Search

Introduction: Climate and ecosystem changes in coordination with other factors have challengedmany basic paradigms of natural resource management. The purpose of this research was to knowthe correlation between water, energy, and food in Varamin Plain by the method of the mentalmodel and the dynamics of water, energy, and food correlation under political scenarios.Material and Methods: Data and relationships related to the mental model were collectedthrough interviews with the farmers and managers of the region using the Mental Modelersoftware. Data related to the correlation dynamics model was also collected through organizations,regional stakeholders and authoritative articles. The WEF nexus model developed for the studyarea consists of interconnected relationships for modeling water, agriculture and energysubsystems and their interactions. The simulation model was built using Vensim software, and thesimulation period was considered a 20-year period. The equations in each subsystem were createdbased on the basic equations of the system dynamics approach and the causal loop diagrams ofeach subsystem using relationships and positive and negative feedbacks.Results and Discussion: The results of system dynamic modeling showed that the state of surface waterresources and water security of the plain will be 158 million cubic meters and -162 million cubic meters,respectively, during the period of 20 years, which shows the reduction of resources compared to theoriginal situation. The results of the model without applying the scenario showed that the volume of theVaramin Plain aquifer will decrease from 4000 million cubic meters to 2700 million cubic meters duringthe 20-year period. This shows that the policies of providing water resources, including the excessive useof wells, the development of urbanization and the creation of industries, as well as the lack of increase inthe productivity of agricultural water through modern irrigation methods, are the reasons for such aproblem. The application of scenarios for the allocation of the environmental needs of the Bandalikhanwetland showed that the plain will not have the ecological capacity to allocate water to the wetland, sothat in the next 20 years, the water security of the plain will decrease to 180 million cubic meters. Also,applying the scenario of increasing irrigation efficiency without increasing the cultivated area from 58%to 70% was effective in improving the reduction of agricultural water demand and increasing thecultivated area. The increase in cultivated area up to 41,600 hectares had a positive effect on agriculturalwater demand, but more than this amount caused the pressure on water resources to increase. Based onthe limitations of water resources and the reduction of water security in the Varamin Plain, the productionof the plain's products will also face a decrease. Due to its proximity to the city of Tehran, the VaraminPlain plays an important role in meeting the needs of the people of Tehran and the surrounding cities.Conclusion: Examining the results and comparing the data showed that during the 20-year period,Varamin Plain will have an unfavorable situation regarding water resources and food production.The management of the resources of Varamin Plain requires a change in organizational,agricultural and developmental approaches. The development of solar systems in order to meetthe energy needs, the establishment of the wastewater treatment plant in Varamin and thedevelopment of the treatment plant south of Tehran, as well as moving towards sustainablecompression is effective in creating the stability of the plains resources in order to properly exploitthe resources. On the other hand, increasing the irrigation efficiency without increasing thecultivation area can help in balancing the current situation so that with the implementation of thepolicies of the sixth development plan, the demand for agricultural water will be reduced to someextent and the pressure on the underground water resources will be reduced.

Introduction: Energy use in agriculture has grown faster than other sectors of the global economy. In developing countries, most agricultural systems consume significant amounts of energy to increase production and food security. Energy consumption leads to the emission of greenhouse gases and environmental pollutions in the agriculture sector. Besides, the use of fossil fuels in the production process and transfer of inputs emits greenhouse gases, which in turn cause global warming and climate change. Analyzing and good understanding of energy flow and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in agricultural production systems can help to optimize crop management practices thereby reducing environmental problems.Qazvin Plain is one of the most important agricultural plains in Iran, which along with the use of groundwater, has the largest irrigation canal network in the country. Differences in agricultural water supply sources can lead to differences in energy consumption and GHG emissions as electricity and other inputs may be affected. Alfalfa and maize silage are major forage crops in Qazvin Plain. Alfalfa and maize silage need a relatively high irrigation water requirement. This paper evaluates the energy flow and Global Warming Potential (GWP) of alfalfa and maize silage farms with two different water supply sources (well and canal) in Qazvin Plain.Material and methods: The data were collected through face-to-face interviews with farmers in the years 2018-2019. Energy indices were estimated based on the analysis of farm inputs and outputs. GWP was calculated using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method and SimaPro 8.2 software. GHGs were calculated using the conversion coefficients presented by the IPCC GWP 100 method. Results and discussion: The output energy values of maize silage and alfalfa were calculated as 232726, 191812 MJ ha-1 for well water irrigation system and 234167 and 248060 MJ ha-1 for the canal water irrigation, respectively. Results showed higher net energy values for alfalfa (176218 MJ ha-1) and maize silage (169192 MJ ha-1) in canal water irrigation system compared to well water irrigation (63115 MJ ha-1 and 132956 MJ ha-1 for alfalfa and maize silage, respectively) mainly because of the relatively lower input energy. The results showed that the highest and lowest values of input energy were related to alfalfa production with well water irrigation (128697 MJ ha-1) and maize silage with canal water irrigation (64975 MJ ha-1), respectively. Also, the energy use efficiency of maize silage (3.6) and alfalfa (3.4) were higher in canal water irrigation systems compared to well water irrigation systems (2.3 for maize silage and 1.49 for alfalfa). In the well water irrigation systems, GWP was calculated to be 7466.9 kg CO2-eq ha−1 and 7995.7 kg CO2-eq ha−1 for maize silage and alfalfa, respectively. These values were 5533.3 kg CO2-eq ha−1 and 4947.6 kg CO2-eq ha−1 for maize silage and alfalfa in the canal water irrigation systems, respectively. Electricity and direct emission showed the highest share of total energy consumption and GHG emission.Conclusion: Generally, our results showed that energy consumption and GWP were lower in the canal irrigation systems than well irrigation systems mainly as a result of electricity used for water pumping in well irrigation operations. It can be inferred from the present study that for efficient use of resources and decreasing environmental problems in the study area, practices such as optimal management of irrigation water, conservation tillage, and optimal management of chemical fertilizers can help to achieve these goals.

Introduction: Today, agricultural resource management is a fundamental task for managers and planners due to the need to address the challenging issues between the supply and demand sectors. Accordingly, many researchers have emphasized that water, food, and energy in the world are experiencing significant stress and scarcity, and demand for these resources will increase significantly in the coming decades. The main purpose of this study is to provide a method for decision-makers in analyzing the link between water, energy, and food in the crop production system at the regional level and to perform a quantitative evaluation of it, which can be used to create a suitable and optimal cultivation pattern with pay attention to the available resources of the area.Material and methods: The present study was conducted to evaluate the water-food-energy relations of agricultural products in Dehgolan County. The required data were collected through face-to-face interviews with farmers and agricultural jihad statistics. The method of this paper was based on six indicators of water and energy consumption, mass productivity of water and energy, and economic productivity of water and energy. Based on these indicators, a water-food-energy index (WFENI) was calculated for each product. This method was applied to evaluate 7 main crops of wheat, potato, alfalfa, cucumber, barley, carrot, and rapeseed in water farms of Dehgolan County in the years 2019-2020.Results and discussion: The results of data analysis showed that alfalfa and potatoes had the highest water consumption (13131 cubic meters per hectare) and energy (85404 megajoules per hectare), respectively. Barley had the lowest water consumption (4197 cubic meters per hectare) and energy consumption (31394.4 megajoules per hectare). The use of chemical fertilizers had the largest share in the energy sector (except alfalfa). In the alfalfa crop, due to high mechanization operations, machinery had the largest share of energy consumption. Carrot was the most productive in water consumption (7.08 kg/m3) and energy (1.03 kg/mJ). Also, the lowest water and energy efficiency for canola (0.44 kg/m3) and energy (0.06 kg/MJ) were obtained. In the economic index of water and energy productivity, the highest values were obtained for cucumber (92959 Rials per cubic meter) and carrot (13202 Rials per megajoule), respectively. The lowest economic efficiency of water and energy was calculated 1549 Rials per cubic meter for carrots and 10688 Rials per megajoule for canola. This study showed that the WEFNI was calculated 0.86, 0.73, 0.51, 0.41, 4 / 0, 0.3, and 0.26 for carrot, cucumber, potato, wheat, barley, canola, and alfalfa crops , respectively, in Dehgolan city. Carrots received the highest WFENI score (best score) and alfalfa the lowest (worst score). Although potato, which is one of the water crops with a high level of cultivation in the region, had high water and energy consumption, due to its high physical productivity and economic productivity, it obtained the third score of the total index.Conclusion: In this study, agricultural products were compared based on indicators of water and energy consumption, physical productivity of water and energy, and economic productivity of water and energy. Based on these indicators, the water, food, and energy link index were calculated. The results can also be used as an effective tool to determine appropriate strategies for cultivation patterns, management of water and energy resources in the region, and a basis for planning and agricultural policies in the county.

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) based on Local Field Potential (LFP) has recently been developed to restore communication or behavioral functions. LFP provides comprehensive information, due to its stability, robustness, and reach frequency content within the cognitive process. It has been demonstrated that spatial attention can be decoded from brain activity in the visual cortical areas. However, whether motion direction can be decoded from the LFP signal in the primate visual cortex remains uninvestigated, as well as how decoding performance may be influenced by spatial attention. In this paper, these issues were examined by recording LFP from the middle temporal area (MT) of macaque, employing machine learning algorithms. The animal was trained to report a brief direction change in a target stimulus which moved in various directions during a visual attention task. It was found that the LFP-gamma power was able to provide significant information to reliably decode motion direction, compared with other frequency bands, on a single-trial basis. Moreover, the results show that spatial attention leads to enhancements in motion direction discrimination performance. The highest decoding performance was achieved in the high-gamma frequencies (60–120Hz) when targets were presented inside the receptive field in opposite directions. Using a feature selection approach, performance was improved by optimally selecting features where the highest level of participation was observed in the gamma-band. Generally, the results suggest that in the MT area, LFP signals exhibit appreciable information about visual features like motion direction, which could thus be utilized as a control signal for cognitive BCI systems.

The market structure of the sugar industry in Iran, due to the production of high share of products by a few firms, has moved away from competitive market conditions, which is expected to result in market failure due to the inefficiency of monopoly. So the main questions addressed in this paper are; How we can increase the share of low-income firms and what is the relationship between the efficiency of firms and the market structure of this industry. In order to answer these questions, using the cross-efficiency ranking method, the maximum relative distance from the anti-ideal virtual decision-making unit based on the data envelopment analysis method and the efficiency of these companies was evaluated. Then, using parametric models, the relationships among behavior, profitability, efficiency and market structure of these firms were examined. Statistics and information of sugar factories in Iran in 2014 were analyzed using GAMS and SHAZAM softwares. Based on the results, there is an interaction relationship between structure and performance in the industries in sugar supply chain. Increasing the profitability of small-scale units compared to large units by implementing supportive policies and reducing the cost of providing inputs, increasing the efficiency and quality of sugar production through investment in R&D, branding, developing new markets by implementing export incentive policies and productivity management cycle are ways to modify the structure of the sugar supply chain.

Introduction: Considering the high transportation costs of sugar market (produced by sugar beet), the logistic management of its supply chain is of particular importance, which can reduce costs as well as air pollutants, and help with locating facilities, on-time delivery of services and customer satisfaction. Up until now, few studies have been conducted on the optimization of the distribution network of agricultural products in the supply chain, taking into account the economic and environmental impacts. Therefore, the present study aimed to optimize the sugar beet’s distribution network from production areas to refineries in Iran’s sugar supply chain and determine its economic and environmental impacts. In this study, in addition to comparing transport costs in the current and optimal distribution situation, changes in fuel consumption per shift in sugar beet’s distribution, reduced emissions due to the reform of the transportation network and its economic benefits in the country were also evaluated. Material and methods: The present study was carried out using data obtained from Iran's statistics center in 2014 for 10 provinces producing sugar beet’s sugar, including Western Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, Khuzestan, Fars, Yasuj, Lorestan, Semnan, Qazvin, Khorasan Razavi, and northern Khorasan and 24 demand centers. This study used a linear programming model to consider the simple transport model to analyze the data using GAMS software. Results and discussion: The implementation results of optimal transportation plan showed that the implementation of the proposed program decreased the costs of about 4.5 billion USD, equivalent to 3.84%. Also, the implementation results of the optimal transportation plan considering the environmental impacts indicated two million and 177 thousand liters reduction of gasoline and 5.7 billion rials increase in environmental benefits. Conclusion: It can be concluded that implementing an optimal transportation plan may reduce transportation costs as well as environmental pollution. Therefore, implementation of an optimal plan resulted in the reduction of transportation costs and consequently, on the final price of sugar. Based on results, it is suggested that, during transportation planning in the sugar supply chain, the proposed model in this study should be used for sugar beet transport.

With the widening of the gap in water supply and demand in recent years and the schemes of the Ministry of Energy to restore and balance underground tables, the agricultural sector is projected to be under increasing pressure due to the rationing programs and the allocation of water resources to other sectors with higher economic efficiency in water use. We explored the economic impacts of non-pricing policy of limiting water supply and the policies of water pricing, taxing, and subsidization as per each m3 water use over or below the average gross requirement of the planting pattern on the components of the agricultural sector in Qazvin Province using the data and statistics for the 2013-2014 growing season and the expansion of positive mathematical programming model with the maximum entropy approach. The results showed that the non-pricing policy of 50% limitation of water supply would have the highest economic return per m3 water use. It is estimated to be 0.23$. The highest reduction of chemical fertilizer use would be accomplished in the scenario of 50% limitation of water availability and the integrated scenario of 30% water availability limitation + 50% higher price for water. According to the comparison of employment per unit area vis-à-vis the reference year under different scenarios, the scenario of 50% limitation of water supply (20% increase per ha versus the reference year) would be the best for employment creation followed by the integrated scenario of 30% limitation of water availability. Since the non-pricing policy of limiting water availability would be more effective than the pricing policies in improving water use status and changing planting pattern, it is recommended to apply a combination of these policies in the studied region.

Safflower (Carthamustinctorius L.) is one of the oldest domesticated crops, mainly grown as an oilseed in the arid and semiarid regions of the world. This study was conducted to investigate the Cardinal temperatures and to identify the effects of occurrence of drought stress in maternal environment on seed germination aspects of some Carthamus species according to a completely randomized design in 2014. To accomplish this, seeds of 13 genotypes from C. tinctorius, C. palaestinus, C. oxyacanthus, C. glaucus and C. lanatus were used which had been harvested from plants grown at normal and drought stress conditions. Seeds were subjected to 9 fixed temperatures (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 and 45°C) for germination in the growth chamber according to a factorial experiment. Results showed that the effects of genotype, species, temperature, pretreatment drought stress and some of their interactions were significant for certain germination characteristics at 0.05% probability level. Significant reductions occurred in the germination rate of seeds at temperatures below 10°C and above 30°C. Although there were significant differences in percent of seed germination among species, seeds harvested from drought stressed plants were not significantly different from the ones harvested from non-stressed plants in terms of cardinal temperatures. Hence, it is more likely that cardinal temperatures will not cause difficulties in the case of inter-specific breeding programs for drought tolerant safflower cultivar development.

Introduction: Liner is one of the most important components of waste landfills, which its main function is to limit the penetration of leachate caused by the waste from landfill base. Since the cost of a lining system is a significant part of landfill’s total cost, therefore, it is necessary to design the compacted clay liner with environmental and economic considerations in the same way, which requires identification of factors affecting the construction cost of clay liner. Materials and methods: For this purpose, using the performance-based approach, the factors affecting the technical design and hydraulic performance of clay liners in preventing leachate leakage, four variables include of trench height, trench lifespan, land price and distance from the soil loanl, have been identified as the variables affecting the cost of clay liner construction. Using the HYDRUS one-dimensional model, the appropriate liner thickness was determined in the scenarios of 30, 60,180,360,720 and 1080 days for the trench lifespan. Then by defining design scenarios based on the effective variables, the cost of different parts is estimated. Results and discussion: Investigating the cost variations shows that increasing the height of the trench in different parts leads to lower costs of construction.While changes in the cost of liner construction over the lifespan of the trench first had a downward trend and then incremental pattern.The variations in total cost is affected by land cost variations and indicates the importance of land prices in assessing the overall costs of constructing the liner. Also an increase in the distance from the loan increases the cost of liner construction significantly, and if the suitable soil for lining to be located more than 100 km from the site, then the use of Geosynthetic clay liners is more cost-effective. The trench life time as a variable with less design constraint, can be considered depending on the cost of other parts. Conclution: Investigating costs in different parts of compacted clay liner construction shows the necessity of economic modeling and creation of cost functions for optimal design of compacted clay liners in every area.

Background and Objectives: Long-time erexposure to ultraviolet radiations can lead to various skin and ocular diseases. UV-blocking contact lenses due to their properties against ultraviolet radiations can protect eyes. The present study aimed to compare between ultraviolet and visible light rays transmission through soft contact lenses available in Iran. Methods:In this cross-sectional study, 6 types of contact lenses (Avaira,Biofinity,Acuvue 2, AcuvueOasys, Ultra Wave, and Specialy S55) were purchased from reputable companies of the country, and were evaluated in terms of transmission of ultraviolet and visible light according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration of (FDA) criteria. To test the samples, a calibrated spectral transmittance-meter was used, which had the ability of evaluation of samples at wavelengths of ultraviolet type B, type A, and visible light. The data were analyzed by ANOVA and post hoc Tukey tests. The significance level was considered to be p≥0.05. Results:In this study, none of the lenses were eligible for blocking UV radiation. Among the UV-blocking soft lenses, the AcuvueOasys had the best performance, with a transmittance of less than 4% of UV-B and less than 45% of UV-A. All of the lenses decreased the transmittance of visible light about 4%. Conclusion:Considering that all of the studied contact lenses can protect eyes against UV radiation compared to other lenses, but for protection against harmful sunlight, standard sunglasses and an appropriate hat should be used together with even the best UV-blocking contact lenses.

Background and Aim: Wearing spectacles is the most common procedure for correction of refractive error and because of its close relationship with eye; the standards of frame & lens of glasses play a very important role in preventing vision problems. The purpose of this study was to compare spherical & cylindrical power and prismatic effect of plastic ophthalmic lenses with Iranian national standards.Material & Method: In this Cross sectional-Comparative study 48 plastic ophthalmic single vision lenses were inspected & compared with relative national standards i.e.: ISIRI 8715-1:1385.Results: The spherical power factor with instruments set as step 0.01, all the cases(-1.00,-3.00,-6.00) were in tolerance with limits of the standards (±0.12 D) .The instrument was set for 0.01 step for cylindrical power, at -6.00 D 100% of lenses had no cylindrical power. At -3.00 & -1.00 D about 99% were in tolerance with the standards (±0.09 D).The effect of horizontal & vertical prism, at the power of -6.00 all lenses show prismatic effect but 99% were in tolerance with the standards (±0.85D). At the power of -3.00 & -1.00 D, prismatic effect of lenses were in tolerance with relative standards (±0.55, ±0.35), respectively. Conclusion: All single vision were collected from famous companies showed the quality of passing all factors of tests & gained Iranian national standards i.e.: ISIRI 8715-1:1385.

Primitive human being because of the lack of knowledge about phenomena believed in the belief and ritual system with the purpose of keeping his worldly economic life. The priority of belief to existence was the nature of this belief system (mythical ideology) in which the existence of human being and observing his rights was subject to governing belief system. Religions were coincident to the time of human social life, when he came to understand causation rule and to know that his economic life was not related to will of the various Gods and the aim of religions is not to govern the world but to develope human being. Religions accepted the governing of wisdom for managing of society. To understand the real causes of phenomena instead of spirits and Gods, caused human freedom and his control of his destiny and paved the way for the priority of existence to belief. In fact, for this reason and also for superior position of morality in religions, religions must be regard as a supporter of human rights. انسان ابتدایی به علت عدم شناخت پدیدارها معتقد به نظام اعتقادی و مناسکی بود که هدف از رعایت آن حفظ نظام دنیوی و معیشتی بود. تقدم عقیده بر وجود جوهر این نظام اعتقادی (جهان‌بینی اسطوره‌ای) بود که درآن وجود فرد و رعایت حقوق او تابعی از نظام اعتقادی حاکم است. ادیان مصادف با زمانی از زندگی اجتماعی انسان است که او به درک قانون علیت نایل شد و فهمید که زندگی اقتصادی او تابع اراده خدایان متعدد نیست و اساس و غایت دین، نه اداره دنیا بلکه انسان‌سازی است. ادیان در اداره جامعه قائل به حاکمیت عقل شدند. درک علت پدیدارها و عدم انتساب آن به روح‌ها و خدایان متعدد، آزادی انسان و حاکمیت او را بر سرنوشت خود موجب شد و زمینه تقدم وجود بر عقیده را فراهم نمود. بدین علت و هم به علت حاکمیت اخلاق در ادیان به درستی باید ادیان را حامی حقوق انسان دانست.

The daily fine is one of the new alternatives to imprisonment stipulated in the Islamic Penal Code 92, the amount of which is determined by the court according to the severity and importance of the crime on the one hand and the amount of daily income of the offender on the other. Anticipating daily fines and considering the convicted person's financial situation is a new step towards individualizing punishments. Although this system has been criticized, it is one of the positive aspects of today's criminal policy. However, the more effective and practical implementation of this system depends to a large extent on the actual income of the convicts. For this alternative to work well, the courts must have the right way to measure the income of convicts. On the other hand, due to the increase in the workload of the courts due to the review of the financial situation of the convicts, along with the consideration of the criminal case and the delay of the trial, most judges are not interested in it. Therefore, in order to properly use the capacity of this alternative and make it more efficient, it is necessary for the legislator to provide the judge with a specific mechanism for identifying the income of convicts and to determine the duties of executive bodies that have any knowledge of income and rights of convicts. The need to be obliged to cooperate. However, the research findings indicate that this alternative is applicable first to people who have the minimum income and financial ability to pay a fine. Therefore, for the disabled and without a specific income, another suitable alternative must be determined. Second, if the amount of the fine is determined in proportion to the income of individuals, due to the unfavorable economic situation, most of the convicts can be successful.