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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential or actual role of rural libraries in preserving indigenous knowledge (IK) of the rural residents in South Khorasan province.

The study, based on a qualitative research, was carried out by employing the grounded theory method. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews from the research sample population which included 20 rural males, 10 rural females, 8 librarians and 3 well-informed regional IK specialists. The validity of the research was confirmed by peer evaluation, compounded by detailed thorough explanations and external reviewers’ reaffirmations.

The rural residents of the South Khorasan villages across the province, after having realized the vitality of carrying out this project, were fully motivated and cooperative to provide indigenous knowledge. On the basis of the results from the rural libraries, due to being the solitary knowledge center in the area, these libraries could actively participate in preserving the knowledge and contribute toward the documentation of the indigenous knowledge. This required motivating librarians and increasing their professional, technical, research and verbal skills. The results of the study indicated that, even if the rural libraries of the South Khorasan province did not participate in documentation, preservation, and promotion of the IK and opt for the present form of non-participation, due to their inherent nature, they could become a focal point and play an indispensable role in achieving the objectives by aiding and leading the process at country level and become a focal point for the new generations of rural inhabitants to enlighten themselves and become fully aware of the value of the ancestral knowledge.

Hitherto, none of the researchers in Iran has covered the role of the libraries in general and rural libraries in particular in preserving the indigenous knowledge.

This paper aims to present a modified space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) technique for six-phase induction motor drive based on common-mode voltage (CMV) and current losses which are two important issues affecting drive system behavior and quality.

It is shown that the presence of z-component currents and the presence of CMV in six-phase drive system are two major limiting factors in space vector selection. The behavior of several space vector selections in a two-level inverter considering minimum CMV and z-components is investigated. Then, the space vectors in a three-level inverter is analyzed and tried to explore an SVM technique with better behavior.

The analyses show that all the problems cannot be solved in a six-phase drive system with two-level inverter despite having 64 space vectors; this study tried to overcome the limitations by exploring space vectors in a three-level inverter.

The proposed pulse width modulation (PWM) strategy leads to minimum current distortion and undesired current components with zero CMV and modest torque ripple.

The purpose of this study is to propose a novel super-efficiency DEA model to appraise the relative efficiency of DMUs with zero data and stochastic data. Our model can work with both variable returns to scale (VRS) and constant returns to scale (CRS).

This study proposes a new stochastic super-efficiency DEA (SSDEA) model to assess the performance of airlines with stochastic and zero inputs and outputs.

This paper proposes a new analysis and contribution to the knowledge of efficiency assessment with stochastic super-efficiency DEA model by (1) using input saving and output surplus index for efficient DMUs to get the optimal solution; (2) obtaining efficiency scores from the proposed model that are equivalent to original stochastic super-efficiency model when feasible solutions exist. A case study is given to illustrate the applicability of our proposed model. Also, poor performance reasons are identified to improve the performance of inefficient airlines.

For the first time, a new SSDEA model for ranking DMUs is proposed. The introduced model produces a feasible solution when dealing with zero input or output. This paper applies the input saving and output surplus concept to rectify the infeasibility problem in the stochastic DEA model.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible relationship between knowledge management infrastructures (KMI) and organizational intelligence (OI) in two country-wide research centers dependent to Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, namely, Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IRIIST) and Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS).

The research is a survey in a descriptive manner. Using two validated questionnaires related to KMI and OI, the research was conducted among 175 faculty members and staffs of the two research centers. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures, collected data were then analyzed by software SPSS and partial least squares.

Factor analysis showed a high factor loading related to the two main variables and all of the items indicated goodness of fit (GoF) related to the questions. The variance-mean ratio between two variables was higher than 0.5 indicating a high convergent validity. R² for OI showed fitness of SEM. The GoF for IRIIST was 0.642 lower than IHCS with 0.645. Also, path analysis indicated a significant relationship between two variables by 95 percent degree of confidence accepting the two research hypothesis.

By comparison, KMI was more correlated with OI in IHCS than IRIIST. KMI in IRIIST predicted OI by 0.826 percent while in the IHCS by 0.848 percent.

The purpose of this study is an attempt to identify the most crucial factors and their influence on one another, which can result in predicting the country’s next phase of progress based on these factors’ variation patterns.

The authors proposed a model based on the existing literature and then ran a system dynamics analysis on the data obtained from the World Bank official Web site. The factors including “Research and development expenditure (% of GDP)”, “Scientific and technical journal articles”, “Patent applications”, “Trademark applications”, “Industry value added”, “Researchers in R & D (per million people)” and “High technology export” were considered as the related factors with science and technology.

The findings can also reveal what aspects require more attention and investment if the government demands to facilitate and accelerate the development process. The results show that the most intense increase refers to the number of patent applications and trademark applications, and the lowest increase is related to research and development expenditure and researchers in R & D.

The authors hope that tracking the changes of those factors leads practitioners and scholars to have a better understanding of the trends of science and technology development in a country, which in turn leads them to foresee the country’s upcoming opportunities as well as challenges.

Proposing a system dynamic model for predicting science and technology trend in a country is relatively novel.

This paper aims to present two-stage network models in the presence of stochastic ratio data.

Black-box, free-link and fix-link techniques are used to apply the internal relations of the two-stage network. A deterministic linear programming model is derived from a stochastic two-stage network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model by assuming that some basic stochastic elements are related to the inputs, outputs and intermediate products. The linkages between the overall process and the two subprocesses are proposed. The authors obtain the relation between the efficiency scores obtained from the stochastic two stage network DEA-ratio considering three different strategies involving black box, free-link and fix-link. The authors applied their proposed approach to 11 airlines in Iran.

In most of the scenarios, when alpha in particular takes any value between 0.1 and 0.4, three models from Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (1978), free-link and fix-link generate similar efficiency scores for the decision-making units (DMUs), While a relatively higher degree of variations in efficiency scores among the DMUs is generated when the alpha takes the value of 0.5. Comparing the results when the alpha takes the value of 0.1–0.4, the DMUs have the same ranking in terms of their efficiency scores.

The authors innovatively propose a deterministic linear programming model, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, for the first time, the internal relationships of a two-stage network are analyzed by different techniques. The comparison of the results would be able to provide insights from both the policy perspective as well as the methodological perspective.

Sustainable development is the management and conservation of the basic natural resources through which organizational and technological changes are lead to meet present and future needs of humans. In developing and analyzing the solutions based on sustainable development principles, an integrated and holistic approach needs to be pursued. Not only system dynamics has the essential tools for systemic analysis, but also it is an appropriate approach for perceiving problems and offering solutions. The aim of this study is to present an integrated and systemic model to analyze the existent dynamics in sustainable development of Iran’s farming industry.

To achieve the mathematical equations and values of model’s variables, a simulation is carried out using the data gathered from Damavand city, Tehran, Iran. The parameters of the model are selected and calculated considering the specifications of this case study. After modeling the system, Vensim simulation software has been employed, followed by identifying the leverage points of the model; then, a set of scenarios have been generated and tested through simulation to achieve a much improved understanding of the system’s dynamic behavior.

The results show that two factors are among the most important leverage points: “profit gained from agriculture” and “required water”. The authors could also observe that the main issue in Damavand is the lack of water for which saving policies would be a major step toward agriculture’s sustainable development in this area.

The paper shows how System Dynamics simulation approach can provide deep insights into the field of sustainable development and present efficient policies for agriculture sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the various anti-corruption strategies used to fight economic and financial crimes in both the public and private sectors in Iran.

This paper relied essentially on a secondary source of information. Materials used were collected in an eclectic manner from published outlets such as journal publications, books, online sources and newspaper reports. Also, official documents and statutes were also used. This study’s scope is limited to issues and analysis relating to measures adopted to combat corruption in Iran.

The legal and institutional frameworks analysed indicated that Iran has a robust anti-corruption scheme. However, there is no adequate measure available to gauge the effectiveness of these measures.

The paper concludes that conventional anti-corruption methods are not enough to fight corruption in this present time, thus, the implementation of whistle-blower policy and allowing freedom of operation of the civil society organisations and media would assist in the fight against corruption in Iran.

The paper provides the legal and institutional anti-corruption frameworks in Iran. It explores the three major approaches or methods of combating corruption and other corrupt practices in Iran.