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The complexity and interdisciplinarity of healthcare industry problems make this industry one of the attention centers of computer-based simulation studies to provide a proper tool for interaction between decision-makers and experts. The purpose of this study is to present a metamodel-based simulation optimization in an emergency department (ED) to allocate human resources in the best way to minimize door to doctor time subject to the problem constraints which are capacity and budget.

To obtain the objective of this research, first the data are collected from a public hospital ED in Brazil, and then an agent-based simulation is designed and constructed. Afterwards, three machine-learning approaches, namely, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), feed forward neural network (FNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN), are used to build an ensemble metamodel through adaptive boosting. Finally, the results from the metamodel are applied in a discrete imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) for optimization.

Analyzing the results shows that the yellow zone section is considered as a potential bottleneck of the ED. After 100 executions of the algorithm, the results show a reduction of 24.82 per cent in the door to doctor time with a success rate of 59 per cent.

This study fulfils an identified need to optimize human resources in an ED with less computational time.

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting daily demand in an emergency department (ED) and to provide a forecasting tool in a public hospital for horizons of up to seven days.

In this study, first, the important factors to influence the demand in EDs were extracted from literature then the relevant factors to the study are selected. Then, a deep neural network is applied to constructing a reliable predictor.

Although many statistical approaches have been proposed for tackling this issue, better forecasts are viable by using the abilities of machine learning algorithms. Results indicate that the proposed approach outperforms statistical alternatives available in the literature such as multiple linear regression, autoregressive integrated moving average, support vector regression, generalized linear models, generalized estimating equations, seasonal ARIMA and combined ARIMA and linear regression.

The authors applied this study in a single ED to forecast patient visits. Applying the same method in different EDs may give a better understanding of the performance of the model to the authors. The same approach can be applied in any other demand forecasting after some minor modifications.

To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study to propose the use of long short-term memory for constructing a predictor of the number of patient visits in EDs.

In 1979, twenty‐five hundred years of monarchy came to an abrupt end in Iran. Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the new regime has weathered internal uprisings, a costly war with Iraq, and international sanctions. It is interesting to learn the extent to which economic adversities faced by Iran have been ideologically driven. In order to assess this phenomenon, this paper utilizes a framework of analysis laid out by the scholarship of Islamic economics. In section I, the paper discusses some economic forces which underlay the 1979 tumult. Subsequently, a discussion of the new economic and social order is given. An assessment is made in the final section.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the impact of the Islamic Bank Financing on Malaysia’s economic growth over the period 2000Q1-2011Q4.

A neoclassical production function augmented by some indicators of Islamic bank finance has been the theoretical framework for this paper’s empirical investigation. The unit root tests show that all the variables are integrated of order 1. The test of Johansen and Juselius (1990) has shown the existence of a single cointegrating relationship between the gross domestic product (GDP), the investment, the labor force and the indicator of Islamic bank finance. Hence, an error correction model has been constructed to estimate the economic growth elasticity with respect to the different Islamic bank finance indicators.

The estimated elasticities show that, in the long run, the GDP in Malaysia is not sensitive to the Islamic financing. The estimation of an error correction model shows that the elasticity of the Malaysian output with respect to the different Islamic financing indicators in the short run turn around 0.35. Thus, the effect of the different Islamic finance indicators on the economic growth in the long run is less important than their effect in the short run. This economic result can be explained by the structure of the Islamic bank financing that marginalizes the profit-and-loss sharing (PLS)-based instruments. This turns out to be consistent with the economic reality in Malaysia, as the Islamic banks engage much more in non-participatory activities whose impact is, generally, of short term.

To improve the efficiency of the Malaysian Islamic banks as financial inter-mediaries that facilitate the capital accumulation and the economic growth, the paper suggests to strengthen the weight of the PLS-based instruments in the loan portfolios of the Malaysian Islamic banks. This may reduce inequalities and improve economic opportunities for people who have a high potential to contribute to the capital accumulation and the creation of the value-added.

The contribution of this paper is two-fold. On the one hand, it provides a further contribution to the rare empirical literature relative to the impact of the Islamic finance on growth by determining the elasticity of economic growth with respect to Islamic bank financing in Malaysia. On the other hand, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper remains the first to correctly resort to the error correction model in determining this elasticity.

The housing policies targeting low-income households have not been effective to address the housing needs of target groups in Iran over the past four decades. According to the World Bank’s data on population living in slums (% of urban population) in Iran in 2018 was 25% which is slightly higher than the rate 23% of upper-middle-income countries. This study aims to understand what major revisions are required in the process of housing policymaking to have more effective policies.

The authors conduct one-to-one interviews with 41 housing experts and apply discourse analysis and interpretive–structural modeling to achieve the goals.

The panel of experts argue that the success of housing policies in Iran depends on the following: all academic disciplines should be included in the process of housing policymaking process; land policymaking should be modified; housing policy is a regional issue, and it should be designed and implemented differently in each province; main modifications are required in the tax and tenancy system; and new policies are required to push vacant houses into the rental market.

This study is a prescriptive study based on a general trend (four decades).

The purpose of this study is to survey the quantitative and qualitative indicators of housing in Tabriz and its comparison with urban areas of the province and the country (Iran) and identify the key indicators on the future of the housing situation in the Tabriz metropolis.

Statistical yearbooks, the censuses of different periods and the documentary-environmental scanning methods are used to collect the data and matrix of crossed impact multiplications applied to a classification (MICMAC) software is used for analyzing the data.

The results show that during the years 1976 to 2016, the quantitative and qualitative indicators of housing in Tabriz have improved. Also, by obtaining the environmental scanning method, 61 factors were selected in 5 areas that have the greatest impact on the future of housing in the Tabriz metropolis. Finally, 11 key factors that have the most impact on the future of housing in the Tabriz metropolis were selected. These factors are economic growth, inflation, household income and savings, land and housing prices, sanctions, exchange rate changes, bank facilities, unemployment rates, political changes, purchasing power and management style. Among these factors, economic factors play the most important role, and political-managerial factors come in the next place.

This paper proves two issues, namely, the housing market in Iran, especially in the metropolis of Tabriz is strongly influenced by macroeconomic factors and the political situation of society and slogans of housing market reform without fundamental changes and reforms in both economic and political sectors of society are demagogic and illogical.

Since the election of June 2009, the Islamic Republic of Iran has witnessed a huge crisis with the outburst of street protests and demonstrations, challenging its validity. Indeed, it has been so intense that it has shaken the whole Islamic Republic for the first time since the 1979 Iranian revolution. What has happened since the disputed election was an upheaval few had anticipated, an opening of Pandora's box, with millions daring to question the, Velayate Fagih, the most important constituent of the Islamic Republic. This postelection period has created a “revolutionary”’ potential that has so far been met with repressive force and violence on the part of the ruling elites leaving no leverage for compromise. Of course, in the 30 years since the revolution, the Islamic Republic's power structures have faced factionalism. These recent developments demonstrate how deeply rooted run the contradictions and differences between the various groups. This upheaval has thrown all sorts of questions into the air: could Iran remain as a Republic? Or would Iran turn into a God's Kingdom, ever more dictatorial in its approach? Or would the splits within the ruling elites continue to crack the fabric of the regime? Will there be a similar schism to that which took place during the Constitutional Revolution in the early 20th century when a leading member of the clergy, Noori, was finally hanged in July 1909 for being openly against reform? Finally, what is the possibility of change beyond the Islamic Republic in Iran?