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In recent decades, particularly since 2002, relations between Iran and Turkey have been on the rise and generally expanding. The aim of this paper is to analyse and clarify the reasons for the sustainability of the two countries' relations while undergoing intermittent eruptions of disputes over the years. In other words, the main question is: why have Iran and Turkey, with their political frictions, routinely embraced rapprochement and collaboration in recent decades? Accordingly, the hypothesis proposed is that a key reason for the ongoing cooperation between Tehran and Ankara in different fields, is the rationale of geopolitical complementarity engendering their security needs in broad meaning, particularly energy security and natural gas. Whilst the logic also applies to water security, both states attach greater importance to border security and energy. In short, their common geopolitical destiny over-rides individual state preferences. To examine this hypothesis, Barry Buzan's theory based on a broad definition of security as well as regional security complex has been deployed through descriptive analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on analyzing energy prices subsidies distribution in the MENA region among its seven components, according to the products that benefit from subsidized prices, and by per capita. As a nominal average of the years 2013, 2015, and 2017, both Iran and KSA had the higher nominal pre-tax subsidy averages estimated to $52.11 and $45.54 billion respectively, and also had higher post-tax subsidy averages estimated to $118.55 and $114.81 respectively. Global warming and local air pollution were the most important components after the pre-tax subsidies component in all MENA region countries. The "Congestion" component came after the level of the two environmental components averages in oilexporting countries, while the "accidents" component in almost all the oil-importing countries came after the level of the two environmental components averages. By products, petroleum products were the main products that benefited from energy prices subsidies in almost all MENA countries. The reform process must take into account the specifics of each country with regard to the details of energy subsidies at its level, as energy subsidies vary from one country to another, whether in terms of its value, the weight of its components, and the subsidy share of each energy products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moving toward environmental sustainability in the fruit production systems needs accurate monitoring of the systems in terms of energy flow. In this regard, using regression models (i.e., Cobb–Douglas), Multiple Linear Regression (MLR)), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN), this paper examined the energy flow in the pomegranate orchards in Iran. Unlike other similar studies, in the current research, the cross-validation technique was employed to evaluate how choosing datasets would modify the behavior of the models. The results demonstrated that the total energy consumption and energy efficiency of the pomegranate production were 13,634.13 MJ ha−1 and 1.01, respectively. The results also indicated that among investigated MLR models, the pure-quadratic model had the best performance. Besides, among 13 evaluated ANN-training algorithms, the Bayesian regulation algorithm had the highest accuracy in prediction and the best model consisted of one hidden layer with three neurons (5–3–1 topology) with logarithm sigmoid activation function. The results highlighted that the ANN model (R2 = 0.91) outweighs the MLR model (R2 = 0.86). The results also approved that the proposed ANN model was capable to use different datasets with high generalizability. The results of sensitivity analysis claimed the significant role of water and fuel consumption and consequently, the importance of establishing management policies to optimizing the use of these inputs in the pomegranate orchards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new thermodynamic cycle for power and fresh water production is presented, which includes MED-TVC desalinations and Allam cycles due to the important influence they have on the electric power industry in controlling and limiting greenhouse emissions. First, the Allam cycle analyzed and the appropriate location for heat-extraction identified to produce the required water vapor for the desalination system. It was determined that the heat site suitable for use in the desalination cycle is the heat from the outlet of the Compressor, which is estimated as 100 MW. The MED-TVC Desalination, one of the most suitable and most economical desalination, is used to combine the Allam cycle and desalination in the Kish district, located in the south of Iran. The proposed cycle is analyzed from the perspective of energy and exergy. The results show, the highest amount of exergy used to generate power in turbine and the amount of produced freshwater increase with increasing the capacity of Turbine. For this purpose genetic algorithm is used in two different scenarios to minimize and maximize the exergy destruction and produced fresh water respectively. The optimization of the system with genetic algorithm led to 18% decrease in total exergy destruction of the cycle in the first scenario and 7% decrease in the second optimization scenario. Furthermore, the efficiency of the cycle in first scenario and second scenario increased by 30% and 13% respectively. In the scenario optimization scheme, the amount of fresh water increased by 22%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over a decade now, decomposition analysis has become popular in energy and environment studies. This paper therefore identifies the factors that have influenced changes in CO2 emissions in Iran for the period 1990-2010. The Refined Laspeyres Index method has been utilized in order to decompose the CO2 emissions while four main factors of the observed changes have been identified: economic activity, energy intensity (energy use per unit of economic output), carbon intensity (CO2 emission per unit of energy use), and population effect. The study period has been divided into two decades, the first one encompassing the period from 1990 to 2000 and the second one from 2000 to 2010. Our empirical findings have revealed that the main factor which is accelerating CO2 emissions in Iran is the economic activity for the entire study period. Also within the first decade of the study, economic activity has been followed by energy intensity while in the second decade; it has been followed by population effect. Furthermore, the carbon intensity has made minor contributions to CO2 emissions in Iran throughout the study period. Given that Iran is an energy intensive and largely oil dependent country; we therefore suggest it would be better off in terms of reduced CO2 emissions by pushing down current energy intensity as its main environmental and economic policy objective. For the future studies, a sectoral CO2 emissions analysis could be conducted for Iran in order to examine the carbon emissions increasing and decreasing factors and provide some sectoral policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient use of energy in farming systems is one of the most important implications for decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigating global warming (GW). This paper describes the energy use patterns, analyze the economics, and report global warming potential effects of major crop production systems in East Azerbaijan province, Iran. For this purpose, 110 farmers whose main activity was major crop production in the region, including wheat, barley, carrot, tomato, onion, potato, alfalfa, corn silage, canola, and saffron, were surveyed. Some other data was obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad of Iran. Results showed that, in terms of total energy input, onion (87,556 Mj ha) and potato (80,869 Mj ha) production systems were more energy-intensive than other crops. Among the studied crops, the highest values of net return (6563.8 $ ha) and benefit/cost ratio (1.95) were related to carrot and corn silage production systems, respectively. Studies have also shown that onion and saffron production systems emit the highest (5332.6 kg CO2eq ha) and lowest (646.24 kg COeq ha) CO eq. emission, respectively. When it was averaged across crops, diesel fuel accounted for the greatest GHG contribution with 43% of the total, followed by electric power (28%) and nitrogen fertilizer (21%). In the present study, eco-efficiency was calculated as a ratio of the gross production value and global warming potential effect for the studied crops. Out of all the studied crops, the highest values of eco-efficiency were calculated to be 8.65 $ kg COeq for the saffron production system followed by the carrot (3.65 $ kg COeq) production. Generally, from the aspect of energy balance and use efficiency, the alfalfa production system was the best; however, from an economical point of view, the carrot production system was better than the other crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve sustainable development in agriculture, it is necessary to quantify and compare the energy, economic, and environmental aspects of products. This paper studied the energy, economic, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission patterns in broiler chicken farms in the Alborz province of Iran. We studied the effect of the broiler farm size as different production systems on the energy, economic, and environmental indices. Energy use efficiency (EUE) and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) were 0.16 and 1.11, respectively. Diesel fuel and feed contributed the most in total energy inputs, while feed and chicks were the most important inputs in economic analysis. GHG emission calculations showed that production of 1000 birds produces 19.13 t CO and feed had the highest share in total GHG emission. Total GHG emissions based on different functional units were 8.5 t CO per t of carcass and 6.83 kg CO per kg live weight. Results of farm size effect on EUE revealed that large farms had better energy management. For BCR, there was no significant difference between farms. Lower total GHG emissions were reported for large farms, caused by better management of inputs and fewer bird losses. Large farms with more investment had more efficient equipment, resulting in a decrease of the input consumption. In view of our study, it is recommended to support the small-scale broiler industry by providing subsidies to promote the use of high-efficiency equipment. To decrease the amount of energy usage and GHG emissions, replacing heaters (which use diesel fuel) with natural gas heaters can be considered. In addition to the above recommendations, the use of energy saving light bulbs may reduce broiler farm electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to investigate the status of energy consumption and environmental impacts in the raisin production using life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. Required data were collected from 50 grape producers in Dena county and raisin production workshop in Yasuj county through questionnaire and face-to-face interview. The energy equivalent of inputs and outputs was obtained using related specific energy coefficients and environmental indices including abiotic depletion (AD), acidification (AC), eutrophication (EUP), global warming (GW), ozone layer depletion (OLD), human toxicity (HT), fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity (FE), marine aquatic ecotoxicity (ME), terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE) and photochemical oxidation (PO) were compared in vineyard, processing workshop, packaging and transportation phases using Simapro software and CML2 baseline 2000 modeling approach. Results showed that based on the production of 500 g packaged raisin, total input energy for vineyard and processing workshop was calculated as 8.70 and 32.7 MJ and energy ratio was 3.38 and 0.7, respectively. The contribution of electricity energy input in vineyard and grape energy input in processing factory to the related total energy were calculated as 28% and 90%, respectively. Results obtained from the analysis of environmental indices showed that the GW index is 4.258 kg CO 2 eq per production of 500 g packaged raisin, which inputs production and consumption in vineyard had a contribution of 95% to GW index. In other indices, emissions related to the vineyard was higher than three other stages. Farmyard manure (FYM), machines and adhesive tape in factory sector were indicated as major contributor to pollutant emissions in vineyard, processing and packaging, respectively. • The total input energy for vineyard and processing plant was calculated as 8.70 and 32.7 MJ. • The contribution of electricity energy was calculated as 28% of energy input total. • FYM was indicated as major contributor to emissions in vineyard sector. • Machines were indicated as major contributor to emissions in processing plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Two novel configurations of BIPVT compound earth-air heat exchanger were proposed. • Different modes (of heating and cooling) were investigated. • Energetic and exergetic performance for the climatic conditions of Kermanshah, Iran. • Evaluation of the effects of the design parameters of the BIPVT and EAHE systems. In this paper, two novel configurations of the building integrated photovoltaic thermal (BIPVT)-compound earth-air heat exchanger (EAHE) system are proposed. Both the configurations operate in two modes, namely heating and cooling modes. In the heating mode of the configuration A, the cold outdoor air is twice preheated by passing through the EAHE and BIPVT systems. In the cooling mode of the configuration A, the hot outdoor air is precooled by flowing inside the EAHE system and the PV modules are cooled using the building exhaust air. The cooling mode of the configuration B is similar to the configuration A, while in the heating mode of the configuration B, the outdoor air first enters the BIPVT collector and then passes through the EAHE system. The energetic and exergetic performances of the configurations are investigated for climatic conditions of Kermanshah, Iran. In addition, the impacts of length, width, and depth of air duct located underneath the PV panels, air mass flow rate, length and inner diameter of the pipe of EAHE system on the annual average energetic and exergetic aspects of the best configuration of the BIPVT-EAHE system are evaluated. The outcomes revealed that the annual rate of thermal energy, electrical energy, and thermal exergy captured from the configuration A are respectively 3499.59, 5908.19, and 55.59 kWh, while these values for the configuration B are respectively 3468.16, 5969.87, and 51.76 kWh. In addition, it was found that the configuration A has superior energetic performance than the configuration B, while the overall exergetic performance of the configuration B is higher than the configuration A. Furthermore, it was depicted that both the energetic and exergetic performances of the suggested configurations intensify by augmenting the duct length, duct width, and tube diameter whereas they decline with an increase in the air mass flow rate and duct depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the energy requirements of inputs and outputs for potato production were examined. Also in this research, a nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique was used to determine the efficiencies of farmers with regard to energy use in potato production activities in Iran. The results indicated that total input energy, total output energy, and energy ratio were 107,674 MJ/ha, 82,463 MJ/ha, and 0.77, respectively. Net energy was negative. Therefore, it can be concluded that in potato production, energy is being lost. The study has helped to segregate efficient farmers from inefficient ones, to identify wasteful uses of energy from different sources by inefficient farmers, and to suggest reasonable savings in energy uses from different sources. DEA optimizes the performance measure of each potato production farm or decision-making unit (DMU). The average values (for all 44 farmers considered) of pure technical efficiency (TE), TE, and scale efficiency were found to be 0.92, 0.74, and 0.81, respectively. On an average, about 36.79% of the total input energy could be saved without reducing the yield from its present level by adopting the recommendations based on the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many studies are performed by researchers to estimate energy demand but the bees algorithm (BA) technique has never been used for such a study. This paper presents application of the BA technique to estimate total energy demand in Iran, based on socioeconomic indicators. The BA demand estimation models (BA-DEM) are first developed in two forms (exponential and linear) in order to estimate energy demand based on population, gross domestic product, import and export data. Then, two scenarios are designed for forecasting each socioeconomic indicator in the years 2006-2030. Finally, these two scenarios are used to forecast energy demand up to year 2030 using demand estimation models. Energy consumption in Iran from 1981-2005 is considered as the case of this study. The available data is partly used for finding the optimal, or near optimal, values of the weighting parameters (1981-1999) and partly for testing the models (2000-2005). In order to show the accuracy of the BA, obtained results of BA-DEM models are compared with particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm demand estimation models which are developed for the same problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reviews the present energy status in Islamic Republic of Iran with an emphasis on utilization of environmentally friendly energy resources. The paper reveals the huge energy losses due to technological gaps and absence of relevant art of know-how in conventional energy industries. It also includes some critical issues effecting the efficient operation of Renewable Energy Converting Systems (RECS) having specific site and climate dependency. The environmentally friendly scaled energy balance presented in this paper is self explaining for energy policy makers to achieve a suitable scenario based on various positions of scale pointer which may alter depending on implementation level of advanced technologies and relevant art of know-how. The paper, besides being informative in achieving optimal energy prospects in Iran, also provides useful quid lines to energy planners not only at home but also in other Asian/Middle Eastern countries having similar alternative energy scenarios. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of this study is to perform a life cycle and energy flow assessments of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). These latter are modeled using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for integrated waste management system in Tehran Municipality, Iran. The initial data used in this study have been obtained from Waste Management Organization of Tehran Municipality, while the required data related to the background system were extracted from the EcoInvent 2.2 database. Based on the obtained results from the energy cycle analysis, energy consumptions for transportation and processing plus recycling were calculated as 227.02 and 155.95 Gigajoules (GJ), respectively for 8500 t MSW. This energy consumption has led to the production of 18,884.03 GJ energy output (recycled materials) with an energy ratio of 121.56. A high energy ratio demonstrated that recycling of municipal solid is a new gateway against energy challenges. By optimizing energy consumption, especially energy related to transportation, this ratio could increase more than before. The results obtained from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) indicate that transportation is considered the most important hot spot in the recycling of MSW while recycling papers is the main contributor to the redaction of environmental indicators in the recycling system. More intensity is observed for indicators related to toxicity due to the lack of waste disposal and to the entry of undesirable substances in natural resources. The 5-7-7-11 structure is the best topology to predict the amount of recycled materials and the impacts of environmental emissions from MSW recycling process developed by feed-forward back-propagation ANN models which are based on Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) training algorithm. Coefficient of determination values for train are in the ranges of 0.926–0.978 and have excellent performance in predicting all the output parameters based on the input parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relation among energy production, CO 2 emissions and economic growth of Iran with additional variables such as domestic and foreign investment, inflation, population density and agricultural land. Annual time series data is used for the period of 1971–2011 according to data availability. Our main results are as: (1) there is long run relationship among the variables. (2) CO 2 emissions has positive relation with economic growth. (3) energy production has positive effect on the economic growth of Iran. (4) Domestic investment has more contribution than the foreign investment in the explanation of economic growth. (5) Speed of adjustment shows that system will move to equilibrium path quickly. Diagnostic tests confirm the perfectness of the model. DOLS and FMOLS shows the similar results. Further, variance decomposition and cholseky impulse response function also show similar findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Çankırı Karatekin University Journal of the Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences is the property of Cankiri Karatekin University, Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An increasing amount of CO2 emissions from the household sector of Iran led us to analyze the inequality and understand the possible driving force behind the CO2 emissions. The study of inequality provides information to policy-makers to point policies in the right direction. By considering the differences in the socio-economic factors of provinces, the study aims to analyze the inequality in CO2 emissions and different kinds of energy consumption, including oil, gas and electricity, for the household sector of Iran's provinces between 2000 and 2017. For this aim, the Theil index and Kaya factor, as a simple and common method, were considered to evaluate the inequality in both CO2 emissions and energy consumption, and determine the driving factor behind CO2 emissions. According to the results, inequality in oil and natural gas consumption were increasing, electricity was almost constant; however, CO2 emissions experienced a decreasing trend for the study period. The Theil index changed from 0.4 to 0.65 for oil, from 0.18 to 0.22 for natural gas, from 0.17 to 0.15 for electricity, and from 0.2 to 0.14 for CO2 emissions between 2001 and 2017. In addition, the results of the inequality study indicated that most of the inequalities belong to within-group inequalities in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The results of the Kaya factor indicate that the second factor, energy efficiency, with a 0.21 value was the main driving factor of inequalities in CO2 emissions; however, the first factor, energy consumption, can be a potential factor for inequality in the following years, as it increased from 0.00 to 0.11 between 2001 and 2017. It seems that by removing the energy subsidy policy in 2010 and 2013, low-standard and energy-wasting old vehicles were the most effective factors of energy inefficiency in the household sector, which need more accurate policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic (PV) systems can be used to generate electricity due to the potential for solar energy in Iran. Applying floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems is a new approach to utilizing PV systems in water. Most of Iran's energy consumption is supplied from fossil fuels, especially oil and gas. In recent years, Iran has faced environmental problems and air pollution. Electricity generation using fossil fuels has led to increased environmental pollution. Accordingly, PV systems can be used to generate electricity due to the potential for solar energy in Iran. The interest in predicting the energy production of PV power plants has increased in recent years. In this regard, the techno–economic–environmental study of constructing PV power plants is a basic process to encourage people to use solar energy. A techno–economic–environmental feasibility study has been performed to construct a 5-kW FPV and ground PV (GPV) power plant in a northern city of Iran. Also, the FPV system is compared with the ground PV system using MATLAB® Simulink and RETScreen® software. In this study, the effects of wind and water temperature have been considered. Also, a sensitivity analysis was performed due to the uncertainty in climatic conditions and the amount of PV energy generation. The simulation results show that due to the cooling effect for panels in the FPV system, the production capacity and panels' efficiency are respectively 19.47% and 27.98% higher than the those of the GPV system. In addition, the FPV system was found to have a 16.96% increase in the annual performance ratio. Overall, using the FPV system reduces the equity payback to 6.3 years (a 22.2% reduction compared to the GPV power plant). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A modeling system was used to calculate the resource footprints (land, water, nutrients, energy, fuel, electricity, and carbon) on a large scale in agricultural production systems (Iran as a case study), and this report is an introduction of this modeling system for future studies. Under irrigated conditions, the highest land footprint was observed in pulses and oil grains (0.6 ha t−1). The lowest water footprints were found in silage corn (300 m3 t−1), and the highest water footprints were observed in oil grains (4525 m3 t−1). The highest footprints of nitrogen were observed in maize (31.7 kg t−1), wheat (30.9 kg t−1), and oil grains (30.4 kg t−1), and the lowest value belonged to production of sugar crops (2.6 kg t−1). Most of the energy, fuel, electricity, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were occurred under irrigated cropping systems compared with the rainfed systems. Under irrigated conditions, the highest footprints of energy, fuel, and electricity and GHG emissions occurred in the production of oil grains, and their values were 24397 MJ t−1, 161 L t−1, 1195 kWh t−1, and 1699 kg CO2eq. t−1, respectively. In general, wheat production in Iran has the highest cost in terms of resource use (water, elements, energy, and carbon) compared with the other plant products. Livestock and poultry products (especially red meat) also had the highest ecological footprint among the products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Manjil is located in north of Iran and is capable of harnessing wind energy for electricity purpose. There are about six different stations in that region which all of them have excellent record of wind speed in different months of the year. It is one of the best locations in the world for installing wind turbine and the utility department has invested a lot of money to establish wind farms in this region. Statistical analysis for six different installed stations show that it is one of the best locations in the world for establishing wind farms. In this paper, wind speed at different sites in Manjil has been analyzed and it shows that it has a great potential for harnessing wind energy. So far, there has been only 51 wind turbines installed in the area and there is a plan to increases that amount in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study examined the input energy, economic indices, and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in sunflower farm enterprises of Kermanshah province of Iran. Different mechanization production systems involving traditional, semi‐mechanized, and mechanized ones were statistically compared. Results revealed that mechanized farms consumed more total inputs energy, while possessed significantly higher yield and better economic indices. In which, the human labor, diesel fuel, and fertilizer were the most predominant inputs in GHG emissions. In particular, traditional, semi‐mechanized and mechanized farms emitted 358, 386, and 438 kg CO2/ha, respectively. Also, technical efficiencies were reported as 0.88, 0.86, and 0.96, for traditional, semi‐mechanized, and mechanized farms, respectively. The relationship among different variables including energy inputs, GHG emissions, output energy, and benefit to cost ratio was studied using econometric modeling. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and multi‐objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) were also applied to detect a set of Pareto frontiers in the combination of energy, environmental, and economic indices (energy consumption, GHG emissions, and benefit to cost ratio as three selected output parameters) for sunflower production. It has been observed that the capability of MOGA for energy saving was higher than DEA. Application results of DEA and MOGA combined algorithms showed that diesel fuel and water had the highest and lowest potential for total energy savings, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geothermal heat sources are promising renewable resources of energy. In this paper, a novel ammonia-water power cycle was designed considering the geothermal resources in Iran. This cycle was analyzed and the effects of ammonia fraction and boiler pressure on its performance were investigated. At the first, Sabalan geothermal field with temperature of 456K was studied. For this geothermal source, the effects of various ammonia fractions were perused in the boiler pressure of 25 bar. The results showed that the ammonia concentration of 0.855 led to the best performance. Also, investigating the boiler pressure at the constant concentration (0.855) indicated that the maximum efficiency happened at 35 bar. Based on genetic algorithm, the simultaneous effects of various concentrations and pressures on the performance of the ammonia-water cycle were surveyed and the optimum values were found for Sabalan source. So that, at the source temperature of 456K, the optimum concentration and pressure were obtained 0.85 and 36 bar, respectively. Finally, the optimum conditions for several geothermal source temperatures were presented within a table. Moreover, at the same sources, the presented optimized cycle was compared with other cycles in the literatures. The results indicated that the presented cycle at optimum conditions had higher efficiency. • Introducing an improved ammonia-water cycle in order to power generation by geothermal resource. • Energy and exergy analyses of the proposed cycle in details. • Optimizing ammonia concentration and boiler pressure in various temperatures of geothermal sources by genetic algorithm (GA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy state and environmental impacts of production systems are of main criteria to reach sustainability. In the present research, ostrich was compared with a broiler production system based on the criteria. The required data was gathered in Boukan Township, West Azerbaijan, Iran, by a questioner method. The total input energy in ostrich and broiler systems was calculated as 150,419.81 MJ (1 ton of bird year)−1 and 344,579.58 MJ (1 ton of bird year)−1, respectively. Diesel fuel and feed (41.39% and 36.95%, respectively) in broiler and electricity (45.87%) in the ostrich production system had the highest energy shares. Eleven impact categories were estimated by SimaPro software in the studied systems. Except for human toxicity, fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity, the amounts of other environmental impacts in the ostrich production system were lower than those of the poultry production system. The amount of global warming indicator for the production of 1 ton of broiler chicken was 17,400 kg CO2 eq year−1 that was equal to 4350 kg CO2 eq period−1. This value was obtained as 1.68 × 104 kg CO2 eq year−1 for the production of ostrich meat. In both production systems, feed was the main factor responsible for almost all studied environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The present study aimed to assess the usual distribution of energy and macronutrient intake among a large representative sample of Iranian healthy middle‐aged and elderly people. Methods: In this cross‐sectional study, a second follow‐up survey of the Isfahan Cohort Study (ICS) was carried out; 1922 people aged 40 years and older were investigated. Dietary intakes were collected using 24‐hour recall and two or more consecutive food records. Distribution of energy and macronutrient intake was estimated using traditional and National Cancer Institute (NCI) methods. Results: The mean usual intake of energy was 1749.2 kcal based on the NCI method. Carbohydrate constituted 59.98% and protein 17.42% of total energy intake. The mean contributions of total fat, saturated fatty acids (SFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) to energy intake were 25.74%, 9.5%, 4.92 and 7.75%, respectively. Approximately 7% of studied females aged 51–70 years met the recommended or higher levels for fibre. Females had significantly higher compliance of the recommended cholesterol level than males (age range of 40–70 years; P < 0.0001). Conclusions: It appears that Iranian middle‐aged and elderly people are advancing towards a high risk of obesity and non‐communicable chronic diseases. Nutritional interventions for improving the diet amongst this at‐risk population are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The final phase of the nuclear negotiations with Iran has coincided with a profound crisis in the EU-Russia relations. Due to the crisis in Ukraine, the uncertainty about European energy security has increased significantly. Against this background, Iran, with its vast natural gas resources, might become a new supplier to the European gas market. Consequently, the relations between the EU and Iran are becoming increasingly important. The main aim of this article is to analyse the relations between the EU and Iran in the energy sector through the concept of actorness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Middle Eastern Studies / Ortadoğu Etütleri is the property of Turkmen Cooperation & Cultural Foundation Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the present study, a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) with a typical geometry and a number of pressure levels used at combined cycle power plants (CCPPs) is modeled. In order to validate the model results, they are compared with data obtained from the actual running power plant located near the Caspian Sea in Iran. The results show a good agreement between the model results and the experimental data. Upon a comprehensive exergy analysis conducted for this HRSG, the results show that an increase in the high and low drum pressures results in an increase in the HRSG exergy efficiency, while an increase in the pinch temperature leads to a decrease in the HRSG exergy efficiency. Also, a fast and elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) with continuous and discrete variables is applied to obtain maximum exergy efficiency with minimum total annual cost per produced steam exergy as a two objective functions. The decision variables (or design parameters) are high and low drum pressures, steam mass flow rates, pinch point temperature differences, and the duct burner fuel consumption flow rate. The first objective function included capital or investment cost and operational cost and is minimized while satisfying a group of constraints, and HRSG exergy efficiency is maximized simultaneously. In addition, a regression analysis for curve fitting is conducted to correlate the data to determine the optimal points from the multi-objective optimization to predict the trend of each objective function. The results show that an increase in high pressure and low pressure drum pressure results in increasing HRSG exergy efficiency and also a smaller pinch temperature corresponding to a larger heat transfer surface area and more costly system, as well as higher exergy efficiency and lower operating cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar energy feeds all life on this planet's surface. The energy of the Sun can be tapped and converted to the different forms of energy by renewable energy systems, such as solar power plants, photovoltaic systems, and plants. Land is needed for food production, which is the most globally important activity. With increasing population, the required area is determined by consumption and production patterns. The world is globally divided into poor and rich areas of production and consumption, which have large differences. Iran's energy and food production and consumption are studied and compare with poor and rich examples. It is concluded that available agricultural land is limited and currently declining per capita due to population growth. The expansion of irrigated crop area, high-quality seed, and modern farming techniques can marginally improve agricultural productivity and provide relative self-sufficiency in grain production. Much of the growth in Iran's renewable energy is attributed to hydroelectricity power plants. Solar energy, wind, hydro and geothermal energy are also potential forms of sustainable energy in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]