Sparganium L. (Typhaceae) includes five taxa in the aquatic flora of Iran. Sparganium emersum and S. natans are reported here for the first time in Iran and Flora Iranica area. These species were collected in two high mountain wetlands in ARDABIL province. A detailed determination key for five Iranian Sparganium taxa is given.

Introduction What has been identified as the relationship between natural resources and conflict? In what ways are natural resources used to trigger conflict and instability? Who are the main players and actors in resource conflicts? To address these questions, this article critically reviews the main theoretical and empirical works on natural resources conflict. This area was studied as the target population due to the rich forest and rangelands resources and considering the existing conflicts in the ARDABIL province. The conflict of interest between exploiters and natural resource experts is one of the problems that may have remained from the period of nationalization of forests and rangeland (1962) and has become more critical gradually. In this regard, the inapplicability of the laws, the numerous transfers that have taken place over the years, and the lack of transparency of the border between national lands and exceptions, have led to many problems. This study seeks to investigate the reasons and causes of the conflict between the key natural resources key stakeholders including beneficiaries people who use the rangelands or forest and the local authority or national actors (government) over natural resources in the study area. Materials and Methods legal, managerial, exploitation, and social components were examined from the perspectives of both experts and stakeholders. A number of 205 questionnaires were completed by the officials of natural resources of ARDABIL and Garmi cities and its stakeholders with the Snowball Method. The validity of the main variables was more than 0. 7, which is an acceptable number. Divergent validity index, among all features, was less than 0. 9, which indicated that there is no dependence between the variables of each feature. Since the scale of measuring the views of experts and stakeholders is the rating, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare the views of two groups on the causes of conflict in natural resources. Results and Discussion The results showed that the natural resources conflict in the whole region, there isn’, t a significant difference between the factors affecting the conflict between the local community and government experts in terms of perspective. The most important components for increasing the conflict in this region from the perspective of beneficiaries are lack of expertise of the resolution council, lack of government support for ranches, financial poverty, conflict with rangeland encroachers, low level of awareness of stakeholders, and according to the experts, lack of government support for ranches, lack of law, lack of rangeland cooperative, insufficient water in rangeland, financial poverty, lack of cooperation among the people and migration. Land grabbing, coaling, wood smuggling, and understory tillage aren’, t the most challenging issues. From the managerial point of view, both groups have declared that the most effective way to reduce the conflict is the confinement of forests and pastures, but the participatory management issues were not acceptable according to the two groups’,viewpoints. Effective presence of experts in the field, recognizing the livelihood potentials of the region and encouraging and educating people to know alternative jobs are suitable ways to reduce the conflicts. Conclusion It seems that the plans of stopping the exploitation of natural resources are more accepted in this region. Participatory management is one of the solutions to reduce the conflict which necessity of its implementation was not acceptable according to the two groups’,viewpoints.

Background: Along with the complexity of social communications, the rate of suicide is increasing, and according to studies, women commit suicide more than men. Various factors affect the occurrence of this phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors affecting unsuccessful suicide among women referring to the emergency room of the hospital of ARDABIL City, Iran. Methods: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted on 236 women who had unsuccessful suicide. Questions were asked from patients with a checklist. This checklist has four parts. The first part relates to the patient’ s personal information, and the second part relates to the patient’ s previous history of mental, physical, and addiction problems. The third part asked about the causes of suicide and the fourth part related to the prior announcement. The collected data were analyzed by statistical methods in SPSS v. 18. Results: The Mean± SD age of the women was 27. 66± 9. 95 years, and the majority was between 15 and 20 years old. About 64% of women were housewives, and 37. 7% had undergraduate education. Also, 36% had a positive history of psychological diseases, and 30. 9% had a history of suicide. The most common causes of suicide among women were emotional problems (91. 9%), family and marriage conflict (81. 8%), spouse’ s disregard (50. 4%), and economic issues (44. 5%). Conclusion: The results showed that emotional problems and family and marital conflicts were common causes of suicide among women, and all women had at least one crucial reason for their suicide attempt.

In this paper urban hierarchy of ARDABIL province has been studied based on descriptive-analytical method during 1365-1375, and 1385. The results show that the urban hierarchy has been not balanced during the studied years, yet it showed a trend of improvement. According to the results, ARDABIL city (province center) has been a permanent immigration destination because of the allocation of the most portion of investment in political, social and cultural aspects. Further, it has caused noncompliance of the urban hierarchy from rank-size rule. Therefore, ARDABIL city population has been 9 and 10 times to the second city (Meshkinshahr) and the third city (Parsabad) in 1365, respectively. In 1375, Parsabad has been enhanced to the second city while its population has been one sixth of ARDABIL city. Urban hierarchy has been balanced in 1385. This way, ARDABIL had 5 and 7 times the population of the second city (Parsabad) and the third city (Meshkinshahr), respectively. In this paper, urban hierarchy is studied not only using rank-size model but also via the calculation of the entropy factor, Henderson index and Mehta Four-City index. The results of these methods were similar. The results revealed that it is possible to establish balancing urban network and development of balanced space in the province using creation of equal opportunity for all cities, as well as making attempts creating mean city and supporting rural-urban areas development to small cities are all possible.

Geochemistry of basalts were studied in three areas around ARDABIL including Heyran, Razei and Saein. Heyran and Razei are upper Cretaceous - lower Tertiary submarine pillow lava and Saein is the Quaternary aerial stair step (trapp) type. Heyran and Razei basalts are primitive with subcontinental lithospheric mantle source and basalt of Saein area is transitional with deeper source. According to isotopic ratio, 87Sr/86Sr belong to OIB array and based on isotopic ratio Nd-Sr is placed in mantle array and mean while it shows high contamination with crust rocks.

Background: Brain abscess is a focal intracerebral infection, which begins as a localized area of cerebritis and develops into a collection of pus surrounded by a well-vascularized capsule. In the present study, we studied all patients with brain abscess admitted in ARDABIL Fatemi hospital.Patients and methods: In a retrospective hospital-based study, 24 patients with brain abscess entered the study. Medical records of patients were reviewed from January 2004 to January 2006. Brain abscess was defined as one or more localized lesions with the following characteristics in brain imaging (CT scan): hypodense center with a peripheral uniform ring enhancement following the injection of contrast material, or affected region surrounded by variable hypodense area of brain edema or nodular enhancement or area of low attenuation without enhancement. Predisposing factors for brain abscess were surveyed by reviewing medical records.Results: The study population included 17 males and 7 females with the mean age (± standard deviation) of 27.0±21.3 years. The following predisposing factors were noted in 22 (91.6%) patients; contiguous focus of infection (sinusitis and chronic otitis media) in 10 (41.6%), congenital heart disease in 5 (20.8%), post traumatic complications in 3 (12.5%), super infected hydatid cyst in 2 (8.3%) and neurosurgical complications in 2 cases (8.3%).Conclusion: Ear in cerebellar and temporal lobe, frontal sinus in frontal lobe and heart in parietal lobe abscesses should be evaluated for the possible source of infection. Meanwhile, hydatid cyst may be an important risk for brain abscess in endemic areas like ARDABIL.

Background & Objective: Each year thousands of children under five years old die due to acute respiratory infection and diarrheal diseases. A huge number of infants and children are hospitalized and visited by the physicians whereas most of these diseases can be prevented with timely treatment. Child health maintenance and improvement is one of the most important considerations in each society. Moreover, identifying child morbidity patterns should be a matter of concern in order to improve the health services. This study provides an overview of the leading causes of hospitalization among children with the aim of determining the most important causes of hospitalization and offering appropriate strategies to decrease them.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2001 in ARDABIL Ali-Asghar hospital. The subjects were randomly selected from the admission list on a daily basis. A questionnaire including demographic characteristics such as age, sex, time of admission and primary diagnosis was completed for each subject. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 1945 patients were admitted almost half of which were studied. Febrile convulsion was found to be the most common cause of hospitalization (26%) while gastroenteritis (22.1%) and pneumonia (20%) were in the second and third order. Other causes included epilepsy, drug poisoning, meningitis, mumps, drug encephalitis, asthma, etc. Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, standard case management is necessary especially about febrile convulsion which is the most common cause of hospitalization. Since the present pattern is different from similar studies, further investigations are required to identify its causes.

Background &Objectives: According to a recent report published by the Ministry of Health in Iran gastric cancer is the most common cause of death due to cancer in this country and cardiac cancer is the most common kind of upper GI cancer. This study is an attempt to determine the epidemiology of cardiac cancers in ARDABIL.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted for four years (2000-2003) at the only private clinic in ARDABIL. The results of endoscopy of these patients including the exact determination of the topography of cancer in cardiac and other general information were recorded. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (version-10).Results: During this study 4356 endoscopy were done and 533 histologically proven upper GH cancer were detected. Out of 533, 242 cases were located at E-G junction area, 82(33.9%), 130 (53.7%) in cardiac region and 30 (12/4%) cases were located at the proximal body of stomach. 130 (53.7%) cases of tumors were, in the right side of cardiac. Bormann classification showed that most of cancers (43.8%) were ulceroinfiltrative.Conclusion: Statistical analysis indicated that there is a significant relationship between type and topography of cancer with dysphasia, weight loss and epigasteric pain (p<0.05). The results showed significant relationship between type and topography of cancers with Bormann classification (p=0.001). Further epidemiologic studies are required to evaluate etiology of cardiac cancers in ARDABIL.

Background & Objective: The nationwide amblyopia prevention program is performed by prevention deputy of welfare organization every year. In this analytic report practical results of screening program in 1998-2001 were presented and compared with similar findings in other countries. The results were also compared with the findings of previous similar researches in Iran.Methods: The amblyopia screening program was performed on all 3-65 year-old children in day-care centers as well as those referring to the visual acuity measuring centers. The first examination was accomplished by trainers. In the second step doubtful cases were referred to optometrist by trainers and amblyopia was diagnosed by an optometrist and confirmed by an eye specialist after excluding organic causes.Results: 608 out of 8427(7.21%) children examined by trainers in 2001 were referred to an optometrist because of suspected visual disorders. The prevalence of amblyopia in different cities of ARDABIL province was 2%-15%. The figures in 2000-2001 were 10% (Rangs=1%-13%), respectively. In 1998 it was 11% (Range =5%-13%). In the second phase of amblyopia plan the prevalence of visual problems was estimated about 21%, 45%, 47%, and 74% in 1998-2001, respectively. In the third phase of the plan the amblyopia prevalence for children examined by eye-specialist in 1999-2001 were 1.6%, 1.41% and 1.25% respectively.Conclusions: In this research the prevalence of amblyopia was found to be 1.42% which has a conformity with the findings of other countries. Moreover, the higher variation in the estimation of the prevalence of visual disorders in this province requires further comparative researches.

Background & Objectives: Tuberculosis has been the most common fatal disease among adults. It was ranked as the 7th most prevalent disease in the Global Burden of disease. It was also predicted to retain similar rank based on the Disability-Adjusted life Years (DALY) Criteria in the year 2020, whereas this rink has decreased for other infectious diseases. Tuberculosis varies in socio-demographic characteristics in different geographic areas. Therefore understanding its pattern could be useful in designing a preventive strategy. This study was conducted to identify socio-demographic pattern of this disease on the basis of smear.Methods: This cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted in ARDABIL city by reviewing 232 samples of patients who were under treatment for TB during last four years. Information was collected from patients’ records which were kept in ARDABIL health center. The Data were analyzed through SPSS. Results: 37.5% of cases were male and the rest were female. 86 of subjects had positive smear, 44 negative smear and 98 were diagnosed as extra pulmonary tuberculosis and 4% as relapse. The average age of cases was 42 with SD=19.4 ranging between 2 and 86 years. Positive smear’s pulmonary TB more prevalent in urban areas than rural areas while negative smear’ pulmonary TB and relapse were more frequently observed in the rural areas. Smear positive was 59.3% smear negative was 59.1% and extra-pulmonary TB 67.3% were more common in women than men. However, relapse rate was equal in both sexes.Conclusion: the average age of our subjects was compatible to the findings of other studies.66% of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis had positive smear which is close to 65% that was reported in the national program for prevention of TB. The ratio of positive smear’ pulmonary TB to extra-pulmonary and negative smear’s pulmonary TB was 60% which differs to the expected ratio of one. Relapse rate was 1.7% which is less than expected rate (4%). This shows that DOTS was a successful program.