FactorsAffecting the Professional Development of Faculty Members: A Case Study of Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran

Professional development is a continuous process of individual and experimental tests that must empower individual educators to make complex decisions; to identify and to solve problems; to connect theory and practice in learners’ output; and to enable educators to offer learning opportunities to students and prepare them in terms of provided world class standards and citizen responsibilities of adults inspired by these assumptions, the presentstudy aimed to identify factors affecting the professional development of its faculty members. The statistical sample consisted of 209 individuals all of whom were faculty members of the Islamic Azad University, Ilam Branch, Iran that were studied by a census method. The survey instrument was a research-made questionnaire whose content and face validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability coefficient turned out to be at a desirable level. SPSS21 software and factor analysis technique were employed to analyze the collected data. The results of the factor analysis showed that four development services such as structural-service maturity, institutional directorial maturity, personal and character maturity and network-social maturity were identified as factors affecting the professional development of faculty members which explained 50.89% of the total variance altogether

Cropping Pattern and Comparative Advantage of Agricultural Products in Ilam Province

I n this study, the comparative advantage of main agricultural products and its relation to cropping pattern was studied in Ilam Province. For data analyzing the comparative advantage and government policies effects indices, Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) were used. The obtained results for the comparative advantage indices of Domestic Resource Cost (DRC), Social Cost Benefit (SCB) and Net Social Profitability (NSP) show that production of irrigated wheat, dry-farming wheat and dry-farming barely has not comparative advantage in Ilam Province but the production of irrigated barely, corn, dry-farming pea, dry-farming lentil, watermelon, cucumber and tomato have comparative advantage in Ilam Province. In addition, the obtained results for NPIC index show the Nominal Government Protection of inputs in all products. Also, Nominal Protection Coefficient index indicated that nominal market protection of products like wheat (irrigated and dry-farming) and barely (irrigated and dry-farming) was positive and those of other products were negative and the Effective Protection Coefficient for wheat and barley had the highest values. The results showed that the existing cropping pattern was not allotted with comparative advantage but is related to the effective protection coefficient

Development Strategies for Rural Tourism in Mishkhas Village

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

A study on factors affecting women’s willingness to pay for weight gain control

زمینه و اهداف: چاقی یکی از معضلات اقتصادی برای کشور بوده و شیوع آن سلامت عمومی را به خطر انداخته است. این پژوهش به منظور بررسی عوامل موثر بر تمایل به پرداخت بانوان برای کنترل افزایش وزن انجام شد. مواد و روش‌ها: این مطالعه در سال 1393 و با مشارکت 450 نفر از بانوان شهر مشهد انجام شد. نمونه‌ها به روش نمونه گیری در دسترس، از بین مراجعین به پارک ملت شهر مشهد انتخاب شدند. ابزار تحقیق پرسشنامه‌ای محقق ساخته بود که روایی ظاهری و محتوایی آن توسط صاحب‌نظران و پایایی آن به کمک شاخص آلفا کرونباخ (7/0<α) تایید شد. داده‌ها از طریق مصاحبه حضوری جمع‌آوری و با استفاده از مدل رگرسیون لاجیت در نرم افزار SPSS نسخه 19 تحلیل شدند. یافته‌ها: از میان بانوان مورد مطالعه 86 درصد مایل به پرداخت هزینه جهت کنترل افزایش وزن بودند و میانگین هزینه‌ ماهیانه که بانوان جهت کنترل وزن مایل به پرداخت آن بودند، 82311  تومان برآورد شد. افزایش سطح درآمد ماهیانه خانوار (0.05>p)، افزایش اثرات اجتماعی چاقی ((0.05>p) ، افزایش سطح آگاهی از عوارض چاقی (0.05>p) منجر به افزایش تمایل به پرداخت هزینه جهت کنترل افزایش وزن شده، اما افزایش قیمت پیشنهادی ((0.01>p) تمایل به پرداخت را کاهش می‌دهد.  نتیجه‌گیری: با توجه به تاثیر شناخت از عوارض چاقی بر تمایل به پرداخت، لازم است سیاست‌گذاران بهداشتی با اجرای برنامه‌های آموزشی مناسب در خصوص اثرات بهداشتی، اجتماعی و حتی اقتصادی معضل چاقی در جامعه، انگیزه تمایل به پرداخت افراد جهت کنترل این معضل را افزایش دهند.Background and Aims: Obesity represents an economical setback for the country, and its outbreak threatens the public health. The present study aimed at studying factors affecting women’s willingness to pay (WTP) for controlling weight gain and treating obesity.Materials and Methods: A researcher-designed questionnaire survey consisting 450 women was carried out on Mashhad residents in 2014 (Iran). The participants were selected by a convenience sampling method out of people coming to Mellat Park in Mashhad. The questionnaire credibility and reliability were confirmed by a panel of experts, and its reliability was estimated to be >0.7 by Cronbach’s alpha,confirming that the employed measuring tool has had enough credability. Data were collected by face-toface interview and were analyzed by Logit regression model using SPSS (ver. 19) Software Package.Results: Among participated women, about 86% were willing to pay for controlling weight gain. Mean monthly payment by women to control weight gain was estimated to be 823,110 IRR (Iranian Rials).The variables positively affected WTP included household monthly income (P < 0.05), social impacts of obesity (P < 0.05), and awareness of obesity side effects (P < 0.05). On the other hand, offered price(P < 0.05) negatively affected it.Conclusion: Participants having higher monthly income were more willing to pay for controlling weight gain. Awareness of the effects of obesity on health had positive influence on WTP. Social impacts of obesity, also, increased women’s WTP for controlling weight gain. Therefore, it is necessary for healthpolicy-makers to design appropriate plans for training the health, social and even economical impacts of obesity in the society in order to motivate people to pay for its control

An assessment of development level of villages in Lorestan province using numerical taxonomy method

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

Factors Affecting the Professional Development of Faculty Members: A Case Study of Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran

Professional development is a continuous process of individual and experimental tests that must empower individual educators to make complex decisions; to identify and to solve problems; to connect theory and practice in learners’ output; and to enable educators to offer learning opportunities to students and prepare them in terms of provided world class standards and citizen responsibilities of adults inspired by these assumptions, the present study aimed to identify factors affecting the professional development of its faculty members. The statistical sample consisted of 209 individuals all of whom were faculty members of the Islamic Azad University, Ilam Branch, Iran that were studied by a census method. The survey instrument was a research-made questionnaire whose content and face validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability coefficient turned out to be at a desirable level. SPSS21 software and factor analysis technique were employed to analyze the collected data. The results of the factor analysis showed that four development services such as structural-service maturity, institutional directorial maturity, personal and character maturity and network-social maturity were identified as factors affecting the professional development of faculty members which explained 50.89% of the total variance altogether

Cropping Pattern and Comparative Advantage of Agricultural Products in Ilam Province

In this study, the comparative advantage of main agricultural products and its relation to cropping pattern was studied in Ilam Province. For data analyzing the comparative advantage and government policies effects indices, Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) were used. The obtained results for the comparative advantage indices of Domestic Resource Cost (DRC), Social Cost Benefit (SCB) and Net Social Profitability (NSP) show that production of irrigated wheat, dry-farming wheat and dry-farming barely has not comparative advantage in Ilam Province but the production of irrigated barely, corn, dry-farming pea, dry-farming lentil, watermelon, cucumber and tomato have comparative advantage in Ilam Province. In addition, the obtained results for NPIC index show the Nominal Government Protection of inputs in all products. Also, Nominal Protection Coefficient index indicated that nominal market protection of products like wheat (irrigated and dry-farming) and barely (irrigated and dry-farming) was positive and those of other products were negative and the Effective Protection Coefficient for wheat and barley had the highest values. The results showed that the existing cropping pattern was not allotted with comparative advantage but is related to the effective protection coefficien

Modeling consumer’s behavior for packed vegetable in “Mayadin management organization of Tehran” using artificial neural network

The major factor in successful marketing and development strategies is a correct understanding of consumer behavior. Recognizing the consumer behavior is the key to market development. It is impossible to establish systematic relationship between producers and consumers while the consumer behavior is not recognized. Demand elasticities seem very important in decision-making processes and in causing different behavior of consumer in buying occasions. Producers, food processors, and retailers need to recognize consumer’s behavior in forming the demand to plan well their production and selling, thus, demand elasticities are of crucial importance. The shortage of studies in the field of estimating demand and elasticity using artificial neural networks (ANN) among the economic issues was the most important motivation of this study. Parameters were estimated using the ANN that is widely used and is called multi-layer feed-forward neural network (MLFN). It is important to point out that among the input variables, some socio-demographic variables were included, it seems that beside the traditional economic variables some non-economic factors can affect the consumers’ choices as well. In this paper the consumer’s behavior in the “Mayadin Management Organization” of Tehran for vegetable crops, summer crops like potato, onion, tomato was modeled using the ANN and particularly the demand curve and the elasticities were estimated

Development Strategies for Rural Tourism in Mishkhas Village

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

Towards farmers’ livelihood resilience to climate change in Iran: A systematic review

Recognizing the resilience and especially the livelihood resilience of farmers is of great importance for policy makers. Thus, the present study is aimed to analyze farmers’ livelihood resilience to climate change (LRCC). The studied area was Hamadan province in the west of Iran. The research methodology is qualitative content analysis (QCA) with a deductive approach, which is performed by selecting reliable sources and examining existing theories and content in livelihood resilience. The documents used for QCA included a systematic study of 44 articles from 33 journals (12 local (Iranian) journals and 21 international journals) and 5 M.Sc. thesis. The results indicated that farmers' LRCC are based on three dimensions including “buffer capacity (the sum of subsistence capital including human, physical, financial, natural and social capital)”, “self-organization (ability to form flexible networks to deal with unbalanced conditions and environmental, economic and social challenges)” and “learning capacity (acquiring knowledge and skills to form a resilient structure)”. In this regard, the most important factors affecting LRCC are: institutional-structural, environmental psychology, adaptation capacity and personal and professional characteristics. Finally, the LRCC model is presented in the agriculture sector, which can be used by policymakers in planning and making decisions