Search

Objective The introduction of facilities, capabilities, attractions, and various tourism conveniences of the country is regarded as a crucial measure in the development of tourism industry in Iran. It is also recommended to persuade, encourage, and convince domestic and foreign audiences to visit these attractions. Hence, the use of the Internet, as a primary source of tourist destination information, is growing increasingly. Investigating the factors affecting place branding in social networks (tourism) can have a significant impact on the exchange of information and experiences about traveling to different regions and tourists' intention to choose Iran as a tourism destination. This will help formulate appropriate strategies to create a promising mental image for the tourists. As a result, it can lead to a greater number of tourists to Iran, job creation, and destination development. This research aims to answer the following question: What factors affect the branding of places in the social network Instagram? Methodology The present quantitative study is exploratory in nature because it intends to find the factors affecting place branding in the Instagram. In this study, the Instagram pages of three domestic tourism destinations and four foreign tourism destinations were examined. Then, 912 Instagram posts were examined on these target pages during in a one-year span. Data analysis and data mining were performed using IBM SPSS Modeler software using the two methods of linear support vector machine and neural network. Findings Several effective factors were considered as inputs, such as post type, post content, caption type, caption language, the number of tags, number of hashtags, hashtag language, and the date of the post. Besides, the following factors were considered as outputs: the number of likes and comments (indicating the level of brand awareness, which means the main factor in the development of the place brand). It was found that the higher number of likes and comments is associated with the greater place brand awareness and more prevalence of the city's tourism brand. Conclusion The subject of the research, which has a comparative approach in the study of international, Middle East, and domestic levels; and the aim of the research was to compare the famous international tourism Instagram pages (London and Paris), in the Middle East (Dubai and Turkey)and also the domestic pages. It was concluded that the posts that were shared in September, July, March, and May have received more likes and greater brand awareness on domestic Instagram pages (Isfahan, Kerman, Tehran). Moreover, sharing posts in December, January, and July will trigger more comments on Instagram. In addition, it can be said that using appropriate captions for the places and events, emotional captions, and question-form captions have only led to receiving more likes and brand awareness. Furthermore, sharing different images of cultural attractions, urban attractions, entertainments, as well as restaurants and coffee shops cause more likes and comments and may increase brand awareness. In addition, sharing posts on Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesdays will cause more likes and increase brand awareness. Finally, sharing a post as a photo leads to more comments and thus increases brand awareness.

Currently, biodiversity in the Zagros region faces two serious threats including land use changes and unstable harvesting. These factors both alone and in combination, can lead to severe and irreversible damage to the forests. Therefore, the restoration, reconstruction, protection and sustainable management of forest ecosystems in the Zagros vegetation area has always been the main(basic) concern of activists and officials in this basin. Therefore, the present study was conducted to explain the criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management in Zagros vegetation area from the point of view of experts, using content analysis technique. The research data were collected through semi-structured interviews. People involved in research includes specialists, manager scientific and executive experts and experts related to Zagros forests.For data analysis, MAXqda12 software was used. The research findings indicate that among the most important criteria identified for sustainable management of forests in the Zagros vegetation from the point of view of experts are the criteria of forest size and production capacity, conservation functions, ecosystem conditions, conservation criteria biodiversity, economic criteria. Social criteria, criteria of laws and structures and educational and extension criteria. It should be noted that for each of the relevant criteria, the indicators corresponding to that criterion were also identified (8 criteria and 18 indicators). Our findings indicate that, the most important indicators for sustainable management in the Zagros vegetation region are the indicators of law-making and total forest area belonging to the criteria of laws and organization and to the criteria of ecosystem conditions, respectively. The results of this study can be used in line with principled policies in the forest resources of the Zagros Basin and for planning, decision making and success in this field.

This research has been done with the aim of designing a sustainable livelihood model with the cooperative village approach using the grounded theory method. The present study is a qualitative research. The study sample includes 30 experts, managers and experts in the field of cooperation throughout the country who were purposefully selected. Field observations and in-depth interviews in the form of focus groups were used to collect data. The results were extracted from the research data in the coding process (open, axial and selective) in the form of concepts, subcategories and categories using MAXqda12 software. The paradigm model includes conditions (causal, contextual, and intervening), strategy, and outcome. Research findings indicate that climate vulnerability, social vulnerability and economic vulnerability were identified as causal conditions; trends, government support and infrastructure strengthening were identified as background conditions; and financing, market development, market control, and government support as intervening conditions affecting the creation of sustainable livelihoods with the rural cooperative approach. The results show that coping strategies and compromise strategies as strategies for achieving sustainable livelihoods have consequences such as cooperatives, sustainable development, productivity, employment, strengthening social capital and smart agriculture.

Introduction: Agriculture and horticulture have always been risky occupations, and the development of mechanization, despite reducing the difficulties of agricultural activities and increasing production, has caused numerous occupational injuries for farmers and gardeners. Therefore, this study aimed to prioritize and analyze the effective factors on gardenerschr('39') occupational health in Ilam, Iran. Materials & Methods: This applied research was conducted quantitatively based on a causal relationship method. The statistical population of the study consisted of all gardeners in Ilam province (n=6711). The sample size was determined at 405 people using the sampling table of Bartlett et al. and stratified random sampling method. Ethics code:IR.MEDILAM.REC.1399.274 Findings: According to the results of factor analysis, the components affecting the gardenerschr('39') occupational health included supportive, economic, environmental and occupational, personal, professional, and educational factors. Path analysis findings using AMOS vol.23 software also showed that supportive factors had the greatest impact on gardenerschr('39') occupational health, followed by economic, environmental and occupational, personal, professional, and educational factors. Discussions & Conclusions: Considering the findings of the present study and the effect of supportive factors on gardenerschr('39') occupational health as the most priority factor, it can be concluded that the occupational injuries of gardeners can be significantly reduced by increasing government support through providing financial incentives, subsidies, as well as long-term and low-interest facilities to develop and increase the health and safety of gardens and greenhouses.

This research has been done with the aim of designing a sustainable living model with a cooperative village approach. The present study is a quantitative research of the correlation method. The research is the effect of livelihood capital on the sustainable livelihood of members of cooperative companies in the cooperative village plan. The research statistical population includes 198 managers of cooperatives under the auspices of the cooperative village who were selected by proportional assignment sampling. As data input was used in this research. The content and face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts. Using the pilot study and calculating the Cronbach's alpha coefficient, its reliability was ensured. Findings from path coefficients showed that the variables of financial capital (.419), physical capital (.402), social capital (.314), human capital (.256) and natural capital (.222), respectively. The most effective variables on sustainable livelihood are the members of cooperatives covered by the cooperative village plan. The results obtained from the analysis using Bayesian method (Baysian SEM) showed that the degree of stability and continuity in business in financial capital, the degree of access to communication tools in physical capital, the degree of participation in activities related to social crises Social capital, the level of interest in new work and innovation in human capital and the potential natural facilities of the village for tourism in natural capital have had the greatest impact.

Objective: Spasticity is one of the components of an Upper Motor Neuron (UMN) lesion that occurs usually after a period of flaccidity in the form of velocity-dependent resistance to passive stretch. Spasticity is a significant cause of limited mobility and disability in neurological diseases. There are several clinical approaches to control spasticity. Recently, Shock Wave Therapy (SWT) has been reported to be a new, safe, and effective method for reducing spasticity for people with upper motor neuron lesions. We conducted a meta-analysis of relevant clinical trials to assess the effect of applying SWT on spasticity in UMN lesions. Materials & Methods: An electronic search was performed in PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, MEDLINE, and Google scholar from January 2005 to January 2020. Studies were included if they measured spasticity with the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) or/and neurophysiological indices in patients with stroke, multiple sclerosis, and cerebral palsy. The keywords of muscle hypertonia or spasticity, extracorporeal shock wave therapy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and cerebral palsy were used. Two independent researchers searched articles, screened eligible studies against the inclusion criteria, and assessed the methodological quality of included studies. The methodological quality of studies was evaluated using the Downs and Black tool. The difference between the means was considered as the effect size in the MAS and Hoffman reflex/motor response (H/M) ratio before and after the intervention with 95% CI in random-effects models. Analyzes were performed using STATA software version 11. Results: The initial search led to the retrieval of 98 studies based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, of which 24 full-text articles were reviewed and 14 articles were included in the meta-analysis process. All 14 articles had examined the effects of shockwave on the MAS. Four studies with 120 patients had examined the effects of shockwave therapy on the H/M ratio. Significant reduction in MAS grade was observed immediately [I2 = 100%, P

The main purpose of the present study was to define an appropriate Farming System which provides environmental sustainability of agricultural activities in Ilam province in "ILam province". Regarding the purpose, the present research is an applied – developmental study. The population includes experts. The sampling of the experts was carried out via Nonprobability Sampling (Purposive and Chained). Two questionnaires were designed to serve as the major research instruments. Face and content validity was applied to determine the validity and Cronbach coefficient Alpha and consistency coefficient were applied to determine the inconsistency coefficient of the questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used To achieve pre-determined purpose of the study. The procedures, all, were performed by spss 18 software. For multiple criteria Decision Making (MCDM), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) were applied for the decision making stage. The required statistics were carried out by the use of ES2000 software. Sustainability criteria were firstly recognized with the aid of the secondary documents. The Farming Systems were lying in the range of private, cooperative produce, rental, and share cropping. The results of this study demonstrated that the cooperative is the most useful Farming System in the environmental sustainability of agricultural activities.

In this paper, a novel method is proposed to monitor the power system voltage stability using Support Vector Machine (SVM) by implementing real-time data received from the Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS). In this study, the effects of the protection schemes on the voltage magnitude of the buses are considered while they have not been investigated in previous researches. Considering overcurrent protection for transmission lines not only resolves some drawbacks of the previous studies but also brings the case study system closer to the realities of actual systems. Online monitoring of system stability is performed by prediction of the Voltage Stability Index (VSI) and carried out by using Support Vector Regression (SVR). Due to the direct effect of appropriate SVR parameters on the prediction quality, the optimum value is chosen for learning machine hyperparameters using Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm. The obtained simulation results demonstrate high accuracy, effectiveness, and optimal performance of the proposed technique in comparison with Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) approaches. The presented method is carried out on the 39 bus New England system.

AbstractGiven the water resources and the tensions and conflicts that have arisen in recent years over the use of water resources, it is necessary to pay more attention to the role of local water organizations in order to provide appropriate solutions to control the water crisis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of local organizations in improving the economic and social situation of villagers covered by organizations in Ilam province. The study population included farmers, board members and members of water organizations in Ilam province in 1957, of which 320 were selected using Morgan table and random stratified sampling method with appropriate proportions. The data collection tool in this study was a researcher-made questionnaire. The content validity of the questionnaire was examined and confirmed through the panel of experts. Cronbach's alpha was also used to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire. In this study, in order to analyze the data, descriptive and inferential statistics of mean comparison tests and SPSS25 software were used. The results showed that the rate of water disputes in villages with local water organizations is low; In other words, proper management of water distribution in villages covered by local water organizations has been able to reduce the conflict between users in the field of water distribution.

One of the basic strategies to strengthen the sustainable livelihood of local communities against environmental crises, including climate change, is to increase the resilience of these communities against disruption and chaos created in ecological systems. therefore The present research was conducted with the goal of gardeners' sustainable livelihood resilience model to climate change in Hamadan province. The research method was descriptive-correlational and causal-relational. The statistical population included the gardeners of Hamedan province (N=53785). The sample size was 380 people using the Krejcie and Morgan table, and the stage sampling method was used. In this research, the situation of sustainable livelihood resilience model of gardeners in Hamedan province in the face of climate change was analyzed by using questionnaire tool and using statistical software SPSS22 and SMART PLS3 and the reliability and validity of the model were confirmed according to the calculated indicators. In total, based on the average of 3.22 out of 5 (sd=1.01), it can be concluded that the livelihood resilience of gardeners in the face of climate change in Hamedan province is evaluated at an average level. The results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicate that environmental norms (β=0.691) and adaptation capacity with climate fluctuations (β=0.606) have a positive and significant effect on the resilience of sustainable livelihoods, the environmental attitude variable It has a positive and significant effect on environmental beliefs (β=0.617), place attachment has a positive and significant effect on adaptation capacity (β=0.610) and the environmental attitude of gardeners in the face of climate change (β=0.567). Also, based on the results, the variable of environmental awareness has a positive and significant effect on adaptation capacity with climate fluctuations (β=0.536) and the variable of environmental beliefs also has a positive and significant effect on environmental norms in the face of climate change (β=0.667). In total, based on the findings, 0.72 of the changes in the dependent variable of sustainable livelihood resilience are directly or indirectly explained by the independent variables of environmental attitude, environmental awareness, environmental beliefs, environmental norms, place attachment and adaptation capacity. The results of this research can be useful and practical for decision-makers in the field of agriculture, especially horticulture, from the point of view of environmental psychology. The findings of this research can be used for policy making and planning and decision-making in order to develop resilience and stabilize the livelihood of gardeners in Hamedan province in the face of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study attempts to understand the experience of scientific tourism and this has been investigated among the foreign scholars who have experienced scientific tourism in Iran. In this study, a qualitative research method and descriptive phenomenological approach were used, based on the need to use the lived experiences of the people involved in the research. Colaizzi’s method was used for data analysis because of its systematic nature. Until reaching saturation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 people using a purposive sampling method. The validity of the results was obtained by referring back to the research participants and obtaining their agreement. In the end, four categories of themes were identified: the scientific, the religious, the cultural, and the economic and leisure time aspects. The findings of this study are effective in a better understanding of tourist’s behavior and future predictions. Proper application of the findings will also promote the development of scientific tourism and consequently increase the satisfaction of tourists.

In today’s society, achieving development and reducing regional inequalities is one of the most important challenges facing governments. The role and position of villages in the process of economic, social and political development on a local, regional and national scale and the consequences of underdevelopment of rural areas such as widespread poverty, growing inequality, rapid population growth, unemployment, migration, and urban marginalization has attracted attention to rural development, and many experts believe that the cause of urban problems in developing countries is underdevelopment of rural areas. In the current research, in order to determine the degree of development of villages in Lorestan province, various economic, social and cultural sectors were considered and their ranking based on the development level using numerical taxonomic analysis method has been done. To do this, we using the latest statistics and information related to 2016, and 101 variables in the form of 8 indicators (educational, demographic, infrastructure, economical, health, service, cultural, welfare and agricultural performance) have been evaluated. According to our results, it was observed that the distribution of facilities and services in the villages of Lorestan province is unbalanced, as out of 87 villages of Lorestan province, four villages were identified as heterogeneous areas and Bazvand village has a development coefficient of 0;765 as a most provided village in this province. The rest of the villages in Lorestan province are being deprived as semi-provided and deprived villages. In conclusion, it has been said that most of the villages in this province need proper management and planning to develop and increase facilities and services.

The purpose of this research was to determine knowledge management in the empowerment of the experts of Agricultural Organization in Ilam County of Iran. The statistical population was composed of all employees with the organizational positions of expert or higher in Agricultural Organization of Ilam (n=150). A self-designed questionnaire was used as data collection tool whose face and content validities were confirmed by a panel of experts and whose reliability was estimated to be 0.89 by Cronbach’s alpha. Data were analyzed by SPSS20 in two groups of descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Spearman correlation and multiple regression analysis). Results of regression analysis showed positive, significant relationship of knowledge exchange, knowledge generation, and number of training courses with people’s empowerment so that they, together, accounted for 40% of the variations of dependent variable.

Background: Paddy cultivation of rice requires substantial physical strength, perseverance and manual labor. During the manual harvesting of paddy rice in Iran, laborers are exposed to several work-related physical risks. Paddy cultivation has been reported as one of the most important causes of nonfatal occupational injuries and accidents among farmers. With the aim of identifying which parts of the musculoskeletal structure are mostly affected as a result of working on paddy rice fields, the present study aimed to investigate the potential risk factors for musculoskeletal problems in paddy field workers in Mazandaran Province, Iran. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, analytical study was conducted among paddy field workers via multistage sampling in 2019. Prior to the interviews based on the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, the participants were briefed about the objectives of the research and their consent was obtained for voluntary participation. Through interviews, data were collected on demographics, agricultural utilization systems, use of paddy tractors, frequency of tiller and tractor use, injuries sustained during the daytime, and outcomes of injuries by paddy field working. Responses were obtained from 384 workers using structured interviews. The respondents were asked to describe problems and pain in their neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists and hands, upper back, hip and lower back. Logistic regression models were used to identify potential risk factors for musculoskeletal problems in specific body regions. Results: The most commonly reported ailments were back pain (n = 29; 7.6%), cardiovascular disease (n = 25, 6.5%) and hypertension (n = 22, 5.7%). The results of logistic regression analysis indicated that the odds of back and shoulder injuries was higher among workers who used tillers and combine harvesters (2.85 and 1.66), transplanting machine (3.68), and those who did not use safe footwear (7). Knee injury risk was higher among those who cultivated rice manually (odds ratio [OR] = 1.35) and who used safety footwear (OR = 1.93), but was lower among those who used tractors (OR = 0.53). There was a small increase in the risk of knee injury with age (OR = 1.03). Confirming earlier works, musculoskeletal problems were found to be highly prevalent among rice workers. Conclusion: Disorders in certain body regions could be explained by specific individual and work-related factors. While the prevalence of work-related injury was high, mostly due to ignorance and disregard for personal convenience of the workers, the findings call for improvements in mechanization and division of labor time and force. Another highlight is that social worth is not given sufficiently to the health of paddy field workers. These should be worked on in future research to find ways of allocating machinery and worth to the workers.

Background: Spasticity is a clinical deficit of upper motor neurons lesions that presented immediately or at delayed times after lesions and occurs in about 38% of stroke patients. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) has been recently reported as a safe and effective method for reducing spasticity in stroke patients. In the present study, we sought to investigate the impact of the ESWT on post stroke spasticity using a meta-analysis method. Methods: All primary reports of spasticity indexed in PubMed, MEDLINE, Science Direct, Scopus and search engine of Google Scholar from January 2000 to December 2016 were searched. The following terms were used as keywords: Spasticity, muscle hypertonicity, ESWT, stroke and hemiplegia. Any report was included if it met the following criteria: involving clinical trials, full-version availability, and being written in english. Two reviewers selected articles independently and reviewed the studies considering quality and eligibility, and then they extracted general information on objectives, design, participants, and outcomes. The methodologic quality of each study was assessed using the Pedro Scale. In the statistical analyses, we considered two outcomes; Modified Ashworth scale (MAS) grade and passive rang of movement (PROM). The meta-analysis was done using random effect model in Stata, version 11 (Stata Corp., TX, USA). Results: Eleven studies within a total of 261 patients were included in this review. In seven studies the shock waves were applied to the upper limb muscles, and in four other studies, the effects of ESWT on the spasticity of the lower limb muscles were assessed. Immediately after applying the ESW, MAS grade was significantly decreased in comparison to the baseline values. (Standardized mean difference [SMD], -1.62; 95% confidence interval [CI], -2.2 to -1.04). The PROM was significantly increased immediately after ESWT in comparison to the baseline values (SMD, 3.23; CI 95%, 1.35 to 5.12). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that ESWT can immediately improve the spasticity and increased PROM, but it seems that the mechanism of action of shock waves on spasticity is still unclear. Further clinical trial studies with higher methodological quality should be recommended.

This study presents a new method based on three types of deep learning-based models (DLM) for estimation of water parameters. The DLM models were recurrent neural networks (RNN), long short-term memory (LSTM), and bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM). The study areas were the Colorado River basin in the United States and the Mighan Wetland in Iran. The electrical conductivity (EC), dissolved oxygen (DO), total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride ions (Cl), and river flow rate (debi) were simulated by the DLM models. The Wilson score (WS) uncertainty analysis results for Colorado modelling showed that LSTMdebi, RNNDO, and RNNEC were the best models in simulating due to having the lowest errors (Mean ei equal to 0.36, −1.50, and −0.59), respectively. Finally, the highest value of the R2 index, 0.998, was achieved by the LSTM model in modelling the debi parameter, and 0.996 in EC modelling, in the Mighan Wetland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present study was conducted to provide an upto-date understanding of clinical applications in balance capability, as well as delivering a review of pieces of literature on Virtual Reality (VR) on balance control in stroke survivors. Methods: Databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Pedro were searched for published papers from 2010 to 2020 with the terms "Game-based rehabilitation", "balance training", "virtual reality", "stroke", "neurorehabilitation", and "virtual environment". We evaluated the effect of VR on balance improvement after a stroke. Results: 33 articles describing results following the use of VR on balance in patients with stroke that met our inclusion criteria were found. Among these studies, two studies described the results in acute, eight in subacute, twenty-two in chronic stroke patients, and one study included both chronic and subacute stroke patients. The results indicated that balance can be improved with VR. Conclusion: The results of this study strengthen the idea that VR training has the potential to become an effective adjacent to routine rehabilitation treatments for improving balance status post-stroke. However, conducting a randomized control trial that incorporates all three stroke phases with an appropriate study setting is necessary to achieve an integrated clinical protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural tourism is a factor in multidirectional development of rural areas and its most important consequences are population stability, unemployment problem alleviation, and immigration reduction. The present survey was set to investigate the strategies of developing rural tourism in Mishkhas Village in Ilam Province using the SWOT technique. A questionnaire was used as the data gathering instrument and the sample size was determined to be 368 based on the Krejcie and Morgan table. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was used to show the reliability of research instrument which came out to be 0.87. In this research, the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (threats and opportunities) of the region were ranked by the SWOT technique. It was indicated that the amount of advantages with the obtained value of 5.87 (strengths and opportunities) was higher than limitations rate of weaknesses and threats (4.531). Thus, according to the results, the strategy of developing rural tourism was applied in this region.