Fatemeh Mozaffari

Autoimmune disease, caused by unwanted immune responses to self-antigens, affects millions of people each year and poses a great social and economic burden to individuals and communities. In the course of autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, type 1 diabetes mellitus, and multiple sclerosis, disturbances in the balance between the immune response against harmful agents and tolerance towards self-antigens lead to an immune response against self-tissues. In recent years, various regulatory immune cells have been identified. Disruptions in the quality, quantity, and function of these cells have been implicated in autoimmune disease development. Therefore, targeting or engineering these cells is a promising therapeutic for different autoimmune diseases. Regulatory T cells, regulatory B cells, regulatory dendritic cells, myeloid suppressor cells, and some subsets of innate lymphoid cells are arising as important players among this class of cells. Here, we review the roles of each suppressive cell type in the immune system during homeostasis and in the development of autoimmunity. Moreover, we discuss the current and future therapeutic potential of each one of these cell types for autoimmune diseases.

Abstract The essential oils obtained by steam distillation of the seeds of Nigella sativa L. growing at different conditions of water stress in field, by a combination of GC and GC/MS. More than 15 compounds in the seed essential oil have been identified. Water stress was effective on content of essential oil. Thymoquinone that is one important medical compound in this plant, was 57.78% in irrigation over 12 days.

In this paper, a conformable fractional quantum mechanic has been introduced using three postulates. Then in such a formalism, Schr¨odinger equation, probability density, probability flux and continuity equation have been derived. As an application of considered formalism, a fractional-radial harmonic oscillator has been considered. After obtaining its wave function and energy spectrum, effects of the conformable fractional parameter on some quantities have been investigated and plotted for different excited states.

Purpose This research intends to develop a model for predicting employees at a high-risk attrition and identify the most important factors affecting them. Design/methodology/approach In this study, using the triangulation technique of a mixed research method, the employee attrition problem is investigated by identifying its affecting factors. For that matter, data related to the human resources department of a pharmaceutical company in Iran are used. And to achieve the intended goal, advanced data mining algorithms and interviews with human resource managers are applied. Findings A model for predicting employees at a high-risk attrition is presented based on the gradient boosting machine algorithm with 89% accuracy. The use of the mixed research approach shows that qualitative and quantitative methods can be more effective in identifying the factors affecting employee churn or loss of staff. The results also contain a new situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote working scenarios having impact on employee attrition. Finally, human resource policies are presented based on variables related to each of the identified factors. Originality/value The novel contributions of this study include real data related to a leading pharmaceutical company as well as a combination of two quantitative and qualitative methods. The hybrid approach can identify the reasons for attrition and, consequently, retention policies to benefit from the advantage of both approaches. Data mining can be useful to identify the factors, which are usually not mentioned in termination interviews, such as direct managers. On the other hand, the results obtained from termination interviews can also include features that the authors cannot identify through data mining, which are specifically related to the characteristics of the pharmaceutical industry such as building a more professional career path. From a practical perspective, since this company specializes in pharmaceutical marketing in a new way and is primarily comprised graduates, it is important to note that the churn of specialized people disperses organizational and technological know-how. On the other hand, the pharmacist community in Iran is small, and their attrition might adversely affect not only the reputation of an organization but the employer's brand as well. So, this research would help other similar firms in retaining their valuable human capital.

The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, one of the major pests of various agricultural plants, causes many problems on agricultural, horticultural and ornamental plants. In recent years, using plant-derived compounds such as essential oils and extracts was attended for their insecticidal and acaricidal properties. Mentha pulegium is a native plant of temperate Asia, was identified as an acaricidal plant for the first time in this study. The impact of essential oil of this plant on fumigant toxicity, LT50, oviposition deterrent activity and repellency against Tetranychus urticae was studied at different concentrations. The results stated that M. pulegium oils had high toxicity on eggs and adults of two-spotted spider mite (LC50 was 2.57 and 2.25 μL L−1 for eggs and adults, respectively). In addition, all tested concentrations had oviposition deterrent activity and repellency on adults of this mite.