies, facilitated approval of hESC research; and (3) a lack of public debate of bioscience in Iran influences how its hESC research policy is perceived. Based on the empirical data, this paper then expands and refines the conceptual bioethical basis for the co-production of science, policy, and society in Iran. The notion of co-production implies that scientists, policy-makers, and sometimes other societal actors cooperate in the exchange, production, and application of knowledge to make science policy.

Cell-based therapeutics are among the latest advances in health care technologies. The rapid evolution of stem cell science in Iran has necessitated the application of scientific achievements in clinical settings. However, various issues hindered their translation, in particular, impediments in the interactions of basic stem cell scientists and clinicians. We highlighted the impediments in the interactions of stem cell scientists and physicians involved in the opinion of professionals from both groups. This qualitative research was conducted with thematic analysis, performed by purposive sampling. Thirty-two distinguished stem cell scientists and clinicians were interviewed to identify their perspectives on this matter. MAXQDA 2018 was used to classify the axial codes based on factors related to communications inefficiencies. The analysis of coded data recognized 18 subthemes and six major themes. Central themes include different registers of the two parties, counterproductive clusters hampered networking, external communication barriers, the competition to access resources, leadership conflicts, and the dissatisfaction of stakeholders with their share. Most of the impediments were seemingly global, for example, the incoherent medical and basic science educational systems, the vulnerable career path of physician-scientists, and an increasing tendency towards overspecialization. However, some local specific issues were also described, for example, limited funding opportunities and the negative impacts of the division of medical education from the ministry of science, research, and technology in Iran. Proposed interventions include the reinforcement of physician-scientist programs, designing a distributed leadership model, and bringing back the scientific integrity to higher education in Iran.

Aim: Increasingly, researchers and universities are demanded to demonstrate the relevance of their publicly funded research projects to societal challenges and development. This societal contribution is referred to as research impact in Iran. The primary purpose of the present study was to evaluate the challenges of creating research impact in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in Iran’s context. To do so, we investigated participants' viewpoints from the research community and potential research users. Methodology: This was a qualitative study with an explanatory orientation to address the study aim. Participants were SSH researchers and research managers at Iranian national universities as well as representatives of governmental organizations that had direct roles in the production or the use of research results. We used purposeful snowball sampling to identify participants with relevant knowledge and experience. Accordingly, we carried out semi-structured interviews with 16 participants. For analyzing the data, the grounded theory method was used, and then a final theory was formed. Findings:Data from the interviews represented broad challenges in the process of research to impact. Specifically, these challenges were classified into six categories, namely, the core phenomenon, causal, contextual, and intervening conditions, strategies, and consequences. Each of these categories relates to a different aspect of challenges that researchers or potential users face in knowledge mobilization and uptake of research evidence. Conclusions:The study revealed that the main obstacle to creating research impact in SSH in Iran is the lack of a definition for knowledge mobilization that is appropriate to SSH research. The current definitions and structures in universities are not consistent with the characteristics of SSH research and its audience. Furthermore, since this definition is not consistent with the nature of SSH research, researchers do not receive the necessary incentives and support for this purpose and are not able to integrate knowledge mobilization activities with their current academic activities and responsibilities. These findings emphasize the role of universities in facilitating the impact creation process by employing appropriate definitions and structures for knowledge mobilization.

Using Actor-Network Theory to identify the role of IT in cognitive science in Iran

The project of indigenizing the social sciences in Iran and coming up with a distinctively Iranian-Islamic social scientific framework has had little success. Despite repeated state efforts and an impressive intellectual pedigree, the failure of the indigenization project is rooted in the structural limitations of the evolution of the social sciences in Iran on the one hand, and the political environment and pressures placed upon it on the other. The rising popularity of social science fields since the 2000s has so far not translated into a deepening understanding of social science disciplines per se. Meanwhile, the state’s championing of the indigenization project, which in practice has meant Islamization, has been its very undoing. The ultimate outcome has been the underdevelopment of the social sciences in Iran, whether as general fields of inquiry or as an indigenous framework for better understanding the country’s social conditions.

First steps are taken in the following toward the study of present‐day philosophy of science in Iran, by choosing various examples in the hope of showing that philosophy of science in Iran has emerged predominantly as an apologetic and ideological discourse. I start by pointing out the complexities of method in such a study. I then criticise two writing samples by two well‐known Iranian scholars, which exemplify the first Iranian reaction to logical positivism. The study continues with a survey of the mistakes in the Persian translation of T. S. Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, a study of the status of research in philosophy of science in Iran, and a critique of attempts by Iranian scholars at indigenising philosophy of science through the reconciliation of modern science with Islamic faith.

The aim of the research is to know: (1) What are the enhancements of science and technology in Iran Islam Republic after the embargo by United States in 2006; (2) What causes the increase of science and technology in Iran. This research using a method of qualitative, with the procedure data collection techniques based on facts. This research can be summed as follows: first, there are the discoveries of science and technology after embargo by the United States (after 2006). Second, the increase in science and technology its cause by natural resources factors and the ability of the economy and the ability of the population and owned by the powerful ideology of the Iranian nation. Keywords: Science and Technology, US Embargo, Iran.

This paper aims at determining the relationships among psychological contracts, affective organizational commitment, and three dimensions of personal needs assessment in strategic training (that is, motivation to learn, perceived support, and training attitudes). The study sample comprised 301 employees from universities of medical sciences in Iran. Multiple and simple linear regression and path analysis were used to test the direct and mediated relationships among the variables. The survey results further demonstrated that psychological contract is a partial mediator between strategic training practices and effective organizational commitment. This study highlights the importance of strategic need assessment in order to foster affective organizational commitment. These findings have important practical and theoretical implications. Firstly, managers will not be able to foster effective commitment through human resource practices unless they recognize and appreciate which needs are valued by employees. Secondly, the results provide evidence in favor of managerial interventions aimed at enhancing affective organizational commitment and, consequently, minimizing the negative effects of an actual turnover in the universities of medical sciences in Iran. Key words: Motivation to learn, training attitudes, perceived support, effective organizational commitment, psychological contract, turnover intention.

This paper analyzes the historical causes of the rise of the natural sciences in Iran after Islam. Through reviewing different accounts of the scientific movement that happened during a period from the third to the fifth century A.H., the researchers try to provide a convincing explanation for this historical event. The employed research methods in this study including and Max Weber's objective possibility and Adequacy are used to test the causal narrative presented in this paper. The results show that the equality seeking slogans of Islam led to the elimination of the Sassanid's semi-cassette system and the tribal government of Umayyad. In addition, the influence of the Persian nobles in the Abbasid court and the transmission of culture and values of scientism to the Sassanid government in the politically stable and wealthy environment of Abbasid court led to the rise of natural sciences in Iran and Islamic countries. It is argued that with the establishment of semi-independent states in the third and fourth centuries A.H. in Iran, this academic growth was transferred to these governments and led to the rise of science in Iran.

Recently, one of the challenges in the health system of the country is the need for research contributing to policy-making. Therefore, it is crucial to develop activities in the field of knowledge Translation (KT). This study aimed to propose KT improvement strategies in universities of medical sciences in Iran. In this qualitative study, 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants from the medical universities in Iran during January-July 2018. The transcribed documents were analyzed using the Gale framework analysis approach. Data organization was carried out using MAXQDA version 10 software. According to framework analysis, six KT improvement strategies were identified including improving the abilities and skills of researchers, improving the processes and quality of knowledge production, revising policies and laws, improving the prerequisites, culture-building, and promoting the use of evidence. Given the challenges and strategies outlined in this study, it seems that the mechanism of KT and its effects on improving health plans for policymakers and researchers has not been elucidated yet. Therefore, considerable changes in prerequisites, knowledge production processes, academic procedures, policies and laws are necessary for implementing KT in universities of medical sciences in Iran.

Criminal sciences are a body of disciplines that jointly study crime and its related concepts and phenomena, for example, offender, victim, and punishment. These disciplines include, inter alia, criminal law, crime policy, criminal justice, penology, criminology, and victimology. In Iran, criminal sciences have been recognized in the form of criminal law and criminology as MA and PhD courses of graduate studies since 1960s, and thus, victimology is not defined as a single subject or unit of teaching. However, criminal sciences have been developed through the endeavors of three generations of Iranian scholars who have played an important role in codifying and interpreting the national criminal legislations and domestic literature of criminal sciences. Based on a descriptive-analytical method, the present chapter explores the role of these generations in the context of three periods, including codification, interpretation, and contemplation. The author concludes that these domestic criminal sciences have been influenced by comparative studies, particularly those derived from French and Anglo-American traditions. Consequently, the findings show that criminology and victimology are overshadowed by criminal law within the sphere of criminal sciences in Iran, based on the assumption that there is the supremacy of criminal law over criminology in the Iranian high educational system.

I am not and do not pretend to be a historian of science. However, I am a scientist who knows about the state of the sciences in Iran at the time when I was an elementary and high school student in Tehran in the 1950s. I completed my university education in Vienna, a city in which those traditions such as Heinrich Hertz, Ernst Mach, Erwin Schrodinger, and the Vienna School of Philosophy were still alive. Since the Islamic Revolution, I have continued to play a role in the evolution of science in Iran. I have acquired a keen understanding of the relationship between Iranian thought and the different meanings of s cience. When I was in elementary school, our living conditions and the facilities to which we had access in Tehran were not much different from the conditions that prevailed eight hundred years ago: We had no electricity, no televisions, no refrigerators. I still recall the dusty streets after the first public city bus lines were established in the neighborhood where we lived.KeywordsModern ScienceArabic LanguageIslamic WorldIslamic CountryEighth CenturyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Background: Valid assessment and validation indices are very important to evaluate and teach students, especially in clinical education settings. Considering the fact that rehabilitation science fields have about 1200 h of clinical education, planning of clinical skills training and how to evaluate them is important to improve the quality of education. Due to the importance of clinical skills teaching, clinical logbooks are used in various medical sciences in the world and some of the fields of medical sciences in Iran. This study was conducted to design and evaluate a clinical logbook for rehabilitation fields. Methods: Students [153] and trainers [43] surveys were conducted on how to evaluate clinical units. The clinical training logbooks of reputable rehabilitation universities of the world were studied and clinical activity logbooks for different rehabilitation fields were designed and administered in the clinical education and governance council meetings. Then, the level of satisfaction of trainers and students with the evaluation method was investigated using the logbook. Results: The results of this research showed a significant increase in students’ satisfaction with the assessment of internship and improvement of the quality of clinical education (above 80%) (P=0.02). Content validity results for the questionnaire were above 68% and Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was 75%. Conclusion: Given the similarity of internship courses throughout Iran, the logbook can be used in rehabilitation fields in the country by discipline to evaluate the clinical dimension of rehabilitation courses.

Radiopharmaceuticals are the major and essential component in nuclear medicine and are the most prominent aspect of peaceful applications of nuclear sciences in human being’s daily life. These radioactive materials are formulated in appropriate forms for administration to human being for the diagnosis and the therapy of human diseases. Diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals are the majorly applied radiopharmaceuticals worldwide (>90%), while therapeutic applications are still in the growing process. Production of radiopharmaceuticals almost started in 1980’s in Iran with the fabrication of 99 Mo/ 99m Tc generators, the most widely used component in the nuclear medicine practice. Since then, many Tc-99m kits for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) were prepared and developed in the country together with other diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals in last 3 decades. Recently, positron emission tomography (PET) has been initiated in the country using the most important PET tracer, i.e. 18 F-FDG. The advances of radiopharmaceutical sciences in Iran have been recently reported at international levels (1), with great position compared to other countries in the Middle East (2). In this editorial, the status of production and availability of radiopharmaceuticals in the country has been presented. Although the research and development of radiopharmaceuticals has a long history in the country, however, the initiation of National Iranian Radiopharmaceutical Project in 2010 led to initiation of many new pre-clinical/clinical evaluations pushing the developed radiopharmaceuticals into clinical applications and market (3). Tc-99m is used in more than 80% of diagnostic procedures and is usually prepared in a 99 Mo/ 99m Tc generator form using high specific activity (fission moly) or low specific activity (gel moly) Mo-99 loaded on a column shielded in proper lead container to be sent to nuclear medicine centres. The generator systems are then eluted using appropriate aqueous solution and the 99m TcO 4 - radio-anion is then mixed with appropriate cold kits containing a ligand and some other additives (reducing agent, stabilizer, filler, …) to obtain an injectable IV solution. Based on the nature of the kit ligands used, the radiopharmaceutical can be used in the diagnosis of various human diseases, such as malignancies, bone problems, heart disorders, liver diseases, etc. Table 1 demonstrates a list of available Tc-99m radiopharmaceuticals in the country which have been routinely used in human. Other important diagnostic tracer in form of 131 I-NaI oral solution or capsules is routinely used in the detection of thyroid related diseases and metastasis usually in low doses, the radioisotope is produced by the irradiation of natural tellurium target in research reactor. At higher doses this radiopharmaceutical is used for the treatment of hyperthyroid disease and targeted therapy of thyroid malignancies. Another important I-131 based radiopharmaceutical is the synthetic homologue of neuroamines called I-131 meta-iodobenzyl guanidine ( 131 I-MIBG) used in the diagnosis of neural crest derived tumors,