An empirical evaluation of alternative consumption hypotheses in less developed countries :

To accomplish the above objective, five consumption theories were selected and applied to the Iranian economy. Econometric methods and criteria were employed to estimate and evaluate the predictions of each consumption hypothesis. In general the empirical results of the study suggest that although there are many socio-economic differences between developed and less developed countries, they do not affect the applicability of the same consumption theories in both groups of countries. However, the interpretation and the marginal effects of variables in the consumption functions of less developed countries differ from the developed countries. The findings of this study also support the conclusions reached by a few other studies which have examined the relevance of consumption hypotheses in less developed countries.Because most theoretical and empirical works in economics concentrate on the developed countries, their relevance to the less developed countries has been questioned by several groups, especially historical and institutional economists. The purpose of the study is to examine the validity of alternative consumption theories in the less developed economies by using Iran as a special case

The relationship between lexical fluency, temporal fluency, and language proficiency in Iranian EFL context

Lexical Fluency Units (LFUs) are strings of words that act like single items in language users’ mental lexicon. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in analyzing them in learners’ speech and classifying them into different types (Ushigusa 2008, Wood 2012). The literature in this particular field of study stated that the higher use of lexical fluency units might lead to the higher score on tests of oral English proficiency; therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between lexical fluency, temporal fluency (TF), and proficiency. To conduct the study, forty Iranian EFL teachers with TOEFL scores above 570 were chosen. To ensure that they have acquired competency in communication by which they can be employed as an instructor in the real context, they took an Oral English Proficiency Test (OEPT). Then, the sounds recorded from OEPT were analysed by PRRAT and Transcriber software and the transcripts of their responses were also analysed for detection of lexical fluency units (LFUs). Results indicated that teachers who incorporated more LFUs in their speech had higher TF ratio and consequently higher proficiency score. The interpretations and implementations are also discussed

Applied machine learning in greenhouse simulation; new application and analysis

Prediction the inside environment variables in greenhouses is very important because they play a vital role in greenhouse cultivation and energy lost especially in cold and hot regions. The greenhouse environment is an uncertain nonlinear system which classical modeling methods have some problems to solve it. So the main goal of this study is to select the best method between Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) to estimate three different variables include inside air, soil and plant temperatures (Ta, Ts, Tp) and also energy exchange in a polyethylene greenhouse in Shahreza city, Isfahan province, Iran. The environmental factors which influencing all the inside temperatures such as outside air temperature, wind speed and outside solar radiation were collected as data samples. In this research, 13 different training algorithms were used for ANN models (MLP-RBF). Based on K-fold cross validation and Randomized Complete Block (RCB) methodology, the best model was selected. The results showed that the type of training algorithm and kernel function are very important factors in ANN (RBF and MLP) and SVM models performance, respectively. Comparing RBF, MLP and SVM models showed that the performance of RBF to predict Ta, Tp and Ts variables is better according to small values of RMSE and MAPE and large value of R2 indices. The range of RMSE and MAPE factors for RBF model to predict Ta, Tp and Ts were between 0.07 and 0.12 °C and 0.28–0.50%, respectively. Generalizability and stability of the RBF model with 5-fold cross validation analysis showed that this method can use with small size of data groups. The performance of best model (RBF) to estimate the energy lost and exchange in the greenhouse with heat transfer models showed that this method can estimate the real data in greenhouse and then predict the energy lost and exchange with high accuracy. Keywords: Black box method, Energy lost, Environmental situation, Energy exchang

The Effectiveness of Peer Group-Based Training in Adherence to Treatment of Adults with Diabetic Foot Ulcer

Background & Objective: Adherence to treatment of patients with diabetic foot ulcer leads to successful treatment and a reduction in the severity of complications. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of peer group-based training on adherence to treatment of adults with diabetic foot ulcers in Shiraz in 2020. Materials & Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 70 patients (35 in the intervention group and 35 in the control group). The content of the education program was performed by the peer for the intervention group in 5 sessions of 45 minutes, and the routine education of the diabetes clinic was provided to the control group. Data collection tools included demographic characteristics questionnaire, Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS). Data were analyzed by the SPSS software version 22 using statistical tests (t-test, ANOVA and Chi-square) and the significance level was considered p<0.05. Results: The mean score of adherence to treatment was significant immediately after the intervention, but there was no significant difference after one and three months. Conclusion: Peer training of patients with diabetic foot ulcers could improve adherence to treatment. Therefore, health system policymakers may use this approach as an effective method in the care program of patients with diabetic foot ulcers and other diseases

Comparison of vitamin D level in pregnant women with and without gestational diabetes

Introduction: Recent findings indicate the correlation ofvitamin D metabolism with diabetes. Since, no comprehensivestudy has performed on pregnant women in thisregard yet, this study aimed to evaluate the correlation ofvitamin D deficiency and gestational diabetes occurrence.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectionalstudy, to evaluate the vitamin D levels, 40 diabeticand 40 non-diabetic pregnant women referred toendocrinology clinics of Bushehr University of MedicalSciences, Bushehr, Iran were enrolled.Results: In this study, 35 (87.5%) and 30 (75%) of diabeticand non-diabetic pregnant women had vitamin Dlevels &lt; 20 ng/ml, respectively, which was not statisticallysignificant (p=0.26).Conclusion: Our data showed a high prevalence ofvitamin D deficiency in pregnant women, so that, 90%of the individuals showed vitamin D levels &lt; 30ng/ml.However, this deficiency was not associated with increasedrisk of GD