Sharif Digital Repository

Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)—giving infants only breast-milk for the first 6 months of life—is a component of optimal breastfeeding practices effective in preventing child morbidity and mortality. EBF practices are known to vary by population and comparable subnational estimates of prevalence and progress across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are required for planning policy and interventions. Here we present a geospatial analysis of EBF prevalence estimates from 2000 to 2018 across 94 LMICs mapped to policy-relevant administrative units (for example, districts), quantify subnational inequalities and their changes over time, and estimate probabilities of meeting the World Health... 

Over the past few decades, industrial development has caused a dramatic increment in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as a leading cause of climate change. Modifying the industrial plants' environmental performance is the main pillar of improving efficiency that can reduce the waste of resources and make achieving lower-cost global emission reduction targets of the Kyoto protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM) possible. Considering the essentiality of knowledge-based research in increasing the awareness of policymakers by providing better access to accurate and reliable information, an analytical survey on efficiency in oil, gas, and petrochemical industries has been conducted by... 

Energy innovation is a key requirement to limit global warming and tackle climate change in the years to come. A better understanding of the public R&D mechanism is likely to improve allocation of resources for energy innovation. Thus, the present paper evaluates the impacts of public R&D and knowledge spillovers on the development of renewable energy sources. To achieve this goal, knowledge flow has been modeled as a function of public R&D expenditures, cumulative knowledge stocks and knowledge spillovers. To show the application of the model, the Nordic countries as one of the pioneers in renewable technologies have been chosen. Results show the cumulative knowledge stock will increase to... 

Iranian water authority has recently announced that one of the effective ways to avoid unprecedented high water consumption in Iran's agriculture sector is to increase water price. This paper analyzes the feasibility of this policy by using a hydro-economic approach with the aim to consider the role of water pricing in agricultural water management. Such an analysis was conducted through comparing price of water consumed for producing selected agricultural crops (i.e. wheat, sugar beets, onion, tomato, barley, potato, corn, alfalfa hay and watermelon) in a case study on two provinces (East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan) in Iran to that in the state of California (CA) in the USA. According... 

The complex structure of the power system and the pivotal role of electrical energy in determining the socio-economic indicators of any countries lead the policy makers of power industry to take into account the expansion planning of generation system with high priority. Considering the intense fluctuations of costs in electrical energy generation (particularly due to variation of fuel prices within the recent years in the Middle East), finding an optimal generation portfolio, regardless of the costs variations risk looks impossible. The portfolio theory, as an efficient tool for risk management, provides a proper solution to materialize the optimal generation portfolios with the following... 

Vigorous debates have taken place within and between many countries about regulatory policy regimes covering the assessment and approval of genetically modified (GM) crops. In Iran, a very vigorous and hotly contested policy debate concerning legislation covering GM crops occurred between 2004 and 2009, but it was confined within government circles with almost no public discussion. This paper analyses the Iranian policy-making process in the period 2006-9. It explains how and why a stalemate arose in disputes between ministries and departments. The chosen analytical framework draws mainly on the regulation of technological risks and the analysis of public policy-making. It deploys the... 

This study investigates a supply chain of perishable fruits and vegetables. A simulation model using system dynamics approach is proposed to study the behaviors and relationships within the supply chain and to determine the impact of the supply, demand and price interactions. The proposed model yields an insight into the overall agricultural system, taking into account the influence of import quota policies. The purpose of this study is to develop a multi-objective model identifying the best import quota policy for Tehran Municipality Organization of Fruits and Vegetables. The multiple objectives are considered to be price mean, price variation and markup. Key conclusions were reached on how... 

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are now widely accepted by developing countries as a critical tool in their efforts, so policy makers should develop ICT policies or e-policies in order to monitor and evaluate political, socio-economic and cultural impacts of ICT and also measure progress in the use of ICTs to achieve the development strategies and policies. The paper focuses on the ICT's impacts as an important part in developing e-policies, including a comprehensive model based on system approach, appropriate frameworks for determining affecting and affected elements of ICT and a conceptual framework for analyzing and prioritizing different dimensions of the society. The...