---

The primary purpose of this study was to assess farmers' Sustainable Agricultural Practice Needs (SAPN) as determined conversely by their level of technical knowledge and understanding of sustainable corn farming practices. The population of this study consisted of all corn growers in Fars, a southern province of Iran. A questionnaire was developed to gather the information required from 159 randomly selected farmers. Farmer’s demographic and professional characteristics, including their level of technical knowledge, access to information sources, and level of mechanization were considered to be independent variables of the study. The SAPN was the dependent variable of the study. The result showed that a considerable numbers of farmers (46%) have a "high" level of needs concerning sustainable agricultural practice. The farmers' level of technical knowledge showed to have a substantial (r= -0.64) and negative association with their SAPNs. Multivariate linear regression analysis indicated that 49.3% (R2=0.493) of the variance in SAPNs could be explained by the farmers' age, their access to information sources, and their level of technical knowledge. This implied that a substantial amount of variability (about 51%) in SAPNs are explained by other variables that were not studied in this research. Further study is needed to determine factors affecting SAPNs and ex-tend of the impact.

---

Background: The use of plant extracts or their compounds as antimicrobial agents for oral infections worldwide represents that herbal medicines could be used as an effective alternative method in oral health care. This study aimed to evaluate the antifungal and antibacterial effects of five traditional medicinal plant extracts on standard and clinical strains of bacteria and fungi causing dental caries.
Materials & Methods: Aqueous and methanolic extracts of Zataria multiflora, Lawsonia alba, Zizyphus spina-christi, Myrtus communis, and Citrus aurantium were prepared using maceration method. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum microbicidal concentration (MMC) of the prepared extracts were evaluated against bacterial (Streptococcus sanguinis and S. mutans) and fungal (Candida albicans, C. krusei, and C. tropicalis) isolates using broth microdilution method.  
Findings: Aqueous extracts of the studied plants showed no antimicrobial effects on the studied microorganisms, except M. communis and C. aurantium. The results indicated the antimicrobial potency of the methanolic extract of M. communis (MIC range =2 to 64 µg/mL) against all the studied microorganisms, followed by Z. multiflora (MIC range = 512-2048 µg/mL), L. alba (MIC range = 1024-2048 µg/mL), C. aurantium (MIC range = 1024-4096 µg/mL), and Z. spina-christi (MIC range=2048- ˃4096 μg/mL).  Also, the lowest MMCs against the studied strains were related to the methanolic extract of M. communis (MMC range = 16-512 µg/mL).
Conclusion: The results showed remarkable antimicrobial effects of M. communis extract, which could be a suitable alternative to chemical mouthwashes to prevent and control oral infections. 

---

The Zab river basin is locate in south of west Azarbaijan and north of Kurdistan province with total area equals 3527 km 2 .This river is flowing in the tectonic vally and slope instabilities occur frequently in center of this basin.Annually ,occurs of landslide and other type of mass movements cause of damages for roads , habitats and agriculture lands. This paper has attempted to evaluate and recognize these natural hazards and finally prepare hazard maps by applying Anbalagan method.The method of research in this paper are recognition and verify of landslide in field and determination of cause of their occurrence.The second stage is preparing factor maps and finally drawing slope instability zonation map.

---

Aims: Nowadays, the depletion of renewable resources and production particulate matter brought on by desertification and the subsequent dust storms pose a serious and immediate threat to human health. The purpose of this study is to investigate the stabilization methods applicable for desert dust as well as sandy soils to prevent desertification and dust-related negative consequences.
Materials & Methods: The methodology used in this research is a complete review of the provided sources and evaluation of their results in the last two decades in this field. This review deeply investigates the methods and Materials of stabilization of desert sandy soil.
Findings: Chemical stabilizers of loose sand, including cement, lime, nanoclay, blast furnace slag, polymer, fly ash, and other stabilizers, have been used in different countries of the world and have shown acceptable results. The results of the studies show that by using these methods and stabilizing materials, wind erosion can be reduced by 70% and the compressive strength of the soil can be increased by up to 2 times its initial value.
Conclusion: We draw the conclusion that we will require a green and reasonably priced stabilizer to stabilize the desert dust based on the study we have done and the analysis of the papers that have been presented in this sector. Given the limitations and drawbacks of the aforementioned stabilizers, a good stabilizer doesn't destroy the soil's vegetation, doesn't significantly alter the soil's color, texture, or chemical composition, and doesn't interfere with the roots' ability to breathe.

 

---

Objective: Herpes simplex virus (HSVs) is a widespread human infectious agent, responsible for persistent and latent infections. Herpes simplex virus infections are usually continually recurrent in the normal population and represent a significant cause of complications in immunocompromised patients. Materials and Methods: In this study HSVs were propagated in BK cells and more than 502 samples were taken and analyzed for HSV IgG antibodies using Virus Neutralization Test (VNT) as golden standard test for evaluating in house Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Results: Based on the results 80.48 % and 81.67% were positive (1.8) in VNT and ELISA respectively. There was a significant correlation between the VNT and ELISA tests in the tested samples (Pearson’s r = 0.96). Conclusions: Our data showed that the in house ELISA can be used for screening and determination of the prevalence of HSV IgG antibodies, which can facilitates patient management using suitable and cost effective laboratory diagnostic tests.

---

Abstract: Marun dam with a height of 170m is one of the largest embankment dams in Iran. The dam is a zoned rockfill dam with a central clay core. Due to the importance of safety and stability control of the dam body, a complete monitoring network including different instrumentation systems, has been designed and installed in the dam body. In this paper, the data obtained from the instruments, installed in the clay core, were processed and interpreted. Based on the outcomes, the behavior of the dam body during the construction in the impounding stage and operation period was evaluated and discussed. This study consists of three major parts including: the pore pressure distributions, stress states conditions in the clay core and evaluation of its settlements and deformations in the dam body.

---

Prediction of stress-strain behavior of geotechnical material is one of the major efforts of engineers and researchers in the field of geomechanics. Experimental tests like tri-axial shear strength tests are the most effective apparatus to prepare the mechanical characteristics of gravelly material; but due to difficulties in preparing test samples and costs of the tests, only several tests will be done in a new project. Artificial neural network is a kind of method, in which engineer could judge the results based on numerous data from other similar projects, which enable the engineer to have a good judgment on the material properties. In this research, the behavior of gravelly material was simulated by use of multi-layer perceptron neural network, which is the most useful kind of artificial neural networks in the field of geotechnical engineering. For instance, first exact information was provided from laboratory tests of various barrow areas of embankment dams in the country and effective parameters on shear strength of coarse-grained material were studied. After omitting incorrect or weak data, 95, 20 and 23 sets of data were used for learning, testing and evaluating data, respectively. Input parameters for the model were as follows: particle-size distribution curve, dry density, relative density, Los-angles abrasion percent, confining pressure, axial strain; and outputs were selected as deviator stress. In order to reach a steady state in the model and force the model to behave homogenous to the all inputs, data was normalized to the value between .05 and 0.95. In the simulation, back-propagation algorithm was used for learning or error reduction. The aim of the simulations was defined to reduce error between real data and predicted values; for instance root mean square error (RMS) was used to be minimized through simulation and predicted versus real graphs were used to observe the global error of the model. After modeling the data based on some criteria, it was shown that curves of stress-strain from simulation tests were in good agreement with those from laboratory. These close coherencies were observed in all training, testing and evaluation data, in which the RMS errors were 0.038, 0.037 and 0.026, respectively. To reach this ultimate step, a 10*19*1 multilayer perceptron was used via trial and error. In order to determine quality and quantity of the effect of inputs on outputs, and prove that the results were in good agreement with soil mechanic principles, sensitivity analyses were done on the average data of the inputs. Results show that confine pressure, uniformity coefficient and relative density of the material were the most effective parameters on the stress-strain curves; thus the model has enough capability to predict the stress-strain behavior of gravelly soils.

---

---

Abstract: The evaluation of the liquefaction risk of soil during earthquake and its consequences on the structures as well as the mitigation methods are major tasks for the safety of populations. In construction of earth dams, the alluvium deposit usually removed so that the dam lays on the rocky foundation. This solution in the case of thick deposits is expensive. On the other hand, it is possible to construct the moderate height dams on mitigated alluvium foundations, if the seismic behavior of system is guaranteed. In this study, the construction effect of earth dam on liquefaction potential of its alluvial foundation and reciprocally the effect of liquefied foundation on the stability of dam have been investigated for two different geotechnical conditions. The analyses are nonlinear and the constitutive law of the foundation material was assumed to follow Finn model incorporated into “Flac 2D” finite difference analysis program. The factors such as initial shear modulus, variation of shear modulus versus shear strain, generation and dissipation of pore pressure and hysteretic damping are considered in this study. The results of these analyses then compared with the results of dynamic analysis of earth dam on a rocky foundation. The evaluations show that the dam construction increases the relative density, effective stress, shear modulus, and thus decreases the shear strain and water pore pressure within alluvial foundation under the crest of dam. Depending on the relative density, depth of layer and level of applied acceleration, this may lead to mitigation of liquefaction potential. This effect decreased toward the upstream and downstream of the dam. It was observed that the liquefaction could be mitigated in the region close to dam crest when the relative density of soil is 65% to 85% and subjected to a maximum acceleration of 0.3g. However, the construction of dam finds little decreasing effect on liquefaction when the relative density of alluvial foundation is less than 65%. The main settlement and maximum horizontal displacement in foundation is occurred under the core and downstream of the dam, respectively and reached up to the depth of 10-15 m of foundation. In spite of the good performance of dam weight on lowering the liquefaction potential during earthquake loading, a large deformation and even instability condition can be achieved within the alluvial foundations. However, deformation of dam and its foundation are strongly dependent on the geotechnical specification of alluvial foundation, density, thickness and depth of liquefiable layer and the level of applied acceleration. The results present that in very good quality alluvial foundation where the liquefiable layer has small thickness and is located at a deep position, and in the case of acceleration lower than 0.2g, the effect of liquefaction in deformation of dam will be insignificant.

---

Pistachio plays an important role as exportation of Iran. The method of drying process has a remarkable influence on the quality of dried products. There are various methods for drying pistachio; however, choosing a suitable method of drying depends on  reliability, healthiness and rapids. In current research, the effect of temperature in three levels of 40, 50 and 60°C and rotational speed of the dryer agitator in three levels of 5, 10 and 15rpm on reduction rate of drying period and drying kinetics of a common Iranian pistachio (Kalleh Ghoochi v.), in a new intelligent- vacuum rotary dryer, was investigated. This dryer  was consisted of a cylindrical chamber and a twin electrical heater which dried products in a vacuum medium. The experimental data was analyzed in a statistical software "SPSS 10 "  In accordance with the results, temperature and rotational speed of the agitator had a significant effect on drying period. When temperature and speed were 60°C and 15rpm respectively, drying period was short and equaled  185 min, but in temperature of  40°C and speed of 5rpm, drying period was long and equaled 325 min.  Increasing the temperature also increased the rate of drying  significantly. Results indicated that increasing  temperature from 40°C to 50°C caused 25% decrease in the drying period and increasing temperature from 40°C to 60°C caused 39% decrease in drying period. 

---

Due to sedimentation process, structure of particles and subsequent loading history, most of the natural soil and rock deposits, tend to be highly anisotropic, which manifests itself in the directional dependence of deformation and strength characteristics. Also, existence of discontinuities such as joints and faults cause anisotropic behavior in the rock mass. Different constitutive models have been introduced by researchers to simulate the inherited or induced anisotropy in geo-materials. Due to the concept of the multi-laminate framework, in which yield and plastic potential functions are defined on a number of independent acting planes, plastic flow is developed independently on different planes. Therefore multi-laminate models are able to simulate induced anisotropy, intrinsically. In this study, a constitutive model based on multi-laminate framework with Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion for modeling the anisotropy is written and added to a two-dimensional explicit finite difference program, FLAC. In this model, anisotropy of geo-materials can be modeled in tow different ways; the first way is used to model jointed rocks with the assumption that a pronounced anisotropy of rock can be described by introducing a certain number of planes of weakness and behavior of rock mass can be determined from interaction of the joint planes and the intact rock. In the second way, anisotropy of sedimentary materials can be introduced in a straightforward manner by varying model parameters over the sampling planes that obtains by the parameters in the vertical and horizontal direction. When the number of plans is less than 5, geo-material is considered as the jointed rock mass with those number of joint sets, otherwise, geo-material considered as the sedimentary rock or soil mass; so application of different yield strength in numerous contact plane with uniform distribution, enable the model to simulate anisotropy in intact samples. For each contact plane, two failure criteria are considered associated with two potential functions. In fact non-associated flow rule and associated flow rule are applied to simulate plasticity formulations in shear and tensile mode of failure, respectively. Strength parameters of each contact plane are calculated based on its dip angle and the strengths of the intact soft rock in the direction of parallel and vertical to the sedimentation. The capability of the model is demonstrated by numerical simulation of uni-axial tests on jointed rock mass and the results are compared with those from analytical closed form solutions. The effect of anisotropy in friction angle and cohesion are investigated through the model in order to present sensitivity of the model to anisotropy ratio and angle of sedimentation. Finally the proposed model is used to simulate stability of a slope in the sedimentary domain; the results show that with a constant sedimentation angle, increase in anisotropy ratio will increase the differences of the safety factor of the slopes with isotropic and anisotropic behavior.

---

This study was conducted to determine the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomus mosseae and Glomus intraradices) symbiosis on mineral uptake of two pistachio cultivars (Pistacia vera cv. Qazvini and Pistacia vera cv. Badami-Riz-Zarand) grown in the greenhouse under different drought stress levels. Drought stress (DS) reduced the mycorrhizal colonization in both cultivars as well as nutrient uptake. The mycorrhizal plants had higher P, K, Zn and Mn concentrations than non-mycorrhizal plants regardless of soil moisture conditions while Cu and Fe concentrations were unchanged. Distribution of elements was affected by AMF treatments where all except P were accumulated more in leaves than in roots. Contrastingly, under drought conditions, the absorbed elements tended to remain in root tissue. In the case of P and Mn uptake, Qazvini was superior in comparison with Badami. In conclusion, it is suggested that AMF inoculation improves drought tolerance of pistachio cultivars at least in part through the enhanced uptake of slowly diffusing mineral ions such as PO4^2- and Zn²⁺. Moreover, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) colonization provides better osmotic adjustment which can be correlated with K⁺ accumulation in top portions of inoculated plants. Results of this study also emphasized that ‘Qazvini’ cultivar may be more tolerant to drought than ‘Badami’.

---

Abstract:If dry cohesionless soil material is saturated, stress reduction will occur in the soil mass, followed by sudden deformation,which is called collapse settlement. In this research, effect of saturation on the shear strength parameters of sandy soils and effective factors on collapse behavior of this material has been investigated by triaxialshear device. First of all, preliminary tests were performed in order to prepare physical properties of sandy soils including: grain-size analysis, specific gravity, maximum and minimum densities. After providing soil samples with specific relative densities, dry and saturated triaxialtests were carried out in different confine pressures to evaluate shear strength parameters of these materials. In order to investigate the stress reduction of material due to saturation, triaxial tests were done initially on dry samplesand shearing continued until a proposed stress level; keeping constant axial strain, samples were saturated until a period of time and shearing was continued again to reach failure in the wet state. In this way, effect of diverse factors such as confining pressure, shear stress level, relative density, initial moisture content and size of particles on the stress reduction of sandy material were investigated.Abstract:If dry cohesionless soil material is saturated, stress reduction will occur in the soil mass, followed by sudden deformation,which is called collapse settlement. In this research, effect of saturation on the shear strength parameters of sandy soils and effective factors on collapse behavior of this material has been investigated by triaxialshear device. First of all, preliminary tests were performed in order to prepare physical properties of sandy soils including: grain-size analysis, specific gravity, maximum and minimum densities. After providing soil samples with specific relative densities, dry and saturated triaxialtests were carried out in different confine pressures to evaluate shear strength parameters of these materials. In order to investigate the stress reduction of material due to saturation, triaxial tests were done initially on dry samplesand shearing continued until a proposed stress level; keeping constant axial strain, samples were saturated until a period of time and shearing was continued again to reach failure in the wet state. In this way, effect of diverse factors such as confining pressure, shear stress level, relative density, initial moisture content and size of particles on the stress reduction of sandy material were investigated. time and shearing was continued again to reach failure in the wet state. In this way, effect of diverse factors such as confining pressure, shear stress level, relative density, initial moisture content and size of particles on the stress reduction of sandy material were investigated.Abstract:If dry cohesionless soil material is saturated, stress reduction will occur in the soil mass, followed by sudden deformation,which is called collapse settlement. In this research, effect of saturation on the shear strength parameters of sandy soils and effective factors on collapse behavior of this material has been investigated by triaxialshear device. First of all, preliminary tests were performed in order to prepare physical properties of sandy soils including: grain-size

---

In this research the possibility of mass reduction in a two-module cubic microsatellite with skin – frame structure is studied. Natural frequencies and effective mass distribution change by replacing isogrid structure with sandwich panel (honeycomb). Modal effective mass is a dynamic characteristic of structure and depends on natural frequencies, mode shapes, general masses and eigenvectors. Modal effective mass is a quantity that shows the importance of a mode when satellite is under acceleration loads through the baseplate. High modal effective mass shows high reaction loads on baseplate in corresponding frequency. Also acting dynamic loads are affected by distribution of modes in frequency range. The sum of effects of different modes creates significant reaction loads. Hence, study of frequency and effective mass changes by converting the structure design from isogrid to sandwich structure is necessary. In this paper, first two isogrid and sandwich structures with equal masses are compared. Then mass of sandwich structure is decreased such a way that natural frequencies of light sandwich structure approach natural frequencies of isogrid structure. In equal masses case, natural frequencies of sandwich structure are twice the natural frequencies of isogrid structure but effective mass distribution of isogrid structure is better along the launch direction. By changing the isogrid structure design to sandwich panel structure and optimization of the new structure characteristics a noticeable reduction in mass and improvement in modal behavior could be obtained.

---

Blast walls are implemented in order to attenuate the explosion blast wave and protect the important objects. These obstacles decrease the blast wave intensity by reflecting a portion of the wave to the explosion source and producing turbulence in the blast wave flow. The geometrical shape of the blast wall, as an influential factor, decrease the intensity and increase the protective effect of these obstacles. In this thesis, the angle of curvature of the canopy blast walls was studied to find the optimum angle with the most attenuation effect. To simulate the interaction of the blast wave with the blast wall, computational fluid dynamic with finite volume method and OpenFOAM software (an open source software) was used. The results of the simulation with LES turbulence model, was presented the more exact description for the attenuation of the blast wave interacted with the canopy blast wall. The comparison of the overpressure peak and the created vortexes behind the canopy and oblique wall, shows that the canopy wall was increased the attenuation of the blast wave up to 14%. On the other hand, by increasing the angle of curvature of the canopy wall from 0° to 67.5°, the attenuation of the interacted blast wave with the obstacle was increased step by step up to 4%.

---

In order to determine the best growing media for Gerbera jamesonii under alkaline conditions, a factorial experiment was conducted with two factors, namely: (i) Growing medium, and (ii) Concentrations of bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) in nutrient solution. Results showed that increasing the concentration of NaHCO₃ from 0 to 40 mM in nutrient solution significantly decreased plant growth, maximal quantum yield of PSII photochemistry (F_v/F_m), photosynthesis Performance Index (PI), Glutamine Synthetase (GS) activity, Leaf Relative Water Content (LRWC), Chlorophylls (Chl a, b and total Chl) and carotenoids. Under alkalinity stress, reduction in vegetative growth, F_v/F_m, PI, LRWC, GS activity and photosynthesis pigments content was the lowest in Coconut Fiber (CF) substrate compared to the other substrates. Furthermore, plants grown in CF substrate had higher soluble sugars and proline content than those in other substrates. On the other hand, plants grown on Perlite (P) substrate had the highest reduction in growth and physiological characteristic in alkaline conditions. The alleviation of alkalinity-induced growth inhibition of plants by CF substrate may be related to improvement of photosynthesis, enhancement of GS enzyme activity and osmotic regulation. It is concluded that the use of CF substrate could provide a useful tool to improve alkalinity tolerance of gerbera plants under NaHCO₃ stress.

---

A greenhouse study was carried out to determine the effect of nitrogen forms and different O₂ levels on growth and mineral nutrient concentrations of eggplant. The experimental design was a completely randomized factorial experiment with two factors, namely: (i) Two nitrogen forms (Ca(NO₃)₂ and (NH₄)₂SO₄) and (ii) Three O₂ levels of the nutrient solutions (1±0.3, 2±0.3, 3±0.3, and 4±0.3 mg L^-1 O₂). The results showed that ammonium application reduced all measured parameters of vegetative growth, whereas high oxygen levels increased the vegetative growth. Comparing with nitrate-N, ammonium application increased the concentrations of NPK and Zn in leaves and Zn and Cu in roots, while it decreased the concentration of Mg, Ca, Cu, Mn, and Na in leaves and Ca, Mg, Mn, and Na in roots. High levels of O₂ increased N, Mg, Ca, Cu, and Mn content of leaves, as well as Mn and Na content in roots, while it decreased the concentration of K in leaves and P and Zn in roots. According to the results, the increase in O₂ amount of the nutrient solutions partly alleviated ammonium toxicity in eggplant. Therefore, in floating hydroponic cultures, O₂ level and its distribution should be controlled and must not be lower than 4 mg L^-1.

---

This research develops a two-level model based on hypotheses, which concern relationships among role ambiguity, role conflict, job involvement and salesperson performance at individual level and collective sale self efficacy, customer orientation and competitive climate at sale unit level in Iranian food industry. Data was drawn from 482 sales people in 30 companies , using a 51-item self-reported questionnaire. Research model was tested in disaggregation, aggregation and multilevel approaches. The results from three approaches were different. Multilevel modeling analysis revealed that role ambiguity and role conflict have negative effects, but collective sale self efficacy and job involvement have positive effects on sales person performance. Results also showed that collective sale self efficacy has positive moderation effect on the relationship between job involvement and sales person performance. Collective sale self efficacy indicated positive moderation effect on the relationship between job involvement and sales person performance and negative moderation effect on the relationship between role conflict and sales person performance.

---

In order to compare the effect of three nutrient solution replacement methods in an NFT system and pruning on hot pepper, a factorial experiment was conducted. Factors included nutrient solution replacement method (complete nutrient replacement, partial nutrient replacement according to EC, and partial nutrient replacement according to plant requirements) and pruning (pruning and non-pruning). Results showed that the highest vegetative growth was recorded in plants fed by complete replacement of nutrient solution, while plant fed based on EC showed the lowest vegetative growth and nutrients concentration. Leaf Chlorophyll a (Chl a) and Total Chlorophyll (TChl) decreased in plants fed according to EC control and plant requirements compared to complete replacement of nutrient solution. All these traits were higher in non-pruned plants than in pruned plants. Fruit yield decreased in plants fed based on nutrient solution EC and plant requirements, and pruning treatment decreased these traits, but the highest single fruit weight belonged to pruned plants fed based on plant requirements. The highest fruit carotenoid content, Total Soluble Solids (TSS), and vitamin C were recorded in plants fed according to nutrient solution EC, and these traits were higher in the pruned plants compared to non-pruned ones. The results also showed that pruning caused a reduction in plant growth and fruit number, therefore, it is not recommended for hot pepper cv. Sentela.

---

Numerical methods as one of the subcategories of theoretical models can predict the behavior of energetic materials with appropriate accuracy and away of experimental tests limitations. In this investigation, computational fluid dynamics tool has been used to predict the blast wave propagation with Consideration of geometrical obstacles. Two solvers (extendedSonicFoam and blastFoam) from the open source technology module, OpenFOAM  have been used for simulations and To enhance confirmation with reality, large eddy simulation method was employed for turbulence modeling. In addition to the ideal gas equation of state (EOS), the BKW EOS, which is a complete EOS with an explicit temperature dependence, have been used to correlate the various thermodynamic parameters. Several gauges were positioned to record the pressure-time signals and the experimental data reported in the resources were used for validation. It should be noted that the maximum error of simulations was 12.29% for different blast wave parameters. deviation from standard for ideal gas numerical results was greater than that of real gas assumption and blastFoam solver has been predicted maximum positive phase overpressure, arrival time and positive phase impulse, which are the important parameters of blast wave, with less error in comparison to extendedSonicFoam solver.