Extracting the curve-number map of watersheds of Lighvan Chay in GIS environment

One of the factors involved in the planning of water resources, is calculating the amount of runoff resulting from rainfall. Many of catchments in our country do not have hydrometric stations. Implementation water resource development projects, requires estimating these information. SCS method is one of the customary methods for solving this problem and as information required for this method, we can mention the runoff curve-number. This article has been performed about the Lighvan Chay catchment in East Azerbaijan and its purpose is the extraction of runoff curve number. To determine the curve-number, the land-use map and the soil map of the area have been prepared and then it is modulated in ArcGIS and the calculations have been performed. Using geographic information processing system, the weighted average value of the curve has been estimated under moisture condition and its amount is about 85.3 .According to that the highest level of catchment obtained about 86. Comparing the results with curve numbers showed us that the obtained numbers are so close to each other and therefore the offered method is an easy and fast method for obtaining the curve number of catchments.Keywords: Raining, Runoff, GIS Methodology, SCS,curve number map, Lighvan Cha

Facilitating and inhibiting factors related to treatment adherence in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a qualitative study

Background: Adherence issues in PCOS patients have not been examined thoroughly. Patients report prolonged periods of treatment and side effects of drug as the most common reason for withdrawal from treatment. To improve the effective management of PCOS patients, it is fundamental to understand facilitating and inhibiting factors to treatment adherence. Objective: to explore facilitating /inhibiting factors related to treatment adherence among PCOS patients. Material and Methods: This was a qualitative study with a purposive sample of women with confirmed diagnosis of PCOS. The data were collected via 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with women aged between 21 to 34. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Five themes were identified which described different types of facilitating /inhibiting factors to treatment adherence. Inhibiting factors included financial issues, patient-related, disease-related, health care provider-related factors; social factors were found to be both facilitating and inhibiting. Conclusion: The findings suggest that successful adherence to PCOS treatment is highly dependent on patients recognizing and adapting to financial, social, and health care related inhibiting factors. It is also crucial for clinicians and policy makers to recognize these key inhibiting factors in order to improve treatment outcomes Keywords: polycystic ovarian syndrome, adherence, qualitative researc

The Internet Use and Community Involvement in Tehran Iran

This is exploring the impact of the internet on local community involvement in Tehran, Iran. It investigates how the internet changes community involvement and argues that the Internet has created new forms of community involvement instead of local community involvement. This study has employed quantitative research methods. The sample for this research was drawn from the population of Internet users, namely people who accessed and used the Internet in Tehran, Iran. The results of the study indicate that there was no significant correlation between the amount of Internet use and local community involvement. People who spend more time online (high Internet user) do not have a greater local community involvement than people who use Internet less of the time. By contrast in terms of type of Internet use and social capital the study found that people who used the Internet for local news and reading newspapers online were more involved in the local community. The study illustrated that the Internet encourages people to some extent to become involved in the national or global community.nbs

Groundwater vulnerability assessment: A review including new statistical and hybrid methods

The concept of groundwater vulnerability was first introduced in the 1970s in France to recognize sensitive areas in which surface pollution could affect groundwater, and to enable others to develop management methods for groundwater protection against surface pollutants. Since this time, numerous methods have been developed for groundwater vulnerability assessment (GVA). These can be categorized into four groups: (i) overlay and index-based methods, (ii) process-based simulation models, (iii) statistical methods, and (iv) hybrid methods. This work provides a comprehensive review of modern GVA methods, which in contrast to previous reviews, examines the last two categories in detail. First, the concept of groundwater vulnerability is defined, then the major GVA methods are introduced and classified. This includes detailed accounts of statistical methods, which can be subdivided into orthodox statistical, data-driven and Bayesian methods, and their advantages and disadvantages, as well as modern hybrid methods. It is concluded that Bayesian inference offers many advantages compared with other GVA methods. It combines theory and data to give the posterior probabilities of different models, which can be continually updated with new data. Furthermore, using the Bayesian approach, it is possible to calculate the probability of a proposition, which is exactly what is needed to make decisions. However, despite the advantages of Bayesian inference, its applications to date have been very limited

Comparison of DRASTIC and DRASTICL groundwater vulnerability assessments of the Burdekin Basin, Queensland, Australia

In the Burdekin Basin, Queensland, Australia, groundwater contamination due to agricultural activities has led to concerns over its impacts on globally significant ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef. An appropriate method for groundwater vulnerability assessment is essential for the sustainable use of this groundwater resource and its longer-term environmental management. The aim of this study is to apply and assess the suitability of the standard DRASTIC index-based method for groundwater vulnerability assessment of the Burdekin Basin. The intrinsic groundwater vulnerability is calculated in ArcGIS, using data for the period 2010 to 2021. The results are compared to available water quality data. The calculated DRASTIC scores are found to be only weakly correlated with water quality parameters, including the nitrate concentration (R = 0.07), which should behave as a proxy measure of groundwater vulnerability. To address this, a modified DRASTICL method containing a land use parameter is also implemented, to assess the specific groundwater vulnerability. The correlation between DRASTICL scores and nitrate levels (R = 0.2) is more significant but is still relatively weak. From this study, it is recommended that alternative methods be developed to assess groundwater vulnerability in the Burdekin Basin, and other comparable aquifer systems

Adjuvant administration of probiotic effects on sexual function in depressant women undergoing SSRIs treatment: a double-blinded randomized controlled trial

Background According to the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation’s Global Health Data Exchange (2023) it is estimated that 5% of all adults will experience depressive disorder. Amongst the general loss of pleasure and interest in everyday activities that are symptoms of low mood, reduced sexual desire and sexual dysfunction can be particularly overlooked. Human sexuality is complex, but finding solutions based on scientific evidence to limit the symptoms of depressive disorder and the iatrogenic impact of antidepressant treatment to improve this outcome is an important step in promoting psychological health and general wellbeing. Objective The present study aimed is to provide scientific evidence to assess the effect of oral probiotic on sexual function in women with depressive disorder treated with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) in an Iranian population. Design This study was a double-blind randomized clinical trial. Eligible women were assigned to lactofem plus SSRIs (n = 58) or SSRIs alone (n = 54). In group A, SSRI antidepressants were prescribed together with Lactofem, and in group B, SSRI antidepressants were prescribed alone. Lactofem including Lactobacillus acidophilus 2 × 109 cfu/g, Bifidobacterium bifidus 2 × 109 cfu/g, Lactobacillus rutri 2 × 109 cfu/g, Lactobacillus fermentum 2 × 109 cfu/g; capsule weight of 500 mg bio-capsule administered orally and daily. The duration of intervention in two groups was two months. All questionnaires were completed by the patients before and after the intervention. The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Larson's Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire were used to evaluate sexual function, severity of depressive disorder and sexual satisfaction, respectively. Results Based on the results of the present study, there was a statistically significant difference in sexual satisfaction and severity of depressive disorder between the groups before and after the intervention (P < 0.05). Also, our findings showed that after eight weeks, the Lactofem plus SSRIs group showed significant improvement in FSFI domains and total scores compared to SSRIs alone group (P < 0.05). Conclusions The results of the present study show that taking probiotics for eight weeks may improve the severity of depressive disorder, sexual function and sexual satisfaction in depressed women treated with SSRIs. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.govidentifier: IRCT20160524028038N14 (19/12/2022

Facing the conflicts and complicities betweencapitalist modernisation and Islamisation : a study of women’s subjectivities and emancipatorystruggles in Iran

This thesis is concerned with understanding women’s emancipatory struggles and efforts to challenge their secondary status in Iran, but with reference to other Muslim societies in the Middle East. To explore the possibility of women’s emancipation in Iran, the thesis focuses on, firstly, the position of women in relation to the forces of capitalist modernisation and Islamisation; secondly and more importantly, on women’s main convictions and inner-conflicts, and how these are shaped by those forces. The thesis thus seeks to grasp the structure and dynamics of women’s subjective field and to identify distinct subjective patterns which would constitute different responses to their situation. The thesis is divided into two parts: first, a literature review throws light on different crucial aspects of women’s lives and possibilities for transformation in Iran and other Muslim societies in relation to the forces of capitalist modernisation and Islamisation. While showing the richness and growing sophistications of an expanding field of study, the literature review also pointed out to a few significant lacunae or gaps in current research. Two such gaps stand out and are of the greatest relevance for this thesis, namely, the fact that the issues of women’s emancipation and subjectivities are missing in most studies of Muslim women, as these studies tend to overwhelmingly focus on women’s (often imposed rather than self-attributed) identities and on the anti-Western or anti-Islamic aspects thereof. The second part of this thesis, a field study, seeks to fill in some of those gaps, particularly those concerning women’s subjectivities and struggles for emancipation. In-depth semi-structured open-ended interviews with twenty-two Iranian women in Tehran from different social classes and backgrounds were conducted. The interviews, based on an interview guide designed so as to capture crucial aspects of women’s subjective dispositions and strivings for emancipation, immediately brought out the critical importance of the opposition, missing in most studies, between capitalism and emancipation, and enabled the development of a two-dimensional framework based on two central oppositions: capitalism vs. emancipation on the horizontal axis or dimension, and modernity vs. tradition on the vertical one. A more in-depth analysis of the interviews through the lens of the new framework allowed the identification of four main subjectivities carried by women and explain their emergence in terms of interaction effects between the four subjective determinations defining the framework (capitalism, modernity, emancipation and tradition): Islamist subjectivity, a statist form of religion in strong opposition to emancipatory feminism, the subjectivity of desire for the West, a fascination for individualism and a Western lifestyle and a denial of tradition, traditionalist subjectivities, a strong tendency to preserve all forms of traditions particularly religion and nationalism, and emancipatory subjectivity, although the latter only appears in this study in the form of modern emancipatory aspects and elements (with equality at their core) rather than a full-fledged ‘emancipatory subjectivity’. Thanks to this form of analysis we have come to understand that women’s movements in Iran are more oriented towards ‘tackling Islamisation’ than ‘seeking equality’ or ‘challenging patriarchy’. It is on this basis that the thesis draws two of its main conclusions: firstly, that the opposition between capitalism and emancipation should be not only taken into account, but a major basis for any future studies on Muslim women; and, secondly, that the struggle against Islamisation cannot be separated from the struggles against social inequality and patriarchy