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The purpose of this paper is to explain how abstract space of the State – universally and specifically within the context of Middle Eastern cities – aims to homogenise the city and eliminate any anomaly that threatens its power structure.

Through a historical and discourse analysis of these policies and processes in the two case studies, this paper presents a contextualised reading of Lefebvre’s concept of abstract space and process of abstraction in relation to the alienation of political public spaces.

The paper proposes that regardless of these homogenising strategies being applied universally, they fail to respond to contextual particularities and therefore they – in a contradictory manner – may themselves produce a space of resistance and difference.

This paper focusses on Iran, the case of Tehran and Turkey, the case of Taksim Square and Gezi Park in Istanbul. Recent policies and strategies have been proposed and implemented to reduce, alienate and possibly neutralise the impacts of urban and political protests in these cities and socio-political contexts.

Hope and death anxiety as the important sources of adjustment can affect the attitude, health status and quality of life in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Hopelessness and death anxiety are considered as the important factors in patients undergoing hemodialysis, because these can avoid non-adherence and increase mortality rate. This study aims to investigate the effect of the cognitive–behavioral intervention on hope and death anxiety in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

In this randomized controlled clinical trial, 84 patients undergoing hemodialysis were included, who were then divided into two groups as the cognitive–behavioral intervention group (n = 42) and the control group (n = 42). The experimental group received eight sessions of individual chair-side cognitive–behavioral intervention. To measure the hope level and death anxiety, Hearth Hope Scale and Templer’s Death Anxiety Scale were used as tools once at the beginning and once at the end of the study.

The mean scores of the hope levels in the intervention group significantly improved compared to the control group. Furthermore, the mean scores of the death anxiety levels significantly decreased in the intervention group compared to the control group.

Cognitive–behavioral interventions are significantly effective on promoting the level of hope and decreasing the level of death anxiety in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Therefore, applying this psychological intervention to design the individual education programs is recommended.

Acrylamide (AA) is predominantly used as a synthetic substance within various industries. However, AA is also recognized as a carcinogen. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) are becoming increasingly attractive as medical agents. However, to the knowledge, the effects of ZnO-NPs on preventing cytotoxicity with AA have not been reported. Therefore, this study aims to determine the protective effects of ZnO-NPs against the cytotoxicity caused by AA.

MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxicity. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, carbonyl protein, malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) were measured and analyzed statistically.

The findings observed that the presence of 200 µM AA led to a substantial reduction in cell viability (p < 0.001). However, ZnO-NPs restored cell viability at 50 and 100 µM concentrations (p = 0.0121 and p = 0.0011, respectively). The levels of ROS were significantly reduced (p = 0.001 and p = < 0.001) to 518 ± 47.57 and 364 ± 47.79, respectively, compared to the AA group. The levels of GSH were significantly increased (p = 0.004 and p = 0.002) to 16.9 ± 1.3 and 17.6 ± 0.5, respectively, compared to the AA group. The levels of MDA were significantly decreased (p = 0.005, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001) when compared to the AA group, as were the levels of carbonyl protein (p = 0.009 and p < 0.002) in comparison to the AA group.

In summary, the outcomes of this research indicate that ZnO-NPs played a role in inhibiting AA-induced oxidative stress and cytotoxicity.