on one hand, iran due to the low annual rainfall and lack of appropriate spatial and temporal distribution in precipitation is considered as an arid and semi-arid country experiencing stress and water scarcity; on the other hand, 90% of annual water consumption has been allocated to agriculture sector in iran and efficiency and productivity of water consumption do not enjoy favorable status in ...

Differing values between communities and government resource managers may lead to conflict, particularly when community members are not involved in decision making. Increasingly, co-management arrangements have become an important tool increase local capacity for management, trust diverse groups, foster effective stewardship. However, depends upon collaboration users the ability understand rela...

The goal of this paper is to integrate culture as a computational term in embodied conversational agents by employing an empirical data-driven approach as well as a theoretical model-driven approach. We propose a parameter-based model that predicts nonverbal expressions appropriate for specific cultures. First, we introduce the Hofstede theory to describe socio-cultural characteristics of each ...

In other words: what kinds of constitutional structures are appropriate to an internetworked, interdependent age? What sorts of arrangements of power between humans can account for the deep variation in beliefs and assumptions among the six billion of us who share this planet, while still providing for a common jurisprudence? What measures can be taken that enhance the common security without u...

The use of telehealth as a basis for delivering health services is growing across Australia, and there is clear potential for these technologies to address some of the enduring issues of access and costs of service delivery. However, appropriate incentives must be created to encourage clinicians and managers to evaluate the true opportunity costs and benefits of delivering services in this way ...

We describe some simulations that compare cultural transmission between and within generations (inter-generational vs intra-generational transmission) in populations of embodied agents controlled by neural networks. Our results suggest that intra-generational transmission has the role of adding variability to the evolutionary process and that this function seems particularly useful when the pop...

As part of the ITER Design Review, the physics requirements were reviewed and as appropriate updated. The focus of this paper will be on recent work affecting the ITER design with special emphasis on topics affecting near-term procurement arrangements. This paper will describe results on: design sensitivity studies, poloidal field coil requirements, vertical stability, effect of toroidal field ...

This article develops a conceptual model of cultural competency's potential to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities, using the cultural competency and disparities literature to lay the foundation for the model and inform assessments of its validity. The authors identify nine major cultural competency techniques: interpreter services, recruitment and retention policies, training, coordina...

for the past quarter of a century iran has advocated the setting up of a security regime in the persian gulf by littoral states that excludes foreign powers. this paper examines the reasons behind iran's opposition to foreign participation in persian gulf security arrangements; the steps iran has taken to gain the support of other littoral states for its scheme, and the prospects for iran&...