Editorial Preface. Transit-Oriented Development in Iran: Challenges and Solutions

Editorial

A Longitudinal Analysis of Densities within the Pedestrian Sheds around Metro Stations. The Case of Tehran

Evaluation of spatial accessibility to public transportation has a weak background in many emerging countries, including Iran. Transit-Oriented Development is of great interest among Iranian planners and academics, but little is known about transit orientation provided by major public transport systems exemplified by the Tehran Metro. Statistical difference tests and polynomial regression done in this study show how residential densities within walking distances of metro stations established at different times after 1998 are significantly different. Both population and employment densities have decreased in more recent stations compared to those opened between 2005 and 2010. Moreover, one-way T-Tests comparing the population and densities of older lines with those of newer lines reveal that, in most cases, densities within walking distances of stations of older lines are higher. The paper concludes that lack of proper site selection and failing to locate new stations near job centers and highly populated areas threatens the transit-friendliness that emerged in the early years after establishing the first metro station in 1998

Longitudinal correlations of car ownership with socio-economics, urban form, and transport infrastructure in Latin America: Example from Ensenada, Mexico

Car-orientated modal splits represent problems for the city in economic, environmental and social terms. The implementation of policies and other measures can fail if the causes are not well recognized. Mid-sized cities in Mexico are not well-represented in studies where only the capital and other bigger cities are studied. This research aims to recognize those causes focusing on northern mid-sized cities in Mexico. The approach involves numerical work (linear regression) complemented with a descriptive analysis of the city. The analysis takes on such areas of consideration as socio-economic factors, land-use variables and the street network of the city. Of the 16 variables, almost all presented a relationship with car ownership levels, but not all behaved as expected. The final part of the research is a reaction to the previous studies and recommendations to change the city from car-orientated to one with a sustainable modal split

An Analysis of Car Ownership in Latin American Cities: a Perspective for Future Research

Car dependence must be avoided to achieve sustainable transportation; the diversity of studies available give a better perspective of the situation and how to tackle it. The reasons behind the increasing car use are still unknown in some regions such as Latin America. The gaps in the current literature are not just for location; some topics and methods are also unnecessarily predominant in the related studies. This research does a review of current literature for mobility in Latin America region with a special focus on car dependence. The aim is to detect gaps on the knowledge to further give recommendations on what should be studied. The results show the lack of numerical approaches to solidly taken case studies, especially in some countries of the region such as Central America and some of the states of South America. Disaggregate car ownership models are highly necessary for clarification of the region’s behavioral aspects of car ownership such as personal and household preferences and lifestyles

Progress on Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease

Introduction: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the most common life threatening hereditary disease of the kidney. It is a systemic disease characterized by multiple, bilateral renal cysts that result in massive renal enlargement and progressive functional impairment. This review discusses the current understanding of the epidemiology, genetics, clinical manifestations, natural history of the disease, the accuracy and reliability of diagnostic approaches, renal replacement therapy and emerging therapeutic strategies that are being evaluated in ADPKD. Review: ADPKD is a genetically heterogeneous disease with significant inter-familial and intra-familial variability. The responsible genes were localized to separate loci on chromosome 16 (PKD1 gene) accounting for the majority of ADPKD cases, and chromosome 4 (PKD2 gene) accounting for the remainder. Each child of an affected parent has a 50% chance of inheriting the mutated gene, which is completely penetrant. Clinical manifestations include renal and cyst enlargement, impaired urine concentration capacity, hematuria, nephrolithiasis, proteinuria, hypertension, polycystic liver disease, abdominal wall hernia and intracranial aneurysms. The diagnosis of ADPKD usually relies on renal imaging. Ongoing research has engendered crucial insight into the disease’s underlying genetic, cellular and pathogenetic mechanisms and made possible the design and implementation of clinical trials testing promising treatments. Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System (RAAS) blockade, vasopressin antagonists, somatostatin, rapamycin, sirolimus and everolimus are currently being evaluated for a potential therapeutic role in the management of ADPKD. Conclusion: Current clinical trials investigating multiple therapeutic targets bring hope for treatments that may impede the progression of ADPKD. Keywords: ADPKD, autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, kidney failur

Earthquake risk in urban street network : an example from region 6 of Tehran, Iran

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Purpose – Zone 6 of Tehran, with a populations of 220,000 people (3.6 per cent of the city population) and 20 km2 area (3 per cent of the city area), is one of the main municipal zones of Tehran. Major land-uses, like ministries, embassies, universities, general hospitals and medical centers, big financial firms, and so on, manifest the high importance of this region on a local and national scale. Thus, it is necessary to pay close attention to issues concerning crisis management in this area. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, by using indexes such as access to medical centers, street inclusion, building and population density, land-use, peak ground acceleration and building quality, vulnerability degree of street networks in zone 6 against the earthquake is calculated through overlaying maps and data in combination with inversion hierarchical weight process method and geographic information systems. Findings – This article concludes that buildings alongside the streets with high population and building density, low building quality, far to rescue centers and high level of inclusion represent high rate of vulnerability, compared with other buildings. Also, by moving from north to south of the zone, the vulnerability increases. Likewise, highways and streets with substantial width and low building and population density hold little values of vulnerability. Thus, streets with high level of inclusion, building and population density present further vulnerability. Originality/value – It is expected that the results of this paper be used by the urban decision-makers. Due to high vulnerability of most parts of the urban textures of Tehran, similar researches will have importance for preparation for the future possible earthquakes

Socio-demographic and built environment determinants of car use among older adults in Iran

Internationally, an age-friendly built environment, including safe, affordable, and convenient transportation, has been identified as crucial in enhancing the quality of life for increasingly large numbers of elderly people. This study presents data on the urban travel and mobility patterns of older adults in Shiraz, Iran – a country where the population is ageing faster than the average of western societies. The relationship between car use and socio-demographic and built environment variables is investigated through Ordinary Least Squares and Geographically Weighted Regression models. These models show that the main determinants of car use among older adults are: employment status; household size; car ownership rate; trip purpose; property prices; and mixed land-uses. Also, the study reveals that car dependency is significant and more pronounced among wealthier individuals, who tend to be clustered in the northern section of the city. The population density and road network design characteristics do not affect car use among older adults, while a mix of land-uses tends to attenuate car dependency. Gender gaps in car use are much wider than in the West, and some level of spatial mismatch between travel needs and car access is observed in the southern section of the city. Clearly, Iranian cities must move away from the current car-centric development model

Using continuous wavelet transform of generalized flexibility matrix in damage identification

Generalized flexibility matrix method has recently been introduced for identifying damages with the aim of overcoming some shortcomings of the approaches based on flexibility matrix. Researchers that use flexibility matrix to detect damages in structures face truncation errors ensue from cut off higher-order mode shapes, which are difficult to measure in practice. In this paper, a new procedure is presented to detect the damage site in a beam-type structure, where generalized flexibility matrix in conjunction with continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is utilized. Since flaws and cracks cause changes in flexibility of a system, this characteristic can be used as a damage indicator. Gaussian wavelet transform with four vanishing moments as a signal processing method is implemented to find the irregularity in a vector obtained from generalized flexibility matrix which is considered as a sign of damage. This method does not need to have either prior knowledge about the intact structure or its finite element model. The proposed technique is evaluated by numerical and experimental case studies

Quantification of the uterine involution and dimensions, hormonal response and reproductive performance of pyometric and healthy dairy cows treated with Dinoprost

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a PGF2α analogue (Dinoprost) on involution of the puerperal uterus, especially with pyometra during 35 to 45 days postpartum in multiparous high yielding Holstein dairy cows. At days 40 ± 5 postpartum, 1250 cows were ultrasonographically examined. Fifty cows were diagnosed as pyometric. Fifty pyometric and 50 clinically healthy cows were assigned randomly to one of four groups. Groups were: 1.) Pyometric+Dinoprost cows (PD, n = 25 treated with 25 mg of Dinoprost), 2.) Pyometric+Saline cows (PS, n = 25 treated with saline), 3.) Healthy+Dinoprost cows (HD, n = 25 treated with 25 mg of Dinoprost), and 4.) Healthy+Saline cows (HS, n = 25 treated with saline). All treatments were given intramuscularly. Ultrasonography was performed at the time of examination and 7 days later to evaluate changes in uterine diameter. Treatment with Dinoprost significantly reduced gross uterine diameter in PD in comparison to the PS group in the presence or absence (P4 concentrations <1 ng/ml) of an active corpus luteum. Dinoprost treatment did not decrease gross uterine diameter in groups HD and HS. Luminal diameter was significantly smaller in the PD than in the PS group. Pregnancy rate of PD was greater than PS cows (36% vs 20%, respectively). Days to first service (110 d vs. 140 d) and open days (160 d vs. 190 d) were shorter in PD cows than PS cows. It was concluded that injection of 25 mg of Dinoprost to pyometric cows had uterotonic effects in presence or absence of functional corpus luteum. Therefore, this treatment can help uterine involution in puerperal dairy cows affected by pyometra and consequently improved reproductive performance.Keywords: Cattle, Dinoprost, pregnancy rate, pyometra, uterine healt

An 8 bit current steering DAC for offset compensation purposes in sensor arrays

Abstract. An 8 bit segmented current steering DAC is presented for the compensation of mismatch of sensors with current output arranged in a large arrays. The DAC is implemented in a 1.8 V supply voltage 180 nm standard CMOS technology. Post layout simulations reveal that the design target concerning a sampling frequency of 2.6 MHz is exceeded, worst-case settling time equals 60.6 ns. The output current range is 0–10 μA, which translates into an LSB of 40 nA. Good linearity is achieved, INL < 0.5 LSB and DNL < 0.4 LSB, respectively. Static power consumption with the outputs operated at a voltage of 0.9 V is approximately 10 μW. Dynamic power, mainly consumed by switching activity of the digital circuit parts, amounts to 100 μW at 2.6 MHz operation frequency. Total area is 38.6 × 2933.0 μm2