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Coronary artery disease (CAD) is developed by an insufficient supply of oxygen-rich blood to the myocardium. Recent studies have shown that increased oxidative stress has implicated in the pathogenesis of coronary atherosclerosis. Anxiety and CAD have a mutual relationship, as the effect of long-lasting anxiety on atherosclerosis and CAD is well known. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between dietary / serum total antioxidant capacity and CAD.

A total of 160 male patients were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Diagnosis and analysis of angiograms were performed visually by a cardiologist. The subjects were categorized into CAD− (coronary artery obstruction <75 per cent) and CAD+ (coronary artery obstruction ≥ 75 per cent) groups. Anthropometric indices, blood pressure, blood sugar and lipid profile and physical activity (PA) were assessed. Information about anxiety was obtained by Spielberger questionnaire. Dietary total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was obtained by using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire and an oxygen radical absorbance capacity of selected foods.

Mean of dietary TAC was significantly lower in CAD+ than CAD− group (P < 0.001). However, there was not any significant differences about serum TAC (P = 0.28). The mean of body mass index (BMI) (P = 0.04) and triglyceride (TG) level (P = 0.03) and the frequency of smoking (P = 0.03) were significantly higher in the CAD+ than the CAD− group. There was no significant relationship between CAD with apparent (P = 0.33) and hidden anxiety level (P = 0.16). Confounding factors such as smoking and medications were adjusted.

This study had certain limitations. Being a single center cross-sectional design does not permit analysis of causal relationships; the sample size was geographically limited. The authors could not exclude the medication of patients, which could affect the total antioxidant capacity levels. Measurement error in self-reported dietary consumption may results misclassification of exposure.

A diet high in total antioxidant capacity is inversely associated with CAD. Serum TAC does not vary between men with and without CAD when confounders including age, BMI, TG, smoking, SBP, DBP, energy intake, PA, HDL-C, LDL-C, T-C, FBS, family history of CAD, education and anxiety are taken into consideration.

High consumption of vegetables and fruits may play a major role in the prevention of CAD.

The study was approved by the ethics committee of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (No:394888).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the variables of the fused deposition modelling (FDM) process and improve their effect on the mechanical properties of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) components reinforced with copper microparticles.

In the experimental approach, after drying the ABS granule, it was mixed with copper microparticles (at concentrations of 5%, 8% and 10%) in a single screw extruder to fabricate pure ABS and composite filaments. Then, by making the components by the FDM process, the tensile strength of the parts was determined through tensile strength tests. Taguchi DOE method was used to design the experiments in which nozzle temperature, filling pattern and layer thickness were the design variables. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) and signal-to-noise analysis were conducted to determine the effectiveness of each FDM process parameter on the ultimate tensile strength of printed samples. Following that, the main effect analysis was used to optimize each process parameter for pure ABS and its composite at different copper contents.

The study allows the layer thickness and filling pattern had the highest effects on the ultimate tensile strength of the printed materials (pure and composite) in the FDM process. Moreover, the results show that the ultimate tensile strength of the ABS composite containing 5% copper was nearly 12.3% higher than the pure ABS part. According to validation tests, the maximum error of experiments was about 0.96%.

In this paper, the effect of copper microparticles (as filling agent) was investigated on the ultimate tensile strength of printed ABS material during the FDM process.

Kefir is a traditional fermented dairy beverage that has numerous health benefits due to the presence of bacteria and yeasts in an exopolysaccharide matrix. This study aims to isolate and identify beneficial microorganisms and evaluate the antimicrobial activity of kefir beverage against two important food-borne pathogens including Salmonella Typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes.

Microorganisms were identified by the polymerase chain reaction with specific primers, and antimicrobial activity was evaluated by the disk diffusion method.

The following microorganisms were identified as natural inhabitants of the kefir grains: Leuconostoc lactis, Lactococcus lactis subspecies lactis, Streptococcus cremoris, Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus helveticus, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei, Bifidobacterium langum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia fermentas. Also, the results obtained from the disk diffusion method showed the inhibitory effect of kefir milk on Salmonella Typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes with an inhibitory average diameter of 8.3 ± 4–9.1 ± 2.8 and 3.4 ± 3–6.6 ± 3 mm, respectively.

The results of this study showed that Iranian traditional kefir beverage contained different species of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts and has antimicrobial activity against two important food-borne pathogens, Salmonella Typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes, which the highest inhibitory effect was observed against Salmonella Typhimurium.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between political perspectives and the adoption of financial technology (fintech) mortgage lending, a new type of mortgage lending facilitated by online platforms.

The authors use fintech mortgage lending and presidential election data for the United States of America (USA) counties from 2010 to 2017. Employing several analysis techniques including ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and propensity score matching (PSM) methodology, the authors test whether political views are related to fintech mortgage lending, after controlling for other county characteristics including population, unemployment rate, median income, median age, minority ratio and education.

The authors find that a higher tendency toward Republican views is positively associated with adoption rates of fintech mortgages. The empirical results are supported by Republican ideology, which advocates for deregulation and market-driven solutions, as well as an increasing skepticism among Republicans toward traditional banking and financial institutions.

This paper contributes to the growing body of literature on fintech credit. By focusing on political views to explain the adoption of fintech mortgage lending – a recent and potentially disruptive innovation – the authors provide new insights into the dynamics within fintech credit markets.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate board co-option and employee welfare practices.

The authors employ several analysis techniques including univariate analysis, OLS regressions, Poisson regressions, and propensity score matching methodology. The sample consists of US public firms for the period of 1996–2017. The variables of interest are the employee welfare index (EWI) proposed by Ghaly et al. (2015) and the co-option ratio proposed by Coles et al. (2014).

The authors find that firms with a higher fraction of co-opted directors on their boards are less committed to the firms' employee well-being. The empirical results support the argument that the interests of co-opted directors are more closely aligned with the interests of the CEO who had an influence on selecting them to the board, which compromises their monitoring role.

This paper contributes in several ways to the literature on corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) by linking board co-option to employee welfare. By focusing on board co-option to explain the degree of firms' involvement in employee welfare, which is one of the crucial components of CSR performance, the authors provide pinpointed and detailed findings on a timely issue of CSR.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the applications and contributions of blockchain technology in finance in general, and to identify areas where the technology can make a larger impact in payment systems.

The authors do an exhaustive review of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, and examine the successful applications of blockchain technology in several finance disciplines including cryptocurrency. The authors critically evaluate the technical studies on behaviors in cryptocurrency prices.

Cryptocurrency is the first successful application of blockchain technology and can be used as the main fuel of the global money transfer network.

Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that can change the world with its convenience, transparency, accuracy and efficiency in speed and cost. The growth of blockchain usage in finance depends on further familiarization and trust gained by an increasing number of proven successful usage cases and testimonials as well as appropriate legislative changes.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the contributions that blockchain technology has made and is expected to make in the field of finance with the aim of adding value to corporate executives, investors, policy makers and a general audience.

The purpose of this paper is to recognize the benefits of the initial coin offering (ICO) as a way of raising funds and to present a detailed comparison between the ICO and the initial public offering to realize the future possibilities that this new funding method holds.

It is an exhaustive review of the ICO, the mechanism of crowdfunding, the blockchain technology behind it, benefits and current shortcomings of the ICO, and the potential future development of the ICO as a convenient and efficient way of raising capital.

ICOs have brought billions of dollars of funding to startups and projects worldwide in less than two years. Concurrently, many successful ICOs yielded extremely high returns to investors and believers of this new way of funding businesses.

While the ICO is a revolutionary vehicle for business funding, it has raised concerns among users as well as potential investors about its risk and lack of regulation. The future of this innovative funding method highly depends on further development and placement of appropriate regulatory supervision, better understanding of risk and benefits and attaining the confidence of users.

This is a review of the advantages and drawbacks of the ICO. If the current fraud, market and cybersecurity risks can be mitigated and standardized regulations are developed, the ICO has a future to become an established way of capital funding or even replace the existing options, regardless of the size and age of companies.

This paper aims to explain, first of all, signal modeling steps using Poincaré, and then considering the occurred events, concept of information applying Poincaré section and information approach, the brain pattern variations in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) cases will be diagnosed. A kind of representation of electroencephalogram (EEG) signal, namely, complementary plot, in which the main characteristic is special attention to asymmetry and symmetry coexist in natural and human processes, is introduced. In this paper, a new model is provided whose variations of patterns are similar to EEG’s when the transformation parameter is changed. A significant difference between ASD and healthy cases was also observed, which could be used to distinguish between various types of systems.

Complementary plot method is one of the most proper representations for Poincaré section of complex dynamics, because, as it was said about its characteristics, it has a qualitative approach toward signal (Sabelli, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2005, Sabelli et al., 2011). Considering the special conditions of this representation, here, intersection with a circle y² + x² = r² will be used; the important fact is, on the contrary to previous representations in which circular section had energy concept, here circular section considers phases. For finding trajectory intersection points, after calculating the sin and cosine of each term of EEG, plotting them in XY plane and drawing a chord between successive points of presentation transitions, then its intersections with the assumed circle are determined. But considering the sampling frequency, chords and Poincaré section, in this space, a minimum error – as the threshold – should be assumed in the program.

Natural and human processes are biotic (life-like) and creative (Sabelli and Galilei), and studying coexisting opposites by calculating the sine and cosine of each term in heartbeat intervals, weather variables and integer biotic series or random walk reveals an astonishingly regular mandala pattern; these patterns are not generated by random, periodic or chaotic series (Sabelli, 2005). This paper shows that in EEG of ASD children, mandala-like patterns of concentric rings are emergent in all situations (baseline – watching animation with voice and without voice) and electrode site (C3 and C4), but not in healthy individuals. The authors take the relation between sine and cosine functions as a mathematical model for complementary opposition, because it involves reciprocity and orthogonality sine and cosine are natural models for information. In fact, trigonometric analyses of empirical data to be described in this paper suggest expanding the concept of co-creative opposition to include uncorrelated opposites and partial opposites, i.e. partial agonists and partial antagonists that are neither linear nor orthogonal. Using Poincaré sections, it is shown that the difference in information and creativity of the data is the distinctive characteristic in ASD and healthy cases. Creation is the generation of novelty, diversity and complexity in complex systems.

This paper is an original paper based on cybernetic approaches for studying the variations of ASD children.

The purpose of this paper is to detect gears' faults with an automatic decision‐making process and find a reliable method to detect faults on gear systems using a composition of conventional methods.

First, the vibration behavior of gears during engagement is investigated. Then, after studying different methods of fault detection using vibration signals analysis, a suitable method is proposed for the case of gears. For this purpose, a fuzzy model is employed based on available knowledge about fault detection of gears and results obtained from vibration behavior of gears. In the mentioned fuzzy model, a feature extracted from wavelet transform and also a couple of statistical indexes are used as fault criteria.

Using fuzzy systems instead of numerous data in training the decision‐making system and also utilizing available knowledge of gears' signals and information of fault effects can significantly simplify the decision‐making process in auto‐detecting gears faults, considering difficulty of laboratory set up, manufacturing and different faults creation, as well as, lack of sufficient data.

In order to validate and enhance the proposed model, an empirical set up is manufactured and tested. Later on, the model is tested on another set of gears.

Although the gears' faults were completely different from those of experimental set up, promising results in detecting faults were obtained. Moreover, it is shown that it is possible to determine the level of gears' health, as well as to estimate the gears' status, owing to fuzzy logic. This issue can be observed in the change of fault parameter while analyzing signals related to the fault growth in gears.

Purpose – This chapter examines the impact of oil price volatility on domestic political stability in a key supplier state.

Methodology – This chapter uses prospect theory to analyse socio-political instability based on significant changes in a supplier state's largest revenue source. Prospect theory posits that decisions are framed around a pivotal reference point which may or may not correspond to the status quo, but which nonetheless directly affects risk appetite. This analysis uses Iran as a case study, and relative oil price as the reference point to analyse risk-acceptant decision-making surrounding the 2009 Presidential election.

Findings – Dramatic economic context could be a contributing factor to risk-acceptant behaviour in domestic politics. Specifically, volatile price swings in Iran's main source of income, oil, which contributes over 80 per cent in direct and indirect revenue, and perceived external decline therein, may have been a destabilising factor. Combined with loss aversion, this context may have facilitated measures beyond those dictated by rational utility calculus to secure conservative rule in the 2009 election, and in the ensuing unrest.

Research Limitations – Prospect theory is difficult to test outside of carefully framed laboratory experiments. Although its insights have been applied to investment behaviour, management and domestic politics, in conflict studies, robust empirical support remains underdeveloped. Moreover, since prospect theory is an individual model of decision-making, difficulties arise when dealing with nation states with multiple centres of power.

Implications – Prospect theory may be a useful analytic tool for analysing risk-acceptant decision-making in the context of dynamic economic situations.

Originality – Although this analysis complements research on rentier state theory, prospect theory integrates recent developments in behavioural economics and political psychology that may offer a new way to conceptualise the role of expectations and choice framing in decision-making which drives political stability.