Sharif Digital Repository

It is often assumed that there is a confrontation between science and Islam, especially in religious communities. Biological evolution is often one of the constant sources of contention due to its metaphysical implications. Although there are some empirical data showing low acceptance of evolution and understanding its basic principles in Sunni-majority countries, there has been a categorical lack of data about Iran as the most influential Shiite-majority state. Therefore, in order to reach a better understanding of the culture and world-view of Iranians, we implemented two established questionnaires and phone interviews to assess educated Iranians’ attitude toward evolution. We reach an... 

BACKGROUND: HLA genotyping is a prerequisite for selection of suitable donors in the process of bone marrow transplantation. METHODS: In the current study, the frequencies of HLA-A, -B, -C and -DRB1 alleles and A-B-C-DRB1 haplotypes were assessed in 855 healthy Iranian persons using a low-resolution sequence specific primer (SSP) kit. RESULTS: Frequencies were compared between 11 subpopulations including Armani, Balouch, Bandari, Turk, Turkaman, Arab, Fars, Kurd, Gilaki, Lor and Mazani. In total, 17 HLA-A alleles were detected, one of which (HLA-A*74) was present only among Lors. HLA-A*23 and -A*26 were the most frequent HLA-A alleles among Armanis. HLA-A*23 was also common among Turkamans.... 

This study investigated the lake–aquifer hydraulic interactions in Lake Urmia (LU) as the second largest hypersaline lake in the world. Due to the scarcity of hydrogeological data required for modelling, a method based on Darcy’s Law and lake water budget was used to quantify the lake–aquifer interaction. Long-term ground- and satellite-based hydrological datasets over the time frame 2001–2019 were used. Results indicate that the groundwater flux between LU and the aquifers controls 18.74 ± 1.67% of the lake’s water storage. While 10 out of 14 adjacent aquifers recharge LU at a rate of less than 180 m3/m.month, one phreatic aquifer recharges the LU up to 1400 m3/m.month. Two aquifers are... 

This study is an attempt to investigate and analyze uncertainty through the Glue method in parts of Tabriz, Iran, using the SWMM urban flood model. In order to quantify the uncertainty, the initial range of input parameters including curve number, impenetrability percentage, penetrability level’s coarseness coefficient, and impenetrability level’s coarseness coefficient are defined and the GLUE algorithm is used to conduct primary sampling operation from parametric space using Latin hypercube sampling method. Considering the simulation results and the observed values of synchronized events, about %20 of the total outputs and generated parameters series have been excluded as acceptable... 

This study developed a groundwater sustainable management index including components of environmental, social, economic and institutional responsibility. Four significant indicators: integrated groundwater footprint, population density, percentage of groundwater used for agricultural and industrial sectors, and density of observation wells were adopted and executed for 443 of Iran’s aquifers. The results indicated that the groundwater sustainable management for 32% of Iran’s aquifers is poor–very poor, and this index is more sensitive to economic and social indicators. Finally, an inverse correlation was observed between the groundwater sustainable management index values and the coefficient... 

Fine particulate matter cause profound adverse health effects in Iran. Road traffic is one of the main sources of particulate matter (PM) in urban areas, and has a large contribution in PM2.5 and organic carbon concentration, in Tehran, Iran. The composition of fine PM vehicle emission is poorly known, so this paper aims to determine the mixed fleet source profile by using the analysed data from the two internal stations and the emission factor for PM light-duty vehicles emission. Tunnels are ideal media for extraction vehicle source profile and emission factor, due to vehicles are the only source of pollutant in the urban tunnels. In this study, PM samples were collected simultaneously in... 

One of the significant challenges in urbanization is the air pollution. This highlights the need of the green city concept with reconsideration of houses, factories, and traffic in a green viewpoint. The literature review confirms that this reconsideration for green space has a positive effect on the air quality of large cities and to reduce the air pollution. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the annual vegetation changes in the green space of Mashhad, Iran as a very populated city in the middle east to study the air pollution. To investigate the relationship between the air pollution and vegetation, the Landsat 8 satellite images for summer seasons of 2013–2019 were used to extract... 

Subway metro systems are one of the most efficient modes of mass transportation, especially in heavily populated areas. A series of 3D Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been carried out to investigate the interaction between mechanized twin tunnels excavated beneath the highly congested streets of Shiraz (Iran). Firstly, the reference numerical model has been verified using the measured data of surface settlement control pins. The effects of driving of the new closed shield tunnel on the evolution of stress fields in the existing segmental lining as well as the ground surface settlements in the reference numerical model have been then quantified. Lastly, the effects of influencing factors... 

This paper presents a case study and numerical simulations of a corner of a deep excavation in Tehran supported by soldier piles and ground anchors. This study focuses on the differences between 2D and 3D numerical modelling in estimating the wall deflection at the corner locations of the excavation. Furthermore, the performance of modelling with Mohr–Coulomb constitutive law was compared with the result of a hardening soil model. The modelling procedure was calibrated against a full-scale instrumented tieback wall at Texas A&M University and the monitoring data of the excavation project. The results indicated that the hardening soil model yields reasonable predictions of wall deflection in... 

Solar heater has been known as an application of the solar thermal energy that is commonly employed for water heating. Purpose of this research is to introduce a conceptual model for employing solar water heaters (SWHs) in Yazd, Iran. Moreover, structural equation modeling (SEM) is used for assessing effect(s) of the available parameters on the suggested model. Political-cultural-social issues, economic issues, financial support, geographic location, infrastructure, and interactions were assessed as the independent variables of the study. AMOS was used to implement the processes and design the research questionnaire. According to SEM, the dependent variable “interaction” via “economic... 

Rotating dissolved air flotation (RDAF) has been utilized for several decades in paper-recycling wastewater treatment; however, it has rarely been addressed in the literature, which makes research into this system challenging and complicated. However, in this work, a full-scale industrial wastewater treatment system for a paper-recycling mill in Mazandaran province, Iran, was evaluated. Experiments indicated that under the same wastewater and chemical conditions, there are differences in the removal efficiencies. This finding was investigated by conducting simulation in ANSYS CFX R18.0 and experimentation simultaneously. Thus, the main purpose of this research was to optimize the operation... 

In the contemporary sustainable urban set up, one of the critical issues adversely affecting the quality of life in urban areas and inflicting immense costs on cities is traffic congestion. Traffic congestion is an outgrowth of increased traffic flow in certain locations of large cities. Recently, urban decision-makers and transportation planners resort to one-way traffic system as an effective traffic management strategy, which has a profound effect on reducing traffic congestion and improving traffic flow, leading to urban sustainability. In the present paper, the authors endeavored to develop a novel methodological framework based on optimization techniques in order to mitigate traffic... 

Dust storms are a common phenomenon in arid and semi-arid regions in West Asia, which has led to high levels of PM10 in local and remote area. The Yazd city in Iran with a high PM10 level located downstream of dust sources in the Middle East and Central Asia. In this study, based on meteorological and PM10 monitoring data, backward trajectory modeling of air parcels related to dust events at Yazd station was performed using the HYSPLIT model in 2012–2019. The trajectory cluster analysis was used to identify the main dust transport pathways and wind systems. Three methods of Cross-referencing Backward Trajectory (CBT), Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF) and Concentration Weighted... 

Iran is a country with numerous traffic accidents, offenses, and disruptions. According to the deterrence theory, increased detection of traffic offenses would decrease violations. Detection of traffic offenses is insufficient in Iran due to the limited operational capacity of the police. Reducing traffic violations would reduce accidents, disorders, and socio-economic costs. In this paper, a scheme for detecting and reporting speeding and parking violations to infringement processing through a crowdsourcing platform is proposed as a solution considering Iran's economic and social context. Two scenarios for detecting and reporting speeding and parking violations were considered: public... 

A self-report questionnaire survey was conducted online to collect big data from over 16000 Iranian families (who were the residents of 1000 urban and rural areas of Iran). The resulting data storage contained over 1 M records of data and over 1G records of automatically inferred information. Based on this data storage, a series of machine learning experiments was conducted to investigate the relationship between nutrition and the risk of contracting COVID-19. With highly accurate scores, the findings strongly suggest that foods and water sources containing certain natural bioactive and phytochemical agents may help to reduce the risk of apparent COVID-19 infection. © 2022 The Author(s)  

The tourism and hospitality industry significantly impacts socio-economic development and cultural growth in developing countries. This study develops an integrated multicriteria decision-making and optimization model for partner selection in public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the hospitality industry. The proposed model uses a weighted influence non-linear gauge system to evaluate the partners. A multi-objective optimization model is then utilized to select a partner for each PPP project using a linear programming metric solution approach. A case study demonstrates the applicability of the proposed model in a PPP project in Iran to renovate and convert historic houses into hotels... 

There are several methods for assessing ecosystem tolerance level, each method is defined according to the target of the ecosystem development. This paper seeks a way to plan for the development of the existing ecosystems modified for human activities. For this purpose, two methods have been applied to assess the effects of local development on the local ecosystem tailored to the different demands. Thus, after gathering data in a coastal region all technologies being capable to be applied in this region regarding ecotourism development (population growth) were determined. Via different indicators, the quality of the ecosystem was evaluated. The Ecosystem Quality Index (EQI) and Technique for... 

In recent decades, population growth, agricultural development and climate change have caused environmental problems in the world, especially in the arid and semi-arid regions such as Iran. Urmia Lake, one of the unique biosphere reserves of the world, has suffered from these problems in the last 20 years. Although many studies conducted to the negative impacts of human-induced activities, especially agricultural expansion on the lake, few studies focused on providing restoration plans for that. This study uses a system dynamics method for modelling the restorations scenarios of Urmia Lake based on the prey-predator approach. This method is helpful to simplify the complicated feedbacks and... 

The spatiotemporal dynamic of salinity concentration (SC) in saline lakes is strongly dependent on the rate of water flow into the lake, water circulation, wind speed, evaporation rate, and the phenomenon of salt precipitation and dissolution. Although in-situ observations most reliably quantify water quality metrics, the spatiotemporal distribution of such data are typically limited and cannot be readily extrapolated for either long-term projections or extensive areas. Alternatively, remotely sensed imagery has facilitated less expensive and a stronger ability to estimate water quality over a wide range of spatiotemporal resolutions. This study introduces an adaptive learning model that... 

The abrupt development of technology has confronted different industries' managers with crucial decision points. The scope of their decisions' impact goes beyond their companies' borders. Sustainable assessment of technology investigates the economic, environmental, and social effects of technologies on firms and their environment. Nonetheless, the technology management process includes different steps (such as technology acquisition and exploitation) which need a comprehensive decision-making tool toward sustainable development targets. This paper aims to propose an integrated decision-making model to investigate the social sustainability of the technology management process. Considering...