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The purpose of this paper is to study reading behavior in the digital environment based on demographic factors including faculty, degree and gender among higher education students of Isfahan University.

This study was survey descriptive using a researcher‐made questionnaire and data collection was accomplished using stratified random sampling method. The population of the study was the postgraduate students from seven faculties of Isfahan University. Different aspects of reading behavior were studied including the amount of reading of electronic resources, the style of reading electronic resources, the amount of annotating the electronic and print resources, the amount of printing out electronic documents for reading, and preference of reading medium.

The study showed that the amount of reading of electronic resources is highest in the students of technical and engineering subjects, while the amount of printing out of electronic documents is highest in the faculty of sciences. PhD students usually make use of scanning for reading electronic resources, whereas postgraduate students generally print out more electronic documents.

The findings of this study will help university authorities and digital libraries managers to provide better services to users and students.

With the advent of internet and computers, reading is not the same as in the past. Reading in the digital age has changed and this paper tries to give some insight about the reading behavior of students and their preferences and the differences based on faculty, degree and gender.

Understanding consumers’ food safety practices are helpful in reducing foodborne illnesses. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of education on knowledge, attitude and practices toward food additives.

This interventional study was performed by random sampling of 826 employees in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences from January 2018 to March 2019. The knowledge, attitude and practices of the employees toward food additives were assessed by a self-administered and structured questionnaire. Two-month education was conducted visually by using pamphlets, posters and leaflets. Descriptive statistics and paired t-test were done by SPSS24 at significant levels of p < 0.05.

The results showed that the respondents were very concerned about preservatives, colorants, and artificial sweeteners in foods. Before the education, the percentages collected for the knowledge, attitude and practice were 79.0, 48.9 and 46.7, respectively. Overall, knowledge scores were improved from 79.0 to 88.9 per cent when the education was offered. Safety attitude scores significantly increased, with a 50 per cent difference between the pre and post values. A significant difference was observed in the percentage of knowledge, attitude and practice of the employers before and after education (p < 0.05). Almost half of the respondents chose leaflets and pamphlets as a preferable tool for learning.

Education may be needed for improving knowledge and attitude about food additives. It also helped the respondents to select healthier food. This study suggests more communication programs regarding food safety issues.

This study aimed at developing and testing a model to evaluate employee performance in Isfahan municipality.

A mixed-method design is applied in this study. To extract the model, a semi-structured interview based on the thematic analysis approach was employed. The qualitative data were obtained using a researcher-made questionnaire from a sample of 12 municipal experts selected based on purposive sampling. In the quantitative phase, the sample consisted of 76 managers and interim managers. The validity of the questionnaire was determined by the content validity index, while the structural validity was tested based on structural equation modeling using SmartPLS software. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability indices.

The factors obtained in the qualitative model included performance evaluation criteria, the desired time interval for performance evaluation, results announcement, performance evaluation approach, performance evaluation method and evaluator-related variables. There should have been an agreement between evaluators and those who were evaluated in all components of the model. In the quantitative section, performance evaluation criteria, evaluators, the evaluation method and time interval were confirmed with coefficients of 0.871, 0.815, 0.646 and 0.615, respectively.

The novelty of this study is that it uses a mixed-method research approach to extract a performance evaluation model that is specific to the Isfahan municipality.

The novelty of this study is that it uses a mixed-method research approach to extract a performance evaluation model that is specific to the Isfahan municipality.

Sports facilities can play a vital role in encouraging physical activity and sport. Also, just the distribution of sports facilities is very important for better access to these facilities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate spatial justice in the distribution of built outdoor sports facilities in the city of Isfahan, Iran and provide insight for planning in terms of equitable accessibility.

All facilities located in the 15 areas of the city, whether private or public, built for the purpose of physical activity and sports programs were considered in this study (107 cases). To obtain information on the locations of the outdoor sports facilities, Isfahan Atlas data, which has been compiled by Isfahan Municipality was used. Arc geographic information systems environment and its different algorithms were also used to perform different calculations and prepare maps.

The results indicated the unfair distribution of built outdoor sports facilities in the city of Isfahan in terms of spatial justice based on the number of built outdoor sports facilities in each area, the population, land area, population density and the spatial pattern of the facilities.

In this regard, urban authorities and sport managers should make an effort to decrease or obviate inequity in access to outdoor sports facilities for the purpose of promoting participation in physical activity and sport and providing residents with numerous other benefits.

This paper has concluded that spatial justice in the distribution of built outdoor sports facilities for the improvement of access to these facilities is very important.

The purpose of this research is to propose a systematic and integrative approach for evaluating, assessing, analysing, and improving service quality and effectiveness.

A new approach is proposed, in which SERVQUAL and overall administration effectiveness (OAE) are integrated. The recycling pavilion service process of Isfahan municipality is examined. By distributing 120 questionnaires containing the 22 questions of the SERVQUAL instrument developed by Parasuraman et al. in four pavilions of four different regions of the city of Isfahan, the services quality gap was measured and the OAE indicator performance was calculated. In OAE, the quality ratio was measured based on the quality gap, and performance and availability ratios were measured based on the characteristics of the recycling pavilion services.

The empirical findings imply that the application of the proposed approach has resulted in a reduction of 0.59 of the gap average and a 36 per cent improvement of the OAE indicator.

While a general approach is proposed for service application, the results of the case study may not be generalisable.

The proposed approach of this study presents a method for simultaneous analysis of service quality and effectiveness.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of memorable destination experience and destination attractiveness on tourist-destination identification and destination love. It also investigates the moderating role of gender.

Using the cluster sampling method, the study selected cities of a developing country with the most popular destinations. A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from a sample of foreign and domestic tourists. To test the research model, a covariance-based structural equation modelling approach was adopted.

According to the results, destination attractiveness and memorable experience had a positive effect on tourist-destination identification. Similarly, tourist-destination identification positively influenced destination love. In addition, destination love impacts the intention to revisit and word-of-mouth. Finally, the results indicate that gender moderates some of these relationships.

Understanding what items can create strong bonds between destination and tourist is of great importance. By providing a validated conceptual model that traces the relationship between memorable experience, destination attractiveness and tourist-destination identification through cognitive, affective and evaluative dimensions, this study attempts to answer prior calls for examination from the viewpoint of tourism scholars.

The purpose of this paper is to use Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH)-type artificial neural network to model the affecting factors of housing price in Isfahan city housing market.

This paper presents an accurate model based on GMDH approach to describing connection between housing price and considered affecting factors in case study of Isfahan city based on trusted data that have been collected from 1995 to 2017 for every six months. The accuracy of the model has been evaluated by mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) in this case.

Due to the obtained value of MAPE, RMSE and MAE and also their interpretation, accuracy of modelling the factors affecting housing price in Isfahan city housing market using GMDH-type artificial neural network that has been conducted in this paper, is acceptable.

Due to limitation of reliable data availability about affecting factors, selected period is from 1995 to 2017. Accessing to longer periods of reliable data can improve the accuracy of the model.

The key point of this research is reaching to a mathematical formula that accurately shows the relationships between housing price in Isfahan city and effective factors. The simplified formula can help users to use it easily for analysing and describing the status of housing market in Isfahan city of Iran.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of job satisfaction on hostage employee loyalty in Isfahan Province Gas Company (IPGC).

The statistical population of this study included the formal recruited employees of IPGC out of which, 212 employees have been selected using a stratified random sampling method. A questionnaire has been developed and used for data collection regarding job satisfaction and employee loyalty. In this study along with the other studies of the authors, employees of IPGC were classified into four different categories on the basis of loyalty matrix, and the majority (78 percent) of them were located in the hostage category. Structural equation modeling has been used for data analysis.

The findings imply that job satisfaction does not have a significant influence on the loyalty of hostage employees.

Organizations are encouraged to identify the individual and organizational factors and obstacles, take necessary measures to increase job satisfaction and maintain the level of employee loyalty and gradually shift them from the hostage category to the apostle category, which results in an increased number of loyal and satisfied employees.

This study indicates how the application of the concepts of loyalty matrix, particularly its hostage category, can be expanded in the field of organizational behavior management.

Trompe l’oeil as a novel art technique can not only promote art tourism but can also transform the landscape of a city into a platform for negotiation. Furthermore, trompe l’oeil aims to create a joyful, entertaining, new experience and an interactive environment for tourists in the cities. This paper highlights the introduction of trompe l’oeil as a new tourist attraction in Shiraz (Iran). Moreover, the goals of this study are to explore the role of trompe l’oeil (three-dimensional [3D] street painting) in promoting art tourism, to investigate the tendency of tourists toward experiencing art tours and trompe l’oeil and to determine the priority of trompe l’oeil themes from the domestic tourists’ perspective.

Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this research study.

On the basis of the results of this study, it can be concluded that domestic tourists are eager to experience art tours and trompe l’oeil attractions and activities, except for buying and wearing 3D-printed clothes. In addition, trompe l’oeil on street floors and walls with funny, joyful and cultural-artistic and national-historical themes is more attractive for them.

No significant academic work has been undertaken in the field of art tourism to evaluate the attitude of tourists toward the trompe l’oeil attractions and activities.

A fabric can be modeled as an elastic beam supported by simple supports subjected to its own weight. The maximum deflection in the middle can be measured accurately. Different types of fabrics are tested and the bending modulus of the fabrics is then calculated in both small and large deflection cases. In the case of large deflection, the finite element method is used to solve the governing differential equation. The difference between the values of the bending modulus obtained from the small and large deflection cases increases as the length of the bent fabric is increased. The reason is less accuracy of the small deflection equations in longer lengths of the beam. However, the results reveal that even in the longest length of the tested beam (fabric), the differences between the values of the bending modulus from small and large deflection cases are in an acceptable range. It can be concluded that the case of the small deflection can be used to calculate the bending modulus of the fabrics in a simply supported beam method with an acceptable accuracy.