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Khorasan Razavi Province suffers from the most critical groundwater resources in Iran, i.e. the groundwater decline has reached 1 m; 34 out of 37 water plains are banned in Khorasan Razavi Province. Recently, Mashhad plain has been fighting with the crisis of drought and water scarcity. Illegal harvesting from groundwater resources and the warming trend caused by change in climate have exacerbated the crisis. Comprehensive water resources management, assuming the complicated nature of water-related issues, rapid growth of population, water requirement for a variety of purposes, and limited water resources, requires novel methods to stack up technical, economic, environmental, social, and logical perspectives in an integrated forum. One of the tools for comprehensive water resources management is utilizing hydro-economic models to simulate the present status of drainage basins and evaluate the impacts of different scenarios and policies. The current study used a hydro)economic model to simulate the hydrological status of Mashhad plain and evaluate the impacts of different scenarios. Then, the agent-based model (ABM) was used in order to reach an agreement with stakeholders on executing different conservation scenarios. The hydro-economic model results revealed that reducing the water demand of the agricultural sector and, as a result, surface and groundwater consumption is possible through following adaptation scenarios. Implementing various adaptation scenarios may alter the present cultivation pattern. Moreover, the ABM results showed a significant difference between the volume of available water, due to the execution of strategies, and water demand, bringing about the lack of farmers’ cooperation regarding the implementation of conservation scenarios. However, through applying some incentive policies, a number of representative farmers may agree to pursue adaptation scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population growth and loss of environmental capacities for food production have rendered the realization of food security a more complicated task as compared to the previous decades. To cope with this crisis, sustainable agricultural development can play a remarkable role in improving food security. The present study aimed to explore the spatial effects of agricultural sustainability on food security of rural households in 30 provinces of Iran over the period of 2006-2016. For this purpose, first, the overall level of agricultural sustainability using a Composite Sustainable Agriculture Index (ICSA) and weighting indicators were calculated based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The Aggregate Household Food Security Index (AHFSI) was used to determine the food security of households in rural areas. Also, the effectiveness of agricultural sustainability on food security of rural families, as well as other effective factors, was examined using the mixed Spatial Autoregressive (SAR) model with panel data. Results show that the spatial spillovers of the agricultural sustainability influence food security positively and significantly. In fact, 1% increase in the agricultural sustainability index of a certain province directly improves food security of the same province by 0.043%, while its food security is indirectly enhanced by 0.0131% with 1% increase in the agricultural sustainability index of other provinces. It is imperative for policymakers of the agricultural sector to invest in production infrastructure of different provinces in Iran and focus on enhancing sustainable production as a prerequisite for the establishment of sustainable food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: P. Nikpour, S. Mowla, M. Forouzandeh-Moghaddam, S. Ziaee Context: The stem cell model for cancer assumes that a key event in tumorigenesis is the deregulation of genes involved in [...]

Byline: S. Fanaie, S. Ziaee Background: Different abdominal surgeries could benefit from early feeding. Aims: To compare early feeding with traditional postoperative dietary management for development of postoperative gastrointestinal (GI) [...]

Byline: S. Ziaee, S. Fanaie, R. Khatib, N. Khatibzadeh BACKGROUND : Mortality and morbidity from gallstones in the diabetic patients in comparison with the nondiabetics are always controversial. AIMS : [...]

Introduction: Null curriculum is a type of curriculum which helps to understand concepts that have been ignored in a given curriculum. The purpose of this study was to review the null curriculum in midwifery education from midwifery faculty’s’ viewpoint in Islamic Azad Universities of Fars province. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was carried out using a phenomenological approach. Twelve midwifery faculty members were selected using purposive sampling method. Research Data was collected by semi-structured interviews. The interviews were analyzed using the hermeneutic approach developed by Diekelmann (1989). Results: The main emerged themes were as follow: 1- The negation of the subject in the intended curriculum include: a. The negation of the subject as a syllabus in the bachelor's degree program in midwifery, b. The negation of the subject in the outline of the midwifery course. C. The negation of the subject because of lesson type (optional or dedicated). 2-the negation of the subject in implemented curriculum due to the kind of department and university directors’, and teachers’ attitude toward the subject matters. Conclusion: Understanding the neglected sections of the intended and implemented curriculum of midwifery Helps achieving the goals of the discipline better.

Aims Students are one of the main elements effective on education quality. Investigating clinical training stress, regardless prior stress and other effective factors on how to deal with stress, would be incomplete. This study aimed to investigate the association between life events stress and clinical training stress, self-efficacy, social support, stress coping strategies and academic performance of midwifery students. Methods This cross-sectional study was done on 155 midwifery students of Kazeroon Islamic Azad University in two consecutive 2011 and 2012 years. The instrument was prepared using Akhavan Akbari's clinical instruction stress, Sherer's general self-efficiency, Sarason's social support and Andler and Parker's stress coping strategies and Holmes and Rahe’s life events stress questionnaires. The clinical and academic performance criteria were comprehensive test score and difference between Diploma and Bachelor mean. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software using T-independent test and Spearman correlation coefficients. Findings The students' clinical teaching stress score mean was moderate. Clinical training stress and life event stress, dealing with stress and avoidance and emotional coping subgroups showed a significant and positive correlation. The correlation between clinical experience and academic performance clinical performance was positive and significant. Conclusion The good students' self-efficacy, their access to adequate social support with the higher level of satisfaction and the more utilization of problem-solving coping strategy cause students with high stress history understand the clinical training stress moderately so this stress does not change their clinical and educational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]