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PurposeThis study aims to investigate the role of social capital in Iranian agricultural students' acquisition of generic skills. For this purpose, the effect of various social capital dimensions on students' generic skills development was examined.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted among 190 third- and fourth-year undergraduate students in one of the colleges of agriculture and natural resources in Iran. The partial least square method was used to examine the relationships among various social capital dimensions (i.e. social values, social trust, social networks, social cohesion, social participation, social communications and information sharing) with students' generic skills.FindingsThe findings showed that social networks and social participation are effective factors in the generic skills development of students. A model designed for the development of students' generic skills based on their social capital level predicted up to 33% of generic skills' variances. Furthermore, the multi-group analysis showed that males and females vary on how various social capital dimensions affect their generic skills. In this respect, the social participation dimension had a significantly greater impact on female students' generic skills, whereas the generic skills of male students were influenced more by the social cohesion dimension.Practical implicationsDeveloping generic skills through social capital can be considered as an effective strategy in countries that do not have formal programs for developing students' generic skills. Additionally, higher education policymakers should present a more supportive approach for developing generic skills of female students through social participation in the campuses.Originality/valueSo far, no study has examined the relationships among various social capital dimensions and students' generic skills in Iran. The picture is even more unclear when it comes to the differences between male and female students. The results of this study confirmed the importance of social networks and social participation in the universities to support students and to improve their generic skills and, consequently, their employability competencies. Furthermore, it could be inferred that male and female students have similarities and also differences in terms of the effect of social capital on developing generic skills that can provide a path for future studies.

In a glance, more than three billion people live in the rural areas of low and middle income countries. In most cases, rural households have many unmet energy needs including cooking, lighting, heating, transportation and telecommunication needs. The main goal of this study is Implementing Conceptual Model Using Renewable Energies in Rural Area of Iran. In this study, the Weibull and Angestrom distribution methods were used to assess the potential of wind and solar energy range in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province of Iran (The Case study). After determining the values calculated based on meteorological stations' data, the IDW interpolation method in GIS software was used for the entire geographic range of the province. After reviewing multiple regions and identifying potential classes, a village which has the potential to be enough sun and wind energy was selected (Kahkesh village) and then a field survey based on biomass resources was accomplished. The needs of rural residents and rural renewable energy potential was evaluated by study conceptual frameworks during one year. By dividing the value of frameworks energies the amount of energy saving can be calculated. Finally, it recommended that for utilizing the renewable energies in rural areas, as will be discussed in the present work and particularly using the conceptual frameworks, is performed.

This study was designed to investigate changes in farming and to look at how farmers adapt to diverse changes in and around their farms in the province of Esfahan, Iran. It is part of a larger project aimed at developing a job competency profile for agricultural extension instructors (AEIs). One hundred and two farmers who had previously followed extension courses in the province of Esfahan were interviewed. The findings demonstrate that a large number of farmers in the target group who are older, married, have low education levels, are smallholders and lack adequate job diversity on their farms. The study revealed that these farmers have experienced sluggish internal and external agricultural change, and they are generally more positive about internal changes than external ones. Respondents designated 'extension courses', 'individual farm visits by official extension agents' and 'trial and error', respectively as their three main learning strategies (LS) to help them adapt to the various changes. The results also indicate that older and more poorly educated farmers have more problems in adopting different LS.

We consider a problem of supplying electricity to a set of $\mathcal{N}$ customers in a smart-grid framework. Each customer requires a certain amount of electrical energy which has to be supplied during the time interval $[0,1]$. We assume that each demand has to be supplied without interruption, with possible duration between $\ell$ and $r$, which are given system parameters ($\ell\le r$). At each moment of time, the power of the grid is the sum of all the consumption rates for the demands being supplied at that moment. Our goal is to find an assignment that minimizes the {\it power peak} - maximal power over $[0,1]$ - while satisfying all the demands. To do this first we find the lower bound of optimal power peak. We show that the problem depends on whether or not the pair $\ell, r$ belongs to a "good" region $\mathcal{G}$. If it does - then an optimal assignment almost perfectly "fills" the rectangle $time \times power = [0,1] \times [0, A]$ with $A$ being the sum of all the energy demands - thus achieving an optimal power peak $A$. Conversely, if $\ell, r$ do not belong to $\mathcal{G}$, we identify the lower bound $\bar{A} >A$ on the optimal value of power peak and introduce a simple linear time algorithm that almost perfectly arranges all the demands in a rectangle $[0, A /\bar{A}] \times [0, \bar{A}]$ and show that it is asymptotically optimal.

Mobile IP is used to manage the mobility of the Internet mobile users, and to keep their connectivity while they move from place to place. The security of mobile IP considering can be divided into two aspects, first in registration process, second, when connected parties exchange data with each other. In this article, after a brief study on the existing approaches used for securing mobile IP connections and after pointing to their problems, a new method will be introduced. This method is based on using IPsec security mechanism in conjunction with MOBIKE protocol. It will be pointed out that by using this proposed approach, the security of mobile IP connections will be achieved with respect to both two mentioned aspects. And also it is shown that most of the problems of existing approaches are eliminated in this method.

IPsec security mechanism standard offers Internet key exchange protocol (IKEv2) for establishing and managing its secure sessions. In IKEv2 both two participants perform the same amount of calculations in all cases and this would cause some deficiencies, when it is used in different situations with different properties. For example in most of client-server connections it is more preferable for servers to do fewer operations in comparison with clients. In the other side in some connections, initiators are entities with less power of computing when comparing with responders. Mobile users are examples of such entities. In these connections, the initiators are the entities who need to perform fewer operations. To solve this problem, we propose two protocols with asymmetric schemes for distribution the calculations. In proposed protocols, one of the participants performs fewer computations, depending on the properties of connections. To achieve this asymmetric scheme, Schnorr signature scheme is used by the entity needs to perform fewer computations.

New version of Internet key exchange protocol (IKEv2) is introduced in this article. Despite of its several advantages, it suffers from some deficiencies when applying in client-server environments. The main problem is regarded to its inefficient method for resisting against DoS attacks. A new protocol is proposed in this article, in which besides keeping maximum fidelity to IKEv2 framework, new necessary features are added. More resistance against DoS attacks without forcing extra delays, and identity protection of initiators (clients) against active attackers are the advantage of using this protocol. Also asymmetric distribution of calculations scheme, introduced in this protocol, makes it unique, while comparing with other protocols.

This study is part of a bigger project aimed at designing a competency profile for agricultural extension instructors (AEIs). The present study was designed to investigate farmers’ perceptions of the kinds of support that the Agricultural Extension Services (AES) organization in Iran has provided so far, and of the kinds of support that should be provided by AES in the future. 102 farmers, who had already attended AES extension courses, were selected from 17 townships in the province of Esfahan. The farmers completed a questionnaire during a personal interview. The two most-used information sources by farmers to get informed about AES programs were governmental extension agents and their own experiences. The farmers claimed that AES has already supported them to some extent in the past but has focused on animal husbandry and veterinary, agricultural inputs and enhancement of the fertility and size of the farms. For the future, they expressed the need for greater support from AES, most importantly in relation to making an agricultural career more satisfactory for them and to reducing the risk, labor and severity of farming. The farmers were especially positive about the short-term extension courses offered in different disciplines over the last ten years and they regarded these programs as useful.

Since 1954, various informal training programs for farmers have been implemented to support them in several aspects of their life and careers in Iran. This study aimed at assessing the results of informal technical and vocational training programs (ITVTP) in the field of agriculture on the employment status of farmers in the province of Isfahan in Iran. A number of 330 farmers (equally divided over an experimental and a control group) were selected from 19 townships of the province mentioned to be interviewed. Structured questionnaires were completed during the interviews. The results show the education level of the majority of farmers in both groups is low; most of them are married, smallholder and more than 40 years of age. Statistical analysis showed there is a positive relationship between ITVTP (as an independent variable) and different aspects of the lives and careers of farmers (as dependent variables), such as job stability, job satisfaction and motivation, income generation, investments in the agriculture sector, information and competence, the employment of families, and production capacity of farmers. The findings underline the importance and supporting role of ITVTP for many factors relating farming.