Landscape Of Iran Research Articles

Literature and Periodicals in Contemporary Iran

Abstract This article examines the rise and spread of modern Persian literature from the early twentieth century (1906 onward), tracing its trajectory through the prism of the contemporary press. Beginning with an exploration of premodern Persian literary traditions, it elucidates the instrumental role of reformists and intellectuals in establishing influential periodicals abroad, such as Akhtar in Istanbul, Habl al-Matin in Calcutta, Hekmat in Cairo, and Ghānoon in London, to foster communication with readers in Iran. During the lead-up to the Constitutional Revolution (between 1905 and 1911), periodicals within Iran experienced a surge in popularity, becoming vital conduits for literary and nonliterary discourse. Noteworthy publications such as Teatr, Nasim-e Shomal, and Sur-e Esrafil played pivotal roles in redefining literary norms and genres, particularly through the serialized publication of novels in the first Pahlavi period, reaching their peak in the second Pahlavi period until the 1979 revolution. The publication of novels and short stories in the press has also been one of the most important factors in promoting and consolidating modern fiction within the Iranian literary landscape. However, following the 1979 revolution, the press’s influence on modern literature waned as new media platforms emerged, reshaping the literary landscape in Iran.

One Thousand and One Cities: Socio-Spatial Patterns and Challenges over a Half-Century of Urbanization in Iran

: Since 1970, Iran has experienced dramatic environmental, political, and socioeconomic changes and events. All these events have impacted and shaped the urbanized landscape in Iran during the past 50 years. This article provides an overview of those factors influencing the socio-spatial patterns during this half-century of urbanization and highlights the current challenges that confront Iran’s cities.

Say What Your Longing Heart Desires: Women, Prayer, and Poetry in Iran

Say What Your Longing Heart Desires: Women, Prayer, and Poetry in Iran

‘Tell him that he is different’: how U.S. intelligence tried to recruit the Soviets in Iran

ABSTRACT This article first describes the intelligence landscape in Iran in the mid-and late 1970s where intelligence services from three countries, the USA, the Soviet Union, and Iran, were involved in a standoff. It offers an in-depth overview of these organizations and explores their history, emergence, and expansion. Then, the article dwells on approaches and methods that the U.S. intelligence agencies employed for the recruitment and co-option of would-be renegades. In particular, the article focuses on the concepts of psychological vulnerabilities and ‘MICE’ and how they were applied to find people who are already mentally defected and manipulate them toward betrayal. Two cases of the Soviet officials in Iran who became targets of recruitment approaches are analyzed in depth. Besides, ethical considerations in recruitment operations are examined briefly.

Contrasting responses of large carnivores to land use management across an Asian montane landscape in Iran

Land-use change has led to substantial range contractions for many species. Such contractions are particularly acute for wide-ranging large carnivores in Asia’s high altitude areas, which are marked by high spatiotemporal variability in resources. Current conservation planning for human-dominated landscapes often takes one of two main approaches: a “coexistence” (land sharing) approach or a “separation” (land sparing) approach. In this study, we evaluated the effects of land-use management on a guild of large carnivores in a montane ecosystem located in northeastern Iran. We used interview surveys to collect data on Persian leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor and grey wolf Canis lupus and modeled the areas occupied by these species in a Bayesian framework. After accounting for imperfect detection, we found that wolves had a higher probability of occupying the study area than leopards (82%; 95% CI 73–90% vs. 63%; 95% CI 53–73%). Importantly, each predator showed contrasting response to land-use management. National Parks (i.e. human-free areas) had a positive association with leopard occupancy (αNational Park = 2.56, 95% CI 0.22–5.77), in contrast to wolves, which displayed a negative association with National Parks (αNational Park = − 1.62, 95% CI − 2.29 to 0.31). An opposite pattern was observed for human-dominated areas (i.e. Protected Areas and Communal Lands), where occupancy was higher for wolves but lower for leopards. Our study suggests that to protect these large carnivores, a combination of land sharing and land sparing approaches is desirable within Iran montane landscapes. Any recovery program for big cats in Iranian mountains, and likely similar mountainous landscapes in west Asia, should take into account other sympatric carnivores and how they can affect adjacent human communities. For example, conflict mitigation and compensation efforts are required to include the guild of large carnivores, instead of solely targeting the charismatic big cats.

An indicator-based risk assessment framework for World Heritage sites in seismic zones: The case of “Bam and its Cultural Landscape” in Iran

This paper contributes to an integrated and systematic methodology of disaster risk assessment for (World) cultural heritage sites. A Cultural Heritage Risk Index is proposed while looking at the risk components of ‘hazard’ (earthquakes), ‘exposure’ (significance of the heritage assets), and ‘vulnerability’ (susceptibility and coping capacity). To adequately address the direct and indirect impacts of earthquake-induced disasters, a multiple impact identification framework is developed while considering the secondary hazards and human-induced threats as well. The assessment procedure was applied to the World Heritage site of Bam and its Cultural Landscape in Iran, which was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 2003. The findings of the research emphasis that in addition to the hazard, diverse factors associated with multidimensional values, structural susceptibility, and institutional capacity highly influence the level of risk. The outputs of the risk assessment contribute to the decision-making process for setting priorities and determining hazard- and site-specific risk reduction strategies, particularly for seismic susceptibility reduction and coping capacity building. This also provides multiple sectors engaged in the protection of (World) cultural heritage to adequately incorporate cultural heritage considerations into the broader disaster resilience and development planning.

An overview of the current status of follow-on biologicals in Iran

Background The advent of follow-on biologicals in Iran and biosimilars worldwide have provided various treatment options for several severe and chronic diseases. The goal of the present study was to provide an overview of their current status in Iran. Methods A comprehensive search of clinical trial registry sites and other databases that publish scholarly articles, such as PubMed and Google scholar, enabled the current follow-on biologicals landscape in Iran to be mapped. In addition, the annual national wholesale data of pharmaceutical products published by the Iranian pharmaceutical regulatory were analysed. The share of biotechnological therapeutics in terms of the whole medicines market, was evaluated, along with the share of follow-on biologicals and the potential and actualized cost-saving associated with using them. Data were collected and analysed over the 2013–2018 time period. Results At the time of writing, 21 follow-on biologicals were available in Iran and these are related to 17 different originator molecules. In 2018, approximately 13.5% of medicines spending in Iran was devoted to biotechnological therapeutics. Follow-on biologicals comprised approximately 47.2% of the biotechnological therapeutics’ total market value, up from 35.2% in 2013. The use of follow-on biologicals in Iran was associated with more than US$300 million cost-saving in 2018. A number of follow-on biological candidates, mostly monoclonal antibodies, are under development and will be subject to head-to-head clinical trials against originator products prior to regulatory approval and marketing. Conclusion Despite a significant rise in the use of follow-on biologicals in Iran, the proportional use of biotechnological therapeutics compared to the total medicines market has remained constant in recent years. Iranian healthcare authorities can improve patients’ access to life-saving biological medicines through promoting the use of follow-on biologicals instead of costly originators after making sure of the quality, efficacy and safety of the follow-on biologicals. The significant cost saving associated with using follow-on biologicals can also be utilized for other biotechnological medicines that are not currently in Iran’s drug list.

The sense of place and its influence on place branding: a case study of Sanandaj natural landscape in Iran

ABSTRACTThis research investigates the influence of sense of place on the city’s branding through examining the significance of the natural landscape as an effective factor in the formation of the cognitive images of urban residents and visitors. For this purpose, a theoretical framework was made based on the literature review of place branding and the quality of sense of place, and next, in the experimental section of the research, the needs, preferences, perceptions, and feelings of Sanandaj residents and visitors have been investigated by conducting 41 semi-structured interviews. The result shows that, although urban natural landscape is an identifying feature that may turn into the city brand, sensing the quality of place by the residents and tourists through tangible and intangible factors are also effective factors in forming the city’s identity and image and thus the quality of city branding.

Exploration of Sustainable Landscape in Iran: From Persian Garden to Modern Park

Exploration of Sustainable Landscape in Iran: From Persian Garden to Modern Park

Evaluating the statistical performance of less applied algorithms in classification of worldview-3 imagery data in an urbanized landscape

In recent decade, analyzing the remotely sensed imagery is considered as one of the most common and widely used procedures in the environmental studies. In this case, supervised image classification techniques play a central role. Hence, taking a high resolution Worldview-3 over a mixed urbanized landscape in Iran, three less applied image classification methods including Bagged CART, Stochastic gradient boosting model and Neural network with feature extraction were tested and compared with two prevalent methods: random forest and support vector machine with linear kernel. To do so, each method was run ten time and three validation techniques was used to estimate the accuracy statistics consist of cross validation, independent validation and validation with total of train data. Moreover, using ANOVA and Tukey test, statistical difference significance between the classification methods was significantly surveyed. In general, the results showed that random forest with marginal difference compared to Bagged CART and stochastic gradient boosting model is the best performing method whilst based on independent validation there was no significant difference between the performances of classification methods. It should be finally noted that neural network with feature extraction and linear support vector machine had better processing speed than other.

Habitat suitability mapping for sand cat (Felis margarita) in Central Iran using remote sensing techniques

One of the primary reason of species extinction especially rare species with very specific requirements, is habitat destruction. To protect these species, habitat suitability evaluation plays a central role. Hence, an attempt is made in this study to evaluate the suitability of sand cat’s habitat in a sand dune-dominated landscape in Iran. Four Landsat-derived indices including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Weighted Difference Vegetation Index, Brightness Index (BI) and Salinity Index were combined to characterize sand cat’s habitat requirements through a land use land cover (LULC) map. Furthermore, a set of landscape metrics were employed to explore the spatial pattern LULC classes. Sand cat’s habitat suitability map was generated by linear combination of the standardized and relatively weighted NDVI and BI indices and then categorized into five classes of most suitable, highly suitable, moderately suitable, least suitable and not suitable. The results showed that about 75% of the total area is suitable for sand cat. Although this region is rich in biodiversity, it has not yet been subject to any conservation planning and should be granted more conservation attentions.

Pak-Iran Relations: Evolving Dynamics, Prospects and Approaches

Depending on how Trump administration adjusts to the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1, the strategic landscape of Iran could either transform dramatically or slide back to pre-deal status quo ante. Traditionally, Iran aspires for a wider regional role to enhance its stature and assume a regional leadership position. As international politics becomes more complex and interlinked, a resurging Iran, reaching to the outer world, has implications for Pakistan. Critically speaking, Pakistan's relations with Iran are unique in the sense that these could neither be described as strategic partnership nor strategic rivalry; rather the relations have been alternating between strong friendship and competition. Thus, it is important to study and extrapolate Iran and Pakistan relations and also how this relationship could serve the long-term interests of each other in the region. The paper juxtaposes Pakistan-Iran relations in the changing regional balance of power. It looks at Pakistan-Iran relations from two angles: history of the bilateral relations; present issues and concerns that could have an impact on the future contours of the relations; and makes plausible policy recommendations for strengthening bilateral ties.

The Changing Business Landscape in Iran: Establishing Outsourcing Best Practices

During an evolutionary period for Iran the aim of this paper is to identify a set of success factors, to inform enterprises who are now able to engage in the practice of outsourcing after the recent removal of long-standing US and UN sanctions, and contribute towards the formulation of a set of guidelines to assist these organisations and help deepen the understanding of recent economic developments in the Middle East. Primary research data was collected using a selfadministered survey which required senior/executive managers from enterprises in Tehran to assess a set of outsourcing factors established by academic literature. The most important factors for achieving outsourcing success in Iran were found to be having a clear strategic vision and plan, understanding the intended use of outsourcing, and understanding how outsourcing aligns with organizational goals and objectives. The primary driver for adopting outsourcing is access to operational expertise and the sectors experiencing the greatest level of outsourcing success were the construction and IT industries. With little literature available on outsourcing in Iran this research addresses a clear gap in the current body of knowledge and contributes toward a deeper understanding of potential supply chain opportunities in this unique region. The findings will assist academic researchers, and contribute towards policy formation, and there are clear implications for Iranian enterprises who might be considering adopting outsourcing now that barriers permitting them from doing so have been removed.

Effect of fungal endophytes on morphological characteristics, nutrients content and longevity of plane trees (Platanus orientalis L.)

ABSTRACTThe plane tree is one of the most frequently used street trees in urban landscape in Iran and some Mediterranean countries and some age-old ones are found in these countries. Endophytes are microorganisms which associate with healthy plant tissues, persisting without causing diseases symptoms in the host and normally benefitting them through improving plant ability to withstand environmental stresses. In this contribution, the hypothesis of fungal endophytes existence in the plane trees as well as their relationship with morphological characteristics of trees and nutrient elements of leaves were studied in the central part of Iran. The experiment was performed according to an unbalanced completely randomized design. Approximate age and height of plane trees were recorded and then the greenness and visual appearance were evaluated. Healthy shoots and bark pieces were collected and surface sterilized then placed in petri dishes containing PDA. The results showed that endophytes frequency were significantly greater in age-old trees (60.04%) than young ones (39.96%). Endophytes existence had a positive correlation with iron (Fe) and potassium (K) concentrations of the leaves, and trees height and circumference. Also, there was a positive correlation between the presence of fungal endophytes and improved visual appearance of plane trees. The results suggest that fungal endophytes association enhanced nutrient elements assimilation in trees contributing at least partly to elevated survival of age-old plane trees.

Reconnecting the Landscape in Historical Cities, Conceptual Analysis of Historic Urban Landscape Approach in Iran

Historic Urban Landscape is the consequence of dynamic interrelationships between physical, ecological, and cultural factors in a causality based dynamic system. In recent years, urban development plans, inattentive to ecological and historical structures of landscape, have led to segregation of urban values. At a time of rapid urbanization, the conservation of historic cities is one of the most urgent challenges. Reviewing the principles and policies has led to a theoretical framework, based on approved approaches toward the subject for conservative planning. Planning in HUL, requires information which should be identified through scientific survey methods, regulations and principles, tools and procedures and also executive guidelines based on conservation. This research has investigated the historical and natural structure of Isfahan’s urban landscape in Iran. Analyses found improper urban development as the cause for disconnections in the HUL of Isfahan; providing effective theoretical framework that helps presenting a conservation plan for this historical city.

LEARNING TO LIVE WITH A NUCLEAR IRAN

Could an Iranian regime that had developed a nuclear weapons capacity be “deterred?” What would such deterrence look like? What would both Iran and its foes have to do to promote stability? This article considers these questions, beginning with an exploration of the internal political landscape of Iran and how it influences critical choices made by the regime. Next, the article examines Iran's nuclear program, within the context of domestic decision making as the key driver. Third, the article discusses Iranian culture and negotiating behavior and how these might affect the question of deterrence. Finally, the article asks what it all means for attempts to deter Iran, should it ever become a nuclear weapons–capable state—particularly an undeclared one, which is the most likely outcome.

The natural areas and landscape of Iran: an overview

(2002). The natural areas and landscape of Iran: an overview. Zoology in the Middle East: Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 7-10.

Babi‐bahais, Christians, and Jews in Iran

The Following Essay is Based on the Review of Entries in Encyclopaedia Iranica dealing with Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, other Christian groups, Babis-Bahais, and Jews up to the letter D. There are 36 entries for Armenia and Armenians, 28 for the Assyrians and Christians, 45 for Babis and Bahais, and 20 for Jews. These include main headings as well as extensive subheadings.The entries show the vastness and complexity of the religious and ethnic landscape of Iran beginning long before Islam. Each group demonstrates a unique character and reflects what is significant in its link to the Persian environment. In order to introduce the reader and to present an accurate picture of the articles and the contributors, the four categories are covered separately and some points of convergence are discussed at the end. Although every attempt is made to refer to as many entries as possible, not all entries could be included.