A number of 1,879 American tourists traveled to the Islamic Republic of Iran during the nine months of the current Iranian calendar year in 1379 (March 21-Dec. 21).

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghassemi made the remark on Wednesday, saying, “totally, 1,879 American tourists visited Iran for cultural, historical and pilgrimage purposes as well as for participating in scientific conferences and seminars in the same period.”

Of total 1,879 American tourists, 536 and 511 of whom traveled to Iran for tourism and pilgrimage purposes, respectively, and the remaining tourists participated in scientific conferences and meetings.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ghassemi pointed out that totally 2,325 American people traveled to Iran in the past Iranian calendar year in 1396 (ended March 20, 2018).

Ghassemi put the number of American tourists traveled to Iran in 2016 at 6,372. / MNA /

University of Tehran and the University of Putra Malaysia (UPM) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide the grounds for joint research projects with a focus on social responsibility.

During a meeting between UT’s Vice President for Research, Mohammad Rahimian, and the Senior Vice President of UPM, Renuganth Varatharajoo, in Tehran on Tuesday, the two sides agreed to conduct joint researches in the fields of “health communication” and “students’ life quality”.

The two projects will be concurrently carried out in Iran and Malaysia.

During the meeting, both sides also exchanged ideas on various topics, especially the Malaysian university’s programs on social responsibility and interaction with industry and community.

UPM is among Malaysia’s leading research universities offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a wide range of fields such as science, engineering, medicine, veterinary medicine, business and social science. UPM was ranked 229th best university in the world in 2017. / MNA/

Islamic Republic of Iran stands at first place among Islamic countries in nanoscience terms, followed by Turkey and Malaysia, according to latest report by StatNano.

Founder of Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) Jafar Mehrdad made the above remark and said, “considering the number of universities that have produced more than 100 articles in the field of nanotechnology between 2015 and 2018, Iran, Turkey and Malaysia are the top three Islamic countries that accounted for first to third ranks in the field of production of science.”

As the universities and research centers of Islamic countries are seeking to keep pace with the global advancement in nanotechnology, Islamic Azad University with 7741, King Abdul-Aziz University with 3300, and the University of Tehran with 2780 ISI-indexed nano-articles published between 2015 and 2018, have made great contributions to this field.

Over the past several years, nanotechnology research has significantly ramped up all around the world, as does throughout the countries which are the members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). This article has been dedicated to give some statistics on the development of nanotechnology research conducted in the universities and research centers of Islamic countries considering their H-index and ISI-indexed nano-articles.

As reported by StatNano, by taking account of the number of universities having more than 100 nano-articles carried between 2015 and 2018, Iran, Turkey, and Malaysia get the top 3 spots on the list with 46, 11, and 10 of such universities, respectively. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Pakistan, and Qatar, with 9, 6, 4, 3, and 1 universities meeting the aforesaid condition, respectively rank in the next places. / MNA/

According to Portuguese media, two Iranian football players have signed contracts with Marítimo FC.

Iranian defender Mohammad Reza Ghasemi and defensive midfielder Amir Hossein Sheikholeslam are the first purchases of the Portuguese club in the winter market, Sapo reported on Friday.

20-year-old Sheikholeslam was previously playing in Zob Ahan at Iran Professional League (IPL). And 19-year-old Ghasemi came to Marítimo from Lusitânia FC which is in the Portuguese Second Division.

The team has already an Iranian goalkeeper Amir Abedzadeh in its main squad.

It is still unclear whether these two young players are going to play in the main squad or start in team B.

Marítimo football team is playing Portugal’s top-flight competition, the Primeira Liga, while the club also has another team dubbed as Marítimo B which plays in Portugal’s third division. The team now ranks 15th in the Primeira Liga with 11 points from 14 matches.

/ MNA/

A total of 4,704,509 Iranians left the country for foreign destinations during the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Oct. 22), indicating an 11% decline compared with the same period of last year.

According to Vali Teymouri, deputy head of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Iraq, Turkey, the UAE, Georgia, Germany, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were the top destinations for Iranians during the period in a descending order.

As many as 10,524,952 Iranians travelled abroad during last year (March 2017-18), ISNA quoted Teymouri as saying.

A total of 4,739,413 foreigners travelled to Iran during the same seven months, registering a 56% growth compared with the same period of last year.

As such, the number of visitors to Iran outweighed the number of departures by 34,904 people during the period.

Iranian researchers managed to remove sediments in Anzali wetland using nanotechnology.

In this regard, this innovation developed by Iranian researchers was highly welcomed by foreign companies.

For this purpose, industrial contracts were concluded on the sidelines of the 19th Exhibition of Research and Technological Achievements held last week in Tehran Permanent International fairgrounds.

One of these contracts related to the revitalization of Anzali wetland using accelerated bioremediation, increasing water-intake volume as well as reducing one-meter height of sludge on average.

It should be noted that this contract was inked between Isfahan Scientific-Research Township and the Department of Environment (DoE) with the aim of increasing water-intake volume by 800-1200 million cubic meter and reducing sludge depth by 60-100 cm.

For his part, Dr. Mehdi Abtahi Head of Isfahan Scientific-Research Township said, “Anzali wetland has faced serious problems such as existence of sediments in recent years.”

Nanotechnology method has been used in this project, which is done by one of the knowledge-based companies of the township, he said, adding, “sediments of the wetland are removed using nanomaterials.”

A supervisory committee will be set up for the implementation of this project in cooperation with universities across the nationwide, he maintained.

The sediments in this wetland are a mixture of organic and mineral materials, so that various wastes and numerous plants are mixed with one another to form adhesive compounds.

According to him, this nanomaterial can separate sticky materials in the wetland and also disintegrate organic and inorganic parts.

So far, the project’s pilot has been carried out and its accuracy has been verified, he said, adding, “moreover, these reports were confirmed by Gilan province Aquaculture Research Center and the Department of Environment (DoE).”

In the end, Dr. Mehdi Abtahi Head of Isfahan Scientific and Research Township once again reiterated that technical knowhow of this project has highly been welcomed in abroad.

/ Mehr news /

The Payam Satellite, manufactured by Amirkabir University of Technology, will launch into orbit in the near future, the information and communication technology minister announced, Fars reported on Tuesday.

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, who visited the space center at Iran University of Science and Technology, said the Payam Satellite will be completed and delivered by Friday.

He praised the aerospace activities of the university saying that the Zafar Satellite, which is manufactured by the experts at the university, should be completed as soon as possible.

The Zafar Satellite has double GPS accuracy in comparison with other Iranian satellite, which is crucial for the country, he said.

He called the satellite-based crop monitoring as one of the most important services, which would be very beneficial for the farmers.

The image resolution of the Payam Satellite is 45 meters and can stay in orbit for three years while the Zafar has 22.5 meters image resolution, he said.

Two days ago, the head of the Iranian Space Agency Morteza Barari announced that a new satellite named ‘Dousti’, literally meaning ‘friendship’, has been manufactured domestically and its ground stations have already been built. / Tehran times /

The Biotechnology Development Council is planning to develop as many as 25 types of anti-cancer drug and 43 biopharmaceuticals by 2020, according to the Council chairman.

Mostafa Ghanei, Chairman of the Biotechnology Development Council, said Tuesday that by 2020, 43 biopharmaceuticals and 25 anti-cancer drugs will be produced by companies supported by the Council.

He said Iran ranks first in biotechnology advances in the region, and plans to take the 10th ranking in the world and obtain 3% share of the global biotechnology market by 2025.

According to him, the Council’s priority areas for development are food industry, animal and human vaccines, veterinary, environment, biopharmaceuticals, agriculture, advanced medicine and pharmaceutical intermediates.

Ghanei further announced the launching of a biofuel project in the country. MNA/

Iran has celebrated its traditional night in Dhaka with a get-together remembering poet Hafez Shirazi. The ‘Shab-e-Yalda’ is the longest night of the year for Iran.

The Iran Cultural Centre in Dhaka arranged a get-together event, ‘Poetry Evening on Hafez Shirazi’ on Friday.

Ambassador Mohammad Reza Nafar and Bangladeshi Poet Asad Chowdhury were present, among others, as guests.

They spoke about the influence of Hafez in Bangla literature and said Bangladesh’s National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam has enriched Bangla literature by translating Diwane Hafez’s poetry.

Asad Chowdhury, Hasan Hafiz, and Shah Newaz Tabib recited from the 14th century poet during the event. Hafez Shirazi is known by his pen name Hafez.

A documentary on ‘Shab-e-Yalda’ was screened also as part of the programme.