زهرا باقری خلیلی

The increase in the human population and the growth in water consumption on one hand, and the rise in sewage production on the other hand, have led to the expansion of environmental pollution threats. The objectives of the present study include launching a pilot project for the localization of knowledge in the design of artificial wetlands in accordance with the quantitative and qualitative conditions of domestic sewage in Iran (specifically, the dormitory of the University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in Sari) and investigating the possibility of replacing wetland systems with conventional domestic sewage treatment systems in the country.

This study was conducted at the University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in Sari, involving the construction of six artificial wetlands, each with a length of 3 meters, width of 2 meters, and a height of 1.5 meters, using reinforced concrete. One of the ponds was excluded from the system due to leakage. Inside the ponds, artificial filters at different depths (1 meter: d1 and 1 meter and 30 centimeters: d2) and plant filters (Phragmites australis: p1 and Arundo donax: p2) were filled and planted. D10 and the coefficient of unifo rmity (CU) of the substrate materials were obtained as 2 millimeters and 3.625, respectively, from the grain size analysis. The hydraulic conductivity and porosity of the substrate were 2.523 cm/s and 39.2%, respectively. The specific surface area (SSA) of the substrate materials was calculated as 1.336 m²/kg (2245 m²/m³ of substrate materials). The effluent from the septic tank of the dormitory's baffled septic tank was injected onto the beds after a settling and dilution stage using a pump. In the initial loading, the beds were submerged below the surface, and a three-day retention time was allowed for the first sampling. Quality parameters of the wastewater, including biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), fecal coliform (FC), and total coliform (TC), were monitored to assess the performance of the treatment system.

Although the injected wastewater was diluted up to 25%, a significant removal efficiency of 51 to 55, 41 to 79, 74 to 89, 70 to 95.3, and 78 to 95 percent was achieved for BOD, COD, TSS, FC, and TC, respectively, in different treatments. Among the treatments, the weakest performance was associated with treatment P1D2, while the best purification performance was observed in treatment P2D1. This indicates the dominance of the physical characteristics of the systems at the beginning of the startup period on the purification performance. However, the initial performance of the treatment system was very promising and the removal of some parameters such as TSS and FC was at the average level of a full-fledged wetland treatment system.

This wastewater treatment technology is recommended for all managers and experts in the country's wastewater industry, especially in rural areas with inexpensive land and a population of fewer than 5000 people. These conditions encompass all towns, universities, military barracks, and military facilities as well.

Due to the increase in population and the uncertainty of safe water supply, the use of rainwater harvesting systems has gained popularity in recent years. This research has evaluated the technical and financial feasibility of these systems in the production of packaged water at Sari University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. In the first step, daily rainfall was predicted for the period of 2022-2047 using the historical data of Dashtnaz weather station in Sari and those of the GFDL-CM3 climate model. The daily Water balance modeling and financial indicators (IRR, NPV, and B/C) were used to analyze the technical and financial aspects of the systems with catchment levels of 200, 850, and 1700 m2. Findings showed that aiming at supplying the daily requirement drinking water of the university, increasing the daily treatment capacity of this system has no effect on its performance in this area. According to the financial index, storage tanks with volumes of 8, 20, and 40 m3 are suitable for systems with catchment levels of 200, 850, and 1700 square meters, respectivel The financial indicators (IRR, NPV and B/C) were respectively 45%, 917 million Rials and 1.2 for the catchment area of 200 m2, 103%, 4768 million Rials and 1.31 for the catchment area of 850 m2, and 117%, 8918 million Rials and 1.33 for the catchment area of 1700 m2

Roof rainwater harvesting is considered an important alternative source where contaminated surface and groundwater resources are limited or not readily available. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quantity and quality of water extracted from rainwater harvesting systems for drinking water production at Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University. To investigate the potential for rainwater harvesting within the university, one of the student dormitory buildings with a roof area of 850 m2 and a capacity of 300 students was considered. Daily rainfall data of Dasht-e Naz station in Sari in the period 2000 to 2018 were used as inputs of the water balance model to determine the appropriate volume of the rainwater storage tank. Also, in order to evaluate the quality of water collected from the roof, sampling from the roof outlet and some important physical, chemical and microbial parameters were measured. According to the results, the volume of the storage tank of 30 m3 in the dormitory with Volumetric and time reliability of 29 and 29.5 percent, respectively, was considered appropriate. The results showed that at the implementation of this system, about 309 m3 of town water consumption will be saved annually. The results also show that the direct use of collected water for drinking purposes is limited. Accordingly, according to the amount of water produced annually, it is recommended to use a UV system for disinfection and microbial purification while using a sand tank to improve physical parameters (turbidity).

Due to the importance of spirituality in personal and professional life, the need for organizational commitment and the desire to stay in the organization and its consequences, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between spiritual health and organizational commitment of staff in Babol University of Medical Sciences.

The statistical population of this descriptive-analytical study was 218 staff members of Babol University of Medical Sciences, selected using Quota sampling method based on the staff members of each unit, Morgan Formula and the total population of the staff members. The Ellison-Paloutzian Spiritual Well-being and Alan-Meyer organizational commitment standard questionnaires were used, their validity was approved by specialists, and their reliability Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.84 and 0.73, respectively. The data were analyzed using descriptive-analytical statistics in SPSS 25.

There was no significant relationship between demographic components with spiritual health and organizational commitment (P>0.05). The mean score of spiritual health was 92.43±13.56, within the average range. The mean score of organizational commitment was 109.88±16.63, within the average range. The relationship between spiritual health and its aspects with organizational commitment and its dimensions was positive, significant and direct (P<0.001, correlation=0.01). Spiritual health had no significant relationship with continuous commitment (P>0.05). The higher the spiritual health, the greater the organizational commitment was, and the higher the spiritual health, the higher the dimensions of emotional and normative commitment was. More than half of the staff tended to quit the organization for a better offer.

Based on this study, the higher the spiritual health, the greater the organizational commitment was. Therefore, the commitment, attachment and retention rate should be increased by using religious teachings, and finally the productivity of the organization is enhanced.

Measuring the actual evapotranspiration rate of rice is too much important, in terms of appropriate and optimal water management of the Northern provinces in Iran. The present study aims to measure the actual evapotranspiration rate for two Shiroudi & Hashemi cultivars of rice, in Sari Agricultural and Natural Resources University’s paddy fields. For this propose, six drainage lysimeters were designed and constructed. After cultivating rice inside the designed lysimeters, the amount of precipitation, water content and deep percolation, were measured during 5-days periods. Investigation of the lysimeter results, shows difference between water requirement and also deep percolation of the two studied cultivars, in growth period (seeding to harvest steps); so that in these phases, water requirement rates was 350.81 & 396.67 millimeters and the deep percolation was 47.81 & 97.11, for the cultivars Shiroudi and Hashemi, respectively. Also the crop coefficient was obtained from the adaption of the lysimeter’s actual evapotranspiration and 14 indirect methods of reference evapotranspiration estimation, for the both cultivars. Considering the cultivar and estimating method, the crop coefficients are reported as the ranges 0.73-1.12 for the initial stage, 0.83-1.41 for the middle stage and 0.64-1.15 for the final stage. Also, the average estimation Error Percentage (PE) of the resulted crop coefficients compared to the recommended coefficients of FAO-Penmann56 method, is 11, 11 & 8 for Hashemi cultivar and 15, 23 & 16 for Shiroudi cultivar, in initial, middle and final stages respectively; which shows the necessity of extracting crop coefficients, for different cultivars under different local conditions. The obtained coefficients of the current study can be useful to calculate the water requirements of Hashemi and Shiroudi cultivars based on indirect estimation methods, for designing water projects, water delivery planning and also the irrigation and drainage networks in the research area.

Nitrate is one of the worldwide pollutants of groundwater and surface water, which affects human and livestock health at high concentration levels in water resources. Among the different techniques of nitrate removal, adsorption method has attracted attention, due to simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency. In this research, the effect of variables pH (4, 6, and 8), flow rate (8, 11, and 16 mL/min), bed height (40, 50, and 60 cm), and column diameter (45, 57, and 67 mm) were investigated on nitrate removal from aqueous solutions by modified zeolites column. The BET analysis was used to determine the specific surface and diameter of the pores. Structure and morphology of zeolite was determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). For modification of zeolite levels, the hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide solution with concentration of 25 mM was used. The agricultural drainage water with concentration of 80 mg L-1 nitrate was artificially prepared by dissolving potassium nitrate salt in distilled water in the laboratory. The result of the analysis showed that the zeolite sample was from the clinoptilolite type, with specific surface area and mean pore diameter of 11.984 m2g-1 and 15.295 nm, respectively. The results also showed that changes in pH, flow rate, bed height, and column diameter on different indexes of breakthrough curve were significant at 5% level. The maximum adsorption rate occurred at pH=6, while the maximum adsorption efficiency (65.24%) occurred at pH= 8. The reduction of the flow rate caused increase in nitrate removal efficiency, but the highest amount of adsorption (0.2 mg g-1) occurred at a flow rate of 11 mL/min. The highest amount of absorption and removal efficiency occurred at the bed height and column diameter of 60 cm and 67 mm, respectively.