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Introduction: Iran has natural resources such as oil that can affect health; however, whether a natural source of oil can have a positive effect on health or not is a question for economists. In this study, we empirically examine how economic dependence on natural resources affects health with respect to institutional corruption. Methods: The present study is an applied study with longitudinal analytical-descriptive method using smooth transitional regression method between 1984 and 2017. The research population in this study was the annual data of the whole country. Also, the dependent variable is life expectancy, and the main independent variables are oil rents to GDP. Other independent variables used include the corruption index, GDP per capita, and literacy level. Data analysis was also performed with Eviews software (version 12). Results: Results of the estimates showed that the effect of economic dependence on natural resources on health and corruption in Iran during the study period was inversely U-shaped. The estimated threshold for the share of oil rents in GDP in life expectancy was 3.070%. The results indicate that the corruption reduction index has a positive and significant effect on health. But GDP has had a negative impact on life expectancy. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, in order to reduce the negative effects of dependence on natural resources, we recommend that appropriate policies such as attention to other productive sectors and strengthening other economic infrastructure to reduce dependence on natural resources should be applied in order to improve existing conditions in the country. Considering the positive effect of reducing corruption on health, we also recommend that appropriate policies should be implemented to improve the institutional quality.

The adsorption performances of as prepared poly(methyl methacrylate)/graphene oxide-Fe3O4 (PMMA/GO-Fe3O4) and poly (methyl methacrylate)/graphene oxide (PMMA/GO) nanocomposite as adsorbents were investigated for malachite green (MG) dye removal. For MG dye adsorption on PMMA/GO and PMMA/GO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite, 35 min was selected as the best contact time because there was no main change after 35 min. Optimum adsorption of the dye by both adsorbents occurred at 298 K. The calculated values of the entropy (ΔS°), enthalpy (ΔH°) and Gibbs energy (ΔG°) indicated that the adsorption process was exothermic in nature. The results indicated that PMMA/GO and PMMA/GO-Fe3O4 were good adsorbents for removing MG dye from aqueous solution and were good construed with the pseudo-second-order type (I) due to the law value for chi-square (X2) and high value of the correlation coefficients.

Evaluating the capability of power systems in supplying the load within the permitted ranges of voltages and loading are among the main goals of utilities. Random outages of component and the growing penetration of wind power make power system analysis complex. Under such conditions, applying probabilistic approaches, including probabilistic power flow (PPF), is recommended to analyze the grid, e.g., power system planning. In this paper, a PPF based on Monte-Carlo simulation (MCS) and data clustering is proposed. The proposed approach reduces the computational burden of MCS and maintains the correlation between input data (wind generation and system load). The proposed method is applied to a test and real bulk power systems at 400 and 132 kV levels, including wind farms. The actual power grid has a specific area that suffers from voltage-related problems in some of its buses. This paper studies the effect of installing a candidate 400 kV substation on the bus voltages of this grid through DIgSILENT® POWER FACTORY.

In this paper, sulfonic acid functionalized 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO)-based magnetic nanoparticle Fe3O4 [Fe3O4@SiO2@Pr-DABCO-SO3H]Cl2 was synthesized and fully characterized using various techniques. Then the catalyst was examined for the convenient synthesis of spiropyran derivatives, resulting in high reaction yields, short reaction times, and the recovery and reusability of the catalyst.

In this work, adsorption capacity of egg whites lysozyme on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and amino group functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-NH2) was examined. The different parameters affecting the adsorption process for protein were optimized such as initial protein concentration, contact time, initial pH levels, and temperature. Results revealed that optimum time for adsorption process onto the surface of both studied adsorbents was 12 min while the best pH values and temperature were found at 6 and 298 K, respectably. Different kinetic models were assessed such as the intra particle diffusion, the pseudo-first-order, and the pseudo-second-order models. Adsorption of lysozyme onto MWCNT and MWCNT-NH2 surfaces were found to be well fitted by the pseudo-second order kinetic model because of its high correlation coefficients (R2) and the low chi-square statistic (X2) values.

Two proteins, i.e. bovine serum albumin and egg white lysozyme are used as model adsorbents for the food industry (dairy) wastewater and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and amine functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-NH2) surfaces were used as adsorbents. Various effective parameters such as contact time, the initial concentration of proteins, initial pH levels, and temperature were well investigated and optimized using batch adsorption study. Upon optimization, it was observed that the on increasing the initial concentration the adsorption of both the proteins also increases. The equilibrium adsorption data of Lysozyme using MWCNTs and MWCNT-NH2as adsorbents were well fitted and in good agreement with the type (II) Langmuir isotherm model and Freundlich isotherm model, respectively, while on the other hand, for serum albumin adsorption using MWCNTs and MWCNT-NH2 as adsorbents were described was well fitted and in good agreement with type (II) Langmuir isotherm model.

For the removal and separation of wastewater pollutants, one widely used technique is adsorption. Different materials have been used as adsorbents. Among several adsorbents, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are emerging as potential adsorbents because of their large surface area, defined cylindrical hollow structure, high ratio aspect, easy modification and hydrophobic wall surfaces. In this review, the capability of adsorption of dyes on CNTs and functionalized CNTs has been compiled. This paper provides data about defects, adsorption sites on CNTs and adsorption process studies under the effect of such various operational parameters as solution pH, contact time, and temperature, and deals with the mechanisms involved in the adsorption of dyes onto CNTs. According to observations from the articles reviewed, functionalized carbon nanotubes have better sorption capacity than as-grown CNTs. For the removal of dyes from aqueous solution, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have shown good potential and some of the functional groups improve the adsorption potential according to evidence from the literature. For example, the maximum adsorption amount (qmax) of methylene blue dye on an MWCNT surface has been reported to be 100 mg g−1 while the maximum adsorption amount of methylene blue dye on functionalized MWCNT–SH surface was 166.7 mg g−1. This indicates that functionalization is beneficial in increasing the amounts of absorption. However, the development of highly efficient, cost effective environmentally friendly CNT-based nano adsorbents for their commercial applications should be the focus of still more study.

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were functionalized with cysteamine groups by several percentage of mass as adsorbents, then kinetics adsorption capacity was investigated for methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) as anionic and cationic dyes adsorbate molecules, respectively. The effect of temperature (from 283 to 303 K), contact time and initial concentration of the MB and MO dyes in a solution (10 to 40 ppm) was considered. The optimal contact time was found to be about 60 min. Some kinetics model such as pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, intra-particle diffusion and the Elovich were tested. The adsorptions of MB dye on the pristine and functionalized MWCNT surfaces were found to be the intra-particle diffusion and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, respectively and for adsorption of MO dye by the pristine and low functionalized MWCNTs and highly functionalized tubes, found to be the pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion kinetic model, respectively, based on the chi-square statistic ( X 2 ) and also high correlation coefficient ( R 2 ) values.

Efficient MWCNT-SH was used as adsorbent for the rapid removal and fast adsorption of hazardous cationic dye methylene blue from the liquid phase. The surface textural and morphological properties of the developed adsorbent were characterized using Scanning electron microscopy which reveals the porous nature of the developed adsorbent. The effect of influential parameters which posses embarking affect on the adsorption process such as contact time, temperature and initial concentration of methylene blue (MB) dye in solution were well investigated and elucidated. After optimizing the influential parameters it was observed that after 60 min there is no visible change noticed in the removal of methylene blue (MB) dye using MWCNT, MWCNT-SH1, MWCNT-SH3 and MWCNT-SH5 adsorbents, hence 60 min is the optimized contact time for the process additionally it was found that the adsorption capacity of MB dye on MWCNT, MWCNT-SH1, MWCNT-SH3 and MWCNT-SH5 surfaces increased with increasing the temperature. The adsorption capacity also increases with increase in the initial concentrations of MB dye from 10 to 40 mg L− 1. The adsorption equilibrium data for MWCNT, MWCNT-SH1, MWCNT-SH3 and MWCNTS-SH5 was found to be well fitted and in good agreement with the type (III) of the Langmuir isotherm model, Freundlich isotherm model and type (II) model of the Langmuir isotherm model respectively.

This paper analyses and characterizes the nonindustrial demand of Iran power system in the last decade and proposes a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model (SARIMA) for its mid-term load forecasting (MTLF). Detrending an observed growth and a seasonal additive, the orders of the SARIMA's components are determined by autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation functions. The model residuals are explored for normality by statistical moments including mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis indices. Moreover, the predictive performance of the model is validated with distinct real data. The results proved the applicability of the model for MTLF in power systems.

Rapid adsorption process of hazardous malachite green (MG) dye from the liquid phase onto the developed adsorbent i.e. graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) surfaces was well studied and elucidated. The batch adsorption experiments were carried out in order to evaluate the optimized values of the influential parameters such as initial pH, contact time, and temperature. The obtained optimized values of pH, contact time and temperature was 3, 100 min and endothermic nature of the adsorption process. It was found that by increasing the pH value from 3 to 9, the removal of malachite green dye by the developed adsorbent i.e. GO and rGO was decreased. Additionally by increasing the temperature, the removal of noxious MG dye by GO and rGO adsorbents was increased, which directly indicates towards the endothermic nature of the adsorption process. The adsorption kinetic data of malachite green dye on GO and rGO surfaces was found to be well fitted and in good agreement with the pseudo-first-order kinetic model because of the low value of the chi-square statistic (χ2) and high value of the correlation coefficients (R2).

MWCNTs functionalized with the carboxylate group are used as efficient adsorbent for the rapid removal and fast adsorption of malachite green from the aqueous solutions. The optimized contact time and pH were 10 min and 9, respectively. The effect of temperature revealed that the adsorption capacity of malachite green (MG) dye increased with increasing contact time, temperature and pH of the working solution. The adsorption equilibrium and kinetic data was well fitted and found to be in good agreement with the Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo second order kinetic model respectively with high correlation coefficient.

Graphene oxide was used as efficient adsorbent for the rapid removal of two dyes basic red 12 (BR 12) and methyl orange (MO) from the aqueous phase, the whole adsorption process was well investigated and elucidated. The impact of several influential parameters such as contact time, initial dye concentrations, initial solution pH and temperature was well studied and optimized. The optimized time for adsorption process was 100 min. The maximum removal efficiency was occurred at optimized pH 3 of aqueous solutions. The adsorption capacity of BR 12 dye was increased; this may be due to increase in effective interactions between dye particles and adsorbent surface. On the other hand on increasing the initial concentration of methyl orange dye adsorption capacity was decreased, this may be due to repulsion between methyl orange negative charge and the graphene oxide surface negative charge. The effect of temperature reveals that adsorption process of dyes on the developed adsorbent was endothermic. The adsorption equilibrium data was of basic red 12 and methyl orange dyes on to the GO adsorbent surface were found to be well fitted and in good agreement with the type (I) Langmuir isotherm; because it possess high value of linear regression (R2 = 0.999) and least value for chi-square statistic (X2 = 2.28).

Adsorption capacity of Pb2 + on graphene oxide and thiol functionalized graphene oxide was well investigated and illustrated in the present work. Variable cysteamine concentrations i.e., 60, 80 and 100 mg were used as functionalizing agent for conversion of graphene oxide to thiol functionalized graphene oxide. The surface of graphene oxide (GO) was functionalized by the use of 60 mg of cysteamine (GO-SH1), by 80 mg of cysteamine (GO-SH2) and by 100 mg of cysteamine (GO-SH3), respectively. The prepared adsorbents were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The impact of several influential parameters such as adsorption time, pH, temperature and cysteamine concentrations on Pb2 + adsorption was well elucidated and optimized. The optimized values of adsorbent dose, initial concentration of Pb2 +, contact time, and pH were found to be 20 mg, 25 mg/L, 60 min and 6 respectively at a temperature of 298 K. The kinetic experimental data for GO surface was well fitted and found to be in good agreement with type (II) of pseudo-second-order model, and for GO-SH1, GO-SH2, and GO-SH3 the experimental data was in good agreement with pseudo first-order model, type (IV) of pseudo-second-order model and type (II) of pseudo-second-order model respectively. Results revealed that the adsorption capacity of Pb2 + on to the developed adsorbent increases with the increase in temperature, hence this process was endothermic in nature.

Adsorption capacity of Ni2 + on graphene oxide (GO) and glycine functionalized graphene oxide (GO-G) surfaces was well investigated and elucidated. Amino group was used to functionalizing agent for the surface modification of GO to GO-G. The effect of numerous influential parameters such as contact time, temperature and initial concentration of Ni2 + in the aqueous solution was well illustrated and optimized using batch adsorption study. The optimized values of adsorbent dose, initial concentration of Ni2 +, contact time, and pH were found to be 20 mg, 15 mg/L, 50 min, and 6 respectively, ongoing through the impact of temperature it was seen that, when the temperature was increased from 283 to 308 K, the removal of Ni2 + by GO surface decreased but the removal of Ni2 + by functionalized GO-G surface decreased until 298 K and after that it was increased. Adsorption isotherm study for the adsorption process was carried out using four types of the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Results clearly depict that adsorption of Ni2 + ions on to the GO adsorbent surface was well fitted and found to be in good agreement with the type (II) Langmuir isotherm model as the obtained regression constant value (R2) is found to be 0.999 while the adsorption of Ni2 + on GO-G surface was found to be in good agreement with the Freundlich isotherm model because the regression constant value (R2) is found to be 0.999.

We have investigated some methods such as Raman spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) studies for the nanocomposites multi-walled carbon nanotube-functionalized thiol (MWCNT-SH) by adding to cysteamine with known concentration in nanocomposite. For this study, we synthesized nanocomposite MWCNT-SH by the reaction between multi-walled carbon nanotubes-functionalized carboxyl and the cysteamine. For study of the effect of concentration, cysteamine with different concentrations was used (1, 3 and 5 % weight) and it was called MWCNT-SH1, MWCNT-SH3 and MWCNT-SH5, respectively. Then, the nanocomposite provided was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The surface structure of nanocomposites can be analyzed and confirmed using Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy. Also, to investigate the thermal stability TGA was used. The study of TGA showed that nanocomposite MWCNT-SH had low thermal stability at temperatures more than 100 °C.

In this work, we synthesized graphene oxide–glycine (GO–G) nanocomposite. To produce this nanocomposite with GO surface, glycine with known concentration was added to GO suspension in ethanol solvent. Nanocomposites provided were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, respectively. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was employed to investigate the thermal stability of these nanocomposites. Results of characterization by SEM and FT-IR showed that nanocomposite was created by the reaction between GO and G. Study of thermal stability by TGA showed that thermal stability of GO was more than that of the GO–G nanocomposite.

Efficient adsorbent graphene oxide (GO) and its derivative, i.e., thiol-functionalized graphene oxide (GO-SH), was used for the removal of noxious Pb(II) ion from the aqueous phase. Different amounts, i.e., 60, 80, and 100 mg of cysteamine, were used as functionalizing agent to functionalize the GO with thiol group; hence, three different nanocomposites, i.e., GO-SH1, GO-SH2, and GO-SH3 were prepared from the different amount of the cysteamine. The developed nanocomposites were characterized using various analytical techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis. The whole removal and adsorption process was well illustrated and investigated. The impact of influential factors including initial concentration, pH, contact time, temperature, and concentrations cysteamine on the adsorption properties of Pb(II) from aqueous solution was well elucidated and optimized. The obtained equilibrium results were inserted in various adsorp...

Today, graphene and graphene derivatives such as graphene oxide are widely used in chemical processes such as adsorption. Also graphene oxide-based materials (GOBMs), which are hydrophilic and biocompatible, have wide potential applications in biotechnology and biomedical engineering. We in this chapter begin with a discussion of the structures of graphene and preparation of graphene, which includes some of the graphene to provide methods and then we will explain some applications of graphene such as hydrogen storage in Al subtitutionally doped graphene, wafer-scale graphene-on-Si transistors, graphene for nanoelectronics, large-scale transfer of graphene, and chemical vapor deposition graphene for macroelectronics: transparent conductive films. The devices and methods of synthesis of graphene were investigated. As part of graphene and graphene oxide as adsorbent, we investigated adsorption process at some research that they removed dyes and metals by graphene and graphene derivatives. We introduced some of the isotherm and kinetic models and thermodynamics of the adsorption process.

Toxic chemical and a strong mutagen ethidium monoazide bromide (EMA) adsorption on the graphene oxide (GO) surface from aqueous solution was investigated. Influencing parameters such as temperature of solution, contact time, ethidium monoazide bromide initial concentration and pH were studied. According to the results of EMA adsorption on graphene oxide, 17 min and pH 10 was selected as the optimum time and pH, respectfully. Adsorption experiments were carried out at various temperatures from 288 to 303 K. The maximum absorption wavelength of EMA is 420 nm. In this study, pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, Elovich, and the intra-particle diffusion kinetic models were used for kinetic study of EMA adsorption process. The results of kinetic study showed that there is a good fit of the experimental kinetic data of EMA adsorption on the surface of GO to the linear form of type (I) of the pseudo-second-order model, because it possess least value of average relative error ARE (%) and high value of linear regression (R2). Thermodynamic parameters; Gibbs energy (∆G°), entropy (∆S°), and enthalpy (∆H°); were calculated and results indicated that EMA adsorption on GO surface as absorbent was spontaneous and endothermic.

Article history: Received May 2, 2013 Received in revised format 25 June 2013 Accepted 7 July 2013 Available online July 11 2013 This paper presents an empirical investigation on the effect of public attitudes toward the role of arts and cultural institutions for the cultural development of the country. The study performs the study among urban and rural families in city of Esfahan, Iran and all questions are designed in Likert scale of 1-5. Using a sample of 700 people, the study finds that people generally have negative impression toward the role of arts and cultural institutions for the cultural development of the country. In their opinions, the nature and quality of the effects play the most important role, which must be improved. The study also finds the people’s style of living and place of residency are also important issues on the perception toward cultural development. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Job satisfaction plays an essential role on having happy society since people may have better lives when they fully satisfied with their jobs. In this paper, we present an empirical study to investigate the effect of marital status as well as educational background on job satisfaction. The study performs the study among university employees of Khomeinishar branch located in province of Esfahan, Iran and all questions are designed in Likert scale of 1-5 based on Brayfield & Rothes Index of job satisfaction. Using a sample of 100 people, the study first uses Kolmogrov-Smirnov test and verifies that all data are normally distributed (α=5%). The survey also finds that there is no difference between female and male employees in terms of job satisfaction (α=5%). In addition, the study confirms that marital status has no significance on job satisfaction (α=5%).

Article history: Received October 27, 2012 Received in revised format 29 January 2013 Accepted 22 March 2013 Available online March 25 2013 This paper studies the level of depression and mental ability among elderly people who live in institutional elderly versus nursing home residents. The investigation designs a questionnaire and distributes it among 345 elderly people who are residences of both places. The study implements Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) test where mental ability includes seven factors including “general information”, “orientation”, “mind control”, “logical memory” and “repeated figures”, “visual memory” and “learn association”. The study performs some statistical tests and the results show that gender has no impact on two groups of elderly people in terms of mental utilization as well as depression level when the level of significance is five percent. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The proposed study of this paper investigates the effect of self-scrutiny on improving women's self-esteem among 50 women who live in city of Esfahan, Iran. There are five hypotheses associated with the proposed study of this paper, which investigate whether teaching self- scrutiny skills increase women's total, educational-vocational, general, social and family self- esteem. The proposed study of this paper uses three groups of pre-test post-test and control groups and it has been executed among 50 women aged 20-35 who lived in city of Esfahan, Iran based on Coopersmith questionnaire. The results of ANOVA test confirm all five hypotheses of this survey. In other words, scrutiny skills increase women's total, educational- vocational, general, social and family self-esteem after control group participate in our training programs.

Because today’s power systems encounter so many uncertainties, probabilistic methods, such as probabilistic power flow (PPF), are useful to analyze the systems. One of these methods is Monte-Carlo Simulation (MCS), which has the ability to consider all uncertainties, including renewable energy power production, load, and random outages of components. In this paper, the proposed method is based on MCS and data clustering to improve drawback of MCS, which include high burden of computations. The proposed method cannot only reduce the runtime, but also considers correlation between load and wind power generation (WPG). This correlation would be important to power systems having large-scale wind farms (WFs). The proposed method first was validated by applying it on an IEEE 24-bus reliability test system (RTS). Then the modified version of the method, which can model outages of components, was implemented by using analysis software on a power system that is an actual bulk power system. To demonstrate i...

Frequency control, as an ancillary service, is usually provided by generation reserves. Modern generating units have special technical capabilities; e.g., their governor operation mode can be selected to be either active or passive, their ramp rate can be selected to be either normal or fast, etc. On the other hand, generating units have some technical constraints; e.g. some generating units cannot participate in primary frequency control at their capacity limits. In this paper, operational capabilities and constraints of generating units are incorporated in a “simultaneous scheduling of energy and primary reserve” problem. Furthermore, a heuristic iterative method (based on genetic algorithm) is proposed to obtain the optimal scheduling. The impacts of capabilities and constraints on scheduling are investigated through simulation studies. Simulation results depicts that taking these capabilities and constraints of generating units into account, not only reduces the total operational cost of generating units, but also will end up with a feasible solution for the system, even in cases where the previously proposed methods fail.

In recent years, electricity consumption growth and gradual penetration of renewable energies in electricity production, have increased the need for designing appropriate demand response programs. Determining an encouraging incentive rate for participation of customers in these programs is very important. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to determine an optimal incentive rate for incorporating large industries in demand response programs. These programs include decreasing peak demand and providing system reserve, by means of joint energy/reserve market framework. The objective of this approach is to minimize system costs in peak hours of the year, considering customers’ price offers for providing energy and reserve. To assess the performance of the method, a case study has been conducted on IEEE-RTS 24 standard grid. Results show the capability of the proposed method in lowering system costs.

This paper presents an approach based on genetic algorithm for optimal capacitor placement and sizing in the presence of photovoltaic systems. In this approach, the PV systems ability to inject reactive power at the daylight and also at night hours will be studied. This algorithm has been implemented on a radial distribution network with 33 buses. Simulation results show that reactive power injection of PV inverters to the grid not only reduces power losses but also can decrease the total amount of required capacitor sizes. Moreover, voltage profile has been improved. Meanwhile, the impact of PV systems penetration level on the above mentioned indices improvement is studied.

This article suggests an off-grid solar power system for a typical home at Mashhad, IRAN. In order to computing the off-grid solar system components. The design was done based on the shortest day of the year. The solar data is obtained from NASA web site and has been used from RETSCREEN software. The solar system set must capable to supply load current for 4 days; therefore we need to install Batteries and battery charger. In this computation the shortest day of the year has been assumed. Although the total design is acceptable from engineering point of view, from economical view the total Cost of system is higher than the case that has been designed for summer days that the electricity cost is higher in IRAN country.

One of the main challenging issues for investors in stock market is comparing companies' financial performance and finding more profitable ones. This comparison should be based on effective indices. In this paper, important indices are identified using previous studies and expert's opinion. Then top 50 companies of Tehran Stock Exchange, announced in the third quarter of 2012, are evaluated using data envelopment analysis. DEA is applied to assess efficiency of DMUs regarding the financial identified indices including price per earning, total assets, systematic risk, non-systematic risk, return on equity as inputs and yearly efficiency, sales growth, current ratio and earning per share as outputs. The result indicates that 20 companies are efficient among top 50 companies. To set priorities for investors, companies were ranked by Makui method. Sensitivity analysis results shows that EPS and ROE have the most influence on efficiency of DMUs.