Showing 16 results for Sheikh
Z. Sheikh-Ol-Eslami, J. Jamalian,
Volume 7, Issue 2 (summer 2003)
Abstract
Consumption of bread made from flours with high extraction rates is fairly common in western countries and has recently become widespread in Iran. Such breads contain relatively high levels of phytic acid. Phytic acid is present in the aleurone layer of wheat in the form of potassium-magnesium salts. It is carried over to wheat flour and to bread. Phytic acid is known to have chelating properties and to form complexes with bivalent cations (iron, calcium, zinc and so on), thus reducing their bioavailability in humans. In addition, phytate salts can form complexes with proteins, carbohydrates, and fats in the diet, making them unavailable too. In the present study, phytic acid contents of flours ( 3 individual extraction rates and 2 combinations), the dough and two types of popular breads of Khorasan (Lavash & Sangak) made from these flours were determined.
The results showed that the flours had, on the average, 570.37 mg phytic acid per 100 g and that the phytic acid contents of breads were, on the average, 347.31 mg/100g. This indicates that the present baking procedures do not have an appreciable effect on the level of phytic acid recovered in bread.
J. Jamalian, Z. Sheikhol-Eslami,
Volume 8, Issue 1 (spring 2004)
Abstract
Bread, the main staple food of Iran, imparts a major portion of energy and protein to urban and rural diets. Due to the use of flour with high extraction rate and improper fermentation of the corresponding dough, traditional breads have a rather high level of phytic acid. This has a detrimental effect on absorption and availability of minerals (Ca, Fe, Zn, Mg, Cr, Cu, etc.), carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, thus leading, for e.g., to iron-deficiency anemia in the present study, flours with different extraction rates (with known phytic acid content) were used for baking “Sangak” and “Lavash” breads and analyzed for phytic acid. Different levels of yeast, times of fermentation and extraction rates of flour were applied in the preparation of breads and their phytic acid levels were then estimated. Based on technological merits and residual phytic acid contents, breads prepared from two types of treatments were selected, their chemical composition, availabilities of iron and lysine as well as organoleptic characteristics were evaluated. Results indicated that under the employed conditions total destruction of phytic acid in “Sangak” and “Lavash” is rather impractical. A considerable reduction in phytic acid was noted: in “Lavash” bread using 2.5% yeast, 4 h of fermentation and a 50-50 blend of flours with 81.0 and 86.5% extraction rates and in “Sangak” bread with similar conditions (except for the flour which was a 50-50 blend of 86.5 & 97.5% extraction rates). Available lysine was similar in both of the selected breads compared to their respective references. Their available iron contents, however, were higher than their corresponding references (P ≤ 0.05 ). No significant differences were observed with regard to organoleptic evaluations of selected breads as compared to their references (P ≤ 0.05 ). Overall, the above-mentioned treatments are recommended for the baking of “Sangak” and “Lavash” breads.
A. Sheikhi Garjan, K. Talebi, A. A. Pourmirza,
Volume 8, Issue 4 (winter 2005)
Abstract
The egg parasitoids are the major natural enemies of sunn pest and application of selective insecticides is one of the strategies for conservation of natural enemies. The toxicity of five different insecticides used in cereal fields to the parasitized eggs was investigated under laboratory conditions. The insecticide solutions were made based on the recommended field rates. 3-, 5- and 8- day -old parasitized eggs were dipped into insecticide solutions.
Among the treated developmental stages (except for the fenirothion), 3- and 8- day- old parasitized eggs showed the highest and the lowest emergence percentages, respectively. Deltamethrin had maximum effect on emergence percentage whereas phosalone had the least hazardous effects. There was a significant difference in parasitism percentage between 3- and 8- day- old parasitized eggs in each of the 4 treatments, viz trichlorphon, fenitrothion, deltamethrin and esfenvalerate. Adults emerging from 3- day- old eggs parasitised less eggs than those emerged from 8- day- old eggs in fenitrothion, and trichlorphon treatments. All tested insecticides were highly toxic to the adult parasitoid, causing 100% mortality when the adults were exposed to sprayed areas at recommended rates.
B. Najafi, M. Zibaei, M. H. Sheikhi, M. H. Tarazkar,
Volume 11, Issue 1 (spring 2007)
Abstract
In this study wholesale prices of selected crops, namely, tomato, onion and potatoes in Fars province were predicted for various time horizons by using common methods of forecasting and artificial neural networks (ANN). Monthly data from September 1998 to June 2005 period were obtained from Ministry of Jihad-e Agriculture. For comparing different methods data selected from September 1998 to December 2004 were utilized, and latest six - month data were mainly used to monitor the power of prediction. The MAE, MSE and MAPE criteria were used for comparing the ability of different forecasting methods. Results of this study showed that ANN had the lowest error in prediction of prices for one - to three - month periods, but for six - month prediction, all forecasting methods were not statistically different.
A. H. Gharehsheikhloo , M. R. Vahabi , H. R. Karimzadeh ,
Volume 14, Issue 53 (fall 2010)
Abstract
In order to classify and determine the plant communities in Karkas mountainsides, central Iran, quantitative data of 46 environmental characteristics including climate (12 characteristics), soil (26 characteristics), geology and physiology (8 characteristics), were analyzed based on partial Euclidean distance indicator using minimum variation method. The results showed the clustered separation of studied sites at 68% similarity level with three different growth places. Of these 46 factors, 24 factors (8 climate characteristics and 16 soil characteristics) were effective in this classification at 95% certainty level. Only 24 of these 46 factors were effective in this classification at 95% certainty level. These 24 effective factors were divided into 8 climate and 16 soil characteristics. In another classification, combinational percentage index of 17 plant species were investigated as an effective factor in separating growth place and determining the plant communities. Result of cluster classification indicated that the studied sites cold be classified to 3 habitats.
A. H. Gharehsheikhloo, M. R. Vahabi, H. R. Karimzadeh ,
Volume 14, Issue 53 (fall 2010)
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to compare the physical and chemical characteristics of soils covered with vegetation and soils without vegetation in Dagh-e- Sorkh Ardestan area.To achieve the goal, first the vegetation was classified using physiognomic method, and for each vegetation type, the distinctive area was specified for soil and vegetation sampling. Vegetation sampling was done by stratified random sampling. Alongside pursuing the case, twenty two soil physical and chemical factors were investigated also for each growth type and area without vegetation. In the next step, to investigate the similarities and dissimilarities of the soils of desert areas by means of PC-ORD software, the cluster analysis was performe. After simplifying the one-way ANOVA, the most important soil factors which were effective in causing differences in the area’s soils were identified. Results show that the soils of area covered with vegetation differed much from the soils without vegetation physically in such a way that, the soil texture became heavier and gravel percentage became less in the areas without vegetation. Regarding the chemical characteristics, the frequencies of sodium, magnesium, calcium and chlorines and electrical conductivity were highly different. Because of topographic condition of land without vegetation, runoff is directed to this place and deposits salts there. Also, high groundwater level and capillary flowing salts are the important reasons for the salinity of this place. These are the limiting factors for the vegetation establishment in the desert areas of Ardestan.
M. Mardian, A. Najafinejad, J. Varvani, V. B. Sheikh1,
Volume 16, Issue 59 (spring 2012)
Abstract
Investigation in to the sediment delivery of watersheds and its variation is an important element of ecosystem management. Since sediment load depends on runoff quantity, and runoff is considered as a unique indicator of sediment load, in this research the two modified versions of the MUSLE model were evaluated for 9 torrential events in two subwatersheds of the Kamal Saleh watershed in the Markazi Province of Iran. To this end, first all factors of the model including runoff, erodibility, topographic, cover management, and support practice were estimated using routine equations of the model. Then, the power coefficient in the runoff factor was corrected, applying two methods: “m correction coefficient” and “average correction coefficient. The evaluation criteria showed that the “m correction coefficient method” (compared to the “average correction coefficient method”) reduces the difference of the observed and estimated sediment load of small and large torrential events remarkably. In fact, the application of this modified method increased the accuracy of the MUSLE by decreasing the standard deviation of prediction. Also, the validation analysis of the modified method showed that the coefficient of efficiency indexes for the Hasan-Abad station (Rudkhane Bozorg subwatershed) and Ghal'e-No station (Ashur-abad subwateshed) were 0.997 and 0.811, respectively. This result confirms the efficiency of application of “m correction coefficient method”. However, it is suggested that the performance of this method be evaluated using a sufficient number of individual hydrographs and their sedimentgraphs in other watersheds.
M. B. Heyderianpour , A. M. Sameni, J. Sheikhi, N. Karimian, M. Zarei,
Volume 18, Issue 67 (Spring 2014)
Abstract
A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of vermicompost and nitrogen (N) on growth, nutrient concentration and uptake of N, phosphorus (P), potassium (K), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu) in sunflower shoots as a factorial experiment arranged in completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications under greenhouse conditions. Treatments included three levels of vermicompost (0, 2.5, and 5 % by w/w) and three N levels (0, 90, and 180 mg kg-1) as urea. Application of 2.5% vermicompost significantly increased the average fresh and dry weights, and uptake of K, Fe, Zn, Mn, and Cu of shoots as compared when no vermicompost was applied, but decreased Zn and Cu concentrations. Application of 90 mg N, increased fresh and dry weights, and concentration of N, Zn, and Mn, total uptake of N, P, K, Fe, Zn, Mn, and Cu in sunflower shoots, but decreased P concentration. Application of 180 mg N increased total N uptake than that of 90 mg N kg-1 treatment. Combination of 2.5% vermicompost with 90 mg N, significantly (p<0.05) increased dry matter yield of sunflower as compared to 2.5% vermicompost without N treatment
H. Akbari Mejdar, A. Bahremand, A. Najafinejad, V. Sheikh,
Volume 18, Issue 67 (Spring 2014)
Abstract
Over-parameterization is a well-known and often described problem in hydrological models, especially in distributed models. Therefore, using special methods to reduce the number of parameters via sensitivity analysis is important to achieve efficiency. This paper describes a sensitivity analysis strategy that graphically assigns for each parameter a relative sensitivity index and relationship of the parameter and the outputs of the model. The method is illustrated with an application of SWAT model in the Chehelchai catchment, Golestan province. In this study, total water yield, along with four major parts of water budget including surface runoff, lateral flow, groundwater and evapotranspiration was selected as objective function. SWAT is a river basin model that can be used to predict the impact of land management practices on water, sediment and agricultural chemical yield in watersheds. A relative sensitivity index was used for ranking the sensitivity of parameters. The results showed that soil evaporation compensation facto (ESCO), CN, soil available water capacity (SOL-AWC), deep aquifer percolation fraction (RCHRG-DP) and soil bulk density (SOL-BD) have the most influence on river flow. These parameters are generally stated as the most sensitive parameters of SWAT model in most of the same researches worldwide
H. Shekofteh, M. Afyuni, M. A. Hajabbasi, H. Nezamabadi-Pour, F. Abbasi, F. Sheikholeslam,
Volume 18, Issue 70 (winter 2015)
Abstract
The conventional application of nitrogen fertilizers via irrigation is likely to be responsible for the increased nitrate concentration in groundwater of areas dominated by irrigated agriculture. This requires appropriate water and nutrient management to minimize groundwater pollution and to maximize nutrient use efficiency and production. To fulfill these requirements, drip fertigation is an important alternative. Design and operation of drip fertigation system requires understanding of nutrient leaching behavior in cases of shallow rooted crops such as potatoes, which cannot extract nutrient from lower soil depth. This study deals with neuro-fuzzy modeling of nitrate leaching from a potato field under a drip fertigation system. In the first part of the study, a two-dimensional solute transport model (HYDRUS-2D) was used to simulate nitrate leaching from a sandy soil with varying emitter discharge rates and various amounts of fertilizer. The results from the modeling were used to train and validate an adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) in order to estimate nitrate leaching. Radii of clusters in ANFIS were tuned and optimized by genetic algorithm. Relative mean absolute error percentage (RMAEP) and correlation coefficient (R) between measured and obtained data from HYDRUS were 0.64 and 0.99, respectively. Results showed that ANFIS can accurately predict nitrate leaching in soil. The proposed methodology can be used to reduce the effect of uncertainties in relation to field data.
A. Sheikhzeinoddin, A. K. Esmaeili1 , M. Noshadi,
Volume 19, Issue 74 (Winter 2016)
Abstract
Chemical fertilizers have important role in modern agriculture, and in the other hand led to rigid environmental pollution. Urea fertilizer is one of the most widely used and least expensive nitrogen fertilizers in Iran. Since it is high solubility in water a significant of it, if irrigation or precipitation is heavy, easily washed and led to change to change the quality of groundwater, rivers or seas. Hence, in this study the effects of deficit irrigation and fertilization on pollution using SWAT for Tashk-Bakhtegan basin (land area between Dorudzan dam and Khan Bridge) were simulated. This model by comparing model outputs with actual observations of hydrological, crop yield (wheat, barely, corn and rice) and nitrate by using SUFI2 algorithm in SWAT_CUP software were calibrated and validated. Then the calibrated model used to evaluate different management strategies (e.g. irrigation and fertilizer amount). When the impacts of different levels of urea (0 to 70 percent reduction in urea application) were modeled, yield of these crops reduced between 1 to 27, 0.8 to 24, 0.42 to 21 and 0.47 to 9 percent for wheat, barely, corn and rice, respectively. However, these tends to decline nitrate leaching 16-81, 18-80, 15-85 and 12.5 to 83.6 percent, respectively for these crops. Therefore, by comparing yield and nitrogen loss changes, this result can conclude that a significant reduction in nitrogen loss by minimum cost on yield can achieved by optimize fertilizer application.
S. Motalebani, M. Zibaei, A. Sheikhzeinoddin,
Volume 24, Issue 3 (Fall 2020)
Abstract
The interaction of population growth, technological improvement and climate change have impacted severely on agricultural and environmental sustainability. In Iran, conventional tillage practice has resulted in soil erosion and loss of soil organic matter. In this regard, Conservation Agriculture (CA) forms part of this alternative paradigm to agricultural production systems approaches and can be regarded as a means to enhancing food productivity, reducing poverty, and mitigating the consequences of climate change in rural households. The objectives of this study were to examine the determinants and impacts of CA technology on wheat yield, poverty gap and water use. To this end, an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model was employed to estimate the impacts of CA technology on continuous variables such as wheat yield, poverty gap and water use. A sample of 260 farmers from Zarghan district was selected for interview collection of necessary farm level data. The results indicated that in the select equation of ESR model, ten coefficients (out of 12) are significant at the 5% level or higher. Knowledge of soil quality, access to credit, access to information, education, farm size, ownership of machinery, participation in agricultural extension activities and farmer’ perception have positive and significant effects on the probability of adopting CA. In contrast, variables such as the distance to shopping center and number of land parcels have negative and significant influence on adoption. Also, the results of ESR model and counterfactual analysis showed that wheat yield would increase by 1.05 tons and poverty gap and water use would decrease by 20% and 910 cubic meters per hectare respectively if farmers adopt CA technology.
T. Mohammadi, V. Sheikh, A. Zare,
Volume 26, Issue 4 (Winiter 2023)
Abstract
Trend analysis of stream flow provides practical information for better management of water resources on the eve of climate change. Therefore, the present study investigated river flow variations during three decades as well as projections of future discharge in the Gorganrood watershed. The Man-Kendall method has been used to detect the trend and methods of Pettitt, SNHT, and Buishand to identify points of a sudden change in discharge time series in 8 stations of Aq Qala, Galikesh, Gonbad, Haji Ghoshan, Nodeh, Ramyan, Sadgorgan, and Tamar. The Mann-Kendall trend test showed the existence of a significant negative trend (flow reduction) on a daily and annual scale in all stations. Monthly, the strongest negative trend in Aq Qala, Galikesh, Gonbad, Haji Ghoshan, and Ramyan stations was related to July, but in Nodeh and Tamar stations, it was related to August and February, respectively. A decreasing trend was observed in all stations on a seasonal scale, but this trend was not significant in some seasons. The results of the analysis of change points in discharge showed that the change points in the data used in this study are more of a decreasing and in some cases incremental type and some stations, no change points have been identified at all. Therefore, the number of decreasing changes in the studied hydrometric stations is significantly higher than the incremental changes and is more visible from 1993 to 1997 and 2005-2007 in three and four stations, respectively. Also, the most incremental changes among the stations are related to the Aq Qala station in 2017 with a flow rate of 234 cubic meters per second. Investigation of the flow of the basin in the past decades showed significant monotonic and abrupt changes which are mostly toward decreasing the basin’s discharge. The downward trend in discharge values at different time scales for all hydrometric stations of the Gorganrood watershed, which will be more severe in the future due to global climate change, and increasing the region's water needs for various future use due to population growth and the expansion of industries can also be considered as a serious warning for policymakers, planners, and local managers to prevent a possible water crisis in the region in the future with proper planning.
T. Mohammadi, V. Sheikh, A. Zare, M. Salarijazi,
Volume 27, Issue 3 (Fall 2023)
Abstract
A quantitative study of groundwater resources and accurate monitoring of changes over time, especially in areas facing limited water resources, is considered essential for proper management and sustainable exploitation of these resources. Golestan province, one of the semi-arid provinces of Iran has faced a drop in the groundwater level and an increase in the salinity of the groundwater due to the excessive withdrawals from the groundwater table and the reduction of atmospheric precipitation in the past few years. Gorgan Plain with an area of about 4727 square kilometers is one of the largest plains in Iran and the most important plain of Golestan province in terms of water supply for agricultural and drinking purposes. In this plain, there is a network of piezometers and observation wells that include continuous monthly measurements for more than 30 years. The objective of this research was to investigate the changes in the groundwater level of shallow (30 years (1989-2018)) and deep (22 years (1997-2018)) wells. The Man-Kendall method was used to reveal the trend and Pettitt, Normal Standard, and Buishand methods were used to identify sudden change points in a time series of groundwater levels in 49 shallow wells and 12 deep wells. The results of this research showed that the groundwater level in most of the studied wells had a significantly decreasing trend at a significant level of 5%. Also, the largest amount of groundwater loss was in the southern and southwestern parts of the plain, which can be attributed to a large amount of water taken from the wells due to their proximity to urban areas and some local conditions such as the proximity of the wells of this area are located in altitudes and at the entrance border of the aquifer. In the same way, as it rises, the fall decreases in the middle of the plain, and the amount of fall decreases in the northern areas and the edge of the Caspian Sea. It can be related to the proximity to the Caspian Sea and the high water table, and as a result, the inappropriate quality of water and land (high salinity and low fertility), which has caused the water withdrawal from this area to be less.
M. Naderi, V. Sheikh, A. Bahrehmand, C.b. Komaki, A. Ghangermeh,
Volume 27, Issue 4 (Winter 2023)
Abstract
Greenhouse gases and the occurrence of climate change have occurred with the development of technology and the industrialization of human societies. long-term forecasting of climate parameters has always been interesting due to the importance of climate change for the earth and its inhabitants. General Circulation Models (GCMs) are one of the most widely used methods for evaluating future climate conditions. In the present study, the results of three general circulation models including the American model of GFDL-CM3, the Canadian model of CanESM2, and the Russian model of inmcm4ncml for the study area were evaluated and the CanESM2 model was selected as the superior model. The RCP scenarios 2.6, 4.5, and RCP 8.5 were used with the CanESM2 model to assess climate change conditions across the Hablehroud River basin for the period 2020-2051. According to the results, the total monthly precipitation shows an increasing trend in the coming decades 2020-2051 period compared to the period 1986-2017. The results of the study of temperature changes in the period 2020-2051 in the Hablehroud River basin also indicate an increase in the monthly average of maximum and minimum temperatures in the coming decades. The consequences of these conditions are of great hydrological importance in the study area, this condition necessitates the adoption of climate change adaptation policies in this watershed.
M. Khajeh, C. B. Komaki, M. Rezaei, V. Sheikh, L. Ebadi,
Volume 28, Issue 2 (Summer 2024)
Abstract
In the future, the risk of land subsidence due to water resources shortage crisis and improper water resources management will become more and more dangerous. It is necessary to assess and identify areas susceptible to subsidence risk and take necessary actions to reduce risks related to land subsidence. In this study, first, the risk of land subsidence was identified and evaluated using a radar interferometry method called LiCSBAS. Then, the spatial relationship between the occurrence of land subsidence hazard and effective factors such as ground elevation, slope, slope aspect, lithology, land use, groundwater decline, distance from rivers, distance from faults, topographic moisture index, and arc curvature was investigated using the random forest (RF) model. In the end, the land subsidence hazard sensitivity map was prepared after calibrating the random forest algorithm. The analysis of LiCSBAS interferometric time series data from 2015 to 2022 showed that the center of the Marvdasht-Kharameh plain and adjacent agricultural areas are continuously subsiding and the mean deformation rate map showed a subsidence rate of 11.6 centimeters per year. The results of determining the spatial relationship between subsidence occurrence and effective factors confirmed the positive impact of distance from rivers, urban and agricultural land uses, depth of bedrock (aquifer thickness), groundwater decline, and alluvial and fine-grained formations on this phenomenon. Also, the results of subsidence modeling using the random forest algorithm showed that factors such as bedrock depth, groundwater decline, land use, and geology have the greatest impact on the potential for subsidence occurrence in the study area. Also, based on the results, about 3 to 4 percent of the areas are in the very high and extremely high-risk classes of land subsidence, especially in the center and suburbs of Mervdasht. Therefore, water resources management and control and developing a systematic program to reduce subsidence risk and aquifer recharge conservation in Merudasht-Kharameh Plain is essential.
