zahra mahmoodi

Procedural environmental law, also known as environmental democracy consists of three Pillars, which include the right of access to environmental information, the right of participation in environmental decision-making procedures and the right of access to justice. Environmental democracy is granted to citizens for their empowerment in order to protect their health against environmental damage and to ensure the environment. The aim of this study is to investigate the above rights in the international documents, jurisprudence and domestic legal systems of some leading states and then analyse the Iranian legal system through descriptive-analytical method. We found that Iranian legal system still suffers from some gaps despite the positive efforts to achieve environmental democracy in recent years. The most important issues are the lack of specific rules on people’s access to environmental information, a favorable system for citizen participation in environmental decisions, and a dedicated environmental court.

Capital flight is a growing problem in the global economy that has negative effects on the economic growth and development of developing and has also deepened the development gap between countries. Different factors affect this phenomenon but risk and uncertainty are among the most important institutional components of each country that affect the return on investment and can lead to capital flight. The present study aims to investigate on the effects of economic, political and financial risks on capital flight using panel data during the period 2000-2019 and in 45 selected developing countries.  The results of using the panel data error correction method through fully corrected least squares estimators (FMOLS) show the significant and positive effect of all three types of risk factors on capital flight. In addition, official and foreign currency exchange rate variables have positive effects, and economic growth rate, real interest rate and corruption control index have negative effects on capital flight. This study shows that under strict sanctions and the consequent high political and economic risk, the phenomenon of capital flight can not be countered in Iran. To prevent capital flight, Iran needs to reduce its international tensions, especially with large and influential countries in the global economy.

Food hygiene must be observed in production, storage, supply, and sales to obtain healthy foods with desirable quality. The purpose of present study was to evaluate the awareness, attitudes, and practices of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences food services staff toward food hygiene. A questionnaire consisting of 46 questions was completed by 40 food services staff from February to March 2019. Based on the results, respondents had an acceptable awareness (92.5% to 100% general sanitary awareness and 37.5% to 95% awareness about microbial food hazards), excellent attitudes (97.5% to 100%), and moderate practices regarding food hygiene (17.5% to 97.5%). Although all participants had a relatively high level of awareness and attitude and participated in food safety education courses, their practices were somewhat poor.

With the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, the group's presence in Afghanistan diminished, but over time, the Taliban strengthened their position and emerged as the strongest opposition player in the country, seeking to play an effective role in Afghanistan's future. The main question of the article is, what is the perspective of the Taliban's position in the future governance of Afghanistan? Accordingly, the main purpose of this article is to provide a perspective and analysis of scenarios related to the position of the Taliban in the future governance of Afghanistan. The theoretical framework of the article is Ibn Khaldun's theory of Asabiyyah. The research method is descriptive-analytical. The main hypothesis is that the Taliban's power in Afghanistan and in particular its influence and legitimacy, has increased since the signing of the peace agreement with the U.S as well as the atmosphere in the intera-Afghan talks. The findings show that the Taliban's position in Afghanistan's future cannot be ignored, and this group's interests must be considered in determining the country's future. It seems that the Taliban will pursue the issue of participation in power in the short term and during the intera-Afghan talks; but in the long run, it intends to seize full power in Afghanistan; the result will be the resistance of other groups and the continuation of insecurity in this country.

The aim of this study was to predict Predicting flourish in female adolescents by maternal character strengths: the mediating role of emotional regulation.

 This was an applied study conducted based on a descriptive-correlational design. The statistical population consisted of 3996 secondary high school students from Rey city during the academic year of 2018-2019. For sample size, a total of 350 students were chosen according to Kerjcie and Morgan’s table and using multi-stage cluster sampling. Research tools included an actualization questionnaire developed by Soleymani et al. (2015), Seligman and Peterson’s character strengths questionnaire (2004), and emotion regulation questionnaire (Gross and Jhon, 2003). The reliability of questionnaires was confirmed by professors and their credibility by Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.85). Data were analyzed through correlational tests and structural equations in Spss24 and Amos20.

 From the results, maternal character strengths directly (by a path coefficient of 0.65) and indirectly (through emotion regulation; with a Path coefficient of 0.21) influences girl’s actualization (p<0.001). Also, emotion regulation affects actualization with a Path coefficient of 0.58. Research variables predicted 51 % of the variance of secondary high school girl’s actualization (R2=0.51).

 Education and empowering character strengths, as well as regulating maternal emotions, improves girl’s actualization

Plant growth and yield in the environment is affected by numerous biotic and abiotic environmental stresses as well as seed dormancy. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of seed washing treatments with sulfuric acid and irrigation of seeds with saline water on seed germination of Zygophyllum fabago. According to previous relevant researches, for this purpose, three concentrations of 0, 10 and 20% were prepared for acid washing treatment. For salinity treatment, four levels were considered: 0, 60, 90 and 120 mmol / l. Irrigation with spray water was applied evenly on all pteridia when necessary. Germinated seeds were counted daily and continued until no increase in the number of germinated seeds was observed .Comparison of the mean of the main effect of different levels of acid treatment on the germination percentage of Z. fabago showed that zero and ten percent acid concentration treatments with 59 and 60 percent have a higher value. Regarding the comparison of the mean of the interaction effects of acid and salinity, the results showed that the best treatment combination is zero percent acid and zero salinity of ten and ten millimoles per liter. Therefore, Z. fabago species needs low concentrations of salinity and sulfuric acid for optimal growth. Therefore, it can be used to improve and rehabilitate rangeland ecosystems according to the salinity of the area.

the present study was to design a structural model for mothers’ character strengths and girls’ flourish with the mediating role of parenting styles.

The research method in terms of applied purpose and research design was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of this study is all female students of the second year of urban high school in the academic year of 2018-19 along with their mothers. The sample size (465 subjects) was selected based on the multi-stage cluster sampling method. The research tools included the flourish questionnaire of Soleimani et al. (2015), character strengths questionnaire of Patterson and Seligman (2004), and parenting styles questionnaire of Baumrind (1991).

Findings indicated that the direct effect of authenticity, open-mindedness, appreciation of beauty, and gratitude on flourishing, as well as kindness, social intelligence, fairness, leadership, self-regulation on authoritative parenting style was confirmed. The direct effect of mothers’ parenting style on girls’ flourishing showed that just mothers’ authoritative parenting style has a direct effect on girls’ flourish. The results confirmed the indirect effect of kindness, social intelligence and leadership on girls’ flourish with the mediating role of authoritative parenting style.

Strengthening and applying meaningful character strengths in mothers can both directly and indirectly through the authoritative parenting style can improve the flourishing of their girls

Exercise improves functional capacity by improving endothelial function and musculoskeletal aerobic metabolism, but its effects on hemodynamic control are not well known. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of aerobic and resistance trainings on structural changes and blood pressure in patients with heart failure.

76 patients aged 65 to 79 years with EF≤40% were divided into two groups of training and control. The training group exercised endurance and resistance training for 8 weeks, three times a week for 45-60 minutes in hospital and had walking program for 4 days a week at home. Echocardiography and blood pressure indicators were measured before and after exercise. Data analysis were done using SPSS software at a significant level of 0.05.

Intra-group analysis of the experimental group by paired t-test and Wilcoxon tests showed a significant increase in LV ejection fraction and decreased end systolic and diastolic volume, diastolic interventricular septum and end diastolic and systolic diameters (p<0.05), and no changes in posterior wall thickness, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (p>0.05). There were no significant changes in the control group in all the variables (p> 0.05).

According to the results, it seems that concurrent endurance and resistance training improves the structure and function of the heart in patients with chronic heart failure.

Foliar application is one of the fast and effective methods for providing of plants nutrition requirement, especially in the critical stages of growth. In this study, the effects of Nano chelated form of both iron (Fe) and manganese(Mn) each at three levels (0, 0.5 and 1%) were investigated on some qualitative traits of 'Bidaneh Sefid' grapevine at two stages of unripe and ripe berries. Based on results, the amount of pH, titratable acidity (TA), total soluble solids (TSS), ascorbic acid and anthocyanin in unripe berries were affected significantly by different dose of Fe spray. Moreover, the different level of Mn was affected significantly unripe berries pH, TA, TSS and ascorbic acid content however; Mn not significantly affected unripe berries anthocyanin compared to control vines. The lowest berries pH content (2.5) was related to control vines at unripe stage and the highest of berries pH content (3.75) observed in 1%Fe-treated vines at ripe stage. Moreover, the lowest berries TA content (0.9 %) was related to 1%Fe-treated vines at ripe stage and the highest of berries TA content (1.75) observed in control vines at unripe stage. The lowest berries TSS content (9 0Brix) was related to control vines at unripe stage and the highest berries TSS content (25.4 0Brix) observed in1% Mn-treated vines at ripe stage. Also the results showed that the lowest berries anthocyanin content (0.02 mg/100g) was related to control vines at unripe stage and the highest berries anthocyanin content (0.071 mg/100g) observed in 0.5% Mn-treated vines at ripe stage. The maximum amount of berries ascorbic acid (24.6 mg/100g) was related to 1% Mn-treated vines at ripe stage and the minimum amount of berries ascorbic acid (9.04 mg/100g) observed in control vines at unripe stage. Totally, based on results, foliar spray of Fe and Mn Nano chelated led in improvement in qualitative traits of grape berries two during unripe and ripe stages.

In this research, at first ordinary Aloe Vera micropowder (OAMP) and its impregnated form (IAMP) as the natural sorbents were prepared and then characterized by several techniques such as Fourier transform spectrophotometry (FT-IR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Elemental analysis (EA), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BET/BJH) essay and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The removal efficiencies of the prepared adsorbents were assessed upon their capacities for removing Reactive violet 8 (RV8) and Congo red (CR) dyes as the organic pollutants. Our preliminary adsorption experiments showed that the OAMB ability for removing RV8 and CR is very less than the IAMP form, so we focused on the IAMP removal ability and we used it as a fairy powerful adsorbent in this study. The effect of several parameters such as initial adsorbate concentration (C0), adsorbent dosage, contact time, temperature and solution pH on the adsorption capacity of IAMP adsorbent were investigated and then several isotherm models were examined to fit the experimental results. Consequently, we concluded that the Langmuir and Freundlich models fit reasonably the experimental results. In addition, thermodynamic and kinetic studies of the adsorption process were also done and the corresponding thermodynamic and kinetic parameters were concluded and reported.

Heart failure is associated with structural and functional changes of the heart and physical activity is a likely intervention to improve it. This study aimed at investigating the effect of concurrent aerobic-resistance exercise training on NT-proBNP levels, blood pressure and body composition in patients with chronic heart failure. In this clinical trial study, 76 patients with chronic heart failure Grade II and III, classifications of the New York Heart Association, EF≤ 40% and age range (72±7 years) randomly were divided into two equal intervention and control groups. The exercise protocol included aerobic exercises (50%-85% maximum heart rate) and resistance training (50%-70% one repeated maximum) for 2 months, three times a week. Blood pressure, body composition and serum NT-pro BNP levels were measured before and 8 weeks after the intervention.    Eight weeks of combined exercise significantly reduced weight, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), heart rate and NT-proBNP in the intervention group (P<0.05). But, WHR and BMI showed no significant difference between the groups in post-test. Also, significant changes were not observed in blood pressure and mean arterial pressure within and between the groups. It seems that combined exercise training was effective in reducing weight and NT-proBNP. Therefore, the present training program can be proposed as non-pharmaceutical interventions for patients with heart failure.

Attention to the brilliant talents is an important global movement. Understanding the characteristics of gifted students, especially their emotional-social characteristics, is very important and also because the role of school in the process of social-emotional development and their quality of life,so we need a comprehensive study of the school environment.
  Therefore, the purpose was to compare the school environment and emotional intelligence as an indicator of socio-emotional characteristics among gifted and normal students in both levels of school and class.
Metod : Participants included 134 gifted students and 82  normal students from high schools who were randomly selected from 4 gifted and ordinary schools. The instruments included school environment questionnaire and Bar-On Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. The method was multilevel analysis in two levels of school and class.
Founding :  The results showed that the school environment and emotional intelligence were significantly different between the two groups. Multilevel test results showed that a significant difference between the perceptions of the school environment in gifted schools, so that gifted students in the educational expectations, educational opportunities and relationships with teachers had a higher mean than normal students and the type of class didn't affect the perception of the school environment and wasn't meaningful.We also foundedthat the mean of emotional intelligence was higher in gifted students and the type of class didn't related to emotional intelligence.
  Generally, due to the higher emotional intelligence in the gifted, their perceptions of the school are also higher, and therefore it is important to meet the educational expectations of gifted students

The relationship between TRIPS Agreement and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is part of a broader relationship, that is, the correlation between Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) together with the World Trade Organization (WTO).In spite of growing attention to biodiversity and its importance for human survival, there is a conflict between TRIPS Agreement and CBD. The environmental patents, such as biological and microbiological processes, micro-organisms in the framework of TRIPS, the possibility of environmental patentsand ignoring the rights of countries, which are the origin of genetic resources, are the most conflicting issues. TRIPS, without observing the objectives of the CBD, has authorized patent to inventions using genetic resources. In addition, the registration of some areas, such as biotechnology inventions, is allowed without considering the adverse effects on biodiversity. The continuity of this situation threatsthe world’s biodiversity. In addition to comparingthe controversial matters in these two documents, this article examines the current approach and presentssome solutions by focusing on TRIPS.

With a view to efforts of some countries for the devaluation of the national currency, one of the most important questions in the field of International economics is "whether this devaluation, leads to current account improvement or not? In order to study this important question, this paper is aimed to study the short-run and long-run Effects of the Exchange rate on the trade balance between Iran and selected set trade partner countries in Europe, Asian and the rest of the world. The results of applying Error correction of the Panel data method via FMOLS Estimators demonstrate that real exchange rate variable is negative and insignificant in long-run for the European partners. But this is positive and significant for Asian and whole the world's partners. These results show that while the real exchange rate coefficient in short-run is significant and positive for European, Asian and the world's economic partners, the exchange rate in long-run is ineffective on Iran's balance trade. So these results show that exchange rate enhancement (devaluation) causes an Improvement in the trade balance in the short run. However, these effects disappear in the long run. So the findings show the disapproval of J-Curve for all the partners. Moreover, change in GDP of partners and Iran have significant effects, and their estimated signs are positive and negative respectively.

Fasting during the month of Ramadan is obligatory for healthy Muslims after the age of puberty. This paper was aimed to compare the changes in hematological and biochemical parameters before and after Ramadan.
This prospective study was performed one week before and one week after the month of Ramadan in 2015. Eighty-nine subjects (51males and 38 females) with a mean age of 34.52±9.05 were enrolled in this study. Patients with systemic disorder, special drug using, and/or a history of previous surgery were excluded. Blood samples were taken from all participants before and after Ramadan to evaluate the effects of fasting on hematological-biochemical factors. Hematological and biochemical measurements were performed on the blood samples using a KX-21N cell counter (Kobe, Japan) and Hitachi 717 analyzer (Roche, Japan), respectively.
Hematocrit, red blood cell (RBC) and Mean Red Cell Volume (MCV) decreased after Ramadan fasting (P= 0.002, P= 0.030 and P= 0.005, respectively), however mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) increased (P=0.004, P=0.002, respectively). On the other hand, no changes were seen in hemoglobin, platelets and white blood cell (WBC) after Ramadan (P=0.900, P=0.923, P=0.282, P=0.300, respectively).
In this study, fasting led to decrease in uric acid, creatinine, selenium, sodium and potassium (P=0.00, P=0.015, P=0.021, 0.007 and 0.028, respectively), however, phosphor serum increased after fasting period (P=0.032). Moreover, no changes were seen in other biochemical parameters including fast blood sugar (FBS), urea, calcium, iron, zinc, and albumin (P= 0.54, P=0.300, P=0.054, P=0.372, P=0.170, and P=0.400, respectively).
This study on healthy subjects suggests that fasting could affect some hematological-biochemical parameters but not all of them. Also, these changes in hematological-biochemical parameters were within the normal range and Ramadan fasting seems to be safe for healthy subjects.

The families of caregivers of patients with mental illnesses have numerous stresses, experience moderate to high burden, and often receive inadequate professional support from the mental health team. Effective family functioning in these families may be influenced by a variety of psychosocial factors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between social support and general health in family caregivers of patients with mental illnesses.
In this correlational study, 199 family caregivers of patients with mental illnesses were selected by convenience sampling from Farshchian Psychiatry Hospital in Hamedan, during year 2015. The data were collected using demographic, Fillips Social Support, and General Health questionnaires. Data were analyzed by descriptive and spearman regression correlation.
the results indicated that social support in 45.7% of the subjects was undesirable and general health in 89.9% was weak. There was a significant relationship between these 2 variables (P = 0.001). The friends interfering domain was more undesirable than the other domains of social support. Individual life health domain was weaker than other domains of general health. The supportive interfering domain from the general health domains had the greatest correlation with social support (P = 0.001).
General health was related to social support. Thus, altering the policies with the objective of increasing social support, especially for the family of caregivers of patients with mental illnesses, could result in the promotion of their health and well-being.
Keywords:

Streptococcosis is one of the economically important diseases in the aquaculture industry particularly in rainbow trout aquaculture causing remarkable annual losses. Streptococcosis is known as a zoonotic disease causing morbidity and mortality in some consumers. In this study the status of farmed rainbow trout contamination with Streptococcus iniae and Lactococcus garvieae was assessed. For this reason, during summer months, 64 apparently diseased trout were sampled from fish markets of Tehran and Karaj. Gram staining was performed on grown colonies and then gram-positive cocci were further characterized using biochemical and PCR assays. The obtained results showed that 56.23% (36 samples) of the samples were infected with the both bacterial pathogens. The prevalence of S. iniae and L. garvieae were 32.8 % (21 samples) and 23.43% (15 samples), respectively. The highest and lowest prevalence rate of S. iniae was observed in the samples of Karaj (15.62%) and Kahrizak (0%) markets, respectively. In the case of L. garvieae, the highest and lowest rates were obtained in Karaj/Kahrizak (7.81%) and Meidan-Nabi (1.56%) markets, respectively. The results revealed that in some markets, the prevalence of streptococcosis and lactococcusis in cultured rainbow were relatively high. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further trials.

During the emergence of modern poetry in Iran and the literary ups and downs after Nima’s revision in Persian Poetry, many poets combined literary genres with socio-political motifs and experienced new literary works. A few others, however, favored religious and theistic motifs for one reason or another. The focus of this research is the history of ritual blank verse in Iran as well as introducing the after-Islamic-revolution works that affected by Ashura teachings brought up a new trend in Iranian contemporary verse. This trend, as a new approach, now is very important to some poets and they are experiencing it. This research also aims at investigating the role of some pre-revolution poets in bringing up this new type of poetry and the main elements of blank verse as used by them.

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of different dietary protein (30, 35, 40%) and lipid levels (10, 12, 14%) on growth performance and physiological changes of juveniles Caspian Kutum (Rutilus frisii kutum). Six hundred and seventy five fish (1.15 ± 0.01 g) were distributed into 27 aquaria (45 L) and were fed four times daily for 8 weeks. Interaction between protein and lipid did not significantly affect the growth factors (p > 0.05). Results showed that increasing the level of protein to 35% significantly increase some growth indices such as final weight (WF), weight gain (WG). The best growth performance was observed in fish 14% dietary lipid. Protein efficiency ratio (PER) and glucose of fish was not affected by interaction dietary protein and dietary lipid level. Triglyceride and cholesterol levels were significantly affected by protein and lipid and the interaction, High levels of triglycerides in fish fed with 30% protein and 10% and 12% lipid and the maximum amount of cholesterol in fish fed with 40% protein and 12% and 14% lipid were observed. The results of this study show a lower protein content (30%) and older (40%) than Kutum need can be a negative influence on the growth and physiological parameters. Increasing dietary lipid to 14% of Kutum juveniles were no negative effects on growth parameters. In order to improve the performance of Kutum in this weight range fed diets with 35% protein and 14% lipid is suggested.

Background and Development of pulmonary complications after surgery is seen in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Some exercises are used to reduce these effects, but the results of these programs are incomplete. The aim of this study was to perform training programs and evaluation of lung function tests in two weeks before and after coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG). A clinical trial was performed in which 40 patients with COPD who were candidate for CABG were randomly divided into two groups (n= 20 per group). Both groups performed routine exercises. From two weeks earlier, patients in experimental group also performed some other exercises including breathing exercise, hand exercise at width of shoulder, breathing muscle exercise, and walking. Lung function tests were conducted two weeks before and after the exercises in both groups. Paired t-test and ANCOVA were applied for data analysis. According to the study, forced vital capacity values (FVC) in experimental (3.34±1.03) and control group (2.2±0.79), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) in experimental (2.98±0.81) and control group (1.67±0.79) (P =0.0001), the Values of FVC / FEV1 in experimental (90.8±10.7) and control group (73.9±19.25), and peak expiratory flow (PEF) values in experimental (5.66±2.17) and control group (3.68±1.62) (P =0.002) were significantly different in experimental group. Four-week exercise therapy in patients with COPD could improve lung function after CABG.

The Viewpoint of Allameh Tabatabaee on Traditions of Nature to Explain the Happiness and Misery of Man Regarding different views about the relation between the traditions of nature and the traditions of human happiness and misery, the view of Allamah Tabatabee in interpreting the traditions of nature and its relation to the happiness and misery of man is considerable; Therefore, this study using descriptive-analysis aimed to analyse the viewpoint of Allameh Tabatabaee in this field and resulted to: Allameh Tabatabaee accepts the concept of the traditions of nature ignoring the weakness of its documents by its multiplicity and believes that there is no contradiction between acceptance of nature and man free will. Nature is only a background and incomplete cause and finally man will build his happiness and misery by his voluntary acts. Keywords: Allameh Tabatabaee, Traditions of Nature, Happiness and Misery.

This article evaluates the factors that have influenced the formation of the U.S. policy towards Pakistan’s nuclear program. The issue of Pakistan’s nuclear program, as one of the most crisis prone countries in the world, is a significant issue in the domain of the nuclear program. To deal with this issue, the U.S. has primarily adopted an indecisive policy and avoidance of imposing unbearable pressures. The hypothesis of this article is that the U.S. policy towards Pakistan’s nuclear program is mainly the result of material such as features of structure of international system, as well as identity such as collective and social identity variables. To develop this hypothesis, the authors alongside applying the neorealist theory, move to introduce two constructivist variables of collective and social structures. They conclude that the U.S. for a variety of reasons such as containment of communism, nuclear deterrence, balance of power and struggle against terrorism, in accordance to material structure and existence of some sort of identity rivalry (known as Locke’s situation) as a consequence of Washington and Islamabad collective and social identity in accordance to Imaterial structure, has adopted an indecisive policy towards Pakistan’s nuclear program.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between body dissatisfaction and eating disorders with stages of change for physical activity in Tabriz university female students. This research was description-correlation. Based on random sampling, 360 persons were selected and completed the eating disorders EAT-26 (garner and Garfinkel 1979), body dissatisfaction (Avchnr et al 2009) and physical activity staging (Marcus 2003) questionnaires. Obtained data from 280 questionnaires with using of Pearson correlation, Spearman correlation and one way ANOVA tests were analyzed in 0.05 alpha levels. Findings showed significant and positive relationship between eating disorders and body dissatisfaction (r=0.124, sig=0.039). Also, there was significant relationship between eating disorders and stages of change for physical activity (r=0.346, sig=0.001) but, there was not significant relationship between body dissatisfaction and stages of change for physical activity (r=0.108, sig=0.072). The results of ANOVA showed the eating disorders and body dissatisfaction in different stages of change for physical activity was significantly different. The results showed with progressed in between stages of change for physical activity, the rate of eating disorders was increased. Also the rate of body dissatisfaction is great in mid stages of stages of change for physical activity.

The conformational behaviors of 2,3-bis(methylthio)-1,4-dioxane (1), 2,3-bis(methylthio)- 1,4-dithiane (2) and 2,3-bis(methylthio)-1,4-diselenane (3) have been analyzed by means of hybrid-density functional theory (B3LYP/Def2-TZVPP) based method and NBO interpretation. B3LYP/Def2-TZVPP results showed that the axial conformations of compounds 1-3 are more stable than their equatorial conformations. The calculated Gibbs free energy difference (Geq–Gax) values (i.e. ΔGeq-ax) at 298.15 K and 1 atm between the axial and equatorial conformations decrease from compound 1 to compound 3. The NBO analysis of donor-acceptor (LP→σ*) interactions showed that the anomeric effects (AE) decrease from compound 1 to compound 3. On the other hand, the calculated dipole moment values between the axial and equatorial conformations [Δ(μeq - μax)] increase from compound 1 to compound 2 but decrease from compound 2 to compound 3. However, the variations of the calculated Δ(μeq - μax) values are not in the same trend observed for the corresponding AE and ΔG values. Therefore, the calculated Δμ values do not seem to be sufficient to account for the axial preferences in compounds 1-3. These findings led to the proposal that the AE, due to donor→acceptor hyperconjugation effect, is more significant for the explanation of the axial conformational preferences of compounds 1-3 than the electrostatic effect.

Pakistan has always enjoyed a special geopolitical importance and strategic status for the US, both during and after the Cold War. And Washington has considered Islamabad as one of its most important security links in the area. The 9/11 event and the new US strategy for the “War on Terror” - as a new concept for maintaining US strategic stability on a global scale – placed Pakistan at the forefront of the struggle against terrorism. Indications are that the US did, in fact, pressure Islamabad into taking active part in the anti–terror coalition through a carrot and stick policy. But, despite the fact that Pakistan has joined the US-led anti-terror coalition and has also pledged to fight against extremism, there exist ample indications pointing to its covert support for Taliban. This article tries to look into Pakistan's reservations in its cooperation with the US in the “War on Terror.” The authors argue in this article that Pakistan's ‘faithful’ cooperation with the US in this regard depends on the US reciprocal helping hand in a number of areas of strategic importance to Islamabad, most notably Durand line with Afghanistan, and the Kashmir dispute with India.