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The management of large-scale water resources systems requires including of different stakeholders and users from municipal, agricultural, industrial and environmental sectors. This has baffled the process of decision making for integrated water resource systems. In such systems, the interactions between various stakeholders must be carefully taken into account with the goal of aggregating interests around the sustainability concept. In this study, first, the integrated water resources systems of Big Karun Watershed, Iran, have been modeled using the system dynamics approach. The system dynamics model represents the interactions between different components of the system, including water transfer projects, dams, urban, industry, agriculture and fish farming, and environmental demands. Vensim software has been used for the system dynamics modeling. Vensim simulates the dynamics behavior of the sub-systems and overall performance of the system by comparing the current operation policies with the future management scenarios. A wide range of performance indices, such as quantitative and qualitative water stress, income, cost, and productivity, have been used here to represent different aspects of sustainability goals. Finally, the performance of the systems has been evaluated by developing a sustainability index using distributed zoning model in order to identify proper management policies for this watershed. The results indicate that downstream users demand cannot be fully met by solely considering inter-basin water transfer and agricultural development projects. The sustainable and integrated management of the whole system ties into enhancement in both infrastructure systems and the operation of the whole system. It is expected that the sustainability of the basin improves if a water market schema exists and the gained money would be used to enhance the efficiency of existing irrigation networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decreasing flood damages in a basin and achieving sustainable development reveal the necessity of integrated management of flood. Integrated flood management requires the co-implementation of both structural and non-structural flood mitigation strategies. Watershed management, building dams and levees, and increasing channel capacity are considered among structural measures. While, flood forecasting, developing flood early warning systems, and establishing reservoir operation rules can fall into the non-structural measures group. The main goal of this study is to reveal the importance of co-implementation of structural and non-structural measures for managing the flood in the whole system. Structural measures are divided here into two main groups (1) dams and (2) watershed management, and non-structural measures focus more on reoperation of the system of reservoirs. The system dynamics (SD) approach has been used to model the integration of a series of structural and non-structural flood control measures for the Karkheh Basin, Iran. The performance of the developed model is evaluated based on historical floods, including the recent 2019 flooding event in this basin, and the performance of flood mitigation strategies is evaluated facing these flood events. Results indicate that both structural and non-structural solutions should be considered in flood management portfolios simultaneously, and none solely can be the silver bullet. The magnitude of a 200-year flood can be reduced from 7956 to 3021 m3/s, if integrated structural and non-structural strategies would be considered in Karkheh Basin. This study identifies the key role of structural and non-structural measures for integrated flood management in Karkheh Basin, which and provides effective information for appropriate and timely operation and decision making in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Periodontal disease has a multifactorial etiology. A combination of microbial agents and environmental, habitual, systemic, and genetic risk factors is responsible for the development of periodontal disease. Host immune response causes the destruction of tooth-supporting structure and eventual tooth loss. This study aimed to assess the correlation of interleukin 6 (IL-6) -174-GC and IL-6-572-GC gene polymorphisms with periodontal disease in an Iranian population. Materials and Methods: This case-control analytical study was conducted on 129 subjects presenting to the laboratory of Taleghani Hospital. Subjects underwent clinical and periodontal examinations and divided into five groups of healthy, gingivitis and mild, moderate and severe periodontitis. Blood samples (2 ml) were obtained. Genomic DNA was extracted manually using the salting-out method. IL-6 sequence amplification was performed using polymerase chain reaction with three thermal protocols. Digested products were analyzed by electrophoresis through 2% agarose gel using Gel Red staining. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney tests, and P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The frequency of GG polymorphism at IL-6-174 and IL-6-572 genomic regions was 51.2% and 71.3%, respectively. The frequency of IL-6-572-GG polymorphism was significantly greater than that of IL-6-572-GC polymorphism (P< 0.001). Comparison of the mean and maximum pocket depth and clinical attachment level, as well as bleeding on probing percentage, revealed significant differences between the healthy controls and periodontitis patients (P < 0.001 ).The frequency percentages of GC and GG polymorphisms were almost equal in the healthy, gingivitis, and periodontitis groups. In other words, the frequency of the two polymorphisms was not significantly different between the health and disease states (P = 0.065 for IL-6-572 and P = 0.63 for IL-6-174). Conclusion: This study found no association between IL-6-l74 and IL-6-572 gene polymorphisms and periodontitis in the studied population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]