A socio-technical assessment framework for integrated water resources management (IWRM) in Lake Urmia Basin, Iran

The main aim of this interdisciplinary research is to develop a socio-technical and institutional framework for implementing the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) paradigm by analysing how water resources can be managed in response to anthropogenic drivers (e.g. population/economic growth) and environmental pressures (e.g. climate change) within an evolving institutional set-up. Implementation of the Framework has focussed on Iran, and Lake Urmia basin as a case study, which involved a significant element of action research based upon stakeholder participation. Lack of implementation of concepts such as IWRM has been attributed to the gap between technical outcomes and policy decisions. To achieve an integrated synthesis for this interdisciplinary study, the integrated methodological framework has used four analytical components based on the IWRM concept: (1) Driver-Pressure-State-Impact Response (DPSIR); (2) Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD); (3) Integrated Socio-technical Assessment (ISTA) using modelling and Multi criteria Decision-Making (MCDA) tools; and (4) Ethics to assess water allocation decision outcomes in multitier Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (MSPs). Results from the case study show that the non-structural responses (legislations, new administrations etc.) adopted since 2003 have not guaranteed the implementation of sustainable water allocation outcomes in river basins including Lake Urmia basin. Water allocation has become highly political and caused polarisation in opinions and multiple perspectives among stakeholders underlined by diverging discourses on climate change, water and land development and irrigation water use efficiency. The participatory water allocation decision reached for Lake Urmia Basin, which included an allocation to sustain the hydrological and ecological functions of the Lake, has been re-evaluated by analysing historical climatic and hydrologic data. The outcome suggests that water availability in the basin is less than that adopted by the stakeholders based on trend analysis within the existing discourse. Therefore, the thesis demonstrates a mechanism for adaptive water allocation and demand management under an uncertain future climate which is represented through rainfall scenarios generated using a stochastic rainfall model. It is concluded that the participatory process has enhanced the efficacy of the water governance system, but the effectiveness of water allocation will be compromised unless an adaptive water allocation approach is implemented, and basin-wide water use efficiency measures are taken. It is recommended that modern day water and land governance has to take into account the ethical and cultural aspects of the community to form an alliance for sustainable resource use; thus, an Ethical legal framework for community-based land and water governance has been proposed. The overall integrated methodological approach provides an innovative analytical framework to understand the discursive deliberations in a complex Social-Ecological system heightened by (1) scientific uncertainty over climate variability and change; and (2) dynamic institutional transformation and evolution.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceOffice of Applied ResearchIran Water Resources Management CompanyGBUnited Kingdo

Perubahan Strategi Politik Partai Ennahda di Tunisia Tahun 2016

Ennahda is the name of one of the political parties in Tunisia which initially moved within the Islamism ideological direction. But when Ennahda elected became the head of government in 2011, the party became more compromised with political reality around and set out the rational choice while determining its political attitudes and actions. In 2015, Ennahda formed a coalition government with electoral winning parties as well as political rivals from the pro-secularist group, the Nidaa Tounes party. Some of Ennahda's loyal supporters, their party's policy is seen as a form of betrayal of his own ideological values because its acceptation for the notion of secularism and those step is considered as a deviation from Islamic beliefs. Moreover, at the 10th congress on May 20, 2016, Ennahda, which was previously seen as a symbol of the Islamism party, issued an official statement that its party separate itself between religious and political activities. Therefore, this study aims to explain the reasons and factors that led to changes in political strategy that occurred in the Ennahda party in Tunisia. The analysis of changes in Ennahda's political strategy will be reviewed through the concept of Post-Islamism. In order to support the discussion of this study, the author uses secondary data collected through library research studies and analyzed using qualitative descriptive methods. The results showed that the reasons and factors that led to changes in the political strategy of the Ennahda party at Tunisia in 2016 were due to: new political challenges, That is the pluralistic condition of political environment and the demands of compromise in order to build a civil society; the emergence of hardline Islamic movements and extremist groups in Tunisia; the events of the military coup over the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 2013; and an increasing in public dissatisfaction with the party-led government coalitio

Database of reflection surveys in Japan and pattern of active faults in seismic reflection profile

After the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology have funded subsidy for local governments to survey active faults. By the end of 2001, 90 faults have been surveyed by local governments. We collected 84 seismic reflection profiles obtained by these surveys and made a database. The database recorded names, locations, sense of faults, and geological conditions of the seismic reflection profiles. We divided faults’appearance of these profiles into eight types according to the pattern of reflection surfaces in the reflection profiles ; that is, faults are recognized as (1) step (13 profiles), (2) scarp (37 profiles), (3) discontinuity of reflection surfaces (4 profiles), (4) step and scarp (20 profiles), (5) step and discontinuity of reflection surfaces (1 profile), (6) step and reflector of fault plane (3 profiles), (7) scarp and reflector of fault plane (3 profiles), and (8) discontinuity of reflection surfaces and reflector of fault plane (3 profiles). Most of reflection profiles of (1), (2), (4), (6) and (8) types are obtained across reverse faults. So, these results mainly reflect characteristics of reverse faults

Frequency of Cutaneous Manifestations in Diabetic Patients in Endocrinology Clinic of Babol University of Medical Sciences

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Diabetes is the most common endocrine disorder in the world. Understanding the cutaneous manifestations associated with diabetes can help in choosing the appropriate treatment approach in these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of cutaneous manifestations in diabetic patients referred to the endocrinology clinic of Babol University of Medical Sciences. METHODS: The present cross-sectional study was performed on 300 patients with diabetes referred to Rouhani Hospital in Babol in 2019. Age, gender, BMI, type and duration of diabetes, and patients’ diabetes control status (HbA1C) were recorded and patients were thoroughly examined by a dermatologist and divided into two groups of below and above 50 years. In terms of cutaneous manifestations, they were divided into two groups; with cutaneous manifestations and without cutaneous manifestations. FINDINGS: 293 patients (97.76%) had type 2 diabetes. The mean age of patients was 55±12 years and the mean duration of diabetes was 9.73±1.20 years. In this study, 130 patients (43%) had cutaneous lesions, of which 76 patients (58.5%) were female. Pruritus, acrochordon, cherry angioma, diabetic dermatopathy, fungal skin infections with frequencies of 25.7%, 21%, 14.3%, 6% and 5.7% were the most common skin disorders, respectively. 68 patients (69.4%) had skin manifestations and had diabetes for more than 10 years. There was a significant difference between the two groups of with and without cutaneous manifestations, gender and duration of diabetes (p<0.001). There was no significant difference between the mean age, BMI and HbA1C in the two groups (p=0.07, p=0.09 and p=0.11, respectively). CONCLUSION: The results of the study showed that pruritus and acrochordon are the most common cutaneous manifestations and long-term diabetes and female gender are the most important risk factors for cutaneous manifestations

Heat fluxes under the ceiling induced by wall fires with various burner aspect ratios in a channel

A detailed experimental investigation of wall fires in a channel was conducted to study the heat fluxes under the ceiling. Various burner aspect ratios and fire heat release rates were employed to simulate different wall fire scenarios. The effect of source-ceiling height was also examined. The results show that the distribution of heat flux under the ceiling from fires on rectangular burners was significantly influenced by the burner aspect ratio. As the burner aspect ratio increased, the heat flux under the ceiling at a given position perpendicular to the side wall increased. It was found that the existing heat flux correlation developed for a square burner could not capture such influence as it did not include the burner aspect ratio. A new predictive model based on the equivalent burner diameter concept was proposed incorporating the burner aspect ratio and was shown to predict well the heat flux for all the cases with different heat release rates, burner aspect ratios and source-ceiling heights. The model was also validated against available data in the literature which were not used in its derivation. Further analysis was also conducted for the temperature contours constructed from the temperature measurements under the ceiling

Valencia bridge fire tests: Validation of simplified and advanced numerical approaches to model bridge fire scenarios

[EN] Bridge fires are a major concern and the subject of many studies that use numerical models. However, experimental studies are still required to test the validity of these numerical models and improve their accuracy. This paper uses temperature results of the Valencia bridge fire tests carried out at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, in Valencia (Spain) to calibrate the fire models that constitute the first step in modeling any bridge fire event. The calibration is carried out by both a simplified approach (Heskestad and Hamada's correlation) and advanced numerical models (Computational Fluid Dynamics models built with the Fire Dynamics Simulator -FDS- software). The Valencia bridge fire tests involved four fire scenarios under a composite bridge with Heat Release Rate (HRR) values between 361 and 1352 kW. The results show that applying Heskestad and Hamada's correlation gave good results when used within its limits of application (HRR < 0.764 MW) but did not work well beyond them, which means it would be suitable for planning reduced scale bridge fire tests but not in the analysis of real bridge fires. On the other hand, FDS provides good predictions of the temperatures and can be used to study bridge fire responses. This work is therefore an important step forward in the study of bridge fires and towards the improvement of the resilience of infrastructure networks vis-a-vis fire hazards. It also highlights the problems that can arise in fire tests in the open air, the influence of the wind being of critical importance.Funding for this research was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Research Project BIA 2011-27104). The authors are grateful to the Infrastructure and Safety departments of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia and the City of Valencia Fire Department (Cuerpo de Bomberos de Valencia), which provided crucial support in conducting the tests.Alós-Moya, J.; Paya-Zaforteza, I.; Hospitaler Pérez, A.; Loma-Ossorio, E. (2019). Valencia bridge fire tests: Validation of simplified and advanced numerical approaches to model bridge fire scenarios. Advances in Engineering Software (Online). 128:55-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2018.11.003S556812