Isfahan City In Iran Research Articles

Integrated Study of Air Pollutant Emissions from Different Sources in Isfahan City of Iran

Integrated Study of Air Pollutant Emissions from Different Sources in Isfahan City of Iran

Colonization of urban futures in the Global South: lessons from the case of Isfahan 2040

PurposeDue to the limitations of conventional urban planning, it is essential to develop novel techniques of urban futruing. This paper aimed to use the scenario technique to create four plausible narratives of the future of Isfahan. Also, the authors described the problems of city foresight in the Global South.Design/methodology/approachThis paper chronicles the Schwartzian steps taken to build explorative scenarios of Isfahan City in Iran in 2040. After using a STEEPV (Social, Technological, Environmental, Economic, Political, Value) analysis, the authors prioritized the collected variables by combining influence diagrams, the iceberg metaphor and an expert-based survey. Once the key uncertainties were derived, four scenarios were developed and discussed.FindingsThrough thematic analysis of the official visions of Isfahan’s future and the juxtaposition of these narratives with insight yielded in the scenario-development process, the paper concludes that the Northernness of the prevailing urban imaginaries, uncritical mimetic benchmarking, depoliticization of urban futures and the decorative reductionistic visions colonize urban futures in Isfahan/Iran. Critical/deconstructive city foresight and application of discomfort/ignorance criteria in the generation of scenarios can improve the rigor and quality of city foresight in the Global South.Originality/valueThe application of city foresight in the Global South has been limited. The paper is a step toward bridging this gap and providing some recommendations on how city foresight in the Global South might differ from its counterparts in the Global North.

Social sustainability and urban third places: the case of the city of Isfahan in Iran

Social sustainability and urban third places: the case of the city of Isfahan in Iran

The effect of problem-solving and assertiveness training on self-esteem and mental health of female adolescents: a randomized clinical trial

BackgroundChildren and adolescents are the assets of the society and their mental and physical health ensures the future health of next generations. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of problem-solving and assertiveness skill training on improving self-esteem and mental health in high school female students of Isfahan city in 2019.MethodsThis study was a randomized clinical trial. The target population was 10th grade female high school students in Isfahan city of Iran. 96 students of a female public high school were included in the study, allocated to two groups, 32 for intervention group and 64 for control group. Six 90-min sessions were considered for problem-solving and assertiveness skill training which included lectures, question and answer, movie displaying, brainstorming and role-play. The Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory Questionnaire (CSEI) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) were used in order to evaluate the variables of the study before and one month after the intervention.ResultsMean scores of the self-esteem variable changed significantly in the intervention group compared to control group before (25.2 ± 2.905) and after (29.9 ± 4.155) the intervention (p < 0.05). Mean scores of mental health also changed significantly before (27.67 ± 5.42) and after (19.033 ± 4.9) the intervention in comparison with the control group (p < 0.05).ConclusionThe findings of the present study showed that educational intervention based on problem-solving and assertiveness can enhance self-esteem and mental health in students. Future studies are needed to confirm and determine the structure of these associations.Trial Registration IRCT Code: IRCT20171230038142N9. Registration Date: 07/07/2019. Ethics Code: IR.MUI.MED.REC.1398.130.

Noise pollution prediction and seasonal comparison in urban parks using a coupled GIS- artificial neural network model.

Noise pollution is a challenging environmental issue in densely built urban areas and requires a holistic understanding of its sources and alleviation processes. Taking Isfahan City in Iran as a typical case, this study developed a combined GIS-artificial neural network (ANN) model to predict the spatio-temporal contribution of low-width parks to poise pollution mitigation. The 30-min equivalent sound level was measured at 100 stations in six urban parks (with a total area of 55.84ha) under stable and controlled winter and summer conditions. The noise level predicting variables were hypothesized to be the area of vegetation cover; NDVI-based vegetation density and standard deviation (std); vegetation height; and road coverage measured within 100-, 200-, and 300-m radius buffer rings drown around each noise sampling station. These predictors were introduced to a multi-layer perceptron ANN model to identify and compare the most important noise alleviation variables among the selected predictors. The mean noise levels ranged from 67.23 to 70.57dB. The number of vehicles showed an insignificant temporal difference, indicating that the noise source was relatively constant between the seasons. The ANN model performed satisfactorily in both seasons with SSE values of < 0.03. The Mann-Whitney U test showed a significant difference in the predicted noise levels between summer and winter. This study highlighted the efficiency of the combined GIS-ANN model in predicting distant-dependent urban processes, especially noise pollution whose levels and variability are essential in formulating urban land-use management.

Feasibility study of integration of radiative cooling and hydronic radiant system for free cooling of single-family houses

The emerge of daytime radiative cooling as a promising cooling technology, has attracted the attention of scientists to investigate its performance for different applications. The building sector as one of the highest energy consumers has a notable cooling demand and consequently, has a crucial need for sustainable cooling systems. In this paper, an active radiative cooling system as a standalone solution is proposed for a single-family house that cools the people by a hydroponic cooling system inside the house, the case study of Isfahan city in Iran as a hot and semi-arid climate. Results of the feasibility study demonstrated that cooling potential of rooftop panels can reach up to 96 W/m2 and generate up to 6 kW cooling in total. The proposed cooling system could provide thermal comfort for the occupants in 99 % of the hours in summer. Further investigations indicated that the storage tank and the number of panels directly affect the performance of the system but the water flow rate has an optimum value followed by the storage tank volume. Accordingly, larger storage tanks and higher water flow rates yield higher cooling energy. Also, it was seen that as the area and view factor of radiant surfaces inside the building increases, the required water temperature in the storage to keep the occupants in the thermal comfort stage increases. On the other hand, a more air-tight building has more comfort hours with this system. Evaluating the performance of the system in multiple climates indicated that the effectiveness of this system intensely drops in humid cities, where passive designs and ceiling fans alongside the proposed system, can compensate for the issue.

Nurses' recovery experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Isfahan, Iran: A qualitative study.

The aim of this study is to explore and describe the recovery experiences of nurses working in COVID-19 wards. The global outbreak of coronavirus in 2020 has extracted job stress for nurses. Job stress has impacts on physical and mental health and performance, so recovery is essential to restore the lost energy resources. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 nurses in Isfahan city of Iran. The research results were extracted as 5 main themes, 14 subthemes and 54 items. The main themes are detachment from work, relaxation, non-work activities, affiliation and meaning. The combination of these themes led to the clear statement that using recovery experiences is a major step toward relieving the nurses' COVID-19-related stress and their physical and mental resuscitation. The use of recovery experiences, including detachment from work, relaxation, non-work activities, affiliation and meaning by nurses, helps them cope with job stressors and regain their resources. It is the responsibility of health system policy makers, hospital managers and nurse managers to design and implement training programmes for nurses to use recovery experiences as stress management techniques in their profession.

Investigating the effect of dyslexia on writing disabilities in spelling lessons and its relationship with phonological awareness

Reading and writing disorders cause many problems for people and affect their future. Therefore, timely identification of each of these disorders can prevent many negative consequences in individuals, family, and social life of these people, which requires accurate knowledge of the factors affecting the development of these disorders. This paper aimed to investigate the effect of phonological awareness and reading disorders on students' writing disabilities in spelling lessons. The research type was causal-comparative method. The population of this study included all girl and boy students in the second and third grades of an elementary school in Isfahan city of Iran in the academic year 2019-2020. A sample of 80 were selected and studied in two groups of normal and dyslexic. Phonological awareness tests and spelling tests were used to collect data. The obtained data were analyzed at both descriptive and inferential levels using independent t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient. Findings showed that misspellings of dyslexic students are higher than normal students. The study of three components, phonological awareness, reading disorder, and misspellings, showed that weakness in phonological awareness tests leads to reading disorders. As a result, it increases misspellings. This study also showed that among the three components of phonological awareness, including phonological awareness, Syllable awareness, and intra-Syllable awareness, misspellings are inversely related to phonological awareness but have no significant relationship with the other two components.

Thermodynamic investigation of a novel hydrogen liquefaction process using thermo-electrochemical water splitting cycle and solar collectors

Hydrogen production and liquefaction using solar thermo-electrochemical water splitting systems can as an effective method for long-term renewable energy source storage are suggested. In this paper, a novel integrated configuration for the cogeneration of liquid hydrogen and oxygen by magnesium-chlorine thermo-electrochemical water splitting cycle, hydrogen liquefaction unit, and solar dish collectors is developed. The novel integrated structure produces 7116 kg/h liquid hydrogen and 57597 kg/h oxygen. Through the magnesium-chlorine cycle, pure hydrogen is produced and the required energy is supplied through solar renewable energy based on the climatic conditions of Isfahan city in Iran. Then the produced hydrogen enters the liquefaction process to generate liquid hydrogen. The heat and power consumption of the whole system for the cogeneration of liquid hydrogen and oxygen are 207.9 MW and 373.9 MW, respectively. The heat waste of the integrated structure is used to produce hot water as a by-product. The specific power consumption of the liquefaction cycle is 7.6 kWh/kg LH2 and also the total thermal efficiency of the whole integrated system is 71.4%. Through the pinch method, heat exchanger networks related to multi-stream heat exchangers of the present system are extracted. Sensitivity analysis is used to investigate the effects of changes in major parameters including operating conditions of the thermo-electrochemical cycle as well as changes in the solar dish collector main parameters and the results are reported.

Modelling the affecting factors of housing price using GMDH-type artificial neural networks in Isfahan city of Iran

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to use Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH)-type artificial neural network to model the affecting factors of housing price in Isfahan city housing market.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents an accurate model based on GMDH approach to describing connection between housing price and considered affecting factors in case study of Isfahan city based on trusted data that have been collected from 1995 to 2017 for every six months. The accuracy of the model has been evaluated by mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) in this case.FindingsDue to the obtained value of MAPE, RMSE and MAE and also their interpretation, accuracy of modelling the factors affecting housing price in Isfahan city housing market using GMDH-type artificial neural network that has been conducted in this paper, is acceptable.Research limitations/implicationsDue to limitation of reliable data availability about affecting factors, selected period is from 1995 to 2017. Accessing to longer periods of reliable data can improve the accuracy of the model.Originality/valueThe key point of this research is reaching to a mathematical formula that accurately shows the relationships between housing price in Isfahan city and effective factors. The simplified formula can help users to use it easily for analysing and describing the status of housing market in Isfahan city of Iran.

Reducing traffic congestion and increasing sustainability in special urban areas through one-way traffic reconfiguration

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 congestion through one-way traffic network reconfiguration. To test the efficacy of the proposed methodological framework, two cases were analyzed and evaluated: the Sioux Falls transportation network as a medium-sized one and a real-world large-scale transportation network of the city of Isfahan in Iran. Through the first instance, it can be seen that the proposed method can effectively reduce the total travel time in the area of interest by approximately 9%. The numerical results for the transportation network of Isfahan, justified the practical value of the model and solution method through converting proper links to one-way. As the calculation results of two cases have demonstrated, the solution can effectively reduce the total travel time of travelers in a certain congested urban area.

Investigating the Effect of the Asayar Smart Program on Ambulance Arrival Time at the Scene

Background Communication is important in pre-hospital emergencies and the faster and more accurately it is done, the more effective the treatment process will be. With the advancement of technology, a mobile phone system equipped with the Asayar smart program replaces paper methods. By creating an online connection between doctors, technicians and treatment centres, Asayar will increase the speed of the treatment and transfer of the patient to hospital. One of the most important challenges of this program is the interruption of internet connections and the reduction of internet speed. This study was designed to investigate the effect of the Asayar smart program on ambulance arrival time at the scene and compare it with paper methods. Methods A descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study in the city of Isfahan in Iran, with a sample number of 700 missions performed by the paper registration method in 2017, and 230 missions registered by Asayar program method in 2018. The Propensity score matching method was used to analyse the data. Results The findings of the study showed that the use of the Asayar smart program in the pre-hospital emergency department of Isfahan has reduced times for ambulance arrival to the scene. Conclusion Using the Asayar smart program in a pre-hospital emergency can increase patient coordination and management.

Building Energy Optimization of a Residential Building in Isfahan City of Iran

Building Energy Optimization of a Residential Building in Isfahan City of Iran

Forecasting house prices in Iran using GMDH

Purpose An accurate predictive model for forecasting urban housing price in Isfahan can be useful for sellers and owners to take more appropriate actions about housing supplying. Also, it can help urban housing planners and policymakers in managing of the housing market and preventing an urban housing crisis in Isfahan. The purpose of this paper is forecasting housing price in Isfahan city of Iran until 2022 using group method of data handling (GMDH). Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an accurate predictive model by applying the GMDH algorithm by using GMDH-Shell software for forecasting housing price in municipal boroughs of Isfahan city till the second half of 2022 based on creating time series and existing data. Alongside housing price, some other affecting factors have been also considered to control the forecasting process and make it more accurate. Furthermore, this research shows the housing price changes of boroughs on map using ArcMap. Findings Based on forecasting results, the housing price will increase at all boroughs of Isfahan till second half of the year 2022. Amongst them, Borough 15 will have the highest percentage of the price increasing (28.27%) to year 2022 and Borough 6 will have the lowest percentage of the price increasing (8.34%) to the year 2022. About ranking of the boroughs in terms of housing price, Borough number 6 and 3 will keep their current position at the top and Borough number 15 will stay at the bottom. Research limitations/implications In this research, just few factors have been selected alongside housing price to control the forecasting process owing to limitation of reliable data availability about affecting factors. Originality/value The most remarkable point of this paper is reaching to a mathematical formula that can accurately forecast housing price in Isfahan city which has been rarely investigated in former studies, especially in simplified form. The technique used in this paper to forecast housing price in Isfahan city of Iran can be useful for other cities too.

Evaluation of the ecological risk index (Er) of heavy metals (HMs) pollution in urban field soils

This study presents the importance of urban field soils for producing vegetable crops. This study was conducted in the three local areas of Isfahan (first region), Falavarjan (second region), and Natanz, Feridan, and Golpayegan (third region) to evaluate transfer factor (TF), contamination factor, ecological risk (Er) and potential ecological risk index (RI) which were employed to investigate the Pb, Cu, Co, Cd, and Cr pollution of the urban field soils affecting vegetable to reveal the potential hazards of HMs pollution for the first time in Isfahan city in Iran. To measure the pollution of such heavy metals (HMs) as Pb, Cu, Co, Cd, and Cr, the related soil samples were collected and their pollution and ecological risk indices were assessed. The results showed the highest pollution of Pb and Cr in the field soils of the first (127.37 and 112.65 mg kg−1) and second (6.94 and 4.61 mg kg−1) regions, respectively, which were greater than the amounts recommended by Iran’s Environmental Protection Agency. The high TF of Cr (0.56 mg kg−1), Cd (0.23 mg kg−1), and Co (0.30 mg kg−1) from the soils to the tubers were found to mostly involve leafy and fruity vegetables. The highest contamination factor (PF) of Cr (12.46 mg kg−1) in the first region was in the class of very high pollution. The highest Er of Cd in first and second regions was 264.0 and 214.9 mg kg−1, respectively, which were considered in the high-risk class. These indices revealed possible increases in potential ecological RI in the mentioned regions (up to 330.8 and 272.4 mg kg−1, respectively), which were classified in the classes of high and moderate pollution risk. Principal component analysis indicated that the pollution of the HMs in Isfahan and Falavarjan was overlapped. Cr in PC1 and Cd and Co in PC2 had the highest distributions and impacts representing enhancing transfer factor from the soils to onions, potatoes, and basil.

The Healthy Eating Index 2005 among 13-17 Year-Old Students in Iran

Background: Quality of diet is one of the most important factors in maintaining and improving the children's health; whereas, the quality of children's diet has not been studied in Isfahan City of Iran. This study was conducted to assess the adequacy of diet using healthy eating index (HEI)-2005 among 13-17 year-old students in Isfahan during 2014. Methods: The empirical data on dietary intakes were collected after three-days of food record. Later, a valid and reliable standard questionnaire was administered to measure the participants' physical activities. The participants' dietary intakes, daily energy, and nutrients were recorded by four researchers and were analyzed using SPSS 22by running ANOVA and Tukey tests. Results: The mean score of HEI in adolescents was 67.72. The correlation of calorie intake and mother's career with the HEI score was statistically significant (P &lt; 0.05). Conclusion: Adults taking care of adolescents are recommended to improve the quality of diet among teenagers. They should also apply relevant methods to correct the adolescents' nutritional habits.

A hybrid egalitarian bargaining game-DEA and sustainable network design approach for evaluating, selecting and scheduling urban road construction projects

Selecting and scheduling urban road construction projects (URCPs) is inherently an Urban Network Design Problem (UNDP) with a complex decision making process. Recently some studies have focused on sustainable UNDP, using different mathematical methods. In this paper, first a new network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) model has been developed. Then, considering sustainability dimensions, by integrating data envelopment analysis (DEA), game theory and sustainable UNDP, a bi-level model has been proposed for selecting and scheduling URCPs. A meta-heuristic algorithm is proposed to solve the presented bi-level model. Different test instances are solved to show the acceptable performance of proposed algorithm in both solution quality and execution time. Afterwards, the proposed model is applied to study the problem of urban road construction projects selection in a real-world case study of urban transportation network of Isfahan city in Iran. The results show that by applying obtained solution the environmental and social performance of the network has been improved and the performance of the network is almost efficient in all evaluation periods.

Public transport accessibility measure based on weighted door to door travel time

Providing accessibility by public transportation is one of the main concerns in sustainable transportation development. An appropriate accessibility index should not only take transportation and land use into account but also the people who want to attend activities via the transport system. Travel time as the most common variable is used to indicate the role of transportation. A trip with public transport includes different parts: walking from the origin point to the bus stop or from the bus stop to the destination point, waiting for the bus to arrive, and in-vehicle time. These different parts have different weight values for passengers which affect their tendency towards traveling by public transportation. In this paper, a GIS-based multimodal gravity model is developed based on the weighted door to door travel time to compute accessibility by public transportation. Five main distinct urban activities including employment, education, healthcare, shop, recreation opportunities, and services are considered and the accessibility of the target population at the census block level to these destinations through public transportation is computed. In the next step, in order to consider all activities together and report a single unique index, the five computed accessibility indices are integrated into a composite index using a principal component analysis (PCA). The integrated accessibility measure helps to get an insight into the relative distribution of the benefits of public transportation and its interaction with the land use. The proposed method is applied to the City of Isfahan in Iran. The results indicate where places, for each activity and in overall, would benefit from the better land use and public transportation interaction and where regions would suffer from low accessibility level. This work provides a methodological framework as a tool for measuring the performance of public transportation and its interaction with the land use pattern.

Weight associated factors in relation to health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Iranian adolescents

ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore body weight factors associated with HRQoL of Iranian adolescents.MethodsA total of 584 adolescents (12–18 years) were included in this cross-sectional study. Participants were selected using a multi-stage sampling method from schools located in Isfahan city in Iran. Body weight, height and waist circumference of adolescents were measured according to standard protocol and body mass index-for-age was determined using Anthroplus software. Adolescents completed a set of self-administered questionnaires which included questions about perceptions of adolescents regarding their body weight status and adolescents’ satisfaction regarding their body weight. To assess HRQoL, adolescents completed the Iranian version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ version 4.0 (PedsQL™ 4.0).ResultsThe mean age of participants was 15.1 ± 1.3 years. The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity were higher in boys compared to girls (34.5 vs. 26.7% respectively). More boys (49.5%) had incorrect perceptions regarding their body weight status compared to girls (37.0%), and more girls (39.0%) were dissatisfied with their body weight compared to boys (28.8%). HRQoL scores were not significantly different among body weight status groups except for significantly lower physical functioning scores in underweight adolescents compared to their counterparts (p = 0.049; power = 64%). Based on perception of body weight status, only boys who perceived themselves as underweight or overweight reported lower scores in different subscales of HRQoL compared to those who perceived themselves as normal weight (p < 0.05; power > 85%). In girls, body weight dissatisfaction was significantly associated with poorer HRQoL in psychosocial dimensions, while in boys, body weight dissatisfaction was significantly associated with poorer HRQoL in physical and social functioning subscales (p < 0.05; power > 85%).ConclusionIn conclusion, impairment in HRQoL mainly depends on adolescents’ perception and dissatisfaction regarding their body weight and less on their actual body weight status. These findings implying that more attention should be paid to body image as an important target for interventions aiming at promoting HRQoL during early years of life.

Evaluating the spatial distribution and the intensity of urban heat island using remote sensing, case study of Isfahan city in Iran

In recent years, urbanization has widely been developed and resulted in great loss of natural resources on earth and many other consequences such as temperature rise which exposes the cities to a phenomenon called heat island. Urban heat island (UHI) can be identified and analyzed by thermal remote sensing. In the present study, satellite images of Landsat 7 ETM+ (1999 and 2006) and Landsat 8 (2013 and 2016) were used to retrieve the land surface temperature (LST) of Isfahan in Iran by means of the mono-window algorithm. Analysis of thermal levels showed an increase in the minimum temperature of 2016 compared to 1999. Furthermore, the results revealed that the heat island ratio (URI) in Isfahan in four different years followed a rising trend, moving from 0.16 in 1999 to 0.3 in 2016. The findings of this study indicated that the areas influenced by UHI are often in northern and southern parts of the city where vegetation cover is very sparse, the land is arid, and industrialization and regional settlements are booming.