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In the knowledge-based economy, R&D centers in service industries increasingly depend on the performance of knowledge workers to gain competitive advantage. Therefore, these centers must give careful consideration to the performance assessment and continuous improvement of knowledge workers using appropriate performance assessment systems and models. In this paper, a system was designed for the performance appraisal and ranking of knowledge workers in R&D centers of banking industry using gamification approaches. The case study method was applied for the conceptual design of the system and the selected case was the R&D center of Mellat bank, one of the Iranian leading private banks. Data collection was performed via semistructured interviews with 12 key participants of performance appraisal process which included vice president of research and development and 11 senior researchers as head of research groups of the center. As a result of data coding process for analyzing the qualitative data, a total of 23 metrics and three key performance indicators namely, research impact factor, knowledge impact factor and knowledge absorption factor were identified for the performance appraisal of knowledge workers. The designed system in this study can be used by R&D centers in banking industry for the performance appraisal and ranking of knowledge workers. The designed system provides a comprehensive and detailed set of metrics and KPIs for the performance appraisal of knowledge workers in R&D centers of banking industry.

The mangrove ecosystems in the northern Persian Gulf are unique, yet highly vulnerable habitats that face a range of environmental and anthropogenic pressures. This study assesses the ecological dynamics of the Mangroves of Dayyer City (MDC) in the northern Persian Gulf using a multidimensional approach involving satellite-derived, drone-based, and field-measured data. Satellite imagery from Google Earth (2011–2022) reveals fluctuations in the MDC area, with notable afforestation efforts until 2018 followed by rapid degradation. The mangrove forest, initially covering ~ 2.2 ha in 2011, expanded to ~ 3.2 ha by 2015 due to afforestation efforts but declined to ~ 1.7 ha by June 2022. The construction of a nonstandard road and a bridge in 2018 obstructed freshwater flow from upper areas, emerging as a major factor in this degradation. Drone-based observations in March 2023 provided a detailed map, revealing that ~ 44% of healthy mangroves had been damaged. Field measurements conducted in November 2023 showed higher salinity levels at MDC compared to other adjacent mangrove areas (Nayband and Melgonzeh). Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the first two components explained 99.7% of the variability in the environmental data, with water temperature and salinity/dissolved oxygen being the key factors. This study emphasizes the role of human impact, particularly the obstruction of freshwater flow, in degrading mangrove ecosystems, thereby enhancing our understanding of the complex interactions affecting these valuable coastal habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We extend the result of Lisini (Calc Var Partial Differ Equ 28:85–120, 2007) on the superposition principle for absolutely continuous curves in p-Wasserstein spaces to the special case of p = 1 . In contrast to the case of p > 1 , it is not always possible to have lifts on absolutely continuous curves. Therefore, one needs to relax the notion of a lift by considering curves of bounded variation, or shortly BV-curves, and replace the metric speed by the total variation measure. We prove that any BV-curve in a 1-Wasserstein space can be represented by a probability measure on the space of BV-curves which encodes the total variation measure of the Wasserstein curve. In particular, when the curve is absolutely continuous, the result gives a lift concentrated on BV-curves which also characterizes the metric speed. The main theorem is then applied for the characterization of geodesics and the study of the continuity equation in a discrete setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Antenatal hydronephrosis (AH) is an important and relatively common finding in the fetus during the evaluation of pregnant women. Approximately 0.5-1 % of women have fetuses with a dilated [...], Background Antenatal hydronephrosis (AH) is commonly found on evaluation of pregnant women and 20-30 % of neonates have vesicoureteral reflux (VUR). In order to diagnose VUR, we required invasive testing and exposure of the neonate to radiation. The concentrations of a matrix metalloproteinase, MMP9, and its inhibitor TIMP1, were analyzed in hydronephrotic newborns with VUR and were compared to those without reflux. Methods The neonates with a history of prenatal hydronephrosis were enrolled in two groups based on imaging study results, the neonates with VUR and without VUR. Neonates with a normal prenatal history and postnatal ultrasound were placed in a third group. We measured the random urinary levels of MMP9, TIMP1, and creatinine, their cut-off values and the MMP9/Cr and MMP9/TIMP1/Cr ratio was calculated, and an ROC curve was drawn. Results Sixty-nine neonates were enrolled in three groups; 27 patients (20 male, seven female) with AH and VUR were in group 1, 23 neonates (19 male, four female) without VUR were placed in group 2, and 19(15 male, four female) acted as controls in group 3. The differences between the three groups and the normal and total hydronephrotic groups were statistically significant for MMP9, the MMP9/Cr, MMP9/TIMP1, and MMP9/TIMP1/Cr ratios. The urinary TIMP1 and TIMP1/ Cr ratios were not significantly different between the groups. A cut-off value of MMP9 was measured as 358.5 ng/ml (sensitivity [sens] 74 %, specificity [spec] 78 %) and was used to compare groups 1 and 2. For groups 2 and 3, this cut-off was 181.00 pg/ml (sens 91 %, spec 89 %). The cut-off values measured for the MMP9/TIMP1 ratio were 30.32 (sens 70 %, spec 61 %) and 9.85 (sens 96 %, spec 89 %) to compare groups 1 and 2, and 2 and 3, respectively. We found no valuable cut-offs for the TIMP1 and TIMP1/Cr values. There was no difference between neonates with mild, moderate, and severe VUR according to urinary biomarker concentrations. Conclusions Evaluation of urinary levels of MMP9, or the MMP9/Cr, MMP9/TIMP1, or MMP9/TIMP1/Cr ratios may help us to differentiate the newborns with hydronephrosis and VUR from those without reflux. Keywords Vesicoureteral reflux * Antenatal hydronephrosis * TIMP1 * MMP9 * Metalloproteinases

The world's second-largest dugong, Dugong dugon (Müller), population after that of Australia forages among rich seagrass meadows along the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf; however, the relatively seagrass-poor Iranian coast is considered an exceptional habitat for the species. The last modern dugong records along the Iranian Persian Gulf occurred two decades ago, which, however, are unsupported. Here we present two new documented records of D. dugon from an area in the Iranian coastal waters of Bushehr Province, near the Mond River estuary (Mond Protected Area), northeastern Persian Gulf. These include one individual, probably female, of ca. 2.5– 3 m body length found floating, in moderate decomposition, in offshore waters of the Motaf fishing ground on 30 April 2021, and one ca. 3 m female encountered entangled in a set gillnet in inshore waters of the same area on 29 December 2022, and which was successfully released alive. The potential of the area as a possible historical habitat for dugongs, and further implications, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]