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This study aims to investigate the representation of gender and intercultural competence in the images and texts of 15 Iranian secondary school English coursebooks, published over six decades. Gender representation was investigated using the framework proposed by Dahmardeh and Kim (2020), and the scale developed by Solhaug and Kristensen (2020) was used as the criteria for investigating intercultural competence. The data were coded and counted using manifest content analysis. The results showed that Iranian English coursebooks mentioned males and females unequally in their texts across different decades, with one gender being represented more in each decade. Regarding gender representation in the images, males were represented more than females in almost all decades. The representation of males and females in the books published in the 1970s was almost equal, followed by extreme and sudden changes in gender representation in the 1980s. However, the books published in and after the 2000s presented a balanced picture of males and females. The coursebooks dealt with intercultural competence in their texts and images very rarely, limiting this concept to religious issues and neglecting other aspects. In fact, the coursebooks addressed only one category out of the 11 categories. Finally, the study ends with implications for coursebook authors, materials designers, teachers, students, and teacher trainers.

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The optimal cropping pattern for Sistan water resources management was determined through a goal programming technique within the GAMS programming environment. Results showed that the optimum cultivation area and net profit of the agricultural sector in the Sistan region could increase up to 18.1 and 39.8%, respectively, compared to the current status. An increase in the farm irrigation efficiency from the current 35 to 55% would increase the net profit of the agricultural sector by 49.7% despite 6.4% reduction in water consumption. At the same time, 20% increase in the efficiency of water delivery system to farmlands would lead to 8.2 and 17.2% increases in the cultivation area and net profit, respectively. The results of combining these two management scenarios indicated that farming net profit would increase by 64.3%, while total water consumption in agricultural sector would decrease by 2.3%. Under wet condition, cultivated area and net profit would respectively increase about 32 and 44%. However, upon drought years, the cultivated area and net profit would experience 86.9 and 87.3% loss, respectively.

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The optimal allocation of the Chahnimeh water resources among different sectors, viz. domestic, agricultural and environmental consumptions, was determined using the goal programming method in GAMS, based on the present condition in the area. Results showed an increase of 15.4, 44.5 and 230% in allocation of water to domestic, agriculture and environment sectors, respectively, in this method as compared to the present allocation. Besides, implementation of the second water transferring line to Zahedan city would resultin a 66% increase in the water transferring rate to this city without any change in water supply for domestic sector in Zabol city and the surrounding villages. The scenario of 20% reduction in water per capita consumption led to about 5.9 million cubic meters saving in water supply from Chahnimeh reservoirs to the domestic sector. According to the projected population growth for 2025 in the study area, water consumption in domestic sector will increase by 15.9%. Results showed that the goal programming can be applied as a useful tool to analyze the effect of different scenarios on water demand and supply management and, hence, to allocate water for different sectors in a most appropriate way.

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Aims: Modeling precipitation-runoff processes and forecasting river flow are an essential step in floods management and controlling, designing water structures in watersheds and droughts management.
Materials & Methods: In the present research, WetSpa distributed hydrological model was applied to simulate river flow in Ziarat watershed of Golestan Province. This basin has an area of 95 km2 and it has an average height of 1760 m above sea level. As a distributed, continuous, and physical model, WetSpa is characterized with daily or hourly time series which accounts for processes of precipitation, runoff, and evapotranspiration contexts. The model parameters include distributive and global parameters. To run model, daily data on flow, precipitation, temperature, and evaporation for years 2008–2016 were considered for calibration and validation.
Findings: The results of simulation showed a relatively good compatibility between calculated and measured hydrograph at the basin outlet. According to Nash-Sutcliffe model for calibration periodic model, efficiency coefficient estimated daily hydrographs and maximum flow rate by 57.32% and 84.11% accuracy, respectively. However, given Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient which was equaled to −385.39 and −209.06 for low and high flow, respectively, validation results are not acceptable which it can be attributed to water withdrawal and diversion dam for water harvesting before gauging stations in outle.
Conclusion: Given the calibration results, WetSpa model has great efficiency under high flow circumstances compared to low flow mainly due to model weakness in low flow estimation but as a whole model simulated total flow with acceptable accuracy.

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Aims: How people react to stressful and painful situations, such as suffering from a chronic disease like multiple sclerosis, is influenced by various factors, one of which is self-compassion. Self-compassion has a psychological nature and significant efficiency in the care and treatment of chronic patients. Existing tools have not paid attention to the characteristics of people suffering from chronic diseases such as MS in using self-compassion for managing the disease. Therefore, the present study aimed to design a questionnaire to measure self-compassion in patients with MS.
Instrument & Methods: The present study is methodological research that was conducted in qualitative and quantitative parts. The items were designed based on the qualitative part of the study and review of texts. The validation characteristics of the questionnaire were performed using face validity, content, and structure. The reliability was assessed by internal consistency and stability methods.
Findings: In the qualitative phase, 78 initial items were extracted. After calculating the item impact score index with values higher than 1.5, content validity ratio higher than 0.51, and content validity index higher than 0.79, 73 items were selected. Confirmatory and then exploratory factor analysis was performed. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was 0.813, and the stability of the questionnaire was 0.778.
Conclusion: Self-compassion scale in patients with MS is a valid and reliable tool in Iranian society. Since Neff theory was used as a guiding framework in this study, the tool can also be used for non-Iranian patients to understand their perception and experiences.
 

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Aims: New developments in artificial intelligence offer promising prospects for transforming therapeutic approaches and enhancing outcomes for individuals with a range of abilities. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review was to investigate the applications of artificial intelligence in occupational therapy.
Information & Methods: In this systematic review, adhering to the PRISMA guidelines, we searched English-language studies regarding the use of artificial intelligence in occupational therapy, on February 18, 2024, using the databases PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science.
Findings: Six eligible studies were included in this review. The artificial intelligence approaches used in these studies included artificial neural networks, multi-core learning models, deep learning models, machine learning models, and classification and regression trees. All the studies reported promising results regarding the use of artificial intelligence in evaluating and predicting return to work, alleviating symptoms, recovering social function, reducing disease recurrence, improving re-employment rates, and enhancing the overall health level of patients.
Conclusion: One of the most common issues with artificial intelligence models is their low accuracy and the potential for errors.

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Aims: This systematic review aims to examine physicians’ and nurses’ attitudes, knowledge, awareness, and skill in telemedicine technology.
Information & Methods: Studies were extracted from the PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Sciences databases in March 2023, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Cross-sectional studies examining physicians’ and nurses’ attitudes, awareness, knowledge, and skill in telemedicine were considered as the inclusion criteria. A similar checklist was used for data extraction, and Joanna Briggs Institute’s (JBI) critical appraisal checklist specific for cross-sectional studies was employed to assess the quality of the entered studies to this research.
Findings: A total of 13 studies with the inclusion criteria were entered into the study. Seven studies (54%) examined health specialists’ attitudes and revealed their proper and promising attitudes toward telemedicine. Among five studies probing their participants’ awareness of telemedicine, three reported high awareness, while two had documented moderate levels of awareness. On the other hand, among ten studies investigating telemedicine knowledge, seven had reported high, one moderate, and two low telemedicine knowledge. Three studies evaluated telemedicine skillfulness and reported moderate (two studies) and low (one study) skill levels of their participants.
Conclusion: Health specialists hold positive and promising attitudes toward telemedicine. Telemedicine awareness, knowledge, and skill among health professionals are above-moderate and desirable.

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The substantial share of informal employment in Iran, on the one hand and the growing use of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models in analyzing economic policies by central banks and eliminating the flaws of these models, on the other hand, necessitate designing a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with dual labor market based on Iran's economy. To do so, the current study divides labor market into formal and informal sectors. In addition, it classifies firms in formal and informal ones regarding the type of the production function and labor. The annual data used in the model are collected from the Central Bank and the Statistical Center of Iran during 1974-2010. After calibrating and solving the model with numerical method, the shock effects of total factors productivity, government expenditure, oil revenue, and money growth on real variables of the model have been analyzed with and without nominal wage rigidity. The results of the study suggest that the informal sector of the labor market in different business cycles acts as a buffer with countercyclical shift. The money is not neutral in the short run due to lack of rigidity in a model of monopolistic competition, so money supply affects real variables of economy.

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In Sistan and Baluchestan province, unemployment rate has been increased from 9 percent in 1996 to 31.52 percent in 2006. Thus, in order to reduce unemployment rate and because of limitation of resources, the attention should be paid to activities, which create the highest employment opportunities. This research answers to these questions: What are the key economic sectors with regard to employment generation in Sistan and Baluchestan province? Do the growth-centered policies necessarily create the highest employment? In order to answer these questions, the linkage indexes related to production and employment, and input – output elasticities were calculated using the provincial input – output table in 2007. In addition, Multi – rank index (MRI) was calculated for the production and the employment generation in order to include all mentioned indexes simultaneously.  The findings show that the activities "Agriculture, hunting and forestry", "Mining", "Manufacturing", "Hotels and restaurants", "Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles", "personal and household goods" and "Health and Social Work" are key sectors in creating employment. While key producing sectors are the "Agriculture, hunting and forestry", "Manufacturing", "Electricity, gas and water supply", 'Hotels and restaurants", "Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles", "personal and household goods", "Transport, storage and communications" and "other community, social, personal and family services". Therefore, growth-centered policies do not necessarily create the most employment opportunities.  

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With the expansion of government intervention in the economy, the investigation of relationship between government size and macroeconomic variables attracts more attention of economists, policymakers, and researchers. In the present study, the size of government and its correlation with trade openness are examined across developing Muslim countries (D-8) and OECD using panel data model during 2000-2012. The trade intensity index is used as one of the subcategories of trade openness. According to the results of unit root tests, which imply non-stationery series, co-integration test is run in order to assure a long-term relationship among variables. The regression model is estimated in fixed effects format using weighted least squares (WLS). The results indicate a significant and positive impact of the government size on the openness ratio by 12% for D-8 countries, however the relationship is not significant for OECD at the 5% level of significance. The relationship between government size and country size (total population) is positive for two groups. The findings imply that making different policies to remove trade barriers may result in strengthening good governance indicators.

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Due to the lack of access to the data of three rotational components of earthquakes, seismic analysis of new buildings as well as assessment of the vulnerability of existing structures are usually carried out only by applying the translational components of earthquakes. Iranian Standard 2800 proposed an accidental eccentricity for considering the earthquake rotational component effect in the seismic analysis of building structures. The present investigation is focused on the effects of earthquake rotational excitation on the seismic response of buildings having various dynamic properties which situated on a rigid foundation. In addition, adequacy of the accidental eccentricity of 5% recommended by seismic design code for inclusion of the earthquake rotational component impact in the non-linear time history analysis of buildings is studied, as well. To achieve this, a large number of one-story torsionally stiff and flexible building models with a wide range of lateral vibration periods (T=0.05 to 2sec) and three different values of inherent eccentricity of 0, 15 and 25% were modeled. These models were once excited by the translational components of ground motions and once again by both translational and rotational components of ground motions. The building models were re-analyzed after applying the 5% accidental eccentricity based on the procedure presented by Standard 2800 (shifting the center of mass in the negative and positive directions by 0.05 of the plan dimension). For conducting the non-linear time history analyses, a number of earthquakes were selected and the rotational records for these events were generated by use of an indirect single station method based on the seismic wave propagation in an elastic and homogeneous medium. In total, over than 2600 nonlinear dynamic analyses have been conducted in this numerical research. In order to determine the role of earthquake rotational excitation in the seismic behavior of  buildings, the variations of displacement response for the left and right sides of diaphragm and the torsion of diaphragm about the mass center due to the effect of rotational component were evaluated. By comparing the results obtained in this study, it is found that the rotational component has a substantial influence on the structural responses, which this effect is a function of the fundamental dynamic characteristics of system such as uncoupled rotational to translational frequency ratio, lateral vibration period and irregularity. The displacement of diaphragm can be increased up to 50% when the rotational component of ground motion is included in the seismic load combinations. Decreasing the frequency ratio leads to increase of the rotational component effect for the stiff buildings with short periods, while in the other cases reduces the growth of displacement due to the rotational component. Furthermore, results indicate that the accidental eccentricity of 5% cannot increase the seismic responses as much as the earthquake rotational motion, and leads to unreal and underestimate results for the most of lateral vibration periods. Thus, the current Standard 2800 approach cannot be considered as an appropriate alternative for considering the accidental torsion induced by the rotational component of ground motion, and it seems that this approach needs to be re-evaluated.