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With global warming and alterations of climatic patterns, greater frequency and severity of extreme events are observed in different regions. Drought is one of the most challenging extreme events, one which can cause catastrophic and long-lasting impacts on water availability, environment, agriculture, economy, and societies. This study investigates the historic changes of drought conditions in Southern Alberta which is home to communities whose main economic activity is agriculture, or otherwise related to environmental variables, and has experienced severe droughts in the past. We employed SPI (standardized precipitation index) and SPEI (standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index) as drought indicators at 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month(s) timescales, to explore significant changes during 1980–2018. The indices were computed using a Daymet-gridded dataset for the South Saskatchewan River Watershed (SSRW). Constructed drought occurrence maps revealed that, on average, in nearly half of the analysis period, the region experienced drought. Comparing four past decades showed that drought impacted a larger area in 2000–2010, and the percentage of the area impacted by severe or extreme droughts significantly increased in the last two decades, compared to 1980–2000. Results show decreasing trends of drought in some areas, mainly in the headwaters of Bow River in the Rocky Mountains, and increasing trends in larger areas, mostly found downstream. The result denotes expansion of the dry/wet conditions to larger areas at longer timescales. The extent of areas with a significant trend (increasing/decreasing) was greater with longer timescales of drought indices. Comparing the two drought indices suggests significant differences, and outperformance of SPEI in detecting dry conditions.

Background & Aim: A desirable level of happiness among nurses is related to the quality of nursing care services. This study aimed to evaluate the level of happiness among nurses and its’ relation to some demographic factors in Zanjan province- 2017. Methods & Materials: In this cross sectional study, 371 nurses employed in the hospitals affiliated to Zanjan University of medical sciences were participated. The Oxford happiness inventory was used to collect data. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test through the SPSS software version 16. A P

Background and Objectives: Euthanasia is one of the major challenges in philosophical, medical, ethical, legal, and religious circles that has fueled many debates. The aim of this study was to investigate prediction of students' attitudes toward euthanasia using their religious orientation, self-esteem, and death anxiety. Methods: The samples of this descriptive-correlational study were 247 students selected from the humanities students in the University of Zanjan and the students of medical related studies in the Zanjan University of Medical Sciences by random multi-stage cluster sampling. Data collection was conducted by Euthanasia Attitude Scale, Religious Orientation Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Templer Death Anxiety Scale. Data analysis was conducted by MANOVA and stepwise multiple regression. Results: MANOVA results showed that the levels of self-esteem and religious orientation were significantly different between the students of humanities and medical related studies with significantly higher scores attained by the humanities students. Standard (simultaneous) multiple regression showed that the regression model was significant based on three variables, i.e. religious orientation, self-esteem, and death anxiety. Religious orientation predicted attitudes toward euthanasia inversely. Conclusion: The levels of self-esteem and religious orientation were lower in the students of medical related studies than in the humanities students, and the higher the levels of their religious orientation were, the more opposed to euthanasia they were. &nbsp

Background Happiness and professional autonomy in nurses increase job satisfaction, reduce turnover and improve the quality of healthcare services. Aims The present study aimed to examine the correlation between happiness and professional autonomy in Iranian nurses. Methods This descriptive-correlational study was conducted on 371 nurses in 2017. The participants were selected via two-step random sampling. Data were collected using the Oxford Happiness Inventory and Dempster Practice Behaviors Scale within the score ranges of 0–87 and 30–150, respectively. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16. Results Mean score of happiness among nurses was 43.1 ± 13.3 and the mean score of professional autonomy was 96.4 ± 13.5. According to Pearson's correlation coefficient, professional autonomy had a positive, significant correlation with happiness ( r = 0.481; p Conclusions According to the results, the level of happiness in Iranian nurses was favourable, whereas the level of professional autonomy was moderate. Considering the significant correlation between happiness and professional autonomy, attention should be paid to the simultaneous enhancement of these variables to improve the efficiency of nursing care.

This paper investigated the variability of freshwater discharge (Q) in the Dez River Basin in Iran and its possible links to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and El Nino Southern Oscill...

In this paper, the impact of climate change on the climate and discharge of the Dez Dam Basin and the hydropower potential of two hydropower plants (Bakhtiari and Dez) is investigated based on the downscaled outputs of six GCMs (General Circulation Models) and three SRES (Special Report on Emission Scenarios) scenarios for the early, mid and late 21st century. Projections of all the scenarios and GCMs revealed a significant rise in temperature (up to 4.9 &deg, C) and slight to moderate variation in precipitation (up to 18%). Outputs of the HBV hydrologic model, enforced by projected datasets, show a reduction of the annual flow by 33% under the climate change condition. Further, analyzing the induced changes in the inflow and hydropower generation potential of the Bakhtiari and Dez dams showed that both inflow and hydropower generation is significantly affected by climate change. For the Bakhtiari dam, this indicates a consistent reduction of inflow (up to 27%) and electricity generation (up to 32%). While, in the Dez dam case, the inflow is projected to decrease (up to 22%) and the corresponding hydropower is expected to slightly increase (up to 3%). This contrasting result for the Dez dam is assessed based on its reservoir and hydropower plant capacity, as well as other factors such as the timely releases to meet different demands and flow regime changes under climate change. The results show that the Bakhtiari reservoir and power plant will not meet the design-capacity outputs under the climate change condition as its large capacity cannot be fully utilized, while there is room for the further development of the Dez power plant. Comparing the results of the applied GCMs showed high discrepancies among the outputs of different models.

The Angstrom-Prescott (AP) model is widely suggested for estimating global solar radiation (R s), especially for reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0) calculations. Many previous studies indicated that the coefficients of the AP model depend on the climatic and geographical characteristics of study sites. In the present work, calibrated AP models were developed in some climates in Iran. Different radiation scenarios from estimated and measured R s were applied to calibrate the AP coefficients. Radiation scenarios included measured R s (M) and estimated R s from the models of Daneshyar (D) and Hargreaves (H). Daily reference evapotranspiration was calculated using the coefficients obtained from different R s scenarios. The estimated daily ET0 values were compared with field lysimeter data for validation. Results showed that scenarios D and H present the minimum ET0 deviation from lysimeter data. Findings suggested that at the majority of the study sites, calibration of the AP model improved the accuracy of estimated ET0. Results also indicated the applicability of reliable R s estimation methods to calibrate the AP model. Apart from applied R s scenarios, the daily ET0 is underestimated by the FAO56 Penman-Monteith model.

The FAO56 Penman–Monteith (FAO56-PM) method is known as the standard method for estimating reference evapotranspiration (ET0) in a variety of climate types. Global solar radiation (Rs) is one of the essential inputs of this model, which is usually estimated from the Angstrom–Prescott (AP) method. The major drawback of the FAO56 pre-defined AP coefficients application is that the AP coefficients might need local calibration, to estimate ET0 accurately. The aim of this study is to compare the effect of the FAO56 pre-defined AP coefficients (i.e. a and b) and the locally calibrated ones, on estimating daily ET0 in 15 sites over Iran. Using long-term (1980–2007) experimental global solar radiation data (Rs), new locally calibrated (a) and (b) coefficients are suggested and new ET0 values are determined accordingly. It was found that the range of the calibrated AP coefficients (a, b) are climate dependent and locally different from those of recommended by the FAO56-PM method. Estimated ET0 at daily scale, improved up to 72.7 % when the calibrated AP coefficients were applied instead of FAO56 pre-defined AP coefficients. Based on the results, applying the FAO56 pre-defined AP coefficients (i.e. a = 0.25 and b = 0.50) in northern subtropical-humid and southern hot climates caused larger ET0 errors. By contrast, the least ET0 errors were found in cool arid and cool semi-arid inland climates, locating about 1,330 above sea level. The correlations between the calibrated AP coefficients and geographical factors are also discussed in this research.

SummaryFifty genotypes of Aloe vera were collected from the main areas of cultivation in Iran and evaluated to determine their level of diversity. The characters investigated were: number of plant leaves, mature leaf length, mature leaf width, mature leaf weight, length of the largest leaf, width of the largest leaf, weight of the largest leaf, number of tillers, and aloenin content. Pearson’s coefficients showed that the height of a plant was positively correlated with the width of a plant and with the number of leaves (r = 0.452 and r = 0.409, respectively); while there was a negative correlation between the width of a plant and the width of the largest leaf (r = -0.90). An evaluation of their phytomedical constituents by HPLC showed that all samples were rich in aloenin, with recorded values higher than the phytomedical grade. Statistical analysis showed that the aloenin content of genotype 39, from Hormozgan, was at least twice as high as in all other genotypes. Cluster analysis based on ten morpholog...

Objective To investigate the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates and their associations with the existence of integrons. Methods During a 12-month study, 140 clinically significant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were collected from patients hospitalized in the burn ward of different hospitals in Tehran. Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were identified using standard laboratory procedures. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed for 13 antimicrobial agents according to the standard Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method and Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. The frequency of Class 1, 2 and 3 integrons was detected using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Results The resistance rates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to 13 antimicrobial agents were between 34.7% and 90.8%. Ceftriaxone and imipenem had good activity against the isolates. Of 140 tested isolates, 91 (65%) were multidrug resistant. The most predominant resistance profile among the isolates included resistance to 10 (12.14%), 9 (12.14%) and 8 (12.14%) antibiotics. Class 1 and 2 integrons were detected in 57.2% (56/98) and 30.6% (30/98) of tested Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates, respectively. Of 98 (70%) integron positive isolates, only 12 (12.2%) isolates were positive for both classes of integrons. Resistance of the isolates to cefotaxime, aztreonam, imipenem, tobramycin, ticarcillin, ciprofloxacin and cloxacillin was observed to be significantly associated with the existence of integrons. Conclusion These data confirmed high prevalence of Class 1 integrons among Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from burn patients in this study. Based on these results, integrons may play an important role in the possible transmission of resistance genes to the clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates.

Background Dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB) defined as abnormal uterine bleeding in the absence of underlying structural abnormalities. Recently, obesity has been suggested as a main underling risk factor for DUB; however, evidences on the role of this predisposing factor are not adequate. The current study aimed to assess status of obesity in women who suffered from DUB. Methods In an observational case series study conducted at a referral endocrinology clinic in Shahrood city, Samnan, 20 consecutive women with the final diagnosis of DUB referred from 2009 to 2011 were evaluated. Obesity was assessed using calculation of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. Results The mean waist circumference was estimated 102.95 ± 9.77 cm in the range of 90–119 cm. With respect to BMI measurement, the mean of BMI was 32.63 ± 3.34 kg/m 2 ranged between 26.92 and 39.06 that two-third of studied women suffered from overweight status and other one-third cases were obese. Conclusion There is a strong association between obesity and DUB and therefore weight reduction should be considered as a conservative treatment besides of other medical or surgical treatment approaches.