72 countries will take part in the 13th Tehran International Animation Festival. Speaking at the press conference of the 13th Tehran International Animation Festival, Hamed Alamati, the general manager of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults spoke about the role of animation in depicting the brutality of the Israeli regime against the Palestinian nation.

In this regard, the 13th Tehran International Animation Festival has decided to fulfill its mission by holding the meeting of “Palestine the Holy Land.”

72 countries will take part in this animation festival, Alamati said, adding that 42 countries made it to the selected works.

Kanoon (The Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults) is holding the 13th Tehran International Animation Festival (TIAF) from March 6th to March 10th, 2024.

The deadline for the Call for Entries of the 13th Tehran International Animation Festival has been extended by 10 days, owing to exceptional demands. The extended deadline is November 11, 2023.

The official selections of 13th Tehran International Animation Festival will be announced on the early December. /MNA/

Pasteur Institute of Iran has embarked on producing a vaccine for leishmaniasis which is said to be the first of its kind in the world. Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that is found in parts of the tropics, subtropics, and southern Europe. It is caused by infection with Leishmania parasites, which are spread by the bite of infected sandflies.

There are several different forms of leishmaniasis in people. The most common forms are cutaneous leishmaniasis, which causes skin sores, and visceral leishmaniasis, which affects several internal organs (usually spleen, liver, and bone marrow).

“The disease has been reported in some parts of the country, but there is currently no vaccine for leishmaniasis in the world,” ISNA quoted Rahim Sarvari, the president of Pasteur Institute as saying.

Accordingly, one of the main priorities of the Pasteur Institute of Iran is to produce a vaccine for the treatment of Leishmaniasis, he said.

Sarvari went on to say that extensive efforts are underway to develop the vaccine. “The process has gone through several phases, and the results will be announced soon.”

Since the disease is caused by a parasite (Leishmania) which easily changes structure as it is detected, the development of the vaccine requires further in-depth study, he noted.

Pneumococcal vaccination of babies kicks off

On February 19, the national program for pneumococcal vaccination of babies under 12 months of age started.

The program was officially launched in the city of Bandar Khamir, southern Hormozgan province, IRNA reported.

The vaccination program to combat pneumococcal has been added to the country’s immunization program, Pedram Pak-Aein, an official with the ministry of health, said.

It will be implemented in several phases, with the priority given to underdeveloped areas, he added.

Some 3.5 million doses of pneumococcal vaccine have been imported. In the first phase, the vaccines will be distributed in deprived areas of the southern provinces of the country, the official explained.

The vaccine prevents not only the death of at least 1,500 children every year but also protects thousands of other children against bacterial infection caused by the virus, he further noted.

Pak-Aein went on to say that vaccination against rotavirus will start in the calendar month starting February 20 aiming to prevent the hospitalization of 10,000 children per year.

Knowledge-based companies and domestic manufacturers will soon produce both pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines and present them to the market within the next few months.

The pneumococcal vaccine helps protect against some types of bacterial infections that can cause serious illnesses like meningitis (an infection in the brain and spinal cord) sepsis (a life-threatening reaction to an infection) pneumonia (an infection in the lungs).

Pneumococcal vaccine can be injected when babies are 2, 4, and 12 months old, IRNA quoted Mohsen Zahraei, the head of the preventable diseases department of the Ministry of Health, as saying.

“We hope to be able to develop these two vaccines soon. Once the vaccines pass the quality control trials, and obtain the Food and Drug Organization approval, we will be able to use the domestic products in the national vaccination program,” Zahraei said.

“Since the development of a vaccine is a complex process and takes a lot of time, the vaccines are imported now.

Annual vaccination worldwide prevents the death of two and a half million children, which shows the very high effectiveness of vaccines,” he added. /T.T/

Ahmad Aminzadeh of Iran won a gold medal with a record-breaking lift at the Fazza World Cup on Saturday. Aminzadeh triumphed in the +107 kg category, securing a gold medal with a record-breaking of 267kg lift. This victory not only places Aminzadeh at the forefront of his category but also solidifies his qualification for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. His teammate, Mehdi Sayadi, despite a strong performance, narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth with 231kg.

The Fazza World Cup, a pivotal event in the para powerlifting calendar, has attracted 183 powerlifters from 32 countries, showcasing the high level of competition and the international prestige of the event. This year’s competition not only provided a platform for athletes to showcase their abilities but also served as a crucial qualifier for the upcoming Paralympic Games.

Earlier in the day, Mohsen Bakhtiar of Iran won a gold medal in the men’s up to 59kg with a 196kg lift.

The championships, which started on Wednesday, will continue until Mar. 6 in Dubai, the UAE. /T.T/

Iranian female taekwondo athletes snatched 8 medals at the 33rd International Fajr Cup taekwondo competitions on Tuesday. The Iranian female taekwondo athletes won 7 gold medals and 1 silver in this competition with the participation of 349 athletes from different countries in Tehran Taekwondo house.

Armenia won the runner-up title and Kazakhstan came third. Tajikistan and Azerbaijan took fourth and fifth places respectively.

Armenian representative in the -67 kg category was chosen as the best player in the competition.

The 33rd Fajr Cup International Taekwondo competition was held on Tuesday in Tehran.

/ MNA/

Four new knowledge-based products were unveiled on Tuesday in Tehran with the presence of the Iranian Minister of Agriculture.

Delivering a speech at the unveiling ceremony, Mohammad-Ali Nikbakht said that despite the sanctions, providing sufficient and healthy food is an important and heavy responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Nikbakht said that to produce adequate and healthy food for Iranians and the foreign nationals living in the country, there is no way but to increase endogenous products which in turn needs knowledge-based companies’ production.

MNA/Iran Press

The Islamic Republic of Iran boasts being the 13th biggest military power, the 14th country with the ability to enrich uranium, the fifth state producing drones and the tenth nation producing submarines in the world.

The West Asian region saw an escalating trend of insecurity and turmoil from 2001 onwards, culminating between 2011 and 2017 with the emergence of Takfiri terrorism.

However, the geography of the Islamic Republic witnessed security and tranquility which relies on the development achieved after the imposed war in the fields of defense and military.

Iran also joined the Hall of Helicopter Manufacturers in 1998 with the Shabaviz helicopter construction, which was the reverse-engineered and upgraded model of the Bell 205 helicopter.

In the next stage, the family of Shahed helicopters was produced in three models, ‘Shahed 274’, ‘Shahed 278’ and ‘Shahed 285’.

The Islamic Republic’s missile achievements are not only limited to ballistic and long-range missiles but also in the field of air defense, Iran has been able to secure the country’s skies by building defense missiles.

At present, Iran is among the few countries in the world that have developed the most advanced anti-missile defense systems, relying on domestic capabilities.

The most important one is the domestically-built Bavar-373 surface-to-air missile defense system, which is modeled after the Russian system, but is much more advanced and advocates the most important parts of the country, including some nuclear sites.

Some other ballistic missiles of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), include Dezful, Zulfiqar, Qadr, Sejjil, and Zelzal.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s tangible advances in the missile sector have angered and worried the enemies, as in recent years they have always focused on the missile sector and have tried to enter into negotiations in this area as well as in the nuclear sector.

However, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution believes, “A sane person will never abandon his defense force. Thus, the defense power of the country must be strengthened day by day.”

One of Iran’s most significant achievements in missiles is the Emad ballistic missile, which was unveiled in October 2016. At the time of its unveiling, this liquid-fueled missile was one of the first Iranian long-range missiles with a new warhead equipped with steering blocks for flight and error correction in the final stage.

In the field of naval equipment, the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the countries that has gained knowledge of destroyer construction and has unveiled several domestic destroyers, including Jamaran, Sahand, and Dena.

The army-navy escorts and supports its oil tankers in international waters.

Iran is the tenth-largest producer of submarines and has the expertise to overhaul all types of ships and hovercraft.

Iran has become self-sufficient in a variety of light, semi-heavy, and heavy equipment and weapons.

Iran exports some of these products to 32 countries around the world, while before the Islamic Revolution, the production of a significant part of these products was exclusively monopolized by a few developed countries in the world.

Iran’s defense, military accomplishments

Iran’s drone power has increased its deterrence. The drone power of the Islamic Republic of Iran has grown to the extent that today the enemies are focusing on this area and even trying to prevent the continuation of the development of the drone power of Iran by accusing Iran of involvement in the Ukrainian war.

Iran has succeeded in the field of drone technology in building all kinds of radar-evading drones with high flight duration, armed with bombs and point-blowing missiles, so that today it is among the five leading countries in the field of drones in the world.

The important military and defense achievements of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been achieved by relying on the local capabilities of our country’s scientists.

The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran managed to turn the threat, posed as a result of the sanctions, into an opportunity to localize military and defense equipment.

The localization of military equipment is one of the most significant achievements of the Islamic Revolution, which made the Islamic Republic of Iran today among the countries exporting weapons in the world. /MNA /

Iran has exported more than 6.7 million tons of agricultural and food products worth $4.8 billion during the first ten months of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2023 – January 20, 2024), an Iranian economic official said.

Rouhollah Latifi, the spokesman of the Iranian House of Industry, Mine and Trade’s Trade Development Commission at the Iranian industry ministry said on Tuesday that Iran exported 6.775.658 tons of fisheries, livestock, agricultural, and food products worth $4.837.194.884 during the first ten months.

The figures show an 8.4% and 22 % rise in terms of volume and value respectively in comparison with the corresponding period of last year, he added.

Of this amount, 4.944.481 tons worth $2.930.585.728 were dedicated to the export of agricultural products, while 1.133.710 tons worth $931.961.158 were dedicated to the export of food products and 697.467 tons worth $1.010.647.998 were dedicated for the fisheries, livestock, and dairy products.

The exports mainly included dairy products, pistachios, tomatoes, apples, and fisheries, he noted. /MNA/

Iran’s export of sponge iron rose 109.9 percent during the first ten months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2023-January 20, 2024), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, Bahram Sobhani, the chairman of the Iranian Steel Producers Association (ISPA), announced.

Direct reduced iron (DRI), also called sponge iron, is produced from the direct reduction of iron ore (in the form of lumps, pellets, or fines) into iron by reducing gas or elemental carbon produced from natural gas or coal. Many ores are suitable for direct reduction.

While Iran is fighting the U.S. severe sanctions on its economy, and the country’s different industrial and economic sectors have been affected by the limitations and difficulties caused by the sanctions condition, the country’s mining sector is moving forward noticeably, overcoming such barriers.

Among the mining sector’s different products, sponge iron is an outstanding example, as the production of this item is rising more and more in the country.

Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), Iran’s largest metals and mining holding, has stated that one of the most important reasons for the increase in sponge iron production in Iran is the establishment of new sponge iron plants, adding that in recent years, with its new strategy and with the participation of the private sector, the organization has been able to launch several projects to produce sponge iron.

Meanwhile, in July 2022, IMIDRO reported that Iran’s Mines and Metals Company (MME) has established China’s first gas-based sponge iron production unit using the Persian Direct Reduction (PERED) technology. /T.T/

One of the economic sectors that have high production capability is the Iranian industry sector, particularly in cement, steel, petrochemicals, and energy. Iran’s cement production in the late Pahlavi era was 7.7 million metric tons (mt) annually, which reached 17 million mt in the 1980s.

However, the peak of development of this industry began in the mid-80s and the country’s production hit a record 70 million mt in 1993.

According to the latest figure, there are nearly 76 manufacturing companies in Iran in the field of cement and clinker with a capacity of about 88 million mt.

All the raw materials of the cement industry are supplied from inside the country.

The Islamic Republic was ranked 4th in 2012 and 6th in the world in 2015 in the cement industry.

Currently, Iran stands at 8th in the world in this regard. Among the countries in the region, only Turkey ranks higher than Iran.

The global production of cement was 4.1 billion mt in 2022. China continues to lead the production of 2.1 billion mt of cement, ranking first in the world.

India ranked second with 370 million mt and Vietnam ranked third with 120 million mt in global cement production in 2022.

The US, with a production of 95 million mt, and Turkey, with a production of 85 million mt could take fourth and fifth place in this regard.

With the production of 64 million mt, Brazil comes sixth while Indonesia, with 64 million mt, stands in seventh position.

Iran’s industrial development in 45 years

The steel industry can be considered one of the important evaluation criteria of the economy in every country so even per capita steel consumption is regarded as an indicator of to what extent a country is industrial.

According to the World Steel Assembly, Iran’s annual production of crude steel before the Revolution was 1.8 million mt, but this reached 29 million mt in 2020.

Iran’s crude steel production has more than increased by 17 times in the past 40 years. Iran’s share of global crude steel production before the Revolution was 0.4%, but now it has reached 1.4%.

Iran’s industrial development in 45 years

The petrochemical industry is one of the industries that is also the focus of great powers.

The European Union and the US had the highest sales of petrochemical products in 2019, respectively.

Today, emerging Asian countries rank in the top 10 in terms of petrochemical sales alongside EU member states, the US and Japan. Iran’s petrochemical production before the Revolution accounted for 1.6 million mt annually.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the petrochemical industry was taken into account.

The imposed war impeded the development of Iran’s petrochemical industry.

There are currently 70 petrochemical complexes operating in the Iranian petrochemical industry.

Currently, Iran enjoys 27% of the petrochemical production capacity in the West Asian region.

Iran’s petrochemical industry is export-oriented and has a 21% share in the country’s non-oil exports.

Oil production in the petrochemical industry is one of the ways to neutralize the American sanctions.

Given the maximum pressure policy that the US government is pursuing against the Islamic Republic of Iran and has affected Iran’s oil sector in particular, the Islamic Republic of Iran has counted on the petrochemical industry.

The energy sector, especially oil and gas, is the most significant part of the Iranian economy because the bulk of the country’s revenues come from this sector.

Iran stands in fourth place following Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.

The Islamic Republic continues to hold the second largest proven gas reserves in the world, and Iran’s gas reserves were at the level of 33.98 trillion cubic meters in 2022.

Although economic issues are the most important challenge facing the Islamic Republic of Iran over the past 45 years, valuable measures have been taken in various economic fields, so that Iran enjoys high global rankings in some industries.

Undoubtedly, if it had not been for the arbitrary sanctions of the Western powers, particularly the US, the Islamic Republic would have had a far better record in the economic sphere.

MNA

A total of 435 Iranian institutions are among 11,989 institutions ranked in Webometrics world ranking 2024. Tehran University is the top among Iranian institutions. Its ranking has improved from 305 in 2023 to 285 in 2024, Mehr news agency reported.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences (445), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science (606), Sharif University of Technology (639), Amirkabir University of Technology (792), Iran Science and Technology (890), Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (920), Iran Medical Sciences University (940), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (940), and Shahid Beheshti University (967) are ranked second to tenth, respectively, in the country.

According to this year’s ranking, 338 other institutions have been ranked between 4,000 to 31,000.

Web or Webometrics is the largest academic ranking of Higher Education Institutions offering every six months an independent, objective, free, open scientific exercise for providing reliable, multidimensional, updated, and useful information about the performance of universities from all over the world.

Cybermetrics laboratory publishes two editions of the “Webometrics” system annually in January and July. Supporting open access, electronic access to scientific publications, and access to other academic resources is one of the first goals of this rating system.

The Ranking Web is not a ranking of the websites of universities. It is a Ranking of Universities. It uses both webometric (all missions) and bibliometric (research mission) indicators

Editors of the Ranking Web are scientists working at one world-class public research institution with long experience in metrics-guided evaluation.

Impact (or visibility), accessibility (or transparency/openness), and excellence (research) are metrics that Webometrics uses to evaluate institutional websites.

The key purpose of Webometrics publishing is not only to rank websites but also to improve web publishing.

The objective is not to evaluate websites, their design or usability, or the popularity of their contents according to the number of visits or visitors. Web indicators are considered as proxies in the correct, comprehensive, deep evaluation of the university’s global performance, taking into account its activities and outputs and their relevance and impact.

Based on the January edition 2024, the top 10 universities in the world have also been introduced. Harvard University, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are the top three universities, followed by Oxford University, University of Michigan, Berkeley University in California, Cornell University in New York, University Washington, Columbia University in New York from the U.S., and the University of Pennsylvania.

Global rankings

According to the results of the 2023-2024 edition of the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP), 71 Iranian institutions were included in the ranking compared to 64 institutions in the 2022-2023 edition.

URAP World Ranking is based on six academic performance indicators including number of articles, citations, total document, scientific productivity, research impact, and international collaboration.

In the academic performance ranking of 71 universities in Iran, Tehran University was ranked first nationally with a global rank of 231, IRNA reported.

Tehran University of Medical Science (277), and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science (436) were ranked second and third, respectively.

In the 2023 edition of URAP, the University of Tehran was ranked first nationally with a global rank of 231.

Golestan University of Medical Science (1307), University of Hormozgan, Amol University of Special Modern Technologies, Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan, Ilam University, University of Science and Technology of Mazandaran are institutions that had recently been ranked among the best in the world in the 2023-2024 edition.

The main objective of URAP is to develop a ranking system for world universities based on academic performance indicators that reflect the quality and the quantity of their scholarly publications.

In line with this objective URAP has been annually releasing the World Ranking of Higher Education Institutions since 2010, and Field Rankings since 2011.

The most recent ranking gathered data about 3,000 Higher Education Institutes (HEI) in an effort to rank these organizations by their academic performance. The overall score of each HEI was based upon its performance over several indicators.

Since URAP is an academic performance-based ranking, publications constitute the basis of the ranking methodology. Both quality and quantity of publications and international research collaboration performance are used as indicators.

In December 2023, the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) released a report, ranking 115 governmental and 17 non-governmental universities according to six indices.

Education counts for 30 percent, Research counts for 25 percent, Technology and Innovation counts for 20 percent, International Outlook counts for 10 percent, and Social Services, Infrastructure, and Facilities counts for 5 percent, ISNA quoted the ISC head Ahmad Fazelzadeh as saying.

The universities of Tehran, Fardowsi of Mashhad, Tarbiat Modarres, Shahid Beheshti, and Shiraz were placed first to fifth in the ranking.

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2024 has listed 36 Iranian universities among the world’s top 1,000 institutions, compared with 29 universities in 2023.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 include 1,904 universities across 108 countries and regions.

The ranking is based on 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

Sharif University of Technology ranked first among Iranian universities with a rank in the range of 301-350.

Amirkabir University came next with a rank in the range of 351-400.

The University of Tehran and Iran University of Science and Technology both were in the range of 401-500.

Shahid Beheshti Medical University, Tehran Medical University, and Iran Medical University were in the range of 601-800.

This year’s ranking analyzed over 134 million citations across 16.5 million research publications and included survey responses from 68,402 scholars globally. Overall, it collected 411,789 data points from more than 2,673 institutions that submitted data.

Oxford University was at the top of this ranking for the eighth year in a row.

The highest new entry in this ranking was the Catholic University of Italy, which was ranked 301-350. However, most of the institutions joining the rankings for the first time this year were in Asia.

The United States was the most represented country with 169 institutions, as well as the most represented among the top 200 institutions, with 56 universities.

India, with 91 institutions of higher education, was currently the fourth most represented country and had surpassed China (86).

Four countries entered this ranking for the first time, all of them in Europe. The addition of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Armenia was contrary to last year’s trend, which caused these countries to be represented in the ranking of the world’s top universities.

In addition to the 1,904 ranked institutions, an additional 769 universities were listed with “reporter” status, meaning they submitted data but did not meet the eligibility criteria to receive a rank and agreed to appear as reporters in the final table.

The world’s top ten universities in 2024 were as follows:

University of Oxford, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, University of Cambridge, California Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University. /T.T/