Assessment of Base Flow Separation Methods at Karaj Dam Watershed

Assessing existing water resources along with different routes of the river in a watershed is essential for its optimum use, conservation, and predicting flood and minimum flow. In addition, identification of runoff production processes is also important for assessing the effects of climate change and landuse on the hydrologic response of the watershed. There are several methods for separating base flow. In this study, the minimum local methods, sliding intervals, fixed intervals, one -parameter recursive digital filter and two -parameters recursive digital filter method were used for separating base flow at four hydrometric stations of Karaj River basin with a statistical period of 22 years (1991-2012). Then, the results were compared to determine the most appropriate method. The results showed that at Sierra-Kalvan and Nashtarod stations, the one-parameter recurrsive filter method with alpha of 0.925 and 0.950 could be a suitable method for estimating the base flow, due to the lack of significant differences between their results, as well as the minimum standard deviation. For Mored and Sierra stations, the one -parameter recursive digital filter with alpha values ​​of 0.950 and 0.975 was considered as a suitable method in separating base flow because of the lack of significant differences between their results as well as the standard deviation. The one -parameter recursive digital filter, therefore, has high spped in separating the flow hydrograph and can determine the continuous values of base flow

EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FINANCIAL BEHAVIOR OF INVESTORS WITH BRAND APPROACH (CASE STUDY: TEHRAN STOCK EXCHANGE)

Behavioral science in the field of finance and investment is among new topics raised in recent years. The relationship between financial sciences and other fields of social sciences such as financial psychology has caused researchers to do many researches regarding the behavior of investors in the financial markets and their reactions to different situations. Based on the theories of financial behavior, shareholders' decision to buy and sell stocks is under the influence of internal and external psychological factors. Through designing and experimental testing of the model of investors' financial behavior in the Tehran Stock Exchange with an emphasis on brand, this study was an attempt to investigate the influence of these factors. To this end, financial, psychological and social factors were considered as the most important external factors influencing the behavior of investors and, considering the mediating role of brand awareness, their impact on perceived risk and perceived return as well as investment intention was tested. The research population consisted of all individual investors in the Tehran Stock Exchange. In order to determine the sample size, considering unlimited population, Cochran formula was used and hence the sample size was determined to be 145. For data collection, standard questionnaire was used. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire and the research hypotheses were tested using path analysis. The results showed that psychological factors have a positive impact on perceived risk and returns. Financial factors had a positive impact on perceived risk but no impact on perceived return. The impact of social factors on perceived risk and perceived return was not confirmed. Moreover, the results showed that brand awareness has a moderating role in the relationship between social factors and perceived risk and return. However, its moderating role was not confirmed in the relationship between the psychological and financial factors and perceived risk and return. Perceived risk had a positive effect on attitude toward the brand. However, the impact of perceived return on attitude toward the brand was not significant. Finally, the attitude toward the brand had a positive effect on shareholders' investment intention.JEL Codes - G0

Spike Protein Mutations and the Effects on SARS-CoV-2 Pathogenesis

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 spike (S) glycoprotein facilitates receptor binding to initiate cell entry that is the critical initial step in the infection cycle. Due to S glycoprotein's pivotal role, in this review, we pointed to show potential functional and structural consequences of S glycoprotein and its variants, which has been related with increased viral load in humans with SARS-CoV-2 infection

Effective Factors on Job Stress and Its Relationship with OrganizationalCommitment of Nurses in Hospitals of Nicosia

Job stress is a psychological variable that has gained increasing importance in human resource management studies in recent years. Nursing is one of the professions which might be exposed to various sources of job stress due to its special nature, particularly its relation with patients’ physical health. This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of factors including workload, lack of control, information gap, confidence and proficiency in the role, management’s relationship and support, and coworkers’ relationship and support on the job stress of nurses, and to identify the consequences of job stress in relation to nurses’ organizational commitment. The population comprised all nurses working in different treatment and health departments of state and private hospitals of Nicosia. The questionnaires were distributed and finally 100questionnaires returned by the nurses during several follow-up stages carried out by the researcher. In order to identify the factors influencing job stress, standard models developed by HSE (2004b), Davis et al. (1991) and Osipow (1987) were used. In order to analyze the data, Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression were used by SPSS software. Results show that information gap exerts a positive effect on nurses’ job stress, whereas confidence and proficiency in the role and management relationship and support exerts a negative effect on their job stress. However, the significant effect of workload, lack of control, and coworkers’ relationship and support was not confirmed. Finally, identification of job stress consequences revealed that nurses with lower levels of job stress enjoyed higher organizational commitment

Clinical Performance of RT-PCR and Chest CT Scan for Covid-19 Diagnosis; A Systematic Review

Context: Due to their availability and rapid turnaround time, the supplemental role of chest computed tomography (CT) scan and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is growing for early diagnosis of patients with COVID-19. However, due to the low efficiency of viral nucleic acid detection as well as low specificity of chest CT scan for detecting COVID-19 pneumonia, both methods show incomplete clinical performance for proper COVID-19 disease diagnosis. The purpose of this review was to compare the clinical performance of two methods and to evaluate the diagnostic values of chest CT scan and RT-PCR for suspected COVID-19 patients. Evidence acquisition: We systemically searched PubMed, Cochrane, from December 2019 to the end of April 2020. Clinical research papers in goal fields that reviewed COVID-19 patients, whom chest CT scan, and PCR testing were performed together were included. Results: In total, we found 536 studies; and finally168 studies were shortlisted. Following title and abstract screening, we reached 83 studies based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Conducted screen by the full text covered 28 studies, which led to data extraction. By the full-text assessment of 28 included studies, we found 4486 assessed patients. Totally, 3164 patients had positive chest CT scans, and 3014 patients had positive PCR results. The finding showed that recent studies on the diagnostic performance of RT-PCR and chest CT scan have commonly been reported from China. Conclusion: The results from this review indicate that the chest CT scan should be used for symptomatic and hospitalized patients. Moreover, chest CT scan should not be used as a primary screening tool for diagnosing COVID-19. Application of RT-PCR as the first line diagnosis is still recommended

The Effect of Tourism Risk Dimensions on Foreign Tourists Satisfaction and Loyalty: Mediating Role of Destination Image (Case Study Ardabil City)

Generally speaking, tourists avoid traveling to risky tourism destinations and, instead, choose destinations with lower perceived risk. Therefore, the perceived risks of travel to tourism destinations can be considered as one of the most important deterrents to travel to tourism destinations which can affect tourists' behavior. This research intends to examine the impact of tourism risk dimensions on the consequences of the behavior of tourists, namely their satisfaction and loyalty, and analyze the mediating role of destination image in this relationship. Statistical population of the research consists of foreign tourists who have traveled to Ardabil and, owing to the limited number of foreign tourists, 186 subjects have been selected as the sample based on the Morgan table. Standard questionnaire is used to measure all variables and data analysis is performed based on structural equation modeling and LISREL software. The results show that tourism risk indicators including financial, economic, social and cultural, psychological, environmental, health, political and technological risks influence foreign tourists' mental image of tourism destination in Iran. Moreover, the mediating role of destination University of Mohaghegh Ardabilimage was confirmed in the relationship between all aspects of tourism risk and the satisfaction and loyalty of foreign tourists in Iran. The findings of this research can provide policy makers and planners of tourism industry in Iran with appropriate strategies in order to reduce tourism risk and improve destination image, satisfaction and loyalty of foreign tourists

Effect of Transformational Leadership and Knowledge Management Processes on Organizational Innovation in Ardabil University of Medical Sciences

Uncertainty, complexity, globalization and increasing technological change are among the most important features of the current era. Success in such circumstances requires changes in activities, organizational tasks, the management especially the leadership of organizations, knowledge management and innovation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of transformational leadership and knowledge management on organizational innovation in Ardabil University of Medical Sciences. Standard questionnaire was used in order to collect data for all variables of the research. Statistic population of this research consisted of all managers, employees, and faculty members of Ardebil University of Medical Sciences of whom 277 subjects were selected based on Cochran formula and convenience sampling method. For data analysis, structural equation modeling and LISREL software were used. The [1]obtained results showed that transformational leadership has a positive effect on knowledge management and organizational innovation. Moreover, the impact of knowledge management on organizational innovation was shown to be positive. Finally, the mediating role of knowledge management was confirmed in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational innovatio

Development of safety improvement method in city zones based on road network characteristics

Background and Objective: Extensive studies have so far been carried out on developing safety models. Despite the extensive efforts made in identifying independent variables and methods for developing models, little research has been carried out in providing amendatory solutions for enhancing the level of safety. Thus, the present study first developed separate accident frequency prediction models by transportation modes, and then in the second phase, a development of safety improvement method (DSIM) was proposed. Materials and Methods: To this end, the data related to 14,903 accidents in 96 traffic analysis zones in Tehran, Iran, were collected. To evaluate the effect of intra-zone correlation, a multilevel model and a negative binomial (NB) model were developed based on both micro- and macro-level independent variables. Next, the DSIM was provided, aiming at causing the least change in the area under study and with attention to the defined constraints and ideal gas molecular movement algorithm. Results: Based on a comparison of the goodness-of-fit measures for the multilevel model with those of the NB model, the multilevel models showed a better performance in explaining the factors affecting accidents. This is due to considering the multilevel structure of the data in such models. The final results were obtained after 200 iterations of the optimization algorithm. Thus, to decrease accidents by 30 and cause the least change in the area under study, the independent variable of vehicle kilometer traveled per road segment underwent a considerable change, while little change was observed for the other variables. Conclusions: The final results of the DSIM showed that the ultimate solutions derived from this method can be different from the final solutions derived from the analysis of the results from the safety models. Hence, it is necessary to develop new methods to propose solutions for increasing safety

Internal Branding, Brand Citizenship Behavior and Customer Satisfaction: An Empirical Study (Case Study: Keshavarzi Bank of Ardabil)

Brand citizenship behavior is a new concept that explores the volunteer activities and activities which are outside the official duties of employees in the area of the organization’s brand. The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between internal branding, brand citizenship behavior and customer satisfaction in banking industry of Iran. Factors affecting brand citizenship behavior were considered in three categories: brand acceptance, brand enthusiasm and brand self- development; then, the influence of internal brand management on brand commitment, brand citizenship behavior and customer satisfaction was examined. Statistical population of the research consisted of 100 employees of Keshavarzi bank of Ardabil. Based on Morgan table, 84 employees were selected as the sample and finally 66 questionnaires were completed. In order to collect the required data related to all variables of the research, the standard questionnaire of Porricelli, Yurova, Abratt, and Bendixen (2014) and Orel and Kara (2014) was used. Using structural equation modeling and AMOS software, the research hypotheses were tested. The results obtained from this study show that internal brand management has a positive and significant impact on brand Commitment. Brand Commitment has a significant and positive impact on brand citizenship behavior and brand citizenship behavior has a significant and positive impact on customer satisfaction