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Explaining the nature of metaphor and its role in language has always been a controversial topic in the fields of linguistics, philosophy of language, rhetoric, and so forth. In metaphor analysis, these fields often converge in an inseparable manner. Donald Davidson, a 20th-century philosopher, is one of the influential theorists in the Philosophy of Language and the Theory of Meaning. His views on the essence and role of metaphor in language bear significant similarities to the ideas of  al-Jurjani, a prominent 5th-century Hijri literary scholar. This research aims, through a descriptive-analytical method and a comparative approach, to examine the intersection points of Davidson’s and al-Jurjani’s theories, with one addressing metaphor from a philosophical and linguistic perspective and the other from a rhetorical standpoint. For this purpose, Davidson’s essay "What Metaphors Mean?" is used as the basis for reviewing his theories on metaphor. Al-Jurjani’s views are analyzed with a focus on "Dala'il al-I'jaz." This study yields results in three areas. The first, identifies similar aspects in the two theories, indicating that both theorists reject the idea of metaphor being merely a shortened simile. They also critique the notion of "metaphorical meaning," emphasizing that the meaning of a metaphor cannot be reproduced in any form other than the metaphorical one itself. The second area involves finding complementary aspects in the two theories, considering Davidson's philosophical stance and al-Jurjani's rhetorical position. The third area elaborates on the connection between al-Jurjani's direct views on metaphor and the ideas indirectly inferred from theory of Construction.

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The Ministry of Agriculture Jihad in Iran implemented contract farming (CF) for wheat in 2021 to address marketing issues. This study compares agricultural sustainability for farmers participating in and not participating in CF. Agricultural sustainability was assessed by applying a combined index approach that considers economic, social, and environmental dimensions. The required data came from 620 wheat farmers in Golestan province, sampled using the multi-stage randomization technique. The data were evaluated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and clustering methods. The findings indicated a significant difference in the performance of economic and environmental sustainability dimensions between two groups of wheat farmers. For the participants, 14.2% were deemed unsustainable, 47.7% were considered partially sustainable, and 38.1% were classified as sustainable. For non-participants, the figures were 38.7%, 47.7%, and 13.5%, respectively. Therefore, it is suggested to provide more opportunities for participation in this program and expand it to other key crops. Additionally, authorities should provide more information about the benefits of the CF plan.

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Sustainable design (also called environmental design, environmentally sustainable design, environmentally conscious design, etc.) is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of social, economic, and ecological sustainability. Generally speaking, Environmentally Sustainable Design endeavors to reduce the impacts of the construction on the natural environment, in addition to improving the comfort of inhabitants.
Human climatic comfort as an important factor of attending people in urban open spaces is one of the most effective varieties for creating Sustainable urban places in order to achieve viable lively social living in urban areas. Owing to the fact, improving the quality of life and human comfort should be taken into account by urban studies and urban experts. Thus, the importance of climatic studies connected to open space and utilizing the results to access a better spatial structure in urban projects is undeniable. In terms of climate comfort, there are several factors affect the human life and the responsiveness of urban spaces to the human needs. One of the most important factors of climate comfort is the airflow. In this regard, airflow defines as the motion of air passes through objects especially high-rise buildings. The amount of air can be measured by its volume or by its mass.
In this study, the optimum usage of air flow to improve the quality of climatic comfort around high-rise buildings has been taken into consideration. Actually, this research aims to apply the airflows for designing urban spaces especially in high-rise areas. In fact, the appropriate usage of airflows has been considered as an important approach of creating responsible urban space to meet the needs of human comfort. Hence, this paper tries to answer these questions: “How does wind behave around Ekbatan buildings?” And “In response to the human comfort, which forms are preferred regarding the existing air flow patterns in Ekbatan complex?”
Several studies about air flow’s effects and difficulties around high buildings have been conducted by researchers such as Arens (1981), Penwarden (1973), Aynsley (1976), Davenport (1976).In addition, in Iran ,Ranjbar (1389), Tahbaz (1370, 1386), Razjouyan (1372, 1386) carried out researches on architectural aerodynamic and airflow around urban blocks.
The research method of this paper is a practical analytics. Required information for this study is collected via observation, literature review, and documentaries. In this paper, three steps have been followed: First, The descriptive- annalistic method used for understanding the present situation. Second, Simulation technique (by ENVI-met software) employed to observe and analyze the relation between the shape of high-rise residential buildings and wind behavior in the case study. Third, a logical argumentation to reach the conclusion. ENVI-met is a three-dimensional microclimate model designed to simulate the surface – plant-air interactions in urban environment with a typical resolution of 0.5 to 10 min space and 10 sec in time. Typical areas of application are Urban Climatology, Architecture, Building Design or Environmental Planning, just to name a few. ENVI-met is a prognostic model based on the fundamental laws of fluid dynamics and thermo- dynamics. The model includes the simulation of: flow around and between buildings, exchange processes of heat and vapor at the ground surface and at walls, turbulence, exchange at vegetation and vegetation parameters, bioclimatology and pollutant dispersion.
The selected area is in Ekbatan complex located in Tehran, Iran which consist of three phases. The modeling area is selected from three phases with different types of residential buildings. The reason for selecting Ekbatan complex is the variety of buildings in forms and public spaces surrounded them and as well as airflow concerns in this area. Climatic data entered into the software is May average data in 2013.
Eventually, the best form for Ekbatan residential buildings was evaluated according to the human comfort against wind. For more explanation, some of the most important rules for urban designing based on airflow comfort have been verified here. When wind strikes buildings, especially high-rise buildings, the wind that flows down the facade, causes to accelerating wind speeds near the windward corners. The increase in wind speed directly depends on the height. Besides, Wind is funneled between two buildings causing wind acceleration between them. According to the simulations, the behavior of wind, particularly the speed of wind, changes while passing through the buildings.
Furthermore, the spatial pattern of Ekbatan complex has been analyzed from different aspects of airflow. The optimized plot has been presented based on three axes. As follow:
1. Analyzing the physical pattern of the location. In other words, this axis tries to understand how buildings were organized next to each other in an adjacent unit.
2. Recognizing the most important environmental factors which affect the desirable urban design. Academically speaking, this step aims to identify environmental aspects of cases.
3. Presenting the optimized-plan. In this section, three alternatives have been simulated by the software. The Structural elements on the drawings and simulation software are Residential blocks, Commercial blocks, the vegetation and green land cover and floor coverings Including asphalt, concrete pavement and dust. It should be noted that the simulation started from 6 am and took 12 hours to analyze.
Finally, some practical strategies (based on software analyses) have been presented for the future developments. For instance, wind speed in backside space of the buildings against air flow, is very low and sometimes it turns to zero. These situations lead to random air movements and consequently wind turbulence. In these cases buildings that step back can be used to reduce undesirable downward wind flows. Wide facades that face the prevailing wind are often undesirable in comparison to less width facades.
In conclusion the study shows that the forms and physical features of the blocks have significant impacts on the wind behavior. According to the analysis, proposed plan has been formed mostly base on controlling and optimizing airflow. However, it should be noted that to achieve proper design and in Consistent with climate, it is unavoidable to have a comprehensive view of all aspects of climate as well as physical aspect.

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Backgrounds: Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic parasite of increasing concern to humans and animals. Considering the side effects of drugs used to treat toxoplasmosis, it is essential to find alternative drugs.
Materials & Methods: In this study, colchicine and propranolol at four concentrations (1, 5, 10, and 15 µg/mL) were added to the RPMI medium containing peritoneal macrophages and incubated for 60 min, Then tachyzoites were added to the medium, and the efficacy rates of colchicine and propranolol in inhibiting tachyzoites entry into macrophages were evaluated after 30 and 60 min. For in vivo assay, one group received no drugs, and the second group was treated with colchicine and propranolol at different concentrations for different durations.
Findings: The in vitro experiment showed that treatment with 15 mg/mL of colchicine and propranolol for 60 min following tachyzoites addition was the most efficient method to inhibit tachyzoites penetration, indicating the efficacy rates of 80.20%±1.20 and 89.97%±1.30, respectively (p< .05). Based on the in vivo test, pretreatment with 2 mg/kg of colchicine one hour before tachyzoites injection had the best inhibitory effect (70.32%±4.07). Also, pretreatment with 2 mg/kg of propranolol 90 min before tachyzoites injection (78.54%±1.99) induced the best inhibitory effect (p< .05).
Conclusion: According to the results, colchicine and propranolol could inhibit tachyzoites entrance into nucleated cells in vitro and in vivo. In this study, the most efficient concentrations and times for using these substances were determined.
 

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Todays, Entrepreneurship is considered as the Economic Development engine and all countries attempt to develop it in their countries. With respect to the high importance of entrepreneurship and the necessity of its development in our country, this research is aimed to study and design the organizational structure of entrepreneurship in Iran. In this research, using the comparative studies of sucessful entrepreneurship centers and with considering the theorical fundaments of designing organizational structure and local and reginal conditions of I. R. Iran, the appropriate organizational structure of entrepreneurship centers has been designed.

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 Ooencyrtus fecundus Ferriere and Voegele (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) is a gregarious egg parasitoid of sunn pest Eurygaster integriceps Puton. Superparasitism enables a female to produce multiple progeny per host and thus reduces the time spent searching for hosts, but results in progressively smaller progeny as more individuals compete for limited resources within hosts. In this study, we tested whether gregarious development would affect the functional response of O. fecundus reared under laboratory condition (26 ± 2 ºC, 50 ± 10% RH and 16: 8 L: D h). Various host densities (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 eggs) were offered to females that had developed either as single, or as twins, triplets or quadruplets within host eggs. To resolve the functional responses of these females, a total exposure time of five hours was chosen, based on direct observations of handling time and the maximum daily number of host attacks/female. Functional response of the parasitoid was type III in singleton and twin parents, and type II in triplet and quadruplet ones. However, host mortality rate was 100% in host densities ≤ 8, suggesting density independence at lower densities as expected from a type I functional response. In such circumstances, handling time is expected to be zero, but was observed to be 11.4 to 14.3 minutes in different treatments. These results suggest that when enough time was available to find and handle all hosts, a type II functional response resembles Type I one. Searching efficiency increased and handling time decreased with body size of the parasitoid of four categories.
 

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Apples are the main horticultural crops grown in West Azarbaijan province of Iran. In recent surveys of apple orchards in Urmia and Miyandoab, West Azarbaijan Province, symptoms including branch and twig bark cracks, cankers, dieback and tree decline were commonly seen. Isolation of the fungi from cracked and cankered branches yielded fungal isolates with typical characteristics of the genera Paecilomyces and Paramyrothecium. Based on combination of morphological characteristics and sequence data obtained from ITS-rDNA and β-tubulin gene sequences for Paecilomyces isolates and ITS-rDNA region for Paramyrothecium isolates, they were identified as Paecilomyces formosus and Paramyrothecium foliicola. Results of the pathogenicity tests on detached shoots of ‘Golden Delicious’ and ‘Red Delicious’ cultivars showed that isolates of P. formosus were pathogenic only on ‘Red Delicious’ cultivar, but Pa. foliicola isolates were pathogenic on both cultivars and showed symptoms of infection. Re-isolation of the fungi from inoculated shoots confirmed Koch’s postulates. To the best of our knowledge, the involvement of P. formosus and Pa. foliicola in the development of canker disease of apple trees is reported for the first time. Also, Pa. foliicola is a new record to Iran mycobiota.

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This study was conducted to examine learners’ attitudes and perceptions toward the efficacy of task repetition: whether or not they appreciated task repetition as an effective classroom strategy for enhancing their oral performance. To this end, a multiple case study approach was adopted in which six intermediate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners were investigated over a four-month period in an intact class. Four data collection tools were used: (1) multiple interview sessions, (2) learner diaries, (3) participant observation, and (4) classroom portfolios. In addition, 20 hours of the learners’ audio-recorded task performances across sessions were transcribed and analyzed for signs of improvements in qualities of oral performance. Results indicated that despite the fact that repeating reciprocal narrative tasks led to gains in oral performance, learners viewed task repetition as a futile activity that did not affect their performances over time. The findings are discussed, and implications are provided in the context of education.
 

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In order to study the effects of subsidies targeted plan on Iran agricultural sector, a regional agricultural sector model is made. For this purpose, Iran is divided into 9 equal radar regions agro-climatologically. Then agricultural sector is modeled within 14 commodity groups and 23 production activities using positive mathematical programming (PMP) method and applying generalized maximum entropy (GME) approach. The results indicate that making subsidies targeted by increasing prices of inputs (irrigation water, fertility, pesticide and machinery), escalating energy prices for poultry and dairy farms and raising transportation cost, leads to decrease total surplus of agricultural sector, decrease in many crop and livestock activity levels in different regions, increase in prices, decrease in consumption and exports and increase in imports of some agricultural products. According to the results, if subsidies targeted policy is mixed with support payments to producers, dependent on amount of support payment, the social surplus of agricultural sector may decrease or increase. A support payment equal to 25 percent of production costs can compensate losses of producers due to targeted subsidies, transmit loss of social welfare to zero and decrease volatility of economic variables such as activity levels, price and quantity of consumption of commodity groups.  

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Reduction of unwanted noises is an important issue in the current societies regarding their potential negative impact on the mental and physical health of the peoples. Researchers are trying to find a new method to reduce the damage of this unwanted sound. Accordingly, the use of sound absorbing materials with appropriate acoustic properties has increased in the recent years. In this article, the production of polyurethane foam explained first and sound absorption coefficient of pure PUF has been measured. In order to improve the mechanical and acoustical properties of polyurethane foam, various quantities of Nano-Alumina powder is added to the structure of the foam. The effects of this additive material on the acoustic and mechanical properties of the foam are then measured. In this work, for the first time, the mechanical, physical and acoustical properties of the polyurethane foam improved by Nano-Alumina are studied. Finally, the change of the sound absorption coefficient of the produced composite material is analyzed based on the mechanical and physical experimental results. The sound absorption coefficient of this foam is then measured using two microphone method with Impedance tubes.

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The successful adoption of e-learning systems is mainly dependent on the learners’ attitude and willingness to use them. This survey was conducted to investigate agricultural extension workers’ attitudes toward using e-learning for on-the-job training in Iran and factors which affect it. Using the stratified sampling technique a sample of 379 extension workers were selected from six provinces. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data through an interview method. Findings show that extension workers’ attitude toward e-learning is generally positive. Extension workers' knowledge of e-learning, access to technical support, and their motivation influence their attitude toward the use of e-learning for on-the job training. Therefore, recommendations are provided to promote the experts’ motivation, knowledge and to improve infrastructures.

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The ability to control the flow, is one of the basic needs of Fluid Mechanics that constantly pursued by researchers. One of the new methods in this area, is using Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators that by injecting momentum into the boundary layer, causing a delay in the phenomenon separation. The main object in this work was to help to optimize the electrical parameters to obtain stranger vortex and more effective ionic wind created by steady and unsteady plasma actuators on the air through the flat plate. For this reason, simulation is done for a flat plate with the compressible 5 m/s velocity airflow. The time averaged velocity profiles of the ionic wind show that averaged velocity come more and the position of the maximum velocity come near the surface by increasing the excitation voltage and frequency. The power, of the vortices that are shed form the unsteady actuator, increases by increasing duty cycle percentage. Our results on the ionic wind velocity on different position on the flat plate indicate that the maximum averaged velocity occurs in downstream of plasma actuator.

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Meat and meat products are susceptible to microbial and chemical contamination, and microbial growth and oxidation of fats are major causes of spoilage. The use of films and food coatings, mainly due to their ability to create a combination with the properties of preventing moisture evaporation, oxygen penetration, preserving the taste, smell and color of food, increases their quality and shelf life. Medicinal plants are valuable natural resources that are considered by developed countries today. One of the most important and valuable medicinal plants is lemongrass, which has strong antioxidant and antimicrobial potential due to its phenolic compounds and sulfur-containing substances. In this study, beef minced meat was coated with oral sodium alginate coating containing lemongrass extract (0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5%) and in a 14-day period, the total count of mesophilic and cold bacteria as well as PV, TBA , PH and sensory properties of ground beef were evaluated. In data analysis, the results showed that pH, PV, TBA increased significantly during maintenance (p <0.05). However, oral coating containing 1.5% of lemon extract showed the greatest effect against controlling the increase of pH, PV, TBA and counting of mesophilic bacteria and cold-blooded bacteria during storage. Coverage with different ratios in sensory evaluation affected all sensory properties of the samples. So that the highest general acceptance score was related to the coating with 1.5% of lemon extract. As a result, alginate coating containing lemongrass extract can delay microbial spoilage and oxidation in minced beef and improve the sensory properties of minced meat during refrigerated storage.

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The Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) of firms and enterprises is the subject of current research in the fields of management and business. However, analyses on this subject in agricultural firms are lacking. The purpose of this research was to study the relationships between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance in Agricultural Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (ASMEs) in Iran. Specifically, the authors aimed to analyze how knowledge creation and learning orientation as a mediator influence the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance. A conceptual model was designed and hypotheses were constructed. The samples in this study were owners and/or top managers of ASMEs. Data for the study were collected using a questionnaire survey administrated during 2015. In order to test the hypotheses, data were collected from ASME and analyzed using the structural equation model by AMOS20 graphic software. The results reveal that corporate entrepreneurship significantly influences learning orientation, knowledge creation and firm performance in ASMEs. The most notable outcome of these findings is that knowledge creation and learning orientation performs a mediating role in the relationships between corporate entrepreneurship and performance in ASMEs.

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