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B ackground: According to the World Health Organization, preventive measures are the o nly non-pharmacological method to combat the COVID-19 epidemic. This study aimed t o investigate the relationship between perceived social support and preventive behaviors mediated by the variables of life expectancy and mental wellbeing. Materials and Methods: This study is applied in terms of purpose and was conducted by survey method. The statistical population included women living in Tehran City, Iran, with a sample size of 428. The study data were collected using the preventive behavior scale, mental wellbeing scale, Snyder hope scale, and multidimensional perceived social support scale. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 25 and AMOS 23 software. Results: The study results showed a positive and significant relationship between perceived social support and mental wellbeing, between perceived social support and life expectancy, and between mental wellbeing and life expectancy. Also, life expectancy and mental wellbeing variables mediate between perceived social support and preventive behaviors. Conclusion: Considering the critical role of women in family management and preventive measures during the COVID-19 epidemic, strengthening social support networks, hope, and mental wellbeing should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) is one of the most common screening tools to detect children and adolescents who are at risk of mental health problems or have psychiatric disorders. The standard mode of SDQ completion is on paper; however, some studies used phone administration and argued that this is a feasible and valid method that can substitute in-person administration. However, few studies have investigated the validity and reliability of phone administration of the SDQ. Objectives: The current study aimed to compare the telephone versus paper-and-pencil administration of the SDQ among Iranian child and adolescent outpatients. Methods: Sixty six parents with children aged 3 to 15 years completed the SDQ questionnaire using paper-and-pencil and telephone interview techniques. The study was performed in 2016, and participants were from the city of Tehran (capital of Iran). Participants were first divided into two groups. Then, one of them first completed the questionnaire using the face-to-face interviews, and 3 to 4 days later, they again completed the questionnaire using the telephone interview. And the vice versa occurred for the other group. The Pearson correlation analysis was used to calculate the correlation between the two methods in each group separately. Intra-class correlation (ICC) analysis was used to investigate the association between the two administration methods. Results: A significant positive correlation was found between the two types of administration in both groups (P < 0.05). Intra-class correlation coefficients indicated a good correlation between the scores obtained from each method of administration (all P values were < 0.001). Conclusions: Telephone administration of SDQ is a reliable method for collecting data when studying emotional and behavioral symptoms in children and adolescents attending outpatient psychiatric centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aleuroclava jasmini (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a major insect pest of paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) in Iran, negatively affecting its production. Considering the importance of oils in the integrated management programs of such pests, the present study examined the possibility of whitefly control on paper mulberry plant to assess mortality rate (MR), synergistic rate (SR), resistance rate (RR), and lethal concentration for 50% of the population (LC50) of oils and common insecticide in populations from four areas of Tehran, Iran (one susceptible and three non-susceptible). The best chemical treatments against A. jasmini adults and nymphs in paper mulberry plants were neem oil (1 ml L−1) mixed with deltamethrin (0.5 ml L−1) or with buprofezin (1 ml L−1). The neem, akylarylpolyglyglycol ether and volk oils mixed with deltamethrin or buprofezin also had synergistic effects on adults and nymphs of A. jasmini, respectively, in Azadi, Shahrake Gharb, and Vanak areas (non-susceptible populations), but with higher concentrations (> LC50) and lower SR than in Garm Dareh area (susceptible population). We observed that A. jasmini adults showed the greatest resistance to deltamethrin in Vanak area and nymphs of this pest to buprofezin in Shahrake Gharb area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Daily use of public restrooms may have a significant impact on spreading infectious diseases. Human society could be affected by spreading of transitional infectious diseases through feces, urinary tract infection and poor personal hygiene. According to the World Health Organization reports, plenty of people's developed diseases caused by contaminated public restrooms that may result in severe health problems. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 7,482 samples that were collected randomly in 6 months (spring and summer 2019) in different regions of Tehran. The Data were obtained by analyzing 804 restroom's indoor and outdoor handles, 1062 toilet faucet, 826 washbasin taps, 1,062 toilet hoses, 804 flush tank levers, 643 soap dispenser bottoms, 643 liquid soaps, 99 bar soaps, 169 toilet papers and paper towels, and 50 hand dryer machines. Samples which were tested, based on bacteriology standard methods. Result: 7,482 samples were gathered of which 6,678 contaminated cases (89.25%) were observed and 804 cases (10.75%) were found non-contaminated. Escherichia coli with 28.48% and Pseudomonas with 0.39% were the most and the least common bacteria, respectively, in this study. Conclusion: The required tests to identify the bacteria that cause contamination through the use of public restrooms have been done. It is essential to inform the public of the mentioned items and teach how to prevent infectious diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Challenge between parents and their children is a rapidly growing phenomenon in Iran. The communication challenges of adolescence with emphasis on social media in this study is a phenomenon that based on the changes and developments of adolescence, can affect the nature and quality of family relationships, question the parental authority, and cause changes in regulations. The present study explored the communication challenges of parents and adolescents with a focus on the use of the Internet and social media. Methods: This qualitative study was performed using content analysis. The research population consisted of several parents with children (daughters) who were studying in the first secondary school in District 11 of Tehran in the academic year 2019-2020. The participants were 15 parents who were selected using purposive sampling and based on the theoretical saturation criterion. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and were then analyzed, codified, and categorized. Finally, after the extraction of the themes, the relevant and common themes were combined in the form of secondary and main categories. Results: Based on the content analysis of the data collected from the interviews, 4 main categories were identified: social media opportunities, social media coping strategies, social media problems from the parents’ point of view, and communication problems with the child. Conclusion: In the modern world, parent-adolescent communication challenges are intermingled with the common challenges of using social media. However, it is impossible to ignore the effective and useful presence of social media in modern life. Acquiring knowledge, training conflict resolution skills, and recognizing the factors related to conflicts between parents and adolescents can help parents and pave the way for reducing parent-adolescent conflicts and improving the quality of parent-adolescent communication concerning social media use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 has placed pandemic modeling at the forefront of the whole world's public policymaking. Nonetheless, forecasting and modeling the COVID-19 medical waste with a detoxification center of the COVID-19 medical wastes remains a challenge. This work presents a Fuzzy Inference System to forecast the COVID-19 medical wastes. Then, people are divided into five categories are divided according to the symptoms of the disease into healthy people, suspicious, suspected of mild COVID-19, and suspicious of intense COVID-19. In this regard, a new fuzzy sustainable model for COVID-19 medical waste supply chain network for location and allocation decisions considering waste management is developed for the first time. The main purpose of this paper is to minimize supply chain costs, the environmental impact of medical waste, and to establish detoxification centers and control the social responsibility centers in the COVID-19 outbreak. To show the performance of the suggested model, sensitivity analysis is performed on important parameters. A real case study in Iran/Tehran is suggested to validate the proposed model. Classifying people into different groups, considering sustainability in COVID 19 medical waste supply chain network and examining new artificial intelligence methods based on TS and GOA algorithms are among the contributions of this paper. Results show that the decision-makers should use an FIS to forecast COVID-19 medical waste and employ a detoxification center of the COVID-19 medical wastes to reduce outbreaks of this pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The greenhouse gas emitted due to transportation is the third greatest emitter globally, and its impact has become a threat to the environment, public health, and economic development. Waste transportation is excluded in studies of waste management despite its significant environmental impacts such as global warming and human toxicity. The objective of this study is to develop a quantification model to estimate the carbon footprint of waste transportation and environmental impact assessments in three categories applied in Tehran using IPCC guidelines. In Tehran, light and heavy vehicles ran on diesel fuel. Data on fuel and waste characteristics were provided by Tehran's department of transportation and municipality, respectively. In this study, transportrelated emissions are 8.47 k tonCO2eq/y, and the carbon footprint of waste transportation is 93.57 g of CO2 eq per ton of waste transported (t.km), which is relevant to three main parameters: the amount of waste transported annually, the freight shipped from the temporary station to the disposal landfill site, and fossil fuels consumed. Also, an environmental impact assessment in three categories - human health (global warming, abiotic depletion, and ozone layer depletion), resources (fossil fuels), and ecosystem quality (acidification and eutrophication) - using SimaPro, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool is presented. Global warming (3.49 kg CO2 eq/t MSW), human toxicity (0.95 kg 1,4-DB eq/t MSW), and freshwater aquatic eco-toxicity (0.04 kg 1,4-DB eq/t MSW) have the greatest impact among categories. Sensitivity analysis of the effective parameters allows us to conclude one of the potential implications of this study would be the introduction of natural gas or biogas-based trucks replacing diesel fuel vehicles to improve air quality and mitigate the greenhouse gas emission. Implications: This paper addresses the significant issue of global warming, particularly in Iran, a developing country that ranks among the top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. The study emphasizes the importance of evaluating emissions across various sectors such as electricity, waste, etc., Specifically, in this paper we focus on developing a model to quantify the environmental impact resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels in vehicles, focus on the metropolitan city of Tehran as a case study. By examining the waste transportation process, we aim to provide decision-makers with effective strategies to mitigate the environmental consequences. In this paper, we develop a simple quantification term of Carbon Footprint to calculate total greenhouse gas emission of waste transportation process. Carbon Footprint is a fraction which, its numerator is total greenhouse gas emission and its denominator is total waste transported in traveled distance. Effective parameters have been investigated and based on parameters and emission factors taken out of IPPC, the carbon footprint model have been developed. The total greenhouse gas emission of this study and the carbon footprint has estimated at 8.47 k tonCO2eq/y and 93.57 g CO2eq/t.km respectively. Furthermore, the paper explores additional environmental impacts beyond global warming, including abiotic depletion, ozone layer depletion, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, photochemical oxidation, and freshwater aquatic eco-toxicity. Using SimaPro software these eight impact categories have been estimated. in this study we identify fossil fuel consumption, traveled distance, and mass transported are the primary parameters influencing greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint. To reduce emissions in the waste transportation system, we suggest promoting renewable biofuels, highlighting Iran as a suitable candidate due to its high percentage of biodegradable material in municipal solid waste. Additionally, the study assesses nonrenewable energy and mineral extraction using the IMPACT 2002+ V2.15/IMPACT 2002+ method, revealing that global warming (100 years), human toxicity (100 years), freshwater aquatic eco-toxicity, nonrenewable energy, and mineral extraction have the most significant impacts on the municipal solid waste transportation system. Overall, this research underscores the need for quantifying environmental impacts and recommends strategies to mitigate them in waste transportation processes, particularly in developing countries like Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation systems are a basis of disability-related activity involvement in society. In Tehran, the capital of Iran, a paratransit system for disabled people has been operating since 2013, but the market share is gradually losing for reasons unknown to practitioners. Although paratransit systems for people with disabilities exist in many cities, no comprehensive study has been completed to identify attitudinal and contextual barriers to the continuance intention to use the system, particularly in a low-income developing country. Thus, due to limitations faced by qualified experts in this field, the adoption of efficient transportation policy and engineering interventions is still limited. The Technology Continuance Theory (TCT) is employed in this study as a structural equation modeling framework to analyze and quantify relationships based on the data gathered by face-to-face interviews. The mediation/moderation analyses in this paper reveal that (i) stress, (ii) self-efficacy, (ii) social isolation, (iv) mode captivity, (v) experience of usage, and (vi) type of disability are of prime importance in disabled people's intention to reuse the paratransit system. Stress is examined through serial mediation analysis. The analysis reveals that stress due to the system's uncertain attributes significantly influences satisfaction. Self-efficacy and social isolation are presented for the moderation and moderated-mediation analyses. It is found that the urban mobility performance of the system is of more importance to disabled people with lower self-efficacy (high social isolation); however, their stress is not significantly reduced even by increasing the usefulness of the system. The mode captivity is also redefined in this context and entered as a moderator. It is found that, for captive riders, satisfaction does not have a dominating role in the intention to use the paratransit system, as the users are constrained by taking what is available or nothing. The usage experience is another moderator, and our analysis shows that attitude is a determinant of behavior for long-term users, while satisfaction with a transient effect is a dominating factor for short-term ones. Finally, the users are categorized by type of disability , and the moderation analysis shows that for people with physical disabilities, the system's performance is the most influential factor in their satisfaction, while for people with sensory disabilities, other factors related to amenity, safety, and support are also prominent. This paper ultimately presents explicit and thorough policy considerations and practical implications. The article's concluding remark will comprise a disclosure of previously undisclosed insights that underlie the study's findings. • Transportation systems are a basis of activity participation of disabled people. • We try to investigate factors the operator of a paratransit system must consider to attract and retain users. • Technology Continuance Theory is employed in this study as a structural equation modeling framework. • This analysis finally suggests detailed, clear, and specific engineering measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shahyad monument, which has served as a symbol of Tehran—and by extension of modern Iran—since its inauguration in 1971, stands at the center of a huge open space that has been successively appropriated by Pahlavis, revolutionaries, and the Islamic Republic and has been persistently mediated and remediated in its relatively short life. This contested urban monument embodies the complex story of a space in which multiple sets of illusions—a Pahlavi fantasy as well as a revolutionary dream—are undone. In this paper, the space's story is traced through varied types of media and archival material, including plans and architectural drawings, official reports and correspondences, and especially through journalistic photographs of the Square in 1979 and its representation in various media afterward. I examine shifts in this specific space at particular and historically grounded conjunctures, honing in not just on the site's meta-narratives and its grand spectacular events, but also on the decentralized and ignored narratives and histories, demonstrating how they have reworked the meaning of this monumental space, turning it into a stage for contrarian politics. Focusing on the monument during the 1978-79 Revolution, I argue that the transformations in the meaning and perception of the site at that particular moment are indeed forces of a fundamental remaking, in that they open up the monumental site to further appropriations, as we are currently witnessing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents Iran and China's 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership as a new stage in their relationship. The 25-year agreement's potential to strengthen Sino-Iranian relations is discussed in the paper. The goal of the paper is to investigate, in particular, Iranian perceptions of the deal and to consider how it might affect ties between Beijing and Tehran. The focus of the paper is on the analytical approach used to show how the agreement may affect the relations between the two countries. The paper's findings indicate that Iranians have two opposing views on the agreement. While some support the agreement, others criticize the government for signing it. Furthermore, the paper indicates that if the agreement is implemented, it will deepen relations between Tehran and Beijing in a variety of ways. The paper would help to broaden our understanding of regional and international relations, particularly those between Iran and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are widely utilized in a variety of fields, including, hydrology, geomorphology, and geoscience. The dataset is now openly and freely available to the public, with access permissions for data at 30- and 90-meter resolution having been expanded. The Copernicus DEM is a Digital Surface Model (DSM) that depicts the Earth's surface, which includes structures, infrastructure, and vegetation. This DEM is based on the WorldDEM DSM, which has been altered. The Copernicus DEM's vertical accuracy is assessed in this paper. The study area is in Iran, north of Tehran and west of Jam. The Copernicus DEM is compared to the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in terms of vertical accuracy. The results of the experiments reveal that the Copernicus DEM is more accurate than the SRTM. In the Tehran and Jam examples, the root mean square error (RMSE) for Copernicus DEM (30 m) is 5.72 and 2.19 meters, respectively. Also, this value for SRTM is 6.10 and 3.95 respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 outbreak changed travel behaviour in many ways. This paper evaluates these changes in Tehran, Iran, from a transportation sustainability perspective. It uses data from travel surveys before and during the pandemic to evaluate changes in travel activity and their impacts on public transportation (PT) system costs and revenues, air quality and traffic crashes. A structural equation model (SEM) is used to assess the potential impact of passengers' characteristics, details of each transportation mode and the severity of Covid-19 on travel behaviour. Hypothesis testing is used to compare the changes that occurred in air quality and traffic crashes. SEM outputs indicate that the frequency of trips previously made by sustainable modes and changes in regular trips have the highest impact on the sustainability of trips made during the Covid-19 pandemic. Air quality declined in many city districts. The pandemic caused reductions in PT ridership and an increase in private car use, which threaten the long-term sustainability of public transit services. Crash fatalities declined slightly, particularly during periods of movement restrictions. However, motorcycle fatal crashes increased in comparison with the reduction in motorcycle trips, apparently due to increased traffic speeds. The government did not use the pandemic as an opportunity to promote sustainable and low-contagion modes. This analysis infers that the Covid-19 outbreak reduced the overall transportation sustainability in Tehran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying a qualitative content analysis and focusing on the politics of memory, this paper aimed to examine two top-down implemented monumental public spaces in Iran, Hefdah-e Shahrivar street in Tehran, and Imam Ali Square in Isfahan. The city authorities envisioned both projects to regenerate the surrounding historic urban area and embody specific collective values. Through thematic coding of the local shopkeepersʼ narratives, as a group excluded from decision-making, this paper identifies the narrative strategies that they apply to negotiate these projects. The study formulates three concepts: (1) Reclaiming the space, (2) Reproducing a sense of distrust, (3) Reproducing memories of loss. The three identified narrative strategies indicate a situation in which the contested space, the contested process, and the contested memory frame a contested collective in both projects. The paper illuminates how the value system, which the two top-down implemented projects aimed to embody, transformed through the everyday lives of the local shopkeepers. The research findings also discuss the concept of semantic inversion in the context of monumental public spaces. It illustrates how the imposed value system is inverted and questioned within the narrative strategies of the excluded locals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article underscores the retraction of a review paper by Massoumeh Ebtekar, an immunologist at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, Iran, from an Iranian journal following allegement that it was plagiarized from other scientists's papers. Mohammad Eslami, editor-in-chief of "Iranian Journal of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology" said that the article will be retractred and that the journal will publish an editorial focusing on the policy on the duplication of published materials.

Purpose: While existing research explores the impact of audit market competition on audit fees and audit quality, there is limited investigation into how competition in the audit market influences auditors' writing style. This study examines the relationship between audit market competition and the readability of audit reports in Iran, where competition is particularly intense, especially among private audit firms. Design/methodology/approach: The sample comprises 1,050 firm-year observations in Iran from 2012 to 2018. Readability measures, including the Fog index, Flesch-Reading-Ease (FRE) and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), are employed to assess the readability of auditors' reports. The Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) is utilized to measure audit market competition, with lower index values indicating higher auditor competition. The concentration measure is multiplied by −1 to obtain the competition measure (AudComp). Alternative readability measures, such as the Flesch–Kincaid (FK) and Automated Readability Index (ARI) are used in additional robustness tests. Data on textual features of audit reports, auditor characteristics and other control variables are manually collected from annual reports of firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Findings: The regression analysis results indicate a significant and positive association between audit market competition and audit report readability. Furthermore, a stronger positive and significant association is observed among private audit firms, where competition is more intense compared to state audit firms. These findings remain robust when using alternative readability measures and other sensitivity checks. Additional analysis reveals that the positive effect of competition on audit report readability is more pronounced in situations where the auditor remains unchanged and the audit market size is small. Originality/value: This paper expands the existing literature by examining the impact of audit market competition on audit report readability. It focuses on a unique audit market (Iran), where competition among audit firms is more intense than in developed countries due to the liberalization of the Iranian audit market in 2001 and the establishment of numerous private audit firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban drainage systems (UDSs) may experience failure encountering uncertain future conditions. These uncertainties arise from internal and external threats such as sedimentation, blockage, and climate change. In this paper, a new resilience-based framework is proposed to assess the robustness of urban flood management strategies under some distinct future scenarios. The robustness values of flood management strategies are evaluated by considering reliability, resiliency, and socio-ecological resilience criteria. The socio-ecologic resilience criteria are proposed considering the seven principles of building resilience proposed by Biggs et al. (2012). The evidential reasoning (ER) approach and the regret theory are utilized to calculate the total robustness of the flood management strategies. In this framework, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithms III (NSGA-III) optimization model and the storm water management model (SWMM) simulation model are linked and run to quantify the criteria. The novelty of this paper lies in presenting a new framework to increase the sustainability and resilience of cities against floods considering the deep uncertainties in the main economic, social, and hydrological factors. This methodology provides policies for redesigning and sustainable operation of urban infrastructures to deal with floods. To evaluate the applicability and efficiency of the framework, it is applied to the East drainage catchment of the Tehran metropolitan area in Iran. The results show that real-time operation of existing flood detention reservoirs, along with implementing five new relief tunnels with a construction cost of 37.1 million dollars, is the most robust non-dominated strategy for flood management in the study area. Comparing the results of the proposed framework with those of a traditional framework shows that it can increase the robustness value by about 40% with the same implementation cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metropolis of Tehran, the capital and the largest city of Iran, has been affected by the phenomenon of land subsidence in the past years. Up to now, no comprehensive study has been presented on land subsidence in the Tehran metropolis. This study addresses this shortcoming through a comprehensive investigation of surface and sub-surface factors that affect the subsidence and investigates the mechanism of subsidence development in Tehran. Land surface studies involve assessing the subsidence rate by utilizing InSAR technology, tracking the urban development of the city through time, and investigating geomorphological features like the alluvial fans landforms and surface drainage. Sub-surface studies include groundwater and geotechnical assessments. The evaluations indicate that the combinations of soils with a high percentage of fine grains and the drop in the underground water level are the major drivers of subsidence in the south of Tehran. The results of the study showed that the highest rate of land subsidence is 217 mm/year and has happened in the southwest of Tehran city. Districts 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, which comprise about 26% of Tehran's population (about 2.3 million people in 2016), are affected by subsidence. According to the results obtained from the geomorphological studies, these areas are located at the end of the alluvial fan of Kan and Chitgar (south and southwest of Tehran). The paper also focuses on the sharp northward growth of the subsidence zone in the northeast corner of Tehran's subsidence zone. From investigations, it is concluded that changes in four river courses (which lead to a drop in the underground water level) in conjunction with fine grain soil of this area are (probably) the major factors that have played a role in the northward growth of the subsidence zone at the northeastern corner. The paper also identifies the most vulnerable urban districts affected by the subsidence as well as some major infrastructures exposed to subsidence hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green Infrastructures as Best Management Practice (GI‐BMP) play important role in preserving cities from urban flood and excessive runoff. In the process of using GI‐BMP in cities for stormwater management, a number of steps are taken that normally include selection of suitable sites, formulating proper combination of infrastructures, and optimization of the place and design of GI‐BMPs to maximize their cost‐effectiveness. This paper presents a site‐scale GI‐BMP implementation in Tehran West Bus Terminal (TWBT), Iran. To achieve this goal, this study applies a three steps framework namely GI‐BMP suitability analysis, GI‐BMP combination planning, and GI‐BMP optimization. In the first step, using the BMP Siting Tool, the suitable places for allocating GI practices were identified. In the next step, suitable GI‐BMP practices, including permeable pavements, bioretention basin, infiltration trench, and rain barrel were planned and arranged for each subwatersheds of the study area. In the third step, with the use of System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis Integration (SUSTAIN) model and NSGA‐II algorithm, the sizes of the planned GI‐BMP types were optimized for each subwatershed. The results indicate that runoff problem caused by surface runoff in the study area was serious and needed to be controlled. The results also revealed that there were 104 near‐optimal solutions that help reduce runoff volume by up to 70%. According to the results, applying GI‐BMPs in TWBT will reduce 60% of flow volume in the site with the price of 353,568$. This research is of practical importance for stormwater management using nature‐based solutions in bus terminals. Recommendation For Resource Managers: Considering suitable places, selecting proper combination, and optimizing GI‐BMP location and design will result in an efficient green infrastructure planning in the context of cities.BMP Siting Tool and SUSTAIN model applied in this research provided a framework for planning and optimization of GI‐BMP in TWBT.This study suggested 104 near‐optimal solutions for GI‐BMP planning for TWBT reducing the cost of GI construction and reduce runoff volume.The proposed solutions for GI‐BMP development in TWBT may reduce up to 60% of annual volume of runoff with the cost of 353,568$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments across the world have an increasingly significant role to play in climate change resiliency at both community and city levels. Urban climate governance has been increasingly a popular concept and framework for building capacity towards urban resiliency. Nevertheless, and despite the considerable vulnerability of Iranian cities and on top of that the capital, Tehran, to climate change threats, few studies have evaluated the barriers and challenges of the city's local governments for enhancing the capacity of climate governance. This paper assesses the urban climate governance capacity in Tehran urban management system. Methodologically, this study uses previous successfully deployed analytical frameworks, developed by Tanner et al. (Urban governance for adaptation: Assessing climate change resilience in Ten Asian cities (IDS Working Paper 315). Institute of Development Studies, 2009) and updated the variables through various newly released research on urban climate governance in developing countries, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. The results show that, through the lens of assessing variables, Tehran municipality faces a handful of problems in institutionalizing urban climate governance in its setting due to the unintegrated urban management structure as well as the unwillingness of the local body (Islamic City Council) along with urban branches of the national government to function in an integrated way in term of urban climate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precipitable water vapor (PWV) is a key parameter in meteorological studies and forecasting of atmospheric events such as rain and flood. Due to the spatial limitations of GPS and meteorological stations, as well as observational discontinuities in the time domain, PWV modeling is of great importance. Obtaining PWV using direct measurements and water vapor measuring devices is a difficult task. The best way to get information on PWV variations indirectly is to use GNSS measurements. The GNSS meteorological technique can provide continuous and almost instantaneous observations of the amount of PWV around a GNSS station. Research has shown that the accuracy of weather forecasts can be improved using GNSS-dependent techniques. Models based on GNSS observations for estimating PWV are known as tropospheric analytical models. The tomographic model is one of the most famous and widely used tropospheric models. There are limitations such as a large number of unknown parameters, rank deficiency of design matrix and the inevitability of using regularization methods, assuming the amount of water vapor inside each voxel is constant and also, the need for initial amounts of water vapor inside the voxels in the voxel-based tomography (VBT) method. Such limitations have led researchers to use machine learning methods to estimate the spatio-temporal variation of PWV. In this paper, the spatio-temporal modeling of PWV is suggested using the generalized regression neural network (GRNN) model. The GRNN model is a type of artificial neural network (ANN) that uses radial basis functions (RBF) as an activity function in the hidden layer. As a result, its accuracy is higher than the ANN model. Eight parameters of longitude, latitude and height of GPS station, day of year (DOY), time (min.), relative humidity (RH), temperature (T) and pressure (P) are considered as inputs of GRNN and ANN models and the PWVs corresponding to these eight parameters are the outputs. After the training step, to evaluate the GRNN and ANN models, the observations of two GPS networks are used. In the GPS network of north-west of Iran, observations of 23 GPS stations in the period of 300 to 314 (winter season) from 2011 have been used. For the central Alborz GPS network, observations of 11 stations at the period of 162 to 176 (summer season) in 2016 are also used. Results obtained from GRNN and ANN models in two interior control stations, one exterior control station (outside the GPS network territory) and also in Tabriz and Tehran radiosonde stations are compared and evaluated with the results of VBT, ECMWF, Saastamoinen and GPT3 models. The statistical parameters of root mean square error (RMSE), relative error and correlation coefficient (R) are used to evaluate the accuracy of the models. At the north-west GPS network, the averaged RMSE values of GRNN, ANN, VBT, ECMWF, Saastamoinen and GPT3 models in the two interior control stations are calculated as 2.14, 2.57, 3.32, 3.36, 6.31 and 4.35 mm, respectively. For the central Alborz GPS network, the averaged RMSE of two interior control stations are computed as 2.01, 2.42, 3.24, 3.26, 6.00 and 4.06 mm, respectively. For the exterior control station, the GRNN model has less error than the ANN, VBT and Saastamoinen models, but more than the ECMWF and GPT3 model. The results of this paper show that the GRNN model has a very high accuracy compared to other analytical and empirical models of the troposphere. This model has the ability to show the spatio-temporal variations of precipitable water vapor with high accuracy at the GPS network territory and; it can considered as an alternative for the other analytical and empirical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and expansion of 20th-century urbanization have led to large-scale populated regions that did not exist prior to this era. City-region is a kind of 20-century large-scale concept recognized as the most advanced stage of urban development. Regardless of its long history, the concept of city-region does not enjoy a standard definition. In this vein, the present paper seeks to provide a suitable framework for the primary argument determining the city-region boundary. Indeed, understanding the boundary allows planners to study a precise area, resulting in refining the concept and meticulously planning. Therefore, as applied research, it is aimed to respond to the practical problem in spatial planning by expanding and developing the city-region's knowledge base. The paper has a mixed-method, using content analysis, the Structural Equation Model techniques, and Hot spot analysis. The results introduce six factors for determining the city-region's boundary, including economic self-sufficiency, community relation, regional competitiveness, balanced management, services and infrastructure capacities, and the space of flows. The research's flexible model allows planners to adjust it based on their field of study, inferring that the proposed model is utterly comprehensive; however, having access to different databases, scholars may encounter a challenge to adapt indicators. Accordingly, indicators should be customized based on general ones. In this study, the indicators are customized according to Iran's data sources, and the output framework is tested on the Tehran region that deals with inefficiencies in urban and regional planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iran is one of the countries with the highest number of the cases of capital relocation throughout its history. During the past four centuries, at least, six different cities have played the role of the capital for the country. This paper examines the most recent push for the capital relocation in Iran. By examining the public debate over the topic in the major periodicals of the country, the paper analyzes the underlying discourse that gives political impetus for the capital relocation. It shows that while the majority of the academics opposes such a move, politicians eagerly pursue such a massive project. More importantly the analysis suggests that in the twenty-first century, an old-established discourse on the role of the capital still plays a significant role in forming the public debate and political decisions on the capital relocation in Iran. Based on this discourse, the political system observes the capital relocation as a vital way for encouraging decentralization and decreasing the population of Tehran. The paper suggests that the underlying discourse for the capital relocation in Iran is in bold contrast to the common themes of capital relocation in other countries, particularly newly formed nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Better stock market investment strategies; understanding the financial crisis in terms of cognitive biases of investors; teaching stock market investors about their cognitive errors. This paper innovatively analyses the joint occurrence of cognitive biases in groups of stock exchange investors. It considers jointly a number of common fallacies: confirmation bias, loss aversion, gambler's fallacy, availability cascade, hot-hand fallacy, bandwagon effect, and Dunning–Kruger effect, which have hitherto been studied separately. The paper aims to highlight the diverse range of investor's profiles which are characterised by such fallacies, and the considerable differences observed based on their age, stock market experience and perception of market trends. The analysis is based on k-means and hierarchical clustering, feature importance and Principal Component Analysis, which were applied to data from the Tehran Stock Exchange. There are a few essential findings which contribute to the existing literature. Firstly, the results show that gender does not have a role to play in diversifying the investors' profiles. Secondly, cognitive biases are bundled, and we distinguish four investors' profiles; thus, they should be analysed jointly, not separately. Thirdly, the exposure to cognitive biases differs significantly due to the individual features of investors. The group most vulnerable to almost all analysed biases are inexperienced investors, who are pessimistic about market developments and have invested a large amount. Fourthly, the ages of investors are essential only in connection with other factors such as experience, market perception and investment exposure. Young (20–40 years), experienced investors with huge investments (+1000 mln rials/+24,000 USD) are mostly less exposed to all biases and much less risk-averse. Additionally, older (50+) and experienced investors (5–10 years) who are more optimistic about trends (hot hand bias) were affected much less by cognitive biases, only showing vulnerability to the Dunning–Kruger effect. Fifthly, more than 40% of investors apply consultation and technical analysis approaches to succeed in trading. Finally, from a methodological perspective, this study shows that unsupervised learning methods are effective in profiling investors and bundling similar behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important problems that the older adults is sleep disorders, where poor quality sleep claims the third rank of problems of the older adults. This study aims to determine the prevalence of sleep disorders among Iranians older adults through a systematic review and meta-analysis. The present study was conducted through meta-analysis method within the year range of March 2000–July 2018 by searching in ScienceDirect, Medline (PubMed), Barakat and Magiran, SID, and Google Scholar databases. Analysis was conducted in Comprehensive Meta-analysis software. Prevalence of the sleep disorder in the older adults Iranians was obtained as 48.9% (95%CI: 40.4–57.4%). The maximum prevalence of sleep disorder among the older adults in Tehran was observed in 2011 with 88.4% (95%CI: 82.6–92.5%), while the minimum prevalence of sleep disorder in Tehran was observed in 2013 with 22.8% (95%CI: 18.9–27.1%). Based on Meta regression, with the increase in the sample size and the year of the research, prevalence of sleep disorder in the older adults grows, which is statistically significant (p < 0.05). The results of this study suggest that prevalence of sleep disorder in the older adults in Iran is high, which requires serious interventional measures on the part of health policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exponential growth of population and industries has brought about an increase in energy consumption, causing severe climatic and environmental problems. Therefore, the move towards green renewable energy is being ever more intensified. This study aims at estimating the rooftop solar power production for Tehran, the capital city of Iran, using a Geospatial Information System (GIS) to assess the big data of city building parcels. Tehran is faced with severe air pollution due to its excessive fossil fuel usage, and its electricity demand is increasing. As a result, this paper attempts to provide the quantified solar power potential of city roof tops for policymakers and authorities in order to facilitate decision-making in relation to integrating renewable energies into the power production infrastructure. The results shows that approximately 3000 GWh (more than 14% of the total electric energy consumption) of solar power can be produced by the rooftop PV installations in Tehran. The potential nominal power of rooftop PV installations is estimated to be more than 2000 MW, which is four times the current installed PV capacity of the whole country. The findings of the study suggest that there is great potential hidden on the rooftops of the city, which can be utilized to assist the power systems of the city in the longer run for a more sustainable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation systems, such as railways, are considered critical infrastructure. It is essential to identify potential hazards that can affect the functionality of these systems and quantify metrics that can be used for resilience-informed decision-making. This paper develops an integrated probabilistic model for seismic multi-hazard risk and restoration assessment of railway systems by accounting for the effects of seismic waves propagation, liquefaction and landslide as main phenomena affecting the integrity of distributed networked infrastructure; this is done via a GIS-based user interface. An illustrative case study is then presented to assess the seismic risk and restoration of the Tehran-Sari railway in Iran. The implementation results demonstrate the capability of the presented methodology to quantify physical metrics (including combined damage state of network components, component- and system-level functionality and restoration) and economic loss. These metrics can assist officials with implementing retrofit plans to reduce loss and improve the resilience of railway system segments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1960s, the first Tehran Master Plan (TMP) was envisioned by a constellation of local and foreign experts. The TMP, which has been extensively studied, is usually credited to big-name planner and architect Victor Gruen. Scholars have neglected the contributions of local professionals in shaping the plan. Many depict the TMP as the product of Cold War geopolitics and a scheme directly exported to Tehran to facilitate top-down modernization promoted by the pro-American Shah. This popular narrative flattens the complexity of transnational urbanism and obscures the transformative role performed by locals therein. Through archival studies and conducting interviews with local planners involved in the TMP, this paper aims to discover the complex nexus between national and international actors and unravel how Iranian planners collaborated with foreign counterparts to negotiate Tehran's urban problems and project the future of the city. This paper argues that Gruen served as a figurehead to validate the formation of the first planning document for Tehran by young local planners who had their own planning agenda. The conclusion argues that the transnationalism of planning practices in Iran grew out of an attempt to institutionalize a modern planning regime compatible with global standards while nurturing local experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of financial leverage impact on customer satisfaction and marketing costs including research and development (R&D) and advertisement costs. Furthermore, the authors aim to investigate whether customer satisfaction as well as financial distress moderates the effect of financial leverage impact on customer satisfaction and marketing costs including R&D and advertisement costs. Design/methodology/approach: The statistical population of this study consists of listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange manually obtained from different industries in 2017. Multivariate regression based on data compilation methodology is used to test research hypotheses. Findings: The results indicate that financial leverage is negatively and significantly associated with customer satisfaction and this negative relationship is more pronounced in companies with lower sale growth. Furthermore, the authors' results suggest that customer satisfaction negatively (positively) and significantly affects firm value in companies with lower (higher)-financial leverage. The authors also demonstrate that there is no significant relationship between financial leverage caused by financial flexibility and firm value caused by customer's satisfaction (CS). The authors' findings also suggest that financial distress significantly affects the relationship between financial leverage and customer satisfaction. Finally, the authors' find that financial leverage significantly affects firms' R&D and advertisement costs. Research limitations/implications: Since the fundamental institutional assumptions underpinning the Western and even East Asia financial models are not valid in the institutional environment of Iran, the authors' findings could provide substantial implications for the authors' understanding of the relationship between finance and R&D costs and contribute substantially to customer satisfaction and firm value literature as well. The sample country of the present paper has recently experienced a spate of financial collapses that somewhat contributes, indirectly, to financial distress incurred by the Iranian firms. Moreover, R&D costs are growing among the Iranian quoted firms. Originality/value: Since the fundamental institutional assumptions underpinning the Western and even East Asia financial models are not valid in the institutional environment of Iran, the authors' findings could provide substantial implications for our understanding of the relationship between finance and R&D costs and contribute substantially to customer satisfaction and firm value literature as well. The sample country of the present paper has recently experienced a spate of financial collapses that somewhat contributes, indirectly, to financial distress incurred by the Iranian firms. Moreover, R&D costs are growing among the Iranian quoted firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to underline the importance of historic public spaces as the deposits of collective memories, proposing the critical analysis, reinterpretation, and systematization of relevant informative historical layers as a counter model to the globalizing tendencies and their fast pace of transformation. Baharestanis a historic square located in the northeast of Tehran's Historic Center, and it is the home to Iran's Parliament and the Ministry of Culture. It makes the square significant at the national level, especially due to its location surrounded by several exquiste historical heritage buildings. However, following the decline of Tehran's historic center, Baharestan lost its socio-cultural vitality and spatial quality, hosting urban functions mainly heterogeneous to its identity, and eventually turning into a traffic node. Through the comparative study of numerous historical documents, and adapting the concept of "palimpsest", Baharestan Square has been interpreted as the assemblage of different city layers in relation to the environmental and socio-political narratives of the city. The shift from one layer to another intends to reflect some of the lost memories of Tehran and its collective identity in the transition from traditional to modern society. Later on, the paper argues how this palimpsest quality and co-evolution of those plural layers and narratives in Baharestan demonstrate this symbolic square as a "catalytic social infrastructure", giving Tehran an opportunity to overcome the challenge of "social amnesia" and promoting its civic culture and cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the effect of corporate governance mechanisms, including board members' and audit committee members' characteristics, particularly their independence, expertise in terms of finance and industry and efforts on the level of fraud and money laundering (ML) in financial statements of the listed firm on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The procedure of the study is descriptive correlation based on published information from firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2020, using a sample of 154 firms with 1071 observations. The method used for hypothesis testing is linear regression using panel data. The Benish model is used measure the level of fraud in financial statements, and for ML, the auditors' opinion are used. The results show that board characteristics, including independence, financial expertise, industry expertise and board effort, as well as audit committee features, such as independence, financial expertise, industry expertise and audit committee effort, have a significant and negative impact on the fraudulent financial reporting and ML. Moreover, since this paper was carried out in an emerging financial market, particularly in Iran, to figure out the effect of corporate governance structures on financial statement fraud and ML, it can provide helpful information for investors and policymakers in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employer branding in organizational human resources management is essential. Nevertheless, certain gaps persist within the realm of scientific research in this field, particularly in the exploration of novel concepts like employer brand personality appeal and its potential impact within the hospitality industry, which grapples with numerous human resources challenges. To fill this gap in knowledge, this paper introduces employer brand personality appeal as a concept within the hospitality employer brand context and measures its impact alongside corporate social responsibility on employee turnover intention and satisfaction in Iran's hospitality industry. Using a quantitative approach, a survey questionnaire was applied to investigate employees' perceptions. Respondents were 225 employees of four-and five-star hotels in Tehran. Results signify the impact of both corporate social responsibility and employer brand personality appeal on employees' behavioral consequences. Furthermore, findings support the influence of corporate social responsibility in promoting employer brand personality appeal. Therefore, this study expands hospitality employer brand literature by proposing a novel concept and exploring its potential for hospitality human resources deficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this present study is to assess the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on fraud in listed firms' financial statements on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). In other words, this paper seeks to figure out whether IC and its components, namely, the efficiency of human capital (HC), structural capital (SC), relational capital (RC) and customer capital (CC). Design/methodology/approach: The logistic regression model is used for analyzing the material of this study. Research hypotheses are also examined using a sample of 187 listed firms on the TSE during 2011–2018 by employing the logistic regression pattern based on synthetic data technique. Moreover, some robustness checks are also used to ensure the correctness of the obtained results. Findings: The findings show a negative and significant relationship between IC and its components, including the efficiency of HC, SC, RC and CC, and fraud in financial statements. This means that by investing in the IC and its components, the amount of fraud in business firms' financial statements decreases. Originality/value: Since few studies are carried out by existing literature, this paper is among the pioneer efforts assessing IC's potential impact on fraud commitment. The findings apply to policymakers to improve the clarity of the business atmosphere of Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims at earthquake prediction assessment in Iran using VLF radio signal sounding and space-based ULF emission observation. VLF subionospheric data using the Denizkoy transmitter in Turkey at 26.7 kHz and a receiving station in Tehran are incorporated. Three earthquake events during 2019 located at different distances to the signal propagation path are used in this study. The short-term variations in the VLF signal for the 5 days averaged amplitude, as well as the deviation of the VLF signal against the 30 days averaged signal to monitor the alternation in the trend, are employed in this study to perform earthquake prediction assessment using VLF radio signal sounding. Several characteristic parameters of the VLF signal such fall-time, minimum 1 and minimum 2 throughout the day are used. A threshold over the standard deviation of the signal is used to determine the signal anomaly. The signal anomalies associated with three selected events and the correlation of prediction with the distance are discussed. A decision-making procedure for the detection of EQ-related anomalies based on the assessment of the proposed approach is introduced. The ULF emissions recorded by the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) are provided and associated with the two analyzed earthquakes using the VLF data due to lack of time coverage for the third case. The space-based detected ULF signals are presented and discussed. The proximity of the detected ULF emission with respect to the earthquake epicenter is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution has been integrated into global challenges over the last few years due to its negative impact on the health of human beings, increasing socio-economic risks, and its contribution to climate change. This study attempts to evaluate the current status of Iran's air pollution with regard to the sources of emissions, control policies, and the health and climate consequences that have resulted through available data from monitoring stations reported in the literature, official documents, and previously published papers. Many large cities in Iran surpass the permissible concentration of air pollutants, particularly particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, black carbon, and ozone. Although regulations and policies are in place and enormous efforts are being made to address air pollution issues in the country, implementation and enforcement are not as effective as they could be. The significant challenges may be regarded as the inefficiency of regulation and supervision systems, the lack of air quality monitoring systems and technology, particularly in industrial cities rather than Tehran, and the lack of continual feedback and investigations on the efficiency of regulation. Providing such an up-to-date report can bring opportunities for international collaboration, which is essential in addressing air pollution worldwide. We suggest that a way forward could be more focused on conducting systematic reviews using scientometric methods to show an accurate picture and trend in air pollution and its association in Iran, implementing an integrated approach for both climate change and air pollution issues, collaborating with international counterparts to share knowledge, tools, and techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since it first appeared, agency theory has argued that debt can decrease agency issues between agent and principal and enhance the value of firms. This paper explores the moderating effect of agency cost on the association between capital structure and firm performance. A panel econometric method, namely a fixed-effect regression model, was used to evaluate the above description. This investigation uses secondary data collected from published annual reports of manufacturing firms listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) during 2011–2019. Empirical results show that capital structure is negatively related to firm performance. Agency cost also has a negative impact on corporate performance; however, in the case of ROA and EPS, the relationship is positive. Interestingly, the findings illustrate that increasing the level of debt can reduce agency costs and enhance firm performance. Moreover, robust correlations are revealing that agency cost significantly affects the relationship between capital structure and corporate performance. These findings provide proof to support the assumptions of agency theory, which explains the association between capital structure and performance of firms. This study provides new perspectives on the relationship between capital structure and firm performance by using data from listed manufacturing firms in Iran; hence, these new insights from a developing market improve the understanding of capital structure in Asian and Middle Eastern markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subway stations are one of the most popular public spaces in the Iranian big cities, which is accompanied by urban design low qualities. The urban design of knowledge, art, and profession is the organization of the environmental qualities of the urban and public domain of the subject. Considering low qualities in these modern spaces that are used by everyday people, the most important issue of the present research is constructed without reference to indigenous fields. Emphasis on indigenous patterns, in the construction of underground spaces, especially subway stations, can lead to the sustainability and desirability of these spaces. The development of urban-rural spaces can play an important role in the sustainability of contemporary large and populated cities. Construction and construction of these spaces is a new phenomenon in Iran that can weaken or strengthen the natural, human, social, cultural, and economic characteristics of cities such as Tehran. In this paper, the purpose of this paper is to explain the status of the design of urban design in metro station spaces, with emphasis on indigenous patterns. The present study is conducted using the descriptive-analytical methodology and studies between the three areas of urban design and related qualities; subsurface development and metro station spaces; native architectural and urban design patterns. Therefore, after the design of the problem and terminology, the study of definitions and urban design qualities from the point of view of the experts and the addition and extraction of comprehensive urban design qualities was done with the article approach. Subsequently, in order to study Imam Khomeini, Seventh, and Revolution Square subway stations, they were studied and analyzed. The results of the study indicate that the planning and design of metro station spaces should pay attention to the comprehensive design quality of the city. These qualities include identity recognition, environmental sustainability, socioeconomic and economic sustainability, safety and security, efficiency and diversity, accessibility and accessibility, continuity and integrity, proportions and human scale, freedom, flexibility, Vitality, intuition and sensual richness, justice. The analysis of case examples, both in terms of both generic and indigenous patterns, has a low status and poor quality of urban design and indigenous patterns. In general, paying attention to the design qualities of a design based on native patterns can enhance their sustainability, utility, and humanity. Introduction Urban design is a science, art, and profession dealing with organizing the environmental qualities of urban and public areas. Paying attention to the vacuum of urban design qualities in these modern spaces that are used daily by people is the most important issue of the present study, which has been constructed without any connection with local contexts. By presenting this issue, the purpose of this study is to explain the position of urban design qualities in metro station spaces with an emphasis on local patterns. In the process of urban development, all aspects of environmental quality must be considered. In other words, strengthening or meeting one or more (private and public) needs and environmental quality should not lead to the weakening or loss of other environmental qualities. This is an issue common in contemporary projects. One-dimensional views of urban projects, such as a purely economic or traffic approach, will neglect the underlying features, undermine identity, and move in the opposite direction of sustainable development. The theme of this research is that, on the one hand, the development of urban infrastructures such as metro stations, especially in large cities and their centers, is a matter of certainty and these infrastructures in the dimensions of transportation, space, play an important role in the life of urban centers. But on the other hand, the construction of these spaces is often devoid of environmental qualities and less attention is paid to local patterns. The research hypothesis is that by accompanying and using local models in the planning and development of subsurface spaces, both goals can be achieved, namely the development of urban infrastructure, strengthening urban identity, and improving environmental qualities. Therefore, this study seeks solutions to use local patterns in the development of subsurface spaces and subway stations. Research Methods This study aims to analyze the position of urban design qualities in the design of metro stations. The study is conducted using a combined research approach (i.e. quantitative and qualitative methods). In this regard, the most important research question is: What is the position of urban design qualities in the design of metro stations? Also, the research sub-questions are: What are the qualities of urban design effective in the design of metro stations? What are the ways to apply these qualities with emphasis on indigenous patterns in subway stations? In this research, while analyzing the features and qualities of native patterns, the application of these patterns, related features, and qualities in the planning and design of contemporary underground spaces in our country are discussed and solutions and suggestions are presented. Therefore, while defining these concepts from the theorists’ point of view, we summarize and conclude these definitions, and then search for native patterns of architecture and urban planning for use in the planning and design of metro stations. Research Findings The results of the study show that in planning and designing metro station spaces, comprehensive qualities of urban design should be considered. These qualities include identity, legibility, environmental sustainability, social, cultural and economic sustainability, safety and security, efficiency and diversity, pedestrianism and ease of access, cohesion and integration, human proportions and scale, freedom, flexibility, vitality, attractiveness and sensory richness, and justice. The analysis of case studies, both in terms of general qualities and indigenous patterns, indicates the low and weak position of urban design qualities and indigenous patterns. In general, paying attention to urban-design qualities with a focus on indigenous patterns can promote their sustainability, desirability, and humanity. Emphasis on indigenous patterns in the construction of underground spaces, especially subway stations, can lead to the stability and desirability of these spaces. The development of suburban urban spaces can play an important role in the sustainability of large and densely populated contemporary cities. The construction of these spaces is a new phenomenon in Iran that can weaken or strengthen the natural, human, social, cultural, and economic characteristics of cities like Tehran. From all these issues, it can be concluded that the role of subsurface spaces, including metro stations, in the sustainable development of cities, should be taken seriously and the comprehensive realization of environmental qualities should be considered by avoiding one-dimensional approaches in planning and designing these spaces. It can also be said that traditional Iranian indigenous buildings and collections such as Gudal Baghcheh, Shovadan, Cistern, the historical bazaar have valuable structural features (in terms of the form and function on architectural and urban scales) and can be a local model for the development of metro station spaces. Given that our country is on the verge of developing such spaces, paying attention to these points can play an important role in stabilizing cities and strengthening urban identity, and improving environmental qualities. These templates and design guides can be used in the planning and design of metro station complexes. Since the metro network is one of the most widely used underground spaces in large cities, the subsurface development in relation to metro stations and using the native patterns studied in this research can be useful and effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to investigate the extent to which a model based on financial and non-financial variables predicts auditors' decisions to issue qualified audit reports in the case of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Design/methodology/approach: The authors utilized data from the financial statements of 96 Iranian firms as the sample over a period of five years (2012–2016). A total of 480 observations were analysed using a probit model through 11 primary financial ratios accompanying non-financial variables, including the type of audit firm, auditor turnover and corporate performance, which affect the issuance of audit reports. Findings: The results demonstrated high explanatory power of financial ratios and type of audit firm (the national audit organization vs other local audit firms) in explaining qualifications through audit reports. The predictive accuracy of the estimated model is evaluated using a regression model for the probabilities of qualified and clean opinions. The model is reliable, with 72.9% accuracy in classifying the total sample correctly to explain changes in the auditor's opinion. Research limitations/implications: This study contains some limitations. First, it is likely that similar researches in developed countries set a large sample (e.g. over 1,000 firms) including more years, but the authors cannot follow such a trend due to data access restrictions. Second, banks and financial institutions, investment and holding firms are removed from the sample, because their financial structure is diverse. The third limitation of the study represents the different economic and cultural conditions of Iran compared to other countries. Future studies could focus on internal control material weaknesses or earnings management to predict audit opinion in emerging economies including Iran. Practical implications: The paper has practical implications and can assist auditors in identifying factors motivating audit report qualifications, mainly in emerging economies. Originality/value: The paper contributes to auditing research, since very little is known about the determinants of audit opinion in emerging markets including Iran; it also constitutes an addition to previous knowledge about audit opinion in the context of TSE. The paper is one of the rare studies predicting auditor opinions using both financial variables and non-financial metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effects of managerial overconfidence on conditional conservatism and real earnings management among companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors used the model of Ball and Shivakumar (2006) for measuring the effect of moderating overconfident management on conditional conservatism in accounting; moreover, the model of Roychowdhury (2006) is used for evaluating the relationship between managerial overconfidence and real earnings management. The study population consists of 1,144 observations and 143 firms listed on TSE over an eight-year period between 2008 and 2015. The statistical model used in this paper is a multivariate regression model; besides, the statistical technique used to test the hypotheses is panel data. Findings: Consistent with the expectations, the results showed that there is a negative relationship between managerial overconfidence and conditional conservatism. Furthermore, the findings suggest that managerial overconfidence is negatively connected with real earnings management. This implies that when Iranian managers have many financial problems, they do not engage in real earnings management, as the real earnings management does not increase the value of the companies in the long run and even it cause damage to them. Originality/value: This is one of the most important research that simultaneously surveys the impact of managerial overconfidence on conditional conservatism and real earnings management in a developing market called Iran. What really sets this study apart from other papers is that most Iranian firms between 2008 and 2015 because of economic sanctions faced severe financial problems. From this perspective, this study contributes to the research literature by expanding the knowledge of conservatism in the emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many spatial applications related to land and titles like land use management, registering, and utility and health service providers are using postal addresses as their main or their supplementary georeferencing method. Evaluation of postal address datasets quality is important when controlling their changes due to manipulations (like add or update), comparing them, or merging them, that is one of the main strategies of developing countries like Iran, to form a unified addressing structure and database. Despite the costly and time consuming formal methods of postal addresses qualification that are based on address matching, the method proposed in this paper provides an evaluation of a postal address quality not requiring any preprocessing like standardization or ancillary data like streets and their addressing scheme data. The proposed method is based on measuring the autocorrelation of a postal address dataset content where higher level of autocorrelation indicates more standardization and less spatial sparsity of the addresses. The method processes the adjacency graph formed measuring Damerau–Levenstein distance between records of a postal address dataset. Evaluation of 5 statistics for 4 postal address datasets of Tehran City of Iran shows that the cumulative frequency of values and the maximum size of the components (sub-graphs) in the adjacency graph could be used. These statistics both show stable S-Shaped patterns that their threshold at the first extremum of their second derivative represents the desired quality of a postal address dataset. The results show that the measured threshold of postal address dataset corresponds with its topological structure of the streets that cover its addresses. The method can define characteristics of a standard address structure for one or more postal address datasets as the results propose 5 components for the standard address of the evaluated datasets which is the same as the number of components defined for Iranian national structure of postal addresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a multiobjective optimization approach for a preventive maintenance scheduling problem. To model this problem, an optimization model was developed by considering two objective functions: minimizing maintenance cost associated with the preventive tamping cost, machine preparation cost, and possession cost during time scheduling, as well as minimizing the total loss of remaining useful life (LRUL) over a given planning horizon. The applicability of the model was tested with the strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm II (SPEA-II) and multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithms in a case study on a section of Tehran-Mashhad line in Iran for the planning horizon of three years. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed on the possession cost and maximum permitted train speed. The results showed that by increasing the maintenance budget up to 47.32%, the track capacity could be increased by 25% due to increased permitted speed. Moreover, by increasing the cost associated with track possession, the preparation cost was reduced by considering the opportunistic maintenance policy through the grouping track segments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The childbirth process is a complex and vital event that requires careful analysis and improvement. This experience can shape a woman's perspective on motherhood and even affect her mental health. Healthcare providers must prioritize improving the birth experience for women. In this interdisciplinary research, a combination of business process modeling (BPM) and medicine have been used with the aim of realizing an improved delivery experience and increased maternal satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: The data collection of this study was done by observing 518 childbirth processes and interviewing the chief of labor, chief residents, and midwives in the obstetrics and gynecology department of a hospital in Tehran from October 2022 to February 2023. Findings: The research has been done in four main stages. The first phase is to model the primary process and sub-processes of normal vaginal delivery (NVD). The second phase is validation using expert confirmation and process mining (PM). The third phase is the analysis of the causes of maternal dissatisfaction in labor. The fourth phase of the heuristics redesigning and improving the process, in which for the first time three new categories have been presented including hospital-based, patient-based, and medical technique-based results show BPM intervention effect can be far-reaching in improving patient care and optimizing operational efficiency. Originality/value: This study is one of only a few to adopt a process-oriented perspective to show how BPM can be used in clinical processes and has specifically examined an essential clinical process, i.e. childbirth. Highlights: Developing business process management (BMP) applications in a medical special process related to childbirth as interdisciplinary research. A combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques contains engineering software and management approaches for a Case study, Implementation of BPM lifecycle in the women's hospital in Iran, Tehran, for a clinical process, which is called, normal vaginal delivery (NVD) process for fetal expulsion normally. Modeling NVD clinical process and sub-process for the first time by BPMN2.0 notations in visual paradigm (VP) software and Validation of the made model with process mining (PM), by Disco process mining software. This was done through event log collection from HIS at the hospital. Improving the childbirth process by redesigning heuristics and Introducing two new categories special for clinical process improvement for the first time. Clinical process improvement heuristics obtained in this research are not consistent with the previous seven categories presented in previous studies such as Marlon Dumas' book. Therefore, we have introduced two new heuristics to redesign clinical processes compatible with medical centers, including hospital-based, patient-based, and medical technique-based. Providing a framework for clinical process modeling and improvement containing steps and tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Tomography (TomoSAR) has ascertained great potential for the three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction of observed scenes, especially in urban areas. However, the number of proceed snapshots (observations) is usually less than that of slant height samples (unknowns) in TomoSAR inversion processes. This impairs the quality of the reconstructed vertical information. To cope with this issue and improve the reliability of reconstructed vertical information, this paper investigates the possible potential of a deterministic descriptive regularization-based method. Deterministic descriptive regularization is a well-conditioned optimization framework based on the descriptive idea of a regularization solution. This strategy can help to mitigate the effect of the ill-posed problem. Thus, it can assist SAR tomography to deal with the possible impairing issues arising from low numbers and the distribution of baselines. For this purpose, the result of the proposed strategy is compared with the outcomes from the standard TomoSAR techniques, including Beamforming, Capon, and Minimum Norm. The proposed method for reconstruction of the reflectivity function of the observed scene has been performed on a dataset acquired by the Sentinel-1 sensor in 2022 over Tehran City, Iran. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can estimate building heights with a vertical accuracy of better than 91%. These results demonstrate the great potential of the proposed method for reconstructing the full 3-D images of urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of investor sentiment on accounting conservatism in listed companies in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, two models of Ball and Shivakumar (2006) and Basu (1997) have been used for measuring conditional conservatism in accounting. To measure investor sentiment, the author uses the Baker and Wurgler (2006, 2007) index. The research sample consists of 1,820 observations and 182 firms listed on TSE over a ten-year period between 2011 and 2020. This study uses panel data and multivariate regression analysis to test it hypotheses. Findings: Consistent with this hypothesis that accounting conservatism will increase with investor sentiment, the results showed that Iranian firms recognize economic losses and bad news in a more timely manner during high sentiment periods than during low sentiment periods. This implies that Iranian managers recognize economic losses and bad news in earnings in a more timely manner during periods of high investor sentiment. Practical implications: This finding provides significant evidence for investors and financial reporting standard-setters in Iran because by removing accounting conservatism from the conceptual framework, managers are not able to present conservative financial reports, and this can intensify the negative impact of investors sentiment in the Iranian capital market. Managers of Iranian companies can reduce information asymmetry and increase capital market efficiency by accelerating the disclosure of bad news. Thus, managers can strategically recognize losses and prevent investors from making emotional decisions that reduce their wealth. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to empirically examine the impact of investor sentiment on accounting conservatism in a developing market called Iran. This study contributes to the corporate disclosure literature. Also, the result of this study contributes to standard-setters of accounting standards to improve the mandatory disclosure literature on more conservative accounting earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The presented paper conducted a comparative analysis based on well-known MLP, SVM, DT, and RF learning methods to assess/predict the safety factor (F.S) of earthslopes. Earth slopes' stability analysis is a key task in geotechnical engineering that provides a detailed view of the slope conditions used to implement appropriate stabilizations. In the stability analysis process, calculating the safety factor (F.S) plays an essential part in the stability assessment, which guarantees operations' success. Providing accurate and reliable F.S can be used to improve the stability analysis procedure as well as stabilizations. In this regard, researchers used computational intelligent methodologies to reach highly accurate F.S calculations. The presented study focused on the F.S estimation process and attempted to provide a comparative analysis based on computational intelligence and machine learning methods. In this regard, the well-known multilayer perceptron (MLP), decision tree (DT), support vector machines (SVM), and random forest (RF) learning algorithms were used to predict/calculate F.S for the earth slopes. These machine learning classifiers have a strong capability predict the F.S under certain conditions for slope failures and uncertainties. These models were implemented on a dataset containing 100 earth slopes' stabilities, recorded based on F.S from various locations in the provinces of Fars, Isfahan, and Tehran in Iran, which were randomly divided into the training and testing datasets. These predictive models were validated by Janbu's limit equilibrium analysis method (LEM) and GeoStudio commercial software. Regarding the study's results, MLP (accuracy = 0.901/precision = 0.90) provides more accurate results to predict the F.S than other classifiers, with good agreement with LEM results. The SVM algorithm follows MLP (accuracy = 0.873/precision = 0.85). Regarding the estimated loss function, MLP obtained a 0.29 average loss in the F.S prediction process, which is the lowest rate. The SVM, DT, and RF obtained 0.41, 0.62, and 0.45 losses, respectively. This article tried to fill the gap in traditional analysis procedures based on advanced procedures in slope stability assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The present study aims to assess the effect of managerial entrenchment on firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and financial performance in Iran. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the variable of managerial entrenchment, which includes board independence, management duality, management tenure, the board compensation, independence and ownership percentage, is initially analyzed using the exploratory factor analysis method, and its effect on performance and CSR is evaluated using the multivariable regression test. Given that a total of 103 listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange are selected during 2012–2017. In this paper, return on assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q are the two variables to measure financial performance. Findings: The results of hypotheses testing indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between managerial entrenchment and financial performance based on the ROA and Tobin's Q indices, separately. Moreover, the results of this study indicate that there is also a positive and significant relationship between managerial entrenchment and CSR activities. Originality/value: The current study almost is the first study, conducted in a developing country similar to Iran, and the provided results might be beneficial to other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2016 Iranian Census reveals that 14 of the country's 31 provinces have sub-replacement fertility. The province of Tehran, where a woman on average gives birth to 1.5 children during her reproductive period, has the lowest fertility in Iran. However, the 'two-child' norm prevails in the country and even a woman of young reproductive age still values having at least two children on average. In other words, there exists a gap between a woman's actual and desired fertility. This paper examines the demographic and socio-economic factors influencing the gap between actual and desired fertility in Tehran city based on a sample survey of 400 married women aged 15–49 years, conducted in 2015. The findings of the study reveal that the women of Tehran would be able to meet their fertility desires of two or more children if they were able to achieve their intended number of children they stated in the survey. However, should these women face any socio-economic constraint, they would be very likely to restrain their fertility desires and have fewer additional children than they initially intended, and thus continue with the sub-replacement fertility as being observed in Iran today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadastral and urban map enrichment/upgrading is an essential requirement for smart urban management. The high pace of development and change in megacities can cause different challenges for urban organizations to reproduce their maps based on their need. New urban management aims and plans need new cadastral and urban maps with different standards and elements which may have existed in the other urban organization. Producing an original map or checking the maps of different organizations visually in a megacity is very costly and time-consuming. These challenges require an advanced integration approach to overcome them. Therefore, enriching maps with concerned organizations' maps and intelligent and automatically identifying as well as applying the changes in urban and cadastral maps will save time and cost for informed urban decision-making. This paper has employed the data of the third zone of the District six of the Municipality of Tehran, the capital of Iran, and identifies changes in the parcel's geometry of the cadastre maps in comparison with the recently produced maps of the municipality of Tehran. After pre-processing the data, some spatial and attribute information are added to each feature, and the land parcels are enriched. By matching the algorithm and comparing the parcels geometry and attributes, suspicious parcels are identified by the logistic regression algorithm. The Accuracy and F1-Score of this model were 0.845 and 0.780, respectively. Finally, the suspicious parcels are checked and the parcels are located, deleted, merged, splitted and geometrically modified in the base map and the base map is enriched. This paper has successfully proposed a new framework for cadastral and urban map enrichment intelligently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic rules violations in urban areas, which can cause traffic crashes and unsafe situations, are a major issue nowadays. The present paper aims to analyze the frequency of traffic violations in Tehran city, Iran, over a five-year period (March 2016- March 2021). The data is obtained via road traffic violation monitoring system which can capture and process various traffic violations. This database, containing about 97 million violations committed by about 16 million drivers, is explored applying three statistical approaches. In the first approach, some multiplicative SARIMA and Bayesian Spatio-temporal models are fitted to the monthly violations. Also, in the second approach, the K-means clustering algorithm is applied to discover homogeneous districts of Tehran Municipality regarding their number of violations and their number of violations per camera towers meter during the study. Finally, in the third approach, a random-effect zero-truncated one-inflated Poisson model is proposed to study factors affecting driver's number of violations over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In process of flood risk management, there is usually a conflict between the governments, insurance companies and people as players in sharing financial responsibilities, because of how calculate insurance premium, compensation and governmental assistances. In order to this conflict resolution, in this paper a new methodology is proposed based on game theoretic approach by using Nash equilibrium method, that for the first time, the payoff functions of insurance companies and government have been associated to each other. In this method, according to maximization of player's payoffs, the best response has been found and for the first time, comprehensive financial model has been developed for sharing players' financial responsibilities in flood risk management plans. In order to increase the accuracy of flood insurance calculations, the parameters of deductible and franchise have been applied. The key findings indicate, success of flood risk management plans depend on purchasing flood insurance with full coverage and government financial assistances simultaneously. The developed flood insurance plan has most sensitivity to parameters of deductible and insurance rate. This model could be utilized as practical and academic model in flood risk management. The applicability and efficiency of the methodology are examined in Northeast of Tehran as capital of Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary organizations need to communicate with their customers in order to know them better, so that they can learn how to better satisfy their needs, provide better customer service and in so doing improve their commercial performance. Social media are one type of communication channel that organizations currently use to support these strategies. The purpose of this paper is to study how different types of organizations employ social media to support their business strategies, and how this affects the organizations' performance. To achieve this goal, this study collects information from several organizations in Tehran, the Capital of Iran, and 58 managers, marketing experts, social media experts and university faculty. This study uses questionnaires to collect data and employs descriptive-inferential statistical methods to analyze the data. The results show that social media play an important role, yet differing role, in supporting prospector, analyzer, reactor and defender business development strategies that are key elements in business performance improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]