Living with wolves: lessons learned from Iran

José Vicente López-Bao was supported by a Ramón & Cajal research contract (RYC-2015-18932) from the Span-ish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness

Determinants Of Cattle Farmers Particiaption In Farmers Organization In Hamadan Province Of Iran

The study focused on the determinants impeding the participation of the farmers in the activities of the farmer organizations in Hamadan province of Iran. All the members of the cattle-breeding cooperative in Hamadan province (N= 550) were included in the study. By use of simple random method 75 respondents were selected. The study was a descriptive-exploration, survey research. A questionnaire was designed and employed to gather the required data. Data was analyzed using percentage, mean score, analysis of variance and factor analysis. The findings revealed that the 5 factors deterring the participation were extracted. The first factor is called the individually motivated factor. It comprised 27.97 percents of the total variance as the most efficacious factor. The rest of the determinants known as the structural factor, the cultural factor, the membership factor, the coverage factor, express 17.38%, 12.32%, 7.29% and 5.85% of the total variances of the variables of the factors deterring the participation. These 5 determinants express 70.73% of the total variances of the variables. 29.27% of the variance pertain the factors or variables which have not been regarded in this research. Keywords: agricultural organizations, participation, deterring factors, Hamadan ProvinceGlobal Approaches to Extension Practice Vol. 4 (1) 2008: pp. 34-4

Job performance of the agricultural extension experts of Yazd province, Iran

No Abstract. Journal of Agriculture and Social Research Vol. 7 (2) 2007: pp. 1-1

Introduction To Natural Resources Management Extension System (Nrmes); Rethinking In Extension Systems For 21st Century

The challenges to agricultural extension in the early 21 st century derive, on the one hand from challenges that farmers and agriculture face in view point of their ever - changing social and natural environment and the other hand, to address combination of the growing world\'s population, economic growth and limited natural resources, especially in many developing nations, is creating serious longterm sustainability problems for the world\'s natural resources. Growing food demands, soil nutrient depletion is occurring in many tropical and subtropical countries, and land degradation and desertification continues to progress in many other countries. In most countries there is an urgent need for public extension and advisory organizations to allocate more resources and effort to educating farmers how to use sustainable natural resource management practices. The purpose of the paper is to present of New Extension System for access to Natural Resources Management (NRM) goals that we called ; NRM Extension System (NRMES). Keywords: Natural Resources Management Extension System (NRMES), Rethinking, Extension systemsGlobal Approaches to Extension Practice Vol. 4 (1) 2008: pp. 93-10

Role of Peripheral Vision in Brake Reaction Time During Safety Critical Events

The criticality of a rear end event depends on the brake reaction time (BRT) of the driver. Therefore, distracted driving poses greater threat in such events. Evidence accumulation model (EAM) that uses looming of the lead vehicle as main stimuli has shown significant success in estimating drivers’ BR Ts. It is often argued that drivers collect evidence for braking through peripheral vision, especially during off-road glances, and transition to forward. In this work, we have modeled evidence accumulation as a function of gaze eccentricity for off-road glances while approaching safety critical events. The model is tested with real world crash and near crash event data from SHRP2 naturalistic study. Our model shows that linear relation between gaze eccentricity and evidence accumulation rate during off road glances helps to improve EAM estimation in predicting BRT. We have also shown that brake-light onset does not influence EAM in presence of active looming

Fear of wolves in relation to attacks on people and livestock in western Iran

We thank the National Geographic Society who funded this research under the grant GEFNE128-14 and the UK Wolf Conservation Trust. J.V.L.B. was supported by a Ramón & Cajal research contract (RYC-2015-18932) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness

Bicyclist-evoked arousal and greater attention to bicyclists independently promote safer driving

AbstractWhile attention has consistently been shown to be biased toward threatening objects in experimental settings, our understanding of how attention is modulated when the observer is in an anxious or aroused state and how this ultimately affects behavior is limited. In real-world environments, automobile drivers can sometimes carry negative perceptions toward bicyclists that share the road. It is unclear whether bicyclist encounters on a roadway lead to physiological changes and attentional biases that ultimately influence driving behavior. Here, we examined whether participants in a high-fidelity driving simulator exhibited an arousal response in the presence of a bicyclist and how this modulated eye movements and driving behavior. We hypothesized that bicyclists would evoke a robust arousal and orienting response, the strength of which would be associated with safer driving behavior. The results revealed that encountering a bicyclist evoked negative arousal by both self-report and physiological measures. Physiological and eye-tracking measures were themselves unrelated, however, being independently associated with safer driving behavior. Our findings offer a real-world demonstration of how arousal and attentional prioritization can lead to adaptive behavior.</jats:p

Impaired Robotic Surgical Visualization: Archaic Issues in a Modern Operating Room

Abstract Background While Robotic-Assisted Surgery (RAS) has been revolutionizing surgical procedures, it has various areas needing improvement, specifically in the visualization sector. Suboptimal vision due to lens occlusions has been a topic of concern in laparoscopic surgery but has not received much attention in robotic surgery. This study is the first to explore and quantify the degree of disruption encountered due to poor robotic visualization at a major academic center. Methods In case observations across 21 RAS procedures in various specialties, any lens occlusions or “debris” events that appeared on the monitor displays and clinicians’ reactions, the cause, and the location across the monitor for these events were recorded. Data was then assessed for any trends using analysis as described below. Results From around 32 hours of RAS observation time, 124 debris events were recorded. 58.7% of case observation time was spent under a compromised visual field (p = 0.037). In a subset of 8 cases, about 1.4% of the average observation time was spent cleaning the lens. Additionally, cautery was found to be the primary cause of lens occlusions and little variation was found within the spread of the debris across the monitor display. Conclusions This study illustrates that in 6 (29%) of the cases, 90% of the observation time was spent under compromised visualization while only 9.5% of the cases had no debris or cleaning events. Additionally, cleaning the lens can be troublesome during the procedure, interrupting the operating room flow. This paper suggests areas for research and technological development.</jats:p

Integrating spatial analysis and questionnaire survey to better understand human-onager conflict in Southern Iran

Abstract Southern Iran is a conservation priority area for the endangered Persian onager (Equus hemionus onager), which is threatened by habitat fragmentation and conflict with local communities. To better understand factors that influence onager conservation, we administered a questionnaire in local communities to survey their ecological knowledge, personal experience related to onager, and attitudes toward traditional solutions for reducing crop damage by onager. In addition, we used resistant kernel and factorial least-cost path analyses to identify core areas and corridors for onager movement, and spatial randomization of vehicle collisions and crossing locations to test the predictive ability of resistant kernel and factorial least-cost path predictions of movement. We found that local communities that were knowledgeable about onagers experienced less crop damage from onager compared with those who used traditional methods. Habitat connectivity models revealed that core areas of movement are highly concentrated at the center of protected areas. Some sections of core areas have been cut off by roads where most vehicle collisions with onagers occurred. We propose that effective onager conservation will require integrated landscape-level management to reduce mortality risk, protection of core areas and corridors, development of mitigation strategies to reduce vehicle collisions, and conflict mediation between local communities and onagers