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Based on the theories of René Wellek and Henry Remak, interdisciplinary studies, as a sub-category of Comparative Literature, started to grow since 1980’s. The study of the relationship between literature and such arts as literature and painting has, since then, attracted the interest of many researchers. This paper is as attempt the relationship between poetry and painting through the poetry and paintings of Sohrob Sepehri. What have been discussed in this interdisciplinary research are the concepts of stasis and dynamism, which appear differently in the written language of poetry and the visual medium of painting. Though the main emphasis of this research is on interdisciplinarity, it still offers new perspective to a better understanding of Sepehri's poetry and paintings. The writers have tried to open the way for further interdisciplinary research in the field of Comparative Literature by elucidating a clear theoretical framework and research methodology.

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This research is the analysis of the contact zone and the tensions in western women’s travelogues. Travel writing as a genre has always been marginalized within the domain of literary researches, but travelogues by women have been doubly marginalized due to gender. In patriarchal societies, the literature produced by women has never been received as seriously as that by men. Western women, who were colonizers by race and colonized by gender, cannot use the omniscient point of view revealed in men’s travelogues, nor can they assume the objective pose that man travel writers usually boast of. Women, who had an unsure position between the discourses of colonialism and that of femininity, reveal such tensions in their writing that are mostly absent from men’s travelogues. These tensions and the role they play in the self-fashioning of British women can be traced in the images that they offer of the orient in the 19th century.

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This paper presents a new arc starter circuit that is usable in Manual Metal Arc welding (MMA) power supplies. The proposed circuit uses an auxiliary circuit and a series coupling transformer for adding high frequency spikes to output DC voltage during arc striking. The proposed circuit is usable in inverter based arc welding supplies and it could result in a decrease of weigh, volume and expense of the high frequency transformer. In addition, a cycle –by- cycle arc welding current control strategy is proposed that is useful in reduction of spatters and increasing of welding quality. The effectiveness of proposed circuit and control strategy is verified using simulation and experimental results.

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Abstract: Western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), an important pest in rose greenhouses, has several generations per year, and in addition to direct feeding damage to rose flowers it also transmits tospoviruses. Because of resistance to insecticides, alternative strategies are needed to manage this pest, including trapping. In this study, trapping by sticky traps of two different colours (blue and yellow) was experimented at three different heights (at canopy level, and 20 cm above and below canopy level) on two rose cultivars (Red one and Avalanche). The numbers of trapped thrips were counted after five days. The number on the blue sticky traps, regardless of their height of placement and type of cultivar, was significantly higher than that on the yellow traps. Number of thrips on blue traps at 20 cm above the canopy was significantly higher than on blue traps at the other levels in both cultivars. In contrast, the number of thrips that were trapped in yellow sticky tarps in various heights as well as cultivars was not significantly different.
 

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In this study, the structural health of a thick steel beam, made of ST-52, is inspected by ultrasonic guided wave propagation method using piezoelectric wafer active sensors that is one of the most important techniques of on-line structural health monitoring. The key parameters of the diagnostic waveform such as excitation frequency and cycle number are determined in relation to beam dimensions as well as pulse-echo configuration of PZT active sensors attached to the beam. Finite element simulations were conducted to characterize wave propagation in the beam, and the signals of wave propagation were experimentally measured. For signal processing and feature extraction, continuous wavelet transform and scaled average wavelet power technique are used. Using the extracted features, probable existing damage in the structure is detected, localized, and intensified. The acquired results are representing a higher precision of the implemented method for damage identification and characterization with respect to a previous study.

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Objectives: The study of erythropoiesis needs to develop the methods for erythroid progenitor cells (EPCs) culture using stem cell potency to differentiate into variety of hematopoietic cells lineages. In this study, we induced differentiation of cord blood stem cells into erythroid progenitor cells in a semisolid culture media. Materials and Methods: Cord blood mononuclear cells were isolated and cultured in liquid culture media consist of erythroid differentiation factors (phase I). Non-adherent cells were cultured in semisolid media containing SCF, IL-3, IL-6 and EPO (phase II). After one week, the appeared erythroid colonies were picked up. Characterization of differentiated cells was performed by assessment of CD235a and CD36 using flowcytometry, giemsa cytological staining and gene expression analysis of GATA-1, EKLF, α-globin genes by RT-PCR. Results: Flowcytometry analysis to detect CD235a and CD36 positive cells showed that 94.3% and 95.5% of differentiated cells have erythroid specific cell markers, respectively. Morphology of the cells in giemsa stained slides demonstrated erythroid progenitor cells, ranged from proerythroblast to orthochromatic erythroblast. The RT-PCR results, confirmed the precursor state of erythroid differentiated cells by expression of GATA-1, EKLF, α-globin genes. Conclusions: Cord blood stem cells have high potency to differentiate into erythroid progenitor cells using described method that can be utilized in the experimental studies.

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Objective: Infection with herpes simplex virus type 1 induces viral latency in neuron trigeminal ganglions. The late associated transcript (LAT) is uniquely expressed in infected neural cells, however no coding protein associated with these transcripts has been identified in infected cells. It has been shown that six microRNAs transcribed from LAT have the capabilities to affect the cell signaling pathways, thus interfering in pathways such as those of cell differentiation and proliferation. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) pathway is a critical pathway among cell signaling circuits. The Smad4 protein, as an important member of the TGF-β signaling pathway, mediates the connection between membrane receptors, cytoplasmic kinases, and nuclear transcription factors. Methods: This study bioinformatically and experimentally evaluated LAT microRNA expression and assessed microRNA targeting of Smad4 transcripts in human neuroblastoma cells by using real-time PCR. Results: Analysis of two different softwares results showed that the Smad4 gene was targeted by LAT-derived microRNAs at multiple sites. Over-expression of LAT microRNAs in BE2(c) cells caused reduction in Smad4 transcripts. Conclusion: The results of bioinformatical analysis with relative quantification of Smad4 transcripts and its downstream-related genes such as cyclinD, CDK2, and Myc showed that the LAT transcript could control Smad4 expression.

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The aim of the present study is to use wheat starch and modified potato starch instead of whole-wheat flour to prepare chocolate-coated muffins. For this purpose, wheat and potato starch were used in muffin preparation at 0-100, 10-10, 80-20, 25-75, and 30-70 levels, respectively. After preparing the samples, the best sample, which was very similar to the cake made of whole-wheat flour, was selected as the desired sample and covered with a chocolate layer containing the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus casei. The results showed that with the removal of whole-wheat flour, the rheological, farinograph and extensograph were significantly (p<0.05) affected. The results showed by replacing whole-wheat flour with wheat starch and potato starch pH, moisture, protein, phenylalanine, ash, porosity, and specific volume of muffins were decreased, while fat and firmness were increased. For the cake crumb by replacing the whole-wheat flour, the L*, a*, b*, and browning index decreased while the total color changes significantly changed. The results of overall acceptability showed that there was no significant difference between control samples and muffins containing 20 and 25% of potato starch. Considering all the features, the muffin cake prepared from the 25% of modified potato starch and 75% of wheat starch was selected as the optimal sample and probiotic chocolate was used as a coating for one week. The probiotic count did not show a significant decrease.

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At the colleges of agriculture in Iran, lecture is used as a dominated teaching method. Team learning is one of the most commonly used educational methods in the present erea. The aim of this study was to compare the Team Member Teaching Design (TMTD) and the regular lecture method on the academic achievement and teamwork behavior of agricultural students. A within-subject design was followed for two courses in which students first attended a series of lectures and then participated in team teaching. Differences between lecture and team teaching methods were examined for their academic achievement and teamwork. The study samples were taken of Agricultural Extension and Education Department of the University of Tehran during the academic year of 2017-2018. The mean scores of academic achievement and the teamwork behavior of students were compared. In compared coursess, the effect of TMTD method on the academic achievement of students was shown. The results of means comparison tests indicated a significant difference between the two methods of teaching in the field of academic achievement and the strengthening of the teamwork behavior of students. The paper further discusses team method implementation and its implication for teaching and proffers the way forward for an effective use of teaching methods for better results in the classroom teaching and learning process.

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This study adopted a survey approach to address and determine the effects of educational system components on strengthening the teamwork behavior of students in the agricultural higher education system of Iran. The statistical population consisted of all agricultural students in five universities of Iran. A sample of 291 students was selected using random stratified sampling method with proportional allocation. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were analyzed by structural simulation technique using Smart PLS software. The results showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between teamwork behavior of students and the components of the higher education system, which included the teacher, student, curriculum, and the learning environment. The results also showed that the curriculum component had the most impact compared to other components. Also, the presented Applied Structural Equation Model is a strong theoretical model for predicting the teamwork behavior of the students.

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international collaboration International collaboration is the key element to expand the horizons of knowledge and technology and to solve sustainability problems. To plan and implement this issue as effectively as possible, this study analyzed the lived experiences of agricultural students about the benefits and challenges of international research collaboration. This applied research used a mixed-method approach in two steps. First, an interview was done with PhD-agriculture students at the University of Tehran, who had published at least one article with international co-authorship in an international journal. Interviews were continued with 19 participants until the saturation point was reached. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the six stages of thematic analysis of Clarke and Braun (2006) and by conducting MAXQDA software. Secondly, a questionnaire was developed and conducted to investigate the importance of each of the items from the same 19 students who participated in the interview step. In this step, descriptive statistics were done by using SPSS software/ver23. Percentage, mean, and standard deviation were calculated for descriptive analysis. The findings showed that the international research collaboration had 24 benefit codes in the four dimensions of communication, scientific-research, academic, and personal-professional. On the other hand, 17 challenge codes were categorized into three groups of personal, motivational, and attitudinal group; managing the research and publication process; and cultural, technical, and economic group. Based on the means of benefits and challenges of students’ international research collaboration, the first ranks were “academic” with a mean of 4.06, and “personal, motivational, attitudinal” with a mean of 4.28 for benefits and challenges, respectively. According to the findings, building teamwork skills in higher education is recommended as it can positively promote students’ collaboration with others for research projects. This original and innovative study has theoretical and practical implications and value. The results are beneficial for universities to make decisions and plan activities that enhance students’ international research collaboration.